Book 2, Chapter 2: Symptoms of the Plague

As you make your way inside, Kayden heads straight for the door of Davaulus's office and listens intently. He hears nothing on the other side - it seems quiet and still.

Abe finds himself at the center table. He notices one of the burners has soot and ash around it, while burned scraps of paper are all that remain of what once must have been notes regarding the experiments here. Picking up the remains, he pieces together that these physicians appear to actually serve Urgathoa, the goddess of undeath, necromancers, and disease. There is mention of them basing their operations out of a temple that lies beneath your very feat, reminding Abe of the missing lower button on the cargo lift and the feint necromantic energy that still radiated from it.

MAP

Brackit walks along the row of beds and notices quickly something grim and sad. "They're...they're dead. Throats were cut." As he nears the end of the row, he lets out a sigh of relief, "Well, nearly all of them. Still they don't look like they're in great shape."

Kayden have a lot of questions, but he figures talk will have to come later. They should finish the search first, and so he carefully opens the door to the office.

Kayden opens the door into a familiar room.

Blood, bile, and other humors bubble away within oddly formed beakers and twisted tubes in this sizable laboratory. Any wall space left in view between cabinets or over-laden bookshelves is covered by worn parchments depicting magnified aspects of human anatomy in grisly detail—many pierced with pins and flags like the war maps of a veteran campaigner.

In the corner, a desk of elegantly carved white ash bears the image of a herd of antelope, but stains from dark chemicals and gore disfigure the once-beautiful piece.

Dr. Davaulus is nowhere to be seen.

Kayden relaxes a little as no threats can be immediately seen. He turns to the group. "Do you think the Maidens are in on this?" he says pointing at the slit throats.

He turns his attention back to the office, and starts searching it.

Harragh blinks away the glittering stars blinding his vision. He helps Kayden search the room, disgusted by the contents of the room. Experimenting on the human body makes no sense. Faith is the answer, why is this so hard to see?

Abe is immediately drawn to the bookshelves but intuits that the desk will give more clues to the current studies of the doctor.

Brackit shakes his head at the dead bodies laying the bed. "They must to be, right? I mean, they were here - and they most certainly were not very welcoming to us. Yet if that is the case, this city has many more troubles beyond the plague, I fear."

As Harragh scans the room, he spots something on the floor of the doctor's office, wedged between a bookshelf and the wall. He picks it up - a small button with a metal back. The front face of it is etched with a vertical arrow. Brackit and Abe recognize it as matching similar buttons on the cargo lift.

Abe pulls open the desk drawer and finds stacks of notes, many of them written in a sort of long-hand that is difficult to read. Nearby, Kayden spots a set of papers in the mix that appears more clearly-written, as if Davaulus had been preparing it more carefully for other eyes to read. It's incomplete, but details experiments on healthy Varisians, including purposeful attempts to subject them to strains of the Blood Veil plague and the doctor's increasing frustrations about their immunity to the disease. Not all seem to carry this immunity, but he had hoped with time he would find a way to overcome it and ensure their susceptibility.MAP

"A temple of Urgathoa. Who knows what awaits us there?" Kayden says with a sigh. "Should we move fast or try to find some back up first?"

"If you are healthy, my friends, I still have magic at my disposal. These vile experiences have to be shut down, and the temple may tell us much about the forces behind them. I'd prefer to go immediately."

You take the lift down after Tider manages to reconnect the button in a way that makes it function. A short time later, you find yourselves collected a large room under the hospice.

The scuffed stone walls of this chamber have been plastered over and then decorated with lurid murals of skeletons cavorting among the dead of a Korvosa that has completely succumbed to blood veil. Simple wooden doors lead to the north, south, and west, each bearing a painting of a scythe-wielding skeleton. A sizable double door stands on the east wall, appearing in the mural as a massive set of double doors opening into the pyramid foundation of Castle Korvosa. Two more scythe-wielding skeletons decorate these large doors.

Tider moves carefully into the room and inspects the area. "Hey! Looks all clear!" he says rather cheerfully.MAP

Ska'ar and Amana
Iron doors with slotted windows, much like one might find in a prison or asylum, line the walls of the chamber you find yourselves in. Faint bloodstains fleck the straw-strewn flagstones. You are joined by five others, all Varisians as far as you can make out, each in their own cell, just like yourselves.

While it has been typical during the time you've been down here to be left unattended, one of the beak-masked death dealing physicians currently stands guard in the room - something is going on, and a short while ago you heard the sounds of frantic movement from outside the door. The posture of the physician standing outside your holding cells is clear - they're preparing for an attack. The physician starts going to each of your cages, checking the doors to make sure they are secure.

"I'm sure it will come to that eventually," Kayden replies. "But if we can take out a few forward guards before they realize what's happening could be beneficial."

He inspects the floor to see if it's well traveled or if there is a layer of dust on the floor in front of the doors?

Okay she was more out of practice than she had thought. She'd followed the clues, that there was more to this plague than met the eye. Found someone suspicious, tracked them to this place..and then let herself get caught of guard and restrained. If any of the other old guard found out she would never live it down.

They'd taken all her tinctures and potions which didn't help. She'd tried to insist it was emdicine for her older age, which one vial technically was to be fair, but they hadn't listened.

At the sound of fighting and commotion she'd already begun formulating a plan, especially as a guard entered. Interesting. She starts to curl over herself, as if unwell.

Well.it was okd trick but maybe this lot had't heards of it. As the guard starts to come around she groans and collapses, knocking over the bcket as she does, her body curled in front ofit, hand discretly taken hold of the handle. If she was lucky he would investigate, thinking she could do now harm without weapons..

Abe agrees with Kayden. "These evildoers are planning the destruction of all life in Korvosa. We do not owe them the courtesy of knightly challenges. No, if we can kill them all before they know we're here, we'll be doing the gods of justice a favor."

"Just have a look around. Something doesn't smell right," his patron told him after arranging Ska'ar's visit to the supposed refuge. Ska'ar suspected a smuggling or drug ring, not death cultists, and he was taken unawares after he momentarily slipped away from his supposed guide. Then he woke up here without the some tools he usually relied upon. His mind, however, remained sharp, and observing the activities of the guards and talking with the other prisoners would be invaluable upon his escape. So the dark elf waited and watched, and thought the current unrest might be the perfect time to finally make his move.