CLOSED Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords, Burnt Offerings

[hewligan]

The Tunnel

Jovik and Jokad stop outside the remaining door. It was actually the first door on the left when they first came down the stairs, only a few short minutes ago, but the suicide they had just witnessed gave the thing a rather strange feeling, as if they had entered here hours ago, rather than mere minutes.

Since entering this god-forsaken Glass Works you have found the mutilated bodies of eight workers, the hideous, tortured form of Lonjiku, and now the corpse of Tsuto, killed by his own blade to the heart. Not a single sword has been swung in anger, and yet you have ten bodies on your hands. Things have gotten messy quickly!

Jovik can feel the faintest of breezes coming from the remaining door. A quick listen reveals the hint of wind in the air. The door is locked, but it does not take much skill from Jovik to pick the easy mechanism, and, with Jokad ready to charge any enemies, the door is swung open.

There is a long tunnel ahead of you leading north from the small room beyond the door. The tunnel appears to have been hewn from the very bedrock (the Glass Works sits atop the cliff at Sandpoint) below Sandpoint. The tunnel appears stable, albeit quite low and narrow (you have to crouch slightly to walk along it in single file, but you could just about swing a weapon).

It winds on a lazy northeasterly route for just over 1,7500 feet (it feels like a long way) before branching in three directions (one straight on).

On the right branch, the one you take first, it winds on for about 400 feet before reaching a rock collapse that completely blocks any advancement.

The left tunnel (going west) appears to have been bricked over at the point where it diverges from the main tunnel, but the bricks are now strewn around the tunnel, with some still jutting out of the walls. You leave this one for the time being, after all, why would it be bricked over?

Moving straight on again northwards, you find, much to your frustration, that the tunnel broadens out into a small natural chamber, and stops therein. It seems strange to have a tunnel cut so far into the rock just to lead to this chamber, but then again, you have no idea what it was used for.

OOC: Next actions please. Players still in the room, please feel free to ask Ameiko questions, or make other actions.

 

[frostrune]

Jokad squats like an animal and whispers to Jovik as he suveys the cavern beyond through the flickering torchlight.

"This is no longer a simple tunnel. We've more questions now than answers and we'd be fools to keep prowling about without the others. I'm a little concerned that this might be how the goblins got into town in the first place."

"We need to get back and we need to alert the mayor."

He pauses....

"I hope you remember the way back?", he says with all seriousness.

Jokad nearly laughs aloud as the city-bred Jovik blanches in surprise. Instead he claps him on the shoulder and leads him back the way they had come.

OOC: just want to have a little fun with Jokad's mercurial temperments; serious and disciplined one minute and joking the next.

 

[Friadoc]

Kael cleans up Mal, while the others explain what occurred and how Tsuto fell; normally the charismatic young man would say something, however he doubts his ability to keep his disdain of the slain man from his voice and Ameiko does not need to hear that right now.

When Jokad and Jovik leave the room, Kael and Mal take up guard positions at the door without a comment, either to their leaving or Jovik's acquisitions.

While watching at the door, Kael moves a few pieces of coppery wire from one of his pouches to a hidden pocket in his scarf.

 

[Fenris]

Jokad squats like an animal and whispers to Jovik as he suveys the cavern beyond through the flickering torchlight.

"This is no longer a simple tunnel. We've more questions now than answers and we'd be fools to keep prowling about without the others. I'm a little concerned that this might be how the goblins got into town in the first place."

"We need to get back and we need to alert the mayor."

He pauses....

"I hope you remember the way back?", he says with all seriousness.

Jokad nearly laughs aloud as the city-bred Jovik blanches in surprise. Instead he claps him on the shoulder and leads him back the way they had come.

OOC: just want to have a little fun with Jokad's mercurial temperments; serious and disciplined one minute and joking the next.

"Hard to get lost in here, at least to any one who had half a brain" growls Jovik in teenage resentment.

"Let's head back. We need to search the storage room and ask Ameiko about that book first, the mayor and sheriff can wait a bit."

OOC: Anything of note about Tsuto's dagger?

 

[hewligan]

OOC: Jovik, it is pretty clear to you that the thieves tools you pocketed are of very good quality (masterwork, +1 to checks made using them). The knife is a long, thin bladed, single edged knife, almost a stiletto punch style of blade, except that the handle is a traditional knife handle, albeit with very fine quality leather wrapped around to stop it slipping in use. You would estimate that it is worth 10gp, perhaps a touch more.

 

[hewligan]

Returning from the tunnels, leaving the once-bricked up tunnel and the small chamber at the end both unexplored, for now, seems like the wisest thing to do, given that you have 10 corpses above your heads to deal with. There will always be time later to return and investigate ... assuming nothing else crazy occurs. These last few days have been insane!

When you return to the room you can see that Ameiko is sitting up now, looking more composed, her pain obviously somewhat relieved from the caring attention she has been receiving. Her eyes dart every now and then to the still warm corpse of her brother.

"We were never close. I tried to be close. I found out where father had sent him away to as a child, and I visited him. He was outcast, a half elf, my mother never spoke of his true father. Denied that she had ever strayed. Father stayed with her, but he sent Tsuto away to the monastry and cut all ties. He would not allow mother to visit him, and I was forbidden too, but .... well, I went anyway."

She pulls herself back against the wall, leaning on it as if still exhausted. "He was bitter. Spent his entire life bitter. Focused on the physical, the short term, the pursuit of strength and agility. And then a year ago he disappeared. When I got his letter I was worried, but ... well ... I didn't think he would kidnap me, kill my father ... do what he did to those poor men. Any the goblins! How could he work with them? Was he leading them? Was it him that led the assault on the town? Oh by Desna, I have lost my entire family now!"

She doesn't sob, just sits there looking stoical. "Help me up please. We need to go and get the guards!"

 

[Rhun]

She doesn't sob, just sits there looking stoical. "Help me up please. We need to go and get the guards!"

"We shall do all we can to help," says Danth, still speaking quietly. The young man turns to his older counterpart. "Mandraiv, would you be so kind as to go and fetch the guard? They should certainly be notified of what has gone on here."


Not trying to send Mandraiv out of the scene, but I know airwalkrr has been away, and thought this might give him a couple of days to get back.

 

[hewligan]

Mandraiv nods in agreement.

"I will be back shortly" he says as he leaves the room. You can hear his footsteps fading as he walks up the stairs into the main building.

Ameiko rubs the side of her face absently, still staring at her brother's body. "He wanted me to join him. Said that 'she' would listen to Tsuto, would let me join. He said that I would only be safe if I joined her. When I asked her who 'she' was, he closed up. This was after I had seen what he had done to my father. This was after he slapped me and set his goblins on me to tie me up and drag me down here. He came later that morning and sat outside the door talking to me. Telling me that the town was doomed. Telling me that father had it coming, that he had pushed mother off the cliff all those years ago and thus deserved the fate he had received. I asked him about the other men. What had they done. He cursed me then, told me that people would die. That they were meaningless. Told me that the whole town would burn, and that he wouldn't shed a tear. He wasn't insane. He wasn't ranting. That is what worried me most. He seemed quite calm, quite cold and rational. Only, of course, he then went and killed himself."

"Do you know who this woman he follows is?" she asks you, looking up at the rag tag band of heroes before her.

 

[Rhun]

Danth frowns at Ameiko's question. "Unfortunately, no. We were hoping you could tell us. We did find a sketch...and I believe it may be this woman Tsuto spoke of. Perhaps you recognize her from the drawing?

 

[frostrune]

Jokad and Jovik return pleased that Ameiko is looking a bit better. He smiles and nods dumbly obviously feeling crude and boorish under the gaze of the beautiful exotic woman.

He hastily grabs something out of the pile of discarded clothes and begins wiping the blood and gore from his body and armor.

He speaks as he does so, using his cleaning as an excuse not to look at her while he talks.

"Jovik and I discovered a long winding tunnel that eventually splits in three directions. One ends in a collapse, one was bricked up but recently torn down, and the third led to a large natural cavern."

"Any of that sound familiar to you, Ameiko? Did your father have tunnels to other parts of the town? It was certainly something he knew of as there was a locked door sealing this end."