Lord Ausio Carowyn and his wife Lady Olauren Carowyn were two of Korvosa’s leading socialites. Regardless of the circumstance—contributing thousands of gp to the upcoming season at the Kendall Amphitheater, reserving box seats at the Marbledome, or hosting galas at their South Shore estate—no scene was too garish for the aging nobles to steal.

Zandu and Arlynn once crashed one of their gossipy parties. The second visit to their household was less cheery.

As the plague descended upon Korvosa, the Carowyns hatched a fabulous plan to avoid the gloom and dread: have a fantastic party. Within days, casks of wine filled the cellar of Carowyn Manor, new Quadrian window dressings were hung, and the finest players were on retainer to entertain the nobles’ dozens of guests.

The festivities were interrupted by the arrival of a mad elf dressed as a “harlot-harlequin” and firing blood veil-tainted crossbow bolts into the packed crowd of costumed nobles. Ausio managed to escape the slaughter by fleeing to his semi-hidden studio in the cellar. Cowering behind its stout door while the elf partied above, Lord Carowyn spent the next few days subsisting on a steadily diminishing cask of water and what rats he can catch for dinner.

After the party destroyed the elf’s grotesque zombie masquerade and slew her, the discovered and freed Lord Ausio. Deeply distraught at the news that his wife had been slain and then reanimated as a zombie, he does tell them that Ruan was one of the musicians at the party, which he last saw in the upstairs gallery.