Chapter 18: Exploring the Glass Factory

October 8

Jaysek binds Kieron’s and Neiia’s wounds while Ertak rests. Jaysek starts treating Neiia while Agnarr and Kieron examine the room. Neiia would like to go examine the room too, but Jaysek talks her out of it. However, when Kieron notices this, she goes to the corner of the room and loudly wonders, “Look what’s here,” at which point Neiia can no longer stay put and runs to see what’s there. Kieron shows some glass shards in the corner. Examining the room takes about 10 minutes. The corpse under the glass is the factory manager, Lonjiku Kaijitsu. In addition, a short sword is found in the room.

The group rests for half an hour and then proceeds to explore the factory. They find the basement. They begin to explore the basement and find a storage room there. Kieron is already moving forward when Ertak asks Neiia, “Don’t you wonder what would happen if you throw a full-sized fireball into that storage room?” Neiia says, “Good idea,” and starts creating a fireball. Everyone else starts running away toward the stairs, so Neiia stops growing the fireball and wonders, “Where are you going, didn’t Agnarr want to see what happens?” Agnarr states that well, he’s so slow at running away anyway, so he can stay to watch. Neiia throws the fireball into the room, but it doesn’t accomplish anything special.

Kieron, who is on the stairs, notices a half-elf on the side aiming at her with a bow. Kieron rushes to the man and strikes his bow, but the man pulls the bow to safety and drops it. After that, the man tries to knock Kieron down but doesn’t succeed. Kieron ask the man who he is and goes on the defensive, but when the enemy starts kicking and hitting Kieron, she also starts fighting. Agnarr tries to shout to Kieron to come here to the wider part to fight. Kieron tries to lure the elf after her, but he doesn’t follow, instead going after Neiia. Thus Kieron and Agnarr go after him. When they reach the enemy, the enemy jumps over Neiia and Ertak to attack Ertak from behind.

The elf strikes Ertak in the back twice and once in the back of the head, which drops Ertak to the ground, and after that, the enemy goes after Jaysek, who shot at him with a pistol. The enemy doesn’t hit, and Jaysek runs to the others for protection. The enemy continues running in a circle but comes from the other side against Agnarr and strikes him but doesn’t hit. Agnarr hits the elf solidly with his axe, and the enemy pulls out a healing potion and drinks it. Agnarr hits the enemy again while Neiia also runs to the scene and starts preparing. Kieron comes from behind and tries to get past Neiia but falls and pushes Neiia too, but she stays on her feet. After Agnarr’s second hit, the enemy falls.

Jaysek begins to give first aid to Ertak and then continues treating him. Kieron binds the enemy’s wounds, and after that, the group begins to examine the enemy’s belongings. They find the man’s diary and find pictures of a woman who, toward the end, has a demonic hand. In one place, Kieron finds a text that says:

My beloved seems to be doing it, and nothing I say seems to have an effect. Her obsession with removing her divine form and changing it to a demonic form is so strong that nothing affects it. Burning her father’s remains on the Thistletop altar seems to have started the change. Her new hand is certainly not beautiful. Hopefully, when she sacrifices Sandpoint to Lamashtu’s fires, her new body won’t be as ugly. Maybe I’ll get lucky; after all, succubi are demons too, aren’t they?

Neiia recognizes that the woman in the picture looks quite similar to the previous Sandpoint priest who died in the old temple fire, so this woman could be related.

Kieron finds battle plans, where the first group is a small-scale attack of 30 goblins on Sandpoint, and one of these plans is circled, and it matches how Sandpoint was attacked. The other plans have been crossed out. In addition to these, the book also has a second group of plans, which includes plans for a 200-goblin attack, and none of them have yet been selected. Kieron finds more text:

Ripnugget is of the opinion that an attack from land would be the right plan; I don’t believe it’s the best plan, we should get Quisit’s help and send his freaks up through the smuggling tunnels through this glass factory and simultaneously attack via the river with targeted strikes. Everyone else agrees, so I’m quite sure that the bugbear disagrees just to disagree. My beloved is too focused on the lower chambers to make a decision, but when Malfesnekor is released and is under my beloved’s commands, we won’t need subtlety.

When Jaysek finishes treating Ertak, the group goes to explore the rest of the basement. They go to the next door, which is locked. Agnarr tries to open it but doesn’t succeed. Others try to suggest that he break the door, but Agnarr doesn’t agree and hands his axe to Kieron. Kieron hits the door a few times with the hammer side of the axe, and finally, Neiia gets Agnarr to agree to show how strong he is, and Agnarr hits the door once, and it breaks.

Inside, they find Ameiko Kaijitsu in poor condition. The group talks with her and hears that Ameiko’s brother is supposedly Nualia’s mercenary and would have wanted Ameiko Kaijitsu to join his forces at Thistletop because it’s not good to be in Sandpoint when the big thing happens. The group explores the rest of the basement. They also find a tunnel that goes north.

The group goes up, and Agnarr and Kieron explore the rest of the factory but don’t find anything. They go outside and call the sheriff to the scene. They tell that a big 200-goblin attack is apparently coming to the town. The sheriff says that the former high priest had a daughter out of wedlock named Nualia, and that woman in those pictures could be her. As Ameiko already told earlier that her brother has been a mercenary for Nualia, so it’s probably so.