Going to get a post up in the morning but wanted to check with Caleb. Was Vespula near by when you went to ask her assistance and interrupted her and did you both return to the group or just you?
Both returned, I assume.
Certainly the answers would be shared out.
I assumed that, I was wondering more about the earlier part with her and the dancer but I think that was obviously a ways away.
Hey, if you want it as a hook, I'm happy for Tillia to have been nearby.
"Well" reported Vespula to the Ravens "He's not here. Not in the Opera House. Everything else was vague - I'm not sure if he's safe, or hiding, or... I don't know, kidnapped. But there's no point in looking for him here."
Noravia's heart sank at Ves' revelation. Not only was Hetamon's absence concerning because no one knew where he was but now there was no one to help Shensen. The inquisitor nodded at Ves, "Thanks for getting that information." Turning to the others she asked, "Has Hetamon done this before, just disappeared? Should we be concerned? And what do we do about Shensen? If we leave her tonight, I fear we won't have another chance to help her." Noravia almost threw her hands up in defeat, "And we haven't even started looking at the other levels. All this time here and it feels like we've been chasing our tails."
Action 2
Tillia found her friends quickly enough and discussed things with them as Caleb went looking for Vespula. She nodded in agreement with both Noravia and Octavio, "I think it's a good idea for us to stay, this would be a prime opportunity for him to do something to harm our reputation in some way and we have to be here to counter it." She sighed, "Still, if most of you are leaving then there isn't much reason for the rest of use to stay. He likely won't recognize Rexus, or realize that Lady Docour is involved with us, though Octavio would likely be at risk if he's recognized. The rest of us should be recognized on sight though and if only a couple of us stay it's going to be difficult to get out of here in tact. I think either we all stay or we all leave, anything else would be suicide for those who stayed behind."
"I don't see any value in revealing our faces to him," Eirik murmured. "Granted, he would not recognize all of the guests and their escorts anyway and there's no guarantee anyone would pick us as out of place, but why take the risk unless there's a clear benefit to doing it. If we are to wait for the ceremony, I'd rather refuse to remove our masks, declare our allegiance and then get teleported away by more of Caleb's magic if he can manage it again."
"As always," Vandomir offered, "I can make my appearance be other than it truly is using my hat, however, I deem it likely that there are magicks that can see through such a guise with so many devils about. As for Hetamon, if he has left of his own accord, then there is aught to fear. If he was priest-napped, the situation is clearly dire. And in which case, I could possibly track him, or identify his captor, IF I had a starting point, which we don't."
"Elsbeth might be our best bet for that." suggested Caleb "But I'm game. Maybe Hetamon is upstairs?"
"I think I could do another couple of jumps. Not sure I could take all... eight? of us though. Darkness would help." Caleb gave a helpless shrug "I could definitely take 3. 4 in darkness. I guess I could jump in and out, maybe take 6 to 8? If that's the case though, maybe we should start sabotaging those devils all over the place?" he paused, thoughtfully "If we're going to fight our way out, I could go and teleport Shensen now. If someone can take me to the room with all the plays, I might even be able to teleport a bunch of them at the same time."
"Perhaps if we knew where Hetamon had last been seen, we might be able to get a clue?" suggested Caleb.
Caleb stroked his chin, picking at the mask he wore. Bits of 'flesh' came off in his fingers. "Might be we want to distribute the holy water to those we trust, who can't fight back. If Devils do attack, a shower of holy water might make a difference in the first few seconds. If I teleport Shensen out, I could potentially even try to grab some more, and our weapons, when I come back."
"I don't see any value in revealing our faces to him," Eirik murmured. "Granted, he would not recognize all of the guests and their escorts anyway and there's no guarantee anyone would pick us as out of place, but why take the risk unless there's a clear benefit to doing it. If we are to wait for the ceremony, I'd rather refuse to remove our masks, declare our allegiance and then get teleported away by more of Caleb's magic if he can manage it again."
Noravia was thoughtful, understanding Eirik's hesitance. "I can give three of you a different identity for when the reveal happens. It may be beneficial for Eirik and Caleb because Thrune never met you. He already knows what I look like as well as Tillia. Vandomir is a noble so he's not out of place to be here because it is the party of the year. Maybe the third one should go to either Rexus or Octavio."
"I think I could do another couple of jumps. Not sure I could take all... eight? of us though. Darkness would help." Caleb gave a helpless shrug "I could definitely take 3. 4 in darkness. I guess I could jump in and out, maybe take 6 to 8? If that's the case though, maybe we should start sabotaging those devils all over the place?" he paused, thoughtfully "If we're going to fight our way out, I could go and teleport Shensen now. If someone can take me to the room with all the plays, I might even be able to teleport a bunch of them at the same time."
Noravia remembered the blood on Caleb's lip after he exerted himself during the last teleportation and she couldn't but help be worried for him. "That's an awful lot of teleporting. Are you sure that won't put too much of a strain on you?"
Caleb thought for a moment "I think so? If I feel like it's getting too much, I'll stop." he paused "I get the feeling distance is an issue. I can probably do a couple of short jumps. I wouldn't want to try anything longer than, maybe, a thousand feet."
Ves gives Caleb a sharp look, and rolls her eyes. "Get a room." she mutters. "I wish I could."
Tillia cast an interested look at Vespula and said, "Maybe we should talk about that sometime Vespula. I'd be interested to learn from you."
"Really?" asked Vespula, and raised an elegant eyebrow "I'm flattered, but I'm not sure you've much to learn from me. I'd certainly be happy to exchange notes, however."
Noravia gave Ves a sidelong look at her comment but said nothing. She may not always like how Ves spoke to Caleb but she knew their relationship was complicated. The inquisitor imagined that it wasn't easy to be an entity that was part of someone else. And Ves was part of Caleb and she couldn't care about him without caring for her, could she? At this point, Noravia realized how far her mind had wandered and she forced herself to focus on the more pressing matters at hand.
Turn 371 – Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
Noravia was thoughtful, understanding Eirik's hesitance. “I can give three of you a different identity for when the reveal happens. It may be beneficial for Eirik and Caleb because Thrune never met you. He already knows what I look like as well as Tillia. Vandomir is a noble so he's not out of place to be here because it is the party of the year. Maybe the third one should go to either Rexus or Octavio.”
"That sounds workable," Eirik answered, nodding his thanks to Noravia, swayed by the many arguments warning of possible violent turns of events. "If you truly believe the man to be mad enough to attack his own guests..."
so... anyone else wants to weigh in...?
Noravia was thoughtful, understanding Eirik's hesitance. “I can give three of you a different identity for when the reveal happens. It may be beneficial for Eirik and Caleb because Thrune never met you. He already knows what I look like as well as Tillia. Vandomir is a noble so he's not out of place to be here because it is the party of the year. Maybe the third one should go to either Rexus or Octavio.”"That sounds workable," Eirik answered, nodding his thanks to Noravia, swayed by the many arguments warning of possible violent turns of events. "If you truly believe the man to be mad enough to attack his own guests..."
Noravia snorted, "I think we're all painfully aware of what kind of man Thrune is. He is more than capable of turning on his guests if he thought it would make a strong enough point to try and intimidate his opposition. The fact that he's moved so many things out of the Opera House already makes me think he definitely has something destructive planned."
The inquisitor couldn't forget about Shensen. "I really would like to get Shensen out of here before the unmasking. With Hetamon missing, it doesn't seem like we can un-petrify her. Too bad we couldn't temporarily shrink her."
Noravia thought back to what Elsbeth had told them earlier. "Octavio has a point about the devils. I'm game for dealing with some of them. Maybe the bearded devils? I don't really want to deal with the bone devil but if all of us work together, maybe it won't be so bad."
Tillia looked at Noravia and asked, "Shensen? Isn't she the one the sea elves came looking for? Did you find out what happened to her?" As the conversation moved to killing off some of the devils Tillia nodded and said, "Yes, I think that would be a very good idea. It would leave us with less to fight later if they become involved."
Caleb looked thoughtful "I normally just sort of... unload on people's minds. If I kept it steady though, and just kept bearing down... It'd do less damage, but it might keep them confused enough they don't just run for safety - especially if they get attacked immediately."
"I've been thinking about this whole 'jumping out' thing." Ves suggested. "Why don't you put someone on Noravia? Then she can jump out by herself, maybe take a few people with her. You could do Tillia instead, I guess, though I thought she'd have something of her own to do it."
Tillia looked at Noravia and asked, "Shensen? Isn't she the one the sea elves came looking for? Did you find out what happened to her?" As the conversation moved to killing off some of the devils Tillia nodded and said, "Yes, I think that would be a very good idea. It would leave us with less to fight later if they become involved."
The inquisitor nodded, "That's why I don't want to leave her here. Thrune will know that we were here soon enough and he's already been moving things from here to who knows where. If we don't free her tonight, I fear we may not find her again. She looks like she's been turned to stone, by what I couldn't tell."
"Why don't you put someone on Noravia?
Noravia looked at Ves and then Caleb with a confused expression. "What do you mean by putting someone on me?"
Caleb glared at Ves, looked at the ground, and then at Noravia. [b]"A lot of my magic comes from the Blessings - Ves and her sisters. We've talked about it. In theory I could... lend, I guess, one of them to someone. Some of the magic would go along with it.
Ok, sounds like consensus. I will move this forward with the 'fight'.
"Give Ves a minute then, with any luck she can get a feel for how much trouble we're in for..." Caleb suggested.
Caleb's eyes widened in surprise as he saw the Erinyes. He'd successfully covered up his complete ignorance up until now, but he'd had no idea. All he had to work on was Noravia's comment: "The erinyes is probably the one that Elsbeth and the others told us about. She can fly, see all things are they truly are, and can entangle foes with a rope made from her hair."
'Well, she has wings, and her hair is certainly whipping about. I just didn't expect her to be so... cute.' Still silent he concentrated, and his mind snapped into focus on the devil. Carefully he measured out his attack, keeping his endurance for the long haul.
Action 1:
Noravia was still confused, "Would that even work?" Then her voice softened, "I couldn't teleport myself out while others stayed back to a worse fate. At most I could maybe take a few with me but staying could save countless more." Her voice lowered so that only Caleb could hear, "But it's very sweet for you wanting to keep me safe."
Action 3:
Genuine surprise was written all over Noravia's face as they came face to face with an Azata and not an Erinyes. She managed to blurt out before something bad happened, "That's no erinyes. That's no devil."
The inquisitor overcame her shock and tried to talk to the outsider. "We mean you no harm. What is someone as good as you doing in a place like this?"
Action 1
Action 2
Seeing the guards that were blocking the way further up Tillia backed away quietly and said to the other once they were safely out of sight, "Looks like we either have to kill them or wait a bit."
Action 3
The sight of the butterfly winged woman was a shock to Tillia. She had learned quite a bit about the various types of outsiders in her studies during this rebellion and she knew that this was no Erinyes. Rather they seemed to have found a Lyrakien Azata. Not sure that she trusted this Tillia looked closely at the tiny woman as she tried to see through any possible illusions that might be making an Erinyes appear like this.
Realizing that there was no illusion here Tillia smiled with relief and began to approach the winged woman, "I'm not sure how you got to be here but it isn't a safe place for one such as you to have come. If any of the devil worshipers," she made the phrase into a vehement insult, "were to find you then death would be the least unpleasant fate to await you." She smiled as nicely as she could, hoping to make friends with this creature, and said, "My name is Tillia, what can I call you?"
FYI, I'll respond for the azata once it's her turn to act.
I intend to recap later today.
Questions?
Game on!
Alrighty.
Action 1
"I swear," Vandomir started impatiently, "some times you people talk about using magic way more than you ever actually use it."
Action 2
"We can wait. We aren't out to slaughter guards, they're just workers doing a job, not evil people themselves."
Action 3
Vandomir adopted a neural expression, waiting for a decision to be made as to whether, or not, the creature needed killing.
Grateful that the mask he wore hid his blush and the fact that he was finding it hard to know where to look at the exhibitionist outsider while still keeping enough of his attention on the creature to be able to defend himself, Eirik adopted a loose stance, hands half-raised ready to catch and deflect arrows in case she tried to put her bow to good use.
Since Noravia was skeptical of the Azata's presence at the Opera House along with the absence of the rumored erinyes, she looked at the outsider with critical eyes.
Action 1:
Noravia tried to look hopeful, "That's better than just straight up woe, right?"
Action 2:
"Wait!" the inquisitor pleaded. "Please don't leave. We could really use your help."
Well, it's hard to know what she intends to do until she actually attempts to do it.
I'm waiting for those people that beat her initiative to act and then she'll act.
She did look at the opening with the curtains so that would tell you that she intend to escape that way.
Action 1
Tillia made a non-commital gesture and said, "Or it could be worse. Believe me it can always be worse.
Action 2
Tillia was hopeful she could speak with the creature, right up to the point that Caleb did something to attack her magically. She turned a glare to him and snapped out, "Caleb don't! She's not a devil, she has more in common with Vew than she does a devil. She's from Elysium, a plane in direct opposition to Hell, literally, she's a being of good and freedom." Turning her focus to the tiny woman Tillia said in celestial, "Quaeso, ne fugerent a nobis. Paenitet enim me impetum Chaleb iunior tibi. Qui non est passus animadverto quod sunt vehementer. Et non sumus inimicos tuos a me quia ipsi probare dabis nobis facultas uniuersas horremus."
While Tillia continued to plea for peace Eirik moved, having noticed the way the celestial creature was eyeing the curtains behind her. He dodged his way past the noble, dodged this way and that to distract the creature, then dove to the ground, rolling lithely to pass between the woman's legs, ending up in a wary crouch halfway in the doorway past the startled celestial, shooting a quick glance to the room beyond.
The curtains are to the SE. The curtains (window) opens up to the area below.
There is a door directly north.
More questions?
Game on!
I intend to recap later today.
Read the OOC.
Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?
Game on!
, miss
, pass
, fail
, pass
, fail
Noravia's eyes narrowed as the infernal language came out of one that was supposed to be good. "You've obviously been corrupted and you will be judged accordingly as this is the worst kind of betrayal."
The inquisitor continued to speak the divine words to send a blast of searing light shooting towards the creature.
Action 2
Tillia suddenly felt ill as the energy spewed from the tiny woman's mouth and she realized that something was very wrong here. Tillia cursed at the situation as she realized that there was nothing she could really do to help fight what she was now sure was a devil in disguise. She was prepared for crowd control in an open space, not a fight in a narrow corridor. She did the only thing she could manage under the circumstances and cast a spell to send a glob of acid flying at the tiny creature.