Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; two hours past midnight

Goblins are slow on the uptake, but they do eventually catch on. After the silent image of a frisky pooch failed to bring any additional goblins over, and firing arrows and balls of fire resulted in just more of the same in return, we decided to change the bait.

After a few minutes study, Sedjewick created the image of one of the most recent goblin guards sent over, happily holding a large greasy bone with copious amounts charred bits of flesh hanging from it. He then positioned it at the foot of the bridge, beckoning to those in the fortress to come over and enjoy the feast.

How could any goblin resist? Certainly three of them could not, and soon the garrison was short handed by a trio of guards.

When the same image failed to bring over additional suckers, Sedjewick changed the image to be Tsuto, who then stood on the near side of the bridge and sternly glared at fortress, gesticulating firmly that they were to send aid.

Unfortunately having already lost nearly a dozen guards in less than an hour, someone in the the fortress had become suspicious, or at least confused enough to stop any additional goblins from heading over.

One of the goblins stuck his head out of the gate and shouted a few words. Unfortunately none of us speak goblin, and so after an awkward moment of silence, the goblin made a rude gesture towards the image of Tsuto and closed the gates.

We then decided it was time to explore around the foot of the island in the hopes that there would be another entrance.

We spent a fair amount of time discussing whether we should leave the bridge intact, cut it down, cut the ropes such that if anyone tried to cross it would collapse, or cut the bridge down but tie ropes on our end so we could pull it back up.

In the end, after noticing that the bridge was most probably trapped at the far side such that the goblins could send intruders plunging to the rocks below, we decided to leave the bridge as it was, and just head down to check out the beach.

But low tide was not until midnight, and so we decided that most of our party would sleep for four hours, while Task and Sabin kept watch, and then we would all catch on sleep up in the wee morning hours after the search.

At 10:00 we propped up some of the dead goblin guards near the bridge head and lit a camp fire near them, hoping it would give the illusion that watchful eyes held vigil.

We then scampered back down the trail and onto the beach. The sea was out far enough that we could walk to where the island was closest to the head. It did not look encouraging. The island was eighty feet off shore, and while the water was relatively calm in the ebb tide, small waves still splashed against its rocky feet. I estimated that the water plunged at least twenty deep at the shallowest point.

The island itself was round — incredibly so; almost like a huge stone ball had been dropped and sunk halfway. There were no obvious caves or access routes up the eighty feet to the top.

This prompted a discussion on whether we should tackle the cavern on the main- land side first. The fierce creature that guarded the room was apparently not nocturnal, and should be fast asleep having gorged itself on all of the goblins we had tossed down its hole earlier that day.

Once again Sabin was the logical choice to enter, because only he could see in the dark. At least this time he was able to walk in from the north cave entrance and look for secret passages without having to swim.

The only thing he found was satiated bunyap.

Back to the island. I volunteered to swim out to the island and work my way around the base to see if there was some other way in or up on the far side, but Avia and Nolin were far better choices for this task, and they agreed to head over.

Because this was a scouting foray, and because they would be swimming for most of it, they shed their heavy armor, and with a silk rope tied to Nolin they splashed into the cold water and swam to the island.

Nolin made his end of the rope fast to the rocks, and we did the same on our end, providing an easier passage to and from the island. Avia then remained on guard where the rope was tied while Nolin, who had the greater skill for both swimming and climbing, slowly worked his way around the island.

It was disconcerting to watch him work his way around the side of the island, occasionally falling into the sea and having to climb back out, and finally vanishing from view. After maybe a half an hour he appeared around the other side of the island. A few minutes later he and Avia were back with us as we listed eagerly to Nolin’s report.

It was not good news. There were crude hand holds just beneath the rope bridge, which would still leave a nearly impossible climb for most of us, but there was no other way up, or secret entrance.

On the eastern side of the island he had seen a large patch of overgrown vegetation hanging down over a hollow in the cliff’s edge. He watched as a bird, disturbed from its roost by something, fly out and under the vegetation. Just as the bird flew by a long tentacled arm shot out and grabbed the hapless bird with an explosion of feathers, snatching it into the darkness.

He also noticed a small island just to the east, closer to the main land. Earlier in the day the sea mists had obscured it, but now its wet rocky surface gleamed in the moonlight.

Avia and Nolin swam out to this island, with Rigel following after a rope was secured, but other than the remnants of an old camp fire perhaps a few months old, they found nothing of interest.

On the beach we held a brief discussion about what to do next.

It was obvious that the rope bridge was our only way across. It was also obvious that we needed to get to the far side to prevent anyone from releasing the bridge’s suspension ropes while we crossed.

We decided to use the image of Tsuto again, but this time he would be leading a gang of “prisoners” into the fort. Sedjewick would create the image over himself, and Avia and Sabin would pose as his able assistants, with the rest of us each playing the role of down trodden captive.

The Tsuto image would include a bloody cloth around his neck, explaining (or so we hoped) why Tsuto could not talk.

We then set up a watch and most of have prepared for sleep.

Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; morning

Some time after the sun came up, those of us who were awake and on watch heard the sound of goblin squeals coming from the entrance to the bramble encampment.

Rigel had placed caltrops there earlier, which gave us an early alert. Avia and I raced over to the sound of the squeals while Rigel ran to the head of the bridge to see if we were attacked on two sides.

Avia and I saw a small band of goblins sitting on the ground and pulling caltrops from their feet. They looked disheveled (even for goblins) and injured, as if they had been in a fight before arriving.

In their midst was a small naked halfling tied to a pole held by several of the goblins. A prisoner!

Avia and I charged in, slicing and dicing goblins and making short work of the unhappy band. Rigel arrived then and may have shot an arrow or two into the fray because one of the goblins was tormenting his prisoner while we dealt with the his fellows.

A short time later and the only goblins around were dead.

I cut the bonds on the halfling and untied the gag in his mouth. Out streamed a long string of words in some foul tongue, which I was fairly sure was a curse aimed at his dead captors.

His name is Kanelbene and he is a priest of Desna! And he speaks goblin.

He was heading to Sandpoint for the Swallowtail Festival when he and his companions were attacked by a large band of goblins. They were overwhelmed, and all killed except for him. Kane, as he calls himself, was only taken alive because the goblins realized he was a follower of Desna, and planned to sacrifice him to Lamashtu.

We explained what had happened in Sandpoint, and why we were here. Kane was all too happy to help us in quest to find Nualia, and to help kill any goblins that might stand in our way.

We revised our plan to include Kane as one of Tsuto’s cohorts, and dressed him in the goblin armor and robe we had liberated earlier. A blood soaked rag for a hood to conceal his face completed the disguise.

We are rested and ready to put our plan into effect. I feel highly confident that we will be able to easily gain access to the fortress with no fighting at all, and then… well then we will see what we find.

Fireday, Lamashan 11, 4707; Thistlestop; before noon

All appeared to be going well as Sedjewick, posing as Tsuto, and Kane walked over the bridge. On the far side Kane called out that his master, Tsuto was injured and demanded entrance.

The gate opened and a single goblin guard came out. We then discovered that the goblins hated Tsuto, and hated Nualia even more. He was incredibly suspicious and wasn’t buying our cover story that Tsuto had returned and captured those who had been luring goblins across the bridge to their deaths the previous day.

He recognized the cloak Kane was wearing, and realized that something was amiss.

As he called out a warning about intruders, Kane released a cloud of obscuring mist before the gates (part of our back up plan), as the rest of us grabbed weapons and raced across the bridge (the rest of our back up plan).

The goblin guard was dead in an instant and we all passed through the still open gates, closing and barring them behind us.

The floor in the entry chamber was packed dirt, and on one wall were mounted the poorly preserved heads of horses and dogs. On another wall a pair of bat wings were pinned with some rusty knives, but there was also a much nicer knife, which I nabbed for the group.

[1100] Steel pearl handled knife

From behind a far door we heard the shout of goblins and half a dozen or so charged in and attacked. They died rather quickly with minimal effort or cost.

We then began to explore the fortress. The walls and doors were all salvaged from other structures (mostly ship wrecks we guessed), and were poorly assembled, but none the less quite sturdy.

Avia and Sedjewick quickly moved on to take out the guards in the west tower — I later heard Sedjewick guarded the base of the tower while Avia killed the two goblins that we sleeping above by herself.

Sabin and I made for the east tower, checking on a few doors before we got there: the most important thing we found was a set of stairs leading down.

There were two guards in the east tower who gave us little trouble.

We looked out over the rest of the fortress and saw that most of it was under cover. Some goblin dogs ran about a large yard at the foot of the west tower, and it looked like two goblins were sleeping (or dead) next to an out building.

We met the rest of our party on the main level, before a pair of double doors at the end of a short hall. Kane was listening at the door and he reported the sound of chanting, and goblin voices calling out commands.

We burst in, with Avia in the lead, and the rest of us close behind.

This was a large room used for ceremonies — perhaps a throne room of sorts. In one corner was a curved raised dais, upon which sat an ornately clothed goblin with a big head and a crown (a goblin king?). Next to him was another goblin chanting and on his other side a giant chameleon that hissed menacingly at us.

There were four posts in the center of the room that supported the roof, and set with iron spikes, impaled on which were hands. Furs and pelts clad the walls, and a large horse skull was mounted above the seated goblin.

The goblins in this room appeared better equipped and better trained than any goblins we had encountered before, and for a brief moment I was worried about the outcome of the battle.

There was a group of goblin fightewrs in the center of the room, and we took these on first.

We realized that the chanter was supporting these goblins much like Sedjewick does when he sings, and he became the target for our ranged attacks.

Rigel, Trask and occasionally Sabin launched attacks at the chanter and it fell, removing that advantage from our foes. All the while Sedjewick sang on and provided what ranged support he could.

Avia and Nolin provided our first line of fighters, with Sabin and I providing the second line. We were all fighting quite well and had already dropped two of the uber goblins (Avia took one out in her first attack) when the king called out some orders and the three or four goblin fighters who had held back near him all leapt into the fray, with two of them attacking Avia.

Kane was channeling energy from Desna to heal us, but I was caught in combat and could offer no immediate healing assistance. The king sent his chameleon against Nolin and lept into the fray himself, felling Avia with a mighty blow.

I had always known that Nolin was a quite capable fighter, but I did not realize how effective he could be when motivated. He quickly finished off the chameleon and then turned to face the king and slew him with a single swing of his great sword, cleaving the great goblin’s head in two.

Avia was quickly healed, and we bound the goblin king, and I stabilized him so he would not die.

We have questions.

Rigel and the others are gathering the equipment and possessions from our fallen foes so that we may use them for good.