Ilesi Scaen (SPOILERS)

[Ultimagus]

Alright, so, something that really bothers me about the first book is how it's never elaborated what happens to the first Doppelganger the PCs encounter, the one who has them imprisoned at the very beginning and is scripted to run away. There's the chance that she'll die, especially if say, a monk or brawler gets the jump on her, but that seems unlikely. If/when she runs away, the book does not describe what happens to her.

Did any of you figure out a good place for her to show up again? It would have to be somewhere in the area just north of the survivors' shelter, since she has nowhere else to run. I think it would be a major faux pas to just let her vanish entirely.

[darrenan]

She would be aware of the other two "doctor"gangers on the floor above (B11 and B14) and would probably run to either of them. If she gets away and does that, I would consider them "alerted" and change those encounters accordingly.

[InsaneFox]

One thing to consider is that Scaen was supposed to be on body cleanup duty. A task that she failed spectacularly. So if you're concerned about the PCs having to deal with doppelgängers two on one, Scaen might not go crawling back to Oathsday so easily.

Maybe have Scaen pretend to be a dead body in one of the rooms, only to replace a survivor secretly at a later date?

Just some things to consider.

[DM Fang Dragon]

It didn't make sense to me either so I just let my players kill her.

[Balgin]

Ultimagus wrote:

Did any of you figure out a good place for her to show up again? It would have to be somewhere in the area just north of the survivors' shelter, since she has nowhere else to run. I think it would be a major faux pas to just let her vanish entirely.

On page 25 (Baisily Harbour).

Spoiler:

Baisily Harbour (LN female human Varisian survivor) is a patient who’s quick to smile and frequently sleepwalks into the hall. She might be replaced mid-adventure by a doppelganger who seeks to destroy the chapel’s Desnan shrine.

If you check the spoiler I think that's a perfect opportunity to reintroduce her myself. Now the trick would be ensuring she manages to remain hidden 'til the time comes.

[clcman]

Super-necroposting here, but it seems like this is a recurring enough issue for people that I thought I'd share my solution.

When the PCs get up into the courtyard and look around, they see one of Scaen's knives on the ground, next to a line of footprints in the muddy grass that just... stop in the middle of the courtyard. They look around some more, but don't see or hear anything.

Eventually, they move on towards the door. As they do, they hear a shriek and something comes tumbling out of the mist from above, slamming into a nearby rooftop with a sickening crunch before bouncing off and splattering onto the ground.

The corpse of Ilesi Scaen, a look of horror on her face, slowly morphs into her true doppelganger form (which the PCs had not previously seen) as sharp-eyed PCs catch a glimpse of large, bat-like wings flying away into the mist...

There. Loose end clipped without making hard fights harder, doppelganger nature revealed, Nightgaunt foreshadowed, "there are bigger fish here" established, players freaked out. Objective complete.