literature

Page 9 - The Glassworks

Deviation Actions

CobraToon's avatar
By
Published:
298 Views

Literature Text

No one knew what to say to the widow. Balthazar climbed in the hole but found it to be only a small nest, with no other opening and filled with assorted bedding. Yoo tried playing a short celebratory song but quickly fell out of tune. Aishe did try to comfort the woman but as her husband's body was brought out by the town's volunteer guard wrapped in a sheet she began weeping louder than Aishe could speak. Balthazar, noting off-hand that no one would want the goblin, picked it up and started as if he would eat it, Aishe and VV became disgusted and annoyed with him respectively and he agreed to leave it be. But the dog is free game, right? Soon enough they all left, returning to the Dragon for a night's much-needed sleep.

The next morning found VV waited anxiously at the top of the stairs for the footsteps from below, and all the other sounds that were a part of their hostess Ameiko's usual routine of making breakfast for the inn's guests. But she was disappointed, and came down later with the others to find Ameiko's old halfling stewardess pacing about nervously. Without much prompting she showed them all a letter from Ameiko's brother Tsuto, one accusing their father of being complicit in the recent goblin attacks. He had asked her to meet him at the town Glassworks, to accuse together their father Lonjiku Kaijitsu and try reasoning him into confessing his crimes. She was to have gone there the night before and knocked at the delivery entrance and, as the stewardess informed them, had still not yet returned.

Without delay they traveled to the Glassworks, a large stone building with smokestacks that put out a constant white smoke. Passersby had heard no strange sounds or activity and assumed from the smokestacks that everything was as usual inside. The back door was locked and no one came to the special knock, so they tried the front door and strangely found it also shut tight. Yoo, thinking with his head, jumped through a window head-first and unlocked the door, then smiled to those now very shocked passersby and told them all was well with blood dripping from the scratches. Aishe seconded this and Kaiya added that they were here to help the town as they all trooped inside the main lobby.

Letting themselves further into the building, Balthazar, Snips and Yoo were the first ones to find the goblins in the large foundry at the back. There was a large number of them running rampant about the room, and a few human bodies lay here and there, presumably the dead workers. Some of the goblins seemed a bit larger than the others and carried large well-made cleavers, others grabbed glass objects from shelves and hefted them with a grin, several even took pairs of large burning-hot tongs and ran with them straight for the trio.

Balthazar spun and kicked two at once as they approached him, killing one with the force of the blow, while Yoo began playing his ukelele in support. Two of the smaller goblins moved in to flank Balthazar and stabbed him together, dropping him to his knees, while another threw a piece of glass art at Snips which broke into many pieces and left the ground dangerous to walk on. A fourth started inching toward the large constrictor, waving its large sword menacingly at the hissing snake.

Kaiya and Hook Hands arrived just in time to the save them, the paladin jumping in to disperse the goblins descending on the unconscious Balthazar with her sword glowing from a holy light. The glass beneath her armored feet shifted and ruined her aim, but the goblins did back away. Hook Hands swiped at the goblins with his hooks and managed to snag one by a large floppy ear. Aishe and VV arrived only moments later, VV crafting the illusion of several large brick walls separating the goblin forces into two groups and trapping the farther one while Aishe healed Balthazar and helped him up. Snips slithered forward to bite the one that had been threatening it while Yoo jumped up on a table and stabbed another, the lingering traces of his triumphant music ringing slightly in the air.
A missing host leads us to lay siege to the Glassworks factory, from which we discover a horde of surprisingly tough goblins and one human who is planning to destroy the town. I tell ya, that's the strength of a published adventure, leading us down the path to fights with a practiced ease I know I can't yet match. We also see the parties true combat potential today, in fights that test us to our limits and sometimes break us.

So what we have here is the adventures of our Pathfinder characters braving the official published Rise of the Runelords campaign. I've taken a bit more liberty with the writing this time but it's still basically me and my friends playing this pre-written campaign, telling a story with our actions in-game. There's a bit of blood and fighting on occasion, anyone who thinks I should have a mature content warning should say so! The preview picture, which I think very nicely represents the characters of VV and Aishe, is
the gypsy and the magician by *Luthien13, 'image copyright Luthien13 used with her permission.'

Next: [link]

First: [link]
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In