Talene blocks the escape route of the King by laying in the doorway unconscious.
"Hold on there, Buttwad. We're almost done."
Inari's spell never gets a chance to work. Daufni deals the goblin chief a decisive blow, and he falls to the floor in a spray of blood.
Amongst the goblin carnage in the chief's house the group sees other evidence of past, nasty violence.
A high seated throne made from an upturned tree truck sits against on wall. A rough seat has been carved into the top among the roots, which reach out like tentacles at the back and sides. It is surrounded by several poorly preserved heads, dogs and horses mounted in the wall. The skulls of other animals are lined up around the throne on the floor, and off to one side a couple of large bottles contain the pickled remains of a badger, and some animal that is too far decomposed to identify. Some random weapons are also propped and piled here and there about the room
The freshest of Gutwad's trophies is a human head, a man wearing what could be considered a mournful expression. Yuki recognizes the man, Micawber Lewsome. He was the leader of the goblin hunting group that left Sandpoint a few days before you.
Otherwise, there are two doors in the room. One in the left wall and one in the back wall. Both are closed.
"Uhm, guys...that...over there - thats Micawber Lewsome. He was the leader of the group who wanted to take out those Goblins, and left a few days before us.", letting that sink in a few moments, she continues:"...if it wasn't the militia who took care of them, and the group before us failed...then who sent undead to kill these Goblins, and why was the job left unfinished? If it had been Mica's group that did this and the Goblins managed to kill them, they would not have been sitting in their huts, scared... - I have a bad feeling about this."
Hoping to understand more about what happened, Yuki wants to take a closer look around...but there was something yet more important. Rushing over to Talene, she searches the woman...gasping in excitement when she finds what she was looking for.
Uncorking the vial, she holds Talene's head as she feeds her the sky blue liquid.
Talene's eyes flutter and she pops up wide eyed, "Desna protects!" she blurts out though it becomes painfully obvious to the woman that her spiritual protection is not what she believed it to be. I need to be more cautious next time...
"Thank you Yuki, thanks to all of you". She winces in pain as she looks around the room, "Geez, that really still hurts".
"Shall we check these doors? We are here, no reason we should not right? If we find fireworks then we found our culprits, if not, well then the mystery is just even stranger".
Inari leaned against the door frame, the rush of battle leaving and the wave of tiredness and shakiness from the fear of what could have happened setting it. A grin crept across his face. They'd all survived, and he had to admit to himself that he'd loved it.
"Everyone ok?" he asked.
"Well I am better now thanks to all of you".
"Yes...?", Yuki answers, with doubt in her voice...Did he just space out? Did he even hear me talking?...Pretending to do so for Talene, Yuki repeats what she said, adding on:"Should we check out those doors in the back? If we find the rest of Micawber we should probably bury him or something-"
Inari shrugged and headed toward the doors. "How many people went out here with Micawber?" he asked.
"If not we can bury what we did find of him but these doors won't open themselves..."
Talene approaches the first door and tries to open it.
"Wait, Talene!...Desna protects, but don't tempt fate...", Yuki rushes past Talene, trying the Door herself.
The closer of the two doors is on the left wall. Yuki and Talene find it has only a simple sliding latch. Inside the the smaller room on the other side, they find only pile of moss, filthy blankets and animal furs piled together into what must be a bed. There are also a few more badly preserved animals as decorations.
Talene grins at Yuki, "Sorry, I just want to get through this and get out of here. None of it is making much sense right now. Let's try the next one..."
"Aye, lets...but I think the general consensus is that the person who can save people from death with their skills and magic stays behind the others. I believe there is some Wisdom in that-", Yuki smiles as she relocates to the other door.
Yuki cuts in front of Talene to open the second door on the back wall as well. The room beyond it is quite small, and mostly empty. It seems like a storage space.
The only objects inside are a chest of red lacquered wood and a sheathed sword. The chest is smeared and caked with mud, but it is still obviously a beautiful piece of art in its own right. Cleaner parts of the lid show a delicately etched scene of cranes and frogs playing along a shoreline. Yuki has no difficulty at all recognizing the chest as Minkaian craftsmanship. The chest would fit right in among a number of furniture and art pieces in the Kaijitsu mansion.
The sword is also easily recognized by its distinctive hilt. It is Micawber's longsword.
Inari looked over Yuki's shoulder at the chest. His brows furrowed and emotions and flickering images came unexpectedly to his mind. That chest was familiar. No, not the chest. The art. He'd seen similar work before. But where?
He sighed and shook his head, then he checked the lock on the chest to see if it would open.
Inari has no trouble opening the chest. The latch is more for decorative than security purposes. He only needs to slide the catch. The chest's interior is lined with red velvet, which has been slightly dirtied with mud.
The largest item inside the chest is a burlap sack that contains five objects, sealed tubes of wood and paper. One end of each tube has a pointed wooden cap. The opposite end has a stick protruding from it.
Aside from the sack there is a long steel hairpin with a beautiful red pearl mounted on the end; a black leather wallet-like case that unfolds to reveal six shuriken in holders, three to a side; and an assortment of loose coins, when counted 329 silver and 112 gold.
A final item is inside as well. It is a fan of ivory and gold. One side has a design showing a gecko walking among cherry blossoms. The other side has a new addition though. It seems to be a crudely drawn map.
Inari paused, surprised at the wealth and artistry of the chest and it's contents. Then he carefully picked up one of the tubes and opened it.
Inari takes one of the tubes from the chest. He turns it around and over, but he sees no way to open it. The cylinder is wrapped very tightly and glued so it's smooth and uniform. Both the top and the bottom are likewise sealed. Removing the pointed tip or the stick would require breaking them free from the cylindrical body.
In fact there is only one waxy string loose on the whole object. The free-hanging part of the string is a few inches long, and the other end of it is stuffed up into the bottom of the cylinder.
Inari's eyes narrowed in suspicion and thought. Without really knowing why he did it, he brought the tube near his face and sniffed it carefully.
"Those...things...the designs...it's from my home country - how...", Yuki reaches for the steel hairpin, then the fan, finally the wallet-like case, more closely looking at each of the items. "I...Amy needs to see these things! What-", she interrupts herself as she notices the map on the fan:"-a map...can anybody decipher it?"
She offers the Fan to whoever else would take a look, holding on to the Hairpin.
Talene frowns at Yuki, "I suppose but I should not be willing to put you all at risk that I am not willing to assume myself".
As her friends explore the room and the chest, Talene opens the map to take a look.
"Inari, what is that you have there?"
Inari can tell the cylinder is packed with an alchemical substance, possibly more than one. It is explosive, and logic would dictate it is a firework.
"This smells like it would definitely blow up." he said.
"So then we found the Goblins responsible for the attacks?"
She looks at the map and turns it up and around again, "Sorry, no idea..."
Daufni takes a turn looking at the drawing on the fan.
"It's a map of the marsh" she says. Daufni explains what she sees to the rest of you.
Talene smiles, "My goodness, two birds one stone. Defeating the Goblins with Fireworks and finding the map we need!"
"Not sure if this will suffice as map...it does seem rather - crude. More importantly, I don't think these Goblins MADE those fireworks. And these other goods? They seem to be from Tian Xia. Look, here.", Yuki points at the two ships on the map, "It could be some merchant vessel shipwrecked and they raided it. If so, we should look for survivors."
"Well, it's a start of a map anyway", Talene smiles.
"Shipwreck, goods from Tian Xia? You'd know better than I on that Yuki, there is more to this than we originally thought it seems".
"Well, I can't be certain, but this stuff, most of it, it would seem right at home in the Manor. I mean, the chest, that's clearly Minkaian...and that would explain how the Goblins got the explosives. Was there a storm recently?", Yuki ponders...unless, of course, those items had been raided from a caravan, but in that case, one carrying such valuable goods would have gone missing without anybody knowing about it - which seemed less likely than a shipwreck- especially considering the goods must have travelled across the ocean in the first place-
"if nothing else, we want to investigate to keep any other goblins from getting more explosives." Inari said. He put the fireworks from the chest into his pack.
"Anything else we need to do here?"
Mari points out that the chest is probably the most valuable thing you have found in the room, more so than any of its contents.
Outside, with more time to look around, Daufni notices a scraped trail on the ground. "It looks like something of decent size and heavy was dragged away from here." she says.
Following the drag marks takes you to the edge of the pond, where the stockade meets the water. Daufni can also see the same drag marks outside the stockade. It appears the object was dragged into and through the water to go around the posts. Once through the water and outside the stockade, it was dragged off into the marsh.
Yuki takes another look at the chest, nodding to Mari's interpretation. It was superior craftsmanship, those things were usually valuable...but she'd seen enough of those objects in her family home that selling it off was not the first thing that had occured to her, instead, something else was on her mind: "Do we check the rest of the village first? Go look for those ships? Or check out that trail? I think we should take a look here first...they killed Micawber, but no trace of the others he went with...wouldn't do to learn they starved to death in some prison cell while we were out following drag marks in the march-"
"I agree we should follow the drag marks but should we contact Walthus first so at least someone knows where we are...?"
"Good idea." Inari agreed. "So, quick detour, then back here to follow the drag marks."
"Hum...it seems quite a distance to Walthus home, considering the terrain is not exactly easy to traverse. Plus, what would we tell him? We're following some marks to someplace in the swamp but we don't know where? But we want you to know we're going to some place?", Yuki shakes her head:"No, I would check in on him later, maybe ask to stay another night, but we have the drag marks and the village right here with us, no need to spend hours making our way to Walthus and back only to spend the night here in Goblinville-"
Talene seems torn by Inari's agreement and Yuki's reasonable argument, "I suppose my concern is that if we die, Sandpoint still won't know what's going on Yuki. But you make a good point, we're here now, we should address it now. But uh, I think I'll stay in the back from now on..."
"I understand, Talene...but I still think we should take a moment longer to take a look around here - Micawber is dead, but imagine if there's survivors of his party held here...if we run off now, that may seal their fate. I don't think I could deal with that kind of guilt..."
Looking at the Goblin Chieftain, she turns to Daufni and Inari:"Can you decapitate him? Place his head on a pole in the middle of the village? If there's any more Goblins, they would likely flee or surrender, right?"
It was a very disgusting thing she suggested, but she clung to the hope that it could keep them save - Talene almost had died a few moments ago, after all.
A search of the village turns up no more goblins. If any still remain alive they must have fled into the marsh. There is also no sign of either of Micawber's companions. Only one house contains anything worth carrying away with you. In it you find a small cache tucked away under a pile of sleeping rages and skins. In it there is a small bag containing 32 gold coins. There are also three fireworks of a different type. These are plain straight tubes with a fuse in one end.
Daufni follows the drag trail around to the outside of the palisade. It follows the outside of the wall closely until it's possible to go southeast, then it does so immediately. After a few more yards the trail ends at the edge of one of the marsh's rivers. Apparently whatever was being moved was moved straight into the water.
On the question of returning to Walthus's house, you would estimate that it is not terribly far as the crow flies. Your previous round-about journey was to avoid having to cross the river tributary between the halfling's house and the Licktoad village. Neither Walthus or the Licktoads were avid swimmers, so he considered it a greater barrier.
However the streams, large and small, in the marsh are sluggish with little current. The water is fairly muddy, with organic remains from plants and algae plentiful. The swim itself would be easy enough for anyone who can swim, but it's hard to know what else might be in the water.
Considering that both returning to Walthus's house and following trail would involve swims, Mari suggests investigating the location on the map due west of the village. It is the closest unexplored place noted on the fan map, and it would involve no swimming.
Daufni adds that the trail is a very easy one to follow. There are ruts in the ground and broken vegetation, making it very obvious once you know it's there. She estimates it would take several days of hard rain to wipe it out, so there is time to come back to it later if you wish.
"I suppose our options are to follow the river downstream, or to go back to Sandpoint and come back later." Inari said, looking downriver.
Talene uses her quarterstaff to feel into the water at where the drag marks end to see if she makes contact with anything. "Should we dive in and see if we find anything?"
Talene's poking about with her staff meets with nothing except the soft resistance of mud.
"You really want to go into that water? I don't." Inari said looking a little disgusted at the thought.
"Well, not really Inari but I mean if we should..."
"Define should." he snarked. He blinked. "You know, it just occurred to me that I have no idea if I can swim or not."
Tal grins at Inari, "By should I mean does our conscience require us to ascertain what was dragged in or are we able to sleep at night having not checked?"
Mari looks at the river doubtfully. She's not quite yet willing to give up on the idea of putting a swim off for a while.
"The map on the back of the fan isn't very well drawn. If it was made by a goblin, who knows if the things marked on it are interesting or worthwhile? It would be easy and quick to check the place marked on it nearby. Then we'd have some idea if the other locations are worth looking at."
"Sounds better than a swim. Which way?"
Yuki pockets the fireworks, then listens to Mari and Daufni:"Well, if the trail will still be there for us to follow later...I suppose we might as well."
Checking the position of the sun, and then looking at the fan, Yuki turns to Inari:"Should be to the west of here. Not too far. So yeah, Mari is right, lets see if this map is worth following by checking this locale.", she points the spot out on the fan.
"On the plus side, we can still turn north and head to Walthus if we're willing to risk a swim - which we'd need either way. If it turns out you can't swim: If your dignity can bear it, we can always drag you across on a piece of wood!", Yuki smiles, obviously considering the thought amusing.