Copper follows his friend in and tries to rip one of the goblins apart with his teeth.
"May Abadar look kindly upon our efforts and give us courage."
Stralla thinks perhaps we can convince them of a better location for their base? and in so doing glean what they're up to in Sandpoint.
Magnhildr's grin is anything but friendly as she stalks up to the closest goblin and rends flesh and bone with a fierce downward chop.
"Are you alright?" she asks the man standing next to the war dog.
Talon smiles as he is bathed in the warmth of Abadar's blessing and looks over at Mags with gratitude.
He move foward, alongside the dog and lashes out at one of the goblins.
"The protection of this town seems to have fallen in our hands. Interesting."
Attack!
As the party stomps across the room, and bears down on the pesky intruders, only one of the half dozen that were trapped remains standing long enough to act, and he is clearly in panic mode, understanding fully the futility of fighting on, but lacking any escape routes. He goes full defensive, cowering behind his shield as he looks around in pure terror. The farmer just grunts he finishes off the goblin Copperscale hurt. Both he and the dog are definitely hurt, but in the heat of the moment you can't tell if any of the wounds are mortal.
Brandishing his rapier menacingly as he hovers over the turtling goblin, Talon uses his deepest, most threatening voice to try to extract some information from him, ”Where are the rest of you tribe making a home? Why have so many of you come to Westcrown? Who is leading you?"
"One little goblin with thoughts of shiny loot
Stands shakin' in his boots.
Will the little goblin live or die?
Or just watch his blood dry?"
Magnhildr moves to where the goblin can see her and her blood spattered sword. A feral smile alight on her lips, but apparently the goblin is more worried about the big meaty hands trying to grab him.
Krojun finds his biggest problem in grappling the goblin is not the goblin but rather that the dog doesn't want to stand down. The goblin goes completely limp as it whimpers, "Please, I leave; please no kill." It takes a while to get anything else out of him, and indeed, there is little enough to get. This group of goblins had been charged with assaulting the town for reasons beyond their care and when their leader went to get final instructions from the biggun in charge of the overall assault, these underlings decided to flee and, finding this home, and additionally, a small cave underneath the home, they decided to stop here. The opening in the closet leads to a small tunnel that very shortly opens up into a cave that must have been tight for the entire group to fit in, and it stinks enough you can't even get past the first steps of the tunnel before you're ready to go back up. About the time you get done with all of this and healing the farmer, you step outside to get some fresh air, and see a couple of guards approaching with the wife and kid. You brief the guards, take the terrified goblin into town, hand him over to the sheriff, and grab some lunch at the Dragon.
Talon also retires early to the dragon and accepts as many free drinks as his belly will allow. He basks in the moment that is before him and does not question it.
Magnhildr enjoys her lunch and spends the afternoon cleaning her sword and trading tales with Ameiko, starting with how the Rusty Dragon got a rusty dragon.
"So, I've been curious ever since I got here about how the Rusty Dragon got its dragon. Any particular reason that you know of?"
Rohan and Copper are both relieved that the incident is over and return to the dragon along with the others.
When asked about what happened at the homestead, the little wyrmling does not hesitate in his "creativeness", especially in his role in the battle. The first time he tells it, there were only 10 goblins, 5 of which were taken down by his own fangs. Then it escalates as stories do until the record is set straight by Rohan, much to the chagrin of Copper and his listeners.
The rest of the day is much like previous one. Dinner time comes and you are dining in the common room of the dragon when a couple of notable things occur.
First, you overhear a couple of men having a conversation with Ameiko; it turns out they are some of the eight employees of the glassworks run by her father. They usually live there, but shortly before the festival, the old man told them he needed to make some repairs to the living space, so they would needed to find other accommodations temporarily. Since then, they haven't heard anything further, and all attempts to talk to the old man have failed. They are starting to get concerned, and they don't know what else they could do. As the conversation ends, you see Ameiko disappear from the common room, and you don't see her again the rest of the evening.
Second, Aldern Foxglove approaches you, looking much more comfortable than when you last saw him. He thanks you once more and asks if you would be willing to join him on a boar hunt tomorrow morning; he would buy mounts and related tack for any that did not have any.
There is a slight look of concern on Rohan's face as he overhears Ameiko's conversation. "Think she'll be alright?"
"You think so? I mean she's always been so nice to Copper and myself. Okay, let's go." He looks towards his small friend who just nods with a grin and the pair head off to follow Ameiko.
Talon, overhears Rohan and Krojun talking. He too is very concerned. He wanted to stand up to her father for her, but he tried a more diplomatic approach instead with little success, though he knew not to expect much. His kinship with Ameiko has grown strong over the past several months and he is torn apart seeing that she still has a father but is still so separated from him. He volunteers to accompany Rohan and follows him out the door.
Prior to that ... his eyes beam at the offer of hunting, its been many, many years since he was on a hunt, the last time with his father, his eyes glisten slightly at the memory. "Nothing would make me happier than to accompany you on a hunt, many thanks. It will do me good, I feel like I've been couped up in town or aboard ship for so long."
"A chance to hunt? I certainly would not pass it up, even with my lack of skill in most weapons. The trip will be a nice chance to get out of the city for even a small amount of time. I wouldn't worry about Ameiko, she comes from tough stock, and seems more than capable of handling herself.
Magnhildr enjoys her lunch and spends the afternoon cleaning her sword and trading tales with Ameiko, starting with how the Rusty Dragon got a rusty dragon.
"So, I've been curious ever since I got here about how the Rusty Dragon got its dragon. Any particular reason that you know of?"
"I must admit, I've never been hunting. I've only heard the term before."
"Unless you count that white whale debacle. I swear the captain was obsessed."
"What is the purpose of such a thing?"
The nobleman seems somewhat startled that you would be asking him deep questions about something that to him is as much for pleasure as it is for anything else. Choosing to at least partially dodge Krojun's question for now, he reponds to the summoner, "What is the purpose? I suppose that depends; our shoanti and northern friends may well have different reasons, but around here, the most common reasons are food and spending time with friends. At least as far as voluntary hunts are concerned; tracking down vermin and pests is a different matter entirely, and those hunts have a very different atmosphere to them. At any rate, how many new mounts do I need to tell the stable master prepared for the morning? There is no need for such delays in the morning when preparations can still be made tonight."
"Sounds fun. When do we leave?"
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to come along. At least so I know what it's like."
Wyran will relay that he doesn't trust Alderns words as much as he'd like (when Aldern is not around), and will stay alert to try and pick up on anything that might give more concern.
She was enjoying her stay in Sandpoint, but with nothing interesting going Magnhildr was getting a little stir crazy, though her trading tales with Ameiko helped.
"From where I'm from, it's much the same. I'll come."
"He seemed honest enough. Sometimes things happen in the past that people would rather leave there."
The rest of the evening passes by soon enough. By this time, only a few stragglers from the festival visitors remain, and the common room of the Rusty Dragon is comparatively quiet. The next morning, all of you, along with Aldern, gather for breakfast before going to get your mounts and heading off to the Tickwood, a long, narrow stretch of forest along the northern base of Devil's Platter. Despite it's name, giant ticks are not very common here; rather, boars are the most common denizen, and as a result, it's a popular hunting ground for the well-to-do of the neighborhood. So far, it's a pleasant day, with a light breeze and just a bit of cloud cover to block the harshest of the sun's rays.
Magnhildr wears her chainshirt and carries her sword, shield, and spear with her. She's heard stories of hunters who have hunted boar only to find themselves slain upon one's tusks. She spends most of the morning enjoying the ride and listening to the others, asking questions about themselves, though carefully keeping away from the topic of Rohan's origin.
Carrying nothing but the clothes on his back, Wyran does his best to stay riding the horse without falling off and enjoy the ride, keeping an eye out for boars.
Early on, you find a particularly promising boar, and instead of killing it immediately, you track it over the course of the morning. Your patience pays off when you stumble upon an old shallow cave at the base of Devil's Platter that a number of boars had taken up residence in; in addition to the fine catch of half a dozen good sized boars that you bag, you discover that the boars aren't the only ones to have used the cave. You find a small rotted chest, and when you open them, you discover a small treasure cache of coins and gems. Over the course of the morning, Aldern has been trying to chat all of you up, especially, Magnhlidr. At first, the questions were fairly typical, but as the morning went on, the questions never stopped, and they started to become more and more personal, again, especially with Magnhlidr, and you are glad to get the diversion of skinning the beasts and looting the chest get him to finally shut up long enough for a moment's peace.
As far as you can tell, it has less to do with the hunt, and more to do with the fact that he's just plain annoying. His hunting ability was good enough that he didn't get in the way, but he didn't help much either. In short, he seems like your typical city noble trying to play country lord, and not really knowing how.
Rohan doesn't seem to mind the questions when it comes to himself, but he seems to be perturbed when they turn to Mags. He also tries to guess the man's ulterior motives.
Talon really isn't much for words, he does his best to be polite but draws little from the probing interaction. He avoids contact to the extent possible when things are not focused on the hunt or general revelry.
He racks his brain trying to pull something from it that might lend a clue to the man's purpose or rumors about town,
Rohan and Talon, you get mostly the same thing. He seems to be a city bred noble smitten with the idea of country living, and the loosening of social bounds that many such folk seem to think is part of that. You're pretty sure from what you know of him and how he evades certain topics that he clearly has a past that is not entirely pleasant, but one wouldn't really expect growing up in Cheliax after the sudden and mysterious death of one's parents to be without moments, even long periods, of extreme discomfort, nor would the prospect of having to deal with an estate that most locals view as being haunted thrill the average person, and Aldern does seem amazingly average in his personal life, however successful his professional life has been to date.
As the morning wears on, Magnhildr gets quieter and quieter. At first it was because she was listening to the others tell more about themselves, but as Aldern's questions focused on her, and started getting more detailed, the young Ulfen storyteller starts getting noticeably uncomfortable, especially when asked if she had written any of her tales down. Cleaning the boars was a welcome break from the litany of questions, but as she worked, her expression was one of dread, because as soon as they were done, she would have to endure more of the young noble's questions.
"Not a clue, Krojun."
Though I wish he'd stop!