Theology and Thaumaturgy

(For the sake of simplicity, let's assume I meant to vanish their bindings at the same time.)

[OK]

Two of the prisoners appear to be identical scraggy-looking men, one of whom immediately sets about looking through nearby containers. The other is a ratty-looking fellow whose eyes dart from person to person.

The twin who isn't going through the wreckage of the caravan scowls at the one who is. "What the [rather impolite word] do you think you're doin', looking like me?"

The other twin ignores him as well as everybody else.

Barrek frowns at the twin's comment and inquires as to what he means.

"Well, 'e's not meant to look like me. He doesn't look like me." The guy clearly has been hitting the happy juice.

"Hmm. I don't suppose you have any sort of spell for sobering people up, by any chance, do you Barrek? It appears it would be most helpful at the moment. Regardless, while you deal with that one, I'll deal with the other."

Darrien now turns his attention to the twin going through the wreckage.

"Hey, you! Yes, you! What are you looking for? For that matter, are you in any better state than your twin over there?"

Barrek replies, "I'm afraid my magical talents take a more...practical slant than that." He looks rather disgusted.


Twin #2 says something about a couple of rings that should be around here somewhere.

"Don't be upset, Barrek; right now a spell to sober someone up would be very practical. But don't worry; I didn't figure that you would have one, as it does seem rather an odd spell to just happen to know. I know I certainly don't have one, but my talents lie almost solely in the realm of combat, so you had a somewhat better chance than I. Perhaps while the drunk one sobers up, we ought to help this one." Darrien gestures toward Twin #2, and then begins aiding him in his search.

Azadar studies the three former prisoners "I heard there was a healer just north of here. I think if we wan't to sober that guy (Twin 1), we have the best chance if we ask the healer." Then he turns to twin 2 "By the way who are you?"

The child gets up and walks to the twin going through the wreckage. The child looks deeply into his eyes and starts to laugh. The child fades into a puff of smoke and you hear a curse from the forest.

Twin #2 manages to largely ignore the child. "Who wants to know?" he asks Azadar, not looking up.

Meanwhile in the woods near your location.

The Party of Four Elves are still stalking the main characters. The Mage Narun is now tied to a tree after his weird child stunt.

Iriana slaps Narun across the face. "Are you an Idiot!?" She slaps him again before he can respond. "Our mission is Observation only, The more you keep pulling these attention stunts, the more likely we will be discovered!"

Narun groans. "You don't have to hit so hard Iriana. I'm only trying to gage their reactions. As you can see they just ignored the demonic child spirt."

Mili and Teruk sit back and watch as Iriana attempts to knock sense into Narun. Mili watches the caravan and notices the direction the party is heading. "Interesting, they are heading to the castle it seems."

The crazy person produces two rings and a cloak from the wreckage and dons all three of them. "Excellent." He proceeded to start walking away.

Barrek wouldn't have any of that. He took three steps and was in front of the unnamed man. "You are going to stay right here, friend, until we figure out exactly why these people saw fit to imprison you."

The drunk man in the background was tottering around near the rearmost wagon, while the creepy-looking guy sat on his heels and stared at the crazy guy intensely, teeth bared.

A horse loaded with a bunch of furniture comes along the path, led by a family. The family consisting of a older lady, what looks like the father and what looks like the wife holding a little infant, were covered in blood. The family stops close to the wreckage. The older lady asks "vilken vej er Tucker?". The 'father', seeing that nobody understood, translated: "which is way to Tucker?"

Azadar replied by pointing the direction he and his group had come.

The man nodded and started walking. Then he stopped and asked "Are you north heading? (Azadar nods [we are heading north right?]) I don't it advise." Then he made a sign for his family to follow the direction Azadar had pointed.

"Well, my friends. Our demonic little visitor appears to have left. Either she was not related to this wreckage, or she had no reason to reamain. There also seems to be someone shouting rather impolite words which, given their volume, would be an apparent sign of distress from the forest behind us. Going north seems the likeliest way to find a healer, and yet that family of peasants advised against it. And now our crazy friend, drunk friend, and creepy friend all appear to have their own agendas. Perhaps we could consolidate to a single thing to focus on?"

"I suggest all of us head north to a healer for our new friends, and hope those in the forest will be okay. I believe I can protect you from whatever dangers lie to the north. Oh, and would you happen to have anything for tracing where that demon child went Barrek? Perhaps you could cast that while we move." He turns to indicate the three people from the wreckage "And this plan includes includes you all. I assume you would prefer not to be re-imprisoned?"

Barrek wasn't willing to take his eyes off this man even for a second, but he responded nonetheless. "I could attempt to do so, yes, but it would require quite a bite of time."

[Of course given that it's an illusion he won't find anything at all.]

The creepy guy has wandered off with the drunk guy. The crazy guy shrugs. "Fine with me, I'd prefer not to go back to a prison." Barrek seems to think that's acceptable and turns away from him.

Oh, and there now seem to be two Barreks, each of which is identical.

[Hehehe.]

(I thought you might want to trace just the magical energy, which might lead back to Ian's elves, depending on how they structured their spell, but if that's not what you thought my Darrien meant, that's fine; he doesn't know enough to correct; doing stuff that isn't necessarily helpful is still good role playing.)

"Do it, Barrek, if you can while we're on the move." Looking around, Darrien notices the changes in the group. "Ah! Barrek, you have a clone!"

(I'm assuming Darrien is going to know which Barrek is the "real one" based on which one he's been talking to all this time)

"Also, where are our creepy and drunk friends? Perhaps your clone is one of them, Barrek; can you cast something before the trace spell in order to figure out who this impostor is?"

Azadar notices that the Creepy and drunk guy are walking off without Barrecks, his own or Dariens permission. (I'm assuming I see them leaving) Azadar doesn't trust the former prisoners "Hey where do you guys think you are going" he turned to Barrek "do you have a..." Azadar notices he is talking to two Barreks gives both of them a confused look.

Barrek frowned and concentrated. "He...ah...that's not possible. For all intents and purposes, it would seem there is another me." The other Barrek grinned broadly. "Is there a problem, sir?"

"Yes, I demand you...ah...I demand you stop being me."
"You what?"
"Stop. Being. Me."
"But I am you."
"No, you're not."
"Why not?"
"Because - what a stupid question. Stop this nonsense now!"
The clone stopped grinning, "Or what?"
"I'll object to it. Strongly."
"How strongly?"
Barrek lost his patience and, brandishing his staff, hurled a lightning bolt at the imitator.

Azadar is unable to tell who the real Barrek is, but that would have to wait. First he needs Barrek and fake-Barrek to stop killing each other. "OK, Barrek and Barrek, we can figure this out peacefully..." he started attempting to calm the real Barrek.

The real Barrek would have none of that, meanwhile the clone had dodged to one side of the lightning bolt.

The fight continued between Barrek and Barrek 2, with many lightning bolts and thrown daggers heading in the direction of the elves (unwittingly of course).

While Barrek and Barrek 2 are fighting, a shape grows larger from the horizon. A minute later the shape becomes recognizable as a Eagle, but exceptionally large and Fast. It didn't bother looking down at Azadar & co, but instead flew the direction the refugees had taken. A few seconds later a scream interrupts the lightning bolt/ dagger exchange by the two Barreks. Then the scream stopped.

Three more birds came, but they were larger vultures. They began cirling the group from overhead. They notices that one of the companions was a magician. Presumably a lightning mage. The Vultures silently agreed to keep an eye on the group until backup came. (That would be the wolves).

Barrek noticed this, while conjuring up a shield against a dagger that would have stabbed him in the neck. "Enough of this!" He swung his staff at the clone, and a length of chain issued from the tip. The chain slammed Barrek 2 into a tree and wrapped around both the trunk and him, pinning the duplicate to a tree.

Barrek the Original set his staff in the ground, pulling the chain taut. "Now, you can either tell us who you are and why you are impersonating me or I can...ah, force you to."

Azadar choose to ignore Barrek and Barrek 2 by pretending that he was occupied with looking at the vultures. He didn't actually have to pretend. There was something about the vultures that he didn't like.

The vultures decide to circle in a little closer to the traveling group. They did however stay out of bow-shot.

The wolves that the vultures were waiting for were on their way. They got delayed however, because there was a small village just off the road and the wolves were hungry...

The eagle (which is the same as the one who flew over our group) was looking for the wolves. Had they spread fear throughout the countryside yet? As it flew something blinded it. Flying a little closer, the eagle spotted dead soldiers. Perfect. But when it came closer it saw the wolves. They were dead. Who had killed them? The eagle could sense traces of magic and it could see that one of the wolves had been stabbed. That meant it was at least two people who had fought the wolves. Then it spotted patches of grass which had been stepped on. The patches were like a crumb trail for the eagle. Soon it would feast on revenge.

"Force me how?" Barrek 2 wore a somewhat curious expression, apparently unconcerned that he was chained to a tree.

Barrek flipped open his spellbook and perused it for a minute or so, then held up his hand. He closed his eyes, murmured something, and opened them again, this time with them emitting a brilliant white light. "Ah. A changeling. Intriguing. Your kind is quite rare."

In the beam of light was now standing a slender woman with long brown hair, eyes squeezed shut against the intense light. She was wearing what appeared to be the same clothing as earlier when she had been impersonating the drunk prisoner. Thief's clothing. "Turn that off! I can't see anything."