Chapter 1: Burnt Offerings

Round One

You can all see that chaos is now the order of the day. People race around, chased by vicious little goblins wielding nasty little swords and spears. There are several people bleeding badly, but none are near enough to help, or if they are they run off before anyone can reach them. Urthask quickly inspects the goblins at their feet, but doesn't find any identifying marks on them.

While he is inspecting the corpses you hear a loud explosion and turn to see a nearby cart in flames. By the looks of it, this must have been the card holding the fuel for the sunset bonfire. You see that there are five goblins standing around the fire with torches. The wicked goblins dance and howl in glee at the destruction they've wrought. One of them sees you watching and points you out. The rest of the goblins look back, easily spotting you even through the chaos. They raise torches and whoop out a warcry, charging your location.

One of the goblins is better armed and armored than the others, and even a bit bigger than the others. He wields a whip and one of those nasty swords and appears to be leading the chanting.

Daire, seeing the goblins assaulting commoners, rushes forward to engage the closest one.

Urthask rushes forward, causing a couple of commoners to dive to the side to avoid being knocked aside by the ferocious Arktos. The goblin leader attempts to dive aside as he realizes that Arktos isn't planning to stop but is caught in the center of the chest by Urthask's lance which penetrates through and comes out the other side in a shower of gore. Arktos' jaws follow close behind, clamping down on what's left of the goblin's torso and ripping it in half.

The rest of the goblins watch in horror and there is silence for a moment, then they begin to scream and run away, leaving the square unusually quiet.

Daire darts out and attempts to land a blow on a nearby goblin as it turns to watch the spectacle across the square, but his blows are amazingly deflected by the creature's armor.

As the party surveys the destruction they can see a number of goblin corpses on the ground, as well as those of several citizens. The square is mostly empty of the living, aside from a couple of people who had the presence of mind to fight back. The ones still standing seem to have only minor wounds and as the last goblin leaves they either rush to get to their homes or stand weeping over their fallen loved ones.

You can still hear the sounds of the occassional battle nearby. The clash of swords or goblin song echo from other parts of Sandpoint, but the battle for the square is pretty well over. You see Father Zantus limping his way around the area, seeing to the wounded and comforting those who've lost people today. After a few minutes he makes his way over to you.

"It appears that you've saved the day. I don't know how we can ever thank you," he says, and you can hear true gratitude in his voice.

Before you're able to respond you hear the sound of frantic barking and then laughter and a cry for help coming from the north. It seems to be coming from the direction of the North Gate.