The End of the Beginning

Last time, we went by land to Thistletop, just made it over burning bridge and then the goblins retreated within, and they burned down the top wooden fortress. Also, the horse Silvermist was so badly wounded that Andrien had to finish it off with a crossbow bolt, to end its pain.

We were able to escape by distracting Yip Yip with goblin carcasses & then climbing down & swimming away.


This morning:

Having no time for theatre and play, I gave the magic halfling leather armor to Amiko, leaving it in one of her rooms, and later asked Andrien about a magic wand. He looked into it with some old woman in town, named Madame Vashti. I had given him my 2 dwarven Platinums to get one, but he said the "Wand of Niska M'Veshta" had cost 270 gold, so he covered me the rest & I can owe him the extra seventy.... But that does seem a fair price for a wand. I was surprised to find one, in this remote place, and glad of our "heroes" discount.

The next day, we returned by boat, bringing Daviren, and scaled up to the rear garbage area, where Andrien had fallen before so many times. At the top, we discovered the carcass of that tentacled, carrion creature that was now missing some cuts from its flanks, as if the goblins had been dining on the monster that had once helped to dispose of their garbage. Lyk dragged it to the edge and pushed it off, into the waters far below.

We heard goblins chanting and then a woman's singing voice - that had to be Nuale' - mixed through that. The only recognizable word was "Lamaashtu" - so we knew there would be trouble. Brunt said a prayer over all of us, to protect us from the enemies' attacks.

Andrien went to check one of the doors that went unexplored last time we were there, but he had heard goblins beyond it that time; while the rest of us headed toward that evil shrine, where Nuale' must surely be waiting.

But before we got to open the doors to Lamaashtu's temple, we all heard Andrien cry from back around the corridor that he had gone to investigate alone. I was in the middle, so I moved to the rear of our column, to see what was going on and if I could help. I conjured up a ball of orange hellfire - one of the only things that I come close to dabbling in, of that devil magic used so frequently by my instructors from the Acadamie. After all, I owed Andrien seventy gold pieces, so if anything happened to him....

Soon, a flood of goblins filled into the room, behind us, that faced out to the sea. A much larger creature charged before them: Their leader, Brunthalsmus. Andrien looked like he had been hit, but he was able to get into the corridor and stand before me, to protect me, just in time.

My hellfire orb was close to the big hairy beast, and although I was unable to strike him with it directly, the ball of flame eventually smoked many goblins, so I kept my concentration on directing it, to where it could do the most. It was behind the enemies' line, and they could not harm it as it burned to death any goblin who was next to it.

Most everyone focused on attacking Brunthalsmus, the bugbear. Shalalu, his nemesis, and Carufinwe fired arrows, whizzing over my head at him. Finally Lyk ran back and chopped off its head, with the new skull-headed ax that was sent to him as a gift from Aldern Foxglove.

Then the other side corridor, from where we had heard the snarling slurping creature sounds days before, opened up, and many more goblins poured into the room, again blocking our escape. At the other end of our now defensive corridor, near the temple, Daviren had held that door, since it was quiet and hadn't opened yet. Brunt filed past us from up there and went back to help Lyk. As the goblins filled in past Lyk and Brunt, the axe and hammer fell many times, leaving only corpses surrounding them.

I soon heard Daviren's battle cry and the sounds of fighting from there, so we were fighting on three fronts now, although the large evil double doors had not opened yet, and there was no sign of Nuale', nor any end to the ranks of her goblin minions.

Eventually, some of the goblins in the exit room thinned out, and Daviren seemed to have bottle necked most of the ones at his end. Then the large double doors opened and it started all over again. We had to switch back up toward that way, and I was somehow able to get myself and my orb up there. However, in the confusion of battle, I was stuck at the front rank of our line, as I had almost been when this fight had begun, and I was exposed to the many arrows of the goblin archers within the temple. I even got a glimpse of Nuale' up there, on the dias behind her minions, in her black armor and weilding a large sword in her oversized clawed hand. Luckily, I threw my Shielding spell up and went unscathed from the many arrows flying at me - that time. Andrien returned to stand before me, and we had some debate over how best to array our forces, and where to direct the elves; but he left it to me, and I kind of messed up. So he returned back to the other rooms, to try another approach. Of course, I should have expected that Daviren would not listen to reason either.


One goblin jumped over my sphere, which could not block arrows, but I was more worried about the archers than that guy. However, I had to stay up there to see and to direct my Sphere of Hellfire, and I got off a Thunderwave spell that dropped a few, but the second volley of goblin arrows nearly dropped me, if not for my crazy halfling luck. What's more, first one goblin and later another misfired their arrows into an aiming archer, killing one less chance to hit me, as well as another goblin foe. After that I had to retreat, with three goblin arrows stuck in my torso, back to let the others take over. Brunt healed me, so I felt safer then, despite the few goblins left scurrying about in that last room.

Fighting through the pain of my wounds to keep the Orb of Hellfire in the battle, I wasn't sure of everything going on at the front. Then I drank a healing potion, and so I felt good as new. I think Nuale' finally came forth, to attack Daviren, since he had kind of been cut off from us by the goblins, my Hellfire, and a corner in the passage. I tried to burn her with it, but she seemed to barely break a sweat, even standing right next to it.

Lyk charged back up to there, attacking Nuale' from around and behind the corner. However, she had hurt Daviren badly. He only had two goblins blocking his possible escape, which led deeper into the fortress; but he would not run, not even to save his life. Lyk was not quick enough, and Nuale' felled Daviren, bleeding on the floor. Those two goblins hacked at his helpless form, until he was dead and in pieces. Then Lyk dealt her another powerful strike with that ax, and she ran - the way Daviren could have.

The two fleet elves immediately gave chase, with Lyk trailing behind them. There were still goblins in the temple and some in the corridors, so Andrien, Brunt and I stayed to mop up. My sphere was in the temple now, and I maintained that at the limit of my range, ignoring the one goblin left next to me. He smote at me, but dropped his dogslicer weapon, and that humorous distraction almost made me lose my concentration more than any threat he could pose to me.

Eventually, the goblins fighting Brunt in the corridor surrendered to him, and he told them to flee down the rope. Andrien had worked his way back to the passage perpendicular to our corridor, by way of fighting through more goblins in the room that he originally had to run from. As the fleeing goblins ran past me and piled up before the rope in a bunch, I heard a strange little voice in my head, almost telling me to Thunderwave and kill them. I thought about it, but I shook my head and winked out that Hellfire Orb. I had never summoned one for so long a time and maybe some of that evil devil stuff was coming through to try to influence me.

Instead of harming those retreating goblins, I ran after Andrien, since he seemed to go the way Nuale' and the rest had. I passed the fallen corpse of Daviren, nearly slipping in all the blood pooling on the ground. The chase led down many stairs and turns, deeper into the Thistletop skull.


Some battle sounds rose up from below, but they were soon quiet. Then I heard Nuale' shouting the name of her demon, "Malefeshnekor," and some other voices. There was the sound of a large metal chain being cut and the blast of some fire from beyond. Just as I rounded the corner into that last room, I found I was too late. Nuale's two bodyguards were here, the ones that goblin archer prisoner now in the Sand Point jail had spoken of: A large man in armor and a woman in robes with a book. I guess they had surrendered to Lyk, or changed sides, since the man had goblin blood covering his sword. I slowly approched toward that woman.

Many of the goblins were dead in there, but something was wrong. Nuale' came in - her body singed and smoking. I had noticed in the fight upstairs that my Fiery orb did not seem to hurt her as much as it could have, and her armor probably afforded her some protection from fire. Now she seemed in pain, but she smiled, just before she fell dead on the flagstones.


(I found out later that Nuale' had threatened to relase the demon, if they would not let her escape. Maybe they didn't know that doing so would kill her - maybe she didn't. The robed woman later said that they were trying to find its real name, to control the demon, and that maybe they would have, given more time. I know it works for devils, so I suppose it's possible.)


Some other goblins rushed in, all them now bowing on their knees and chanting, "Malefeshnekor," over and over again. Beyond that door, where Nuale' had gone and returned from, we could finally see that Demon: a large column of black flame, with thick tendrils of smoke billowing out of it. I don't know if it had eyes or arms, but it seemed to reach out and blast fire at one of the worshiping goblins, immolating it. Then it pointed at another, leaving only a scattered pile of fine gray ash. It proceeded intently, almost casually, to do this in turn to each of the prostrate goblins, but after the first had died, Nuale's two bodyguards began to flee.
"Can it fly?" I asked the woman.
I heard a shouted, "Nooooo.... Run!" echoing over her shoulder, from up the stairwell.

I told them Nuale's armor, sword and amulet were all magical, as I slowly took a step backward for each goblin that it cremated alive. Andrien grabbed Nuale's sword and seven-pointed amulet, while Lyk just hoisted her armored body over his shoulder and lumbered past me up the stairs. Only I, the foolish halfling, lingered to witness this infernal spectacle, peering around the corner of the stairwell, wondering what Malefeshnekor would do next. I wanted to attack him - I had a Force Orb ready to cast - but I didn't think it would do any more than anger him.

I realized that worshiping it, pretending or not, would be no refuge, and that it would just fry me, too. So I turned to hurriedly chase after my companions, to flee Thistletop- now the realm of Malefeshnekor.