Neolandus’ Tale

On the journey across the Jeggare River, Neolandus Kaleopolis began to pump the party for information on what had been happening in Korvosa over the last few months – he’d been in hiding or captivity during the entire time of the riots and plague, and had only the most general sense of what’s been going on. Their description of everything that had happened since the King’s death continued after they’d made landfall. When they described Ileosa’s actions during Marcus Endrin’s failed assassination attempt, he became extremely agitated.

“It’s even worse than I feared! That fool harlot has brought our doom with her greed, and likely her own as well.”

The group exchanged looks; they’d hoped the Seneschal could shed some light on the Queen’s actions, and it sounded like he could. Neolandus continued grimly. “As Castle Seneschal, I made it my business to know everything going on in the castle – including the Queen’s movements. I knew that she liked to visit the treasury, deep beneath the castle. Few people in the castle even knew those levels existed, but King Eodred must have told his ‘loving bride’ all his secrets, and all that wealth drew her like a lodestone. I’d do a quick inventory after her visits, and often find some priceless necklace or diadem missing – only to later see the Queen wearing it at some ball or state dinner. I kept silent – after all, she was the Queen, and legally those things were her husband’s to give her if he wished. It confirmed my low opinion of her, but I didn’t wish to agitate the King, given how enamored he was of his young wife.

“However, there was one room that I thought surely the King would never tell her about. It was a secret room, off the main treasury; its door was well concealed and only the King held the key. One of the duties of the Seneschal was to ensure that that key was passed down from each ruler to his or her heir, along with instructions that never, under any circumstances, was that door to be opened. The traditions of the Seneschals held that those levels deep beneath the castle dated back to long before Korvosa existed, back to when the Shoanti lived around a giant mastaba in the wilderness. The legend is that when the first white men drove off the Shoanti, and began to explore their holy pyramid, searching for treasure, they instead found some evil sealed inside, and, like the Shoanti before them, decided it was best kept locked away. The secret of what was held behind that door was lost over the centuries – the most detail I ever heard were vague rumors of some relic called “Midnight’s Teeth”. As far as I know, King Eodred never set foot inside.

“But Queen Ileosa knew no bounds to her greed. She must have spotted the secret door while rummaging through the treasury, and either persuaded the King to give her the key or, more likely, stole it from him. After one of her forays into the vaults, I found the secret door standing open. Nothing was inside save an empty obsidian coffer.

“I was at a loss. I didn’t want to go to the King and accuse his beloved wife of stealing, and besides, one could argue that as Queen, whatever was there was legally hers anyway. I decided to quietly and privately confront the Queen. I took her aside and told her I knew she’d been in the secret vault. I told her the legends, and warned her that whatever was there was likely very dangerous. I asked her to give me whatever she had found, so I could return it for safekeeping, and she had my word of honor it would remain our secret.

“And do you know what the little bitch did? She batted her eyes and told me she had no idea what I was talking about. She admitted visiting the treasury to look for ‘baubles’ to wear to parties, but said she’d never noticed any secret door. Someone else must have opened it, she said. Maybe the King himself, if he was the only one with a key.

“And do you know what? I believed her! No way such an innocent young thing could have done something like that, I thought. I even apologized to her! It wasn’t until the middle of the next day that I started having doubts again. I realized she must have put me under some spell, and I suddenly began to revise my view of just what our new Queen might be. I resolved that I must speak to the King directly, no matter how distasteful the conversation might be.

“But that very day, the king fell ill. King Eodred had been feeble for years, but he suddenly succumbed to some unknown disease. It looked like a particularly virulent form of leprosy, but it resisted all attempts by the city’s best clerics to heal it. The King was too weak to get out of bed, and the pain and the rapid decay of his lips and tongue left him unable to speak. The King’s Council kept all this secret from the people, not wanting to stain the King’s legacy by making his awful affliction public, and hoping that some cure might still be found. No one else suspected anything other than disease – and the fabled ‘Curse of the Crimson Throne’. But from the beginning, I suspected the Queen. And when the King’s brother disappeared, I was certain.”

Vencarlo had been listening to Neolandus’ tale as intently as everyone else, but now his mouth dropped open. “Wait a minute! The King’s brother?!? King Eodred had a brother?” Neolandus nodded, and Vencarlo ran both hands through his hair in amazement. “I mean, I’d heard rumors that the King had a secret brother hidden away, some poor deformed or half-witted soul, but I never believed them!”

Neolandus nodded. “The King’s older brother was deformed, it’s true, but he was certainly not half-witted. Venster Arabasti was a tiefling.”  He paused to let that news sink in. King Eodred’s mother, Queen Domina, had been beloved by her people, and her rule was looked back on as the golden age of Korvosa. But apparently she had consorted with devils, and if what the Seneschal was telling you was true, the hell-spawned child of that union should have been the rightful King of Korvosa.

Neolandus continued. “The babe was born a dwarf and a hunchback, but his horns marked him as a tiefling from birth. The Queen’s advisors urged her to drown the thing, but she refused, although she kept him confined to the West Tower his entire life. But Eodred loved his older brother, and played cards with him as often as he could. For his part, Venster seemed fond of the King, though naturally jealous. But he was harmless, and in no position to be a threat to the King.

“But within days of the King’s illness, Venster disappeared. I immediately suspected the Queen – with Eodred dying, she wouldn’t want any inconvenient questions of succession to crop up. I knew I had to proceed carefully, and began to quietly bring some of my most trusted guards into my confidence, to be ready to move against the Queen when the time came. Under Korvosan law, only the Seneschal can legally depose a corrupt monarch, and I wanted to be ready if anything happened to the King.

“But she was two steps ahead of me. As soon as I got word of King Eodred’s death, I went to gather my men, to head for the Queen’s chambers and arrest her. But when I got to the guardroom, I found them all dead, slaughtered by Red Mantis assassins! The bastards attacked me, too, and it was all I could do to fight my way out of the castle. By then I was badly wounded, and poisoned by their blades, and riots were already erupting all over the city (I’m convinced that bitch had agents instigating those riots, so everyone would be too busy to ask any questions about how she became Queen!). I managed to cross over into Old Korvosa, and went into hiding.”

“How did you end up with Salvatore Scream?” Vencarlo asked.

Neolandus bristled. “Salvatore and I were friends, that’s all.” Then his shoulders drooped, as if exhausted from carrying a weight too long. “I’d met him at a showing of his work. I found his art … distasteful, at best, but I found the artist delightful. There’s something about an artist’s approach to life that’s just so, I don’t know, different from mine. I’m a very rigid man, and live a very structured life, but Salvatore was just so free. He was so bright – we could talk about music, or religion, or history. We became good friends. Close friends. When I escaped into Old Korvosa, near death, I knew if I was going to die I wanted to be with him.

“He nursed me back to health, but staying with him was too dangerous. I knew the Red Mantis would be searching for me, and it would only be a matter of time before I put Salvatore in danger. Salvatore insisted the Arkonas could protect me – they were patrons of his, and he trusted them. I wasn’t so naïve as Salvatore, but thought that they and I might have some common ground – what was happening in Korvosa couldn’t be good for their enterprises, and they might be able to help me find a way to strike back at the Queen. Glorio Arkona welcomed me graciously, and said that he and his sister would be happy to provide me sanctuary. As soon as Salvatore was gone, they took me down into their dungeons, and I’ve been their prisoner ever since. Glorio gave strict orders that I was not to be harmed, but Vimanda seemed to view that as a challenge rather than a command, and she and that thing began devising ways to torture me without actually damaging my flesh.” He shuddered, and tears began to leak from his eyes.

Vencarlo saw his pain, and quickly changed the subject. “So what do we do now?”

Neolandus gathered his composure, and looked at the party grimly. “I’m no coward, but I’m a dead man if I stay in Korvosa. I dare not show my face until we’re prepared to move against the Queen. And from what you’ve told me, I’d be surprised if you’re all not marked for death as well, at least by the Red Mantis if not by the Queen herself.”

Vencarlo nodded. “I’ve got friends in Harse who can hide you until the time’s right, and I have means to prevent her finding you through divination.” Vencarlo looked at Nat, and the young wizard handed over the Amulet of Nondection they’d found at Vencarlo’s without being asked. “In the meantime, we can start to gather allies, and make a plan to take down the Queen.”

Neolandus stopped him. “No! You’re making the same foolish mistake I did! I underestimated her power – I had no idea what I was going up against, and it got all my men killed. Until we know what we’re dealing with, we can’t make a realistic plan to defeat her. Whatever she found has given her power – terrible power, if what you say is true. Marcus’ shot should have killed her instantly, but it didn’t even slow her down. No, we have to learn more first.

“I told you know one knows what was in that hidden vault, but that may not be entirely true. No white man knows, but that place was sacred to the Shoanti for centuries before the Chelish drove them off. They fought for generations to win it back, and they’re still negotiating to have a place in Korvosa. The Shoanti ambassador, a man named Thousand Bones, may know something useful. Gods know whether he survived the riots, or the plague, or if he’s even still in Korvosa, but I think you need to find him and talk to him. But keep your heads down! There’s a price on your heads, and you need to be very, very careful who you trust.”

Nat had listened to Neolandus' story as intently as anyone. Now he asked a question: "You say that the thing the Queen took was called 'Midnight's Teeth'?"

Neolandus nodded. "That's what I was told by my predecessor. But I have no idea what that means or might be."

Nat turned to his friends. "Do you remember the last time we saw the Queen? She was wearing a new crown - one that looked like it was built around giant fangs of some sort. And poor Horatio Plumbottom - he was goldsmith to the Queen, and got brutally murdered. I think he may have made her new crown, and learned too much in the process!" The group thought about the murdered halfling and his wife, and added one more item to their list of things Ileosa must pay for.

As Vencarlo and Neolandus began to plan their escape route to Harse, the party conferred about their next steps. “Thousand Bones – wasn’t he the old Shoanti whose grandson’s body we recovered?” asked Jax, and the others nodded. “Good – he owes us one then. But how do we find him?”

“Cressida Kroft introduced us,” Wren reminded him. “Maybe she knows how to get in touch with him.”

They knew they needed to report in to Kroft anyway, so they could add this to their message. The only question now was where to hide out. They needed a longer discussion with Kroft than a single Sending spell would allow. The options quickly narrowed down to one – Lamm’s hideout at the Old Fishery. Nat had recently mastered the art of Teleportation, and was anxious to show it off to his friends. Wishing Vencarlo and Neolandus well, they joined hands, and Nat cast the spell.

In an instant, they found themselves in the main room of the Fishery, heads spinning. Wren quickly checked the building, and satisfied herself that no one had come or gone since they were last there, just a few days ago. Erin conferred with the others on the precise wording of her message, then activated the Wristband of Sending that Kroft had given her: “We’re safe. Our two friends are safe and in hiding. We need to locate Thousand Bones. We are at the place we last met.”

They sat in silence for several minutes, not sure what to expect. Then Erin heard Kroft’s voice speaking softly in her ear. “Meet me at the Dead Warrens at 10 PM tomorrow night and we can discuss next steps.”

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This concludes Book 3, Escape from Old Korvosa. The PCs earned 5,867 XP, putting them at 82,310, with 105,000 needed for level 11.