dangerfish's page

My party actually did Thistletop first as well, and it worked out fine. They dealt with Tsuto at the glassworks, but then decided the goblins were a bigger threat and went to Thistletop instead of the catacombs. To drive them back to the catacombs, I made sure there were references to Erylium (as a mentor to Nualia), the catacombs, and the runewell (My party had no idea what Erylium was, assuming it to be a person). There is also reference Erylium and her sinspawn joining in the final assault "from the catacombs beneath the town" in the war room" on the second level of Thistletop. With enough hints, it was pretty obvious too them that some whispering evil had lied dormant under Sandpoint for a long time. In fact, it had a great effect, because they rushed off to fight the goblins, only to learn they had left something more sinister back home.

You probably will want to throw in a random farm raid or two just to make sure they hit second level. If you read ahead into Skinsaw, it would even give you a great opportunity to let the PCs meet and get connected to some of the farmers who come into play in the next adventure, giving you some nice extra depth. Plus, they would pick up some XP, and either track or interrogate one of the goblins to find their way to Thistletop. (You can always move Tsuto and Ameiko to Thistetop and skip the entire glassworks.) I woud just play it loose and have fun with it – Burnt Offerings is one of the best “sandbox” adventures I have ever ran.

Name of PC: Nikolen Sorescu and Jehnos of the Shoanti
Class/Level: Human Fighter 1 and Human Barbarian 1, respectively
Adventure: Burnt Offerings
Catalyst: A unnatural string of critical (3x) horsechopper attacks

Story: The party rolled into the glassworks to find Tsuto's goblin's happily making mischef in the glass-blowing room. They rushed in and handily dealt with the goblins without taking a scratch. Two of the goblins made it out of the room and down the stairs to warn the half-elf of the intruders. As the DM I was afraid that Tsuto would go down too quickly without his compliment of goblins, so I decided to upgrade the two goblins who went to fetch him to commando status, and added in a few more regular gobs for good measure.

Tsuto showed up and monologued for a minute, as any good villan would. The fighter and the barbarian won initiative, and charged Tsuto on round one, killing him before he could even get and attack off(talk about a glass cannon!). While effective, this left them engaged with Tsuto's commando bodyguards. The two women (a rogue and a druid) were engaged on the other end of the room with three newly arrived goblin regulars. The commandos proceeded to land nothing but critical hits with their 3X damage halberds, taking the fighter-types unconcious in two rounds. By this time the women had dispatched two of three goblins, but had taken horrible wounds in the process.

Seizing the opportunity, the commandos both delivered coup-de-grace attacks, killing the warriors before fleeing back into the smuggler tunnels, leaving the lone goblin to deal with the rest of the party - which of course, he didn't. We ended 3 HP away from a TPK on an encounter were we killed the "boss" in the first round.