"Well, then..." Virgil's clears his throat and you hear his voice change slightly. It becomes hollow and detached, the sort of tone a lecturer might use in discussing a dry academic topic. "Would you object to the use of adverse physical manipulation?"
Either way that was a threat, the cleric here doesn't appreciate murderers. Tsuto you best explain yourself.
Virgil turns and regards Tsuto, tied on the ground. He takes a step away from Ameiko and kneels down beside the half-elf, a thoughtful frown on his face. "Let me explain something, Tsuto, before we begin. You have made many people upset. Very upset. Not the ignorant or petty sort of indignation that arises from pride or vanity, but the justified, unequivocal outrage of having something stolen that cannot be replaced. There is nothing you can do, Tsuto, that can bring back the people who have died. Nothing you can do can make reparations."
Virgil pauses a moment to give his words gravity. "However, you are still of some use to the people of Sandpoint, for you have knowledge concerning who has orchestrated the recent terror and bloodshed. In exchange for that knowledge, we are willing to do unpleasant things to you." Virgil bends down to get near Tsuto's face, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I don't like hurting people, Tsuto. It makes me feel horrible about myself. But that is a sacrifice I will gladly make to ensure that Sandpoint is safe. You see, I love them more than I love myself, and for that love I will accept the burden of a guilty conscience to protect them."
He turns his head to regard the rest of the party. "Not just my love, but the love of every person in this room. We are all willing to give up a measure of personal anguish to protect this town." He turns again to Tsuto. "The question is, does your hate for Sandpoint outweigh the love for Sandpoint held by everyone in this room? For that will determine how far we are willing to go to learn what we need."
He pauses a beat. "Now, who are you working for?"
Diplomacy
Bugsby has been watching the entire exchange with great interest, and the impassioned words of those questioning Tsuto have very much affected him emotionally. When the words "physical manipulation" are used, the gnomes eyes grow very large, and he listens even more carefully and intensely to Virgils admonition and promise. He becomes so engrossed in the Clerics words, he loses himself in them a little, all other things fading to the background of his consciousness, to the point that when Virgil pauses a for a moment, Bugsby is holding his breath tightly. Then finally the question is placed 'Who are you working for', Bugsby blurts out, desperation in his voice, "I work for the Mayor!"
He is startled by the loudness of his own voice, and jumps slightly. Looking around at the curious faces he blushes mightily and tries to return the look of a 'no nonsense hero' to his face as he regards Tsuto. Clearing his throat loudly, "Help us please, for the sake of your sister!" with a gesture towards Ameiko.
flextime -
Ameiko shrugs at the mention of violent force and questioning. Go ahead. That bastard son is no brother of mine.
I would imagine that one of you would check around the room and in the gear that they had packed up to go while this is going on, so let's get some perceptions going too.
Brennan listened to the exchange with half an ear as he walked around the room looking through piles of gear and things that others might consider trash. Sometimes you can tell as much about a person's intentions from what they leave behind as what they pack. He sorted through the belongings, smiling occasionally at the cleric's words.
He hated torture and murder, and yet it never seemed so justified as it did now. This man Tsuto had betrayed all those close to him, including his sister and father. It seemed he was now about to either talk, or be subject to excruciating pain. Good. Maybe Dirk'll want to help In the back of his mind, Dirk pushed his way to the fore, eager to get started.
Perception taker 20 for 26.
I meant to add that if Brennan finds anything that would obviate the torture - a map, a letter, a signed confession written in blood, etc. - he'll speak up immediately.
** spoiler omitted **
Bugsby thinks to himself, 'I've never tortured anyone before, sounds like an experiment I'm loathe to participate in... Then again, this vile creature did try to raze the town I love to the ground, with all my friends inside it.' *mental squaring of shoulders* 'In the name of science and for the good people of Sandpoint I will torture this man if I have to!'
With a faraway look in his eyes he says, as he thinks it, "In the name of science and for the good people of Sandpoint I will torture this man if I have to!" After blinking his eyes a few times and coming back to the situation the small gnome tilts his head to look at Tsuto, it's not a very pleasant look.
Brennan finds a book, that looks to be Tsuto's journal.
This small, leather-bound booklet contains two dozen parchment pages, most of which Tsuto has filled with maps of Sandpoint or erotic drawings of a girl that you recognize... Nualia .
The maps each depict different attack plans. The first set shows the attack plans for a group of thirty goblins—one of these battle maps is circled.
On the side notes of the page, Ameiko reads for you (written in Tian): “The raid went as well as expected. Few goblins perished, and we were able to secure Father Tobyn’s remains while the fools were running around trying to stop the goblins from doing damage. Stupid village idiots! I wonder when they will notice the missing body. As well as this raid went, I can’t wait until we do the real one! This town is going to burn. It’s needs a final cleansing!
Of more pressing concern are the next several pages, which illustrate an assault on Sandpoint by a force of what appears to be two hundred goblins. None of these are circled, and while many are scratched out as if they’ve been rejected, the implications should be ominous nonetheless.
"Ripnugget seems to favor the overwhelming land approach, but I don’t think it’s the best plan. We should get the quasit’s aid in the Catacombs under our glassworks factory. Once I get rid of my father, I can appeal to her for aid, and she can send her freaks up the smugglers tunnel, right out into the center of town. She seems to want to do this anyways. I will meet with her soon, to arrange this. Then, with her freaks running around and scaring/killing the hopeless peasants above, we’ll send troops in from the river, and then keep sending through the underground chambers of the glassworks. It should be a simple task, and all but the bugbear agree. I think he is trying to be contrary to grab some of my power. Unfortunately, my love is to bust in the lower chambers to make a decision. She says that once Malfeshnekor is freed, that we won’t need to be subtle. I hope she is right, but until then I will plan on using the catacombs under the glassworks as a vital entry point.
The last drawing of Nulaia depicts her with demonic hands, bat wings, horns, a forked tail, and fangs.
The page after this drawing has the writing: I wonder if this is what she will look like? My love seems to be going through with it, and nothing I say can convince her of her beauty. She remains obsessed with removing what she calls her “celestial taint” and replacing it with her “mother’s grace”, whatever that means. Burning her father’s remains at the Thistletop shrine, along with that strange ceremony seems to have started the transformation, but I can’t say that the new hand is pleasing to me. Hopefully when she offers the entirety of Sandpoint to Lamashtu’s fires, her new body won’t be as hideous as that hand. After all, Succubi are demons. A half-elf can hope, can’t he?
Virgil laughs out loud as Ameiko finishes reading from the journal, oddly jarring considering his recent speech. "Well, heck! This is everything we need to know right here." He turns to Tsuto, "Sorry, friend. You're no longer useful. Kerdin, would you mind knocking him unconscious? We don't want him trying anything funny when we haul him to the town jail."
Laughing as he approaches Tsuto with his axe Har har har, might ya wanna turn heads a bit. Might be bit a wee ugly ya? Tooth I would like to have from him... seems like a good lesson and a good old memory for me yah Kerdin speaks and laughs heartily as he raises his axe and approach. On range Kerdin brings axe down with plummel first and smacks Tsutos head strongly sending some tooths flying.
If not really getting unconscious Kerdin will repeat again. After done with it he turns to Virgil and her I wer hoping dat I could be making some testing. Ya know how torturing might be all goody goody but ya got to have a knack for it. Nail here and there, tooth there, little bit itching with a sharp point, thats the fun har har har. Thinking for a while Torturing.. well ya, might not mind it but not really the best thing. Spat couple times to head, kick in a nuts and the guy tell usually everything. Women are kind hard but ther we got other things
"Thank you, Kerdin. You have a knack for these sort of things."
"What's a quasit?"
"We need to investigate the lower levels, we may want to bar any entry."
"The journal indicates that whatever is below the Glassworks is not ready to attack just yet. If we block their entrance, it may tip them off that something is wrong. We can easily come back tomorrow, or take care of the goblin problem first."
Bugsby pales considerably during the reading, but feels some affirmation in his decision to torture the man. As Kerdin smashes the man in the head and teeth fly through the air, Bugsby watches in morbid fascination. Patting Kerdin on the shoulder, "Nice work Kerdin. It should be pointed out that we don't even know if the factory is empty of Goblins yet, it is quite large. There could be other workers getting killed or worse at this very moment. And we haven't even notified the town guards yet." He looks at the unconscious Tian man, "He didn't seem to have a plan decided upon yet, and needed to meet with someone. I guess this means Nulaia is alive and some sort of demon now?" He puts a hand on his head, "This is a lot to take in... and it's amazing!" He begins to pace, "Just think, before this is done we get to kill 200 goblins, a quasit, a Succubus, and a 'Malfeshnekor!'... Whatever that is."
Regarding Iodem, "A quasit? hmm... a quasit." he continues pacing and is now tugging on some of the hairs accessible through his hat.
Brennan smiled at his find, and especially the fact that it obviated the need for torture. That came too close tot he reasons he left the Guild behind in the first place.
"Odds are good that we can afford to turn this piece of trash over to the guards and then come back to settle with this quasit-thing. I wouldn't want to wait too long, though, That journal made it sound like the quasit was ready to attack at any point. Like Bugsby said, I'd like to make sure the building is clear, and then find the entrance to this quasit's lair. Obvious or hidden, we need to be able to describe it to someone else, just in case we are delayed in returning."
Oh, by the way... You all leveled. Thought you should know. :)
I will field any pertinent leveling stuff in the discussion thread. It's level 2 so there shouldn't be much work or much decisions for most of you.
Bugsby feels an almost overwhelming urge to do a small happy dance, but settles for a jolly little jumping heel-to-heel tap. Shrugging unconcernedly as the feeling goes away as quickly as it came, it's a gnome thing.
Kerdin looking a bit more happy but stretching his hands as they are leaving out of the Glasswork. Touching his newly acquired teeth and examining it he pays attention to Bugsby and smiles as he sees the little gnome dancing and jumping Strange fellow ya.. Dunno what he migh tha be using but strange.. shooting, urm.. erm.. liquid from hands? Neve see that thing. have to ask more later but staying with his own thoughts.
Something bugging his mind and feeling a bit more refined after the fight Kerdin will later at his own room think what might have occurred during the fight. Something new had been revealed to him during his raging and Kerdin was now trying to figure it out. That strange phenomena and vision had giving him something to think about during his raging.
crickets...
Allrighty. For the sake of moving on... you don't find anything else of note in the building. The whole place is torn up, as you can imagine a goblin raid would do, but there isn't anything that you find out of order.
Is Tsuto with you? Do you take him downstairs with you, or just drop him off with one of the guards? Or take him to Town Hall?
Details, details. I need some more details...
After searching the rest of the factory for goblins, they hurry outside to hand the unconscious Tsuto over to the guard, informing them of what has transpired thus far. They charge the guards to inform the mayor, and to tell her they were headed back into the factory to search for the lair of some sort of demon. Also, they urge them to bring healers to assist those they found in the furnace room.
Once they've taken care of their responsibility to inform the guard, the group heads back down under the factory, looking for trouble. "Does anyone know what kind of demon or devil we're looking for again? Or how to avoid getting eaten by one?" The gnomes voice is light and joking, but he's clearly worried.
Ameiko will stay with her the prisoner, and plans on talking with the mayor about the plans they found.
Take these she says handing you his bow and his ring.
Bugsby's eyes light up, "Oooh, shiny!"
Talking over his shoulder as they head back down below the factory, "Thanks Ameiko, take care, we'll be back!" The gnome is in a pretty good mood.
"Let's get back to the factory and pick up our search from there. Somehow I doubt that the entrance to this quasit's lair is going to have a nameplate and colored lamps. Make sure you take what you need to see for dark tunnels. Kerdin, you're up front with me."
Once in the factory's basement, Brennan begins searching for hidden doors, secret passages, or even a door with a brass plate. After all, you never knew. It could be marked.
Ring of protection +1, the bow isn't magical, just a comp short bow (+1).
His eyes light up, "Oh this ring grants some protection to it's wearer. The bow is a fairly standard thing however. Virgil, I think you should wear it, you seem to have a knack for keeping people alive!"
As the group resumes it's search Bugsby resumes his role of scanning for magic at doors and 'areas of interest'. If needed he'll cast Light on the most appropriate object.
Agree with ya ther Brennan! Up we go and kick som butts yar Kerdin nods along with Brennan.
You make your way back down to the staircase below, and beyond the room that you encountered Tsuto there is another room.
When you open it, you see that the bricks on the back wall of the room have been removed. This is probably one of the Smugglers Tunnels that you have heard so much about. They are supposed to run all around under Sandpoint.
You come to a fork, where you can go straight, left or right. Which way do you go?
"When I was growing up, we used to swim in the underwater caves that dotted the river. The easiest way to avoid getting lost was to put your right hand on the wall. Every turning you took to the right. When you ran out of air and had to swim back, you put your left hand on the wall. Impossible to get lost that way."
He patted his pockets, then grimaced. "Anyone have any chalk? If we could mark the turns we took, that would be another big help."
Bugsby walks to the wall and reaches up, tracing an arrow on the tunnel wall, the wall changing to a bright red color beneath his fingers, the shape eventually coming clear as a bright red arrow. "This will last an hour, or maybe we can stack a few loose stones to serve as a marker?" He looks around for some looks rocks, stacking them three or four stones high if they're available, coloring them red for good measure. "Would this do?"
- "Thank you, comrades. I'm certain that this ring will be very helpful in keeping me safe. These robes do little against steel, after all."
- "Why, yes, I have chalk." Virgil reaches into his pouch and removes several large pieces of chalk - white, red, blue, and green. "Which would you prefer?"
"Color doesn't matter. When we make a turn, put a mark about five feet into the turn, about a foot off the floor on the opposite side that we turned to. So, when we turn right here, put it on the left hand side a couple of paces in. That way we know where to look for it, and it isn't quite as obvious as...that."
Bugsby's eyes light up as he see's the chalk, mumbling a low sound, "Oooooh." clearly he is impressed by the multicolored objects.