With sorrow on his face, Vy sighs
"I'm afraid they have left none alive. Let's bring them to their final rest"
"I'm sorry... it's bad in there. Maybe we should clean up a bit so nobody else has to see it."
He considers for a bit and turns to the others.
"Nie chcę dać im fałszywej nadziei ... ale jest kilka pokoi, których nie sprawdziliśmy. Ktoś mógł ukryć się przed goblinami."
The guard captain sighs, sorrow on his face. "I was afraid of as much... I... I just wanted to hear from you to make it real I suppose..."
He sighs deeply again, squaring back his shoulders. "Thank you for doings as much as you could. We'll take it from here. See if there are any stragglers, and take care of the bodies. We'll also take THAT", he points at Tsuto, contempt in his voice, "to jail. We'll interrogate him to see what else he has done. It might be best if you take Bethana and Ameiko back to the Dragon. Bethana's been worried sick, and I think Ameiko could do with some friendly faces."
"Be careful with him... he packs quite a punch"
The guard captain shoots Tsuto a dirty look before replying to Vitro. "Dont worry. We'll have a nice set of manacles ready for him at the prison."
With a nod to the group he turns around, giving orders to the guards.
"Ok, everyone, form up! Jake, Dan, I want you two to take the prisoner back to the garrison. For the rest of you, I want one guard per entrance, in case some left over Gob tries to sneak out. The others form up on me, we are going to perform a thorough sweep of the glassworks."
The guards efficiently divide themselves into groups and head into the glassworks.
Two guards drag Tsuto away.
With not a lot to see, most of the crowd watching disperses.
You carefully lead Ameiko back to the Dragon. Once you are inside, the patrons are curious, but give you plenty of room after Bethana gives them a death glare.
In the kitchen, you put Ameike in a chair. Bethana carefull examines Ameiko with the practiced ease of someone having tended many a tumble of a child.
After a few minutes, Bethana declares that Ameiko has a concussion, but nothing else. She heads into the cellar and comes back with a cool piece of meat to put on Ameiko's head.
Being back in familiar surroundings has calmed Ameiko down, but she still clings to Snowflake's arm.
With everyone settled in the kitchen, Bethana cries for a moment. When you ask if she's ok, she waves you away, stating its just from relief that you and Ameiko are all right.
Drying her tears, Bethana squares her shoulders. "So, I feel a lot better having done that. Now, on to making a late breakfast and early lunch. I'm not letting Ameiko handle cooking right now, so you can all help me." She casually states, and starts handing out vegetables and potatoes for cutting and peeling.
Seeing that Ameiko appears to find comfort in being close to Snowflake, she lets Snowflake be. "You keep an eye on Ameiko. You seem to have a good eye for how people are. If she gets to worked up, you bring her upstairs and put her in her bed all right?"
Many hands make light work and before long breakfast has been served and the midday stew is simmering over the fire.
Bethana of course does not forget that you've had only a quick breakfast, and makes a quick plate with bread, fruit and sausage for you.
With the immediate tasks done, Bethana leaves the Dragon in your hands for a few minutes while she goes out to hire help.
A while later she returns with a redheaded woman you've seen before. Shayliss.
Shayliss gives Oskar and Rataji a shy wave.
When it nears suppertime, the guard captain you saw this morning seeks you out. He looks pale. Justin catches a whiff of vomit smell about him.
He shakes each of your hands. "Thank you so much for what you did this morning. That was a lot of Goblins you dispatched. We have been trough the glassworks, and found no hidden goblins. Sadly, none of the workers survived..."
You see him swallow hard at that last remark.
"We have also started interrogating Tsuto. We have not gotten a lot out of him yet. We'll see how he does after a night without food and water."
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"I hear the area between the legs on a human is particularly sensitive to sharp pointy objects. Have you tried that?" His nose twitches and he hands the captain a bottle of something with dust on it.
Justin's been pouring over the journal while eating, adjusting a napkin to keep it over the book.
"Ripnugger. Sounds like a goblin. Has 200 goblins at their disposal, wants to attack over land.
"Unknown female quassit. With an army of "freaks" that needs to have an alliance made with them. She's under the glass works, probably in that sealed off passage we walked past.
"Bruthazmus , a bugbear.
"Malfeshnakor , a demon of some kind? Stuck somewhere but very powerful.
"and last but not least..." he looks at snowflake and folds out the centerfold. "Little sis. She's joined up with the church of lamashtu and is trying to become full demon instead of half demon. Seems to be the heart of this whole opperation.
"Option 1, Look down the tunnel and try to either eliminate the freaks, or better, offer them a better deal than this group can. If we attack them we either want them wiped out, or a deal struck. We don't want to push them into our enemy's side.
"Option 2, Take out the goblins individually. I doubt that you can keep 200 goblins in one place for very long, they have to be spread out.
"Option 3 go defensive.. but I don't like the sound of that demon thing she's working on getting. That sounds like something that can flatten us no matter how high we build the walls.
"Other options?
"Sandpoint has a long tradition of fighting goblins. Iḿ not saying it has become a formalised rite of passage yet, but bashing some goblins when they get too big for their own heads is a favorite passtime for the more violently inclined citizens. But now they're organised, and organised by some non- goblins at that, and that is worrisome. I would say, cut of the head, and the entire organisation falls apart. Also, if you want to know more about that bugbear, Shalelu is the one to talk to. She hates them"
When you take a look at 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. The maps each depict different attack plans. The first set shows the attack plans for a group of 30 goblins—one of these battle maps is circled. Of more pressing concern are the next several pages, which illustrate an assault on Sandpoint by a force of what appears to be 200 goblins. None of these are circled, and many are scratched out as if they’ve been rejected.
"What I don understand however, Justin, is how you're connecting Taj into all of this. She's not a follower of Lamashtu at all"
Vy is confused...and worried at the same time
"What I don understand however, Justin, is how you're connecting Taj into all of this. She's not a follower of Lamashtu at all"
"So you didn't get that either, <phew!> I was startin' to worry." From behind an impressively large mound of peeled and cubed potatoes, Oskar glares at Justin. "Can you make with the explainin', please?"
The guard captain looks confused. "Uh, I dont know anything about anyone's sister. But did you find that on Tsuto? Could I bring that to the mayor? She's going over everything that's happened now, and more information would certainly help. I'm sure you could get it back tomorrow or something... I actually came here to tell you that she would like to speak to you tomorrow morning. She wants to thank you personally for what you did."
"What? Naaah...
Vy stammers:
"That's impossible. Nualia died in the fire. I left. Because.She. Died. In the fire"
Snowflake's skin turns as white as his fur
Within the space of six seconds, a celestial wolf appears, looks at Snowflake longingly and senses his panic, looks at Justin, jumps for an attack and disappears just before his fangs slam into Justin's body
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The guard captain also yelps, grabbing the journal in a reflex, and holding it in front of him like a shield.
"Arg... ah... what... I, uh, I see that whatever this is, is, ah, sensitive? I'll leave you to it then... I'll come pick you up in the morning."
He jogs out of the kitchen.
Vitro was already rather stunned by the sheer debased evil in the journal when the discussion suddenly turned furry.
"What was that?!"
"That's my friend. He comes to help me when I'm in trouble"
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Now thoroughly confused, Oskar asks, "Okay, can someone explain what is going on with talk of Vy's other, not-Taj sister? Ideally in a manner that doesn't induce ghost wolves that are not-quite-imaginary friends?"
"You can feel secure. For today that is. He never visits me twice on the same day"
Bethana sticks her head round the kitchen door. "What's that ruckus? What are you doing? That poor guard captain just came bolting out."
Bethana frown. "Dont take that tone with me mister. It takes two to fight, and since you're so fast to point to Snowflake, I'm sure you were involved too."
Vitro leans back, enjoying the show.
"Good. Apology accepted."
She turns to Snowflake. "And you?"
"I got confused and panicked. I'm still confused. And I'm not sure what to do, if this is really Nialia. You saw how the town reacted to me, being still alive. And I can still rightly believe it IS Nualia. Why..how.. would she turn this way?"
"Well now dear I dont know what is going on, with all those goblins and then Tsuto loosing his mind, but there is no need to be mean to your friend."
"I'll..try and...practice some..control..in the future, ma'am"
"Very good. Now you boys play nice."
With a last stern look at Justin and Snowflake, Bethana heads back behind the bar.
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Justin puts an ear to the door just to make sure she's gone. Then ahems.
"So, the town will deliberate what to do with us until tomorrow. At least. I can't afford the inks to infuse my spell book with anything the "innocent bystander" over there might have from his formal education, though I'm pretty sure at least one local shop carries them. I'm out of spells to cast on the locals constructing the wall. Anyone see anything more useful for me to do than returning to my teaching duties? They're at least a little brighter than some of the relatives I've tried to teach, if slightly more prone to pyromania. " he slides the... book would be too generous of a word. Random amalgamation of paper papyrus and parchement scraps to vitro "if you need to copy anything? "
"Hmm, let's see... always interesting to see some new approaches..."
He retrieves his own spellbook. At first glance it looks a bit uneven, all the pages have slightly different sizes. But the writing itself is neat, flowing around oddities of the parchment like a river flowing to its lowest point.
Oskar watches Bethana lay into Justin and Vy. It's just so damn refreshing to see guys catch hell for stuff and not be one of the ones doin' the catchin', he thinks to himself, with a small self-satisfied smile.
As Justin and the tall elven fellow exchange comments over spellbooks, Oskar realizes he has no idea who this newcomer is. "Hey, I'm Oskar," he says, extending a hand after wiping off stray potato peels. "Who are you? How the hell long was I..." Oskar cuts himself off, not wanting to get into the embarrassing details. "...uhhh, indisposed? Yeah, indisposed."
Him and that stupid frickin' nose of his.
"No!" Oskar sighs and rolls his eyes hard before continuing. "But it looks like Nisk was using the teakettle for processing taggit oil, and he was supposed to stop doing s^&* like that!" Oskar pounds the table. "See? This is why he's the worst boss in Sandpoint! So seriously, how long was I out? What day is it?"
Oskar looks confused as he tries to do the math. "Really? No, can't be. Look, Nisk just isn't good enough at his craft to make something that could knock me out that long, t'say nothin’ of doin’ it without me wasting away cuz I didn't eat all that time. Doesn't mean I'm not considerin’ smacking that guy, still..."
"Any of those professions say that ya can't be such a careless hack that you accidentally poison your assistant?"
On the cusp of replying to Justin's last comment, Oskar decides against it. Nope. That way lies madness.
Turning back to the elf, he says, "So, back to the who the heck are you thing...?"
The evening passes quietly enough. Spellbooks are compared. Equipment is checked. The patrons in the Dragon are quiet, mostly talking to themselves.
The attack on the glassworks, not just by goblins, but by one considered their own, has left many shaken.
Once in a while someone comes over to pat you on the back or shake your hand, thanking you for catching those 'Gobs'.
Ameiko goes to bed early, and Bethana and Shayliss staff the bar and kitchen.
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The following morning a few of you sit bleary eyed at breakfast. The images of the workers hacked to pieces or tortured with hot glass made for restless sleep.
Bethana serves you breakfast. Through the open door, you can see Ameiko busy in the kitchen. She looks much improved from yesterday.
The guard captain you saw yesterday walks in halfway trough breakfast. He talks to Bethana and Ameiko for a moment, then joins you at the table with his own bowl of porridge.
"Good morning. Are you all, eh, feeling better then yesterday?"
Vitro looks a bit like something the magpie dragged in.
"I eh.. Well, after a while I just gave up on sleep and took to studying to distract myself. Trying to figure out this guy's notational system." indicating Justin with a nod of his head. Then his face looks a bit blank like there's some gears grinding behind it and he turns to face the orc.
"Sorry for being kind of unresponsive yesterday, I was a bit in shock from all the stuff we saw. I'm Vitro, I've been hanging around this town for a while, but hadn't really talked to a lot of people."
"Sorry for being kind of unresponsive yesterday, I was a bit in shock from all the stuff we saw. I'm Vitro, I've been hanging around this town for a while, but hadn't really talked to a lot of people."
Oskar nods at the comment. "Ah, it ain't a problem, that sorta thing can be pretty unsettling. And I know how ya feel; I been in this town over a year now and I only barely feel like folks've stopped staring."
"Good morning. Are you all, eh, feeling better then yesterday?"
"Actually yeah, all things considered," Oskar says after thinking about it a moment. A good fight always took the edge off, even if his change sometimes made him a little fuzzy on the details.
"So what do we do about the goblins? That's quite a lot of them. By myself I don't think I can handle more than ten."
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Justin rose before the sun, stretching out in the opulent luxury of his own bed. He giddily rolled back and forth along the length of the mattress just because he could and then hopped off onto the floor...
Into a bowl of yesterdays oatmeal.
The ratfolk wondered at the haphazard misplacement, until he saw a veritable maze of marbles, jacks, wheeled toys, strewn about his end of the room.
have to bring whoever did this to the goblin defense meeting He slid the bowl along the floor left, right, forward, back right, left, with his foot still in it only going straight to pick up the jacks. He reached the trunk at the foot of the bed to find his clothes missing, but fortunately the thief had left some hand me downs that another student had outgrown a little further down.
Only once he was out of the room and on the other side of the door did the arcanist raise his voice enough to prestidigitate the oatmeal off of his foot and back into the bowl, slip off his night shirt and put on the skirt and blouse. He wasn't so hungry that day old oatmeal had any appeal, but it would make a nice extra treat for Bitey.
Justin comes into the room just as Vitro mentions his notation system.
"Alphabetical thassalonian. A large number of writings were still in tact in the lower tunnels back home. " he yawwwwns.. "Please tell me there's coffee "
"We'll wait and see what the town thinks we can be of the most use doing. Probably scout out the tunnel as we saw it, we have experience fighting as a group, and as irregulars our deaths wouldn't interfere with the military or social structure of the town. Two sugars please "
Vy walks in, carrying a training sword, in with a grin on his face, and in contrast with other days, no welts on his head. When he puts the sword away, he polishes it a bit, as if it gotten something on it when it hit.
He looks at Justin when he sits down at the table, clearly thinking about making some joke about yesterday, sobers up, and starts eating his breakfast
"Ahhhh... that all makes sense now. Thassilonian/Draconic glyph translation has a different lexicographic ordering than Elven/Draconic. I think dragons managed to avoid coming up with a canonical lexicographic ordering of their alphabet just to annoy us. Not to mention the different underlying assumptions about which planet is most important in this solar system..."
He keeps his face turned towards Oscar meanwhile, still somehow having difficulty being at ease with the orc. "Well a year isn't that long if nothing happens in it.. I guess we're currently in one of the fast ones that shape things though. Impressions on people in a time of crisis matter a lot more." He's trying to be relaxed and sociable, but it's not coming entirely easy.