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Last week my players made their way into the dungeons of Thistletop, and while they took out the Tentamort, the Yeth Hounds were too much, two of them dropped and the survivor dragged their unconscious bodies to the Tentamort's body pile and stood guard (would've been smarter if he hid, but I'm not gonna solve their problems for them =p). Orik came looking and found him standing guard, thinking the other two dead (it was night and dark) he fought the player standing guard and barely defeated him; tossing the body off the island through the window.
A few days later, very hungry and thirsty, the unconscious ones finally came around, they healed up and escaped to go get more help (we're doubling the party size for tomorrow) back in Sandpoint.
So what might've changed in the dungeon since then? Ripnugget is dead, would his throne be occupied now by Bruthazmus or Gogmurt? Both of whom are alive. Or would they just stay in their own lairs? Any ideas?
Here's my take on that situation: I think that Bruzathmus would think he died and went to heaven. Since he would be the most powerful and intimidating member of the tribe, he'd promptly drive the goblins nuts demanding that they wait on him hand and foot (He seems a lazy sort). When the PCs get there again, they might find the bugbear treating the tribe as his own personal fiefdom.
Gogmurt blames the humans for all of the tribe's woes, so he wants them out of Thistletop. Unfortunately for his schemes, Bruthamus is only interested in eating, ordering the goblins around, and hanging around with the females. He refused the shaman's demands that the humans be evicted, so Gogmurt plans a coup. He assembled a group of goblins annoyed by Bruthamus' demands, and is even recruiting a few goblins that wandered in from other tribes.
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My group had a similar situation. They wiped out the top level of thistletop and then went back to town for a day or so. I thought about bruthazmus declaring himself goblin king, but there's not really a power vacuum. He's still being paid by Nualia. I figured that Nualia would have seen what the PCs can do and had her body guards on high alert. When they came back, Bruthazmus and the 4 goblin wives were hiding on top of the towers with the front gate barred, watching the bridge. This meant that the PCs had to climb the walls or break down the door while being shot at by javelins and arrows. When Bruthazmus spotted the party, he and three of the wives opened fire and the fourth took off down the stairs to alert Orik and Lyrie. Once the gate was broken the goblins started a fighting retreat down the stairs into the waiting hands of the other two body guards. They managed to pull it all off, but they had to work for it.
If Gogmurt is still alive, I'm not sure he'd want to put up with Bruthazmus as the chief. He might not want to be chief if he's used to his shaman role, or locked into the shaman role because he's a spellcaster. It also sounds like there are few, if any, goblins left for anyone to be chief of. It depends on if the PCs took out the birdcrunchers or not. Just how many goblins are left?
If there aren't many goblins left, Gogmurt might actually leave and look for another tribe to join. I figure that decimated survivors and birdcrunchers would follow Gogmurt over Bruthazmus. Bruthazmus could probably hang on to the wives, but that's about it. With the humans firmly entrenched in the lower levels and Ripnugget and the elite goblins all dead, Thistletop is probably starting to look like a bad place to live.
What the PCs find depends on how long they take to get back. Nualia would probably have the human forces on high alert and ready to meet foes as a team. She would also probably try to increase her forces by hiring more bodyguards if that were possible. But unless someone from her group can sneak to Sandpoint and back before the PCs return, she's unlikely to be able to get any human help.
There's the possibility that she could get an entire new tribe of goblins to move into Thistlewood. Maybe part of the Mosswood tribe. But that would mean there are still a bunch of goblins sitting in Thistletop when the PCs return. If the PCs have to grind through a bunch of goblins again, in the same rooms, it might be kind of repetitive or anti-climatic. To borrow a video game term, is there really that much "replay value" in that? But I suppose it's their own fault for leaving before the job was done, I suppose. If you die before the "save point", you get to start over.
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Well after last night the only goblins left are Gogmurt and the Birdcrunchers because they're still out in the briar maze. They entered the throne room and found Bruthazmus with three of the remaining goblins and engaged, two of the goblins made their way to the fight from the guard tower and although Bruthazmus tried to escape, he couldn't.
They went downstairs and are purposely avoiding the Yeth hounds since those nearly TPKd them last trip (and they kept researching Hellhounds so they think their vulnerability is to cold and don't have any cold spells)
They got Orik to surrender and let him leave Thistletop, killed Lyrie and are about to head downstairs for the final fights.