Curse of the Crimson Throne: Part 3 – A Royal Jewel

A lot has happened in the past few days, Bryce has healed up reasonably given his injuries. Kjell and I ventured out into the city after the riots and discovered some oddly strange things and we seem to have a new job.

First things first, we got back to my home on Baker’s Street safely. I used my knowledge of the city guard patrol routes to cross the city in places I knew would be better covered from the rioters. Baker’s Street itself is largely untouched, sometimes it pays to live in the nicer parts of town. Bryce needed time to recover, so we rested for the night. While I was up changing the dressing on shark meats wounds Kjell approached me with some things he found in Lamm’s possession. Both quite surprising.

The first, a set of bloodstained harrow cards, not unlike the ones used by our fortune teller. The second, a marvellous jewelled necklace, not unlike the one the Queen recently lost. Oh, and apparently Lamm also had Zellara’s head. Her. Head. As in decapitated. Dead. Removed. Killed. If you remember from my earlier writings, Zellara was very much alive when we saw her, and she definitely had a head. Clearly we needed to investigate this.

In the morning we left, the streets were a mess but it seems that the guards have managed to restore a little order. I flagged down a post boy and sent a short note to a guard officer I know, we need answers and I was confident he could get them for us. Next, we headed to Zellara’s house, or at least what we left of it. The place was trash. Well it was trash last time we were here but I mean actual trash as in someone trashed it. No one had been here for a while. It was at this point the Harrow deck came to life, producing an image of Zellara. She explained to us that she had been dead for some time, her spirit had hung around for revenge and was apparently stuck here now. There were dark times in Korvosa’s future she said, and we were all tied to it. I will be studying this Harrow Deck further, it seems Zellara is irrevocably linked to it.

We left Zellara’s and met up with my contact from the Guard. Sergeant Borif and I go way back, I secured him a near impossible promotion (he’s a dwarf, dwarves don’t get promotions) back when Jennifer and I caught the Anderson Killer. Boris explained the situation as such: The King is dead, no shock there it’s been a long time coming. The (foreign) Queen has taken the throne, again no surprise the king had no heirs and she would be next in line. And of course that leads us to the rioters who were, unsurprisingly, not happy with the Queen.

Now, the surprise is how the Queen intends on solving this problem. She’s hiring. Adventurers are common in Varisia and she seems to be digging into that pot of ‘swords for hire’ in order to restore order to the city. Not only that, but the necklace we procured is in fact the Queens, and there is quite the bounty on it.

So, where are we now? We got Bryce on his feet and went to see the Queen, took up the offer for work and returned her necklace. What happens next? I have no idea.

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Charlotte Manse

Consulting Detective

Lawson & Manse Investigative Agency

Baker’s Street

Curse of the Crimson Throne: Part 2 – A Random Act of Arson

When I last left you, we were searching a Fishery for Gaedren Lamn. Well I can tell you now that Lamn is dead, but the plans didn’t exactly go how we wanted.

It was clear to me that Lamn was hiding below the fishery, but how to get there eluded myself and the party. We decided to search round the back, there was an old boat that looks to have been left unused for years and I supposed there may have been a way to access the lower floor through it. This was our first mistake.

Kjell, the athletic young lad was able to navigate the slippery boards that led to the ship, but myself and Bryce were not so lucky (I will be penning a letter to the city council asking for a new law enforcing the use of guard rails!). We fell in, it was cold, smelly and it ruined all my gunpowder. Oh and did I mention Korvosa has fresh water sharks?

Kjell found some rope and pulled me out but by the time we got round the ship to find Bryce he was already face down with his intestines emptying into the river while a shark was swimming round to take another bite from him.Kjell leapt into the water and I pulled out my trusting throwing knife (did I mention all my gunpowder got soaked? I’ll be purchasing a powder horn on the morrow…). We managed to frighten the shark away, a knife to the eye will do that, and fish Bryce out of the water. Despite the gaping wound in his side, he looked like he might survive long enough for us to get him patched up.

It was at this point that I took stock of the city around me, on the opposite side of the river a number of fires had begun to pop up and I heard the distinct sound of rioters. Kjell was already searching for Lamn, but I had a different plan. I remembered a rather full cabinet of drinks in the accountants office, and a fire place. The City is burning down anyway, who is going to miss one extra fishery I thought…

Kjell tells me he found Lamn, who managed to get himself eaten by his own pet crocodile. The karma for you really, you spend years torturing an animal so that it’s viscous when it kills you, eventually it’s going to get you itself. The fishery burnt down, the guards are none the wiser and I met back up with the boy and the still breathing Bryce. We’ve returned to my home on Baker’s Street, which appears to be safe from the rioters. In the morning I will venture out and take stock of the city so we can decide what to do next. Even with Lamn dead, I’m sure this won’t be the end of the troubles I will face in Korvosa.

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Charlotte Manse

Consulting Detective

Lawson & Manse Investigative Agency

Baker’s Street