Protectors of Golarion (Wrath of the Righteous AP)

Game Master Sensen

Round 2 Midpoint, Continued

Merixia steps forwards, slashing through the half-orc's guard even as Verene offers the half-orc the chance to surrender. Merixia's bastard sword slices through his own force armor, knocking him into the wall, and he groans - a noise that is swiftly cut off by Radiance's golden blade, as Azira slashes him in turn. He staggers, growling.

Anevia pales, before baring her teeth. "Vagorg?! Take him down!" She limps over to Verene's side, pushing her gently out of the way and aiming down her arrow. With a twang, she releases her bowstring, and the shaft flies straight and true, striking him in the eye. Vagorg presumably shrieks in agony, nearly dropping his ranseur.
Shortbow, Soft Cover, into Melee, PBS: 1d20 + 5 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (20) + 5 + 1 - 4 = 22
Confirm?: 1d20 + 5 + 1 - 4 ⇒ (15) + 5 + 1 - 4 = 17 Yeah, didn't think so.
Damage, PBS: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

Thesius and Elliot are up.

Thesius follows in Azira's wake, rolling between Verene and Merixia to come up between Vagorg and Verene as his morningstar comes crashing down in the enemy's direction.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21

Morningstar Attack: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (14) + 5 = 19
Morningstar Damage: 1d8 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

Between the vicious strikes of Merixia, Thesius, Anevia and Azira, Elliot isn't really sure if what was left standing in front of him was still alive. Still, Orcs were known for their ferocity with even lethal wounds. With no way to get to the surrounded enemy, he instead tries casting a spell.

Elliot casts Acid Orb on the orc.
attack vs Touch, -4 melee, -4 cover: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (13) - 2 = 11
damage: 1d3 ⇒ 2

"If anyone feels the need to fall back, just, ah, let me know?" he says, watching the bloodbath unfold in front of him. "...Actually, shouldn't we ask him if he knows where Irabeth is first...? Surely he was here for a reason, waiting in this exact house for someone to show up."

Round 2 Wrap-Up

Thesius joins his fellows, swinging his morningstar at the half-orc, smashing past the magical defenses he's raised, and cracks his skull, knocking him to the ground in a swiftly spreading pool of blood.

Combat Over

Sorry, I would've posted this earlier, but for some reason I thought that he had higher AC than that. Also, Elliot, please don't apply a penalty for cover, because that may mean I apply the bonus to AC as well, which would've resulted in a miss in this case. As it stands, it doesn't matter, but it's something for the future.

Anevia storms forwards, her face twisted in a fierce scowl. "My wife told me about this one. He's from the River Kingdoms. Tried to burn down a neighborhood in Tymon. Irabeth stopped him on her way to Mendev... guess he didn't forget about her, and the 'justice' there didn't manage to keep him." She looks ready to spit on him, but takes a breath. "He probably doesn't know where she is. He told me that she'd find my corpse waiting in bed for her."

With that, she looks at the others. "I don't want to waste time trying to wrest the truth out of him, but..." She casts a glance at her bedroom door. "Keep an eye on him."

She retreats into her bedroom. "Come on, come on... open you stupid... there." A pause. "Ah."

"Wait, is he still alive?" Merixia sets her sword aside- it's covered in blood and needs to be cleaned- takes off a gauntlet, and checks the man's pulse.

Heal: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28

Sorry. I won't mention cover and such again in future posts.

Merixia notes that, while he's not dead, he's definitely heading in that direction. -6 hp, not stable.

Also, he should've gotten an action in that last round, but uh, he didn't have a whole lot to do, so I'll forgive myself for forgetting the orc ferocity. Thanks, Elliot - it's just a bit confusing to me.

Verene moves to the side as directed and generally tries to stay out of the way as her companions swiftly dispatch the half-orc.

"He probably doesn't know where she is. He told me that she'd find my corpse waiting in bed for her."

"Ah. So, not a random person who broke in looking for shelter, but an old enemy who believed her alive, but elsewhere. That's hopeful, I suppose. Is he a spellcaster who could have been responsible for the beetle, or should we be looking around for an accomplice who summoned the beetle, gave him force armor, and made him invisible?" Verene picks up the ranseur and looks it over dubiously — mages don't often train with such weapons — and then approaches enough to glance over the half-orc's other possessions. If they don't seem like the accoutrements of a mage, she plans to start systematically searching through the rest of the house for invisible creatures.

"If we believe someone may yet be in here, it may be worth closing the door and keeping someone at it to help prevent escape. It might just be useful in case someone wanders by as well," Thesius suggests. He then invokes a cantrip to detect magic and starts looking around the room.

Merixia puts her gauntlet back on, picks up her sword, and stands up. "Well, he's not quite dead, but definitely on his way there. Given what Anevia had to say about him, I'm not inclined to do anything about that." She begins cleaning her blade.

On his bleeding body, the half-orc has his obsidian-headed ranseur, a wand, a potion, and a bag of some gold 42 gp. He also has an empty potion bottle, and his unusual horned headdress.

Anevia emerges from her room with five potions in her arms and a piece of paper in her hand. "I knew it. Irabeth left me a message. She said I should find her at the Defender's Heart. The code word to make sure we're friends is 'Silverstrong.'"

"She also left me, and therefore us, these healing potions and invisibility potions." Anevia adds, nodding at her armfuls of potions. Two cure moderate wounds potions, and three invisibility potions.

Upon seeing what is clearly a magic wand at Vagorg's belt, Verene straightens up and relaxes somewhat. "Likely he was the spellcaster, then. That makes things simpler."

She hands off the ranseur to Thesius for identification if he indicates she should, just in time for Anevia to re-emerge from the bedroom with the note and potions. She smiles broadly in relief. "Anevia, that's wonderful news! I hadn't thought of inns as possible secure places, but the Defender's Heart makes perfect sense. Let's go and find her right away."

More to the others than to Anevia, who likely knows the place well, she adds, "It's a solid stone construction, and it is enormous — fully the biggest inn in the city, with plenty of space for people to shelter, and probably good reserves of supplies. Hopefully it will have space to take in the others we have encountered who need somewhere safer, as well."

Knowledge (local) DC 15: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Thesius will take the time to finish the half-orc off if no one has as of yet, not wishing to allow it to remain their suffering regardless of who they were.

Knowledge (local): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (8) + 7 = 15

"I would have to agree with Verene's assessment of the place. Being an inn, it might not have been as high on the list for the demon's to completely demolish," he says with a nod before going about attempting to identify the magical items.

Spellcraft DC 20 for Ranseur: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
Perception DC 18 for Potion: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
Spellcraft DC 16 for Wand: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

"This weapon is of magical means. It's balance and blade are exquisite. It seems eager to pull other weapons from the grasps of their wielders and it has the ability to harden one's skin to help protect from attack for a limited time per day through the use of the command word Ruin's Heart," he will say after setting the weapon down so as not to use it's ability.

Holding up the potion he will explain, "This is another potion of invisibility. We can assume that the other potion may have contained the same." He take up the other bottle and give it a quick sniff to see if he can determine it to have a similar small.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Swapping it for the wand, he will finish with, "And this is a wand of magic missile with 11 charges left upon it."

Finally, he will take the headdress and examine it.

Appraise: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

Let me know if there is another check you would like for me to make here or feel to roll it DM Worldwound.

Azira quietly stands vigil, holding Radiance at the ready in case another attacker is present. At Thesius’ request, she eases the door to the outside closed. Once the useful supplies have been gathered and Anevia has revealed there next destination, she nods and moves to open the door back up. “Are we all ready then?” she asks earnestly before leading the group back out into the streets.

"So, there is perhaps a lead to actual remaining resistance, AND they might just have a credible and defensible base of operations?" The magus repeats, smiling as the sheer relief of it all hits him. "And we have... at least four potions of invisibility, so even if we find it under siege, we might use them to sneak our way in if needed. Though we might want to hold on to them to sabotage demon forces in the area..."

He shakes his head. "Well, that doesn't matter right now! We should head there right away, right? Just ah... is it far? I feel like I SHOULD know, but..."

He takes out the map again and tries to find its location compared to them.

Memory loss was a b*tch, he decided.

"Even with a potion of invisibility, I'm not exactly subtle given my lovely new armor." Merixia picks up the ranseur and straps it to her overstuffed pack. "Here's hoping someone at Defender's Heart can use the weapons and armor we've been picking up. I'm strong, but I do have limits as to how much I can carry and still be effective in combat."

Anevia nods. "With those it'd be easier for me to cross the city, even with my injury... but I'm not going to leave you all behind." She raises her hand, stopping any objections preemptively. "So no noble self-sacrificing nonsense here, understood?" She offers the heroes a wry grin.

I'll get a proper moving on post up tomorrow or the next day, depending on how much you guys want to RP.

"Well, that doesn't matter right now! We should head there right away, right? Just ah... is it far? I feel like I SHOULD know, but..."

"It's not far in normal times. North of us in this same district, about half as far as the distance we traveled between the Blackwing and here." Verene's expression has grown much lighter since learning of Irabeth's note. She makes sure to collect the pouch of gold from the half-orc's body before they go, and even the unpleasant fact that they will have to leave it here in or near Anevia's house to rot does not dent her optimism.

"With those it'd be easier for me to cross the city, even with my injury... but I'm not going to leave you all behind." She raises her hand, stopping any objections preemptively. "So no noble self-sacrificing nonsense here, understood?"

"Of course not, and we won't leave you. We've come this far, and it's better to save the potions if possible," Verene replies calmly, oblivious to any hidden meanings beneath Anevia's words. "But you'll carry them in case of emergency, yes? I should like to carry that wand, if you don't mind, Thesius, and then I am ready when we all are. Unless we want to move the body of this Vagorg outside, for less unpleasantness when you return later." I think Verene is the only one who can use the wand easily and may have rounds in combat when it's her best option. Is the wand caster level 1, GM, for 1 missile at 1d4 + 1?

Treasure sheet updated. Four potions from the park cultists still not officially identified, so anyone feel free to toss in a retroactive Spellcraft or Perception. Guessing that Merixia has most of the heavy stuff and scrolls go first to people who can use them. Whenever it becomes the difference between medium and heavy encumbrance for Merixia, Verene will move into medium encumbrance to carry up to 2 of the glaives in an over-the-shoulder way where she can drop them if we get into a fight.

Yep, CL 1. He wasn't the maker of the wand, unfortunately. He was significantly higher than that in CL.

Sense Motive DC 13: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (2) + 6 = 8

Distracted by the work at hand as he tries to keep his mind off of ending another life, Thesius' attention only seems to break once Verene addresses him. "What was...oh of course you take the wand," he replies before handing it to Verene.

"Unless there is something else we need to check here, I am ready to go. Finding a safe place to rest would be nice," he says with a small smile.

After tossing Vagorg's body out of the Tirabades' residence I literally just discovered I've been spelling their surname wrong for the whole game, the party sets out back into the abandoned streets of Kenabres, north along one of the arterial roads of the city. As with the rest of the area approaching Northgate, these neighborhoods seem relatively untouched by demonic aggression - though that hasn't stopped the people from boarding their windows and hiding.

The piles of bodies that lined the streets to the south are absent - there's a few corpses here and there, tucked away in alleyways and other passages, but nothing on the scale of the dead to the south.

"If there were people here, it might even look like a normal day." Anevia muses.

"Yeah... I wonder why that is? Maybe the people at Defender's Heart have been fending the demons off." Merixia is still wary, poised to fight at a moment's notice, but it does seem quieter here. Weird.

Thesius will keep his eyes focused on their surroundings, he almost found the lack of life in this area more disturbing then the destroyed areas...

"Fending them off, or taking along the bodies to make sure the demons couldn't do anything to them... either way, it seems a good sign. If they'd been eaten or such, I would have expected more of a mess," Elliot reasons.

"By the way..." He pauzes and glances around, uncomfortable about something. "Maybe Merixia and I shouldn't be near the front here? We look somewhat... ah, 'dubious'? I wouldn't want any possible stressed survivors getting the wrong idea and shooting us on sight..." He makes an apologetic gesture to Cleric.

Verene shivers slightly, the weak late-morning sunlight not enough to banish the occasional chill down her spine and instinctual jolt of fear from distant or remembered — she can no longer tell the difference — screams.

"Let us not be deceived by appearances," she murmurs to the group, her eyes flicking everywhere for threat. Her crossbow is held in one hand, the cold iron bolt pointed at the ground as they walk, while the other holds two tied-together glaives balanced on her shoulder. "And I am not saying your worries are groundless, Elliot, but Azira is quite obviously an Iomedaean, which should at least give some pause even to the most paranoid. Moreover, it's possible that crusaders who know Irabeth might also know and be on the lookout for Anevia. If we encounter trouble from potential allies, remember the code word: Silverstrong."

"Maybe this place was just less of a priority, and now the people at the Defender's Heart are keeping it safer? I can't imagine that they'd've held out against the first strike, given how many powerful demons there were." Anevia says, lowering her voice in response to Verene's.

She moves forwards for a few more seconds before adding. "Maybe once we get there, they'll know where Topaz Solutions is. We could start organizing a stronger resistance, from there."

"Maybe— Hold a moment," Verene message-whispers the group, and stops short. Just as quietly, to the bird on her shoulder, she murmurs, "What is it, my dear? It could be important."

"Heard something. Can't hear it now." Thamyris replies.

At the mention of her name, Azira answers, "we might not be able to trust the sight of my holy symbol to allay people's misgivings- any cultist who's killed an Iomedaean, or raided an empty shrine, could be wearing one as a sort of disguise. Still, I'd prefer to be first, plus if any of the defenders are members of our order or came to our temple for training we might recognize each other."

When Verene calls for a halt, the beautiful swordswoman stops and raises Radiance to a ready position.

"Thamyris is correct. There was a growl off to the West. We may wish to investigate to see what is about," he says while tightening his grip upon his morningstar.

"West? Good ear. Thamyris, could please you fly up in that direction, and give a peek over the rooftops? Try not to be observed, and as soon as you see what's afoot, come back to me." Assuming Thamyris is willing (and someone else with a good Stealth score doesn't interject wanting to do it themselves or use an invisibility potion), as soon as he flits off, Verene very gently lowers the glaives down to the ground so they will not clatter, and flattens herself against the closest wall that will prevent her from being seen by something approaching from the west. She pats the wand in her pocket to be sure of where it is, and takes her crossbow up in both hands, ready to shoot at a moment's notice if the source of the growl sees Thamyris, somehow knows what he is, and comes charging out.

"All right. Perhaps I am just overly worried," Elliot admits to Verene and Azira, scratching his burning hair with his free hand. The sole plume of smoke coming from it briefly turned to a small cloud as he did. "With someone like Azira wielding Radiance, that should put them at ease right away."

Just as he said it, his eyes briefly lingered on the exotic and graceful paladin. He forced himself to look away, feeling a pang of sudden awkwardness. He wasn't entirely sure why; it just felt... wrong to regard her as such. Perhaps it was a thought too base for her title, or that there was a rather significant age difference between them... or that she'd been a savior figure to him before. Or something else? "Yeah, we should probably go and see. Maybe whatever is out there could be dangerous to the defenders, and if not them, the townsfolk in hiding at least," he says, and takes in that direction, if at least to get his mind back to the task at hand.

Azira gently places a hand on Elliot's arm as he tries to walk away. She takes a step to close the distance between them and whispers, "hold on a moment, Verene's bird is scouting for her. Hopefully she learn something that will inform our next step..."

Thamyris flutters away at Verene's instruction, flying overhead and scanning the area for threats.

Within half a minute, he returns, landing on her shoulder. "Demons!" He says, pointing off to the west. "Eating."

"Sounds like our cue." Merixia checks the straps on her shield and loosens her bastard sword in its sheath. "Let's go!"

"Well done, Thamyris. What did they look like, and how many were there? Is there a person who needs help?" Verene's whisper is steady, and she sends reassurance and calm down the empathic bond. When Merixia appears eager to take the fight to the demons right away, she adds, "Yes, but first let's take advantage of our foreknowledge here if we can and prepare ourselves for battle. You and Thesius, at least, might make use of Terendelev's gifts you carry, and Anevia and I might find it easier to aim safely if we could use Elliot's scale to levitate ourselves to a rooftop."

We have a nice chance to use our tools to the fullest here. If these are demons, at a minimum, Thesius would make things easier for himself by putting align weapon on his morningstar. Merixia plus potentially two more people could benefit from alter self for boosts to Strength or Dexterity. The Dex bonus comes with an additional +1 size bonus to hit and AC, but a size penalty on base weapon damage. Anevia might like levitate so she's not trying to shoot through the others' bodies. Verene too but less so, as she has one spell left that could potentially affect demons and then it's crossbow (or wand) time indefinitely. Others might have spell-buffs of their own left that they want to use depending on how tough the enemies seemed to Thamyris, like Elliot's shield or Merixia's protection from evil; or you might prefer to save them, I don't know.

Elliot freezes in place when Azira reaches out to him and focuses on waiting for the Thamyris as discussed. When Verene gives her rapport, he nods. "We could. Though I have to admit that my magical reserves are running a bit low. I might be able to do this fight still at full strength. After that, I'd be weakened quite a bit. Should we not conserve some of our remaining strength for if we needed to help the survivors at the Defender's Heart? These demons don't know of our presence it seems, and if they're eating something... well, those unfortunate people are already dead, as much as I'd want to go and help. Still, if you wish to ambush this group instead, I'll do that as best I can."

If outvoted on the Issue, Elliot would prefer to have the Alter self to a small humanoid. Would give him +2 hit, +1 damage, +1 ref and +2 ac, which would definitely be worth dropping one damage die. He'd also cast Shield.

Thamyris cocks his head. "Small ones. Like the ones below." Presumably, this means dretches. "They eat dead people. Saw no one alive." He flutters his wings anxiously. "Counted five. May be more, couldn't tell."

Anevia frowns, before sighing. "We should really deal with these. I want to get to Irabeth as soon as possible, but if demons are around, they could hurt or kill innocents if we don't stop them."

I don't think I've tried to see what Verene knows about dretches, instead just relying on what Elyda told us. Most importantly, I'm not sure she knows that they can make stinking clouds or that anyone has warned us about that power.
Knowledge (Planes) - dretches: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11 Well, that doesn't make a ton of sense, but I guess I should have remembered you technically can take 10 on a Knowledge check outside of combat; I'm just not in the habit of doing it in PBP when DCs are so often declared in advance. Here's hoping they are considered 'common' monsters here.

"Thank you, my dear," Verene says softly to Thamyris.

As a rule, she believes it is pointless to feel anger or hatred toward demons for their natures. That energy is better given to any practical endeavor that will more swiftly see them extirpated from this plane of existence. But at this moment, with her nerves frayed from over an hour of phantom screams and Thamyris's distress fresh in her mind, it is impossible to contemplate leaving a clutch of filthy monsters to feast on the bodies of her city's people with any kind of detachment.

"It may be that we are choosing this fight at unnecessary risk to ourselves, and that it would be wiser to conserve our resources. But I agree with Anevia. Better that these demons break their teeth on us now than hurt one more helpless person later." Verene tries to keep the cold fury in her heart out of her whispered voice, with limited success. "I would like to use the cloud-pillar scale please, Elliot, and then I will follow the wishes of the group as to how we engage."

Three out of six of us, counting Anevia as one vote, have already expressed wanting to fight. Assuming that as a paladin, Azira at the least will too, that's four. If we charge in, I'd like Verene to keep pace with the others on the nearest roof, so that she can perhaps float down at the back of the dretches and get off a color spray. If we're setting an ambush or luring the dretches out with a sound, I'd like Verene to be waiting on the edge of a roof with a crossbow bolt for the first one that comes into view.

"I agree with your assessment. If there are that many, we should prepare ourselves as best possible. Thamryis, you mentioned they were small and we saw them before. Do they have wings per chance?" Thesius is wondering if hey perhaps have run across some more Quasits. He'll take the time to think about what more he might know about the creatures described.

Knowledge (planes): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20

"I would not be opposed to using the scale to alter myself as well, but definitely the use of the scale to align my weapon would be of use. Anevia might also benefit from aligning her bow."

Merixia frowns. "I would rather save my spells for healing if possible. Maybe I could use the alter self scale to make myself stronger, though." What race, though? She really doesn't want to give up her darkvision. There was a time when Merixia devoured any and all information on planestouched she could find, wanting to know more about herself and others like her. "Hmm... one of the earth planestouched. Oreads, I think they're called? The book I read said that they tend to be strong and insightful, although not very fast."

planetouched races are native outsiders (and, therefore, not usually eligible for alter self), but orcs have darkvision?

"I don't have any spells to worry about," Azira remarks quietly, "but I do agree with Anevia- killing demons now will save more lives later. Is there anything I should know about fighting these ones, since I wasn't with you when you fought the other similar ones?"

"Sorry, I should have explained. There were two dretches serving that cultist group in the underground. We know from yesterday that they have the standard demon resistances, limited telepathic abilities, and a chance to summon more dretches from the Abyss. I still feel as though I'm forgetting something... Oh, the scales. When we fell down, great Terendelev—" her voice wavers for a moment, then firms again— "saved our lives and left us four parting gifts containing some small piece of her magic. Each can produce a magical effect similar to a spell on whoever holds it in their hand, lasting about twenty minutes, three times per day. They can be used concurrently by different people, too. One grants levitation on a pillar of cloud, one aligns a weapon to good or law, one lets you change shape, and one makes you resistant to electricity or cold."

Like Elliot, Azira could benefit considerably from alter self, as a Dex-based melee type. So, now she knows she has the option.

Anevia waits quietly for the others to finish speaking. "I've still got a few cold iron arrows left, Thesius. We should save that for when we really need it. If it is those dretches again, well, we shouldn't have too much trouble with them." She bites her lip. [smaller]"Though five isn't exactly pleasant..."

Thesius will take the time to align his morningstar accordingly before the move out and offer to the scale to whomever else may wish to make use of it.

Theisus will inquire into which way the weapon should be aligned for dretches if he does not know himself. I'm failing to remember if we found that out earlier.

Finally he will ready himself to fall in with the group as they head out.

Good to go when the rest are.

Generally, you all know that good weapons ignore demons' DR, rather than lawful ones. That's common enough knowledge in Mendev for all of you to know.

The group finishes their preparations, and moves to the west along the empty streets of Kenabres. With Thamyris' guidance, they swiftly come to hear the sounds of crunching bone and tearing flesh, as well as little growls.

As they approach the sounds stop suddenly.

Combat Start

Abruptly, a couple dretches appear from around the corner of one of the nearby buildings, with no warning save the sudden silence.

Surprise Round

Verene is up. Normally the initiative order will be Azira, Verene, Merixia, Anevia, Elliot, Thesius, dretches. Nobody actually heard the demons coming up - they rolled absurdly well on the stealth. I will also allow you to make the retroactive choices of using alter self if you are so inclined.

Before the combat

Merixia accepts the alter self scale and concentrates. She wants to be an oread. Stony skin, crystals for hair, physically strong. A most peculiar sensation washes over her, and she gasps. The feeling is gone as quickly as it came. The cleric pulls off a gauntlet and holds her hand up in front of her. Sure enough, her skin is now a pale grayish color, the fingernails made of shiny white stone. She reaches up to touch her head. Her horns and hair are gone, replaced by what feels like a large cluster of quartz crystals. "Whoa. That feels really strange."

Before combat
Verene holds the gleaming silver scale cupped in the palm of her hand, concentrating, and her mind unbidden calls up those rare and precious times as a child that she had seen Terendelev's graceful form in flight from a great distance, a sun-limned blade looping in and out of dark stormclouds approaching the city she had made her home. Lightness and joy lift her heart — she has a flash of a different memory, one of arrowing through thick fog and breaking free to see Kenabres and the river from above, shining in the sun — and she almost laughs aloud. She looks down and swirls of mist eddy around her feet. With a thought, she rises a few feet upward, then downward, getting used to the strange feeling of weightlessness and to using her mind alone to control where her body is in space.

"Whoa. That feels really strange."

"I'll say," Verene agrees, still floating, and only then looks over. For a moment she is worried — Merixia seems to have been turned to stone. But as the temporary oread reaches upward to touch the impressive growths of crystal where her horns once were, Verene realizes it was an intentional choice. Perhaps it is the feeling of lightness caused by the scale that makes her add with a straight face but a glint of mischief in her eye, "You look strong and tough, though. And you know what they say — fortune favors the boulder."

Combat
As the group follows Thamyris's guidance at the pace dictated by Anevia's leg, Verene hustles to keep up along the edges of the rooftops, an incautious stunt she would never attempt without the confidence she will not fall granted by the eddies of cloud that conceal her feet and ankles. It still feels odd to move forward without the ground's pull keeping her in balance, but her feet find easy purchase along the rough rooftiles anyway.

Prescience: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Just before they are to turn the last corner toward the growling noises, the sounds stop. At almost the same moment, the cold but bracing clarity of premonition settles over her. Verene raises her crossbow into position exactly as the first dretch appears in the visible portion of the street, knowing deep in her bones that this is the perfect shot, but if she can wait a fraction of a breath she may be able to disrupt its summoning. As soon as it begins to move, whether waving its arms and chanting or stepping forward, she squeezes the trigger. Ready action shoot to interrupt a spell-like ability used by Black or if it doesn't use magic and instead moves forward in the surprise round. I think Yellow and Black are likely the only ones she can see, but not sure.
Light crossbow, point-blank shot, flat-footed?; damage 1d8 cold iron: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 3 + 1 = 131d8 ⇒ 3 Sure, I'll take that potential crit and use it here.
Light crossbow crit confirm, point-blank shot, flat-footed?; damage 1d8 cold iron: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 3 + 1 = 181d8 ⇒ 7

Surprise Round Wrap-Up

A flash of insight prompts Verene to ready her crossbow for a shot even as the demons appear before her and her companions.

The black-lined dretch in question growls, lifting a hand, and Verene triggers her crossbow. The bolt streaks down from her rooftop position and slams into its shoulder. The demon shrieks, and whatever it was attempting to do... doesn't happen.

Another dretch lined in yellow hisses, looking up in Verene's direction. It glares at her, and she feels a sudden surge of dread. With an effort of will, however, she shoves the unnatural curse aside, disregarding it.
Verene Will: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20

Another demon lined in red emerges from around the corner, approaching both Azira and the transformed Merixia.

Round 1

Azira, Verene, and Merixia are up.

Verene shakes off the inexplicable surge of fear and concentrates on gradually lowering herself at the same time as she moves her feet down the sloped tiles, until she's standing on the corner of the roof. Move action. Only 5 horizontal feet on the map to move, but it seems fair that it would not be 5-foot-steppable.

She kneels down at the rooftop's edge, mist eddying about her shins, and takes a hand off her crossbow long enough to pull out a pinch of multicolored powder, chant a quick phrase, and send a vivid cone of colors flashing over the three dretches that have conveniently bunched themselves up on the street directly below. Standard action cast color spray, DC 15 Will, hopefully hitting Blue, Black and Yellow. I don't expect she would also be able to hit Red as well with that 15' cone due to elevation, but if she thought she could do so she would try.

Oops, almost forgot the Knowledge (Arcana) check.
Knowledge (arcana) DC 26: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14