2E Rise of the Runelords - Session 8

Note that there are spoilers for Paizo's Rise of the Runelords adventure path.

Session 8: The Goblin King

This adventure was played on January 27, 2010 and featured:
- Toran Stargazer, human thief
- Kurzek Irontusk, half-orc fighter/thief
- "The Wanderer", Shoanti druid
- Arug, Alaghi pitfigher
- Goalrath Shadowmoon, elven cleric of Sarenrae
- Gabriel Solomon, Chelaxian swashbuckler
- Sephara 'Na, half-elven magic-user

Summary: A quick recoup in Sandpoint and then back to Thistletop.

I. Heard Around Town: The party quickly tries to regroup for a rapid return to Thistletop before the goblins are ready to counter-attack. While they are in Sandpoint they hear the following:
a. Titus Scarnetti is blocking Ameiko taking her father's seat on the town council;
b. Titus is also blocking town funding for bricking up the passageway below the glassworks that leads to the ancient catacombs;
c. A patrol made up of some of the guardsmen from Magnimar have reported seeing signs of goblin activity;
d. Brodert Quink (the sage) is very excited at having discovered what he believes to be the location of ancient Thassilonian ruins;
e. Cyrdak Drokkus, proprietor of the Sandpoint Theatre has been working on an opera based on the Heroes of Sandpoint. It is to premier in a few days;
f. Aldern Foxglove has postponed his trip to Magnimar until after the premier of the opera and has offered to escort Sephara to the show;
g. The party met Farmer Grump who was well into his cups at the Rusty Dragon. Earlier in the day, he had brought a load of grain to town as mysterious fires had claimed the Soggy River Mill, the Biston Pond Mill, and the Cougar Creek Mill - leaving the Sandpoint Mill as the only one in the area; and
h. They asked for Nualia's grave to be exhumed.

II. Thistletop: After cautiously crossing the treacherous rope bridge, the party explored much of the ground level of the crude fort at Thistletop and fought many goblins. The final encounter came as the party entered the goblin throne room and fought the goblin leader, his giant lizard steed and the rest of his retinue made up of four bodyguards and a shaman.

Body Count: 10 goblins, 2 goblin dogs, 2 goblin commandos, 4 goblin bodyguards, 1 goblin undershaman, 1 giant lizard, 1 goblin chief. Alas, no PCs this time.

Treasure: The party recovered assorted coins from the bodies of various slain goblins, and a dented crown, a key ring and a potion from the goblin chief, and a wand and a whip from the goblin undershaman.

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DM Notes:
We had six players for this session. For the first time in a while all of the original five players were able to attend and one of the players brought a friend that was interested in joining. Things were definitely slower with that many people.

I felt that the first party of the session was very rushed. Two of the players really wanted to do some poking around the town of Sandpoint for some roleplaying and information gathering, while the rest were quite intent on getting to the dungeon. I gave them one or two quick roleplaying opportunities and then abstracted out the rest of the information gathering. I will have to figure out a way to get everyone on the same page in the future.

The conversions for this session were very straight forward. Various goblins and a giant lizard - all from the Monstrous Manual.