"Maybe one of the sages in Sandpoint would know," suggests Isabella. "Brodert Quink had a theory that the Old Light was some kind of Thassilonian weapon. Maybe he knows a bit about Runewells, since they come from Thassilon, right?"
Rasmorn nods his head. "We should definitely seek advice on this one - it has very strong necromancy powers, far beyond me."
Talia nods her agreement, feeling a bit peckish by now and hoping to get back up top and have a good meal at the Rusty lobster.
"That sounds like a good plan. As long as everyone and their dog don't wander down to have a look it should be safe for Quink to study. And hopefully shut down!"
You return to the surface and head for Brodert Quink's home. Your knock on the door is shortly answered, and upon seeing you, he smiles and says, "Well, good afternoon to you all! Is there something I can help you with?"
Rasmorn hops from foot to foot, obviously very excited. "Brodert, we've made quite a discovery! It's fascinating! There is a Runewell, underground beneath this very town! Guarded by a demon, and we killed it! Powerful necromancy, too powerful, I can't make heads or tails of it. Do you know anything about Runewells?"
Isabella just smiles and nods, since Rasmorn has hit the essentials so far.
Laufey just waits and listens, letting Rasmorn do the describing of what they found and ask the questions. It's all above Laufey's pay grade. Her mother had always taken great pains to make sure Laufey knew how stupid she was.
When the time comes, Laufey is sure Rasmorn will explain to her what they need to do to contain the magic. So right now she just zones out.
As soon as Brodert hears Rasmorn say the word 'Runewell', his eyes light up, and he says, "Say no more! Give me a few minutes to grab some things, and then we'll go!" He runs into his house and grabs a bag before looking over his books and grabbing some to shove in to it. He also grabs several sheets of parchment, a couple ink jars, and some quills, as well as a couple scroll cases before putting on his hat, picking up his walking stick, and exiting his house, shutting and locking the door behind him. "Come on, show me where it is, and tell me everything you can about how you found it!" He eagerly looks at you, waiting for you to show him where to go.
"Um, of course! Stay behind one of the armored folk here, Brodert - we've run into a few mean monsters down below, where we found it," says Isabella. "Something bad could always wander along."
She nods to the rest of the team. "Shall we?"
"Of course, of course, happy to do so! But, still, we should move quickly! I've always wanted to see a runewell up close!"
You lead Brodert back down through the Glassworks and the Smuggler's Tunnel, and into the Catacombs. Upon seeing the statue of Alaznist, he again grows excited, stopping and saying, "By Desna, that statue is of Alaznist - the Runelord of Wrath! That means this facility was used by her, and Sandpoint sits in what was once her realm, Bakrakhan. There may even be something down here to prove my theory that the Old Light was not, in fact, a lighthouse, but a weapon of war that could fling fire great distances! Quickly, take me to the runewell!"
"O- of course," says Isabella again, with a moment's hesitation. "What does that all mean for Sandpoint? Is the town in danger?"
"It's fascinating, isn't it? All this was just down here, and nobody knew about it! I'm still not quite sold on the lighthouse being a weapon, but with all this, who knows?" Rasmorn quivers in excitement as he leads the way toward the well.
As Isabella's question, he just shrugs his shoulders. "Probably no more danger than it has ever been in before - the runewell has been here for a very long time, I'd wager, with no harm to the citizens above. But who knows? Maybe the danger comes in the discovery?"
Laufey figures Rasmorn and the old man Brodent will mostly gab excitedly about the old ruins and the pool, meaning they won't be paying good attention to what's happening around them.
She assigns herself as their guardian, sticking close to them and making sure nothing snatches them by surprise, and they don't fall into any holes right in front of themselves.
"No, I hardly doubt that the town of Sandpoint is in danger, my dear. After all, this place has lain in the same spot for the thousands of years since Thassilon fell - and has been under Sandpoint since its founding, no doubt. But, now, let's examine this Runewell."
You lead Brodert to the Runewell. He exclaims in glee as he sees it, going up to it, setting down his pack and taking out writing supplies and books. He looks at it and studies it, consulting books, jotting down notes, and is otherwise completely oblivious to the rest of you. Occasionally he will ask you questions about what happened in your fight here and the quasit's use of the Runewell. After a couple of hours, he stands up and comes over to you. "Well, I should like to continue studying it, but if you must destroy it, I can see two ways to do so. The first is, from what you've told me, the creation of these Sinspawn seems to drain power from the Runewell each time it is used. You could create Sinspawn, then kill them, until the Runewell's power is gone for good. The alternative will likely require the aid of the good Father Zantus, as it is theorized that pouring enough holy water to fill the Runewell will cause it to become dormant. Regardless, once it is dormant, it should remain that way - although I imagine that there is some magical effect or other that can revive it."
Isabella frowns. "Ugh... summoning more creatures seems reckless and dangerous, but it's also no good to just leave it dormant until the next unbalanced magician comes along. I wish we had some lead to follow to work out a better way," she says.
Laufey is, as usual, laconic with her input. "I like the priest and holy water idea."
"I agree - using up all it's power seems dangerous, and we can't know for sure that it doesn't recharge itself. Using holy water to neutralize it, and thereby making it's presence known to Father Zantus so that the church can take charge of making sure it stays neutralized, seems like the safest course of action."
"Okay, it is settled then? We will go tell the priest? Can we go back up now?"
Laufey seems bored standing around listening to all the talk about ruins.
"For the moment, yes. I'd like to return here to study these catacombs further, though. There's so much to study down here. It's quite exciting!"
It's fairly clear that Brodert wants to come back down to the Catacombs.
You return to the surface and head to the Sandpoint Cathedral. Father Zantus sees you come in and comes over to you, saying, "Greetings, and thank you again for your help in the graveyard. What can I help you with?"
"Good day, Father. We've found what we believe is a Runewell in the catacombs. If it's exploited it will create monsters that could come up and plague the people of the town," explains Isabel.
"Mr. Quink here surmises that a proper blessing with holy water and consecration may cause it to become inert, at least for a while. It seems to be our best option to prevent it from creating more sinspawn. Could you or one of the acolytes aid us in performing such a ceremony? Or show me how to do it correctly?"
"I should clarify, it will take a great deal of holy water - enough to fill the runewell," Brodert says.
Father Zantus looks at him and asks, "How deep would you say it is?"
"About 5 or so feet deep, and 5 feet across."
Father Zantus's eyes go wide. "That is a great deal of holy water. I don't know how long it will take us to make that much - the spell to make it requires five pounds of silver dust, as well, and I don't know how we'll pay for all that. It may be better to simply have it bricked up."
"I suppose if that's the best alternative we have, then we can try that," says Isabella a bit unhappily. "At least, until we feel confident that we could destroy its power for good in some other way."
Rasmorn looks uncomfortable with this solution to the well, but leaves it to the holy people's best judgement. "If this is resolved, we still have Nualia to deal with. Perhaps we should retire to the inn, and head out in the morning?"
"Are we going to need horses to get to Thistletop, or will we be going on foot? If we expect to be there a while, we may need to lay in provisions of food as well," says Isabella sensibly.
"What? No! It's barely a half days walk." Talia states completely incorrectly.
"I honestly don't know. We should ask a mapmaker."
Laufey is in a particularly good mood. She's perfectly happy with turning the magical pool over to the priests. If they want to brick up the entrance to it, well that's good enough for her.
"We must celebrate what we have done too. We killed a demon and other monstrous things also. These are not small things to be forgotten. This evening I will have a good meal, then I need plenty of good ale and some company for the night. Tomorrow we will prepare supplies and find out the thing we need to know before we leave. We can go the day after that. We have earned a day of rest."
Talia, it turns out, does in fact know where Thistletop is, and it is incorrect saying it's a half day's walk - it's only a couple of hours, not very far at all.
The night passes with all of you in good spirits. Sandpoint has been saved from a possible threat from beneath the town, and Father Zantus is working with the mayor to have the Catacombs sealed off - although Brodert seems disappointed at that, as he hoped to have a chance to study it some more. A rather handsome half-elf bard named Horatio, who was traveling from Riddleport to Magnimar stopped at the Rusty Dragon to perform, and his singing voice and looks were sufficient to catch the eye of Laufey, who had herself a very good night. Talia happily stuffed her face full of Ameiko's delicious cooking.
The next morning, you gather together, prepared to head out to Thistletop. It's a clear day, with little in the way of bad weather. You have time to gather any supplies you may want before leaving.
You follow the Lost Coast Road to the east until you come to the Thistle River, which is easily crossed. You then enter into the Nettlewood, where Thistletop is hidden. Now the trick is to find where the goblins make their camp.
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The first thing Laufey enjoyed after getting back to the inn was a relaxing hot bath. After that came a good, hearty dinner and plenty of ale. She was quite mystified by her compatriots lack of understanding about why one does great things. Within only about three days Laufey had foiled an attack on the town, secured a patron who was not only generous but seemed undemanding as well, and slaughtered demons and other things without even names that would certainly have wreaked havoc upon the town had she not intervened.
Her compatriots had done no less, but except for Talia they had wandered off to do dull things. And although Talia did not slip away as if embarrassed by their deeds, all she really did was sit and eat. Puzzling for sure, but if they did not want to be admired, Laufey would take the credit they were due as well.
Laufey occupied the center of the room and told the stories of what they had done with gusto. She had been warned it would not be a good idea to mention the parts about what they had found under Sandpoint, but that did not include rescuing Ameiko from her evil brother. She boasted up to that limit, but with difficulty did not cross over it. She accepted all drinks that were bought for her, and bought rounds for others as well.
She was pleasantly surprised to find a half-elf among the crowd at the Rusty Dragon. He was pretty, and to her great relief fairly tall. The men in Varisia were mostly disappointingly short. It wasn't so much that Laufey cared a great deal about height, but she had the impression the men did. They did not seem very interested in sweet talking a woman who looked down at the top of their heads. She was hardly a willowy 6'2 either. Laufey had worn her dress, and left all her weapons except her dagger upstairs to make herself look less formidable, but it didn't really matter. It didn't help that Laufey had never mastered smiling in order to look pleasant and approachable either. She laughed at jokes and smiled if pleased, but just smiling for appearance sake wasn't in her social toolkit.
Laufey hazarded a look in the half-elf's direction every now and then, but kept her distance. He was performing and she didn't want her entourage to trespass on his turf. He had to earn a living after all. When he finished performing she did begin to edge in his direction though. Eventually Laufey was close enough to compliment the man on his singing, and when he in turn complimented her and asked Laufey about herself, she shifted all of her attention to him.
It was good he was from Riddleport, Laufey had been there briefly and she could talk with him about the place a little. On the other hand she thought his name, Horatio, was an unfortunate mouthful. Horatio was confident, Laufey could tell that much, but he was also very clever with words. Her Taldane had been coming along quite well since she had been in Varisia, but her grasp of the language was mostly utilitarian and his flowery speech and double entendres were mostly lost on her.
For her part, Laufey plied Horatio with endless questions about being a half-elf in Varisia, family life, humans opinions of half-elves, and everything else. It was easy for her to show interest in Horatio this way because she desperately wanted to talk to another half-elf about such things. She had long wanted to ask Talia all the same questions, but it had never seemed the right time for one reason or another.
This dynamic continued for a while. Horatio flirted mightily, and completely over Laufey's head. Laufey tried to show her interest by asking questions Horatio found boring and eventually a little irritating. Finally Laufey decided that they were staring into each other's eyes a lot, even if everything else was beginning to fall apart. In a last desperate attempt to save the situation, Laufey told Horatio that he was nice looking, she was happy with his height, he had very good teeth, and he should come upstairs with her. He agreed with the whole of her statement and went along with her.
The next morning Laufey awoke before Horatio. She packed her stuff for the journey to Thistletop, and Horatio slept. Laufey whetted all of her blades to a fine edge, and still Horatio slept on. Finally she left him to wake up when he was ready. She made sure to leave nothing of value in her room though. Horatio was from Riddleport after all. She had to take reasonable precautions.
Downstairs Laufey asked Bethana to keep her spear and larger sword in the back for her. For the sake of saving weight on the journey she decided the smaller, magical sword alone would have to suffice.
Laufey begins trying to pick her way along through the forest, looking for anything that might clue her in about what direction to go. She's not in a great mood anymore.
She had wanted to wait and leave for Thistletop tomorrow, but everyone else insisted on hurrying. She really could have used more sleep, but the others always seem to be so oddly focused on doing productive things all the time.
Now it turns out none of them have any real skill in wilderness travel. Laufey is a city girl herself and thinks maybe they would have been better off to find that elf Shalelu to guide them. She tries not to trip over any roots while keeping errant branches out of her face.
Unlike Laufey Talia didn't have a great need to scratch an itch. She was content to enjoy a long, steaming hot bath, a good meal with some palatable wine. Followed up by watching the evening entertainment in the Rusty lobster.
She noted that Laufey had found some agreeable company for the night and wished her well. While she could be a shameless flirt, at the moment she was more interested in trying to puzzle out the many threads of the parties current quest.
Getting up in the morning she checked her gear was all in place, ate a hearty breakfast, and bought a packed lunch for the trail.
Following the others through the woods she kept an eye out, though the wilderness wasn't her favorite place to be.
Isabella is a bit surprised to discover that Laufey isn't at the Pixie's Kitten, even as she is looking over the evening's clientele. The villagers who know her know that the aasimar is an irregular visitor - maybe once a month - but mostly mind their own business. Some people think it must be a character flaw. Others don't care.
Shrugging noncommittaly, Isabella takes out her black bag and puts it on the front table at the entrance.
"Who's first for their monthly check-up?"
One by one, Isabella takes the time to give the workers of the Pixie's Kitten their monthly checkups, making sure they are all healthy and helping educate them on keeping themselves healthy.
Despite being a city girl at heart, Laufey is able to navigate the group through the thick tangle of the nettlewood. It takes the better part of three hours, bringing it to about mid-day. You've been hearing the sound of crashing surf as you've drawn closer, which matches what you've heard of Thistletop being along the coast.
The briars and thistles that grow so rampantly in Nettlewood are even more dense and tangled here, close to the shore. Although not quite dense enough to block the sound of waves crashing on the unseen shores to the west, the undergrowth is certainly thick enough to block sight and access to the coast. Few trees grow this close to the edge of the sea, but the briars themselves often reach heights to rival them; here, the patch is nearly twenty feet high.
Both Laufey and Talia notice that the briars at this point can be lifted aside, and they don't appear to be rooted to anything.
Laufey pokes and prods at the brambles with her sword.
"Well, what do you think? Do we try to go through this stuff?"
"I'd rather go around." Talia grimaces. "Getting into tight tunnels with those nasty runts could be very bad!"
She looks around hoping so see another way?
Talia looks about as best she can, but she finds no trace of any other way in. She does find a couple of other, similar points that can be entered, but it looks like the only way in is through the brambles.
With a resigned sigh Talia cleared an opening and spoke. "I'll go first, everyone else follow a few feet back. I'll try to go sneakily and see if I can find any ambushes or traps?"
She slips into the entrance.
Talia easily moves aside the nettle door, avoiding being stabbed by any of them, and ducks to enter. Thistletop appears to have grown tall, and the goblins have cleared passageways through the thicket. The first area she steps into she finds the nettles have actually grown tall enough that even Laufey will be able to stand upright. She sees three possible paths they could take. Each looks to only be about 4 feet high, so all but Rasmorn will have to hunker down to walk through them. Still, the fact there was one space tall enough for Laufey meant there might be others. She also notes they will have to be careful walking through the paths - falling into the nettles would likely be quite painful.
Listening, Talia is able to hear the faint sound of water sloshing from both the right and center paths. From the center path and the left path, she hears faint sounds of goblin voice, as well as the occasional yip of a goblin dog.
After making signals to let the others know what's ahead. Water right and center. Gobo's Center and left. Talia moves to the left passage.
In such cramped and winding quarters she has her dagger ready in her hand.
Isabella moves very carefully along after Talia, ready to help in the cramped confines as best she can.
Talia leads the way to another fork, this one with only two options. She can clearly see that the left fork leads to another of the nettle doors they came through - and she hears the goblin voices from the right.
Holding a finger to her lips to signal silence Talia creeps forward to where she can see the Goblins.
Talia creeps ahead, coming to yet another split. There, she can hear the goblin voices coming from the left quite loudly. The crashing of waves comes from the right.
Given the tight confines of the thistle trails, Laufey begins to wonder if she made the right choice by leaving her spear behind.
She whispers to Talia "To the goblins. Let's leave nothing to our backs."