James hands over a leather flask with a cheerful figure tooled into the side, more intent on eavesdropping on Ameiko than watching Tsuto.
"My- my father?"
Ameiko blinks at the news, her jaw quivering. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, he- damn it. Damn them both hopeless fools."
She rises to her feet, wobbly but stoic. "We're in the Glassworks, right? These tunnels remind me of stories, of the Sczarni using the basement to smuggle things in and out of Sandpoint. Someone should check out that place, sooner or later. I think I'd like to visit Father Zantus before we do that, though."
Meanwhile, Tsuto pours the water from the flask on his eyes and starts cursing extensively as the last of the irritating compound reacts with the water. Luckily, there's enough liquid to absorb the heat, but he'll need a healer before his vision returns to normal.
Empheria's spine chills at the news. "I'm sorry, Miss Ameiko. My dad passed away too."
Hearing Tsuto's curses, she jerks and approaches Ameiko and holds her hand - not from sympathy this time, but out of fear. She didn't understand what her brother's foreign curses meant, but they scared her.
James sidles over awkwardly. "Yeah. Uh... we should get you out of here. Your note..." he shuts up at the memory that the note in question was not meant for him. "Uh... Uh, you're not" he mentally congratulates himself "looking so good."
Vorin looks between Ameiko and Empheria, at a bit of a loss. His knowledge of parents being limited, he doesn't truly understand the loss to have any clue what to say. So, he just stands there.
A moment later, however, James arrives with the suggestion, and Vorin nods quickly, "Yeah, we should!"
”Shall I check for more goblins?” Isaac asked, flexing his hands in such a way that the joints cracked and popped audibly. He kept his eyes on Tsuto the entire time.
"We should go-"
As Ameiko registers Tsuto's imprecations, she hobbles out of the room, towards Isaac and her stepbrother. Her fist is not the strongest, especially in her condition, but there is technique and precision as it collides against his jawbone before he can finish saying "Mei-mei".
she yells. "I stood up for you, I stood up for Mom, and THIS is how you repay me?"
There are tears in her eyes as she looks for words, and her anger gives way to a sob. "I- You- Just why? Why? I would've taken you at the Dragon in a heartbeat, I would've... we could have been a family!"
Tsuto's red and bloodshot eyes move in a grimace that may as well be remorse, but he just massages his jaw. "You wouldn't understand, Mei-mei. Coming here was a mistake, but I had to try, for you. I wanted to-"
"DON'T! Don't say you wanted to help me! You wanted revenge! You- argh." She reaches for James' shoulder and starts to make way towards the upper floor.
Patting down Tsuto, you find a few interesting objects: a well-crafted flute, some lockpicks, fourteen leather pouches filled with golden and silver metallic dust, ten shiny platinum coins, his shortbow and a glass vial filled with a light blue liquid. Of the things he's wearing, his ring looks interesting, a silver band with a blue stone, as well as his earrings, silver studs. Even more interestingly, you find a journal, written in spidery hieroglyphics that Ameiko recognizes as Tien, the tongue of her homeland. She offers to translate it after she recovers from her wounds.
You get through the Glassworks in an awkward silence, avoiding the main room. The ones you didn't explore are mainly offices, utterly devoid of anything interesting to you. As you get to the Sandpoint streets, Tsuto makes a jerking motion, trying to break free from Isaac, but fails.
James stands tall under Ameiko's weight - at least for the first little while. Heroic dreams never really bore home how heavy an adult could be.
'Meanwhile Isaac seems to be all but carrying Tsuto without issue.' he thought enviously.
"We need to go to the Sherrif - we can't just take his stuff!" James protests "That'd be stealing."
Feeling the tension in the air, Empheria is silent most of the way to the sheriff. She does feel a little satisfied at having rescued Ameiko, but it was a little strange that Tsuto was just letting them lead him to the sheriff, but her elation at being a hero again let her forget it.
She looked up with a start. Tsuto had just tried to break his bonds. So he wasn't as docile as he had seemed. "Miss Ameiko?" she whispered, now worried in earnest. "I think your brother was trying to get away. What's he going to want to do to us? I think he's going to be mad at us for trying to arrest him." At last her whisper turns into a slightly more audible whimper. "Do you know what to do if that happens? I'm afraid!"
Vorin looks back to James, disappointed, "Aw, but he attacked us, and we captured him! Doesn't that give us a claim or something?"
He looks back to Empheria more cheerfully, however, and says, "Don't worry, don't think anybody can get away from Isaac. And, if he did, you'd burn him, James and I would stab him, and Isaac would capture him again!"
Of course, this is all intentionally said loudly enough for Tsuto to hear.
Ameiko waves a hand at James' worries. "You can keep them. You deserve some reward for apprehending him and freeing me. Traditionally, adventurers get finder's fees when retrieving stolen properties, and whatever else they can grab. I certainly don't want anything of his. Sell it, maybe. And grab him firmly, I don't like the look in his eyes."
After his fruitless attempt of escaping, Tsuto suppresses a half-chuckle at Vorin's words. "Sure, little dark elf. Threaten to stab and burn an unarmed man, it will do wonders to your reputation. If you kill me, I'll only return, stronger than before."
You reach the garrison, only to be informed by the guard that the Sheriff is not in town, but they can certainly take Tsuto into custody. Ameiko, in the meanwhile, expresses the desire to visit Father Zantus for some healing.
With casual pragmatism, Isaac gave Tsuto a shake. People often underestimate just how unpleasant it is to be bodily shaken and being subjected to one from Isaac was certainly not something one would be quickly forgetting. Vision blurs, teeth clack, neck jerks, and brain sloshes.
Isaac did not much care about Tsuto's verbal jabs, but antagonizing the others might be a part of some ill-planned escape. Reminding the half-elf that his first hurdle would be Isaac would hopefully keep him quiet.
He continued to frog-march the captured Tsuto to the garrison and right in through the front door.
"This man is Tsuto Kaijitsu, he is responsible for at least one death, an attempted abduction, and leading a pack of goblins inside the town walls by way of old smugglers's tunnels in the glassworks. He needs to be taken into custody and kept under close watch until such a time as the appropriate investigation and legal proceedings can be conducted," Isaac announced flatly to whatever guard presence was waiting in the garrison.
Vorin grins again when Ameiko says they can keep the stuff. "Thanks! I wonder if any of its magic, like in the stories?"
He continues to walk with a slight bounce to his step as Tsuto responds to him, and says, "We wouldn't kill you. And anyway, you're not unarmed. You're a grownup, your size is a weapon to us… Well, most of us." He grins again, looking to Isaac.
He's serious, however, as they arrive at the garrison. He adds, to Isaac's statement, "And the goblins he let in killed a bunch more people, so more than one death."
Then, he looks to Ameiko, and says, "Do you need help getting to Father Zanthus?"
"Wait!" James pauses "He let in the goblins? I thought he was trying to stop his dad from letting in the goblins!" he glared at Tsuto with a mix of disgust and relief. 'So probably we're NOT going to get in trouble then'
"We'll definitely help you to Feel Zanthus Miss Ameiko. It's the least we could do... considering..."
"You- uh." The guardsman looks perplexed at the sight of Isaac, but Ameiko is widely known, and a not from her convinces him to take in her half-brother. "Those are pretty serious allegations, we may have to send him to Magnimar, with a witness or two. The Sheriff'll discuss the details with the Mayor when he comes back."
Ameiko sighs with relief as you arrive to the Cathedral and Father Zanthus heals some of her wounds with a simple spell. He takes her in, saying that a few days of rest will get her back into full shape. An acolyte also tends to Isaac, the only one to come to some physical harm, cleaning the wound and mending it magically. She looks quite astonished at his physicality but she doesn't inquire further, instead grumbling something that sounds suspiciously like "fiendspawn" as she walks away.
Empheria goes to sit with the other kids while the grown-ups talk.
"It was fun to save the whole town from goblins the other day. But putting people in prison isn't. I know he deserves it, but it just doesn't feel good," she says with a sigh.
"Especially because he was trying to help his sister..." Quiin sighs, agreeing with Empheria.
"The Professor talks about bloodletting whenever she is in a bad mood," Isaac said to the other, piping up from an introspective silence. If he had taken offense at the acolyte thinking ill of his parentage, it did not show on his face.
"People used to use bloodletting to try and treat all kinds of things because they used to think pretty much everything that could make a person sick had to do with their... juices? Juices being out of balance. It was either that or make them poop or puke to try to balance out their people-juice. This often did not help at all and usually made things worse too."
He scrunched his nose as he put concepts together, "You can make things worse by trying to help sometimes. 'specially if you try to force that help on someone."
James looks doubtful. "I dunno. It's good to help people. My sister always says she doesn't want help. but she's always getting in trouble."
He twists his mouth up and turns to Empheria. "I don't like it either. Getting his stuff feels weird too - but I reckon there's stuff there that could maybe fix up the farm if we sold it."
Quiin nods along to all of these different viewpoints, not sure enough in his own to say anything.
After leaving Ameiko to Father Zantus' care, you roam around the city. The guards are combing the Glassworks, and you soon find yourselves with nothing much to do. As the sun is setting, the quiet of the evening is broken by a bloodcurdling scream, coming from the direction of Vernah's Fine Clothing, Rynshinn Povalli's store. It sounds like it's coming from the top floor, where she lives.
Quinn dashes towards the sound, shouting for the others to follow him. Despite everything, this hero thing had become something he enjoyed.
Quinn may have been the first to react but Isaac had more than a few inches on him now and had always been fast, even when he was smaller.
Also, being Isaac, he tended to think in straight lines without much consideration for other factors. Sprinting ahead of the others, he began a quick try at scaling the outside of the general store up to the window the screams were coming from
James joins the rush - happy to be heading towards something that seems a little more clear cut.
At Quinn's request, Empheria joins the entourage, as usual, slower than everyone else. She was starting to have doubts about if she wanted to get involved with every problem in the town, but this was Minadora's family. She wouldn't leave them alone after that scream.
Isaac climbs on the stones on the outer wall of the store and looks through the window. Rynshinn is a very beautiful young woman, but she looks quite disheveled at the moment: her auburn hair is wild, her clothes are messy, and her face is distorted in horror as she throws the blankets off of a bed. Then she catches sight of Isaac and screams again, rushing out of the room. The sound of her rushing downstairs is clearly audible.
A few passers-by turn their head at the house, and a couple of them stop, evaluating the situation.
Quiin bursts into the house, drawing his blade as he does.
"What's wrong?! Where are the goblins?!?!"
Isaac drops back down from the second story,
"I did not see any goblins," he informs the others. "I don't think there is an immediate threat but one of you should probably talk to Ms. Rynshinn instead of me."
Empheria follows after Quinn, and manages to get there just in time for Isaac to relate what he had seen. "Ms. Rynshinn? Are you alright?" she calls into the open door.
James stood by "Ask her if there are goblins!" he yells, 'helpfully'.
Quiin rushes through the store door, apparently unlocked despite it being after closing time. Disheveled, with her clothes in disarray, Rynshinn is curled in a fetal position under the staircase, and recoils as you enter. A soft whimper of "Mom... Dora... not again..." is all that comes out of her lips.
In her hands, she is cradling a folded paper crane.
Vorin catches up to the others — having been a second or two behind — in time to follow Quinn and Empheria inside. He stops in his tracks once inside, and he says, "It's okay, we're here to help. What happened? Where's Minodora?"
He tries to copy the tone of voice he's heard guards use to reassure people. Of course, given that they are kids it probably comes across differently.
Quiin sheathes his blade and examines the woman, his powers activating once more, glimpsing into the poor woman's mental state.
Desperately James sorted through his memories, trying to remember what he could about Rynshinn.
Daughter of a kindly woman named Vernah, Rynshinn never knew her father, Iremiel, only that he was killed by goblins less than a week after she was born. At the time, Vernah’s tempestuous affair with the mysterious elven bard was the talk of the town. Every year on the anniversary of Rynshinn’s birth, a small package of elven coins, medicine, and toys mysteriously appeared somewhere in the upper floors of this building. Vernah always claimed the gifts were placed by Iremiel’s ghost, but locals generally believe the gifts were granted by one of his living relatives.
Rynshinn, for her part, holds out against hope that her father somehow survived and that it’s him and not his ghost who leaves these mysterious birthday presents.
Since her mother’s death several years ago during Chopper’s murder spree, Rynshinn has used much of the money from those gifts to expand her mother’s tailoring business, and even founded a guild that brings together dozens of quilters, crafters, sewers, and tailors so they can sell their wares there. She’s looking into opening a shop in Magnimar as well, but has yet to find a partner there whom she trusts.
A number of Sandpoint’s young men idly court Rynshinn, whom many hold to be the town’s most beautiful citizen, but to date, she has politely eschewed all possible suitors for reasons she has not shared.
She's in a hysteric shock, overwhelmed by fear.
Rynshinn's gaze does not shift from the corner of the room as she babbles. "...gonegonegone he took her and she took her not the birds again not again not again"
Isaac steps into the room, towering over the others. Impassive pale eyes flick over the babbling Rynshinn.
"Somebody make her some tea?" He asked, "I'm going to look upstairs."
"Yeah... tea, I can do that."
Quiin sets about making the tea, extremely worried about the depths of the woman's despair.
As he dooes so, he says under his breath to each of the others "She is completely out of it, I don't think we'll be able to get anything out of her. When I give her the tea and calm her down a bit, I'll try and see if I can... understand her mind better."
Vorin looks thoughtful, for a moment, as the others try to help her. He, instead, tries to remember what he can about Minodora and her sister. "Not again?"
His eyes widen, and he looks to the others, "Could the Chopper be back? Did he leave paper birds?"
"Could be the ghost?" James asks.
Isaac just finds two bedrooms with undone beds.
It's well-known that Chopper was the alias of Jervis Stoot, an eccentric man whose primary occupation was to carve exquisitely detailed bird figures in wood. Before the Late Unpleasantness, having a Stoot carving was reason of pride in Sandpoint people. After he was unmasked, almost all of them were destroyed.
The curious folks outside apparently sought out Hannah Velerin, the town herbalist. The elf woman enters the shop as the water in the kettle is starting to boil, a wooden suitcase in her hand. "What's going on here? Why are you here?"
Vorin opens his mouth to say something, when the adult arrives. He spins around, looking relieved that there's an adult who might be able to make sense of things. "We came when she screamed, we thought it was more goblins. She says Minodora was taken, by someone, and keep saying 'not again'. She won't… I mean, I think she can't calm down."
"Tell us where they took her, Miss! We'll bring her back!" Empheria promises.
"Keep that water boiling, boy, but don't add anything!"
Hannah kneels next to Rynshinn, who cowers and tries to scuttle away from her. A whispered syllable causes the herbalist's finger to light up like a candle, and she gazes deep into the tailor's eyes.
With a single grunt, the elf rises and heads to the kettle on the stove, where she throws dried herbs from four small pouches. A bitter smell spreads through the environment.
"You should be careful. Few people appreciate children poking around their business, however good your intentions may be."
She blows on the herbal tea to cool it down.
"Anyway, since you care about her, I'll let you know that she won't get better for a while, maybe days. She came into contact with something dark, and is quite literally scared out of her wits. Could you get out of here? The fewer people around, the easier it will be to get her to calm."
Quiin stares at the herbalist as she takes over his task, but pretty quickly realises she knows better than him.
"Come on guys, lets go and see how we can help elsewhere" he says, slipping out the door.
Isaac plodded downstair and upon seeing the herbalist, fixed his face with a remarkably stiff smile he reserved for people that the Professor did not much care for but he was still expected to be polite to.
"Mrs. Velerin," he said in both greeting and parting as he stiffly backed out of the house and let the 'back-country witch' take care of Rynshinn for the moment.
Vorin bites his lip, but nods and turns to follow the others.
Once outside, he says, "Maybe we should ask around, maybe someone saw someone coming here?"
James looks at Vorin. "Sure." he says doubtfully. "I still think it could have been the ghost, though. Let's stick together. Manny Hands."
While James wasn't exactly sure who Manny Hands were, he'd heard people invoke him a lot when talking about working together. He'd always just assumed Manny was one of the hundreds of heroes of history renowned for teamwork.
Vorin considers, and says, "I bet there's lots of people we could talk to. Let's go see Old Gandy first," he adds. "He might know what magic could scare that bad. And he can look at that stuff we got."
Of course, there's also the fact that he is the closest thing Vorin has to a parent. Like Isaac trusts the Professor, he trusts the wizard… Even if he likes to spread the rumours about his basement. (That's just fun.)