Thistletop, part 4 (Friday, Lamashan 12, 4707 AR)

The heroes killed the remaining goblin dogs and Urtrigor tied off the trapped bridge so that it could support the heroes' weight in case of a retreat. Then they started their exploration of the stockade.

Thistletop. The stockade was made of thick wood. Closer inspection revealed that most of the wood seemed to have been scavenged from ships - a few nameplates remained affixed to some of the beams, while other timbers looked like they might have once been masts.

The front door leading into the stockade was barred from the inside. The heroes scaled the walls of the stockade itself and entered the complex from the exercise yard. While the stockade was made of wood, the damp sea air and thick layers of soggy moss and linen that grew here and there made it difficult to burn without significant work.

Exercise Yard. This large courtyard was open to the sky. Tenacious clumps of partially trampled grass grew fitfully here and there in the hard-packed earth, in places stained with blood or scratched with furrows. To the north, what appeared to be two dead goblins lay slumped at the entrance to an outbuilding.

Four goblin dogs had been left to run free in this yard. The slavering creatures often scratched at the wall around the caged horse to torment the creature within, but otherwise had fun chasing each other and fighting. The heroes picked them off with ranged weapons.

Caged Horse. The door to this outbuilding had been nailed shut, and additional boards had been nailed over these nails. The door itself was cracked and splintered in places. Two dead goblins, their heads crushed in by something heavy, lay in the dirt by the door, their ripening bodies covered with flies.

The heroes broke down the door to this outbuilding. Tsela established that both goblins were slain when a large hoofed animal, likely a horse, stepped on their heads.

Locked inside this room was a heavy warhorse, along with another dead goblin. The horse was a magnificent creature, yet his days in captivity had begun to take their toll. Slowly starving, the wild-eyed horse was calmed down by Tsela when he offered it food.

The heroes saved the horse and led it to the food stores, with the intent of releasing it after they defeated the goblins.

Food Stores. This door had been nailed shut; the heroes broke it down. This storeroom was half-filled with crates, barrels, and large sacks of grain. A small hole had been chopped into the lower side of one of the barrels, allowing pickles and brine to drain out and giving the room a singular stink of vinegar.

Pickle Thieves. An open flight of wooden stairs wound up to a trap door in the ceiling, thirty feet above. This trapdoor led up to the western tower, whose goblins threw a bag off the building before joining the fight against the heroes in front of Thistletop. The heroes found the bag in the bushes around Thistletop; within were a few half-eaten pickles.

Storage Shed. Shelves lined with crude tools, nets, and tack for goblin dogs lined the walls here. To the northeast stood a large L-shaped wooden cage that contained dozens of rabbits.

Meeting Room. A round table and a few chairs were this room's only furnishings.

Treasury. This small, foul-smelling room featured little more than a reeking hole in the ground, its rim stained with refuse and waste. The west wall of this nasty-smelling room hid a secret door that Shalelu discovered. Beyond was another small room, this one much less foul-smelling and containing a single extra large sea chest with a heavy iron padlock.

The sea chest was trapped. The trap was set to trigger if the chest was attacked, if the lock was attempted with a pick, or even if the lock was tried with the proper key and turned left instead of right. Urtrigor triggered it in his attempt to disarm it and a rusty blade of jagged metal sprung out of the chest's lid.

Inside the chest lay an unorganized pile of coins, a leather pouch with dozens of badly flawed malachites, a Medium chain shirt, a Medium masterwork scimitar (the most expensive item in the chest as determined by Urtrigor), a pair of masterwork manacles, a gold holy symbol of Sarenrae, a jade necklace, and a fine blue silk gown with silver trim.