The group regathers in the glass working room, now that the heat of battle has passed it is easy to avoid the patches of broken glass by moving slowly. Sophy takes a minute to look at Wren's injury , but is unable to find away to relieve the wizards discomfort.
Victor takes some time and studies the strange statue in the middle of the room. He discovers that it appears to be a human sized male figure recently covered in sheets of glass. Based on the skin tone of the figure inside it is probably of Minkai decent, the same ethnicity as the Kaijitsu family.
"Aargh! That hurts like hell" Wren exclaims in a most unlady-like fashion when Sophy inspects her injured foot. "Let's just wait until we find a healer. I can tough this out for a bit. We need to finish up here, as there are probably more goblins waiting to jump out at us."
Victor takes some time and studies the strange statue in the middle of the room. He discovers that it appears to be a human sized male figure recently covered in sheets of glass. Based on the skin tone of the figure inside it is probably of Minkai decent, the same ethnicity as the Kaijitsu family.
As Victor gets a closer look, he realizes this statue is no statue."Atrocity." He mumbles to himself as he runs his hands from his face, up over his head and through his hair as he looks around, noticing all the carnage wrought inside the glassworks. "Alright, since Brock is going to sweep the glass, I will gather these vermin," he motions the goblins, "and throw them in the furnace. I will collect what I can from them. See if there is anything letting us know why they are here. It makes no sense. Goblins are stupid creatures." He ponders it a moment, able to not make any sense of this. "This 'statue' is going to need a proper burial. I am afraid this is a family member of the Kaijitsu family, seeing how it appears to be of the same decent. We need to clear out the rest of this building, quickly, so we can let the sheriff know what we have uncovered." He thinks a moment, "Okay, um, how about this. Brock, if you would please, go with the ladies and investigate the rest of this place, as I will do the sweeping of the glass along with getting rid of these vermin. That way, they will have some muscle in case there are more goblins that we have yet to uncover. Let us clear this place out and get out of here. Eponine is hurt, Wren can barely walk, Sophy has a nasty cut there just above her eye, Brock, my mighty friend," he looks at Brock for a moment unable to tell if he's hurt, "Is it even possible to hurt you?" he says with a wry grin, "And apparently," he continues as he looks at his own blood covered clothing once again, "I have a grown a liking for the color red." he finishes with a smile.
Eponine will start searching the place. She'll start with the doors at the top of the map in this room we are currently in. Then she'll go to the bottom of the map, checking the single door behind where Victor and she killed the last goblin.
Sophy gasps in horror and quickly looks away when Victor communicates the identity of the "statue." "It's ... it's not Ameiko, is it?" she asks timidly.
"No. It is not Ameiko." He responds, as he moves to the goblin nearest Sophy, bends down on a knee, and then starts searching it. "It could be her father but I am not sure. It has been so long since I have last seen him. Maybe a grandfather? An uncle? I do not know much about her family, except for her, her brother, and her father. It is not Tsuto, that much I can assure you. I remember him." Victor stops a moment wondering, then continues with what he was doing. "Anyway," he stops again to look up at her a moment, wiping the sweat from his face again, "maybe once we get him to Father Zantus, he will be able to tell us who it is." He gives Sophy a sad smile, then returns back to searching as his thoughts turn to all the death in Sandpoint just over the last few days.
Victor searches all the goblins thoroughly, concentrating on the ones only in the glassworks intially, and removing anything of value/importance and then throwing them into the furnace after he has accomplished that.
After that, he will begin sweeping up the glass.
Eponine leads the way with Brock closel at hand in case there is any trouble. Wren and Sophy follow at a safe distance while Victor remains in the glass working room disposing of the goblin corpses.
Eponine tries the double doors first and they open into the hall near another double door that leads out side. These are locked so she continues around the hall and opens a door that leads to a circular display room . Shelves here once contained displays of glass art work for customers to browse, but now the floor of the room is covered in shattered bits of glass.
Two doors other doors lead out of the room, Eponine recognizes one of them as the locked outside door so she slowly works her way along the wall to the other. It opens into another hallway and the group cautiously follows her out.
Another door opens and reveals a small storage room containing finished glassware. It seems the goblins hadn't gotten to smashing the room to pieces yet.
Continuing down the hall, Eponine leads the group around two turns and finds two more doors. Behind the first , they find a closet full of cleaning supplies. The other is also a store room, this one filled with supplies like tools, firewood, and other miscellaneous things.
The door at the end of the hall is unlocked and opens into the dining room . Wren and Brock passed through here chasing the last goblin. Tables and chairs are smashed and over turned. Several doors lead out of the room.
While the others are exploring Victor has time to search 5 of the goblins. The only mark he can find on them is a brand of a head or skull like shape with a building on the top, much like a hat. Before burning the bodies he recovers 5 dogslicers, 5 cheap short bows, 42 arrows, and a total of 15 gold coins and 19 silver coins. Each is also wearing dirty leather armor.
Sophy makes sure there is a bolt in her crossbow. Following in back of the group, she finds herself next to a door which is slightly ajar. Peering in carefully , she asks quietly, "Are those beds?"
Victor gathers the weapons of the goblins and stacks them on the nearest table. He keeps the coin seperated from his own, reminding himself to remember to ask the others what should be done with it. He then looks all around and sees all the glass covering the floor. There is just so much of it. We are not going to have time to sweep all of this. He sighs. "Maybe the sheriff can bring some hired hands to help clean this up. There is just too much." I will go and check the other goblins and get rid of them as well. Then I can catch up with the others. Starting to make his way back, he looks at the "statue" once again and can't help but feel a great deal of sorrow. "I am so sorry, my friend." He says quietly as he heads back to the room he came in from.
Victor works his way around the glass and back out into the loading room to retrieve the lone goblin body. From it he retrieves 6 arrows, a dogslicer, a short bow, small leather armor, and 17 copper coins before adding it's corpse to the hot fire. Bypassing the five dead goblins still in the glass working room, he heads back out to get the two goblins and the firepelt from the hall. As he passes through the loading room again he notices that one of the doors is cracked open. He is pretty sure it wasn't like that before.
Sophy peaks into the room with the beds to see what must have been servants quarters . It has been completely ransacked and dried blood is splattered on the walls. Though it appears that the beds may have been put to use by some dirty, smelly goblins the room is empty now.
Wren will peek in the room with the door cracked, just to the south of the one that Sophy just examined.
Victor, noticing the door being slightly open, stops in his tracks, draws his bow and places an arrow in it. Remembering the last time he walked through an open door without checking, Victor is far more careful this time as he creeps slowly towards the door that's ajar, listening and looking for any possible sound or movement. Careful Victor. It's probably just a coincidence. Yeah. I wished I knew where the others where.
Standing in the violated bedroom, Sophy's mind wanders to the dead bodies in the glassworking room, and tears fill her eyes as she thinks of the people who will never sleep in their beds again. Feeling like she is intruding, she carefully backs out of the room and quietly pulls the door shut.
Eponine's first sweep is not going to be thorough. She's poking her head into each room, checking for goblins or survivors. Once she thinks she checked all the doors, then she'll start a more thorough search.
Brock moves 10' to his right and opens that door.
Grief weighing her down, Sophy closes the door to the bedroom.
Wren opens the door to the east and finds a kitchen which has been the play space of a large animal. Food stores have been torn apart and devoured leaving a mess upon the floor.
Eponine opens the other eastern door and finds a wrecked pantry . Here, barrels and sacks of grain and crates of dried fish and venison have been completely demolished, and most of the food is missing. A broken dogslicer lies near the northern corner, discarded by one of the goblins who ruined it trying to get at the food. Another closed door lies straight ahead.
Brock opens the door to a sweetly smelling wash room . There is another door that exits this small room.
Victor pulls back on the string of his bow while he gives the door a kick with his foot. It swings in to reveal a landing at the top of a flight of stairs going down to a cellar. He is not sure, but he thinks he hears the sound of boot steps echoing away into the distance.
Brock proceeds to open the next door, weapon in hand. After that, he will use the washroom to wash himself and his armor from any goblin blood.
Wren will open the door in her room.
Wren will open the door in her room.
Brock proceeds to open the next door, weapon in hand. After that, he will use the washroom to wash himself and his armor from any goblin blood.
The door opens on a not so fresh smelling privy. Shutting the door, Brock turns and takes some time to clean the blood of his armor.
Victor lets up on his bow and places the arrow back in his quiver. "So this is how they are getting in. I have got to go find the others." He backs out and turns and then stops in his tracks. "Now I am torn. Many of us are hurt, and there could be more goblins down there. Who knows how many. If I tell Brock, he will charge in recklessly." He then thinks of the women, "Well, as far as that goes, so would Wren and Eponine." Crazy women. He thinks to himself shaking his head. Pondering the situation for just a few moments longer, "Bah! Let us get this over with, Victor. They would kill me if I kept this from them. Literally! Besides, I cannot let goblins roam freely under the glassworks." He attempts to form some kind of plan, as he begins his search for the others. You never know, Victor, maybe cooler heads will prevail. Maybe they WON'T go rushing in headlong. Hm? He thinks to himself, not buying it in the least as he becomes more worried about his newfound friends.
Peering back into the glassworks and seeing no one, he returns back to the room with the dead cat and begins his search there, calling out for the others as he does so.
Sophy stands cautiously in the middle of the room , her crossbow at the ready, as the others check in 3 directions.
Eponine will check that last closed door. I doubt she'd be able to hear Victor's call.
Perception
The door off the pantry opens onto a storeroom for firewood probably used in the kitchen. As everyone rejoins Sophy in the center room Eponine hears Victor call for them. They quickly rejoin him in the hallway, standing around the bodies of a couple of goblins and the firepelt cat. He tells them about what he suspect about the lower level of the Glassworks.
Eponine will recover her scarf.
Good work, Victor! We need to move quickly. I still haven't given up hope that we might find survivors!
Sophy is obviously reluctant to go down the stairs. "But ... we don't know what might be down there. Wren can hardly walk as it is. Shouldn't someone go for help? If there are survivors, they might need more than us to rescue them."
Edging closer to the down staircase, Eponine says Perhaps one of us should. But we've already spent so much time finding the lower level...
Sophy frowns. "You said you thought you heard someone walking down there?" she asks Victor. She glances around the room. "Was someone hiding up here and go down the stairs after we left? Or did someone sneak up, open the door and go back down ... like they wanted us to follow them down there?" She shivers. "Shouldn't we check behind that door?" she asks timidly, pointing to the door on the southern wall. "They could have been hiding in there. There could still be someone there, waiting to come down behind us and cut us off -- or lock us in."
Sophy frowns. "You said you thought you heard someone walking down there?" she asks Victor.
"That is correct, Miss Sophy. The door was ajar and I checked it. When I opened the door completely, that is when I heard the footsteps." He answers.
"Was someone hiding up here and go down the stairs after we left? Or did someone sneak up, open the door and go back down ... like they wanted us to follow them down there?"
Victor ponders it a moment, "Those are good questions, Miss Sophy. Ones I wished I had an answer for. It is likely they want us to follow, so we can be on their territory. Make it much easier to kill us. Who knows what traps they have, how many more of these cat creatures there are." He waves a hand at the dead cat. "I cannot help but feel it is a suicide mission."
Then turning to Eponine, "I understand your need to want to find survivors. I do so as well but I am afraid I do not hold out as much hope as yourself of there being any. I am quite worried for Ameiko. If they have her, she is probably already dead." He says with a great deal of despair. "If we are going to investigate, we have to look at the facts." He says looking at them all, then turning to Eponine again, "Miss Eponine, you are barely standing. How many more hits from these creatures can you honestly take?" He then turns to Wren. "Miss Wren, there is no way you can go down there with glass in your foot. You must try and get the glass out. If you cannot, then I will try. If none of us can, then I do not think it is a good idea for you to go down there with us. I do not want you hobbled if we get overwhelmed by goblins." With the mention of goblins, he remembers what he was going to say next as he then speaks again to all of them, "Speaking of which, we do not know how many there are. What if the ones up here were just bored and the rest of their group is still down there? There could be twice as many! Even Brock, the mighty warrior, can kill a lot of them but he cannot kill them all." He stops a moment to let them think on it. "I cannot help but also want to go to the lower level. If Miss Ameiko is down there and she is still alive, then I would never forgive myself," he pauses a moment, staring down at the floor, raising his eyes quickly at Sophy and then dropping them back down. He then continues, "if we did not at least try."
Victor then takes a deep breath, "Let us decide this as a group then. Are we gonna take our chances and go down to this lower level? Or are we gonna go and alert the sheriff to what we have found? Time, may or may not be on our side. What say you all?"
"I'm fine, so long as we go slow. I won't be running any races, but I can hobble with the best of them. Maybe we could send Sophy to gather the guards, and the rest of us could look for Ameiko."
Brock walks down the stairs, saying "When you're done yapping, I'll be downstairs kickin' some goblin a$$! Feel free to join in."
As Brock starts down, Eponine shrugs, a gesture meant to say "Its out of my hands now." But clearly the grin of mischief on her face is pleased with the development. She follows Brock.
Sophy looks helplessly at Victor as Brock and Eponine disappear down the stairway. "Check behind that door first," she asks him, pointing to the door on the opposite wall. "I don't want someone to jump out and lock us down there." She makes sure her crossbow is loaded, then turns to train it on the closed door while Victor opens it.
Victor, watching Eponine and Brock move down the stairs, can only think to himself, So be it.
Then acknowledging Sophy's request, he moves to open the door.
Wren waits at the top of the stairs, hoping to keep with with both groups, the ones walking down the stairs and the others checking the last door upstairs. She was prepared to shriek, if she could make out either group needing help.
Brock and Eponine descend the stairs to the lower level of the Glassworks into an underground store room. Canvas bags of sand line the hall and two wheelbarrows are resting against the wall. The section of brick wall to the left of the stairs has been dismantled to reveal an older passage behind it.
Wren waits anxiously at the top of the stairs while Sophy trains her crossbow on the door. Victor flings it open ready to slash some goblins, but the room is empty. It is some kind of prep room for the glass works. Buckets filled with sand, ash, and soda rest on the tables and from the mess it seems the goblins were using the materials here as part of their devious tortures upon the dead workmen.
Eponine whispers Sorry Brock, I'm going to need a little light. She'll pull a candle from her pack and light it. Once lit, she'll hold it in her left hand and her rapier in her right.
Brock walks to the dismantled section of the brick wall, his darkvision scanning for any signs of danger.
Noticing nothing in this room, "There is nothing here, Miss Sophy. Let us catch up with the others. Who knows what manner of trouble they may be getting into." Victor says as he heads for the stairs, "Alright, you ladies stay behind me, if you would please. That way if anything comes at us, it will be me they get first." He tells them as he descends the stairs.
With the battle being over, and Wren's emotions returning to normal, she had began to regret snapping at Victor earlier. As such, she did not point out, that with her wounded foot, if the group were to retreat, she would no doubt be blocking the way due to her reduced movement. "Sounds like a plan," she agreed. "Let's go finish our exploration and see if Ameiko is still around."
Victor stopping abruptly, just remembering Wren's foot, even though he just recently mentioned it, "Miss Wren, do you wish for me to try to remove the glass from your foot? I must warn you, I do not have great skill, or really any for that matter when it comes to such things, but I could give it a try?" He asks with a look that says, "Maybe?".
Victor stopping abruptly, just remembering Wren's foot, even though he just recently mentioned it, "Miss Wren, do you wish for me to try to remove the glass from your foot? I must warn you, I do not have great skill, or really any for that matter when it comes to such things, but I could give it a try?" He asks with a look that says, "Maybe?".
"Let's give it another try. I don't want to slow down the group any more than necessary. Be careful, though."
An update post will be coming soon!
As Sophy watches Victor carefully bend down to inspect Wren's foot, she quickly volunteers, "If you're going to try that a moment, let me just run out and find someone in the street to send for the guard. It won't take a minute, but if we run into more goblins down there, we'll need the help." Unless someone stops her, she'll dash for the outside door. If she doesn't see someone in the street, she'll go next door to tell Sabyl to send for Sargent Blake.
"Okay...here goes." Victor warns as he then moves to pull the glass out. Just before he does though, "Alright, Miss Sophy, but hurry!" He tells her as he then makes the attempt.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Victor flinches as Wren jerks from his failure. Victor looks up at Wren and can't help but feel sorry for her. Thinking about his actions previously towards Wren, and how embarrased he is to feel like such a fool, "Miss Wren, I must apologize for my actions earlier. It was improper. I do not understand what came over me. I hope you can forgive me." He asks and then interjects quickly, "And I hope you can forgive me for making the glass worse as well." He says with a weary smile, hoping he doesn't get punched for that. "Here let me help you up." He tells her as he stands up so as to aid her better, then stops a moment just before, "I know I have made it only worse, but maybe you have better odds than myself of removing it?" He shrugs. "You could give it a shot?"
"Oh, I'm okay," she mutters. As the battle had ceased, her emotions had returned to better control and she was embarrassed over berating Victor earlier. "Don't worry about before. I sometimes struggle to keep my temper contained when things get exciting as before. I shouldn't have snapped at you." Groaning as she got to her feet, she realized looking for Ameiko was going to hurt for the next little bit.
Lending a hand to help her up, "Well alright then, Miss Wren. If you do not mind, let us wait for Miss Sophy. Hopefully she will not be long." He then thinks of another option, knowing how determined she is, "Or if you prefer, you can attempt to catch up with the others. Although, I would prefer you wait here with me." He mentions sincerely. "Being hobbled and not knowing how far they have traveled, concerns me. I would hate for you to get blindsided with no one there to help. Trust me, that does not feel very good." He reaches for the deep cut a goblin gave him because of his carelessness of not checking behind a door earlier. I still wonder how I am still alive from that. He thinks to himself but then mentally shrugs it away, thankful he's still standing.
Victor attempts to tend to Wren's foot injury with no success. Sophy dashes outside hoping to find someone to send for help and runs into Sabyl as she is returning home to the House of Blue Stones. The monk sees the anxiety in Sophy's eyes and asks. "What is it dear? What troubles you?"
Downstairs Brock moves towards the wall that has been torn down. Bricks are scattered about the floor and up ahead the passage seems to turn to the right. Eponine moves down the last few stairs and her light reveals that the storeroom extends much farther under the Glassworks. A passage appears to branch off the left wall.
Eponine will come back to Brock. Quietly, she'll say to him It looks like a passage opens up down this way.