Aggy stood quite still, stunned for a moment by this rather devastating piece of news before quickly recovering her focus and scanning the room for a means of escape. She saw that they were in Lord Dennyson's library and that apart from a large tapestry hanging over the door, every inch of wall space was lined with bookshelves. There was little furniture, just a few chairs with side tables and in the corner of the room a large marble bust of Lord Dennyson.

"Windows," Aggy yelled, pointing at the wall to her right which contained three tall windows stretching from the floor almost up to the ceiling.

"They're barred," Terri yelled in return, grabbing Aggy by the arm and dragging her over for a closer look.

"Who puts bars on their library windows?" Aggy asked plaintively.

"He loved these books," Flem yelled in return, "we were lucky the door wasn't locked when we tried to come in here."

At that moment there came a thundering crash on the library door as the doppelganger began to force its way in.

"Ogden's blue balls, we're in trouble," Aggy said looking wildly around the room. "Terri, if you ask Avandar for strength do you think you could break the bars?"

Terri grabbed the bars on the nearest window and pulled on them with all her might before replying, "No way. Avandar can make me stronger but he can't turn me into a god, we'd need to loosen them somehow first."

Another thundering crash accompanied by an ominous crunch came from behind them. Looking around the trio saw that a crack had appeared through the centre of the door.

"Up against the back wall now," Aggy commanded. As she followed her two companions the dwarven mage flicked her eyes back to the door and a plan began to form in her mind.

"Flem," she said when they reached the wall opposite the windows. "Look at the tapestry over the door. Do you see how it's held up by a rope and a pole?" Not waiting for a response Aggy kept on talking. "When the doppelganger breaks through the door do you think you could bring the tapestry down by cutting the rope with your throwing knives?"

"Probably," Flem answered quickly, "but there's a decent chance I'll miss, and even if I manage to drop the tapestry it won't slow that thing down for long."

"Don't worry about that," Aggy replied decisively, "just keep watching the door and if it breaks through, drop the tapestry. Now, get down."

Aggy turned to face the windows in front of her and began reciting words in jaclish. Seconds later a translucent, watermelon sized orb took form between her hands and then shot towards the window. When it made contact with the bars there was a concussive explosion and the glass of the window panes burst outwards. Aggy was knocked back against the bookcase behind her and throughout the room books were sent flying as the shelves holding them collapsed. When the dust cleared the trio could see that the bars were still intact but had been bulged outwards by the force of the spell.

"Terri, call on Avandar and see if you can get those bars to-" Aggy's instruction was interrupted by a huge crack as the door to the library split down the centre. Flem steadied himself briefly before sending one of his knives spinning through the air towards the rope that held up the tapestry. A year's worth of continuous practice resulted in the tapestry tumbling down just as the doppelganger forced its way through the door. The large tapestry caught the creature mid stride and collapsed around it like a heavy woolen net. A half second later a stream of liquid fire struck the tapestry and set it alight, creating an instant inferno around the struggling creature.

Aggy had not been idle when she heard the door burst open. She immediately began casting the first level 'beam of flame' spell and finished it just as the tapestry tumbled down. Rather than aiming for the magic resistant doppelganger she directed the fiery beam all over the tapestry, setting every inch of it fiercely alight by the time the two second duration of the spell was over. The doppelganger let out an inhuman howl of rage and pain and thrashed about wildly under the flaming wall hanging. Now that the tapestry was burning the creature seemed unable to free itself and crashed against the walls near the doorway setting books and bookshelves alight.

Terri ran to the window and after asking Lavander to give her strength began pushing furiously at the bars, desperately trying to finish what Aggy had started. After pushing with all her might Terri yelled in frustration, "It's no good Aggs, they're still stuck fast into the stone, I can't move them!"

"Well try harder," Aggy yelled in response as she ran to Terri’s side. "Either we get through these bars or we're all going to die in here."

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Terri once again threw everything she could against the bars but was unable to force them outwards. By the doorway the doppelganger collapsed to the ground with the tapestry still on top of it and Aggy's magical fire burning as fiercely as ever. Seconds later the doorway caught fire as well, removing any remaining hope of exiting that way.

"It's not going to work, I can't budge them!" Terri cried, a note of panic creeping into her voice. Suddenly from the back of the room Flem called out "Battering ram! There's a statue back here that we can use."

Terri and Aggy ran towards Flem to help lift the marble plinth that held the bust of Lord Dennyson. They had barely reached him when an urgent cry came from outside the broken window, "Stay away from the window, I'm going to melt the bars."

Seconds later a dense spray of thick green liquid splashed against the bulging window bars and through onto the floor of the library. Whatever surface the liquid struck sizzled and smoked, eventually melting away to nothingness. When the power of the spell dissipated several seconds later there were many smoking holes in the library floor and a roughly circular gap in the bars covering the window. It was not quite large enough to climb through but now that the bars were broken Terri was able to bend them out and downwards creating a hole large enough to escape through. Terri sent Flem through first, followed by Aggy before climbing out herself as the library blazed behind her. The window was no more than Terri's height above the ground but she landed awkwardly and would have fallen if a hand had not reached out to steady her.

"Thanks Fle-" Terri stopped speaking when he realised it was Scarlett holding her arm.

"You're welcome," the half-elf replied. "Come one, you can stand around with your mouth hanging open once we've put some distance between us and the monster's manor house. You'd better extinguish your amulet too, nothing says 'I'm a criminal, please come find me' like a bright light near a burning mansion."

The four companions walked quickly away from Lord Dennyson's former home. They would have preferred to run but it was too dark to do so without Terri's light to guide them. They did not speak until they were halfway back to Valleros, walking a little off to the side of the road in case of night time travellers.

"I say we don't even go back to the inn," Aggy said quietly, "we're better off skirting around Valleros and starting out for Gravenhall immediately."

"Speaking as a rogue I think that's a really bad idea." Scarlett's voice was full of concern. "Disappearing on the night Lord Dennyson's estate burned to the ground will only draw attention to you. My advice would be to sneak back into your rooms at the inn and pretend that you've been there all night."

"That would be my advice as well," Flem said quietly. "We were careful enough that I don't think anyone saw us leave the inn so there's no reason to leave suddenly. We should wait a few days and then try to book passage with a caravan back to Providence."

"Fair enough," Aggy answered. "If you bring a rogue with you and then ignore their advice about being sneaky, you're a fool. Do you think you can lead us back through Valleros to the inn without being seen, Flem?"

"That's unlikely, even at this time of night," Flem said. I suggest we hide in plain sight until we get close to the inn. Once we hit the outskirts of Valleros we should all act as if we’re happily intoxicated."

When the four companions reached the city they began weaving their way drunkenly through the streets until they were only a few blocks away from their accommodations. Then Flem led them through a series of alleyways and dark side streets until they reached the rear of the inn. Their rooms were on the first floor above street level but Scarlett showed them the route he had used to climb up to their balcony and within a few minutes they were all back inside, although the climb had been a challenge for Aggy.

"Look, all I'm saying is that when I asked for help I didn't mean 'grab me by the buttocks and push'," Aggy said, her dignity a little the worse for wear. "I meant that Flem should give me a hand up from up above."

"Sorry Aggs," Terri said with a smile, "it was too good an opportunity to resist." After a moment her face grew more serious. "So, what do we do from here?"

“Well,” Aggy said, “tonight’s little adventure has given us some answers but also raised a whole lot more questions. I don’t know about you three but I don’t think I’m up to discussing them tonight. How about we talk things over after breakfast tomorrow?”

Scarlett was the first to answer, "Sounds good to me. I’ll ask around and see if there are any caravans heading back to Gravenhall before I come over."

He turned to leave but Aggy placed a hand on his arm which brought the young half-elf to a halt. "Look, before you go I want to say thank you, from all of us for saving our lives. I'm not at all sure we'd have gotten out of there without you."

Scarlett smiled in response. "You're very welcome Aggy. I hope that my generous deed has earned me at least a little bit of trust."

"Well, it has,” Aggy replied. “I’d say that on a scale of one to ten you’re at least up to two, maybe even two and a half. Play your cards right and I reckon in about two or three years time you might even make it up to three."

"Now that’s something to look forward to," Scarlett said with a laugh as he stepped out on the balcony. "I'll see you tomorrow." Then with a final wave the half-elf was gone, swinging out over the balcony railing and dropping to the ground like a graceful jungle cat.

Aggy closed the window and then walked over to the door. "I'll see you in the morning boys and girls and remember, if anyone asks, we were in our rooms all night." With that she stepped out into the hallway leaving Terri and Flem to collapse into bed.