Aware that reinforcements were likely immanent, Kezug cast rope trick and the group hid. Four stone giants led by another lamia ran into the room, and looked around at the carnage. The lamia assigned two of the stone giants to wait there while the other three ran down the ramp. The Birdcrunchers used the opportunity to leap out at the two left behind and made short work of them. Unfortunately, the sound attracted the other three back, and the battle continued.

The Birdcrunchers were slowly prevailing, but their resources were being sapped. At one point Shakkk was the target of a command spell and was forced to flee. She did, running straight into General Galenmir, who recognized her as a brole he had previously sent out on assignment. He demanded to know what was happening. Shakkk did her best to bluff him, but he wasn't completely convinced. Striding into the fur-hung section at the top of the ramp, he demanded that everyone immediately stop fighting so that he could figure out what was going on. Both sides started accusing the other, and his lack of any sort of ability at figuring out who was telling the truth was not helpful to him.

Things got simpler when Shriggy decided to attack the remaining stone giant, killing him. At that point General Galenmir knew that if nothing else Shriggy was guilty of disobeying a direct order, and that was enough for him. The fight was back on.

Defeating both General Galenmir and Zaelsar (the lamia cleric) simultaneously proved very difficult, but the group managed it. Their resources badly depleted, they started back toward the safety of the redcap caves.

On their way there a stone giant stuck his head out of the armoury with a look of curiosity. He asked the group what all the ruckus was, since some of it was audible even over all the work happening with the forge. Dox told him that they had just killed a bunch of giants and were leaving the caves to rest up so they could kill some more. The stone giant hit him.

This was enough of an excuse for the ogres. The magic keeping them docile had disappeared when the lamias died, and their instructions were to stay in their cave unless there was trouble. The nine ogres boiled out of the tannery and supplemented the force presented by the stone giants. Thinking quickly, Shriggy stepped forward, grabbed Dox, and told the stone giant that they were escorting the prisoner elsewhere. She was very convincing, so the stone giant said that he would escort them to the cauldron. He drafted two ogres to frogmarch Dox along, and two more (plus Shakkk) to guard the ramp down, and headed down.

Part way there the group decided to make a break for it. They managed to kill the two ogres fairly quickly, but the stone giant was too much for them. He began to run downward as quickly as he could, shouting for help. Shriggy (in her full plate armour) was quickly left behind, and Kezug decided to go up instead of down, so Dox and Girzig tried to take him on by themselves. In the end Dox got away, but Girzig was taken to the cauldron.

The rest went off to the caves to get some sleep, though there was a lot of noise from the complex during the night.

PCs:

Dox (sorcerer 6)
Girzig (bard 5, ranger 1, pyrokineticist 2)
Kezug (psion 4, spellmaster 1, cerebremancer 3)
Shakkk (rogue 7, fighter 1)
Shriggy (fighter 5, cleric 3) [also played Bigbid]

Having rested in the caves, the broles (and Bigbid) were ready to face a new day. Girzig came in, covered in writing and accompanied by another brole none of them had seen before. After many screams at the writing covering Girzig, they declared that she no longer had a soul and thus forfeited all future cinnamon buns. The new brole introduced himself as Dox's little brother, Zugzugg.

Zugzugg told them that the Black Fist hill giants had taken over guarding this level, because their loyalty to Lord Mokmurian was unquestioned. Zugzugg himself had sort of been adopted by the Black Fist tribe and was thus part of the guard contingient. Girzig, having been dipped in the cauldron, was now assumed to be loyal and thus was also guarding the level. It was important that everything be secure this morning because there was a big sacrifice happening at the pit.

This led to a big, noisy fight. More antagonists just kept showing up, culminating in Lord Mokmurian's appearance in person. He normally stayed below, but had come up for the sacrifice. The fight was long and very, very difficult. Zugzugg himself ended up a pile of ash on the floor as a result of one of Lord Mokmurian's disintegrate spells. In the end, however, the broles triumphed. Almost completely bereft of remaining resources, they prepared to run away and hide.

PCs:

Dox (sorcerer 8)
Girzig (bard 5, ranger 1, pyrokineticist 3) [Runeslave]
Kezug (psion 4, spellmaster 1, cerebremancer 3)
Shakkk (rogue 7, fighter 1)
Shriggy (fighter 5, cleric 3)
Zugzugg (ranger 1)

Do you have a different end-game for the path, yet, Tbug? I'm not sure that this chaotic approach should last long in Xin-Shalast as written.

Do you have a different end-game for the path, yet, Tbug? I'm not sure that this chaotic approach should last long in Xin-Shalast as written.

If the players ask me to change the path to allow them to win with their current play style then I will, but so far they haven't. (I even have some stuff in mind.) I think that their current plan is to have two or three more levels each than they're supposed to have by then, and hope that it's enough. I could be completely wrong about their plans of course--they tend to change fairly frequently.

I'd be happy to discuss this at length, but a thread my players are reading probably isn't the right place. :)

As told to her spouses at a later date. (Imagine it being recited in a high-pitched yodel, accompanied by occasional toots on a ram's horn shofar.)

"So we were resting after killing the big scary Mockmurion guy, when we heard a big commotion. Turned out it was Nifrat, bringing Rotfen in to find us. Last time any of us talked to Rotfen was way back before the fire cleansing of the Goblinsquash stables. We were so happy to see him!

We all went down further into the caves, but some of us got shrunk. Kezug did something and we were all ok again. We went into a room where there was this big stone guy who ignored us until Bigbid came in then it tried to attack him. It stopped when he left again. After that we were attacked by a bunch of dead guys being led by a dead guy with no head who could still talk. But we clobbered them! We tipped over the big cauldron I had climbed out of after I died, but we couldn't destroy it. In the next room we found the big fiery scary thing that Zuggzug had told us about. It looked like a big walking oven. We fought it but I couldn't hurt it with all my mind-fire stuff and it ate my armour. The others managed to kill it and we each took some of it's teeth.

We went exploring some more and Shakkkk found a place to put the key that Mockmurion guy had. Inside there was this shiny machine guy and a great big hole in the middle of a giant room. The shiny machine guy talked to Kezug in some weird language. I got bored and threw a bolt of fire at a chair in the room behind them. The Shiny machine guy stopped talking and closed the door. Kezug was grouchier than normal after that.

We found a door covered in one big piece of stone. Me and Rotfen tried to break through but we weren't strong enough. Then we thought that we could put the hardmetal teeth from the oven monster on the end of Rotfen's portable ram and chew our way through. It took a long time but in the end we came into somebody's bedroom, maybe that Mockmurion guy, but no was there. We found a bunch of stuff and a whole pile of evil soul-stealing notes. Kezug was excited but I was able to save his soul from a bunch of them with my flamey hand. He got even grumpier then. Next door we found a big round room with no corners that had some really really really scary looking dogs in it. We decided to leave them alone and keep looking around."

Dox (sorcerer 8)
Girzig (bard 5/ ranger 1/ pyrokineticist 4) [Runeslave]
Kezug (psion 4/ spellmaster 1/ cerebramancer 3)
Rotfen (cleric of Gorum 3)
Shakkk (rogue 7/ fighter 1)

More goblin story-yodelling.

"Rotfen and the little goblins went off on their own, Dox fell into trance and Zuggzg woke back up again. The rest of us an Zuggzug kept going downstairs until we found the big pit where we got our brands. We found the brander guy, Lokansir. We fought him a bunch but then I fell into trance. When I woke up Lokansir was dead. Every time me or Shakkk fall asleep we kill stuff so much better!

We kept exploring."

Girzig (bard 5, ranger 1, pyrokineticist 3) [Runeslave]
Kezug (psion 4, spellmaster 1, cerebremancer 3)
Shakkk (rogue 7, fighter 1)
Zugzugg (ranger 1)

*Please note that this was an initial experiment in online gaming. It was a much shorter session due to technical difficulties and kinks-ironing.

[n.b. We're still learning how to use MapTool, so our games have a lot less happening in them just now.]

The Birdcrunchers gathered their friends, family, and loot. Jorgenfist was very disorganized, and they managed to get away from all of the giants without too much difficulty.

Sadly, this didn't last all the way home. As they approached the Storval Stairs Zuggzug recognized the stone giant brute squad there. They had a little bit of training in fighting, and wore magical plate armour and wielded magical falchions. The Birdcrunchers were confident, however, and Dox threw a fireball at the guards.

After a very long fight, Kezug called the survivors to him. He cast plane shift, taking Bigbid, Girzig, Nifrat, Rotfen, and Shakkk with him. Dox was dead, Zuggzug was unconscious, and the longshanks and Skilmut were ready to run away.

The Birdcrunchers found themselves on a big rock floating in the air.

Dox (sorcerer 8) [also played Bigbid]
Girzig (bard 5, ranger 1, pyrokineticist 4) [Runeslave]
Kezug (psion 4, spellmaster 1, cerebremancer 3)
Rotfen (cleric 5 of Gorum)
Shakkk (rogue 7, fighter 1) [also played Nifrat]
Zugzugg (ranger 2)

(Told as an overly-elaborate puppet show, complete with ear-splitting musical accompaniment)

Kezug had popped us onto a big floaty rock in Gorum's heaven that was covered with these really tiny orcs. Lots and lots and lots of them!! We killed a bunch and ate them, as usual. They were a little chewy but pretty tasty! I wanted to stay but the others wanted to go on this big flying boat that found us. They dragged me away onto the Cloud Diver and Captain Grand Harf and the rest of his barghest crew took us to the next big rock over so that Kezug could talk to some guy about getting us home. We found a guy who was making soup and he said Kezug should talk to Mufala, a purple-ape guy. I wanted to stay and eat soup but everybody dragged me off again. :(

We found Mufala and Kezug talked magic stuff with him. Kezug convinced him to help us get back home to get everybody else (The spouses and moms were left behind in a cart). He opened a magic gate back to the Storval Stairs. We all ran through and killed what was left of the brute squad. We got the cart and came back through the gate.

We were sitting around wondering what to do now when our grampa Skrigbrug came around the corner. After much rejoicing and food, Grampa and Shakkk took our moms and left on a quest to get them fixed and awake again.

The rest of us realized that we had finally gotten where were going and tried to figure out what we're gonna do now. I'm gonna wait for Shriggy to wake up and then figure out how to get back to the tiny orc berg. I think we should set up a caramel-barbeque orc-on-a-stick dinner theatre.

Dox (sorcerer 8) [also played Bigbid]
Girzig (bard 5, ranger 1, pyrokineticist 4) [Runeslave]
Kezug (psion 4, spellmaster 1, cerebremancer 3)
Shakkk (rogue 7, fighter 1) [also played Nifrat]
Zugzugg (ranger 2)

***Please note that this was our final session. The campaign goal for the broles to get to heaven, all of them at the same time, in the same heaven, and as of this session we accomplished this. We could keep going but due to busy real life schedules and the fact that we've been doing this for almost two years, we all agreed that it was time to let the broles go. We've had a blast! Thank you all for your interest and support!***

So did the 'long shanks' friends of the goblins whom they rescued from Jorgenfist make it back to Sandpoint, or is that unknown?

They made it to the Storval Stairs, where the Birdcrunchers took out the guards (giving the longshanks the means to leave the plateau). I had plans for interesting stuff happening in Ravenmoor, and I think that if we ever play a followup (eg if former players are visiting town) game then I'll have them living there and use that as a tie to the weirdness of the village.

tbug:
I have spotted someone I take to be a player asking if there have been goblins in any parties for Rise of the Runelords? I have hesitated to link to this journal, since the poster in question seems to be still actually playing the path, but I did indicate that there had been goblins in a party in some campaigns, and mentioned your name...
*Link to thread*

Thanks, Charles!