While Charlie, Kerath, Qeew, and Lyra were regrouping at the Stagnant Pool, Dark Warren surprised them all by suddenly entering the inn. He revealed that, after studying the history of the town recorded in runes inscribed upon the Founderstone for many years, recent changes in the runes helped him recover the final missing memories of what happened to him decades ago. He recounted the following tale.
More than twenty years earlier, Dark Warren was known by the name of Xavier Kane, the much loved ruler of a prosperous and egalitarian Blassingdell. A gem broker and ambassador from a distant city named Vorum Monfok came to Blassingdell and befriended Xavier. Soon after, Xavier noticed changes in the dispositions of his most trusted advisors, who became cruel and started recommending draconian sentences for even the slightest crimes. Around this time, Xavier’s memory started to fail, and he became increasingly bewildered and disorientated.
One day, Xavier entered his court and saw a man that looked identical to him seated on his throne, and his wife and two daughters were chained at his side. Xavier now believes this man was Monfok, who had stolen his appearance and intended to steal his position as well with the aid of his patron god Cyric. Xavier was given an ultimatum: watch his family die or submit to a ritual that would change his appearance as well and remove all memories of his former life. Out of love for his family, Xavier surrendered to Monfok’s demands. The ritual transformed Xavier into a dragonborn and deleted all memories of his past. Lyra, a young servant girl in Xavier’s household, was exposed to this dark magic too and lost some but not all of her memories as well.
So there was, in fact, no spell on the town altering everyone’s memory of the past. Rather, through subterfuge and magical identity theft, a coup occurred without anyone noticing. From the perspective of the townsfolk, their benevolent ruler and his court of advisors simply became gradually cruel and elitist.
Since the day of the ritual, both Xavier and Lyra were lost in a dissociative fugue, unsure of their purposes in the world. Lyra retreated to the wilderness and developed her druidic powers while attempting to fill the gaps in her memories. Xavier did not see his family after the ritual and wandered around Blassingdell aimlessly. After many years, Lyra was drawn to Xavier, Xavier was drawn to the Founderstone, and through it the gods Pholtus and Mask lifted his magical amnesia.
The next morning, Argora and Jade Eyes awoke at Matilda’s after a long and vigorous night. The madam mentioned that the man she knew as “Lord Kane”, who was in fact Vorum Monfok, had frequented her establishment for years in secret. Between visits with the gnomes, he would spend much of his time simply gazing toward the Founderstone and the dragonborn studying it.
True to their word, Argora and Jade went to meet “Lord Kane” after breakfast. Argora contradicted the story they had told the guard the previous day and claimed the party did not have the weapons yet and still needed more time. It was then that Monfok reached into Argora’s mind to read his thoughts and saw that he was searching for a lie to escape the situation. Monfok in fact already knew that the party had recovered the weapons and told Argora that he saw through his lies. Desperate to retain some control of the situation, Argora threatened to blackmail Monfok using the knowledge that he regularly cheated on his wife at Matilda’s.
At this point, Jade calculated that his best action was to feign disavowing any loyalty to Argora or the interests of the rest of the party. Monfok ordered that Argora be thrown into the dungeon beneath the manor. After he was taken away, Monfok negotiated with Jade a contract of 5,000 gold pieces for the weapons already recovered from Khundrukai. Jade convinced Monfok that he needed to speak to Argora to determine the location of the rest of the party, and he was permitted to visit him in his cell. With two guards stationed out in the hall, Jade picked the lock on Argora’s cell and told him to escape while Jade distracted the guards with some friendly gambling. Argora quickly explored the dungeon unseen but returned to his cell after he could not find an unguarded exit, leaving his cell door unlocked. Unable to distract them any longer, Jade left Argora in the prison and returned to the Stagnant Pool.
Shortly after arriving, Jade was visited by a nobleman named Brur who claimed he believed “Lord Kane” was abusing power and needed to be overthrown. Jade suspected Brur was a pawn of Monfok, so he pretended to not support this idea, and Brur left. Jade explained to Qeew, Charlie, Kerath, and Lyra what happened at the manor, and they recounted to him Xavier’s story.
Meanwhile, Blumf was still working as a hired hand at the stables on the Kane manor grounds. He befriended a woman there named Jelsi who had worked at the manor since she was a young girl. She had noticed odd happenings with “Lord Kane” and confided in Blumf that things didn’t seem right. When Qeew informed Blumf via a telepathic message that Argora was imprisoned in the manor, he convinced Jelsi to help spring Argora. With the aid of Lyra’s shape-shifting magic, Lyra and Jade transformed into pigeons and flew to the stables. By this time, Argora had escaped from his cell with Jelsi’s aid and was hiding on the grounds. Lyra transformed both Blumf and Argora into pigeons as well, and all regrouped at the Pool.
Since Monfok expected Jade Eyes to return with the weapons soon, and since the absences of Argora and Blumf would soon be noticed, they felt they needed to act quickly. Since the citizens of Blassingdell were entirely unaware of the terrible fate of their former leader or of the impostor that now occupied the manor, they concluded it would be very difficult to quickly drum up a riot for distracting the guards as they had originally planned. Instead they planned to meet with Monfok under the pretense of handing over the weapons and then launch a surprise attack. Lyra, who could not march into the manor with the rest of them, agreed to join the fray when she could.
The following morning, Argora and Blumf donned disguises so Argora would not be arrested and Blumf would not be directed back to the stables. Lyra transformed Argora into a winter wolf, and Charlie helped disguise Blumf with a wig. They all set out for Kane manor, bringing with them only some of the weapons forged by Durgeddin and leaving the rest with Lyra. As they approached they were received by a small contingent of guards that escorted them to Monfok’s throne room. They passed dozens more guards along the way, but they were relieved to find only ten in the room when the doors were closed and they were finally granted an audience with Monfok.
Jade spoke for the group and began as though he intended to fulfill the deal. After renegotiating payment, Jade dropped the ruse and the bag of weapons before reaching for his own longbow and firing at Monfok. Qeew used the Wand of Wonder she acquired from Nightscale to cast a random spell, resulting in the evocation of a 15-foot sphere of magical darkness centered on Monfok. He moved out of this and revealed himself to be a powerful magic user by conjuring a wall of flames surrounding most of the party. Blumf rushed toward Monfok, with Jade not far behind. The rest of the party engaged the guards until Brur burst into the room, shapeshifted into a knight, and revealed his true allegiances by attacking the party. Part way through the battle, the lights went out and Kerath and Blumf were both attacked by vanishing shadow creatures. Monfok then cast Feeblemind on Blumf, completely emptying his mind of all intelligent thoughts and language. As the others dispatched Brur and the guards, Blumf, filled only with merciless rage, chased Monfok into the sphere of darkness where he seemed to deliver a killing blow…
No guard would dare call him ugly now, 2018-01-22