The Watchers came back with a report for Ulraunt. Koveras was definitely not seen passing through the front door of the library on the, yet he had somehow disappeared somewhere on the ground floor. Also, a large number of the people who lived in Candlekeep entered the library and have gone missing on the ground floor as well.
Ulraunt and Tethoril's faces blackened upon hearing this report.
"Why, how could it be possible! So many people cannot disappear into thin air. Could it be they were all mages who cast invisibility on themselves," I said aloud. "I WONDER where they all went?"
Ulraunt and Tethoril were giving me a very dissatisfied look.
I still remembered that the catacombs were in the levels below, of course. So did my party, as we all heard the chanter tell us about it.
"Wait outside. I and Tethoril have much to discuss in the meeting room," Ulraunt ordered. "In private."
Said meeting room still had Rieltar and gang's corpses in them, but he really wanted privacy apparently.
We stepped out, but before Ulraunt shut the door, I stuck my foot in it. "Before that, allow me to tell you something that may impact your decision."
Ulraunt glared at me, but Tethoril sighed and pulled Ulraunt aside to listen to me himself.
"I'm the next target of the doppelgangers, after Rieltar and company. The doppelgangers are probably defending Koveras's escape route. While in disguise, they can pretend to be captives and either ambush any Watcher they see or come back up and reintegrate themselves again into Candlekeep. However, if I am in reach they will surely attack me and my group," I explained. "Keep that in mind when considering how to rid yourselves of this doppelganger threat."
"I will consider it. Thank you," Tethoril said, and I took my foot out of the door and he closed it behind him.
He need not have bothered. Ulraunt and he were shouting at each other so loudly, everyone could hear them arguing. The Watchers with us all cringed, as did Imoen and Neera.
In the end, Tethoril came out, leaving Ulraunt to seethe in the meeting room.
"We have taken your advice into consideration, and would like to request a further favor of you, Sonny," Tethoril said.
---
The first room leading just before the catacombs is actually a safe area to rest back in the game, but I figured we didn't need to do that since we still had plenty of spells left at our disposal.
This room itself had plenty of loot: Mage scrolls of Agannazar's Scorcher, Chromatic Orb, Confusion, Fireball, Identify x2, Lightning Bolt, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Monster Summoning II, Shadow Door.
---
As expected scouting revealed the first person we came across was a familiar face from Candlekeep, Phlydia the scatterbrained lady who keeps losing her books in the haystack.
Clearly we were not going to meet the real Phlydia here in the secret catacombs. The rest of my team agreed readily, but we were willing to let the each imposter attempt to talk to us so we could judge if it was the real person or not. JUST in case one was the real deal.
I knew which were imposters and which weren't from the game. but I wasn't going to argue too hard here.
As soon as 'Phlydia' caught sight of the party, she screamed, "My book! You stole my book, you curr! Thsssss!" and changed into a doppelganger.
At which point I clonked it from behind over the head.
Imoen was left scratching her head. "Why did they even bother with that spiel? Got too much into the role?"
I shrugged.
---
The entire first floor of the catacombs were optional, strictly speaking. Considering what wonderful treasures were here however (Permanent +1 strength and wisdom), one may as well consider the tombs obligatory.
Traps, abound everywhere, especailly the tombs full of treasure! Thankfully Imoen was up to the task. Neera cast Invisibility on her so that Imoen could safely remove traps on this level. There were probably traps on the next level as well so she was going to sit out combat til she had cleared both levels of traps.
The first tomb which held the Tome of Understanding (permanent +1 wisdom), which we used an identify scroll we had just looted earlier on it then let Branwen gain the bonus.
The next important tomb, far to the west, was guarded by 4 phase spiders. I used to look down on these guys individually, but 4 at once was a pain to deal with. For the most part, the challenge with Phase Spiders was to keep you vulnerable party members safe from the while the spiders teleport to attack them. I stuffed Neera in a corner and boxed her in with Jaheira and Branwen. Imoen was still invisible, so she would be safe from harm. From there, it was just a matter of getting their attention, then tanking and spanking them.
This tomb's lock was rather difficult for me, so we used a Knock scroll on it. Here we got the Manual of Gainful Exercise (+1 permanent strength) which I used. I finally had a glorious strength of... just 18.
Being a halfling sucks! Arrgh!
---
Imoen's scouting revealed a room with two ghasts, a room with one ghast, and room with 6 ghasts.
Khalid and Jaheira's made a face. Ghasts weren't a high level threat, but no warrior wanted to tangle with their disease and paralyzing touch.
"Don't worry about it, we've got this," I told them. "Time to break out some cheats."
"Not the basilisk kind, I hope," Imoen said, giving me some side eye.
"More like the kind where ghasts can't fight back," I replied.
I explained my plan to the group.
Branwen's face filled with horror. "Tempus would not approve of such craven tactics!"
"Let's put it to vote then," I suggested.
Everyone other than Branwen voted for, Branwen voted against. Sorry Branwen!
---
Two ghasts were minding their own business, unaware of the presence of the living in the catacomb. Suddenly, they heard a voice from thin air declare, "Away, foul undead! The will of Tempus commands you!"
The ghasts recoiled in terror from the... nothing? It's very scary nothing, in any case! Somehow.
Soon after, adventurers wielding ranged weapons burst into the room and pelted the ghasts with arrows and sling bullets til they dropped dead.
That's right, turning undead does NOT break Invisibility! Branwen probably had a dirty look on her face, but I couldn't see it so I didn't care. Hah!
Loot on catacombs level 1:
War Hammer +1,
Protection scrolls of Protection from Acid, Protection from Magic,
Potion of Frost Giant Strength, Potion of Fortitude, Potion of Stone Form, Oil of Speed, Potion of Invulnerability, Potion of Heroism, Potion of Invisibility,
Wand of Fire,
Ring of Fire Resistance (very nice), Cloak of Protection +2 (very, very nice),
Tome of Understanding (Woohoo!) , Manual of Gainful Exercise (Yay!).
---
We moved down to the second level, and found ourselves face to face with Drepin! Without his cow, no less. The doppelganger screamed "Die stupid child!" or something to that effect and immediately resumed it's natural form to claw at Khalid. However it was dispatched with a bonk to the head from behind first.
Two people came rushing in just behind Drepin at the sound of commotion. They were just in time to watch Drepin transform into a doppelganger.
These two were Arkanis, a dwarven warrior, and Deder, a halfling thief. They were two of the trainers in Candlekeep who act as a tutorial for mass combat.
Arkanis glared in horror at the doppelganger at our feet. "By the gods, that… that thing was young Drepin! What is going on, Sonny?! Obe asked us to help you hunt down that Koveras guy but… but this is far more foul than any of his most fearsome illusions!"
Obe being Oberon, one of the many tutors in Candlekeep.
"How do we know they're not doppelgangers as well?" Imoen asked. She was still invisible, so Arkanis and Deder looked around in confusion.
Neera gave me a knowing look.
I cleared my throat. "It's a long story, Arkanis. Please, you have to help me get out of here, and fast. Can I trust you?"
"Aye, child, trust me you can, and Deder too. I know not what assistance we can be to you, except four strong arms and an eye for illusions," Arkanis said. "We shall see you to the end of these crypts but not beyond, as we must bear witness to the horrors that befoul this place."
The area just past Arkanis and Deder was filled with traps and skeletons. Fortunately, Imoen and Branwen were still invisible. Imoen found and dismantled the traps, Branwen turned the skeletons. QED.
Actually, Branwen didn't turn away the skeletons. The skeletons outright exploded. That's... pretty impressive. High level clerics do that when they turn minor undead.
That left us... lots and lots of doppelgangers.
Karan: "Die stupid child!", transforms, dies from backstab
Hull: "Die stupid child!", transforms, dies from backstab
Jondalar: "Die stupid child!", transforms, dies from backstab
then Fuller, Parda, Reevor...
"Enough already!" Imoen moaned, still invisible. "Just how many people doppelgangers are there? Not one of them was the real thing!"
I coughed, pointed at Arkanis and Deder.
"In retrospect, I and Deder are rather fortunate you all waited til they changed forms before attacking," Arkanis said, sweating.
"They have to change forms to attack, so it's pretty safe to wait for them to resume their natural form. Doppelgangers are most comfortable fighting with their own claws, after all," I explained.
But we were not nearly done with doppelgangers. The worst was yet to come.
---
Imoen had scouted out this group of three familiar faces, so we were prepared for what was to come. It didn't make it any easier, however.
Before us stood the figures of Elminster, Tethoril, and Gorion.