”What exactly has you guys so on edge? Did you see any goblins around here?”
”No, sir” one of the militiamen answers with an awkward salute, “we just saw a bunch of people fleeing the city and when we asked why they screamed ‘goblins’… we got ready to fight but none have shown up…”
After taking note of the guards condition, Diego prepares to move to the next location.
If nothing seems amiss, Jaymin nods. ”Way to man your posts, men,” he replies, then moves to follow the others.
After the brief report, Orin agrees that they should not dally.
.
The intrepid townguards dutifully set out to follow the perimeter of the city looking for clues. They trudge the length of the northern coast and find nothing. They turn south and follow the beach along the Varisian Gulf, and find nothing. Conscripting a helpful local with a flat-bottom boat, they cruise east through the harbor and find nothing. Then they continue on the boat, north up the Turandarok River and find nothing. The boatmen lets them out and they scamper up the steep embankment to make the short walk back to Northgate. There's some confusion and frustration at their lack of success until suddenly everyone except Alistair spots an area of trampled down grass next to the wall, outside of Sandpoint's graveyard.
Diego stops and then points out the trampled grass. Once he is sure everyone is aware of the spectacle, he begins to move towards the area.
Jaymin nods, but says, ”Hold up.”
Before any town watch bootprints can muddy up the picture, Jaymin approaches the trampled grass and searches the soft earth for footprints and other signs of passage.
Examining the area by himself, Jaymin is able to identify two types of tracks. There's what appears to be several sets of goblin footprints and, perhaps more alarmingly, a single set of human tracks. All of them seem to start at the wall and move away from the city together.
Nico frowns, confused. "Wait, away from the wall? None of the goblins we came across escaped, and nobody is telling us they saw them anywhere aside from the places we did. This would mean there were more of them that left, and we never knew about them. And a person too."
"And we still don't know how they got in."
Can Jaymin tell if the person was a prisoner or willing follower?
"That's troubling. We need to check this area on the inside of the wall."
Diego begins inspecting the general area around the city wall in proximity to the foot prints.
"Yeah, wonder what's to be found on the other side of the wall?"
Nico takes out her rope and fully unwinds it. She then takes her manacles and ties them on to one end to weight it. She gets the weighted in spinning, then throws it up to drape over the wall so she'll have a marker showing exactly where the footprints are outside.
When the rope is in place, Nico walks around through the gate, finds her marker, and starts looking around.
Jaymin is unable to discern from the few footprints he finds what the relationship between the human and the goblins was. The person was on their feet, not being dragged, so if they were a prisoner they were a somewhat cooperative one, they also could have been fleeing from goblin pursuers?
Diego spots the footprints heading away that Jaymin pointed out, but loses the trail even faster than he had.
Once everyone is inside the wall, it’s easy to see where the mystery group exited: on one edge of the graveyard, there’s a wooden ladder leaning against the wall with Nico’s rope hanging partially on it. Wherever the person and goblins came from, they must have used the ladder to climb the wall and then dropped down on the other side.
”This kind of explains their getaway but it’s all backward for entry. Alistair said as he looked at the ladder. ”We’re missing something. Jaymin, can you tell where this group approached from? Perhaps if we backtrack them we can find where they entered.”
”I can try, but as soon as we hit a town street that’ll be it.”
(focussing on goblin tracks)
Jaymin can make out enough tracks to see that they came from inside the graveyard itself, but—as he predicted—once they get back to the cobbled path that runs through the cemetery he loses them.
Diego sighs softly as he visually scans the graveyard. "I'm thinking we should have a look around the graveyard."
"Very well," Alistair says and walks in a different direction from Diego scanning the graveyard.
Unable to assist with the tracking, Orin jumps at the opportunity to look over the graveyard for clues.
The watchpeople fan out and begin searching the graveyard. Surprisingly, there's no signs of fire or even vandalism on or around any of the gravemarkers. Diego does notice, however, that a lock has been broken off the door to some kind of mausoleum or something. A closer look reveals that the small stone structure is actually the entrance to the crypt that houses the remains of Sandpoint's clergy and acolytes.
"Looks like we might have something here." Diego states as he points out the broken lock.
"Grave robbers?" Alistair says in surprise. "I guess we need to check and see what they messed with. Then he steps to the door and pushes it open, peering in.
Jaymin also looks around, asking the others to wait while he examines the dusty floor for tracks.
The staircase is well maintained and not particularly dusty, but Jaymin can tell that it has been used by goblins recently. Alistair doesn’t hear anything out of the ordinary but he can’t see the end of the stairs, let alone whatever lies beyond, because it’s shrouded in darkness.
As the light conditions decrease, Orin follows whomever decides to go first, casting (and recasting as needed) light.
Stuck at the back of the group around the door, Nico is too short to see anything.
"What do you see? What's going on?"
”Nothing yet my dear but Orin has graciously shed some light on the situation. Let us see what it reveals.” with that, Alistair leads the way down the stairs, sword at the ready.
Diego falls in behind Alistair.
The stairs end at a 20' square chamber with numerous niches to house remains. The town guards do not, however, have a chance to really process any of the room's details aside from the fact that there are two skeletons standing in the middle of it. They turn to face the approaching light with the terrible sound of bones scraping against each other and clicking against the stone floor.
Their empty eye sockets fix on Alistair as he steps off the stairs and both lurch forward at him with their claws.
Jaymin moves in, trying to get next to both skeletons.
Jaymin’s axe flies harmlessly through the first skeleton’s ribcage, until it collides with its spine and cuts clean through it. It’s top half falls to ground with a crash and is joined a moment later by its bottom half. He tries to continue his swing into the next skeleton but to no avail.
Seeing Jaymin's attack fall short on the second skeleton, Diego moves up five foot and brings his sword down into a heavy swing.
Diego's attack finds its mark and, although it isn't as effective as he expected, it is enough to send the second skeleton clattering to the ground as well.
A thorough inspection of the chamber reveals two things of note: near the bottom of the stairs someone has discarded a black robe, and one of the niches containing remains has been disturbed. The robe has the remnants of torn stitching in two places; it looks like someone recently tore two bone-shaped patches off of it. The disturbed niche is labeled "Ezakien Tobyn" and there are clear lines in the dust showing that the box of his remains has recently been removed from the now empty space.
Diego stands just in front of the alcove that once held Ezakien’s remains. In his customary short narrative he iterates a slight concern. “This is a bit disturbing.”
"Thanks gentlemen. My little pig sticker here would not have done me well against these things I think. Disturbed is what it is. Let's look about and see what may have caused these things to rise." Alistair says and then follows his own suggestion.
Following Alistair's suggestion, Diego begins to search the area.
Is the robe sized for a human or a goblin?
Jaymin adds his sharp eyes to the search for clues.
Keeping the chamber as well lit as he can, Orin keeps watch for threats as the others look for clues.
"There is clearly more at work here than mere goblins."
Nico, who is still stuck in back, has to ask because it's just too wacky to believe without her own eyes seeing it.
"Were those skeletons standing up and moving around?"
A second search of the chamber reveals that (aside from the skeletons) the missing remains and the (human-sized) robe were, in fact, the only things out of place.
”Orin, can you tell if this robe is magical?” Alistair asks. ”We need to report this to the sheriff and Father Zantus. Shall we go?”
"Oh, of course!" Orin replies, disappointed that the moments chaos let such a simple thing slip his mind.
With a quick few words, he looks over the robe, and room.
After finishing his search, Diego heads out of the crypt and waits for the group before heading out.
The robe does indeed detect as magical, but just barely; there is a hint of lingering aura about it.