My characters decided to retreat after killing Nualia, leaving the last chambers unexplored.
As they were retreating, the goblin tribes in the woods, headed by shaman Gogmurt, burnt down the shack on the "thistle top" and the PCs escaped using the safety boat, up to the port of Sandpoint.
Now they want absolutely to go back and "finish the dungeon" despite the main menace of Nualia being stopped. I tried to hint not to go back (very subtly) but they insist on going.
They will probably land on Pauper's Graves (question 1: any more information of this shore?), tie the boat there, and proceed into the thorny woods.
In the woods I'd like to have some goblin commandos annoy them with nasty traps. Gogmurt should be some sort of tribal shaman that unites the goblins that fled from Ripnugget's egemony... how would you make this encounter nastier?
Only 1-2 days have passed, do you think the goblin would already have found a way to re-ensablish the bridge?
How would you evolve the story?
My players did the same thing, they are now cleaning up Thistletop at their leisure, which is fine to me. I was hoping one of them might use it as a home or something, or at least loot some furniture/furnishings out of the place as trophies. In my game, the players eliminated all of the threats except for just about everything on the bottom level, its still free and clear for them to explore.
You might have a group of bugbears nearby move in really quick, not a whole bunch of them, I wouldn't totally repopulate the place, but I might have them wandering around. Nualia was gathering troops after all, it would make sense to have some show up.
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The adventure did have some refugee goblins there, but for the most part the goblin armies were still spread around the region. If the goblin druid survived i doubt he would stick around now that the "longshanks" know where he and the tribe can be found.
Depending on how long the time was between the fort being burnt down til you PCs return it might get tricky. Short time span would leave no time to rebuild and lets face it goblins arent really known to build forts. If there was alot of time them something could rebuild, but what exactly?
I would be thinking that something that could fly would have seen the smoke, realized the area has been left and then lay claim to squatters rights...maybe a very young dragon looking to make a new lair. Dragon maybe a lil tough, but you get the idea. There is that secret entrance that aerial creatures can use to fly in and out of (Area D7). Since the fort above may be destroyed then this would be the only way in, unless some debris removal about was involved.
Players in my group captured Tsuto before going to Thistletop; at Thistletop they killed Ripnugget, most of the individual goblins, Bruthazmus, Lyrie, Nualia and (with considerable difficulty) Malfeshnekor. They never encountered Gogmurt or the tentamort; they've seen but not fought the giant hermit crab. They lost one party member (and the timing of it allowed them to recruit Orik as a replacement) and talked about going back to Thistletop to finish looting it after reporting back to Sandpoint and burying their lost comrade, so at this point the bridge remains intact.
I figure Gogmurt will move into the stronghold the second the PCs leave, incorporating any surviving Birdcrunchers into the remnants of the original Thistletop tribe and leave off the idea of assaulting Sandpoint again, which he'd never been keen on to begin with.
Past that I'm at a loss; I'm not sure what his best strategy would be to ensure continued security for himself in his new role as chief. He probably doesn't want to advertise the reduced population of Thistletop to the neighboring goblin tribes, but he will need an increased population, strong non-goblin allies or both, and quickly.
In my game Gogmort survived as did a few of the thisteltop goblins. They retreated during a big climatic battle that resulted in 80% of the Thistletop forces dead. My party has killed off all but Vorka of the goblin heroes aswell so I figure I'm going to have Gogmort become a new hero, and lead his remaining goblins over and take over the birdcrunchers with his increased experience. He'll fortify them into a decent threat, and they'll be there if I ever decide to use them again.