As the first mug of mead is pressed into her hands, Mira finally exhales and glances at the others. "We found ... something under Sandpoint. Old. Wrong. And dangerous." She looks around the table, eyes lingering on each face. Bruised, bloodied, but alive. "But we didn’t finish it. Not yet."
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Ameiko shudders involuntarily, Under the Glassworks?
It is not that long ago, that you all had rescued her from the clutches of her brother. The entrance below had been sealed off by someone long ago, bricked and mortared, until her brother and his goblins knocked it down. This information had been shared with you based on what Ameiko had given as a statement after her rescue, and what Sheriff Hemlock's investigators had been able to ascertain.
Do you plan to go back in?
Lucien rolls his eyes and mumbles something unintelligible at that question, drinking from his mug instead.
"Snag think group should. Way open now." Snag says.
Mira finishes her mead quickly, raising it up for another. She turns to Snag and nods, "Me too, Snaggy."
"I don't think we should leave the job unfinished". Mangrove says as he fingers the area where fresh bark is growing.
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Ameiko nods gravely, then ducks under the bar. You can hear her rummaging around, Now, where did I put them?
After a few minutes, the Tien barkeep lets out a cry of triumph! Moments later, she stands and places a small wooden box onto the bar, Maybe this can help. It's from my adventuring days...
She unlatches it and pops the lid open before turning it to face you. Within, you see six vials with a fizzy liquid sloshing with the movement.
They are healing potions, four minor potions and two lessers... Take them and be safe.
Mira smiles in appreciation as they collect the potions. "You are too kind, Miss Ameiko. Thank you."
"Snag go home rest. See group tomorrow to go down?" Snag asks.
Mangrove takes one of the Minor potions and tucks it into his Bandolier. "You have my thanks. If our bad luck continues these will come in useful".
He then nods to Snag and Mira. "I'll be in my grove if you need me before the morning".
Mangrove goes to his spot outside the inn and plants himself to await their next sojourn.
After thinking about it all evening, Lucien still isn't convinced that going below and dealing with...whatever that is...just isn't worth it to him. He's made a little coin from the adventuring group but he's already risked his life on more than one occasion for what? Doing good? Playing sheriff? They already had people for that. If there's little to no coin to be made, and death on the line everyday, just count the little guy out.
He leaves a quick note to that effect for the others, and makes his way out of the Rusty Dragon overnight, on to greener (golder?) pastures, and out of this tale.
Kusano bursts into the Rusty Dragon as you are meeting up to head back down under the Glassworks, Great, you haven't left yet!
Trailing the young boy is an elf...
I was talking to this guy, and I mentioned your discovery under the Glassworks and he seemed interested, so I brought him here!
Looking around, he cocks his head, Where did the halfling go? What was his name, Lucien?
Sitting far back in the corner, with a glass of coffee and a pipe, jotting down various notes, was a rather tall and lanky elf, who was dressed accordingly with a plain, large gray coat, a pair of exquisite glasses adorning his face, and silver hair tied up into a small ponytail. He held an aura of seriousness, his concentration barely broken by his work, even as a waitress asked if he needed any refills. His eyes, a solid shade of midnight blue, hold onto the image of a man who never skips out on the finer details.
Snag waves at his friend and says, "Snag happy to see Kusano. Kusano's friend is Snag's friend." The little goblin pets his strange looking hound as he waves at the elf.
Mangrove smiles at the new arrival.
"Welcome. I am Mangrove... teller of tales, and singer of epic ballads. Tell me about how you came to be here so that I may weave you into this epic tapestry".
Hi, Snag! I wish I could go with you, but I need to finish our project for school! Kusano says with a grin, clearly using school as a distraction from the horrors that he witnessed...
Mangrove smiles at the new arrival.
"Welcome. I am Mangrove... teller of tales, and singer of epic ballads. Tell me about how you came to be here so that I may weave you into this epic tapestry".
The elf paused his sip of coffee, looking confused at a leshy approaching him.
“A…leshy that makes ballads. That’s new,” he muttered, before he continued, “But if you must know, I am Ziel Dosomal. A detective from Korvosa who travels across Varisia to help with difficult to solve crimes and mysteries. I had just had a bit of business in Riddleport, and am returning to Magnimar within the next week. I’m simply…taking a small rest in this quaint little town. Now, tell me, Mangrove is it? What are you doing here?”
"Well... I guess you could say I have roots in this community. I've lived here as long as I can remember, and most of these others have known me sine they played among my branches as youths". He then spreads his arms taking in the others.
"And I do whatever it takes to protect my community".
Anthony puts his face into the palms of his hands at the pun from Mangrove. "We're doomed."
"Snag not feel doomed yet. Snag ready to go down now and save Sandpoint. Ziel should know that dangerous creatures are below Sandpoint." Snag says as he rubs where the blow that nearly killed him struck.
Ziel restrains a groan from the pun, and is ready to pack up his stuff to leave town...when the goblin talks to him.
"What kind of dangerous creatures?" the elf asks the goblin, a glint of curiosity in his eye.
"Two evil creatures who used polearms." Snag says.
Ziel suddenly got up, placing the coins he owed for the coffee on the table. “Magnimar will need me later. Show me the Glassworks and these…creatures.”
Mira is a a striking young woman of fifteen, standing with confidence in her Sandoint Militia uniform. Her copper hair is pulled back with a headband. She wears is scuffed chainmail, but it is well-kept.
When she speaks, her voice carries the calm authority of someone used to giving orders. There’s something both raw and noble in her presence, but she hasn't quite figured it enough herself to make it easy to pinpoint.
Rising, she explains confidently "Sinspawn. Or so Manny called them. He told us not to let them bite us because they can control our emotions. As it turns out, they are quite dangerous with weapons as well."
She extends her hand and sheakes with a firm grip "I'm Mira."
Ziel looks a little surprised to see Mira, more on the fact that someone that young is part of a militia. How can one so young be so inpatient with life?, he scoffs internally, but returns the hand gesture.
He then raises an eyebrow on the word sinspawn.
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You have heard of these aberrant creatures, fleshwarped creations of the old world of Thassilon. That one would still be alive is incredulous, but the magicks of the old world are strange and powerful... It is told that each of the Runelords caused each of them to enhance the powerful emotions that they each espoused...
"By sinspawn...you mean the beasts of Thassilon? Ridiculous. I have lived in this region for a long time, and not once have I ever heard of a sinspawn being spotted. Are you sure you didn't mistake it for something else?"
"Snag sure. Sinspawn very vicious. Sandpoint in danger if more are around." Snag says with a grimace as he remembers the fight from the previous day.
Mira crosses her arms at Ziel’s tone, her brow furrowing slightly. Not in anger, but in that focused way she gets when someone challenges her understanding of danger. "I didn’t read about it in a book, I fought one. It bled like anything else. It just didn’t die like anything else."
She glances at Snag, nodding once in agreement, then adds, "I don’t care what stories you’ve heard. Something is waking up under this town, and WE are not going to argue it away." Her voice holds a hint of righteous fire (or maybe that's just teenage angst).
"We're going. You can come along and see for yourself, if you like."
She pushes past him, clearly irked, and heads out the door for the glassworks.
Snag nods and follows after Mira. He whistles as he does and Shade comes trotting up to walk in front of him as they go.
Kusano watches this exchange and places his hand on Mira's arm, Be careful...
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Returning to the catacombs beneath the Glassworks, you all retrace your steps to the statue room. Heading into the room with the prison cells, you see that the corpses of the Sinspawn seem to have been dragged into the room to the East. As you enter into the room, you immediately see a room full of racks that evoke scenes of torture in your imagination. Wicked tools on stone trays and manacles, stained with dark patches, abound. The streaks move past the various racks and table, moving beyond and disappear under the opposing door.
Mangrove listens at the door while Ziel pores over the relics in the room. The leshy cannot hear much past what noise you are making, and the old door seems to absorb the sound well enough that he cannot tell definitively if anyone is still in the room beyond...
Ziel investigates the room and makes note of the Thassilonic Sihedron on many of the furnishings. While he is certain that this was an interrogation chamber for the prisoners that were undoubtedly held in the room that you came from, he is unable to glean the importance of the complex. No doubt time spent studying the complex would unveil more truths...
Snag points to where the hall leads off to the east and says, "Snag think group go that way. Sinspawn maybe here to guard the hallway."
"Why would they guard this hallway?" The elf ponders, taking down notes of every detail he finds embedded on the walls, "What is so important down here that they will guard something? Better yet...they surely couldn't have been placed here by chance..."
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Mangrove checks the South door in the nightmarish chamber, and upon deciding that it is clear, a room is revealed...
The crumbling remnants of several chairs and a long table clutter the floor of this room. To the south stand three stone doors, each bearing a strange symbol that resembles the seven-pointed star called the Sihedron, that Ziel has come across in his studies of Old Thassilon.
Amongst the rubble, Ziel and Mangrove find fragments of books and leaves of parchment with ancient script writ upon them.
The three doors on the South wall seem to be prison doors, as they have no windows, but a small slat at the bottom, as one would slide a plate of food in. Behind them, each cell holds a single skeletal corpse of a badly deformed humanoid; One with three brittle arms, bones riddled with osteoporosis, another with an enormous misshapen skull, and the last with a rib cage that extends all the way down to its pelvis-- a pelvis with stunted leg bones strewn below its strangely flat girth...
EDIT:
Mira eyes the twisted skeletons behind each door with quiet horror, her warhammer loosely gripped at her side. "This place wasn’t just a prison, it was some sort of expirementing place..."
She glances at the others, especially Ziel, then adds, "No one's born like this. Someone made them like this. Tortured them. Changed them. And if the Sinspawn were guarding something... maybe it’s whoever was behind all this. Or whatever they left behind." Her tone hardens.
"We finish what we started. No more surprises rising up beneath our feet."