Doran makes another attempt to put down the three-armed fiend, firing his weapon with a grim look on his face.
The brave alchemist drives his dagger into one of the arms squeezing the dwarf in an attempt to loosen its grip.
The giant goblin hefts Pirknok into the air and slams him into the bloodied ranger.
Doran gasps sharply as the goblin throws Pirknok around like a ragdoll, but regains his composure quickly. "I'm gettin' aw'ully sick o' all 'ese damned goblins!" the tanned Chelaxian shouts, firing at the beast once again.
The beefy goblin roars in victory over the fallen Pirknok (and possibly Ventus) giving Doran the perfect angle.
The chelaxian's shot goes straight through its throat and the beast collapses in a massive heap.
Seeing the monstrous goblin drop, Doran lowers his weapon and moves to try and patch up Pirknok.
The rest of the complex proves to be unguarded.
In one room, the party uncovers a room with a unique magical phenomena. The room seems to be absent gravity causing stones and other bits of debris to float in the air. The walls of this chamber are literally covered with more Thassilonion but this text gives Ensu a headache when he tries to read it. A thin wand bobs in the middle of the room.
Continuing a ways the party finds another blocked off staircase. Like the previous one, this was appears to have collapsed long ago but goes down, deeper underground.
Lastly, you discover a long passageway that grows wider and wider. It opens up to moonlight and you find yourselves on a sandy beach. The lights of Sandpoint twinkle nearly a mile to the south. Even with the poor lighting goblin footprints and refuse is obvious here.
Eventually the party returns back the way it came, through the catacombs, up the smuggler tunnels, and into the Glassworks. Lieutenant Krojun's eyes go wide when he notices your battered condition.
"Spirits bless you, what happened down there? Some of you look like you've been through an auroch stampede."
"Thet might've hurt less..." murmurs Pirknok.
"Flying severed head things, split-mouth monster things, summoner imp things and a three armed goblin," Ventus said sitting down and relaxing against a wall.
The dwarf nods at the ranger's summary. "Uh big three-armed goblin. An' uh ton uv goblin weppins, too."
"The tunnels come out a good distance away from Sandpoint at a beach. Should be safe to send a team in to collapse them."
"We found, and dealt with, a great deal of immediate problems. The town elders, however, will likely not be overjoyed at the rest of what we discovered." Ensu is quiet as they emerge, though he pulls Ysme off to the side, "Give me a chance to look into a few things before you try bringing this subject up with Father Zantus; I would rather have as much knowledge and evidence as possible before asking him to entertain the topic of our difficulties once more, and there is a Thassilonian expert in town that I wish to consult first." After that, Ensu heads to Brodert Quint's house, hoping the scholar is currently at home, so as to save the story from getting out any sooner than it absolutely must. If the scholar is not home, Ensu will head to the bookstore and discretely pull him aside, asking for assistance on a difficult matter.
"What more did you discover?" Krojun asks as the gnome quickly departs with Ysme in tow.
"What was that about? Thassilonian?"
The lieutenant looks frustrated but dismisses the problem for now in favor of debriefing those that are still present.
"I assume that means you believe that these tunnels were being used by the goblins to gain entrance into the city? It doesn't matter either way but do you think they could move an army through them?"
The big shoanti calls one of his men over. They talk briefly and the words demolitions and immediate are heard. The guard looks grim but leaves quickly.
An elderly man in a gown and a night cap answers the door squinting through his spectacles.
"What is it? Is the town under attack again?" he asks as he stares down as the two of you through his sleep-starved eyes.
Ysme nods in acquiescence at Ensu's words, "I consider Adventus a more immediate concern, he should probably go with you when you speak to Father Zantus. by preference. He seems fine, but we both know there are unseemly things whose bite...
does,
unseemly things..." She trails off lamely failing to think of a more erudite way to voice her concern.
Upon reaching the surface, Ventus finds that all of his hair has fallen out.
Ventus reaches up to scratch and itch only to find his straw blonde locks, uncharacteristically absent. "Priknok, could you do me a favor?"
"I fear that we may have bigger problems than a goblin raid, and I was hoping that you could help shed some light on our recent discoveries." Ensu proceeds to tell Brodert about the catacombs, the statue, the shrine, the quasit, the well, the strange floating room, and anything else of notable interest, as well as showing the scholar the quasit's journal.
As Ensu goes into his rant, the old man raises a hand to pause him.
"Is Sandpoint under attack?"
"Will it be in ruins by morning?"
"Can this wait until morning?"
"Good, then we can talk in the morning. I've seen you at the shop. I will meet you there."
"Very well, although the matter might better be discussed here, as it will likely require research more easily done with your resources here than what is available at the store."
Eli trails off as the others disperse. He returns home, troubled by his performance against the monsters in such close confines, he spends some time in his laboratory, discovering some refinements to another formula he has heard of, eventually adding a new formula to his formula book, and collapsing into bed. Marysin tries to fuss over him, but knows he is impossible to deal with when he is working. She retires to bed much earlier, her concern keeping her awake until he appears. "Eli, I hope this will not continue. You aren't a warrior, you know. I'm afraid for you if you keep involving yourself." She whispers with concern. Eli finds it difficult to contradict her. He mumbles something non-committal about how he is helping the town and he's being forced into it.
The next day, he spends some time trying to improve his aim with thrown objects. It becomes something of an obsession for a couple hours until Marysin makes him stop for breakfast. He returns to his laboratory to work after that, beginning work on a new concoction.
At the obvious dismissal, Ysme nods her head as she places her hand on Ensu's arm. "Certainly sir, we will speak with you then." As the two of them head away, "I do believe that Adventus' is a matter which should not wait until morning however. Let's go collect him & get him to the Cathedral."
Doran seems to sag as they finally exit the catacombs, his weapon seeming to weigh him down quite a bit. He simply goes with the flow as the others speak to Lt. Krojun, adding anything he finds relevant if asked.
Pirknok looks at Ventus, puzzled. "Wut ez et? Are you okay?"
"If my head comes off and tries to bite anyone, could you hit it really hard with your axe?"
Eli, you find that the sample of strange fluid that you took from the well has thickened and darkened since last night.
Perhaps experimentation might yield something useful.
"Umm..."
The dwarf looks a bit puzzled, as if he's not sure whether the ranger is making some kind of joke, or is just delusional from his injuries. He glances over at Krojun as if to ask is it a language thing? and then looks back at Ventus.
"Umm. Come on, we shud get thuh stuff we barruhd back ta thuh armerey."
"Pirknok, my hair just fell out all at once. That ain't normal for humans. If I..." Eyeing Krojun Ventus pulls Pirknok aside, "If those head-things infected me with something, then someone needs to kill me if we can't fix it. I ain't letting my last minutes be ones of causing woe and misery."
"You are better suited to look into that than I, my dear. I may be able to channel basic healing, but anything beyond that, and I am out of my realm of expertise."
"Oh."
The dwarf scratches his chin thoughtfully, his expression worried and grim. After a moment, he nods soberly. "Ah'll... ah'll do et."
He reaches out and clasps Ventus' forearm for a moment before leading the way to the armory to return the borrowed equipment.
The group minus Eli reunites at the Sandpoint armory. Ventus, bald, looks increasingly nervous. Pirknok, not bald, appears equally worried.
It's now ~12:00am.