While in Sandpoint the party speaks with the mayor and is introduced to her cousin Icarus Grey of Magnimar. Icarus’s family buys most of the grain and some of the produce local to Sandpoint and uses it in their breweries. He was saddened to know that the last shipment was missed because of the Ghoul attacks on the farmers. According to Icarus, Magnimar is suffering from murders similar to those in the Sandpoint area but without the added problem of ghoul attacks.

Naderria and Grael leave to work on Thistletop and Tawodi returns to join the group as they move forward. Gathering local information about Foxglove Manor the group learns:
Foxglove Manor is over 80 years old, and has been the seat of the Foxglove family the whole time. Some sort of tragedy struck the family a few decades ago, and no one’s lived there since. Common rumor holds that the place is haunted.

Foxglove Manor is known as the “Misgivings” by some locals, particularly by Varisians. It certainly has a bad reputation-sightings of strange lights in the attic windows, muffled sounds of screaming from above and below, and even rumors of a huge bat-winged devil living in the caves below the manor are but a few of the tales told about the place. The Foxglove family lived there as recently as 2 decades ago, but then a fire burned down the servants’ building, Cyralie Foxglove was found dead-burnt and dashed on the rocks below the cliffs behind the house-and Traver Foxglove was found in his bedroom, dead by his own hand. The children, including young Aldern Foxglove, were sent away to be raised in Korvosa by distant relations.

The Mayor sends Guard Captain Sterling to provide some extra support and the group heads off to the “Misgivings”. As the group comes into view of the Manor house they watch as it appears to age and deteriorate while they approach. They find a burned husk of a building that was likely the servants quarters and a crumbling well. Reshoy and Staly are investigating the well when Tawodi notices someone coming up the road. It is a masked man carrying a bow. The party first thinks they are about to be attacked but eventually the intruder Identifies himself as Archangel, a Vigilante from Magnimar, that is looking for the source of the murders in his town. The group ventures in using the key from the dead farmer to unlock the door. Sterling is afraid to venture into such a creepy house and chooses to wait outside in case anyone else shows up.

Inside they find ceilings sag, plaster swells, and timbers rot. Inside, doors are often wedged shut by dampness and rot. Mold and stains mar walls and floors, often in strangely unsettling patterns. you can’t help but notice the pervasive smell of decaying wood , the periodic groaning of the house’s joists reacting to unaccustomed movement within, a dusty mound of dead flies on a windowsill, or the overall air of ancient neglect. As they venture forth the walls seem to breath. doors move of their own accord and strange sounds are heard by some.

The first room has a large stuffed Manticore and several other trophies and to some the smell of something smoldering. They enter a room where some hear the piano softly playing and when investigated no cause can be found. Some scratching is heard in the next room and when investigated a blind tumorous rat is discovered stuck in a bathtub. The rat is out out of its misery and the party moves on to room where it appears that something is disturbing the dust as if something is walking back and forth. Staly casts detect invisibility but finds nothing there. They move on to the next room careful not to bother what ever is disturbing the dust.

The next room is a large dinning with stained glass windows depicting monsters getting sucked into a necromantic box. The following room holds an overturned chair with a scarf ling on it, a trail of blood and a bloody broken statue. Reshoy picks up he scarf but it slips out of his hand and starts choking Archangel. Archangel sees himself as Iesha, Aldern Foxglove’s second wife and sees Aldern choking him with the scarf. The party sees only Archangel choking himself. The choking causes him to pass out and he is about to die when the scarf releases itself and Tawodi casts some healing on him. His visions are shared with the party and they move on.

The next room is a drawing room. Cornu sees the curtains disturbed and when he investigates he sees the reflection of what is determined to be Iesha’s reflection looking fearful and trying to communicate something he can’t understand. The group heads back to the first room carefully skirting around a rug with a mold stain that appears looks like a spiral staircase winding down. Cornu has been checking every room for magic and he finds the whole building detects as overwhelming necromantic magic. he does find one more thing hanging on the wall Monkey head with a pull cord hanging out of its mouth that detects as faint abjuration. When the group enters back into the room with the manticore Reshoy sees it catch fire and come to life attacking him. The attack misses and he is amazed to find that he is the only one to see the attack.

They head upstairs and find the room of a small child. In the room Tawodi has a vision of himself as a small child, Young Aldern, convinced that his parents are trying to kill each other, and that whichever of them survives will be coming to kill him next; he has a vision of his mother, wielding a torch, and his father, festering with tumors and wielding a long knife, both struggling to kill each other. The vision passes and Tawodi is able to sake off the effects. the next room is a music gallery with more stained glass windows. These depict classic spell components for necromancy magic (scorpion venom, vampire’s breath, the tongues of deathwing moths, belladonna, and the heart of a maiden slain by poison).

The next room is a bedroom and something causes Cornu to feel that there is something on his face. He tries to remove it and to the parties horror he starts digging his fingers into his face scratching deeply and unaware of the damage he is doing. Reshoy and Archangel pull him out of the room and he regains his senses. The next room is a bathroom with rotted surroundings and as soon as someone enters the floor collapses and they have to dive free of the fall.

The following room looks utterly destroyed. everything is torn apart with the one exception of a painting turned to face the wall. When Reshoy goes to investigate he is suddenly overwhelmed with rage toward women and runs to attack Staly. Staly runs for her life and the rest of the group tries to subdue Reshoy. Luckily Tawodi is able to cast a spell that brings Reshoy back to his senses.

They find a gallery of sorts and start removing the dust and cobwebs from the pictures. They discover the images of all of the foxglove family from the last 80 years. The three to the north depict Vorel and Kasanda Foxglove and their daughter Lorey. Vorel is a tall, middle ­aged man with long dark hair, a clean-shaven face, and dark blue noble’s clothes , while Kasanda is a stern-faced brunette woman with wisps of gray in her short hair and a flowing blue dress . The five to the south show Traver and Cyralie Foxglove, their son Aldern, and their two daughters Sendeli and Zeeva. Traver, like Vorel, is tall and thin, but with an even narrower face and a thin mustache. Cyralie is a young woman with long red hair and an impish smile. Each painting bears a plaque that identifies those pictured within.

When the last picture is cleared the temperature in the room drops to point that breaths can be seen. The figures depicted in the portraits suddenly shift from paintings of living people to those of dead folk. Kasanda and Loreys lump into misshapen, tumor-ridden corpses . Traver grows pale as a long cut opens in his throat and blood washes down over his chest . Cyralie blackens and chars , and her arms, legs, and back twist as i f broken in dozens of places . Aldern’s flesh darkens with rot, his hair falls out, and he deforms into a ghoul-like monster. Both Sendeli’s and Zeeva’s portraits frost over but otherwise remain unchanged. Vorel’s entire portrait, frame and all, erupts into a sudden explosion of fungus and tumorous growth. This wave of fungus and disease washes over the entire room in seconds before the room suddenly reverts to normal. After the wave of fungus and disease Cornu notices greens splotches on his skin but no one else seems to notice.

The next room was a bedroom that while dusty and unkempt, does not exhibit any major signs of water or mold damage. Staly is overcome by a by the conviction that she has just killed the one she loved most. The thought crosses her mind to grab the sharp splinter of wood on the desk (that briefly looked like a dagger) and slit her own throat but she is able to shake it off before she injures her self.

The party went to speak to the survivor of the ghoul attack but the owner of the sanitarium was to busy to be bothered with them. After much deliberation they were finally let in and were about to meet with the patient when Telben got concerned about the caretakers twitchy disposition and thought it would be prudent to pull out his weapons. Of course the owner and caretaker Erin Habe would have none of that and the party was escorted out. Reshoy refused to leave at first but eventually Cornu convinced him to leave. the group returned to town and after speaking to the sheriff got a letter of introduction that included a warning to Habe if he did not assist with the interrogation.
When the party returned to the sanitarium with the letter Habe reluctantly let Grael and Cornu in so long as they did not bring any weapons. The patient looked sick and green. he was incoherent until he saw Grael at which point he said " The master said that the bodies you are finding are signs and portents, that when he is done, you shall be remembered forever and the Misgivings shall be your throne!" he then broke through his strait jacket and attacked. Locals know the Misgivings as the name for the old Foxglove estate. Habe was very apologetic and explained the attack was unexpected. He allowed the guest to look at the room the patient was in and as they were inspecting it the orderlies yelled that the rest of the group had broken in.
Evidently the group outside heard the battle when the patient broke free and even thought those inside yelled all clear they took it upon themselves to break in any way. some blows were exchanged fortunately that were non lethal and the party was run off and told not to return. they feel something is not right at the sanitarium but with the person they need to interrogate dead they with leave dealings with it to the sheriff.
On the way back to town the group ran into a farmer running and screaming about walking scarecrows. Seems like the southern farms have been plagued by undead taking the shape of scarecrows. the group investigated and found ghouls gagged and bound to posts only to break free and attack when the group got near. after killing a few ghouls and investigating the farm house they found a half dozen ghouls hiding in the barn and a ghast in the house. The mighty party made quick work of the undead and found 3400 silver peaces and a key with the Foxglove coat of arms on it.
The group went about making sure all the scarecrows were dead but in the process accidentally killed a farmers wife. Evidently the ghouls would tie up people after they are bitten and leave them looking like scarecrows until the ghoul fever takes them. The victims husband was found alive and after getting healed was distraught about the death of his wife. When he tearfully questioned Telben about it Telben’s response was cold " it happens" this left everyone within earshot with their mouths agape. After explaining in the underdark death is inevitable and every day your life can end the party understands, vaguely, how Telben can say such a thing. The group decides that perhaps Telben should move on and get more accustom to the surface world and he is not a good representative of the group as a whole. He has requested to be taken on and as a bowmaker until such a time as a new opening to the underdark is found or he shows himself changed enough to rejoin the group.

The party survived the assault on Thistletop and are glad to get some rest. Nadierra and Pishyakan went in search of Steve with the hopes they can keep the scared lizard mount from injuring himself. Alas, after more than 4 days searching he could not be found. after giving up the hunt she took the goblin babies to the Birdcruncher tribe in hope of finding a happy home for them. Unfortunately for the tribe they thought the babies would make for some free food and after adding veggies to the babies hot bath the Naddierra, Pishyakan and Reshoy put a quick end to their miserable existence. By the time they got back to town a new sturdy 10 foot wide bridge has been setup allow access to Thistle top. Cleaning and construction are in full swing.

While the Druid was on the hunt for Steve the rest of the party went to report to the Mayor. Greal did most of the talking and despite Cornu’s causing some mistrust during the discussion it was agreed that an envoy from Sandpoint would go to Thistletop to confirm Greal’s claims. Ultimately it was found mutually beneficial for the party to take up residence at Thistle top and the process of converting it to a source of Knowledge and Strength has begun.

The party gets Brodert Quink To help get the library started and he directs them to an oracle to get more information about the Runelords

After a Week in town the sheriff approaches the group with concerns about a murder. I local Mill worker and his girlfriend suffered gruesome deaths.

Banny Harker’s body has been horribly desecrated. The poor man has been affixed to the wall by several hooks normally used to hang machinery. The body is mutilated, the face carved away and lower jaw missing entirely. His bare chest is defaced as well, bearing a strange rune in the shape of a seven-pointed star.

Katrine Vinder appears to have been pushed unto a logsplitter.

The smell of rotting meat that is more prominent on the wounds and a hand axe found out the seen along with a few human appearing footprints cause the party to suspect a Ghast or a Ghoul. It appears as if the creature has been using the waterways to move around and despite the phenomenal tracking skills of the Druid and her cat no evidence of where the creature came from has been found.

Of particular concern is that the Harker’s body had a note with Greal’s name on it. The note said “I do as you command , Master!” and is signed Your Lordship.

What really has the sheriff concerned is that the murders and the lumber mill are not the first. 2 days earlier three con men from the town of Galduria were found murdered in an abandoned barn south of town their bodyguard survived the assault but has gone insane and was sent to Habe’s Sanatorium-a privately run respite for the insane.

A note addressing the deceased was found on the bodies and it also was signed “Your Lordship” the note read “A deal has come about that I need capital for, It involces 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”

The party intends to head to Habe’s Sanatorium to try and speak with the only witness to the murders.

After selling all the loot, we have 4,786gp. My suggestion is to divide the treasure like so:

Rashoy 870.2
Nadierra All of the “art”(jewelry, gems, and manacles), totaling 729gp, plus 141.2gp
Grael 870.2
Staly 870.2
Cornu 435.1
Telbien 435.1
Orik 435.1

Unlikely we will sell:

Shadowmist (female heavy warhorse) with masterwork tack, including her name.
Scroll of Fabricate x4
Barghest Hide (Good stuff qualities to be determined)

And after all that treasure hunting, we all walk away with less than a thousand gp for the trouble. Tis so sad.

Called by the sound of the yeth hounds, the party turns to see another yeth hound from down below. Having experienced the previous screams from the hounds, the party fairs much better this time. Telbien’s gecko, however, takes off at a full run. By the time he is able to remove himself from the saddle, he is at the top of the stairs.

From just beyond the doorway that the hound came through, Nualia appears and releases a burst of negative energy that washes over the party. Reshoy moves forward to slam his flail into the new yeth hound as Orik draws his blade. Nadierra bends over to scoop up Telbien’s dropped crossbow and heads up the stairs with Pishyankan. While Nadierra and Pishyankan are running to flank Nualia, Telbien decides to follow them while Grael and Reshoy finish off the yeth hound as Staly tumbles forward to take a stab at Nualia. Pressing the attack, Reshoy moves forward and slams Nualia in the chest with his flail as Orik moves forward and scores a massive hit to her mid-section.

As Nadierra passes off Telbien’s crossbow to him, her skin begins to darken; fur growing across her body. Her teeth elongate as claws grow from her hands. As her spine begins to twist, her equipment melds into her form and an identical replica of Pishyankan sprints forward toward the back stairwell.

Staly attempts to jump and spin behind the blinded Nualia, but she manages to block her progress. Grael casts another spell, tripping Nualia to the ground. Staly steps around to stand over Nualia and stabs her. In response, Nualia kicks the door shut from the ground, rolls over and then swings her flail at Staly, releasing an explosion of negative energy as it slams into her chest. As Staly staggers backward from the blow, a large black panther enters the room from behind in a flash, launching itself on top of Nualia. With her tangled up with the large cat on the ground, another panther comes in from the same door and engages with her. Reshoy and Orik manage to push the door open, sliding the mass of fur and claws with Nualia across the floor, nearly knocking Staly over. As the door opens, Grael launches a glowing mass of force at Nualia, but the energy is snuffed out and absorbed by her ring. Unsure how to safely engage, the majority of the party stands over the sprawling mess of large cat and evil priestess. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds until Nualia stops struggling and as the cats release her dead form, it is obvious that they have shredded her to an almost unrecognizable state. As the panthers back away, one of them slowly grows and twists, in an almost ghastly display of transmutation as the cat twists into the shape of Nadierra.

The party presses forward, down further into the Thistletop dungeon. At the base of the stairs, a door sits slightly ajar. As the party moves through the door, there is an elongated room that is slanted slightly to the west. On either side of the long sides of the room are a pair of alcoves with a total of four statues; one in each. Whatever caused the room to shift also knocked the statues off their pedestals, leaning them up against the wall. The statues themselves looked like the runelord that we saw before with a glaive and a spellbook in his hand. Ahead, there is a hallway with two more statues holding glaives. When the party starts to move through the hallway, Staly grabs Reshoy to stop him and points out a trap that she has spotted. Had someone stepped on the floor in front of the two statues, they would have been trapped while the statues chopped them to pieces.

At the end of the hallway, a door leads to both the right and the left with the left door open. The circular room beyond is lit with everburning torches and lined with a red stone counter with a strange collection of old bones, scrimshaw, skulls, books, etc. In the middle of the room are three chairs. On the far side of the room a fountain with fresh water bubbles with magical energy. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be enchanted with never ending clean water.

The door to the right leads to an “L” shaped room. Along the western wall is a carving of an immense stack of tiny gold coins. Nadierra spots two small holes in the pile of gold. Dropping a gold coin in each slot causes the wall to drop below the floor, revealing a hallway beyond. Telbien points out that it looks like the hallway has not been traversed in a very long time. The party decides to continue through the explored section before moving into the previously unexplored area. To the south of the “L” shaped room is a pair of double doors. Beyond is a long room with dark alcoves to either side. In the center of the room, a statue of the same grim faced robed man holding a glaive and a book. In each alcoves stands a sarcophagus. As the party searches the room Nadierra finds a secret door on the eastern wall, and they realize they have awoken something as a dark shadow nearly claws Staly from the darkness. Suddenly, the party finds themselves surrounded by dark shadowy figures. It doesn’t take long to find out that magic is the only way to harm them, as Reshoy is able to damage one of them with the new found magic flail, but Orik’s sword passes straight through them. Once Cornu is able to engage by casting spells through his sword they are able to dispatch them, but not without being injured along the way. After resting for a full day, they are patched up and attempt to redouble their efforts below.

Checking the secret door back in the room where they found the shadowy creatures, they find a hallway that leads off to an empty storage room on one side, and a set of staircases downward. Taking the stairs down, leads to a crumbling room whose walls are carved with elaborate scenes of treasures in far off lands. The floor of the room looks like it has been turned into a tidal pool, with a once ancient treasure laying ruined under the tidal pool. Across the small room, a giant golden helm lays on the floor. As the party sloshes through, large crab claws emerge from below the giant helm as a giant hermit crab lifts the helm that it is using as a shell. Nadierra transforms into a dolphin to lead the crab away while the party loots the treasure room. As Nadierra returns, she spots something that the party had missed; new growth showing upon the top of an old wooden shaft, which is very strange for a piece of rotted wood. Pulling it from the surf, she discovers what looks to be an ancient druidic spear.

Heading back up from the treasure room and to the east behind the carved golden wall, there is a hallway that leads in three directions: north, west, and south. Below the southern door, a light emanates from below. The handles to door are actually small slots that might require a key. Behind the door to the north, a ghostly figure of the runelord repeats a message over and over again that doesn’t make much sense.

To the east, it looks like the room that was used to experiment on creatures. Three small tables have pieces of bodies on them, and each of the tables has tools that were used to undertake their monstrous tasks. With no-where else to explore, the party looks to head south.

The room to the south is lit by a long flickering fire that smells of burning flesh and hair. To either side of the room in the corner are candles that don’t seem to melt, and in front of the candles are seven pointed stars on the floor surrounding an anvil on the western side of the room and an alter on the east side of the room. There is an open alcove across the room just off to the right.

As the party steps into the room, a huge demon appears as it slams the door shut, leaving Grael locked outside as it drops down on Telbien. Telbien fires his crossbow upward toward the falling demon as it begins to emit a faint purple glow from Nadierra’s spell. Falling to the floor under the demon’s onslaught, Telbien cries out in pain.

Already waiting the beast, Reshoy, Staly, Cornu, and Orik rush forward from various points in the room to attack the vile thing. With lightning reflexes, the demon swipes forward to rend Reshoy as he tries to complete his heroic charge. Just barely able to keep his footing, Reshoy’s momentum carries him in range of the demon as he pivots, swinging his flail wide and connecting solidly with the demon’s leathery flank, causing the demon to howl in pain. Not missing the temporary moment of distraction, Staly launches herself at the demon, daggers leading, and tears into its hide. At the same time, Pishyankan leaps up from the rear to claw at the beast. Surrounded on all sides, the strange creature locks eyes with Reshoy. A strange glow flashes in the creature’s eyes briefly before that same glow is echoed in Reshoy’s. As the creature continues to claw at the party, Reshoy turns toward Orik and shove him to the ground. With Reshoy now charmed, the creature is free to turn its attention elsewhere, and nearly kills Cornu instantly as his limp body hits the stone floor under the weight of the demon’s onslaught. Frantically, Nadierra rushes to Cornu’s aid as Telbien, who has now crawled his way free of the creature, lays down cover fire with his crossbow and scoring several solid hits as his bolts impale themselves into the ugly beast’s hide. With Telbien clear, Nadierra reads the text from a scrolls she had been saving for a while, conjuring forth a flaming sphere that propels toward the demon.

With Cornu on the floor, but conscious, and Reshoy and Orik wrestling with each other, the demon sets its sights on Nadierra, who is still hovering over Cornu. Without anything between her and the demon, it only takes a moment for the creature to rip through her armor with its razor-sharp claws. As Nadierra joins Cornu on the floor, Pishyankan lets out a loud roar and renews her effort to claw through the demon’s back side as Staly continues to try to stab it from the other side. Just when things really seem to be going downhill (Both Telbien and Cornu are injured, with Cornu on the floor, Nadierra is unconscious, and Reshoy and Orik are fighting each other), miraculously the creature finally succumbs to its wounds, with Telbien’s crossbow and Nadierra’s unattended flaming orb finally inflicting enough damage.

Now free of the creature’s influence, Reshoy is able to help the rest of the party pick themselves up, open the door to allow Grael to rejoin the party, and begin the long process of recuperation.

The rest of the party opts to follow Nadierra off of the roof in pursuit of Rip Nugget. As they get to the ground, the party remembers that Rip Nugget might try heading to the cave entrance, so they head back inside and down stairs to cut him off.

Not finding any signs of Rip Nugget in the cave, they decide to leave Reshoy Fin and Staly downstairs to watch for Rip Nugget while Nadierra, Telbien, Grael and Orik head upstairs to search the rest of the throne room and loot. After finding a couple magical items on the dead druid and little else of real value, Nadierra searches Rip Nugget’s room, finding a holy symbol to Lamashtu made of silver with garnets underneath his pillow and a large iron key tucked away under the arm chair. The sheets are made of silk (albeit stained beyond recovery) and the well-worn and battered headboard once depicted a scene of centaurs and woodland creatures. Nadierra quickly strips the bed and cuts up the silk sheets to weave into a rope. As Nadierra finishes and enters back into the throne room, she hears goblin riders coming in the front door. As she alerts Orik, Pishyankan, Grael and Telbien they take positions to ambush any incoming goblins. As the goblins charge through the doors, it becomes obvious that they are led by Rip Nugget. As the first passes the threshold into the room, Nadierra and Pishyankan attack the goblin and its dog. When the whole group makes it into the room, with Rip Nugget is leading them atop his riding lizard. Grael unleashes a blast of acid, catching almost all of the goblins and dogs, as well as Rip Nugget and his gecko. Next, Nadierra lights the goblin leader up with a purplish glow, ensuring that he won’t escape again. Orik moves forward to slash at the goblin rider who was missed by the acid as Grael begins casting again. A bright flash of colors slams into the goblins and disorients most of them, stunning Rip Nugget. Rip Nugget’s sword and shield slip from his hands and hit the floor right as a spear slams into his side from Nadierra. A split second later, a crossbow bolt pierces his chest as he drops to the floor. Cleaning up the rest of the goblins becomes a formality at this point. Nadierra hurries over to stabilize the dying gecko and manages to make it just in time. With everything wrapped up, the party decides that it is time to rest. They position themselves in the lower tower room, and as they rest Nadierra treats their wounds for the evening, including the rescued gecko.

The next morning, the party clears out the rest of the main level. The pen with the goblin dogs still has almost a dozen goblin dogs, with two dead goblins that have been rotting in the yard. Whining from a horse can be heard from a small barn in the pen that has been boarded up to keep the dogs out. Unable to calm the dogs, Nadierra is saddened by the conclusion that the only way that they will be able to safely continue and also keep the dogs from starving to death is to kill them. Reshoy takes the task upon himself while Nadierra occupies herself elsewhere to keep from having to witness the deed. Once the pen has been cleared, further inspection of the dead goblins reveals that they were trampled to death by a horse. The horse is very obviously scared, and under-fed judging by its ribs showing through its skin. It takes a moment, but Nadierra is able to calm the beast long enough to get close to pet it and feed the horse some of her rations. The horse preoccupied with eating rations, Nadierra is able to take a closer look at the mare. This once strong war horse has been beaten and starved, but could probably be nursed back to health. It is still wearing her tack, beautifully engraved including a small name-plate with the word Shadowmist on it, presumably the horse’s name. Nadierra slowly removes the tack, taking care with some of the injuries that Shadowmist has developed from the tack due to extended wear.

As Nadierra stays with the horse, Telbien, Reshoy and Staly explore a bit further, checking the door that leads out of the pen. First, a meeting room with a table and a few chairs where undoubtedly meetings were held with the goblins. Next, the stench of the latrine causes Telbien to recoil, but Reshoy presses forward into the room to search for anything valuable left behind. From outside the doorway, Staly thinks she spots what might be a secret door. With her direction, Reshoy is able to figure out how to open the door and behind it lies a large wood and metal chest. Nadierra, finally finished with Shadowmist, comes up and searches the chest and realizes that the iron key she found in Rip Nugget’s room should fit the chest. Not finding any traps, she tries the key and opens the chest. Only after opening the lid does she realize that she accidentally bypassed the trap. Within the chest, they find thousands of coins (copper, silver, gold, and platinum), as well as jewelry, armor, and other trinkets. After collecting their new found treasure, the party presses on. Just past the latrine, they find a stairwell heading back down into the dungeon. After a bit of discussion, they decide to descend down this stairwell rather than going back through the main hall.

As they reach the bottom of the stairs, they find a large room with a table in the center of the room surrounded by several chairs with two doors exiting the room along the east and west walls. Maps, plans, and papers are spread across the table and on the north wall of the room, a chalk board displays a map of Sandpoint with what is obviously invasion plans. This is where the assault on Sandpoint was planned. Further inspection of the plans reveals that another assault was going to take place within the coming weeks. As the party quietly searches the room, Nadierra hears someone breathing on the other side of the eastern door and whispers a warning to the rest of the party.

Orik steps up and says that he is pretty sure the person on the other side of that door is Lyrie, the woman he has been looking for. This area is where she did the majority of her study. Content to let Orik take the lead, the party quietly steps aside out of view and lets Orik do all the talking.

As Orik makes some small talk with Lyrie, he casually asks what her plans are after everything Nualia has planned goes down, hinting at life afterward. When bringing up the idea of returning to Sandpoint, not only does Lyrie not seem interested, but she seems to delight in the death that they have caused. Finally realizing that she is beyond help, Orik pleads with someone to help him, but there isn’t anything to be done. After closing the door, Orik, Grael, Nadierra, Reshoy, and Telbien quietly discuss their options and Orik finally concedes that he knows she must be dealt with, but is unable to do the deed himself. And so, Orik goes upstairs while the party sets an ambush for Lyrie. When the door was thrown open, death came to her so quickly that the look of surprise on her face with remain until it decays away. Searching the room, they find a number of arcane scrolls as well as a few wands, a magic cloak, and a few pieces of jewelry as well as a staircase on the opposite wall leading further down. In addition, the old tomes and papers she was working on were all written in Thessalonian and might prove very interesting to Cornu and Brodert Quink back in Sandpoint. Finally agreeing to dispose of her body by tossing her into the ocean and cleaning up so that Orik doesn’t have to witness the aftermath of the carnage, Reshoy closes the door and they move toward the last unexplored part of the level: the sanctuary.

As Nadierra throws open the double doors, the sanctuary looms ahead. To either side of the door are fountains of dark water. Pillars line either side of the room all the way across the room, behind which are flaming braziers leading to a raised dais with a black marble alter. A statue of a pregnant, albeit shapely, woman with a reptilian tail stands over the alter with a kukri in each of her taloned hands. Her left hands glows with a fiery orange light and her right glows with a sickly frosty blue light. Nadierra and Reshoy spot a flying dog-like creature to the right, floating about fifteen feet above the ground. Reshoy, with his flail drawn, drops the flail in order to draw his ranseur as he moves below the creature, pointing it out to the rest of the party as he prepares to stab the creature. With Reshoy’s direction, Telbien and Grael fire into the area where they believe the creature to be, both luckily striking the strange creature. Staly moves forward to strike the strange creature. The dog-like creature lets out an unearthly howl, causing Staly and Telbien to panic, as Telbien drops his crossbow to flee on his new gecko mount. Pishyankan leaps into the room, attempting to bring the creature to the ground, but is unable to drag it to the ground. As she falls to the ground, the dog creature snaps at her, and catches her in the shoulder, ripping her flesh away. Unseen to the party previously, a second creature howls, sending Reshoy fleeing in fear. With Pishyankan now exposed, Nadierra calls her back out of the room. Pishyankan narrowly dodges another snap from the creature’s jaws as she slips past one of the pillars. As Pishyankan clears the doorway, Nadierra slams the double doors closed and gets in a defensive position.

After speaking with Orik for a bit, the party decides to search the remaining bedrooms for more information before pressing on. Staly slips the lock open to Suto’s room. They find little of value, but they do see papers indicating his plans for the glassworks and exploring the catacombs of wrath.

In the next room, it is found to be Nualia’s room. We find more information about her motives and backstory, including her misshapen miscarriage, and an obsession to Lamashtu.

The third door has a light emanating from underneath it. Inside, the party finds a very neat room, with a torch burning on the wall. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be an ever burning torch.

Moving on, the party finds a room full of cells with a small gnome in one of the cells. They are able to free him, and he reveals his name to be Telbien. His gear is piled over in the corner.

As the party continues forward with their new companion, they head upstairs to deal with the goblin menace. As they clear the stairs, there is a large room with a packed dirt floor. In the middle of the room are several skeletons that look like horses. On the far wall are a pair of harpy wings pinned to the wall with daggers (one of which is very ornate, with a pearl in the pommel).

Staly quietly heads off to the left to check an opened door and finds a messy room where the goblins eat and play cards. Next to that door is sleeping quarters with a number of goblins sleeping in bunks. Staly and Nadierra quietly enter the room and cut the goblins’ throats. Moving further, the party approaches a door that apparently leads to the throne room, hearing a number of voices through the door.

After discussing amongst each other, the party decides to assault the throne room. They devise a plan and then charge in, with Staly and Telbien coming in the side door to flank.
As Reshoy opens the door, Nadierra lets a spear fly and glances Rip Nugget as he sits across the room. Grael drops a cloud of acid into the middle of the room, creating panic among the goblins, who up until this point had been performing a small theatrical production for their chief. As Orik and Pishyankan rush into the room, the goblin druid’s cat stops Pishyankan in her tracks.

Between Orik and Pishyakan, the druid’s cat doesn’t last long. Reshoy and Nadierra move in further and proceed to attack the group of goblins, with Rip Nugget blinded on the far side of the room from Grael’s cloud of acid. Just as the goblins think the mess is over, Grael launches another cloud of acid. While this one is less effective than the first, it does manage to put down several of the goblin commandos who have had no opportunity to even see what happened in this fight.

Finally unblinded from the acid, Rip Nugget leaps atop his large lizard mount, and heads for the nearest wall away from the onrushing heroes. As the main force from the entryway battle through goblins in an attempt to reach Rip Nugget, Staly and Telbien quietly slip through a side door that the goblins left unguarded and launch attacks of their own, with Staly delivering a devastating blow to the goblin druid from behind with her daggers and Telbien taking careful aim with his crossbow and hitting the unsuspecting druid square in the chest.

Just as our heroes thought they had the advantage, the war chanter in the back of the goblins (who up until now had been mostly removed from the fight) casts a spell that coats the main entry way in a slippery layer of grease, causing Orik and Nadierra to slip and fall. Grael carefully skirts the greasy area to press forward into the chaos.
The goblin druid, in an effort to get away from Staly and to contribute to the fight, moves forward toward Orik and Nadierra on the ground and unleashes a magical sneeze of flaming, sticky mucus. Unable to avoid the mess, Nadierra closes her eyes and braces herself on the floor as the viscous mixture is slung across her body. Orik doesn’t even manage to turn his head away in time and is hit full force in the face. With the druid now further forward, Reshoy doesn’t hesitate to slam his flail against the poor druid with enough force to bounce the head of the flail into one of the few goblin commandos who was fortunate enough to survive Grael’s acidic onslaught.

Meanwhile, as the party has been preoccupied with the goblin druid, Rip Nugget has ridden his mount up the wall and across the ceiling. Reshoy looks up just in time to avoid being hit with a devastating charge as Rip Nugget uses his momentum to swing his weapon down at Reshoy’s head. As Reshoy returns the favor to Rip Nugget with a swing of his mighty flail, it is becoming obvious to Rip Nugget that he is losing this fight, so he makes an attempt to flee out the side door that Staly had entered previously, albeit along the ceiling. As he is almost out of the room, Nadierra lets loose another blast of air, hoping to knock Rip Nugget from the ceiling, but fails.

With Rip Nugget finally out of the room, the chase is on. All of the other goblins lay dead or dying in the throne room. Half of the party is injured or on the ground. Reshoy charges out the side door after Rip Nugget with Pishyankan hot on his heels while the rest of the party collects themselves. Grael, having faired the best of the adventurers thus far, manages to get past the greased main entrance to attempt to head Rip Nugget off. Just a moment after Grael clears the doorway, Nadierra climbs to her feet and, not wanting to tread across the slippery floor, makes a standing leap across the ten feet and into the hallway. After seeing her perform this stunt, Orik attempts the same and slips on the grease, slamming his back on the wooden floor with a crash.

After rounding the corner to chase Rip Nugget, Pishyankan leaps into the air to grab the goblin with her claws. Rip Nugget is latched securely in his saddle, however, leaving the panther hanging in the air… until the weight of the goblin rider and the large cat proves too much for the poor lizard to bear and all three come crashing to the floor.
With not an instant to spare, Rip Nugget manages to guide his mount to its feet before Reshoy can close the distance to finish the job he started. With its feet under it, the lizard doesn’t wait to be directed away from certain death and runs up the stairs in the adjacent room to the watch tower.

As Reshoy, Pishyankan, and Nadierra clear the top of the stairs only a few seconds later, Rip Nugget is nowhere to be found. A moderate rain has rolled in while the party has been dealing with things inside and visibility isn’t very good. Even with the overcast night sky, it is plain to see two goblin commandos awaiting their arrival in the tower, however. As Reshoy dashes forward to make short work of the goblins, Nadierra and Pishyankan focus on locating Rip Nugget. As Pishyankan indicates that she picked up his scent, Nadierra leaps off the tower onto the roof in an attempt to follow the goblin war chief. As she lands on the slick wooden shingles, she rolls to her feet, catches the peak of the roof and uses it to direct her movement toward where she hopes she will find him.

As the party regroups, they decide to press the attack. As they make their way through the brambles, the rope bridge looms ahead. Goblins taunt the party from the other side of the bridge as the party attempts to rush across the bridge. Just as they get on to the bridge, one side breaks free leaving the horizontal boards dangling vertically. Nadierra and Pishyakan manage to jump back to the cliff, Reshoy grabs the rope before falling, but Staly is unable to get a hold on the rope and plummets into the surf below.
Halted by the now lack of usable bridge, the party agrees to gather their rogue and attempt to regroup. Staly, now eighty feet below the party, swims over the the cliff face and tries to climb as she ignores her wounds. As the party is being pelted with goblin arrows Reshoy lowers down his rope and pulls Staly up, and then makes his way across the broken rope bridge dropping most of it on the parties side of the bridge. The party then takes their share of the bridge and destroys it so that the goblins are unable to rebuild the bridge.
As the party disposes of the bridge down the cave hole, a loud roar erupts nearly scaring the party half to death. Everyone agrees to camp out and keep a watch on the island to see if any goblins attempt to escape the island.
As the party waits for a couple of days, a row boat is spotted heading from the back side of the island and heading down the coast. Nadierra heads off down the coast and ambushes the goblins when they make landfall, and steals their row boat. The party then loads up on the row boat and heads to the island under the cover of night. As they make their way around the island, a small opening sixty feet up is spotted on the wall, overgrown and covered with vines and moss. Reshoy begins to climb the wall to make his way up to the opening.
As Reshoy makes it to the top, he spots a spherical gray creature with tentacles that looks vaguely squid-like. The rest of the party waits below in the boat as Reshoy attacks the squidling.

As the party makes their way to the cave, they search the cavern as Nadierra skins the squid creature and takes its poison gland. Staly and Reshoy find several doors out of the cavern to the east and a storage room to the south.
Searching through the doors, the party finds their way to a moderate sized room with six doors and a stairway leading upward. Looking through the doors, Reshoy and Staly stumble upon a bugbear and a group of goblins sleeping behind one of the doors. Shouting can be heard as the party gets in position to defend themselves.
The bugbear proves to be quite the challenge, but the party manages to take him down.
4 Arrows of Elvenbane 1
Potion
Studded Leather, Heavy Flail, MW Longbow Mighty (4)

The party collects things and moves forward, exploring room by room as they press forward in the dungeon.

After speaking with Broderk and gathering supplies in the party continues on to Thistletop.
A curiously round island about 60 ft off the shore is connected to the mainland by a rope bridge. In certain lighting, the island looks sort of like a head; an ancient statue from a forgotten empire from days long past.

Thistle and thorn briars wrap all over the area by the cliff face. Nadierra scouts forward and finds several goblin tunnels through the briars. She finds a camp of goblins, as well as half a dozen goblin dogs that are chained down. She goes back to retrieve the party and guides them safely through the brush toward the goblin camp.

Reshoy moves up near the camp to eavesdrop, and learns that the goblins are fearful of their leader. Apparently he has been throwing them down a cave to execute them when they displease him. The goblins hear Reshoy’s movement and attack. Grael removes a chunck of earth under the entrance to the goblin camp as the goblins run through the tunnel entrance.

Nadierra disappears into the brush, only to turn up again a moment later, launching an attack at the goblins up against the brush with her spear. As she does so, the panther launches itself into the fray, killing goblin after goblin, unaffected by the low ceiling of the bramble tunnel. Cornu follows the panther into the camp and starts hacking away at goblins.
After a short battle, with the goblins confused as attacks come in from all directions, they give up fighting in the face of certain death.

Nadierra convinces the party to allow the goblins to leave peacefully, and Reshoy gives them instructions (as he is the only able to communicate with the goblins). As the party is attempting to clear up the mess, Nadierra spots something out of the corner of her eye and the party goes on full alert as the undergrowth comes alive and begins to attack the party.
Howling and barking is heard as the goblin dogs charge at the party through the goblin tunnel, and Nadierra readies herself to cast a spell. Reshoy moves up to attack the onslaught of dogs rushing toward them. Cornu moves to the southern path that had been cut in the brush and discovers another hunting cat attacking the fleeing goblins. As he gets there, more goblin dogs come forward at him. Staly moves up to support him and stabs the dog.

As Nadierra’s spell takes effect, she charges into the brush with greater strength, slamming into the hidden goblin druid and forcing him back in an attempt to push him off the cliff. The attempt falls just short, and the goblin druid swings at her with a blade made of flame.
Realizing his position, the druid runs. As Nadierra gives chase, she casts a gust of wind that knocks the goblin druid from his feet right as Staly appears from around the corner to try to attack the druid. Staly is momentarily halted as the prone goblin turns into a tree right before her eyes. As she stands there, Nadierra rushes forward and slams the head of her spear into the bark of the tree, so Staly attacks the tree with her dagger. The druid then transforms back into his goblin form and flees. Nadierra takes a stab at the goblin while Staly is left confused by the quick series of events.

As Nadierra attempts to give chase to the druid, she gets ambushed by the goblin druid’s cat companion and tripped to the ground with a cry of pain. Hearing the cry of pain, Pishyakan comes running.

Staly and Cornu finish off the last goblin dog in the area, and Grael and Reshoy keep trying to remove themselves from the area of entanglement. As the party frees itself, the goblin druid’s cat companion flees, leaving the party to collect themselves and regroup.

A quasit Screams what can only be obscenities at the party as they walk into a large cathedral like room. It cuts its Arm, dripping blood into the pool of lava like water it is flying over as Nadierra casts Faerie Fire on it. A few seconds later the pools spits forth What the party has determined to be a wrathspawn. The quasit trys to hold then command party members with her spells while the rest of the party takes down the strange creature from the pool, the panther attempts to leap up and snatches the quasit from the air, dragging it to the ground.

Cornu casts magic missile at the pinned quasit, and Staly moves up quickly to stab it with the cold iron dagger. As the rest of the party moves up to attack the quasit, Grael attempts to help the grapple by hanging on to the quasit which just results in him being flailed around ineffectively. In a short amount of time, the quasit goes limp with its shredded silk gown, and Reshoy decides to coup de grace the unmoving monster.

The quasit had a tiny tiara (50g) and a tiny cold Iron dagger (which is magic), as well as a very tiny holy symbol. The ranseur from last session remains 400g

After the threat of the quasit is over, Grael suggests we use the quasit’s dead body to put blood into the pool to drain it of its magic power. Cornu cuts himself over the pool and summons another of the strange creatures. As it manifests, Reshoy is in position to immediately attack. The creature spills it’s blood in the pool as it dies summoning another creature and the process repeats until the pool loses it’s glow

After the pool’s power appears to be depleted, the group continues on through the dungeon, back to the point where the statue stands. Staly checks the remaining door for traps, and then they decide to open it and see what lies beyond.

A prison lies beyond, with empty cells lining the walls below a rickety wooden platform that overlooks them. As Reshoy walks in, two of the sin spawn similar to before attack him. The party quickly destroys them and then checks the room, finding nothing. As they move forward, they find a torture room with two doors leading out. The southern door leads to a side room with a table, several chairs, and lots of paper on the table written in a strange language. As the party checks the papers, Cornu takes interest in the strange language, and Nadierra notices a magic scroll amongst the mess of papers. On the south wall of the room are three doors with strange symbols on it. The party elects to leave the doors for now.

After they decide to move on, the second door leads down a hallway to what appears to a large room with a vaulted 20ft ceiling. On the floor sit a bunch of pallets in the room. In the middle of the room stands a man sized three armed goblin. Staly lets an arrow fly, but it misses horribly. The goblin takes the opportunity of the missed attack to attempt to run and hide, but Reshoy covers the distance too quickly and makes it regret its existence. The goblin had a magic sword, a silver dagger, and a MW handaxe.
The wooden pallets cover pits each filled with a pair of zombies, with eight pits in total. While the party is discussing the weapons they found, Nadierra uncovers the pits and dispatches the zombies.

As the party continues down the hallway to the south, there is a staircase that used to lead down that is now collapsed and ahead is a spherical room. The walls of the room are a strange red metal that ripple with electrical power that form words in a strange language. Several objects in the center of the room float around; a book, a scroll, a twisted iron wand, and a dead raven surrounded by a cloud of maggots. Grael enters the room and attempts to throw the floating objects out the door to the party.
The party heads back to the three doors that they left before and opens them, finding several misshapen skeletons. Presumably, these were part of some experiment.

Finally the party goes up the stairwell by the statue that they left earlier. At the top of the stairs, there is a door. Behind the door is a fountain with a pool of water surrounded by skulls with a pool in the middle that occasionally ripples. On the north and south walls are torches, and across the pedestal from the party floats a disembodied head with tentacles writhing from it with bat-like wings. It screeches, and a horrible sound emanates from its mouth. As Reshoy moves forward to attack it, another appears from above the fountain and attacks him. Staly enters the room to attack the newly appeared creature with her dagger just before a spear from Nadierra flies through the room, slamming into the furthest creature. Next, Cornu enters the fight as well. In only a couple rounds, both of the creatures are bleeding on the floor. As Nadierra collects her thrown spears, the party gathers to continue forward. The stairwell ahead leads upward, and as the party climbs, they find it collapsed. With this, they agree to head back to rest, and ideas of potentially turning this into a base of operations are passed around the party.

Who is Malfeshnekor? How can Sandpoint be saved from the goblin attacks? Where has Nualia been hiding? What is going on at Thistletop? What is the strange language? What is the significance of the seven pointed star?

For the answers to the last two questions the party seeks out the local scholar Brodert Quink