34 Ch34 - Murder Mystery
**** [24 days exam cooldown]
The next morning had me rereading the book for what probably was the umpteenth time. Even then I could still telekinetically make everyone's breakfast in camp, however everyone seemed quite distracted, even when they had their food brought to them.
"What's wrong everyone?" I looked up from the book to see everyone giving me very weird glances, the only exception being Lae'zel.
"What's wrong?! You look like you have an illusion over you, is it one?" Shadowheart asked, "And what's with the odd clothing?" Everyone seemed to want answers to her question so I answered.
"Well, when everyone went away after Halsin's blessing, I made my own cloak. Which just so happened to garner the blessing of Sune. So now I am considered to be the most conventionally attractive ghost possible. The same goes for my other forms." I placed Gale's book back in his tent and used the cloak to gain a real human form, not just a [Change Shape] one.
"Sune? The God of beauty and love? How exactly did you gain her favour?" Jaheira asked. Astarion on the other hand seemed more annoyed, especially since I have genuinely never mentioned Sune, never mind prayed to her like I told him to do to a god he wants the benefit of.
"Well to know that, you're also going to learn that I lied to you… about something quite big." I paused, dreading the moment to come. "So, you know how I 'hid' from a hag in its house for a month? Well I lived with her instead, she's called auntie Ethel. In fact the redcaps at the circus used to work for her, which makes me wonder where she is now. Anyway, she acts sort of similar to an actual auntie for me, I think Sune saw the weird familial love we formed and liked it."
To my utter surprise, mostly everyone rolled their eyes, "We know", "Could've guessed really, you know a bit too much about hags." And a cacophony of other responses. It was Gale who spoke up next, "It was your constant use of rituals that gave it away, as long as you are not using them to harm, it's fine by me."
"I kind of expected a bigger reaction honestly, since hags are evil after all. I mean that honestly, Ethel is a genuinely evil person unless she can or has profited off of you. She only liked me because I can grow more eyes."
"What?" Durge asked. Instead of answering, I grew an eye on my hand, specifically a vampire eye. Plucking it out I threw it out into the morning sun, which casts a shadow of the bridge onto us. When the eye reached the sunlight, it smouldered into ash before it touched the ground.
"I can grow any humanoid eye now, thanks to the cloak. That right there, was a vampire eye. Before the cloak, I only had one form, which was literally an aberration. So I grew eyes from that and sold them to Ethel. Also, I only got a human form now, before this I was in the aberration form and used 'change shape' on myself." I went on a nervous rant towards the end, hoping they'd miss the end part entirely.
"We know already, though we didn't quite know the specifics, we did eventually figure out about your lack of humanity." Astarion chimed in.
"Not that it's an issue, why of course I would travel with any manner of being." Halsin added on, with an unsettling tone towards the end.
"Right… I'm not sure what to say. I thought this would be a big thing but no, you all kind of already guessed. I don't think there's anything left to say, uh Halsin, what plant did you choose to grow where you stood?" Honestly I just felt awkward and wanted to change the conversation to Halsin's boots.
"Cleanthistle" A very powerful anti-toxin, capable of immediately nullifying the oldest poison affecting a body.
"Right…. shall we go then?"
-
Back in Rivington, I cast unseen servant to rip all the Gortash propaganda down. No one wants to see his ugly mug, as we're walking, I see a croud gathering in front of a temple. By now the group split up once again, so now I'm just with Wyll. Looking at the Ilmater temple I was sorely tempted to skip it, it's a bit too slow moving at the start. But then I can't help but remember the doppelgängers in the basement, with a click of my can and a whoosh of my jumper, my outfit transformed into something a lot more suitable.
Walking up the steps, my body was hidden by a flourish of fires for a moment before revealing myself in a victorian formalwear. My top coat fluttered behind me and my waistcoat hugged my body tightly, whereas the pristine white shirt beneath it contrasted the dark grey colours.
"I need something like that." Wyll muttered.
"You can ask you know? Feel free to bring me materials and I'll mix them into something for you. And I think we'll he fighting some more doppelgängers so, no need to worry." Reaching the last step, my cane clicked against the stone floor.
"Father Lorgan is dead! We need to stop accepting the refugees in!" A dwarvish man shouted.
"Ilmatter teaches us to accept everyone's suffering, including the refugees!" The purple tiefling woman rebutted.
Honestly, I just walked past. There is no use wasting my time ending someone else's arguments. Upon entry I was greeted by Novice Bramble, "M-May Ilmater guide you."
I smiled and walked on.
The Open Hand Temple was a large hall with old paint lining the wall, books were strewn and refugee supplies were lying about loosely in crates. In the centre was a great pool, presumably for refugees and the like to clean themselves.
At the head of the hall, a halfling woman was arguing with a very belligerent hollyphant, who was trying to end the murder case early.
"There has to be more evidence surely!" She cried.
"Look, the evidence is plenty, anymore would be a waste of resources." The hollyphant dismissed her, waving a trumpet away. Our footsteps echo throughout the hall alerting the pair of them to us two.
"I think we can help you sister, what do you think Wyll?" We arrive in front of them, already making our minds up on what to do.
"We should help them, no harm in assisting after all." He smirked, crossing his arms, seems he likes his murder mystery.
"Well if you could that would be great, Valeria here thinks after gaining a crumb of evidence we should close the case and blame the refugees." She waved her hands in the air in exhaustion, irritated by the celestial.
"Fine, waste your time, I'll be enjoying my day off in the meantime." With a small harumph, Valeria floated off to Sharess Caress. She's quite the annoying creature. Once she was gone, the sister let out a sigh, "Thank you boys for stepping in there, I was close to saying some very harsh words I would regret." She rubbed the bridge of her eyebrows and sighed.
"It's alright, however we can help really." I smiled and patted her shoulder.
"Ah good people like you will always be welcome within Ilmater's temple. But I suppose you'll want to speak to the victim himself, if you've got the spell, I recommend you chat with Lorgan himself. Or Brilgor." She shrugged, it was like she didn't see a blood trail dragging off to a hatch.
"Thank you for the clues, have a nice day. We'll bring news shortly." I smiled and walked straight to the hatch.
"Are we not going to check on Lorgan?" Wyll asked, concerned over my nonchalance.
"Why disturb a dead man when we haven't explored the entire temple yet?" I hopped down the hatch, the fall was great but I switched into a ghost just before the landing, before immediately turning human again.
Waiting for Wyll at the bottom of the ladder, I took a few moments to look at my surroundings. A few rooms where one of the walls has been broken down, aside from that there was an obvious spot for a secret door. I switched back to a ghost and floated through the wall/door, a much larger cavernous area greeted me, I could hear vague mumblings further away but I didn't investigate. Instead I looked to my left and used telekinesis to operate the lever beside me, immediately the wall opened up to show the room I was just in.
Not only that but Wyll was there, stood surprised, yet ready for battle. "Doppelgängers ahead, don't worry, you're on your way to getting a fancy new outfit." I grin and slap his arm playfully. We start walking forwards and come into a medium sized wooden room, there we hear the doppelgängers talking clearly about how they killed a group of refugees.
"Try not to physically damage them too much, rituals work best with enough fresh and undamaged materials." I say this knowing he most likely only does raw damage spells, but effective use of his rapier will nullify this.
Sneaking up, I switched my cane into a sword and plunged it into the back of one of their necks. Hot phosphorus steam rose up from them as they shifted forcefully into their doppelgänger form.
With their attention on me, Wyll quickly killed two of them, leaving just one left. It immediately tried to use its ambush attack on me, as soon as it switched to its doppelgänger form a spectre dashed out from the side of me.
"I KNOW YOU SHIFT INTO THE IMAGE OF YOUR MOTHER!" My Freud guardian leapt out brandishing brass knuckles, a single punch across the jaw and the head exploded into mulch. With the ability over, Freud disappeared once again, ready to attack anyone going for my psyche again.
"What was that!?" Wyll shouted, exasperated and concerned. I really didn't know how to answer that, I could only try.
After a long sigh, I explained the basics of Freud and how he seemingly haunts me. He did raise the question of why he said that, the only response I could give is, "You really don't want to know."
