Chapter 41: The Seven Suns
"What do you think of her?" Imoen asked expectantly. Alora had joined them for breakfast, giving everyone a chance to meet her and talk with her. Right now, the halfling was playing with Boo in a corner, chattering happily to the hamster as she stuck choice seeds into the tiny wooden toys Minsc had made.
"Boo likes her very much," Minsc said with a smile.
"She is very... cheerful, but there is no harm in that," Kivan said.
"I'm not sure I'm too happy about how you met her, but if she is as good as you say, I don't mind," Ember said.
"She is," Edwin said.
"So, since I'm not going to wake Coran and ask what he thinks," Imoen said, "what is the verdict?"
"She may join us," Kivan said. The others nodded in agreement.
Alora squealed with delight when they told her the news. "Friends we are, and nice ones too!" she cried! "One for all and things like that! Fun for all of us, I just KNOW it!"
Ember smiled. "The fun's going to start this very morning. We're going to investigate the Seven Suns, as soon as Coran finishes sleeping off last night."
"Alora's first big adventure, already? Holy kitty cacophony, I can't wait!" Alora exclaimed, her eyes shining with glee.
---
The Seven Suns headquarters was a somber building, made from dark brown bricks and trimmed with grey at the corners and around the numerous windows. From the outside, it looked like every curtain had been shut. The front door of polished oak opened smoothly when Kivan pushed it.
The inside of the building was cool and dimly lit. The patterned marble floor earned a small compliment from Edwin, but the brown stone pillars that supported the roof were declared tacky. There were only a few people within; nothing like the activity Ember had expected from a trading coster.
"Hello!" Imoen said to a merchant who was standing by a desk, hurriedly counting coins into bags.
"What can I do for you?" the man asked hurriedly. Ember noticed a bead of sweat on his bald head.
"We want to talk to the owner of the Seven Suns," Ember said.
The merchant frowned. "Unfortunately, I cannot grant your desire, so could you kindly leave?" he asked.
Ember shrugged. "Fine, we'll find someone else to help us," she said.
"Wait!" the man said quietly. "You should get out of here as soon as possible. Everybody I know has been acting really strange as of late. I've seen some of the other merchants change faces when they thought I wasn't looking."
"Change faces?" Ember asked incredulously.
"Yes, you heard me right, they changed faces!" the merchant said. "Some sort of shapeshifters have infiltrated the Seven Suns. Get out, while you still can!" He gathered his bags of money and scurried towards the front door.
"Doppelgangers," Kivan said.
"That's bad, right?" Imoen asked.
"Of course it is bad!" Edwin said. "Now, let us find them and deal with them."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Coran said.
"By applying my vast intellect to the problem. Observe, simian," Edwin said, and headed towards another merchant.
"So you have come to visit the Seven Suns, have you...?" the merchant said, looking up from a desk covered with papers. "Yes, I've got your face now, but not your name..."
"My name is my business. I'm not here to exchange pleasantries," Edwin said. The rest of the group slowly gathered around him.
"If you wish silence, then we ask the same of you," the merchant said, his voice as smooth as silk. "Bother us not."
"If you be merchants as you say you are," Edwin said, "would you not then be eager to sell your wares?"
"We sell to those who have the money to buy, not adventuring paupers such as yourself. Move on, and we'll forgive your impertinence," the merchant said, waving a hand irritably.
"Paupers? (Does this look like the robe of a pauper?!) No, you are no merchants," Edwin replied. "Show your true face!"
The merchant smiled then; a cold smile that grew wider, and wider, and wider. "We are indeed merchants," he said, "though not of wares you would be familiar with: We are merchants of faces and names, merchants of identities, merchants of skin even when the flesh it contains is so much rubbish. We are doppelgangers and, for a skin pittance, we sell fools their deaths." His face and clothes melted away, and a grey, sinewy figure stood before them. Across the room, another merchant stood up from his desk and ran towards them, his features being replaced by grey skin and sharp teeth as he ran. Alora shrieked with fear.
"Go for the eyes, Boo!" Minsc bellowed. He drew his sword and charged at the closest doppelganger. Ember ran for the second one, while Kivan and Coran attacked with their bows. Alora had a sling, and was using to fling rock bullets at a doppelganger with impressive accuracy.
"There are two more over there!" Imoen shouted, pointing towards a flight of stairs. Two young girls were standing there, their faces melting and shifting as if their features were as indecided as they; they alternated between running down the stairs and backing up to the second floor.
"Do as I do," Edwin said, and flung a volley of magic missiles at one of the girls, who now looked more like a small troll. Imoen complied, sending missiles of her own at the one that looked like an elderly man. The two doppelgangers ran up the stairs, but the missiles followed after them. Moments later, shrieks of pain echoed down the marble steps.
As soon as the first two doppelgangers were dead - one of them fell when Alora's struck it in the left temple with a bullet - everyone ran upstairs. One of the doppelgangers was laying on the floor, wheezing; Ember ran her sword through it as they passed it. The other had retreated into a chamber, and was waving a spear at them. There were burn marks on its arm where it'd been struck, but the marks were already partially healed.
"They regenerate almost as rapidly as they can shift," Kivan said, taking aim at the creature. There was a soft thunk; an arrow fired by Coran hit the remaining doppelganger in the chest, and it fell to the ground, dead. Coran sighed in a very satisfied manner. Kivan lowered his bow.
They searched the entire floor, but found no other doppelgangers - or people, for that matter. There weren't even any incriminating documents to be found. "Who'd imagine that doppelgangers would have the sense to destroy proof?" Imoen said as Alora picked the lock of yet another chest that contained nothing but money and trinkets. The halfling was very wide-eyed, but had held up admirably so far.
"Position and organization and other trappings of civilization matter not to them. Only wealth," Kivan said. "If they had any papers, they probably discarded them without a second thought."
The ground floor was equally devoid of doppelgangers, people, and evidence. Many rooms on both floors were locked and dusty, and had clearly not seen use in a while. Ember guessed that the trading coster had been running with a minimal staff as the merchants left or were replaced with doppelgangers.
A single door led to the cellar, where they found storage rooms, weapon racks, and even what appeared to be a prison cell. A greyhaired man dressed in bright green stood in front of the door to the cell with a key in his hand; as they descended into the room, he turned and looked at them.
"Is he normal, do you think?" Ember whispered to Imoen.
The man's face contorted. "You shall die for this intrusion, meat!" he hissed.
"Nope," Imoen told Ember, and drew her bow. The others followed suit, and the doppelganger was cut down before he was done changing shape.
There didn't appear to be anyone else in the cellar, so Alora and Coran immediately set about the task of opening and inspecting the many locked chests in the storage rooms. Imoen picked the doppelganger's key up from the floor and tried it on the door to the prison cell; Ember and Minsc waited beside her with drawn swords, in case there was another doppelganger inside. After some jiggling of the key, the lock on the door opened with a small click.
"Stand aside, Evil, for justice is upon you!" Minsc said, shoving the cell door open. A greyhaired man wearing rags that might have once been green sat up in a corner, where he'd either been sleeping or been knocked down, by the looks of it. Ember noticed that underneath a mass of bruises and cuts, his face was remarkably similar to the one used by the doppelganger they'd just killed.
"Get away from me, shapeshifter scum," the man growled weakly. "You'll get naught from me this day, not a cry of pain nor the knowledge in my noggin."
"We're not shapeshifters," Imoen said, "we're here to save you."
"You think I believe that? I know your tricks, and that one won't work no more."
"(Typical.) Then tell me, how do we know that you are not a shapeshifter, using such a 'trick' on us?" Edwin asked.
"Think what you want," Ember said. "We've been sent by Scar to find Jhasso."
A glimmer of hope showed in the man's bloodshot eyes. "Jhasso? I am Jhasso; you know Scar? You might be telling the truth; is my torment to finally end?" he asked.
"Nobody is to be tormented while Minsc and Boo stand guard!" Minsc declared.
"If you're Jhasso, then you might have an idea of what's been going on here. What can you tell us?" Ember asked.
Jhasso drew a deep breath. "Those creatures, the shapeshifters, started infiltrating the Seven Suns some months ago," he told them. "They must have started with some of the less important members of my coster; eventually, they captured me, and their leader took my face. They've been keeping me alive in order to gain information that they need to run the coster without raising suspicion. I don't know what their purpose is, but I do know they have been running my business very badly."
"They're all dead now," Kivan said. "A human merchant left as we arrived."
"Good, good," Jhasso said. "It'll probably be weeks before we can clean out their stench, though."
Alora strolled into the cell, her hands full of jewelry. "We found many pretty shiny things, but no papers... oh, nutbunnies!" she cried as she noticed Jhasso. "I wasn't going to take your pretties, really! Just looking at them, I was!"
Jhasso chuckled. "Take the jewels, little one. Consider it my payment to you."
"Really? Oh, you're the sweetest! Thank you!" Alora said, giving Jhasso her very best smile.
"All of you will be well rewarded for rescuing me," Jhasso said. "Come, I must speak with Scar immediately. Will you take me to him?"
"Of course," Ember said.
---
Ember and her companions waited outside Scar's office while Jhasso talked with the Fist Commander. After what felt like ages, Scar emerged. "I must say I'm impressed!" he said. "You are as good as your word and obviously very deadly in your work. I'll give you the wage you deserve, triple of our original agreement." He handed Kivan a large purse of gold.
"I want to keep in touch with you," Scar continued, "I may request your help with my investigations of the Iron Throne. Provided you are willing, of course."
"We'd be glad to," Ember said with a smile. After all, our own investigations will still be with the Throne.
The group left the Flaming Fist headquarters in good spirits; Alora was all but dancing in the street from excitement, and even Edwin seemed almost pleased. "Where now?" Kivan asked as he finished distributing the gold between them.
"Such an adventure must be celebrated, of course. I propose a grand dinner!" Coran said.
"I can honestly say that's the best idea I've ever heard from you," Ember said wryly. "Any suggestions?"
Coran grinned broadly at Ember. "At this time of day, there is no better place than the Helm and Cloak, in the inner city. Follow me!" he cried, and led them all towards the Old Gate.