Class Is In Session

General Summary

With Lethe's dome completed, the party finally had a moment to catch their breath. After a moment, Precision heard noises coming from the ravine the party had crossed over and saw the form of Pancake struggling to pull himself up and follow the party, a severed goblin arm in his mouth. Precision congratulated him on his bravery and sent him off to his pocket dimension.
As the party rested, Erevan kept and eye on the goblins as more and more of them began surrounding the dome. Eventually, one that appeared to be their leader came out to have a conversation with the surrounding goblins before leaving again. As the party began to awake and the dome faded away, a chant began to take shape among the horde. Erevan mentioned the earlier conversation to Lethe, who cast a spell to allow him to understand their language. When the spell was completed, he realized the goblins were chanting "kill." Shortly thereafter the goblin's leader came out again and quieted the crowd, telling them that according to their laws, "Shadlak will decide their fate." As the party tried to figure out what Shadlak meant, the goblin crowd began to part as several goblin handlers led a huge bulette towards the party.
The bulette proved to be a formidable foe, instantly wiping out Lethe's skeleton posse in one pounce. Lethe used a spell to disguise himself as a goblin before teleporting away into the crowd of onlookers, managing to remain hidden for the rest of the battle while subtly casting spells. Erevan blasted fire at the creature from point-blank range, eventually being knocked unconscious before Precision was able to finish him off. Seeing their sacred champion destroyed, the goblins fled into a myriad tunnels while Precision took a totem from the creature.
As the party pressed on further, they found what appeared to be an impromptu classroom. Ramshackle chairs and desks surrounded a central fire, and on most of them were scraps of bark, animal hide, and occasionally parchment. Each bore similar etchings, and as Lethe translated it he realized these were all attempts to spell several common words: stone, spear, rock, goblin, meat. Further on, the party looted the goblins' hoard where they found the beggar's family sword before finding the leader's room. In it, they found a map leading to a large forest in the northern kingdom of Nordaven. Accompanying the map was a letter from the goblin leader Gorlak addressed to someone called the Brightchief. The letter mentioned a gift from the Brightchief that allowed Gorlak to learn how to read and write. It detailed Gorlak's efforts to teach the rest of his tribe, and the difficulties that repeated attacks from "up-dwellers" caused. Gorlak said in the letter that he had learned enough that he didn't need the gift anymore, and once the tribe was all educated they would all head north to join the Brightchief. Looking around the room, they found a small ring enchanted with the spell Enhance Ability that they determined to be the gift Gorlak had mentioned. Precision took it, and the party left.
Back in Roselawn, Torbern the beggar was awaiting their arrival at the Five Brothers Inn. As the party returned the sword to him, he thanked them profusely. He said that while he did not have anything of monetary value to give, if they were ever in the company of the Merendings to tell them that they "seek a lone rider." He also said that beggars tended to hear everything, and talk amongst themselves. As such, he had heard through their information network that Prior Confessio intended to betray the party and blame the Margrave's death on them.
Using this information, the party contacted Percival Fould and asked him for advice on what to do next. As the party awaited on his response, they noticed a rattling from a vase in the corner of the room. One of the flowers began to grow larger until it reached roughly seven feet tall, at which point it unfolded and Percival stepped out.

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Class Is In Session"

---

Previous Chapter: Down, Down to Goblin Town

Next Chapter: A Tale of Two Cities

---

Ingame Date: 15-16^th of Rainseed, 1855
Real-Life Date: November 29, 2020
Protagonists:

• Precision
• Lethe Argie
• Erevan

Featured NPCs:

• Torbern
• Percival Fould

Locations:

• Gorlak Tribe goblin encampment
• Roselawn