Now that the main threat to the realm was over, we could stay a moment to catch our breath. The Grand Dukes were looking over the letter we had brought them, making sense of what had happened.
"So I understand the part where Sarevok wanted to have us murdered. Wanting to become the sole leader of Baldur's Gate was motif enough," Belt said, scratching the back of his head. "But he was intent on hurling the whole city into a war with Amn. To what end? He was even willing to ruin the Iron Throne for this purpose."
"Maybe he thought he could lead Baldur's Gate to take over Amn, somehow?" Liia Jannath said offhand. She was busy drawing up some ritual on the ground. She had announced earlier that she would be divining where Sarevok went.
I already knew, of course. But I couldn't come out and say it.
"He's power hungry, not an idiot," Belt replied. "Even he knows that war with Amn would be a long and bloody affair with no winners."
The remaining nobles who were not doppelgangers had been sitting around, whispering to each other and listening in to the Dukes. It's not like they could leave. I had asked the Dukes to lock everyone who had seen what had happened in the room until we decide what information we wanted getting outside.
As the nobles aka landowners got wind of what was truly going on, they started to realise how badly they had screwed up by backing the wrong person. The vote was unanimous, after all.
Meanwhile, the party and Scar were catching up.
"I fended of the first attempt on my life, went just as you said it would," Scar explained, beaming. His smile faded. "Then came the second attempt. I survived that too, if barely. After the third attempt, Duke Eltan and I realised that I should probably pretend to be dead."
"But Angelo is still in charge of the Flaming Fist?" I asked, my eyes narrowed. "That could be... problematic."
After all, Angelo was working for Sarevok. Having Sarevok's lackey in charge of the Flaming Fist wasn't a good thing.
"Who else knows you're actually alive?" Jaheira asked Scar. "We could go there now and show that you're alive."
"Only the men who are here, those tasked to guard the Dukes themselves. Unfortunately, it could take some time in convincing the rest of my men that I'm the genuine article. After all, I'm supposed to be dead, and they already know that doppelgangers have attempted to kill me twice already."
That could be even MORE problematic. Especially considering one more Duke that was unaccounted for. "Please tell me Duke Eltan is safe and well."
Scar looked embarrassed. "In a matter of speaking. After I took to pretending to be dead, Duke Eltan figured he should follow suite. He is, uh, pretending to be ill. He is in the Flaming Fist compound, being taken care of by his healer."
I glared at Scar. "The same healer that I said would be compromised by a doppelganger by this point?" I asked in a harsh tone. "Didn't either of you think there's a risk the doppelganger may realise the good Duke Eltan is actually well and decide to kill him, especially now that Sarevok's entire plan has unraveled?"
"That, that could be bad. I see it now, yes," Scar guffawed.
I gestured my party to follow after me, then turned to the Dukes. "Change of plans. We're going to rescue Duke Eltan. Chasing after Sarevok will have to come later. Please don't let word of this incident get out until we have secured his safety."
Liia Jannath, about to finish her ritual, pouted. "Fine, go. I'll let you all know where your adversary went later. But take a Flaming Fist soldier with you, so you don't get arrested along the way."
---
To the Flaming Fist compound! Scar accompanied us, together with a few Flaming Fist soldiers.
Normally in this point in the game, the player would be a fugitive for the whole chapter, having to find clues and investigating how to clear their name until the encounter at the Ducal Palace. In our case, we were wanted by the Flaming Fist for a whole of two hours since we skipped straight to taking out Slythe and Krystin then the Ducal Palace.
Narratively speaking, it would have made more sense if I had rescued Duke Eltan FIRST, before rescuing the Belt and Liia Jannath at the Ducal Palace.
Er, no. Meet Tamoko and Husam first, then rescue Eltan, then go to the Iron Throne, then Slythe and Kyrstin and finally the Ducal Palace? Something like that?
Anyway, here we were at the Flaming Fist barracks.
"So, to confirm. If I go in there, I will probably be attacked since Angelo has marked me as a wanted man, in spite of being accompanied by you and other Flaming Fist soldiers?" I checked with Scar just outside.
"Yes, Angelo has left his most loyal men in the barracks and they can't be sure I'm the real Scar," Scar confirmed. "It'll get sorted out eventually. There's got to be some sort of way to suss out imposters."
"We don't have that kind of time. Duke Eltan could be killed at any moment," Jaheira snapped at him. "We won't force you to fight your own men, but our party cannot hesitate when Duke Eltan's safety is at stake."
Scar looked at Jaheira in horror. "You mean to cut through my men in order to reach Duke Eltan? They may be loyal to Angelo, but-"
A sharp glare Jaheira shut him up.
I cleared my throat and tapped Jaheira's hand. She turned her glare in my direction.
"I can do this," I reassured her. "It's kind of my specialty at this point."
---
The doppelganger posing as Rashad the healer was rather perplexed. It wasn't actually trained as a healer, so it didn't know how to cast healing spells or treat wounds.
"Oh, the pain! You'll never get away with this, you horrible creature!" Duke Eltan cried from the bed, with a hand covering his forehead in a melodramatic fashion and the other pulling up his bedsheet.
What the doppelganger did have a lot of experience with was acting. And man, did Duke Eltan suck at it.
The doppelganger was certain it had been forcing Duke Eltan to consume a daily amount of the correct drug. Not a poison to kill, that would only come later after the coronation was complete. But enough to debilitate the Duke.
Yet here the Duke was, pretending to be ill and doing a terrible job at it. The doppelganger hadn't realised the ploy immediately, to its shame. It only begun to realise the Duke was probably pretending to be sick a few days in. By then, the doppelganger was cut off from the rest of its allies, stuck here with the Duke until the appointed time to end his life. That time had not come yet.
Was the dosage wrong? Not being actually versed in medicine was really not helping the doppelganger here.
The doppelganger had been weighing its options for the past few days. So far, it had kept feeding Duke Eltan the drugs, and the Duke kept playing along. Did it matter if the Duke wasn't actually ill if they both just pretended as if he was? The doppelganger couldn't very well actually kill Duke Eltan before the coronation was completed.
Not that it was sure that it could. See, Duke Eltan was also obviously armed under the sheets. That fact made any offensive action on the doppelganger's part MUCH less enticing.
Maybe it is best to keep playing along until something happens, the doppelganger decided. Yes, that is the best course of action.
Something did happen, in fact. The doppelganger's head caved in under the blow of Sonny's Quarterstaff+3 from behind with a sharp crack.
---
"Sonny! Ah, but it's good to see you," Duke Eltan said to his saviour, getting up from the bed with ease. "Have no fear, I'm not actually sick. I was just pretending to trick my captor."
"So I can see," I said dryly.
It was rather clear to me that his 'captor' had realised it too. Before taking the doppelganger out, I had borne witness to Duke Eltan's acting skills. Or lack thereof.
Duke Eltan puffed with pride and held up his sword. "Of course, I wasn't in any danger. Why, all those years watching plays at the fest hall have not gone to waste. That thing pretending to be Rashad had no idea that I was healthy, ready to spring to action at a moment's notice!"
I was cringing hard but trying my best not to show it. "My lord, if I may ask, what possessed- uh, inspired you to take this course of action?"
"After watching what happened with Scar, I figured if didn't pretend to get sick, then they might keep trying to poison me until I did," Duke Eltan explained with a big smile on his face. "Brilliant, don't you think?"
That logic kind of worked, I guess? I really didn't want to think about it.
With the Duke following quietly, I sneaked back out of the Flaming Fist compound.
I mean, I could have picked a fight with the Flaming Fist soldiers in the compound. But why would I when I could just sneak in, assassinate the doppelganger, then sneak back out?