Date: 9/23/08

XP Awarded: 325

Start: The Rusty Dragon Inn in Sandpoint, two weeks after the goblin raid.

For the next few days after fighting the goblins in the Sandpoint Glassworks, the party rests and heals. Gob talks to some of the townspeople who know a little magic and spends most of his time shut away in his room studying, while Deivon spends several hours a day in weapons practice and exercise. Signore and Kiria spend a lot of time with Daviren Hosk, a former hunter who now runs the Goblin Squash stables. He takes them and their horses into the Tickwood for a few days of camping, where he teaches them forest lore like survival and tracking.

After the party has had time to think about the contents of Tsuto's journal and discuss options, they decide to meet with the mayor and Sheriff Hemlock, who has recently returned from Magnimar with a small number of untrained troops. The group explains that the first raid was just a warm-up exercise for a much larger attack, and that the threat seems to be based at the goblin stronghold of Thistletop. They also reveal that there seems to be a threat in the abandoned smugglers' tunnels below the town. The mayor and sheriff are very worried by this news - the small and poorly-trained militia couldn't possibly defend the town against a goblin raid of this size. They ask the adventurers if they could go to Thistletop and defeat whoever is leading and organizing the goblins, for the sake of Sandpoint's survival. After some hard bargaining by Kiria, Sheriff Hemlock agrees to spend some money outfitting the party with equipment and arms.

While Gob continues to study his spellbooks, the others go around town gathering information. They speak to the aged gnome Veznutt at The Way North, a map shop, and buy a map of the wilderness near Sandpoint. They speak to Father Zantus at the cathedral and find that the bones of the previous priest had been stolen during the goblin raid. They visit Madame Mvashti's house, a very old Varisian seer. She tells the party that the smugglers' tunnels are just about as old as Sandpoint itself, but seemed to fall into disuse about twenty years ago. She tells the party that Sandpoint is located at the convergence point of several powerful, invisible lines of magical energy that stretch across the land. The adventurers also visit the retired adventuring mage Ilsoari and the Turandarok Academy (the town's orphanage). Ilsoari doesn't know much about the smugglers' tunnels, but he does like to talk about his past adventuring days and shows the party many trophies. Kiria asks if he has anything for the party, and receives what seems to be a treasure map centered on the area south of Sandpoint. Ilsoari doesn't know what the map leads to, but he is curious for the party to find out.

After the party finishes purchasing equipment for the exploration of the smugglers' tunnels, they descend to the basement of the now silent glassworks. Though Gob is still locked in his room studying, the other adventurers light a lantern and proceed past the nervous town guards into the rough tunnel. It lazily winds in a mostly straight direction for several hundred feet before a side passage opens to the left. A pile of smashed brickwork lies on the floor, as if it had been closed off but then reopened. With Deivon in the lead, the party proceeds down this side passage to the point where a small cavern opens off to one side. As Deivon rounds the corner, a bizarre creature with red glowing eyes launches itself out of the darkness at Deivon. A fierce battle rages, during which the creature bites Deivon, who is overwhelmed with feelings of anger, reducing his ability to fight. The creature seems immune to Signore's sneak attacks, and worse, quickly heals the wounds they have inflicted up on it. But with coordinated fighting, the adventurers defeat it, and after a few minutes, Deivon recovers from the wrathful effects of the bite.

Beyond the opening to the side chamber the creature attacked from, the party spies another side passage. Following it, they find it opens into an apparently very old stone chamber strewn with stone rubble. The construction appears to be very different from the rough-hewn tunnel they have explored so far. Proceeding through a stone door and silent halls, the party comes to another room with several exits, centered on a red marble statue of a beautiful but monstrously enraged human woman, her hair held back by an intricate headdress of hooks and blades. She carries a metal and ivory ranseur and a tome with a seven-pointed star on the cover. The party bypasses the room and enters another stone door, finding a large prison room.

The room is ringed by closed cells, and a rickety wooden platform overlooks the chamber. When the adventurers move forward to look more closely, two more of the same creature fought before swing up from below the wooden platform to attack. The battle is long and fierce. At one point Deivon cuts one down with his greataxe, only for it to rise up a minute later to attack again. The party is wounded badly, but manages to slay them both.