Moonday, Rova 23

Rigel carefully (dare I say skillfully?) broke a window into the glassworks, let herself in, and opened the door from the inside for the rest of us.

A hasty inspection of the immediate area led us to believe that our presence was undetected, and that the goblins were revelling behind a set of double doors ahead of us. Olithar proceeded to bless the party while Rigel laid down some caltrops at an alternate door in case they tried to make a break. It seems that Rigel also had a convenient thunder egg (where does she get those marvelous toys?) so Nolin tossed it in to thunderous success before we entered.

We found 13 goblins inside, in various states of awareness. The thunder egg had left some of them stunned and others just surprised. All of them, however, foolishly decided to fight.

Olithar was embarrassed to find his bless spell had already worn off; apparently it has a pretty short duration. But Avia went in swinging, and I was flinging magic missiles, and even some of the others got involved making goblin mincemeat. Olithar did some flaming hands that singed quite a few before simply beating at them like the rest of us.

Goblins are a bit like bees, I think. One or two might sting you and it’s annoying but it won’t kill you. You’ll still squish them. Get a dozen or two to gang up on you, though, and without some help, you might find yourself incapacitated. I’d never fought goblins before arriving at this town, but I find that besting them doesn’t fill one with a feeling of accomplishment. If anything, it just makes one want to take a bath.

Anyway, eventually all the goblins were dispatched, although a few people did take some nasty cuts. It was clear that the goblins had been here some time, as there were … parts … of the employees laying about the room. It appears the goblins may have been not just desecrating their bodies but also, well, feeding upon them.

I’m not a religous man but that just seemed sacriligious. And it made me feel .. vengeful. For a moment, I might have felt what a paladin feels — a sense that a greater power demands that action be taken and rights be wronged. That there are certain things and actions that need no explanation or justification to require a visceral reaction. That it’s not just right; it’s a moral imperative.

For a moment, anyway. Don’t worry Dad; I won’t be running off to a church anytime soon.

However, my eyes soon fell upon a most unusual sight. There was an older man encased in a half-inch thick tomb of colored glass. The goblins had amused themselves by pouring molten glass over his lifeless body. (I could tell it was lifeless when it was glassed over because the expression on his face did not at all resemble the expression one might make upon suddenly being made the victim of third degree burns over one’s entire body.)

This, we suspected, was the elder Kaijitsu. But there was no sign of Ameiko (I’ve been calling her Meko because nobody was pronouncing her name clearly until now!) nor her brother, who was most likely perpetrator, not victim. While there was much shattered glass around there was little else. Rigel quickly went over the goblins’ bodies looking for goodies but hey, c’mon. These were goblins.

Olithar was at least as disgusted as me by this abuse of corpse, and smashed the glass to remove it from the elder man’s body. It appeared he was stabbed and beaten and that’s probably what killed him. He possessed an elaborate scabbard for what we presume was an ornate dagger. The symbol on the scabbard was that of the Kaijitsu family. Sedgwick confirmed that this was the patriarch of the family.

Having used spells most of the time I myself wasn’t at the front line this time, so I was uninjured. So it was that Rigel, Sedgwick and I set off to explore one portion of the building while Nolin, Avia, Kyras, Sabin, and Olithar explored another.

They eventually found an office with an open and empty safe. We eventually found two slumbering goblins. They made a note to come back with Rigel as she’s particularly skilled at finding things. We attempted to slit the goblins’ throats but there was so much broken junk in the room we awoke them. Not before they were within range of our weapons, though. One of the bastards had time to nick me but the flow was quickly staunched. And they were quickly adding to the debris on the floor.

Eventually our explorations met again. They seemed a bit surprised that I, Rigel, and Sedgwick killed two more goblins. I guess we don’t look very lethal.

Rigel returned to the office with the others, and did in fact unlock a locked drawer that Avia had found. Unfortunately, she forgot to see if it had any traps and she found a poisoned needle the hard way. But the drawer contained a small box, also locked. More carefully this time, she forced the lock on this as well, bypassing yet another trap. Documents inside seemed to be written in the unusual script of the Kaijitsu family. Sedgwick stared at them for a bit, used a bit of a spell and a bit of knowledge, I guess, and looked a little pale. The documents apparently outlined some shady deals with the Scarnetti family that neither family would really want made public. Assassins. Money laundering. It would appear that while being much more subtle about it than the Scarnettis, the Kaijitsu family wasn’t exactly squeaky clean either.

This left the only unexplored area to be downstairs. Inexplicably, there was a lit torch in the wall down there, which suggested somebody had been there recently … or was still there. The goblins would not have had need of such niceties. It made us all a little more wary.

We found some items in the hallway and a few rooms. Barrels and boxes appeared to simply hold ingredients for glass. One room held finished product suitable for sale.

But another room … another room was locked. Rigel did her thing with locks and opened it. It was another storeroom, but there was a woman tied and apparently unconscious on the floor. Rigel gave her a potion of healing and she —

What? She had a potion of healing? What else is she holding out on with us?

Anyway, the healing brought Ameiko around, and we got to hear the story we’d suspected we would. Tsuto, her brother, had enlisted the aid of the goblins to take over the factory. They attacked her, and she presumes her father, as Tsuto continues to dishonor their family. We glanced uneasily at each other and decided perhaps this wasn’t the best time to tell her about her glassy eyed father.

Tsuto hates this town and wants to see it burn. He also has been hanging out with Nualia! who still lives and apparently is making some dark deal with dark gods. That might explain the raiding of Tobyn’s tomb.

While some of us debriefed and revived Ameiko, others were still exploring. And lo and behold, who did we find but Tsuto, passed out in a drunken stupor behind a desk in another room. Nolin held a sword to Tsuto and threatened him, but Tsuto is unimpressed and struggles. Nolin smacked him with the flat of his blade, knocked Tsuto to his butt and advised him to stop struggling.

Unfortunately, not knowing of the conversation we were having with Ameiko who was describing her complete disgust and hatred of her brother, the other thought it might be useful to reunite brother and sister. In a flash, Ameiko, who was being supported but not restrained, snatched a shortsword from one of our party and advanced on Tsuto. With some effort, we were able to restrain Ameiko. I, Kyras, and Nolin swore to her on our honor that Tsuto would die at our hands as soon as we found him no longer useful. Tsuto is unimpressed.

Sabin, Olithar, and Kyras drag Tsuto to one of the storerooms and try to make him believe they were sent by Nualia to clean up his mess, and that she intends to make an example of him. He does not believe this at all, and mocks them. Apparently they smacked him around to hear them tell it, but he did not change his mind. He made some comment about his going to be with her that very night.

Meanwhile, Ameiko was expressing concern for her father and wanted to go upstairs to check on him. We finally had to tell her of his condition and her eyes narrowed as she said, “Had you told me that earlier I would not have let him live.”

“I know,” I replied. “But you do have our word of honor that he will die when his usefulness is at an end.”

Unsuccessful at fooling him, Sabin, Olithar, and Kyras brought him back after a while and acknowledged his usefulness was at an end. We gave Ameiko the option of executing him herself. She accepted. He was brought back to consciousness, and then dispatched. As the death blow fell, he said something in their family language. Ameiko says he said that death didn’t matter, since Nualia would just revive him.

All that meant is that we’d feed his corpse into the flames of the kiln upstairs. As reconstituted, undead ashes, he could make people cough occasionally but that’s all.

The story to the outside, we all agreed, was that goblins had broken in and killed her father and kidnapped Ameiko.

In the storeroom where we’d found Tsuto, we’d found a number of items, including a potion in a vial (90), a short bow (91), a ring (92), thieves tools (93), a pretty flute (94), silver earrings (95), a journal (96), six pouches filled with glittery powder (97), eight pouches filled with a different glittery powder (98), and 10 platinum pieces.

The powders were claimed by Ameiko as belonging to the family — they were gold and/or silver powders used in the glass making (but very expensive). Nolin claimed the short bow, which apparently required great strength to operate.

We and Ameiko then inspected the journal, which also was inscribed in Kaijitsu symbols. It showed beyond a doubt that he was behind the goblin attack, because the method eventually used was described there and circled. There were many drawing of Nualia, which became increasingly grotesque as she apparently was trying to “remove the taint of the church” from herself. The last drawing seemed to show her as some sort of demon.

Based on the journal and Tsuto’s last words, attack tonight seemed likely. Ameiko left to mobilize some “friends” to help defend the city. I myself went to the garrison and told them what we knew, deftly leaving out the parts we didn’t wish to make public. Some went to Zantus for both healing and to inform him of the imminent danger as well.

Having prepared the town as best we could, we took on the tunnels here in the basement, as it was the most likely manner to bring goblins or worse into the middle of the city.

The tunnels smelled of goblin, even to my untrained nose. This made it obvious when we took the “wrong” branch, but we weren’t expecting branches either. We decided to follow the branch for a while. Eventually we came across some misshapen creature with giant claws that had a vaguely human … no, make that simply bipedal look about it. It had a vicious attack, but fortunately as a group we were able to deal with it.

At this point, our magic users were pretty depleted on their spells, including me. We’d had no chance to ‘recharge’ before having to dive into the tunnels. The group wanted to eradicate the raid before it came to us rather than simply wait in the basement for it to arrive.

After killing this creature, we found a passage that seemed to lead to the basement (perhaps) of another building. We also found a room with a statue of a beautiful woman but with an angry expression on her face. Left hand holds an ivory book, and the right hand holds an actual ranseur. No magic was found in the room, but it was unsettling. Judging roughly from the direction we’d taken off in we may have gone under the ocean and come up on an island, or we might be underneath one of the buildings built near the sea.

We decided to defer exploring this section further, as we were clearly away from the goblin threat and that, after all, was our primary effort.

We went back to the main goblin trail and continued.

After a time, we seemed to reach a deadend, but Olithar searched more carefully and found a secret door. It led to a chamber, which was obviously very near the sea, that appeared to be a goblin barracks. No goblins, though.

At this point, a little concerned, we returned to the glassworks factory to see if goblins had already gone past us and were running amuck. No goblins here either.

We returned and went down another path that led to what is best described as a shrine room. There was a black marble altar filled with filthy water. The room looked clean, but the alter emanated evil. Double doors led to another room, and I cracked the door a bit to find a strong blue light inside. There was no time, with my quick, imperceptible glance to learn more about the room beyond. But Avia detected evil in it …

We decided to take it on.

It appeared to be an immense, underground cathedral. There was a great glowing blue pool with an inner ring of spikes upon which sat (apparently) human skulls. Up on a 3′-5′ platform at the far end of the room was another pool, flush with the floor, bubbling furiously. And of course, this scene wouldn’t be complete without an angry demon.

But a tiny demon. Seriously, this was smaller than a goblin. But when it flew, we got worried. When it slit its own wrist, we got worried. And when the drops of blood hit the blue pool and started turning into creatures, we worried some more. On the plus side, the blue glow dimmed somewhat when it did that, and that seemed to worry it. Hurray.

I had no more spells. I tried hitting it with my sling but I may as well have been trying to kill a fly with a battle axe. It was quick, and small and flying. Olithar had a good idea and created water above its head at one point. Doused, it fell to the ground. Aha! And then turned invisible. Uh. Meanwhile the monsters were climbing out of the pool and that was causing some problems for other members of our party.

As a last resort, it seemed it might be time to reveal my secret. My dagger is pitiful, and my quarterstaff is strong but I’m slow to hit with it. Many in the party were bleeding from both the creatures and the demon.

I grew my claws. I don’t know how many in the party may have seen it, but my claws are both fast and vicious so I thought it would give me the best chance at damaging the demon. Quite shortly thereafter, however, Avia was able to dispatch it with help from her god and a blow from her sword.

I quickly returned my hands to normal but I’m sure Avia, at least, saw the transformation. We’ll see what kind of reaction it gets. Father warned me that the more people who saw it, the less likely they might be to want to associate with me, and he spoke from experience. It’s a trait that’s been in our family for several generations. Sigh. I’d hoped to talk to folks before just doing it.

Moonday, Rova 23, 4707; Glassworks, Sandpoint; Evening

Rigel crawled through the broken window into the glassworks and unlocked the door from within. We quietly filed in, alert and listening for the goblins she had seen through the sky lights.

We found a small troop of the filthy savages in the main work room of the glass works. Kilns linedg the near wall, ranging from the smaller units closest to us to the largest unit at the far end of the room. All were blazing away with an achingly beautiful red light and casting a hazy shimmer of hot air into the room.

We had no time to plan an elaborate attack, and so Nolin tossed a thunder stone into the room and closed the door. There was a tremendous “boom”, after which we opened the door and charged in.

Many of the goblins were stunned, but more ran over from across the room. Fortunately we now had experience fighting these little pests, and quickly exterminated the lot of them. The fighters did most of the heavy damage and slaying, while the rest of us provided cover or support.

After a quick search for signs of what the goblins had been up to we found a grim scene. In an alcove near the center of the shop was a man sitting in a chair and encased in molten glass.

It was hard to discern features beneath the wavy rivulets of glass that had been poured over his body, but he was an older human and well dressed. I shattered the glass that had entombed him and discovered that it was Lonjiku Kaijitsu, the owner of the founder and Ameiko’s father.

The bodies of his workers were stretched out on elsewhere in the shop, with signs that they had been there for a couple of days. The goblins, it appears, had been slicing off body parts for food, or in some cases just gnawing on the corpses where they lay.

Kyras opened the door to the north, which led to a loading room where supplies arrived and shipments of the glassworks wares sent out. In addition to the obvious accoutrement for such a room there was a large safe, which was open and empty with the key still in the lock.

Trask led a small group back to the hallway near the entrance to explore from one side while Kyras led the rest of us through the northern rooms.

It was Trask’s group that found the remaining goblins. Two were snoring loudly in the kitchen, and were swiftly dispatched by Trask and Rigel.

Other than disgusting messes the goblins had left and the blood stained beds in the workers’ dormitory, we found no surprises beyond what we had encountered in the work shop.

During our exploration the town guard showed up, and after being informed of the depredations of the goblins and the death of the Kaijitsu family patriarch, they left to report our findings.

The rooms found, from roughly south to north, included (see my quick sketch of the floor plan):

• The circular public entrance
• A hallway leading from the entrance into the heart of the factory
• A storage closet used to store finished wares
• Storage closets for miscellaneous supplies and tools
• A dining room (ransacked by the goblins)
• A pantry (looted by the goblins)
• A privy (fouled beyond belief by the goblins)
• A kitchen (also ransacked)
• The workers’ dormitory
• A storage room containing treated wood
• A store room for glass making raw materials
• A formal entry room
• Customer meeting rooms
• The loading room
• An office!
• Ominous stairs leading down!

In the office Avia found a desk with a locked drawer. Rigel was able to open it, although she felt the sting of a poison trap in the processes, and within was a small box. The box was also locked, and as it turned out trapped, and Rigel used her nimble fingers to open that as well.

Paperwork. Papers in an odd, foreign language. None of us could read them, but Sedjewick used a Comprehend Language spell and found they documented some significant unsavory, unethical and immoral business dealings between the Kaijitsu and Scarnetti families.

We then turned our attention to the stairway, and headed down into the gloom.

Actually the stairs opened onto a corridors and storage chambers, and there was already the comforting yellow glow of a torch burning cheerily away and providing us all with light enough to see.

Near where a smaller corridor joined with the main passageway by the stairs was a jumble of rock and stone work. It looked like an old wall had been torn down fairly recently. Sedjewick said much of rock beneath Sandpoint was riddled with old tunnels used for smuggling, but they had been sealed up long ago.

Beneath the torch were crates and barrels of additional glass making supplies, plus a few tools scattered about here and there.

While the main corridor bent south in a lazy L shape from the stairs, a secondary corridor led off and back to the main, following its own L shape and making a rectangle of rock in between. Along the outside walls of this secondary hallway were four doors; two on each wall.

Kyras opened the door nearest the torch and found a collection of finished glassware, apparently awaiting shipment.

The next door was locked, at least until Rigel applied her unique set of skills. This door opened onto another store room; only this one held a bound and gagged captive. It was Ameiko! We untied her and healed some of her injuries. As she came to she began to talk.

Her words were filled with bitterness and hatred for her half brother, Tsuto. And little wonder. When she arrived she found the place overrun with goblins, and he brother Tsuto calling the shots. He had her bound and gagged and he looked on and gloated as the filthy little beasts beat and kicked her. Finally she was thrown down into this storage room until she could be dealt with later.

And Nualia. She had control over Tsuto, and together they conspired to bring about the complete downfall of Sandpoint, which they hated to near insanity. It was Nualia who had united the goblins and brought them in to do her bidding.

Sedjewick led Ameiko out to the light, where he looked over her as she rested and recovered from her ordeal.

The next door Kyras opened was for an office, and within, sitting behind a desk, was a half elvin man, slumped over the desk. He sat up as we entered and demanded “Who are you?”, to which Kyras replied, “Better question, who are you?”

Of course we already new, but he arrogantly proclaimed himself as Tsuto Kaijitsu, owner of the glassworks. When Nolin countered that the glassworks belonged to Lonjiku Kaijitsu, Tsuto staggered to his feet and attempted to strike Nolin. Nolin returned the favor by knocking Tsuto down onto his pointy half elvin ass.

We hauled Tsuto over to meet his dear sister, who promptly grabbed Rigel’s sword and lunged at him. We managed to hold her back and drag him into one of the storage chambers. There Sabin and I pretended to be in Nualia’s pay and sent to rescue him, but he wasn’t fooled, and he gloated that he would be with her that very night.

Fine. It was time to rid the world of this goblin’s pimple. We dragged him back to Ameiko and allowed her the honor. They spoke briefly in their native tongue and then Ameiko stabbed him through the heart.

Ameiko said his last words had been “She will raise me from the dead.”

Thinking there was no point in making Nualia’s task any easier, we stripped Tsuto’s body and threw it into the largest and hottest of the kilns, where the fierce white hot fire consumed it, leaving a scant puff of ashes that went up the chimney and scattered on the night breeze.

Back in Tsuto’s underground layer we searched his desk and found a number of interesting items, including an odd leather bound journal.

Included in the journal were maps of the city of Sandpoint, each annotated with what looked like plans for an attack. In fact one of the plans was exactly what had taken place a few nights before.

A note after this battle map stated:

The raid went about as planned. Few Thistletop goblins perished, and we were able to secure Tobyn’s casket with ease while the rubes were distracted by the rest. I can’t wait until the real raid. This town deserves a burning, that’s for sure.

After the last of the maps the following was scrawled:

Ripnugget seems to favor the overwhelming land approach, but I don’t think it’s the best plan. We should get the quasit’s aid. Send her freaks up from below via the smuggling tunnel in my father’s glassworks, and invade from the river and from the glassworks in smaller but more focused strikes. The rest except Bruthazmus agree, and I’m pretty sure the bugbear’s just being contrary to annoy me. My love’s too distracted with the lower chambers to make a decision. Says that once Malfeshnekor’s released and under her command we won’t need to worry about being subtle. I hope she’s right.

After the maps were some rather disturbing and explicit drawings of Nualia, and near the back of the journal she was sketched as a succubus. After this last image Tsuto had written:

My love seems bent on going through with it — nothing I can say convinces her of her beauty. She remains obsessed with removing what she calls her “celestial taint” and replacing it with her Mother’s grace. Burning her father’s remains at the Thistletop shrine seems to have started the transformation, but I can’t say her new hand is pleasing to me. Hopefully when she offers Sandpoint to Lamashtu’s fires, her new body won’t be as hideous. Maybe I will luck out. Succubi are demons too, aren’t they?

Although Sabin recognized “Bruthazmus” as the name of a small demon, the only thing clear from the journal was that Sandpoint was to face yet another larger attack, possibly this very night!

Here are the items we found on Tsuto or in his office (or from above):

[90] vial (potion) (Kyras has this)
[91] composite short bow, +3 to damage (Nolin is using this)
[92] ring (magic) (in my pack)
[93] thief’s kit (Kyras has this)
[94] flute (very pretty) (Kyras has this)
[95] silver earrings (in my pack)
[96] leather bound journal (Sedjewick has this)
[97] pouches of power (Ameiko claimed these)
[98] pouches of power (Ameiko claimed these)
[99] the business papers from the glassworks’ office

In the remaining unexplored room adjacent to Tsuto’s office was a small room with a tunnel leading to the north and the stench of goblin wafting out from it.

Ameiko has left for her home and Kyras has gone to warn the city guard.

Rigel, Sedjewick and I ran to the cathedral to warn father Zantus. We explained what we had found at the glassworks and how Nualia was indeed alive, and the actual daughter of father Tobyn. We urged him to prepare for an attack on the town that very night, only this time against more than just goblins.

We described the battle plan and added that we were heading down into the goblin tunnel to head off the attack from that quarter. And with that we raced back to the glassworks, joining Kyras on the way back.

And now here we are, gathered together before the tunnel entrance and about to plunge into its rank and dark depths. Kyras is to lead us as we walk single file, and so I have cast a Light spell on his helm.

I will be marching in the middle of the pack, and am hoping to sketch our route as we navigate these passages so we can easily retrace our steps, or at the very least avoid getting lost.

Moonday, Rova 23, 4707; Underground cathedral, beneath Sandpoint; Night

The tunnel reeked of goblin and was crudely carved into the native rock.

We followed it as it stretched to the northeast some 500 feet, where it joined with two other passageways. We took the left (north west) tunnel which bent to the north after some distance, after which we passed through the remnants of a demolished brick wall.

A short distance later some unholy aberration sprang out into the tunnel. It fixed us with its evil glowing red eyes as it jumped forward on its dog like legs. It slashed at Kyras with its claws at the end of skeletal thin, long arms. It had a large distended mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, and hanging from its bottom jaw was a small hand.

Kyras struck back at it, and Sabin tossed his axe, which struck it squarely in the face. Nolin let lose with an arrow that sunk deep into its eye where upon it dropped dead.

We pulled the dead thing into the crudely carved chamber where it had been standing guard and left it there to rot.

A hallways with smooth cut walls opened onto the main tunnel just north of the creature’s chamber, and we followed it in to where it led into a small room with a door on the north wall.

Beyond the door was another hallway that bent west and north again, passing another hall heading east before finally ending in an almost triangular shaped room.

This latter room had a door in the north wall, and another passageway leading east, with steps leading into the darkness. In the center of the room was a giant statue of red marble depicting a stunningly beautiful woman in flowing robes. In her left hand was a large book with a seven pointed star on the cover, and in her right a nasty looking ranseur. Despite her great beauty, her face was contorted in anger.

Judging from Tsuto’s journal, this was not Nualia.

We then realized that these tunnels did not stink of goblin as the main passageway had, and so fearing that a horde of the obnoxious vermin might pass through while we were occupied here, we returned to the main corridor.

The center, most goblin scented tunnel led to a blank wall, but by searching carefully I found a secrete door, which opened onto a large cave that looked out over the sea. It would have been a beautiful location were it not obviously being used as goblin barracks!

According to Kyras it had been several days since the goblins were here.

We returned to the junction and took the right hand tunnel, which led to an impassable collapse.

Fearing that we had failed in our duty to prevent an attack from the tunnels, we returned to Sandpoint and poked our noses out, mole like, to sniff around.

The city was still at peace, and so we returned to the tunnels and to the unexplored rooms and hallways we had left a short time before.

We found that the main tunnel ended abruptly just after the opening into the statue room, and so we concentrated on the first hallway we passed as we came north.

That hall stretched on to an odd shaped room with a dais on one side with a block of black marble resting on it, and a short hall ending in a grand pair of double doors on the other side.

The black slab of stone was an altar with a shallow depression on top filled with dirty water. Avia claimed it was evil, and I washed away the filthy water with a spell of Create Water.

Meanwhile Kyras cracked open one of the double doors, and a creepy blue light flashed into the room. He quickly close the door and we gathered around, prepared to face whatever evil lurked within.

The doors were flung open and we charged in. It was bitterly cold.

The room was an immense underground cathedral with a glowing blue pool in the center, and steps leading up either side to a pulpit at the far, semi-circular shaped end. A small triangular boiling pool glowed red from the pulpit. Surrounding the blue pool was a ring of spikes topped with human skulls.

A tiny demon floated above this pool, and it turned around as we entered and shrieked, “How dare you intrude upon the Mother’s sanctum!”

It then flitted over the blue pool and slit its wrist, letting the blood drip down into the glowing liquid, which dropped in intensity. The demon looked a bit worried as it did the latter, and not knowing what it was planning, we pressed our attack.

The demon drifted back above the pulpit as a creature like the one we met in the tunnel climbed out from the pool and attacked Nolin.

Avia mounted the stairs to the pulpit and slashed out at the demon, which was floating high above her.

Kyras, Trask and Sabin all used ranged weapons, but even when they hit they appeared to have little or no affect on the damned thing. And in the meantime Nolin was getting the crap beat out of him by the monster from the blue pool.

I used a create water spell positioned above the demon, and as the two gallons splashed down it plummeted to the floor, where Avia proceeded to hack at it. It turned invisible, but this made no difference as Avia continued to hit it.

And yet another creature crawled out from the blue pool just as the first had been slain.

We managed to kill the second creature just as Avia hacked the life out of the little demon.

Nolin looks rather cut up and in serious need of healing, but we fared better than I had imagined we would, given the difficult nature of hitting the demon and actually causing it physical harm once we managed to strike it.

I wonder if enchanted weapons might serve us better when fighting such foes?

In the calmness that follows battle I see that there is a door on either wall adjacent to the main double doors.

We shall explore soon, but I am left wondering about the “Mother”, who was mentioned in the journal and by the demon. Could that be her statue in the other room. Who and what is she, and what are her plans for Sandpoint?