The grayish humanoid creature in the water has somewhat indistinct features, with a narrow head, gaunt limbs, and a sinister, noseless face... to a certain extent, it seems to be a 'blank canvas' of a creature...
Doppelgangers prefer infiltrating societies where they can gather wealth and influence, and see little point in forming cities of their own kind. Younger doppelgangers practice their skills by taking over small orc or goblin tribes, then move to more complicated societies like dwarven, elven, and human communities. Rather than making themselves targets by taking positions of leadership, they prefer to be the power behind the throne, or use multiple identities to manipulate inf luential citizens or entire guilds.
The massive eels, each of them nearly 20 feet long, have pale hide almost translucent like a fish’s belly that is marred by great areas of sloughing flesh that hang loose in rotten folds. It is eyeless, with a row of small black nodules extending back from its snout, and has several small vestigial fins growing sporadically along the length of its body. Its mouth however, is the most noticeable feature, occupying nearly a quarter of its length and splayed wide with a crowd of jagged fangs...
Lilly, grabbed within one of these mouths, continues to rage against the eel... her emotions pouring out as she crashes her fists against the beast...
Know. Nature
Frill throws a ball of mud at the creature that just became visible in the water.
RTA
Mama's slop of mud strikes the newly appeared creature hard against its 'face' yet it is quick to duck beneath the water... and resurfaces clean once more...
As she moves to support Amelia, Vera glances at the creature that had appeared to be Muncy. "A doppelganger. Of course," she mutters to herself.
With the scene in the river becoming a bloodbath, the enormous eels making short work of the panicking officers, Gar wades into the river… muttering something that can’t be heard above the screams but that is surely damning towards the strange ‘person’ who has appeared in the river. Whilst, following Amelia and Vera, Elliomander moves to outcrop... reloading his pistol as he runs…
Retreating away from the eels now, and with several of their colleagues eaten, the majority of the officers are now wading through the shallows towards the safety of the river bank… Whilst out where the water becomes deep and faster-flowing, one of the officers is caught by the current – and is swept downstream away from the carnage.
Clenched within the razor sharp teeth of the eel, hundreds of jagged and grinding blades, Lilly is thrashed around within the bloodied waters of the Lyme…
Scowling, a curious visage of emotion across the face of the otherwise ‘blank’ doppelganger, the figure in the water turns and lets a volley of violet bolts of energy loose at the onrushing Gar.
Amelia frowns, and waves a hand. Lilly returns to being incorporeal, and then flies over to Amelia, leaving the Eel to confusedly figure out where it's angry morsel went.
Vera moves down the stairs, and acrobatically bounds past Amelia to get footing to fight the slough-eel.
Landing on her feet, she strikes a classical fencing defensive pose and stabs the eel.
The water, increasingly turbulent as the eels take their prey, is approximately waist deep where the doppelganger is standing...
Frill moves 15' toward the caster, and begins summoning a swarm of bats to harass the spellcaster. When the bats appear in the square, they will begin biting and scratching at the humanoid's skin
The first of the eels to attack, momentarily confused by the fact that its prey has somehow simply vanished, curls around on itself and moves after the officer being swept away in the current... whilst of the other two eels, one continues its feeding frenzy whilst the second - cut by Vera and then shot at by Elliomander - dives below the surface of the water and moves away from the dreadful scene...
Out in the water, oblivious to the eels and the endangered officers, Gar launches an assault of steel against the strange creature that must surely be responsible for luring everyone here...
Amelia inhales deeply, and the wounded Lilly flows back into her.
Amelia then runs past Vera. "Pardon me dear." She says as she bustles past her and using her scythe she polevaults and sales 25 feet out into the river, landing with a splash next to Gar.
Gar, wincing from the pain of the blows inflicted by the strangely amorphous man, hisses at Amelia, "It was a trap... a damned trap... so many dead..."
...it's not immediately clear whether Gar is referring to the officers taken by the eels or the skeletal remains around the piers. Maybe it's both.
"Of course it was a trap, we had his foot, it had to be a trap. Unfortunately, several of our constables have more courage than brains." Amelia responds, blood dripping from her eyes.
Frill changed targets for her bat swarm, as the group had now surrounded the spell caster. She made her bats appear just to the back side of the left most serpent.
Damage
"I am going to regret this..." Vera mutters to herself as she wades into the fetid and polluted waters of the Lyme. She moves toward the doppleganger that her friends are fighting.
Trying to avoid hitting Mama's bats, Elliomander shoots at the remaining eel... the water runs briefly crimson as the eel thrashes near the last few constables at the shore...
Whilst, now oblivious to the carnage around them, Gar and the doppelganger are locked in mortal combat...
Amelia's face and visible skin develops cracks, and then glowing blood red threads explode from her skin, stitching the wounds closed. Her eyes glow a sullen red, and her hair shifts colors to blood red. She screams an eerie dual part scream and the glass blade of her scythe begins to crackle with psychic energy. "I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR GUTS OUT YOU STINKING PIECE OF SHYTE!" She screams at the doppleganger, her voice a terrifying mixture of her and Lilly's voices.
Amelia's scythe slices into curiously grey flesh... there is no blood, and as her blade cuts deep, the features of the creature start to shift... become more defined... more human...
Frill double moves toward he sorcerer, ready to try to help the others by clawing away soon enough.
As the eels start to disappear into the murk of Sister Lyme, Elliomander turns his attention to the source of the problem...
And still, slightly off-balance in the mud of the river, Gar can't land a blow...
Sensing that Gar may be no match for it, the doppelganger continues to claw at the old inquisitor... the first blow is the second blow is horrific, cutting through plate armour and spilling Gar's blood into the river...
Amelia glances at Gar and Vera, her eyes rolling wildly, and then she brings the scythe around and down on the creature!
Frill takes the long way around, before stepping in just to the north of the magical creature. "Nowhere to go now. Stop fighting," she whispers, ready to cut with her mighty claws.
As she approaches the doppelganger, Vera nearly loses her footing on the mucky riverbed, but manages to recover. She strikes a defensive pose and watches the creature for a moment, learning its moves. Then she strikes with her rapier...
...but her foot slips again, and her off-balance strike is wild.
Amelia glances at Gar and Vera, her eyes rolling wildly, and then she brings the scythe around and down on the creature!
Untrained Bluff to pass secret message to Gar/Vera, 1d20+1
From the edge of the river, Elliomander fires again... the dampness in the air still not affecting the gunpowder and his shot is unerringly accurate...
Whilst, scowling against the pain and clutching a dreadful wound, Gar starts to wade towards the shore...
With Gar retreating but the doppelganger still surrounded, the creature hisses translucent fangs towards Amelia and slashes with cruel claws...
Frill takes a 5' step to the left, setting up flanking with the angry young girl. She swings with both sets of claws.
Attack
Damage
Attack
Damage
Possible critical on Attack 2
Damage
Mama, moving behind the doppelganger, rends with her claws... blackened nails, for the Lyme will clean nothing, gouge deep as she strikes...
Vera moves into a flanking position with Frill.
She then attempts to stab the creature straight through the chest.
Amelia flings her scythe's blade into the enemy again...
...and the glowing scythe blade slices deeply.
Vera, waiting until the impostor is distracted by Mama's claw attacks, thrusts forwards with her rapier - striking hard, she turns the blade as it pierces flesh and pulls it outwards and upwards in a cruel arc... at the edge of death, the creature doesn't notice Amelia's scythe until it is far too late - the blade slicing through a vital artery and sending the doppelganger falling backwards into the murk...
Staggering to the shoreline, Gar sits on a bleached rock gritting his teeth and cursing the pain of his wounds... whilst, all around him, the remaining Officers of the Watch start to shout to the group, "Bring that thing in!!! Make sure it's dead and bring it to shore..."
Amelia drives her scythe down into the creature's corpse before it can slip away, and then drags it to shore.
"As I told the ones sent to us, the good inspector is dead. We found his foot earlier today. That was an imposter, obviously." Ripping the thing apart seems to have calmed her nerves. She is quite the sight, bloody, wet, but serene again.
Dragging herself out of the filthy water of the Lyme, Vera climbs back onto the dock. "The next question is: Why was this doppleganger in Muncy's form? Alas, one cannot speak with the dead..."
Frill looks around for other survivors. "Did anyone here talk with Muncy earlier? Did he say anything strange? What did he speak with you about?". She was hoping for any sort of a clue she might be able to piece together.
Amelia rubs her nose. "Well, you can talk with the dead, it's just that often they don't have anything useful to say."
The Officers of the Watch, possibly traumatised by the loss of so many of their colleagues, don't provide any information of use as to what 'Muncy' was doing here or what 'he' said...
Amelia's blade sinks deep into the corpse of the creature beneath the murky waters of the Lyme... dragging it back to where Gar is watching, his breath somewhat ragged, there is a short debate as to what 'Muncy' was up to... and what, if anything could be deduced from its corpse. The talk of 'Speak with Dead' is quickly curtailed by the knowledge that such magic is the preserve of the Capitol... and is said to be used by the secret forces engaged by the higher echelons there. The motto of 'Kill First, Ask Questions Later' is often rumoured to be policy...
In any case, a quick examination of the corpse and some old-fashioned 'detective work' negates such a need - within its coat is a wand and a book of accounts suggesting that 'Muncy' is a floor supervisor of a textile manufactory called Currington Clothiers. By now, reinforcements are starting to arrive... none of whom were aware that 'Muncy' had reappeared - the revelation that the Office of the Watch has apparently been infiltrated by a shape changer in conjunction with the loss of so many officers sends the Parish Commander into a barely controlled fury, "This will not stand... we will get to the root of this insult... and we shall burn it to the ground!!!"
...within mere minutes of the bloody fight ending, a raid on Currington Clothiers is being planned.
"How about you sweethearts just slow down a minute and let us go investigate first? Just a few of us could slip in and out before they figured out anything. If you bring everyone from the Guard, they'll see you coming from a mile away. Why don't you give us an hour and then you come running to back us up?"
"Or at least hold back a block or so, and come running if you hear gunshots." She taps Frill on the shoulder. "Although I need to heal Lilly, and I'm not sure if our resources are up to an infiltration right now, we've been going non stop all day. Morning might be better.
Quietly, so as the Watch cannot hear them, Vera says, "We defintely need to get there before the Watch does. They'll destroy any evidence once they get there."
Looking at the wand, she adds, "I can hang on to that, unless anyone else would rather."
She then tries to recall exactly where Currington Clothiers is, and the fastest way to get there...
No matter how persuasive Mama Frill and Amelia are, the fury of the Office of the Watch is raging - the loss of so many officers alongside the realisation that they had been infiltrated so readily - and they pay little attention to the idea that the investigators should go ahead of them... they do however concede that the group have helped avert a disastrous loss of life today, and if they wish to accompany the officers on the raid, then that is not a problem.
- Currington Clothiers is not too far from here... a fifteen minute walk or so inland up the Broken Hills. If the group are able to hurry, they stand a reasonable chance of getting to the factory before the Watch launch their raid.
Amelia sighs as the police inspectors charge around. "Very well, I'll try to sooth your spirits after your deaths." She looks at the others. "Lilly is too badly injured to fight any longer. I have no way to heal her either, so she will be unable to aid us very much in this fight." She looks at Gar, still bloody, and shakes her head. "This is a bad idea."
"If we don't get there now, sweetheart, there's a good chance these well meaning investigators will tromp all over everything. After we take a quick peek, I think we could all use a break for the evening..." Frill adds as she pats Amelia on the shoulder.
Rushing away from the Lyme in the direction of Currington's, the group leave the assembling constabulary behind them...
The sky had been fairly clear, considering the usual smog of the city, but now a fog seems to have drifted in from the river engulfing the street in a thick, soupy mist. The cobbles are slick with moisture, and the eaves drip from the sudden condensation. A faint clicking sound can be heard and a low vibration in the ground. Suddenly cobblestones shift and slide around as they are displaced by something emerging from the earth beneath them. Climbing forth from the gaping pits in the road are three dog-sized beetles with large pincers, their shells a bleached white colour that seems to blend with the enshrouding fog.
...the swirling fog muffles the sound of the beetle creatures and seems to hide them as they move towards the group...
Amelia sighs. "See, told you this was a bad idea." She readies her scythe to attack, standing back to back with the wounded Gar.
...something doesn't seem quite right here, the fog doesn't have the same cloying feel that the Canker normally has when it rolls off of Sister Lyme...
Know. Nature
"These creatures shouldn't be here. They aren't normally here with us in the natural world," Frill calls out, as she moves to engage the creatures. She commands Millie to take her fecund familiar form and swarm over as many of the creatures as possible.
"They're called 'mist murderers,' and they're nearly invisible in fog. And this fog isn't natural, either: Someone... or some thing... conjured it up with magic!"
Vera draws her rapier, scanning the mist through her enchanted glasses for motion and listens intently for the clattering of insectile feet. She then moves in that direction, attempting to skewer one of the beetles.