The Saga of Majenko Part 7: The Return to Korvosa!

It's been a whirlwind adventure so far! We've brought down ganglords, stopped a plague from destroying the city, earned the ire of the queen, been swallowed by a gigantic desert serpent, been made members of the Shoanti, and scaled the walls of an ancient undead castle to retrieve a relic weapon blessed by a goddess... but that, dear friends, is not all! This week we begin drawing toward the close of the Saga of Majenko, as our wayward party regroups for an assault on the corrupt rulership of Korvosa itself!

Also, in case you haven't read the previous installments, here they are in chapter order.

Part One: Finding The Main Character of "Curse of The Crimson Throne"
Part Two: How Much Damage Could One Pseudodragon Do?
Part Three: Scourge of The Red Mantis
Part Four: Blood Pig Champion
Part Five: Brother to The Shoanti
Part Six: The Assault on Castle Scarwall
Part Seven: The Return to Korvosa
Part Eight: Re-Taking Korvosa
Part Nine: The Assault on Castle Korvosa
Part Ten: Down With The Queen

There, all caught up now? Good.

Now then... where was I?

Shuffling The Party

So, pretty much as soon as we finish our raid on Castle Scarwall, our party experiences another grand reorganization. The swashbuckler developed other commitments, and decided to go stay with the Shoanti instead of going back to Korvosa. Our fighter's player moved across the country, so she, too, returned to her people to help them prepare for an upcoming fight, if one was necessary. The ranger decided that, with no more undead to slay, it was time for him to leave. This leaves us with Egil Skinner, the tiefling detective who's split his training between magus and rogue, Validia, his childhood friend who has devoted herself to the worship of Iomedae, and of course the great and powerful Majenko, defender of Korvosa, Scourge of the Red Mantis, and the deadliest pseudodragon in Varisia.

Fortunately, when we hopped the wall into the Gray District we found some familiar faces waiting for us. Kresseda Croft was there, now leading a resistance against the tyrannical rule of the queen. Vencarlo is there, along with the royal seneschal, all of whom are trying to rise up against the queen's forces. There's also an elven arcanist whom Egil knows (because with a knowledge [local] check as big as his, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of anyone who's ever committed a crime in the city), and a dwarven ranger sleeping off a bad shiver binge named Baelen. Back up to full strength, we get the low down on what's happened while we were gone.

The short version is that the queen has been putting the city to work. Citizens have been press-ganged into building statues, the Gray Maidens are out in force, and the city guard has more or less been disbanded. There's talk of a Bloat Mage being recruited from Kaer Maga, and there's rumors of a black dragon circling the city. There's even been reports of a new hero in town, giving the people hope. Clearly things have gone straight to hell since we left.

Just Going For A Walk When Adventure Finds Us

Once we've been given out status update, and our new party members, we're told to get out of the Gray District, as we'll draw attention. So we disguise ourselves as best we can, hide all of our weapons and armor to the best of our ability, and go to find rooms elsewhere. We locate an inn that's down a side street, around an alley, and which conveniently has a room to let upstairs. You know, for people in the resistance.

Nobody will look for us here!

We settle in, and start making plans. We need to get into the castle, and having just spent all that time in Scarwall, Castle Korvosa is going to be a cinch. We prepare spells, load up our gear, and wait till nightfall before skulking out into the street...when we're promptly hit with debilitating magical effects, and surrounded by a dozen thugs.

You know, like you do.

We're scrambling to find our footing, and to figure out what to do, when the city's dashing new hero shows up and runs the brigands off. All he does is look at them, and they cannot be somewhere else fast enough. Then he makes a speech about how our service to the city was great, but there are new heroes ready to keep her safe. This smells like a setup, and we are not pleased.

Besides, he's starting to draw a crowd.

Outsiders... I HATE Outsiders...

Egil smells a rat, and a simple detect magic allows him to see that the "hero" who just "rescued" us is clearly not what he appears to be. Majenko tugs the iron bands of binding off Egil's belt, and Egil casts true strike, allowing it to slide over to his familiar. Majenko hurls the bands, and the supposed savior is cut off mid-smarm.

Not quite, but close enough.

The "hero" who replaced us is revealed to be an efreeti, and he is none too pleased with his current state. Miraculously, though, he failed to escape the bonds. This allowed Egil, who'd upgraded his scimitar to a spell-storing, keen weapon he'd named Queen's Justice, to deal serious damage to the foe with a stored frigid touch, and a secondary frigid touch used as part of his spellstrike, and some sneak attack dice thrown in just to add insult to injury. Majenko used his sneak attack to put an even greater hurt on the bound outsider, who it is pretty clear has been summoned specifically to give the people a false sense of safety. The cleric and the arcanist get in several licks of their own, and within a few, short rounds, the creature has been sent back where it came from.

One challenge down. A half dozen left to go.

What Happened Next?

For the rest of how we re-took Korvosa, stop in for Part 8: Emptying the Crimson Throne!

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