Adventure Log III
PLEASED TO ‘MEAT’ YOU PT 1
The party had orders from Field Marshall Cressida Kroft. She explained that several guards had deserted their posts in the recent riots. One such group had taken to calling themselves the “Cow Hammer Boys” and had holed up in an abandoned meat shop up in Northpoint. It was her belief that a man called Verik Vancaskerkin, a Sergeant of the Korvosan Guards, was behind all this. She needed him captured. She needed to know why her guards had deserted for him. She needed answers.
Clear in their minds what they had to do, the party left the Citadel. However, as they did so it was clear the devastation that the civil war was having upon the city. The smell of burning buildings was pungent. It was acrid and unpleasant and served as a stark reminder that lives, businesses and families had been lost in the blink of an eye over the last two days. Ashes and cinders floated through the air like broken dreams before disappearing into the ether or being crushed underfoot. Overhead in the polluted skies, hippogriff riders with their deadly glinting weapons tore through the air ready to squash another rebellion in another part of town. Death, despair, and destruction was everywhere.
Before they could even set off though, a young beggar boy, no one than 12 years in age, with straw like hair, ran up to Taylan and said Master Roche needed his assistance immediately. Taylan, ever the dutiful servant, apologised to the party and left saying he would catch up with them soon. The party nodded and that left Calli, Nightingale, Trevor and Byron to carry out Field Marshal Cressida’s orders.
After a few minutes of walking down the ash filled streets, the party was stopped by a wild eyed, bedraggled, soiled old beggar. “The Eye of Groetus has turned from the Boneyard to look upon Korvosa!” he screamed and shouted “Death, death and the end times come to all! We are Doomed! Doomed!”. The raving madmen then moved towards Calli, but Nightingale, always her protector, tried to intervene. Surprisingly though, the beggar moved fast enough to evade Nightingale’s interception and he grabbed onto Calli’s tunic. Looking hard into her eyes he screamed “You, you are the flickering candle in the dark, the dreams have spoken! They cannot be denied!”. The madmen then deliberately and forcibly breathed into Calli’s face. His breath was rancid, foetid, vile, forcing Calli to look away in disgust. As he breathed his terrible breath onto her, Calli’s body had to fight some kind of terrible compunction which would make her do something against her will. Nightingale, reacting fast to the events, hit the beggar hard over the head which made the man fall to the ground and into a daze. Calli, then using her prestidigitation spell, ‘cleaned’ the man to make him smell better. However, just like Taylan's reaction previously when Calli did the same to him, the beggar was deeply upset that all his lice had gone. To which immediately the whole party started itching-even though nothing was there! Byron then gave the beggar 2 copper pieces and told the man to bugger off.
Eager to get away from the madman, the party made their way to 22 Stirge Street, Northpoint, where they found a two storey building, in bad shape both structurally and hygienically. It was called ‘All the World’s Meat’. A sign hung limply outside which displayed a fat smiling cow. They subtly watched the building and found that it seemed perfectly normal. People went in, and they would leave soon after with packages of meat. Curious about this, the party stopped one old woman as she left the building to inquire about the business. It didn’t take much for the woman to explain that the Cow Hammer Boys had been a blessing to the area. Verik, whom she described as a “wonderful man,” opened the butcher’s shop after the riots began. They’d been giving away meat for free “out of the goodness of their heart” to those who really needed it. The party initially worried about what was really being handed out, thinking drugs or some other contaminate may have been inside it, but upon examination, while the meat seemed a bit old, it was otherwise unremarkable. They thanked her for the information and then she departed.
The party then decided to split up, with Nightingale and Calli making the direct approach to speak to the men working inside the building, while Trevor and Byron decided to scope around it.
There was a the large fenced area by the building and Trevor and Byron found that this was an animal holding area, which laid empty at that moment. There was also a small shed. Curious to know what lay inside it, Trevor and Byron using their brute strength, broke in and discovered a small cart, but nothing else of interest. On the opposite side of the shed lay they could see a side door. Carefully they put their ears against it and heard what seemed like a steady chopping of meat. After making note of any other entrances to the building, the two barbarians returned to wait for the others.
Calli and Gale entered ‘All the worlds Meat’ and found two men, still wearing their guard uniforms, but with butcher’s aprons on over the top. Calli began talking a mile a minute, describing how she used to visit with her mother as a child, and asking if they still carried the small, thin meat sticks she used to love. The guards reacted coldly, explaining there was nothing for her kind here. Despite by their rudeness, Calli didn’t let her internal confusion show, but instead barreled ahead to get more information from them. With Nightingale’s help they learned that the one with the monobrow was named Baldrago, and the wheezy one was Malder. They claimed they were there “helping the poor,” but they weren’t very convincing. Nightingale using all his charm and diplomacy was able to get closer to the truth. It seemed like for these two, at least, their involvement here was about vengeance against the rich. Calli then convinced them she was interested in helping fund their operation by holding a large charity ball, but would need to talk to their boss to arrange it. Baldrago and Malder agreed and plans were made for Calli and Nightingale to return at sundown to meet Verik.
The party regrouped, discussed what they had seen and agreed and then continued their watch of the building. A man arrived with a heard of new cows, and two more guards accepted them into the yard. One was broad and mean, the other small and nervous-looking. The party stoped the herder as he left and Byron intimidated him into giving up more information for them. They discovered that he was being paid by the towns ‘wealthy’ to bring in cattle, but then paid by Verik to redirect some of that cattle into this pen instead. Thinking fast, Calli then gave him the same story about being interested in setting up a charity ball and asked him how she could get in on the operation. The man says she would have to arrange it with Verik, and to ask for “Night Cuts” if she’s looking for muscle to guard the party. The man departed the scene, leaving the party with this valuable information.
While waiting for sundown the conversation turned to who would rule if the Queen were to stand down. The two leading theories were the Seneschal of Castle, Neolandis, who apparently ran away when the king died, which seemed very suspicious, or possibly Field Marshal Cressida Kroft, as a sort of military rule, while it was all sorted out. Other than that, there weren’t many noble families who had more of a claim than any other, and none that were openly contending for the rule.
After a few hours, the time had finally arrived to meet Verik and the party entered the shop all together. This caught the guards by surprise. They were only expecting Callie and Nightingale and they insisted that only Calli would be allowed to meet with Verik. However, the party presented a unified front and the combination of smooth talking and Trevor’s intimidation convinced the guards otherwise. They were then led up to a small room to meet an already drunk Verik Vancaskerkin. Once again, thanks to Calli’s smooth talking diplomatic skills, the conversation went very well. Vancaskerkin seemed to honestly believe in the cause of helping the poor, and the party even found him to be almost charming. Inadvertenly though, Vancaskerkin let slip that he had a patron sponsoring this operation but who wished to remain anonymous. The always astute, Calli figured out that his patron was female and that he was in love with her. Furthermore, she also deduced that she must be a noble and now Calli desperately wanted to find out who this mysterious patron was. She kept up the ruse of wanting to throw a charity ball and even suggested that she wanted to organise it on behalf of Verik’s patron, hoping that Vancaskerkin would let slip his patrons name. But despite all her charms and despite Vancaskerkins inebriation, he held his tongue and would not give away his beloved patrons name. Trevor then suggested they take the party to a tavern to ‘celebrate’ the new partnership (i.e get Vancaskerkin more drunk), and when it seemed like Verik was going to refuse, Calli applied a more magical type of charm which made him change his mind.
The party then headed to The Laughing Wave, a nearby pub, and even though it was seemingly closed for the night due to the ongoing riots, they were able to get in thanks to Byron’s fame and success in the fights. The tavern owner had previously won some money by betting on Byron, and Calli was flashing more money than sense to allow them in, so he was more than happy to hold a lock-in for them all. Once inside, the party paid to get Verik absolutely ‘smashed’, and then in his stupor, he finally revealed his patron was… Melyia Arkona. The party recognized the name as the daughter of Lord Glorio Arkona, the leader of the powerful House Arkona who had strong ties to the organised crime in Korvosa. Nothing happened in the back alleys or stinking vaults of Old Korvosa without House Arkona knowing about it. In addition to the brothels and taverns they ran, the family was also known for doing a lot of charity with their wealth, so they were not universally reviled. But then again, perhaps this was just a front to cover their real behaviour. Fishing for more information from Vancaskerkin, the party discovered it had been Melyia’s idea to form the gang and feed the poor, and the four guards back at the shop were all that Verik recruited so far. Thankfully, after this reveal, Verik blacked out from the drink, and the party made their move to get him back to Cressida.
In order to expedite this, Nightingale did a series of swift and complicated movements with his sword and conjured three horses out of thin air for them to ride. Calli rode behind Nightingale, Byron rode with the tied-up unconscious Verik, and Trevor rode on his own. Unfortunately Trevor, having never been on a horse before, ended up riding the wrong way around to start with. This uncomfortable and embarrassing predicament brought him close to losing his temper, but he managed to control himself a bit better than the horse.
On the way to the Citadel they came across an angry mob surrounding a lone noble,. The crowd were shouting insults of, “Die, dandy” and cries of, “Death to the whore-queen!” Some of the crowd were even armed with shovels, chair-legs, and lengths of iron pipe. Calli recognised the young nobleman as Amin Jalento, one of her peers.
One of the labourers, a fat bald man with greasy mutton chops framing his rotund face, jeered and addressed the young man in a booming voice, “Bet’cha never worked an honest day’s wage in your life, eh, Queen’s Man? M’brother had his arm crushed by a barrel on the docks when he was younger than you. Never raised a mug of ale with that wrist again. Wanna know what it feels like?”
As always, Trevor tried to be the voice of reason and attempted calm the man down. Violence was the last thing he wanted to happen here. But the man was not interested in what Trevor had to say. If anything, Trevor's sympathetic attitude towards the nobleman only inflamed his and the crowd's ire. Calli quickly conjured sounds of guards approaching from a distance in the hope that this would disperse the mob. Nightingale shouted to the masses they should run, but the crowd were too incensed and were baying for blood. They turned to where they believed the guards were coming from, ready to cause injury and spill blood on the streets. Byron harnessing the energy, encouraged them to go fight for their town, and off the mob went to find the invisible threat. Just in time, as for the second time in as many hours Trevor had to resist a surge of anger.
In the confusion, the party indicated Amin to take lead on Trevor’s horse. Trevor was sat the correct way around now, and as quick as a flash everyone galloped away from the baying mob and into the night. Not long after, knowing they were out of danger the party stopped to take stock of things. The young relieved nobleman said he “owed them his life,” and gave them a gold ring from his finger as a reward. Calli then told him to spread the word that the streets weren’t safe for nobility, and to tell no one to travel anywhere alone until it all calmed down. He agreed and then headed home.
Before they got to the Citadel, Trevor pointed out, that Verik had only been feeding the poor and didn’t deserve to die for that. The others reminded him though, that Vancaskerkin also took guards away from their posts at a dangerous time and therefore undermined the Queen’s authority. It was fair point. Nevertheless, to put Trevor at ease, Calli said she didn’t believe Vancaskerkin would be killed, and felt that Cressida would be much happier for the guards to return to their posts especially due to how short-handed they were. Trevor acknowledged this but also pointed out, that if they handed over Vancaskerkin and told Cressida what they learned of his patron, that could quickly be traced back to them and then the House Arkona would be after their blood which could prove to be deadly. Nightingale countered that if they didn’t hand over Verik, that they’ll be in trouble with the Field Marshal, and by extension, the Queen. At this point there was no clean option. Trevor despaired, “So we’re fucked from every angle!” and Calli confirmed, “Pick your dildo, let’s go.”
Having debated the situation hotly for a while, they then decided the best course of action was to hand over Verik to Cressida but not to reveal they knew who his patron was. At the same time, the party also decided to plead his case, that Verik was coerced into doing this. He was a good man at heart, and was honestly trying to feed the poor. The party handed him over to Cressida, but not before removing all of Verik’s possessions. Including a very fine silver dagger which appeared to be an artefact of some kind. Cressida, impressed with how the party had accomplished the task, handed over 500 gp for their service. She then asked if they would keep an eye on the remaining soldiers at ‘All the World’s Meat’. If they returned to duty then all would be forgiven. However, if they continued to recruit people from the guards that would be a serious problem.
As the party left Cressida, Trevor pointed out that in the course of the evening, they had broken into a property, drugged someone (through drink), kidnapped that same person, robbed him of his possessions and then handed him over to the authorities who would probably torture/kill him. None of which sat right with Trevor. Calli-E and Nightingale argued the case, they had orders from Cressida to gather information and bring Verik back to her alive. They were literally employed by The Law to do those things. Therefore, they had done nothing wrong. All of their consciencse should be clear. Trevor was not so sure. He couldn’t help but feel that their actions might have serious consequences for them in the near future.
End of Adventure Log III
