[1.03] City Gone Made
Citadel Volshyenek is located in Midland, overlooking Jeggare Harbor, where it serves as the base of operations for the Korvosan Guard. The Citadel currently operates on a skeleton crew, as almost all available guards are hard at work in the city, desperately trying to keep order.
Two nervous guards stand at the entrance to the Yard, but as the queen promised, Kraw and Ayeesha are expected. They quickly wave them through, and one guard escorts them into the
central keep, where a harried and tired-looking woman rises from her desk to greet them.
"Ah yes...you are the ones sent by Queen Ileosa. Greetings, my name is Cressida, and heroes of your caliber are exactly what Korvosa needs now. You’ve been on the streets. You know better than me how bad things are out there. It’s breaking my heart to see Korvosa tear herself apart like this. Every little bit of aid we can get from upstanding citizens like you helps. If you’re willing, I’d very much like to retain your services as agents of the Guard. I don’t need to say, of course, that you’ll be well compensated for these services.
Korvosa’s got enough troubles as it is without my own men losing their way and going rogue. As much as it pains me to admit, though, this has happened several times already. Many guards have deserted their posts, more concerned about friends and family than the city. I can understand this, yet not all of the deserters have family, some of them are simply using the riots as an excuse for personal gain. One such man is Verik Vancaskerkin. Worse than a lone deserter, he’s convinced a small group of fellow guards that Queen Ileosa is going to ruin the city.
Whether she does or doesn’t isn’t the point, right now, we’ve got a city-wide crisis on our hands, and I need all of my guards working with me to see us through. A deserter is worse than a lost resource because it’s an infection. I can’t afford to pull many of my other patrols off duty to deal with Vancaskerkin, and I’d rather not expose any of them to him anyway, since I neither want Vancaskerkin to infect more guards with his talk of secession,
nor do I want some overly patriotic guard killing Vancaskerkin outright. I need impartial, skilled talent. Like you.
You won't be alone though. There are two among Vancaskerkin's squad that refused to follow him and reported his activities to me. They've been stationed in the barracks while we could verify their report but I would like to send the pair of them with you to help take Verik down.
Vancaskerkin and his men have holed up in an abandoned butcher’s shop up in Northgate, t e place was called 'All the World’s Meat'. I need you to check out the place. Try to avoid killing any of the deserters if you can, but if you must, they brought it upon themselves when they threw in their lot with Vancaskerkin. For him, I’d really prefer it if you could capture him alive and return him to me for interrogation, but if he makes that impossible, I’ll accept his body as well. Finally, see if you can find out why Verik deserted, if there’s more to it than simple personal politics, I need to know immediately. Bring me Verik alive, and there’s another thousand gold in it for you. Dead, he’s only worth half that."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:44, Sun 27 Jan 2019.