Scrying: an odd interaction with another spell (Spoilers!)

The party member cast the scrying spell. They had met the person they were trying to scry on before, but didn't know him well, so the save mod was a simple 0.

Problem.
The person they were scrying on is a Noble who has been a pain in their neck, and they intend to go and deal with him by capturing him and turning him over to another noble.

In case one lf my players is reading (Salt Marsh, Plaid World) I have to put the rest in spoilers.

Spoiler: Kurt Kurageous - and Bron, Velthiss, Laz, Seven Waterfallas, Guy ... Please don't read...

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What the Players do not know, and the PCs do not know, is that about a month ago - after that Duke had royally pissed off the party in the aftermath of the great battle against the Sahuagin lair, a high up NPC serving the Scarlet Brotherhood met with the Duke, presented him with a beautiful gift (a large vase, ornate, expensive) ... and ended up casting Magic Jar on him after he had successfully infiltrated the ducal residence. (Arch Mage NPC, slightly tweaked).

This arcane spell caster (Rosovic) has been impersonating the Duke ever since, and has been sending out Scarlet Brotherhood agents and assassins in various forms. Rosovic's body is hidden under a tub in one of the guest bathrooms of the Ducal residence, the soul of the duke is in the jar/vase, and the soul of Rosovic is in the body of the Duke.

Spoiler: spell mechanics

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Spoiler: the first part worked

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Your body falls into a catatonic state as your soul leaves it and enters the container you used for the spell’s material component. While your soul inhabits the container, you are aware of your surroundings as if you were in the container’s space. You can’t move or use reactions. The only action you can take is to project your soul up to 100 feet out of the container, either returning to your living body (and ending the spell) or attempting to possess a humanoids body.

You can attempt to possess any humanoid within 100 feet of you that you can see (creatures warded by a Protection from Evil and Good or Magic Circle spell can’t be possessed). The target must make a Charisma saving throw.

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On a success, the target resists your efforts to possess it, and you can’t attempt to possess it again for 24 hours.

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...the duke failed the save, of course.

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... your soul moves into the target’s body, and the target’s soul becomes trapped in the container.

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Feldrin’s Soul is in the vase/jar.

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Once you possess a creature’s body, you control it.

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Rosovic has been running around as Duke Feldrin for about a month.

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Your game statistics are replaced by the statist⁠ics of the creature, though you retain your alignment and your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You retain the benefit of your own class features. If the target has any class levels, you can’t use any of its c⁠lass features.
Meanwhile, the possessed creature’s soul can perceive from the container using its own se⁠nses, but it can’t move or take actions at all

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. The duke is stuck inside the vase/jar, and it is not transparent. It's dark in there.

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While possessing a body, you can use your action to return from the host body to the container if it is within 100 feet of you, returning the host creature’s soul to its body.

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Rosovic has not done this, since his various plans have not done the damage that they needed to do before he dumps the mess back into the Duke's lap and leaves, cackling with evil glee if necessary. (or the party stops him...)

Spoiler: what may happen if the party figures this out

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If the host body dies while you’re in it, the creature dies, and you must make a Charisma saving throw against your own spellcasting DC. On a success, you return to the container if it is within 100 feet of you.

Otherwise, you die.

If the container is destroyed or the spell ends, your soul immediately returns to your body. If your body is more than 100 feet away from you or if your body is dead when you attempt to return to it, you die.
If another creature’s soul is in the container when it is destroyed, the creature’s soul returns to its body if the body is alive and within 100 feet. Otherwise, that creature dies.

The Druid cast scrying looking for the Duke; problem I had was will the scrying sensor find the Duke as inhabited by the arcane spell caster, or will it find the body.

1. If the Duke's soul is that the scrying spell would find, then the sensor would be inside the vase/jar ... or maybe it would be outside of it, within ten feet of it?
2. IF the Duke's body is what the scrying spell found, they would see the Duke (who is actually Rosovic) as he goes about his daily shenanigans, plotting and scheming and pretending to be the duke.

I went with the soul, and rolled the dice. Results came up 19/21; even with disadvantage the save was made.
But should I have used the body, and had Rosovic roll the save, not the Duke?
This strikes me a little like casting scrying on something, or someone, who is an illusion of a person you are scrying for.
Similar but different.

How would you have handled this?
Which NPC rolls the save versus scrying?

I would say that

Spoiler: details spoilered after posting

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the scry would be focussed on the soul and the vessel it inhabits.

The key is this line in scrying:"If a target knows you're casting this spell, it can fail the saving throw voluntarily if it wants to be observed."

Thus the spell is focussing the scrying sensor on the part of the target that can know things, i.e. the soul.

In this case if the save had failed, the party would scry on a the vase/jar sitting on a shelf (potentially giving the PCs a clue as to what is going on, which would be fun for story reasons, I expect).

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Originally Posted by KorvinStarmast

The party member cast the scrying spell. They had met the person they were trying to scry on before, but didn't know him well, so the save mod was a simple 0.

Problem.
The person they were scrying on is a Noble who has been a pain in their neck, and they intend to go and deal with him by capturing him and turning him over to another noble.

[...]

How would you have handled this?

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To me, the key part is

Spoiler

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that Scrying targets who the caster considers the target, without care for their actual identities.

If the caster is attempting Scrying on a thief the party has met, but the thief is actually a transformed Silver Dragon who happens to be in their true shape when the Scrying takes place, the spell won't go "impossible, this target isn't valid", it'll show the dragon in their true form.

If the caster is attempting Scrying on the masked individual who mocked them at yesterday's masquerade, then the Scrying will target "the masked individual" regardless of their actual identity.

Similarly, if the caster is attempting to Scry on the Baron they met for the first time this morning, but the Baron was actually a shapeshifted Ogre Mage, then it doesn't matter if the Baron is a real person who's currently busy on the other side of the country, the Scrying will target the Ogre Mage, because that's who the caster is thinking of as "the Baron". But if the party met the real Baron, then meet the Ogre Mage impostor, and attempted Scrying on the Baron, then they would target the real Baron.

Which means that for your situation, the important part is: the Druid knew the Duke before the swap, so the soul in the jar is who they would identify as "the Duke", meaning the Scrying would target the real Duke in the soul jar

Although you could also have gone with:

Spoiler

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The Scrying only working for an instant, trying to show both the Duke's body and the jar with the Duke's soul at once, perhaps with a crack splitting the focus used for Scrying in two, with each part showing one of the two images, before having the spell fail and shut down,

if you wanted a more "narrative logic"/cinematic turn of event.

I would say that, since they don't know him well, the scrying sensor just targets the body like normal. You can use a picture and the like to focus the scrying, which implies its the corporeal entity that you're scrying, not the metaphysical one. If they knew him very well, and thought to do so, I would allow them to target the soul, but only if they actually knew him well.

I'll spoiler the whole thing, in case of players wandering in.

Spoiler: The whole thing

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I would rule that it looks at the body in this case, and so should have been on the scheming guy.

Part of this is because of the bit about having met but don't know. Let's say that a being that can scry meets someone. That someone introduces themself as Larry the Great. In reality, they are Daryl the Mediocre, but they claim to be Larry because he's better than them in every way. Later on, the being that can scry attempts to scry on "Larry the Great". They don't have any idea that Larry the Great is someone else - they clearly intend to scry on Daryl the Mediocre, but they know him as Larry the Great. If they knew him well, they would know he is Daryl and they'd scry on him. If they had only heard of some guy named Larry the Great, then an attempt to scry would actually go to Larry the Great rather than Daryl. But since it's just some person they met, they pretty much take him as who he claims to be, and until they learn something different, for them, he is Larry the Great and that's who a scrying would go to.

Now, it complicates things a bit since the guy they are attempting to scry on is not the guy they met (correct? If they met the Duke post take over, then I think it's clear who they scry on). But my other bit of reasoning is what do they actually associate with the Duke? They don't know his soul - that, for me, would be someone you know well. They know his body. They have an image of who they are trying to scry on, and so the sensor would seek out that image.

Now, this does bring up some other issues. If someone impersonates the Duke through a spell, who does the scry settle on later when trying to look at the Duke? (I'd go with it looks at the Duke because their mental image matches their desire to see the person with that name.) If someone impersonates the Duke through mundane means? (I'd go with it being the person who was pretending to be the Duke, unless they had done such an incredible job with makeup and acting that the person could be introduced to the Duke now and think they had already met the Duke.) So it's definitely not something I would say is the obvious answer, but that's where I'd go.

All answers quite helpful. If they scry again I have a better idea on how to resolve that. As it was, the dice saved me the trouble.