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[5
Lamashan 4707 continued]
Having
had great success defeating goblin reinforcements sent to guard the entrance,
the adventurers decide to push further into the thistle maze. They advance in single file to the north and
come to an intersection of sorts, only to find vines and brambles animating and
trying to entangle them! Oliver finds
himself fully wrapped up, but the others fight their way free and soon realize
the source of the verdant attack: Gogmurt.
The goblin druid tries to stab Bey in the back with his flaming blade,
but she manages to twist away just in time.
And in response, she conjures magical fire around herself like a
sheathe, leaving herself unharmed but Gogmurt singed. Before their head to head battle can continue
any further, Felix picks his way through the writhing undergrowth and launches
a single punch at Gogmurt’s face; the blow connects with an audible crack and
Gogmurt is instantly knocked unconscious!
The Shoanti brawler then finishes the fight permanently by stomping his
foe’s skull and crushing it. A
subsequent search of Gogmurt’s corpse reveals several enchanted items,
including a cloak, a suit of leather armor, and two wands (one of which Bey is
able to identify as a wand of tree shape).
Further search of Thistletop’s outer defences reveal an abandoned watch
post to the west, a chamber to the east containing little but a matted nest of
red and black hair, and a chamber just to the south of that containing the
remnants of several meals and gruesome décor.
Another abandoned watch post to the northeast offers Felix a first view
of Thistletop itself. Connected to the
mainland by a swaying rope bridge stands a wooden stockade built atop a
rounded, flat-topped island about sixty feet away. Two tall guard towers are visible, and Felix
can discern movement within as well as four goblin commandos mounted on goblin
dogs performing a regular patrol. He
descends from the watch post to formulate a plan with his allies. Bey first suggests trying to swim across, but
the daunting height of the cliffs leads to that idea being quickly
discarded. Nedrin suggests picking the
defenders off from a distance using bows and crossbows, while another idea is
floated to set the stockade on fire to draw the goblins out. As the group discuss the pros and cons of
various ideas, some members of the party with keen hearing hear shouts coming
from the stockade. Although meaningless
babble to most, Nedrin is able to translate the shouting: “Gogmurt sent the thrush! They’re on their way!” The hobgoblin ascends the watch post and sees
that the mounted goblins have taken up defensive positions on the far side of
the rope bridge with shortbows at the ready, and that one has positioned
himself to block invaders from setting foot on the island.
 |
| The Rope Bridge |
A
plan is quickly settled upon: with Nedrin providing ranged cover with his bow,
the other three adventurers will charge quickly across the bridge so that the
goblins won’t have time to cut it.
Nedrin misses his first shot as Felix bravely charges across the rickety
bridge. The skilled pugilist is grazed
by a few arrows from the four mounted goblins and the four sentries in the
guard towers, and soon finds himself in hand-to-hand combat with the commando
blocking his way off the bridge. Bey
runs across next, without incident, but the second Oliver sets foot on the
bridge disaster occurs! Suddenly, the
western ropes tear free from their supports, tipping the bridge on its
side! Felix and Bey manage to grab the
eastern ropes and hold on, but Oliver doesn’t react quickly enough and falls 80
feet into the surf below! The impact
knocks Oliver out cold, and he begins to take in water. In seconds, the unconscious hero succumbs to
his sad fate and drowns.
Nedrin,
and his coerced ally Grizzlenik continue shooting at targets across the channel. Felix and Bey manage to make it
off of the precariously dangling bridge and on to the far side of the island,
where they face a brutal fight against the mounted commandos in front of them
and the archers above them. Felix fights
bravely, elbowing goblin dogs in the face and pummelling other defenders with
his fists, while Bey joins with her bardiche.
She manages to trick one of the goblins into thinking that Oliver
carried secret defense plans for Sandpoint, and the deluded goblin jumps to his
death trying to recover them. Felix and
Bey establish a beachhead by finishing off the commandos and their mounts, but
a fusillade of arrows continue to rain down.
Dozens of small wounds take their toll, leading Felix to dive for cover
in order to survive; but Bey pulls her crossbow out and fires back at the
archers! Meanwhile, across the channel,
even more dramatic events occur:
Grizzlenik turns on Nedrin again!
The goblin fires an arrow at his “master” at point blank range but
misses. The two tussle until Nedrin
drags Grizzlenik (who is connected by a rope leash around Nedrin’s waste) with
him to cling onto the surviving rope strands halfway between the mainland and
the island. The two try to stab each
other to death but are tangled up so tightly neither can get the right
angle. Finally, Grizzlenik tries the
most desperate maneuver of all: he tries to cut both strands of the rope
bridge! But luck abandons him, as his
dogslicer is only able to cut through one of the two strands. Nedrin’s brute strength allows him to get the
upper hand, and he stabs Grizzlenik and then cuts the goblin free to send him
plummeting to his death below.
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| Side view of Thistletop |
Nedrin makes it to the island to join Bey’s exchange of projectiles with
the goblins in the guard towers. She
shoots one through the elbow and it falls to its death, while Nedrin’s
sharpshooting sends arrows through the eyes of two others. Soon, the defenders are silenced. At the base of the stockade, the three
adventurers hastily discuss whether to press forward or back. Bey is eager to continue on, but Felix is
severely wounded and persuades her that a retreat is in order. With only a single strand of rope now
connecting the island to the mainland, even withdrawing has major risks. Felix and Bey manage to make the exhausting
hand over hand journey back, but Nedrin slips and falls! Careful planning saves his life, however, as
the adventurers tied another strand of rope around Nedrin’s waist with the far
end being held by Felix. Nedrin’s fall
turns into an arcing swing and he slams into the cliffside with great
force. Still, he survives and is pulled
up by Felix.
Deciding
that a renewed assault is not tenable, at least for the time being, the
adventurers decide to try to contain the threat of the Thistletop goblins by
cutting the last strand of rope between the island and the mainland. They then make their way out of Nettlewood
and back to Sandpoint. They head
directly for the Cathedral, where Felix, barely conscious and slumped over his
mount, collapses on the ground. Father
Zantus rushes to revive the fallen warrior, and the surviving trio of
adventurers relate what happened to the town’s Deputy Sheriff. Father Zantus hears about Oliver’s fate, and
promises to hold a memorial service in the ranger’s honour.
Bey, Felix, and Nedrin then walk to the Garrison, where they find
Sheriff Hemlock and Bosk Hartigan drilling the new recruits on how to march in
formation. Despite everything, Sheriff
Hemlock is not pleased to hear about Oliver’s death; he berates the group for
failing to notice such an obvious trap given the animal cunning possessed by
goblins and the warnings that the Thistletop tribe had the most heavily
fortified goblin lair in western Varisia.
Nor is Sheriff Hemlock mollified by the destruction of the rope bridge,
stating that the Thistletop goblins could very well escape by boat to continue
whatever plans they have for Sandpoint.
He says that he’s trying to get the recruits up to basic proficiency as
quickly as possible, but if the adventurers plan to raid Thistletop again, they
might find Shalelu’s leg has healed and that she’s up to the task of
accompanying them.
Shalelu
is sharpening arrows at a table in the common room in the Rusty Dragon when the
adventurers seek her out. She is deeply
saddened to hear about her old friend’s death, and keen to avenge him. She promises to hire a small boat from the
Mercantile League so that the adventurers can approach Thistletop by sea, scale
the cliffs, and perhaps catch the tribe by surprise. While she sets off to make the necessary
arrangements, Nedrin and Felix discuss a plan to try to smoke out the
Thistletop goblins so that they leave their fortified stockade and can be
dispatched in the open. To this end,
they visit Nisk Tander’s shop and, after some haggling and a deal to promote
Bottled Solutions when they act in Cyrdak Drokkus’s next play, the two
adventurers leave with a bundle of smoke sticks each.
Bey
is waiting outside for the pair, and relates distressing news. Her revelations have revealed to her a simple
truth: if Bey accompanies the adventurers to Thistletop, everyone will die! Bey says that she has foreseen every possible
permutation, and that the only scenario with a chance of success is one in
which the adventurers go without her but are accompanied by Shalelu and another
figure she doesn’t recognize. Having
relayed the ominous news, Bey bids the adventurers farewell for the near future
and sets off to talk about Thassilon with Brodert Quink.
The
morning’s raid on Thistletop proved a pyrrhic victory; the adventurers
established a beachhead but could not hold it, and lost one of their teammates
in the process. Now, they plan to
approach by sea rather than land, guided by the expertise of Shalelu
Andosana. But who is this mysterious
stranger Bey foresaw in her mystical glimpse into the future?
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Director's Commentary (23/04/2017)
This was an exciting and memorable session! It was action-packed and cinematic throughout. Oliver's death was a real tragedy, as although the character was often goofy and always unpredictable, he had a nice niche as Sandpoint's Deputy Sheriff. I felt bad for the player as well since Oliver was his first ever PC. The battle between Nedrin and Grizzlenik could have gone either way, as Nedrin was much higher level but was rolling poorly, while Grizzlenik's luck abandoned him only at the very end when he didn't roll high enough to cut through all of the ropes. The battle outside the stockade on the island was like something out of D-Day, as the defenders poured on fire from above and the attackers had to fight with everything they had not to get pushed off the island. The decision to retreat was probably a sound one, however, as they were hurting pretty bad after the victory. Bey's vision at the end of the session was my in-game explanation for the player's plans to leave on holiday for a couple of months after the session--I thought it was pretty clever, if I dare say so myself!Next Recap
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