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Amy snaps her fingers, and Zoren and J'Victus are filled with a sudden surge of confidence. She then rises through the air, ending about 30 feet above Artur.
As the mage begins to cast, the rest of the battlefield fades into a blur in Amy's vision, her focus narrowing as she tracks her enemy's motions with an expert eye.
There. Even as the words of the spell leave the mage's lips, Amelia has begun to swoop down over the heads of her allies, drawing a sprinkle of licorice root from her pouch as she responds with a spell of her own. "Festina," she mutters, before rising back into the sky.
Amelia watches from above as her companions draw their weapons and trade threats. Shrugging, she pulls a small handful of pistachios from her pouch. Then she whispers down to the party through the active message spell, "So... are we fighting now, or what?"
"Okay, yeah, if we get started with the burning and the slashing and such I don't think any of this is bound to end well," Amelia calls down. "For any of us, I mean." She pauses. "But mostly for you guys. Sure you don't want to take the easy way out?"
Yeah, Amy will have similar problems with spells like confusion and glitterdust. Not having a map is kind of frustrating, but I suppose we can always just say "I place my spell to hit the most enemies possible without hitting any allies" and let the GM figure it out. Seems like a map might be easier all around, though.
The seconds stretch on as the two groups face off... until Amelia breaks the tense silence, calling down from above. "C'mon guys, we're all just being a little dramatic. We can talk about this, right?"
Amelia slips off her hat of disguise, reverting to her invisible form. She then soars through the doorway and over the heads of the mob, ending about 15 feet in the air. "I'm ready for damage control," she whispers through the group's message, with a slight tone of exasperated amusement.
GM: Nice, added the extra hp.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense - in fact, I'm counting on it. If Amy gets hit with some sort of powerful enchantment, her familiar will always be able to take over the wheel and get them to safety. I was originally thinking that Amelia left her actual body behind when she went off adventuring - you can take a look at her background in the initial recruitment here. But given what you've said, I think she'll just bring it along with her in an extradimensional sace. Since the twin soul ability works similarly to spells like magic jar, which says that "your body is, as near as anyone can tell, dead," it looks like breathing shouldn't be an issue. She'll swap out her handy haversack for a bag of holding type I to make room. Antimagic field will definitely be a threat - do you think it would just suppress her ability to control her familiar, like protection from evil does, or would it actually eject her back into her own body? As for threefold aspect, this way of handling it is actually a nice boost, since now the physical ability score penalties will apply to her original body instead. Her body has been mostly paralyzed from a chronic illness, so definitely "gravely injured," but it's stable enough that I don't expect it to die anytime soon. Oh, nice catch on the spell resistance. I wasn't thinking about that at all, since the familiar ability said "another spellcaster must...", but you're right that it would probably interfere with her own spellcasting as well. Outside of combat, it seems like her familiar could take over the body, then on its next turn lower it's spell resistance as a standard action and relinquish control as a move action so Amy can cast the spell without interference. And then during combat, she can just roll for it. Does that work for you? Sure, I'd be happy to add statblocks for her and her familiar's unmerged bodies. And yeah, this is a pretty wacky build, I wanted to try something out-of-the-box - so whatever I can do to make it simpler to manage, just say the word. As for the ioun stones, I believe she picked Spellcraft and Use Magic Device.
I'm ready to get started whenever.
Almost done. Need suggestions for final level 3 spell known. Should I go confusion or good hope? Amy typically prepares a couple confusions, so good hope might be nice for some variety.
I think everything's pretty much ready for me. By the way, what'll be happening with the characters from players who are now absent?
Ooh, I could take Evolved Familiar (skilled) for a +8 bonus to Perception or Stealth. Hmm...
I think everything's in pretty good shape for me! Unless anyone has any suggestions on feats or hexes to grab, since the edits opened up a couple of slots. I was thinking of just going with Spell Focus/Spell Penetration, but it might be nice to find something a bit more interesting.
I'm here, and I think the character's all ready to go.
Still here!
Sounds good.
Good to hear!
Yeah, I'd be fine with converting everything before we start.
Wonderful! I'm still here, and I'll keep an eye out for further developments.
I'm also a player in this game, and I'm excited for the possibility of continuing the adventure with a new GM.
Still here!
I agree, I think Fuego's been acting fine. Note that Amelia, being chaotic good, isn't going to raise a fuss over most combat casualties - these people are trying to capture and kill us, and sometimes things get messy. She's just not really a fan of the whole "righteous execution" mindset. It might be best for both information-gathering efficiency and moral consensus if Amy just opened with a mass charm person on the mob. Would anyone object to that course of action? I don't want to feel like I'm cutting off opportunities for combat if that's what the party wants.
Amelia slips off her hat of disguise, reverting to her invisible form. She then soars through the doorway and over the heads of the mob, ending about 15 feet in the air. "I'm ready for damage control," she whispers through the group's message, with a slight tone of exasperated amusement.
Amy frowns. "Hmm, it seems like somethings not quite - " She stops suddenly and looks up with an expression of dawning realization. "Oh! We must have entered the region of extradimensional distortion surrounding Dragon Mountain. I must say, I didn't expect it to be so soon." She turns to face the rest of the group. "Well, we now know three things. First, we're not going to waste time going after Arik. Second, this distortion didn't completely cut off our contact the outside world - my scrying still worked fine. And third," her face breaks into a grin, "we've been going in the right direction. Anyone want to ask around, figure out where to head from here?"
Bestow curse can hand out total amnesia if necessary, which would have the advantage of giving him a fresh start to live a different life. But I'll be fine with whatever the group decides
Amelia's not a fan of the death option, and marooning him on an island would probably end up with the same result. I'm also not sure how effective the jail would be at Harker's Ferry. Amy's top choice would probably be a memory wipe, or maybe something with dominate person. We should probably just cross that bridge when we come to it.
We could go today - it would only take me 15 minutes of preparation, since I left a 5th level spell slot open for just that purpose. Although we'd have to wait until tomorrow if we want to teleport back.
"Sounds like a plan, I'll get the spell ready." If no one objects, Amelia stops moving and begins to concentrate, keeping an eye on Arik as long as the spell lasts.
"All I can do from here is send messages and scan for magical auras, and even that's spotty at best. Teleportation could work, though."
"Huh," Amelia remarks to any party members who accompany her for the final stages of her divination. "It looks like Arik's back in Harker's Ferry, eating lunch at that tavern where we met him. I wonder if...?" She trails off, but her eyes shine with curiosity. "I could try to contact him through the spell, maybe scare him into giving away some information. Or we could just let sleeping dragons lie..."
As the others negotiate meals and lodging, Amelia finds an unobtrusive location near the stables to retreat into her mind for 15 minutes, recalling the incantations needed to cast such a spell. She then sketches a quick likeness of Arik on a sheet of parchment from her bag. Finally, she begins casting the spell itself, softly chanting "oculus" as her hands trace over the surface of the stable water trough and her own silver mirror. After an hour of concentration, the spell begins to take shape.
"I can keep watch through the night," Amelia offers, "what with not sleeping and all." She looks thoughtful at the mention of the bandit leader. "I could take a shot at scrying on Arik as well - maybe find out where he is, what he's up to. Danger aside, he's probably the best lead we've got."
Amelia's fine with releasing them, so long as we take steps to ensure they don't kill people - she liked Mihail's suggestion of wiping their memory, but intimidation could work too. Anyway, it's getting dark out, so we could probably just skip to the morning and continue on our journey.
Amelia blinks in mild surprise at J'Victus' threats. "Well, that was... interesting," she whispers through the message. "Not my style, but effective - while we have them tied up, at least. I'd be happy to start wiping memories, if you're still worried about them returning to banditry." She glances up at the evening sky. "In any case, it looks like it's starting to get dark. Shall we move away from the path and set up camp for the night?"
Amy gives Fuego a dubious look. "To answer your questions: yes, yes, and social psychology."
Amelia's frown deepens. "I'm not a big fan of any conception of justice that leaves a pile of bodies behind in its wake. As for my magic, that is mine to use as I see fit, and I will never see saving lives with it as a waste." Amy begins to pace back and forth along the grass, still speaking with the group through the message. "The only question that remains, then, is whether removing their memories and freeing them is likely to result in the death of more innocent people. Given what we know of their background, banditry was a likely outcome regardless of their genetic dispositions, so their current behavior provides little axiomatic evidence of their future choices if their memories are removed." Her movement speeds up and her words begin to blur together at a heightening pace. "The conditional probability of these bandits causing future deaths is thus relatively indistinguishable from that of the general population, and the net expected value of their continued existence should be correspondingly positive or negative." She suddenly stops in her tracks, staring toward the rest of the group in awkward silence. "Or, well, um, in other words... they're just people." She meets Fuego's eye. "Are people better for the world when they're dead?"
Amelia turns to give Mihail an appraising look, as if seeing him for the first time. Her smile shifts, appearing momentarily sincere. "I like the way you think," she responds through the message. "Hmm, let's see... yeah, I should be able to handle a memory wipe without too much trouble." She frowns at Fuego's comments. "And offering to kill people for us so we don't stain our hands with blood is sort of missing the point of... well... morality."
Don't forget, Fuego, that Clara has her own paladin code to follow as well.
I accept surrender if my opponent can be redeemed—and I never assume that they cannot be. All things that live love beauty, and I will show beauty’s answer to them. Yeah, maybe we ought to think about the problem for five minutes before resorting to execution.
Amy frowns, pauses as the charmed bandit answers Fuego's questions, then chimes in with a question of her own. "Just out of curiosity, if someone were to capture a group of bandits such as yourselves and turn them in to the law, where around here do you reckon the bandits would stand the highest chance of receiving a fair trial and imprisonment?"
Amelia activates her hat of disguise, appearing out of thin air and smiling warmly at the charmed bandit. "Hmm, this leader of yours sounds very interesting, I'd love to meet him. Could you give us a name and description?" She taps her chin thoughtfully. "And any information about how many others are in your group or where you're typically based would be greatly appreciated."
Yeah, I figured that might be the most efficient way to help out the rest of the party. Between you, me, and Clara, we should be able to get haste up on everyone before most major combats.
Amelia alights beside the largest of the slumbering bandits, examining their body for anything unusual or significant.
Amy soars north to help Akarus, swooping down over the remaining bandits and snapping her fingers.
Yeah, you did sort of give away your position with the impromptu musical number.
Amy swoops down over the nearby archers, snapping her fingers softly before soaring back up into the sky.
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