"Hit it again. Just to be sure!" She says half-crazed.
Another glob of acid flies into the closet, missing the little beast once more, adding to the growing hole in the wood behind him.
Yasu is getting whittled down and is getting increasingly irritated.
Laufey continues to chase the goblin around, swatting at him as well.
Unable to fit in the small confines of the fight - especially with her huge curved sword - Isabella settles for continuing to provide guidance to Yasu as fast as she can.
Talia aims her crossbow and fires the bolt directly at the goblin. As it engages with Yasu, it shifts, and the bolt ricochets off one of the metal studs in its combat leathers. The cramped space continues to work against the group and in the goblin's favor.
Fortunately, the impact knocked the goblin off balance enough that his swing with the dagger missed Yasu.
Gresgurt 3/12
Yasu 6/12
"Oh you little shitbag!" Talia curses. "Do the world a favor and die."
"The beast must seems be protected by the gods themselves, or some other protection unknown." Rasmorn seems to be thinking, puzzling through the situation, even as yet another glob of acid goes sailing past the goblin. "I could try dropping the beast with a color spray, but that seems somewhat of a waste of a spell on one injured goblin."
Despite her best attempts, Laufey just can't box the goblin in long enough to get a bead on it.
The party again attempts to subdue the goblin, but it seems luck remains with him. However, he finally seems to have become rational enough to realize he is overmatched, and he makes to move back into his hole in the closet.
Fail
Fail
The goblin attempts to evade Laufey and Yasu's attacks, but the small space finally works against him, and Laufey swings her sword and slices the goblin's head off as he tries to run. Silence once again falls in the house.
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"We will never speak of this again!" Talia says, looking half-crazed.
Isabella says quietly and dejectedly, "I think we'll have to speak of it again when we tell his wife."
Yasu puts away his sword. "Indeed. At least, not explain why it took almost a minute for four armed people to kill one goblin."
You return to Amele in the Rusty Dragon, where Ameiko has her sitting down, and tell her what has happened.
Initially, she is overjoyed when you tell her the goblin is dead, but upon hearing that Alergast is also deceased, she again breaks down into hysterical tears, and Aeron isn't far behind. Ameiko quietly says to you, "I've sent a runner for Father Zantus. He'll hopefully be here soon."
"I'm..." Yasu starts to say, but then closes his mouth and turns away. He finds a place to sit down and glowers at his boots as he waits for the cleric's arrival.
Laufey sits down glumly to wait, saying nothing.
Father Zantus arrives, slightly out of breath, being led by Bethana, the halfling barmaid. Upon taking in the group's dejected looks and the crying widow, his eyes fill with sorrow, and he moves over to Amele. "Amele, dear, my sympathies for your loss. Why don't you and the children come stay at the Cathedral for a couple of days? Perhaps some of the peace and Desna's presence will help in this trying time. Come, come. I'll send someone to your house to collect some belongings for you."
As Father Zantus eventually gathers up Amele and Aeron to leave - with Ameiko's aid - he turns to you and quietly says, "Thank you for doing what you could. I wish it had turned out differently."
"I'll come by to help with bringing over anything that's needed," says Isabella. "I'm so sorry, things had already happened before we ever arrived."
Laufey stands up and goes upstairs to her room without speaking.
Talia will ignore her desire for a strong drink. She heads out looking for a clear area to practice her shooting.
Rasmorn will head on up to his room and spend some time scribing a new scroll.
Yasu will simply grumble to himself and go outside. Sitting alone and where its quiet, he will cut himself a couple of arrows before he end up just hanging his head and staring at the ground for an hour before going back inside to sleep
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After a rather dismal night for each of you, you go to bed, still feeling sadness over the death of Alergast. Isabella, in addition to gathering up some belongings for the family, you help bring Alergast's body to the church for burial preparations. The funeral will take place at sunset the next day, for such is a holy time for Desna, should any of you wish to attend.
When you awaken in the morning, those of you in the Rusty Dragon notice something is amiss. As you get ready, you can't quite put your finger on it, but something is wrong. You are filled with a sense of unease, and it doesn't go away. In fact, it's just about the time you head downstairs to the common room that it finally clicks for you what is wrong - or rather, what's missing.
You don't smell breakfast being cooked.
Though Isabella is as somber as anyone the next morning, she rounds the table where her companions sit, giving everyone a comforting touch on the shoulder, a hand on the back, even a hug if they need it.
She sits at the table and takes a few moments to realize what's wrong, then stands again and says, "To the kitchen!"
Her breakfast in danger Talia leaps to her feet and moves to the kitchen.
You rush to the kitchen and open the door, to find that Ameiko is definitely not in the kitchen making breakfast. There's no fire in the stove, all the pots are clean, and you don't see any of the kitchen help.
A small voice behind you says, "Excuse me." Turning, you find Bethana Corwin, one of the halfling maids in the inn. She looks at you with eyes filled with worry, and timidly asks, "Could we speak in the kitchen? Now, maybe?" You notice she is holding a somewhat crumpled piece of paper with writing in her hands, but you can't quite make it out.
"Of course. What is wrong?" Talia calms down and speaks gently to the maid. Holding out her hand for the scrap of paper.
Laufey sleeps late, as she does whenever she can. By the time she goes downstairs the common room at the end is almost empty, with none of the others she knows to be seen. There are several voices in the kitchen, so she walks back there to see what is happening.
She finds everyone clustered around the halfling woman who works at the inn. "What is going on?" she asks.
Yasu would have sat around that morning earlier than usual (about 4 ish), sitting around the dining hall while it was still dark outside, unable to sleep well. Lost in thought, he never noticed anything was wrong until someone else came down and points out the time.
Coming to the kitchen, he sighs, rubbing at his eyes. When Bethana comes to speak to them, he hangs back to let someone else talk.
Rasmorn, having taken the time to study and prepare some spells before breakfast, arrives downstairs a bit later than everyone else. Arriving just in time to see his friends going back into the kitchens, he follows, and waits to see how he can help.
"Well, um, as you can see, um, oh dear, breakfast hasn't been started. When I woke this morning, Ameiko hadn't started breakfast yet, which has never happened in my memory since she took over running the Rusty Dragon. When I knocked on her door, I didn't get any kind of response. I normally wouldn't do so, but I decided to check on her in case she was ill. When I opened the door, her bed was unslept in and she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Looking for some sign of her, I found this crumpled up parchment." At this, she hands Talia a piece of parchment covered in strange symbols. "This note was written in Minkai, probably so that others couldn't read its contents. Ameiko has been teaching me the past few years, so I've provided a translation on the other side."
Hello, sis!
I hope this letter finds you well, and with some free time on your hands,
because we’ve got something of a problem. It’s to do with father. Seems that
he might have had something to do with Sandpoint’s recent troubles with the
goblins, and I didn’t want to bring the matter to the authorities because
we both know he’d just weasel his way out of it. You’ve got some pull here
in town, though. If you can meet me at the Glassworks at midnight tonight,
maybe we can figure out how to make sure he faces the punishment he
deserves. Knock twice and then three times more and then once more
at the delivery entrance and I’ll let you in.
In any case, I don’t have to impress upon you the delicate nature of this
request. If news got out, you know these local rubes would assume that you
and I were in on the whole thing too, don’t you? They’ve got no honor at all
around these parts. I still don’t understand how you can stand to stay here.
Anyway, don’t tell anyone about this. There are other complications as well,
ones I’d rather talk to you in person about tonight. Don’t be late.
Tsuto
After you look up from the note, Bethana looks at you with wide eyes. "Ameiko's brother, Tsuto, was something of a scandal when he was born, since he's a half-elf. Neither of Ameiko's parents are Elves," she says, leaving a clear inflection in her voice. "Lonjiku's anger was the talk of the town for months. Atsuii, Ameiko's mother, never revealed who the father was, and the marriage only held together due to Lonjiku's stubbornness. Tsuto was given to the Turandarok Academy so the Kaijitsu family didn't have to raise him. His mother was forbidden to see him, and Lonjiku could ignore him there. Once she found out about his existence, Ameiko began visiting Tsuto at the Academy in secret, bringing him food and telling him they could fix everything out someday. That changed several years ago, when they had a fight. Tsuto struck Ameiko, and she left town, returning after a year of having been an adventurer, for her mother's funeral. Tsuto was quite public in his opinions that Lonjiku had thrown their mother over the cliff, and Lonjiku struck Tsuto with his cane so hard it broke his jaw. Ameiko has tried to locate and talk to Tsuto for several years, but she was never able to find him."
Those of you from the area remember hearing about the two fights, although not much of the fallout. Looking at you with poorly concealed fear and worry, Bethana says, "Please, you must go to the Glassworks and help Ameiko! I'm sure Tsuto is up to no good, and who knows what he'll do! Please say you'll help her!" The halfling is clearly on the verge of tears, and has been barely keeping it together throughout.
The Sheriff has left town. Shalelu is back in her wilderness wanderings. Who else would Bethana turn to than the Heroes of Sandpoint?
Rasmorn levels a calm, serious look at Bethana. "Don't worry; of course we'll help. We will do everything in our power to see to her safety." Realizing he had kind of spoken for everyone, he looks around slightly nervously, adding, "Right, guys?"
Talia heads back upstairs to get all her gear. Grumbling dire threats towards those who ruin her morning feast.
"The glassworks... I suppose our best bet is to follow her trail based on this note, and see if we can find the delivery entrance. I wonder if any of the locals who work there could show us around the building and see if we can find any sign of Ameiko or Tsuto?"
"Yes, I will gather what I need and I will be ready to go."
"Thank you, thank you!" the halfling woman exclaims. [b]"I'll get the other kitchen maids working and we'll try to make it look like nothing's wrong to buy you some time."
You head out towards the Sandpoint Glassworks. Owned by the Kaijitsu family since the founding of Sandpoint, the one-story stone complex is one of the larger structures in the town. As you approach the Glassworks, you can see smoke billowing out of its chimneys. It appears that all is normal for the place of business, although the building is curiously silent.
A small-scale smuggling operation was run out of the Glassworks's basement early in Sandpoint's founding. Lonjiku's father, Rokuro, put a stop to the smuggling operation and bricked up the smuggler's tunnels.
Yasu will grab his bow and equipment and be ready to move forward with everyone else, an arrow prepared.
Talia.
"I think I remember something about this place" Rasmorn says, gesturing at the Glassworks. "As I recall, a small-scale smuggling operation was run out of the basement there, early on. Lonjiku's father, fellow named Rokuro, put a stop to the smuggling operation and bricked up the smuggler's tunnels. Those tunnels could make for a nice, quiet place to hide out, were one inclined to trouble."
Once you reach the glassworks, you notice that all of the curtains appear to have been drawn. The door to the main show room is also locked.
"Should I try and open this door, or do we look for another entrance?" Talia asks the group.
"Smoke coming out of the chimneys, but all the curtains are drawn and the door is locked? Something is very wrong," says Isabella. "We might as well get inside as expeditiously as possible."
Rasmorn nods his head quickly in agreement.
"Can we just break in like that? In Karsgard, people would see and stop us. It would be big trouble. Maybe if we look around the building there is a door for deliveries and shipments? It is a factory, correct?"
"We are working on behalf of the sheriff, investigating the suspicious circumstances surrounding a missing pillar of the community," says Isabella.
Laufey shrugs. "If you say so. This "sheriff" idea is not clear to me."
"Well we were asked to help while he was gone." Yasu adds. "get the door open."
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"It does feel unusual to be doing this legally." Talia remarks, adding quickly. "Not that I've ever done this illegally of course."
Blasted rusty locks!"