Date: 11/18/08

XP Awarded: none

Start: Sandpoint, about three and a half weeks after the goblin raid.

The return trip to Sandpoint goes quickly, and once back in town the party first visit the Sandpoint cathedral to get healing from Father Zantus, who is curious to hear about the goblins at Thistletop. Next the group goes to the town hall to meet with mayor Deverin and sheriff Hemlock. The mayor listens to Kiria and Signore relate their stories of fighting against the goblins and their plea for additional resources. She agrees to speak with the mages in town to try to convince them to lower their prices for identifying magical items. The adventurers return to their quarters to clean up, then spend the rest of the afternoon shopping and selling a few pieces of loot they had acquired from adventuring.

Over the next couple of cool, rainy days, Gob spends most of his time in town locked in his room, studying his magical tomes. Signore spends a lot of time in the Tickwood, honing his wilderness skills with Daviren. Deivon practices his weapon drills, and Kiria learns some new bardic music and magic from Cyrdak at the Sandpoint theatre. During this time, Shalelu returns to town looking exhausted, grimy, and wounded. She explains that she's been roaming the Sandpoint hinterlands, tracking goblin movements and helping protect some of the outlying farms from further goblin raids. Although she has seen a lot of increased goblin activity, it doesn't seem as if the goblins are massing for a raid just yet.

Also during this time Signore notices a few small items going missing from his room at the Rusty Dragon Inn, but the trap he lays for the thief doesn't amount to anything. Over dinnertime discussions the adventurers agree upon a plan to travel to Thistletop early in the morning, to cross the rope bridge to the island around dawn.

The adventurers get up after midnight and prepare their equipment, then walk for a few hours on the Lost Coast road through thick, chilly fog. Once they reach the Thistle river, Signore leads the group off the road and into the pitch-black depths of the overgrown Nettlewood. Though the swirling fogs and utter darkness make navigation extremely difficult, the gnomish ranger skillfully leads the adventurers around the many swamps and briar tangles to the small clearing outside the Thistletop warrens.

After listening carefully, Signore is able to faintly hear the sound of goblins inside the warrens, but they soon fade. Although the dawn must be breaking in the sky above, inside the warrens it is cold, wet, and very dark. Though Signore, Gob, and Kiria can all see well in the dim light, Deivon is effectively blinded, and must shuffle through the tunnels hunched over, being led by the hand. Fortunately his new suit of chainmail effectively blocks most of the poking thorns.

Finding the warrens deserted, Signore leads the party to the hatch door leading to the rope bridge. As he pushes it open, sunlight floods into the dark tunnels, blinding the characters. Outside, the party can see that dawn has broke and the sun is illuminating the front of the wooden stockade from behind the thistle warrens. Through the swirling fog, the party can't see any sign of goblins, nor the waves below, but the crashing roars are evidence of the treacherous rocks far below. The group briefly toy with the idea of cutting the rope bridge, or firing flaming arrows into the wooden structure, but then decide to cross the bridge and investigate the stockade more closely. Noting the sheer sides of the round island and the large waves churning against the jagged rocks far below, they are glad they decided against their earlier plan of taking a boat to Thistletop.

As Signore cautiously moves out onto the rickety wood-and-rope bridge, it sways under his weight but seems to hold. As he moves halfway out onto the bridge, Kiria starts on the bridge as well. It immediately groans under the stress but seems to hold, and by the time Signore has reached the far end, Kiria has reached the middle safely. Signore immediately hides in the thick clusters of brambles. The front gates of the stockade stand open, and there are no signs of goblins in the watch towers. One at a time, Gob and Deivon finish crossing the bridge safely and join Signore in the brambles, where a narrow tunnel seems to wind through around the perimeter of the isle. As the adventurers wait, Signore scouts ahead and hears the sounds of goblins and goblin dogs around one corner of the keep, but when he mentions this to the rest of the group, Gob suggests they explore the keep before starting any fights outside.

Since the front gates are open with still no sign of goblins, the party cautiously enters and finds an enclosed hall with several dog and horse heads mounted to the walls, and many sets of doors. As the party moves around to listen at each, they hear the sounds of goblins behind several doors. Opening one door, they find a set of stone stairs descending into the heart of the isle, but decide to leave that area for later exploration.

Passing these for the time being, they explore the two poorly-constructed towers. Signore sneaks up the creaky staircases to listen at the trapdoors at the tops of the towers; at one he hears goblins arguing, and at the other he hears snoring goblins. After signaling his intentions to the group below, he slowly opens the trapdoor and creeps onto the rooftop to find two sleeping goblin guards with bulging stomaches, surrounded by half-eaten pickles. He quickly assassinates one, but drops his spear as he turns to the other. The goblin startles awake, but Signore is able to kill him before raises the alarm.

The rest of the group joins Signore on the roof and has a look around the compound. Below they spot a courtyard where four goblin dogs race around, squealing and fighting each other. There also appear to be two dead goblins in front of a door. Outside the keep, at the back of the isle, the party sees a group of four goblins playing some kind of sport with a bird - one goblin has a length of rope tied to a seagull and is jerking it around, as the other goblins throw rocks at it to knock it out of the sky. Four excited goblin dogs race around, barking and squealing at the game. On the top of the other watch tower are two goblins that appear to be arguing over a game of some kind. To the west, the fog-enshrouded expanse of the Varisian Gulf glistens in the early morning sunlight.

Descending the tower, the adventurers decide to attack the goblin dogs in the courtyard first. After positioning themselves in front of the door leading to the courtyard, Deivon throws the door open. Signore charges in to wound a goblin dog, and Kiria fires his new bow to seriously wound another. Deivon charges in and slays two of the creatures before they can react, and even Gob gets into the action with a well-placed crossbow bolt. Within seconds all goblin dogs lay dead or dying, and no alarm has been raised.

Investigating the dead goblins, they appear to have been killed when their heads were crushed. They lie in front of a nailed-shut door that has suffered obvious damage, and inside the party can hear an obviously panicked horse. Though they are concerned, they decide to leave the creature in place until they finish securing the keep. Exploring another door leading off the courtyard, they find a few small, empty rooms and halls and a set of stairs descending into the solid rock of the island.

Backtracking to one door behind which they heard sleeping goblins, the party sneaks in to a barracks with six of them. Carefully positioning themselves, they quickly and quietly make short work of the snoring creatures. Exploring a bit further, they find a disgusting abattoir with all kinds of rotting meat, including flesh from horses, dogs, and even humans. They also determine that the final set of doors they haven't opened probably leads to a large hall of some kind.

After the party takes position in front of the doors, Deivon throws them open to reveal a large room covered in dog pelts, horse hides, and severed hands pegged to four large central columns. In one corner sits a fat goblin on a wooden throne decorated with dog skulls, watching some kind of reenactment of the Sandpoint raid as played out by three other goblin warriors. Next to the throne are an enormouse lizard and a goblin spellcaster. Obviously surprised by the adventurers, the goblins can only gape as Deivon rushes in to decapitate them with his glowing greatsword. Kiria uses his powerful sleep magic to cause the giant lizard and goblin spellcaster to fall unconscious. Within moments, only the goblin leader and one of his followers remain.

As Gob fires magical darts into the goblin leader, Deivon finishes off the wounded goblin in front of him. Signore moves to the sleeping lizard and attempts to kill it before it can awaken, but only succeeds in damaging it badly before it wakes up. The goblin leader launches himself off his throne towards Signore, but the uneven floor almost trips him, and his powerful blow lands on the wooden column instead. Gob begins a summoning spell, and Kiria finishes off the goblin spellcaster before it can awaken. Deivon and the goblin leader get into an exchange of powerful blows, but with Signore's support from behind the heavily armored goblin, Deivon lands a devastating strike and the goblin leader falls.

The party explores the last few rooms but doesn't find much of interest, other than a food storage hall with the door nailed shut, and a damaged barrel of pickles inside. Returning to the entrapped horse, Signore is able to calm it and feed the obviously starving creature. The gorgeous silvery-grey heavy warhorse has been badly treated, but looks like it could fully recover with some tender care. Since the party isn't ready to leave Thistletop yet, they lead it to a room for later retrievel.

As Kiria uses the wand of healing magic to fix some of Deivon's wounds, the group spies two frightened goblins running out the front door of the stockade. Rushing out, they fire on the retreating figures as they cross the rope bridge. Signore drops one with two well-placed arrows, but the other escapes into the thistle warrens. The adventurers return to the stone stairway, preparing to descend into the heart of the isle.