Leaving Ameiko to be looked after at the Rusty Dragon, BB and GC head straight to Sandpoint Garrison to alert the guard. On hearing the news, Hemlock’s deputy dispatches several men to secure the tunnel beneath the glassworks, check for survivors and make sure there are no goblins left. He is advised against alerting the town to the attack.
As they are both badly injured the next stop is Father Zantus at the cathedral. Like the guard, he is shocked by the news but is happy to provide healing and – much refreshed – BB and GC head back to the glassworks to help the guardsmen, stopping by the Dragon to pick up Aric and his new acquaintance Conrod.
After spooking the nervous guards the group decide to follow the tunnel all the way in case they can find Tsuto. However, after a mile or so the passage ends in a rock wall. Clearly there must be a secret door somewhere and after a brief search Aric identifies it.
The door opens into a cave in the cliff face, strewn with goblin bedding and the remains of their food. The cave mouth slopes down to a narrow beach where footprints can easily be seen heading off east around the coast. Aric tracks these for half a mile or so to a low point in the cliffs but no-one is able to scale them so the group make the long trek back to town to pick up the horses and extra equipment.
They ride out to the cliff-top but despite much searching nobody is able to pick up the trail. Eventually it is agreed that, based on his notebook, Tsuto’s most likely destination is Thistletop and the group takes the Lost Coast Road east. At Pauper’s Graves they leave the road and Aric leads them through the Nettlewood, hugging the coast as closely as possible.

Eventually they emerge into a small clearing close to Thistletop but the way ahead is blocked by a wall of briars and thistles nearly 20 feet high. After fruitlessly scouting for a way around they discover that a cleverly-constructed mat of thistles and nettles conceals a low tunnel through the briar wall. Aric leads the party inside; he spots some goblins down one tunnel so decides to go a different way.
This tunnel opens out into a ‘cave’ within the briars, in the centre of which is a deep sink-hole from which sloshing waves can be heard. Peering down another tunnel Aric spots some goblin dogs and decides to open fire. The flea-bitten things rush at him but he is able to hold them off in the narrow tunnel; things are going well until a strangely-clad goblin steps out of the briars behind Brother Bother wielding a flaming blade. The two trade blows while Gol’den Chile and Aric deal with the dogs, but although BB hits the goblin hard he strikes back and takes the brother down before disappearing back into the undergrowth. GC and AS manage to finish off the dogs then drag the unconscious cleric out the way they came.


A nervous few hours are spent tending BB at a makeshift camp a short way back inside the Nettlewood but eventually he regains consciousness and manages to heal himself …














