Tamiko looks around, a little, but the giggling that she couldn't hear outside is now clear to her. She stays near the doors, one blade drawn, ready to head in once everyone else is there.
Trinity moved aside as soon as Marissia pressed into the Glass-works and began to search the entire area. Once the wizard come to a halt in front of a large set of double doors and indicates that the giggling was coming from within, Trinity lowered her shield and moved into a position to open the door.
Quietly the inquisitor looked from one companion to the other and gave a slight nod to each in order to confirm that everyone was prepared. Once convinced that everyone was ready, she opened the door and stepped into the room.
Morgana moves rapidly through the glassworks, seemingly unaffected by the obvious carnage. When in room 15 she stares for a while at the various alchemical objects before the confusion on her face clears.
"Ah, the ingredients of glass-making. It seems who-ever broke in here was only interested in portable wealth, not in anything actually to do with glass-making. A crime of opportunity? Or is this Tsuto involved somehow?"
As everyone prepares for combat Morgana draws her sword, settles her gauntlet and has a horrible realisation at the giggling. "Goblins, I'll wager! Be ready!"
As Honani enters the glass factory, his senses piques. Each foot fall that echos in the high ceiling factory. He eases his glaive and readies his klar for battle.
Each room they pass only fatigues his adrenaline enhanced muscles. The bunk room has Honani troubled and he spends some extra time here. If there is bedding, where are the inhabitants? And what are the stains?
Once the encounter the laughing door, Honani grins. This is why he is here. This is what a hunter does. Hoping to catch their prey unawares, Honani nods to Trinity hoping she will open the door for him to rush in and end their mirth at the end of his glaive.
Trinity turns the handle, which gives way easily underneath her hand, and opens the door into a nightmare-scape. The flickering glow of the furnace casts monstrous shadows and lights everything an eerie red.
Across the room can be seen dismembered limbs and body parts, some lying in pools of congealed blood and others partially encased in glass, as though dipped by demented children. The primary horror however is an old man, in a chair, completely covered in a thick coating of glass. Around it caper a number of goblins, giggling, chanting and poking at the glass with molten tongs.
As the door opens to the macabre scene, Honani, veteran of Shoanti battles, is shocked into silence. He had never before seen a sight such as this. Uttering his Shoanti battle cry, he charges the nearest goblin.
As the door open and Tamiko sees the horror inside, her stomach turns and she almost throws up on the spot. Recovering quickly and filled with extra determination, she moves forward, casts a spell, then strikes at one of the goblins with both her blade and her hand, glowing with electricity.
As the scene in the Glassworks is revealed, Marissia freezes in shock.
Suddenly she lets out a loud, shrill shriek.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!"
When she finally stops screaming she looks around, still barely able to process the scene before her.
These... These bodies! All this death! Oh, dear... Oh, my...
With tears streaming from her eyes, Marissia forms her hands into a series of gestures and points at the furthest goblin.
"Incantius estar..." she mutters in shock.
A blast of energy vaguely shaped like a bird flies at the goblin and smashes into his face.
Morgana is moving into the room as Trinity opens the door and she makes it few feet into the room before the full horror of the scene hits her. The sight brings her to a screeching halt and for a moment it looks as though Lady Deverin is about to lose her noble breakfast, before her face clears and determination shows again.
"Kill them all! For Sandpoint!"
Confident with her decision to move forward, Trinity opened the door resolutely and then committed to entering the room. (With my heavy shield I should be the best equipped to endure an initial assault.) She thought as the door swung open. Without hesitation, she then moved into the room.
The room was thick with blood and flesh. No doubt the remnants of a night of pure evil. The images before her brought back memories of what she thought her father’s handiwork would have looked like. Although she hadn’t witnessed her father's transgressions first hand, she had always imagined how horrible the sight would have been. If there was one thing that she was thankful for, it was the fact that he had spared her from witnessing the murders.
The rooms horrifying presentation caused Trinity to hesitate after she entered the room. She tried desperately to divert her gaze from the death scene, but found her attention divided between the gore and the threat. Originally she had intended to present a formidable entrance, but now she found herself shaken and unsure of her footing.
The party moves quickly, with varying effect into the glassworks. Honani, as always, is impressive and thoroughly distracting - but the carnage in this room tests the stomach of even the hardened shoanti warrior and he cannot land a blow.
Tamiko is more effective - catching her foes by surprise she lacerates it with spell and sword, sending the tiny blighter to the floor, dead.
Both Morgana and Marissia have to fight to keep themselves together, but Morgana inspires her friends to action and Marissia strikes a goblin at the far end of the room with arcane power!
Finally Trinity bursts into the room and smites a goblin, cleaving its head from its neck with Iomedae's righteous fury in front of Honani's eyes!
The goblins, although initially taken aback react as violently and maniacally as Sandpoint has come to expect. Rushing from the back of the room four of them scoop up fragments of glass and lob them towards the adventurers - although the throws get nowhere near, the mere sound of smashing glass seems to excite them even more!
One goblin charges right into Honani's reach, wielding glassworking tongs with fiercely glowing glass at the end.
Two more goblins gang up on Tamiko, wielding dogslicers!
One goblin slides along the floor and gashes Tamiko's ankle!
Marissia holds her position, then mutters another few words of arcane power.
"Armaralis Marcado..."
There's a slight shimmering in the air around Marissia's body, as her magical defences spring into being, before they cease entirely, becoming invisible.
Crouched behind his klar, Honani stabs out as the goblin approaches him.
Skewering the goblins, he stands up from his crouch and twists the glaive out of the goblins side as it sloughs to the floor. He pushes forwards and stabs out at the goblin in front of him.
Even in the face of the crazed, glass blowing goblins, Honani smiles as he kills and defends.
Tamiko lets out a little yelp as one of the goblins moves up and slices at her leg, but it doesn't seem to be that bad of a wound. Focusing past the sting, she lets her magic guide her next strike straight down at the goblin's skull.
Trinity’s hesitation was quickly quenched by the chaotic assault of the goblins, which caused her focus to harden into a committed course of action. With new resolve, she stepped forward while bringing her shield into the small goblin’s face. Once the creature’s vision was properly obscured, she brought her blade high overhead and then down with deadly force. The sword’s crashing momentum faded from view as it plummeted behind her shield and directly on top of the goblin.
Morgana, seeing her companions hewing down the goblins easily, moves up next to Trinity, forming a make-shift barricade between the remaining goblins and the door.
She levels her longsword and grits her teeth. "Come on then, you little pests!"
Remember - if you flank a goblin you do an extra d6 damage!
Honani fells two goblins with brutal thrusts of his klar. Trinity continues to feel the Inheritor's hand guiding her blade as Morgana and Marissia improve their tactical situation. Only Tamiko, distracted by the cut to her ankle, is unable to land a blow.
The remaining goblins surge forward in a wave, lashing out with glassware tongs, broken bottles and anything else sharp they can lay their hands on!
The final goblin, standing on another table, seems to suddenly realise who you all are, and shrieks loudly in goblin.
Seeing his friends plow through the goblins like a scythe through dry grass, Honani skirts around the battlefield seeking an advantageous potion. "My Race Sister, I cannot get to the other side yet. Give me a moment and I shall send these green menaces to meet their idiotic gods. You are doing a great job of not falling down. Keep doing that." Moving past their defensive line, Honani flanks with Trinity and stabs out with his klar in the tight quarters.
"This is not as much fun as the boar hunt, but I am having fun. Aren't you all having fun?"
Trinity lowered her shield slightly after having endured a painful attack from the small advancing goblin that managed to find his way under her defenses. After compensating for the creatures smaller size, she brought her sword into a low side swing in hopes of striking the goblin along its head.
Marissia moves up behind Trinity and casts a spell.
"Friazo!"
Sending a line of freezing air into a nearby furnace.
Tamiko continues to strike at the goblins in front of her, but her balance is thrown off by her wound once again.
Pesented with an abundance of goblin targets Morgana brings her longsword down in a firm chop.
Only Honani is able to land a blow - but what a blow! He cleaves the goblin in twain with righteous fury!
Pink, at the back of the room, catches Marissia's frost ray on his ladle-ful of molten glass and drops the whole thing with a pleasing shattering sound. It shrieks something in goblin and runs, passing between Morgana and Honani, leaping the table and heading for the door.
The other goblins redouble their efforts, to absolutely no effect.
Party Up!
As the goblin splatters on the end of his klar, he shoves the dead goblin off and to the side. Still in his crouch behind his klar he sees a goblin try to escape.
"There is only death for you, goblin. Prepare yourself to meet Lamashtu." he calls.
Quick as a shadowcat pouncing on the steppes of the Cinderlands, Honani marches south so that he is directly across from Trinity. Hoping the woman is distracting the goblin with purple glass-dust on its hands, he stabs out with his glaive.
Marissia stumbles back a step and clutches her necklace in her hands.
"Incantius estar!"
A blast of magic, reminiscent of a bird in flight, launches from her necklace at the red goblin.
Morgana whistles, unable to help herself as Honani dispatches two goblins in as many seconds. Taking advantage of the cleared space she too advances to strike at the two remaining goblins.
As the fight rages around her, Tamiko continues to trade futile blows with the goblins.
Trinty quickly read into Honani’s intent and did her best to keep the goblin’s focus on her. Without hesitation she began to waive her shield from side to side, which caused what little light was present in the room to glitter off its surface. She had little doubt that the display would captivate the curious little creature long enough for the Shoanti warrior to land a devastating blow. After Honani finished his assault, Trinity moved her focus to another goblin that was standing close by.
Honani's brutal glaive ends two goblins in the blink of an eye. Marissia blasts another one nearly off it's feet and although the rest of the party misses, the result is a foregone conclusion.
With the goblins defeated, the Heroes of Sandpoint are finally at liberty to examine their surrounding in detail - not that this is necessarily a blessing. The place has been cleared of all valuable and thoroughly vandalised. The only remaining object untouched in the room is Longjiku Kaijitsu, who appears to have been covered in molten glass. His agonised expression makes it clear that he was both alive and conscious when he died.
The rest of the room features nothing else apart from a couple of barred external doors. Retreating back to the ante-chamber and opening the other door reveals stairs downstairs, seemingly leading to a basement or something similar. At the bottom of the stairs only a tiny fraction of light leaks down from above - enough to reveal a stark choice. Left or Right?
As they get closer, Tamiko is able to make out the face of the glass-encased man, and it becomes clear that it's Lonjiku. She bows her head in respect and whispers at his body, "I never liked you much, but you didn't deserve this. I'm sorry."
Marissia covers her mouth with a quivering hand as silent tears slip from her eyes. Unable to find the words, she walks through the room in a daze.
Eventually she follows the others down the stairs.
Morgana takes only the most cursory look at Lonjiku - whether thats to avoid an unpleasant reaction, or simply because she didn't like the man is not clear. She leads the way downstairs, and searches the bottom of the stairs for a torch sconce or something similar.
"Let's go right, we can work back if we have to. And be quiet - the 'boss' is down here somewhere."
Not taking mush longer than Morgana, Trinity glanced at the man encased in glass. The cruelty didn't surprise her the least, but the creativeness was beyond what she had come to expect from simple goblins. After spending a moment to observe the fixture, she descended down the stairs.
Catching only a portion of the whisper, Trinity turned to Morgana and attempted to reply in a soft tone. “Did you say something about a boss?”
Without hesitation, Trinity began speaking words of divination in a soft and subtle tone. Moments later, she touched the holy symbol hanging around her neck, which began to slowly glow with a soft white light.
"We've not found Ameiko yet and no-one seems to have left. So if she's anywhere it will be down here, but she came to meet Tsuto and that art work upstairs..." Morgana shudders delicately. "Someone had a grudge against Lonjiku, I think it was his son. And I know a couple of words of goblin. The one that tried to flee said 'Chief', although I've got no idea what the rest was."
Having said her piece, Tamiko moves on. Her face set with grim determination, she quietly follows the others down the stairs.
As the goblins die around him, Honani's singular obsession with become a perfect warrior delay him processing that all the goblins are dead and the immediate threat is over. He remains in his fighting crouch as the others are moving about. Coming to, he rises back to his full height and moves over to each goblin he killed, slices off an absurdly large ear, and strings it on his grotesquery.
He walks up to the man encased in glass, taps the glass with the butt of his glaive to hear that hollow sound. "I do not know this city-folk, but this not an honorable way to die. Goblins are a cruel bunch. It makes me happy to kill as many of them as I can. You say there is a chief goblin? I would very much like to kill him."
Honani still has his weapons at the ready and leads the others down the stairs and to the right.
The party moves around the passageway, Trinity's softly glowing holy symbol allowing everyone to avoid the ramshackle crates and other debris blocking the corridor.
The first door they come to is unlocked, but the room beyond appears to be a simply storage room and has nothing in it.
A hoarse whisper comes from the next room. "Hello? Help me, please!"
"Ameiko? Is that you?" Marissia calls out with worry.
"Quiet! He'll hear you!" The voice whispers back, urgency and fear apparent in her tone.
Tamiko grips her blade tightly as she hears Ameiko's voice. Having seen what happened to Lonjiku had put a million horrifying thoughts into her head, but now she's focused once again on the situation. "He? Who is he? Tsuto? Did he do this?" she whispers with a slight hint of confusion at the door, though she's not sure if anyone can hear.
"Why are we whispering and not killing more goblins? Let us open this door and kill all that oppose us." a bewildered Honani asks the group as they crouch by a closed door.
Trinity stood quietly and listened to the whispered conversation. Her stance reflected a state of preparedness for what she felt was an inevitable conclusion of violence. Even with a notable effort of cation, she knew that the group could not leave a viable threat to the city unchecked. The whisper was an acceptable delay, but, in his own way, Honani was correct. The fight would likely continue.
Morgana moves forward quietly to open the next door and finds it locked! She fiddles with the lock to no avail and whispers through the door. "Ameiko. The door is locked. Where is the key?"
The return whisper is very quiet indeed. "Tsuto has it. He's in another room I think." A flash of her old spirit shows through. "Give him hell for me!"
Trinity glances at the door and then over to Honani. In an effort to maintain the appearance of caution, Triity lowered her voice and commented. "Does anyone have the ability to manipulate this lock, or should be apply a more Shoanti approach to opening the door?"
"Well, it worked well last time..." Tamiko has no way to open any kind of lock without a key, so she hangs back to let the others deal with it.
"A Shoanti approach--Oh! I see!" Marissia quickly steps back from the door so Honani can kick it in.
Honani looks to the others for approval. "This I can do." He straps his klar on his back, before raising his ploearm. He thrusts out over and over again until the door gives.
Try as he might to stifle the sound, the blows ring out for all to hear. "That was neither subtle nor quiet. If there are more foes about, and this boss, we have surely alerted them to our presence. Have a care." he forewarns as he pushes open the smashed door.