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?