Session 29 — The Battle of the Founderstone

Kerath took cover inside the Stagnant Pool and fired on a guard-turned-doppelganger through the window. When it closed the distance, he pulled out his not-so-trusty shortsword, attempted an attack, and clumsily stabbed himself instead. He retreated farther into the inn, but the shapeshifter followed and knocked him unconscious. Xavier emerged from the secret tunnel beneath the inn in his human form, cured of the curse that transformed him into a dragonborn by the restoration of the Founderstone. He ignored the doppelganger, poured a healing potion into Kerath’s mouth, and demanded to know where his family was. Kerath admitted they were left unattended outside of town. Angered and concerned for their safety, Xavier rushed out the door to find his wife and daughters.

The sight of Vorum Monfok stripped of his guise as Lord Kane set Blumf into a rage. While the dwarf rushed the villainous impostor / his one-time employer, Argora, Dimitri, Durgeddin, Lyra, and Zubraida cleaned up the remaining doppelgangers in the square. Just as the party was beginning to think this might be easy, two troops of orcs arrived in town. Because Lady Tiegen and her daughters were no longer their captives, the raiding orcs apparently considered their bargain with “Lord Kane” broken. From their perspective, he had reneged on their deal, and they were uninterested in sparing Blassingdell from their pillaging any longer. Orcs mounted on enormous flying bats swooped down on the defenders of the Founderstone, and orcs mounted on familiar bull-like creatures charged into the square. The latter first stopped by the place where the party left Xavier’s family and Charlie’s corpse, and they now carried Lady Tiegen with them, bound but conscious thanks to the party’s intervention.

The situation worsened for the party when a large mechanical construct, summoned by Monfok, stepped out of a portal and into the square. Blumf suffered a barrage of punches from it before it attempted to flee with Monfok around the side of the inn. When Blumf followed and struck Monfok, a stream of dark energy passed between him and the armored automaton, revealing that damage dealt to Monfok would be split with his metallic guardian. Blumf’s attack interrupted Monfok’s concentration, and Jade Eyes suddenly reappeared, returned from banishment to another dimension filled with strange human-sized polyhedra. The tabaxi was ready and loosed an arrow, and Monfok retaliated against Blumf and Jade with a volley of fire. Though engulfed in a column of flame, Blumf’s rage burned hotter and he mustered all his dwarven might to punch Monfok with his spiked gauntlets. Angered, Monfok blasted Blumf with another burst of flame, knocking him out. When the construct went after Jade, he used his feline agility to escape around the corner of another building, hiding behind it and attacking from cover throughout the remainder of the battle.

With bat-mounted orcs swarming them, Zubraida, Argora, Durgeddin, and Lyra prepared for the assault. Argora hurled a javelin at a bat, killing it and causing its rider to crash to the ground. As it lay prone, Argora took the opportunity to teabag it. Lyra cast Stoneskin on him—making him hard as a rock when she touched him—and cast Dominate Beast on a bat, forcing its rider to plummet 100 feet. The orcs returned fire with a shower of darts. Zubraida used her uncanny luck and divine influence over the transition between life and death to mitigate some of the damage. The orcs also targeted frightened townsfolk who had not yet fled the square, killing many.

Kerath, revived by Xavier’s potion, swung at the doppelganger looming over him. He missed, and the shapeshifter struck at him again, knocking him out a second time. Dimitri saw this from the square and cast Healing Word on the ranger. By this time his charm spell had ended, and the other doppelganger, formerly under his control and now very pissed, rushed him. Dimitri dropped an opaque cloud of fog on his current position and dove through the inn window to escape his attacker, landing prone on the wooden floor. Kerath leapt to his feet and swung once more at his assailant, but he was so unpracticed at wielding a blade that he instead struck an innocent bystander: Moffett, his former acquaintance at the Stagnant Pool. If he’d had a face the doppelganger would have smirked before knocking Kerath out a third time and delivering the killing blow to Moffett. Dimitri may have rolled his eyes when he easily dispatched this doppelganger and healed Kerath once again.

Xavier encountered the bull-mounted orcs first and frightened one away with a furious bellow. He wrestled his wife free from her captor and broke her bonds. As two of the bulls charged Lyra, she and Lady Tiegen simultaneously unleashed a torrent of flame upon them. So that both Dimitri and Kerath could see the battlefield better, the gnome dispelled his fog cloud. He also conjured slick grease beneath the bulls and orcs, causing them to fall over repeatedly.

While unseen by all on the far side of the inn, Monfok took the likeness of Blumf, transforming into a perfect replica of the unconscious dwarf. Monfok cast spells at both orcs and party members in Blumf’s form, something the barbarian could never do, but he did so from the cover of the corner of the building. When Monfok sighted Xavier on the battlefield, he surreptitiously cast a powerful Finger of Death spell. Xavier resisted much of it but still suffered massive damage. In the heat of battle, no one noticed where these spells came from except Dimitri’s owl familiar, who wasn’t aware of the real Blumf’s lack of magical capabilities, and so the deception remained undiscovered. None was aware that the real Blumf was unconscious behind the building. Fortunately he stabilized without the aid of healing.

The mechanical construct attempted to pursue Jade. Kerath took aim at it from the window that served him so well before, but he’d experienced one too many whacks to the head and his arrow struck the window frame instead. Fortunately the orcs were nearly as pissed off with Monfok as they were with the party, and some began attacking his guardian. Jade was impossible to find when he wanted to remain hidden, so he was able to strike from the shadows unseen.

Monfok cast Odeur de Blumf, conjuring a stinking cloud inspired by the dwarf’s scent that flooded into the town square and inn, forcing most to gag and vomit violently. Kerath spewed all over the inn. Zubraida barfed directly into the open mouth of a bull. Lyra heaved next to Argora, splattering him a bit. Even an orc ralphed. But Argora had a cast-iron stomach. He’d spent enough time in close proximity to the dwarf to develop an immunity to his unique fragrance.

With the aid of Lady Tiegen’s and Lyra’s healing, and by benefiting from Xavier’s commanding presence, together they took down or forced into retreat the remaining orcs, bats, bulls, and lone doppelganger, leaving only the mechanical construct and Monfok, still disguised as Blumf. As the party focused its attacks on the construct, Monfok took one more shot at Xavier, this time in the open. He cast Feeblemind, just as he’d done to Blumf in their prior encounter. Again Xavier resisted the brunt of the spell and avoided Blumf’s fate. Kerath noticed his “friend’s” uncharacteristic behavior, called it out, and fired an arrow at him thinking Blumf might be under some spell. When it hit, the stream of dark energy that appeared between “Blumf” and the construct gave Monfok’s identity away. They focused their attacks on the guardian, with Argora delivering the final blow, before turning their attention to Monfok.

Lyra blasted him with a dazzling sunbeam, and the others piled on. Monfok retaliated with more fire, his animosity always directed toward the man whose life he tried to steal. When he reached into his pockets for some unknown spell components, Dimitri’s owl flew in his face, distracting him long enough for Jade to lodge an arrow in his neck. Vorum Monfok fell lifelessly to the ground, and he reverted to his true, otherworldly form.

Before any of them had time to celebrate their victory, locate the real Blumf, wonder what had become of Charlie or Xavier’s daughters, or even catch their breaths, Argora shocked all when he strode up to Xavier and without warning lunged at him with his sword…