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kiyo-alvara-blog · 8 years ago

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The Journal of Dr. Kiyo Alvara: Entry 4

I take back everything I said about adventuring not being that bad. I take everything back. Every fucking word. This has been one of the worst days of my life, second only to helplessly watching my brother’s death. I saw someone I respected turn bloodthirsty killer, and I nearly allowed myself to as well. I saw cannibals, liars, horrible cruelty. I was nearly killed in my own home by a knife that came to life, and its master was spying on me so my home is likely no longer safe.

Today was supposed to be simple. Give the queen her broach, receive thanks for our service, done. Instead, it was a mess.

Things started as planned. I dressed in my finest clothes and travelled with the group to the castle district. We told the guards why we’d come, and we were permitted to meet the queen. We were introduced to the queen personally by her guard and handmaiden, a strong and lovely woman named Sabina. When we presented the broach to her majesty, she was shocked almost to tears to see it, as she’d believed the broach lost for good. She said she felt this was a good omen, and asked that we do one more service for the city, which we could learn about at a citadel just outside town. I was initially suspicious after everything I’d heard about her in the lower quarter, but in person she seemed very sincere. I wish to do what I can to help my home city, and if that is her desire as well, then rumors be damned.

We traveled to the citadel with a convoy of guards, except for Hayden who said he had some business to attend but that he knew the way and would meet us there. True to his word, he showed up right as we arrived. I’m surprised our paths didn’t cross along the way, honestly.

Inside, we met with one Cressida Croft, who thanked us for our willingness to help. She was eager to have adventurers who would help, as she was once an adventurer herself. She told us that in the wake of the riots in Korvosa, some guards had gone rogue. One in particular, Verik Vancaskerkin, was troubling for the guard. He had spoken out against the queen and had gathered supporters in a slaughter house in North Gate. We were asked to bring him in alive if possible, and to find out any information we could about his motives.

Well we found some shit alright. After doing some recon with a disguise potion to learn more about these “cow hammer boys”, we decided to go in through the back entrance rather than risking an attempt at stealth using my disguises. A choice I what a bit bitter about at the time, but I’m grateful for in hindsight.

We were ambushed by two of the rebels, who deafened Hayden and Garran with a thunderstone. We managed to knock them both unconscious and Orda and Sai tied them up. Then we began searching the connecting rooms.

This is where things became twisted. The room they’d been hiding in was a meat locker. There were a number of animal carcasses, but some of the meat seemed off to me. I almost wish I’d left it at that. But instead I began inspecting some of the carcasses more closely. That’s when I realized that much of the meat wasn’t animal meat. It was human. I nearly got sick right then and there, and excused myself after telling Orda what I’d found. Varik’s cohorts had been killing people, carving them up, and giving out the meat to the lower quarter, likely exposing them to all manner of disease. Perhaps I’d even treated victims of this deception, unaware of the root cause of their illness. It still makes me ill to think about.

The rest of the upper floor was uneventful. We found some abused animals which Sai promised to release later, and a stash of money hidden under their troughs. I really can’t bring myself to care about any of that.

Downstairs, we cornered Varik and his remaining two underlings. He was a disheveled mess of a man who it seems knew nothing of his men’s evil actions, as he seemed enraged and ashamed by the revelation that they’d been spreading cannibalism through the lower quarter. He gave himself up without a struggle, and his men were terrified by Orda’s rage, which had been growing by the second. While Orda kept an eye on the men, he had me search the downstairs for any evidence. I found a letter from one Meliya Arkona, which indicated that Verik was in a relationship with a noblewoman who had suggested this uprising a few days prior. The letter was pinned to a table by the accursed dagger I mentioned earlier. Sai was able to sense magic on the dagger, but couldn’t identify it. I pocketed it, intending to ask Gordys about it later. I wish I had simply left it, or thrown it into a gutter somewhere.

I don’t believe I mentioned Gordys earlier. She is a small clockwork spider, which Garran accidentally activated outside of Varik’s hideout. Her body was apparently made by a couple of dwarven tinkerers the others had met in their earlier adventure, while her mind was of a golem made in ancient Thasalonian times. She is fascinating. She has currently taken up residence in my home, as I have a number of books and alchemical items she can scan and learn from. I am happy to have her, although I do hope she will start putting my belongings back where she found them. Hint hint, Gordys. I know you’re going to scan this.

I…apologize for getting side tracked. The next part is unpleasant. Very unpleasant. The memories are still raw, and I haven’t spoken to the others as length about the disgust I feel for the actions taken next…

We tied up the gang and dragged them all upstairs. Orda had me heal the unconscious members of the gang. If I’d known what was going to happen next. I don’t know what I would have done. I’d like to think I wouldn’t have woken them to be at Orda’s mercy.

Orda had been growing steadily angrier since the discovery of the meat locker. So had I. Quite frankly, a part of me wished that one of the cohorts HAD decided to resist, just so we’d have an excuse to end him. The thought frightens me. Disgusts me. I’m a healer. A doctor. My job, my life’s work, has been to keep others alive. To extend lives so that they may be lived to their fullest. Every life is beautiful, that’s something I’ve held to for so long. I only faltered in the face of Gaedren, my brother’s murderer. I could find no beauty in his living. And now this. The fact that I entertained the desire to murder these men, despite everything they did…that terrifies me.

And Orda acted on this instinct. He grabbed one of the men, and held him under boiling water. He had no mercy, he wanted the man to suffer and die in one of the most horrible ways possible. And for a moment, for a split second, I almost let him do it.

Then I came to my senses. I told Orda to stop. The guards were going to take care of these guys, and we needed to bring them in alive. They didn’t deserve anything, but that didn’t mean we should sink to their level. That’s what I told him. I didn’t mention that I’d also had to pull myself out of thinking that their deaths would be justified. Or that for a moment I was remembering the sick feeling in my gut from when I killed Gaedren. My words seemed to get through, at least a little. He pulled the man up and tossed him aside, telling me to heal him if I could.

The man in question was covered in horrific third degree burns, and he’d been held under for long enough that the boiling water got into his nose, mouth, and lungs. He was barely alive. I used my most powerful healing potions to stabilize him, and my medical supplies to bandage and treat the exterior wounds I could. He wasn’t quite in critical condition anymore, but he was still in a terrible state. I cannot believe the level of cruelty I witness today. Both from the enemy and from those I’ve been trying to call my friends. Hayden and Garran I can forgive, they were deaf and likely too confused to try to stop Orda. But Orda nearly tortured and killed a man who was bound and helpless, and Sai made no move to stop him. If I hadn’t spoken up, I don’t believe anyone would have until it was too late. By the time I had, it already almost was. I will have to bear that shame.

We brought our prisoners back to Cressida Croft, and explained everything we found. We were paid, and went our separate ways. Orda and Sai went back to check on the animals. Orda seemed to still be in a foul mood. I hope not because I stopped him from killing that man. He was terrible and evil, but torture and murder won’t solve anything. The guards will take care of them, and it sounds like an execution is likely anyways, so Orda will still get what he wants regardless.

After I checked on Hayden and Garran, to make sure their hearing wasn’t permanently damaged, I returned home for the night. There, I found a certain clockwork spider had rifled through my home and left everything a mess, as though a windstorm had some through. I asked Gordys to examine the silver dagger I’d found, hoping for a little good news at least. Instead, she told me that the dagger was going to try to kill me for knowing what it was. My memory of the next part is…honestly a complete blank. Gordys told me what happened next, but I don’t remember a second of it. The creature, which Gordys called a Rakshasa raktavarna, apparently revealed its true form, and bit me with venomous fangs. The venom in question had a memory altering quality, which caused me completely forget fighting it. I couldn’t tell you what the creature’s true form looked like, how long I fought it, how many times it bit me, anything. I just know that one moment I was asking Gordys about the dagger, and the next I was outside of my house with an injured arm and the dagger laying on the ground. The venom eventually faded, but my mind still feels a little fuzzy even after some rest.

I was in a panic after discovering that the dagger had been some sort of spy, given that I’d had it with me when we’d told the guards about Meliya likely being behind this little rebellion plot, and because I’d brought it into my home. Gordys assured me it was no longer a threat, and that its master had cut her connection with it for one reason or another. Regardless, I feared what might happen to those the dagger had seen. As such, I made the trek out to the citadel on my own, to show Cressida the dagger and warn her that it had been spying on us and the culprit knew how much we knew.

The guard captain took the danger seriously and was going to have some mages inspect the dagger further. In the meantime, she offered to let me rest in the citadel. I gladly accepted the offer. After everything that happened, I hardly felt safe making my way back home. Ms Croft seems a trustworthy sort, I believe I have little to fear so long as she is well informed and prepared for what may come.

As for me…I don’t know. I had that same dream as the rest of the group, it’s clear that some higher power wants me to play hero with the rest of these adventurers. But after today…I just don’t know. I’m just a doctor. I didn’t mean to get caught up in all of this. I didn’t want to see people getting tortured, or to get attacked by a monster in my own home. I just wanted to avenge my brother and get back to living my life without the weight of his death on my shoulder. Now the deaths are piling up, and I don’t feel particularly heroic in the process.

#pathfinder #curse of the crimson throne #journal entry #spoilers

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kiyo-alvara-blog · 8 years ago

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The Journal of Dr. Kiyo Alvara: Entry 1

Good evening, Journal.

My apologies for neglecting to write recently, there’s been little of note these past weeks. However I’ve had a very eventful couple of days. To get straight to the point, Gaedren Lamm is finally dead, and I’ve met an intriguing group of adventurers who helped make such a feat possible. It would seem that, willing or no, my fate has become intertwined with theirs.

Now, I will start from the beginning. When I woke the other day, I found a note placed on my bedside table. Nothing in my home or workplace had been moved or removed, so the culprit wasn’t a mere thief. The contents of the note informed me that if I wanted to track down Gaedren and avenge Kyth then the writer of the note, one Zellara Esmeralda, wished to help. The note gave me an address and specified that I should go to the location that night to meet with her and a group of adventurers who would be vital to stopping Gaedren from ruining more lives.

I took precautionary measures, of course. I brought along many of my best healing potions, as well as some formulaes, acid vials, and explosives. If things went south and this was some convoluted trap, I was well prepared to fight or flee.

When the sun was dipping down in the horizon, I took my leave and made for the address indicated. I found the door already open, and lights on within. I peeked my head inside, and heard voices down the hallway. Cautiously, I made my way inside.

I found the aforementioned group of adventurers, seated around a table. They asked me if I was the one who summoned them, which I denied. I showed them the letter which I received. One of their group showed me that she received a similar letter, signed with the same name.

Introductions were made. The first to offer his name was Garran, a tiefling and the son of Unae and Elkin Thandas. He’s quite the wide-eyed one, contrary to his appearance. He seems quite friendly, but I fear that the kind of optimism he carries rarely survives contact with the outside world, much as it pains me.

Next was Orda, a large half-orc with an impressive tower shield. He seems a friendly sort, and I shall likely enjoy his company going forward. I’ve made an offer of celebratory drinks later and look forward to getting to know him better.

After Orda was a young woman with dark eyes and a mousy look about her, who introduced herself as Sai Gwenn. The poor dear seems nice, but scared of her own shadow and the coat she wears is in absolute tatters. I have made offer to take her shopping for something more presentable, but she turned me down, claiming she liked the clothes she has.

The final member was a man named Hayden, a student of the sciences himself. He’s an interesting one, I can’t quite put my finger on him. He seems to guard his emotions well, I can’t get a good read on him. He’s clearly well learned and I respect that he’s chosen the same profession as I, albeit he has a focus on surgeries. However his proficiency with knives in a fight is more than I’d expect of someone only trained in surgery, and there’s a guardedness about him that makes me feel there’s more under the surface than I’ve seen. Still, the rest of the group are people with good hearts, so I am certain Hayden is no different. Sai especially seems connected to him at the hip, looking to him for guidance and following him like a lost pup.

When introductions were complete, our hostess made her appearance. She apologized for keeping us waiting, then explained why she brought us together. This group of adventurers had come to Korvosa in search of a woman named Rubella, a shiver dealer who had committed multiple murders and pinned them on a local carnival in the last town their group passed through. She was guilty of having made a powerful form of shiver, so potent that it caused multiple deaths before she was forced to flee Korvosa. What a waste of talent, this sickening misuse of alchemy.

Rubella, as it turned out, had returned to Korvosa after her murderous scheme had been uncovered. She fled to Gaedren with the promise that she would make a stronger variant of shiver to spread in the streets of Korvosa, making the drug lord that much more money.

Zellara informed us that Gaedren had stolen her harrow deck, which was a family heirloom, and in an attempt to get it back her son was murdered by him. One of many lives cut tragically short by his actions. I, for one, was more than happy to assist Zellara in reaping vengeance and bringing Gaedren to justice. Most of the adventuring group seemed to be in agreement on this, since they’d come to town seeking Rubella regardless.

Orda seemed to have his suspicions, however. Apparently in the last place they had been, someone had told a lie and kept a secret that caused more people to be killed, and he didn’t want a repeat of that. He told her he would be glad to help, but he wanted to know anything she might be hiding, anything that might come up later that we should know now.

In the interest of honesty and keeping Orda’s trust, Zellara did tell us one other thing. She was already dead, killed by Gaedren when she tried to avenge her son. She was now trapped, her spirit connected to her stolen harrow deck and her body’s remains, which Gaedren had kept out of some sick fascination. The room which we’d been standing in was not that lavish well lit home we’d believed, with a snap of her fingers she revealed the truth: we were in a place that had long been abandoned and forgotten with the death of its owners.

Orda seemed satisfied with the answer, if perhaps a bit shaken by her surprisingly straightforward admission to being a ghost. I admit to being caught off guard myself. It’s not every day you meet a friendly haunt, after all. Most are quite a bit more sinister.

Zellara informed us that we should prepare and seek out Gaedren’s hideout the next night, as he wouldn’t be there at the moment. Sai and Hayden decided that they would take the extra time to scout the old fishery Gaedren was based out of, while I’d decided to prepare more potions. I told the group of adventurers my idea: I would use a disguise potion and a vocal alteration potion to make myself appear as one of Gaedrens customers, someone drug addled and homeless. I would go inside and scout it out, see if I could locate the children he held hostage, and any other potential dangers. Then I would give them a signal to attack.

The plan was flawed, Hayden pointed out, as we didn’t know the interior to know how to best set off a signal, and we didn’t know just what Gaedren might do to his ‘customers’. Hayden suggested a counter idea, that he would disguise himself as Rubella’s deceased husband, using my disguise potions and a ring they had gotten off the man’s body. He would then take Sai as a ‘hostage’ to offer to Gaedren and Rubella, get close enough to them, and put a knife in their ribs. I was concerned about how realistically Hayden could pretend to be this dangerous woman’s husband as opposed to someone they’re less familiar with, like an addicted customer, but the rest of the group seemed fairly convinced it was a good plan, so I conceded the point.

We each went our separate ways, I spent the night making the potions Hayden would require for his plan, then I retired to bed for the night. I had a restful sleep. I feel as though I had a pleasant dream, although I don’t really remember it well now. I must have brewed my polypurpose panacea incorrectly, as I didn’t have the promised lucid dreams they give me.

Regardless, the next morning I met with the adventuring group in a local tavern called the Red Dragon Inn. We discussed our plans for the evening. Hayden and Sai would enter through the dockside entrance, while the rest of us would circle around back. If we heard any commotion, we were to burst in uninvited and help Hayden and Sai to dispatch any unsavory folks who might have set upon them. The plan concerned me for many reasons, but it was the best plan we had. I handed off the potions I’d brewed to Hayden and informed him of the time limit on each, telling him to be absolutely sure to drink the vocal alteration potion last, so that he wouldn’t waste any time with it on.

Afterwards, I returned home to open my office. Hayden came along, interested in what he might be able to learn from my medical practice. I will be happy to share my knowledge with him, and he agreed to share his notes as well, although he was very specific in telling me that his knowledge was purely surgical and not medical. That was fine, I’m practiced in surgery and while it’s not my forte there’s nothing to lose from reading what knowledge a college has to share. I get to meet with others in the field so rarely, I’m eager to pick Hayden’s brains. He’s only a student at the moment, but the very fact he’s in a medical college rather than apprenticing means that he’ll have experiences in the field that I do not.

Though he said a few things I found a tad off putting, if I am to be honest. For one, I heard him mention “The Lady of Graves” when he spoke to Zellara. I would like to find out what a pragmatic and intelligent man in the medical field could gain from worshipping the goddess of death. Yes, I am aware it’s a common line of worship, especially amongst those who must see death so often. Yes I am also aware that she also presides over childbirth. I still do not see the logic behind someone sworn to help heal others and prevent death in following the doctrine of a goddess who celebrates the nature of death. I can see how it’s a good coping mechanism, I suppose, but I would feel like a failure as a doctor if I needed to take comfort in the idea that my patients dying was simply fate or it’s their time or what-have-you.

I apologize. I got a little heated there. It’s a subject that utterly confounds me, and I cannot believe that an otherwise intelligent seeming man like Hayden would have to take comfort in the shallow platitudes offered by such a faith.

We also got into a conversation about the state of Korvosa after I went about setting a child’s broken leg. Her mother had no money to pay with, and the poor girl was asking if she would be able to walk again soon so that she could keep working so her family could eat. I wish I could say it’s the first time I’d heard this same heartbreaking tale, but this is all too common nowadays. I helped the child and gave them instructions on what they could do to help it heal faster and properly. Afterwards, I told Hayden what I just wrote: that this is all too common, and that there is a huge discrepancy between the rich and poor in this city. Hayden showed distain for how the city was being run, but not for quite the same reasons as I did. He said that this was no way to run a business, and that the short term gains wouldn’t outweigh the long-term consequences. Certainly, he’s not wrong. But it’s such a cold and pragmatic way of putting it when peoples’ lives and livelihoods are at state. Comparing Korvosa to a failing business doesn’t do justice to the cruelty the common folks in the city endure.

I don’t know if Hayden sensed that what he said bothered me, or he simply felt it was time to get ready for our plans. Either way, he excused himself to walk the streets and make sure he didn’t hear any whispers that might clue Gaedren in on our plans.

I closed up shop and made my way to meet the others at the inn, then we made our way to the docks. As we grew close to the abandoned fishery, the putrid smell of stale ocean water and rotting fish filled the air. Orda, Garran, and I slipped around to the back after Hayden drank down the disguise potion and readied the vocal altercation potion.

I didn’t see what happened next, but pieced it together from Sai and Hayden’s accounts later. Hayden and Sai played their parts excellently. Hayden dragged Sai inside and talked down to a violent little gnome who worked for Gaedren. When Rubella entered the picture, Hayden played his part to a tee, and had the shiver maker virtually wrapped around his finger with his quick thinking and perfectly timed use of the wedding ring.

There was one particularly dangerous part, in which I am relieved I didn’t go in by myself as I initially planned. Rubella accepted Hayden’s lie that he’d captured Sai and was using her as a hostage to keep the rest of the adventuring group at bay, and agreed to a plan to make her their drug addled servant much as they’d apparently once done to a group of skulks. However, Rubella pulled out a vial of shiver, and told Hayden they should get started.

With a level or finesse I wish I’d been there to see myself, Hayden managed to make it look like he’d forced the drug down her throat while really switching it out. If he can do that with someone scrutinizing him so closely, I bet he could give magicians and illusionists a run of their money.

Rubella and one of Gaedren’s lackeys took Hayden and Sai deeper into the fishery to work out a business proposition. It’s here that Hayden make a misstep. He tried to rush into the final part of the plan, and in an attempt to get Rubella close to him, he said that on dying he wished he would have been close to her, and that all he wanted now was a kiss. This was apparently too out of character for her husband, even if he’d died and been resurrected. Rubella called his bluff. She and Hayden ended up having a scuffle, and in the process Sai undid the knot Hayden had tied and screamed an ear shattering shriek.

Garran, Orda, and I heard the scream from outside the door, which happened to lead right into the room that the others were fighting in. Orda broke open the locked door, only to find a table in his way, which he also removed from the equation. Garran entered the room and I followed suit.

Hayden had his knives out and was facing Rubella and her alchemical bombs. Sai was…it’s difficult to describe. Her face was inhuman, she looked a bit like a monstrous humanoid bat. I’ve yet to ask her just what the cause of this form was, but she seemed fairly adept at it seeing as she took a good chunk off Rubella’s arm with a vicious bite.

I drew my bow as I entered the room and trained it on the other alchemist. I asked Rubella if she was the one who’d made and was planning to distribute a powerful new form of shiver, to which she agreed. I loosed an arrow into her, and told her that this was a waste of her alchemical talents, ruining others’ lives with her creations rather than helping others. She laughed at me, called me naïve for looking down on her choices. I argued that there are other ways to make money with alchemy, ways that help others and nurture them rather than harming and corrupting everything they touch.

Rather than reply to me, Rubella downed an invisibility potion. There was an open trapdoor nearby, which one of Gaedren’s other minions had escaped through before I’d entered the room. It was certain she’d made her escape through there, and Orda ran to follow after her. I would have gladly joined him, but the vicious little gnome had appeared behind Hayden and he looked like he needed some help. As I stepped into the room and got the gnome’s attention, there was a shout from the room I’d just left and manic laughing. Garran had been attacked by a crazed half-orc who called himself “Giggles”.

I told Hayden to try to back out of the room to give me room to use an explosive without catching him in it. The gnome didn’t take kindly to this and took a swipe at me. I’m quick on my feet when necessary, however, and I managed to avoid his attack. Then I followed up with my own attack. Not with a blade but with a bomb. The gnome knew he was outclassed, and expressed that the money just wasn’t worth it. I told him to run, then, because the only blood I was looking to spill was his boss’. I doubt the vicious little gnome learned his lesson, but perhaps he at least learned enough to find a low profile job that won’t end with adventurers out for his head.

I then went to help the others take care of “Giggles”. It was close quarters, forcing me to forego any explosives at first. However as the half-orc kept getting in swipes at Hayden and Garran, Hayden forcefully told me to hurry up and use a bomb, and not to worry about him. Garran assured me that tieflings are resistant to flames and that he’d be alright, too. Despite my misgivings, I did as Hayden demanded and loosed a bomb at the gleefully murderous half-orc. The others finished the job, and I made a beeline to the trapdoor to catch up with Orda and Sai.

Just in time, it would seem. Orda was trying to save a child who was hanging above a pit with a large alligator inside, and Sai had been deafened by a thunderstone and was being ganged up on by Gaedren and his minion who’d fled earlier.

In that moment, all other thoughts were lost to my rage. Finally, Gaedren was right in front of me. My brother’s murderer was right there. I forgot about everything else that was happening around me as I approached the scumbag. He mocked me, saying that he remembered my brother. He said I had the same weakness behind my eyes as my brother did. He laughed. That disgusting piece of trash laughed at the memory of my brother falling to weakness and dying of his drug.

I barely remember throwing the bomb. I know I said something to the man as I did, but it was all a blur. The next thing I knew, his charred body was on the floor at my feet. It was so easy. It was so, so easy to snuff out his life. I felt a knot of disgust and anger inside which hasn’t completely gone away even as I write this. There was no remorse in that piece of trash human. He didn’t beg for mercy or forgiveness. He laughed at what he did. He deserved what he got. He deserved what he got, he ruined so many lives, wasted so many peoples’ potential, just to make money off their suffering. He deserved to die… and killing him did absolutely nothing. My brother is still dead. His other victims are still dead. I’m still alone. All I accomplished was dirtying my hands. I’m a doctor, a healer. I’ve never killed someone in my life before now.

I feel sick, but this is not a disease I can cure myself of with any medicine.

The rest of the night was a blur. Someone set the building on fire. Sai fed Gaedren’s body to the alligator and freed it from its captivity, for better or for worse. Apparently she can speak to animals and convinced the predator that we were its allies. An extension of that bat-like form I saw before I’m certain. Zellara took in the orphaned children who Gaedren had been using as pickpockets, and we buried her head, which Gaedren had kept in a box as some twisted trophy.

We gathered at the inn where the others had been staying and looked through all the items we’d collected from Gaedren’s hideout before it burned to the ground. Of interest was a key shaped dagger which Hayden was convinced was cursed or haunted, and which bore a disturbing resemblance to the weapon used by the key-lock killer. I do hope it isn’t cursed, the last thing we need to be carrying around is an evil dagger. We also found a broach which bore the royal family’s insignia on it, and which we deduced had probably been stolen from the queen herself. We decided it would be prudent to return it.

I then returned home and collapsed for the night. I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted in my life. I do not envy the life of adventurers, if this is how it always is.

Unfortunately, it seems I am not destined to walk away from this group. In the night, I had a strange dream, which the others later told me they each had as well. An unrecognizable voice was speaking in my mind. They told me that we were going to become great heroes, protectors of the weak and innocent. I saw each member of our group in a battle against a large beast. Each member fought with the skill and power I’d only heard about in stories. Even I was there, using powerful formulae I could only dream of with my current skills. Some of the feats, frankly, looked impossible. Like something the Heroes of Sandpoint would do, not like something a ragtag group in Korvosa could ever pull off. Yet the voice promised we would get there someday.

I…have feelings about that. Not all of them positive. I don’t like that idea that I’m being tugged around by some invisible fate. I don’t like the idea that I’ll have to fight and kill again. I’m just a doctor. I’m the simple kind of hero, the kind who heals the sick and looks for ways to make the common person’s life better. I don’t need the flashy titles, the power, the danger of adventuring. I’d rather leave that to someone strong and capable like Orda, or someone like Garran, who is looking for that kind of adventure.

I feel as though I don’t have much choice, however. I am out of time to continue writing for now, it is late and I have things to do tomorrow. But I will say this: Korvosa is changing, not for the better. This city, my home, is in chaos.

#pathfinder #curse of the crimson throne #journal entry

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