The remains of a vast treasury greeted them. As they stood there assessing it, a giant helmet turned to face them. The Beast couldn’t sense any magic on it and they soon figured out it was a giant hermit crab. The crab proved a nasty opponent, but soon enough they defeated it and scraped up the remnants of the treasure. The giant helmet was set aside so they could come back for it.

Further exploration showed nothing but empty rooms. They soon heard chanting from a large group ahead of them. Jusy tried  to get a sneak attack in on goblins at the chapel doors. A large battle with a were-goblin creature, a goblin riding a lizard, and a half-angelic, half demonic young woman ensued. Theo’s sapped strength and high armor meant she was largely untouchable, but unable to hurt the enemies. Brecca healed and hexxed but was whittled down by goblin archery. Jusy was in there stabbing away despite his lack of flanking. WhyD helped keep the party going. The party was on the verge of dying when TheBeast kiled the were-goblin and used its head to intimidate the rest of the goblins. The young lady tried to flee but was taken down.

I love this take on the founding of Canada.

It’s interesting that statistically speaking, men of my age are about ten times as likely to kill themselves as they are to be killed by others. So if I find myself walking down a dark alley, I’ll be watching myself for any sudden moves.

Despite his ferocity, the bugbear didn’t last long. His partner, a human firing from behind a hastily flipped table fared a little better. When Beast roared at him, he bolted from the room. Jusy chased him back down the hallway, followed by the rest of the party. The human fighter burst into a large dining room and a bunch of goblin women in an adjoining room grabbed their weapons and joined the fight.

Theo and Brecca blocked the doorway, while Jusy and Beast pursued the human up a stairway and into another room full of goblins. Brecca misfortuned the goblin ladies while Beast took down the human. The goblins swarmed Jusy and Beast, nearly taking Jusy down. Whyd encouraged the party and threw heals around. After an intense battle with the goblins, the party retreated to the tendriculous’ lair to rest.

The night passed peacefully enough except for a crescendo in the chanting from below, followed by a  blast of abjuration magic…

Theo’s powerful rowing got them back to the island in short order. As they analyzed their options, pair of bunyips leaped out of the water to attack. The bunyips didn’t prove to be much of a threat; one was slaughtered quickly and the other dove to safety.  Scouting the east side of the island revealed an entrance.

The tentacled creature inside didn’t prove to be much of a threat, so the party moved through its larder with speed, with Theo pausing to cut the ears off of its goblin victims. They moved past a set of grotesquely carved  double doors to a side door with a goblin art gallery, and on into a room with sketches of the assault on Sandpoint.

They burst into a wizard’s workshop and surprised a young lady in the middle of her research. Lyrie was willing to talk but didn’t have much to say apart from letting them know that Nualia is trying to free a monster below for her next attack on Sandpoint. They debated keeping her alive, but decided to off her. A brief battle ensued, in which Lyrie confused them with multiple images of herself and tried to escape through a secret door.

They went out to investigate Thistletop and found a maze of briars and nettles on the path to the island. They made their way through the tunnels and found a dispirited group of goblins. Since Theo was after the ears and the bounty, they attacked and quickly annihilated them.  Next was a group of ugly goblin dogs that were only slightly more annoying.

Upon finding the bridge to the island, the party decided to race to the other side to avoid patrols. Much to their surprise, the bridge gave out underfoot and Jusy found himself having to save TheBeast and Whyd from drowning. Theo and Brecca had grabbed the last remaining rope from the bridge, but Brecca slipped trying to make her way back to shore and also had to be rescued.  As Theo made her way around to the party she was jumped by a goblin and his cougar. Despite the unstable footing, everyone got a shot in and quickly took the goblin and cat down.

With the party in such rough shape, they decided to go back to town and regroup.