"Burning her father's remeins at the Thistletop shrine" in Tsuto's journal should be more than enough references. Of course, your group may differ, you know them better than me
There is a slight problem with the flow of the story, in that investigating the catacombs is almost a distraction from the sequence of events that lead from the goblin raid on Sandpoint to going to their lair at Thistletop. The main pointer comes from Tsuto's journal, which talks about "the real raid" on Sandpoint to come, and mentions various of the NPCs at Thistletop. This clearly needs looking into, but the players may well have forgotten about it after their adventures in the catacombs; if they have, you'll need to have the Sheriff, the Mayor or Shalelu prompt them about finding out what was behind the goblin raid on Sandpoint.
Did your group miss the journal? Have they forgotten about it? Did you give them the handout? Handouts can be clumsy or heavy-handed but they do serve a purpose - they tell players 'this is important.'
Tsuto's journal is THE linchpin to Book 1. It connects the attack on the town with the break-in at Father Tobyn's vault and relates the trouble to a person from Sandpoint's past (Nualia.) And it points the pc's toward the source of the trouble - Thistletop. The pc's should be anticipating a visit to 1 or more goblin tribes based on a briefing from Shalelu and the journal tells them which one should be at the top of the list.
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... Because the adventure goes way out of its way to point them there. Why else? I've run Burnt Offerings twice now for two entirely different groups of players, one of them extremely green, and neither had any trouble identifying that they needed to go to Thistletop.
Of course, both groups let Tsuto escape from the Glassworks (his Acrobatics skill and high move speed from monk levels make that a near-certainty if they don't do enough damage to blow through his morale threshold), so I had to make sure his journal was on the desk instead of on his person, but that's an easy adjustment to make.
Tsuto also mentioned Thistletop to Ameiko, and it's pretty clearly the base of operations of the goblin attack in that context.
If you need to have an a npc advise the party on their next goal, it should be her. But really, you as the DM should just remind them to read the journal again and that should be that.
If the PCs really don't have a clue, Shalelu can show up and tell them that goblins seem to be gathering around Thistletop and could somebody please come help her investigate?
See, I'd avoid bringing her along, because she's soooo tailored to wreck shop. Seems like the PCs would wind up as her cohorts.
Or just have her point the PCs at Thistletop while she goes scouting for where more goblins are being recruited -- tricksy elvessess, always getting others to do the dirty work...
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I used Shalaelu to "draw out the majority of the goblins" away from Thistletop so that there was a plausible reason why the "horde" of Goblins was big enough to be a threat to Sandpoint without there being tons and tons of goblins in the building - and to keep the PCs from playing second-fiddle to her.
I changed a fair bit of stuff - Tsuto's infatuation was with his half-sister Ameiko instead of Nualia for instance, but basically the way it played out was Shalelu left town to 'scout around' Thistletop as the only goblin tribe she hadn't yet checked out.
Tsuto escaped, but his journal revealed not just that Nualia was alive but had gathered allies, including Bruthazmus (Shalelu's mortal enemy) and Lyrie (known wanted criminal with an outstanding reward from the Pathfinder Society). It also indicated that the only reason that Nualia hadn't assaulted the town already was because she was trying to awaken some 'greater evil' in Thistletop to join her in her attack.
The PC's were encouraged by Ameiko and others to seek Shalelu out to warn her about what she was walking into... then, on the road to Thistletop she showed up. When she found out Bruthazmus was inside the stronghold, she insisted that they all infiltrate the place and finish the threat once and for all.
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Hi. My PC will be done with the catacombs today and they should move to Thisletop. But as far as I know, the only reference to THISTLETOP was in the journal. Apparently, I missed some of the backstory or they don't have the maps, but I am pretty sure they will not go there directly.
Should I make them figure out their next move or let them find a note in the last room in catacombs (Levitation room)?
Or am I missing something.
Thanks.
I personally got rid of Tsuto's journal under the Glassworks. I found it way too obvious and wanted my players to feel like going there was more their idea than forced on them by saying, "GO HERE!!!" (It will be placed in Tsuto's room in Thistletop instead.)
So it took a little setting up, and it worked off of the PCs thinking that Sandpoint needed more help then just them. While Sheriff Belor was away in Magnimaar and they were scouting around the wilderness around Sandpoint, they ran into a few undead (hinting at undead issues in the area that will at some point lead to the red herring that is Habe's). These undead had black chips of obsidian jammed into the base of their skulls with arcane runes.
The PCs took these chips to Father Zantus, who consulted the priest of Sarenrae, Brother Walter. Brother Walter, who has a bit more interest and study in the undead found it to be troubling and offered to go to Windsong Abbey (north of Sandpoint) and see if he could garner aid for Sandpoint.
So after dealing with the Catacombs of Wrath and waiting on the Sheriff, my players ran into another group of goblins outside of Sandpoint with Thistletop badges a few days later. They easily took them out and found among the loot a pair of cracked spectacles. I made certain to describe them as nicely made and how spectacles are expensive and fairly rare.
They took them to Kesk's Shinies (My name for Maver Kesk's shop) and he identified them as belonging to Sabyll Sorn... who they knew went with Brother Walter to Windsong Abbey... *cue the dramatic music!*
Excuse the long drawn out response, but yeah, my players are now running against the clock after freaking out and realizing that Sabyll and Brother Walter are either dead or captured by goblins!