Dead Ends and Doppelgangers

We catch up with our heroes a little too early in the morning, after a little too much of Regan's finest mead--and far too many rounds of ale purchased by far too many grateful citizens.  Nevertheless, the Band of Jenkins set out to get to the bottom of the changes in Overlook.



They went first to the giant cathedral of Moradin to try and get more information from Dunkirk.  Lavinia had indicated his behavior had changed suddenly and significantly.  It seemed a logical place to start.  Arriving at the cathedral, the party was told that Dunkirk was at the old temple, overseeing reconstruction.  Still not convinced that heading there was the best idea, the Band of Jenkins headed to the shrine of Erathis.

Grovald, the acolyte charged with tending the shrine in Halin's absence, was reading the prayers of the worshippers.  Speaking with some of the worshippers, Pelias discovered that no one trusted the new keeper of his deity's shrine.  Grovald himself gave the group little more than a dismissal, claiming to be too busy to answer their questions.

Directly next to the shrine was Halin's house.  Upon entering, the group was met with a stench of decay.  They found what seemed like most of her clothing in a chest and rotting food left in the pantry.  Kreegan searched for any signs of thievery or foul play and found nothing.  All signs indicated that 1) Halin had been gone for about three weeks, 2) she last left the house without any sign of struggle, and 3) she did not prepare for a journey of any sort.

Back outside the shrine, it seemed best to come back later and corner Grovald, without so many worshippers around.  Growing frustrated, the band headed to a dive in the seedy part of town known as "the Blister" to seek out information.  At the tavern, the Pig and Bucket, they ran into Captain Aerun, head of the city guard.  He too gave them dismissive answers to their inquiries and seemed to want nothing to do with the Band of Jenkins.  Turning suddenly, he claimed he was very busy and simply walked away. Very rude, they decided, seeing how much they had done for his city already.  Ever more frustrated, the Band turned their attention to the bartender, Kyle Rester.  They were able to learn that the Freeriders were hired to guard the old temple during the reconstruction, which seemed odd, but not a whole lot more.  Nearing the end of their collective patience and tired of fumbling around the city receiving no information, our heroes made their way to the old temple.

Spotting the head of the Freeriders, Megan Farstrider, Pelias leads the group over to talk to her.   Abruptly, however, a worker dwarf pushes his wheelbarrow right across Kreegan's foot.
"'The Merciful' is a misnomer!" Kreegan hissed, short sword suddenly in his hand.
Pelias maneuvered his bulk in between the two. "This is unnecessary, friend dwarf," he said, giving Kreegan a look of warning, "all we want to do is talk to that lady."
"Your kind ain't welcome here.  We got work to do and it doesn't involve you!" responded the dwarf, putting a hand near his rather well-worn hammer.  The dwarf was Murik Ironfeld, member of a clan the Band of Jenkins had quarreled with in the past.  As the insults flew back and forth, other clansmen came to Murik's side and things appeared ready to escalate.  Just before weapons were drawn, however, a red-headed dwarf pushed his way through the crowd.
"That's enough!!" he bellowed, "All of you-- get back to work!"
He introduces himself as Ancestor Redbeard of the temple, and proceeds to escort the party from the temple.  He apologizes for the Ironfelds, and says he doesn't really understand why Dunkirk has reassigned everyone to work on the old temple.  The town council had to interest in the renovation, but Dunkirk insisted and the Ironfeld clan won the bid to do the work, and the Freeriders were hired to keep anyone dangerous out.
"Dangerous," he scoffed, "as though there are enough dangerous people in Overlook to warrant that!"
He, too has no idea why all the changes in the town have been happening, and mentions that Dunkirk has not been himself for several weeks.

With that, he heads back into the temple, stating "Moradin's will, however, must still be done.  I wish you luck in your travels..."  The party heads back into the street, knowing it was getting late and thinking they would go pay a visit to their new friend Grovald.  They round a corner...
... and find themselves ambushed.

A crossbow bolt whirred into the middle of the party, lodging itself into the street between them.  On the rooftops around them were several thugs, and several more shadows seemed to move between the buildings around them.  Soon the Band was completely surrounded, and they engaged the enemy on all sides.  As the party was cutting through thugs left and right, Kreegan plunged his blade deep into the chest of an attacker.  As the body slumped to the ground, it changed and morphed before everyone's eyes.
"Dopplegangers!" he shrieked, "If they take your form, the safe word is 'flamingo!'"
The final thug fled up to the roof, with Kreegan in hot pursuit.  Cutting him down, he recovered a note from the transformed body.  The note contained a description of our heroes, with clear instructions to kill.  The parchment was stained with beer and sausage grease that could only come from one place-- the Pig and Bucket, the pit run by Kyle Rester.

They stormed back through the Blister, Auggie dragging a body of one of the human thugs with them.  Pelias slammed the note down on the bar in front of Rester.
"What the hell is this?" he demanded.
"I'd say that's a list.  And I'd say it's a description of you.  Do you need help reading it?  I thought wizards were supposed to be more educated than bartenders."
"I don't need help reading it.  I want to know why it's stained with your filthy grease and who you saw writing it."
"Look, Tubby, I can't keep tabs on everything that goes on here.  A lot of no-good people come here looking for work.  I'm not surprised that some of them were after you.  I don't know who wrote your love letter."
Auggie hauled the body through the tavern and slammed its head on the bar.  "How about him?" he snarled.  "Ever seen this bastard before?"
Shaken, Rester stammered... "Oh, him.  Yeah, maybe I seen him before.  Maybe I warned them that you lot was too much for them to take on.  Maybe they deserved what was coming to them, I say."
Disgusted, Pelias turned to leave.  "You hear anything else like this, you send word.  Understand me?"
"To the Hearth and Kettle, at the first mention of your name.  You've got the word of Kyle Rester!  I don't want to meet his fate."  Rester stared at the thug on his bar as the adventurers left.

It was getting dark by now, and the group had one more task to do before heading to the Hearth and Kettle to sort out the day's events.  If there were dopplegangers around, does that explain the strange behavior of the priests and leaders?  Is anyone really who they seem to be?  Sullen, the group wondered about this as they readied themselves for the interrogation of Grovald.

As they approached the grounds of the shrine of Erathis, they saw lights on in Halin's house.  Kreegan hopped up on the roof and peered down into the window.  It appeared empty, and he immediately realized it's all a trap.  A voice boomed out in the night, "I'm so glad you've come back, and at night, no less..."  And Grovald and a band of well-armed men appeared all around them.  Human thugs appear first and are quickly dispatched by scorching blasts from Pelias's spellbook.  Other humans were slower to fall, and when they did, their bodies once again changed into the greyish masses of doppelgangers.  Finally, even Grovald was dispatched, his summoned spikes and spears proving themselves no match for the Band of Jenkins.  Cleaning the blood from their weapons and setting out to investigate the grounds once more, Kreegan reminded them all, "Flamingo.  If they take your shape, you'd better shout it!"
Searching Grovald's shack, they found a scrap of parchment buried in the ashes.  "...obey the priest as you would me... as always, destroy this mis... General Z..." In a chest, they found a gold statue of a dwarf.  Searching around the statue of Erathis, they found a mound of dirt... covering the body of Halin.

Quickly, the party grabs a passerby and sends for the city watch.  Captain Aerun and some guards arrive, and Aerun acts quite surprised at this turn of events.  Sora suspects something is going on, and examines his mannerisms more closely.  Suddenly, Aerun's eyes roll back and he drops dead before them.  Sora takes a giant step back, says a prayer of thanks to Bahamut that there were witnesses this time, and turns her attention toward the body of Halin and Laviana, who arrived to prepare the body.  Before she proceeds with preparing Halin for burial, Sora performs a Speak with Dead ritual.

The sprit of Halin confirms that she was killed by Grovald.  She had also noticed the other priests' strange behaviour and confronted each of them before she was killed.  She had thought them her friends, but had been rebuffed by each.  She had no other information for them, but a request for Sora-- that she tell Laviana how much the old lady's care of the shrine meant to Halin.

On that somber note, the party returned to the Hearth and Kettle for a much-needed night of rest.