We were released by the Flaming Fist only after the survivors from Cloakwood mines. By then, the whole city had changed.
Back when the survivors from the Cloakwood mines were received by the Flaming Fist in broad daylight, the city had become abuzz with rumors. Now that the survivors were allowed to integrate themselves back into the public and return to their friends and families, they were being hounded for answers on why they had disappeared for so long. The survivors were all too happy to share with the curious public what had happened to them and who was responsible for their plight. Soon, Baldur's Gate was hit with a wave of anger and dissatisfaction against the Iron Throne.
See, this is was the problem with the prisoners at Cloakwood mines going free. Rill, the de facto leader of the slaves, knew the Iron Throne was responsible since he heard the guards were talking about it. Yeslick also knew who was responsible of course due to his involvement with Rieltar personally, which should have made for an interesting interview with the Dukes. Slaves talk to each other and were able to listen in to what the guards were gossiping about as well.
Again, the Iron Throne had money to throw around, but they were not some part of some noble house which had influence beyond its ability to throw money. There was no way for the Iron Throne to make that many people disappear when they had been delivered directly into Scar and Duke Eltan's Flaming Fist.
That was the trouble with the writers trying to comment on capitalism and the military-industrial complex, both decidedly modern issues, in a medieval fantasy setting where nobility and bloodlines rule over money. Budding writers, take note.
Meanwhile, our party was getting to deliver another blow to the Iron Throne to add fuel to the fire, at Scar's behest no less. The Sevens Suns awaited.
---
But first, we had some cool gear to pick up!
"No we don't! We're not doing more shopping or checking around the place! Seven Suns comes first!" Jaheira said sternly, pulling my cheeks apart sharply.
"Fine, you made your point. You can stop pulling. Staaaaaahp."
It's cool magical gear for your husband, Jaheira! Damn, I wish I could just make everyone do what I wanted like in the game.
The two pink irritations had a good laugh together at my expense. Hmph.
---
The Seven Suns building wasn't far from the Flaming Fist barracks, in fact. So stopping there first was actually pretty convenient.
The Sevens Suns trading coster was essentially competition for the Iron Throne. The building for the Sevens Suns was more of an office suite where logistics were coordinated rather than a warehouse. Plenty of windows with frilly curtains, very presentable but not exactly opulent.
At least not from the outside. The ground floor was filled with marble pillars, beautiful tiling and plenty of plush cushion chairs and sofas. I suppose the foyer of businesses where guests and potential business partners are welcomed should be lavish enough to give a good first impression.
A greeter welcomed us from behind a counter at the entrance. "What can I do for you?"
He was eyeing our clothes at the time, or rather eyeing Jaheira and Khalid's clothes. He didn't so much glance in my direction. We were in our adventuring gear, ready for trouble, so we were quite obviously not potential business partners or potential clientele.
Jaheira stepped forward. "We represent parties from the city who wish to inquire about the Seven Sun's recent business decisions. There has been some degree of concern, and we were hoping to receive an official statement."
The color of the man's face faded. "I'm sorry, we will not be able to comment on our business decisions at the present time."
Jaheira scowled. "We really must insist on seeing a representative of the Seven Suns-"
"Hold on," the man behind the counter said. He came around the counter and led us to a corner out of earshot of other staff members. "Listen. Some strange things have been happening about the Seven Suns, but I'd rather not talk about it. Everybody I know has been acting strange of late. I've seen some of the other merchants change faces when they thought I wasn't looking."
Jaheira's eyes widened. She glanced at the rest of us who looked just as shocked (I tried my best to look shocked, anyway), before turning back to the greeter. "Changed? From one face to another?"
"That's right! Some sort of shapeshifters have infiltrated the Seven Suns. If I were you, I'd get out of here while there's still time."
---
We convened to one of the clusters cushy chairs in the waiting area.
"What could we be dealing with here? A whole group of mages? Some sort of creature?" I asked the rest.
Neera was looking to me expectantly, but I did my best to ignore her.
"Doppelgangers are the most obvious answer that comes to mind. Hard to think of another culprit really," Jaheira said, with Imoen, Khalid and Branwen nodding in agreement. Her brows were furrowed.
"You don't look too convinced, though?" Neera said to her, still giving me the occasional side eye.
Come on, Neera. I may know the answer but I can't actually say it outright.
"Doppelgangers are pretty rare. They certainly don't normally work in large groups on behalf of a human organization to overthrow rival businesses. Certainly not in such large quantities that a layman would realize that everyone he works with has been replaced," Jaheira said.
See, this is why I could not reveal I had the answer. It would have been pretty unreasonable for me to be able to figure out what was unreasonable. Doppelgangers were in fact the culprits, yet lore-wise, it doesn't make sense for the Iron Throne to have so MANY doppelgangers under their command. Or at least it wasn't explained in-game (like they were all worshipers of Cyric or something like that). The developers were bending over backwards to let the Iron Throne get away with rather improbable machinations.
Kind of like how it was pretty weird if the worshipers of the Dead Three exploited mindflayers to serve their own ends. Doesn't match the pathos of their gods and what resources the worshipers have access to at all.
"I concur with Jaheira's sentiment. But whatever it is we are facing, we'll have to assume we're dealing with multiple infiltrators with shapeshifting capabilities," I said to the party.
"How will we even find the doppelgangers or whatever they are?" Imoen asked. "I mean, they're shapeshifters!"
How indeed.
---
The doppelgangers in the form of merchants in the Seven Suns were tired of all these primates. A whole city of primates surrounded them, and they had to do their best to fit in all day. It was extremely taxing, well, maybe not so much now that there only one staff member who they had not yet replaced. And yet, day in day out, they had to meet potential clients and business partners. The more contact they had with the outside primates, the more they risked blowing their cover. The conditions the doppelgangers had been put to by the Iron Throne were in no way ideal.
The doppelgangers were trying to look busy when one of the especially short primates came up to them. "Hey, you have a moment?"
The doppelgangers looked at the mini-primate in disdain. "I beg your pardon, little one, but we are busy people. You will have to take your inquiries elsewhere."
"Oh, no inquiries! Just want to test out some new jokes," the little primate insisted. "All you have to do is listen, and you'll learn some great jokes to share with folks around. They'll love it!"
The two doppel-merchants looked at each other. That sounded almost helpful? Learning primate humor could be useful to master.
"Very well. Go ahead."
The little primate cleared its throat. "What do you call an albino doppelganger?"
The two doppel-merchants blinked in confusion.
"A pale imitation!" the little primate said and did a funny little wave with both his hands. "Pale! Imitation! Geddit? Geddit?"
The two doppel-merchants froze. Was it a coincidence, or…
"What did the primate say when his doppelganger stood next to him?" the little primate continued. "I am beside myself!"
"…"
"Why did the doppelganger see a doctor? Why, it was having an identity crisis!"
"…"
"Have you heard of the doppelganger who bragged about how he ate the primate he copied? He's just so full of himself!"
"…"
"I've kept my doppelganger in prison long enough. I'll just let myself out now-"
"ENOUGH! Your wit shall be your coffin and every jest a nail!" the first doppel-merchant screamed, red in the face, then turned to the other. "Come, my brother. They are clearly taunting-"
"-Pfffffft-"
The second doppel-merchant was also red in the face, but from holding in his laughter. Seeing the first doppel-merchant flustered broke the damn, and the doppel-merchant couldn't contain itself anymore.
"Why are you laughing?!?" the first doppel-merchant yelled, stomping his foot!
"He was full of himself!" the second one wheezed. "Get it? Full. Of. Himself!"
"Wow. Even I didn't think it was that funny," the little primate muttered.
"Some people just have no taste," one of the little primate's companions said, the one with the obscene pink-hair. "…some monsters? Some, uh, whatever they are."
The first doppel-merchant wrung his hands. "Stop laughing and help me put down these interlopers, you fool!"
"Of course, brother. Just, give me a moment to recover."
The doppelgangers assumed their natural form; tall, gray-skinned hairless humanoids with no discernible sex and pupil-less eyes. Their thin forms looked deceptively frail, belying their potent physical prowess. "Your time is done, primate!"
The little halfling looked them right in the eyes, resting its quarterstaff on its shoulder. Behind it, the other, taller primates were drawing their own weapons. "Well, now. Looks like doppelgangers tell good jokes after all."
The first doppelganger lunged at me, but grasped at thin air as I dodged out of the way and tripped it up with my staff. Jaheira and Khalid were quickly moving up, Jaheira bringing her Scimitar +2 down on the first flailing doppelganger and Khalid moving further forward.
The second doppelganger was peppered with arrows, bullets and darts from Imoen, Branwen and Neera. It staggered back under the volley fire, shielding itself with its arms to minimize the damage before Khalid brought Varscona to bear on its head.
Both Jaheira and Khalid's blades struck true.
And that's it. The battle was won.
"Uh, that was really easy," Imoen said, scratching the back of her head.
---
After we did all that power leveling in Durlag's Tower, these doppelgangers and the ones remaining in the Seven Suns weren't a real challenge. These were the level 1 versions of doppelgangers, which had 28hp and a poor Thac0 of 17. A sleep spell would work but was totaly not needed.
The only thing I found annoying about them was their alignment was True Neutral and not evil, so they couldn't be detected by the Detect Evil spell.
---
We eventually found Jhasso himself in the basement, tied up and gagged in a locked room. He was mistook us for his captors at first, but when we reassured him that he was being rescued and freed at Scar's behest he relaxed. He had been kept alive and tortured for information needed to keep up the pretense of running the Seven Suns in his steed for the past Seven Months. Now that he had been rescued and the doppleganger infiltrators disposed of, he can return to the helm of the Seven Suns and try to undo the damage they had done to his business.
Loot:
Spear+1,
Potion of Hill Giant Strength,
Scrolls of Protection from Electricity, Protection from Undead,
Wand of Magic Missiles.
Back at the Flaming Fist barracks, Scar was very pleased with our work, especially since we found Jhasso alive and well and put him back at the head of his business. Scar gave us triple the original promised amount, 6k gold instead of 2k! I had to admit this was a pretty quick and easy way to get 6k gold, plenty of experience and +2 reputation.
Scar also had another job for us.
"Every night people have been disappearing from the streets of the city. My men have been scouring the city trying to find the culprit, but so far to no avail."
He wanted us to patrol the east section of the city, especially in the sewers where the clues had led his forces so far. He was giving us, but warned us of tracks of many-legged creatures, perhaps a centipede-like monster.
--
The news of the Seven Suns being replaced by doppelgangers intent on running the business into the ground spread like wildfire throughout Baldur's Gate. Folks had long noticed that something was wrong with the business, and now with their suspicions were confirmed the grapevine was positively awash in rumors. The name of Sonny's band of adventurers who had successfully rescued Jhasso from the clutches of the doppelgangers was also on everyone's mouth.
Of course, the question on the public's mind was, "What was the motive?". How would the doppelgangers benefit from running the Seven Suns business into the ground? Considering the Seven Suns was the main business rival of the iron Throne and that the Iron Throne was implicated in scandal already, the main suspect was clear to the people of Baldur's Gate.
The Dukes of Baldur's Gate had more definite reasons to believe the Iron Throne were responsible. One of the incriminating letters held by the Dukes had mentioned that the Iron Throne had successfully infiltrated the Seven Suns. So our work in uncovering the infiltration of the Seven Suns by doppelgangers lent more credence to our claims that the evidence we had presented was genuine.
Seriously, how on earth did the Iron Throne survive all these setbacks in the original game? We've been doing a really good job of upending every big project that made their plot work. That the Iron Throne could function at all beyond this point was a mystery to me, much less become a regional power.