The sheriff returned with the extra
troops he needed a few uneventful days later and we gave a report on the
happenings in town since he had left. The attack in the Glassworks, the
tunnels, what we found in Pauper’s Grave.
We were paid a single gold piece for our
time. Well, really, we were paid ten silver pieces, but whatever. It was ten
days’ pay for a town guardsman.
Hamlin had a break from the theater and
saw the rest of us strolling through the streets of Sandpoint and we discussed
everything that had happened. We ended up deciding to head out east to
investigate Thistletop, the location mentioned in Tsuto’s journal where the
priest’s body was supposedly taken to be burned.
A few miles east of town, just past
Shank’s Wood but before we reached the Pauper’s Grave cemetery again, we found
an abandoned wagon.
Dante found a note:
Messrs. Mortwell,
Hask, and Tabe-
A deal has come
about that I need capital for. It involves property and gold, and though I am
not at liberty to tell you the exact details, it will make us all rich. Come to
Bradley’s Barn on Cougar Creek tonight. We can meet there to discuss our
futures.
-Your Lordship
There was also a small chest. I looked
it over along with Hamlin, who pointed out a trap in the locking mechanism. I
tried to disarm it but a small puff of smoke shot into my face and inside the
chest, causing me to cough a bit.
I unlocked the chest with relative ease
afterward and found a number of scraps of paper, most of them almost destroyed.
Probably what the smoke was meant to do: destroy evidence of whatever was
inside.
Dante said, “I’ve got this,” and waved
his hand and the paper scraps mended themselves back together in the chest.
“I guess I don’t always hate magic,” I whispered
to myself.
There was a deed to Hamin’s Farm, and a
promissory note for 100 gold from the Scarnetti family. I recognized the name
as a rival family to my old Boss’s family back in Magnimar.
We turned north from the road and passed
through Pauper’s Grave and the brush started getting thicker as we approached
the Nettlewood. After making our way through the forest along the coast for a
few hours, Cairn leading us, we could finally see Thistletop, an island
attached to the mainland by a small bridge.
Cairn continued marching ahead of us,
and moved to a patch of nettles and moved them out of the way to reveal a
hidden door, with a small “room” cleared out amidst the shrubbery. The druid
moved in further, his abilities allowing him to move freely through the brush,
to search things out a bit.
Hamlin and I circled around to the east
to search for other entrances or hiding foes. Hamlin spotted a goblin, and we
returned to meet up with everyone. Cairn had found one as well, and tried
creeping up on it through the brambles that didn’t impede him and his
druidness.
His supernatural ability let him move
unimpeded, but he could still step on twigs… which he did. One goblin let out a
whistle, and the one Hamlin spotted wandered closer, before saying in Goblin,
“I don’t see anything.” It wandered back to where it was before.
Hamlin and I crept around and tried to
fire arrows at the one goblin, missing because the brush was thicker than we
thought. It yelled out they were under attack after its bow broke and snapped
into its face, and then it started running away.
Cairn intercepted it and it died in a
quick, explosive spray of bloody death.
We could hear more goblins coming from
the north, and Cairn stepped into the brambles to flank them as they moved in.
The first goblin didn’t last long, but
it managed to dodge a swing from myself, the staff coming down hard into the
packed earth, splintering one end. I liked that staff, but it wouldn’t be much
use as a weapon anymore.
Dante started his singing as the other
goblins approached, Cairn having moved into a chokepoint in the brambles to
stop them. Hamlin pushed through the brush to attack one of the goblins, and
Dante threw a kukri around the hulking half-orc, scoring a hit.
My path being blocked by my allies, I
shouted for Cairn to duck a little, and ran up behind him, dropping my staff
and springboarding off his back while drawing my rapier and new cold iron
shortsword simultaneously. I spun in the air, landing behind one of the
goblins. I missed with the rapier in my right hand, but ran it straight through
the neck with the shortsword, severing its head.
Cairn stepped into the brush and Shadow
ran past him to eviscerate the remaining goblin.
I picked up my staff, slinging it across
my back, and we moved up a little ways before hearing more goblins behind the
thick shrubbery. Our last fight had been far enough away that they didn’t hear
it, so they weren’t on alert. Three were sleeping around a campfire with
another three sitting around it. Another three were nearby, probably acting as
sentries.
Cairn summoned a ball of flame on one of
the sleepers, which died immediately in the blaze.
Hamlin and I tried to fire arrows into
one of the guards but missed while Shadow took a bite out of another and Cairn
stepped up, directing his flaming sphere to move onto yet another enemy,
consuming it as well.
Hamlin crossbowed one in the face, and
it fell over dead, while I stepped up and double stabbed another with my
blades, killing it.
I heard another goblin catch fire and
scream, then become unable to ever scream again.
“Man, that is one hardcore spell, Cairn,” I said.
The druid nodded.
I heard behind some of the bushes,
“Uh-oh, Ripnugget’s not going to be happy...” followed by some light chanting.
I saw a bird take off into the sky, and managed to knick it with an arrow, but
it kept flying to the Thistletop island.
Emerging from the surrounding trees were
a few of the goblins’ little rat-dog creatures and a goblin that was dressed
more... naturally than goblins usually are. He looked like he was wearing bark
for armor. Like a miniature, not-as-cool Cairn.
Coming from behind the dogs was a firepelt
like Shadow, a dark black and red-furred cat the size of a mountain lion.
I fired an arrow at the goblin, but my
foot slipped on a root when I stepped forward to line up the shot.
I heard Cairn chanting behind a wall of
brush, then saw an earth elemental appear out of the ground and charge the
enemy druid.
One of the dogs ran up and tried to bite
me, and I stabbed it with both blades, the rapier ripping its gut open.
I heard the thwip of an arrow flying through the air and one of the other dogs
let out a whimper, which Dante put an end to quickly as he pushed through the
brush and shot flames out of his lute into it and the other remaining dog, both
falling over in smoldering heaps.
The firepelt charged at Cairn and
essentially negated the healing potion he drank a moment before. Dante stepped
up to heal him, as the earth elemental attacked the enemy druid, wounding him
badly.
“Have your friend stand down!” Cairn
called out. The druid acquiesced, his cat returning to his side quickly as he
pled for mercy and that we spare his life. We all gathered around the
surrendering foe.
The goblin had a small bag hanging from
his shoulder, and Cairn demanded he set it on the ground. The goblin complied.
“What’s across the bridge?” Cairn asked.
“Ripnugget, and the harpy.” He paused,
looking slightly worried. “Uhh... don’t tell them I called her a harpy or
they’ll kill me.”
“Why do you serve them?”
“I serve Ripnugget. He is my chief.”
“What are they doing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was a ritual performed here? A body
burned?”
“I don’t know. The longshanks do lots of
weird things.”
Dante interjected. “How many longshanks
are there?”
“There is the harpy, and two more. I
think they are married. They go at it like donkeyrats.”
I chuckled at that.
“What can you tell us about those other
longshanks?”
“The woman is a spellcaster of some
kind.” He shrugged. “And the man wears lots of armor.”
He pled with us to not kill his tribe.
Cairn told him to leave because he wouldn’t have a tribe by the time we were
done.
He hung his head in defeat and quietly
muttered his sister was married to someone in the Birdcrunchers tribe.
Cairn looked intently at the goblin
before demanding he give us his cloak. The goblin slowly removed the cloak,
stifling sobs as he handed it over.
“Go to the Birdcrunchers. You won’t have
anything to come back to here,” Cairn told him as he disappeared through the
brush of the Nettlewood.
The size of it seemed humorous as he put
it on, but the cloak Cairn took from the goblin druid was a Cloak of
Resistance, slightly strengthening his fortitude, reflexes, and ability to
resist spells. I’d certainly like to get my hands on such an item some day.
Near the campfire we found all the
goblins around was a small chest. Inside were two sets of Angora wool-lined
leather armor, both magical. Hamlin and I took them, and putting on magic armor
was an interesting experience. For the most part, it was relatively normal, but
once equipped, it just fit better
than any sort of armor I’d ever worn before. It felt like it was made for me,
but I know it wasn’t. When I first held it up, it didn’t look like it would fit
any better than what I already had.
The other things we found were a wand of
Produce Flame and another of Tree Shape. Cairn took them both.
Under those items was about 800 gold
worth of coins and gems.
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