Immortality.
Everyone has thought of it, thousands have searched for it, only one has found it. His name? It changes every day.
You see, he was foolish enough to tell his friend, the alchemist, about this magic he had come across. He and the alchemist had been friend’s for as long as they could remember; both were orphans, so they had written everything they owned in their wills to go to the other. The problem was that the alchemist had been working for immortality for almost as long. Now, if his friend died, he would get his friend’s notes…
The alchemist told the sheriff about his friend’s plan to make an immortality potion. The church had told the researchers of the land that god would not tolerate mortals becoming gods, and that they would punish anyone who attempted it. This had deterred none, but maybe a public execution would…
The man was thrown in the dungeon, awaiting execution, for discovering a relatively cheap potion that would increase anyone’s life span 10 fold. As he hit the floor, he made an audible oof and closed his eyes, coming to terms with the situation. He became determined to escape, but not to bring other’s immortality, as he realized what that lead to now; he would bring it to himself, and bring everyone else an early death.
He looked over to his left, at the snoring jailer; the jailer’s inability to search him and find his other research’s benefit, the ring of the doppelganger, would result in his and hundreds of other’s untimely demise, as the possessor inhabited more and more younger bodies.