Yes she uses Lady I. Valeria T. in a lot of her documentation for the Pathfinders and other. to her Friends and Family 'Val' is what she is called.
She has a Thrune Crest tattoo, as well as the Thrune crest ring.
Absent any specific direction for Lady Sabella Arvanxi's past, I'm going to make the Headband of INT be tied to Lore: Mephistopheles. In the 'old school' House Arvanxi, three main foci are Chelaxian opera (and The Arts); Summoning and Binding Devils; and devotion to Mephistopheles a bit more than the other ArchDevils. Of the three, Lore: Mephistopheles will be a bit more beneficial in a campaign such as this. ....I'm putting this in now as opposed to waiting a bit more time because, in the next little bit (though a DM can never be too certain of what's about to happen) Lore: Mephistopheles may have some relevance. And besides, I think I waited patiently enough, and Lore: Mephistopheles is still good choice, regardless. Hope you don't mind.
Someone earlier mentioned casting a Detect Magic on Mister Refrum. Let me know if you want to do that and I will give you the results. If asked, he won't mind after a successful Diplomacy -- roleplay the request, of course, but I will answer based on the Diplomacy. (Though it sure seems like it would be a pretty low Diplomacy DC considering this guy's reaction to you thus far.) You can also roll a Sense Motive -- just make sure you clearly mention what it was that Refrum said that your PC wanted to have concentrated on to notice any twitchiness or avoidance of eye contact or whatnot.
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If anyone has any questions about the geography of Korvosa, let me know; I'm trying to be both clear and concise -- I know walls of text are no fun to read. Just want to make sure I'm articulate enough so that no one's confused about where you are.
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Obviously you've chosen to go to Pythoness House first, the site of the most recent killing. Afterword Mister Refrum will let you know all of the locations you asked about much earlier in Gameplay. Again, I was just trying to avoid walls of text describing the different locations.
Apologies Ray, it would seem my post from last night was eaten. I shall try again:
I don't think I'll be adding in anything overly different to Sabella's backstory that is important enough to warrant skill ranks from the headband. What we've come up with so far works. I'll obviously expand on that, but I don't think I'll be suddenly coming up with something that can't be covered by her current skill set.
So yeah, Lore: Mephistopheles is *awesome!*
I do have a couple questions that I thought of last night as I drifted off to sleep:
1) What is Maginus, and thus Sabella's, relation to Ileosa? I don't think it was something we ever discussed for Magnius' game.
2) How is Ileosa's return seen by Cheliax, House Thrune, and Queen Abrogail II ? I ask cuz I'm considering maybe having Sabella' mother be a member of the Erinyes Company.
I never yet needed to design the familial relationship between Ileosa and Magnius. (As you know, DMs don't have all the answers.) It just hasn't come up in gameplay. So this is a pretty good spot -- I actually have the Player who created Lord Magnius that can do it for me.
Ileosa does have an older sister here in Korvosa (yes, another Player's character), named Lady Dressarosa Arvanxi. She is now the 'Ambassador' to Korvosa from Cheliax. (And Korvosa is pretty much just part of Cheliax again after nearly 100 years of independence.)
When I played the PC who led the quest to The Nine Hells in order to negotiate for the Resurrection of Ileosa, a big part of that was getting a blessing from Queen Abrogail Thrune. (First I had to whoop-up some Devil's enemy in Hell to get the Devil's Favor; then I had to do a mission for Her Infernal Majistrix to get Her favor. It was an adventure I described to the DM to let him make the details. All in all, a fun little adventure.) Queen Ileosa was given the title of 'Duchess' by Abrogail Thrune in my game so, while she's 'Queen' of Korvosa, in Cheliax she's titled 'Duchess Ileosa.' So, friendly relationship.
I've done a good amount of design work with The Erinyes Company but, alas, none of it has seen actual Gameplay. It's all theoretical head-canon, and incomplete. So you could certainly do something with them. (I actually started naming and detailing all 26 of them -- my birthday is the 26th so it's a bit of a lucky number. But I never finished developing them.) ....Of course, since the Erinyes Company are supposed to be former Gray Maidens, and since you're both a Noble Lady of a Great House of Cheliax (not a likely candidate for a soldier-girl of Korvosa that became a bodyguard to The Queen), and a Tiefling (same caveat), your mother is more likely to be an 'assigned-to-The-Erinyes-Company-by-Her-Infernal-Majistrix' rather than a former Gray Maiden, bodyguard/harem-girl, to Queen Ileosa. A family member. But I could easily see Qualins, after earning a nod from Abrogail Thrune, be assigned a Tiefling noble woman to act as Qualins' 'right-hand-woman' and liaison to Thrune. Or something.
Ray, did you miss my little query about tracking powder? (It's from the ACG so it's legal).
Ray, did you miss my little query about tracking powder? (It's from the ACG so it's legal).
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What?! I never miss anything or ever, ever make a mistake!
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I placed Mister Refrum's response at the exact correct spot in Gameplay. ;)
Oh it'll be fun should I have to reveal my house.
My birthday is Sept 14th, my dad's was May 14th, my maternal grandfather's was Nov 14th, and I have friends born on various other 14ths throughout the year. It's my lucky number, so I get how the 26th is yours!
You had originally suggested Maginus met Sabella's mom(atm goin with Vespexion as her name, Ves for short!) while he was in Rahadoum. Would it instead be possible for her to have been from Rahadoum, fled that country for some crime or another(Likely related to her being a Graz'zt tiefling), wound up in Korsova, where she was eventually recruited into the Grey Maidens? She is rather attractive after all, and there's nothing in their write up that limits their membership.
And then Magnius meets her there, possibly on some lesser mission or maybe even some down time?
I was thinking he would be a cousin of or nephew to Ileosa. I seem to vaguely recall deciding how he was related to some cannon NPC or another(not Ileosa), but I can't remember who. Nor can I find any other named members of Arvanxi other than Ileosa and the mayor of Westcrown(fairly certain it wasn't him, lol).
Also, did you see my question about Sabella knowing some ranking people in Pythoness House?
Valeria knows that revealing her House name could be a huge boon in some circumstances as well as a bit of a curse in other circumstances. A bit like Driz'zt Do'Urden whenever that particular Good-Guy Drow may want to Bluff by using his own Family Name: 'Hey, I'm a Drow Do'Urden, better respect my authority (like Eric Cartman).' It will WORK. *Sometimes.* In the same way that it would work for Driz'zt until such a time as he encounters someone that rolls a high enough Knowledge check to be like, 'Holy Moly, a Drow Noble of House Do'Urden! ....Hey wait, he has lavender eyes -- House Do'Urden actually hates his guts and want to sacrifice that blasphemer to Lolth, turn him into a mindless Drider or something!" Then, you know, it won't work so well. ....So, for Lady Imperia Valeria Thrune, throwing that last name around will be a BIG help. You know, until someone recognizes that Holy Symbol to Shelyn and maybe even knows a story of a Thrune who forsook Cheliax and fled somewhere with bunch of liberated slaves!
TO EVERYONE:
Be AGGRESSIVE with those Knowledge and Diplomacy rolls.
....And let me know if my walls of text are getting too long! It is THE reason I don't want to spend too long in Korvosa. If you'd been gaming in my Varisia and Korvosa games for the past decade it'd be easy to absorb. But for this PbP, yeah, I don't mind being brief and focusing on our little bit like those PFS Scenarios where you show up and everyone's in a race to finish in less than four hours. (even though I hate those kinds of Scenarios)
I figured for the most part she airs on the side of Caution. She also didn't liberate her slaves until after he left Chelaix. What is worse is probably her Half-Orc Son. That would blow a lot of her Family's minds.
So I think I have a good answer that checks all boxes of Sabella Arvanxi's wishlist. But it means she's quite young for 8th Level (almost 9th). Here goes, I think we got it:
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1) Vespexion is born and raised in Rahadoum, a Tiefling with a Graz'zt bloodline. She flees Rahadoum as a very young teen (12 or 13) on any ship, heading for anywhere -- turns out she ends up in Korvosa.
2) Lord Magnius Arvanxi is part of the entourage that escorts his cousin Ileosa to Korvosa to woo and court elderly King Eodred Arabasti.
3) Lord Magnius Arvanxi meets Vespexion in Korvosa and over the course of his visit impregnates her.
4) Sabella is born in Korvosa.
5) A few years later on a return visit Lord Magnius finds Vespexion, sees his daughter, and takes the babe with him to Cheliax to be raised in Macini -- giving her the Arvanxi name. Probably age 3 or 4.
6) Vespexion, now without her child, turns to Ileosa and joins The Gray Maidens.
7) Sabella Arvanxi, raised mostly in Macini and other parts of Cheliax shows incredible promise as an Arcanist even at a very young age. But she remembers a very early childhood with her mother in Korvosa and maintains a passionate curiosity about her feminine Bloodline.
8) Queen Ileosa is defeated and The Gray Maidens are disbanded. Vespexion is one of the 26 of Quailins' platoon that goes to Cheliax and becomes The Erinyes Company for Her Infernal Majestrix. Sabella age 8.
9) Sabella leaves Cheliax for Absalom to dramatically fulfill her own potential as an Arcanist and join The Pathfinder Society to seek out Knowledge. Sabella age 13 -- this is crazy but perhaps the Tiefling ages fast!
10) On a PF venture in Rahadoum gets a clue that Graz'zt is a distant ancestor.
11) Learns of the existence of The Darklight Sisterhood which was barely active in Cheliax a few years previously but now is at the dawn of something strong in Korvosa.
12) With prestige from PFS, goes to Magnimar to work with Sheila Heidmarch and get closer to Korvosa where she thinks her mother is -- and The Darklight Sisterhood. Sabella age 15.
13) In Magnimar is honest with Sheila Heidmarch about her mother in Korvosa and her sympathy for The Darklight Sisterhood. Does an excellent job as a Pathfinder agent on ventures Sheila Heidmarch assigns.
14) Sheila Heidmarch thinks of Sabella Arvanxi immediately upon hearing of a venture in Korvosa. The Tiefling Arcanist is maybe 16 years old.
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Edit: Sabella would know nothing of Pythoness House. I've tried hard to make it so the salient parts of Korvosa for our little adventure here, and much of Korvosa in general, are foreign to the PCs.
Well, that does make her a lot younger than I intended(I have her at 22), but not only does that check off pretty much all my boxes, but it allows me to possibly tie in an NPC I just found out about that I feel would make for a good mentor/teacher for Sabella:
Zarta Dralneen who apparently heads up the PFS' Dark Archive.
Originally from Absalom, she spent time in Korvosa/the Academae.
I would love to have Sabella connected to Zarta, who is maybe also sympathetic to the DLS? Assuming you haven't made use of her elsewhere!
Also, whereabouts in that timeline would her completing the first two books of Shattered Star fit?
When you first introduced your PC (I think maybe in a PM), I immediately thought of Zarta Dralneen. I'm sure I mentioned her, but who can remember all the way back to Recruitmanet.
Zarta would easily have been the character to discover the young Sabella in Cheliax and have encouraged her to leave Cheliax for Absalom.
I'm still a bit of a Paizo Grognard -- Zarta Dralneen for me is The Cheliax Faction PF. This was back before they went to 'Themes' instead of 'Nations." (Then Zarta Dralneen became the 'Dark Archive' Faction PF.) Same thing.
Yeah, having gotten SO MUCH XP to be at 101K at such a young age is odd. But it does check all the boxes.
.... Having thought about it this past hour or so -- there is NO reason I can not have our campaign take place a few years later. I don't like going too far ahead because I still like to see Ileosa as young, all the other NPCs as their current age -- once you start picking out years and a timeline, you really squeeze yourself in a straight jacket. I don't like listing years or absolutes in a timeline.
But for this PbP, the whole 'PFS goes to catalogue The Abyss' campaign, it really doesn't hurt if I push it back a couple years.
I guess Sabella could be 18 or 19 and it's just a few years later.
I figured that, with one player still working on finishing touches for the PC, another on vacation, and this being a holiday weekend, I'd be a little long-winded with description and not get too deep into Gameplay.
But I feel the new week should bring Gameplay to a real start and this investigation can really get going!
Mister Refrum will detail the few MURDER locations the morning after you visit Pythoness House so you can approach the investigation like a Sandbox in The Styes.
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Following is an explanation of the color-coding of the map of The Styes so you can kinda see where and what in a larger context:
Despite the map, only the Stone Bridge that connects to North Point remains.
RED = Bridgefront -- (horribly overcrowded and nasty skid row tenement houses) The left part of it is 'FLOTSAM,' a tract of virulent detritus and soiled mud that came with The Tidal Wave a couple years ago. Now, boardwalks have been built over the mud. Despite its foul nature, desperate citizens still climb into the mud pit looking for bits of 'treasure' -- mostly all that is found are rotting bodies of Chokers, people and sea creatures.
YELLOW = Garrison Hill -- (where most of the investigation will take place) The left part is 'The Alchemists' Quarter' where unregulated effluvia trickles into Flotsam and the the Alika Narrows. On Garrison Hill are the 'stinky' (and loud) city manufacturers, such as the leather tannery, copper and iron smithies -- and of course The Mortuary where the dead of Korvosa (who aren't wealthy enough for burial in the cemetary just south of Korvosa) are cremated.
GREEN = Fort Korvosa -- the plateau of Garrison Hill escarpment. One of the Nobles has a walled estate here. There is also a large contingent of Korvosan Guard here, as well as 'Orisini Academy' where Sheila Heidmarch and Sir Canayven are guests of Lord Vencarlo Orisini.
BLUE = Old Dock (crime lords lairs) pretty self explanatory. Some bars and taverns and such.
.... Incidentally, on your map of The Styes -- if you look at the bottom right where North Port is -- N3 is actually the Whitecaps!
The intended goal is to go to Pythoness 'tonight', so I don't see a reason to state the obvious in game, unless things potentially change or get derailed.
Ray, whereabouts in Sabella's timeline would it make sense for her to have done the Shattered Star adventures? I still want her to have completed books 1&2, if at all possible.
Is your version of Zarta not the head/important member of the Dark Archive? Unless I'm missing something(I never played any of the PFS official games), could she not belong to both the Chelexian and Dark Archive 'factions'? Also, thoughts on her being sympathetic to the Darklight Sisterhood?
Finally, how do you feel about my coming up with some named NPCs for Sabella's backstory? They wouldn't be fully stated(unless you want them to be), but I will at least give them classes and levels. Since they are NPCs, could I give them levels in classes/archetypes/PrCs from sources not on the approved PC list? Ie, Hellknight?
Can you post a link to the map of the Styes in the Campaign info section, so we all have ready access to it?
The number 13 above, Sheila Heidmarch sends you on PF ventures and you do well: This would have been very recently getting Shards from Magnimar and The Lady's Light. Sabella could have done a couple other of additional PF quests in Varisia too I suppose, besides SS.
I mentioned Zarta Dralneen in Recruitment on page two, April 5th. The Cheliax Faction is Zarta Dralneen; then later Paizo decided to change PFS from National Factions to Themed Factions and Zarta Dralneen is Dark Archive. Same thing.
You can come up with NPCs, of course. I'll peruse them in time and can even try to come up with tie-ins for our campaign. No promises, of course, but it's always good to try to include player interests into one's campaign when one can. Just remember I have seven of you to find stuff for.
Of more importance now is finishing the Crunch for Sabella. It HAS to be finished for us to get Pythoness House underway -- or rather, if Sabella Arvanxi doesn't have a completed stat block she will be having a bathroom break while the rest of the group is playing the adventure. I've extended the build up with lots of setting flavor, which I love and it helps the game atmosphere, but it's time to see what you PCs can do.
Of more importance now is finishing the Crunch for Sabella. It HAS to be finished for us to get Pythoness House underway -- or rather, if Sabella Arvanxi doesn't have a completed stat block she will be having a bathroom break while the rest of the group is playing the adventure. I've extended the build up with lots of setting flavor, which I love and it helps the game atmosphere, but it's time to see what you PCs can do.
Eh? She's done, other than spending her gold on wands and such. I don't plan on giving her magic weapons, as her 11 Str doesn't really lend itself to combat, lol.
Is there something I'm forgetting about??
I haven't been able to find your Spells, and your Perception score is left blank. It says you've used 4 of 14 of your Arcane Reservoir and I'm not sure what from. There's a couple other spots that made me think it wasn't complete, such as a blank space under Class Features. Do me a favor and try to find time to tighten it up for me. I'll take another look tomorrow. Thanks.
Arcane Reservoir has a max cap, and then a daily, slightly lesser amount. You'll see that when I include it in the class features. The rest should be no problem either.
Sorry, for not posting got caught up traveling/visiting for the Easter holiday.
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Artemisia will pay for the rooms reservation and then accept anyone paying her back, or just submit it to Sheila for reimbursement as a society expense, later.
If you have heal and took a glance at the bodies, please roll. Art’s thinking is that we should check corpses that have been offered us before they burn in case there’s an unreported but connected killing, but for all her amateur investigator leanings she isn’t trained in heal!
Similarly she can’t fail to notice Albin, with a +12 perception mod.
Lastly, I bet our characters wish Fastidiousness was on the list of approved sources. This place sounds nasty but at least it has a mortal sky.
I didn't double check but I assume everyone sees Albin peaking out from the back room and staring at everyone -- that's why I gave the description (I wasn't sure about Sense Motive; I had to roll, so that info is not yet posted.) Nonetheless, I'm pretty certain everyone who wishes will succeed at a Sense Motive check, considering the boy's awe-inspiring, game-breaking Bluff roll. I'll get to it in Gameplay when I get a few minutes later Monday.
Submitted for your approval,
What should be the *mostly* completed Lady Sabella Arvanxi's character sheet!
Still need to spend the rest of my gold, and make up her spellbook(which is going to take a serious amount of time, since it's a Blessed Book, lol).
She should be ready to go, assuming she gets the thumbs up from Ray.
@ Mishanter,
Please roll a Diplomacy -- you need a 6 or higher with your +10 -- I just want to see whether Maquent or Radanna Scalth are intrigued enough with your tall Tiefling to voluntarily add something to something your PC said, not to them, but rather to other PCs.
@ Lady Sabella Arvanxi,
I started looking at your PC a while ago but, admittedly, it's been a stressful day all day and I just don't wanna do the work of looking at Crunch right now. My eyes a dry and I just want to sleep (it's not even 4:30 pm) and have some relaxation. But what I did see on your sheet was good (maybe could use a bit more firepower for when we get into fights, but that's fine; we have a very large group full of combat ready casters and fighters). .... Although you do see why I wanted to nail down the Lore: Mephistopheles part before Pythoness House. The two proprietors worship The Merchant of Souls.
PERCEPTION CHECK Everyone!
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Keep roleplaying, of course, with Mistress Maquent and Madame Radanna Scalth.
But in the meantime, can you see me?....
This is Low Light Conditions!
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(Today is Tuesday; I'll roll for Perception for those who haven't by Wednesday evening. There's no rush, time for dialogue roleplay with the fortune tellers is fine.)
8 ranks +3 trained +2 wis+2 favored terrain (urban)
Follow up questions regarding the rat - assuming I broke Line of Sight and thus could use stealth (say by walking away down the street and around the corner, while the others visited the Pythoness House, then used my climb speed to go up wall and onto the rooftops) - is there enough cover to sneak up on said Rat and try to grab it (before it disappears down one of innumerable hiding holes..) ? Or do I have to come up with something cleverer if I want to have a 'chat' with our spy...
Edited last post in gameplay to include perception
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Heh, I'm a prepared spell caster. Those are the spells I prepared for an investigation.
I'll have more combat oriented spells when necessary.
Mishanter sees one cloaked figure dropping the eaves of your conversation with the Mephistophelean ladies of Pythoness House. K'tak does not.
Keep the dialogue going with Maquent and Radanna Scalth as we get the perception checks attempted vs my two NPCs' stealth. And any stuff with the Rat.
....I'll post more tomorrow; I'm too sleepy for now. For those in the know, gold took a big hit today and I lost a lot.
Okay, I'm confused, why are so many people rolling skill checks here in the discussion thread? Shouldn't they all be in game?
Shouldn't this all be in game?
Edit: I legit thought Ray's call for perception checks here in the discussion thread was a joke, him just sort of messing around while the RP takes place, but apparently he was serious...
....I'll post more tomorrow; I'm too sleepy for now. For those in the know, gold took a big hit today and I lost a lot.
Sorry to hear that but you only lost if you sell now. Hold onto it and see what happens.
Yeah, I like to try to keep as much non-roleplaying in Discussion -- I figured I'd ask for Perception in Discussion as, at least at the time, I couldn't think of a way to roleplay the request in Gameplay.
On that note, please if you all will try, put your dice rolls under Spoiler tags whenever you can. I mentioned it early in Recruitment but you know, that was forever ago it seems. It's not the end of the universe, of course, I just like the idea of Gameplay being able to read smoothly -- let's say weeks and weeks later when one is looking for a bit of dialogue to remind him or her of earlier information, or even just reading it like some kind of gaming fiction. It's never gonna be perfectly 'smooth,' but the more we can put dice under spoilers and use Discussion for all the meta and non-roleplay stuff, the more I kinda like it.
@ Gold,
Yeah, gold is my nine-to-five. I own a gold shop and was panicking because all the gold I bought Monday, well, by Tuesday, was worth less than I paid for it, and had that trend continued, I could be in trouble. Just stress. No big deal.
@ K'tak,
I'm going to give a bit more time for anyone who may want to also say or do something before roleplaying your second Perception after Mishanter's message.
Sorry for the delay, I've been caught up with work!
*Edit* - I casted Dimension Door to get a couple folks to the roof. Didn't want to unilaterally decide who goes, so the first two people to jump through the Dimension Door get to be up there!
K'tak has a further +2 to init for favored terrain, thus he's on 13 not 11...
I have left the D-Door as someone else probably wants it more than I.
Surprise Round:
Move action; I have a 20' climb speed. From the description I am not within range for a partial charge. The intent is to close to 15' (ie not 5' step and full attack unless they have reach; I have lunge mind you and intend to take advantage of that on round 1). (Also note that with a racial climb speed, I am not denied my dex while climbing)
1 ranks +3 trained +6 str +8 racial
Hi All, I did a full audit on all of my currently active builds, and Pär is actually illegal.
What is wrong:
--Pär has 1 feat too many with a 6+ BAB requirement, he currently has Vital Strike, unhindering shield and lunge, all of which have the requirement, and can only (because he popped his fighter level and thus got the bonus feat at char level 8)
--We can probably handwave it as having retraind into at some point, otherwise I would swap out lunge for an extra revelation.
I may multiclass into a bard after level 10 or a Skald!
Um. That's not how DDoor works:
It has a duration of instantaneous, so there's no 'leaving the door behind for others to make use of it'.
If the caster wishes for others to be teleported, they need to be touching one another, and at least one of them must be touching the caster.
Also, I thought the creeper who was pointed out to us was up in the chandelier? Yet, ya'll are goin up to the roof?
You guys can reasonably assumed to be mostly adjacent. Two PCs (Muziel's maximum # of friends) acting in the Surprise Round can grab Muziel's hand if they so wish. But of course not in Rd 1.
....And I'm so very glad that I'm not the one who is pointing out that combat doesn't necessarily have to break out. I mean, 'maybe' the NPCs on the roof are about to start blasting Bladed Barriers, Disintigrates, Chain Lightnings and Mounted Charge with a Lance. But maybe not.
Hope there wasn't too bad of a confusion on the guys being on the roof instead of ceiling. I thought I was clear, but you know how that goes....
@ Lady Valeria,
A moment ago you used Diplomacy and Oratory to calm the NPCs, your higher result a 23. I feel we have to use that result for the situation at hand. I acknowledge that irl it's been over a day and you're enthusiastic about trying again, but several of the PCs are still in their first actions of roleplay (or rollplay). (Consider also that, technically, the Diplomacy attempt such as you're rolling requires ten rounds. Of course, No DM in the history of the universe has ever sat through ten friggin rounds of full-on Initiative before allowing a Diplomacy check, myself included!). But neither can I go for two attempts in two rounds.
Apologies I can delete
Or disregard it as It timed out for me to do it
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Art will spend round 1 getting people inside as appropriate and will parry/riposte with her cestus if attacked, but is considering the pythoness house employees allies at this time in need of protection/soothing not hostiles. If you need a roll for something in the interim, please feel free to roll it.
If a rooftop chase breaks out we can vamp with the npcs while it is resolved.
While I know combat broke out, Sabella is still waiting on a hopeful reply to her questions.