Doppelganger Feeder (Basic Lore)

Doppelganger Feeder (Killer; CR 9)
Pure Evil - Medium - Protean
This creature possesses the Killer role, and therefore counts as 2 monsters for purposes of encounter size, XP award, and treasure. This monster frequently has the Killer role, but may be set to other roles if desired. Doppelgangers are a strange race of shape shifters that act as parasites of entire civilizations. Their mindset is alien compared to most humanoid races, and their ability to steal the identity of others triggers nearly universal revulsion. Doppelgangers may exactly and perfectly mimic anyone they have had a chance to touch for a few seconds. What is not widely known about Doppelgangers, is that they come in many castes. They all have the ability to perfectly mimic other creatures, and they are all parasites that subsist upon the civilizations of others, but the Doppelgangers do not care very much about that at all. The reason that Doppelgangers are so little engaged with the other societies is two-fold: First, Doppelgangers are really, truly alien, both in their natural appearance and in their mental and spiritual processes. They have no souls, nor do they have spirits. They aren't even really alive in the same way as other races, and it is unclear if they even eat food or breathe air. They have very little in common with other races. Second, Doppelgangers are utterly and completely consumed by their war. Plain Doppelgangers (CR 3) are little more than mindless drones, pawns that exist to breed and infiltrate the world. The higher level Doppelgangers are the ones who are aware of their secret war and they are responsible for prosecuting it, to the exclusion of all other tasks. Everything is devoted to the War, every waking moment consumed with prosecuting the War or building up to make another attack. On the very rare occasions when a Doppelganger has been captured and interrogated, their answers, made in Kern, make no sense at all. The Doppelgangers seem to be at war with themselves, absolutely and implacably. No outsider has ever figured out what factions or divisions exist in Doppelganger 'society', if such a thing can even be said to exist. Most Doppelgangers placidly subsist on the largess of the societies they infest. But other Doppelgangers are much more sinister and menacing, and are ruthlessly driven to seek out and destroy other Doppelgangers. Whether a Doppelganger will see another as foe or ally seems completely random. It should be noted that Doppelgangers and Vampires, where they co-exist, are unrelenting enemies as well. Doppelgangers and Vampires both infest and feed off of larger societies, and so they see each other as competitors. Both factions will seek to destroy the other whenever they come into contact. Doppelganger Feeders seem to be a fairly low-ranked strain of the monsters, although with Doppelgangers, they are so alien it is hard to be certain. Feeders are involved in the mysterious War, but they are not soldiers or planners. Doppelganger Feeders are predators and harvesters of regular Doppelgangers. A Doppelganger Feeder seems to exist merely to hunt down, kill, and eat other doppelgangers. It then apparently transfers sustenance to other Awakened Doppelgangers, via some process that has either never been witnessed, or if witnessed, has never been recognized. Doppelganger Feeders seem to be nomadic on their own, wandering through society as loners, always searching out their harvest. But Feeders are not indiscriminate killers. They have been seen to interact with lower rank Doppelgangers and leave them alone, then pick out one or a few for consumption. They go about their duties, finding and eating a certain number of Doppelgangers, but they act in the War only when ordered to by another, typically an Overseer or more rarely a Dictator or even a mighty Consul. Doppelganger Feeders are completely uninterested in human beings. They will not attack humans, interfere with humans, or have anything more than the bare minimum of contact with humans to pass seamlessly. Doppelganger Feeders tend to stick to a few useful 'cover' identities, such as a caravan master, slaver, merchant, or whore. Any occupation where they are able to meet a large number of humans and either move around on their own, or have a large number of people come to visit them. From this stream of people, Feeders sift out the doppelgangers, and choose a portion of them to be eaten. Feeders always shift to their true form to attack, and take pains to be sure that nobody connects the horrendous monster with their cover identities. The only time Doppelganger Feeders become interested in 'normal' affairs is when they are being hunted by adventurers, or they notice a vampire loose in their territory. Doppelganger Feeders hunt and kill vampires with grim ferocity, wherever they find them, and will even go so far as to hire adventurers in their cover identities to aid them. Vampires prey on the same flock as the lower-level Doppelgangers. Vampires are competitors, and Feeders act to take them out. Feeders tend to be rather aloof, but they will work with Overseers and all other types of Awakened Doppelgangers. Feeders are Killers, and as such are extremely deadly and should be approached with great caution once they have been discovered.