As the attack of the clones rages on, the party adjusts their tactics. It’s been a hot minute since they’ve fought so many spellcasters at once, and it’s easy to forget how devastating the effects can be.
Krask, eager to get in his sneak attack damage, uses his invisibility to great advantage. Over the course of the next three rounds, he meticulously picks apart his targets, dishing out more than 150 points of range damage. Few things are scarier than arrows coming from nowhere.
Fobias squares off against one of the clones, who unleashes a scorching ray in his direction. There’s an unintended side effect of the spell, as the half-orc switches place with his assailant. Scorching rays fire off in unison as the clones try to keep the party off-balance.
Even the wolf is getting into it! Richard playfully bats at one of the clones, keeping him pinned to the ground. When you’re talking about a gigantic wolf, ‘playfully bats’ translates into ‘brutally mauls.’
The clones seem to be focusing their attentions on the Feebleminded Trace. Despite his weakened state, the paladin shrugs off all attempts to debilitate his mind further. Instead, he charges at the nearest clone and begins to hack away.
However, it is Fyn who turns the tide of battle once again. He catches four clones in a prismatic spray, wracking their minds with bouts of insanity. Without missing a beat, the wizard follows it up with a nasty cone of cold. After that, it’s just clean-up.
Where’s Barnaby in all of this? Invisible, the halfling is running as quickly as he can towards the targets. It seems, however, that each of them perish before he can reach them. Such is the side-effect of not being hasted.
Behind Closed Mirrors
The party gathers up their loot and continues investigating the room. With all of the mirrors, it’s difficult to focus on anything but the reflections. On top of that, the party has the issue of curing Trace. At the moment, it seems that Trace will be unable to provide his healing abilities.
Krask does a once-over on the room, but doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Additionally, the peacock doesn’t seem to offer much in the way of direction, either. It is actually Fobias who realizes that the mirrors disguise a secret door on the far end of the cathedral.
A man is slumped over a chair on the other side of the wall. Books are strewn about and there’s a journal on his lap. He’s not breathing, and the party is quick to realize that he’s dead. What’s most curious, however, is that he looks identical to the clones they just fought.
Fyn plucks the journal from the man’s lap and begins to page through it. It’ll take a good deal of time to decipher everything in here, but it’s packed with information. Some of it is on the Runeforge, and some of it is on tweaks to a clone spell that he had been working on.
This is the first instance, however, of the party catching wind of someone within the Runeforge being able witness the happenings of the world since the fall of Thassilon. Fyn notes two particular excerpts that discuss the rise of Karzoug, Xin-Shalast, and creating runeforged weapons.
We All Need Some Bodies
The party continues to the next hallway and finds two rooms filled with more clones. These bodies are stacked neatly, but none of them are alive. A quick mental calculus estimates the pair of rooms containing close to 200 clones. This matches the journal, which stated that the man had created 205 clones in his image.
Books and bookshelves are heavily damaged in the next room, charred and broken. At one time this may have been some kind of library, but now it is nothing more than burnt rubble.
Underneath the wreckage, Fyn sees a single book, untouched by flame. It’s a tome of leadership and influence +2. At that moment, the party remembers a scroll of limited wish, and they heal Trace from his feebleminded state.
With the Runeforge nearly explored, what’s the party’s gameplan going forwards? What will they tell Delvahine, especially since they need her equipment? Do they have enough rings of protection on hand to keep them safe?