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)