Savage Korvosa Session 37

Significant decisions made; a general retreat suggested; families and friends contacted; allies rallied; vaccines administered; and, a very well-deserved comeuppance all in the last session. We also established the date of the Queen’s Victory Parade. I allowed the players to set this date and it is being seen as something of a very major marker for the campaign. More on all of this later below the break.

RJ was missing and so Pop was dealing with an issue of his own. Although I do not think there are any specific spoilers for elements of the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, there are potential spoilers regarding some of the movers and shakers of Korvosa. As usual, my GM comments are in italics.

1st of Gozran

• After fleeing the Halfling Enclave, the group (sans Pop) returned to “camp” where they had been staying to rest and recover.

2nd of Gozran

• Isabella messages Divo and learns that the Queen’s Victory Parade is going to be at 5pm on the 4th of Gozran. He also shares that many of the remaining leaders of the Sable Company and Korvosan Guard have been assassinated. He sounds defeated and it sounds more and more like the war is lost.
• The group heads to see Elvo. They share that they believe that the Queen is going to use the parade to spread a plague. He should get as many of his people out of the city as possible. The same for the Midnight Sirens.
  • Elvo can get folks out of the city but then what. Most of these folks have never been out of the city. He asks Isabella if her people (i.e., the Varisians) can help. The group will see what they can do.
• They head to Kneadful Things in the Thief Camp to see if Lucia is still around as most Varisians have already left Korvosa.
  • Isabella shares the information about the plague and advises that any remaining Varisians should flee. She also asks if the Varisians could help other Korvosans who will be fleeing the city.
    • Lucia says she will speak with others and asks the group to come back later in the evening.
• Isabella also messaged Matilda and shares all the same information. Matilda and her family need to get out.
• Darcy sneaks off to her family and shares all the same information. She will come back for them the night of the 3rd to get them out of town.
• (Every person the group spoke with had difficulty believing that the Queen would spread a plague in the city. Why would she kill her own people? The group was persuasive enough that everyone agreed. One of the biggest difficulties for the players was deciding who to tell without word spreading such that it caused a panic. If that were to happen, they all agreed that the Queen would likely lock down the city.)
• Rolth Lamm is messaged and he comes to meet with the group, bringing the vaccines for the plague with him.
  • Lamm administers the vaccine to Isabella. It is quite painful so Aimar tries to ease her pain but inadvertently makes it much worse. (Adam rolled a critical failure on his spellcasting check. I offered either the normal level of fatigue OR something bad that would have a bit of good mixed in. In the interest of interesting, Adam elected for the latter.)
    • Lamm is intrigued. He makes offers a proposition. If Isabella freely gives herself to him for him to “play” with, he will give the group all of his vaccine notes so they can find someone to replicate it. Isabella refuses.
    • Isabella is able to see add wisps floating about. They are small and not uniform in size. They seem to be “attached” to each of them and to Lamm.
      • Those on Lamm and herself are very contained and centered in a small location…almost caged.
    • Above ground, Aimar looks with his arcane sight and he sees these wisps everywhere and very, very numerous. Isabella could not see as many as he did.
• That evening, the group returns to Kneadful Things. Lucia has three Varisian elders with her.
  • They ask why they should come to the aid of the Korvosans and the group convinces them that it is the right thing to do.
    • The elders say that they will connect the refugees with caravans. Those fleeing need to come to the Skaldwood in small groups.
• The group examines the closed death head’s coffer that they recovered from the temple of Urgathoa. They open it and it is filled with nearly a dozen undead fetuses, moaning and squirming. It is closed rather quickly.
• The group messages Lamm again. They have decided that he is of no use at this point and cannot be allowed to live. They arrange a code word with Stefaneto for him to kill Lamm.
  • Lamm arrives at the agreed upon meeting location. The group tells him that they are ready for the vaccines. He hands them over.
  • They talk a bit. Lamm shares that the Queen’s new crown is made of bones.
  • The code word is said and Stefaneto rushes in…in his full form. He is a large insectoid type creature. Various parts from different creatures are clearly sewn together. He has a torso of a person…also comprised of parts from different individuals.
    • He has large praying mantis forelegs that rip Lamm into pieces in no time at all.
      • Lamm’s smug and superior smirk is replaced with a moment of surprise before he falls.
  • Stefaneto is clearly unnerved by showing himself to the group and retreats back to the sewer to compose himself.
  • Lamm has three syringes of the vaccine on him and not much else of interest.
  • Aimar draws some vials of Lamm’s blood. Each of them takes one.
    • Aimar magically locates eleven different locations in Old Korvosa that are linked to Lamms blood.

And that is pretty much were we ended the session.

While it is a bit of metagaming, we all agreed (okay I told them) to not worry about Pop. He will find his own way back to the group if he is still alive. We didn’t want this session and precious game time be spent dealing with him because RJ had to be out of town for the weekend.

We discussed some stuff early on about the Queen’s Victory Parade. I asked the players to decide when it would happen…as long as it wasn’t too too far in the future. They agreed that it should be relatively soon given how things have been going. The 4th of Gozran was settled upon. We are treating that date as a turning point in the game.

We have…at least implicitly…all agreed that the Queen is going to release the plague at the parade. My original thought was to have it be a possibility of the Queen coming out of Castle Korvosa AND that it would be a trap for the forces opposing her. The players felt that it would be a very opportune time to infect many with whatever plague has been developed. They are probably right and so we are operating as through that event will happen.

At the end of the session, I asked the group if they felt like this campaign is coming to an end. I’m not sure anyone wanted to answer that, but they agreed that it felt like it was. They don’t feel like there is anything that they can really do to stop the plague or to stop the Queen at this point. It wasn’t a good feeling, but I was not going to disagree.

Adam is hoping that Aimar can deal with Volshyenek (i.e., kill) before the end of the campaign. Aimar had sworn a (un)holy oath to see the individual responsible for the Shiver Killings/Horrors killed. That person, in Aimar’s mind (and mine), is Volshyenek.

I don’t believe that anyone else has a similar sort of goal outside of saving family from the soon to be spread plague.

It is possible that our next session will be the last of the Korvosa campaign…or it may continue for another session or two. Extending the campaign beyond this, given how things have gone…especially since Pop went into the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden…would seem quite forced. It isn’t really a happy end, but that’s how things go sometimes when you let the “story” come about through the play at the table.