You, Kant, always get what you want.

So last week's adventure was quite the show-stopper. Let's get right down to it.

Being found trapped under some rubble by the wanna-be King Breggit and Goons, Tanq decides that a brazen show of force is the order of the day. With a practiced gravitas he tosses the boulders from his back, showboating a few around like a cat on Gunther Gable Williams' back before shrugging them off. Add in a few gratuitous flex poses and the goblin kinglet and his cronies have no desire to start any trouble.

Safe for the moment, the gang decides it's time to palaver about a few odd things. Firstly, Tanq can't hear much other than the ghostly wails of condemned souls caught between this realm and the next. It's really keeping him up nights and he'd like it to stop. Secondly, there's a festering, blackening wound on the ranger's forearm that doesn't seem to be getting better, despite his assurances that he ran it under a cold tap. Seeing as how both ailments seem to have a magical component to them, the gang decides to first check with the grouchy gnome to see if he might be able to help them out.

After learning a bit from the gnome about their predicament, and being shouted at and insulted for being rather moronic, the gnome writes them a note to take to Stylus Kant, Headmaster of the Wizard Academy in Endholme, seeing as he might be able to help them. With the dulcet tones of Toto ringing in their ears, the party sets off out of the dungeon to return to Endholme.

A fairly uneventuful trip out of the caves led to a brief encounter with some strangely aggressive dire beasts in the forest. After dispatching them, the crew lands in Enholme at night and successfully wakes up Stylus Kant by presenting the gnome's note to the guard at the academy.

After looking at the party's magical wounds, Kant begins preparations to restore them to normality. While he works, he explains what was in the gnote from the gnome and some of Endholme's history as it pertains thereto.

 Turns out there was a bustling metropolis to the north of Endholme called Barakus, and many generations ago was one of the largest, most advanced magical centers in the realm. As things usually do, things went awry and one of the citizens decided all this magical power could be made better if he were a lich and controlled everything. After transforming himself to a lich, he planned to forge a helm that would increase his power and make him super-wonderful. But before he could complete it, the three dominant political families in the city (The Pulantis, The Kants, and the Kilkarins) had begun to forge a magical weapon that could slay the lich and restore order. Seeing his plans about to be foiled, the lich set off a magical bomb of sorts in the form of The Stone of Madness, which sets all creatures within it's range mad and overly aggressive.

(I know no one else has seen Kingsman yet, but go see it as soon as you're able. This picture makes sense here).

Pandemonium ensued and most of the citizenry were killed. The three families battled the effects of the Stone and managed to trap the lich deep beneath the city before fleeing for their lives.

They go on to found the city of Endholme.

Kant has made a life long study of his family's journals and histories in an attempt to understand what, if anything, could be done about the lich. In the last few years, more and more mercenaries and groups of unsavory peope have been coming through Endholme, hired by unknown parties, and disappearing into the ruins of Barakus. The local wildlife has become increasingly aggressive and things seem to be getting worse. So Stylus tells you that he sent his apprentice, Fenton, into the ruins on a recon mission but hasn't been seen for some time. He's been dodging his wife in town by locking himself up in the tower, but he knows that it won't last forever.

The three families had devised a weapon to defeat the lich, but in doing so, realized they created a magical force that could be just as powerful as the lich himself and, not wanting themselves to be corrupted, locked it away in the ruins of the city in the hopes that someday a champion would find it and pass the trials necessary to weild the weapon properly.

He tells you some cryptic remarks about 3 keys being lit, and how not just anyone can wield the thing. He then dramatically shows you the gnote from the gnome, which, after the first few lines of insulting the group's intelligence, reads as follows:

"One of these morons may actually be capable of wielding it. The helm has been found, something must be done."

While reeling from this revelation, Kant channels some divine magic which rockets into the injured party members and heals their wounds.

He goes on to offer any aid to you, and expresses his profound thanks that you are going to help the city in this matter, hoping that the gnome may, indeed, be correct and one of you can end the lich. When asked if he had anything useful to give to the party, he parted with a potion of water breathing. He gives you another sealed gnote to take back to the gnome and bids you farewell.

Flash Forward.

The gang shows up back in Barakus and attempts all manner of banging to get the gnome to open his door. Tanq is held back just short of breaking the door down. When you wave the sealed gnote in the air, a magical mail slot appears and disappears once the note is placed in it.

We also learn that Tanq, in a quirk of character, will, under no circumstances, break a letter sealed with wax. Anything else he's willing to plunder, break open, or otherwise smash, but that wax seal is to be respected.

Moving on, you arrive back in Breggit's "throne" room. Puffed up with bravado and possibly slightly drunk, the goblin king demands a toll fee since you guys seem to keep coming through his chamber so often. Roughly before the words are out of his mouth, Tanq has swung on him, causing a fracas to ensue.

The monk and the ranger, not wanting to upset the potentially fragile political system in this ruined city, try to extoll the virtues of diplomatic resolution.

Their entreaties are fell upon deaf ears.

Breggit + goons start doing their best to bring down the large dragonborn, with the rest of the party looking on, not helping either side.


Once Tanq starts to flag and look a bit shaky, the monk steps in and attempts to grapple Breggit and resolve this little tête-à-tête without anyone having to die. Unfortunately Breggit is so enraged at this point that he manages to slip free and continue beating on Tanq.
After a few rounds, with the goblins taking some fairly heavy damage, they manage to overwhelm the dragonborn with sheer force of numbers and he drops unconscious at their feet. With a sneer, Breggit reprimands the group to know their place, respect their betters, and remember who the real king of Barakus is. He snatches up Tanq's gold pouch, strips him of his fancy silk cape, and strides off with his goons falling in behind him, swaggering like a puffed up cockingjay. 

OBJECTIVE RECAP

=================

1) Find Fenton for creepy psychic lady AND Stylus Kant, as he may have found information that will be of use in defeating the lich
2) Possibly figure out who hired the evil party, and what they might be up to down here. Now that there's a lich involved, you can make some guesses.
3) Plunder cash monies and awesome magic items

 CURRENT XP TOTALS
=================
150xp for the Dire Beast eradication
+75xp for not opening the sealed letter on either occasion

(lv. 4 ) Josh: 3360
(lv. 4 ) Brian: 2790 (not present)
(lv. 4 ) Tim: 3010 
(lv. 4 ) Andrew: 2700 (not present)
(lv. 4 ) Kit: 2975 (+50xp for attempting to end the fight with Breggit once it was clear Tanq was going to lose) [clarification: the bonus is for attempting to save Tanq's life and still maintain a character-sensible resolution to Breggit, rather than just outright murder)

Enter the Monk

Born too small, and too sickly (premature) to survive traveling in winter tribal law dictated the child be left behind to die. Despite the feeble physical appearance, the nurse-maid who brought him into the world saw a spark in the child's eye that reflected a strenght of spirit and will to live that moved her to take pity on the child and delivered to the babe to a nearby monastary with the hopes that the monks there would be able to nurse the child to health.

The monks gave the child the name Shuzume, or Sparrow in the common tongue, and under their care he survived the harsh winter.

Life at the Monastary was good for Sparrow and he quicky grew into a kind, thoughtful, strong young man. He never balked at any of his duties and under the care and tutalage of the monks learned many things. The order practiced the way of the open hand and from an early age Sparrow showed great promise in this art form. Through rigorous training Sparrow learned to use not just his physical strength but also his strong mind and developed speed and agility that belied his size.

The monks also insisted that Sparrow understand his tribal heritage and he spent much time learning the ways of the land in the forest surrounding the temple. He learned to distinguish good fruits and nuts from bad, to build shelter and start fires, and to hunt, skin,and cook small game.

As is customary in the temple, now that sparrow has enetered adulthood it is time for him to learn the ways of the world at large. To explore both the world and himself outside of the safety of the temple walls and to use his gifts to aid others. It is also encouraged to seek out other temples of the order to continue his teachings.

This is the Ret Con.

This is the retcon.

Okay, so now that we are getting to the meat of the adventure, it seems that the fly-bys we did through the initial town and the running off half-cocked after finding a scrap of map and an obviously evil band of adventurers to follow are leaving the narrative a little anemic. So we're going to do what any self-respecting group of geeks would do. We're going to retcon this bitch.

The following is an enhanced retelling of your adventures in Endholme, please read before next session and you should feel a little more comfortable about the reasons for your wanton slaughter and destruction. If you would like to take some more control over your character's backstory, please edit this post and change up the prologue.

Kit, feel free to write yourself into the narrative, or email me separately if you would like some guidance on where you want to jump in.

THE LOST CITY OF BARAKUS

with The Fancy Lads

=================================

Zak was insistent that I use this graphic.

PROLOGUE

Drifting ashore after having his ship and crew destroyed by a mysterious white ship, Captain Tanq drags himself into town to begin plotting his revenge.

Growing tired and bored with rooking the local rubes of Freehaven (in the south), BRIAN went after a larger score which went very poorly. Barely escaping the failed heist and unsure of whether the town guards would recognize him, BRIAN escapes and manages to gain passage on The Ursus, captained by Tanq. He is now one of two survivors of the shipwreck, and trying to put as much distance between himself and the guards from Freehaven.

Melting out of the forests due west of Endholme, Grelluk picks his way carefully into town to trade for some basic supplies. Cities make him uncomfotable due to his love of word play and preferring mostly to stay at range from others, bow-ing out of social situations, badgering the local populace......you get the idea. An innately protective dragon, he wants to help the two bedraggled sailors restore their lives.

Merwyn the Serene arrives in Enholme like a muted thunderstorm, quiet, calm, but with power seething below the surface. (ANDY, can you post up your backstory about the hammer and whatnot? I'd like to include it here.)

ACT I : How it Began : The Beginining

After finding themselves in a rather seedy, threadbare inn on the wrong side of the river, the Lads warm to one another enough over a few pints of watered down lager to want to go carousing a bit in town before attempting to sleep without being murdered, robbed, and raped (hopefully in that order) in their rooms at The Puckered Barnacle.

While walking to the better side of town, the gang is accosted and Grelluk is kidnapped. Following the trail into the sewers, the gang leads a bloddy swath through the wererats that live in the tunnels. After vanquishing the leader, a saucy French wererat named Tousice, they find a scrap of map, a cryptic note, and another captive. The note leads the party to believe that Tousice was not acting on his own behalf and had been delivering his victims to "P". The other victim turns out to be the happy-go-lucky son of Lord Falco Kilkarin, one of the town's rich families. Upon his successful return, the family's patriarch (a curmudgeonly old man named Falco), the gang is put up in the best inn in Endholme, The Kings Road, courtesy of the old man. It seems as if the old man might know more than his is letting on about who "P" might be and why his son was kidnapped, but doesn't seem to have much interest in discussing it with a ragtag group of strangers.

Heading over to their new lodgings, the 'Lads set up camp at the bar to relax. Their relaxation is broken by the incessant jabbering of a young bardic gnome named Curly Barnes, who is fascinated with adventuring, but has sadly never left Endholme. The party is welcoming to the little guy, and he tells them a lot of the current events here in Endholme. He identifies another adventuring party staying at The Kings Road. He had tried to get in with them, but they gave him the brush off.

[At this point, we dicked around for a bit and then decided to follow the obviously evil adventuring party out the next day, and it sort of snowballed from there. Here comes the retcon. Brace yourselves.]

Wenches! Fighting! Bards!

When questioned further about them, Curly tells the party that they've been hired by someone in town to investigate the ruins up north, but he's not sure who. He explains some basic Enholme politics, and tells the gang that there are three major families that control everything: The Pulantis, The Kilkarins, and The Kants. The Kants run all the magical affairs of the town, including the academy & healers. The Kilkarins run all the commerce. The Pulantis seem to control "sanitation". He winks slyly when saying "sanitation". Then he elbows Grelluk in the ribs and over enunciates "sanitation". After an awkward pause he flatly explains that they're criminals. None of them have ever shown any obvious interest in the ruins to the north, so he's not sure who may have hired the other party. But once the topic of the ruins have been brought up, Curly gets very animated. This is obviously one of his favorite topics.

He tells the party everything he knows about the ruins to the north. There are many conflicting stories about them, and most sane people steer very clear of them, as there is a dark and malevolent energy about the place. Curly happens to believe that they are the ruins of an ancient city that was destroyed after the citizens all went mad and killed one another. There have been many adventurers and thieves who have set out to plunder them, but rarely do they come back. He mentions that, lately, there have been more and more unsavory types populating the town.

While they are discussing the possibilities a distraught woman strides over to the table and sits down. Curly shrinks back a little bit. She identifies each party member by name and beseeches them to help find her husband, Fenton. He was a promising student at Endholme's wizard academy, and was sent out on errantry to the north ruins by the headmaster, Stylus Kant, and hasn't been seen since. Without waiting for a reply, she leaves the party in stunned silence. Curly waits for her to leave the inn and then tells the party that they had met Penelope, who was a fairly strong psychic. Generally a nice woman, she always gives Curly the willies and ever since Fenton disappeared she's gotten downright creepy.

After some deliberation and potential breaking and entering, the gang decides to head out northward.

Adventure is set out on.

ACT II : Filler Caves : Seriously they went on forever

The gang followed the evil adventuring party out to the ruins north of town the following day. Leaving Curly with the horses, they ventured in.

Here are the highlights:

Climbing ropes is discovered to not be the party's forte.

One (1) hungry ogre is slain.

One (1) sleeping ogre bypassed.

A fairly large number of Kobolds were killed, although their leader managed to get away.

One (1) key (magic?) obtained.

A long and arduous battle with an underwater aberration.

Three boxes with key-like depressions in them found above a secret chamber containg a door with three magical locks. Engravings around the door feature two major icons: a horned skull wearing an ornate helmet, and a flaming sword.

An Eldritch Knight almost slays the entire party.

A grouchy gnome with some magical powers is encountered. While not hostile to the party, he's not particularly nice, and seems to know more than he's letting on.

A large black dragon is discovered and wisely left alone.

After all this harrowing adventures, the party finds themselves in a misty oubliette containing a large, oaken door bearing the inscription "Open Thy Mind and Bring With Thee Thy Heart Truest and Kind." The door is locked magically. Once the key is placed inside the lock, it disintegrates and the door flies open. Once the door is open the mist seems to take form and rush past the party into the door. Merwyn can hear mundane muttering in the mist, catching the following phrases in common:

"I don't know, look menacing."
"...did it look like before we killed it?"
"..least they found...key"
"...find that helm before.....powered up"

Unharmed, if a little wary, the party decides to venture forward into the ruins.

OoooooOoOOOoOOOOoOO. Mysterious.

ACT III : The Lost City : Finally made it, what were we doing again?

Heading into the darkness, the party discovers that they are in a hidden passage and leads out through a bookcase into a decrepit, yet once lavishly furnished, bed chamber. Smeared in blood on the wall are various ranting and raving phrases, the common theme being "The Sword Will Save Us" and "The Master Is Mighty".

Upon bursting through the bookcase the gang finds a threadbare goblin wearing a battered copper crown and an ornate silver bracelet named Breggit. Breggit has a few cronies with him and is generally gruff and unwelcoming. But, not particularly wanting to start a fight, he blusters but allows the party to pass through "his realm" while griping about the "other usurper king, Grezzo".

The gang heads north and finds a supply room which, after a cursory glance, contains broken pottery and rotting cheeses, as well as a large sinkhole in the center of the room. The hole contains a Dire Weasel which pops it's head out and chuffs angrily but is calmed by Merwyn's druidic ways.

The party awkwardly passes by Breggit again, who seems to take no notice of them, and heads southwards into what appears to be the remains of a workshop. All manner of strange, intricate tools are lying about all the goblin's refuse, their purpose long forgotten. Six sub-chambers branch off of this main room, but the party leaves these alone for now.

Heading further down, they find 4 gigantic stone heads in a room with a painted diamond on the floor. They eventually rotate the heads to charge up the diamond, and only Tanq has the courage, or blind foolishness, to stand inside of it and is granted +2 to Fort saves for the next three days. Resetting the heads fails to charge the diamond up again.

They head westward into a small chapel that has obviously been profaned by being used as an execution chamber as headless bodies are littering the floor. Tanq finds a shiny, wicked looking axe in the corner which he decides must be his.

Heading back to explore the sub-chambers in the workshop, the gang is ambushed by some goblins wearing tabards bearing an ornate "G". With his first strike using the executioner's axe, Tanq begins to hear the wails and screams of all it's victims. He can't make it stop.

Heading back to the workshop, Merwyn tosses a bone into one of the rooms, only to awaken the proverbial sleeping dog, only this is a Death Dog. Being trapped in the room helps the gang dispatch this evil canine, but Grelluk takes a nasty wound on his arm that begins to fester black.

While examining another room, a trap is accidentally triggered, causing a small cave-in and trapping Tanq and Grelluk under some rubble. The noise brings Breggit and his cronies down to see what's going on.

He comes striding into the room, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Having some trouble, lads? I would've warned you about the dog, but, y'know, sleeping dogs and all that."

.....Stay tuned for our next adventure.



===============
STAT BLOCK
===============

OBJECTIVE RECAP
=================

1) Find Fenton for creepy psychic lady
2) Possibly figure out who hired the evil party, and what they might be up to down here
3) Plunder cash monies and awesome magic items

 CURRENT XP TOTALS
=================
(lv. 4 ) Josh: 3135
(lv. 4 ) Brian: 2790
(lv. 4 ) Tim: 2785
(lv. 4 ) Andrew: 2700
(lv. 4 ) Kit: 2700

CURRENT GP
================
(add later)