Thistletop's Defenses

“Thistletop's Defenses”
Rise of the Runelords episode
Episode no.	Episode 14
Date	2008
Game Master	Abbe
Characters	Dorothea Nathaniel Nell Velicia
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Reaching Thistletop" "Ripnugget"
Rise of the Runelords chapter list

In this chapter deciding Thistletop wasn't that well defended, the heroes attack.

Thistletop's Defenses

Looking closer at the fort we concluded that it was once built by humans. The walls were both the walls of houses and a palisade. Dorothea remarked about the smell of horse. Nathaniel lifted me up and standing on his shoulders I could peek over the palisade. There was a grass courtyard inside and just below me inside there was a shed on which we could climb down. I noted some goblin feet that stuck out of the slightly open door. I told the others but when I was looking down I noted that Nathaniel seemed distracted. I told him "Don't look up my skirt!" I climbed over the palisade and secured a grappling hook for the others. From the outside I heard him say "I wasn't. She just said that to get attention." I didn't say anything. When all had come up we put the rope on the inside until all but me were down in the courtyard, then I jumped down with the hook.

I peeked into the shed. There were three dead goblins, beaten to death perhaps by a horse. It was dark and hard to see but in there somewhere there was a black horse. Nathaniel said that from its motions and breathing he could tell it was hurt and tired. We entered slowly, careful not to scare it. Nathaniel tried to befriend Shadowmist, as we guessed this must be the stolen warhorse, talking about how he had been thinking of buying a warhorse. I suggested he should bribe it with an apple. It works on me so why not on a horse. He started to look around for food so I had to offer one of mine. Dorothea offered to calm it down and approached Shadowmist. In a frightening voice she said "We're trying to save you from the goblins. Help us or we'll eat you." Straining to see in the darkness I noted that it had some wounds. Nathaniel tried to hold it so he could apply bandages, but couldn't quite control the big, strong horse. To help Nathaniel in his struggling I used a couple of carrots to trick it to a position where it could be treated and bandages applied.

Satisfied that Shadowmist was feeling better and could fend for itself we continued through a door via the courtyard, into a corridor to a conference room and a toilet. Behind a door, there were stairs leading down. We noted that the toilet didn't seem to be that much used. We were kidding around about how we could hide there, but it would be tight when we noted that the room should be larger and that there was some dead space. After some convincing I hold on to my plait and put my head down the seat. There behind barrels of shit I saw a treasure chest. It looked to heavy for me so Nathaniel stepped up and dragged it out. I noted that there might be a trap on it, but I couldn't bypass it using my practical tools, so Dorothea tried too, showing us what the trap was by setting it off. It turned out that it was a blade slicing harmlessly through the air. Dorothea continued to try to open it and concluded that the trap only worked once.

We broke the chest open and it was filled with coins, mostly copper, but some silver and a few gold. There were also a holy symbol, a dress and a magical leather armor. I suggested that Dorothea would put on the armor immediately and she not only did that, but put on the dress as well. I thought it a little too much.

We didn't want to go down the stairs while there were goblins that could attack us in the back so we brought the chest to the shed where Shadowmist were and continued our exploration of the fort.

We chose the double doors in the courtyard to go through next. There was a watchtower in the other corner of that house. It had a wide corridor leading to the base of the tower. We went up the stairs with Nathaniel in point. We charged up through a manhole as best we could and quickly killed one of the two goblins that were up there. Then it seemed we were discovered. There was some kind of alarm and two goblins in the next tower shot crossbow bolts at us. None hit but we could guess that it wouldn't be as easy from now on. Velicia put a cloud of daggers on the last goblin in our tower. I shot a sling stone and Dorothea shot her crossbow at the goblins in the next tower. Unlike the others I hit my target, but it didn't do that much damage. The goblins ran over to the further wall and did something strange. I noticed that they dumped something over the wall. Dorothea said that it was vinegar. I hid behind the wall so I could surprise them. Nathaniel went back down and Velicia followed. Swinging my sling I popped up and threw my bullet, but missed. I heard noises of dogs and fighting from below.

When even Dorothea left I went prone next to the manhole, where no one could see me, and flipped through it throwing my magical dagger and landing on my feet in one fluid move, killing a dog. There were only three dogs at the base of the stairs which was a lot fewer than I thought from the earlier noise, but there were some dead ones too. A group of goblins further down the hall threw a lot of javelins and ran out the entrance being replaced by a another group doing the same thing. I continued on down the stairs and threw my dagger again, killing another dog. Nathaniel slowly advanced through the wide corridor killing the last dogs and goblins as he went, aided by Velicia and Dorothea. A few goblins turned and ran out the doors closely followed by Velicia. I heard her thunderous wave of the fan and I guess those goblins might have had trouble staying on the bridge.

I caught up with the others in the entrance hall and the last of the goblins were killed. It was an impressing hall but had soil floor which I found to be strange. It had been "decorated" by the goblins. They had put up heads of dogs and horses on the wall. A pair of giant bat wings caught my eye as they were fastened to the wall by daggers. I pulled them out as you can always use an extra dagger or two. One of them turned out to be really nice and had an ivory handle.