Session 28 — The Worst Laid Plans

The party needed to devise a plan for returning the chunk of rock they found around Lady Tiegen’s neck to the Founderstone, which they hoped would somehow help Xavier and his family. Jade remarked that the prospect of infiltrating the city, slipping past or fighting the many guards, and restoring the stone for an unknown payoff was both silly and suicidal. However, this did not prevent the rest of them from proposing one bad plan after another, hour after hour.

Before they had hardly begun, however, they were interrupted by the slurping sounds of Flav and a gnome licking a toad. “This is some good shit,” Flav said. The strange gnome, accompanied by his owl familiar, offered the toad and some pipe weed to the party members, encouraging them to join in. The gnome, clearly high as a kite, introduced himself and explained he was known by many names: “Magidazzle”, “The Bob”, and simply “Dimitri”. The party took to calling him “Toadlicker”. After the hallucinatory effects of the toad kicked in, Dimitri offered to help the collection of talking lollipops in anyway he could.

Bewildered by this interruption, they returned to planning. Among their crazy ideas were the following:

• One or two of the stealthiest party members (Jade and Kerath) would sneak under the cover of darkness to place the stone, but this was rejected because discovery was likely and Jade thought it too risky.
• Qeew would obscure the area around the Founderstone with a conjured fog for a quick get-in-get-out. Unfortunately, the fog would blind the party as well as the guards.
• They would abduct one of the guards, and Dimitri would charm him or her and command them to place the stone. The charm was not guaranteed to work, and if a noncharmed guard played along or the charm wore off, he or she might walk off with the stone and deliver it to Monfok. When Kerath asked about the reliability of the spell, Jade suggested a test of its effectiveness: Dimitri should charm Kerath and command him to lick Argora. Despite Kerath’s and Argora’s objections, Dimitri tried it and succeeded. Nevertheless, the suffering inflicted on Kerath and Argora did not change the fact that putting the stone in a guard’s hands was too risky.
• They would command a charmed guard to get all the other guards high on toad, thereby incapacitating them. Jade objected that hallucinating guards might be more dangerous than sober guards since they could be very unpredictable.
• Durgeddin suggested resurrecting Charlie with Kerath’s Night Caller whistle to distract the guards with his animated corpse. However, the others thought Charlie would not approve.
• Lyra suggested an alternate distraction of bringing Xavier out of his hiding place in a secret underground tunnel connecting the Stagnant Pool and Kane Manor, forcing the guards to pursue him. This seemed like a dangerous stunt.

At one point Argora explained to Dimitri that Lyra would be very willing to help the party with any plan they devised because he and she “go back”. Lyra disapproved of his presumptuous familiarity, so she transformed him into a toad. Dimitri licked him many times before Lyra restored his form.

Many were still unhappy with their options, so Kerath suggested a stakeout to identify any exploitable patterns in the guards’ activities. Qeew volunteered for this mission, and they decided to rest for the night before she began her watch in the morning. Dimitri conjured a magical dome of force–appearing tie-dyed from the outside–as a shelter for the night.

Before resting, Qeew solemnly stepped out of the bubble to be alone. She began muttering to herself and became agitated before suddenly disappearing in a burst of bright light. The others were shocked but assumed she would soon return. When by morning she had not, they became very concerned. Qeew then sent a telepathic message to Kerath, and they had a brief conversation:

Qeew: I needed to go home. The hardships of travel are too much. I’m sorry for leaving before this was done. Good luck. I’ll miss all.

Kerath: What?! How could you leave us? We need you Qeew! You just volunteered for a mission. Did something come up?

Qeew: I wanted to leave in a week. Snuffy said it was now or never. I couldn’t say goodbye! Perhaps we’ll meet again. Someday.

Kerath: “Now or never”? Time is running out for Xavier or something else?

Qeew: Snuffy wasn’t specific. Things are different here. I asked for a replacement. I hope they arrive in time to help. May Sho shine upon you!

Kerath took Qeew’s place for the stakeout, and Lyra transformed him into an eagle so he could perch on top of the Stagnant Pool for 24 hours. When he returned, he reported that guards were stationed everywhere and tended to remain very near their posts, though one left his to apparently visit Matilda’s brothel for a short time. Their numbers thinned at night, but many still remained around the Founderstone.

At last they settled on a plan proposed by Dimitri: He would simply walk up to the Founderstone and place the missing piece. With the help of his magic, he thought it shouldn’t be difficult, and the others could wait nearby in bird form to bail him out of trouble if necessary. Jade was still reluctant and insisted that he keep a greater initial distance and remain in his normal form. If things got hot, Kerath would signal to him with an arrow shot upward. Before leaving for their mission, Kerath told Dimitri he’d smoke a pipe with him if Dimitri was successful in placing the stone.

They all flew to the Stagnant Pool, leaving Charlie’s corpse and Xavier’s incapacitated wife and daughters alone outside of town. At the inn, Argora, Blumf, Durgeddin, Kerath, and Lyra perched on a ledge above its entrance in sight of the Founderstone. Dimitri flew into the building before reverting to his gnomish form. As he approach the entrance, he was stopped by a half-elf with a corpse-like pallor named Zubraida. She was sent to replace Qeew by her mentor, Perfooch, but she quickly became frustrated with Dimitri’s wandering mind and lack of focus and returned to her drink.

“Toadlicker” stepped out of the inn and cautiously approached the Founderstone. He was quickly stopped by a guard and feigned an innocent curiosity about the relic, successfully avoiding raising too much suspicion. Dimitri pulled out his sketchbook and began to draw, but the guard told him to scram. He circled the Founderstone and inconspicuously approached again from the opposite side. Fortunately for him, the nearby guards had their backs turned to the small, easy-to-overlook gnome. In a flash, Dimitri teleported forward and popped the missing piece into the Founderstone.

As the guards began to shout for Dimitri to move away, a rumbling spread through the town, and a brilliant light engulfed the Founderstone. The runes on its faces began to rearrange themselves into the shapes of a mask and a crescent moon, the symbols of the gods Mask and Pholtus. At the same time, most of the guards transformed into blue featureless humanoids, while the remainder were taken aback by their sudden change.

The shapeshifters rushed Dimitri, and Argora, Blumf, and Durgeddin followed. Zubraida quickly emerged from the building to join the party and summoned a large skeletal hand to fight on her behalf. Lyra dropped everyone’s bird form, Dimitri charmed one shapeshifter, and Kerath fired his arrow to signal to Jade. The tabaxi sneaked closer to the battle, and he attacked the first strange blue creature he saw, dealing massive damage. When it didn’t fall, he fled toward the Stagnant Pool and began to climb its wall. Before he made it to the top, the creature cast some powerful spell on him, and Jade instantly vanished. This creature was in fact Vorum Monfok in his true form, and when he stepped into the town square he appeared to be much more dangerous than his shapeshifting minions…