Rhanloi gratefully moves out of the way for the A'letta to tend to Khalbar. Once he sees the giant of a man stabilize and breathe easier, Rhan goes over to the now unconscious Tsuto to see if there is any life left in him. If there is, Rhanloi will tie the man's wrists and elbows behind his back and try to stabilize him. Ther are too many questions that need answers to let him die...yet.
Pick hisses as the man leaps clear of them all. Seeing that Spear-Woman is helping the big one, he draws back out of her way. He must speak to her of his debt but... not this moment. He goes to assist Ran-loy.
Rope from his pack, and deft knots to bind him.
Okay, they'd be deft knots if his head wasn't still ringing. :P
Tsuto is not dead, or even dying, merely unconscious from all of the wounds he's sustained. It seems like he'll be out for a few hours, yet.
Pick huffs and sits back from his ropes. He rubs at his shoulder where the man had struck him. The bones don't feel shattered-- although they might have been before A'letta had healed him-- but he still really hurts.
After the healing magic from A'letta, it a few seconds before Khalbar's eyelids flutter, and he regains consciousness. The strikes from the villian may not have been bloody slashes, but the force was overwhelming. Despite, regaining his senses, Khalbar echoes Pick's sentiment of general soreness and tenderness.
He moves to thank the Oracle in their mother tongue:"You have saved me, fair sister, and for this I owe you my life as is our custom. You have but to ask, and I will lay down myself for you. Bless the spirits of our ancestors for giving you such power!"
He nods gravely to her, his pledge more than mere words. Then looks to gather himself and his weapon up, trying not to let the pain show.
A'letta hugs the big man and lets out a big sigh, glad that he's okay once more. She doesn't know how to answer Khalbar and hopes that he understands. The gift of life was hers to channel, but she did not like it when those who had a brush with death chained their prefered method of dying to the act of saving her. She wasn't worthy of such sacrifice. But, when a person utters those words, you cannot tell him to take them back.
After a little, she manages a weak,"I think we should ready ourselves and move on. We still haven't found Ameiko.."
Kyra's concern over Khalbar's health is quickly dissipated once he is revived, seeming to be okay. The feeling is replaced by intense jealousy at A'letta. The woman was both skilled in combat and could heal others. She couldn't compete with that. Then again, she realised, Khalbar might not have needed any healing if A'letta hadn't fallen down the stairs. She and Pick could have disposed of the man quickly and quietly.
Kyra opened her mouth to say just that, but was interrupted by Khalbar speaking in the other language that he often did with A'letta. Biting her tongue, Kyra grabbed Pick and practically stomped away from the others. Gritting her teeth, she explained to him "We're going to see if we can find anything of value in these remaining rooms." in a tone that almost dared him to question her self-appointed authority.
As Kyra and Pick went off to see to any possible loot or clues as to who this person is and how he is involved in all of this, A'letta nurses Khalbar back to health. She reaches out with her hand for him and after his hand locks into hers, pulls him up from the ground. She breathes out in a hard sigh and starts talking, hoping to make sense of all that is in her head,"So we got goblins attacking Sandpoint during the celebration of the opening of the new cathedral. The cathedral was .. also targeted during all of this? And then we find out that this eastern looking fellow is also part of the group behind the attacks? Yet, he is no white haired woman so what is he to her?"
Rhanloi will join the exploration group or look on his own, since he would rather be doing something and right now he was contributing nothing...
The door that the half-elf martial artist has opened looks to be nothing more than a simple and small storage room, with crates and boxes filling up most of the space.
The same goes for the room on the opposite side of the hallway, nothing more than a storeroom for glassware, windows, and other finished goods.
The final door is locked.
A'letta eyes the doors, then turns to Khalbar once more. "The spirits know what else we might encounter in this place, so I best weave a protective web around you, Khalbar."
Pick blinks when Hammer's hand settles on his shoulder and yoinks him away from the others. Her order sounds convincing to him: he goes without any struggle, protest, or even a question, although he pulls out of her grip as soon as it loosens. No touch.
Wordlessly he follows her lead. They make their way down the hall, finding storage boxes, rooms for supplies-- no goblins. His shoulder still hurts. He thinks the bone might be fractured-- he knows it was worse than that, before Spear touched it and knitted it from shattered-- but he's had broken bones enough to know the pain is more than mere bruising.
It does not matter. There is work to do. Pain is weakness.
When they come to the final door, he crouches to the lock without waiting for orders, reaching for his new tools.
He slides a piece of curved wire into the mechanism, brow furrowed as he focuses on his task. Feeling for the tumblers, forcing himself to patience even though he is aware of Hammer standing by with irritation radiating off her like heat. Hnnhh-- no, no, don't get nervous, they didn't punish him for the earlier failure with the lock, so they might not this time either.
Despite his admonishments to himself, his fingers are trembling. The tool clatters around in the lock and Pick squeezes his eyes shut. He tells himself it's just the pain of his shoulder. But even that is still weakness.
Xogar comes up to Pick before he gets to the door.
"Pick. Receive healing from the light of Iomedae."
He reaches out to touch him. "This won't hurt at all."
Now back to feeling a little better, Khalbar nods his thanks to his sister Shoanti healer.
He prods through the person of the unconscious half-elf to see if perhaps he has a key or other items of value on him.
Pick freezes at hearing his name from one of the Big Men's mouths, staring uncertainly at him but holding still, rather like a trapped animal.
Why do topsiders like touching so much?
But the touch is like Spear-Woman's: it eases the pain. He huffs out a breath, squinting up at Xogar, then gives a slow, measured nod.
Dammit, he's going to be in the debt of so many people.
Then, he runs along after Kyra, and goes and tries his hand at the locks.
Fiddling with the lock, Pick breaks a tool, and it falls to the ground, clattering on the stone. Huffing and puffing, he inserts another one into the lock, and in his impatience he just shoves it right through and out of his own grip.
Rooting through the unconscious half-elven man's belongings, Khalbar finds a few items of note, as well as some valuable things.
Khalbar finds a vial containing a thin pink liquid, a finely-crafted composite shortbow (+1 STR), a wicker quiver containing 20 arrows, a set of shiny and well-made lockbreaking tools, and fourteen small pouches of dust. Eight of the pouches contain silver dust and six of them contain gold dust. The half-elf is also wearing a pair of silver earrings and a simple iron band around his right-hand ring finger.
Tucked into his butt pocket is a small leather journal.
Coming back to the group, Rhanloi casts Detect Magic on the items pulled from their prisoner. He will concentrate on the pink liquid and the pouches of gold and silver dust.
Khalbar will wait until Rhanloi is done checking the items for enchantment and then will hand the bookish mage the journal found on the bad guy.
"You can read better than Khalbar. You take this." he says firmly. He also hands the fancy lockpicks to Pick with a shrug and wry smile.
From among the half-elf's things, only the ring glows magically. It is, as Rhanloi can attest, a ring of protection +1.
"Did we clear out everything but that one single room? If so, we can simply smash down the door."
"I could use some of this gold dust for spell components...if no one objects!" Rhanloi says, handing the magic ring over to his comrades. He then tucks the journal into his bag and says, "I'll review this later to prepare our line of questioning for when the traitor awakens. In prison..."
As she hears the tool break off in the lock, Kyra considers slapping him in the back of the head, or using him as some other tool to break down the door. Expecting that A'letta would come to his rescue, too, she settles for glaring at him, and muttering "Well done."
Taking a few steps down the hall, Kyra turns around and takes a running start before throwing herself at the door, trying to force it to burst open.
Khalbar motions for Rhanloi to give the ring to Kyra. "She is unarmored, and also a girl. Give lock gear to the dwarf thing. Anyone use bow or arrows? Yes, Rhanloi take gold dust. Rest we sell and split."
"What this writing say?" Khalbar prods Rhanloi pointing at the journal.
Seeing "The Hammer" trying to knock down a door, Khalbar lends his impressive strength to the endeavor.
Together, Khalbar and Kyra knock the door off its hinges. The room is similar to the others - a storeroom, that is - but with most of the things cleared away from the center, and the unconscious, tied, gagged, and beaten form of Ameiko Kaijitsu curled on the floor.
A'letta rushes forward to Ameiko and immediately starts weaving healing magicks over the beat up woman.
Once A'letta is done administering to Ameiko, Xogar approaches the pair.
"Please, allow me."
Reaching out, he touches Ameiko. "Healing light of Iomedae fill your soul."
"The vial holds a potion - I believe it is one of healing. The aura is not too strong, so I would say that it could cure light wounds and minor injuries."
Since it appears they have the time now, Rhanloi pulls the journal out and opens it up. He'll scan the first page, then check the last page with writing, and then determine whether he needs to start from the beginning or closer to the end to gather information for their immediate needs.
Pick cringes when the tool snaps in the lock. These topside locks are clearly not his forte.
He feels the heat of Hammer's stare, and braces himself for a deserved chastisement-- twice now he has failed at locks.
Instead she says 'well done' and his grimace fades into confusion. He fails, and she gives him praise? What? This makes no sense.
One of these days, someone is going to have to explain the topsider concept of 'sarcasm' to Pick...
He stays at the back as the others break down the door, lurking. Or skulking. Either verb would apply.
The Inn-woman is alive. Pick grunts. That's good. If she were dead, he doubts anyone would continue to give him free food.
As the door bursts open, Kyra stumbles a few steps into the room before recovering her footing, and looking to the unconscious form of Ameiko with a smile of self-satisfaction.
A'letta and Xogar tend to the unconscious tavern-owner, filling her with positive energies and healing her broken bones and split skin. In moments, she awakens, eyes fluttering open to take the two adventurers in. From the ground, without moving, she feebly asks, "What happened to Tsuto?"
A curtain of conflicting emotions closes over A'letta's face when Ameiko's question fills the room. "He tried to kill us and make his escape, but we stopped him. He is still alive, but the scene above in the glassworks is straight from an Asmodean preacher book .. we should get you out of here, contact the authorities and see you to safey, Ameiko dear."
"She appears to be unhurt; let's get out of here before more goblins come."
Khalbar hands the pink healing flask to A'letta, knowing they may need more than her divinely inspired healing someday.
He nudges Rhanloi who is lost in the journal. "What this little book say?"
Pick slinks back to the store room down the hall and starts poking at things there, sniffing at some objects, shoving a few small things into his pack. The others can speak to food-woman. That is what they do, with their words. He considers kicking the bound-and-unconscious Tsuto when he passes him-- payback for his still-sore shoulder-- but he supposes the others might disapprove.
Ameiko sits up stock-straight, eyes wide. "He fought you? That stupid little boy! He thinks he can just get away with whatever he wants. I had hoped he would learn before he got into anything really bad....where is he?"
While Pick scrounges around in a storeroom, finding mostly storage devices, long-handled iron rods for putting glassworks in the furnace, and incomplete works, Rhanloi begins to read the journal.
It would take a few hours to really read it for any detail, but what Rhanloi gets from just a cursory scan is that Tsuto was a resentful, angry man that hated his father and the town of Sandpoint. Drawn in several locations are maps of Sandpoint and pictures of naked, winged and clawed women, as well as little doodles of goblins.
There is a point, dated a few months ago, where the writings stop being about petty hatreds and what happened that day and start being about a woman, and goblins, and adventures.
Rhanloi sums up for the group what he scanned, knowing his real research must start when Tsuto stopped ranting and started being serious. Perhaps he could learn more about the mystery woman who seemed to be behind all of these troubles!
"In the hallway, unconscious. I am at a loss as what to do next - do we turn him in? And tell the authorities everything we know? It feels like the right thing to do, but maybe we can leverage some information out of him before we do that .. he might still have hope that he can get away, that he might bargain for his life, while when he gets arrested, all hope might fly out of the window."
"The boy fought well." Kyra said, not without a hint of admiration. Her own siblings did not have the same interest in such matters that she did. Though, looking at Ameiko, Kyra suspected that the two of them had not had a whole lot in common either. As the others helped Ameiko up from the floor, she casually wiped blood off of her knuckles, wondering idly if the silly dwarf was coming back. As A'letta explained the situation with Tsuto, Kyra noted that she left something out. "Also," she added bluntly, "Your father's dead."
"Ameiko, Tsuto is your brother, and therefore you have a say in his fate. We must find out who he was working with, or for, and discover their plans and location. But he must be held accountable for what he has done. We can keep this quiet, or we can turn him in to the authorities and all will know."
With the others in his party, he ponders if they can hole up here in the glassworks with Tsuto as their prisoner while they interrogate him...
Pick sticks his head around the doorway to catch the tail end of the interrogation.
"Boy break Pick's arm," he grunts sourly. Yes, it's healed now, thanks to the others, but pain is pain.
"Will guards keep him? Or say, rich family, let go?" he asks shortly.
Shakily standing, Ameiko runs an appraising gaze over the group, especially Pick, who she hasn't paid especially close attention to up until now. "Of course they won't just let him go....Tsuto's existence isn't the most common of knowledge. I love him dearly, but he must fae some punishment. Crimes of this nature cannot be ignored like his romps of the past...I just hope that the Sheriff doesn't misunderstand or give too harsh of a punishment."
Just after this thought, she pauses for a moment, as if she's thinking of what to say next, and it is during this pause that Kyra reveals her father's fate. She freezes for a few seconds while she processes before her head slowly swivels at Kyra. "What."
"It is better for you to see than for us to try and explain. Are you sure you are ready? Your father's body is upstairs when you are ready..." Rhanloi says quietly.
Pick's brows furrow in mild confusion at Ran-loy's words.
He doesn't really get topsiders, but he is not certain that seeing the ravaged form of her father encased in molten glass is the 'better' way for the human woman. Oh, well. The drow-cousin would know, presumably. They are supposed to be smart.
"Goblins killed," he adds, all the same. "So we killed goblins."
During all this back and forth, Khalbar stands silently by. His heartaches for the turmoil that Ameiko must be going through, but he cannot find the words to express it. Losing one's father and finding out your brother is responsible for terrorist attacks on the same day must be quite a shock.
He solemnly nods and joins with the others if they go upstairs.
"Am I...ready?" she asks, her voice shaking. "Is it necessary?"
"Ready? Yes. You are stronger than you give yourself credit for. Necessary? Again, yes. For upon hearing of his death, you knew in your heart that you must see it with your own eyes, to confirm the awful truth of it. If you do not, then for the rest of your life you will always wonder and second-guess yourself. Come, see, know, and take solace in truth."
Rhanloi looks to his friend Khalbar, knowing the worst of his pain comes not from the known, but the unknown in his life...