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"Sheriff, we followed those tracks with the aid of a hound yesterday and found where they split, some headed away from town and the others headed toward town via the beach. Those are likely old but I wanted to follow those to get an idea of how the goblins got into town. It may give a clue who was aiding them. Do you mind if I pursue that angle or shall I confine my search to inside the town walls?" Garen asks politely.
Tot blinks then blushes even more as she realizes that she has heard of Father Tobyn and Nualia, she heard of them right after they had returned from their ride with Lord Aldern Foxglove. It's probably understandable that with her whipsawed emotions she would forget something, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing when it happens.
"Oh," she says before looking up at Ari, then quickly looking back down at her breakfast. He really did have a nice smile. "Th-thank you, A-Ari for r-reminding me," she says before taking another bite of her breakfast as she tries to think about what was happening and not how much she likes Ari's smile.
Someone working with the goblins troubles her. That it could be someone in town worries her even more. The same questions she remembers asking yesterday come to mind. Who would have a vendetta against the Tobyns? Who could hate them and Sandpoint enough to stage a goblin raid just to defile their corpses? Except, only Father Tobyn was interred in the crypt. They had never found Nualia. It's possible her remains had been unidentifiable after the fire, but what if it was something else?
Tot looks around the Dragon's common room to see who all might overhear. This seems to be something rather delicate, and the kind of thing that could cause panic in town. Besides that, she--
What does she intend to do?
The question surprises Tot. So far, she's been swept along by events or pushed out the door. She likes working for Ameiko. She wants to do right by her, both as one of her employees and as her friend, as strange as the concept still seems to Tot, but what about what's going on? Can she sit by and do nothing while she knows that Sandpoint and the friends she's come to know might be in danger? She wants to get to know Ameiko, Ari, Izzy, and the others more. She wants to learn more about the faiths Sandpoint's people follow, and she wants to help.
I can't keep running forever. I guess I can't hide forever either.
"Sh-sheriff H-Hemlock? D-do you t-t-trust me," she asks.
Erridon grins when Tot thanks him. He doesn't understand why she's so timid, but hopes that she'll stay around so he can get to know her better. When she quietly stutters a question to the sheriff he picks up his coffee cup and takes a sip to hide his curiosity.
Tot glances around, but the Rusty Dragon's common room is much less crowded at breakfast than it is in the more raucous evening hours. There is space aplenty and the group has a good distance between themselves and any others, especially since Hemlock sat with them -- the shadier sort of characters who frequent this inn found another corner to sit in.
The sheriff looks at Tot and his mouth is just about move to reply when the front door of the Dragon bursts open with slam. "HELP ME! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!" As you all whip around to look, you see a young mother clutching a small infant to her and holding another youngster by the back of his pajamas. A blood-stained nightgown is all the poor woman is wearing. Her eyes seem frantic and pleading. "Is Sheriff Hemlock here? I heard he was here? Someone HELP!!!" She is nearly incoherent in her panic.
Tot jumps and spins around towards the noise before she realizes what she's doing. her hand grabs the dagger hidden at the small of her back, but she stops short of drawing it as her mind catches up with her reflexes. Blood, nightgown, and panic all paint a picture in her mind. Something terrible has happened, and they might not have much time.
"How many are hurt and where are they," she asks, her voice still soft, but lacking the timid tone it normally carries. It's crisp, with that aristocratic Chelish accent that Ari recognized.
he sheriff looks at Tot and his mouth is just about move to reply when the front door of the Dragon bursts open with slam. "HELP ME! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!" As you all whip around to look, you see a young mother clutching a small infant to her and holding another youngster by the back of his pajamas. A blood-stained nightgown is all the poor woman is wearing. Her eyes seem frantic and pleading. "Is Sheriff Hemlock here? I heard he was here? Someone HELP!!!" She is nearly incoherent in her panic.
Isidiana moves to the mother abandoning her food "Hey, I'm Izzy D. I know you're scared, but help is here. You and your baby are safe. Breathe, breathe for yourself, breathe for your baby... and tell us what we need to know, please."
Grod pushes off the table and, pulling large axe, merely asks "Where?"
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Like many of the others, Garen rises. He doesn’t rush so as to not startle the woman, but he doesn’t rush approach her. ”Ma’am, you can relax, you and your family are safe with us and we can help. What attacked you and where is it?” Garen asks supposing the blood indicates an attack or perhaps a very bad accident.
[dice=Knowledge-Local]1d20 +7+1d6
Tot moves to try to calm the panicked citizen but her fearsome features don't do much to help slow down the woman. The youngster beside her actually looks at the tiefling in fear, eyes growing wide.
Izzy, however, has more success. She pats the mother on the arm, and talks soothingly to her, and you can see the frightened woman visibly relax. She manages to get hold of herself and tries to speak, though it is rather halting and somewhat incoherent.
"That thing...it's hurt Alergast...he's hurt real bad! And poor Petal, I think she's dead! And look at what it did to Aeren!" She shows the arms of the older child, and they are covered in fresh goblin bites, still seeping blood, which drips onto the floor boards of the tavern room. She is panting, but tells you more, "Aeren saw a goblin burn a cat alive the day of the festival, and has been telling us, Alergast mostly, about a goblin living in his closet, not sleeping, waking us at night, you know. Well Alergast had enough of that and said Aeren could sleep in the woodshed if couldn't be a man. So early this morning, when Aeren cried out, we didn't go check. Not until we heard Petal bark and then scream. We rushed to the Aeren's room, and there was a goblin, trying to eat him!" She breaks out in fresh hysterics, sobbing incoherently once again.
Tot pulls back as she sees the fear in the woman and her child's eyes. Though still focused on finding and eliminating the threat, even more so as she learns that it was a goblin, she shrinks back and lets Izzy and Garen take the lead. She shifts impatiently form foot to foot though, wanting to be off and knowing that ever second they delay is a second they may no longer have to save Alergast, the woman's husband Tot figures. She looks to Ari, hoping that he would know where to go, which would be quicker and better than trying to get a very scared mother to leave her children behind. She's learned that much at least during her two-year sojourn across Varisia.
"Yes, you tell us where this is and how to get there we are on the the way right now," Izzy backs the paladin on that
"I know where their house is. We don't want to make them go back to the house until we've cleared the goblin, and cleaned up whatever needs it."
He moves to the woman. "Amele, You know my parents, Ron and Cher Drallen. I'm Erridon. Maybe you know me from church? Well, my friends can handle any goblin. We'll get that monster out of your house. Wait here with your children and we'll be right back."
He sings a short phrase and touches Aeren's arm. "I'm sorry you had to experience that little one."
He leads the group to the Barett's home on Bishop Street. "The goblin's probably hiding, but we'll see blood from the dog."
As they leave the Rusty Dragon, Tot grabs Ari's hand and pulls him into a run. As she follows his directions to Amele's and Alergast's home, a part of her wonders why she wants so badly to get there in a hurry. Is it because the goblin might escape? Is she hoping to save Alergast? Does she think doing this will help the town accept her? She doesn't know the answer, nor does she have the time to ponder on it.
After they arrive at the house, Tot nods to Ari's guess. She draws her dagger and slips in first. She moves as quietly and quickly as she can, hoping to catch the goblin by surprise. She motions for the others, especially Grod and Garret, to wait outside. She moves as silently as a ghost through the house as her eyes, able to see in the dark, peer keenly around, looking for where the goblin might be hiding.
Surprised at Tot's rush, Ari points her to where they need to go. Once they arrive and she takes the lead Ari draws his blade and follows.
Bethana says in her best bossy voice, "Yon we babes an' their dam'll stay right here while you lot go an' rid us of whatever ails them. Go on now! I'll see them fed an' kept safe!"
The sheriff lopes along as the team leaves the Rusty Dragon for Bishop Street following Ari's keen directions. The early morning is almost cold, a chill in the autumn air, and the sky is overcast.
It's not far to the Barett house which appears to be a modestly small cottage. One front door seems the only real entry point though the house does windows with glass in them in at least two places. The door is left ajar slightly, so Tot and Ari enter first, being as stealthy as they possible can. Listening and looking while they creep, the house seems eerily quiet. There is a faint scent of baked bread. The house is semi-dark inside, as there are no lamps lit, and while it is morning, the overcast sky along with few windows leaves illumination dim at best.
The first room from the front door seems to be a kitchen with a fireplace and dining table. Loaves of bread rise near the hearth, but the fire is not lit at present. There is a long hallway on the south side of the house. Nothing seems to be stirring in the front room. Tot can see two interior doors down the hallway, one at the far west end, and other closer set in the north wall about 15' from the kitchen. Both seem to be slightly open. Bloody foot prints lead down the hall from the nearer door towards the front exit.
Izzy follows, little legs pumping
Tot follows the trail of bloody footprints, hoping that she won't find what she suspects she will. She slips into the room the prints come from.
Ari is right behind Tot.
Isidiana enters in and moves to the side, looking about, mostly UNDER things tall people can see that well the poor limited giants
Izzy searches the kitchen area well, looking under the cupboards and the table, and places the others might be too tall to search easily, but she finds nothing out of place.
Ari and Tot push to the middle room, gently pushing the door open and what is revealed is a grisly abattoir. Lying near the bed is small brown puppy, obviously dead, with an ugly looking knife sticking out of its ear. Pools of slowly coagulating blood fill the floor near what you assume is Petal. Also lying on the floor is the half-dressed figure of a man. The man lies unmoving face-first into the small closet in the corner of the bedroom. The upper-half of his body is hidden from view inside the closet, but what you can see lies unmoving. There are no sounds audible, besides those of usual morning commerce in Sandpoint.
Grod, slowed by his armor, is quickly outpaced by Tot and Erridon, so he has no rea problem with "allowing" them to go first. He slowly proceeds into the house behind them, trying not to be as quiet as possible, watching for anything they missed.
Tot ignores the poor pup, unwilling to let herself be distracted, and carefully moves up to where the man lays and pulls him from the closet to see if he is still alive, though she very much doubts it. She hopes that the goblin hasn't escaped to cause more carnage, and tries her best to keep from making a lot of noise, though the sounds of Garren and Grod entering the house cause her a bit of annoyance as she works.
Tot enters the gory scene in the bedroom and moves to the side of the man lying face-down into the closet. She starts pulling him back, and can see the man's upper torso is not only in the closet, but it seems to be pulled into an open crawlspace of some kind in the floorboards of the closet.
As the tiefling fighter pulls, the body slips backwards, and its clear that this man, likely Alergast Barett, is also dead. When she gets the head clear of the crawlspace and closet, Tot can see that the face is nearly fully bitten through, most of the facial features missing with what appears to be large bite wounds, blood runs freely out of these wounds onto the floor.
As Tot looks at the grisly scene with revulsion, a high-pitched wail comes from under the closet! Up from the crawlspace leaps a single goblin a crazed look in its eyes, and fresh blood staining its wide, toothy mouth.
"Ehes, nagyon éhes vagyok!" and it leaps at Tot screaming very loudly. "Az az enyém"
Memories from the Uskwood flicker in Tot's mind as she sees the ruin that had been Alergast's face. The appearance of the goblin responsible for the carnage helps focus her mind wonderfully. She pushes the memories away as she calls out to the others in the house.
"Goblin!"
She then steps over Alergast's corpse and seeks to make it a dead goblin.
Monster in the Closet - Round 1
21 Tot
18 Grod
17 Isidiana
12 Erridan
9 Garen
7 Goblin Sneak
As the goblin leaps forth, Tot reacts first. In a flash her dagger, for close quarters, is in her hand, and she sinks its blade deeply into the belly of the ravening goblin. More blood hits the floor, but the goblin is hunger-crazed, and the wound doesn't fell it.
"Kill it! It can't get away!"
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Izzy begins to race to where the action is "Hungry? Are you kidding me?" She yells in Goblin "Gyilkos! Meg fog fizetni a bűnéért! Csak az igazságosságon étkezhetsz, egy csípős menta csípős igazságért!"
"Kill it! It can't get away!"
[dice=to hit]1d20 +4
[dice=damage if I hit?]1d6
Monster in the Closet - Round 1 - continued
21 Tot
18 Grod
17 Isidiana
12 Erridan
9 Garen
7 Goblin Sneak (9hp dmg)
Isidiana hollers back at the goblin in its own tongue, rushing to the bedroom door as fast as she can.
At the doorway, Erridan considers a bow-shot, but cannot get line of sight on the creature which is still inside the mostly enclosed closet.
Garen moves forward, slipping in the pool of blood from Petal's demise, and he can't get an attack off either due to the closet structure.
Monster in the Closet - Round 1 - continued
21 Tot
18 Grod
17 Isidiana
12 Erridan
9 Garen
7 Goblin Sneak (9hp dmg)
Garen's attack around the corner of the wooden closet is the only thing he can do given the positioning. The blind stab misses, and he asks Tot to reposition herself to give the team better access to the goblin.
Erridan enters the room, stands behind Tot, and casts a spell at the goblin meant to stun but the goblin is too crazed from hunger and bloodlust to be affected.
Hearing the commotion, Grod dashes forward, hurdling Izzy, landing with a thud, swinging around the corner into the room and...pulling up short of his comrades, unable to reach the goblin in the crowded space.
Once more Isidiana rushes forward, this time finally getting the goblin in view.
She calls out "Say it with me now... hahahhaha!"
Monster in the Closet - Round 1 - concluded
Grod rushes into the bedroom, but can't get close enough to lay into the solo goblin savage in the closet.
Spitting, screeching, and wild-eyed, the goblin makes a fierce attack, with a nasty-looking goblin knife, on Tot, who stands closest, oblivious to the growing cadre of heroes ready to kill it. But savagery is not the same as prowess, and the goblin's one good chance slips past as the dog slicer catches the closet doorway rather than burying the belly of the tiefling.
End of Round 1
Monster in the Closet - Round 2
21 Tot
18 Grod
17 Isidiana
12 Erridan
9 Garen
7 Goblin Sneak (9hp dmg)
Izzy looks at the crowd, and readies to cast instead.
Tot has faced goblins before, but this hunger-crazed goblin unnerves her. She makes a half-hearted swipe with her dagger to drive the goblin back before realizing that her companions, in an effort to help, have boxed her in. She can't get away without opening herself up for an attack, and the others can't get at the goblin because she's in the way.
This isn't good!
"B-b-back up," she tells the others as she tries to defend herself from the hunger-mad goblin.
Ari backs out of the way....
Monster in the Closet - Round 2 - continued
21 Tot
18 Grod
17 Isidiana (readied action to cast if goblin enters LOS)
12 Erridan
9 Garen
7 Goblin Sneak (9hp dmg)
The frenzy in the eyes of the crazed goblin is off-putting to Tot and she half-heartedly swipes at it with her dagger before backing away.
Ari leaves the space behind Tot and heads back into the hallway, understanding the situation is already crowded enough.
Isidiana, frustrated at not being able to line up the target, waits near the door for the goblin to show itself, so she can cast a spell on the little bugger.