GM Kiora's Wrath of the Righteous

Game Master Kiora Atua

Hmm, mostly just educated guesses. Drawing from how the Shemhazian encounter worked, I guessed that we had a fixed number of turns from the start of our battle before the portals opened, and that a catastrophic ending was probable if we didn't stop the summons. Kiora hasn't ever pulled any punches in this regard, so I think that's a reasonable assumption. We were fairly late in the fight and there were hints that bad stuff was coming (stench) so I gathered we'd reached a point where we only had a couple of rounds before things went to hell (similar to how in the tower we saw the guardians start to fall).

At that point I didn't know what to expect, but knew we needed to do something to at least delay the summons. The round Nurah ended up in the middle of everything I knew the layout (Kiora drew it out on paper for me) because I needed to know who I could target. I also made a K. Religion check that let me know *how* to stop the portals from opening.

Apart from that I assumed:

- An interruption of any sort is a 1 round delay of impending dooooom. (Confirmed by the fact the right circle opened up exactly one round after the top)
- An open portal is 1-2 rounds from spitting something out. (Confirmed when movement was visible in portal 1 round after opening).

Prior to s!@$-hitting-the-fan I've been kinda quiet this encounter because a) Nurah's description is hang-back-and-support b) I get the feeling that y'all are tired of my doom-saying and machinations. I love this group, so I really don't want to be in a situation where y'all are just constantly annoyed by my suggestions and warnings.

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate you coming in and doing all of the planning. As the Marshal, it's kind of your role both in-and-out-of-character.

I just don't know how much of our decisions should be informed by meta information that you're working with. For example, a round is 6 seconds, right? Markus would never think that a ritual that we were measuring in hours and days would come down to the last 20 seconds, but having an interesting encounter kinda relies on that. However, it isn't always made explicitly clear.

You, however, openly make plans based off of meta information that you probably think might apply. You're usually right, of course, but I don't really think that encounters should be designed that way, so I think that we should be able to reasonably complete encounters without assuming that Kiora thinks we know the meta-information.

Thanks for all the best wishes! Everything went pretty well. I was not that exhausted, except my legs from standing still 3 hours, but hey, it was worth it. I am now officially done with my studies and totally unsure about what to do nest :O

I am also glad that I did not come back to the game to fin 3 hezrous killing the whole army.

Regarding timing. In this case, it really doesn't feel like rounds really lasted 6 seconds. I mean, we just killed a 100 or so cultists in less than a minute? That's absurdly short. But yeah, there is weird interactions between mass battle and single actions from characters.

Regarding Isilme's use of metagame info (except for the round stuff), I always considered that his character is so knowledgeable that it allows her to understand and plan all those details which would explain a lot.

Hinagiku: Way to go! It's a great feeling having the defense done isn't it? When will your graduation be?

Ironically, Ary is the Marshal, I'm the Trickster :p

But I've always considered the Trickster's role to be prepared for any possible contingency that might come up. Because of this, a lot of my gameplay is based on "What could possibly go wrong, and what are we going to do if it happens?", and hence I spend what seems like an awful lot of time doom-saying. I've tried to make sure that in any case where planning is possible that I have the knowledge checks necessary to back up my planning, Isilme is definitely built to be able to believably do so in-character.

The ritual didn't have to come down to a race down to the wire. If the army had arrived much earlier (e.g., Ehren warns via sending, cavalry rides ahead, or perhaps our group snuck in there on way to Silvershore and sabotaged circles) it wouldn't be a race situation. I think in encounter design you can't necessarily come up with "the ritual will finish in exactly 6h 38m 42s" sort of thing. Instead it's more like "If you arrive prior to 6h the ritual isn't close to happening and so it's not an issue. If you arrive between 6-7h the ritual will finish in 15 rounds after start of combat. If you arrive after 7h the ritual has already completed. I don't doubt if we'd set up siege we'd be fighting Hezrous.

I think in encounters like this, some metagaming about the encounter itself is warranted because we will never really have a full picture of what's going on. If we were really there we'd probably start to hear louder chanting, the stench would go from not there to faint to nearly overpowering. We'd probably have soldiers nearer to the summoning screaming about the red dots forming above the circles where the portals would open. To attempt to convey all of the information that would allow you to make appropriate choices about what's happening would require a level of detail that would be hard to write and maintain over a campaign. Furthermore it would put all of the onus on Kiora to present every clue that could possibly inform our decision.

In many ways just wading into the camp and fighting our way to the center clearing everything without concern for time is metagaming as well. It's operating under the assumption that either there's no risk of portals summoning something bad, or that summoning cannot be stopped and we'll just be dealing with a big bad who pops out right at the last second. In our situation we were informed that summoning was likely to bring something really bad (way worse than Vrock bad) because most other demons are readily available around here. The potential outcomes at that point put a priority on getting to the center and verifying how close to completion the rituals are, and having contingencies to punch through the enemy forces to stop them immediately if we are running out of time.

Right. You're right, you're the Trickster. -shakes cobwebs out of head-.

You're definitely right. This is an interesting problem because so much of how we play this game (D&D) is informed not by the rules, but by our experiences playing the game in other circumstances. And in most circumstances... a lot of decisions don't really matter.

So I'm used to being in a game where what I'm doing doesn't really matter most of the time.

I'm definitely glad that you're around to let us know when to be careful. It's certainly helpful, and your playstyle actually was a lot of why I switched characters. As the Archmage, I feel like my job is to have tools for the other party members to use, and I didn't feel like I had useful utility as Markus.

@Isilme: it's funny, I do not care much for being done with the exam... so no, no great feeling. It's funny like that. But my jury was really nice, so the exam actually taught me things. So, it felt worthwhile. What I enjoyed the most was knowing that people find my work interesting (reviewers don't usually praise me).

As for graduation, I don't know, and I don't think I will be going, its super boring, without anyone that I know. It's sad really. I would rather just invite people over, and have a small party at home rather than sitting for 1-3 hours watching people getting a piece of paper by a total stranger.

For me, being the Marshal is more about knowing what my team is capable of than knowing how every situation will turn out. More interesting on that note: the way I'm playing 'Marshal' is also very, very informed by Ary as a character.

Ary is not the smartest, nor most charismatic in the group - far from it. She's more built to make other people -better- and to know her stuff when 'important things' are happening. As low-int, she looks to others to inform her decisions, as low-cha, she doesn't boss people around or expect to be listened to.

This actually helps me out a -lot- in how I play her, because many of you are as experienced as - or more experienced than - I am. Especially in your roles. I'm never gonna be a bully, and I'm never going to say 'your character should do this.' The most I'm gonna do is ask if you -can- do something, and maybe make a suggestion.

Ironically, I feel I fill the Marshal Role by improving everyone else's ability in their roles - I improve the damage and reliability of the champion, can greatly enhance the skills of the trickster, can greatly enhance the durability of the guardian, can effectively cover the hierophant and archmage to keep them safe, and all the while I keep things 'controlled' in some way. Not sure that's the -best- way to play Marshal, but it's working so far. Ish. :P

As for Doomsaying - it does get annoying. As a direct example, when I go 'hey, cavalry, do this!' and then get told that I effectively wasted an entire pair of turns of our cavalry, it -really, really- sucks. Especially when the encounter seems to be coming down to mere moments remaining. It very much ratchets up the tension on when I -do- give out some sort of order.

As for the ritual thing, I figured it was just 'bard talks to DM' table talk stuff, and read it effectively as the result of rolling a Knowledge check and distributing the information without the spoiler. The information was too detailed to be made up on the spot, so I just went with it being the right way to go. :P

@Hinagiku: Congratulations, again. :) I don't really like graduation-esque things, either... but maybe because I've never felt like any sort of graduation I attended was a real accomplishment? Iunno. But.. asfor party, why not both? :)

Congrats, Hinagiku!

Count me on the "dislike graduation ceremonies" team. I just let them send me my BS in the mail. Pomp and circumstance indeed. :P

You're definitely right. This is an interesting problem because so much of how we play this game (D&D) is informed not by the rules, but by our experiences playing the game in other circumstances. And in most circumstances... a lot of decisions don't really matter.

So I'm used to being in a game where what I'm doing doesn't really matter most of the time.

That's actually a really interesting point. Looking back, a lot of the campaigns I've played in were designed such that poor decisions were punished fairly brutally. For example: When running Temple of Elemental Evil, we went back to town after pushing fairly deep into the dungeon. When we came back, we found that they were prepared and had stepped up their defenses. After the second time we did that, they tailed us and set up an ambush for us on our return (one that hurt quite a bit). Not too long afterwards, one of my characters died because he went out to pray alone when we knew they were keeping an eye on us and was essentially assassinated (although he put up a fight). As such I'm pretty paranoid about things in D&D games.

I'm definitely glad that you're around to let us know when to be careful. It's certainly helpful, and your playstyle actually was a lot of why I switched characters. As the Archmage, I feel like my job is to have tools for the other party members to use, and I didn't feel like I had useful utility as Markus.

It's interesting, 'cause a lot of our group's roles are kinda mixed up. Markus was in many ways a heavy hitter *and* a healer. He brought a lot of DPS between undead and Annabelle, along with some fairly potent debuffs (blindness vs the Peryton was a life-saver). Xanderghul is certainly more flexible overall though, and definitely more trickster/archmage-ish. I think you've done a pretty good job of putting his talents to use the past few battles.

@Isilme: it's funny, I do not care much for being done with the exam... so no, no great feeling. It's funny like that. But my jury was really nice, so the exam actually taught me things. So, it felt worthwhile. What I enjoyed the most was knowing that people find my work interesting (reviewers don't usually praise me).

As for graduation, I don't know, and I don't think I will be going, its super boring, without anyone that I know. It's sad really. I would rather just invite people over, and have a small party at home rather than sitting for 1-3 hours watching people getting a piece of paper by a total stranger.

I definitely learned things during my Defense, and I absolutely get the joy of finding out that people find your work interesting :)

That seems to be more common the more people I talk to. I think my school was anomalous in that the grad students had their own graduation. We were only there for like 45 min to do all the hoodings and then we were done, so it wasn't too bad. Good to have a party to celebrate though!

Ironically, I feel I fill the Marshal Role by improving everyone else's ability in their roles - I improve the damage and reliability of the champion, can greatly enhance the skills of the trickster, can greatly enhance the durability of the guardian, can effectively cover the hierophant and archmage to keep them safe, and all the while I keep things 'controlled' in some way. Not sure that's the -best- way to play Marshal, but it's working so far. Ish. :P

For what it's worth, I think Ary is an excellent Marshal. You definitely play to her strengths, and boosting others abilities to do their jobs is very much in line with what a Marshal represents. Ary does a great job of holding the line and buffing others as needed, allowing us to do what we need to do.

As for Doomsaying - it does get annoying. As a direct example, when I go 'hey, cavalry, do this!' and then get told that I effectively wasted an entire pair of turns of our cavalry, it -really, really- sucks. Especially when the encounter seems to be coming down to mere moments remaining. It very much ratchets up the tension on when I -do- give out some sort of order.

I honestly don't mean it to be, so I apologize for that. I worry a lot about the group and about things going wrong, and that comes out in my posts in discussion a lot. I really don't want us to wind up in a situation where we end up losing people again, and sometimes I see things differently and feel like it's my duty to speak up.

I'm not sure how to do so without grating on people, that may just be a "way I'm wired" thing. Like I said before, I really love this group and the last thing I want to do is to take away from anyone else's enjoyment of the game. I'm open to suggestions!

Eh, I think it's more on my end - I worry over a lot of what I do. I'm the guy who chose not to complete a game because it meant killing a friend (looking at you, Dark Souls). I'm the guy who misses loot because the only way to get it is to kill people that you meet along your quest.

I agonize over the NPCs... and Ary does, too.

Keep pointing out when I'm making a bad call. Ary expects it... I was just reassuring you that you did, in fact, ratchet up the tension just by existing :p

See, I'm actually used to games where only our mistakes were consequential. This is because I've played mostly with novice DMs or in adventure paths, where there's only really a small number of paths that you can take. Mistakes are punished, but there's nothing really that we can do to make situations better or easier, because the DM always wants it to be hard.

This is why I don't think of things like extra preparations (like splitting up our army, or making sure that we warn our army ahead of time) because I assume we'll be dealing with like five CR 12 encounters pretty much no matter what we do to prepare for it. I certainly haven't been proven wrong on that point in this game - encounters are consistently challenging and complex, regardless of the circumstances.

I have a suggestion for you that might make your 'doom-saying' much less irritating, especially in light of Ary's assertions:

A lot of the frustration I feel comes from the timing of the doom-saying. Frequently, we'll decide on a course of action, post those actions, and then after that, you'll say "hey, that was probably a bad idea because [x reasonable explanation of y threat to our mortal coil]". Then, we either have to reverse the thing we just did (by retconning or spending turns making up for losses) which feelsbadbro.

So... how about you do your best to do your doomsaying before the last minute right as we're posting our actions?

On that end, it can be hard to say 'sending the cavalry around is a bad idea', if they hadn't thought of the possibility I'd send them around. :P Just because it's a 'good idea' to me, doesn't mean they'd have already thought of it. It'd require me to be more vocal over here so folks could say 'bad idea!' before I post it :p

So... how about you do your best to do your doomsaying before the last minute right as we're posting our actions?

That's fair.

Sometimes I delay saying things because I don't want people to feel like I'm always telling them how to run their characters. Other times it's because I think things are going one way and then things diverge from what I'd expected. That's not just a doom-saying thing, sometimes my mental picture of what's going on just doesn't match the game at all, e.g. the Crevasse of Questionable Life Choices or the first fight with the Kellids vs the elven cultists and cleric where I totally missed that the Kellids got split into two groups.

I'll do my best to doom-say continuously so that it won't be at the last second! Just kidding, I'll try to bring up possible concerns earlier on in the future.

On that end, it can be hard to say 'sending the cavalry around is a bad idea', if they hadn't thought of the possibility I'd send them around. :P Just because it's a 'good idea' to me, doesn't mean they'd have already thought of it. It'd require me to be more vocal over here so folks could say 'bad idea!' before I post it :p

Yeah, in my mind the other side of the camp was equally closed like the side we were entering on. We only were able to bypass the barricades easily because of Markus's well-placed fireball. Given how long it took our forces to get out of our barricades in Silvershore I was thinking it'd be almost impossible for them to get in.

It was actually -wide open- for about ten feet, further, the cavalry could have tried to jump the barricades if they'd wanted - something I wouldn't recommend, but they might, since they know their capabilities better.

It still would have been a half-dozen turns before they could have gotten involved, if they went the whole-way-round (Ish. Could probably be dropped to 4ish by doing long straight lines? I'd have to do the math and don't wanna.), but shorter if they wall-hopped.

It just added to the 'the troops that were supporting them went down as soon as you withdrew them'. :P

I like that my decisions have consequences, but dislike that I can't savescum to prevent the bad. :P

I'm sorry, I completely missed that it was my turn somehow. Posting now.

Congrats, Hinagiku!

I went to my graduation for my doctorate but I think professional doctorates are different from academic ones in that going through professional school was more similar to high school than it was in undergrad - every class you take is with the same group of 60 or so people and you really get to know each other after four years. I mostly went to my graduation to say goodbye to my friends who were about to scatter into the winds, after a long year of experiential education where I did not get to see or talk to them during the whole time.

I also went for my parents. It was really cool having my parents and SO there watching me get hooded and stuff :)

I didn't get my bachelor's, because it isn't required for pharmacy school. (I regret this, I was only 8 credits short of a BS in biochem, but it would've made me stay in undergrad a whole extra year). If I had gotten my bachelor's I would've skipped my graduation, I think.

----

As for metagaming I disagree that you'd really need metagame knowledge to appreciate the urgency of the situation. I described a number of things (an intensifying smell, the swirling clouds, the cultists' chanting getting louder) as the clock ticked down. Isilme does tend to approach situations by trying to get into my head and work out things from an encounter design standpoint - I think this is because we do think similarly about a lot of things. But I do strive to create scenarios where you don't necessarily need to resort to that kind of thinking.

This scenario did not have to boil down to a race against the clock. I did not railroad you into this. There were a variety of ways to deal with the situation at hand!

I believe I mentioned awhile ago that you shouldn't assume that a round = 6 seconds in my game. That is not a hard rule for this game. In mass combat I'm assuming rounds are on the scale of minutes. This does do weird stuff with action economy (taking a minute to cross sixty feet?) but I can't really fix that without disassembling the game system. But I can make it so that a mass combat doesn't involve killing a hundred soldiers in less than a minute. That's just ludicrous.

You're definitely right. This is an interesting problem because so much of how we play this game (D&D) is informed not by the rules, but by our experiences playing the game in other circumstances. And in most circumstances... a lot of decisions don't really matter.

So I'm used to being in a game where what I'm doing doesn't really matter most of the time.

To me, your decisions are the game. I try to make your decisions matter as much as possible.

That doesn't necessarily mean that every decision I ask of you is a life or death decision. Sometimes I have you guys make decisions that don't mean a lot (ex: asking for the order you guys will keep watch at night even though I don't plan to have anyone ambush you when you sleep), but that's mostly just to keep y'all on your toes.

But for a general idea of how I run the game: (if it isn't obvious after over a year of playing)

• I try to create open-ended situations where you have the freedom to choose from a variety of interesting decisions, where there is no clearly obvious "right" decision, rather than forcing you down a single path.
  
• I often pre-formulate a list of ways you can solve a problem, and if you guys do something completely different from those I have already come up with, I don't try to force you to do things "my" way. I honestly have the most fun when you guys surprise me and force me to adapt to your ideas.
  
• I try to create challenging situations where creative solutions can be employed, using things such as magic, stealth, deception, or social guile, rather than relying solely on straight-forward combat.
  
• I run a lethal game. I don't try to kill your characters, but if your characters make poor or risky decisions, death should be a possibility. I will not pull punches to save you.
  
• I tend to reward forethought and planning, and if possible, I give room for characters to do stuff like scout and make knowledge checks to try and get more information on a situation to gain the upper hand. PCs don't always get time to plan ahead, so I expect you to take advantage of the times you do.
  

This is because I've played mostly with novice DMs or in adventure paths, where there's only really a small number of paths that you can take. Mistakes are punished, but there's nothing really that we can do to make situations better or easier, because the DM always wants it to be hard.

This is why I don't think of things like extra preparations (like splitting up our army, or making sure that we warn our army ahead of time) because I assume we'll be dealing with like five CR 12 encounters pretty much no matter what we do to prepare for it. I certainly haven't been proven wrong on that point in this game - encounters are consistently challenging and complex, regardless of the circumstances.

Most of the encounters you find are challenging and complex because PBP is so damn slow I don't want to waste your time with chaff. Regardless of if I make an encounter easy or hard, it'll take several days to a week to resolve, so I want each one to be worth paying attention to. This doesn't mean all encounters are equally lethal... I just want them all to be at least somewhat interesting.

You can absolutely trivialize encounters by making good decisions, though. Some examples with you guys include the Tower of Estrod, where you bypassed several cultists by using disguises and bluff... the fight against Laktharis, where you guys correctly focused on converting his minions back to your side before they could overwhelm you.... and the fight at the Ahari bridge, where careful planning and forethought allowed you to take on a vrock, a nabasu, a wight, and a brimorak pumped up with class levels without losing a single NPC.

Which is good. I would much rather you guys blast through encounters because of good in-game decisions, rather than turning this into a min-max numbers game.

I am totally a novice DM, though XD I've only been playing D&D for 3 years now!

As for the ritual thing, I figured it was just 'bard talks to DM' table talk stuff, and read it effectively as the result of rolling a Knowledge check and distributing the information without the spoiler. The information was too detailed to be made up on the spot, so I just went with it being the right way...

This is correct. Nurah reached the circles alone, and asked me what he could do to stop the summoning. I told him to roll a knowledge religion check, he got a natural 20. We live together so, I just told him what he needed to know, and that he needed to dispense that information to the rest of the group once you guys reached him in-game.

I understand all of those things! I'm not upset, I just spent most of the encounter a little bit confused. We're trying to figure out how to reconcile Isilme's 'leadership style' with having a fun group dynamic, not critiquing your DMing style.

My comments on the DMing style were just that - comments, devoid of positive or negative intent. I think encounter design is really hard and really interesting to think about. I think you're a super-good DM. Especially since you've been playing for even less time than me! Dang.

Oh, I'm not taking it as a critique :)

I'm trying to explain where I stand so you can more effectively make decisions. It's important to be on the same page.

For example, I didn't really expect lethal encounters or tactics to be divisive. I've only had my one f2f group other than you, really, and they had all played D&D before me. They always described D&D as a highly lethal game where they had to go through several characters just to get through one dungeon. That's not really the kind of game I aim to create. So... I assumed I was really soft-hearted in that regard compared to other DMs.

You're about as hard-hearted as me, with perhaps 10% more lethal encounters. I push my players hard, because I feel like it creates better characters. I think you've got the same idea, rather than putting people through the grindstone just because you can.

Lethal encounters are only divisive, in my experience, when they feel unfair, or when they aren't expected.

Can't post until much later, so bot me if need bed. Sorry, got another party tonight and I got tied up all day.

Sorry for the last post, I know it totally sucked, I actually felt super douchy for writing it the way I did, but I was running out to get to a supper with some friends. I had a surprisingly busy day.

Anyway, that's exactly what I had planned on doing!

@Kiora: sounds like a really nice graduation. Unfortunately, in research people don't all graduate at the same time. For example, some people who started the same year I did already graduate 1 or 2 years ago. So, that really removes the cohort effect, which is about the only thing that would be nice at the ceremony.

lol, gamewise, this is the most brutal game I have ever been in. Hinagiku is my second character to die, with the first one being a perma death... which was on purpose, I had that character sacrifice itself to save the party. Not that it bothers me, the style is just so far off what I am used to. As a GM, I usually try to save characters, with death not being permanent, but causing trouble. My friends do the same.

The only instance of 'Metagame' that I know of being pointed out is the very obviously metagame knowledge of how the event was 'won'. :P Which was only 'meta' in that it was delivered in a different way than most of us are used to - not unlike when I PM'd you in regards to what Ary's options were with our stowaway. :)

You made it clear that things were progressing (in fact, I thought we had less time).

Likewise, we all have very different tables we've come from - at my tables, the most lethal thing a PC had to deal with was DM boredom. :P

So many characters lost because the DM went on to a new idea :P

Edited to Swallow Your Fear - used the wrong name.

Is Ary at 15 or 25 hp now?

15

Sorry for my absence. Thank you for hitting me.

I wanted to mention: you noticed Aron has Two-Weapon Fighting and can make two attacks, yes?

So he does. I had forgotten that. He doesn't have Improved Shield Bash though, so I would be taking a small AC penalty for the attack. Still, probably worth it overall. Can I edit in the shield bash?

Sure :)

If Ary can delay until Irabeth plays, she'll get handed a healing potion and will get healed even more again.

This may not be welcome news... the wrong place, what have you, but the Standing Rock (Oil Pipeline) protesters are being bombarded with water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets; they're saying concussive grenades as well, but Iunno...

Also, it appears you don't need to worry too much about Ary moving away :P

Ugh, that stuff is so messed up :\

Why does s$*$ have to go like that? What is it about peaceful protest that pisses them off so much?

In regards to the game, we saved the army, but I'm not so sure how we're going to save ourselves at this point D:

Only one side of the wall is supposed to radiate heat, right?

Also, it's a good thing Markus had that scroll. :O

Not sure how it works if everyone within the sphere attacks, though.

I'd heard it was starting to get rough, but that's just messed up.

On more game related topics, hopefully the army can swoop in during the next round or two and overrun the enemies.

Not sure how it works if everyone within the sphere attacks, though.

We don't. Irabeth channels, Ary drinks a potion, Aron isn't affected and can attack, Nurah heals again.

That was a really good move Markus, I'm not sure we had a better play available than that. The enemies in the Sphere will lose the ability to see us once they attack, and then hopefully we should be able to move a bit.

That was a really good move Markus, I'm not sure we had a better play available than that. The enemies in the Sphere will lose the ability to see us once they attack, and then hopefully we should be able to move a bit.

Thanks! I really don't want us all to die. I also really want Xanderghul to learn that spell. It's downright good.

Is Ary awake? :P

She never fell unconscious.

Okay, I swear I saw that I took like 20 damage from a crit, but now I'm not seeing it and you have higher health recorded for me that I was tracking. Am I just crazy, or did something chance and I missed it?

This one?

It looks like Kiora forgot the confirmation roll. She edited it in and it failed, so Aron ended up only taking 6 points of damage instead of 22.

That would be the one.

Ugh, this is why I hate save-or-suck spells. They never actually do anything useful when you need it.

We'll get to the level full of "save: none" spells soon enough. It's why the offensive I picked on Xanderghul was boneshatter. Fatigued condition, no way to avoid it.

:p Yeah, about those save or sucks never working when you need them to :p

So... is Annabelle destroyed destroyed, or is there part of her body remaining?

Her body remains.

That's a relief. I was worried that the sun exposure would just cause her to explode into dust. :P