Following up, it’s been two nights since the events of ‘Grim News from Mosswood’ occurred. The funeral for Alergast Barett was yesterday, Shalelu and Sheriff Hemlock departed shortly after that, officially deputizing the Angels until his return and we find ourselves looking down on our heroes a short time after dawn on the first day of the Angels’ fourth week in Sandpoint. Notably, it is also Firstday; the first day of the ten day week on Garagian calenders.
Maxwell, Judas and Giacomo, who all share a room at the Rusty Dragon, were the first of the party to awake, and it was to an urgent knocking on their door.
Outside stood the timid old halfling Bethana Corwin, Ameiko’s right hand in keeping the B&B organized and smoothly run. She looked super worried, blurted out the fact that Ameiko’s gone missing and politely reminded the three friends that as interim deputies, they had to take care of this terrible situation.
Judas went to get the others up while Maxwell sat Bethana down and Giacomo hurried to clean himself before heading down to the kitchen to give what aid he could to the understaffed breakfast cooks.
Bethana explained that when she went down to the kitchen half an hour ago, Ameiko wasn’t there and the cooks didn’t know where she was. This was highly irregular, so Ms. Corwin went to check on Ameiko in her room. The room was found empty, the bed unslept in and everything else untouched. Of note was the actual note Bethana found on Ameiko’s bed that was written in Minkaian. As we already know, Ameiko had been teaching Bethana the language for the last five years and so the elderly halfling had helpfully transcribed the translation of the note on the backside of the original.
At this point Ben and Marawa – who are bunking in a room with Helga and Rass – show up, explaining that Judas is waking Lialda up…
For his part, Judas found Lialda’s room empty and unslept in as well and decided to finally play a hunch. He walked out into town and down the road a bit until he was almost at the front door of Vinder’s General when he saw a basement window opening in the alley alongside the building. Sure enough Lialda, unaware of Judas’ presence, hauled herself out of the basement and into the alley with evident playful help from Shayliss inside. When Lialda finally stumbled almost headlong into Judas however, her face flashed from pale to red to a fluctuating mix of both and her breath escaped her.
Judas: “Is Ameiko here?”
Lialda: “Shaylisshasrats, soIfigur- wait, what?”
“Is Ameiko here?”
“Uh, no?”
“Oh horseshit…”
“What’s wrong? Why would Ameiko be here?”
This led to an exchange that ultimately left poor Judas with a death threat and a clear handprint on his cheek after which he hurried along in Lialda’s footsteps back to the Dragon, begging forgiveness and swearing silence at the same time, his mouth once again a gibbering mess.
Meanwhile, the other Angels read the note found in Ameiko’s room…
Bethana’s transcription of Tsuto’s letter to Ameiko:
Hello, Sis!
I hope this letter finds you well and with some free time on your hands, because we’ve got something of a problem. It’s to do with father. Seems that he might have had something to do with Sandpoint’s recent trouble with the goblins and I didn’t want to bring it to the authorities because we both know he’d just weasel his way out of it. You’ve got some pull here in town though. If you can meet me at the Glassworks at midnight tonight, maybe we can figure out how to make sure he faces the punishment he deserves. Knock twice and then three times more and then once more at the delivery entrance and I’ll let you in.
In any case, I don’t have to impress upon you the delicate nature of this request. If news got out, you know these local rubes would assume that you and I were in on the whole thing too, don’t you? They’ve got no honour at all around these parts. I still don’t understand how you can stand to stay here.
Anyway, don’t tell anyone about this. There are other complications as well, ones I’d rather talk to you in person about tonight. Don’t be late.
Tsuto
None of the Angels knew who Tsuto was, so it was left to Bethana to tell them of one of Sandpoint’s not-so-hidden gems of intrigue. This was a good thing for the group, as Bethana is quite a gossip…
27 years ago, Atsuii Kaijitsu gave birth to Tsuto Kaijitsu. Much to everyone’s shock, Tsuto turned out to be half-elven. Lonjiku Kaijitsu, who the Angels had unceremoniously met last week, was definitely not of elven descent. More telling was the fact that neither is Ameiko Kaijitsu, who was also born to Atsuii a year later. Lonjiku was furious, sent Tsuto away to a boarding institute and forbade his wife – who his pride prevented him from divorcing – from seeing him. Ameiko herself didn’t even know he existed until she was ten, at which point she would visit him in secret once a month and promise him a better future…
The visits continued in secret until Ameiko was 16, when one of her visits turned into a violent argument in which Tsuto had hit Ameiko very roughly. Bethana surmises that this is what made Ameiko leave Sandpoint originally, as shortly after their argument Ameiko set out on a five year adventure. Bethana’s since been unable to squeeze what the argument was about out of Ameiko.
This, on a side note, also hurt Lonjiku’s vain ego as one of Sandpoint’s leading noble families, thinking his family showed him no honour.
Ameiko only came back for her mother Atsuii’s funeral, where Tsuto once again stoked family scandal with his claims that he’d witnessed Lonjiku push his mother from the cliffs behind their estate. Yes, her body was found amidst the rocks there. Regardless, the debacle ended when Lonjiku and Tsuto got into a public tussle that left Tsuto’s broken jaw the victim of Lonjiku’s cane.
That was the last anyone had seen of or heard from Ameiko’s controversial brother and that was five years ago. Ameiko has kept an ear and an eye out for him since then but her old adventuring network turned up nothing but a few loose, uncomfirmed leads coming out of both Magnimar to the south or Riddleport far to the north.
For her part, Bethana thinks that Tsuto is up to no good here, and we end Act II with Bethana begging the newly deputized Angels of Sandpoint to make haste to the Glassworks to investigate, while she takes care of the Rusty Dragon in Ameiko’s absence with the help of Chef Giacomo.
In a week’s time we’ll pick back up with Act III: Glass and Wrath.
Parting Thoughts
What the hell does Tsuto have to tell Ameiko and what could he be telling her that takes all night long?
Did Ameiko go with Tsuto? What does that tell us about Tsuto’s claims against his father?
This makes the encounter with Lonjiku in the Rusty Dragon last week much more significant. Lonjiku did seem keen on dipping out of town… Thinking back on it, he didn’t show up for his scheduled speech during the Swallowtail Festival’s opening ceremony on the day of the raid…
That’s the cliffhanger we leave Act II with. The next few posts are actually going to be about my insights into running and playing the first two Acts of the adventure.
GarageOrigins 