EaBK: Doppelganger in the party... SPOILERS!

Hi everyone!

I'm just prepping the maze level of sodden hold for my players and I don't like the way that the imposter in the party is handled. Deliberately plotting with a player to screw the others is not my style, but I still like the idea of placing a doppelganger in the party. In my madness, have come up with an idea on how to deal with the plot line by taking inspiration from those "How to Host a Murder" type games.

IMC the doppelganger gang have been watching the PC's for some time and they know their names, habits and associations (including Elgios). Elgios is also on friendly terms with the party and they probably won't be suspicious of a message from him via Sending.

Once the character are getting close to D15 Hall of Deception, I will give each player a note to represent a Sending spell:

"Via Sending:
Attention (player X)! This is Elgios. Great danger! Keep this Secret …(Player Y) is a doppelganger. He will turn on you soon. Kill him now!"

Y will be different for each message. These spells are not actually from Elgios, but Telakin instead. He has acquired a scroll of Sending (1 casting for each character) for just such a purpose and uses it once he becomes aware of the PC's intrusion in his lair. This intended to make them all paranoid, especially since they've already encountered Elaxan at the Crooked House. Naturally, the players will share this information with each other, and paranoia will ensue.

After the group settles down a bit, I'll make them draw scrolls from a hat/chest/jar. All but one will say:
"You are not the doppelganger sleeper agent. Your skills and abilities are unchanged, but you must detect the real impostor before it is too late. Anyone could be the impostor. Don’t share this information!"

The final scroll will say:
"You are the doppelganger sleeper agent! Your skills and abilities are unchanged, but you must avoid detection by role-playing. You will attack shortly after your real character is found (alive and not permanently harmed). Don’t share this information!"

My hope here is that the players will take this in stride and try to resolve the identity of the doppelganger through some clever roleplaying. Given my misgivings with the plot as presented, I think this might be a good way to do it (random draw, anyone could be the imposter, encourages some good roleplaying). I might even keep myself in the dark by not asking the imposter to let me know!

My group has already played (and immensely enjoyed!) the side adventure for EaBK that was presented on this forum, so they should be game for this too. I'll let you know how/if it works out. Steal if you like!

Well, with each of them getting a different sending, I'd imagine that it won't take long for the group to figure out that they were all told different party members to kill, and I'd think that would make them assume all the sendings were faked.

2 slightly more interesting alternatives:

Don't give names, just have the sending say there is a double in the party.

Or

Have Elgios send a message to all PCs about a specific one being a double - as Telakin has feed him false information.

In either case, the PCs don't have any good reason to doubt the sendings, but don't have enough evidence to know for sure who is or isn't a dopp (or even that there really is one...)

One other thing, with assigning the dopp:
Don't have them draw for it right at that moment - have them draw lots (or some such) well before hand, so they don't know what they are for.

If you draw them with the sendings, the players will *know* there is a dopp in the party, but if they draw before then without knowing, you can withhold the true on that matter till they have plenty of time to second guess themselves.

And if the PCs convince themselves that there is no dopp?

Hehe. Fun times. ;)

Thanks for the input. I think a more generic message would work better, and I like the idea of making them draw lots way in advance. I can just tell them not to open the notes until I tell them to. That will make them extra paranoid! :) :)

Try using fortune cookie-like sayings as the generic messages, and one character gets the doppleganger message, then tell them to keep the messages to themselves; they'll either be very confused, or think that the fortunes are important to the plot.

You could have the notes just say "You are not the traitor", so if a player peaks, it just adds to the tension.

But more cryptic fortune type notes would work better, in general, for that.

A great way to do this: (But I think your PCs are past the piont where this would work)

Have the PCs run into some type of fortune teller prior to these events, the 'fortunes' being the draw lots that, if done properly, let the party know something is going down, but not what.

So, they finished the sodden hold last night. The players really pick up on the "traitor in your midst" plot. I think it was a matter of timing. I should have given them the messages just before they went down the water elevator to level 2 instead of as they were exploring the first long hallway. Timed properly and with a group of players who like to role-play, this could have been more fun.

Kudos to the player who was the doppelganger though. He behaved normally (kept on making bad dice rolls and everything) up to the last second. When the party got to the Hall of Deception, he won initiative and smacked the minotaur in the head with a critical hit/sneak attack. The 'taur struck back and took him out of action though (large greatsword, high STR and a Belt of One Mighty Blow). The rest of the mook dopps went down like...well, mooks. :)

We lost the rogue to the devious pit trap, but they had enough favours and gold to cash in to get a raise dead. The fight with Telakin was rough too. I put his personal guard with him instead of in the maze because the minotaur really had no problem tracking the way through it (he's a mintaur afterall). The fight there was pretty tough and we almost had a TPK, but they pulled it out of the fire at the last second. Made for a nice, tense battle.

So, all they need to do is get out past the yuan-ti rangers at the secret sewer entrance (my mastermind is a Yuan-ti Abomination instead of a mindflayer). Fun! Fun!