31 damage on top
Ellenas attacks do a total of 126 damage to the Vrolikai, which leaves with the question:
Ellena, in a vicious strike, cleaves the head clear off the demonic beast, while Radiance shines bright as a holy beacon to the others!
Cydric, staggered, prone and fatigued as he is, uses his wand of lesser restoration to make himself less fatigued. With an exertion of mythic power, he wills himself to stand.
Yathlaras barrage hammers into the "Green Lady" but just as she would be badly hurt, another contingency triggers and she is healed!
BEHOLD MY TRUE ARCANE MASTERY! DO YOU T@!! EVEN HAVE CONTINGENCIES?
The green Lady snarls, evidently unimpressed.
Once more she uses what is likely a reach rod, and... Mahrevok disappears Only to reappear 60 feet above Ciar, and come crashing down on the prone Paladin!
Gravity is a harsh mistress, and I am her bestest friend!
The hulking Barbarian, still bound crashes into the Paladin, both sides take
A rather measly 12 damage!
Free him "Iomedae" so that he may savage the foolish knight!
The "Iomedae" does as told, freeing the bound Barbarian with a combination of claws and being able to phase through solid matter, together with the barbarian own efforts, he is free again!
Now as to you! Isnt that all rather confusing? A demoness next to a Paladin?
Using mythic power, she unleashes a spelllike ability at Cydric, Belana and Ellena!
Thats our chance, if the green b*$+! thinks her confusion worked then she wont run, if I can get to grips with her, my cloak stops teleportation if I wrap it around a foe and The succubus is planning her next move
[bigger]S!!@ CYDRIC IS CONFUSED get away from him, I can take his onslaught if he gets messed up, your armor wont help![/b]
F!@# YOU MAHREVOK! Dyre snarls to as he charges into the Succubus threatening Nona
The agile demoness is not even close to being bullrushed
Do you think I give the slightes f!!& about you boy?
The Succubus utterly ignores the youngling charge to 5 feet step next to Nona
She lashes out with her rapier at Nona!
She lands a massive strike!
But then her hand strikes out as well!
Nona takes a total of 40 damage
I nearly have their old hag of a Shaman! The agile and vicious looking foe announces triumphantly.
Only to momentarily disregard the flutter of wingings dashing into her direction
The angel moves into the Succubus duelist and succesfully disarms her! Although with the use of another Skaldic inspiration.
Did you drop something? Mrs Kiandrah I believe? The angel, in a fencers pose and now flanking with with Nona announces as her expertly inspired blow disarms the demoness.
Oh how kind of you to notice!
The Tail of the demoness lashes out and picks up the rapier, she cannot fight with it yet, but her eyes dart around to devise a stratagem.
The Succubus duelist strongly considers bolting, She is a mercenary, not a fanatic, and she did deal enough damage to flee without that much threat of repercussions.
Anarya has yet not acted! Do you tell her to
a) try to deal with the confused gunslinger?
b) seek to heal up Nona?
--------------------------------------
Summary:
--Cydric unfatgiues himself with a wand
--white Succubus is apparently some type of swashbuckler Magus hybrid that uses her at will vampiric touch for spell combat! Rude! Also rude that she dealt 40 damage to Nona, and expertly noped Dyre attempts to be useful.
--Jerribeth takes a bunch of damage, but is not shaken, another contingency, this time featuring a heal spell, is triggered
--Jerribeth yeets magically Mahrevok out of prison, drop him on Ciar, the other Succubus spends her turn (and Mahrevoks turn) freeing him.
--Jerribeth then spends more mythic power to hit Ellena, Cydric and Belana with confusion. Cydric fails in spite of rerolling 2 times.
--Ellena is informed in character of Cydric being confused
Nona is 38/92. Now that there are several allies attacking Kiandrah, including a soon-to-appear huge air elemental, Nona can retreat and support combat with spells.
If Cyric is closer to death, I'd heal him to be sure his firepower is available. Nona can take a 5-foot-step and use inspired spell to cast a heal wounds spell on herself next round, although if she's not being threatened, she can limp on and focus firepower on the enemy. His being confused might make him turn his gun on us, which would be not good. Perhaps unconfuse him if possible. Nona has a break enchantment spell but Cydric is out of range.
With the big demon down, those who were fighting it will probably prove more urgent targets than an old shaman.
Anarya Channels positive energy, healing everyone who is not an enemy!
She moves to Cydric and spends a mythic for amazing initiative to heal him further with a cure serious wounds
Fight on warrior
Belana does not see her approach, and for a short time a look of sheer panic is on her face as Anarya touches Cydric.
You know Cydric is confused, and may shoot Anarya turning the entire situation into a complete clusterf*%*.
The Succubus does something
Suggestion
Defeat all remaining servants of the green Lady on within 300 feet! Belana speaks with probably telepathic resonance to Cydric.
Anarya can almost feel the telepathy brushing her, the Succubus is not aiming at her though.
Opening fire!
The Gunslinger replies as he aims his weapon on the greenlady, taking back to the air on rekindled burning wings!
Powerful shields flare up around the green lady, as only 2 force bullets penetrate her first line of defenses!
Bullet shield
The remaining 2 bullets strike mirror images, leaving only 3!
Ragnar meanwile descends 60 feets, switching his weapon to a one handed grip and drawing a wand, and apparently ceasing to bloodrage.
The wand however does not appear to be working.
Sevanna does see what her superiors are trying to do, and seeks to dispell the mirror images on the Green Lady
She fails however
Recap:
Anarya heals everyone for 28, cydric for another 20
Belana gives some advice, and looked pretty panicked for a moment
Ragnar goes out of rage, flies 60 feet down and fails to do something to the Green Lady wwith a wand
Sevanna tries to dispell magic on the Green Lady but fails
Cydric can rage again, his wand of lesser restoration removed his fatigue, pops 2 mirror images.
Heroes are up!
Nona finishes her summoning spell and the air next to Kiandrah begins to swirl and a fifteen foot tall air elemental arrives and begins to attack the succubus.
Nona moves away from Kiandrah until she can get a line of attack on the Green Lady and others up on the the cliff ledge.
Nona fears she cannot affect the Green Lady with any of her spells, but Marhevok is another story. She concentrates, brings telekinetic spell energy to her hands and reaches out as if to grab the demon-touched barbarian. Then she moves as if pulling him toward the cliff edge.
When the four-armed demon gets destroyed by what the wizard believes is a paladin, she turns her attention to the 'green' lady. An elf by the looks of it and unimpressed even after being battered to the heck and all the way back by her special fear-inducing missiles.
"Hmmm... Excuse me?!?" the elf wizard calls out to the other elf woman "Why are you helping the demons? I have to admit, I'm new, and just wondering." she asks, just as she flings a burning hot devastatingly BIG ball of fire at her and her semi bunched allies.
= empowered+admixtures intense spells = 91
Yath has studied the succubi in depth. In truth, there might not be a single mortal being on the face of Golarian that has studied them quite as much as this elf has. Why? Who knows, or at least, if she does know why, she would never admit it.
So at the last possible moment the ball of searing flame shifts into a blue sphere so intensely cold all potential... um... physical attraction of any male around the succulent demons would shrivel inside them with all haste.
Just the cold, not any other reason.
Spoiler Mrs. Kisses fairly reasonable for a mortal, the b!$#& in green is a nipplehands, I mean, Glabrezu. If you look at where their pretty small extra hands start in their actual form, you will understand both the nickname and why they hate it! These hands have some uses though, its mostly what they hold wands or rods with! The Succubus of the Forsaken speaks in your mind
Also, spoiler Yathlara on that nat 20
Following your encounter with her, you have studied what lore can be found on her.
You do know that she is a Blade of Midnight, a special operative, not quite unlike the Black Talons of Andoran, but in service to the Lady in Shadows. Her specialties seem to be prison breaks and inducing free willed conversion. A specialist also refered to her as a meta-lure. She rarely kills things that arent devils, and frequently honors her word, and her mortal consorts tend to be pretty longlived for mortals that shack up with a Succubus. People who know of her may erraneously extrapolate from her to other Succubi, a fatal mistake in most cases.
She hates hell in general and Doloras, who is known to have captured and tortured her, in particular, and often seeks to humiliate the infernal forces, making her an occassional "enemy of my enemy" as far as Andoran is concerned.
In terms of combat capabilities, she is known to be a grappling and dirty trick specialist, tending to employ less then lethal means to incapaciate rathern then kill.
She seems to be wholly unaffected by anything targetting her chaotic evil alignment, somehow mimicking the "beyond morality" discovery of an arcanist perhaps?
She also seems to be a teleportation specialist, both in terms of granting teleportation to those who receive her profane gift, as well as being able to disrupt incoming teleports.
By the notes of an Andoran operative, she seems to be a warsighted Oracle of the Lunar mystery, which explains her incredible capabilities in terms of dodging as well as the variety of combat maneuvers she can employ with high levels of competence.
Any wotr npc with class levels gets class features according to hits hitdice, + its class level number, other then BAB and spell casting.
Belana for example is a Succubus/Warsighted Oracle 4 (lunar), and thus gets the class features of a level 8 (hitdice) + 4 (class levels) 12 oracle.
Ellena will double move flight to the next baddest looking demon on the block. ”Fear the mighty Radiance wielded by a champion of Iomedae,” she calls out as she moves.
Rejoice, the ring I am offering does have "expeditious advance because retreating is for chumps" on its first level slot. With a bit of luck I may be able to stop the "Green Lady" from buggering out.
You do wonder just how that Succubus manages to telepathically talk that much in under 6 seconds.
GM
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For some reason, as the dark-haired elf burns the heavens and hells with mythic fire, she starts singing.
Crap, no she doesn't. Outloud she says "Hmmm... I know there are words in my head about something???" she grumbles as the first wordless nothingness about firey night and jingle hells comes out. Completely uninspired (or in truth warranted in the given situation, but Yath has been a torture victim in the pits of damnation so as hard as she tries to hold on, she is true and wonderfully F$!*ED)
........................................... (sorry she wandered off in a flashback, it happens)
Where were we... oh yes, not being able to think of song lyrics.
"Bubble bubble flesh is in trouble..." [bigger[NO[/bigger] not a song lyric, Yath! Goodness, bard mumble jumble is not going to cut it in... this... situation... why?
Oh, yes, there is a fight going on. Please remember that. Carrols, whatever the heck in a handbasket those are, are VASTLY less important at the moment...
But the wizard's brain keeps coming back to them, as she watches her lovely ball of blazing heat hurdling toward the pretty pretties. NO, the evil demon ladies. NOT PRETTY. Well, yes they are but that is NOT THE POINT.
Hmm....
"Succubi roasting on the Balrog's Spit
Ellena the Paladin chopping off their toes"
Well that is something at least. The elven wizard works out a few other lines, almost the entire chorus, but keeps it quiet to not disturb the illusions that she is Sane.
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Yathlara's seemingly random mention of a parody of a traditional winter solstice song triggered a long neglected memory in Nona. It was a childish perversion of a song that was pretty silly to begin with. It was a Sarkoris tradition that on the Winter Solstice Pulara would take a human form and travel the land distributing oranges and toys for the children, something the parents of small children would sometimes foster by leaving fruit and toys for the kids to find on Solstice morning.
The song was of a child witnessing her parents acting out the magic and, thinking they are unobserved, give each other a holy day smooch. After the Worldwound, some cynical kids rewrote the words. It was a bit of those lyrics that came to Nona's mind in the midst of the horrific battle.
I saw daddy kiss a succubus
Underneath the mistletoe.
He looked like such a creep
I wished I'd stayed asleep.
Now I'm too f#&ked up
To sleep in my bedroom.
Strange what thoughts can emerge when facing death and damnation.
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The whirlwinds suceeds in knocking down Mahrevok into the swirling melee below
Oi, looks like that pistol mythic murder hobo is weak willed! I am pretty sure the black feather just suggestioned her own ally!
One of the now disarmed (technically dis-quivered) "Elfen archers" remarks
Roight, it sure beats being in melee with any of these clowns! the second one adds
Shoot and kill the child of Aroden and Iomedae for mad bragging rights!
No, shoot the Paladin! She is stealing your kills!
Nah, shoot everyone who isnt a demon!
Hippity hoppity get out of my mental property The Gunslinger remarks as he weathers their mental assault
Stop The Green lady uses mythic point to unleash a spell like ability on the Galtese
Power word stun
The gunslinger is staggere from the magics impact, but interestingly does not drop his weapon, and is stunned for
Power word stun, she cant do that again today. The Currently large 4 armed gargoyle calls out.
I am not done yet you fools! the green Lady speaks
As she uses her standard action to use another spell like ability!
Confusion
She does not spare her own allies, as both her prone "consort" Mahrevok and the swashbuckling Succubus are in the AoE
Nona, Ellena (yath is out of the aoe)
what the f%*+? the lady in white is unaffected but slightly peeved at this
I failed my mistress! Nooooo In confused babbling, the prone Barbarian headbuts the earth, taking 15 damage in the process
The Air elemental is confused, hardly unreasonably so.
It seeks to hasten its exist by boinking itself for
damage
NO F$&@ YOU, NIPPLEHANDED PIECE OF EXCREMENT! I WILL RIP OF YOUR CLAW HANDS, COOK THEM AND FEED THEM TO YOU YOUR REIGN OVER OUR TRIBE ENDS TODAY! AND I AM GOING TO START WITH YOUR SORRY EXCUSE OF A THIRD TIER COHORT! Dyre had f$&~ing enough of her b$#~~**+, driving deep into his rage he weathers her magical onslaught only to turn his own hatred on the former wintersun chieftain
The combination of the falling damage, the fireball, the self damage and the young warriors assault is sufficient to knock Mahrevok out, as he falls unconcious, his rage leaves him and he dies!
MAHREVOK NOOO! I WILL KILL YOU YOU INSIGNFICANT PEST!
The "Green Lady scream in anger
Blood for Blood,
Death for Death
The young warrior replies solemnly, looking the green lady straight into the eye
Kill him Kiandrah!
The Green Lady will seek to kill Dyre, who is a level 6 Bloodrager and way out of his depth here, and is unlikely to abandon the battlefield before she achieved that.
The Succubus easily finds several weakspots in the raging unarmed form of he Bloodrager, he goes down in a flurry of blows and the expert swashbuckler filets him, striking him 4 times in quick succession!
She then turns to the angel and seeks to touch her with a life draining hit!
But she misses on account of the angels holy aura.
The angel 5 foot steps and casts cure serious wounds on the fallen warrior,
The Bloodragers eyes open again, but he is prone, still very close to death and not doing great!
Being somewhat singed due to Yathlaras assault, the other enemy Succubus targets Ragnar with a spell like ability
Be mine!
But something happens as she seeks to invade Ragnars mind, she stands there, drooling from the mental blowback!
Providing overwatch Sevanna shouts as she moves to the stunned Cydric, evidently readying an action with her enchanted bardiche
She isnt readying an action to strike, she is readying a counterspell
As the Succubus swashbuckler filets young Dyre, and is about to end him with a vampiric touch, you hear the following.
OK Kiandrah, that hunky little bloodrager got his rage shaped by me, if you dont murder him I will not impede your teleport out, clearly you see that the battle isnt going your sides way, and well, you may as well change sides. The Lady in Shadows would reward you well for the secrets of Baphomet. How did you become mythic anyway? Inquiring minds want to know my darling!
You hear an outgoing telepathic communication, probably the swashbuckling Succubus is named Kiandrah. You do not hear a reply if there is one, but instead of slaying Dyre the Succubus Swashbuckler attempts to hit the Angel Eluviel with the vampiric touch, perhaps failing because it was hastilty redirected.
The Succubus Belana eyes the 3 Incubi circling close to her stunned consort, while also looking at the swashbuckling Succubus.
She hovers above her consort Cydric, claws extended, while doing something mentally.
My priority is protecting my consort, one of the incubi pretending to be elfen archers serves Socothbenoth, and I will not let these f%$%s lay hands on him while he is stunned. I can impede Jerribeths attempts to teleport away, by inflicting her with a chance of failure, from where I am.
Cydric is stunned and does nothing.
Ragnar performs and aerial charge on the green Lady, his massive blade striking out!
But the green lady nimbly dodges, his strike not even hitting a mirror image.
However, the fatigue acquired from his earlier Bloodrage is now gone.
Ciar smites her, stands up, provoking at attack of opportunity from the green Lady
He suffers a massive blow
That staff, it tried to invade my mind! he shouts as he strikes the green Lady with his great sword
he would have struck true but only hits an image. Ciar looks badly hurt!
--All three "Elfen archers" fly on bat wings and try to suggesting the Gunslinger Cydric into attacking the party. They fail.
--Green Lady uses power word stun on Cydric (the gunslinger) taking him essentially out of the fight.
--Green Lady then uses mythic b!*~~&&! TM to cast confusion, Mahrevok and the air elemental are confused, Dyre, the Succubus swashbuckler and the Angel are not.
--Dyre tells her to go f*$% herself and slaughters the confused Mahrevok, infuriating the green lady
--The Succubus swashbuckler basically filets Dyre, putting him into a dying state, but uses her vampiric touch on the angel rather then finishing the young bloodrager off. Nona intercepts a telepathic message that may explain why
--the other enemy Succubus tries to dominate monster Ragnar. A potent mental backlash stuns her she is staggered in place drooling heavily.
--Belana is concentrating on something while hovering over her stunned Gunslinger ally. Nona would know she is also doing something else.
--The Skald Sevana is moving close to Cydric and reading an action
--Cydric is stunned
--Ragnar charges the green Lady but misses completely
--Ciar smites the green Lady, stands up and eats an AoO. The Green Lady hits like a truck, but he weathers whatever mental effect her staff has because Paladin. Ciar is badly hurt. He does pop another mirror image, leaving the green Lady with only 1.
Current Situation:
Cydric: Stunned, hurt but more then 50 hp remaining
Dyre: Near death, not dying, prone next to a Succubus Swashbuckler
Air elemantal: Midly damaged, confused
Mahrevok: Ded
Vrolikai:Ded
Succubus Swashbuckler: Still up and kicking
Green Lady: 1 mirror image left, extremely pissed at Dyre
Ragnar: No longer fatigued, will likely Bloodrage next turn, is currently a four armed gargoyle
Ellenas least favorite Cosplayer: Telepathically feedbacked so hard she is stunned
Ciar: Badly hurt, standing next to Green Lady
Ellena declares another smite evil, this time on the green lady. She charges ahead, flying straight at the evil thing. She swings with all her might, spending a mythic point to power attack.
Charging attack with divine favor, smite evil, mythic power attack and holy weapon.
Mythic power attack with smite Damage plus
from holy
Mirror image attack, high is good
Unfortunately, the Paladin pops the last mirror imageof the green lady.
As the paladin Pops the last of the fake green ladies, a slew of magic missiles streak from right behind her to slam into the real one.
Unfortunately, the mage didn't have enough mythic juice left to break down the demon's natural resistance to spells, so all the bright balls of force just splat against her.
Nona notices the concerted effort to deal with the Green Lady and decides to try to help. First she retreats from the vicinity of the confused air elemental and the deadly succubus Kiandrah. Then she focuses on the Green one, concentrates spell energy into her outstretched hand, fingers spread wide, says, "Proto Jėga," and squeezes her hand into a fist.
If this is not enough, add
If this is not enough and the Surge was not needed for the SR check, use the surge result from above here.
Expertly weaving her power, Nona managed to use her telekinesis to grapple the "green Lady"!
RAW, telekinesis does nto allow for adding wisdom to the CMB check, but thats clearly not RAI.
Yatlara unfortunately fails to penetrate the green Ladies spell resistance.
Elena strikes and pops the final mirror image
That is telekinesis! Break the Shamens concentration Kiandrah! The Green Lady snarls
Beats fighting an angel and half the forsaken The white clad swashbuckler replies as she fleet charges after the shaman, drawing attacks of opportunity from the confused air elemental and from Eluviel!
The elemental inflicts some damage
The Angel alas misses
Seeing that the Shaman is rather hard to hit, Kiandrah uses an point of mythic power for another action! She launches a feint!
Only to then launch a full attack
Nona takes 33 damage and no longer concnetrates on Telekinesis!
Once more, her touch glows with energy!
Yet she somehow manages to miss!
----------------------------------------------
Cosplayer turn
Ellenas least favorite cosplayer spends her turn being stunned, and drools on Ciars boots, who is too professional to spontaenously pick up a level in Celestial Bloodrager, although the sight of a Succubus pretending to be Iomedae drooling on him is pretty drat close.
----------------------------------------------
Green Lady turn
FOOLS I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL! The Green Lady expends a point of mythic power to cast one of her spell like abilities defensively!
She teleports yet!
Belana can counterspell teleportation effects as an immidiate action, it is in essence a contested caster level check, unfortunately, the green lady is a better caster then she is.
The Greenlady reappears close to the battle between Nona and the Swashbuckler, and then, with a cruel laugh says
BURN! How nicely bunched up you useless Maggots are!
A ball of fire extends from the green Lady, seeking to imolate the air elemental, angel, both Paladins and Ragnar, as well as the prone and heavily wounded Dyre!
DYRE NO! In a primal scream the female spell warrior focuses her own arcane might! Using Nonas earlier marshall ability, she manages to dispell it!
She seems to be weeping blood, a telltale sign she is not able to do this again!
------------------------
Olroight, do you t#&#s see what Oi am seeing?
One "Elfen archer" asks the others
That we are like, perilously close to Ragnar f!$@ing Skuggason and 2 annoyed Paladins who only have one completely irrelevent cosplaying twit as targets for their wroth?
The second one answers
The black feather did her "u no teleport get yeeted to Yad-Nagoth-sewer-overflow-containment-if-you-are-unlucky" and I dont think she can do that twice! The third one says
And since we can teleport, to a place we are totaly hitting their healer shaman whatever next turn, and having Kiandrah and the green Lady between us and the Paladin-Bloodrager murderbawl!
The first one speaks
We are geniuses! The 3 draw Falchions as their moveaction, and then teleport close to Nona with their standards!
Hello there hahahahahha!
Shaman, I can get you out of there, but this only works if you accept my profane gift
You receive an offer in your head from Belana
-----------------------------------------------------
Belana delays until she gets an answer
-----------------------------------------------------
Ragnar turn
Shamen, you wont die today Ragnar intones as he spends a point of mythic power to gain an additional standard action to grab both Ciar and Ellena, him currently having 2 extra arms is rather useful for this!
Catch that with your tiny nipplehands b@~@+!
His aim is incredibly accurate as both Paladins barrel into the very surprised looking green Lady!
As I told you mylady, I am not discriminating based on gender when it comes to "picking up Paladins"
Ragnar mutters, seemingly to himself, as he throws.
--------------------
Cydric turn
Stunned
-------------------
Sevanna turn
Running out of resources, she does have a card to play! Intoning an incantation, grease covers the mighty scepter the green lady is holding, and only by investing mythic power as her immidiate action can the green Lady hold on to her object of power!
--------------------
Nona consents, seeing as the alternative will be the center of a falchion sandwich.
-----------------------Belana turn--------------
Nodding, she mythically powers up and fleet charges past the green lady
Moving in an oblique approach, she uses Ellena for cover
As she dashes past the green lady, part of her cloak extends and wraps around the green Ladies face, blindfolding her.
She then, as a full round action carresses Nona, provoking 2 attacks of opportunities from nearby Incubi
She takes a bit of damage but shrugs it off with relative ease.
You do know of the profane gift of a Succubus, although this is the first time you experience it.
You feel as if tendrils of shadowy silk wrap around your body, caressing it through your clothes, but without restraining you.
It is, extremely pleasant.
You see one of the tendrils extending into blackness, to reappear behind the large form of Ragnar. The tendril pulls you, into the blackness of the earth beneath you. Suddenly you reappear behind Ragnar, still on the same battlefield but in a far improved position.
You also understand that you can teleport yourself now to places you know and have visited, and you intuitively know you can do so twice per day
Utilizing another point of mythic power, she acts with amazing initiative and teleports Nona behind Ragnar.
If you want to get rid of it, dispell evil or break enchantment would do it. I would prefer to not remove it myself, the feedback from cutting the connection in that case is far more potent, on account of the strength of my gift, then would be the case with a normal Succubus. You would need several restorations or a greater restoration to fully recover from me severing it.
You hear her voice, very clearly.
Those who receive her gift (of mobility) gain the following boons:
--A profane bonus of +3 to one attribute score
--The ability to cast greater teleport twice per day as a spell like ability, but self only, akin to how the average demon teleports
--Belana has constant status on you
--Belana can communicate with you telepthically as long as you are on the same plane
--You can telepathically "call" her, but it is up to her to respond, she also does not hear the call if she is on a different plane
Ellena continues trying to smite the most evil, the nefarious Green Lady. She swings Radiance twice at the demon, her mythic power attack strengthens her blow.
Attack with divine favor, smite evil, mythic power attack and holy weapon.
Mythic power attack with smite Damage plus
from holy
Iterative Attack
Damage plus
holy
* empowered (1.5) = 102 + intense spells (5) = 107
Taking a cue from a succubus seems wrong on multiple levels, and mocking one even worse, but Yath does both "How nicely bunched up you useless Maggots are" the wizard says in a decent but still flawed copy of the Green Lady's voice.
Her statement is followed by a blazing frostball erupting in the area, a cold so intense it tries to cling to the skin of the annoying archers and succulent demons ('STOP using adjectives like that, Yath!' her mind growls at herself). The elf has enough control of her magic that the ball weaves around the immediate areas of those allied with her, sparing them everything but a sudden desire to get a hot chocolate and a bundley coat.
Nona cannot match the intensity of magic Yath unleashed, but she does what she can, now that she is suddenly relatively safe. She calls on her ancestors aid with a gesture and the name of her great great grandmother, Almathea.
A spirit appears next to Kiandrah appearing as a powerful barbarian Sarkorian warrior wielding a sansetsukon like the one in Nona's hand. It swings twice at the succubus.
Using Marshall Rally Reroll.
Zia withdraws to the south.
Anarya draws her cold iron grayflame longsword, Truthwatcher, and races into battle, attacking Kiandrah, channeling her holy energy into her attack.
Haste attack with divine favor, smite evil, mythic power attack, haste, good hope and holy weapon.
Damage with the above plus
holy
Yathlaras mighty magic outright wipes out 2 of the Incubi, with one surviving badly wounded
Wtf? Guys? Guys? S#++ SHE IS VELLEXIA I NEED TO F~@!ING RUN
He says in abject terror
The agile swashbuckler dodges the blast! Taking no damage whatsorever!
Yes I am the good She exclaims
She looks with great fondness on a ring on her left finger for a moment
The Green Lady is brought down by the blast, but suddenly strong healing magics activate as she is affected by a heal spell!
Contingency eh? How annyoing! The
Fool, not contingency, contigencies! Its good to be a wizard!
The Green Lady exults triumphantly, as the massive blast burned away the part of Belana's cloak that was blinding her
Oh She says as she sees 2 Paladins barrelling straight at her
Ouch! Is what the normally locacious Demones says as Ellena unleashes a holy Can of whoppass, her blade biting into the green Lady.
Ciar adds his own efforts, only for another contingency to trigger as 2 holy blades slam into her!
MY THANKS LADY MINAGHO! The Green Lady shrieks as her form begans to teleport away alas
Tendrils of shadow swirl around her, stopping her teleportation! The Succubus Belana grins predatorily!
You stay here! And enjoy the Paladin sashimi show!
Kiandrah parries the first attack of the spiritual ally, seeing Anarya barrelling down at her, she uses a use of mythic power to teleport 30 feet away form the melee.
Well, Dosvedanya! I got Jerribeths organisation to coup and take over! Convenient that you can only do the whole "no f~~# you you dont teleport" once every 6 seconds right Belana? The white-clad swashbuckler smiles as she teleports away.
The last Incubus moves
But is tripped and summarily dispatched/captured
Huh? Almathea? Ragnar says recognicing the spiritual ally, as he walks over to Ellenas least favorite cosplayer and ends her.
In a moment she is there, a moment later all that remains of her is her surprised drooling head on Ragnars horns.
--Fireball wipes 2 incubi, deals enough damage to green lady to trigger her contingency.
--Ellena hits the green lady, triggering a mythic contingency, likely placed by Minagho, to have her teleport away however, Belana manages to get very lucky and stop the teleport. Green Lady is dead.
--Kiandrah uses mirror dodge to not get hit by Anarya, seeing that she is the last girl standing, she teleports out to take the Green Ladies organisation over
--Ragnar murders Ellenas least favorite cosplayer
--Last Incubus tries to run but is tripped, you can dispatch or capture him if you somehow feel like taking a prisoner.
Loot post coming up!
The last traces of mythic power explode onto the field, with splendid effects the wizard notes. Each enemy either escapes or is put down by the warrior of the menagerie of allies. Leaving the elven wizard a moment to put her hands to her knees and lean over to catch her breath. "do not vomit" she whispers to herself Over and Over, the come down from near-death adrenaline is so hard to recover from. And this chaos of a battle had a grand total of one minute of preparation.
She had been reading!! Goodness and the gracious, Reading, when Elluviel popped in to tell her to get ready. She owed that angel EVERYTHING, but would an hour or so have been too much of an ask.
Her breathing settles slow but steady, vomit staying in her belly, which is good since she had just eaten a meat pie of questionable origins, so who know what that odd concoction would become in an outer plane. The greasy gray lumps, once regurgitated, could grow legs and run for the heavens.
Rising finally, missing the paladin's probably epic ending of the lady of green, the lovely dark-skinned (but not drow) elf looks around the group and asks "Now that is over, could someone please let me know what is going on?" her tone strives toward civility, but she has a tinge in her voice of angelic annoyance, flashed at Elluviel and abysmal avoidance at Belana.
"Let's keep that last one alive for questioning," Nona states, not necessarily expecting much intel but knowing it's better to try.
Then she dismisses the air elemental, giving it a bow of respect and thanks, hoping it understands.
She asks Ragnar for a lift down to where the others are.
Rising finally, missing the paladin's probably epic ending of the lady of green, the lovely dark-skinned (but not drow) elf looks around the group and asks "Now that is over, could someone please let me know what is going on?" her tone strives toward civility, but she has a tinge in her voice of angelic annoyance, flashed at Elluviel and abysmal avoidance at Belana.
"Seems this lot of demons thought they could take out the leader of the crusade at Drezen," giving a tilt of her head at Anarya, "while all were otherwise distracted escorting some prisoners from Wintersun. Or they might have wanted to dispatch Cyrdric and his band of Forsaken for fun or profit and we happened into the crossfire. I'm not sure about some of the help we got from some extra planar power, perhaps the one known as Lady Midnight. I suppose Belana and her allies can answer that one."
Nona too is interested in finding out the fallout from this battle. She separates the Green Lady from any of her magic, just in case something triggers belatedly to heal her.
As Ellena noticed the Green Lady’s defense failing, she aims her last strike to cleave off the right arm of the demon. She watches the black ichor of the demon ooze as the arm flies off and she bleeds out, as it were.
As the battle concluded, she tried to catch her breath, then scanned the battlefield, looking at the shape of her side, and tries to assist anyone who needed it.
Reasonble Belana says to Nonas suggestion of taking one alive, she 5 foot steps closer to the tripped Incubus
Easily grappling
and pinning him. Her robe and dress elongates and animates as it wraps around him
As a token of my regard The party hears the Succubuses voice telepathically
Obey, tell all, and you may be a prisoner of the forsaken, a preferable state to being a failure, or someone to be burned on a pyre yes?
Nona, who has just received her gift, can feel her suggestion working on the Incubus, as the Succubus simultaneously caresses him into further submission.
Having been on the receiving end of a Succubus once, you may or may not feel sympathy. Your guess is that the seductive abilities of a Succubus probably scale with her power, and Bellana is certainly more powerful then the now dead cosplayer was. On the other hand, you could also think that this end is almost too pleasent for the demon.
My thanks for exluding me from the super fireball. That was pretty cool!
You hear the Succubus voice
Qlippoths beneath bugger my lovelife, well, you dont want to know what the bugger wanted to do with your godling. What is it with male failures and the fascination with tentacles? It applies to both mortals and Demons and I seriously dont know. I f$~&ing tell you, sometimes telepathy is a curse. Belanas voice chuckles
As Ragnar, very courteously and politely, flies you down you hear another voice. One you recognize.
I see that Sarkoris may still yet live, albeit its sovereignity is in question.
Very well. You likely know or guess that I was wearing a certain mantle in the orphanage. I do wonder how you will deal with bearing the gift of one of my blades. Will you discard it, or perhaps use it? After all, such a connection could be used for many things, prisoner exchanges, transfering information, deconfliction... But I wonder if you will bow to the Mendevian inquisition in this or not.
You recognice the voice as the one that supported you in the monastery, only that it is even more seductive.
Ragnar looks at you, his current Gargoyle form still managing to transmit a "welcome to my world" sigh.
The Incubus knows the following things:
1:Jerribeth has been recently humbled by Xanthir Vang, and was seeking for a quick and easy victory to reestablish her position. Instead, crusaders simply kicked in her favorite pet project of wintersun and took her favorite human plaything prisoner. Xanthir Vang animated a swarm that flies around, in the shape of the Abyssal words "Jerribeth sucks Crusader balls". Their joint base is some place called Ivory Sanctum, but the Incubus does not know where this is.
2:Nurgal demonlord of evil mercenaries and senseless violence is annoyed at Nocticula. The Lady in Shadows killed him, albeit not permanently, and is now funding a very popular mercenary company, which he views as an assault on his field of core interest. They also clash on account of Nurgal being a sun god, while Nocticulas titles include "Midnight incarnate".
Nurgal has been receiving envoys from Baphomet loaded with riches in his citadel in the Abyssal realm of Kuthon.
3:There is a massive demonhunt for a demoness called Arueshalee, who is supposedly a Succubus that seeks to become good, and is also supposedly backed by Desna. She recently broke out of Drezens prison just before the Crusaders took it! A mighty hag bounty hunter is on the case and will have captured her soon! Then she will stop feeding the crusaders information!
4:There are traitors in the crusade that set up crusaders to be captured for sacrifices. Virgin crusaders are seen as particularly desireable.
The Incubi were hired as mercenaries to provide violence while pretending to be elves.
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Freedom and victory Ciar looks amazed as he hands Ragnar the greatsword back.
A bit too many Abyssal runes on that for me He adds
Not accepting gifts? Ragnar quips back
Ciar casts a glance at Nona No
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Ellena channels some positive energy to help Dyres wounds, he dropped out of his bloodrage and just looks at her befuddled, and then grins.
Hej, we got from you tieing me up to you healing me! Progress!
Dyre looks at Mahrevoks dead body and seems lost in thought.
I was fantasizing about killing him for like, since I was 8? And now I just did that. Weird.
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The Angel Elluviel assists with healing, Yath (who I think still has some arrows sticking out of her) in particular.
I did not expect the nobody on our side died, and that both Jerribeth and the Vrolikai perish. This is a great victory. I was right to act as I did.
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The Older Bloodrager Askold just stands there. He did not join the battle but seems to just be focused on something inside of him.
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”It has been a very strange day, Dyre. If you told me this morning that I would have fought with demons and forsaken at my back, I would not have believed you. I am glad we all have survived and I think Iomedae will be happy with the day’s results. I still think there is good in you, Dyre. I’m going to keep trying to bring it out,” the paladin grins after using her lay on hands to heal the young blood rager.
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The two arrows are but slivers to her flesh numbed to much worse, but their removal does elicit a sigh. She gives the angel a smile and the Succubus a shrug at thoughts about tentacles, then turns to the older summoner of spirits "Thank you for the information. My name is Yathlara. My I ask your name and if you are with the crusaders or forsaken?" the battle had been a bit more chaotic, and separating allies had been hard enough from enemies. Splitting them into separate groups was just too much.
That youngling occassionally detects as good for what its worth. Which cant have been fun growing up in Wintersun.
The Succubus remarks into Ellena and Dyres direction, as she sits on the bundled up incubus, apparently reading its mind at the same time.
Which would naturally mean he would be a useful proxy within the wintersun clan for use against Mahrevok and Jerribeth. Particularly if shown mercy or kindness when he would not be expecting it. You recall that to Dyre referring to being spared by Belana in an earlier skirmish.
Someone who is normally not a good person can detect as good when doing an altruistic act, particularly if its self sacrificial, even if he does not have a generally good alignment. The same in reverse is true for detect evil. Dyre would have enough hitdice to have a faint aura, Succubi have constant detect good.
Oh, unwinged Angel She addresses Anarya
There is a massive bounty in souls on your head, 6.666 souls as Larva are offered by Baphomet, if you convert that into coin its...
about 700.000 gold coins or so? Congratulations, you are a sizeable increase to Mendevs overall economic networth. She cheerfully informs the group
What? Thats the same price the the s+#@ty sin offers for le moi!
Cydric perks up, no longer stunned
There is like, a tacit agreement between demonlords that no individual mortal can be worth more then 6666 Larva. Price control you see? I am pretty certain Socothbenoth hates you more then Baphomet hates the unwinged angel, my guess is that sacrificing a godling can be used to further ones own divine ascension, although a demonlord would likely need a number of godlings to do that.
The Succubus remarks as if talking about the latest fashion trends.
Is this scammable? Ragnar asks
Probably pretty hard to pull that off, the goat is quite efficient at keeping prioners. And he will check for simulacra, trompe de loils, clone bodies or someone being mind controlled into thinking she is Anarya while also looking like her, faking being a godling is pretty hard. He rubs his chin. the leader of the Forsaken is giving it some serios thought as his eyes turn pitch black
It could be used creatively though, if she were to disappear, perhaps because Korada wants to give her some hands on introduction to being divinity, we could spread rumors to lets say Korramzadeh that Minagho has her, to Minagho that Diurez Broodlord has her and to Diurez Broodlord that Korramzadeh has her, and thus undermine their cohesion.
Ragnar is apparently using telepathy
The banner answers
That seems a pretty reasonable option.
in the same way
Ellena tests the theory of who might appear as good to her paladin’s ability to detect evil amongst her allies.
At hearing the plan, Ellena clicks her to die. ”Id hate to lose Anarya. She’s been in this fight with me from the beginning. But, if the plan could give us Ana advantage, it might be worth it,” she argues, clearly torn about the idea.
Neither Nona, nor Yathlara, nor Dyre detect as Evil. Askold has an evil aura which seems to fluctuate, Cydric and Sevanna are not evil, Belana has an overwhelming aura but nothing hat would stun you as she is currently using her Succubus powers to crush the will of the captured Incubus.
As you look at Ragnar, he has his own moderate aura of evil, unchanged from before, yet his eyes...
36 is pretty good!
have an overwhelming aura of evil, potent enough to stun even you, inspite of your mythic nature, yet you power through by force of will.
This isnt Ragnar, it is someone else. His eyes arent pitch black, there are... almost painting like patterns inside, black upon black, but you can suddenly see the distinctions. The patterns are mesmerizing, drawing you in further...
You feel your own soul being peered into, not aggressively or forcefully, but watched at, politely, yet intently and from every direction and angle.
Suddenly you feel yourself in a vision, but of your own past.
You see Korramzadeh attacking Terendelev, a painfull memory for certain, which suddenly stops. And then repeats as if in slow motion. Your perspective shifts, as if you are moved, you see things from Terendelevs perspective. You are now an expert warrior, and while you arent a dragon you have an idea of how you would fight if you were one. Her movement were... odd.
In her last moments, she looked at the party back then, and then raised one of her wings to stop Korramzadeh from seeing what she looked at (you and your party) rather then stopping his blow.
A shadowy feminine silhouette stands next to you, floating. She speaks
Interesting, Terendelev was not the favorite over Korramzadeh in any case, yet she used this movement to protect you, instead of blocking that blow and prolonging her own existence. And ancient existence such as hers often gains a glimpse of the future as death approaches, I do wonder what she saw in you.
Her voice is polite, almost mesmerizing
Useful information to know, it must vex the stormlord greatly that he could have killed the heroes of Drezen back then and with ease.
There is amusement within the voice
The vision shifts, you are in the room with the wardstone as Arelu opens her portal to kill you, only for her spell to be reflected. The shadowy figure is immidiatly able to identify the spell.
Mass suffocation? I can see why she made that choice... The wardstones repell manifestations of evil, as such, it stands to reason for Vorlesh that they repel evil spells. By using a spell that only affects creatures, and in a way that would not harm the average angel since they do not need to breathe, Vorlesh aimed to get around this probable reflection. And even if it were reflected, she is a half Succubus and does not need to breathe.
The wardstones shattering is repeated, in slow motion, a couple of times, until the shadowy silhouette finds something, a portion of the wardstone bearing tiny inscription of a stinging wasp.
Ahh, Callistria. Likely the Sting saw this one coming. A little known enchanment to evoke her personal vengeance, and to make such spell reflection be refleced in a way that will affect the caster. And also be a fair bit more powerful then the caster anticipated, scaling with how many oaths of vengeance against the caster the caster's own actions have resulted in. Which in Vorleshs case is plenty.
Oh, there is another one! Oh my, it seems Callistria tried to outright kill Vorlesh, or whomever she anticipated doing what Vorlesh tried to do, with this! And its so wonderfully deniable! After all, nobody could tell if this was Callistria herself or one of her agents, and Iomedae likely had no idea Callistria was involved in this at all! Impressive that Vorlesh survived this though, she has always been a clever one, ahh I think I know why!
The Silhouette closely analyzes the magical fluctuations.
You erred oh savored sting in thinking that Vorlesh is a mortal, you adjusted too much magical energy into making sure Vorlesh stays dead, and not enough into actually killing her.
Vorlesh could defeat some of my "near-peer competitors" if she plays her cards right and ambushes them outside of their realms. Mortals can kill Demonlords. But typically not permanently. Yet it seems... Yes, the resurrection prevention curse took effect, and Vorlesh knew it did, which would explain why she is currently inactive and hiding in her fastness until it wears off, how very very very interesting yes?
Suddenly the Silhouette flares as if in anger, but not at you
Or did you, savored sting plan that I receive this information and regard Vorlesh as juicy target of opportunity? If you wish for my services as an assassin you very much know what the price is and where to pay it.
There is mirth in the silhouettes voice again as the Silhoutte regards you
By the rules of this parley, you are entitled to peer into my past, if you dare. Everything about me is rather... intense. Although I do not seek to harm, corrupt, capture or kill you
The shadowy silhouette holds out her hand.
Not with this specifically
The shadow figure winks
You do know who I am do you?
The question lingers in the air of your mindscape.
GM:
”Unfortunately,, as I said earlier, it has been an extremely strange and disconcerting day. I’m struggling at putting the clues together, even after the visual tour you’ve taken me on. I can tell you are more powerful than I am, and although I’d stand against you, it would be an uphill battle for me. My only guess is that perhaps you could be some demon lord such as Deskari, and we are all caught up in your machinations with the gods, but honestly my mere mortal brain is unable to be sure…”
Deskari? Try to pronounce the buggy boys name as Dermokari, like this You hear a whisper of this name in your mind, and your tounge says it, perfectly.
It changes the meaning from "Deadly Devourer of everything and everyone" to "Enthusisiastic Eater of everyones excrement". Abyssal is a pretty great language for not so underhanded insults. This name generally causes an emotional reaction in his cultists, one that can be obvious enough to reveal them.
The shadowy silhouette pauses, smiling
As for the goat, his name of Baphomet does not offer itself to such a transposition of meaning, but his titles, calling him the "demonlord of real estate fraud, intellectual property theft, motherf!&@ing and the most horned and horny one" is not only fun but fairly accurate. And can also trigger revealing reactions among his hidden agents.
Tendrils of shadow swirl, and your understanding of demons increases greatly. Specifically of their language.
I am Nocticula, the Lady in Shadow, the first Succubus, slayer of more demonlords then the rest of creation together and empress of the midnight isles. Or rather a projection of her, this is a mindscape made by an Empyreal Lords artifact in my vasalls posession, my full being couldnt exactly fit into it. Time outside progresses rather slowly as this vision happen too.
The figure explains
I am here because I can chose to be by proxy where a select few of my chosen mortal vasalls, such as Ragnar Rejnsköldson are.
If you wish to peer into the secrets of my past, the offer still stands. You are interesting, in the battle you just won you outperformed both my vasall Ragnar and my insult Cydric, although either of them is supposed to be more powerful then you are. Relax Korada, I shall adhere to the rules of your parley in this. She addresses both you and the Empyreal lord who created the mindscape.
As you speak Kellid, Skuggason means "Son of Shadow", normally a not friendly epithet for Sarkorian tieflings, bastards or anyone with demonic leanings. You guess that the Forsaken chieftain turned it into his title.
Rejnsköld was a Kellid war leader who died in the early phases of the worldwound war, and was refered in Dyres song when you fought off the haunt.
Nocticula is the Lady in Shadow, her calling him Skuggason, "shadowson" would indicate her adopting him. You dont know if she would simply find that weird or if there are other reasons.
Real estate fraud refers to him stealing the prison in which Asmodeus placed him and moving it to the Abyss, intellectual property theft refers to him and Asmodeus having the same unholy symbol, he is both Lamashtus son and one of her consorts meaning the motherf&&$ing part is accurate as well. Horned one probably refers to his normal title as "the horned one" but, given whom you are talking too, it is to imply that he is the most cuckholded entity in the multiverse. Which could be true given Lamashtus... appetites.
She is bound to respect and within reason protect your life, liberty, secrets and worldy possessions, for the duration of the parley and a decent intervall thereafter. She has taken secrets from you memories, but you werent aware of these secrets, they were Terendelevs or Callistrias secrets, meaning they werent yours, and she shared them with you so this is arguably not a violation.
As you look closer at the shadowy figure, her features coalesce.
She looks at herself
Interesting, this is what your subconcious expects the queen of Lust to look like?
She pauses
Close enough.
As Ragnar, very courteously and politely, flies you down you hear another voice. One you recognize.
I see that Sarkoris may still yet live, albeit its sovereignity is in question.
Very well. You likely know or guess that I was wearing a certain mantle in the orphanage. I do wonder how you will deal with bearing the gift of one of my blades. Will you discard it, or perhaps use it? After all, such a connection could be used for many things, prisoner exchanges, transferring information, deconfliction... But I wonder if you will bow to the Mendevian inquisition in this or not.
You recognize the voice as the one that supported you in the monastery, only that it is even more seductive.
Ragnar looks at you, his current Gargoyle form still managing to transmit a "welcome to my world" sigh.
Responding telepathically, "So far, you have aided me in time of need, so I consider you an ally. I suspect you are evil, but it appears your goals are more aligned with mine than the demon lords of the Worldwound. So I guess the enemy of my enemy applies here.
"As for my allegiance, it is with Sarkoris and its surviving people. Mendev too is the enemy of my enemy. But I don't take orders from them. As for this gift, what they don't know won't be a problem for me. If they learn of it, they can deal with it. I am by nature neutral when it comes to the tension between law and chaos. Nature is a balance of the two, so I will use chaos when I can, but it will not dominate my mind, at least as far as I can control such things.
"I hope you will illuminate me ... pardon the expression ... as to your identity and what you may expect in return for your help in this battle and that one so long ago. For now, I thank you."
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The two arrows are but slivers to her flesh numbed to much worse, but their removal does elicit a sigh. She gives the angel a smile and the Succubus a shrug at thoughts about tentacles, then turns to the older summoner of spirits "Thank you for the information. My name is Yathlara. My I ask your name and if you are with the crusaders or forsaken?" the battle had been a bit more chaotic, and separating allies had been hard enough from enemies. Splitting them into separate groups was just too much.
Nona replies, "I am Nona Rastaban, daughter of Salmus Achyon. It is an honor to meet you and to have shared this battle with one so talented. As for my allegiance, I should be enjoying my grandchildren but Pulara and Desna seem to have other plans for me. I've been drawn into the fight, led a band of mercenaries, dealt with demons in Galt, and visited as many Sarkoran ruins as I could, seeking relics to aid in the defeat of the Worldwound. I was recruited by the Mendevian queen to help in this matter. I think I'd like to remain and join forces with those of Mendev to try to locate this Ivory Labyrinth and this rogue succubus Arueshalee. After that, we'll see."
To Cydric, Nona checks on how he is recovering. "Our paths cross again and again we join forces to defeat some demons. We've got to stop meeting like this. When you've recovered, I'd like to know your opinion of these forces backing you who also aided us in this fight. What are their goals?"
The Forsaken? Free Sarkoris from uninvited guests like Dermokari or the most horned horny goat, or certain people overly fond of burning others on the stake. Get rich trading with Alyushinyrra, turn Sarkoris into an economic great power. Forstall future demon invasions by showing the horned chuckleheads that mortals can fight, on their hometurf, competently, and even for them if they adhere to certain behavioral norms, especially against their less behaviorially adjusted near peer competitors.
Cydric answers
Ragnar is pretty bad at lying, at least those are his goals. No idea if Nocticula is stringing him and/or me along like a puppet, she is like, really good at that so I wouldnt possibly know, but so far the strings
He looks at Belana
Have been quite long and rather pleseant, and I dont mind the dancing so far in the least. I do owe Belana my life, it wasnt clever Callistria, just Iomedae, freedom loving Caiden or a motley group of heroes who saved me from probably eternal torture, interspersed with getting dismembered, fleshwarped and reassembled, at Socothbenoths hands, it was her. Being in Nocticulas employ is also my most credible chance of getting to kill or injure Socothbenoth, who absolutely wants me dead or worse.
Belana looks at Cydric with an expression... the average demon-cultist would murder and kill to be looked at like that by a Succubus.
From what I can guess of Nocticulas ulterior motives regarding me, well, I am still known in Galt, and there are efforts to make me appear even bigger from the distance. Galt is aligned with Callistria and not in a particularly good spot, being quite rife with dissent. She may wish to play me as a card, so to speak, in some type of negotiations with the Savored Sting. Gain something from she who stings in return for forsaking efforts of regime change? Or simply have me as a possible threat, without actually threatening. The Lady in Shadow and the Savored Sting are both incredibly shrewd negotiatiors, I am no slouch in such matters, but I am utterly outclassed there compared to deities.
He opines before he notices Belanas gaze and looks back with a similar expression.
Belana is massively pleased by being favorably compared to full blown deities, Callistria in particular.
You get some insight concerning your pact partner from the link, which, perhaps due to Koradas banner, seems to be more of a two way street right now. She does not mind Cydric having and saying credible theories about Nocticulas plans at all. She even enjoys... conspiracy theories perhaps? There is a tinge of approval, she finds Cydrics theory well researched and plausible. Cydric also refered to Nocticula as a deity, which elicits a tinge of surprise from her.
I am the Lady in Shadow, although I have other names, some I even share with others. The voice pauses
I had no need to render aid in this battle, as my vasalls actions are their own, you have, in my view, incurred no obligation to me personally from the conflict against Jerribeth and her group.
It continues
For the battle against... the servants of my archenemy. Yes, I intervened on your behalf there, and it is most polite of thee to offer repayment, as such, I will, in the spirit of fair bargaining, ask thee to do something thee would be likely to do anyway, but to do it in my name.
The voice lights up a bit
I have received a genorous offer of ransom, so to speak, from interests aligned with Desna, regarding one of my errant daughters, a Succubus by the name of Arueshalee. I am not pledged to actively protect her, yet Desnas interlocutors were very polite and genorous, and as such I may as well return this favor, by giving a bit more then they bargained for.
A location, including its position relative to Drezen as well as ways of getting closer, is shown in your mind.
This is greengates, where my errant daughter is currently besieged by a mixed force led by a Hag-bounty hunter named Jaruunicka, on account of having racked up a demon killcount in the high double digits since changing her allegiance to Desna and due to feeding the Crusaders information.
Kill the hag and break the siege. However, the only one you may inform about having received this mission from me is Desna herself, in your prayers to her. Noone else is to know. I daresay you can come up with a plausible legend as to why you know Greengates location yourself, the mission is somewhat... time critical, as my errant daughter wont hold out forever
Given who she is she is incredibly fair in this. Not what you would have expected.
Although it makes sense, being highly polite and fair will make you more receptive to later offers. And you get the feeling that she is extremely skilled at leveraging being "much fairer then expected".
She likely wishes for her dealings with Desna to remain secret and plausibly deniable. Desna is one of the few deities that has killed a demonlord and invaded the Abyss, being observed as parlaying with Desna would perhaps imperil Nocticulas relations with other demon lords.