February 22, 118
The next morning, the party split up to pursue various goals. Dark Star stays at the inn and continues reading the tome he got from Demon's Gift. Ellyanna heads to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy and continues her researches as well.
Calanon, Elvish, and Grrrr Yip decide to start investigating the disappearance of Sahril's son. They head to temple where he worked in order to ask around. When they arrive, they speak with the High Priest of the temple, but he is uncooperative. He tells them that Therian is not available, and he doesn't know when he will be available. Although he clearly does not wish to speak of the matter, the party eventually convince him that they are acting in Therian's best interests, and he invites them into the back of the temple to speak in private.
There, the High Priest explains that Therian went missing several weeks ago and has not been seen since. He simply stepped out of the temple one day and never returned. The priest doesn't know exactly where he was going, but he tells the party that Therian frequently went out, whether to go for walks, to visit friends and acquaintances, or for various other reasons. There are no signs that Therian was expecting to be gone for long; his quarters are undisturbed and he wasn't carrying extra supplies when he left. Although they've tried to discover what happened to him, he seems to have completely vanished. The High Priest has tried to keep this news quiet, in order to avoid alarming the congregation.
The party ask if Therian had any friends among the priests of the temple, so the High Priest brings in Yhiri, a priestess who also works in the temple who is a friend of Therian's. She knows even less than the High Priest - just that Therian mysteriously vanished several weeks ago, and that no one has been able to find him since. At the party's insistence, she is able to provide a list of Therian's friends in town and where they live. Since Therian is usually visiting a friend when he leaves the temple, this list provides his most likely destinations.
When the party regroup at noon, Dark Star informs them that Severn has send him a message, asking the party to visit him as soon as possible to discuss an urgent matter. Everyone gathers their gear and heads to the Eminent Cathedral to find out what this is about.
At the Cathedral, Severn explains what happened. Last night, Kaplan had been sleeping within the Inquisition's headquarters. However, in the middle of the night, he somehow arrived at the front gates, demanding to be let in. But, when he was brought to the Inquisition headquarters, they discovered that he was also still in the room where they had left him - somehow, there were two Kaplans!
Interrogating both of them under Severn's most powerful truth-detecting magic, they both claimed to be the real Kaplan, telling a different story. The Kaplan who arrived at the front gate claimed that, during the middle of the night, he awoke to find a doppleganger of himself standing over him. The doppleganger grabbed him, and he found himself feeling faint, disoriented, and unable to resist. Somehow, the other Kaplan ejected him through the wall and outside of the building, where he fell to the ground. Upon recovering his senses, he returned to the front door of the Cathedral and demanded to be let back in.
The other Kaplan has a much simpler story: he spent the night sleeping, and absolutely nothing unusual happened. He doesn't know who the man who arrived at the front gate is, but he claims his story is a complete fabrication.
Severn's magics did not detect either one of them as liars, which must be impossible, since their stories contradict each other. The only physical different is that the Kaplan who arrived at the gates seems to have a series of elaborate tattoos on his hands and forearms, while the Kaplan who was found in bed does not. Unable to determine the truth, Severn summoned the party who, being more familiar with Kaplan, might be able to figure it out.
The party travel with Severn to the cells where the two Kaplans are being held and begin interrogating them. Unfortunately, they both seem to be able to answer questions that only the man who was with them at Frosthaven could answer. They know that the Kaplan they've been travelling with does not have tattoos, which the non-tattooed Kaplan claims proves that he's the real one. However, the other Kaplan claims that the imposter must have used magic to switch their bodies, in order to mislead the party.
The party try everything they can think of, such as placing one of the Kaplans in a lead-lined container, theorizing that one of them is using a telepathic link with the other to be able to answer questions, or cutting one of the Kaplans and seeing what effect this has on the other. Ellyanna studies the tattoos and finds that their patterns have arcane significance. She sees patterns related to essentially every school of magic (minus Necromancy), but is not able to discern their purposes. In the end, they simply aren't able to determine who is the real Kaplan.
Having failed to determine which one is the real Kaplan, Severn gathers the party and tells them his plan. He is fairly confident that the fake Kaplan must actually be the Arch-Prelate's murderer, and he cannot risk letting such a dangerous individual escape. If the party cannot determine who is the real Kaplan in the next two days, he will be forced to execute both of them, in order to ensure that they get the murderer.
The party decide that they need to get help in order to solve this mystery, so they split up in order to pursue separate possibilities. Calanon and Elvish, along with Severn, go to find Sahril and ask for her help. Ellyanna, armed with a sketch of the tattoos done by Elvish, heads to the College of Celestial Thaumaturgy in order to see if any of the scholars there can tell her anything about it. Dark Star heads out to find Demon's Gift to see if he can tell them anything, or if he has any books that might help them.
At the Reliquary of Vorn, Severn's presence gets them in to see Sahril immediately. However, Sahril quickly informs them that she will not be of much help. Based on the tattoos, the magic that was used is clearly of Arcane origin, while she and her organization are specialists in Divine magic.
At the College, Ellyanna runs into the wizard who she met at the tavern when she was originally trying to get in, Viria. Viria studies the drawing of the tattoo and is able to tell Ellyanna a bit about it. She only really understands the Divination part of the magic, which seems to be a very specifically tailored scrying effect. It is focused on one specific individual, and would allow the bearer of the tattoo to scry upon that single individual. Because it is so focused, it is extremely powerful, and would likely work at almost any distance.
Finally, at Demon's Gift's shop, Dark Star learns that Demon's Gift is unable to tell him anything about the tattoo, as the magic is beyond his understanding. He also does not have any books that concern this type of magic. He tells Dark Star that there is only one place in the city where he might find the knowledge he seeks: the library of the reclusive wizard, Zorlac.
In the evening, the party regroup again at the tavern to discuss their options. They decide that Zorlac is indeed the most promising option, and they decide to begin their search for him the next morning.
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