Chapter 3: Thistletop

Barghests are canine beasts that take great joy in the hunt, often lurking near humanoid settlements to find prey that can provide a suitable challenge. Even in the deepest wilderness, barghests choose the most clever or difficult prey, searching endlessly for challenges like giants, nymphs, and unicorns. More than victory or even the possibility of a meal at the end, barghests enjoy the thrill of the chase and the fear they create within their prey. Particularly terrified targets of a hunting barghest might even be allowed to escape, spreading the terror and enticing hunters who can become the barghest's next victims. A handful of barghests resort to learning magical methods of causing fear directly, though they find such fear hollow and unsatisfying.

Brodert is wonders how old this creature could be, as the ruins themselves are thousands of years old, and if it has been locked in for all this time, what could this have done to the creature's mind.

"I can tell from Nualia's notes that she had trouble releasing it from its prison beneath the ruins," Brodert muses. "And it has been stuck for thousand of years according to her notes so I am sure a couple of days for research will be fine."

"In fact it would probably be there for aeons more as long as nothing changes."

"Until some new lunatic gets the same idea Nualia had," Sheriff Belor shakes his head. "Better safe than sorry. It is too far away from town for us to keep a constant guard on it."

"There is another thing to keep in mind," Brodert adds. "If this creature has been there since the days of Thassilon it would be the only first hand source. The answers it could give if it'd been made cooperative."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with the dwarf," Shalelu says. "Could you even trust anything it says. From what you told us about the barghest it was an evil and cunning creature. Wouldn't it just say whatever you want to hear to bide time until it could get the upper hand."

"I suppose," Brodert sighs. "It's just so few sources of reliable information about Thassilon."

You keep reading the notes and her plans to invade Sandpoint with her army of goblins. She wanted to burn it down as an offer to Lamashtu in hopes of being made a half-fiend, but also to fuel the runewell in the catacombs below.

The notes go on to detail how to cause sinspawn to manifest from the runewell, and claim that if someone were to overextend the
runewell’s stores, it would be deactivated. Nualia isn’t sure how to reactivate it, and several times stresses that the runewell shouldn’t be used much until after Sandpoint is razed and the deaths of hundreds of angry citizens and goblins have refilled the well.

The runewell she writes is a Runewell of Wrath. It feeds on the anger of those above as well as influence them, making the citizen of Sandpoint angrier than they would have otherwise been.

The sheriff shrugs. "I would feel safer if the barghest is dealt with," he says. "But unless you can succeed where Nualia failed it's not sure you can gain access to it."

"Maybe that's for the best, freeing it to kill it could cause it to escape," Shalelu says. "I spend most of my time in the forest. I'll keep an eye on the Thistletop ruins whenever I'm returning to town."

The sheriff nods. "That's a start," then he turns to the rest of you. "I would prefer for you to stay in town until the guards from Magnimar arrives. They will want to take your statement. And I'm afraid my men won't be able to deal with a wizard should she try to escape."