Thistletop, part 6 (Friday, Lamashan 12, 4707 AR)

The heroes shackled the goblin bard, who agreed to give them any information she knows, including the fact that both Nualia and Tsuto were in the dungeons below. The heroes then continued their exploration.

Barracks. Six poorly constructed bunk beds, little more than hammocks slung from rickety frames, stood along the walls of this room. Each was heaped with a vermin-infested blanket and a lump of straw that served as a frustrating pillow. Each of these bunk beds slept three goblins - the Thistletop tribe numbered 18 in all (not counting Warchief Ripnugget, his wives, or Gogmurt), although none of them were here.

Eastern Guard Tower. An open flight of wooden stairs wound up to a trap door in the ceiling, thirty feet above. This open air tower gave a great view of the surrounding area. Two goblin corpses that the heroes killed during their initial assault on Thistletop were on these towers.

Food Storage. The door to this room was locked; the key was carried by Chief Ripnugget.

This foul-smelling butchery was an affront to all the senses. Haunches of poorly smoked meat hung from hooks along the ceiling or lay heaped in and atop crates. In some cases, the meat seemed to be dog or horse, but in many other cases, the meat had all-too-recognizable features, like feet, hands, or grimacing faces.

This food store contained the goblins' favorite food - the meat of their vanquished enemies. The fate of several missing travelers and merchants was revealed here, although no single body was intact enough to be easily recognizable.

Armory. This room contained a small armory of crudely made weapons (mostly dogslicers and shortbows) and several small goblin-sized suits of studded leather armor and dented shields. To the south stood a pair of workbenches.

The workbenches were where the goblins cobbled together weapons for their tribe. All of the weapons and suits of armor here were Small. In all, there were 23 dogslicers, 11 shortbows, 80 arrows, 11 suits of studded leather, six light wooden shields, and two coiled whips. On the north wall hung a single masterwork dogslicer. With the exception of this lone dogslicer, the gear stored here was of poor quality. bespeaking typical goblin crafting expertise.

Chieftain's Room. Several rugs made of dog or horse hide lay strewn over the dirt floor of this room. Against the north wall stood an impressive collection of horseshoes, each nailed to the wall. To the east sat a ragged padded chair next to a rickety desk that may have once been an expensive antique. In the northwest corner sat a canopied bed covered with silk sheets and sporting an elaborately carved headboard that featured nymphs and satyrs cavorting in a forest. The bed's sheets were stained with dirt, while the headboard was bashed and battered.

Warchief Ripnugget lived in style - even if his furniture had been mostly scavenged from shipwrecks or Junk Beach in Sandpoint, it's the best junk a goblin could find. The horseshoe collection was currently 122 shoes strong, although none of them were intrinsically valuable.

Although Ripnugget kept most of the tribe's treasure in the treasury, he kept one item to himself - a silver holy symbol of Lamashtu with tiny garnets for eyes. Ripnugget kept this symbol under his pillow, where the heroes uncovered it. On the chair to the east the heroes found a large iron key wedged under the seat.

Thistletop Dungeon. This complex was already excavated when the Thistletop goblins first came to dwell here. Although goblins can see in the dark, several of Nualia's followers cannot, and so hooded lanterns hung in each hallway and in most rooms throughout the complex; these lanterns were generally lit only during daylight hours. Ceiling height averaged 8 feet in most rooms, and doors were generally rickety wooden affairs rigged by the goblins.

Abandoned Feast Hall. A single lantern hung from a hook on the wall next to where the stairs entered this room from the north. Several rickety doors opened into this room, and a few discarded dog pelt rugs lay forgotten in the northeast corner.

Before Nualia arrived, the goblins used this room as a feast hall. Ripnugget let Nualia move the table and chairs that once stood here up north to the war room, and since then the goblins have taken to having their meals wherever they want.

Goblin Nursery. The walls of this room were lined with small wooden cages. Inside each cage was a dirty mound of straw.

Horrifyingly, this was the Thistletop nursery. Most goblin tribes have equally reprehensible methods of raising children - very few tribes actually coddle and protect their young, since the theory is that such activity only results in adult goblins who can't defend themselves. Goblin wisdom instead supports methods like these cages, where fast-growing goblin babies and children are raised like animals on daily regimens of raw meat and abuse so they grow up properly mean and strong.

The unsuspecting heroes discovered a few sharp-toothed feral goblin children and babies in these cages. They fed them and decided to release them and maybe teach them to fend for themselves after they clear Thistletop.

Storage Room. Crates, barrels, and mounds of miscellaneous refuse lay heaped against the walls here. To the north, the sound of crashing surf echoed.

Most of the junk scavenged from Junk Beach by the Seven Tooth goblins ends up here, tribute sent north to the Thistletop goblins to keep them on the greater tribe's good side. While the raw materials here can be turned into furniture, dogslicers, or even armor, at this point, only a goblin was likely to see value in the mounds of refuse.

Chapel Entrance. Two large stone doors sat in the western wall here, their faces carved with images of horrific, deformed monsters clawing their way out of pregnant women of all races. The heroes identified the scene depicted on the doors as one common to churches of Lamashtu.

Goblin Art Gallery. The lower four feet of the walls in this empty room were covered with crude drawings in mud, blood, and paint. Most of the drawings showed goblins engaged in some sort of violence against humans, horses, or dogs. One picture on the north wall was at least three times the size and complexity of the other scrawlings. This image showed Thistletop from the side, the goblin stockade perched atop it like a crown. A cave had been drawn into the center of the image, and looming inside was what appeared to be an immense, muscular goblin with snakelike eyes and a dogslicer in each taloned hand. If the scale compared to the rest of the drawings was to be believed, this goblin must be at least thirty feet tall. Fortunately for the heroes, the depiction of Malfeshnekor here was based on nothing more than the goblins' hopes and dreams.

War Room. A large table surrounded by chairs filled much of this room. A slate board to the north was covered with scribblings in chalk, but the map of Sanpoint that had been carefully inscribed on it left no doubt as to the purpose of this room - this was doubtless where the recent raid was planned.

An investigation of the slate and the notes written there confirmed this and more. Namely, that once "the whispering beast is tamed", the architects of the plan intended to mount a second raid on the town, one that incorporates not only additional goblin tribes culled from as far as the Fogscar Mountains to the north, but creatures referred to as "sinspawn" who will invade Sandpoint from below. The heroes have fought sinspawn already, so they recognized these dangerous monsters as the ones mentioned here. No exact timetable was given for when this second raid was to happen, but close examination revealed that the final assault was scheduled for only a few weeks in the future.

Bed Chambers. This one-person bedroom showed many signs of having been lived in. The bed itself was rumpled and unmade, and a half-eaten meal of bread and smoked salmon sat on the nightstand. A few articles of dirty clothing sat at the foot of the bed.

This was the current home of a ruggedly handsome man, with a visage and demeanor that didn't mesh well with smiles and laughter.

The man relied on his strength in battle, focusing his attacks on taking down Thurden and preferring to fight with his back to a wall. Thurden managed to escape him, and the heroes are currently trying to lure him out of the room.