The group spends the rest of the day speaking with contacts around the city or concocting arcane rituals to discover what is going on with the city and the plague:
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What's the deal with the Gray Maidens
Ayeesha actually is able to track down a woman whose sister had been selected as an applicant for the Queen's elite guard but was cut at the last minute. She is quite bitter and very willing to share what she knows in exchange for some drinking money. New recruits into the Gray Maidens are hand-selected from beautiful young fighters, most of whom are conscripted from the Sable Company, the Order of the Nail, and the Korvosan Guard. Conscripts to the Gray Maidens must pass the queen’s own examination for beauty and strength. Those who
apply and are found lacking appear to go missing although the woman suspects they are sent far afield to act as foreign agents for the Queen. The ones that pass forever hide their faces behind their full helms and pledge themselves to utmost loyalty to the queen.
In addition Ayeesha hears other rumors that members of the Sable Company that they are worried that the queen intends to replace the Sable Company with the Grey Maidens as the elite military unit within Korvosa because the Sable Company pledges loyalty to the city and takes its orders from the Seneschal whom the Queen does not fully trust.
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What's the deal with the Queen's Physicians?
Asking around among scholars and travelers Ayeesha learns more about Dr. Davaulus and his men. He comes from Egorian, the capital of Cheliax, the same as the Queen, however he is not nearly the renowned scholar the Queen and the Doctor have made him out to be. When asked travelers from Cheliax mention several other medicinal scholars and doctors who are well known throughout the city. They are quick to acknowledge, however, that Dr. Davaulus is known among circles but he they figure he is a private researcher, not a practitioner and while it is possible he was the family doctor that doesn't seem in line with the kinds of discussions he has been involved in.
One additional oddity is that since the physicians have entered the city only Davaulus has been seen outside of the plague doctor masks. The other physicians absolutely refuse to take off their protective gear for fear of contracting the plague.
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What happened with the ghost ship?
Through her spell Kyra finds herself overhearing a group of fishermen at the docks complaining about the sunken ship in the river. While the river is deep enough that it is unlikely to catch on any passing ships, they figure that it will become the den of some aquatic predator and scare off the fish. From their directions Kyra figures she has a good idea of where in the murky water the ship can be found.
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What is going to happen with all the bodies?
Kyra's spell has her eavesdropping on the Field Marshall talking with Dr. Davaulus. She is explaining how plague carters are being dispatched to bring the dead to the Gray District for the clerics of Pharsma to cleanse and bury to prevent an outbreak of undead or further disease but she believes some of them are dumping their bodies in North Point out of laziness and she talks about a place called Racker's Alley where there has been a growing smell of death and decay drifting about.
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Finding the Ornate boxes.
Kraw asks around, checking out pawn shops and fences but doesn't find anything about the missing box. Nobody has come in trying to sell one at least and nobody has seen one lying around. They do offer up dozens of other ornate boxes though, richly decorated and inlaid but they don't bear any resemblance to the one Brienna described.
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Old Korvosa outbreak
Kraw learns nothing new that hasn't already been discussed. People are getting sick and it is ripping through the cramped slums of Old Korvosa.
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How Is It Spreading?
Figus is cruising the taverns when he hears a pair of merchants discussing the plague.
"It's the rats. It's always the rats. Every single bloody time there is disease the answer is always the rats from the sewers. Someone gets bit and they start coughing on everyone else. You know why it's spreading through the slums? Because everyone there gets bit by rats on a daily basis."