Animal Spy

3rd-level enchantment (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 30 feet

Components: V, S, M (a morsel of food)

Duration: 48 hours

This spell allows you to compel an animal to go to a place, keep watch, and then report back to you or a creature you designate. Choose a Tiny beast you can see within range. The beast travels to a location you specify and keeps watch there. You must have seen the specified area. The target beast travels for the duration of the spell toward the specified location, covering about 50 miles per 24 hours for a flying messenger, or 25 miles for other animals.

You decide precisely what the beast is watching for when you cast the spell. You can have it keep watch for certain circumstances or activities, such as the advent of a storm or a single group of 20 or more creatures passing through the area. Alternately, you can have it watch for creatures with specific physical characteristics (such as height or weight), of a specific kind (like aberrations or titanspawn), or of a particular type (goblinoid or ratfolk). Finally, you can set a simple chronological trigger, having the beast return after 8 hours, for example.

At the time you select, or once the beast has seen the circumstance, activity, or creatures you specified, the beast returns and relays what it sensed as if via speak with animals. The messenger speaks only to you or to a creature matching the description you gave. If your spy fails to reach its destination before the spell ends, it can no longer relay what it sensed, but it still makes its way back to the location where you cast this spell.

At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can select one additional beast as a target for each slot level above 3rd. Each beast can be sent to a different location, but must be given similar instructions.

In addition, the duration of the spell increases by 24 hours for each slot level above 3rd. If you cast the spell using a spell slot of 8th level or higher, the duration becomes “until dispelled.”