I wake up, slowly dragging myself from dream and memory to realize the warm body next to me now is Gurney.
Apparently what's-her-name found her own way out last night. Extra convenient.
I join the others in the main taproom, and order a hearty breakfast, including, if available, spiced coffee for the whole group.
I wake up, slowly dragging myself from dream and memory to realize the warm body next to me now is Gurney.
Apparently what's-her-name found her own way out last night. Extra convenient.
The new deputies meet up at the Rusty Dragon in the morning, some nursing sore heads, others seemingly impervious to the horrors of the hangover. L'oj descends from one of the rooms above, which is odd given that he lives across town. Even odder is the smug look on his face, rather than the usual introspective scowl.
Alwyn and Elisile pass on the intelligence they gained the previous night about the gate being left open during the goblin raid, and the theft of the corpse of the previous hight priest. They then set off to ask Shalelu, the elven scout, if she has any more information about the goblins, but not before requesting if someone could try and find out some information about the dead priest, Tobyn, and his daughter, both killed in a fire five years ago that destroyed the old temple.
Should we go ask at the temple about Tobyn? I'll go with, but I'm no good at gathering info etc...just killing creatures.
“The prominent ones are not usually the witchdoctors but the warriors. The Mosswoods have Big Gugmut. The Seven Tooths had Korovus, but he disappeared a couple of months ago after he found a ‘secret hideout’ somewhere and never came back. There was Vorka of the Licktoads, though you killed him. Frankly, I doubt his tribe will miss him much anyway since he was a cannibal. Ripnugget leads the Thistletops, and then there is Bruthazmus the bugbear who wanders round extorting tribute from all the tribes. But none of then really seem up to coordinating an attack like this, or making contact in the town. They lack the wit and the skill for that.”
"Good morning Emeiko,...Bethana. I'm Hudak, er...uh...deputy...
I just want to say I really like staying at your place, ma'am...
Well, I'm kinda new here, don't really know who's who or nothing. Have you heard that they took Father Tobyn's body and his daughter from the cemetary during the goblin raid? Well, I'm just wondering what's up with that. Do you know anybody who might know anything about those two? It seems that that raid was a diversion to let somebody do that body snatching, and there might be more doings here than crazy goblin raiders."
*To Elisile and Alwyn* Hey, so where we be headin' t'day? By Gorum, I be needin' ta get sum air! Da large baldie dinnae seem ta wantin' ta leave da bar! Hee-heh...
After a breakfast of eggs, left-over mutton, bread, ale, and jam, Larken heads out to make himself conspicuous. He visits the various shops, making sure that all is well. and looking as little like what he really is as he can. He's gotten familiar with Sanpoint at night, now he gets familiar with Sandpoint during the day.
For Aubrey, Elisile and Dravite:
"Good morning, sir. I am Rogors Craesby, sevant to Lord Aldern Foxglove. He wonders if you, and your companions, would be so kind as to meet him for dinner this evening so that he can thank you all, but especially you, for his deliverance from the goblin menace."
He then hands Larken an envelope. Inside is a card inviting Larken and the rest of the new deputies to The Hagfish Tavern for a meal this evening.
"Good morning Emeiko,...Bethana. I'm Hudak, er...uh...deputy...
I just want to say I really like staying at your place, ma'am...
Well, I'm kinda new here, don't really know who's who or nothing. Have you heard that they took Father Tobyn's body and his daughter from the cemetary during the goblin raid? Well, I'm just wondering what's up with that. Do you know anybody who might know anything about those two? It seems that that raid was a diversion to let somebody do that body snatching, and there might be more doings here than crazy goblin raiders."
Ameiko and Bethana smile politely as Hudak chats with them, maiing polite small talk. Concerning the priest:
"Yes, High Priest Tobyn was a very fine man, and Nualia was a lovely young girl, about my age, though she always seemed a bit lonely," says Ameiko.
Even Hudak gets the impression that this is a fairly bland answer.
From the meeting table Illes smiles at Amekio's terse response and starts to stand and raise his voice to press her, but something in her eye makes him lose his train of thought. Flustered, Illes sits back down wondering what all he might have told Amekio deep in his cups.
L'oj descends from one of the rooms above, which is odd given that he lives across town.
"Ameiko, Bethana, what my tounge tied friends are attempting to ask for is anything you might know that would help us find out why the bodies were taken. I think eventually the new sheriffs expect to be facing off against the corpse thieves, and a bit o' understanding may help."
*To Elisile and Alwyn* Hey, so where we be headin' t'day? By Gorum, I be needin' ta get sum air! Da large baldie dinnae seem ta wantin' ta leave da bar! Hee-heh...
Elisile throws a questioning glance at Alwyn, then turns back to the dwarf. “I apologise Dravite Schorl, but I do not speak the tongue of your people.”
Aubrey, Alwyn and Dravite:
Vethran, being his usually quiet and shy self, leans towards Illes and speaks quietly.
"It seems very odd that goblins would steal a corpse. I get the distinct impression that this wasn't just a random goblin raid."
L'oj descends from one of the rooms above, which is odd given that he lives across town.
"Tobyn was a good man, very popular though quite strict," begins Ameiko. "Nualia was a foundling who he brought up, and he was very protective of her. She was quite angelic looking - white hair, violet eyes and very beautiful. We all suspected she had some blood in her other than simply human."
"She was a poor little thing though, always looking sad" says Bethana, who seems to differ slightly from Ameiko's view of the priest as being completely saintly. "Quite lonely, and didn't fit in too well - a lot of girls were jealous of her looks, and Tobyn didn't let her socialise much, especially with boys. He was a bit of a puritan, and a prig sometimes, Gods rest him. Just before the fire there was one boy Nualia seemed sweet on, a Varisian vagabond, can't remember his name, but he disappeared just before the fire.
"Hmm, that was a bad time - a lot of tragedy in the village. First there was Chopper's rampage, then the fire and then, er, well...." Bethana suddenly tails off and gives an awkward, embarrased look towards her boss, who is suddenly quiet and introspective.
"Yes," says Ameiko quietly, "And there was my mother's death too. Not a good time." She gazes off thoughtfully for a moment, before gathering herself. "Anyway, Tobyn and Nualia were killed in the fire, they buried them in the graveyard. Or Tobyn, anyway - Nualia's body was completely consumed in the flames, there was nothing left to bury.
*grumbling under his breath* Damn elves ne'er seem ta be smart enough ta be "translatin'" a dialect.......must be da narrow eyes dat be limitin' der focus.....
Rusty Dragon:
"Interesting. Can you tell me more of this chopper? I've heard the name before, but until now the whole story never seemed important."
Ameiko is silent, looking stoical.
For Aubrey, Dravite and Elisile:
A sudden thought strikes him. He's lost in thought for a few second, stroking his beard while an idea forms. "Unless, of course, the militia captured some goblins during the raid. Even if they are rank-and-file who don't know anything useful or have never seen the mastermind behind this operation, they'll know who the puppet is - it'll be the goblin who 'proposed' the assault. So, if, for example, Big Gugmut is the 'brains' behind this plan, then the new leader has probably based himself with the Mosswood goblins. That would also make sense - if I had been strong and clever enough to unify a goblin tribe under my leadership, I'd go for the biggest, most powerful tribe myself. Perhaps we should go down to the city jail and see if they have any captives?"
Dravite, Alwyn, Aubrey:
“Vorka of the Licktoads led this raid,” Elisile nods to Shalelu, a silent acknowledgement of the information, “and he is dead. We already know that a number of clans have combined – or at least put aside their differences – to orchestrate this raid. There is no guarantee that the Licktoads were the ring leaders.”
Rusty Dragonites
"Wait a moment? A man went mad, and was Burning Offerings to whatever dark god made him that way just a month before the temple was burned down? And now the presiding priests grave has been defiled during the celebration for the opening of the new temple?
"I am no holy man, but the ichor of one dark god or another seems to be the ink for the writing on the wall. With the sheriff away, it is going to be hard as field rations to find out more about what happened back then, but I think doing so is suddenly much more important."
Alwyn, Aubrey, Dravite:
Rusty Dragonites
** spoiler omitted **
Rusty Dragon crowd
Aye, that be a fine ideer. Was der any tracks aroun' the grave? I could be tryin' ta track de graverobber back from whence 'e came.
Elisile, Dravite and Alwyn return to the Rusty Dragon from their audience with Shalelu at the same time as Larken, who bears an envelope bearing an invitation to dine with Aldern Foxglove, the nobleman saved by the group, at the Hagfish Inn tonight, by way of thanks for his delivery from death. Ameiko sniffs slightly at the mention of the Hagfish, a rival establishment to her own.
"The HAGFISH?!?! Why can't we eat here?!?! Ah, well...."
Alwyn helps himself to a chunk of unleavened bread and a jug of water as he sits down. "Hmmm… ‘Twas a strange meeting we had with Shalelu, both helpful and a little disappointing, as she had some clarifying comments that close off some lines of thought without opening any new ones. First off, she doesn’t think that any of the goblin leaders have the brains or the prowess to unite any tribes, far less all of them. Furthermore, there is only one common point between the tribes, and that is the wandering bugbear bravo Bruthazmus, who travels from one tribe to the next and forces them to give him food and booty. However, nobody has mentioned a bugbear taking part in the assault, and Shalelu discounts his leadership potential as well. As we initially thought, that leaves an outsider."
"However, like us, she has no idea who, or even what, this leader is, nor does she know where he might be headquartering himself. That leads me to think that we need a prisoner or three. The best one would of course be Bruthazmus himself, but nobody knows his habits - thus, we’ll need some rank-and-file goblins first. Then they can possibly tell us where the bugbear might be; if we’re lucky, they might even have glimpsed the new leader. Thus, in my opinion, we should start thinking about where we should go if we want to snag some prisoners, and how we would go about doing it. We’ll need to stay in town until the sheriff returns, but that won’t stop us from laying plans. Also, the bugbear is probably a right nutter if he can cow entire goblin tribes all by himself. Being prepared is never a bad thing, especially when facing unknown foes"
"Furthermore, she also pointed out that the goblin leaders tend to be martial types who would have no use for the priest’s carcass. While that strengthens our theory about outside leadership, it also makes it harder than ever to really understand what’s going on. What is the new leader offering the goblin chieftains in return for all those dead warriors? If they see their losses as being worth it, I shudder to think what their ultimate reward might be."
"While I know little about the local goblin tribes, the Birdcruncher tribe is apparently both close and relatively weak. That might be a good place for an initial foray. We’ll need to research this first, though. Are there anyone in town with some experience in hunting goblins?"
Elisile listens quietly to Alwyn’s words, and the talk of dinner at the Hagfish. She seems to have something on her mind, but does not say anything, just looks thoughtfully around the taproom.
"Now, I may be grasping at straws and such, but we got an intereting tale of a woodsman going mad and wandering about the town on a killing spree. More the point, he was collecting trophies from his kills and burning them up as offerings to something or another."
"Anyway, was nary a month after he was caught and killed that the temple was lost in the fire, and more to the point the priest and his daughter."
"Now, here 's the leap. If you are burning up trophies of kills assome kind of offering, then you must be offering them to someone. And far be it from me to be claiming to be all religious, but I don't think there are too many gods of light and order that would be thanking you for such."
"So be it dark god, or demon or devil, or something else just as foul, I would wager a week in the latrines that it ain't bein' to friendly with the temple. So, I think we should be after looking into this chopper, as knowing why the priest died may lead us to knowing why his body was taken."
"Of course, it is so much turning at trees if I have jumped to a conclusion, and one has no never mind to the other."
I take a long sip of ale to remoisten my pallet.
"And not to come all over dark an' nasty, but here is hoping the chopper had a bit of help in his spree, for I for one dread the idea of facing the restless soul of a insane murderer who has somehow come to be the leader of the local goblins."
After Lo'j lengthy statement, the typically-silent mage speaks up.
"I am in agreement with Alwyn. The goblins are the first place to look for the source of this raid. Perhaps we will find more clues to lead us in one direction or another. I don't believe that we're dealing with Chopper here, nor an incarnation of him. Restless spirits don't tend to adopt mantles of leadership. They're often only barely sentient. Someone living is behind this, probably someone with a grudge against the priest whose body was stolen."
Vethran scratched his chin a moment.
"I don't suppose anyone knows of any enemies the former priest may have made during his lifetime?"
Illes shakes his head when Lo'j finishes his rundown and respectfully disagrees, "I think what Bethana meant was that the townspeople burned Choppers sick shrine to the ground after he died."
The Varisian pulls out a small pouch of tobacco and begins rolling a smoke as he goes through a few things that stood out to him. "The thing that strikes me is these people took in foundling even though they all agreed it wasn't human? Who raised these people?! Likely some kind of fey or witch cursed babe that someone else would have known better than to be taking in. The girl, Nualia...white hair, violet eyes, incredibly beautiful? That sound normal to you?"
Illes lights his smoke and leans in on both elbows to address the group conspiratorially, specifically keeping his voice low so Ameiko won't overhear, "So she grows up here in town, gets to a certain age and gets a little curious about boys, right? Tobyn isn't having any of that- practically keeps her under lock and key way I took it. Only she meets a nice Varisian boy, and that's not going to do at all for our priest here trying to raise his adopted daughter by the gods own ways. So he tries to put a stop to it. That ever work for any parent trying to tell a teenage daughter who to see in your experience? Well when Tobyn puts a stop to it this Varisian vagabond just drops off the face of the earth. I don't know if Tobyn killed him or scared him off but I'd lay money he didn't convince that boy that father knows best. So her boy vanishes and next thing you know the temple burns taking Tobyn with it. These people seem to think Nualia died in the fire too, but even they admit there was no sign of her body and we all know a devil child is probably immune to her own hellfire.
So here we are with a new temple being dedicated over Tobyn's old one and someone sends these goblins to burn it and dig up dear old dad's corpse. Only one person I know so far who might still bear a grudge..."
Vethran nodded at his cousin, his brow arching in thought.
"A somewhat radical conclusion, but nonetheless a theoretically valid one. The biggest problem, however, is that we have no way of tracking her down without any leads. This brings us full circle, then, to the goblins. If she's leading them, they'll know where we can find her."
"How about the boy? I could certainly see the wronged lover setting fire to the church, maybe after spiriting away the daughter. On the other hand, why would he come back now? I agree that the girl Nualia is probably our best lead. With a small effort at disguising herself, she could have gotten into town without much notice and unlocked the north gate. After that, she could direct her goblin minions to dig up her father's remains before making her escape. It all seems to fall into place now, doesn't it?"
“The girl’s appearance does not sound so strange,” says the white haired elf with the unusual eyes quietly, “but she perhaps does have motive for burning the place of worship and stealing the priest’s shell. Discovering the motive and intelligence behind the goblin attack may help us defeat them, but recall that we have given our pledge to defend this town and it’s people; we should see to it’s defence before we hunt. If we are to investigate, let us at first keep our investigations to the town.”
The elf settles back into her chair after the uncharacteristically long speech.
"Ah yes, perhaps I misunderstood, but the point is the same. If this chopper was making offerings on an altar, burnt or otherwise, the rest holds true."
"I think you have an excellent point about the Varisian boy, and one we should certainly pursue. But if there is information to be had here in town, we could at least eliminate any connection with the mad man before wandering across hill and yon looking for a boy for whom we have no name."
"And heap on the frightening if one leads us to the other."
We be jus' sittin' 'ere flappin' jaws, but wat we be needin' to be doin' is pick a path an' be followin' it. Pick an' let's be on!
Illes nods in agreement with Vethran, "Only the goblins know who put that raid together. But we did agree to wait until the Sheriff gets back. It is odd that so many different tragedies hit one after another in one summer. Lo'j, mind asking Bethana what happened to Ameiko's mother? I'm not exactly sure how much of an ass I made of myself last night and I think following it up with questions about dead parents might be a bit much for just getting to know someone. And you're right of course. Might as well find out everything we can about Chopper while we are at it. Could turn out to be related as you say.
Funny what a group of rampaging goblins will do to a town. I've been here on and off for two years and never heard a word about all these dark secrets in Sandpoint's past. I'm liking the place more already."