The Curse of the Crimson Throne
Part 11: Plots and Plagues
We arrived at Carowyn Manor, hoping to find someone who could tell us what had happened to the Varisian musician. A masked ball seemed to have been held a few days ago. It also seemed that every single person at the ball had died of Blood Veil. Bodies were dotted in the rooms, still wearing their masks and fancy costumes. We then discovered that not all of them were dead. Several of them had been raised as zombies, and were still going through the motions of being at the ball. They had been animated by a crazed elven woman named Jollistinia. When we encountered her, she tried to flee, but we soon caught her and interrogated her. She had been sent to the house to murder everyone in it, by a man named Rolth. Rolth? That name was familiar. Where had we heard it before? The Dead Warrens! He was the necromancer who had bought the body of Thousand Bones' grandson. We were told that the Varisian had been taken away by Rolth and the Grey Maidens to an unknown location. At least we knew he was alive.
While deciding where to look for Ruan and Rolth, we met a young woman who desperately wanted to see us. Nervously she told us a big secret - she was a wererat. Stories were told of wererats living in the sewers, but few people believed them. The woman told us that once the plague began to spread, several workers at the docks decided to go on a wererat hunt, for they believed it was they that were spreading the Blood Veil. The dockworkers, however, encountered a wererat who was not afraid of the humans. One by the name of Girrigz. Girigz was gathering a small army of like-minded wererats and were going to invade the city and take revenge. The young woman pleaded with us to find Girrigz and persuade him that what he was doing was wrong.
So, much to our disgust, we headed down into the Korvosan sewers. We found Girrigz and his followers holed up in a small cave system. He was not happy to see us. However, our paladin has a way with words, and managed to talk some sense into the wererat. He even managed to set up a meeting between Girrigz and Field Marshall Kroft so that the wererats could become a useful asset to the City Guard.
When this was completed, the young woman told us that some of her brethren had watched the ship sink in the river a few weeks ago. Soon after the ship had sunk, they found boxes full of silver coins floating in the river, but sensed that the coins were tainted somehow and pushed them back into the river. It was time for us to brave the cold waters of the Jeggare river and examine the wreck of the sunken ship for ourselves.
Using potions of water breathing acquired for us by the wererats, we swam out to the wreck. The ship was called The Direption. On board we found many boxes floating in the hold. Each box contained silver coins, each tainted with Blood Veil. We also found documents in the captain's quarters detailing that the ship belonged to none other than Doctor Davaulus - the new Royal Physician!
With all of our evidence, we met with the Field Marshall. She was aghast at what we had discovered - Queen Ileosa had hired Doctor Davaulus to spread Blood Veil across Korvosa to kill the entire population! Why did the Queen want to kill all of her subjects? The Field Marshall wanted answers. She told us that Doctor Davaulus and the Queen's Physicians had taken over a nearby warehouse and had converted it into a hospice for Blood Veil victims. We were to pay the doctor a visit and bring him in for questioning.
However, before we set off to confront the doctor, Queen Ileosa ordered the island of Old Korvosa to be quarantined. All of the bridges that linked Old Korvosa to the rest of the city were destroyed, except for one. This bridge was heavily guarded by the Grey Maidens. No-one was allowed to enter the island, and no-one was allowed to leave.
At the hospice we met no resistance to our intrusion (once again, thanks to Reg's excellent diplomacy skills), and we confronted Doctor Davaulus with the evidence. Under our interrogation, the man cracked. He told us that the Blood Veil had been created by followers of Urgathoa, Goddess of Disease and Undeath, and that a temple to the infernal goddess had been built beneath this very warehouse!
So, with the doctor handed over to the City Guard, we made our way down into the hidden temple of Urgathoa...
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