"I'm sure Sophy will be right back. We can wait here on her. If there is a problem, Epi or Brock will come get us."
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?"
"Oh, please, please," Sophy begs, "could you send urgent word to the guard? The Sheriff is out of town, but he left Sargent Blake in charge. There's an emergency in the Glassworks. Please, I'm so sorry, I have to go back." As much as she wants to tell exactly what's happened, Sophy is hesitant to say the word goblins; if news got out, it could lead to a panic, which was exactly what the sheriff had charged them to prevent. Leaving the surprised monk standing in the street, she turns and dashes back toward the factory.
"Alright, miss, we'll go your way first but stand behind me." With weapon in hand, Brock double moves to D33.
"I fetch him straight away dear..." Sohpy barely hears Sabyl's response as she dashes back into the Glassworks. When she returns Victory leads them down the stairs, Wren at the rear slowed by her aching foot.
Brock and Eponine move into the storage chamber carefully scouting for goblins. The passage reveals two doors, one slightly open.
Sophy returns to Victor and Wren, out of breath but somewhat comforted by the thought that help is on the way. Her calmer mood quickly fades, however, as the three descend into the dark basement. Eponine's candle up ahead casts quivering shadows on the passage walls but does nothing to light up the area around Sophy. She lets her left hand trail along the wall for support as she goes down the stairs, but as the wall suddenly ends, leaving her hand reaching into dark emptiness, she shrinks back. "I can't see a thing," she whimpers. "We need a light." Barely are the words out of her mouth before the crossbow in her right hand begins to glow like a torch. She drops it in sudden fear and it shoots 10 feet down the passageway to the east.
In the darkness, Wren also has a problem seeing what is going on. Looking down toward her foot due to the continuing agony, she only sees the hallway light up, looks up, then sees Sophy's crossbow again hurtling down the hall. "Sophy, what are you doing! We are going to have to tie a rope around your crossbow if you keep throwing it for no good reason." Still being a bit ashamed from her outburst earlier, Wren quickly added in a more gentle tone: "You don't want to break it. It might come in handy."
Victor noticing the tiny light up ahead, agrees completely. Then hearing a noise behind him, he looks down the same direction as Wren. "Do not worry, Miss Sophy, I will get it for you." Victor goes and retrieves the crossbow and notices it is lit up. Walking back, "I must say, I would have to agree with Miss Wren, Miss Sophy. You do not want to break a weapon that lights up as well as this one!" He says with a look of amazement, unable to get over the magnificence of a crossbow that 'lights up'. "I have got to get me one of these!" He exclaims excitedly as he hands it to Sophy. "I wonder if there are rapiers that do that?" He asks mostly to himself.
Brock moves down the hallway, content in the darkness, his eyes scanning for trouble. He checks if the first door is locked and if so, then moves to the second open door.
Confused and embarrassed, Sophy accepts the glowing weapon back from Victor. "I didn't...," she starts. "I don't...." She gives up trying to explain what she doesn't understand in the first place. The crossbow does not feel hot to her touch as she expected it might so she cautiously loads it in case of danger.
Noticing the weapon's illumination, Wren is puzzled. "Has your crossbow ever glowed before? It wasn't glowing the last time you threw it, was it? That is very strange."
While they continue limping down the hall to catch up with the others, Wren casts Detect Magic and looks closely at the crossbow.
Victor ponders Wren's question. "I think it must happen only when it is completely dark. Upstairs has all the skylights, so it was not necessary." He explains as if it makes perfect sense. "Anyway, let us catch up with Brock and Eponine. We cannot let them get too far ahead." He says as he moves towards where he saw the tiny light, yet keeping a slow enough pace for Wren.
"Well, I guess that does make some sense," Wren pondered Victor's words as they continued catching up to the others. "I'd like to look more closely at the weapon when we get some downtime. There's something...off about things."
"You are most correct, Miss Wren. There is a lot that is off about things." Turning his head to acknowledge Wren, then turning to Sophy, and then continuing with his thoughts. "Like why are these goblins attacking Sandpoint? What do goblins want with such a small town? What is it they hope to accomplish? I have never known goblins to be out to accomplish anything. Just random chaos, just like we witnessed upstairs. I have tried to figure it out, but I just cannot make any sense out of it." He shrugs. "Truly, truly off."
Grateful that Victor has shifted the conversation away from the glowing crossbow, Sophy answers quietly, "The note Bethana showed us ... it said Lonjiku Kaijitsu was involved with the goblins somehow. I didn't believe it, but with what we've seen here.... You don't think maybe Tsuto and Ameiko confronted him and he let the goblins loose to silence them? That poor man upstairs," she shudders, "could it be Tsuto? I don't know why he'd let the goblins destroy his own place of business, though -- unless he lost whatever control he had over them."
Victor pondering everything Sophy said, "It is possible." he starts. "That would be truly sad, though, a father involved with killing his only children." Victor says in a somber tone. "As much as I am sure the 'statue' is not Tsuto, I cannot help but doubt myself a little bit. It does not resemble him much but it truly is hard to tell with all that melted glass. Add to the fact that I have not seen him in several years." Victor states, obviously frustrated with his uncertainty. "Maybe when we can get all this taken care of, we will be able to go through some of those records upstairs, and hopefully that will shed some light for us. And who knows, maybe the sheriff, or anyone for that matter, can give us a postive identity on the poor man that is covered in glass."
Wren studies the crossbow with a magically keen eye and sees that there is indeed a magical effect happening. She knows the aura is faint, but she is unable to tell what type of magic it could be.
As the three discus crossbows, goblins, and the Kaijistu family, Brock continues down the hall. He puts his hand on the handle of the first door, turns it and finds it unlocked. He opens it cautiously but nothing leaps out at him. Inside he sees another storage room filled with crates of glass panes, and vases that are being prepped for transport. It seems the goblins had to much fun up stairs to bother coming down here to smash this room up too.
Eponine will stay with Brock, keeping him at the edge of the candle's light. If the talking of the other three is echoing down here, she'll give them a hand signal to keep quiet. Otherwise, she'll let Brock lead the way, ready to come up quickly if he meets resistance.
Eponine follows Brock, staying back ten feet, to keep him just outside the effect of the glow. As she moves into the tight hallway she can still hear the voices of the others echoing along the walls. In fact she hears them from in front of her as well as behind her.
"Should we see what's around this corner?" Sophy asks the others quietly. "I don't like the idea of letting something come up behind us." She points the glowing crossbow to the east and shrinks up against the southern wall, nodding to Victor to go past her and peek around.
"Okay." He responds as he squeezes past Sophy. As he passes, the realization of how close he is to her, hits him. Victor pauses for a split second as he loses himself by staring at her. Then noticing Sophy look up at him with a look of wondering as to why it is taking so long, Victor quickly retorts, "Excuse me, Miss Sophy. It is, um, rather tight quarters." He says with an awkward smile as he continues by and takes a look around the corner, hoping to see or hear something. Pay attention, Victor! What's wrong with you, man!? I wished I knew.
"I'm sorry," Sophy blushes as Victor finally makes it past her. She should have stepped back toward the stairs and given him the light. I'm always in the way, she chides herself. I don't know why the sheriff gave me this badge; all I do is stand in the way of the real heroes.
As Victor rounds the corner, the light emanating from the crossbow reveals three doors. Two of them on the eastern wall about half way down the hallway. The first one seems to be partly open. The third door is also cracked open a bit and is directly ahead at the end of the hall. Victor sees Brock as he approaches this partly open door and look inside. Inside Brock finds another smaller storage room, this one has a stain on the floor that appears to be dried blood. The section of wall directly across from the door appears to have been bricked over and recently deconstructed. Bits of brick and rubble are the only evidence that a wall had been in place. Brock can see Victor at the other end of the hallway and the two other doors.
Sophy peeks around the corner behind Victor and is relieved to see Brock at the other end of the hallway. The basement appears to be much smaller than she had feared, and she begins to feel silly for summoning the guard. But why was this little passageway sealed off? she wonders. And who unsealed it?
"I'm sorry,"
"Do not be." He responds sincerely, along with a slight grin as he then turns and notices Brock. "Excellent. It is Brock. Which means Eponine is there as well." He says as he turns back to the ladies. "Let us catch up." He tells them as he moves to catch up.
Reaching the others, "Alright Brock, let us finish what we must. I was not able to get the glass out of Wren's foot, so, she will be hobbled the entire time. I will do what I can to protect her, so I am counting on you, my mountainous friend, to keep everything dead that is non-friendly toward us." He says with a modest grin as he pats him on the shoulder. "Continue on, my friend, we will follow."
Brock moves to the door at J34.
There are so many doors in this place! Wren thinks to herself as she leans up against a wall for a bit of support while the others investigated the doors.
"Shouldn't we check this one?" Sophy whispers as quietly as she can, pointing her loaded crossbow at the slightly-ajar door at J35 as if she's expecting a dozen goblins to come boiling out of it.
Victor and Brock meet in the center of the hall. Brock tries the door in front of him and it opens to reveal an old office with a weathered desk in the corner, a couple of empty wine bottles are knocked over on the floor.
Victor peaks through the open door in front of him and can see that a tunnel exits out of the room to the North.
Sophy slips into the old office, looking for any papers that might indicate who used this room and to see how long ago the wine bottles were emptied.
"There is a tunnel this way." he tells them all. "After you my large friend." He says to Brock. "You can put your candle out now Miss Eponine. Miss Sophy's crossbow lights the way quite well." He says, still quite impressed with the glowing weapon.
Noticing Wren lean against the wall for a breather, "Hang in there Miss Wren. Hopefully this will not take too long and we can get you to Father Zantus as soon as possible." He says encouragingly.
As they begin their trek down the tunnel, Victor will draw his bow, so as to be ready for any goblins.
Brock takes the lead through the tunnel, weapon in hand.
"Don't worry about me. I'm with you guys. This glass is beginning to make me crazy, though! Let's clear out this building and get to Father Zantus."
Sophy steps into the old office to take a look around and finds on the floor, under the chair, an abandoned book. It is small, the size that would fit in a large pocket, and bound with leather without any exterior markings.
The others step into the room with the tunnel. Brock leads the way and before going more than ten feet can tell this tunnel is not part of the Glassworks. It appears to be cut out of the bedrock and wind its way under Sand Point.
Sophy bends down to pick up the book without thinking. She turns the leatherbound book over in her hands, gauging its condition and age, then carefully opens it to the first page.
Noticing it has gotten a great deal darker, he turns around wondering what happened to Sophy and her crossbow. Seeing that she is nowhere to be seen, "Where is Miss Sophy?" He asks with concern in his voice. "Brock, hold a moment, please. Let me see if I can find Miss Sophy." Victor asks as he moves through Eponine and Wren. "Excuse me ladies." Moving back out into the hall, he sees a light coming from the next room. Walking to the door, he notices Sophy looking at a book. "Miss Sophy?" He asks with a look of curiousity.
Sophy gives a guilty jump as Victor addresses her. It's not the first time she's been distracted by a book and had to be called back to reality. "I'm sorry," she says, slipping the book into her pocket and picking up her crossbow from the desk. "I found a book; I thought it might give us a clue what's going on." She rejoins the group behind the other door. As her crossbow lights up the long, dark tunnel, she cringes. "Are we ... going down there?" she asks in a voice that clearly conveys that she hopes the answer is no.
Victor looks down the tunnel then back at Sophy, "Yes, Miss Sophy. That is exactly what we are doing." He responds with a bit of trepidation.
Moving to retake his place behind Brock, "Excuse me again, ladies." He tells them as he gets back to where he was, "Alright, Sir Brock, lead on."
Brock, do you want me to lead and check for any traps along the way?
If Brock let's Eponine lead, she'll tell Victor Why don't you stay back a couple paces to make sure no one comes up behind us.
If Brock wants to keep the lead, she'll hang back herself and serve as a rear guard, keeping Sophy and Wren between her and the guys.
Wren, seeing the problems most of the group, including herself had with vision in this dark tunnel, casts a quick little spell that creates different color motes of light around her, and she guides them far enough down the tunnel that the group can see well.
"You can lead, little lady. Just be careful, I will be close to protect you." Brock lets Eponine go first.
Goblins can be tricky little buggers. I just want to make sure they didn't leave a surprise for us...
Checking for traps as they proceed.
Perception
Why don't you stay back a couple paces to make sure no one comes up behind us.
"Good idea, Miss Eponine." He says as he moves back a bit.
Seeing the dancing lights and what appears to be Wren guiding them, "That is a neat little trick, Miss Wren!" He exclaims, quite impressed. "I did not realize you had such an ability. You are going to have to show me how to do that sometime. That is equally as handy as Miss Sophy's crossbow." He concludes. Then getting back to the task at hand, "Alright, Miss Eponine, between those 'dancing lights' of Miss Wren's and Miss Sophy's crossbow, I shall keep a lookout while you make sure they have not left any unwanted surprises for us."
"If we can get out of here quickly, I'll be more than happy to teach you. Assuming we aren't all eaten by goblins, of course."