The Return To Daylight

It is difficult to disguise your mood, a mix of relief, exhaustion, and disgust. It has been a difficult day. A day of slaughter, and horrors. The sights of the Glassworks, the men, tortured and disfigured by the goblins, are still fresh in your minds. The melted statue that Kaijitsu Senior had become, the blooded, hollow eyes filled with opaque glass. As you rise out of the Catacombs, you can see that the Glassworks are crawling with activity. Town guards stand vigilant at every entrance. The windows are in the process of being boarded over. People, their faces down-cast, move amongst the carnage, removing corpses, chisel blow by chisel blow.

At your appearance there is a burst of activity. Relief is evident, tinged with excitement. A few younger guards crowd around you, leaving their horrific work.

"What did you find?"
"Is it true that there is a link to the hells below?"
"Nah, it is goblins, right? An entire army of them! I heard they are getting ready to attack the town. What have we done to deserve this?"

They pull back, seeing the exhaustion in your eyes, your quickly bound wounds, but also seeing the bundled corpse and hideous head that you carry (Lloyd suggested that you bring it as evidence for the mayor).

"By Avandra, that ain't no goblin, for sure!" one utters.

Who would want to be Mayor?

* * *

After a quick respite you are usered back into the Mayor's place. Kendra Deverin paces her office. She has heard your story, has nodded her head in silence at each gory point you raised.

"Hemlock will be back in a few days. Lets wait for him. It is pretty obvious that the goblins plan to attack us here en-masse. The journal you recovered from Tsuto makes that pretty clear. I only wished he was still here so that we could confirm such things. But someone broke him out of prison just a couple of hours ago.

"It would seem that we have two ways of dealing with things. We can either sit tight, get our defences up, and try to repel them when they come. Or, we can try and find some brave, and perhaps slightly insane, people who can take the fight to them. Either way, we need Hemlock and his troops in town."

She opens a large bottle of local whisky, a grain variety, potent and aromatic. She pours six stiff glasses of the stuff and passes them round, taking one herself. It is strange to see her drawing deep on the spirit, but when you follow suit the warmth it sends through your joints is welcome, and the slight numbing of your brain is even more welcome.

She coughs as the spirit sears her throat.

"Word is out. It is everywhere already. The men, the guards, they are good, but they are family men, and they have never had to witness such a procession of horrors ... well, not since the Late Unpleasantness...

You will find that people are bound to ask you a thousand questions. Try and not stir things up. We need you guys more now than ever. Heck, if it weren't for you five we would probably be days from attack and not even know it. I am incredibly grateful for what you have done. I just need you to keep doing it. Stay visible. Stay strong. We could be attacked at any time.

Now go, tend to your wounds. Ha! I hope you can have a day off. Who knows? Who knows? I will see you the morning after next. Hemlock is due back then, and I think it would be best if you were there to update him in person!