As Aurica stands in the hallway still, holding the note and other papers, her hand begins to tremble.
"Jubrayl...he wrote this. If he is involved with these goblins, then he made me a participant, too. I...I never wanted this."
After a moment, Aurica steels her gaze.
"We can talk more about this later. Right now we need to find Ameiko and make sure she's safe."
Milah stares briefly at Aurica's admission, then nods, "Ameiko's safety is most important right now..." She looks at the green stain briefly, then continues through the next door.
The next room appears to be a reception area, complete with examples of glass works, several desks and chairs and another door that leads out to Glass Street. A second door has been opened into what appears to be a filing room that has been trashed, with many of the cabinets knocked over and files everywhere, spilling out into the reception area. The only other door is closed, but you know it leads back out into the hallway.
"I'm this close t'just prising up floorboards until we find the cellar" grumbles Maerra. She heads into the room outside the furnace to check that the goblin's still in the furnace room and on where the last couple of unopened doors lead.
"At least we know who this J is," is her last comment before the furnace noise becomes loud enough to block casual conversation.
Milah makes her way over to the only areas left to explore. This suspense will be the death of me..., she thinks as she opens the next-to-last door.
Maerra looks into the furnace room and at first she thinks she sees both goblins still tied down, but then she realizes that one of them is missing and the other has had his throat cut and is bleeding out all over the floor. Where the still conscious one was is a pile of clothes and what looks to be a not-goblin hand.
Milah opens the next room and is bewildered by the sheer amount of colored sand in here. Several barrels, crates and jars have been split or smashed open and are now a literal rainbow of different shades of every color. This looks to be where the sand was stored before being melted down and turned to glass.
Aurica makes her way past Milah and opens the final door.
Momentarily distracted by all of the pretty sand, Zev hurries to stand behind Aurica as she opens the door...
As Aurica opens the door, she can finally see the stairs they have been searching for. They lead down into the basement area in a long hallway that is unlit except for the ambient light from Aurica's aura.
Milah follows Aurica down the stairs, eyes and ears searching for anything out of place.
Aurica moves forward/down and peers around the corner to the left.
The first part of the hallways seems to have been used as a storage area for more of the sand used to create glass, with some over turned barrels spilling myriad colors on the stone floor. When Aurica looks to her left, she sees a couple of wheelbarrows against the wall and several bricks piled up on the side that appear to have come from a hole in the walls that leads further down into the tunnels. The tunnel ahead curves to the left.
The darkness doesn't trouble Maerra as she follows the others up. Dwarves are made for this. "That gobbo got away. Could be they're expecting us." she whispers.
Milah whispers to the others, "I hear a low voice, from that direction..." indicating the direction of the construction.
Zev pads down the stairs, surprisingly quiet for such a large man, squinting to see in the dim light.
His eyes pause on the sprays of colored sand, but he pries them away as Milah reveals the direction of the sound she heard, moving that way...
Aurica follows Milah in the direction of the voice.
Looking down the hallway, your eyes follow the left side, seeing two more doors. Going further, you see more piled bricks, these a little more haphazard than the ones you are standing near. It is what is at the end of the hallway that catches your eye. The goblin from before has what looks to be a less healthy form of Ameiko Kaijitsu lying on the floor and a knife in his hand. Behind them is a man with elfin features holding a bow. He looks at each of you as you round the corner.
"Well, it seems we have a problem. The Heroes of Sandpoint are getting in the way of progress. My dear sister here believes as you do unfortunately, that the people of Sandpoint are innocent. So I'm taking her with me to convince her otherwise. You're going to let me do that. If not, this little fellow cuts her throat and I kill all of you." The goblin next to him cackles. "Don't try anything stupid, or all of you will end up like dear old dad."
”If you think you can kill Ameiko and escape unscathed, you're more naive than I expected. But you haven’t yet seen these three in battle, so your ignorance may be forgivable.”
The man only smirks at you. "You're right, I haven't seen them fight, but if Snurgitz here is to be believed, I'd rather this ended peacefully. I would prefer to not have to end her life, but a mandate is a mandate."
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Milah addresses the goblin in a calm enough tone, but there is an edge of steel in her voice.
The goblin looks at Milah for a moment then back at the man, then back to Milah. He doesn't drop his knife, but he does start to run away from Ameiko and down the hallway. The grimace on the speaker's face tells you that he is not happy. The bow in his hand being drawn back to fire confirms it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
As everyone bursts into action, there is a subtle change in the color of Aurica's light, and she casts her deathly powers at the man with the bow in an attempt to weaken him.
In the crowded passageway Maerra can't get up a good head of speed, so she gets out her hammer and throws that at the bowman as she jogs up, "A little taste of dwarven iron to keep you til I get there!"
Milah moves forward, her rapier flashing at the bowman.
Zev, furious at the man for threatening Ameiko, rushes forward with Milah, his flail making a whistling sound as it is swung...
As the four of you charge Tsuto, he lets an arrow fly, with a calm look on is face, as if he planned for this.
As soon as the arrow flies, he drops his bow and prepares for your assault. Milah's blade finds its mark, catching him mid-drop. Her movement catches Maerra unawares as she struggles to make a half-hearted throw towards the melee. The hammer skids across the floor. Zev runs past the dwarf, but is unable to get close enough to the half elf for his swing to hit anything but the door frame, which cracks under his strength. Aurica's magic alters things a bit, but with Zev and Milah in the way, her aim is thrown and she is unable to affect the cornered elf.
"Of course you would pick on one unarmed man all by himself!", he says as he leaps over Milah's head and lands behind Zev.
Milah yowls as an arrow pierces her shoulder, which distracts her enough that she is unable to react to Tsuto's actions.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Splinters fly from the door frame, Zev hauls the flail back, as he looks up at the man's form flying over head.
With a growl, Zev twists and attempts to bat Ameiko's treacherous brother from the air....
Milah moves to the side to make room for others to enter the room, then thrusts with her rapier at her opponent. He's disarmed, sure, but that was his choice; he needs to pay for his role in all of this...
Aurica moves a little closer to the fray, and continues to wave about her harrow cards, casting again. Seeing the difficulty of hitting Tsuto when he is in the midst of her allies, Aurica instead invokes her fate-manipulating magic to attempt to twist fortune to the party's favor.
Tsuto is a lot faster than it would seem. Even Zev's frantic swing in the air only catches wind as the half elf sails by him. Instead of continuing his movement however, he throws caution to the wind and turns quickly in place to throw a spinning kick at Zev!
"Jumping onto my axe? Your teachers taught you poorly, half-humie." Maerra takes a swing at Tsuto as he drops in front of her.
Milah moves into the hallway and attacks the half-elf around the corner.
The half elf seems bewildered by the sudden onslaught, his movements slowing as he tries to dodge left and right, but is still caught by your weapons.
Zev step up to the fast moving half-elf, his flail snapping out at his legs...
Though fast, Tsuto is wounded and he mistakenly zigs when he should have zagged. Zev's flail catches his thigh and he goes down to he stone floor, hard. His head hits the wall and he looks as if he is about to say something before he falls unconscious...
Aurica goes to Ameiko's side and kneels beside her. She fans out her harrow deck and pulls out The Survivor. Then, touching the card to Ameiko's forehead, she says a few arcane words and the card glows with a faint golden light that passes into Ameiko.
"S'pose we should check with Ameiko before offing her brother" mutters Maerra. She puts Tsuto in a position where he won't choke if his head injury makes him vomit and makes sure his cuts won't make him bleed out.
As Maerra starts pulling out her gear to bandage up Tsuto, Aurica uses her power on Ameiko. It takes a moment, but the Tian woman slowly regains her composure and looks around blinking. Her eyes go to Tsuto and at first she tries to stand to go to him, but realizes she is not that steady yet. She breathes a sigh of relief when she notices that Maerra is working on him. "Th..thank you for not killing him. He may be many things, but he is still my brother. I..I owe you. All of you. You have done so much, not only for Sandpoint, but for me personally. Have.. have you seen my father?"
Milah sighs and steps forward and kneels next to Ameiko, taking her hands in her own. "I am so sorry, Ameiko; we were too late to save him. He...his body is upstairs in the furnace room; he is gone."
Aurica starts as she remembers suddenly. "That goblin that was here with Tsuto is still alive. We had better make sure he isn't hiding somewhere around here to take some poor soul by surprise. I suggest we fan out, and by Desna's grace maybe we'll be lucky enough to catch him yet." Aurica hurries away to check the rest of the area on this level first.
As the rest of you fan out, Milah attempts to comfort Ameiko. It takes her a moment to realize what she was just told. At first it appears as if a tear might come to her eye, but then she wipes it away with her wrist and looks up at Milah. "As the head of the Lonjiku household, I hereby appoint you and your companions as honorary members of the family. From here on out, you will always have a home wherever we have influence." She stands, allowing Milah to help her up. "There is much work to be done and I am sure the mayor will want to hear all about what happened here." She goes to look at some of Tsuto's things in the room. "I am also sure you will want to look through these. I don't think Tsuto was acting alone."
Meanwhile, the rest of you find no trace of the goblin, Snurgitz, that got away. It seems he has vanished into thin air...
Milah nods. "Thank you, Ameiko. I will do what I can to bring honor to your family." She begins going through Tsuto's things, hoping to find some clues.