After resting for the night in the bunyip cave, we used the bunyip’s corpse as a boat to travel across the water to Thistletop, where the rope bridge led. The land there was also a cliff, but what was left of the rope bridge was dangling into the water from that side, so we were able to use it to climb up. Ausk and Ash climbed up first. At the top they found a number of goblins, who were torturing a seagull by throwing rocks at it while it was tied to one end of a rope. The goblins were holding the other end of the rope, flying the seagull like a kite. Ausk ordered Spike to attack, then he and Ash finished climbing the rope and joined the fight. Devin and Gulnyr followed shortly afterwards, and together we slaughtered all of the goblins.

Nearby, we found a keep that was cobbled together from pieces of old ships. Ausk smashed the door down for intimidation purposes, and we entered. The first room was decorated with poorly preserved dog and horse heads mounted on the walls. One wall had a large pair of black feathered wings pinned up with daggers. We took a valuable looking pearl-handled dagger as treasure.

A goblin emerged from a nearby bedroom which contained four more goblins, and Ausk and Devin went to fight them. Because the bedroom was small, and its door was in a narrow corridor, there wasn’t room for more of the party to engage, so Gulnyr investigated in another direction.

Gulnyr opened a door that led to a corridor whose floor was covered with sand. Beyond the door on the opposite side was a small room containing a staircase that led up to an attic. In the attic Gulnyr found two goblins who had fallen asleep after eating a number of pickles. He killed them in their sleep, then headed back downstairs munching on a pickle.

After Ausk and Devin finished killing the goblins in the bedroom, the party continued exploring. We came to a courtyard which was open to the sky, with grass covering the ground. Two goblin corpses lay on the ground, and four live goblin dogs were present. After killing the goblin dogs, we noticed a shed in one corner of the courtyard. Its doors had been boarded up, and we could hear a large creature making noise inside. We broke open the door, and found a horse inside. It looked angry and ready to attack, but Ausk was able to calm it down.

Continuing on, we found more rooms, including:

• A room filled with cages containing live rabbits. Ausk set the rabbits free.
• A storeroom containing food. The floor was wet due to a leaky pickle barrel. Ausk took some grain from this room to give to the horse.
• Another attic, in which some goblins were playing cards. Gulnyr slaughtered them.

We came to a large throne room. Its walls were decorated with the pelts of horses, goblin dogs, and fire pelt cougars. Four pillars stood in the room, with human hands nailed to them. Present in this room were five goblins, including Ripnugget, who was riding atop a gecko. He invited Ausk in to negotiate. When Ausk approached, Ripnugged attacked, and ordered the other goblins to attack as well. The party then fought the goblins, and killed them all, but Ausk and Spike were also killed in the fight. After the fight, Shalelu showed up, and joined with us as we continued exploring the keep.

We found the following rooms:

• A bedroom with fur rugs. Searching this room, Ash found an iron key in a chair cushion, and a holy symbol of Lamashtu under a pillow on a bed.
• An armory with goblin weapons and armor, and two workbenches.
• A buchery.

We descended some stairs to the lower level. The first room we came to was a meeting room which had a chalkboard. We found a note indicating a plan of a second attack on Sandpoint after the “whispering beast” was tamed. This attack would involve sinspawn.

We then came to a room with a work table, and shelves filled with archaeology equipment. The table was covered with fragments of carvings, runes, and other artefacts. A woman named Lyrie Akenja was present, and surrendered to us immediately. She is an archaeologist who has a deal with the goblins allowing her to live in and conduct her research from their keep. She was not particularly interested in helping us or joining us, and just wanted to be left alone to continue her work. So we left her there and continued on.

Further rooms that we found were:

• An art gallery. There were goblin drawings made with mud, blood, and paint. There was one drawing of a giant goblin with snake-like eyes and taloned hands.
• A corridor containing double-doors. The doors had carvings of monstrous creatures clawing their way out of pregnant women.
• Tunnels with polished stone floors, leading to a cave overlooking the water.
• A cavern filled with bodies of dead birds, as well as six goblin corpses.
• A tunnel in which we were attacked by a tentamort, which we then killed.
• A cavern filled with junk taken from Sandpoint.
• A room full of cages, used as a nursery for goblins to raise their young.
• A bedchamber in which we found Bruthazmus lounging with four goblin women. We fought and killed Bruthazmus.
• A bedroom in which a human man was wating to attack whoever opened the door. Shalelu hit him with a sleep arrow, and then manacled him.
• A bedroom with a musty smell, bird feet on the floor, and fur in the bed.
• A spartan bedroom with an everburning torch.
• A well-organized bedroom, containing papers weighed down with a piece of obsidian. We concluded that this was Tsuto‘s bedroom.
• A large room that was a combination bedroom and study.
• A torture chamber, containing six cells with iron doors.
• A room containing torture equipment.