The story so far

The heroes attended the Swallowtail Festival (a ritual to consecrate Sandpoint's new cathedral) and ended up defending the town from a goblin raid. In the days that followed, the heroes came to terms with their growing local fame, making friends and contacts among Sandpoint's citizens. As rumors of massing goblin armies built, the disappearance of Ameiko Kaijitsu, a local tavern owner, led the heroes to uncover treachery within the Sandpoint Glassworks and the existence of an ancient catacomb below the town. An investigation of these discoveries revealed two things: that monsters dwelt below the city and that the goblin raid on the town was but the first the monsters had planned. Ameiko's estranged brother was involved with a group that had gathered the goblin tribes for an even greater raid on Sandpoint, intent on offering the town up in sacrifice to the goddess Lamashtu.

In order to save Sandpoint, the heroes traveled to Thistletop, the lair of the most powerful goblin tribe in the region, where they confronted the woman whose madness and wrath presented such a menace, a bitter aasimar named Nualia who carried a curious amulet depicting a seven-pointed star.

A string of murders struck and terrorized Sandpoint soon thereafter. Victims were left mutilated, and carved into their chests was a familiar seven-pointed star - a clue left by a madman. The heroes began piecing together clues and soon realized the region may well face a plague of ghouls. After investigating murder scenes, interviewing victims, and running into some unexpected trouble along the way, the search for answers led the heroes to Foxglove Manor near Sandpoint.

Arriving at Foxglove Manor, the heroes found the rumors about the manor being haunted were entirely true. Eventually, they confronted the murderer - a ghoulishly transformed old acquaintance named Aldern Foxglove - only to discover he'd been working for another group based in the city of Magnimar. Retracing his steps, the heroes came to the largest city in western Varisia and uncovered a larger sinister secret society, finally confronting its monstrous leader atop an old and teetering clock tower, a sadistic lamia matriarch. This lamia matriarch had been charged with harvesting "souls of greed" to aid in the rise of her lord. The lamia's use of the Sihedron rune - the same seven-pointed star both Nualia and Aldern Foxglove employed - hinted at a larger threat.

The heroic adventurers were next sent to central Varisia to investigate why the rangers of remote Fort Rannick had gone silent. The heroes traveled to Turtleback Ferry and discovered that ogres had taken the Fort and that the surviving rangers were held prisoner by degenerate ogrekin. After rescuing the last three surviving members of the Black Arrows, the heroes mounted a daring raid against Fort Rannick and defeated the ogres within, only to learn that greater dangers were afoot.

Soon thereafter, unnatural rains flooded Turtleback Ferry and the heroes had to explore the ruins of a failing ancient Thassilonian dam called Skull's Crossing. After saving the town from disaster, the heroes dealt with a haunted swamp. The heroes then climbed the upper slopes of the infamous Hook Mountain where they confronted and defeated the ogres once and for all, only to learn that the ogres might have been the least of Varisia's problems: a powerful stone giant named Mokmurian was planning a raid on their hometown, with the help of the giants of the Storval Plateau, who were preparing for war.

The heroes returned to Sandpoint to help defend against and turn aside Mokmurian's giant raiders. After the heroes repulsed the giants, they had to undertake an arduous journey into the wilderness to reach Jorgenfist-controlled lands and took the fight to that stone giant fortress on the Storval Plateau. Once there, they discovered that the giants were readying the tribes for a massive attack on the human-dominated lands to the south. By infiltrating this citadel and defeating Mokmurian, the eldritch leader of these giants, they not only ended the threat of the massing army of giants but also discovered that Mokmurian was but another agent of Runelord Karzoug, and that the Sihedron Rune was a symbol he was utilizing to aid in his return to this world. Yet, there was still time before Karzoug could fully regain his powers. Using Mokmurian's library of Thassilonian lore, the heroes learned that the key to Karzoug's defeat may be "dominant weapons", and that Mokmurian was looking for the dwelling of the traitor Xaliasa and his key to Runefroge at Sandpoint.

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