Midday of 17 Erastus, 4708

After his visit at the Acadamae, Nox decides to get around to answering Queen Ileosa’s summons. Upon arriving, he leaves his weapons with the now unhelmeted Sabina, who grudgingly lets him in to the Queen’s chambers.

There is no sign on the Queen’s person or her possessions of the assassination attempt in the morning. Perfectly coiffed, Ileosa’s stunning radiance is sheathed this time in a formal yet form-fitting red dress with gold and white lace trim.

After commiserating over their shared experience with the Crown of Fangs, Ileosa lays out her concerns about the city.

If Vimanda’s secret is exposed now, it will create greater instability as the other Great Houses will have to figure out who will take the Arkonas’ place. But if Vimanda is exposed after the election of a new monarch, it will cast that election into doubt. With enemies just waiting to pounce and an infernal duke on the loose, the city needs a swift resolution to the power vacuum.

She knows Nox wants to be king and she can make him king, right now. No politicking or vote-counting needed. He just has to accept her hand in marriage and they can rule the city together.

Nox is skeptical, noting that Ileosa’s reputation is not exactly golden at the moment. She insists that once the true story gets out, about the shining hero rescuing the beautiful queen from a terrible curse, the commons will eat that fairy tale crap right up.

Nox asks about Sabina and Ileosa says that her lover understands this is a political marriage. It’s not as if the two of them haven’t been through this song and dance before. But even though this may be a union of convenience, that doesn’t mean it can’t be a pleasant one she says with a smile.

Ileosa also points out that they have complimentary skill-sets. Nox is very clearly the expert in security and public safety, while she understands politics and the soft power of words and appearances.

Nox tells her he will consider her offer. She tells him that he knows where to find her.

Out in the corridor, Nox asks to speak with Sabina. She takes him to the scry-proofed bathroom for a frank discussion. Sabina knows what Ileosa offered him and seemsa resigned to it.

Nox does understand why Ileosa seems to think that she can still hang onto the throne. Sabina says that Ileosa is afraid. She can’t go back to Cheliax and she has nowhere else to go in Varisia. She knows people hate her, but she thinks she’s safer in a castle full of guards than out on the streets.

Nox asks for Sabina’s thoughts on the potential union.

Sabina says that Ileosa would make a political marriage much more enjoyable for Nox than she did for King Eoded II—but he will never have her heart, the handmaiden adds with a note of pride.

She goes on to say that Ileosa was born to rule—just not Korvosa. With this, Nox agrees. He has no intention of marrying her, but he does not want to dash her hopes of remaining Queen just yet.

Sabina thanks him for this, and he promises to do everything he can to ensure that Ileosa comes to no harm. He thinks that she deserves a shot at redemption and that Sabina deserves a chance for happiness.

With that, Nox heads back to the Farima townhouse to prepare for his dinner date with Cressida Kroft.

Midday of 17 Erastus, 4708

A Decent Proposal

Ashla, who turned down the invitation to the meeting with Headmaster Ornelos, goes to see Vencarlo Orisini. The former fencing instructor is set up in the house across from the burned out ruins of his Academy—the same house where the party fought several Red Mantis Assassins months ago.

She informs Vencarlo that she has tracked down who has been killing Gray Maidens. She explains that it was a tiefling using undead servants to abduct the women for sacrifices in some sort of ritual. She shares her suspicion that the tiefling was only part of a larger plan, but assures him that the party has a lead on the greater threat.

Ashla then notes that if she is to operate as Blackjack, she will need access to the circles of the nobility as well as the common people. The simplest means to access high society is to marry into it, and to that end she offers her hand to Vencarlo.

The fencing instructor is surprised by this turn of events. He notes that he had sworn off falling in love with his students, in order to avoid losing any more fingers. But he recognizes that Ashla has long since surpassed him as a fencing master, and there is already an affection between them.

He accepts her offer and then leads her town into the vault below the ruined fencing academy, where there is a training course, an armory, a small library, a scry-proofed bedroom, and multiple access points to the Korvosan sewers.

Only You Can Prevent House Fires

After setting a date with Vencarlo for the marriage several months hence, Ashla heads out to go on patrol. She comes across a group of street urchins in old Korvosa playing a game involving running across a plank propped over a pool of sewage that has spilled out of a blocked up sewer drain.

As she starts to turn away in disgust, Ashla notices an unattended cooking fire in a nearby house that is starting to get out of control. She directs the urchins to put it out and tells them to be more aware of their surroundings.

Campus Orientation

Back at the Acadamae, the rest of the Crimson Blades are taken on a tour of the campus grounds by the bored graduate student Jandar Lilswin. He takes them on a circle around the facility, pointing out the Hall of Wards, their ultimate objective in the breaching festival. They must enter from the eastern doors and exit from the western doors before sunset that day.

He explains that only one person, Dayson Fordyce, has ever won the tournament, and that was 150 years ago. No competitor since has come out of the Hall of Wards alive. Jandar then shows them the other halls they will be competing in during the earlier part of the festival, as well as the student and faculty housing.

The adventurers pause outside the Hall of Seeing, whose entry doors are decorated with illustrations from Harrow Deck cards. Jandar explains that the cards show the past and future of whoever last touched the door. The Crimson Blades decide to take turns seeing their fortunes.

Nox’s fortune reveals the Unicorn (past) and the Teamster (future). Jandar reads this as saying that Nox has experienced goodwill and purity in his past, while his future is building towards some grand accomplishment—either for good or for ill.

Flint’s cards are the Mountain Man (past) and the Cricket (future). Jandar says that Flint has faced tremendous tumult and uncertainty, but is on the path for good fortune and opportunity.

Arlynn’s fortune reveals the Desert (past) and the Rakshasa (future). Jandar notes that Arlynn is coming from a place of wisdom, but also isolation, while in her future she faces deceit and betrayal.

Egan’s cards are the Demon’s Lantern (past) and the Idiot (future). Jandar interprets this as Egan having been led astray towards danger in the past, while in the future he will either make a terrible mistake or be the victim of someone else’s foolishness.

AAAA! for Effort

After reading their futures, Jandar circles them back to Ornelos Hall, the administration center and their starting point. Before they can bid their farewells, they hear a scream come from inside and they rush to investigate, with Arlynn dragging Jandar along.

The screaming seemed to come from a summoning room just inside, where a young women in a student’s robes lies bleeding out on the floor while a towering fiendish creature with many-colored eyes looms over her, its clawed feet casually stretching beyond the chamber’s binding circle.

Identifying the monster as some sort of advanced retriever construct from the outer planes, the Crimson Blades make short work of it while Jandar gapes in shock. After being revived, the young woman, Seska, explains that she had stolen a scroll to summon the creature in order to impress a boy in her class, but it was beyond her ability to control it.

Headmaster Ornelos arrives with a thunderclap and demands to know what is going on. He threatens Seska with years of indentured servitude to pay off the costs of the scroll and damages to the school property. However, Arlynn persuades him to be lenient and the old wizard ultimately leaves the student with just a warning. The headmaster then pays the party a reward for their timely intervention and wishes them luck at the tournament tomorrow.

After the party departs the campus, Nox rushes off to meet with Queen Ileosa.

Dead Man’s Letter

Following his meeting with the Queen, Nox returns to the townhouse to prepare for his date with Cressida, only to find a message from Freya asking him to visit her at the three Rings Tavern. With a groan, he activates his boots of speed and dashes off to the rendezvous.

Freya explains she got a coded message from Ambassador Amprei asking her to meet him at the Acadamae during the Breaching Festival. She isn’t sure what to do—it seems like a trap, but the letter also appears genuine. Nox suggests she go through with the meeting. He and the others will be there, and hopefully they can ferret out what is going on.

Business Before Pleasure

His business with Freya concluded, Nox then dashes over to East Shore to see Cressida at her family home. The Kroft estate is more fortified than other nobles’ mansions, with a fairly plain and functional exterior. Inside, the walls are decorated with old portraits of previous heads of the family, trophies and relics from campaigns gone by, and various martial heirlooms.

Nox finds Cressida in the dining room, dressed in her brilliant crimson field marshal’s uniform, poring over a map of Varisia that is spread across the table. Glancing up, she becons him over to lay out her plans for defending Korvosa’s borders. A fleet from Magnimar is blockading Korvosa’s lakeside port of Melfesh with the clear intent of pressuring the town to open its doors to them. To the east, forces from Molthune are laying siege to Fort Thorn in the Bloodsworn Vale.

The fort is being resupplied by wizards from the Acadamae, who teleport in provisions and reinforcements each morning. Cressida believes it will hold for now. To deal with the Magnimar fleet, she and Neolandis have sent Korvosa’s own fleet to blockade Magnimar itself until they withdraw. Nox suggests recruiting the druid circle to muck up the Magnimarans’ long supply chain as well.

Cressida note that the Korvosan fleet will take almost a week to reach Magnimar. By then she hopes that it can deliver the city’s demands on behalf of a new monarch, to signal that the political vacuum in the city has been filled.

Dinner at the Field Marshal’s Table

At this point, Cressida seems to realize that this is meant to be a romantic dinner and rolls up the map. After helping Nox out of his armor, they sit down to a hearty meal and swap stories about their history. Cressida tells of her experience in the Guard, including fighting against evil fey in the Bloodsworn Vale campaign.

She also talks of her family, who rose from simple crofters to nobility after her ancestor saved the Chelaxian Emperor’s son. To remind them of their farming roots, the Krofts continue to keep a vegetable garden on their property, although Cressida admits she never had much of a green thumb and has left its care to a gardener. Nox also learns that she is fond of horses, particularly war horses, and breeds them on her family’s ranch near Harse.

She is the head of her household, having lost her mother and a younger brother when she was quite young and her father shortly after she entered the Guard. Nox commiserates on the loss of family and shares his own stories about his adventures with the Crimson Blades.

He notices that there is a sadness in Cressida’s eyes that slowly vanishes over the course of the evening, as the two hit it off well. After a few hours, Nox reluctantly admits that he needs to return to the townhouse to prepare for tomorrow’s Breaching Festival. Cressida shares his reluctance to part, and wishes him luck. She promises to attend the vote of the Great Houses the next morning.

As he leaves, Nox promises to give her a gift in the morning as well, though he insists it will be a surprise.

Safe Bets

Meanwhile, Flint and Arlynn make an expedition to the castle across the river see Kyra. they arrange for money to be bet on them for the Breaching Festival. When they ask if Kyra would be willing to participate, she emphatically turns them down. She explains that the Cerulean Society has had an open invitation to participate in the contest, but every year they participate, their contestant doesn’t make it out alive.

Kyra wishes them luck and is confident they can overcome the challenges of the Hall of Wards, but not so confident that she’s willing to participate, much less set foot on the Acadamae grounds.

The Prodigal Daughter

After returning to the townhouse, Arlynn is visited by her sister Keris, who is unhappy about the paladin’s partnership with the Master of Whips. While Arlynn insists that it is for the greater good, Keris says that the Master of Whips cannot be trusted. She wants vengeance for their family—but Arlynn reminds her that their mother would have wanted them to free the slaves. This gets Keris to back down and instead ask about her own role in the plan.

Arlynn notes that Keris’ actions have been driven by a desire to protect the Farima family. The paladin says that while she is preoccupied with the Breaching Festival, it will be up to Keris to protect the family from the evil that is looming over Korvosa. Keris is doubtful that the family will welcome her back after her betrayal, but Arlynn convinces her otherwise.

Arlynn reunites her sister with the rest of the Farima clan—their father Alek and their five brothers, all of whom are overjoyed to see Keris’ return.

Plot of the book Thieves

After arranging the reunion, Arlynn steps out to go confront the Master of Whips. She demands proof that he is carrying out the manumissions that were promised, which he agrees to provide within a few days.

She also learns that he and his crew of Bekyars are planning to infiltrate the Acadamae during the breaching festival. They suspect that the Book of Golgothus is being kept either in Ornelos Hall, the Hall of Wards, or the tiefling Maketh’s room in the dormitories.

Since Arlynn and her team have the Hall of Wards taken care of, the Master intends to break into Ornelos Hall first. If it doesn’t hold the book, they will need to get into the student records there anyway to find Maketh’s room.

Odds and Ends

Nox arrives back at the townhouse in time to ask Arlynn to procure one of her father’s wagons for an errand the next morning. The fighter then commission’s Egan to use shape wood to create a high quality, 1/4 scale statue of a destrier to give to Cressida. He arranges to have it delivered by wagon early in the morning.

That night, Arlynn has a strange and vivid dream. In it, she witnesses the slain rakshasas from the Arkona household seated at a banquet table. At the side of “Glorio” is an unfamiliar creature, a fox-headed woman dressed in Vimanda Arkona’s monk’s outfit.

Another monster, this one an enormous reptilian creature with the arms of a crab and a chef’s hat on its head then walks into the room carrying an immense plate piled high with human body parts. The rakshasas eagerly partake of the profane meal.

On waking, Arlynn concludes that this was a vision from Iomedae about Vimanda’s true identity.

Indecision 4708, Day Two

The following morning, Nox and Cressida arrive at the council meeting together and make a show of being extra cozy with one another in full view of the assembled nobles. Cressida is surprised and pleased with the statue, which she’s already placed in the entry hall of her house.

She reciprocates with her own gift—the badge she first received when she joined the Korvosan Guard. She gives it to Nox as a token of her favor, which a champion should always carry with him when facing a challenge like the Breaching Festival.

The council vote remains deadlocked, but the tally has shifted: one vote for Ornelos, one vote for a return to the lord mayor system, one vote for Cressida, and two votes for Nox. After the tally is complete and the black smoke released, Nox suggested to Cressida that the next day they announce their joint ticket.

Game time

Following the vote, Nox joins up with the rest of the Crimson blades for the Breaching Festival. They also meet their competition: a brawny, grumpy dwarf called Knur of the Gilded Fist, an Acadamae graduate named Maganrad, and the Cerulean Society’s contestant, a Varisian rogue named Illia Ean. A huge crowd has gathered to watch the show. The commoners and the student body are watching from the ramparts of the Acadamae walls, while the nobles gather in brightly colored pavilions on the quad.

Headmaster Toff Ornelos opens the event with great fanfare and explains that the winner of the contest is the first participant to enter the east door of the Hall of Wards and exit from the west door before dusk. In order to be eligible to enter the Hall, however, participants must retrieve a key-light from one of the other halls first—one key-light per participant.

With the contest begun, both the Crimson Blades and Knur head for the Hall of Seeing first. They fan out through the interior, searching for the key-light. Knur sets off a trap that drives him mad and he runs shrieking from the building. Ashla sees through the mirror puzzle and retrieve’s the party’s first key-light.

The party then goes from hall to hall, tracking down and retrieving the rest of their key-lights and overcoming the traps and guardians along the way. However, their need to secure five total key-lights allows IlLia and Maganrad to get ahead of them. By the time the adventurers approach the Hall of Wards, the two other participants have already entered.

Into Darkness

Throwing open the doors to the hall, they see only a black void awaiting them, one which they cannot dispel or illuminate with magic. After a moment’s hesitation, they step into the void.

For a brief moment they seem to fall into nothingness. Then, just as suddenly, they find themselves in a stone room, lit only by a sourceless orange glow. At one end of the room, is a freshly slain body of a man.

Midday of 16 Erastus, 4708

Don’t Fear the Reaper

After returning the body of the impostor to Endrin Manor, Flint lets Damon and his sister Valeria finish their conversation. Then he accompanies the young man back to House Forscythe, where Lady Forscythe invites him inside.

She curtly thanks him for keeping his word and returning her son. She asks him to keep her son out of any future magical intrigues. She then tells Damon that they’ll “talk later.” Flint backs away carefully.

Caveat Emptor

Regrouping back at the Farima townhouse after his spirit journey, Egan shares his stories with Arlynn, Nox and Flint. They decide it’s time to sell some of the treasure they’d acquired during their recent adventures and upgrade their equipment for the battles to come.

Egan decides it’s time to replace his headband of wisdom, which had become sinisterly sentient thanks to the Harrow Deck of Many Things. The gnome first approaches Arlynn, who defers to Irabeth as more talented at removing cursed artifacts. It takes a couple of shakes, but ultimately Egan is dropped free of the evil headband.

Flint suggests they find a buyer for the headband. Arlynn thinks about trying to use it in the upcoming Acadamae heist. Ultimately, they decide to have Kyra fence it for them.

The Littlest Castle

The Crimson Blades journey out of the city to Kyra’s Castle across the river, where two surprisingly well-equipped halfling guards greet them at the gates. They are escorted into the great hall, where Kyra is conferring with a group of halflings and humans, whom she dismisses to speak with the party.

“Hey! It’s good to see you guys!” she says. “It’s been, what, a day? and you’re already here looking for my help.”

Arlynn presents her with the headband and warns her not to put it on. The paladin explains that it is an evil artifact—and they want her to sell it. After protesting to that she has gotten respectable, Kyra quickly agrees to fence their evil headband. She has a couple potential buyers in mind. Though of course, the halfling will take a cut of the transaction. For the benefit of her bustling community.

The adventurers ask her if she has named her castle yet and offer some ideas.(Arlynn: “Castle Smalltown.” Ashla: “Smallcastle.”) Kyra admits that she likes the thought of naming it after herself. Ashla asks her what her last name is and she admits she does have one, but coyly notes she’s hoping to pick up a last name one soon.

Kyra invites them to drop by and stay whenever they like, the castle—or at least its human-sized ground floor—is big enough accommodate them at any time, and the soundproofed walls will ensure that they won’t disturb anyone.

“Has Korvosa bugged you about the new property?” Nox asks.

“Oh, we’ve gotten a few inquiries, but it turns out that having a big fucking castle is nine-tenths of the law,” she explains.

Nox asks if she has a title to go with the property, and she admits that’s one area she’s working on. He tells her knows a guy who might be able to help her out. Kyra is surprised at Nox’s emerging respectability. Arlynn also offers the Farima family’s assistance in provisioning the castle.

Touch of Evil

After returning from Kyra’s Castle, Arlynn and Irabeth prepare to ride down to the Pharasman Cathedral in the Gray District to check on the paladin’s Sworn Sword Chammady. Nox elects to join them, as he has business that way, too.

Arlynn notes that Nox is not carrying his sun blade and the fighter admits that he has left it with Remmy, as he cannot wield it himself. The blade still considers him an “evil” being, and he is seeking aid from the Pharasmans to cleanse himself of this lingering aura.

Arlynn quietly questions Serithtial about whether this condition is a natural effect from the Crown of Fangs and one that Nox can recover from. The sword is not sure what is afflicting Nox, but is confident it can be cured.

The New Recruit

They arrive at the Cathedral to find Chammady in good shape and preparing to leave. The flame-haired young woman is excited to see them and excitedly explains how she can feel the Inheritor’s grace within her.

Arlynn assures her than she has earned this blessing, from her days helping her fellow orphans survive under the lash of Gaedren Lamm, through her actions protecting innocents as leader of the Sworn Swords, to her sacrifice in trying to halt the escape of Mistress Kayltanya. Her valor and her righteousness have not gone unnoticed by the Goddess.

Chammady is simply amazed that Iomedae might grant such a boon to a simple orphan like herself. She thanks Arlynn again for sharing the teachings of the Inheritor and for giving her the strength to fight back against evil and carry out Iomedae’s word.

“One day, Irabeth and I may not be here to fight for Korvosa,” Arlynn says, “and it may be up to you and the Sworn Swords to watch over the city. Until that day, remember to temper your zealotry. Though we fight on behalf of Good, we must also be the change that we wish to see.”

“Be the change that we wish to see,” Chammady says, and then nods. “Got it! You can count on me, Ser Arlynn!”

“I may not be a paladin, but I am a man of faith,” Nox interjects. “I will say that the role of the paladin who serves is one of eternal vigilance. You no longer live for your self, but for the city and your loved ones. Just remember that.”

“It is a rare honor and a sacred duty to take up the sword that the Inheritor has granted,” Irabeth says. “I know you will do it justice.”

“Now that the light of Iomedae shines brightly upon you,” Arlynn says to Chammady, “one day you must make the journey to Lastwall to follow the footsteps of both Irabeth and I and learn from High Priestess Aylunna Varvatos the ways of a paladin.”

“It may be frustrating at times,” Irabeth adds. “I know that those of us charged with defending the Light are people of action, but you must know the faith inside and out, beyond merely reading the Acts of Iomedae. You will need guidance on what is expected from you and on the dangers and temptations that you will face.”

“By the way, Tiran Maksev also gives great tattoos there in Lastwall,” Arlynn says cheerily.

Smoke Signals

While the three paladins continue to chat amongst themselves, Nox asks to see Bishop D’Bear about an affliction that requires some discretion. After clearing up what sort of discrete affliction he is presently suffering from, the bishop examines him but cannot find the cause.

She offers to perform a ritual to probe the inner reaches of his mind and soul. She summons Ramara to assist and beckons Nox to the same side chamber where Wulfrik was raised from the dead the night before. Nox asks Arlynn and Irabeth to join him, to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

After bidding farewell to Chammady, Arlynn whispers to Irabeth that she had asked Iomedae to bless the girl with the powers of a paladin.

The priests seat Nox on the floor and begin to circle around him, swinging censors that fill the room with sweet-smelling incense as they chant in a strange tongue. As the ceremony goes on, Nox finds his eyelids growing heavier, until he closes them but for a moment.

When his eyes open again, all color seems to have leeched out of the room, save for his own self which is over saturated with light. He realizes that everyone else in the room has frozen and even the smoke hangs rigid in the air. Then he hears someone calling his name.

The Lady from the Heavens

The voice, a woman’s is coming from above him. There is no ceiling to the room anymore, only an open, cloudy sky. Then, from among the clouds, she emerges and descends to float ten feet or so above him in the air. An angelic figure, with porcelain skin and platinum blond hair, there is a hardness to her, like steel in a gilded scabbard. Her raiments are dark and in her hand is a polearm whose head glows brilliant white.

Nox, who had drawn his sword in fear, immediately drops to his knees, but she invites him to stand. He does so and sheathes his blade. She explains that the Pharasmans’ ritual drew her attention and she has come to aid him with his affliction. She explains that Nox has fallen under the sway of Lorthact himself and the fiend’s hooks are sunk so deep that only the destruction of the infernal duke will release him.

For now, she can suppress Lorthact’s lingering aura so that Nox can wield Vigil without difficulty. But she further warns that the fiend lord is taking steps to seal Korvosa off from the outer planes. She says that she and her mistress can help Nox in the coming battle, but only if she can maintain a toehold inside the city that will allow her to return.

She presents Nox with a strange coin and tells him to place it upon the person of someone else in the city. It will serve as a conduit that will allow her to manifest despite Lorthact’s planar barricades. Nox asks if this process will harm the person bearing the coin. She insists that the person will not be harmed by the process, unless Lorthact wins the final confrontation, in which case they are all doomed anyway.

Nox volunteers to carry the coin himself, but she explains that his connection to Lorthact would expose her and even leave her vulnerable to capture by the duke. She also says that for their own safety, the coin should be planted in secret on the person in question.

Nox suggests Ser Arlynn as a candidate, and the angelic being notes that the power of Iomedae may not mix well with her own—there would be complications. Nox then asks if the person needs to be a follower of Pharasma; she says no, but that it would help.

She then waves her polearm over Nox to mask Lorthact evil influence. Nox asks one moe question, seeking to know her name. She says that while she goes by many names across the planes, in Golarion she is best known as Azeret.

She then rises back into the clouds and a moment later, color and life returns to the world. Bishop D’Bear and Ramara halt their procession and look around confused. The bishop asks Nox how he feels, and he insists he is fine. Nox asks her if she knows of Azeret, and the bishop admits the name does not ring a bell, although Pharasma has many servants, not all of whom are known.

With his business done and the coin quietly palmed, Nox suggests to the two paladins that they return to the townhouse.

The Most Dangerous Game

Flint, meanwhile, recruits Ashla for an evening manhunt as he seeks to track down his remaining duplicates. He decides to start at the Shoreline Drinkhall in East Shore, where Egan had caught the scent of one of the doubles. Ashla picks out a bootprint identical to Flint’s from among the muck and they slowly track the clone across every tavern, dive, and brothel in East Shore and Midland, before finally trekking over to wealthy South Shore.

The trail ends at the Jade Circle, where they pass by tables of young bravos debating fighting styles. Rapier and dagger seems to be en vouge. Ashla is incensed that her twin sword fighting style as seen in the duel between Blackjack and Trifaccia has not caught on more widely.

The hostess, a young Tian woman, is surprised to see “Lord Endrin” appearing on her doorstep when he should be upstairs. Flint explains bluntly that there are impostors posing as him and he wants to know where his look-alike is. She gives him a room number and he promises to cover the damages. While she protests, Flint and Ashla push past her to head upstairs.

Neither of them being gifted with lockpicks, they simply kick in the door. The room beyond has an open air balcony looking out on the bay. In the center is a four-poster bed on which the duplicate is lounging, appraising three scantily clad young women. They shriek at the sight of the armed intruders, while the other Flint is caught off guard and half-dressed.

Before his doppelganger can grab the bow and quiver resting by the bed, Flint sticks them there with a tanglefoot bag. He then looses another arrow at the double, but his clone catches it in mid air and tosses it back.

“Damn, I’m good,” Flint mutters to himself in admiration.

Thrown off by the counterattack, Flint’s next shot goes high, striking the rope tying up the bed’s curtains. They tumble down over the bed, concealing the double from view. But a lantern hanging on the balcony illuminates the man’s silhouette against the fabric and Flint tags him with two more arrows.

“Stop!” the duplicate calls out. “I’m the real Flint!”

For a brief moment Flint experiences a disorienting existential crisis, as the other man’s words seem to ring especially true. Then his mind clears and he regains his certainty that he is the true Telus “Flint” Endrin.

The duplicate growls in frustration and then dives for the balcony, still tangled up in one of the bed curtains. Despite this, he makes a solid landing on the ground level and proceeds to dash past the young bravos, upending the tables as he goes.

Ashla leaves the next move to Flint, who tells the courtesans to go and then jumps down to the ground level. He tries to line up a shot, but is set upon by a drunk and angry young noble. Ashla jumps down and pulls the man off of Flint who takes after his fleeing double.

The other Flint tries to hide in the shadows, but the sliver of the waning moon offers enough light to glint off the buttons of his open shirt and an arrow swiftly follows. The duplicate then climbs into the Shingles to try to lose his pursuer. Flint makes use of the celestial full plate Irabeth gave him that morning to fly up above the rooftops, an ability his clone had not counted on.

Flint shoots the duplicate a half a dozen times before he collapses, then a few times more just to be sure. He collects the human pincushion and then returns to the Jade Circle.

Questions and Answers

Flint questions the courtesans about the double. They claim that they ran across him at various houses of iniquity that he visited in the city over the past few days. He spoke often about the tragic loss of his parents and his failure to protect his family. On multiple occasions, he said that Valeria deserved to inherit the House more than he. In just the last day or so, he apparently had a falling out with his sister that left him feeling very hurt. The courtesans also note that he seemed to have tremendous way with words.

Flint is unimpressed with his whiny double, but when it becomes clear that they have no insight into the doubles’ plans, he lets them go. He also grudgingly pays the Jade Circle for the damages, while declaring he will never return.

With that, Flint heads back to Endrin Manor with the body, which gets stashed next to the other duplicate’s corpse. Valeria notes that they’re getting good at stacking the bodies. Flint asks her about her future plans and her thoughts on Queen Ileosa. Valeria continues to believe that the Queen is the best person to run the city. She thought that she would serve Ileosa for the rest of her life, but if the Queen is removed she isn’t certain of her own future in the city.

Flint asks about her conversation with Damon. Valeria admits that she was unaware of his affections, but they aren’t unwelcome. She reiterates her trust in Flint and her dedication to restoring their House after the calamities that have struck it. She is glad that they are no longer on opposing sides.

Valeria then presents Flint with a letter addressed to him from Lord Ornelos, which arrived earlier that day. The letter expresses condolences for the loss of his parents and says that House Ornelos and House Jeggare are working to erect a memorial to the late Lord and Lady Endrin. The letter also provides Flint with additional information on the dwarfstone he inherited from his father, and suggests more revelations could be forthcoming. In return, the letter asks Flint to lobby Lord Jeggare to support Ornelos’ bid for the throne.

Comings and Goings

Flint is not the only one receiving letters from Lord Ornelos. One arrives at the Farima townhouse addressed to Arlynn. The Acadamae’s headmaster praises her service to the city and her goddess. Ornelos suggests that were he to become king, he would provide greater support to all of the orphanages in the city, as well as subsidize a proper temple to Iomedae. He urges Arlynn to lobby the other Great Houses on his behalf.

Kyra arrives at the townhouse late in the day to inform the party she got a good price for Egan’s headband of wisdom, even with her commission. The party is impressed at this bit of good fortune.

Eventually, everyone gathers together at the townhouse. To their surprise, the learn that Laori appears to have up and left without so much as a farewell note. They worry about her journeying back to Nidal, but Arlynn is confident in Iomedae’s prediction that the Fangs of Kazavon would not leave the city.

After a peaceful (if crowded) night in the townhouse, the adventurers awaken to find that they have received a summons from Queen Ileosa to meet with them immediately. Unfortunately, the request conflicts with the first round of voting by the Five Great Houses. Nox decides to head to the vote, while the rest of the party goes to meet with the Queen.

---

Morning of 17 Erastus, 4708

Murderous Maidens

The Crimson Blades arrive at the royal quarters where Ileosa is being held under house arrest. A Gray Maiden guard allows them instead, but as they approach the door to the bedchamber, they hear a scream, a clattering noise, and then the door to the chamber is smashed open as two women in Gray Maiden armor tumble onto the ground. One of them, which they recognize as Sabina, appears to be tackling another woman. Peering out from the bed chamber is Ileosa, looking somewhat rumpled and bleeding from a gash on her arm.

“Sabina!” Flint calls out. He hauls her off of the other Maiden. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Arrest her!” Sabina insists, pointing at the other woman. “She tried to kill the Queen!”

Arlynn detains the suspect, while Sabina removes the woman’s helmet. None of the Crimson Blades recognize her, but she is known to Sabina as Matilda, a former Gray Maiden furious at Ileosa. Sabina notes that Matilda should not have been on the guard roster—she’s been staffing the Gray Maiden guards only with those women she considers trustworthy.

The would-be assassin is hauled off and the party enters the bedchamber to speak with Ileosa. The Queen’s first concern is the status of the Fangs of Kazavon. She is relieved that the cursed dragon’s teeth have been secured and are going far away from the city. She was afraid Kazavon’s spirit might try to influence her again. She is also deeply worried about Lorthact and the contract pledging her soul to him. She says that they must find the other half of the contract—likely with Lorthact—in order to release her from it, and she will give them any reward to do so.

When the adventurers ask if she has any more information on the infernal duke, she notes that the contract bound an erinyes’ soul to her to fortify her flesh and spirit. Ileosa speculates that the erinyes might have some link back to Lorthact, but she has no conscious way to interact with the fallen angel.

One of These Houses is Not Like the Others

Ileosa then turns to the reason she summoned the party. She has learned that the Five Great Houses have voted to depose her as Queen. She insists that the vote is invalid—all five houses must agree, and there were only four genuine houses voting. She declares Vimanda Arkona to be a fraud and a rakshasa. She also accuses Vimanda of sending the would-be assassin, to silence her before she could talk. The Crimson Blades, who had their doubts about Vimanda but already examined her once, ask for Ileosa’s proof.

Ileosa explains that Vimanda claimed to be Glorio Arkona’s cousin from Westcrown. But when Ileosa’s father was shopping her around to prospective husbands, he tried to match her up with the Westcrown Arkonas only to discover that they didn’t exist—just an empty mansion was all that was left. So Vimanda’s backstory doesn’t hold up.

The Queen admits she can’t directly prove Vimanda is a rakshasa, but she is certain of it. As the head of a Great House, Vimanda is personally inviolate absent a royal warrant. Ileosa has drawn up such a warrant and asks the party to seize Vimanda and strip her naked to reveal the telltale reversed organs of a rakshasa.

Flint raises the point that if Ileosa is still the rightful monarch, that would make all of them traitors and rebels. Ileosa argues that they did what they did to save her from an evil curse, for which she is immensely grateful and as monarch would reward them appropriately.

Arlynn takes Ileosa’s claims under advisement, aware that bringing down one of the Great Houses would only contribute to the city’s power vacuum.

As the party prepares to leave, Ileosa asks them to invite Nox to come speak with her privately at his earliest convenience.

On his way out of the royal quarters, Flint is stopped by Sabina, who sarcastically thanks him for calling out her name and blowing her cover with the Queen. Flint belatedly recalls that Sabina and Ileosa had not been on speaking terms when last he saw them. But he just shrugs it off and leaves, while Ileosa calls for Sabina.

Stump Speeches

One floor below, in the meeting room just off of the throne room, the heads of the Five Great Houses gather, each accompanied by two attendants/bodyguards, save for Vimanda, who travels alone. Nox is the last to arrive, just in time for Neolandis to gavel the meeting into session. The seneschal invites the candidates to deliver opening remarks.

Headmaster Toff Ornelos is the first to rise. In advocating for his candidacy, he cites his lineage as a descendant of Volshyenek Ornelos the Immortal Lord (may he rest in piece) and his family’s long ties to the city, unlike the recent string of Chelaxian monarchs. He cites his experience as administrator of the Acadamae and his knowledge of arcane defenses against evil curses. He notes that he has no strong ties to either the rebels or Ileosa’s loyalists, allowing him to remain impartial in a city still divided by the recent conflict. He also notes that Korvosa has been cursed with a string of childless monarchs, resulting in repeated succession crises. He notes that he has seven sons and three daughters, as well as many grandchildren and now great-grandchildren. The Ornelos line of succession is secured several generations deep.

After the wizard is done, Neolandis calls for the next speaker and Nox defers to Vimanda.

The head of House Arkona argues that the city needs a leader of impeccable moral credentials, who wasn’t afraid to stand up to the Mad Queen—unlike all the Great Houses. They need someone with strong ties to Korvosa, who will do right by the city. They need Cressida Kroft.

This surprise nomination causes an immediate stir, throwing off the other nobles.

The Seneschal then recognizes Nox, who finds himself agreeing more often than not with Vimanda’s arguments, but nonetheless insists that he best embodies the positive traits she raised, and more.

Once Nox is finished, the seneschal calls the council to vote. It is one vote to abolish the monarchy, one vote for Ornelos, one vote for Nox, and two votes for Cressida. Neolandis declares that the council has no consensus and orders that black smoke be released from the castle chimneys to signify the deadlock. (Red smoke will be released when they have chosen a new king or queen.)

Wheels Within Wheels

Nox quickly pulls Vimanda aside to speak with her. After confirming that Cressida was unaware that her name would be thrown into contention, he suggests a meeting between the three of them to resolve some confusion. Vimanda insists that what the city needs is more transparency and fewer backroom deals. She takes her leave just as the rest of the Crimson Blades arrive.

Arlynn manages to corner Vimanda and question her under a detect lies. The paladin asks if she had a role in the slave trafficking and cannibalism going on at Arkona Manor, which she denies. However, Arlynn does catch her in a lie about her past at Westcrown. She lets the noble go on her way for now, but plans to revisit the issue.

Meanwhile, Flint and Nox alert Neolandis to the growing danger from Magnimar they discovered in the letters being stolen by Flint’s bird-killing clone. This revelation elicits another “Fuck” from the seneschal. He and promises to coordinate response with Cressida. He also tells them that the information they uncovered on House Leroung’s involvement with the clone could be considered “light treason” and would give them significant leverage over the house, should they choose to use it.

Popping the Question

Following the vote, Nox heads straight to Citadel Volshyenek, where he finds Cressida in her office. He tells her that her name has been thrown into contention, which shocks her.

Nox shocks her again when he suggests that they unite as a joint ticket—through marriage. She puts off committing to a decision, but invites him to a dinner date that night to better acquaint themselves with one another.

Off to See the Wizard

While Nox chats with his maybe-bride, the rest of the adventurers run errands around town. Flint goes around paying off his wastrel clone’s bar tabs and requesting the return of betrothal gifts in order to obtain refunds.

Soon enough, however, each of them is contacted by a herald dressed in the colors of House Ornelos. They are invited to participate in the Acadamae’s Breaching Festival tomorrow and are asked to meet with Toff Ornelos at once. Ashla accepts the invitation to participate, but declines the request to see the headmaster. The others agree to the meeting and are teleported to the Acadamae gates, where a squad of tiefling guards escorts them to the headmaster’s office.

Ornelos pitches them on joining the Breaching Festival, which is suffering from not having had a winner in 150 years. He signals that if they win, he will flip his vote to supporting Nox. All they have to do is gain entrance to the eastern end of the Hall of Wards and make their way out the western exit before dusk on the day of the festival—braving the deadly protections the Acadamae’s students and faculty have placed on the building. The first one who makes it out alive will be declared winner and given the prize money, which has grown in size every year for 150 years.

Although usually contestants compete alone, Ornelos is will to bend the rules to allow them to work together as a group, even though only one of them can technically become the winner. Ornelos claims to simply interested in getting a winner, as the contest’s reputation has begun to flag after years with no victor.

The Crimson Blades sense a trap, but agree to go along. Ornelos then invites them to take a tour of the campus with his assistant.

The night of 15 Erastus, 4708

I Have to See a Man About a Corpse

While the rest of the Crimson Blades retire to the Farima Townhouse to rest after their adventures in the Thassilonian Vault below Castle Korvosa, Nox and Freya instead make for the Gray District. They are carrying the body of Freya’s brother Wulfrik Mikkelson, who Nox struck down mere hours before. The fighter had promised to bring him back, but can tell he still has a long way to go to make things right.

At the Grand Cathedral of Pharasma, they are seen by the cleric on duty, a young woman named Ramara. She offers two different methods of returning Wulfrik from the dead, one which would leave him in a weakened state but would cost less and another which would leave him in a stronger condition but cost twice as much.

Strapped for cash, Nox asks Freya about the urgency of raising her brother and whether she wanted to leave the city right away or rest up first. Freya says she wants her brother back now and admits that she needs time to figure out what they will do next. Nox then asks Ramara to raise the barbarian from the dead. The priestess circles the “patient,” swinging a censor in one hand while holding a large diamond in the other. The diamond flares with light and then turns to a lump of carbon, while Wulfrik gasps and wakes up.

Life Debts

After a moment’s disorientation, the barbarian tries to rise up to attack Nox, but Freya holds him back, telling him it’s too late. Wulfrik is bitter that Nox prevented him from upholding his duty to the man whose life he swore to protect. Nox insists that Amprei was endangering the entire city with his scheme and had to be stopped.

He also recounts how Amprei’s body morphed to become the skeletal monstrosity the party fought. Wulfrik insists that Amprei would not be foolish enough to endanger them or himself, while Freya notes that it was the ruins of the Crown of Fangs that warped the Ambassador’s body, a cursed relic that Nox brought into the vault.

She reminds Nox that he used the Crown of Fangs to compel her to break her oath to the man who had saved her life and her brother’s. Nox admits that he cannot take back what was done, but remains committed to making amends. He offers her his remaining gold to help the two siblings get by while Wulfrik recovers.

Freya says this is merely a down payment on the wergild he owes them, but her expression does seem to soften somewhat. She then helps her brother out of the chamber. As she passes by Nox, he realizes that she has tucked a scrap of paper in his pocket. One side reads “Three Rings Tavern” while the other reads “Be Seeing You.”

The morning of 16 Erastus, 4708

Calling on Cressida

Nox then returns to the Castle rest for the night. The following morning, he seeks out Field Marshal Cressida Kroft. He finds her on the battlements of Citadel Volshyenek, surveying the city. Nox fills her in on his adventures in the Thassilonian Vault below the Castle, explaining that he played along with Ambassador Amprei in order to uncover and thwart his plot. Though Nox admits that he fell under the sway of the Crown of Fangs, even as he tried his utmost to use its power to benefit Korvosa.

Cressida is relieved that the Crown of Fangs has been destroyed and Amprei’s scheme has been foiled, although the Ambassador’s death could complicate relations with Cheliax. Nox says they can spin the death, since Amprei had few friends in the capital and was scheming against other influential nobles in Cheliax.

Nox asks Cressida about the political situation in the city. She tells him that the Five Great Houses have voted to depose Queen Ileosa. Elections are to be held tomorrow to select her successor, although the voting is expected to last at least several days as all five of the Great Houses must reach consensus on a single candidate. She shares a letter she received today from Lord Tavius Jalento, endorsing Lord Toff Ornelos, Headmaster of the Acadamae, as the next King. The letter urges the other Korvosan nobles to lobby the Great Houses to select Ornelos.

Nox notes that they must act quickly. Korvosa has had enough magic and corruption to last a lifetime, and the city deserves a far better monarch than the Acadamae’s Headmaster. Cressida agrees, but notes that Ornelos is pulling out all the stops in his campaign for the Crimson Throne. She says that Vimanda Arkona is also rumored to be making a play for the throne, but she has yet to take any public action, which leaves Cressida concerned as to what she’s planning.

Cressida has also heard that Nox is looking to throw his hat into the ring. He admits this is so. He thinks a new start is needed for the city, represented by someone who can understand the needs of the people and the noble houses.

“I’ve lived many different lives in my short time on Golarion,” he says. “And I can think of no better calling than serving the city in its time of need.”

“You don’t need to persuade me,” Cressida tells him. “The ones you need to persuade are those five nobles, at least one of whom already wants to be king.”

Nature Abhors a Power Vacuum

She goes on to note that minor Houses like hers have no more say in the decision than the common people. Nox insists that they will need the common people’s support. She agrees that the opinion of the commons may play a role in the decisions, but so much of the vote involves favor-trading and legalized bribery.

Nox says he will do some digging and make it clear to the other nobles that the House that presides over the Acadamae is not exactly fit to rule. Cressida notes that Headmaster Ornelos has a reputation as prickly and unlikable, but his sprawling House has its tendrils in every aspect of Korvosan society: its scions serve in the government, in the Guard, in the Bank of Abadar, and as advisers to other nobles. They can leverage those connections to great effect.

As for Vimanda, her scheme is unclear, but none of the other Great Houses trusts her. Though her family has strong ties to the city, she herself is a relative newcomer. And then there’s House Leroung, which everyone expects to vote for the abolishment of the monarchy and a return to the Lord Mayor system that preceded it, which should keep the Five Great Houses from reaching consensus for at least a day or two.

Cressida explains that since all five of the Great Houses have to unite behind a single candidate, they could be deadlocked for days or weeks, at the worst possible time. The power vacuum leaves the city vulnerable to its external enemies and Cressida has had difficulty restoring contact with its outside settlements. Messenger birds don’t seem to be getting through, so she’s had to dispatch riders instead. At the moment, they simply don’t know what’s been happening since the rebellion rose up against Ileosa.

“I’m sure Magnimar would like to get their foothold on this side of Varisia,” Nox says.

“Magnimar, the Shoanti…” Cressida starts to tick names of her fingers.

“The Shoanti are thankfully holding due to our friends the Crimson Blades, since they became recognized as members of the tribe,” Nox explains. “The Shoanti have left it in their hands, though how long that will last is anyone’s guess.”

Cressida agrees, and the longer the succession crisis goes on, the more likely it is that someone makes a move against the city.

“Rounds need to be made to the Great Houses as quickly as possible,” Nox says.

Cressida offers to assist him. She says that she believes he is the best option of the three candidates and has certainly proven his worth to the city. But goodwill can only go so far. She asks what he would have her do to support him.

“You have a better lay of the noble politics in Korvosa,” Nox says. “I know what I would do in Cheliax, but I don’t think that translates here.”

The Field Marshal’s Guide to Politics

Cressida gives him a quick overview of the process. The seneschal, Neolandis, will preside over the voting process but cannot cast a ballot himself. There are Five Great Houses, all of whom must agree on a single candidate, which means he will need to persuade some nobles to pick him over themselves.

• House Jeggare: Nox fought alongside Mercival Jeggare during the boggard attack. Lord Endrin is also a vassal of the Jeggares and could be influential. But it’s unclear what they want, since they are already the richest house in Korvosa. Cressida recommends that Nox speak with them first.

• House Zenderholm: Lady Zenobia is the Chief Arbiter of Korvosa, strict but fair. She is the most public service minded, but also dedicated to tradition and honor. Nox thinks he could get along well with her.

• House Leroung: They will have to pick a side eventually, and are likely to be more open to a newcomer than an established house. They run the University of Korvosa and are perhaps the most progressive of the Great Houses. Nox thinks there could be an opportunity to raise the profile of the University and get it out of the shadow of the Acadamae.

• House Ornelos: Nox will have to talk Ornelos out of seeking the kingship. (“The Crown would have come in handy there,” Nox says flatly.) Cressida is unsure what else could be offered to Ornelos, given his family’s influence and control over the Acadamae. Whatever he wants, it won’t come cheap.

• House Arkona: Vimanda has the sketchiest of reputations. Her control of the city underworld is widely known, but hasn’t been confirmed. Cressida warns that whatever else she says she wants, Vimanda’s true desire is power.

“It seems that the only thing we have going for us is being outside that framework,” Nox says.

Cressida notes that the goodwill he has earned does play a role, and each of the houses can be influenced to a degree by their clients and vassals.

Nox says he will start by having a chat with House Jeggare. He thanks Cressida for her insights and says that if all goes well, he looks forward to working with her more closely. She likes that idea, and thanks him again for his role in the boggard battle. He bids her farewell, and tells her to contact him should she need anything.

Sartorial Suggestions

Nox heads to the Farima townhouse to change into a noble’s outfit, though recalling his previous ambush, he makes sure to wear a chain shirt underneath. He invites Remmy to accompany him as an escort. She jumps at the chance to get away from the townhouse, where she had been keeping the unusually downbeat Laori company. The Gray Maiden still wears the replica medallion around her neck.

A little uneasy about the optics, Nox advises Remmy to perhaps change up the color scheme of her Gray Maiden outfit.

“Perhaps try more Korvosan colors,” he suggests.

“What’s wrong wrong with crimson?” she asks, a little confused. “It’s one of the two colors on our flag.”

“Maybe focus more on the other color,” Nox says.

“…Black?”

“Yes,” he says,“just kind of distance the whole Maiden aspect.”

“But that’s kind of the whole aesthetic,” she protests.

“Yes,” Nox says. “But as a personal favor to me, wear a different cloak or undercoat, please.”

“All right, I think I can rustle something up,” she says, retreating back into her room. A few moments later, she returns wearing a dark cloak over her Maiden armor.

Invisible Enemies

They walk through the wealthy and established Heights District, in the shadow of Castle Korvosa, the Acadamae, and the Great Tower. Nox asks how Vigil is treating her. She calls it a “cool sword,” which irks him. He talks about how the sword was wielded by his great-grandfather, a paladin of Iomedae. Remmy hastily adds that she knows it is a great honor to carry the sword for him while he is unable. He hopes that soon he will be able to hold it once again.

An arrow suddenly zips out from Nox’s left, clipping off the medallion from around Remmy’s neck and carrying it off to the right. The medallion and the arrow suddenly wink out of view. Then the medallion reappears, tumbling down onto the ground. Nox and Remmy immediately stand back to back, swords out, as they try to spy the attackers.

The arrow came from a figure perched on the balcony of a nearby building, a figure Nox recognizes as Flint.

Nox charges after the medallion. The Flint double wounds him in the leg with an arrow, slowing him down. There are splashes in a nearby puddle and then the medallion disappears. Muddy footprints begin leading off towards a nearby alley.

Despite his leg wound, Nox lunges forward to try tackle the invisible person. It is a woman, wearing a chain shirt of some kind. Nox demands that they return what they’ve stolen. The woman responds by tossing the medallion off to his left. Remmy rushes after it.

Nox slams the woman onto the ground. “What part of give me back my item didn’t you understand?”

“You can keep holding onto me or you can get the medallion,” she tells him, “you can’t do both.”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do! I can do a lot of things, a lot of very painful things. Now who are you. Take off your concealment. Don’t make me angry. You won’t like me when I’m angry.”

Remmy recovers the medallion, only for it to be shot out of her hand again. The Flint figure has reappeared perched on a different building. The arrow carries the medallion down a dark alley, out of view. Nox urges Remmy to go after it. The Flint double fires several arrows into Nox, wounding him. This does not help his mood.

“Let me go and you’ll stop being a target,” the woman says.

Nox rise to his feet, pulling the invisible woman up in front of him as a shield, and begins backing up towards the alley where Remmy had gone. The captive responds by whispering something in a strange language and Nox feels a cloud settling onto his mind, but shakes it off. He claps a hand over her mouth and leans in to whisper in her ear—but gets poked in the eye by its pointy-ness.

“Try that again and I’ll break your little neck,” he says. “Now would you mind calling off your fake friend of mine. No tricks.” He removes his hand from her mouth and places it around her throat.

The half-elf woman jabs him with a shocking arrow, the jolt rattling him enough that she is able to slip free. She immediately takes off running down the street, her footfalls kicking up bits of dirt as she moves at superhuman speed. Nox throws his bastard sword after her, causing blood to spurt out of thin air. Bleeding badly, she flees into the city. Nox activates his boots of speed and pursues, following the blood trail.

The half-elf weaves her way through the crowded streets and clambers along the Shingles, moving swiftly despite her injury. Recalling his time running a few “errands” for Amprei in the Heights District, Nox figures where she’s headed and tries to cut her off at the shortcut. However, the still-invisible woman manages to slip past him despite his best efforts.

Frustrated, Nox returns to find that Remmy secured the medallion somewhere on her person. The fake Flint has fled. Nox decides to quickly return to the Castle to change into his armor, vowing never to go out in public without it. Remmy finds nothing strange about this.

Wheeling and Dealing

Suited up in full plate, Nox arrives at the Jeggare Mansion. He is invited into a smoking lounge, where he is met by Lord Montayn Jeggare and his brother Mercival Jeggare, who Nox fought alongside during the Boggard attack.

After some small talk, Nox makes his pitch for their support in the upcoming election. The Jeggares have a list of favors they would expect in return from the next monarch: appointing Mercival as the next Commandant of Sable Company, appointing various other family members and lackeys to minor posts around the city, and transferring management of the Korvosan Mint from the Bank of Abadar to House Jeggare.

Nox is rather taken aback by these demands, but accedes to the mint request and the minor appointments. He tells them that he plans on appointing Lord Endrin as Commandant of Sable Company. Instead, he suggests Mercival could head up a new military organization he plans to institute to take over military duties from the Korvosan Guard. This large scale military reform catches them by surprise.

Nox explains that he wants the Guard concentrated on peacekeeping in Korvosa so that no other military force is ever needed to be called into the city. The new model army, meanwhile, would be open for the Jeggare’s to put their personal stamp on. Mercival and Lord Montayn agree to take the proposal under consideration.

With Remmy escorting him, Nox arrives back at the townhouse later in the day, as Arlynn and Flint return from their own adventures.

The night of 15 Erastus, 4708

Rest and Repose

Exhausted from their long day slogging through the Thassilonian vault below Castle Korvosa, the Crimson Blades decide to turn in quickly. Nox peels off, with a furious Freya and her brother Wulfrik’s body in tow.

Arlynn takes the rest of the gang back to her family’s townhouse in the Heights District. The house is less well-kept without the goblin butler Grimlurk, but there’s enough room for them all to sleep. Flint has Laori resurrect Rodrick and he and his other friends convince the irascible alchemist of the clone theory. Laori herself has been unusually quiet and reserved ever since she recovered the Fangs of Kazavon.

The next morning, Laori bakes everyone Elvish muffins. As the adventurers break their fast, a bird suddenly appears to tap on the window, a scrap of paper wrapped around its leg. Egan figures the note is for him and excuses himself.

The morning of 16 Erastus, 4708

Spirited Away

The druid circle has discovered a strange razorweed in the city, but they haven’t been able to contact the nature spirits to inquire about it. Their attempts to remove it have not been successful, and it is spreading rapidly. They take Egan to a secluded sea cave and perform a ritual to send him into the spirit world.

Egan encounters the earth spirit and the water spirit caught up in a ceaseless battle. Both promise to help him if he helps them against their rival.

Egan uses wind wall to break them apart, then interrogates them about the plant.

The earth spirit says it is poisoning the land and its roots are binding together. The water spirit warns that the city’s tides have come out of sink, as if it were drifting somewhere else.

The two spirits then summon an animal spirit, shaped like a jackalope, who offers Egan more information if the druid can catch him. The spirit races off into the city.

Special Guests

Back in the townhouse, Arlynn goes through her morning sword practice/prayers, only to have Iomedae drop in on her. Arlynn shares the credit for her success with Irabeth, Chammady, and Laori.

Arlynn asks about whether Serithtial should stay with her or go to Lastwall for safekeeping. The sword (in humanoid form) prefers to stay involved in the fight. Iomedae leaves the decision to Arlynn, but notes that so long as Kazavon’s relics still exist, the sword should be ready to hand. The goddess notes that the only known relic is about to leave the city for the homeland of its patron, but she doubts it will get there.

Iomedae warns that there is a looming threat to Korvosa, not Sorshen, but Lorthact, who can hide even from her gaze. She emphasizes the tremendous danger Lorthact poses and urges Arlynn to seek out every tool and ally she can. She notes that knowledge is their greatest weapon, and that Lorthact may have hoarded knowledge of his own weaknesses to keep it from falling into his enemies’ hands.

After the goddess disappears, Irabeth rushes into the room, wide-eyed. “I’m sorry I’m late. You would not believe the dream I just had.”

“You wouldn’t believe the dream I just had,” Arlynn says.

Their eyes lock and they both realize they saw the same thing. The two hold hands and squee like fangirls. Their excitement is interrupted by someone throwing a rock at the window. It is Arlynn’s estranged elder sister Keris, waiting impatiently below.

The Hero Korvosa Needs

Ashla, after breakfast, goes on a casual patrol through the city, picking up on rumors. People are relieved the violence seems to be over, excited that the Breaching Festival approaches, frustrated by the city’s continued isolation, and perturbed by the fact that someone keeps shooting birds out of the sky.

Ashla is approached by Vencarlo. After she fills him in on the defeat of the queen and the destruction of the crown, he tells her about a matter that may require Blackjack’s attention: former Gray Maidens are going missing, and he doesn’t think it’s simple vigilante justice. He points her towards the site of the Merciless Way Massacre in Old Korvosa. Ashla asks him to spread the word that the Gray Maidens were largely unwilling pawns.

Family Matters

Flint gathers his friends in a scry-proof room, shares a code signal (“apples”) with them to let them know they’re speaking with the real Flint. He then checks to see if they will support him, and they are ultimately all on board.

From there, he takes them back to their parents. Lord Astorian is very skeptical of Flint’s claims, and lets him know that his house’s reputation is in the dirt. Lady Kestle is simply overjoyed to get Rodrick back.

Flint and Damon then detour over to Endrin Manor so that Damon can speak with Valeria before his mother kills him. However, they arrive to a commotion outside, as three angry nobles demand to see Flint while Valeria stalls. Flint recognizes them as acquaintances of his—Lyyah Camppri, Cohel Totham, and Gellius Sevaad. They are all armed.

Seeing is Believing

Egan pursues the jackalope spirit through the streets of Korvosa. The rabbit ducks into a narrow alley—and slams right into a wall. Egan uses wall of stone to ensnare it. The jackalope protests against the use of magic, but Egan tells him to stuff it.

When Egan asks for information, the animal spirit offers to show the druid what he needs to know.

The jackalope takes Egan to East Shore, where they pass by a tavern and Egan picks up Flint’s scent. They continue, however, to the Endrin estate, where Flint is being confronted by the three nobles.

Revenge of the Clones

It quickly becomes apparent that “Flint” had simultaneously proposed marriage to Lyyah, to Cohel’s sister, and to Gellius’ fiance, while also gambling and whoring about town. Deeply insulted, all three nobles are out for blood—and Flint’s “doppelgangers” explanation isn’t cutting it.

Flint promises to take them to see the duplicate locked away in the Castle under guard. First, though, he goes to check in with Valeria, requesting the signet ring back. She then tells him that she was informed this morning that the duplicate has apparently escaped the Castle. He somehow managed to simply talk his way out of the cell. flint is incensed that his doubles seem to be not mere copies, but somehow better than him.

Flint then offers Damon a chance to speak quietly with Valeria, while he turns back to mollify the angry young nobles.

Your Aura is Showing

As Egan has watched this scene, he has attuned more strongly to the spirit world, in which people and places look different than they do in our reality. Valeria looks more scarred, but beneath the scars glows a gentle warmth. Flint, on the other hand, is being circled by a grasping, fiendish shadow.

Endrin Manor, likewise, takes on a sinister appearance, all spikes and jagged edges, with deep cracks running through its stones. Half the grass in the front yard appears dead, a slowly expanding brown semicircle that the gnome druid traces back to a single razorweed, growing in the shadow of the building.

As he takes this in, Egan comes to two realizations. One, the Flint he smelled in the shoreline tavern is not the one here in the manor. Two, there is another figure, climbing a nearby building, that looks decidedly like Flint—but couldn’t have been at the tavern either.

The newcomer ignores Endrin Manor, instead watching the skies. Egan can see some sort of avian spirit floating around him. All of a sudden, he nocks and arrow and looses it, making an almost impossible shot to bring down a bird. The figure then begins to descend.

Clone Hunt

Egan casts summon nature’s ally to conjure forth a messenger pigeon and directs it to arc across the bird-killer’s field of vision towards Endrin Manor. The archer swiftly shoots it out of the sky,, with the arrow landing at Flint’s feet, drawing his attention.

Flint takes off after the figure, with Valeria, Damon, and the three nobles in hot pursuit. As he chases his clone through the Shingles, Flint tags him several times with arrows. Even so, the bird-killer manages to get a deciding lead. The double dashes across a plank between two rooftops, kicks the plank aside, does a little bow to Flint, and then backflips off the building to safety.

Or he would have, had Egan not cast reverse gravity.

Dire Warnings

Flint and the others casually approach in the spinning figure. Flint rips the hooded cloak away so that the duplicate can clearly be seen. A furious Lyyah stabs the double through the heart. As they look at the slack corpse, they realize he appears rather unkempt, as if he had been living on the streets for days. Lyyah ruefully acknowledges that this wasn’t the Flint who seduced her. But the nobles do agree that Flint seems to be correct about the clones.

The duplicate was carrying multiple letters taken from messenger birds, most of it official correspondence from outlying settlements warning that forces from Magnimar, Korvosa’s rival to the west, are encroaching on on the city’s outlying territories. Another letter, meanwhile, had fallen from the bird-killer’s pocket during his escape. It bears the sigil of House Leroung and promises financial assistance for his cause. Flint recalls that House Leroung had called for an abolishment of the monarchy and that its members hand expressed great concern about the personal safety of their Lady.

Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves

Back at the Farima townhouse, Arlynn reunites with her sister, who is once again kitted out as a warrior. Keris explains that she has tracked a crew of Bekyars to the city, and among them is the Master of Whips, the man who killed their mother. Arlynn recognizes this as a chance to avenge their family and the two set out at once, accompanied by Irabeth and Ant 3. Along the way, the two sisters make awkward small talk and reminisce about happier times.

The Bekyars are staying at the Upslope House, a bed and breakfast large enough to qualify as an inn (despite a citadel Crest ordinance prohibiting such things). Keris explains that there are at least seven hardened Bekyar warriors inside, too many for one person to take down. Arlynn suggests they just barge right in, a plan that Keris and Irabeth are fine with.

It is at this point that Egan and the dire jackalope spirit catch up. In the spirit world, Arlynn and Irabeth each blaze bright with halos—Arlynn’s golden, Irabeth’s tinged with red—but the shadows cast by their glow are dark and twisted. The formian appears as a sleek, almost sculpted-looking being of pure amber. Keris, meanwhile, appears as a dark gray figure, and slightly wispy at the edges as if not fully formed. The only color on her is the golden mark of justice that Arlynn placed upon her forehead months ago.

An Unexpected Parley

Side by side, the two Farima sisters force open the double doors of the Upslope House. The common room is full of Bekyars, all sitting down to a late breakfast. In the far corner is seated the Master of Whips, looking almost exactly as he did the night he cut down their mother.

There is a moment of quiet as everyone takes stock of each other. Then Arlynn challenges the Master, calling for vengeance for her mother and for the thousands slaves that her parents sought to free.

The Master of Whips tells her that she must of course do what she feels is necessary, but tells her that he has come to Korvosa not to harm the city, but to save it. Arlynn is skeptical. He explains that the Bekyar auguries have foreseen a great doom befalling Korvosa in the coming days. The doom is connected to a lost Bekyar relic, the Book of Golgothus. The destruction of Korvosa would interfere with the Master’s plans, and the book is an honored relic, hence his interest in retrieving it and halting the doom.

Arlynn has heard of the book, both from Bekyar legends and from her studies at Lastwall. Golgothus was a Bekyar wizard of terrible power, who studied fiend-binding, conjuration, and the planes. It is said that he poured all of his knowledge into a single tome, which was stolen from his reliquary centuries ago.

Sensing that this text could be one of the weapons against Lorthact that the Inheritor had mentioned, Arlynn begins to negotiate an alliance with the slave lord. This frustrates Keris to no end, but she bites her tongue and goes along with her little sister.

Shadows on the Wall

As the negotiations are taking place, Egan prowls around the outside of the inn, unwilling to enter even in spirit form. The gnome druid searches for the razorweed that is the source of the site’s strange distortions. He ultimately finds the plant growing up the sides of the building like a vine.

While poking around, Egan also gets a peak through the window at the Master’s shadow (though not the man himself). The shadow is huge, far larger than a human or even a bear, and monstrous, with ridges, spines and what even might be pincers. Yet strangely, the other shadows nearby are not distorted into sinister shapes. In fact, as the Master’s shadow moves, it seems to repel the warping effect that distorts the other shadows.

Planning a Party Crash

Inside, the Master of Whips insists that the Book of Golgothus must be returned to the Bekyar Nation. Arlynn gets him to agree to a compromise: permitting the party to study the book for a reasonable time and freeing the same number of slaves that her parents had tried to liberate all those years ago. The Master agrees to these terms and has them placed in writing, with signatures from himself and Arlynn.

The Master of Whips says that his people have divined that the book is in Korvosa, in the possession of a tiefling wizard name Maketh, who is studying it at the Acadamae. Possibly the most secure building in Korvosa, the Acadamae is protected by traps, beasts, and layers of warding spells—and it will be open to the public in two days’ time, for the annual Breaching Festival. An ideal time to break inside—although many of the halls will be trapped for the festival participants. Two teams—the Crimson Blades and the Bekyars—stand a better chance than just one. He promises to stay in touch with Arlynn.

The afternoon of 16 Erastus, 4708

The Missing Maidens of Merciless Way

Meanwhile, Ashla has gone to the site of the Merciless Way Massacre, where residents have erected a shrine to the victims. The ranger questions the locals about the disappearances and strange activities in the area. No one has seen the kidnappings, but they have seen former Gray Maidens come by to pay their respects, usually around sunset. They have also seen a gang of strange people in dark hoods with black cloths drawn around their faces lurking in the area, though most suspect them to be part of the Cerulean Society. Lastly, a tiefling has also been spotted frequenting the area. Ashla sends an animal messenger off to Kyra, seeking confirmation that the Cerulean Society was active in the area.

Having obtained this information, Ashla settles into a stakeout of the shrine, until finally, around sunset, two scarred and brawny women cautiously approach to light candles. Ashla see a group of four dark figures lurking nearby, but does nothing. The four cloaked figures, together with four more identical people, rush out of two nearby alleys to attack the women. They move with a strange, jerky gait and attack with their bare hands, attempting to beat the women into submission.

The former Gray Maidens resist fiercely, drawing daggers. Ashla sees them stab the hooded figures repeatedly and even open a man’s throat, to no avail. After ascertaining that the attackers were seeing only to disable, not kill, the women, Ashla chooses not to intervene. The two victims are knocked senseless, then each is picked up by one of the figures. The rest of the group scatters, while the two kidnappers haul their cargo through the streets.

They try to throw off any potential pursuit, but Ashla determines very quickly that they are heading for the ruins of Exemplary Execrables, the old freak show that was once run by the man who would become the Emperor of Old Korvosa. The kidnappers carry the two women down a hidden trapdoor in the charred wreckage of the place. After sending an animal messenger to Arlynn notifying her, Ashla quietly follows them, just as Egan and the jackalope spirit arrive.

In the spirit world, the outline of the freak show theater and museum lingers on, semi-translucent and splashed with blood. Razorweed grows around the entrance of the trapdoor. The two figures hauling the captives appear as complete black voids—not merely shadows, but the absence of anything.

Dead Men Walking

Egan and the nature spirit follow Ashla down the trap door, which leads to what was once a basement beneath Exemplary Execrables. The two kidnappers are walking down a long hallway, at the end of which is a bright light. Ashla quietly trails after them, barely sparing a glance at the doors lining the hall.

The light at the end of the tunnel is from a pair of lanterns in a large room, which holds several tables and a small cot. One of the tables is overflowing with scrolls and scraps of paper, while the other has an assortment of sinister-looking knives and torture implements. The two kidnapped women have been chained to the wall and gagged by the two cloaked figures. A tiefling man, meanwhile, is cheerily sharpening a knife at one of the tables while whistling to himself. In the spirit world, Egan can see strings hanging off of the man.

Ashla creeps up behind him and then puts her twin swords against his throat. She asks him what he’s doing and who he is working for and warns him not to resist or he’s dead. The tiefling calls out to his minions and Ashla regretfully slits his throat. As the cloaked figures close in, she realizes they are undead and a grin springs to her face.

Meanwhile, the doors lining the hallway open and more figures shuffle out. These aren’t covered up like their fellows, making it clear that they are the walking corpses of dead men and women, all of them in their late teens to early twenties. Egan quickly casts spiked stone on the hallway, managing to snare most of the dead, but a half a dozen get through.

The corpses attack Ashla with their bare hands, but their moves are clumsy and only a few blows hit. Ashla cuts them down one by one, knocking one of them against the wall by the chained-up maidens. This startles them to wakefulness and Ashla asks them to make sure the dead man stays down. The two women stomp on the corpse, while the ranger finishes the remaining undead. She surveys the the spiked stones and calls out “Thank you, Egan.”

The maidens thank her for rescuing them and wonder what the hell the tiefling was up to. Ashla gives the papers a cursory look—they appear to be part of a larger ritual, involving human sacrifice. She also found a calendar, with the date 19 Eratus (three days hence) circled. The ranger scoops up the material for further review.

Outside the Lines

With Ashla out of danger, the jackalope takes Egan back to the surface. Racing across Korvosa, the spirit takes them up to the top of the Great Tower. From there, Egan can see lines of red energy stretching from each of the locations they visited, all converging on the Acadamae. Egan also senses the ley lines stretching out across Varisia. But where the ley lines intersect the red streams of energy, the ley lines simply stop.

The jackalope explains that the bonds linking Korvosa to Golarion are being cut, just as they approach the dark of the moon when the boundaries between the worlds are at their thinnest. If Korvosa is unmoored from Golarion when that happens, who knows where the city might drift? The jackalope also says that it remembers when Field Marshal Jakthion Korvosa arrived, more than three hundred years ago. His name and his bones are bound up in the city—not the land, but the living organism that is the city. And last night, the spirit saw through the eyes of an owl as raiders stole Jakthion Korvosa’s body from its tomb in the Gray District.

The Crimson Blades burst into the tomb, where Nox and the henchmen are battling the guardian while Amprei deploys his equipment. The Chelaxian ambassador warns that the Blades will spoil everything and orders his men to hold them off.

The Abadarian cleric and the wizard unleash magic against the adventurers, but are swiftly overcome. Flint seizes hold of the dominated Freya, wrestles her to the ground and ties her up.

Amprei loudly insists that he is trying to protect Korvosa. He has his strange device pointed at the figure in the sarcophagus at the center of the room, who appears to be a sleeping Sorshen. As Nox moves to confront him, the ambassador insists that he is trying to siphon off some of Sorshen’s power to keep her dormant. Seeking advice, Arlynn calls upon Armaitya, who’s entrance into the dungeon is delayed, but when she appears she warns against trusting Amprei.

The adventurers surround Amprei, while the device continues to whir louder and louder. Ashla, Nox, and Arlynn all take turns trying to destroy the device. It finally explodes, sending out a surge of energy and triggering some sort of supernatural trap. Nox manages to resist the murderous illusion, narrowly avoiding death.

Amprei attempts to flee, using magic to invisibly slip out into the antechamber. Egan, however, spots him and Ashla closes in. But Egan strikes the killing blow with a finger of death. Amprei’s Ulfen bodyguard Wulfrik goes berserk and Nox is forced to kill him.

The adventurers retreat from the tomb, leaving its tentacled guardian there.

Confronted by the Crimson Fangs, Nox manages to resist the allure of the Crown of Fangs enough to remove the cursed artifact. Arlynn then shatters it with a furious blow from Serithtial.

This releases blue spectral energy which swirls around the fangs and then dives into the withered husk of Amprei’s body. With a sickening crunching sound, the dead man’s bones stretch and warp, swelling up into the shape of an immense skeletal dragon.

The Crimson Blades and the remaining henchmen stand their ground to face the creature. The skeletal dragon spews forth a blast of lightning into the massed adventurers. The monster grievously injures Irabeth, who is carried to safety by Armaitya.

The party rallies and counter attacks. A series of devastating blows are unleashed by Nox, Flint, and Ashla. Her sword glowing with holy fire, Arlynn delivers the killing blow, shattering the skeleton.

Picking through the remains, they find Kazavon’s fangs and present them to Laori, as promised. She places them inside a custom lead-lined carrying case. The elf maiden is troubled by battle with the undead Kazavon and the fact that her mission for the Church of Zon-Kuthon is complete.

Freya, freed from Nox’s domination, bitterly confronts him about using her and about killing Wulfrik, who she reveals to be her brother. Nox apologizes and promises to revive the man.

With Nox returned to the fold and the Crown of Fangs finally, finally broken, the Crimson Blades begin their ascent to the surface, worried about what has taken place in their absence.

The evening of 15 Erastus, 4708

Reunion

The two disparate halves of the Crimson Blades reunite and swap stories of their experiences. Flint introduces Sheira to the other half of the party. Once they are up to speed, they decide to investigate the nearby chamber, whose light is spilling out into the passage.

An Enchanting Gallery

Kyra and Egan give the gallery a once-over first while using their rings of invisibility and spot no immediate threats. The rest of the party then enters the gallery, which features erotically charged paintings and sculptures that nonetheless all seem to be part of some larger visual story.

The adventurers notice two piles of rubble that give off the faint traces of enchantment magic, but by far the most interesting item in the room is the large mirror on the far wall, which does not display any of their reflections. Hanging directly opposite the mirror is a large painting of nymphs frolicking in a pond. On careful inspection, they notice that the mirror’s reflection of the painting doesn’t quite add up. In the mirror, one of the nymphs appears to be wearing the amulet.

Performance Art

Through some trial and error, the adventurers discover that they can step into the painting, causing the nymphs to come alive. The fey creatures claim that they were trapped in the painting long ago and can only be released by obtaining a fruit from a sacred tree at the center of the dungeon, guarded by a horrible monster.

The adventurers soon deduce that the “nymphs” are in fact disguised succubi. Even so, they strike a deal to get a fruit for the succubi in exchange for unlocking the path forward.

The Fruit of Victory

Following the succubi’s directions, the adventurers make their way to a large, high-vaulted chamber where an enormous tree grows, sprouting golden fruit. The chamber is filled with a large number of disturbingly life-like statues.

The sculptor quickly reveals itself as an enormous medusa matriarch. The snake-woman with the petrifying gaze slithers into the chamber, accompanied by an eye-less giant. When the adventurers prove resistant to her gaze, the medusa and her thrall begin picking up and hurling the stone statues at the party. Nonetheless, the adventurers are ultimately able to defeat them both.

They obtain some of the tree’s golden fruit, which Remmy discovers give off waves of pleasure when consumed. Searching among the statues, they find Sheira’s brother Timmet and are able to reverse his petrification by pressing a slice of fruit into his stone mouth.

Searching the area, they find a side chamber where they discover Flint’s friend Damon deep in conversation with a young medusa, daughter of the slain matriarch. They manage to extricate Damon peacefully and learn that he had captured the medusa’s interest enough to keep her from turning him to stone. Flint recalls that Damon’s always seemed to be blessed by fortune. Damon is able to lead them to the body of Flint’s remaining absent friend, Roderick. They collect the body to resurrect later.

Their errand complete, they take the fruit back to the succubi to complete the bargain. After trading the fruit, they place the medallion around the neck of the appropriate demon. On doing so, the mirror across the painting shimmers and turns into a portal to another chamber in the dungeon.

The party advances through the portal, discovering that it leads to an antechamber with a heavy steel door that hangs half-open. Inside, they can hear the sound of clashing steel and a loud imperious voice commanding “Keep the creature occupied, but don’t kill it!”

They push the door open all the way.

Flashback!

After abandoning the Burnt Saffron, Amprei, Nox, and Freya (still dominated by the Crown of Fangs) regroup with a band of mercenaries assembled by the Chelaxian ambassador. They enter Castle Korvosa through the secret passage and descend to its dungeon level, where Amprei performs a ritual to at the strange stone plug to teleport them into the vault below.

After defeating the glass golem guardians, Amprei helps shuttle his band through the two teleport circles, arranging things so that he, Nox, and the senior mercenaries all end up in one group. He writes off the others as expendable. Amprei uses his medallion to navigate through the vault passages, eventually arriving at the gallery.

Not willing to trust the other alone, Nox and Amprei enter the painting together. Amprei simply dominates the succubi, compelling them to wear his medallion. Once the portal opens, he commands his Ulfen bodyguard, Wulfrik Mikkelson, to carry the entire painting through the portal with them. When Wulfrik emerges on the other side, he is holding only the amulet, which Amprei reclaims.

Freya unlocks the steel door, but Amprei insists that they hold. The room is surely guarded, and he asks what sort of guardian a master of enchantment magic would select. They determine that it is most likely a compelled creature of some kind, and Amprei insists that it must be kept distracted, but not killed.

Entering the room, they find that it holds two life-sized statues of a male fire giant and female frost giant, which stand off to the sides, casting a watchful gaze on the gilded sarcophagus in the center of the chamber. Also guarding the sarcophagus is a large, tentacled monstrosity with two jackal heads.

Nox commands Freya to take cover, while Amprei shouts for the mercenaries to distract the monster while he sets up his equipment. He tells them “Keep the creature occupied, but don’t kill it!”

The afternoon of 15 Erastus, 4708

Lost in the Dark

After looting the bodies of the decapitated vampires (including acquiring a crystal doorknob), Arlynn, Flint, and Kyra debate pursuing the gaseous forms of the savage vampires and stake them in their crypts. However, they conclude that the wiser course is to try to link back up with the rest of the party.

Arlynn suffered wounds during the savage vampire attack, but when she channels the healing grace of her goddess, the divine energy remains within her but does not close her injuries. Potions likewise prove ineffective. The paladin suspects it has something to with the aura of evil that suffuses the vault.

With this disturbing discovery, they continue their strategy of taking the first left at every intersection. To ward off vampire attacks, Arlynn casts daylight on Flint’s bow. After traveling for a short while, they hear the sound of a woman screaming, followed by cursing in Common. After listening to make sure the screams are genuine, they race towards the sound.

The River Runs Red

They arrive at a large, richly decorated chamber that appears to be some kind of lounge, with gilded chairs, tables, and sofas—and a surging river of blood running down its center. On the other side of the stream is a flamboyantly-dressed half-elf woman trapped in a cage made of bones. She is being menaced by a towering creature made of bones. In the shadows of back of the room lurk two more figures, one stout and blocky and the other strange but sensual.

Flint recognizes the half-elf as his longtime friend Sheira Astorian. He tells Arlynn that she is a capable fighter if they can release her. Invisible Kyra moves in to try to help her escape while Arlynn and Flint move up.

As they bring more light into the room, they get a better look at the figures in the back of the room. One of them is some sort of construct made of gilded steel, with a shield in each arm. It is standing beside the other figure, which has the body of a voluptuous woman with bright red skin, but arms and legs that end in twisted claws and a head like a creature from nightmares.

Flint shoots her with an arrow, which causes the amulet around her neck to glow a blue-green color, the same as the glow that suddenly comes from the chassis of the shield construct. They realize the one is mystically shielding the other.

Flint tells Sheira that they’re going to save her, while she berates him for abandoning her in the vault. The bone creature, meanwhile, walks over and picks up the bone cage, while the half-elf frantically jabs at the cage bars with her rapier.

The nightmare woman pulls a lever on the altar and a loud grinding noise fills the room as the floor tile ripple and change elevation, causing the river of blood to shift course. Arlynn and Flint both managed to leap over it. They get a glimpse at the spiked grating which awaits anyone who gets swept away in the river.

A bloody suit of armor that had been caught in the river’s previous course is now exposed to open air. The armor fills with blood and rises up to threaten the adventurers. Arlynn recognizes it as a rare type of undead called a blood knight.

Sheira, meanwhile, stabs at the cage again with her rapier and the adventurers realize she has been stabbing at weak points at the joints of the cage, causing it to clatter apart. Rather than try to snare the half-elf again, the bone creature reaches up and rip bones from its body to hurl at Arlynn, where they erect themselves into another cage.

The blood knight closes in on Arlynn, who faces off against it with assistance from Sheira.

The nightmare woman takes to the air, floating over the battlefield to spit acid at the adventurers. Flint fills her full of arrows, overwhelming her connection to the shield construct, which explodes while its mistress plummets to the ground

Kyra leaps up onto the control altar and pulls a few levers. The river changes course again, swinging across the room to splash Arlynn with poisoned blood while Flint and Sheira leap out of the way. However, the river sweeps aside the bone construct and the blood knight.

The construct is pinned to the grate, while the blood knight climbs out of the river, where Arlynn and Flint put it down. Once the bone construct is destroyed as well, the adventurers and Sheira sit down on some of the eerily elegant furniture.

Double Double, Toil and Trouble

Arlynn notices that Sheira is suffering from a bleeding wound on her side. The paladin tries to treat it with her wand, but healing magic continues to have no effect, so Arlynn instead field dresses the injury to halt the bleeding.

Sheira accuses Flint of leaving her and their other friends to die in the Vault. The story that emerges is that “Flint,” in the company of a blond half-elf woman named Clairian Arrowsong, convinced his friends Damon, Rodrick, Sheira, and her brother Timmett to venture into the vault to steal Amprei’s medallion.

“Flint” hoped to stop Amprei from conducting a dangerous ritual with the medallion, and instead use it to grant powerful magic to the young nobles. “Flint” had a wayfinder with a gem like the one from the nightmare woman’s amulet, which pointed the way towards the medallion.

The young nobles made their way into the vault, figuring out how to avoid being split up by the teleport circles, but on the way they were ambushed by an enormous snake-like creature. Sheira didn’t get a good look at it—her brother Timmett did and turned to stone. She thinks the creature took Damon and doesn’t know what happened to Rodrick. She does know that “Flint” and his new half-elf friend ran and left them during the attack.

Flint calmly explains that that there are evil identical duplicates of him running around as part of a plot to discredit his family. Sheira is surprisingly skeptical of this story, but has no choice but to stick with the three of them. She asks them to help rescue her brother and the others, but they convince her that their first task is to reunite with the rest of their party.

With that, they take the first left, the opposite direction that Sheira was running from.

The Chamber of the Naughty Mushrooms

Traveling the halls, they come across a large chamber full of enormous mushrooms, overseen by a giant statue of a woman holding an unlit torch, at whose feet lies a luxurious four-poster bed.

Once everyone has entered the chamber, both the exit and entrance vanish and the mushrooms start to glow. The mushroom spores initially prove to have an exciting, aphrodisiac effect on the four of them as they trek across the chamber looking for an exit.

Soon, however, the spores start to charm them into wanting to remain in the room. Arlynn prove immune to this effect, but one by one the others start to succumb.

Fighting against the shrooms and their own hormones, they note scorchmarks on the walls below the level of the statue’s torch. They conclude that lighting the torch might burn out the mushrooms. Arlynn flies the increasingly delirious Sheira and Kyra up to safety, but it is up to the shroom-addled Flint to climb the statue and ignite the torch by hand. Arlynn, immune to the more debilitating charm effects, has to cheer him on to keep the fighter focused on the task.

Meanwhile, in the room below the mushrooms glow brighter and brighter as a haze of golden spores rises upwards. Flint lights the torch in time to ignite the spores, rocking the room with an explosion.

Arlynn and Flint are buffeted by the blast, but hold their place. Kyra and Sheira are knocked loose, however. Flint manages to grab the halfling as she tumbles by, while Sheira lands on the four-poster bed—which had somehow escaped the fire unscathed. The blaze has also left two hidden doors outlined with fire.

Still half-addled by the spores, the quartet enjoys a laugh over surviving the trap.

The Lady of Lust

Following the leftmost hidden door, the quartet arrives in a strange garden with an illusion of a starfield overhead with a glowing well in the center. Doors ring the garden, but the one that looks like it has seen the most use lies across the garden.

As the four of them move forward, a figure rises from the glowing well, languidly stretching. She is a darkly beautiful woman whose face has appeared throughout the vault, most recently on the torch-bearing statue. She claims to be Sorshen and welcomes them to her garden, which she urges them to enjoy as long as they like. Arlynn suspects she is some kind of undead, but there is a strangeness to her that they can’t place.

They warily insist that they need to find their friends and ask for her help in reaching them. Sorshen offers to trade the information to them in exchange for a chance to inspect the “smidgen.” They instead offer her the nightmare woman’s necklace, which she eagerly accepts. She tells them that their friends are nearby, approaching the Gallery.

They ask for directions and she tells them that they can travel anywhere in her vault if they have the will and the proper tools. Kyra and Flint immediately begin trying the crystal doorknob they’d scavenged on each of the doors in the chamber which have no knobs. Unfortunately, each time Kyra keeps failing.

Arlynn and Sheira ask Sorshen about the whereabouts of Flint’s friends, but the Runelord again asks for a moment with Kyra, as she’d never seen her kind before. They ask if any harm will come to the halfling and Sorshen insists that the “smidgen” will be returned in one piece. The party decides that sounds too “rapey” and instead offers to trade Amprei’s medallion for information about Flint’s other friends. Sorshen agrees to the deal.

On the last door without a doorknob, Kyra finds the way out. The quartet makes a rapid exit, emerging with the knob into a grand hallway near an open, glowing entrance. The hear a commotion to their right and see the rest of the party squeezing through a narrow passageway into the hall.

Midday of 15 Erastus, 4708

Clues Cruise

With the vampires vanquished and the hole in the Burnt Saffron’s side repaired, the Crimson Blades begin searching the ship. Arlynn digs through the cabins on the lower decks, coming across some strange mushrooms. She tries them and becomes affected by their hallucinogenic properties.

Ashla, meanwhile, finds a hidden message at halfling-height suggesting Nox is traveling below Castle Korvosa. The party then goes through the documents scavenged from Amprei’s ship, but they are unable to decipher the notes scrawled in the margins.

Over on the Crimson Wave, Remmy whips the goblins in to shape and puts on a tiny pirate hat, while Flint reminisces about yachting with his friends.

They return to the city and but dockhand Big Gerta in charge of the goblins before rushing to the castle.

Double Trouble

They arrive to find Neolandis being harangued by Lady Forscythe, who accuses him of protecting someone. When Flint intervenes, she rounds on him, demanding he tell her where her son is. Flint is flummoxed. She says that she saw her son conspiring with him and then next day the lad had packed his things and left. She’s sure that Flint has sent him off on some damnfool mission that she has been trying to keep him out of. Flint suspects that this might have to do with the Fiend card he drew from the Harrow Deck of Many Things.

At this point, the other door to the room opens and in walk Cressida, Valeria, and an exact duplicate of Flint. The Field Marshal is assuring Valeria that they will “get to the bottom of this.”

When the two duplicates lock eyes, Remmy reaches for her sword and places herself in front of Neolandis, while the other Flint nocks an arrow. Cressida forces them all to stand down.

The other Flint insists that Flint is an impostor. He has the dwarfstone, which should only attune to the lord of the house. The party tries catch the other Flint in a lie, but sense no deception from him. Valeria tosses the dwarfstone to Flint, who attunes to it as well. Flint finally appeals to his sister, who turns against the other Flint. That’s good enough for Cressida, who locks the other Flint away until the crown business is sorted out. Neolandis has them dye the other Flint’s hair to tell them apart.

The Hollow Crown

Neolandis then asks if they’ve found Nox and the crown. The party nods. “Where is he?” the seneschal asks. They all point down at the floor. “Fuck,” Neolandis says. He urges them to retrieve Nox quickly, as events are moving rapidly. The Five Great Houses voted to strip Ileosa from the throne today, and Vimanda is pushing to begin voting on a new monarch the following day. The two candidates appear to be Toff Ornelos and Vimanda. the winner requires a consensus of all five houses. Neolandis thinks they have only a few days to find Nox, their best alternative candidate—assuming he hasn’t gone mad.

Neolandis informs them that Ileosa wants to speak with them, urgently. Remmy and Arlynn go to see her. Ileosa warns them that the crown is here, in the castle. She can sense its presence and is fearful that it might pray on her mind again. She is surprised to learn that they already know this and sends them on their way. Arlynn can tell that Ileosa is holding back something, but she isn’t willing to share it just yet.

If It Bleeds, It Leads

The party heads down to the castle dungeon, where they arrive at the pillar room. Ashla can tell that Nox and perhaps ten other humans passed this way recently. They all gathered around the pillar and there the tracks end.

Arlynn and Kyra look over Amprei’s documents again, while Earth-Egan scouts below. The druid finds that the pillar goes down hundreds of feet before reaching a vault made of the same strange substance. The paladin and the halfling, meanwhile, decipher some notes suggesting that the pillar is similar to the teleport circles elsewhere in the city.

Remmy finds that the fake medallion she and Kyra procured lights up when it draws near the pillar. Ashla suggests that they all hold hands and then have Remmy touch the pillar. Doing this, they get flashes of the pillar’s construction in a blood magic ritual and then witness people kneeling before it and placing their hands against it to teleport. Ashla suggests they kneel and they get the sense that the pillar is expecting something. Remmy grumbles and cuts her hand before pressing it to the pillar.

This activates the teleport, which shunts them down into the vault below. They emerge in a large chamber with high vaulted ceilings, illuminated by two slowly circling orbs of light. In opposite corners are two teleport circles. In front of the teleport circles are two twelve foot tall glass statues of beautiful women with blades for hands. The blades on one of the statues are crusted with dried blood.

Epic Vandalism

The statues immediately move to slash both Arlynn and Irabeth, leaving deep bleeding cuts in both paladins. Flint puts several arrows through the statue confronting Irabeth, sending fracture lines running up and down its frame. The half-orc is then able to finish it off with one solid blow from her harrowed holy avenger. The creature explodes in a shower of glass that wounds Irabeth further.

The rest of the party gangs up on the other statue, which glitters with dazzling light as one of the glowing orbs passes by, disabling Arlynn’s Formian follower Ant 2. The paladin is also thrown off enough that she severely wounds the Formian while trying to strike the statue. When the creature finally explodes, the flying glass slays the insectoid.

Having destroyed the immediate threat, Egan ascertains that the statues will reassemble in a few hours. Flint lodges some of the statue fragments to the ceiling with tanglefoot bags, while Ashla searches the room. She finds tracks leading to both teleport circles, but Nox’s tracks go to the blue one.

Party Split

They decide that the first group should consist of Arlynn, Flint, and Kyra, with Remmy taking them through using the medallion. The Gray Maiden is starting to get a little woozy from blood loss. On her return, she asks Laori to make the offering. The elf cheerily agrees, after sharing a blood orange. however, nothing they try causes the blue circle to activate again.

Resignedly, they go to the second circle and take it through.

Both teleport circle lead to open alcoves connecting to a grand network of hallways. While the teleport chambers themselves are normal sized, the halls are 30 feet wide and 50 feet tall. The chambers are lit by more of the glowing orbs, though the one in the green circle chamber flickers now and then.

Tunnel Terrors

After waiting for the rest of the party to join them, Group One (Arlynn, Flint, and Kyra) decides to start exploring the dungeon, leaving a chalk trail for the others to follow. Group Two (Remmy, Ashla, Egan, Irabeth, and Laori), picks up the trail of five humans and starts following them. Remmy discovers that her medallion will occasionally send out pulses of green light giving her a rough sense of the layout and contents of surrounding rooms.

Using that, she spies a body lying in a side room not too far away.

Group Two cautiously approaches the chamber. As they walk, a chill runs down their spine. Egan and Irabeth can sense an evil clinging to the vault, saturating the very air. It is cool down there, cooler than it should be, and the air is dry but not stale.

As they approach the chamber, they start to pick up the faint coppery smell of blood. Inside they find the body of an unfamiliar human man dressed in black and red leather armor. He has suffered multiple bite wounds and appears almost completely drained of blood. Remmy breaks a piece of wood off of the seemingly useless door to stake through his heart when the amulet alerts her that a group of strange creatures are approaching.

The creatures turn out to be a group of constructs. Two automatons bearing heavy shields clatter across the enormous hallways while a pack of dog-sized constructs skitter around them. The creatures appear to be heading straight for the chamber with the body.

Remmy ambushes them as they try to enter, killing one of the small ones. Group Two proceeds to cut through the rest of them, but one of the shield constructs manages to sound off an alarm klaxon. The amulet gives Remmy only the barest glimpse of an enormous snake-like creature heading towards the noise. Group Two flees, trying to lose the creature in the vaults.

They scramble through the passages, past a chamber with glowing mushroom, across a dark chasm in the floor and finally through a narrow passage ringed by sculpted figures that grope at them as they slink past. The way is too narrow for the creature, which stops short before slithering off while cursing in a sibilant language. All that the adventurers can glimpse of it are its coppery scales.

They Hunger

Group One, meanwhile, continues to march through the vault. They notice the decor melds the disturbing with the erotic. Visages of the same darkly beautiful woman keep turning up in the murals, archways, and bas reliefs.0

They find several side chambers, all of which are as empty as the cyclopean halls outside. As they continue winding their way through the vault, the hall suddenly opens out onto a large, high-vaulted chamber. At its center, a ring of tall wooden spikes juts into the air, impaling eight human shapes through the heart. Entwined around the base of the shaft is half of an enormous snake skin.

Recognizing the figures as similar to the vampire attackers on Amprei’s ship, Arlynn and Flint decide to put them down for good. flint and Kyra shimmy up the spikes to sever the corpses’ heads and toss them down to Arlynn, who anoints them with holy water.

Before they are more than halfway done, however, a pack of truly monstrous vampire creatures lope out of the darkness, swiftly surrounding and striking the paladin with their life-leeching claws. They drain substantial energy from Arlynn, but Group One quickly fights back. Flint puts arrows into several of the creatures, while Arlynn wards them off with her holy symbol and then attacks an injured one. Working together, Group One defeats the savage vampires.

Arlynn and Flint debate tracking the creatures’ gaseous forms back to their lairs and ending them once and for all. However, they decide to finish dispensing with the impaled vampires and then return to searching for their companions.

A Shadow from the Past

The paladin insists on interrogating one of the vampires first. After cutting off the monster’s arms first, Flint removes it from the spike. The vampire attempts to speak with them, but it shares no languages in common by Arlynn, Flint, or Kyra. Finally, the vampire dominates Flint’s mind to use him as an unwilling translator.

The vampire reveals himself to be one of the lords of Thassilon. He claims that the return of the Runelord Sorshen is inevitable now that mortals have breached the seals and walk in her hunting grounds. He tells Arlynn that the eye of Sorshen would most likely be taken to the gallery, where there is a door “if you can find it.”

Of course, first one would have to avoid the notice of the Matron of the hunting grounds, who slays all who look upon her. She plays games with the vampires in the hunting grounds, which was how their captive ended up impaled on the spike in the first place.

Arlynn then uses her holy symbol to break the creature’s hold on Gareth. When the paladin raises her blade to strike creature, the vampire eggs her on and loses his head with a smile on his lips.

The evening of 14 Erastus, 4708

The Crimson Blades are startled and confused by Nox’s sudden seizure of the crown and departure. but before they can try to follow him, they must first figure out what to do about Ileosa.

After a moment’s shock and confusion, the Queen calls off her remaining minions and surrenders, insisting that she is free of the Crown’s influence. She begs for mercy, claiming to have been the victim of an evil curse. Once it is clear that her life is not in immediate danger, she asks after Sabina. Ileosa is relieved that her handmaiden lives, but also horrified at what she must think of her.

The adventurers question her about the important information she claims to have. Ileosa denies responsibility for the atrocities she committed under the crown’s influence, blaming it on the fragment of Kazavon’s soul. And she reveals that she was not the scariest thing lurking in Korvosa.

While enthralled to the crown, she made a pact with an exiled infernal duke, Lorthact, who has been hiding in the city for centuries. She doesn’t know where he is hiding, but she learned of him via the wizard Togomor, so he might have links to the Acadamae. She begs the party to confront Lorthact, because he has the other copy of the infernal contract she signed.

As she continues to plead for mercy, Ileosa notes that she can end the fighting in the city by commanding her Gray Maiden loyalists to stand down. This is of great concern to Flint, since his sister Valeria was one of the loyalists. Flint says that he would support sparing Ileosa, but only if his sister is still alive.

He uses one of his Harrow Deck of Many Things abilities to scry his sister, who is holed up with some other Maidens. She senses his presence and moves into a corner to deny him information on their whereabouts. However, Flint is satisfied that she is unharmed.

The adventurers agree not to harm Ileosa, but will take her back to stand trial. Their first priority, however, is finding Nox and the cursed Crown of Fangs. Egan takes an hour to cast a scrying spell to track the fighter down.

They find him in the richly furnished cabin of a ship, where he is speaking with Amprei. The Chelaxian ambassador is explaining that by working together, they can save Korvosa from an even greater threat and ensure that Nox is acclaimed king. Amprei then senses the scrying and teleports away with Nox.

Using sending and animal messenger spells, the Crimson Blades alert their friends and followers in Korvosa to the developments. Then Zandu teleports the party back to Korvosa—but something goes wrong.

When the party reappears in Castle Korvosa, Zandu is not with them. In his place is a pile of flopping fish, which splatter onto the ground. In a croaking whisper, the fish say “Zandu sleeps with us now.”

The adventurers suspect that the Marid genie that Zandu had spurned has kidnapped him during the teleport, but even Kyra agrees that any rescue will have to wait.

The party hands Ileosa over to Cressida and bring the Field Marshal up to speed on what has transpired. Sabina is also present and has a tense reunion with Ileosa, who tries to apologize only to have her lover walk away.

The word goes out, however, that Queen Ileosa has returned and has commanded her followers to lay down arms. The fighting comes to a halt and the Gray Maiden loyalists turn themselves in, with Sabina overseeing their custody. Remmy, meanwhile, rejoins the party to help them search for Nox.

Flint and Valeria have a rather stiff reunion, having spent the past few weeks on opposite sides of a civil war. Nonetheless, the siblings are glad to have one another, since the rest of their family is lost.

While arrangements were made with Ileosa at the castle, Irabeth, Laori, and Kyra investigated the Chelaxian embassy and returned looking rather worse for wear. Irabeth opens her mouth to deliver the report when Laori excitedly jumps in front of her.

“Vampires!” the elf maiden squees.

Irabeth goes on to explain that it looked like the embassy was overrun, but there was no sign of Nox or Amprei.

Exhausted and not eager to face a nocturnal enemy, the party calls it a night and prepares to go after Amprei the following day.

The morning of 15 Erastus, 4708

Egan, with help from the druids and his animal friends, is able to swiftly locate Amprei’s ship off the coast north of the city. In roc form, the druid flies them out there, where they find the Burnt Saffron floating adrift seemingly without crew.

Investigating the vessel, they soon learn what had happened when below decks they are ambushed by a small army of vampires. Arlynn and Egan use their divine powers to burn many of them, but the fight is interrupted by a loud crash that rocks the entire boat.

The Crimson Wave, the ship the party seized from Bekyar slavers and left in the hands of goblins, has returned, as the goblins clumsily smashed it into the Burn Saffron. The party’s attention is divided between defeating the vampires and saving he ship from sinking before they can search it for clues. However, they manage to achieve both objectives.