SoldierHawk wrote: |
I'm not roleplaying as a particular character here so your mileage may vary, but it if was me? Every single servant goes into the safest, most defensible room I can manage at LEAST an hour before the killing is scheduled to start (or just make 'em live in there, if you can get away with it.) The party and I would be in there with them. Then we would defend and--if possible--send someone after the assassin once the attempt was finished.
As for contingencies...do you have a "what if" on the off-chance that they somehow work out that they're working for a doppelganger? Long shot yeah, but you never know. |
The alchemist's player was a Marine for 10 years so the fortification idea might come up.
A bit more detail about Jack is that as a murder fey, it won't be as easy as sealing a door to prevent him from killing in his pattern (and researching will show that he can appear from the tiniest sliver of shadow or the smallest droplet of blood). "Slaying" him causes him to dissolve into a quickly evaporating pile or gore, putting off the killing for 12 hours or so.
If they do kill off the doppelganger...
Short term--they can then go through the entire estate as they desire (with some sections warded off/trapped which lead to hidden chambers) and also the surviving staff will be looking elsewhere for employment, looking into rumors of a "cruise to Paradise"--actors paid well to feel/bait the poor people looking for an escape from the hell that is the Demiplane of Dread. They tell the marks to bring everything they have with them or sell it all off. Once the suckers are on the ship and it sails off, the dupes are made swiftly aware that their benefactors are
disguised ghouls who sup on a few of the commoners until the ship arrives at a pirate cavern, the commoners are kicked off and left to fend for themselves and without any of their wealth or possessions.
Long term--They may still have to deal with the servants dying off, but beyond that I'll worry more about this stuff if it comes up.
One other thing about the doppelganger is that when he "came to power," overtaking the actual nobleman, one of his first orders was to throw out anything capable of casting a good reflection (unlike normal doppelgangers, due to some failed powers checks for his wickedness, any reflective surface reveals his true form as an albinoid vaguely humanoid-shaped...thing). So I'm thinking of rolling a Sense Motive check for everyone at the start of each day and if it beats the DC, I'll pass them a note about it.