Burnt Offerings

Part One: Festival and Fire

For five years, the faithful of Sandpoint have attended church in temporary structures erected after fire destroyed the previous temple, and while their new religious leader was helpful, kind, and wise, church wasn't the same. Now, the new cathedral is finally done. All that remains is for the Swallowtail Festival to renew the site's blessings from the gods and it will be as if the Sandpoint Fire had never occurred.

The Swallowtail Festival began promptly, as scheduled, on the Autumnal Equinox. The square before the church quickly became crowded as locals and travelers arrived, and several merchant tents featuring food, clothes, local crafts, and souvenirs were there to meet them. Mayor Deverin and Sheriff Hemlock gave welcoming speeches, Cyrdak Drokkus, the local theater owner, gave a recap of the cathedral construction process, and Father Zantus concluded by thanking everyone and declaring the festival underway. Several games and contests were setup around the town, and many people participated. At noon, a covered wagon is brought into the square, where Father Zantus recalls the parable of Desna, lifting the cover and releasing a swarm of Swallowtail butterflies.

As the sun began to set, Father Zantus once again took the podium at the square, throwing down a thunderstone to get everyone's attention. He was about to recite the Prayer of First Dreaming when a woman's scream cuts through the silence. Everyone turned to see a grinning goblin, his blade dripping with the blood of a dog it had just killed, lying at its feet. A strange chant began to echo from all around in shrill, scratchy voices, and goblins began to emerge from everywhere, attacking indiscriminately.

The group assisted the guards in stopping the goblins, and saved a nobleman, Aldern Foxglove, who was cornered by a vicious goblin. Sheriff Hemlock took note of their assistance, and welcomed them, while Ameiko Kaijitsu, a local innkeeper, offered them free rooms at the Rusty Dragon for a week.

Part Two: Local Heroes

As Sandpoint recovers from the attack and buries its (thankfully few) dead, the citizens do their best to get on with their lives, The cathedral is consecrated the next day during a much more subdued and indoor ceremony.

The group is met by Sheriff Hemlock, who asks them to once again assist the town. Father Zantus had discovered that Ezakien Tobyn's vault had been desecrated. Tobyn was the town's previous priest, who had perished in the fire. A pair of skeletons, left inside the vault, attacked the group as they entered, but were quickly taken out. Inside they found a discarded robe, its magic quickly fading, and footprints of several goblins and a booted humanoid. They followed the tracks out of town, well into the nearby woods and found a small group of goblins waiting for a "longshanks". The trail was cold after that, so the group returned to town.

At the Rusty Dragon they were asked to recount their tales of the previous night. The nobleman they had rescued found them within and invited them all with him on a boar hunt in the Tickwood Forest the next day. The mirthful night suddenly ended when Ameiko's surly father, Lonjiku entered and began yelling at everyone. Ameiko and Lonjiku began yelling at each other in their native language of Minkaian, and he stormed out. Ameiko encouraged everyone to drink up and shortly everyone was back to having fun.

The Sheriff finds the group in the morning and requests that they follow him to a meeting with the mayor. In the Town Hall, the mayor and an unknown elf welcome them. The elf is introduced as Shalelu Andosana, an unofficial member of of Sandpoint's town guard. She often patrols the hinterlands, especially on the lookout for goblins. She brings grim news that the five goblin tribes around Sandpoint worked together to attack the town. She explained that the tribes often war with each other, and the fact they worked together means there was someone organized them. The Sheriff announced that he is going to Magnimar in an attempt to get some extra soldiers for a few weeks. He asked the group to stay in Sandpoint and assist the guards. Shalelu meet up with the group later that evening at the Rusty Dragon and chatted, sharing her insight on the local goblins.

The next morning, the group was approached by Bethana Corwin, an elderly halfling woman who works as a maid in the Rusty Dragon. She was upset and asked to speak in private. She hadn't seen Ameiko all morning, and found her bed unslept in. She also handed over a note she had found, crumpled near the bed, from Ameiko's brother Tsuto [1-1]. The note was written in Minkaian, but Bethana translated on the reverse. The group left to investigate the Glassworks.

Part Three: Glass and Wrath

The process of glassmaking is as much an art as it is a craft, and one that the Kaijitsu family has held pride in for several generations. After the family was exiled from Tian Xia and made the perilous journey over The Crown of the World, their skill at glassmaking played a key role in securing a role among the aristocracy. When the Sandpoint Mercantile League was established to found the town, the Kaijitsus were there. Not long after Sandpoint was founded, they began construction of what would become one of the town's most unique and profitable businesses - the Sandpoint Glassworks.

The group arrived to find the place closed up, yet the furnaces were still running. Inside, they found a band of goblins, mutilating the bodies of the dead staff. There was also the body of Lonjiku, encased in sheets of glass. After they stopped the goblins, they descended to the lower level and found Tsuto had tied up Ameiko. They released her, captured Tsuto, and brought him to the garrison, where he was jailed. Tsuto was uncooperative, but mentioned he "did it all for her". His journal [1-2] revealed his involvement in the goblin raid, as well as information on an upcoming attack.

The group also found a hidden entrance to a smuggler tunnel. They followed, which eventually led to a larger structure beneath the ground. Inside were disturbing creatures known as Sinspawn, a malformed goblin withe three arms, and a vargouille. Their exploration ended in a shrine to Lamashtu, where they fought a quasit, acting as caretaker. After defeating her, they destroyed the shrine.

Part Four: Thistletop

The ancient site known as Thistletop has long served as a den for goblins. Today, it serves as something more - the lair of a band of outlaws, knaves and criminals who have recruited the goblins as their instruments of destruction. In order to save Sandpoint from these goblins, a journey to Thistletop must be undertaken.

Thistletop is a fort that lies on a rock just off the coast. The group arrived and made their way through a mess of brambles and underbrush, where they fought goblins, goblin dogs, and a firepelt cougar. They made their way across a rickety wooden bridge to the rock formation, and infiltrated the goblin fort. Inside the fort they fought many goblins, including Ripnugget, their warchief, who rode a giant gecko. They had also rescued a horse that the goblins had locked away in a shed.

After they cleared the top level, they descended into the rock. Here they defeated a bugbear named Bruthazmus, slew goblins and their babies, and defeated and released a human mercenary named Orik Vancaskerkin. They found a large chapel dedicated to Lamashtu, which was guarded by a pair of yeth hounds they defeated. Finally, they found a human named Lyrie Akenja, who surrendered to them. She showed them the secret entrance to the lower levels, before she was locked away in the dungeon cells.

In the lower level, they defeated Nualia and her yeth hound. They aslo found a giant hermit crab who had laired within a sunken treasure room. Lastly, they found the prison cell holding Malfeshnekor, a barghest, and defeated him.

Nualia's Notes

Nualia was raised by Ezakien Tobyn, the religious leader of Sandpoint. She had a lonely and sad childhood, as the other children were jealous or shy of her unearthly beauty, and played cruel jokes on her. Many of the Varisians thought she was blessed by Desna and started rumors that her touch, or proximity, could cure warts and rashes, locks of her hair brewed in tea could increase fertility, and her voice could drive off evil spirits. She felt like a freak growing up, but when she was of age, she was courted by a Varisian youth named Delek Viskanta. She kept their affair secret, as her father would not approve, and met secretly in the hidden smuggler tunnels beneath the town. When she told Delek she was pregnant, he chastised her and fled Sandpoint. Her father forbid her to leave the church, lectured her nightly, and made her pray to Desna for forgiveness.

When she was seven months pregnant, she miscarried, and caught only a glimpse of a monstously deformed shape before the midwives stole it away. The shock of losing the child and knowing it was a monster caused her to fall into a coma. Her nightmares showed her the truth about who she was, and how to remove the angelic taint from her body and soul. When she awoke, she jammed her father's door shut and lit the church on fire, then fled Sandpoint for Magnimar. There she enlisted the aid of the Skinsaw Cult, tracked down Delek and killed him. She found a kindred spirit in the leader of the cult, who had given her the strange seven-pointed star medallion.

Nualia returned to the smuggler tunnels under Sandpoint, and guided by the advice of the cult leader, bashed down a wall, revealing the Catacombs of Wrath and finding Erylium, the quasit caretaker. Nualia studied with Erylium for many months. During this time she received another nightmare, one she came to know as a vision from Lamashtu. The vision showed her an imprisoned barghest that could help her achieve her vengeance on Sandpoint, and be the key to cleanse her body from the celestial taint.

Her vision led her to Thistletop, where she made a pact with the goblin Chieftain, and promised him the opportunity to destroy Sandpoint. She toiled away within the bowels of Thistletop, gathering allies and researching ways to free the barghest, Malfeshnekor. Once freed, she could carry out her plan in full.

She had found and charmed Tsuto, using him to assist in the first raid. Her true goal was the recovery of her adopted father's remains. Once she had those, she burned them in a sacrifice to Lamashtu. This started her transformation, but she needed more to complete it. She planned to send an army of goblins against Sandpoint to burn the entire town to the ground. She had hoped this burnt offering to Lamashtu would complete her transformation into a half-fiend. She also hoped the act would fuel the runewell beneath the Glassworks. Her notes go into detail on how to create sinspawn from the runewell, and warn that if the runewell's stores were overextended, it would deactivate. She was unsure how to reactivate it. She stressed that the runewell should not be used until it was refilled by the deaths of hundreds of angry citizens of Sandpoint.