Fort of the Manticore Goblins (aka God King Goblins) -

With Brix leading us to greatness, we ranged back to Brix's fortress. Full night's sleep and all that. Then we tried the horn to draw the Manticore Goblins out, but all we got was one high-flying manticore. No joy.
 
Then Brix tried to hide and, presumably, escape. That's when we tied Brix up. Brix is still a great leader even tied up... or so we tried to impress upon Brix!
 
After some serious scouting of the Manticore Goblin Fort by Oisin (with support from Barton), we finally settled on opening the front gate (stealthily) to let ourselves in, with the hope that surprise would give us advantage. We were pretty lucky (stealthy) but the advantage was not all that great. First of all, they had a lot of ranged attackers taking potshots at us from range. Second, spellcasting! They had at least one (two?) spellcasters taking us down and buffing them up. And they even had potions! And the goblins, even without healing potions, were buff! So between 2x manticores, 6x bugbears, and over a dozen buff goblins we had our hands full.
 
Even so, the battle began well enough. Barton laid down a bed of thorns and I believe Oisin followed up with another right after. The thornbed approach is fast turning out to be powerful for not only trapping foot soldiers in deadly terrain for divide and conquer advantage, but also for slowing down their comrades who end up circumnavigating the life sapping obstacle. Then the arrows and... manticores started flying. Tail spikes galore (as usual these days). Most of us were at or near the entrance but only three of us made it in (I believe). Verxatitus and I were outside the wall trying to combat a bugbear.
 
Things did not go so well inside the wall. Without cover and with few targets, the potshots and manticores were taking their toll on Barton, Dagos, and Oisin. And when the rest of the troops came streaming past the thorns, numbers were not in our favor. Griswold did take out around 10x goblins in two Shatters (with support of a previous shatter from Barton). And that tidied up the field considerably, but 5x on 12x+ is not great odds, when those 12x are very buff including, as we found out to our chagrin, some of the goblins.
 
At some point, we lost some of our thorns but webbed a few adversaries outside the gate. Little did we know, one of the goblins in the entangle was a Beast (capital B). That entangle ended up helping more than we knew. The fight got hot and heavy. Soon, we started healing maneuvers (goodberries et al.). Then back from dead maneuvers (more goodberries). Then retreat maneuvers. Barton and Griswold retrieved Oisin. Verxatitus tried to disengage.
 
At that point, Griswold had an epiphany... Fireball scroll! Just as Griswold was going to revive Oisin with a goodberry, he remembered that even though his area of attack spells were dry, he still had the spare Fireball Scroll from the rescue of Princess Nadia. Eureka!
 
Griswold fired the fireball directly into the battle including the unfortunate manticores flying low for close melee, being careful to use his Sorcerous metamagic skills to exclude party members from the enormous fireball firestorm. The manticores were not so lucky.
 
Bad news... good news.
 
First, the fireball did not take out the manticores. Ouch. Good news... the manticores had taken heavy damage and fled. (We notice they grab some young from their quarters on their way out of the fort.)
 
The ground troops are not so fickle. They press the attack. The captain enters the melee, and the spellcaster and archer keep taking pot shots all over the field.
 
But the tide of battle has turned.
 
As we notice the manticores fleeing and with Oisin back on his feet, we return to the offensive. Griswold takes particular interest in the spellcasting goblin. The takedown is not easy. That goblin was beefy.
Ditto the webbed goblin. While barely strong enough to free itself from the web, when it did free itself, it too went on the offensive and was exceptionally hard to take down. More battle ensues.
 
Ultimately, even the goblins saw the writing on the wall. One bugbear fled. The magician looped out the gate in a fighting retreat. Griswold pursued. Barton pursued. Archer kept taking potshots. Mage doubled back to inflict Fear on Barton and Griswold. Barton succumbed but Griswold rallied to shake it off. Shortly after, Oisin (or Verxatitus?) was able to take down the mage with a well aimed bow shot. Whew! The little guys were some of the toughest opponents.
 
Griswold failed to take down the escaping bugbear, and that was it. Time to lick our wounds, and inspect the fort.
 
We took a closer look around the camp. We retrieved plenty of stolen goods and even some potions and magical armor. (Later on, we heard what sounded like the death cry of a bugbear... perhaps in the same direction as the fleeing manticores.)
 
Oh, and we were scouted by some riders (Dori?) of griffons. So they know the(ir?) camp has fallen.
 
Griswold suspects there are more such camps organized in secret. The spectre of an organized siege of Rennes rears its ugly head again!
 
In the meantime, our party secured the camp for a night of recovery and is grappling with how to get 3x carts back to Rennes without the horses to pull the carts!
 
Gorge road secured. Rennes beckons.