After resting up the party headed back down. They found what looked like a research lab but there was no one there. Heading south, the smell of decay crept through double doors. Heading in, they were attacked by undead shadows. Theo’s strength was drained by the shadows but they pressed on through a secret door.

The remains of a vast treasury greeted them. As they stood there assessing it, a giant helmet turned to face them. The Beast couldn’t sense any magic on it and they soon figured out it was a giant hermit crab. The crab proved a nasty opponent, but soon enough they defeated it and scraped up the remnants of the treasure. The giant helmet was set aside so they could come back for it.

Further exploration showed nothing but empty rooms. They soon heard chanting from a large group ahead of them. Jusy tried  to get a sneak attack in on goblins at the chapel doors. A large battle with a were-goblin creature, a goblin riding a lizard, and a half-angelic, half demonic young woman ensued. Theo’s sapped strength and high armor meant she was largely untouchable, but unable to hurt the enemies. Brecca healed and hexxed but was whittled down by goblin archery. Jusy was in there stabbing away despite his lack of flanking. WhyD helped keep the party going. The party was on the verge of dying when TheBeast kiled the were-goblin and used its head to intimidate the rest of the goblins. The young lady tried to flee but was taken down.

The party tried to settle down in Lyrie’s research room for the night after blockading the doors. In the middle of the night Theo heard someone try the door quietly. A short while later, Whyd heard two people move in, followed by a strong pounding on the door. When the door gave way, a ferocious bugbear burst in slashing.

Despite his ferocity, the bugbear didn’t last long. His partner, a human firing from behind a hastily flipped table fared a little better. When Beast roared at him, he bolted from the room. Jusy chased him back down the hallway, followed by the rest of the party. The human fighter burst into a large dining room and a bunch of goblin women in an adjoining room grabbed their weapons and joined the fight.

Theo and Brecca blocked the doorway, while Jusy and Beast pursued the human up a stairway and into another room full of goblins. Brecca misfortuned the goblin ladies while Beast took down the human. The goblins swarmed Jusy and Beast, nearly taking Jusy down. Whyd encouraged the party and threw heals around. After an intense battle with the goblins, the party retreated to the tendriculous’ lair to rest.

The night passed peacefully enough except for a crescendo in the chanting from below, followed by a  blast of abjuration magic…

Undaunted by their encounter with the bridge of doom, the party decided to return to Thistletop to finish eradicating the goblin menace. Unsure what they’d find for a bridge, they decided to rent a boat from Turch in the fish market. TheBeast managed to talk him into renting them a rowboat at a discount price.

Theo’s powerful rowing got them back to the island in short order. As they analyzed their options, pair of bunyips leaped out of the water to attack. The bunyips didn’t prove to be much of a threat; one was slaughtered quickly and the other dove to safety.  Scouting the east side of the island revealed an entrance.

The tentacled creature inside didn’t prove to be much of a threat, so the party moved through its larder with speed, with Theo pausing to cut the ears off of its goblin victims. They moved past a set of grotesquely carved  double doors to a side door with a goblin art gallery, and on into a room with sketches of the assault on Sandpoint.

They burst into a wizard’s workshop and surprised a young lady in the middle of her research. Lyrie was willing to talk but didn’t have much to say apart from letting them know that Nualia is trying to free a monster below for her next attack on Sandpoint. They debated keeping her alive, but decided to off her. A brief battle ensued, in which Lyrie confused them with multiple images of herself and tried to escape through a secret door.

The party was awakened in the early morning by a messenger from Sheriff Hemlock. Shaelu was back and badly wounded from an encounter with the Thistletop goblins and their leader.

They went out to investigate Thistletop and found a maze of briars and nettles on the path to the island. They made their way through the tunnels and found a dispirited group of goblins. Since Theo was after the ears and the bounty, they attacked and quickly annihilated them.  Next was a group of ugly goblin dogs that were only slightly more annoying.

Upon finding the bridge to the island, the party decided to race to the other side to avoid patrols. Much to their surprise, the bridge gave out underfoot and Jusy found himself having to save TheBeast and Whyd from drowning. Theo and Brecca had grabbed the last remaining rope from the bridge, but Brecca slipped trying to make her way back to shore and also had to be rescued.  As Theo made her way around to the party she was jumped by a goblin and his cougar. Despite the unstable footing, everyone got a shot in and quickly took the goblin and cat down.

With the party in such rough shape, they decided to go back to town and regroup.

The party continued exploring the ancient areas beneath the glassworks. First was an ancient prison with a wooden walkway, but little else of interest. Next was a room full of pit with moaning coming from them. Whyd lit up the pits and saw that each of them held a zombie. The party then headed south and were attacked by an oddly deformed goblin. They made quick work of him and found a set of stairs going down blocked by rubble. Further south they found a room with all manner of objects floating around it. Jusy quickly found the most valuable objects – a scroll of burning hands and a wand of shocking grasp.

The party retraced their steps and were attacked by a pair of vargouilles. The poison and paralysis that the floating demon heads tossed around kept them rotating in and out of action. Behind the vargouilles was a blocked stairway leading up.

Finally the party found a huge room with a little demon creature flitting about. She screamed at them that they were defiling the Mother’s sanctum then slashed her own hand and summoned monsters from the pool bubbling beneath her. Her minions were easily dealt with, but Erylium’s flight and damage reduction were a serious challenge. Theo pulled a large shovel from her backpack, aimed carefully, and knocked her to the ground. Whyd jumped onto Erylium and held her down while the rest of the party beat her down. The stairs up led to an abandoned house in Sandpoint, so the party returned to the Rusty Dragon to rest.

After their fight with the goblins, the party moved deeper into the glassworks. Theo spotted a poorly hidden door and a half-elf pushing himself to his feet in a small office. When he spotted the party, he immediately moved to attack.

Theo and Whyd tried to talk him down, but he continued to attack with bow and fists. Breca hexed him, causing him to fumble some impressive moves. Jusy beat him into unconsciousness while Theo held him down.  They then tied him up and continued exploring. Jusy found some disturbing scribblings in a journal on the desk while Theo took possession of the valuables in the desk. Breca left her owl to watch the unconscious half-elf as the party continued exploring.

A short way down a passage, they found Ameiko unconscious and tied up in an alcove.  Upon reviving her, she began to curse Tsuto. When she realized that the party was neither her brother nor his goblins she asked to be released.  She then wanted to warn her father of her brother’s treachery. The news of his death stunned her and left her speechless. The party smuggled Ameiko and the tied up Tsuto back to Sandpoint in wheelbarrows.

The party left Ameiko with Father Zantus for healing and turned Tsuto over to Sheriff Hemlock. With the open and shut case against Tsuto, he was hanged and buried outside the town in an unmarked grave.  Hemlock sent some guards to the glassworks to keep an eye on it.

At Ameiko’s request, the party returned to the glassworks to investigate the tunnel. After making their way down the twisting passage, they found a pair of sinspawn standing guard. The party dispatched them quickly. They found a room full of ancient pottery with the long-dessicated remnants of food. The next room had a statue with a valuable looking ranseur they were able to pry out.

The townsfolk noticed how effective Theo the fighter, Jusy the rogue, Breca the witch, Beast the sorcerer and Whyd the bard were at dealing with the goblin attack and greeted them warmly wherever they went. Alma plied them with fresh bread and gossip.

Sheriff Hemlock asked them to accompany him on his investigation of the town cemetery. They found goblin and human tracks around one of the vaults. Upon investigating the vault, they found animated skeletons standing guard. They dispatched the skeletons with ease and found that the former priest’s body had been stolen. No one could give them any idea why someone would steal Ezakien Tobyn’s body.

The group wandered over to Chopper’s Island, home of the wood-carver who had turned out to be a serial killer. After investigating the ruins of his house and seeing a few disturbing sights, they found the skeleton of a small child. Thinking back over what they’d heard, they concluded that this must be Das Korvut’s son. They brought the remains back to his father and he carried the remains up to the cathedral for proper burial.

Aldern Foxglowve persuaded Theo and a few others to go boar hunting with him. He heaped praise upon her fighting skill, something which only increased after she took down a boar with one hit. After managing to ditch him, Theo really needed a drink.

A few evenings later as they were eating at the Ruty Dragon, an old man cam bursting in yelling for his daughter. Distracted by seeing the local heroes here, he started shooting insults and recriminations at the party as well. When Ameiko showed up, he switched back to yelling at her in Minkaian. She responded by knocking him on the head with her soup ladle,  at which point he he left, muttering.

Hemlock introduced them to Shaleu, a local goblin hunter. She told them that the goblin tribes seemed oddly united lately and that she was headed back out to investigate further.

A few days later, Bethana from the Rusty Dragon asked the PCs to look into Ameiko’s disappearance. Bethana had found a note from Ameiko’s brother, Tsuto asking her to meet him at the glass factory.

The glass factory proved to be full of goblins. They were busy smashing things and eating and missed the party’s entrance. The party managed to dispatch them relatively easily and were ready to investigate further.

Breca the human witch, Theo the dwarven fighter, Whyd the gnome bard, and Jusy the elven rogue found themselves in Sandpoint at the Swallowtail Festival. Theo challenged Jusy to a number of the festival games, trying to win a little extra cash. Whyd sampled all the dishes on display from the taverns – she particularly enjoyed the Rusty Dragon’s curry-spiced salmon.

A thunderstone went off and Father Zantus prepared to begin the cathedral’s dedication. Screams, high pitched laughter, and some truly horrible singing filled the air. A small figure dashed by them and sliced a dog, giggling all the while. Three more goblins popped out from behind a fruit wagon and started erratically attacking people.

The party moved into action and started attacking the goblins. Mostly the goblins and the PCs flailed ineffectually at each other as they got the measure of their abilities. Finally the party managed to move in and finish off the goblins.

Across the square, a fireworks cart went off revealing more goblin moving in to attack. This time they were supported by a goblin bard who managed to get get Theo laughing her head off for the first few rounds.  The party moved more efficiently now and took out these goblins in short order. The townsfolk were impressed by the party’s prowess.

The sounds of fighting were dying down, but a scream and some frantic barking came from the north. As Jusy peeked around the corner, a goblin mounted on a goblin dog took down a large fighting dog and attacked a well dressed man. Theo figured this guy would be good for a reward so she moved in. Jusy flanked the goblin dog and started stabbing away. Jusy soon got the worst of the exchange and was knocked unconscious. Whyd distracted the goblin rider with her bardic skills. Theo went toe-to-toe with more goblins and Breca kept the goblin rider failing his saves thanks to her hexes. The goblins were put down and the noble, Aldern Foxglove, offered the party a reward for saving his life. He encouraged them to look him up at the Rusty Dragon and praised Theo’s fighting skills.

I recently bought Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition to play with my group.

One thing I want to see is motivations for the player characters. Why are the PCs in a frontier town and why are they willing to risk life and limb chasing down bad guys? 

My players are free to create to create background NPCs and Macguffins for their characters as needed. However these hapless NPCs/items will be under my control. So if your dear old dad gave you a +57 Sword of Killing Everything, expect that the bad guys will have stolen it before the story starts and you’ll spend the adventure path chasing it down.

Here are some character motivations from TV Tropes that would work well for PCs in Rise of the Runelords. I linked to TV Tropes so that you can see examples of these motivations in other stories. Feel free to mix, match, invert and invent motivations as needed, as long as you can tell me why your character is willing to go out there and risk their neck.

• Undying Loyalty : A character is motivated by desire to help someone or something they care about.
• I Will Protect Her: A person has their entire motivation built around protecting a vulnerable person/town
• Small Town Boredom A teenager growing up in a small rural town wants to get away from it all, to the big city, or abroad, anywhere but the boring old Small Town.
• Only in It for the Money: A character does something heroic only for the money.
• Driven By Envy: A character wants something someone else has, and resents them for it.
• Failure Knight: A character failed to protect someone once, and is determined not to fail again.
• Family Honor: A character wants to live up to their family name, and bring credit to their family.
• For Great Justice: Good guys fight so that Justice Will Prevail.
• For Science!: A character wants to make discoveries with no real practical purposes.
• Glory Seeker: A character wants other people to consider him/her to be a Badass.
• In Harm’s Way: Characters want excitement and danger in their lives.
• I Owe You My Life: A character feels indebted to someone who saved their life.
• I Will Find You: A character wants to find a lost or kidnapped loved one, whatever the cost.
• Revenge: A character wants another character to pay for what he’s done.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: A character has noble goals, but goes about achieving them ruthlessly.

Here are some other lists of motivations .

• TV Tropes MotivationIndex  
• Character Motivation Generator
• The RPG Athenaeum motivation list