Dzaan

The Party convinced Speaker Dannath Waylen to have the opportunity to speak to the Arcane Wizard currently being held for public execution in East-haven.  They were able to extract from him without much prodding quite a bit of information. 

Things he shared

• He was in Icewind Dale for his own research.  He came to discover, explore, and study Netherese Ruins. 
  
  
• He was once a Red Wizard of Thay, but claims to be no longer. 

• He did kill the party of adventurers that had been traveling with him.  Unfairly - by way of Fireball in their sleep. Why? He had paid them well to keep his work discreet, and they had failed to do so - openly discussing it publicly. He saw them as a liability and decided the best course of action was to remove them from the scenario. 
  
  
• If they would let him go, he would take them back to some place where all his research was kept called "The Spire."
  
  
• He did not blame the people of Easthaven for his current predicament. But seemed unwilling or unable to leave himself. 
  
  
• Eydis was able to understand that there was something strange about him, and determined that he was the result of a spell she has previously read about known as Simulacrum.  When she asked him if he was affected by it, he confirmed that he was an Arcane Double of the Arcane Wizard Dzaan.

After evaluating the "crimes" of Dzaan, Grim determined that he felt sour about the Wizards Captivity and imminent execution.  In his eyes, he felt that Dzaan had done no wrong.  The wizard had contracted a group of people to travel with and paid them well to operate discretely and they had failed to do so.  The way Grim saw it, It was simple, a broken contract invited repercussion and Dzaan has simply delivered that punishment.  

He decided to slip away from the party in the dark early morning and sneak back into the basement of Townhall where Dzaan was being kept.  He released Released the Wizard, sheared his hair, and disguised him as best as possible - sending him north toward Caer Dineval.  Grim would take his place, using the nature of his Doppleganger ability and give Dzaan an opportunity to get a head start north, hours before he would ever be noticed missing. If all went well, Grim would take his place upon the pyre and using his ability to polymorph work his way out of dodge in a confusing series of shape shifting and deception. 

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No one seemed to notice the swap at all when they came to collect the Red Wizard.  In fact, they were so eager to rid the town of the Arcane Wizard, they hardly followed protocol. Grim, patiently allowed himself to be lead through town and up to the pyre, even be bound to it.  He listened smugly to Speaker Dannath Waylen address the town, and to the crowd give tribute to the God Tempus.  Before Everard Paladin of Tempus lit the Pyre, Dzaan was given a chance to speak for himself. 

"And you will always remember this as the day, you almost caught Dzaan of the Arcane Brotherhood." The crowd watched as he transformed into a small rabbit like creature with a single unicorn like horn protruding from its head and instantly bolted.  Although he was quick, he took an arrow from Captain Imdra Arlaggath, dropping out of form for a split second but able to take it once more and dart out of sight.  Grim Successfully released the Wizard.