"Bankers," Benedict says to the acolytes, "something is amiss. We suspect that Solomon Zane has been replaced by an imposter. The real Solomon Zane may be alive somewhere here, though the more time we take to search, the more time the imposter has to work his nefarious deeds. I and my companions must go to intercept the doppelganger and expose his blasphemy.
I will swear under Abadar's Truthtelling that this is no trickery, and that I speak what I believe to be true.
Search the temple. Search all offices, cellars, storage rooms, and quarters. If your priest lives, he will be grateful for the rescue. If you cannot find him, we will search when we return.
May your ventures prosper."
Benedict makes a short detour to collect his souvenirs from the warehouse, then heads to the Mayor's office.
When the Phaendarans arrive at the Mayor's office, they find it ringed with guards. Captain Kulcher is standing with them, looking grim as they approach.
"I've been instructed to detain the lot of you," she says warily. "Please don't resist. Things are tense enough as they are. I'm sure we can get this all straightened out, but not if things turn violent."
Benedict does not appear flustered at all. He does not resist, protest, or draw a weapon.
He speaks calmly, almost nonchalantly, as if he expected this sort of complication.
"You may wish to see this."
Was hoping to save this for in the Mayor's office...
He fumbles in a bag and brings out the doppelganger head.
"Doppelganger. Shapeshifter. One is in there right now posing as Solomon Zane."
He brings out a bugbear head.
"Bugbear assassin. Had orders to assassinate the Mayor."
He returns the heads to their bag and looks Captain Kulcher in the eye.
"Mayor Crawbert's life is in danger. He is in there right now with an imposter.
You could detain us, and he could die.
Or you could bring us before the Mayor, and we can expose this treachery in time.
If you insisted on bringing us before him unarmed, we could still probably defeat the imposter, but it might be able to escape."
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The guards all start, eyes going wide at the heads of the inhuman creatures. Then turn and look at the captain.
Captain Kulcher's expression is mixed. She had already looked troubled, and now she looks positively conflicted. She pulls off her helmet and rubs her eyes. "'Join the guard,' he says. 'It'll be simple,' he says. Thanks, Thom."
She sighs. "All right. Solomon warned us that you'd try to trick us, but he's not the one in charge. Though... Thom -- the mayor, I mean -- he was the one who ordered you to be arrested."
"It's possible that the doppelgangers replaced Thom, but I hope not. He's a former adventurer and may have been able to fight them off if they tried to subdue him. More likely they are just whispering in his ear.
What do your instincts tell you? Do you think I am lying?
The Mayor will forgive you for saving his life. These souvenirs may provoke a reaction of recognition from other doppelgangers, and then we will know.
You are Captain of the Guard for a reason. What do your instincts tell you?"
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"No guard to be a captain of if the city falls." Grum muttered, his arms crossed over his chest and away from his blade. A smile formed on his face as he said, louder "Being detained just means that we aren't free to leave. Happens when there is reasonable suspicion. Being arrested is an all together different matter, right? So detain us and bring us before the mayor. Orders followed and you've done the right thing." He had been detained by nervous members of the watch in more than one town. Something about his appearance seemed to put them on edge. He had long ago learned the difference between a watchman saying "You can't leave, you're being detained" and "You're under arrest."
Kulcher shakes her head, struggling with the dilemma. "My instincts..."
She throws her hands up when Grum suggests the difference between "detain" and "arrest." "All right. Let's all go see them together."
She turns to her guards. "Don't let anyone out of this building, even if it's me. Unless we're holding two doppelganger heads."
She gives the heroes a wink and motions for everyone to enter.
Mayor Thom Crawbert and Solomon Zane rise from their seats at the conference table. They both look outraged. "I thought I told you to arrest them!" the mayor shouts.
"Yeah, well, first you said 'detain,' and then you said 'arrest.' But you didn't specify the crime, so I'm going to need an actual charge. Rules and all. You understand."
"Mayor," Benedict says confidently, "we have uncovered a plot."
THUNK
A doppelganger head lands on the ground.
Benedict looks to both Solomon Zane and Mayor Crawbert for signs of recognition.
"A doppelganger. Shapechanger. Posing as Seneka."
He draws a bugbear head from the bag, holds it aloft by the hair, and looks at Zane. "Which one was this? Bregga?"
"Mayor Crawbert, the imposters worked with these bugbear assassins, who would have slain you as the assault began. We found their orders.
The good news is that they were also ordered to kill the doppelgangers once they were no longer needed. General Azaersi fears that they could pose a threat to her plans."
This last part is a lie of course, to at the very least throw Zane off his game if the prior revelations weren't enough.
"Zane is an imposter. Ask him to conjure the power of Abadar. He cannot."
Both look surprised at Benedict's display of heads. The cleric brings up a handkerchief to his mouth.
At his bluff, Zane looks at the mayor with astonishment. But Thom looks equally astonished.
Captain Kulcher clears her throat and tightens her grip on her weapon. "Where's Garret? He had come in with Zane a while ago, but I didn't see him leave."
William looks to the captain and says "Garret was here too? We found him tied up in the basement of his home and is now somewhere safe. If I might cast a minor spell of magic detection I can see what there is to see in here. I don't know if their abilities are magical but they did have a wand of undetectable alignment and the real mayor or Zane wouldn't have those spells on them." If the captain agrees William casts detect magic and studies the two.
Captain Kulcher gives William a "go ahead" motion.
As William incants the spell, the pair look over the warriors surrounding them and sigh in defeat. The faces of Mayor Crawbert and Solomon Zane distort into pale, half-finished approximations. "Told you we should have just left," 'Zane' mutters to 'Thom.'
"We surrender," they say, holding up their hands. "Is Malga dead, too?"
Amakarang gives a menacing grin to the two doppelgangers as he says wryly to Benedict, ”Well played, brother. We don’t call you Benedict the Clever for nothing.”
"Where's Thom?!?" Kulcher roars.
The pallid beings blink their pale eyes. "Oh, he's tied up in the next room. We dosed his dinner with oil of taggit."
"And his wine..."
"...and his wine, yes. We had to--"
"And his dessert."
"He never got to dessert."
"Good idea, William. Well done."
"Malga is dead, too. They were tenacious."
Benedict shows the other head.
They seem to have bought it. And now they can't run back to the Legion.
"Does Zane still live?"
He turns to Captain Kulcher.
"Their fate is yours to decide. They surrendered, and they did not kill those who they replaced. For that, and out of gratitude to the gods for our good fortune, I would recommend mercy. I would recommend that you spare their lives if they leave this town immediately and swear to never return.
They will not go back to the Legion."
”I say we interrogate them first. They might know something of value.”
William concentrates on the two with his detect magic and removes any magic items and other useful gear from them. As he does so he looks at them intently. When he is done he moves back and says "You killed the mage Rutra who was working for us disguised at Benedict."
Aerel followed the group in his standard overwatch position, hands itching to have his bow in-hand, but he knew that really wasn’t part of the deal right now. He was really glad that silver-tongued devil was on their side, though.
”Captain, may Amkarang and I retrieve the Mayor?”
William finds the same gear on the two doppelgangers as they found on the other one.
The captain assists Aerel, and they both find Thom Crawbert in a side room, tied up and stripped to his underclothes. He is unconscious.
The two doppelgangers shake their heads reluctantly when asked if Solomon Zane still lived. "No. Spellcasters are, er, were considered too dangerous to keep alive."
"Sorry."
Benedict's face darkens at that news.
"You could tie them up and let the Mayor decide when he comes around," Benedict says to the captain. "My comrades and I are not the law here."
Benedict will tell the acolytes at Temple of Abadar the news about Zane, and ask them to tend to Seneka as best as they can.
He will visit Navah, presenting the matching arrowhead and saying the password Phersi, to tell her that the doppelganger threat has passed. "Thom is safe, and it should be safe for him to visit you in the morning."
And he will tell Aureni and Garret that Garret's captor has now been captured.
Then he will sleep soundly.
Aerel will watch over his allies and take his elven power nap after they have refreshed themselves and are studying their spells (for those that do).
Captain Kulcher has her guards bind the doppelgangers and take them to the town jail for the time being. "We'll have round-the-clock observation. It's really more men than we can spare at this point, but we can't afford for them to escape."
Both Navah and Aureni are relieved at the news. Aureni says that Garret is sleeping but when he awakes she'll tell him.
=================
After an uneventful night filled with much-needed rest, the sun rises for another day in Longshadow.
Benedict rises and starts studying the Manual of War. Amidst all the discussion of using armor to deflect blows is some explanation of angles of impact, elasticity, and reinforcement. Benedict realizes that this could have applicability to strengthening the walls.
He gathers Meslin and Voldan at dawn as well as any others skilled in working with stone, and begins directing efforts to improve the walls.
If possible, he sends word for Mayor Crawbert to come by, inspect the work, and lend a hand for a bit, to dispel any rumors that loose-lipped guards may have stated.
He finishes work on the walls shortly before noon, and is ready to head out if the party wishes.
"William, if we are to fight wyverns, do you know anything about such beasts?"
Aerel returns to work with some community volunteers, addressing potential chokepoints and setting up traps for the eventual street fighting that may come.
The next morning, even as the party begin their plans for the day, they are summoned to meet with the mayor. He looks a little rough, and is drinking an alchemist's kindness to take the edge off the drugging he received the night before.
"I want to apologize for my initial mistrust of you. My gut told me I should listen to you, but those... impostors had been whispering in my ears for days. And I'd trusted them before -- the real ones, mind you. Ah, poor Solomon. I should have seen. But they knew things! They were so... I didn't have any reason to suspect!"
He ends his self-recriminations with a pained groan and slurps down more of his foul-tasting concoction. "Anyway. I owe you my life now. And the city owes you much, but there's not going to be much of a city left if we don't redouble our efforts. I plan on making an announcement to the townsfolk. I've already got criers, telling the people to come to the town square at noon. We need full commitment, and I'm going to do what I can to get it for you."
========
Both Aerel's expertise in creating traps and Benedict's newly-acquired knowledge in engineering oversee further efforts to bolster the city's defenses. Without the fear of saboteurs, the repairs and preparations seem to take hold.
Aerel determines, however, that this latest effort combined with his previous traps has covered all the main thoroughfares in the city and any further attempts run the risk of backfiring.
William spends some time thinking about what he knows of wyverns particularly if any special weapons are needed against them and their offensive abilities. He then sits down with pen and paper and attempts to write out new orders with what Benedicts wants them to say.
In the morning he tries to gather more supplies but the prior days exertion seems to distract him.
If the Linguistics check to forge orders is the kind of thing where an Aid Another can help, then Benedict will assist William.
He will also try to ensure that the orders are not so unusual so as to be unbelievable.
Then, after working on the wall, he awaits the Mayor's announcement.
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Grum spent his time training the militia, as best he could. He focused his efforts on teaching whatever practical skills he could offer. From fixing sword grip to how to ensure that blood did not get on the hilt. He reasoned that they would have had their own men training them on the soldiering aspect of the job, such as drill and ceremony. However, he doubted that any of them had any real combat experience, so the least he could do was offer his.
And when finished he helped with the fake orders, offering advice on verbiage to make them more believable.
William remembers hearing stories about wyverns, which are a deadly subspecies of dragon with a virulent poison delivered by their barbed tails. They do not, as he can recall, have any elemental features like breath weapons or specific immunities outside of normal draconic immunities (sleep and paralysis).
Mayor Crawbert delivers a strong speech to the people of Longshadow. The crowd had appeared nervous, since the rumors and stories of the refugees steadily arriving had been at odds from the earlier "official" story from the town council.
The mayor is blunt and frank with the tidings of war, but he offers the people hope. He gives great credit and thanks to the heroes of Phaendar who have rooted out the saboteurs and assassins that lurked in their midst and have already begun organizing the defenses in the city. But unlike times before where Longshadow has relied upon adventurers and their walls, this time the citizens will need to fight. He calls upon the stouthearted and rugged people of Nirmathas to defend their homes and their city.
By the end of the speech, numerous volunteers have come forward to form a new militia to supplement Longshadow's current one.
"I think we want to disrupt the carefully planned timing present in the original orders.
Let's change the rendezvous point to a location with somewhat sparser food and somewhat more difficult terrain, to impair their provisioning and logistics."
If Benedict doesn't think he knows suitably bad locations, he recommends asking Mayor Crawbert.
"Let's push the attack back by a day, saying it is necessary to ensure the death of the Phaendar scum. The vermin (us) have proven an unnecessary complication, but once disposed of, the morale of Longshadow will crumble. One day might be believable."
"And, we can have the Legion send a modest detachment to intercept non-existent mercenary reinforcements coming from Lastwall to the northeast. Again, it's a bit of a guessing game, how much we can push them and still have the orders be believable, but maybe we can deplete their forces a bit."
"Anybody got any other ideas? I thought about saying that the doppelgangers had betrayed the Legion, to sow distrust in their ranks, but that would have to be written in the hand of Bregga or Malga, which we don't know."
"As to delivering the message to the camps, I was thinking of using one of the Bird Feather Tokens that the bugbears had. I am not sure if we can just tell it to find Kosseruk and it will. That would be most convenient. Otherwise, we'll probably need to have me pose as a bugbear, deliver the orders to a camp, and allow some survivors to flee that camp after we hit it."
Amkarang nods as Grum speaks, "A damn fine idea."
"I don't know," says Benedict.
"If they look at the orders from General Azaersi, they will see that she didn't order their deaths. That was a detail I added. That is why I am hesitant about hiring them. The longer you have to keep up a lie, the greater the chance of being found out."
"I might know a place for a poor camp for them. How about ... ? It looks good, but there are problems that are not obvious until you've been there for a while." He grins wryly, "Don't ask how I know."
Benedict observes that the troop movement orders are penned by General Azaersi, so getting the doppelgangers to order the troops around seems unlikely to succeed. The best bet would be to have the orders appear to come from the up-till-now unseen general of the Ironfang Legion.
"We have 10 doses of antitoxin. Everybody take two.
I think we'd be better off engaging the wyverns with missile weapons, but either Grum or Amkarang should take our single potion of Fly if we absolutely need to get up close with the beasts for some reason.
Our dragon figurine we last used the night we arrived in Longshadow."
"We could use it again in an emergency."
Benedict thinks. "That's all the preparation I can think of for hunting wyverns. Should we get going?"
Grum is successful working with the volunteers, though there's a greater turnout than what he can do all by himself. So there will be more to do once the heroes return from their mission. But the group of volunteers are given a number of drills by the orc, and they plan on working through them daily.
With the threat of the assassins seemingly eliminated, Navah and Thom have their long-delayed reunion. They had been past adventurers together and their friendship forged in battle, although it had been strained of late. She thanks him for sending the Phaendarans to help her; otherwise she'd still be fully in her insanity. She presents him with a gift of the spear, which he accepts gratefully and thanks her for her decision to remain in Longshadow and contribute to its defense.
================
When the Heroes set out, many of the townsfolk appear worried. Some even shout to them, asking them to stay and help them fight the hobgoblins. With the town finally accepting that the attack is immanent, many feel that they could be besieged at any moment.
Benedict will try to reassure the populace.
"People of Longshadow! You have rallied admirably and we will crush these hobgoblins - together!
We have not let you down so far, and we will not now. We are Nirmathi!
We go now to strike at our foes. We will return soon and we would not miss this battle for anything! The Legion will know the name Longshadow and fear it!"
Benedict's speech seems to relieve the crowd. While there are still many worried faces, the crowd cheers as the fighters ride out through the gates and into the hills.
The Phaendarans ride north for several hours as the hills get increasingly rocky and tough to navigate. The sun begins to sink low in the west behind the rocky crags of the Mindspin Mountains.
Benedict suggests making camp for the night. With the usual watches.
Benedict will use his midnight watch shift to continue work on his next project, the Circlet of Persuasion .
That gets 2 hours of work done, I believe.
If nothing troubles the party in the night, then he will use the Manual of War in the morning to swap out Barroom Brawler for Feint Partners, and he will keep the Flag in hand for battles.
Aerel will take advantage of his reduced need for sleep to read the Manual of War. He swaps out Clustered Shots for Feint Partner.
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Grum went on, happily humming to himself. The war was going along quite well, and it looked like there was going to be a large and proper battle ahead. He was certain that the Lord in Iron would be quite pleased. He just hoped that the recruits he trained would stand their ground and do their part to make Longshadow into holy ground. He admitted, to himself, that his increasingly religious thoughts were strange. He had never truly cared before. But the constant running, along with fight after fight, had been taking its toll. Wading through a sea of viscera and gore with no end in sight had left him with two options. To break, or to accept the situation. He chose the latter, and he had done so by making the conscious decision to walk in the path of the Sword in the Mountain. His current feeling of being at ease was proof, to himself at least, that he had made the right choice.
The night is uneventful, allowing the heroes to get an early start. They push on through the rugged terrain.
Everyone but Amkarang spots a strange feature in the dirt along their path. It's a flat depression that is vaguely circular in shape.
That appears to be the trap of a trap-door spider.
William looks at the circle head tilted to the side as if something is trying to come to mind.