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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 4265804" data-attributes="member: 9546">Sheriff Hemlock left town quietly the next day, taking a handful of soldiers with him.  Things in town had returned mostly back to normal, with people trying to put the events of the past few days behind them.  Memories of goblins accidentally lighting themselves on fire, getting stepped on by horses, or drowning in rain barrels that were only half full in the first place rendered memories of the raid in an almost comical light.  Wesh, Luther, Dex and Skud made a point of letting themselves been seen often in public places, and the townsfolk did indeed seem reassured by their presence.  Most of them, anyway.  It seemed that Shayliss Vinder’s sharp tongue had continued to spread slander about the heroes, calling into question the veracity of their efforts during the raid.  Fortunately, only a few malcontents paid heed to the gossip, and they were quickly silenced by the true believers.Late one afternoon, as Dexter and Skud occupied their usual places at the bar of the Rusty Dragon, they were approached by a timid, elderly halfling woman, who introduced herself as Bethana Corwin, a maid in the employ of Ameiko Kaijitsu.“I’m sore sorry to bother you, masters,” she said, eyes downcast, hands bunched in her apron, “but might I trouble you for a word in private?”Dexter sighed quietly.  “This is getting to be a habit,” he muttered aside to his big friend.  The half-orc grunted noncommittally, but they followed the old woman nonetheless.  When they reached the now-familiar corner booth, Bethana began to speak quickly.“It’s about mistress Ameiko,” she began.  “What about her?”  Dexter asked, realizing that he hadn’t seen the young woman all day, a rarity for the innkeeper.  “Well,” Bethana said, “when I woke earlier this morning, I saw that my lady hadn’t started breakfast for the first time that I can ever remember.  I knocked on her door, but I didn’t get an answer.  Against my better judgment, I let myself in, only to find it empty and her bed un-slept in.  Worse, I found this…”She held out a crumpled piece of paper.  Dexter unfolded it and saw that it was a letter, written in flowing script:Hello, sis!    I hope this letter finds you well, and with some free time on your hands, because we’ve got something of a problem.  It’s to do with father.  Seems that he might have had something to do with Sandpoint’s recent troubles with the goblins, and I didn’t want to bring the matter to the authorities because we both know he’d just weasel his way out of it.  You’ve got some pull here in town, though.  If you can meet me at the Glassworks at midnight tonight, maybe we can figure out how to make sure he faces the punishment he deserves.  Knock twice and then three times more and then once more at the delivery entrance and I’ll let you in.    In any case, I don’t have to impress upon you the delicate nature of this request.  If news got out, you know these local rubes would assume that you and I were in on the whole thing too, don’t you?  They’ve got no honor at all around these parts.  I still don’t understand how you can stand to stay here.    Anyway, don’t tell anyone about this.  There are other complications as well, ones I’d rather talk to you in person about tonight.  Don’t be late.                        Tsuto“I assume Tsuto’s her brother?”  Dexter asked when he’d finished reading.  “Yes,” Bethana nodded, “but he was something of a scandal when he was born twenty-one years ago, since he’s half-elven.”She paused for a moment, her eyes wide and knowing.“Neither of Ameiko’s parents are elves,” she noted.  “It was obvious that old Lonjiku wasn’t the boy’s father, and his rage at the discovery of his wife’s… indiscretion was the talk of the town for months.  Lonjiku’s wife, Atsuii, never revealed who the father was, and it’s a testament to Lonjiku’s stubbornness that they remained married.  Tsuto was handed over to the Turandarok Academy to be raised outside of the Kaijitsu family, ignored by his father and forbidden visits from his mother.  Mistress Ameiko visited him in secret a few times a month to keep him company, bring him some food, and to promise him that someday things would get all sorted out.  That all changed six years ago, when they had a terrible argument in which Tsuto struck her!  I don’t know what the argument was about, but whatever it was sent my lady away from Sandpoint for a year, during which time she apparently made a living as one of those adventurer types.  She returned to Sandpoint five years ago to attend her mother’s funeral.  Tsuto was quite public in his opinion that his father had pushed Atsuii off a cliff to her death, and during the funeral there was a confrontation.  Lonjiku nearly broke Tsuto’s jaw with his cane, after which Tsuto cursed him and left Sandpoint.  Ameiko has tried to reestablish contact with him ever since, but she was never able to track him down.  Now he’s back, out of thin air!  I’m worried he’s up to no good.  Since the sheriff’s gone, you and your friends are the only ones I can turn to.  Please, I beg you, could you go to the Glassworks and find out what’s happened to my mistress?”Dexter nodded, assuring her that they would.  After all, that’s what heroes did._________________________________________________“So this is the place?”  Dexter asked as they stood on the street across from the large factory.“Yep,” Wesh replied.  “The Kaijitsu family was one of the original members of the Sandpoint Mercantile League, and they got into the glassmaking business early on and have managed to turn a tidy profit over the past four decades.  From that note, though, it sounds like their days may be numbered.  I’d always heard the stories about Tsuto’s questionable paternity, and there were rumors and speculation surrounding his mother’s death, but all that took place during ‘the Late Unpleasantness,’ and paranoia was rampant.  Seems like there might be some truth to the gossip after all.”It was still daylight, but the large building that housed the Kaijitsu Glassworks was curiously silent.  On a normal day, workers should still be there, coming and going.  The furnace chimney still plumed, however, which indicated that someone must be inside, but when the four companions walked around the perimeter, peering into windows, they found them all with curtains drawn on the inside, and all the outer doors were locked.  They made their way around to the delivery entrance that Tsuto had spoken of in his note, but it to was locked.“If I may?”  Dex asked, pulling an intricate set of lock picks from a belt pouch.  At Luther’s raised eyebrows, he merely shrugged.  “I wasn’t always the fine, upstanding deputy you see before you.”He got to work on the lock, but as he did so, a few passersby on the road took notice of the ‘Sandpoint Heroes’ gathered round a service door to the glassworks, and paused to gawk.“What’s goin’ on there?” one man asked.  “You fellas fixin’ to do some more heroin’?  Can we watch?”“I’ll handle this,” Luther said.  “Despite living a somewhat sheltered life up until know, I do know something about public speaking.”He walked over to the pedestrians with a disarming smile on his face.“Now, now, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, shaking his head, “there’s nothing very exciting going on here.  Seems old Lonjiku has a rat problem,” he explained, borrowing a page from Shayliss’s book, “and he asked us to come and see if we could help him out.  After all, after a horde of goblins, a few overgrown mice should be no problem, right?”The onlookers laughed and nodded appreciatively.“Unfortunately,” the priest continued, warming to his crowd, “Lonjiku sent all the workers home so we could get our work done without interruption, but he forgot to leave the back door open like he promised, so we’re having to improvise.  So please, go on about your business.  The less attention this attracts, the happier Lonjiku will be.  If we catch any real big ones, I’m sure they’ll be on display at Wesh’s shop.”The townsfolk seemed to find this explanation plausible, and after wishing him good hunting, they began to disperse.By the time Luther made it back to the others, Dex had the lock opened.  They slipped quickly inside and pulled the door shut behind them.  They found themselves in a loading room.  A wheelbarrow sat against one wall, and shelves on the walls looked to contain reagents used to create glass of different colors.  There was a safe sitting on the floor, and its door was open.  Nothing was inside.“Curiouser and curiouser,” Wesh said, stroking his chin.Three single doors opened off the room, but a larger pair of double doors led to the north.  It was this pair that the group chose.The chamber beyond the doors was the glassworking room, but the sight that they beheld when the door opened brought the quartet to a stunned halt.  A long furnace burned along the southeast wall of the room, and marble tables, used to work raw glass into usable shapes, sat throughout the chamber, with nearby wooden tables cluttered with various tools of the trade.  The furnace rumbled loudly, but not loud enough to drown out the sounds of breaking glass and high-pitched giggles.  Eight goblins scurried about the place, breaking things at random, but this was not what had so shocked the companions.  Rather it was the bodies of the glassworks staffers lying in various stages of dismemberment, including appendages that were half stuffed into the furnace, and other unidentifiable pieces that had been covered in molten glass.  Seated in a central alcove on one side of the room was the body of Lonjiku Kaijitsu, completely encased in thick, runny sheets of hardened glass.It took a moment for the goblins to notice the intruders, but when they did, they all stopped in the midst of what they were doing, the look of disbelief on their faces almost comical.  Then, as one, they shrieked and came scurrying among the workbenches, some of them armed with their cobbled-together blades, others with pieces of glassware or tongs containing red-hot, molten glass.  Dexter dropped to one knee as they came, an arrow knocked to his bow quicker than the eye could follow.  He drew and released, taking the foremost goblin in the throat.  Meanwhile, Skud drew his blade and lunged forward to meet the vermin head-on, but as he skirted a table, he struck his elbow hard on one corner, causing him to lose his grip on his sword, sending it clattering to the floor.  Luther cursed in a very un-priestly fashion and dashed forward to grab the half-orc’s weapon before one of the goblins could.  Skud grunted his thanks as he retrieved the blade, still rubbing his swollen elbow.Wesh was just preparing to mouth the words to a spell, when a thrown bottle creased his forehead, ruining his concentration.  Blood poured into his eyes, momentarily blinding him, but he still heard the snap of Dex’s bowstring and the gurgling cry that followed.As Skud turned back towards the goblins, one leaped at him, hoping to take him while his back was still turned. Instead, its blade ricocheted off the wall and struck the goblin in the middle of his forehead, snapping the blade in half as it did.  As the stunned beast staggered around, a crashing blow from Skud sent it flying into the furnace.  By this time, however, the five remaining goblins had closed the distance.  Three of them surrounded Skud, while their companions dashed past, heading for the rest of the group.  All three of the little terrors hacked and slashed at the half-orc, opening several small, but bloody wounds.  Wesh and Dex quickly found themselves in hand-to-hand combat, trying desperately to fend off the rusty blades chopping at them.  Dex rolled over the top of a table, coming to his feet on the other side and put an arrow through one goblin’s eye at point-blank range.  As it dropped, the archer got off a second shot, taking another goblin who’d been harassing Skud in the center of its chest.  Wesh finally managed to clear his vision, just in time to dodge a blow that would have taken off his ear.  Desperately, he spoke the words to a minor spell, and hurled a small globe of acid at his attacker.  The goblin shrieked as its skin burned, and it turned and fled towards the loading room.  At the same time, in rapid succession, Skud dropped one of his remaining assailants, while Dexter did for the other.  “One’s getting away!”  Wesh shouted, and when Skud looked to where the mage was pointing, he leaped over a table and gave chase.  One-by-one, his companions quickly followed.  By the time the barbarian reached the store room, the goblin had already disappeared through a far door, beyond which was a flight of stairs.  When Skud thundered down them, he found himself in an underground storage room, and caught sight of his fleeing quarry just as the goblin darted around a corner.  Howling in rage, the half-orc charged down the hall, and when he turned the corner, he saw the goblin standing before a door, pounding on it and shouting.  Skud quickly silenced the little monster.  As the goblin fell, however, the door it had been pounding on suddenly opened, and a tall young man dressed in traveling clothes stepped out.  He looked human, but his slightly pointed ears and arching eyebrows betrayed his true heritage.  His eyes widened when he saw the rabid half-orc standing before him with a dripping blade.  Like a cat, he dropped into a fighting stance, though he carried no obvious weapon.  If he had any real fighting skills, Tsuto Kaijitsu never got a chance to demonstrate them before Skud’s sword caved in his chest.</blockquote>

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