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Eeh. I've never had that problem with skimming. I think it's more common for people to miss things in spoilers they forgot to click. And we have recent precedent for KC just running separate areas with [ooc]-tagged titles for each area/time period.
Generally speaking, I prefer that people not read each other's spoilers, as I find it more engaging and immersive that way (and despite what players tend to assume about themselves, it is pretty hard to resist subtle metagaming). But I recognize that there's no stopping you eager beavers. I'm pretty sure at least half the group does it, and it's not a hill I feel like dying on. If you do it, fine, I can't stop you, and I'm not really interested in trying.
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I have returned! Korea was very warm and humid but I endured.
Thank you for your patience.
I think the Blessed Angels' screaming sounds like a cross between a Mass Effect 3 Banshee and a White Walker.
Banshees are no joke!
Are those Doctor Who Blessed Angels you used as avatars, KC?
I just picked a statue of a robed woman as the image; no clue if it's a Weeping Angel image. Come to think of it, what with the "crying steam" look, there are a few stylistic parallels...
I can heal myself. I think we can take them.
But we can bail if things really start going south.
Given that the ladies in question aren't covering their faces, I don't think they're weeping angels. Kinda just looks like statues of virgin mary.
It doesn't break invisibility, but it doesn't matter. These ladies all got True Seeing. ;)
I figured. So we're kinda in trouble in THAT regard...
Yeah, I would start thinking about your endgame here. I know it's a PC's habit to look at every adventure like a dungeon, and every encounter like a standalone piece, but this fight is likely to have major consequences for what's supposed to be a chapter focused on roleplay, social skills, and subtlety. Now that the encounter has started, it's less a question of, "Can we avoid derailing our plans for Alhaster?" and more a question of, "How bad is the derailing going to be?"
I got that from your previous comment.
Though at this point I'm not sure what our options are. Unless we manage to kill all of them without one escaping there's not a lot we can do to not be outed.
I've been swamped with work this whole time so someone will have to remind me, why did we come here in the first place?
You basically came here to retrace Bucknard's steps—to check out this "birthplace of the Ebon Triad" and to meet with Lashonna (who, being a local celebrity, seems pretty much inaccessible outside of the banquet). It's been hinted to you that it's very important to make a good impression at the banquet, which is why you've been trying to get nice clothes and such.
I may be lacking some creativity but at this point I think our options are:
A) Somehow lock down and kill all three before they can greater teleport to safety.
B) Allow one or more of us to be brought in and rely on the presumably corrupt justice system to clear our names (likely with some amount of bribery?)
What do we know about the local laws regarding how prisoners are handled? It may be a good idea to surrender and break out at a later date unless summary executions are the norm, or the prison is notoriously impregnable.
So... I'd likely have to give up something pretty valuable to be cleared of charges. Assuming these cops are interested in bribes to begin with.
Now, I have to wonder what I can afford to lose.
You can go ahead and roll Knowledge (local) checks in the other thread to have some idea about the justice system.
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I'm willing to have Astraden imprisoned with the blame pinned on her, but IC she'll be stridently opposed to the idea. From her POV right now - after the Blessed Angels just casually killed three people she was trying to heal - she really sees no problem with just burning Alhaster to the ground and getting Lashonna's information by force if necessary. Which I understand is not copacetic with the plot of the AP. So someone needs to suggest something else - Zalamandra, at least, will do so downstairs.
What about just teleporting our whole group out and coming back later, though? Could we, for example, spend our remaining nights in Magepoint and just pop back into Alhaster to get our clothes fitted and then to go to the ball? While protected from scrying, of course.
I don't think the rest of us would be good with the idea of scapegoating Astraden, especially if she's resistant to the notion of being scapegoated. Plus things have escalated to the point where the very literally-minded legal nature of devils means we're all guilty of multiple infractions at this point (Tanith & Farrukh, at the least, have now physically assaulted the Blessed Angels.)
I'm fine with the 'kill them all before they can teleport out, hide their bodies (no speak with dead shenanigans. Dump them in the Nyr Dyv or something.), and walk away whistling nonchalantly' idea, if we can pull it off. There aren't really any other witnesses to deal with- everyone that doesn't have true seeing can just give a description of a pack of talking dogs. Only real problem with that is that Carina and Zalamandra can't really take another multi-point unholy blight. On the other hand, Farrukh, Tanith, and Cuetzpalli haven't had a round of full attacking yet, and after that there might not be multiple points of unholy blight to worry about.
Eben has five phase locking arrows left. That's probably not much use to lock down all four, but if we can do a quick elimination of two of them, I can probably keep the other two from popping out for a couple of rounds.
I'm waiting to see if Tanith manages to beat down one of the Angels first before I make my move.
So far, what I'm learning from this excursion is: don't be a hero in Alhaster.
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Yeah, I really need to start preparing dimensional anchor. We need to knock out a few of them, and then start locking them down. As far as I can see, our best options (to keep them from reporting, IF they don't have long-range telepathy in which case we're screwed anyways) are you using the arrows, followed by Tanith grappling one of them to keep it from casting, followed by Astraden casting dispel law on one of them. The last is a pretty last-ditch option since they likely have plane shift in addition to greater teleport at this level.
Busy at work presently. I'll do a real post later tonight.
What was the consensus on actions? Did the party want Tanith to try to kill one of them or try to grapple?
Honestly, 8 int chaotic good Cuetzpalli is fed up with this place and it's evil-evilness. He's raging and presented with evil outsiders attacking his friends, it's going to take a lot to convince him not to try to kill the devils at this point.
In fairness, I probably should have anticipated that this chapter would test the party pretty hard. It runs pretty much directly counter to every chapter you've been in so far—it's not one where you're intended to solve your problems by confronting them head-on. It's basically a, "Take these hardened heroes, stick 'em in froufrou outfits, and force them to make nice with a bunch of evil Satanic Victorians"-type adventure. This party might not be compatible with that kind of roleplay challenge.
You guys can make your own calls. We'll see how the adventure goes from here.
Speaking as the player of the character that probably is the most compatible with that kind of roleplay challenge... I'm still not feeling very submissive in this scene.
Tanith, I say you do your best to lay waste to one of these ladies.
As the one person with an opinion, Eben wins.
Enemy of the State it is!
Well, this might be it for Carina...
I do have a syringe of Breath of Life if I go down.
...not dead yet.
Down to 2 HP. Thanks to my DEX/CON mutagen temp HP boost.
Ah, right! I checked Zalamandra for Con boosts (because one version of this post had them killing Zalamandra, too, before I made up my mind on how I wanted them to respond to her offer), but forgot to check Carina. Good on her for not dying a second time!
Wait, so are you saying you didn't update Carina's HP, or that she just has 2 HP to go before Dying For Real? In other words, is she still conscious?
Yet.
The AP ain't over yet.
And I'm really inclined to take the offer now. It's probably the best we're gonna get.
Ah, right! I checked Zalamandra for Con boosts (because one version of this post had them killing Zalamandra, too, before I made up my mind on how I wanted them to respond to her offer), but forgot to check Carina. Good on her for not dying a second time!
...Well, the night is still young.
Carina is STILL conscious.
Barely.
Of course, she's not exactly inclined to fight anymore.
Did I get skipped in the last two rounds? I've only gotten one action but apparently we're coming in on round 4...
Edit: Also, unrelated question, when did we last refill APs? I feel like I should have more than 2 since I never use the things.
OK, so how do we want to play this? We've now lost the 'kill them and cover up before they can report us' option with the one porting out. I still feel like we're only one or two more full attacks from the big guns from turning this on its head, but until then they are holding our weaker members hostage. I hate to give this up, but the offer on tap is them (and KC) bending more than I'd thought they would.
Carina is at 2 of 89 possible hit points, thanks to the CON boost from her mutagen. She's still on her feet--not dead, but damn close to going down.
The numbers I put in brackets are her HP when she's using the +4 CON Boost of her mutagen.
Ah, whoops! I see what happened here.
Init Order
Astraden/Carina/Farrukh/Cuetzpalli/Tanith
Blessed Angels
Eben/ZalamandraRound 2: Eben is up, followed by Carina, Cuetzpalli, and Tanith!
When in doubt, refer to the initiative order.
That might have made a strong difference in this outcome but it'd be too awkward to retcon it now.
Carina is at 2 of 89 possible hit points, thanks to the CON boost from her mutagen. She's still on her feet--not dead, but damn close to going down.
The numbers I put in brackets are her HP when she's using the +4 CON Boost of her mutagen.
Gotcha. The Blessed Angels probably should've taken more cautious actions, then (tactically speaking, they don't like being outnumbered, no matter how low HPs are) but it's too late to retcon that. And hey, even baatezu make mistakes. Devil's in the details.
That might have made a strong difference in this outcome but it'd be too awkward to retcon it now.
I will say that even had Farrukh made it to Mara and somehow wrangled a full attack, it's pretty unlikely he would've been able to drop or incapacitate her before she teleported. If you want to retcon the action to attack her, feel free—even if she dies, it won't change the Blessed Angels' actions at this point.
Or did you have a plan to make it downstairs? Thanks to the web, that's a 110 ft. movement.
It's doable with a double move on the first round and a full attack on the second (or Quick Runner's Shirt to move twice in round 1, and then activate a Maneuver like Rapid Strike, then full round 2) but if it's not gonna make a difference and Carina's already surrendered, let's just assume I chased them downstairs, couldn't do anything, and here we are now surrendering.
So the plan here is for Zalamandra to volunteer herself as prisoner? She's going to have to speak up to that point.
I suppose if we still get to play through the rest of the chapter this whole mess will have been worthwhile.
If nobody else wants to, Farrukh could volunteer to be collateral. He can take a bit of light torture for the team if need be.
Eben might have the best chance of avoiding being tortured (via Diplomacy or Bluff checks...)
I didn't actually roll the extra 2d6 on my save (~_~)*
I guess if the majority of the group tries to convince him, Cuetzpalli will go along with whatever plan.