Artimus's Journal Part 3

[Written by Jaime, Artimus's player after Curse of the Crimson Throne Episode 7]

We found Noark. He had been using a hospice building as cover and during the night took people from the streets and took them into a secret lab beneath to building to use as test subjects.

He says that he's been developing a disease that will kill all the low born people of Korvosa, the Varisians at least, and the fact that he has made a disease that specifically does this is facinating!

It was revealed to me that Noark was not the mastermind behind this operation and infact it was someone else pulling the strings. But what I didn't expect was that he was working for the Queen! It is apparent that the Queen is going to use the disease to kill all the low born people of Korvosa and the priestess who seemed to be in charge - Andaisin - told me that this was because they didn't fit the Queen's image of a perfect city.

I find myself at a bit of a crossroads. I was asked to help in the creation of the disease as they were trying to tune it to raise the dead after they had passed and this would be an interesting thing to accomplish but... though the people of this city mean nothing to me I feel I must help them. So I am helping Noark so that I can find out more about the disease and hopefully I will find a cure for it.

Though i have little time. Coins coated in the plague have been placed in a bank and will be circulated soon. If i don't find a cure fast... A large chunk of Korvosa will die.

((The next few pages are filled with more strange symbols and the readers of the journal realise that Artemis has created his own language that he uses to document important information or questions for him to look back on later, a sort of advanced shorthand.))

It's been a few days now and I've found out several things about the disease. It takes a few days to manfest after the infection, and the people that are infected but don't know it yet are contagious. This means that it will spread and no one will know what has happened until alot of people have been infected already.

Varisians make up about 40% of the total population of Korvosa and approximately 50% are Varisian and Chillaxian half breeds. This may become useful for if it only affects the Varisians and not Chillaxians then there may be something that chillaxians have that makes them immune and it may be present in the halfbreeds.

((Theres a small break where he's documenting more things that you suspect has relevence to what was just written before a hastily written paragraph below it, obviously written either under stress or maybe just that Artemis was caught up in the moment))

The Disease isn't perfect! I just found out that the healthier of the populace can withstand the disease and fight it off! Noark projects that 'such specimens are rare at best and about 90% of the people it infects will still die' but this means that there is an antibody the healthier people produce that kills the disease. I doubt I will be able to get close to the specimen that withstood the disease - he may already have been killed because he survived but if I can get a hold of someone strong, infect them and wait for them to fight off the infection then I can use him to find a cure for the disease! This was the breakthrough I was waiting for! I might even be able to produce a vaccine to immunise the people so that they are never infected in the first place...

Noark is coming. May the next passage I write be-

((It cuts off, hastily shut the wet ink of the last few words is smudged against the opposite page and illegible))

Artimus's Journal Part 2

[Written by Jaime, Artimus's player, after Curse of the Crimson Throne Episode 6]

((The journal continues a few pages after the last entries, the pages in between filled with random jotting of pieces of information and questions that did not yet have answers, but all were written in strange symbols unreadable to most and the questions were only known to be questions by their question marks at the end.))

My patience with the guard is wearing thin. One of my recent 'missions' sent me into the dark depths of the Korvosian sewer system where an array of pungant smells made me almost vomit. It is here that I and my collegues suffered defeat at the hands of a flesh golem, a being made from the bodies of the recently dead.

It appears that an old student of the acadamae, Noark, who was expelled for a reason unknown to me is behidn the creation of this flesh golem and the thievery of the bodies used to create it from the pauper's crypt.

I ventured to the acadamae and asked an old teacher of mine that i have great respect for but he didn't know anything about Noark's expulsion - only that it was because the acadamae 'doesn't like scandal' which I found strange as usually gifted students of necromancy are supplied test subjects to sue and the reason Noark was expelled seemedto be related to his aquiring of bodies...

But I digress.

I attended the trial of the deserter that we apprehended. The defense lawyers he had appeared to be very good, the kind that he would not be able to afford and it was obvious to me that the Judge was under some form of pressure. I feel that Verminda Arcona, the woman who had given a dagger to the ex-guard as he had told me before he had been turned to stone by the dagger, had a hand in this. This makes me more suspicious, as it seems to me that she wouldn't have bothered saving him from death if he wasn't in some way important or wanted to use him for another purpose... This may have some relevence to what Gigax had told me but I can't make a definate link yet.

Croft came looking for us not long after the trial and sent us to recover a girl who had been accused of killing the king to interrogate. When we went to her house to egt her she attempted to escape over the rooftops but she was no match for my magic and I simply put her to sleep and we soon caught up and restrained her. I thought to myself at the time and I still think now that she was far too weak and helpless to have committed such a crime, and the times when she was at the castle and the time of the king's death had no correlation to each other. I'm waiting to see what happens next but I am preoccupied with finding Noark.


However, something has been bothering me. I once heard that the Headmaster of the acadamae didn't not get to his position through the normal route. Apparently the summoning and binding of the powerful demon was rigged in some way... Gigax told me that a powerful demon was seeking to gather power in Korvosa. if this demon was the same as the one who made the deal with Toff to get him his position, then that is a powerfula nd influential part of Korvosa itself and the acadamae was sealed off shortly after the kings death and ignored the queen's pleas for help which is a little strange...
I hope that the headmaster has not been corrupted or else I have a hard battle ahead of me if I am to use Gigax to find what I want.

Also, while my tiefling friend was trying to find out information about Noark he discovered two interesting things. One, that there have been dissappearences in old Korvosa lately - this may be linked to noark and it is the next lead that I will investigate. And two, after the recent incarceration of the king of spiders (who we had to visit for a mission prior to the flesh golem incident and someone I enjoyed the company of immensely) there has been another who has been trying to muscle onto his turf. I wish to offer my services to the king of spiders, and perhaps help him out of this current predicament as having someone like him owing me a favour may prove useful in the future. But currently I am preoccupied.

Artimus's Journal Part 1

[Written by Jaime, Artimus's player after Curse of the Crimson Throne Episode 5]

It's been a while since I wrote in here so I believe it's time for a recap. The last time I wrote in here I portrayed for you the feeling of anger i had to bear as the book that I had sought for fifty years had been stolen from me by a mere pick pocket! it was then that i turned to the god Ioun and sought guidance. It was then that I heard the divine voice inside my mind.

'Cailin, seek out the ones who bend the arcana to their will and learn what there is to know. This will be the stepping stone you need to achieve your goals'

It wasn't a huge leap to realize that it was in reference to the academy in the city that I had found myself, the foul city of Korvosa where the streets were dingy and ridden with thieves and there were those who openly worshipped Asmodeus.

And so, for ten long years I found myself studying the arcana, something I hadn't done since I was a new born in the feywild and I found myself discovering a power that must've been asleep inside me all of this time. To document what exactly I did within those walls may incure the wrath of a man that would be best to avoid at this time so I shall leave it to your imagination. What I will say, is that when I left I had a sense of power I hadn't felt before, and a new name... Artemis.

((There's a gap of about a quarter of a page as the next paragraphs are started on a fresh page))

It wasn't long after this that i found myself swept up into a crazy turn of events. The house I had purchased witht he money i'd collected in my travels a hundred years prior to arriving in korvosa had been infiltrated while i was visiting the Academy's Library for research and elft there was a strange Tarot card with a message on the back that told me to go somewhere and meet someone. Out of sheer curiousity I found myself in a lower-class area of the city and meeting a rag-tag bunch of misfits. A dragonborn with apparent great honour, a halfling with no honour whatsoever, a quite tiefling that looked extremely familiar, a very strange man who appeared to bear the signs of a worshipper of bahamut (lous and annoying!) and a gypsy who revealed herself as the person behind the message that brought me there.

I had been summoned because this gypsy had heard about the book that was stolen from me and had a lead on who had taken it. It seemed that the great god was right in telling me to train as a wizard for I would not have met this woman if I hadn't. The group was soon off on some sort of quest to take down the man who had taken from me what I held so dear.

We were told that this man, Vildeforts, was holed up in a fishery on the docks and so after scouting it out we raided it, myself and the halfling sneaking around the back and caught the man in a pincer attack. He didn't seem to put up much of a fight and even seemed to beg for death as the halfling impaled him. This was a setback, I had planned to torture the man until he revealed the location of my book but at this point I had no choice but to sever his head for later use in a speak with dead ritual to find what I wanted.

It was after vildeforts had been slain and we left the fishery that we found the city rioting. The king was Dead.

((Again theres a gap, the next paragraphs on a fresh page signalling a time gap in the entries, though the 'dates' are written in symbols illegible to most))

The City has been rioting for a few days now and i find myself in a very strange position. I am still with the misfits that I had been stuck with to kill Vildeforts and we seem to have found ourselves 'volunteering' our services to the Guard of Korvosa on behalf of the queen.

We've already dealt with a deserter captain and his compatriots who had holed themselves up in an old butchers, giving out free meat made from dead people who had done wrong to the city. On the upside the guard is paying for us to stay in an inn.

But the workings of the guard does not interest me. I am using this position to help me learn more about where my book may have been taken after I found the academy sealed off to outsiders. I have had to abandon my plan of speaking with the dead man, a ritual i ahve not yet learnt for myself.

Fortunately the Tiefling in our group has identified himself as an old student of the academy and has even gone as far as to introduce me to the demon that he has a pact with. By making a deal with this demon I have ensured that when Vildeforts's soul arrives on the other side that I can find out what I want to know. However there is a downside, I must discover who has killed the King, for someone important in the city is being influenced by a powerful demon and this minor demon, Gigax, whats to know who. If Demon's are involved in the killing of the king then this city is in dire peril and i msut find out immediately what is happening or the city may be destroyed before I find what I'm after...

All I know right now is this. Something is Rotten in the City of Korvosa.