Trouble with the Duke
On a cold day that longed for spring, the elven archer Eandrynn received a message from elven diplomats in Helmsport. They sought his aid in locating the daughter of a prominent elven family visiting the city. With his ties to the elven government, as well as his contacts within Helmsport, Eandrynn seemed a logical ally to enlist in the search.
Currently in residence in New Khundrukar, Eandrynn brought the dwarf Thorgrimm and his majordomo Hjalmar with him to the meeting. There, they learned of the young elf's disappearance two days earlier, and the various dead ends that the diplomats had reached so far. They pledged their assistance, and contacted the rest of their friends, who also pitched in as best they could. Adarrial Smythe plied his contacts in the royal court, while Duran Fortnite turned to magical divinations for assistance, but all avenues turned up nothing.
Puzzled by their lack of success, the heroes took a more traditional approach: legwork. Combing the area where the elf was last seen, the extraordinarily keen eyes of Thomas Johnson turned up a single golden thread--the make of which was only used by one household in the city: the Royal House of Avan.
That night, under cover of a magical fog, the heroes entered the quarters of the young duke, Decius Avan. Their divinations revealed two individuals within the duke's residence, one of whom radiated pure malevolence!
Bursting in, the heroes found the unconscious form of the missing elven maiden lying in the duke's bed. Standing over her was the duke himself--the source of the evil they had detected from outside! Before the heroes could react, Decius pointed a finger at the elf and, muttering a few arcane syllables, fired a thin green ray at her helpless body. In an eyeblink, nothing remained of her but a swirl of dust.
With a smile, the duke turned to the heroes. "Now, what was it that you wanted, invading my home like this?" Eandrynn, his blood boiling, didn't waste a word, instead dropping the duke with a single well-placed arrow (and following it up with a few more shots into Avan's fallen form).
The rest of the heroes were stunned. In a matter of seconds, they had witnessed two murders--one at the hands of the young man they had rescued from barbarians many months earlier, followed by a royal assassination by one of their own comrades! But clearly, there was more to all this than met the eye.
Unfortunately, they wouldn't have time to ponder the situation just now, as the sound of running footsteps echoed from the hallway outside. Alerted by the strange fog, the guards had alerted the Chamberlain, who approached with a full contingent of troops. Realizing that they were not prepared to explain their actions, several of the heroes teleported to the safety of New Khundrukar (taking both the duke's body and the meager remains of his victim), leaving behind only Duran Fortnite and Adarrial Smythe, who assumed the duke's identity using his formidable powers of disguise. The bard's quick thinking prevented catastrophe, but still suspicion remained.
The next twenty-four hours saw a truly dizzying mix of politics, intrigue, deception, and discovery. Adarrial continued to pose as the duke throughout meetings with Chamberlain Fleming--for the better part of a day, the former charlatan actually ruled the entire province! Various divinations provided confusing answers to elaborate questions. Who was scrying upon the heroes? Was Decius truly responsible for his actions, or had he been controlled by another? If so, by who, and for how long? Questioning the duke's departed soul revealed that he had no memory more recent than his rescue from the stockade long months earlier, meaning that whatever controlled him had done so for the better part of two years!
Eventually, the heroes returned to the scene of the crime(s). There, a more thorough search revealed a truly hideous secret: a hidden room just off the duke's chamber that concealed several animated corpses of young women, each of whom bore signs of physical violence incurred post-mortem. Apparently, the elven lass wasn't the duke's first "acquisition," nor did Decius give up his conquests lightly. Along with the zombies was a creature that appeared to be Decius himself, but which the heroes quickly determined was some quasi-sentient duplicate of the young duke--an arcane simulacrum.
Slowly, the heroes began to put the pieces together. The controller of young Decius had to be a powerful arcane spellcaster, someone potent enough to maintain long-term mental control over Decius Avan, animate the dead, create illusory simulacra, and most of all conceal his presence from those around him. He had to be patient enough to frame his "brother" for murder to clear his path to the throne, and then to engineer the death of his "father" to ascend. Since those crimes couldn't be accomplished without the assistance of the recently revealed Cathezar, the mastermind had to know the true identity of the former Bishop Lorcan Connallsson and have a rapport with the former slave lord.
Only one individual fit all these criteria. Grimly, the heroes realized that the man who had ruled Helmsport and the Western Province was none other than Strabo the sorcerer-lich, former Lord of the Scarlet Sails! Though the heroes had crushed the ring of slavers long before, they had known that two of the group's leaders had escaped capture. One was Lorcan, who had used his stature within the Church of Altius to assume the position of Bishop. The other was Strabo, who the heroes had--until this very day--assumed to be long-gone from the scene. Only now did they realize the true depths of the sorcerer's plans!
Thorgrimm decided that he could no longer put off informing the elven diplomats of his findings. With Hjalmar at his side, the dwarf told the elves the entire results of their investigations to that point, including the heroes' suspicion that the "duke" may not actually have been acting of his own free will for an indeterminate length of time. When the elves ventured that this fact might provide Brithonen with considerable leverage in renegotiating recent treaties, Thorgrimm countered with a not-so-subtle reminder that he and his friends were also in the possession of information about the elven government that was best kept secret as well.
This seemed to lessen the elves' interest in political machinations, at least for the time being, so the heroes next met with the chamberlain. There, they revealed the extent of their findings, as well as their deception. They also raised Decius from the dead, knowing that they had nothing to fear from the "real" duke. Though confused by his "sudden" transformation from a teenaged boy to a young man, Decius remained calm enough for the heroes to explain recent events to him, and to ask for his presence at a meeting with the elven diplomats. Stunned, the young duke asked for a few minutes alone with his trusted friend, the man who had helped raise him from a boy, Chamberlain Kell Fleming.
The heroes left the two alone and proceeded to New Khundrukar, where the elven diplomats sat waiting to meet with the Duke and the Chamberlain to hear a firsthand account of what had really happened in the last few days.
In hindsight, the heroes probably should have realized that they weren't out of danger quite yet. After all, even though they had slain the body possessed by Strabo, they had yet to discover the lich's soul receptacle, meaning that the villain was still technically on the loose. Thus, they met the Duke's absence from the meeting with only moderate surprise, and when learning of the disappearance of both Duke and Chamberlain from the city--along with all remaining evidence of the Strabo-controlled duke's misdoings--realized that they had only themselves to blame.
What they couldn't know, however, was that Decius--once again possessed by Strabo, who all along had been much closer than the heroes could possibly have expected--along with the now-charmed Kell Fleming, had upped the ante. Instead of merely fleeing to a hidden lair, they had teleported straight to the King's Palace in Blackmere City. There, they informed King Augustus himself of exactly what had happened: That Eandrynn, son of Brithonen, had assaulted the Duke himself in his own quarters. That Adarrial Smythe, himself half-elven and a known ally of the elven government, had treasonously posed as the Duke. That Thorgrimm, Lord of New Khundrukar, holder of land partially granted by the king himself, had sheltered these criminals. And that Duran Fortnite, trusted member of the Church of Altius, had allowed all of this to happen.
Faced with this damning--and all-too-true, after a fashion--testimony from two trusted servants of the Crown, the king had no choice. On the next morning, he instructed his priests to send a magical summons to each of his Knights of Blackmere.
To Alarion, Beran, Jarvis, and Stannis, the message was confusing but grim: Your friends are not to be trusted. Avoid them if possible; if you aid them, you risk your standing with us.
To Adarrial, Duran, Eandrynn, and Thorgrimm, the message was far more concise: Stand where you are. Our agents will arrive shortly...to take you into custody.
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