Runelords 04.0 - Ameiko's Family

The group spent the next week or so in Sandpoint making themselves at home, assuming that for at least three of them, they would be here longer than originally anticipated. Eamon dedicated himself to learning the local language, spending much of his time following Luna about town and questioning townsfolk on mundane matters to hone his verbal skills. Khyrralien, having obtained a sitar from Foxglove, took to playing in the street and in the Rusty Dragon, earning some coin and becoming something of a town hit. Luna, worried about their inevitable financial crisis, looked for work, and performed minor housekeeping and clerical tasks for Quint, Zantus and Ameiko; at night, she schooled Eamon thoroughly in Akroumite and local customs, and by proximity, to Khyrralien as well. Virgil spent most of his time milling about town, lounging about and talking to locals about his life as an adventurer, as well as having several furtive liaisons with Shadliss.
They went on two more hunting trips with Foxglove over the intervening time, successfully bringing game in to the Rusty Dragon on both occasions; Luna opted out of the second trip, as hunting wasn't particularly her interest. Virgil called out the same ravens on both trips, feeding them well on each occasion and training them that he was a marvelous source of food, prompting them to follow him back to town, where they proceeded to hang about the rooftops of whatever buildings he went in, waiting for more food to materialize, which it certainly did. 
As days progressed, Eamon found his wings bothering him more and more, with an annoying sensation he had never been plagued by in Heaven. Virgil, accustomed to Materia and bird ownership, quickly surmised that Eamon needed to preen his six wings, something that had never before been necessary. Impossible to perform on himself, Virgil instructed Luna in how each feather needed to be carefully brushed, cleaned and oiled, in case he too needed his wings preened, should he ever shift away from his human form. The pair took turns caring for Eamon's feathers at night, though Luna took the lion's share, seeing as how she was spending time working with him on his Akroumite anyways.
While on something of a date with Shadliss, Virgil went to a somewhat seedier bar called the Hagfish, where he learned of the establishment's open contest: bet a silver and drink a pint of foul water from their namesake's tank, win the collective pot. Making a mental note, Virgil later posited the challenge to the all-too-willing Khyrralien. On the 9th night after their arrival, the pair of them, dragging along an uninformed Eamon, went back to the Hagfish to try their luck. Khyrralien talked a big game, and took the challenge with much flourish. About a third of the way through the mug, he realized he couldn't possibly take any more; with grace and poise, he shifted the challenge onto Eamon. Virgil had been trying to explain the concept of "revolting taste" to Eamon and, without fully understanding, he stood up to the task. He managed a full half of the glass before getting the same sensation as Khyrralien before him; however, he tried to power his way forwards, not being one to give up. His persistence was rewarded by his body's forcible rejection of the contents of his stomach. Eamon sat down, appalled by the sensation of vomiting, but the crowd gave their support of their attempt regardless. The barkeep gave both men a complimentary shot of vodka in a glass of water to their troubles, and was pleased that Virgil politely cleaned up the mess with magic. Eamon resolved to train so that he could best this challenge.
The next day, Foxglove announced to the adventurers that he had to return to Medinipur in order to attend to his business engagements. They were sad to see him go, and he was sad to leave them, but everyone knew that duty always eventually called. He promised to come back again when he could get away so they could continue on their enjoyable hunting ventures together. The sheriff also passed by their table, asking if the four of them could drop by his office shortly for a meeting: apparently Shalelu had unseasonably returned to town, and he figured they should be there to speak to her. They agreed to stop in once they had finished breakfast, assured that it wasn't an emergency.
Not long after he took his leave, a man stormed angrily into the inn, demanding to see his daughter. Sighting the adventurers, he approached them and began ranting about adventurers in general, how it was a disreputable profession and how they did nothing but bring danger and ruin to whatever towns they happened into, butting into people's business and causing trouble. None of them could get him to calm down or to even speak rationally, so fixated was he on his tirade. Ameiko came out from the back, holding a stew-coated ladle; the man switched his yelling towards her, telling her that the town was headed for disaster and that they needed to get out while they could. By the words he was using, it became obvious that this was Lonjiku Kaijitsu, her father. When she stood her ground, telling him that she wasn't leaving her inn and wouldn't go anywhere with him, he tried to grab at her hair and force her to go. She whacked him with the spoon, leaving a mess of gravy. Glaring at her furiously, he derided her and her past before leaving himself. Virgil gave her some comforting words, though she was keeping a stiff upper lip. Khyr began to play a lilting tune, calming the awkwardness that had pervaded the tavern and bringing it back to life. Cheered and resolved, she returned to the kitchen.
With that unsightly business resolved, the group straightened themselves and made their way to the sheriff's office. There they met with him, Shalelu and the mayor. To open, they asked about Lonjiku and what his problem with adventurers was. Apparently, he had never taken well with his daughter's choice of career, adventuring until the untimely death of her mother, whereupon she opened her inn in town. When they pressed for details, they learned that the woman had died when she fell out a balcony five years ago. The coincidence of time was too much for the adventurers, but the sheriff had little else to tell them: it had been labelled an accident and had occurred about six months before Mr. Stoot went insane. 
Changing the topic, they told the ranger of the events that had transpired on the evening of the Swallowtail Festival, the information concerning the goblins' leadership and the theft of the body of the late Father. She explained that the goblins, normally divided into highly competitive and violent tribes, had been unusually cooperative and quiet as of late. They had never been more than a local nuisance for that fact: they spent more time fighting each other than doing anything else. If someone had united them into a cohesive group, they would have a force of roughly 500 goblins at their command, more than enough to cause serious damage to unprepared villages. The seven of them postulated about how the goblins might have entered Sandpoint, and about the particulars of the goblin tribes and their "heroes", particularly vicious and powerful individuals. She mentioned specifically a bugbear ranger by the name of Bruthazmus, who kept to the Thistletop Woods. She had a rivalry of sorts with this one, and she told the adventurers that if they should cross paths with him, they were to leave him alive: he was hers to kill. 
Eventually, it was determined that they didn't have enough information to do anything but prepare for an attack. Shalelu would go back out into the woods and keep an eye out for any unusual goblin behaviour; Sheriff Hemlock would leave for Medinipur that afternoon to petition for more guards to be sent to the town, and; the adventurers would stay around, looking for clues about who might have facilitated the goblin attack and generally ensuring that the town stayed peaceful and unawares of danger. With that decided, the meeting ended and its attendees went their own ways.
Their afternoon was spent trying to dig up more information about the unsavoury events from five years ago. They spoke to Quint, but he had no interest in the topic. Virgil shifted the conversation towards the lighthouse, however, which immediately piqued his interest, and he spoke at length about what he knew. Virgil explained that they had gone down the well in the ruins, though he didn't specify exactly who or how, and told him what they had seen. He had little new insight, but was interested in them continuing their exploration, agreeing that 7-pointed circular symbols were often associated with the Outer Planes, and indeed, the spell that he had used to summon them had incorporated such. He mulled a bit about that particular spell: the three of them should have unsummoned by this point, since it shouldn't have been powerful enough to keep extraplanars summoned for this long. Still thinking, he wandered back to his house to make some notes on the topic.
Leaving Quint, Virgil went to see if he could get any servants in the wealthy Kaijitsu household to speak about the accident five years ago, though he was met only with tight-lipped, loyal employees. Khyrralien went to find a guard who had been active during the murders, and found one all too willing to give graphic details of the brutal crime scenes. Meanwhile, Eamon and Luna went to the city records office to see what could be found about the events from the past. Picking through papers and records, they found little they didn't already know: Mrs. Kaijitsu fell from her balcony and was found dead some hours later, with no foul play suspected. Six months later, Mr. Stoot went insane and killed 25 people in a brutal fashion, before being captured, jailed, brought to Medinipur for trial, and executed. During Stoot's incarceration, the church caught fire, killing the Father and his daughter. The most interesting article they found was the journal of Mr. Stoot, which showed an almost immediate decline in his sanity, switching jarringly from placid details of his peaceful life to harsh, incoherent ramblings of slights against him from nearly the whole town. 
The group reconvened in the inn and discussed their findings. Eamon poured over the details, certain that there was a link between all of the sordid events and to the current-day strife. Luna tried to gently suggest that he was seeing connections that didn't exist, but didn't argue with him when he stuck to his convictions. For their parts, Virgil suspected some grander plot at play, possibly involving the ruin that lay beneath the town, and Khyrralien muttered his opinion of the harsh and hysterical Mr. Kaijitsu's involvement in his wife's untimely demise.
The next morning, after coming down for breakfast, they found the kitchen surprisingly empty. As they wondered where the innkeeper had gone, a middle-aged hobbit woman came in, obviously in a state of worry and panic. She asked them to come with her, leading them into a quiet room, where she explained that Ameiko had gone missing. Her name was Bethana, a housekeeper here, and as she looked for Ameiko this morning she had come across a letter in the innkeeper's room. Producing the letter, she passed it to them; it was written in Arroyitan, but Luna had no troubles reading it. It was from someone named Tsuto, and asked Ameiko to meet them at their father's glassworks. The author suspected their father of dark dealings, having a hand in the goblin attack and other misdeeds aside: they would speak further on these matters when Ameiko arrived at midnight. Bethana explained that Tsuto was her brother, a half-elf despite neither of his professed parents having elven heritage. He had been sent to boarding school many years earlier, and had only been in town since for his mother's funeral. The four adventurers looked to each other and resolved to find what had happened to Ameiko. 
Category:Rise of the Runelords