She fell off the roof. I mean, seriously, everything you'd ever need to know about how today went can be summarized by: she fell off the damn roof.
All right, so, we headed to the glass factory that Ameiko's father owns (or, well, owned, but I'll get to that), since she apparently decided that meeting her shady-ass brother there at midnight sounded like a decent idea. Not surprisingly, the place was locked tighter than a drum. We went door-to-door, but none of them opened. (I write that like it's unreasonable for someone to lock up his place at night so that any group of idiots like us can't just wander through it looking for a missing girl with a spotty record when it comes to making safe decisions.) I'm pretty sure I was somewhere else when this decision got made, but, for some reason, Signe and not Garridan wound up clamoring onto the roof after spotting some skylights up there. I put "clamoring" there because she was wearing all her armor at the time that she made said climb. Sounded like pots and pans clanging together in the Dragon's kitchen. (Of course, nothing we've done so far has been particular subtle, so I don't know why I'd expect it to be any different at this point.) Anyway, she muscled her way on up there and scouted around a bit. But, shockingly, one of the goblins working down there heard her and looked at her through the skylight. (Yup, goblins. Remember them? All starting to come together, innit?) Signe panicked a bit (pretty reasonable, given the angry goblin pointing at her), causing her to lose her grip and slide off the roof. Lesson #1: don't send a cleric to do a thief's job. At any rate, we realized that goblins meant bad news, so we eventually got one of the doors open (after I damn-near broke a shoulder trying to do so) and went about finding them.
Place was a mess, full of bodies of the workers that the goblins have hacked to pieces. It wasn't pretty. Kid looked pretty green, though he'll deny it. At any rate, goblins started coming at us, little bastards. Throwing glass, bouncing all over the place. It took us a while, but we finally managed to take out a few, inspiring the rest of 'em to pull a runner. We followed, and, man, it's in the next room where this story takes a turn for the dark and creepy. Before now, I thought that we were involved in some sort of family dispute. Brother has Ameiko locked in a room or something until she sees his side of whatever it is causing them to argue. I mean, we already know that family ain't exactly having heart-warming moments around the fire. So, I figured it was bad, but nothing too grim. It was when we saw Ameiko's dad encased in glass that I realized we were possibly in a little over our heads. From the look on his face, you could tell that he was still alive when the glass was poured over him. Man, even I'll admit to feeling a little green after that. Took us a minute or two to collect ourselves, but then we finally found the little bastards.
I managed to make it after one of them as it fled down a corridor, but it was then that we realized that we had a bigger problem, in the form of Ameiko's brother. I'm not really sure how it all went down, since I was 'round the corner fighting the goblin, but the kid tells me that everything went bad quick. He thought at first that they were going to have an easy time of it, because the brother was unarmed, but then the guy took down Signe in one fell swoop and brushed aside one of the kid's better spells. Bad scene. Garridan apparently got a healing potion to Signe and he and the kid were able to drive the brother back a bit so that she could get to her feet. I finally took down the goblin and stumbled down the corridor, figuring I could flank him from the other side. (Or, at least, hoping I could. Place was darker than midnight.) Guy was smart, though, must've heard me coming, because he fired off an arrow or two my way before I could get to him. Kid got in a hit with what even I could recognize as magic missile and the guy stumbled a bit. I decided that it was time to try some new tricks, realizing how easy this guy was playing us, and went at 'im with both axes, something I'd been practicing for awhile. Managed to nail him with my battle axe and stun 'im a bit more. Signe realized that I was struggling after the fight with the goblins and healed me. Helped a lot, because I was able to nail 'im with both blades next time. Guy was definitely hurting by this point and Garridan slid past 'im, dropping him with that knife thing he does. Garridan and I probably would've ended him there, but the kid pointed out that we might've needed him to find Ameiko. 'Course, we didn't have any rope (need to remember to buy some), so Garridan wound up binding him with some string. Felt like an idiot watching Garridan spool him in string like he was a damn house cat. Turned out we didn't need 'im to find Ameiko because she was just in one of the rooms off the corridor. Pretty bad shape, I have to say. Bound, battered. Signe grabbed her and Garridan and I grabbed the brother. By the time we got outside, crowd of townspeople had gathered outside the factory. Helpful lot, these Sandpointers. Didn't offer to help or nothing, just gawked at us while we lugged the two of 'em to the garrison.
We decided to leave the guy with the Guards. However, since we weren't confident that they could guard the ONE DAMN PRISONER that they had in their entire prison, we left Garridan and the kid to watch over Ameiko's brother while Signe and I took Ameiko herself to Father What's-His-Name. Man, suddenly, it all really went from bad to even worse. Turns out her brother's involved with the daughter of the former priest, the one who allegedly died in that fire. She's apparently not only "not dead" but also some sorta bastard "celestial being" or something. We regroup with Garridan and the kid and it turned out that the kid found the brother's journal that more or less confirmed this story. Ameiko's brother and this girl were working with some pretty nasty demon or something, planning on sacrificing the whole town to her. Ameiko told us that the brother was decent enough to offer to hide her, so she wouldn't get hurt in the attack, but she refused. (Just to note, I'm not giving a guy who encased another living being in glass too much credit. Sure, the father was a prick, but even he didn't deserve that.) Kid and I were talking to Father So-and-So about it, trying to get some more information, when Garridan suddenly just blurted out that Ameiko's father was dead. Seriously. I mean, I'm not saying that I'm great with this sorta thing, but, given that the kid told that townswoman that goblins ate her husband's face off and Garridan being all, "Congratulations, you're an orphan,' someone around here needs to learn how to deliver this sorta news better. (You'd think Signe could do it, as a cleric and all, but she seems to get distracted by the thought of supper too often.) Ameiko was pissed (not that I blame 'er), and I think I'm just lucky to have a room for tonight to write this entry. Made some sort of comment about her hospitality as we returned to the inn.
'Course, to the surprise of NO ONE, guard entered a little while later, when we were trying to relax, telling us the brother offed himself. Seriously. One prisoner and they let 'im kill himself. Guard tried to blame Garridan, since he tied the knot, but we weren't buying it. Seriously, I need to have a talk with the Mayor about why she's paying these idiots to do ANYTHING. If our group is going to have to start posting our own damn watches just to keep prisoners alive, we might as well get the money for it that the guards get paid. Signe and I checked out the body, realized that his lover, the possible half-demon/half-human chick, paid a little visit before he died after we found her hair in his hand. (Creepy, I know.) Not sure what sort of secrets the guy was holding that made 'im decide to hang 'imself. I'm thinking it's not good, particularly since we now know we've got some half-demon/half-human chick out there with a demon master and goblin army, wanting nothing more than to take out this town. It's certainly not something that I need to be in the middle of resolving. Of course, given how successful I've been so far in keeping my nose outta this stuff, I'm thinking I'm going to find out the answer sooner rather than later.
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