[Case 14 Prelude] Assemblage and Absolution

In the aftermath of the Malosi fight at Alye’adu, the SPI agents rescue Mallory and Cassandra from their respective plights.

Mallory and Cassandra reestablish operations at SPI HQ, and the other active SPI field agents bring new cases for the agency to address.

Callie’s Journal

There is a woman in the village named Respa (the redhead carrying a bowl of food). I remember her from a case we were on. We went to arrest Hollerd, a dwarf, on his ranch, for poisoning his uncle. There was a woman on the farm who tried to send us away, but we pushed past her and arrested him. Respa looks like that woman.

Freki asks if she has seen other people transform the way he does (into a werewolf). She says she hasn’t, and asks if many people outside the village can do it. He asks if any of them can, and she says no because none of them are tigers, wolves, rats, rhinoceroses, etc.

She says Rotesabal has a little friend, and another person in the village is a bird (that would be the one who looks like a white bipedal bird).

Cal asks whether any of them are undead. They are not!

Marigold is the only changeling present in the village right now. She keeps up the mind link so they can all communicate easily. Changelings that are outside aren’t connected to the mind link. They need to be within 100 feet.

Eeoram is the alt-Mallory (i.e. the one we’ve all met). We haven’t seen him in a long time!

Marsh witch spends half her time in the forest and half in the marsh. Named Grainne/Anorje.

We all have a drink at the pub before we go, and talk over what we’ve learned.

We need to rebuild the base and find the other SPI agents. Mallory has been burned by pure elemental fire and can only be healed with a focus of equal strength to the spell that burned him. Cal pipes up that now that he has his sword back, we could use that. Since it was the Arkenstone that burned him to begin with.

We convince Marigold to let us try to heal Mallory. Bec makes a tiny hut around his bed, and another magic user in the village makes another barrier around the whole house. Bec, Cal, and I try to do a healing ritual. Cal feels an intruder in his mind and tries to resist.

Cal places the Arkenstone on Mallory’s forehead. I cast bless on us, then cast cure wounds at level 5. Bec supports with a 5th level spell. The stone explodes outward with healing light. Cal’s job was to focus the effect, but Marigold’s interference makes it too hard and he loses control of it.

Wave of sacred fire washes over. It is infused with healing energy but still painful. We take some damage, but Cal is able to redirect. I have to heal Marigold, but Mallory is saved!!!

We return to the pub so Mallory can catch up over a beer. He last talked to Eeoram about a month ago. He wants to know where Vondal is. We don’t know any better than he does. He says Vondal has gotten worse if he keeps disappearing. He never did that before. We tell him that the HQ is more or less repaired and we’ve recruited some new people (Bec, Oz, Freki, the owlbear Rain and Squeaks McKraken). Mallory sighs. “Wild magic sent ‘em away, wild magic brings ‘em back.”

Mallory asks whether Vondal has screwed anything up lately, but we think he hasn’t. He’s relieved. He didn’t want to fire Vondal. He says we need to get back into HQ and get things set up. We let him know that Cassandra is missing and we don’t have any sending stones.

We decide to go to Vondal’s house so we can meet up with Rain. Cassandra should be able to find us there, too. Rain says hello: “Boss! And you guys!”

I send to Cassandra first. It feels like there’s some kind of barrier, but I push through. “Cassandra where are you? Are you in trouble? Can you get to Vondal’s?”

The monkey statue in Oz’s bag turns into a real live winged monkey! Also all his shit falls all over the ground, LOL.

The monkey answers my question with monkey squeaking. The monkey…is Cassandra…?

Freki can talk to animals, so he asks it some questions. The monkey recognizes Oz as its friend, but not Mallory. It rifles through Oz’s bag and finds Vondal’s cookies. It holds one up and then eats it, sharing with Oz.

We ask it what it is, but it just says “I am me. I am two things.”

The monkey points at Oz and the Hornblade and says they’re both partners. Oz gives the monkey the sword. It holds up the sword, hops up and down, and then four wings pop out of its back. Two are the celestial wings it had before, two are shadow wings. The sword is the monkey’s shadow, and the shadow has the shadow wings. Callie thinks there is some kind of deific power associated with the sword and the monkey is empowered by its mirror. My goddesses are twins, but they aren’t opposites. The monkey and the sword are more like two sides of a coin. Cassandra is a divine spellcaster, and the monkey has done some divine magic. The sword is something different.

While Bec and Callie discuss the feelings of the magic being wrong somehow, Freki smells something familiar. It makes his hackles rise. It was when the orc lady rubbed a statue and turned into a demon. Freki smells…the statue/whatever magic that was.

Mallory tries to sum up: Cassandra is in the monkey? And the monkey is the sword? Where did the hornblade come from, anyway? Oz says that he took it from the fountain.

We take the monkey to the mirror. It looks transfixed for a moment, but then the mirror shatters. D’oh! Bec and Callie sweep it up so Callie can use mending on it. I notice that there’s a woman with dark hair and arms crossed. When I look closer, she’s actually blonde. When I look even closer…it’s me. Weird!

Callie does augury with tarot cards. Would it be a good idea to try dispel magic on the monkey? The final card is Strength. It’s a good idea!

Bec and Callie cast dispel magic at 4th level together. It is kind of like pulling something out of the monkey. Bec and Callie can barely hang on. Cal’s Arkenstone starts vibrating. The monkey is agitated. The celestial monkey and the monkey monkey are separated but stuck together by sticky strands. Cal slices through the strands and Cassandra appears and falls to the floor. The monkey turns back into a statue. The shadow goes back into the hornblade.

Oz grabs the statue and thinks “be a monkey!” It seems to want to, but it has a hard time. When it pops back into monkeyness, it seems very tired. The shadow stays in the sword and doesn’t go back into the monkey. Freki gives the monkey some food and asks if it’s OK. It’s tired and misses the nice lady. The monkey eats the food and pets Cassandra’s hair. It’s unsure if Oz is still its friend, so Oz hugs it and allows it to go back to its pocket dimension to rest.

Cal says Cassandra wasn’t the only thing in the monkey. Bec and Callie think the shadow wings might have been the other thing.

Mallory tries shaking Cassandra, but she doesn’t wake up. He picks her up and puts her in Vondal’s bed. He doesn’t think she’s going to wake up for a while.

I have two sendings left. Who should we contact first? Mallory suggests that he can put out feelers to get Sima’s body back from the elves. Maybe Cassandra can rez her, if it’s not her time to die. Mallory is excited to have another agent!

We decide Eeoram is the top priority. I try to cast sending, but I get a 404 :( His spirit is not on this plane. Although…where is it? Changelings can’t be resurrected and we don’t know how they reproduce.

Mallory says that when Vondal disappears, he’s time traveling. I probably can’t contact him.

Let’s try Squeaks. I do a sending: “Mallory says to meet at Triumph recruitment circle, tomorrow 9 AM. Bring any other agents you can. Will brief everyone.”

Squeaks and the other two NPC agents (see episode 2) have established field offices and each has been investigating some active cases.

Open questions and next steps