| Session Date | January 2, 2021 |
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| Base XP Gained | 1000 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's notes |
Back in Manston, the party had recovered from their recent adventures in Andorland, fighting lycanthropes and the Wizard Silver (now a lich). As they breakfasted in their residence, one of their Dwarf guards reported that they'd received a raven from the Dwarf Kingdom. The brief message was from Nali and said that the wizard Cadwaladyr had announced that he has "urgent business elsewhere" and would not be able to rejoin the party for quite some time. The wizard had departed in great haste. Concerned, the party discussed what they should do next. Iban thought that it might be time to return to the Dwarf Kingdom, as they had no immediate reason to stay in Manston. In any case, the party would sorely miss their wizard and, after the debacle with the Wizard Silver, they felt that they could use some additional bodies to bolster their strength.
So, the party made some inquiries about finding a new wizard, and were told that the Temple of Eledath (goddess of good magics) would be their best bet, as many wizards associated themselves with the temple. They were admitted to the chief cleric's presence, one Albados. He was friendly and helpful, and told them that while adventuring wizards were rare in the city, he did know of two off the top of his head. The first was Rhialto the Allegedly Marvelous, but the party doubted he would be a good choice given their history with him. The second possibility was Knar, who happened to be present in the temple library at the moment. Albados introduced the party to him. Knar had a colorful history of adventuring that he briefly recounted, ending with him being thrown from his world to this one. He'd been in the city for two months and was more than ready to do something (anything!). The deal made, the party decided to head to the Hewn Anvil Tavern in the Dwarf Town for a drink to celebrate.
At the Hewn Anvil, the party toasted their new companion and introduced him to the four dwarf soldiers of theirs currently off duty and also drinking away despite the relatively early hour. Floi was also present. He seemed quite distraught that Cadwaladyr was not coming back; in fact, he seemed remarkably disturbed. Iban decided to cast ESP on him to see what the matter was. The Dwarf captain was clearly greatly agitated and was considering returning to the Dwarf Kingdom, either with the party if he could talk them into it, or alone. Unstable most of the time, this was weird even for him. ZZ supposed that the Dwarf Ring of Power might have affected him in some way, though they'd not noted so before. Floi did seem to calm down later.
Meanwhile, the party continued their discussion about bolstering their party with more fighting prowess. One of their dwarves, eavesdropping, dragged over another dwarf he'd recently met. He was introduced as Thunderfist, a far traveled dwarf with strange and unbelievable tales of fighting fish men in the distant southern seas. Like many, he was rather stuck in the city at the moment and eager for a change. He was a dwarf of Goldburg originally, that mining town in the distant north at the furthest fringe of civilization. He was only to happy to join the party,
After a few more drinks, the party thought they would check in with the town leadership and introduce their new party members to the authorities. They made their way to the town hall and were admitted to the presence of Mayor Crinsdale. Though he had not terribly impressed the party previously, he was friendly and clearly interested in their news of the Wizard Silver and the fate of the lycanthropes. He was clearly concerned that the north was not as safe as he had believed. Although Manston had the river and the lake to cover their flank, they had counted on being threatened primarily from the west, not north. He pointed out that the city had always assumed they would have the freedom to sail back and forth as needed, thus avoiding ever being completely surrounded. Iban suggested that he should ensure that a signal was arranged to either move or burn the many ships and barges that were currently beached up around the village of Divin (north of the Blueflood) for the winter months. It would not do for enemies to seize control of the lake and river! Crinsdale agreed and said he would see to it. As for the Giant King, little had happened in the last few days, and the Manston folk were remaining watchful and wary - the militia had not deployed as yet, but was ready to do so when Lord Alcibard, now commanding, decided it was time.
Leaving the Mayor, the party decided to try to contact the Thieves Guild to see if they had any new information. They thus made their way to the Empress Winetta Inn, a large place in a slightly seedier part of the city where they'd encountered some thieves previously. The place was unusually raucous for an early afternoon, and the party stayed only long enough for a drink and to pay a silver coin to the barkeep to tell Edmund the thief that they wished to talk. This accomplished, the newly expanded party now made their way back to their residence. There, one of the dwarf guards eyed Mordecai oddly. He told them that Mordecai had gone in less than a half hour prior, but he'd not seen him come out. Concerned, the party deployed to surround the building while Iban and ZZ entered cautiously. Iban cast detect invisibility as ZZ slowly cleared the ground floor and made his way upstairs. There he noted one of the bedroom doors slightly ajar. With Iban as backup, he slipped into the room to find that it had been tossed. Two more bedrooms were the same with a fourth untouched. ZZ checked the windows and found one shut but not latched from the inside. Iban cast invisibility on himself and, using his boots of levitation, slipped outside and made his way to the roof. Sure enough, he detected an invisible figure there. He cast hold person on it and took a prisoner.
ZZ and he then took the prisoner below and a dispel magic revealed a perfect image of Mordecai. They interrogated him under a detect lie spell. The shapeshifter, for so it was, seemed breezily unconcerned with its own fate. Indeed, it said that if anything were to happen to it, there would "be serious consequences" though it refused to be more specific. Indeed, it generally told the truth throughout the interrogation, though without revealing much of value. Mordecai then proceeded to beat it senseless with a spiritual hammer! The party recalled all the Dwarves, including Floi, and set a strong watch indoors (they did not want Dwarves outside lest they be taken or slain). Despite this, the thief Ravenna somehow managed to find her way inside their residence. She had learned of the party's capture and wished to see the thing with her own eyes. This made the party somewhat nervous, and they demanded she prove who she was. She therefore showed them the expensive necklace (3000 SP!) they'd given the Thief With No Name a few weeks before. This satisfied them and they let her see the shapeshifter, now unconscious and tied up. She seemed impressed and said her folk had not come even close to capturing one, despite a good deal of effort. She went on to say that the main reason she'd come was to invite the party to a "special observation." The party was doubtful about leaving the prisoner, but Ravenna offered to deploy watchers around their residence to improve their ("always lax") security. This satisfied the party, though they decided to have Iban and Thunderfist remain behind on duty. She told the others to be at the Ratcatcher's Rest Tavern an hour after sunset (it was catty-corner to the Empress Winetta). The party had to agree to secrecy in what they would see, which they did.
At the appointed time, ZZ, Mordecai, Bel and Knar went to the tavern. Entering, they got a number of dark looks from the remarkably crowded common room, but no one said a word to them and left them alone. After a short time, the room grew hushed as Ravenna and Edmund entered and made their way to the party at the bar. The barkeep handed Ravenna a fancy glass of wine without a word exchanged between them. They had a drink and some minor chit chat. As they were waiting for what came next, Iban began scrying them with his crystal ball, and would follow what happened for the next few hours (Knar detected the scry, but the others in the party reassured him that it was almost certainly Iban and not to worry...Dex, I forgot to mention, you never once saw Ravenna in the crystal ball, though you did see Edmund and others). Then, the guildmistress and Edmund took them to the tavern's cellar. Here they were told they would need to be blindfolded. The party was somewhat concerned, and ZZ said he wished to cast an augury first. Ravenna feigned indignation but clearly didn't care. The augury revealed that it was physically safe to proceed. However, ZZ also got the sense that there was some vague displeasure associated with doing so. Needless to say, they proceeded, but only after ZZ crushed up some gems to appease his own god!
The party was blindfolded, spun in circles, and then made to climb down a long ladder to a damp, underground location. They were then led, arm on should before them, in a dizzying series of movements clearly designed to confuse them. It actually worked. Not even ZZ's underground sense could figure out where they were, how deep, or anything else. At last, the blindfolds were removed and they found themselves in an underground room of goodly size, but quite dark and but dimly lit. Over a score of other folk were there, only dimly seen in the deep shadows. The room was decorated as a shrine or temple, and they quickly realized that this was a shrine to Kalina, goddess of thieves, and this was her high holy day. What followed was a religious ceremony to the the evil goddess, which clearly was borderline abhorrent for the good-aligned clerics, especially Mordecai! The service was "dedicated to Loegrim, soon to no longer be with us." There was a lot of talk and ceremony about mother taker, sister thief, whisperer in darkness, shadow walker, garroter in the night, the red-handed, etc. Ravenna whispered to the party that this was the lesser rite; the greater rites and the human sacrifices had been completed earlier. The party was unsure if she was jesting or not.
The rites concluded, food and drink was brought in and a somewhat raucous celebration ensued. Bel said she hoped the food was not leftovers from the human sacrifices, which amused Ravenna. The party enjoyed themselves immensely, now that the uncomfortable services were over. However, they did make a point of trying to memorize as many faces as possible. Most of the others present avoided the party, though the dark looks were few and far between. At one point, Ravenna invited the party to a hanging tomorrow in Vo Idri Square. The condemned was one of her folk, Loegrim. She was going to ensure that "things were done right." Finally, well past midnight, they were blindfolded, spun about, and led back to the Ratcatcher's Rest. ZZ retained enough sense to know that they'd been somewhere to the northwest of the tavern, though he was unsure exactly how far or how deep. The four then made their way back to their residence, where there was not a hint of any trouble the entire night.
The next morning, they returned to interrogate the shapeshifter. Iban tried ESP, only to be hit with a wave of intense feedback. Seeing that ESP would not work, he now choked the thing to near unconsciousness, but the ESP was still ineffective (and hurt Iban to try). Seeing no alternative, the party now decided on a new course of action, much to the shapeshifter's dismay. They slew him, and he instantly reverted to his true form, that of a doppelganger. Now dead, ZZ cast speak with dead. How many doppelgangers are in the city (3). Who is the most senior person recently replaced? (Mordecai the cleric). Where was he to go next to report his findings? (Empress Winetta Inn). Those bits of information seemed helpful, but the party wanted more. Happily, ZZ retained the Spirit Vessel which, while risky, also allowed for speaking with the dead. What was the next time it was to report in? (When it had something worth reporting). How do you know when to meet? (Don't know). What were the consequences it spoke of? (It did not know, it would be up to the others to decide). What was the last form it took before Mordecai? (A constable assigned to guard the grain stores).
This done, the party hauled the dead doppelganger to the city hall and passed it off to the officials there. The party urged the town to send spellcasters with ESP to the Empress Winetta, surreptitiously, in order to look for more of the things. They should look for weird feedback from the ESP spell as an indicator. They should also keep soldiers nearby, but should not tell them why because of the danger of ESP alerting the doppelgangers. This done, the party talked about using true seeing spells to reveal the doppelgangers. The Mayor and guard captains they spoke with said they'd thought of that before, but the transitory nature of the spell (and its high level) made things like that very awkward and ineffective. Then someone (forget who) said it would be nice if they had a magic item that had a similar effect. The party latched on to this idea and decided to do some research at the Temple of Eledath. Making their way thither, they told Albados their thoughts. By good fortune, he said he'd heard of such a thing held by one Lord Solen, a nobleman to the west, who was said to possess a gem that could "pierce any enchantment." Solen, he told them, was of an old noble line from Imperial days. He had a somewhat dark reputation, but was aloof and had minimal interaction with others. Solen did not defer to the lords of Manston and Albados was unsure if he would willingly part with the stone. He dwelt in a keep southwest of the village of Durnton. Solen had to be quite old if he was even still alive, though Albados believed he had a daughter.
Armed with this information, the party decided that their next step would be to make their way to this Lord Solen's castle, though how they would approach this was left undecided.