Sunday, Lamashan 27, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening
It has been more than a fortnight since our return to Sandpoint. We were fortunate in that the proceeds from selling the loot we recovered thus far at Thistlestop were more than enough for all of us to train and purchase equipment and supplies.
We’re all quite busy with training and preparations for a return to Thistlestop. All of us that is except for Sedjewick.
Earlier tonight Sedjewick met with us at The Rusty Dragon and announced he was leaving south for Magnimar. In fact he would be accompanying the ranger Shalelu, who was heading down to investigate rumors of some sort of undead uprising within that ancient city. Sedjewick seemed quite enthusiastic about the journey, and exceptionally excited to be traveling with Shalelu. Rigel seemed oddly put off by this entire chain of events.
We felt compelled to join them on this trek to ensure that any infestation of undead was exterminated, but our first priority was to complete the exploration of Thistlestop. And so it was with a heavy heart we bid farewell to Sedjewick, our trusty bard.
Master Foxglove, the stylish young man we rescued from the initial goblin invasion weeks ago, has begun to hang around our group and asking to be taken along on one of our quests. I am afraid he little realizes the perils of our activities, and his death would seem the most likely outcome if his wish were granted.
Yesterday I purchased a scimitar from the local smithy. It is a fine weapon, and of much better quality than the old second hand model I have been using. Tomorrow I resume my training and hope to improve my fighting techniques with my new and improved blade.
Saturday, Neth 2, 4707; Sandpoint, Evening
We’ve purchased additional healing potions and are set to return to Thistlestop in the morning.
Sunday, Neth 3, 4707; Thistlestop, Evening
The trip back to Thistlestop was uneventful.
We carefully scouted the mainland encampment and found signs that goblins had indeed been there while we were away. There were goblin corpses from a tribe we could not identify, but they were already rotting and there was no sign of recent activity.
I do wonder about those goblin bodies, and if we have created some sort of goblin power vacuum that will increase the conflicts among the local tribes. One can hope.
Nolin and Kane climbed up to the top of Thistlestop and cast over a rope to the rest of us waiting at the cliff’s edge. We then pulled the rope bridge over and made it secure.
Once back on Thistlestop we searched for signs that anyone had been on the island, but found nothing. Kane climbed over the fortress wall and opened the gate for the rest of us to enter.
We decided to leave the rope bridge intact even though we knew it would no doubt encourage visitors of the goblin kind while we were within, but we did bar the fortress gates closed behind us.
Our first order of business was to explore the chamber we had missed last time. I had discovered this omission after we had returned to Sandpoint where I updated my journal and looked over the maps and sketches I had made of where we’d been.
Sabin and I spent a little time magically washing out the goblin latrine, which was next to the chamber, and indeed behind the privy itself Rigel found a secret door that opened into a small dusty room. A very large sea chest with a heavy lock invitingly lay on the floor.
Rigel picked the lock and managed to avoid a poison blade trap and we moved the chest into the nearby conference room.
The chest was heavy, and contained a fair amount of coins and a number of valuable items.
7432 copper pieces
2490 silver pieces
89 gold pieces
3 platinum pieces
While it might take some effort to get the coinage back to Sandpoint, the total value of the coinage was still a respectable 442gp, 3sp and 2cp.
[183] leather pouch with 34 flawed malachites [~1gp each] (Rigel)
[184] medium chain-mail shirt (Nolin)
[185] medium masterwork scimitar (Olithar)
[186] masterwork manacles (Rigel)
[187] gold holy symbol of Sarenrae (Avia)
[188] jade necklace (Rigel)
[189] fine blue silk gown with silver trim (Avia)
The scimitar was as good as the one I had just recently purchased, and it is indeed a pity we did not find this treasure earlier.
It took most of the afternoon to sort through the items in the chest, after which we stored it back in the secret chamber.
We’ve set up camp in Ripnugget’s old throne room.
Moonday, Neth 4, 4707; Thistlestop, Morning
The night passed without event… sort of. I had a very disturbing dream from which I awakened suddenly and found that I was breathing hard and my heart was racing. I remember hearing a voice from way down deep below saying, “The Whisperer shall have vengeance!”
Most peculiar. Typically dreams don’t bother me, but this one gave me the creeps. And who or what might a “whisperer” be?
Moonday, Neth 4, 4707; Thistlestop, Afternoon
We spent the early morning hours in the level below the fort, making sure nothing had crept in (or out) in our absence. We then descended to the lower level and proceeded to the chamber where Avia had detected evil.
I used a Detect Undead spell to find three entities of moderate power hiding in or behind the sarcophagi at the far end of the room.
We marched in and opened each sarcophagus as we slowly moved toward back of the room. There was naught but old bones and dust in these, but before we were half way across the room three humanoid shadows floated up and hovered above their sarcophagi.
We attacked, but with disastrous results. The lightest touch from these ghostly fiends weakened those of mortal flesh. Avia, Kane and Sabin all felt their strength ebb before we managed to destroy the shadows.
I had some restorative magic memorized, and I was able to restore Sabin’s strength with two Lesser Restoration spells. The others will have to wait for tomorrow, or even the day after for full restoration.
While exploring the remaining sarcophagi Rigel noted their asymmetrical placement, and discovered a secret door on the west wall. Beyond it was a narrow corridor that branched to the north before turning north itself.
Rigel, Trask, Nolin and I crept in and found that beyond both the branch and the turn were steps leading down. Each of the stairs ended in a door, and from behind each door we could here the soft sound of moving water.
The door at the far end of the corridor opened west into a flooded hallway that ran north, disappearing in a large dark pool of water.
The door at the end of the branch opened north into an empty room, the north- west corner of which had caved in, revealing a dark space beyond, and through which water had poured, flooding that part of the room.
The walls of this room had been carved to depict a treasury filled with coins and gems, while the right wall had a carving of a mountain. Upon the mountain’s peak was a stern face, and at the mountain’s foot was a city of many spires.
Rigel moved to the corner of the room and peered in through the wide crack and saw shiny objects glittering in her torch light, and a giant gold helmet that pivoted to face her. She quickly backed away.
I then crept down the flooded hallway and saw the submerged chamber where the huge helmet sat, partly below and partly above the water’s surface. It rotated around to face me.
I then plunged an ever-burning torch into the water, which lit up enough of the underwater scene that we could see that a large portion of this lower level had collapsed and tilted towards the west (the same as the statue lined hallway above). Part of the floor had given way and slid down into a natural cavern farther below.
There was no magic that we could detect within, and how the helmet moved to apparently track our presence puzzled us mightily.
Sabin can see in the dark, and so we covered our ever burning torches while he peered into the flooded chamber from the empty room. The helmet pivoted around to face him.
I moved a little closer to the helmet from the hall as Nolin did the same from the room. All of a sudden a pair of large crab-like claws snapped out from beneath the helmet and hit Nolin.
A massive crab must have taken up residence in the helmet like a hermit crab, but on a much grander scale. We struck back and between the physical blows and magical attacks (I used Heat Metal on the helmet to some useful affect) we managed to kill the giant crab and cook our dinner all in one fell swoop.
Using ropes and a lot of elbow grease we pulled the giant helmet out from the pool, and then extracted the crab meat. The helmet was an actual plated gold helmet, but made for a giant.
I remembered some bit I read before about how the Rune Lords had equipped giants in their wars, and realized this helmet must be a relic from that period.
We scoured the underwater room for valuables, and Sabin even swam down into the lower cavern to fetch a few gem stones we saw glistening below.
3537 silver pieces
645 gold pieces
This added another 995gp and 37sp worth of coins to our haul, but we also found some interesting objects as well.
[190] 40 precious stones [~10 gp each] (Olithar)
[191] jade amulet : +1 natural armor (???)
[192] helmet [giant] [~300 pounds]
We were quite disappointed that we did not find a seven rayed star to use as a key for the double doors in the hidden area of the complex. We decided to rest for the evening, restore what strength we could in the morning, and then search the two rooms we had only briefly looked at last time.
We’ve made an early camp down here and set up the watch. I hope I don’t have any more peculiar dreams tonight.
Toilday, Neth 5, 4707; Thistlestop, Noon
We returned to the area hidden behind the column of gold coins.
Our first stop was the “king room”, where we had seen the ghostly image of an ancient Rune Lord giving a fragment of a speech over and over again. We found nothing new here.
The laboratory was a different story. Looking more closely at the tables and their contents we found a gruesome collection of bones that gave the appearance that someone was trying to graft parts of one creature (or person) onto another. It brought back memories of the disfigured skeletons we found in the cells beneath Sandpoint.
On one of the tables was a collection of surgical tools, and beneath these was a silver and gold seven rayed star. We had found the key to the mysterious double doors!
[193] surgical tools (Sabin)
[194] silver and gold seven rayed star with knobs and blades (Kane)
Out at the doors Kane used the key and the doors opened into the room as a blast of hot, humid air enveloped us.
In the middle of the room was a fire pit ten foot long and five wide, and on either side was a wooden bench upon which candles brightly glowed. On the far wall was engraved a huge seven rayed star. The entire room radiated magic.
Avia detected a strong presence of evil in the southeast corner as we filed into the room and arrayed ourselves for battle.
Avia charged in and slashed at some invisible foe just as it became visible.
It was a large wolfish looking creature with primate like arms and hands. It growled something evil sounding — Sabin later said it spoke in Abyssal, and said “I will devour you!”
It was a strong creature, and incredibly difficult to hit, or even when hit it appeared somehow resistant to injury. None the less we were many, strong, and undaunted and pressed our attack. Soon the creature blinked over to the other side of the room, and from then on winked in and out from sight as we hewed and hacked at it.
Eventually it simply vanished in a cloud of greasy black smoke.
Other than the candles and fire pit, there was not much of interest in this room until we found two secret alcoves. While one simply contained empty shelves, in the other we found a silver box filled with sand.
Carefully sifting through the sand we found a magic ring with a seven pointed star inscribed upon it. This ring proved to be able to generate a wall of +2 force shield that can be quickly and easily activated or deactivated.
[195] 30 ever burning candles (Olithar)
[196] silver box (Rigel)
[197] ring of +2 force shield [free action to activate/deactivate] (Trask?)
We must now decide what is left to do here.
And what of this room itself? What was its purpose? Is it now a simple benign location, or is there something more sinister to find here?
The part of the complex that houses the squid beast remains unexplored, and we would be remiss if we were to leave it so. Still, I’d rather not kill some harmless beast that happens to live there if that can be avoided.
And what about the bizarre drawing of a huge goblin beneath the island of Thistlestop? We appear to have explored all of the way down to the sea level without finding any such chamber or creature — I wonder if a goblin had wandered down in years past and saw the giant helmet, and then embellished his report of the helmet with the tale of a suitably sized goblin to go with it.
