Rise of the Runelords, Session 7: Burnt Offerings

As we left our heroes, they were just about to cross onto Thistletop, a small island fort ruled by the eponymous goblin tribe. The band had repaired the rope bridge that they had initially cut with their rope of knots, and was spotted in the endeavor, bringing the attention of all of the guards on the towers and outside the walls.

The northern tower housed some javelin throwers, the southern some berserkers from the Licktoad tribe who came down to enter the fray on the ground, and four goblins mounted on goblin dogs. Noting that the bridge looked sturdy, two of the mounted gobbos decided to charge across to meet the PCs, in hopes of bottle-necking them on the bridge while the javelineers rained down death from above. This proved fatal, however, when Vic turned their tact against them and denied the goblins further egress across the bridge to engage Walt and Rissi.

The fight was long, but the group weathered the ranged attacks to maintain their tactical advantage and eventually won out, continuing across the bridge and finding themselves shut out, spent a few minutes of minor door-scouting and then attempting to burn the door in while Walt made his way in through one of the towers by means of activating the "broken" wings of the gargoyle the party had recovered from Shank's Wood.

Fighting his way through a small band of goblins within the main entry chamber, Walt was able to open the door to let his companions in and finish the fight with the stragglers left inside. Once they had dispatched their foes, they began to haphazardly navigate the maze of doors and small tunnels making up the compound, running into much less resistance than anticipated, but having to put down some goblin dogs in a large courtyard of sorts, then feeding a malnourished horse that had been locked away and starved.

Their exploration finally brought them to the throne room of the Warchief of Thistletop, Ripnugget! There, the goblin thought to parley with the PCs, but did nothing but irritate them with his circular logic and religious goading to Walt. Battle was commenced, but it was quickly revealed that, though he appeared to only be accompanied by a giant lizard, Ripnugget was not alone!

When Walt advanced, he was ambushed by one of the Warchief's elite guards, and though he was struck by a wicked blow, continued on and dispatched the giant gecko, denying Ripnugget his superior maneuverability while mounted. Ripnuggets minions were quickly slain thanks to well-placed bombs by Rissi and the combat expertise of Walt and Vic, with only the Warchief, himself, left at the end, fighting his hardest to the end.

After cutting the Warchief down, the party did a cursory search of a couple more adjacent rooms and began their descent into lower chambers, unsure of what they would find. And though nothing caught their attention in the fairly barren chamber they first entered, the next door they opened had quite a surprise, for there stood Tsuto Kaijitsu and a Garrundi (a human ethnicity on Golarion) woman, seeming not as surprised as they should be to see the PCs.

There, we broke for the night, but now the group is chomping at the bit for round 2 with Tsuto!

Cast of Characters
Walt Thrune, Chelaxian Human Cleric 5 (Merciful Healer) of Sarenrae - Paul
Rissi, Ratfolk Alchemist 5 - Angela
Vic Alvaraz, Varisian Human Fighter (Mobile Fighter) 5 - David