So we all met up at the Hagfish after a few days of rest and recuperation…. We decided we could use a week off from blood and mayhem, so we all kind of went and did our thing. Rufio put a beating on the local port wine supply, while I paid my way through a week of mead and martinis with some casual card games. Miyago went and lost him self in the local pawn shops, selling off some of our accumulated loot… Flars occupied himself reading a book or some nonsense… he seemed pretty interested in that crazy demon book we found – I think we got 100 pieces of gold for it.
There was also a magic longsword that Rufio is going to carry around now… The wand we found last adventure went to Miyago – some sort of “shocking grasp” spell, ought to come in handy! There were a couple other things we sold too… I didn’t pay too much attention, I already have that sweet ranseur with the crazy carvings and swirls and gems on it. Decided to keep it instead of selling it – came in handy fighting that damned Quasit, and nice when I don’t want to get THAT close to a critter. One nice bit of treasure from this little escapade was an excellent bottle of wine we confiscated… The 6 of us sat down and used that to toast our recent success, and it went down REALLY smooth. After drinking it, we smashed the bottle in the great fire at the Hagfish and everyone cheered… good times!
So Ripnugget, chieftain of Thistletop Goblin clan, seems to be keenly involved in this whole mess. Sherriff Hemlock returned from his trip to the big city, looking for help, with a measly 12 guys! What a crock... Shalelu’s nemesis – the Bugbear named Bruthazmus – also seems to be involved. This does not bode well for the peace and safety of the local population. With Nulia seemingly in a position of leadership, Ameiko’s brother as her love interest, this whole thing is looking bigger by the minute.
Really, it’s a mess. After some thinking, some drinking, and more drinking… we decided to journey out of Sandpoint to take the fight outside of the city gates. Thistletop is the first stop! We took another day to get our gear together, I made a point of shopping for some healing potions… Braun went and found himself a young hound dog to bring with us – I think for anti-goblin purposes? Mr. Puddles (the little rat-terrier Miyago carries everywhere) technically counts as dog, but he’s probably 3 pounds soaking wet, and not terribly scary. --- the guard dog Braun got seems pretty nice. She’s only tried to bite me once, but then, I shouldn’t have waved a leg of mutton at her like that…
On account of the horrible beatings I took the last couple times we went after goblins, we’re taking extra precautions this time. The druids made up some Goodberries… wonderful little things that have powerful healing abilities. They made me a necklace of them, in fact, so I would have a bunch at the ready to patch myself up. I can’t decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing, that they gave me this…
But off we went. Thistletop was surprisingly closer than I thought it would be… the locals sometimes talk about it like its days to get there, when really its barely 8-10 miles away! We took the road to the Nettlewood, but that only got us about half way… the rest of the way we had to hoof it cross-country.
On account of our awesome survival skills, we located a Goblin trail that leads into the heart of the Goblin-lands. Actually it was mostly Rufio… but I don’t want to swell the guy’s head. As we got closer to the edge of the sea, the underbrush got really thick… you could smell the ocean – and I swear, the Goblins. As we walked up to a wall of brambles we found a small goblin sized door in the wall… opened it to find the classic 3 choices – left, right, or straight. After some debate, we chose to go left… Braun in the lead because he’s not too tall, me right behind him. The damp, wiry brambles were a real bitch to crawl through… glad I left the nice clothes back at the Rusty Dragon. Which reminds me, I need to see Ameiko again when I get back…
After pushing through towards the beach, we finally came out of the brambles on a small ridge, about 80ft above the actual beach. There we spotted a crazy rope bridge going to a small island offshore… Flars went and scouted ahead and found some signs of security. After some discussion, we decided to advance on the bridge… Sneak action by Flars and I.
The only problem was, the nest of goblins we ran into along the way.
We went to hide the guys in a small opening in the brambles, and stumbled into a whole nest of the vicious little critters! 10 of them, fighting in 4ft high tunnels, what a messy encounter… I think I killed 3 of them myself, the druids were crazy handy being able to walk through the plants like there is nothing in their way, and Rashen’Vol was tearing it up again. LOVE that cat. After we took out the gobbos, we decided against going back onto the ledge and cut through the brambles a little further.
After advancing further in, we came to a shaft in the ground, that appears to lead to the water below. So naturally, I volunteer to investigate… by lowering the Elf into it on a rope. All of a sudden he finds some giant tooth-filled bastard that lets out an unearthly roar, and I have to admit, it scared the hell out of me. Much to everyone’s horror – I panic. DROP goes the rope, PLOP goes the Elf, WAAAAAAAHHH!! Went me… Thank Diety Flars was there to tackle me before I could run off deeper into the Goblin lair though! While I was shaking like a outhouse door in a hurricane, Maravin was fighting for his life against the beastie. Rufio took a look at the hole and said “I’ve got 50 feet of rope… think that will work?” Braun replied “How smart are you?”… Clearly not a good situation. SO with little time to waste, the rope was lowered, and then followed soon after by Rufio and Miyago – both got banged up, but made it into the water to help… After a few moments, Flars had slapped some sense back into me, and I was able to go down there too… JUST in time to see the beast finished off, and Maravin get dragged to safety!
We spent some time diving into the waters in the cave after that… this critter had amassed a modest fortune from his victims! Mostly coins, but a few gems and pieces of treasure were found… overall, a nice little addition to our coffers. Once we had that straightened away, we had Flars secure our rope near the top of the shaft, and lowered everyone down into the cave; this will make a great little hidy-hole for us, for a few days… The plan right now is to rest up, heal up, and look at going back up the shaft in a day or so…
Cool. I have posted this to the web site as well.
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