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Once this is posted, Day One has officially begun.
At the emergency council session, inside the Orzhov Basilica, you are considering the information you have just received. One of your sleeper spies deep within the Dimir guild has broken communications to let you know that someone from the Dimir guild has begun infiltrating the Orzhov High Council itself and that mission began around three months ago.
Your spy hinted that some of the Orzhov among you have already been tempted by the Dimir and joined the other side. In fact, your spy believes that there are four Dimir already with you.
As soon as your spy finished that thought, her eyes grew wide and pitch black as her body slumped over, liefless, out of view of your scrying glass. A few seconds later, the glass imploded as if dissolving. Powerful magic must be at work to defeat your spy and your spying mechanism so quickly, despite wards and counterspells in place.
That is when one of you remarks that Prelates Anxiety and SkyDog are missing from this emergency session. Where can they be? You immediately set off looking for your missing council members.
Because of what was just said, none of you trust the others, yoy you uneasily decide to hunt together as a group. You leave behind the Basilica and enter the fancy quarters to head towards the chambers of SkyDog on this floor, before heading to Anxiety's, two floors below.
You hear a rustling sound as you pass by the supposedly empty chambers of the old Magister. As tradition dictates, you leave the bedchambers and office of a deceased Magister unused for a year. The old Magister was murdered seven months ago due to strange circumstances that favored st. cronin.
As such, the chambers should still be empty, and were sealed magically. However, as you approach, your magical skills attune you to the fact that the seals have been rendered. The Quasters, leaders of regiments in battle, burst open the door and the rest of you follow.
You see a corpse of SkyDog on the floor, but it appears transparant, as if not fully there. There is no sign of life and no sign of any wound either.
Looking up at you in recognition is a creature hovering over the body of SkyDog with the eyes you came to recognize as Anxiety's. The facial features resemble Anxiety, but his posture and limbs show him to be something different entirely.
The creature you knew as Anxiety appears to be draining the substance of SkyDog into itself and is nearly finished. The group of you pauses for a few seconds at this sight, and Anxiety bares his teeth. Then you begin casting various enchantments, sorceries and counterspells.
The creature knows that his doom is near and puts all of his effort into one mighty spell but your combined power is more than enough of a match to counter his spell. His power spent, the creature slumps over, dead, having poured the energy he drained from SkyDog into the spell.
After a few minutes of gathering your breath, the Aedile of the Library, tanglewood, heads over to the corpses and peers closely. he then stands up and confirms your fears.
"This was a rare breed of Doppelganger," he says. "It absorbed the life energy of a person and used that energy to assume their shape. However, it could not change shape again until it killed, because it needs that life neergy to survive. It probably killed and replaced Anxiety a while ago. They also need the corpse nearby to use as channeling vessel. Anxiety's corpse should be here somewhere."
A search of the entire Orzhov grounds is ordered and Anxiety's corpse is unearthed underneath the west staircase cellar. It appears to be about three months dead. Just about the same time your spy said that the Dimir infiltration had begun.
No other corpses turned up. It appears that you were lucky. You caught one of the Dimir when they did not hear about the emergency council. The likelihood that you will get that lucky again is not good.
However, it seems like you killed the only Doppelganger, so that is a start.
Because SkyDog's essence was drained, he will not be available to you as a ghost. Furthermore, the same is true of Anxiety, who died three months ago. Even the creature, who had no soul of its own, will therefore not become a spirit. You are on your own, but each of you is used to that.
Day One has begun. It will end at 9:00 pm EST tomorrow, Monday evening. Good luck to you all.
-Anxiety
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