Tiyuvi also turns to the woman. "Yes, where was this attack?" Tiyuvi waves an Lucien and the others and beckons them to join. "Show us where this happened and we'll take care of it."
Vulpidin quietly gets to his feet as well. "I little like letting such things happen myself," he states.
Lucien jumps up and heads for the door, trusting the others to have a location before he gets far.
The lady leads you to here home. Along the way, you discover that her name is Amele Barett. She explains how they are a typical Sandpoint family, with two children (little Aeren and baby Verah) and a loyal family dog named Petal.
When you arrive at the Barett house, you find it disturbingly silent. Upon reaching Aeren's room, you find Alergast Barett on his belly, as if he had crawled into the closet. He is not moving.
As Tiyuvi enters the room he immediately rushes to Algergast and checks for any signs of life.
"We have to get the child out of there."
If the door is at all closed Sami gets it open the rest of the way pistol at the ready. If there is no target she just covers the area as best she can while Tiyuvi checks the child.
Vulpidin hangs slightly behind the others, feeling a little bit awkward suddenly including himself in the this group. He shows a bit of his teeth at the sight of the dead man and looks around for signs of goblins nearby.
Lucien concentrates, and a crystalline blue sword appears in his hand. He advances into the room warily, looking left and right.
The man is dead. His head seems to be stuck in the wall, as if he was pulled into a small hole.
Tiyuvi draws his rapier from the loop at his belt. He crouches into a cautious stance.
There is no movement at all. It is eerily still.
Keeping her gun trained on the whole in the wall Sami quietly speaks.
"Can someone pull this poor fellow out. If there is something there I will shoot first and ask questions after."
Fire at any non human/elf/halfling/dwarf that is in the hole.
vs touch if within 20ft
"Yeah, I'll do that. Watch my back, or I guess front. Make sure something doesn't come with this guy."
Tiyuvi steps forward and grabs the man's legs and pulls him away from the wall.
Vulpidin watches warily, waiting to see what happens.
Taking one hand off his sword, Lucien reaches out to help Tiyuvi.
After you pull back Alergast's body, you find him to be quite dead, the flesh of his face and upper torso eaten away. An instant later, the insane goblin shrieks in rage at its stolen dinner and leaps up out of the hole to attack!
"Gresgurt eat now!"
He jabs his dagger at Tiyuvi.
Tiyuvi jumps into action and lunges for the goblin.
Not believing a single goblin to be a major danger to three trained warriors, Vulpidin instead pulls out his crossbow and loads it, then tries to find an advantageous angle to fire from without hitting one of the others.
Of course its another goblin. What a waste of life.
Sami levels her pistol and fires at the creature, doing her best to case as much damage as possible to end this quickly.
vs touch
And end it quickly, you do. The goblin grabs its chest and spins three times, falling to the floor dead.
As far as you can tell, this is probably a goblin that was in the initial attack and tried to hide here waiting for a good chance to escape. But hunger drives every creature to eventually do risky things...
You head outside to report that the goblin has been destroyed. Amele is thankful until she learns of her husband's fate, whereupon she has a complete breakdown. You may feel at a loss as to what to do with the situation, but fortunately the commotion quickly summons Sheriff Hemlock, who takes in the scene with his customary grim expression.
He thanks you for helping and arranges to have the Barett family stay at the cathedral for a few days. I'll send word to Amele's sister in Magnimar. I am sure she'll want to come and help poor Amele."
Folks nearby are heard talking about "another goblin" and "Shalelu is in town, and looks a mess." The rumors start to grow quickly, even as you stand there. "Sheriff's getting bad news from Shalelu! Must be another goblin raid."
Hemlock orders a few men to take care of the mess and see that the poor dead man is transported to the cathedral for funeral preparations. As the Sheriff packs up to leave, he says to you, "Why don't you all join me. A friend is in town, and has some news that you might find interesting."
"Ok," Tiyuvi replies to the sheriff. "I'll join you. Why do you think this will be interesting news? Is it related to the attacks we had here?"
"I think it best if I let our guest tell you."
You arrive at the Sheriff's office, and there is a lady that you recognize as Mayor Kendra Deverin, and an elven woman.
The Sheriff makes introductions. "This is Shalelu Andosana, a friend of Sandpoint who occasionally brings reports from the hinterlands. She is an unofficial member of Sandpoint's town guard.", an introduction that causes her to smirk.
"Shalelu, these are Sandpoint's newest crop of goblinslayers."
Hemlock explains, "Shalelu has been a thorn in the side of the local goblin tribes for years, and few in the region know more about them than she does." He goes on to recap her report that Sandpoint hasn't been the only place in the region that's had goblin troubles. In short, there's been an increase in goblin-related raids along the Lost Coast, particularly in the dale between Nettlewood and Mosswood. Only a day ago, a farm south of Mosswood was burnt to the ground by a group of goblins. "Shalelu was thankfully nearby, and while the farm couldn't be saved, she did rescue the family and drive off the goblins! The family is staying at a nearby farm for now, but the goblin problem is obviously not going away."
At this point, Hemlock cedes the floor to Shalelu.
She begins. ""Belor's told me of your work against the goblins. Well done! I've dedicated the last several years of my life to keeping them from causing too much trouble around these parts, but they're tenacious and fecund little runts. Like weeds that bite.
"There are five major goblin tribes in the region, and, traditionally, they're pretty good at keeping each other in line with inter-tribal squabbles and the like . Yet from what I've been able to piece together, members of all five tribes were involved in the raid on Sandpoint. A fair number of the Mosswood goblins I dealt with yesterday were already pretty
beat up, and there was a lot of chatter about the 'longshanks' who killed so many of them. Now that I've met you, it seems obvious from their descriptions who they were talking about. Seems like you've made an impression.
"In any event, the fact that the five tribes are working together disturbs me. Goblin tribes don't get along unless they've got something big planned, and big plans require big bosses. I 'm afraid that someone's moved in on the goblins and organized them. And judging by these recent raids, what they're organizing seems like bad news for all of us."
After Shalelu's speech, Sheriff Hemlock announces that he's taking a few of his guards south to Magnimar to see about securing additional soldiers to station at Sandpoint for a few weeks, at least until the extent of the goblin threat can be determined. While he's out of town, he's asked Shalelu to sniff around Shank's Wood, Brine stump, Mosswood, Devil's Platter, and other places where goblins live to see if she can discover anything else about what's going on.
He would also like you to maintain a public presence in Sandpoint over the next few days, if you don't mind. "The locals seem to have taken to you," he says, "And seeing you around town will
do a lot for keeping worries down over the next few days."
Once the meeting is over, Shalelu asks, "Can I buy you all dinner at the Rusty Dragon? Ameiko's a friend of mine and always puts on a fine feast. I'd like to hear more about the Sandpoint raid, and I am sure you have questions regarding the local goblin tribes I might be able to answer."
Lucien is thunderstruck at the sight of the elven woman. "Shalelu? Shalelu Andosana? It's been...how long has it been? Decades, certainly."
"Lucien? Of course, yes, I remember you. What brings you to Sandpoint?"
Vulpidin nods in agreement to the suggestions made, then watches the two elves getting reacquainted, feeling a little awkward at being included with these people he barely knows.
After Shalelu's introduction Tiyuvi watches Lucien reintroduce himself. He smiles. It almost seems like there is chemistry there. Tiyuvi notices Vulpidin watching too and he walks over to him. "It seems those two know each other already. I wonder how well they know each other." He winks at the kitsune.
"That is a lot of goblin tribes, good thing they are happy to be at each others throats like they are. If someone unites, yes that is a problem. I am happy to show them the message of the accidental god."
When the two elves start talking Sami sits back. I have said all I need to say as an avenging paladin of justice. Let them talk I am happy to wait.
Moments after thinking that she grows board and starts looking all over the room for anything entertaining to catch her eye.
Vulpidin nods, smiling slightly at the catfolk. At least he wasn't the only one who stuck out here--though if he ever felt too out-of-place, he could always use his human form, unlike this person.
"Did you all know each other before?" he asks, waving slightly at the other members of the group.
"No, not really. Many years ago I used to live here in Sandpoint but, well, I found it expedient to move on." Tiyuvi seems a little hesitant to talk about his past. He seems to be ashamed and embarrassed more than secretive. Someday, he hopes, he'll make up for the trouble he caused here.
He turns his attention back to Vulpidin. "Do you suppose we should go talk with that elf? It sounds like she might know something about the goings on around here. The sheriff wants us to stay here in town but any extra knowledge we get can't hurt."
Responding to Vulpidin. "As Tiyuvi says, not so much. I lived here and worked as a blacksmith. Honestly I kept to myself and trained for my future life as a paladin. I am sure I will be blessed with the powers of a paladin soon. What is your specialty, I have never really met a kitsune before."
”I came to speak with Brodert Quink about the Old Light. My superiors at Quantium University are particularly interested in some of his ideas.” he pauses and looks around, gesturing to take in the town as a whole. ”I have to say, it’s good to be back. It’s been decades. I don’t think there was even a town here when I left Crying Leaf. How long have you been here looking after Sandpoint?”
"I see," Vulpidin replies quietly. "I am... oddly blessed, you might say. I have some measure of magic, though it comes at a cost. Thus far I mostly only know how to heal or strengthen myself or others for battle, though I have also gained the odd ability to breathe a bolt of lightning."
He smiles a bit hesitantly. "I'm... still trying to figure it out, myself."
"Breath a bolt of lightning? Must be terrible for your breath I would think. Still I can't wait to see that!" she sips her drink "The ability to heal is very important. It will be some time before I can help with that I fear. Cayden Cailean is slow in honoring me as his avenging hand."
She pauses thinking for a moment and almost speaks again but hold her tongue. It comes at a cost? Probably rude to ask about that but I hope the cost is not high.
"Seriously? You can burp lighting bolts?" Tiyuvi laughs. "That's a great party trick." He keeps chuckling. At Sami's comment about terrible breath Tiyuvi starts to laugh even more. Sensing that other people might start looking at him he tries to get control of himself.
"I'm with her," he gestures to Sami. "Can't wait to see it in action."
Vulpidin shifts a bit uncomfortably, looking away from the group. He was pretty sure they were just having fun with the teasing, but it still kind of... well, it didn't embarrass him, exactly, but it did make him think about just how strange he really was here.
"It's not very strong yet," he half-whispered.
"Oh do not worry about that. I am a paladin whoes god has not smiled on her yet. By comparison your lightning things is amazing." she smiles [/b] "We will get stronger with practice if it is the gods will. Don't think too much about it, thats what I say." [/b] She pauses and takes a small drink hand holds up her tankard "Plus the gods have put us together so we are already stronger."
"Shalelu, we were happy to help againt these goblins. It is the right thing to do after all. I am happy to stay around town and act as a sort of guard while we are needed? Is there reason we should be expecting another attack?"
"I don't know of anything imminent, but I will send word as soon as I hear anything. Thanks for dinner and your stories!"
"'Twas great to see a familiar face again. Please do keep in touch, Shalelu." Lucien says, obviously quite disappointed to see her go so soon.
The night and next day are quiet and uneventful. You go about your business, although a few business turn away from Tiyuvi. "You need to do right by Ven Vinder..." is about all they say.
The following morning, as you all are wandering around Sandpoint, you are approached by a a timid elderly halfling woman you recognize - Bethana Corwin is a maid who works for Ameiko Kaijitsu at the Rusty Dragon. She's obviously up set and asks to speak to you somewhere in private.
Ducking into a small quiet shop, she says in frantic whispers, "I woke earlier this morning to find that Ameiko hadn't already started breakfast, for the first time since before I can remember! I was worried, so I knocked on Ameiko's door but no response. Now, I know I shouldn't go into her room, but I was really worried. It was empty and the bed unslept in. Worse, I found this near the bed!"
She hands you a crumpled piece of parchment -a note from Ameiko's older brother Tsuto.
That night Sami has one more thought and turns to Vulpidin.
"We are making an assumption that since you are with us now you will join us with your lighting breath. I hope you will."
______
Rising early, and a little hung over, Sami will head to her uncles blacksmith shop after making plans to meet up later in the day with the group. She only plans to put in a half day to show she is helping and be seen in town.
Tiyuvi takes is easy roaming around town. He isn't too put out at being rebuffed by various businesses. He's sure that the scandal will pass over soon enough.
When Bethana approaches him he listens to her story and then looks at the note. This could be a big problem.
Vulpidin nods. "Of course. If I'm going to get strange powers from who-knows-where, I should use them to help people, right?"
In the morning, he trails along with the catfolk, feeling a little more akin to his fellow furred person. Concerned, he looks to Tiyuvi and asks, "Have you heard of this Tsuto before?"
Lucien looks at the note with the others. ”That would go a ways toward explaining her father’s behavior the other day. Perhaps we should go to the factory?”
Although the note was written in Minkaian (likely to keep prying eyes from reading it, Bethana muses), Ameiko had been teaching Bethana the language over the last few years. The halfling has helpfully already translated the note's message on the opposite side-this is what you read.
Bethana explains that Tsuto was something of a scandal when he was born back in 4688 (a year before Ameiko), since he's a half- elf. Bethana sagely notes, with big eyes, that neither of Ameiko's parents are elves . It was obvious that old Lonjiku wasn't the boy's father, and his rage at the discovery of his wife's indiscretion was the talk of the town for months. Lonjiku's wife Atsuii never revealed who the father was , and it's a testament to Lonjiku's stubbornness that they remained married. Tsuto was handed over to the Turandarok Academy to be raised outside of the Kaijitsu family, ignored by his father and forbidden visits from his mother. Ameiko starting visiting him in secret once she learned about his existence at the age of 10, visiting him a few times a month to keep him company, bring him some food, and promise him that someday things would get all sorted out.
That all changed in 4705, when they had a terrible argument in which Tsuto struck Ameiko. Bethana doesn't know what the argument was about, but whatever it was sent Ameiko away from Sandpoint for a year, during which time she made a living as an adventurer. She returned to Sandpoint a year later to attend her mother's funeral. Tsuto was quite public in his opinions that his father had pushed Atsuii off a cliff to her death, and during the funeral there was a confrontation. Lonjiku nearly broke Tsuto's jaw with his cane, after which Tsuto cursed him and left Sandpoint. Ameiko has tried to reestablish contact with him ever since, but was never able to track him down.
Bethana's worried that Tsuto's up to no good. "Thank you for looking into this!"
When you arrive at the Glassworks , you find the building curiously silent.
Sami rejoins the others and is unhappy to learn that there is further trouble and that a resident of Sandpoint may have been helping the goblins. Naturally she will want to go with the others to help.
"Place is quiet, should we knock you think? Just go in?" she shrugs not sure what etiquette is and know she is not that quiet having a gun and all.