The SPI is on the trail of a suspected doppelganger, the spitting image of one of their former colleagues.
Sometimes you can tell when people are lying because their eyes are going up and to the left, and sometimes it’s because their face is just falling off.
Cal asks the elves if they can do a locator spell for his sword… but can’t remember the result…
At camp the first night, Freki confronts Cal about his behavior, and they bury the hatchet.
Callie casts a sending to Enoki to make sure he is doing OK. She can’t remember exactly what she asked him, but he responded:
Unruly jackals! That’s what they are. It’s going to take ages to shoo them out. But they’ll listen to me. They always do, eventually. *brandishes shillelegh*
Where is doppel-Sima going? Northeast, from Deepwood into Selva, toward the dwarven Veldt. General direction of the Mountain.
After six days, Freki is considering scouting ahead to confront the fake Sima.
But Freki suddenly senses that they are being followed. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The agents decide to climb trees and set a trap for the follower, whatever they are.
Callie casts seeming to turn Bec into Sima, and Oz and Callie into trees. Freki declines to be magicked.
Freki feels he is somehow connected to whatever is following them.
Hugin: “Indeed, there is a connection.”
Munin: “Yes… It is me. I remember… dying.”
Munin: “I am me. The other… a facsimile only. With my power.”
Freki: “Is the facsimile bad?”
Munin ponders for a moment. “Unclear.”
Freki (to the rest of the party): “Do not attack my friends the ravens. However, do not trust them either.”
Hugin: “We protect you, so that you might fulfill your purpose.”
Freki: “Do you know its intentions?”
Hugin: “We do not know this third. It is an other.”
Freki: “Do you know my purpose? But also: thank you very much for the protection.”
Hugin: “To devour the world. Or… prevent others from doing so. The choice is yours.”
Freki remembers that he did see Munin die once. He later had a vision of the dragon shaman that killed Munin turning into a raven and flying away.
Freki: “Something is following me. I don’t think it’s following us, it’s following me. So… do we want to as a group book it after Sima? Do we want me to run ahead possibly taking the thing that’s following me with me? And you guys follow it best you can? I might be able to catch Sima. I have no idea what happens if I catch Sima when it catches me.”
Bec: “But if you go and it chases you, at some point it will have to pass by us.”
Freki proposes that the agents stay together, and move at a speed that allows everyone to stay alert. (“I can’t have flippy McGee flippin’!”)
Freki: “Our priority is no longer catching Sima, it’s staying together.”
Freki is trying to guard his thoughts, in case the third raven can perceive them.
The agents abandon their tree-lurking plan, because Freki can tell the third raven is not getting closer while they are stopped.
They start moving again. They can see ahead no more than 100-200 feet, due to all the trees.
Freki feels like bird #3 is maybe a half-mile to the southeast, and keeping its distance.
Freki sprints 100 yards ahead, to check whether the bird keeps pace with him. It does. Does it think that’s funny? He senses that it is amused by his behavior. Arrogant!
Lemme throw this idea out: nothing can hide in the forest if we burn the forest down.
Oz: “Can you untree me?”
Callie: “Ohh… I dunno…… can you give me one of those candy bars you’ve been hoarding?”
Nate: “How did you know that Oz invented nougat in this world?”
The agents think back on what happened during their first few days of pursuit…
One the first night: Oz sneaks up to the camp, sees Sima doing normal camp things, including building a fire, hunting, and fletching. She has only the clothes on her back, but is a competent survivalist. He also sees some of Sima’s skin on her hand slough off while she is eating dinner, and she cries out in pain.
Second night: Oz sneaks up to the camp again, and sees Sima casting a spell on a small thrush bird. It flies up to her and lands in her hand. She whispers something to it, and sends it flying off ahead. Oz thinks she enchanted it to do something. He also sees her casting goodberry on some berries and eating one of them.
Bec drips antitoxen onto Isis’s blood. It distends and reacts. Same even more so when Bec tries mixing more water with the blood: it’s like it can’t hold one shape while confronted with another liquid.
Callie casts speak with dead on Isis. Oz, because he killed Isis, is banished to a ways away before doing it, so that the corpse does not clam up in response to an enemy being present. After consulting with her team, Callie asks these questions:
-
What is your mission? To protect the world from another Vanishing.
-
Where do you come from? Alye’adu. (Bec translates this word from elven as something like “together double”.)
-
How did you get here? I was stabbed by an artifact.
-
How were you going to prevent the Vanishing? By watching the nations, and intervening in their affairs.
-
Who is your leader? (with a hint of sadness) I was.
Callie: “Well that was interesting!”
Back to the six day mark, after the agents have made contact with the third raven…
Freki asks his birds if they need anything.
“We are sustained,” they respond.
Freki: “What about you, third eye? Do you need anything?”
Response *drily eager*: “Soon enough.”
Still following doppel-Sima’s trail, they debate whether to try intercepting her before she gets where she is going. They are pretty far into the Selva now, getting closer to the beginning of the Veldt, when Freki realizes they’ve lost the trail. Wait, no—they didn’t lose it, it ended, abruptly, mid-footstep. Dun dun duuun!