As Argora lunged at Xavier, his shield—once pulsating with life—fell to the ground lifeless and cold as though the god Pholtus’s favor waned in that moment. His sword slashed at his target’s back, and Xavier let out a fierce bellow. Kerath recalled how Shagol compelled the others to attack one another and he fired an arrow at his friend, hoping it might bring him to his senses. Lyra saw her would-be-suitor strike at the good man she sought so long to restore and neutralized the threat by transforming Argora into a giant slug.
Confusion and paranoia gripped all, and the noble Lord and Lady Kane and their loyal servant Lyra took a defensive posture against the people that had just helped defeat their enemies. As they flung accusations of betrayal and treason, the party members pleaded that they knew nothing of Argora’s motives and had no intention to seize power for themselves. Jade tried to slip into the shadows away from the embroiling situation, but Kerath noticed this, and since he was keen to prove that none of them had anything to hide he called Jade back into the open. Dimitri picked up Argora and licked the slug to see if its slime was hallucinogenic. It wasn’t.
Lyra noticed Blumf’s absence and found it suspicious. Zubraida found him passed out in the dirt, arse skyward, and healed him back to consciousness. Believing the simpleton could not hide the truth from her, Lyra pointed to the slug and asked “Friend?”. When Blumf shook his head in confusion, she commanded him to punch Argora. Blumf was conflicted and refused, and Lyra interpreted this as an attempt to fool her. She transformed the dwarf into a slug, and Argora reverted to his normal form.
Durgeddin stepped in front of the paladin and asked him for his sword. Argora just stood there, waging an internal struggle. For him, no virtue was more important than loyalty, and no sin more abhorrent than betrayal. The memory of his father’s murder at the hands of conspirators was fixed in his mind, but still he could not let go of his weapon. They asked him if he wanted to strike at Xavier again, and he alternated between “no” and “yes”, contradicting himself. When at last he dropped his sword, Argora was overcome with a blinding headache before finally passing out.
As he lay unconscious, Zubraida attempted to dispel any magic that was compelling Argora to attack Xavier but was unsuccessful. Dimitri said he could identify the presence of a spell if only he had a valuable pearl. Lyra rushed to Matilda’s brothel and returned with one, and Dimitri began a lengthy divination ritual over Argora’s fallen form.
Xavier and Tiegen were worried about their young daughters, whom the party had left alone far outside of town and who may have been discovered by the same orcs that captured their mother. Xavier ordered that guards tie Argora to the Founderstone and watch over him and Dimitri while Kerath and the others lead the anxious parents to the place where their daughters were last seen. When they arrived at the site, the ranger spotted two sets of small footprints. By following these they located the Kane daughters hiding with the aid of an invisibility spell. They were safe and unharmed, and the whole family embraced. Kerath searched for Charlie’s corpse but found only another solitary set of tracks. When he wanted to follow them, Jade reminded Kerath that they were all exhausted and could not possibly take on another troop of orcs.
Along their return trip, Jade demanded the payment of 1000 gold pieces promised to him by Charlie before their journey to Stone Crest. Kerath, resenting his mercenary priorities, paid the tabaxi what he was owed from the party’s collective treasure in the bag of holding. Jade handed his payment back to Kerath saying, “I just wanted to make sure you had it!”. Lyra also noticed that Blumf, still in slug form, had hitched a ride on Kerath’s shoulder, so she transformed him back into a dwarf.
When they arrived at the Founderstone, they saw that Argora had returned to consciousness and was sitting on the ground in silence, still bound. Dimitri had finished his ritual and was smoking his pipe. The gnome revealed that Argora was under the control of a powerful charm spell. They speculated it was placed on him when he was alone with Shagol, a period of time that he could remember nothing about. At mention of this, Jade pointed out that Kerath too had spent a few minutes alone with the orc queen and insisted that both Argora and Kerath had probably slept with her. With suspicion cast on him, Kerath submitted to being tied up and having Dimitri perform the same divination ritual. He tried to explain to Xavier how he managed to avoid Argora’s fate with the aid of the Feywild gem, but he was frequently interrupted by Jade’s quips about bumping uglies with Shagol. When Dimitri declared Kerath charm-free, he was untied.
Jade pulled Kerath aside and confided that he did not trust Xavier, Tiegen, Dimitri, nor Zubraida, as they had only just met. Kerath vouched for Zubraida, explaining that he was expecting her arrival after Qeew telepathically contacted him. Zubraida later explained she was “assigned” to help them and was happy to get away from Windmane where she left behind something she was running from. She also mentioned she believed it was “unfortunate” the party knew of Snuff Pagus’s existence. Kerath did not share Jade’s mistrust of the others as there seemed to be little reason to doubt Xavier and Tiegen were who they claimed to be, and Dimitri’s good nature seemed self-evident to the ranger.
With the cause of Argora’s behavior exposed, Lady Tiegen used restorative magic to remove the charm affecting him. When it was clear the paladin was now harmless, Durgeddin returned his sword and Argora recovered his shield, which had begun to shine once again.
When Dimitri tried to return the pearl to Lyra, she told him to keep it, thanked him for his service, and instructed him to go to Matilda’s and let the madam know he’d placed the rock that restored the Founderstone. With some hesitation, the gnome did as she suggested. When Matilda heard his story she smiled and summoned a parade of her dozens of employees. “Do I have to pick, or do I get them all?”, he asked. When he produced his enormous pouch of pipeweed, she put out the “Sorry, we’re closed” sign and drew the curtains. By morning the bag was empty and all were exhausted except the vital and virile gnome hero. Zubraida would later remark, “So you’re more than just a toad licker.”
That same night the others had the less enjoyable task of clearing the dead from the town square. Jade gravitated toward any grieving, beautiful woman in search of her fallen loved ones that he encountered. Zubraida tried to stop each of his predatory advances, but he retorted “That’s fine, I’m equal parts cock and pussy,” before his boasts of delivering the killing blow to Monfok attracted a small contingent of swooning admirers fond of stroking his fur.
Following the cleanup, the party was invited for an evening feast at Kane manor where another battle had taken place following the restoration of the Founderstone. The bodies of dead blue shapeshifters were still being carried away when they arrived. Blumf was greeted and embraced by Jelsi who was excited to see her friend but surprised to find he wasn’t himself. The party explained how Monfok’s spell stripped him of his intelligence, and Kerath asked Tiegen if she could restore him to his old self. She promised she would in the morning after resting.
At the feast they swapped tales about how the party rescued Tiegen and the daughters, and of Durgeddin’s resurrection. When Zubraida heard of this, she inspected Kerath’s Night Caller whistle with interest and questioned Durgeddin about his memories of the other side. He recalled a neutral, empty existence where he waited for the right moment to return to the world to correct the wrongs inflicted on his people by the orcs.
Xavier told of the betrayal he felt when Monfok, his one-time friend, turned on his family. He determined that Monfok’s modus operandi was to take over towns through subterfuge and guile; Blassingdell wasn’t the first. The ritual that transformed him into an amnesiac dragonborn took days—much longer than Monfok expected—because the Kane family was more magically gifted than he anticipated. After the ritual was successful, Monfok feared that killing them or allowing Xavier, the focus of the spell, to leave town could break it so he used additional magic to prevent the dragonborn from ever leaving Blassingdell. Because their appearances were unchanged, Tiegen and the daughters were best removed from the town, so Monfok made a deal with Shagol. The orc queen wanted to glean magical knowledge by studying Tiegen and the spell that bound her in a sleep-like state, and Monfok wanted to prevent the orcs from raiding his newly acquired domain. After the party rescued the family, Shagol no longer had any incentive to hold back her bloodthirsty minions, and so they attacked the town.
Throughout the meal, Argora ate and drank alone in silence, contrite and ashamed of what he’d done despite it not being his fault. Lyra noticed his gloomy demeanor and mouthed “stop” before conjuring butterflies to cheer him up. He acknowledged the kind gesture but continued to sulk. Meanwhile Jelsi had ambitions to get Blumf extremely drunk just for fun. Blumf misinterpreted her friendliness as flirtation and attempted to flirt back by batting his nonexistent eyelashes.
After the feast, they returned to the Stagnant Pool to rest for the night. Kerath’s sleep was troubled by dreams in which he relived Keeva’s and Charlie’s deaths again and again. In the morning, Dimitri rejoined the party, looking particularly pleased with himself. They noticed the Founderstone was now dull and lifeless, no longer floating or glowing, and its runes were gone. Lady Tiegen arrived too to fulfill her promise, and she cast a restorative spell on Blumf. The dwarf immediately blurted out a warning: “Guys! Lord Kane just went into a big sphere of darkness! I think he might be magic!”.
The party realized they needed to decide what to do next. Kerath insisted upon looking for Charlie, but first Jade demanded a new contract including a daily fee for his services. This inspired Zubraida and Dimitri to ask for payment as well. Kerath, Argora, and Blumf were not happy about this, and an argument followed. In the end, Jade conceded that if they went after the kraken’s orphaned hoard in Stone Crest after seeking Charlie, he would consider his prior contract unfulfilled in the meantime, and no additional payment was required beyond his share of the treasure. He did, however, ask again for the 1000 gold pieces owed to him so he could purchase equipment and potions in preparation for their journey. Zubraida and Dimitri also convinced Kerath to fork over a one-time allowance for some much-needed spell components. Soon they were prepared to leave Blassingdell once more, unsure if they’d ever see Charlie again or of what awaited them in the dark recesses of Stone Crest.