Session 13: Thistletop: First Incursion

Session Date: 14 September 2011

[Game Date: Thursday 15 September 4711 A.R.]

[The session picked up immediately after the events of the previous session.]

The party stood before the main doors of Thistletop. They could see that the wooden fortress was made mostly of wood scrounged from shipwrecks. Indeed, the nameplates of a few ships could be read from where they stood. Halfred glanced down at the surf 80 feet below, to try to get an idea of where his earthbreaker may have fallen. He noticed the bodies of two goblins and a goblin dog floating on the surf, and that there was a lot of blood in the water. He then saw something pull one of the goblin bodies below the surface, and thought he caught a glimpse of a dorsal fin breaking the surface, but the shape looked more like that of a seal.

Larissa successfully disabled the lock (by sawing through the wooden bar that held the door shut), and Halfred opened the doors. Six goblin dogs immediately attacked from the room beyond the door, and two goblin archers let loose arrows from behind an overturned wooden table. Halfred and Charrone engaged the dogs, and MacGreggor and Ted cast spells at the goblin dogs and archers. Halfred seemed to take out one dog every round, but the rat-like creatures seemed to be more interested in attacking Charrone for some reason, and chewed her up pretty badly. Larissa managed to shoot one of the goblin archers with an arrow through the eye, and the other turned and ran out of the room screaming. After three rounds, the goblin dogs were all dead, and the party entered the room.

The room appeared to be some kind of grisly trophy hall. The badly-preserved heads of over two dozen dogs and five horses adorned the walls. Affixed to a wall by several daggers were a pair of large bat-like wings. Horse, dog, and firepelt skins were scattered over the packed dirt floor. MacGreggor noticed that most of the daggers were human-sized, but old and rusty. One of them had a silver and mother-of-pearl handle and might be valuable, so he pulled it out of the wall.

A set of double doors led north, and the group decided to head that way. The doors led to a short hallway, which ended in another set of double doors. The next set of doors were locked, but didn't slow Larissa down very much. She stepped aside, and Charrone threw open the doors. Beyond was a large throne room-- filled with goblins! Several goblin arrows rained down on the party, but the goblins were terrible shots, and they all missed. Led by Halfred and Charrone, the adventurers fought their way into the room. The goblins scrambled to defend themselves, bounding to and fro. One produced a flask of alchemist's fire, and hurled it at Larissa, who managed to dodge it. Then, everyone noticed that several of the goblins were singing a terrible (but disturbingly catchy) song, led by a female goblin. Declan called the power of Sarenrae to silence the evildoers, and a field of silence filled the back half of the room. The silence made it impossible for the enemy shaman or warchanter to cast magic, and the shaman fell to Halfred's ranseur quickly.

But the most dangerous figure in the room was a burly goblin with an impossibly big head who rode a giant gecko lizard. This goblin was apparently the chieftain, as he wore a dented golden crown on his head. He charged Charrone, and managed to slash her with his goblin-sized halberd. Halfred waded through the goblins to assist, and between the two of them, they killed the chief. Now riderless, the lizard ran up the wall and retreated to the ceiling!

Without their leader, the remaining goblins fought even more desperately, one dropping his weapons to fight with his teeth-- he got a boot to the face for his trouble. The chanting goblin then pulled out a wand, pointed it at the ceiling, and a huge purple curtain suddenly dropped. It turned out to be an illusion, but in the moment of confusion, she slipped out a back door. At that time, though, no one paid her much mind, as the fight was still on, but it was over in two more rounds.

The group took about a minute to search the throne room and gathered up the treasure on the fallen goblins.

[To Be Continued...]