The Dead Warrens

As word began to spread that King Eodred's assassin had been captured, Korvosa again returned to some semblance of normalcy, and the party began to think about moving on with their lives. But a week later, there was another knock on Zellara’s door, and once again it was a Korvosan Guardsman summoning them to a meeting with Field Marshall Kroft.

As they entered the Citadel, the guards in the courtyard seemed unusually agitated and nervous. “What’s up?” Tomas quietly asked a veteran he recognized as they passed.

“One of those Shoanti kids went and got hisself killed,” he replied in an exasperated tone, “and now the rest of them are all worked up. If it’s not one riot about to erupt, it’s another!”

When they entered Kroft’s office, she was not alone. Standing by her desk was a tall, regal-looking Shoanti man of perhaps sixty winters. He wore traditional hide robes, and carried a tall staff, topped with the skull of some giant bird of prey. “This is Thousand Bones,” she introduced him. “He’s an elder of the Skoan-Quah, the Clan of the Skull, and has been serving as his people’s ambassador to Korvosa, negotiating for better treatment and rights for the Shoanti in our city.

“Since the incident at the Green Market, tensions with the Shoanti have been very high. We tried to let people know that the troublemakers there were not real Shoanti, but rumors are hard to stop. Yesterday, a group of would-be vigilantes caught a Shoanti youth by himself and beat him to death. That young man was Thousand Bones’ grandson, a boy named Gaekhen.”

The old man began speak. His voice was deep, his words carefully chosen, but delivered with barely restrained anger. “My people have worked hard to understand those who dwell in Korvosa, yet it seems each day we see new examples of how this city’s people work just as hard to foster old hatreds. My grandson is dead, beaten to death by cowards in your city street. I do not blame you, yet still Gaekhen is dead, and my son and his kin are not so forgiving as I. They wish to return to the Skoan-Quah in the Cinderlands, to join with the Sklar-Quah and rally to war against Korvosa. This would be disastrous, for both our peoples. Amends must be made.

“Our ways are not as yours. If a body does not go whole to the fires of the ancestors, the smoke of a warrior’s spirit cannot rise to the Great Sky. If I could send Gaekhen’s body to the Great Sky with honor and dignity, his father and brothers would listen to me and stay their wrath—the talks of peace between my people and yours could continue. But he was not just murdered. His body was taken from the scene of his death, sold by a peddler of corpses to a necromancer known as Rolth, a criminal to both our peoples. I have spoken with the spirits, and they have revealed to me that Gaekhen’s body has been taken to a place below this city’s graveyard, a place the spirits call the Dead Warrens.

“With this knowledge, I could surely lead a group of my finest warriors into your graveyard to retrieve Gaekhen’s body, but this would be seen as an act of aggression by your people. No, it falls to you to make amends for what has been done. You must bring me Gaekhen’s body, lest we be forced to recover him ourselves. And although it pains my heart to say it, we will not be gentle if it comes to this.” With that, he nodded curtly to Cressida Kroft and left the room.

The group sat in silence for a time after Thousand Bones left, Kroft rubbing her forehead. “I don’t need to tell you how bad this is,” she said without looking up. “Race riots against the Shoanti would be a crime worse than this murder, and war with the Shoanti …” Her voice trailed off, and everyone recalled the worst horror stories they had heard of the wars with the Shoanti that had led to Korvosa’s founding.

“Where are these Dead Warrens?”, Tomas asked at last.

Kroft looked up. “We have the man who sold Gaekhen’s body to Rolth in custody: a simpleton named Elkaris. He spilled everything when we told him what was going on and how much trouble he was in. In any event, Elkaris says he delivered the body via wheelbarrow to a partially collapsed mausoleum deep in Potter’s Ward, near the southern edge. A toppled and headless statue of a sword-wielding gargoyle lay in the dirt near the mausoleum’s entrance—he was told to leave the body behind the gargoyle. This location matches where Thousand Bones believes the Shoanti burial grounds called the Dead Warrens are located, so that’s the best place to start the search. Oh, and if what Elkaris told us is true, I doubt if Gaekhen’s is the only body you’ll find. You shouldn’t have any difficulty telling which body is his, though. Thousand Bones said he has a distinctive scar from a firepelt on his left cheek, and Shoanti tribal tattoos on his arms and torso.”

Wren added some more background. “Korvosa’s graveyards, in the Gray District, are riddled with underground chambers, some of them burrowed by ghouls or other creatures, but others remnants of ancient Shoanti burial grounds. Some of these warrens are patrolled and kept clear of monsters by the church of Pharasma, but the Gray District is a large place and the tunnels below are vast and tangled. We focus on containing the problems with undead and wanna-be necromancers, but as soon as we wipe out one, it seems as if two are ready to spring up in its place. The problem’s particularly bad in Potter’s Ward, where the bodies of the poor and homeless are buried.”

“What do you know about this Rolth fellow?” Nat asked hesitantly.

Kroft sighed. “Rolth has been a thorn in my side since I took this job. He was expelled from the Acadamae many years ago – before my time. He was butchering stray animals, and rumor said, vagrants. The Acadamae didn’t press any charges – just quietly kicked him out and made him the city’s problem. Personally, I suspect he’s responsible for a number of mutilation killings over the last decade, but I’ve never been able to find any evidence. If you find anything in the Dead Warrens to support his arrest, I’d appreciate it. And if he’s there, and threatens you – well, I wouldn’t mourn his passing.