Maerra opens the door and is confronted by a blast of hot air as she finds herself behind one of the great furnaces used to melt glass. It is extremely loud over the furnace, but you can still hear the breaking of glass and cackling from somewhere beyond...
She ducks her head, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve and plows on through. Trying to tread softly though - with the covering noise from the furnace, even dwarven boots might not be heard.
Aurica extinguishes her light before following after Maerra. "Probably best that I keep this off if there's a chance we can get the drop on them," she says quietly.
After helping the others in through the window, Zev cheerfully waves at anyone still looking at them from the street.
He then hurries to catch up with the others, slitting his eyes at the intense heat...
Milah follows the others, but her agitation shows through as a low growl escapes her throat.
The four of you move through the rooms as quickly and quietly as you can, looking for the source of the crashing glass and high-pitched laughing. You open a room that contains a lot of barrels and crates but ignore them to find what is making all that racket. Finally you slowly open a set of double doors that lead to the giant furnace room. Glaring heat assaults your face, but this is not what bothers you. Instead, you see several goblins dancing around and singing in glee. Some are carrying tongs with molten glass, some are carrying what appear to be sculptures of body parts. You also see what looks like a large pile of hardened glass in the main alcove where the goblins are. At the moment they don't seem to notice you are there. It probably helps that the furnace is extremely loud...
Maerra charges up, but the goblins are just out of her reach.
Milah charges into the room and leaps onto the nearest table, rapier drawn and ready.
If a goblin gets within reach, Milah will attack.
Aurica also moves swiftly up beside the others.
Zev hurries into the room with the others, his flail raises and at the ready...
The multitude of goblins cackle with glee as you run into the room. They drop their toys and charge towards you...
Moving on to the box one goblin is behind, Maerra swipes down with her axe.
"Damn gobs dodge sideways! Cut across, not down," she chastises herself.
The first goblin laughs at Maerra as he loses only a single hair from his head and then stabs at her with molten glass covered tongs while some of them goblins move charge forward with their dogslicers ready to cut, one of them jumping up next to Milah. Some of them stay behind and start throwing pieces of glass in your direction.
Milah skewers both of her attackers, then, not missing a step, she leaps off the table and rushes the goblins in the rear, stabbing the nearest mercilessly!
Aurica dodges a flying piece of glass and the bite of a dogslicer...
Aurica activates her Moon aura (swift action) then scrambles up onto the table (move action), provoking an attack of opportunity as she moves away from the closest goblin. Then she casts Serendipity (standard action).
The goblins soon find that they are in over their heads, three of them falling swiftly before Milah's flashing blade.
Maerra hacks at the goblin to the North who evaded her a moment ago...
... leaving it staggering from a blow which nearly knocks it down. "C'mon, know when you're beat!"
Round 1
Zev lets the two goblins attacking him slash away at his armored coat, then lifts his flail and ....flails.
Zev easily dispatches one of the goblins, the loud crunch almost unheard near the roaring furnace.
The one attempting to evade Maerra looks at her, his gaze wide and stance very unsure. He takes one final swing before falling to the floor.
The remaining goblins keep throwing glass ineffectively, but one of them runs instead, yelling something in its own foul language.
"Let me try to slow that one down so you can catch it, Milah," says Aurica as she casts another spell.
Milah responds to the goblin's words in similar fashion, then smiles broadly at Aurica as she races toward the far end of the room leaping onto tables once more, intent on catching the beastie.
Maerra charges one of the remaining goblins, the runner being much too far off.
Once more, the slash over its chest is not deep enough to render it helpless immediately.
Zev fires an arrow and it misses. He fumbles a bit losing a couple more from his quiver as Milah chases the running goblin. He attempts to open the door and make his escape, not realizing the danger he is really in, busy as he is dodging the ray of magic that Aurica cast at him. The one throwing glass at Maerra is suddenly surprised at just how fast and close she is, making a wild swing of his own, but being stopped by her axe. He doesn't finish the fight well, collapsing to the ground in a heap. The remaining creature decides that his brethren was the smart one and attempts to join him...
Maerra gets out her rope and tells the goblins "Hold still! If you run off you'll just die tired!" before tying them to one of the tables.
Zev runs after the fleeing goblins!
Zev runs after the fleeing goblins!
Aurica tries her spell again, this time on the second retreating goblin.
Milah's rapier flashes at the fleeing goblin, though not quite as effectively as those she encountered only a few seconds before.
She then finishes the creature off and turns to the other one, grinning.
"How do you like your chances, hmmm?"
Maerra ties up the unconscious goblin near her as Milah quickly finishes off the first running goblin while he is opening the door to the next area, first cutting him low and then high. As she turns to face the last one, it looks frantically to both her and Zev running towards him. He doesn't see the magic from Aurica however and it smacks him in the face. His fear is stronger than her will though and he shakes it off, putting up his hands and dropping hot glass on his foot, causing him to hop around, screaming in pain.
Milah smiles broadly as she marches the goblin back to the others. "He surrendered; this one, at least, appears to be smarter than the average goblin. I'll ask him about Ameiko and anyone else in the building, or that has come or gone since the raid...anything else we want to know about what's going on around here?"
"Our first priority is to find Ameiko. If it can tell us how and when they got in here, that would be nice to know."
"Sounds good. If we need to maybe we can check with one of these two." growls Maerra. She then makes sure the unconscious goblins don't bleed out before coming over to glare at the awake one.
As Maerra patches up the unconscious goblin, Milah presses the other for information. He squirms a bit, but is otherwise cowed by your presence.
Milah relays the goblin's answers to the group. "Apparently, Ameiko is downstairs with her brother; they had a disagreement and he's holding her prisoner." Then, to the goblin...
"What are we waiting for then? Tie the greenskin up and we'll deal with him later. Unless you reckon it's worth trying to get the inside word on what's waiting for us, but I don't think we can trust him so far." Maerra prods the bits of glass, wondering idly if the goblins had any plan other than make a mess.
The goblin Milah is interrogating points to the large mound of glass in the center of the furnace room. At first, it simply appears as a giant mound of unworked glass, but upon closer inspection, you can see a body underneath, with a familiar face. It is, or was, Lonjiku Kaijitsu, Ameiko's father from the argument in the inn a few days ago. As realization dawns on you, the goblin cackles, but then shuts up at Milah's glare.
"You're probably right, Maerra. Let's move on, then, and get downstairs."
As Aurica's eyes follow the goblin's finger to the glass mound and then adjust focus to register the image distorted by the misshapen glass, her face changes to an expression of shock. She whispers, "You are truly vile, aren't you?" as if addressing the goblin, but not expecting a reply.
-----
"Apparently, only an elf - Ameiko's brother, presumably - is allowed downstairs, but there's someone else - Snurgitz - in here as well."
Zev glowers at the goblin as it reveals the indignities that Ameiko has been forces to endure.
He does give a sober glance at the glass covered body of Ameiko's father. The man was an ass, but still....
Standing, hefting his flail, he waits for the interrogation to finish.
"Well, let's move on, shall we?" says Aurica as she goes through the double doors to see what lies beyond. "I don't think we've seen any stairs, yet."
Aurica steps into the hallway that the goblins were attempting to run to and the smell of the sea wafts by her sensitive nose. The set of double doors nearby seem to lead outside, but they are currently barred shut from the inside. Down the hallway, a couple of beautifully decorated and colored windows depicting various Tian stories shines light in from the sun, creating a splash of color on the otherwise bare walls. The passage seems to turn towards the left and there is another wooden door at the end.
Milah makes sure that the goblin's bonds are secure, then follows Aurica down the hall. "Well, let's see what we can find, shall we?"
Once the others are assembled, she opens the door.