Once we're well on our way, we hear screaming coming from the marsh somewhere off the shore a bit. We decide to row ashore and investigate the source of the screams. We sneak through the marsh and eventually see a disgusting looking monstrosity dragging a screaming goblin towards a small stanky looking hut made of mud and logs. The monster has the same creepy glowing red eyes that we saw staring at us from the swamp the other day. We figure this is probably the Soggy River Monster.
We realize pretty quickly that this is the same goblin that we interrogated and then dumped over the camp wall. Feeling mildly bad about that, we approach to intervene. As we do, the monster notices us and starts to attack us as well. We beat it to a manageable amount, and then the goblin surprises everyone by jumping in and landing the killing blow. It busts out sobbing and mumbling to itself that it was going to be eaten.
Qunna starts talking to it to try to calm it down. She eventually finds out that her name is Kapo Firestink, and she's terrified. We offer to protect her, and she agrees. Sula asks if we can have her ears, to which she reacts fairly negatively. Qunna calms her down again and keeps her occupied for a few minutes.
We look around the hut the creature created. It's a very basic hut made from logs and mud and various other garbage that it seems to have found around the marsh.
We poke our heads inside and it's filled with scraps of tattered clothing, gory animal bones, monster waste, and some suspicious mud covered spheres. We pick up one of the spheres, and it turns out they're human heads that have been covered in mud and gunk. We're fairly confident that this would be the other party of adventurers that the Sheriff mentioned had gone missing recently.
Unfortunately, we don't have the space to carry back all of the heads and bits of clothing and other remains. Sula has the smart idea to sketch the faces from the heads on some paper so that we can help to identify the missing people. Unfortunately, as it turns out, Sula isn't a fantastic artist, and neither are any of the rest of us, so we don't really notice that her drawings aren't very accurate.
Since we aren't exactly sure what waits for us in the town, we decide to carve some trail markers on trees on our way back to the main path, so that any villagers who come down looking for the remains will be able to find their way to the hut easier.
Once we're done with that, we row and trudge the rest of the way back to town, new goblin friend in tow. As we travel, Qunna attempts to teach the goblin some basics in common so that we can talk to it a little easier.
Arriving at the outskirts of town, we realize that it may not be wise to bring a goblin into a populated area. While the townsfolk are remarkably tolerant of our misfit group, with the goblin attacks in the not too distant history of the town, seeing one amongst them might spark a panic. So we stop off at Sandru's caravan on the outskirts.
Bukka talks Sandru into letting Kapo stay at the caravan and not killing her. Shadow agrees to stay behind to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't cause any trouble.
The rest of us head into town to let the Sheriff know what's happened while we were away. First we drop off the ears and the head of the goblin chief and collect our bounty. Then we track down the Sheriff himself.
We tell him about the Soggy River Monster, and the human heads we found. Sula shows him her drawings to see if he recognizes any of the faces. He doesn't seem impressed, but we manage to convince him that we aren't just screwing with him and that we did actually find the heads. We tell him that we've marked the trail to the hut, and that anyone who goes to check it out should expect no trouble from goblins or the monster, as we've dealt with all of that. He thanks us for the info and gives us a small reward.
Next we stop at the Rusty Dragon to mention some of the coincidental stuff we've found to Ameiko. We tell her about the boats that shared her name, and we show her the letter.
She seems confused by the whole thing. He father never spoke to her about her grandfather, and he had never mentioned anything about Brinewall Castle to her. They moved to Sandpoint after he'd had an affair, and he didn't like to discuss it. She seems genuinely somewhat distressed. She says that we've given her a lot to think about, and that she's going to head home. We're welcome to stay for dinner, and it'll be on the house. We take her up on that offer.
After we eat, we head back to the caravan to check on things. Sandru seems quite pleased with himself and in a good mood. It turns out he's traded Kapo some nearly worthless, but pretty, glass beads, and in exchange he's got her scrubbing up the caravan for him. We brought doggie bags from The Rusty Dragon for Sandru, Shadow, and Kapo. Kapo devours it. We realize this is probably the best food it's ever eaten.
We spend the rest of the night around the campfire with the caravan and decide to get some sleep there.
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