Gray-haired Esuper brings the scroll wheel. Esuper is in no wise a poor man, nor is he poorly compensated, but these scrolls are worth more money than he made in the past twenty years or will in the next. And with them in his sweaty fingers he is intensely aware of that fact.

He hands the Archbishop a 1,650 gp scroll of mage’s decree.

You might think Archbanker Darb Tuttle would be asleep at this hour. He’s not. You might think even with a Ring of Sustenance that he’d be at his home – instead he’s speaking with Vassus on the steps to the Bank of Abadar.

You might think that at 12:07 in the morning, he’d have already cast spells since preparing them last dawn. He hasn’t, excepting of some buffs. You might think that if he hasn’t cast spells, he probably hasn’t loaded spells into most of his spell slots. (Even if against shadows he’d mostly be using cure wounds spells, you still have to prepare a spell before you can spontaneously convert it into positive energy.)

But instead he’s prepared combat spells in all of his slots, and is standing by with four of Korvosa’s higher level characters (two fighters, a wizard, and a rogue), who are also pre-buffed and ready to be teleported into danger.

In another stroke of luck, the Temple of Abadar was robbed last night. The reprobate, for all their criminal prowess, failed a save against Tuttle’s greater scrying. The banker waited until he could prepare new seventh-circle spells, and then waited for nightfall, and then waited a bit longer to find out why so many signal horns are sounding

Someone bring this man a 10,000 gp scroll wheel.

Round 79 (12:07:54)

To non-undead within 11 miles:

"Wraith-like plague shadows spread with orders to kill all in Korvosa. Only magic harms them. Shelter at the Longacre Building or Grand Cathedral."[1]

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1. This took 6.3 seconds to say: https://www.timeanddate.com/stopwatch/ ↩

Round 80 (12:08:00)

Undeath ward.

Round 81 (12:08:06)

Wind walk.

Round 81 (12:08:06)

Teleport.

The scroll of undeath ward cost 1,125 gp, the windwalk 1,650. The church of Asmodeus is moving out.

If Beri Ellen is Lawful Evil, she’s welcome to take shelter in that part of the temple under the effect of forbiddance.

(For whatever good half of 6d6 damage is worth against shadows with 19 HP.)

If not, she should find somewhere safer to be.

The temple of Asmodeus is in fact the only forbiddanced place in Korvosa - even King Eodred's bedroom needs to be accessible to three corners of the alignment chart. But the Longacre Building and Grand Cathedral of Pharasma are both protected by hallow with death ward, renewed each year for 8,000 gp.

Ignoring the Pathfinder rule that you can't end your turn while sharing your five-foot square, there's standing room in the effect of a hallow for 526 people. Better hurry.

Round 81 (12:08:06)

Finally she's in the loop.

Ground-bound Guards have been running or riding hard since the signal horns began to play, Cressida Kroft among them, but it has literally been less than two minutes. None outside Verik Vancaskerkin's unit and the Midland patrol had been able to learn what's the commotion.

The Field Marshall takes six seconds to think.

They are under attack.

She's never heard of shadows attacking a major city; there's a necromancer behind this.

Urgathoan? No, Shoanti.

Eodred, you utter fool.

The shadows are supported by Shoanti fighters and spellcasters.

By the lights and sounds in the sky, the Sable Company left their tower and immediately engaged or were engaged by the enemy.

Which means shadows are widespread in the city.

She heard horns from Midland, before they ominously stopped. There's a marine in the sky there with an everburning torch.

If Cressida Kroft attacked Korvosa with undead shadows, she'd start the attack in Midland; centrally located, no temples, no military buildings.

But no one in between has called a warning. Maybe shadows aren't that widespread.

Here's a theory: someone from Midland was eaten by a shadow, rose as spawn, was ordered to murder Korvosans. They flew off to Bridgefront out of personal animus.

Or the attack began with two shadows, in two places, to be more sure it would succeed. Old Korvosa is the second-softest target.

Most in the Korvosan Guard don't have magic weapons. They need to fall back.

Even with magic weapons, she knows of less than a half-dozen clerics in Korvosa who can cast death ward and protect against a shadow's touch.

Cressida Kroft is a 9th level fighter (and first level Aristocrat). She has 14 STR, the same she had as a level 1 cadet.

The Hellknights carry magic weapons, but there are less than twenty[1] in Korvosa tonight.

Citadel Vraid is too far away to have heard the mage's decree. She'll send a rider. The Hellknights can't get here in time to matter but she might as well send a rider.

Someone who can use 4th-circle divine scrolls should send to the Grand Lodge in Absalom, hire adventurers. That'll take 11 minutes and more.

Can she teleport instead. Who can cast the spell... Darb Tuttle, Zenobia Zenderhelm, Academae professors and some students.

Tuttle won't be home after that mage's decree. None of them will. Sending, then.

Anything else that could help...

Her friend Vencarlo has 9 strength, a magic sword, and lives in Old Korvosa. It'd be like him to have run in by now and died.

Damn it.

Maybe the Shoanti will kill King Eodred. She'll try and stop them, of course, but, it could happen.

And his wife would take the throne and she's teenage diabolist in thrall to foreign powers.

Probably that's worse.

Maybe it's worse.

Well, realistically, how bad a Queen could Ileosa be[2]?

-

1. https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ijuo?Korvosan-Hellknights ↩

2. Quite[3]. ↩

3. For existing scholarship on this much studied subject, see Curse of the Crimson Throne volumes I through VI. ↩

Round 75 (12:07:30)

A DC 15 knowledge (local) check will identify the respected Vencarlo Orisini, of House Orisini, master of Orisini Academy, as one of Korvosa's more dangerous fighters.

Fewer know him as Blackjack, vigilante hero of the common people.

From behind his mask Blackjack has protected Korvosa for over 200 years, sometimes vanishing for decades but always appearing in the city's hour of greatest need. Some suspect him of belonging to a long-lived race, of being an elf or an azata. Most believe Blackjack to be a procession of men, each generation training their successor. This is the case. When Vencarlo of House Orisini took up the sword of Raneiro his predecessor, he wedded Blackjack's scrappy streetwisdom to words which echo in the halls of power.

Now that he's old, and starting to slow down, Vencarlo Orisini is actively looking for a protege, as yet unsuccessfully. Two students had the talent, but he found neither had the heart. If Vencarlo dies tonight that's the end of Blackjack's story.

Ever the type to leap into danger to defend the lives of others, the swashbuckling vigilante (well, actually a Fighter 5 / Rogue 2 / Duelist 2) – equipped with magic armor, a dex-boosting belt, and a +2 keen rapier, finds himself in a duel with one (1) shadow.

Shouldn't be hard; he's level 9 and it's CR 3.

Vencarlo gets a surprise round (though he loses initiative). Charging from hiding he almost can't miss.

Since he doesn't have Power Attack, and against a shadow divides his damage by two, Vencarlo won't do a lot of damage.

Pathfinder characters get more feats.[1] I say one of those feats should be Power Attack.

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1. In Pathfinder you choose a feat every other level, where in D&D 3.5 you get a feat every third level. So while the 6th-level Sable Company marines didn't gain feats from their conversion to Pathfinder, Vencarlo does. ↩

You need 13 Strength to qualify for the feat.

Besides, with the penalty to hit I'm not sure Power Attack would even do more damage -

Hrmm. Could you run the numbers both ways so I know what -

As entertaining as doing all that again would be, I'm afraid you don't qualify for the feat.

Round 75 (12:07:30)

For damage he rolls 1d6+1d6+6.[1] That's fifteen damage. Divided by two (and rounded down), it's seven.

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1. It's a +2 rapier, he has Weapon Training 1, but a penalty to Strength, Weapon Specialization adds +2, Precise Strike adds another +2, Sneak Attack adds 1d6. The d6s rolled 4 and 5. ↩

Out of the shadow's 19 hitpoints.

What's Vencarlo's touch AC?