"Ameiko might be in there..."
Not wanting to wait for anyone, both Rohan and Copper recklessly run past Magnhlidr and Krojun, through the opening in the brick wall to find....
Relying on the light from Krojun's whip, Talon's half-elven eyes scan the dim recesses of the room an the trail to see if he can pick up anything of significance. His rapier is drawn and he holds it out in front of him at the ready.
"It didn't look like anything came out of this mess topside - this may lead to another route of escape. I pray Ameiko is safe."
"Hold it!"
Magnhildr reaches for both Rohan's collar and Copperscale's tail.
"We don't know what's back there. I can see in the dark and I'm a good bit tougher than I look. Let me go first, I'll yell if anything's amiss."
Mags grabs her greatsword and tries her best to keep quiet and follow the trail. Her blue glowing eyes sweeping the darkness for enemies and traps.
At the rate he was moving, Rohan almost falls on his back as Magnhlidr grabs him. "Every second we wait, is another second they could be hurting her. I don't want to find her like we found her father."
"Nor do I, but I ain't lettin' ye run off and get yerself killed and let ever'one know we're here while ye're at it."
Mags accent slips through as she grabs her sword and pushes ahead of the over-eager summoner.
Rohan resisted the urge to argue, Magnhlidr was not the enemy. The goblin's and possibly Ameiko's brother were. "Fine. Lead the way."
"Don't worry. We'll save her. Believe it!"
ROhan can't help but crack a smile. "I hope you're right."
Continuing into this wall off section of the basement, you find four things of note. The first is a body at the end of the blood trail; it is a younger version of the older man whose body you just passed. Morstralla recognizes him, after a moment's reflection as Tsuto. His body lies near the entrance of a opening that leads to a cave going down and that is clearly not part of the basement. Checking the rest of the basement, you find another brick wall across the hallway, much like the first except this one is still intact, an office where someone has obviously been living recently, and a locked door, the only one you have encountered down here.
Studying Tsuto's body briefly, there's too much blood to make much out, but one thing stands out. Whoever cut him down was a skilled swordsman, as almost all of the cuts were well placed, and any one of them could have been the final, mortal wound that drove Tsuto to retreat.
"Krojun, I find it unlikely that they all met their fate here. Additionally, we still haven't found Ameiko either living or dead which likely means she went with the victors assuming she was present.
A skilled swordsman amongst goblins? Doubtful. Somebody else is surely involved here.
Lonjiku should have a key to the locks, right?"
Talon surveys the scene, paying particular attention to both bodies in the hallway - anything removed, anything donw to them post mortem, anything clutched in their hands ... he then listens at the entrance to the pathway down.
He then runs to the locked door once he hears of its and attempts to unlock it.
You recall seeing a rather fine blade in Lonjiku's hand as you passed his body, and he certainly bore himself with enough honor that in his youth it is reasonable to assume he could have backed it up with steel. Once you passed the brick wall, the only bodies you saw were Lonjiku and Tsuto, suggesting that if there were others, they weren't part of the battle and fled, as there is no one living, aside from yourself, present now that you have encountered thus far.
"This is getting worse by the minute. At least if one of her family had her captive, there was a chance of her not being hurt. I think whoever was behind the recent goblin troubles has Ameiko now. But I have no idea who that could be."
Copper goes up to help Talon with the lock should he need it.
"If they have her, and there is so much bloodshed here, why keep her, what is the motive, what part does she play besides misfortune?"
"I wish I knew. I wish I could do more..." Rohan grips his weapon angrily.
Talon is easily able to bypass the lock; it's a thoroughly average lock. You open the door, and find what is, or was, probably record storage, but currently is a prison cell of a bound and gagged Ameiko. She looks less than entirely well, but doesn't seem to have suffered any major damage.
Rohan drops his weapon as he rushes over to free Ameiko. "Are you alright? What happened? Did they hurt you?" He quickly unbinds and ungags the Tian woman as he helps her to her feet.
"No, we should make sure she gets home safely. I doubt the laborers can protect her from whoever took her in the first place."
"Speaking of which, who did this to you. At first we thought it was your brother, but we found his body here in the glassworks."
Ameiko takes a few minutes to really come to. Morstralla finds that she actually has few physical wounds or damage. As you ask her your questions, she just looks a bit dazed until you mention her brother's death. "Tsuto is..dead? Is that what noise a bit earlier was about? I fear I know little of what happened. I came to meet with my brother, and after refusing to go along with his schemes, he tied me up, saying he would have to check with Nualia before determining my fate. Shortly after, I heard some noise for about about a minute, and all went completely silent until you appeared." You are able to get little more out of her as the foreman rather firmly takes her under his wing, advising you that the tunnel you saw was an old smuggler tunnel that led down to the beach, and that one of the men was guarding the office door until you had had a chance to search it.
"Who's Nualia? What schemes? It seems as though your father and your brother engaged in battle. Neither one was left standing. I'm sorry."
"Nualia's dead. She died with Father Tobyn in the fire five years ago. She was his adopted daughter. She was said to have been blessed by Desna with unearthly beauty. It was tragic really."
"Maybe this is a different Nualia? Or she didn't stay dead."
"That's true. But why would they do that? She was just some priest's daughter right?"
"I would assume her remains would be with Father Tobyn's, but I'm not certain. They could have both been taken, but the break-in just happened a few days ago so that makes it unlikely that it'd be her."
"Perhapas we could go back to the scene of the battle - maybe there is some clue as to who or what did this. Was it some magical power, if it were men how many, a beast ... what kind? We should follow the pathway to the beach to see if there are clues there as well."
The men have secured the rest of the building by now. There was battle in the work area with the furnaces, but the flow of bodies suggests that the battle started upstairs, and moved down here. The only things that remain uninvestigated and/or unsecured are the office/temporary dorm and the smuggler's tunnel.
The office next door to Ameiko's temporary prison was, as the foreman explains once the office of a smuggling operation that got shut down at some point in the past, and bricked off from the rest of the basement by Lonjiku. He thinks that Tsuto had to be the one responsible for bringing it back into play, as the old man never would have even considered it, and the scene in the office bears that out. There is a cot and a small chest in one corner, and a desk is the only other major piece of furniture. It takes surprisingly little time to find Tsuto's journal, as if he believed that he had the old man cowed enough that he didn't have to worry about much. The scene you first saw on your way in suggests otherwise.
The chest isn't even locked, and holds mostly some clothes, and similar day to day travel items. The most exciting thing is a small coin purse at the bottom with 120 gp.
A quasit is an evil outsider of some kind, never good to see mentioned unless you have evil in mind.
Some of the rest is related to the scene of talking with Shalelu that I just realized I passed over. For now none of the rest means anything, but after you return to the town proper, remind me to have you sit down with Shalelu. Knowledge (local) might help for some of them, but not all of them.
Magnhildr is silent as she scouts and and generally stays out of the way. She was quickly realizing that stories of slaughter are one thing. The actually thing is much, much worse. She notices the cuts on Tsuto and the blade in Longiku's hand, and her mind tries to piece together what happened.
When Krojun suggests scouting the tunnel, she stalks ahead as quietly as she can.
Copper follows right behind Mags, nose to the ground looking for tracks while staying quiet in the tunnel.
Responding to Krojun's questions, "I believe a quasit is a lesser demon sometimes used as a familiar. Thistletop is just one of the names of the tribes of goblins in the area, Shalelu would know more about them. The other names, I've never heard of them."
The smugglers tunnels go down and away from town for about a mile. A secret door opens up onto a small cave that opens up to a small, narrow beach. There are signs of recent goblin habitation, and two other tunnels lead away from the cave. One go south, one goes west; the opening going west seems to have been bricked over at some point, but the brick wall has torn down.