Burnt Offerings group veering off the "Rails" [Spoilers!]

[illyume]

The group I'm GMing for has made it most of the way through the first chapter of Rise of the Runelords without much trouble: They've enjoyed Sandpoint, have fitted themselves right in, have tackled each encounter thrown at them with relative ease--and are

Book 1 Spoiler!:

currently taking a break in the Catacombs of Wrath after a harrowing encounter with a feisty quasit.

More Spoliery Stuff:

After the party found Tsuto's journal, they caught on pretty quickly that bad things were about to go down and ran to fetch Mayor Deverin, who came along to the Glassworks and read over the journal herself. After a brief discussion, Deverin suggested that the adventurers should investigate the smuggler's tunnel below the Glassworks to neutralize the quasit threat mentioned in Tsuto's journal.

They caught onto that hook wonderfully, and should surface again soon. Now, though, they're discussing plans for helping Mayor Deverin and the town guard (Hemlock's off to Magnimar to request additional folk for the guard and all) to fortify against the impending goblin invasion. Obviously, this is a bit off-track for the campaign.

My question is: What suggestions do people here have for gently nudging my players back on-track, encouraging them to take the goblins on at Thistletop itself rather than waiting for them to show up at town? I've contemplated having Deverin muse on a thought along the lines of "Now that their contact [Tsuto] in Sandpoint isn't in communication with them anymore, the group at Thistletop is likely to soon get restless and realize something is up. They're likely to make better preparations for us if they realize this. If we strike now, we might still be able to catch them off-guard."

Alternatively, I suppose I could rewrite a significant portion of the rest of the chapter, and actually let the goblin hordes attack Sandpoint. It'll be tough work managing out a big fight like that, but it might be kind of fun too.

[Askren]

Simple; Let them have a day to mull over what happened in the Catacombs, and help out the town where they want, and then have Hemlock return shortly after with some fresh troops so they can feel like they're helping shore up the defenses of the town.

That's when Shalelu returns (if you remember, she was supposed to leave after meeting them to go into the Hinterlands to collect information), and you can have her offer to either bring the group or direct them to Thistletop where they can strike before the goblins can marshal.

[illyume]

I think I like this idea quite a bit!

The group's expressed some need for a bit of downtime, so a couple of days prepping the town will be perfect. Hemlock's return would be timely, and *hopefully* they'll feel the town's secure enough at that point that after they get Shalelu's news they'll be okay with leaving the town to Hemlock and the guard.

Some more face-time with Shalelu would be good, too. They didn't really get much chance to talk with her thus far.

[Misroi]

The other thing to remind your players is that Tsuto's journal mentions that Nualia is working on releasing a being known as Malfeshnekor, and that it's instrumental to razing Sandpoint. Thistletop has something evil sealed away, and it would probably be a Bad Thing if they did nothing and allowed it to be freed. It's not just a matter of fortifying Sandpoint against goblins - there's some dark magics involved, and the only sure way to stop it is to head out there and end the threat themselves.

[Kalshane]

Yeah, playing up the "Nualia is trying to unleash an ancient evil under Thistletop" angle should help get the PCs the idea that they should go on the offensive rather than waiting for the goblins to come to them.