Savage Korvosa Session 10

The last session left the characters a little unsettled after witnessing the victims and killer resulting from the most recent Shiver Killing. The jellyfish thing had already led at least one of the discovering Korvosan Guard to kill himself, another drinking heavily, and Aimar swearing an oath to end whoever or whatever is behind all of this. When we last left the party, a few of them were having some drinks with Divo at the Laughing Wave Inn.

Unfortunately, neither Adam nor Jen were able to joins us this session and so Aimar and Isabella were missing. As always, my GM comments are in italics in the below. This one is going to be a bit rushed as we had a TPK during our Friday night Shadowdark game and I need to focus on getting ready for something new for that.

We pick up with Divo departing and Darcy, Mac, and Pop finishing off their drinks after the break.

Finishing up their drinks, each of the party went their separate ways to head home…except for Pop.

7 Pharast

• Pop, for some reason, insisted that Darcy escort him home as a bodyguard before she could return to her own home. (Pop is our sorcerer. During character creation, it was determined that a young prince of a water elemental court had saved him and this is where Pop’s magic comes from. Tarquin, that’s the water elemental prince, regularly talks to Pop–just in his mind–via any body of liquid at least as large as a mug of ale. This was described as Troubled Talk with Tarquin. Tarquin exhibits a randomly determined personality trait each session. He was near hysterical about Pop’s safety this session.)
• After seeing Pop home safely, Darcy retired herself. She continued to hear the screaming and seeing the woman’s face spotted within the jellyfish creature. She simply could not sleep. She went to Aimar’s for his assistance and he taught her some meditation type activity to compartmentalize and block off the screaming and face. (Although Adam was missing, the others do know where he lives and we all figured that Aimar would not mind doing this. Adam, I hope we got that right.)

8 Pharast

• The next morning, a note had been left for Mac at the Sticky Mermaid. Davius had agreed to meet with the group in exchange for the ten vials of Shiver (this was all arranged by one of the street thugs the party had encountered a couple of sessions prior). The meeting was set for midnight this night outside of Hessim, Newby, and Sage Paint Manufactory.
  • The bartender on duty made sure everything was okay for Mac (the message was just on a folded piece of paper) and made sure that Mac knows that the staff at the Sticky Mermaid has Mac’s back if he needs help.
• That evening, before the meeting, Mac went and spoke with the Stonefells (the parents of Matilda, his co-worker and potential romantic interest, who have a shop focused on stone and metal crafting). He wanted to see if they could help with the best way of finding out more information about Cassia and/or Silas (the victims found with the jellyfish thing).
  • They had heard that Cassia had been killed but had no details.
  • They shared that Cassia was pretty much loved by everyone in her neighborhood. She was kind of the neighborhood’s “mom” and helped whenever and however she can.
  • There was no doubt in their mind that Mac could speak to pretty much anyone in the little area that Cassia had lived.
  • There was also some discussion about Mac’s friendship with Mathilda, but we’ll just leave that at that.
• Some fifteen minutes before midnight, the trio (Darcy, Mac, and Pop) arrived at the Paint Manufactory.
  • It was clear to Darcy that if they were being setup for an ambush, it would be pretty easy to do with all of the buildings, doors, and windows around.
  • Right at midnight, two folks came up to the group…Davius and Graco (the latter was the individual who the party had encountered before–accosting the woman and child–and arranged this meeting).
  • After a little banter and concerns that both sides were setting up the other, everyone settled in to get down to business. Mac had Stan with him and had Stan hand over the box with the ten vials of shiver. Davius gives Graco two of them and Graco departs.
  • The party gets the following information from Davius.
    • His gang are the Crimson Wolves and Graco’s gang are the Steel Union.
    • The third Shiver Killing victim was a man named Romano. A shiver addict and a piece of crap, having tried to pay for shiver with fake coins according to Davius.
    • Davius led the group to the shiver den where Romano had been before getting “attacked” by the smoke/spirit/whatever was entering the eyes of the eventual victims. (Let’s just say he took them by a rather winding and circuitous route.)
    • This place pretty much a small room with a set of bunks and not much else.
    • A few individuals were in the bunks, sleeping and shaking with the telltale signs of shiver use.
    • A young woman was sitting on a bunk. Under her eyes were the telltale bags and markings of a shiver addict. Davius had her take one of the vials that the party had given him. She quickly sunk into sleep and shaking.
    • Davius then shared that when Romano was “attacked,” there were a number of “customers” in the den with him. Each of these customers were prematurely woken, the smoke leaving their bodies and going to the next. It finally settled on Romano and, as he woke, he began to simply fade away. The others were scared by this and fled.
    • The guard who had been outside of the den had told Davius that Romano didn’t go out the door and it is the only exit. (The party searched around for a bit in the den to see if they could find any hidden exits and they did not.)
    • None of these customers who fled have come back since. They are still around, they just haven’t come to get their shiver fix. (The players speculated that maybe the smoke had something to do with that.) Davius offered to round up one of these individuals for the party to take to in exchange for five more vials of shiver. He offered to round a couple for eight vials of shiver. Or, if they’d take out Elvo so Davius could take over the Street Serpents, he’d round up everyone for the party to talk to. (Edited to fix this part.)
    • The party did not yet take Davius up on this offer and will get back to him if they become interested.
    • Davius then had one of his gang lead the party back out to the main streets (via a different route than Davius had taken to get to the den). Pop stayed at Mac’s place and Darcy headed home.

9 Pharast

• The following morning, the trio decided to head back to the neighborhood of Silas and Cassia and see what information they might be able to find. They decided to simply start with the first home that they came upon. (I asked each of the players for a little bit of information about the individual who answered the door. From this information, it was a man between 20 and 40 years of age who was fidgety and shy. Somewhere in the interaction, the thought of Psycho came into mind and I mentioned that and well, it kind of took things in an interesting direction. Making the lives of the characters interesting is one of my principles after all.)
  • A young and obviously painfully shy man answered. After a few questions and hesitant answers, he went to get his mother. It was painfully obvious that it was the same man simply wearing a dress, a wig, some makeup, and using a terrible Monty Python style female voice.
  • The party got to speak to the “father” and also the “grandmother” during all of this. There were a few things of note from the interactions and some bad tea.
    • Crem, the name of young man, is essentially a shut-in. Cassia was very nice to him and would bring him supplies. She was, as they’ve heard from everyone else, loved by the entire neighborhood.
    • It was also shared that Silas was a fishmonger with a stall in the Dock Market (not the same as the Dock Trade). (Or maybe this was shared by the woman at the next house. I don’t recall.)
    • Crem knew that she was dead. He also had seen the Guard come and, as he put it, the horrible people from the Acadamae.
    • He had also seen that another man, Rostanzo, had gone to Silas’ home with Cassia. Crem had spotted Rostanzo fleeing the neighborhood. They also learned where he lives. (I think I got that right about seeing Rostanzo flee and I should probably note that this neighborhood that keeps getting referenced is a little cul-de-sac in Old Korvosa.)
    • It sounds like Crem spends a lot of time watching the neighborhood from his window.
    • When “grandmother” came to talk with the party, she led Pop upstairs to talk with him (gasp, alone!!!).
      • She took him to a room with just some rocking chairs (maybe just one) and claimed that she could see something inside him that shouldn’t be there. Something, as she brought her hands out from behind her back and holding a butcher knife, that needed to be taken out.
      • Pop yelled for help and scrambled to put the rocking chairs between himself and granny. The situation was essentially de-escalated by everyone before Granny could complete her task.
      • The party thought it best to leave at that point.
• The next door was the home of a middle-aged woman who was somewhat lackadaisical about pretty much everything (player input again).
  • They learned much of the same information already known in addition to learning that Rostanzo has been getting blind, stinking drunk at the Watery Mug…a real dive tavern not to far from this neighborhood.
    • The party heads to the Watery Mug and find a man, matching Rostanzo’s description, passed out in his own filth, slumped across the bar.
    • The barkeep shares that Rostanzo came in on 5 Pharast with a pail full of copper and silver, his life savings, and told the barkeep to come him as drunk as possible until the money ran out.
    • The party hands over five gold pieces and assurances of keeping the tab open for Rostanzo before carrying Rostanzo back home. They clean him up, change his soiled clothes, and put him to bed.
    • In the process of changing his clothes, they spot a burn on his shoulder. A burn in the shape of a very large hand like that which the jellyfish creature may have had.
    • The party also looked around Rostanzo’s place. (I don’t remember if they checked it out before going to get Rostanzo or after they brought him back.) It looks like he was probably something of a general laborer and, with the exception of a single tool, it appeared that everything was stowed with care. That single tool was a small crowbar.

And that is where we ended the session.

Quite a bit of new information was discovered this session. New information for the players and for myself. I had not really thought about the “smoke” entering multiple individuals before settling on its final one for that week’s “infection.” It certainly does add a potential layer to the mystery and makes it a little more interesting. I also wasn’t really sure what was happening with the victims between infection and bursting. We had previously established that they were not seen between the two events. Now we have a hint of why that might be with Romano simply fading away. More and more pieces are starting to fit together as we play.

We also have some more information as to what may have happened with Cassia and how she got inside Silas’ home…it certainly looks like Rostanza accompanied her, may have jimmied the door, and seen something that has left him staying drunk for days.

In addition to a good bit of more information, we have some new NPCs that have been introduced. NPCs that might be helpful with who knows what going forward. There is, of course, Davius who will likely need something in exchange for any assistance. There is the young woman who partook of the shiver the party had paid Davius. Might she be someone that might be of assistance or will she just be a random NPC never to be seen again. That’s up to the players as much (if not more) than it is to me. There is also Crem and the, at the moment, unnamed “it is what is” woman who lives in that same cul-de-sac. NPCs are always potential hooks for all kinds of things. We’ll just have to see where things go because with this campaign…

…we’re totally playing to find out pretty much everything. <grin>