Save for Flumi, Barnowl, and the colossal frog-thing, all villagers of the Nest have been rallied into the Wasp Rider's Roost caverns, where they are presumed to have the best defense about whatever strange force might be compromising the settlement. Waxmeister Sprue beseeches the PCs to send some deeper into the Roost to make sure it's free of harmful wasplings or other threats to the gnomes, so Un'Krug, Slakethirst, Nahar, Klovak and Borracho head down to clear out any problems. Cynjak summons a spirit that turns into a mangy dire wolf steed. The rest of the party decides to go check on Tanziver's tree to make sure there aren't any stragglers there. Slagmoor and Kaarl ascend the tree and find that a maid and cook are still there, who are then convinced to flee. The cook offers all the food he has prepared in the kitchen. They descend the tree and are harried off to safety.
While in the gnome leader's tree, Kaarl spied a figure on top of one of the mushrooms further north in the village, so the party goes to investigate. En route, they uncover an entire stealth force of goblin archers, witches, brutes, trained raptors and a warchief riding a weird looking triceratops. All the goblins wear strange wooden faceplates over their noses, but are well armored and well trained. The archers fire poisoned arrows that can slow their targets, while the three witches fire off all manner of troublesome spells. However, their challenge is met with some craft conjuring of beasts as Kaarl sets a cloud of pteranodons to harass the archers, and an allosaurus to take the brunt of deadly blows from the warchief and his mount. A little deeper into the battle, Lord Barnowl appears from behind, helping take out an archer on a mushroom before he proceeds into the melee fray.
Numerous PCs are brought down and revived, but midway through the battle Prince Slagmoor is laid out for good when he bleeds out onto the Verdant after a brief bout of unconsciousness... With renewed fury, and just a hint of luck, the PCs manage to slay the enemy forces down to the last goblin, and then rummage through their bodies to take off their equipment. Now they prepare to sweep the area and discover just what this entire attack might have been about...
PCs: Barnowl, Cynjak, Kaarl, Nexa, Slagmoor, Yor, Yukkbutt
XP rewarded: 2000
Inspiration rewarded: 1 (all PCs)
Renown: +1 Ten-Tribes
