Chapter 22: Thistletop

October 14

The group takes their traveling gear and heads toward Thistletop. They determine that the original plan of going along the beach is poor because there’s a storm at sea. They decide to go through the forest instead. They reach the shore and get Thistletop in sight. The island is about twenty meters high, and its upper part is flat, and most of the island is covered by the old monastery located there.

Ertak has decided to walk the whole way backward. He fell once right at the beginning and immediately near the seashore bumps into a tree so that he gets a bruise. After this, he decides to turn around and walk the rest of the way facing forward. The group moves a couple of hundred yards away and begins to observe the monastery. Agnarr sees a group of goblins and a couple of dogs at the back corner of the monastery. He deduces that this is probably a guard group, but he doesn’t know what they’re doing there; at least they’re not guarding.

The group moves closer. Closer, the bush becomes very dense, which makes movement difficult. They look for a route through but don’t find a direct route forward. Agnarr finds a spot where a thorny bush is not natural.

Kieron tears open the thorny bush gate, and behind it opens a narrow corridor. The group thinks for a moment about what to do and then comes to the conclusion that Kieron will go forward to explore routes. Kieron finds a route that goes to some kind of empty guard post and apparently to the sea, but doesn’t explore further. She returns to the others to report and then continues forward. She comes to a larger space next to which, in a space closed off by a gate, are four dogs. The dogs start barking, so Kieron goes to the others. She arrives and talks with the others. Jaysek and Agnarr have already heard the dogs, and Agnarr has deduced that there are four such goblin dogs. The group goes to the dogs. Jaysek stays to guard their gear. They reach the big open area, at which point Ertak goes to the side to examine the pit there but stops first to put his shield in place. Kieron and Neiia get to the next area and see that the dogs have moved away from the gate in retreat. At the same moment, a leopard attacks Neiia from the side and bites her in the chest and then pushes her hard. Neiia flies to the side directly into a thorny bush and falls there. The leopard tries to scratch Neiia’s legs but doesn’t hit. Kieron turns around and tries to strike the leopard, but it jumps to the side and attacks Agnarr. Agnarr blocks, and after that, the leopard attacks Ertak, who had just reacted to the battle, and knocks him down so that Ertak falls into the pit there. Ertak just manages to grab onto the edge and hangs on the edge of a deep chasm. The leopard tries to scratch Ertak’s fingers off but doesn’t hit.

Kieron noteses that the leopard has moved too far away, so she doesn’t hit it but throws her sword, but the sword doesn’t hit. The leopard decides to change targets again and attacks Agnarr. Agnarr blocks the leopard again, and after that, Kieron tries to hit the creature with her other sword, but the creature dodges again, nimbly moving right to Agnarr’s feet. Agnarr moves away and strikes the leopard, hitting this time. The leopard attacks Agnarr but falls to the ground, after which both Kieron and Agnarr strike it so that it falls unconscious to the ground.

Ertak has meanwhile been shouting for help from the pit, and when Neiia hears it, she rolls out of the thorny bush and casts a levitation spell on Ertak so that he can get out of the pit.

Next, Kieron and Agnarr start looking around. Kieron notices a goblin’s feet to the side, 10 yards away, so she returns to the others to tell them about it. Agnarr also comes to look and is about to go get that goblin, but Kieron says that it’s further away. At the same moment, Agnarr hears some noise from the bush, and at the same moment, a large fireball appears from there, which is at the end of a staff in a small goblin’s hand. The goblin tries to throw it at Kieron, but the fireball leaves from the other end of the staff and hits the goblin directly in the chest, and the goblin falls unconscious to the ground.

The group carries the goblin outside, and after that, Agnarr ties it to a tree. At the same time, the group also takes the goblin’s items away. On the goblin is found a magic potion belt, which has three different types of magic potions, two bottles of each. In addition, he had a magic-containing stick and cloak that had already been taken away earlier. The group waits for about five more minutes, and after that, the goblin regains consciousness. Agnarr asks if the goblin speaks Angarr, to which the goblin answers that yes, he speaks Anarak. Everyone understands because the Anarak language he speaks is quite close to Logar. Agnarr is of the opinion that the goblin doesn’t speak Angarr, so he hits the goblin so that the goblin loses consciousness.