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Although I should say that the bestiary entry on harridans twice makes the mistake of saying "tenants" of religion where you mean "tenets". ;)

The PCs were, of course, in town when the Swallowtail Festival was held. They enjoyed the sights and sounds, listened to the speeches given by prominent citizens, and finally gathered to hear Father Zantus begin the dedication ceremony proper.

Before he could even begin to recite the first prayer, a goblin dashed through the crowd and opened the throat of a sleepy dog, just roused by the thunderstone, under a wagon near the PCs. Two other goblins leapt out from their hiding places nearby, and people all over the crowd began to scream as they noticed goblins swarming through the streets around the cathedral.

Tali reacted more quickly than anyone - her hand found a dagger at her belt and hurled it straight through the throat of the dog-killing goblin, pinning him to the wagon by his neck. As Aaron ushered any children within reach behind him for safety, one goblin leapt onto the closest lunch table and started filling his pockets with leftover food, while the other tried to hide behind the dog by lifting up its nearly-severed head, exposing its opened throat.

Nartana drew a starknife, favoured weapon of Desna, and put an end to that ruse by sending it spinning through both the dog's throat and the goblin's own, killing it instantly. Aaron, having herded all the children behind him, rushed forward at the goblin scrabbling for food on the table. Luckily for the goblin, it slipped in a puddle of gravy and dropped down below the deadly arc of his sword.

Tharl stood in front of the children as Tali sprung forward, intent on pinning the goblin to the table with a second dagger. She came within a hair's breadth of pinning it down, too, but succeeded only in burying the knife in the wood of the tabletop. Nartana was more successful, coming forward and crushing the goblin's skull with her morningstar.

The PCs took stock of the situation and helped Father Zantus gather up the frightened children and their parents within the safety of the cathedral. Just as they'd caught their breath, however, our heroes saw five goblins light on fire a wagonload of wood intended for the evening bonfire . . . and the goblins saw the PCs, too.

They rushed to meet each other in combat, Tharl muttering a hasty spell (enlarge person) and causing Aaron to grow magically larger. Four of the goblins had armed themselves with flaming brands, but when Aaron neatly cut one of them in half from shoulder to hip they shrieked in outrage and drew the battered, scrap-metal swords they call "dogslicers". Nartana and Tali joined Aaron in melee immediately, and even Tharl charged forward to deliver a satisfying blow with his staff.

The fifth goblin, a filthy-looking female with disturbingly few clothes on her scrawny body, was croaking some sort of warsong (inspire courage) to encourage the warriors. Seeing the even-larger-than-normal "longshanks" paladin cutting down her allies, she changed her tune and tried to cloud his mind (daze), with little success. Instead, she was forced to use her whip, cutting his cheek but soon after falling before the heroes.

The last goblin left alive yowled in terror at the sight of the warchanter's death, but didn't manage to get three feet towards safety before Tali despatched him with a knife between the shoulderblades.

As the PCs caught their breath and cleaned their weapons, they heard screams and barking from the north. Rushing to help, the arrived in time to see a tough-looking goblin mounted on an ugly, ratlike goblin dog cutting down some kind of hunting mastiff with the scrap-metal halberd they call a "horsechopper". Behind a nearby rainbarrel, a well-dressed man was cowering at the sight, shrieking even more as four more goblins emerged from hiding, emboldened by the dog's death.

Tali's first knife performed what we called "precision surgery at range", killing one of the goblins outright as Aaron and Nartana charged at the commando on the goblin dog. Aaron's final act before the enlarging effect wore off was to kill both commando and "dog" with a mighty downward blow, and it didn't take the PCs long to finish off the other three goblins.

The well-dressed man was falling over himself to thank the PCs, introducing himself as Aldern Foxglove and begging them to find him in his room at the Rusty Dragon so that he could properly reward them for saving him from certain "goblining". They agreed, but sent him on his way as they cautiously explored the rest of the town, looking for any further goblin menace.

Several town guards hailed Aaron and let him know they'd pushed goblins as far as the seacliffs, where they'd leapt into the ocean rather than be captured! Sheriff Hemlock found them a short while later, and told them the guards had managed to interrogate a few, but all they would say was that their leader was a "longshanks like you" who had a "secret mission to the graveyard".

Sobered, the other PCs accepted his invitation to come along to investigate as vouched-for friends of Aaron, and together they discovered that Father Tobyn's grave had been robbed. No-one there could think of a reason why someone would do such a thing, but they agreed to honour the sheriff's request to keep the theft of Tobyn's body quiet.

. . . that I placed my first order for Planet Stories books today: Black God's Kiss and Elak of Atlantis.

Looking forward to them!

I see your name on the Dragon (Online) #360 "Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Graz'zt" article!

Interesting name for the world!

Any news? :)

Is there any chance Paizo will begin accepting American Express in the near future?

I'm prepared to pay a surcharge to cover the increased transaction fee, but I really don't want to continue using my wife's Visa card or my father's MasterCard to shop and subscribe.

Session Zero

Last night (Wednesday March 28) my Savage Tide group got together to create characters at a player's house in Surry Hills.

The characters are as follows:

• Mike (Michaela) Cannith, an artificer of House Cannith, originally from Metrol, who lost her family in the Day of Mourning.
  
• Alth, a gnome druid, formerly enslaved by a wealthy family of Sasserine and only recently set free.
  
• Amadeus Orien, a fighter of House Orien, originally from Sharn, who left his family name and former identity behind when he left his home.
  
• Lutagnan d'Orien, a dragonmarked sorcerer of House Orien, originally from Sharn, younger brother of Amadeus and the reason for his brother's self-imposed exile.
  
• Silk, a warforged rogue, an amnesiac cared for and employed by the parents of Amadeus and Lutagnan, accompanying the latter on his adventures to keep him safe.
  
• A nameless (by custom) tribal wizard from the Shadow Marches, very far from home, prone to giving the people he meets strange poetic names.

In any case, Lady Vanderboren's generous offer of 200 gold pieces to each adventurer for the recovery of her ship, the Blue Nixie, from the clutches of the harbourmaster's shady lieutenant, Soller Vark, got everyone's attention. Once dinner was concluded they seemed resolved to make for the harbour immediately, to resolve her problem one way or another.

That's where we left it at the end of the night. Whenever we manage to schedule the next session, we'll see about getting Vark and his men off the Blue Nixie!