Elliot, the Red Heron's page

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. I apologize for dropping out on everyone as I ended up doing; a lot of things have happened. I came back here mostly to apologize and announce my official retirement from PBP, so no one has to wonder, if anyone was wondering, what happened.

For those that are wondering: I'm basically recovering from burn-out after a very rough four or five months consisting of a legal battle vs a fraudulent tax-enforcement agency I *eventually* won, a period of very high work load of work and the daily tasks of having to take care of two small children by myself. In between everything I just had no more time for a lot of things, including PBP. While I do enjoy PBP, I've slowly been forced to realize I simply don't have the required time for it anymore like I used to; it had become another obligation of which the massive time investment, especially for a mythic campaign, didn't weigh up against the fun and relaxation I experienced for doing it. This isn't anyone's fault; it's just life critting me in the face I suppose. You're all great writers and I wish you all the best; thanks for having me in this campaign. This group has some of the best writers I've seen in the roughly 10000 posts I was in and I will miss the good times we had here while demon slaying. I apologize for the trouble my absence has caused and hope the rest of the campaign goes smoothly to everyone.

If it is relevant to anyone, I do not mind if the campaign wants to continue using Elliot in some way. He will do his best to support everyone, especially Verene and Merixia. If anyone wants to take over control of him, that is fine by me. For the story, maybe with his mobility and flight he could be a messenger of sorts between the group and the rest of the crusader.

Kind regards,
Trevor/Elliot

p.s. I noticed a few people have sent me pm's in over these months, i'll respond to those individually if the above does not cover it.

Reading back up now, a lot of things happened. But will get a post up at least to break inactivity and get into the habit of it again.

Hey everyone, apologies for the silence. I've thought about it and in the end i would like to continue playing (if that is all right with everyone including our new gm). Speaking of which, Thanks lila for taking over the GM role. I have a lot of backtrack reading to do in the discussion it seems but i will try to get to it asap.

Hey everyone, apologies for my silence these last weeks. I've been on a series of vacations, but truthfully that doesn't really play a part in my inactivity. Three weeks ago I was in a car crash and while I got out mostly unscathed, it was the sort of thing that could have gone very badly if my luck hadn't held (a truck's cargo flew out across the highway at high speeds and many - like me - couldn't evade the plank fragments; lots of cars crashed into eachother at similarly high speeds). Without trying to sound overly dramatic, it was the sort of thing that makes you reevaluate what your priorities are and what you want to do with your limited time.

I'm... not sure whether I want to continue PBP in general. Like Sensen, part of it is that I've fallen out of love with Golarion and 1st edition pathfinder over the last nine years of me playing it. The pace of PBP stories is also glacial even on well-running campaigns and, more importantly, it takes a disproportionate amount of time to partake. But most critically, it probably worsens my main problem in life, which is loneliness. That is something I've struggled with since the fallout of my divorce a few years ago and something I've found very hard to fix while also taking care of my other real life responsibilities (work and family matters). Currently, my resolve is to drop what hobbies I have that are indoors/PC bound to replace them entirely with things that might assist in building a more healthy social circle. And the one that normally takes the most time is being active in PBP.

While I agree readily with everyone that this is an amazing group of writers and that all of you are probably similarly amazing people in real life, it is very unlikely that we will ever meet face-to-face, and even if we would, it cannot replace having an actual group of friends nearby.

On the other hand, I also don't really want to say goodbye to this group for reasons already stated by others, which leaves me in a weird limbo. I don't currently have a solution that would work both angles. As such... I guess I'll see if we can find a GM first, to buy some time and see if some other initiatives work out first, maybe. Sorry if this is all a bit heavy for a PBP hobby forum but I do want to be honest about where I stand.

"Elliot, mind helping me put it on?" Clad only in her underwear, the cleric begins removing her new armor from the statue.

"Of course, my love." Elliot says, finding it a bit difficult to relax just then. He was overly aware of how vulnerable Meri might be to a sudden attack dressed in only her underclothes - and of how he was supposed to both guard and help her without staring too much with everyone else around.

As was often the case, the expanse of magical knowledge that had formed in his mind since the wardstone explosion provided a solution. Delicately he drew upon its mythical powers and traced the arcane symbols in the air with his free hand, upon which the various components of the fullplate began floating around Merixia. Listening to her instructions and modifications, he directed as them gently and precisely as he could while the armor attached itself to her form.

In seconds, Merixia was fully armored in the shining mithral platemail. "It looks beautiful on you, Meri." The magus says, breath taken by the sight. "Though, you'd obviously look good in anything." The magus smiles warmly until the reality of the situation caught up on his sentiment. "Ah... we should probably get a move on, right? Make the most of the time we have with our spells intact to clear out more enemies."

Since donning a fullplate takes four minutes normally, Elliot will use Mythic Power to cast Swift Girding to bypass this and equip it instantly on Meri. RP aspects aside, 4 minutes of bufftime on everyone's spells is a lot and probably worth the cast.

Helping his sister detect magics, Elliot then takes the cautious approach to simply shoot each armor and statue with his rarely used crossbow. "If it can't take a bolt from a nonmagical bow, it's not worthy of guarding Meri's life." The magus reasons, figuring doing it like this would test both the quality of the armor and the presence of mimics at the same time, without risking damaging the armor by magic.

No, I haven't. It's been two weeks since their last post in game, so it hasn't been *that* long though, I guess?

Heads up that I'll be going on a series of vacations over the coming three weeks, so my posting rate will be lower. I will probably be able to post where I go but not as fast.

I like the rp in this group as usual; we've had a lot of talented and entertaining writers from the start. Honestly though i would like to move on more and regain some tempo. I feel like we have been waiting a very long time to resolve getting the fake sword of valor and we also have a lot left to do after that for this book. As such the campaign seems to have stalled and i think the lack of tempo is a large risk factor in retaining player interest and being able to continue.

This is not meant as critique, but a worry from my end. Viewed in another light, that we are talking a lot amongst ourselves can be viewed as a necessesity as there is little for us to react to.

""Elliot, I love you with all my heart, but why would you put that cursed image in my mind?"

"Ah, well, it's just that there's been mentions of door mimics in certain historical writings, so it only makes sense they could also-... Oh, I've done it again, haven't I?" He gives an embarassed chuckle. "Maybe you're right and it's best to just hope mimics never get even more creative."

Catching his sister's words on the way out, he nods. "Note to self: poke the mattress and bedroll with Eclipse at least once every night before sleep..."

"Yeah, let's. Those armors aren't going to collect themselves. Er, well, assuming they're not part of the mimics waiting for us there, that is." Elliot responds, then winces. "Yuck. I really don't want to imagine some poor sod getting eaten by their own armor. That's probably the second worst way to go after a toilet mimic."

Elliot grins good-naturedly. "When are we NOT swarmed by angry cultists and demons?" He says as the group heads to the next room.

I guess we're taking her weapon and otherwise leaving her unconscious and bleeding, yet stable, on the floor.

The magus shrugs. "Okay. I can see that it might be safer and easier to just leave her on the ground as is. Perhaps the enemy will figure her dead, should they merely glance into the room. Let's continue on to our actual objective while our spells last."

"Yeah. We probably can't take her with us right now. But... she reminded me of you, Meri - when you get angry. Even if it turns out that she isn't mind-controlled, I... don't think I could ever bring myself to kill her."

The shapeshifted magus walks forward and drags her weapon to the bag of holding, where he then slides it in. Being both small inherently lacking of physical strength had its downsides, after all. "Okay. Off to the armors in this vault of the fake Sword, then?"

Belated happy 4th of july for the Americans!

On the last post, it seems mine got partially eaten by the website. But if the 23 hits, which it might with it being a raging barbarian caught in a web, Elliot would deal 142 nonlethal damage. However, he is doing his best not to kill her. So if she faints after any attack, he stops attacking at that point.

"Everyone, please show some restraint if you can. There is clearly something wrong with her mind." Elliot concludes, then does his best to subdue the restrained barbarian non-lethally. He aimed his cuts precisely, striking to delibilate rather than execute her.

Attack (reach 10, assumes Thesius steps aside before or after attacking), spell combat + frostbite, full attack, +2 arcane enhancement (uses 1/6 arcane point for +2 extra enhancement bonus), -4 nonlethal: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (8) + 15 = 23
nonlethal magic slashing damage, AE+2, flagbearer +1: 1d4 + 15 ⇒ (1) + 15 = 16
frostbite nonlethal cold: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

Attack 2 (spellstrike/spell combat)(reach 10), spell combat + frostbite, full attack, +2 arcane enhancement (uses 1/6 arcane point for +2 extra enhancement bonus), -4 nonlethal: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (16) + 15 = 31
nonlethal magic slashing damage, AE+2, flagbearer +1: 1d4 + 15 ⇒ (4) + 15 = 19
frostbite nonlethal cold: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13

attack 3, iterative: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27
nonlethal magic slashing damage, AE+2, flagbearer +1: 1d4 + 15 ⇒ (3) + 15 = 18
frostbite nonlethal cold: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Crit confirm attack 2: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (17) + 15 = 32
extra nonlethal crit damage: 1d4 + 15 ⇒ (1) + 15 = 16
extra nonlethal cold damage: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Crit confirm attack 3: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27
extra nonlethal crit damage: 1d4 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17
extra nonlethal cold damage: 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

If one attack hits, she is fatigued and entangled. I think the fatigue might force her out of rage, unsure)

"This is the first time we've set foot in this room, I swear in the Dawnflower's name. We are knights of the fifth crusade and have had no part in killing these men and women. We have, however, killed many cultists and demons. If you are with them, I suggest you lay down your arms and surrender. Staunton lies dead. We do not wish to hurt you but won't pull our punches if you choose to attack."

Intimidate: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (1) + 18 = 19

It sounded cool and self-assured in his mind, but the frog shapeshift didn't really do him any favors in cowing a seemingly enraged barbarian.

AoO if she attacks, reach 10 ft: 1d20 + 17 ⇒ (4) + 17 = 21
damage: 1d4 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Nodding to his allies as they prepared to breach the room, Elliot uses the wand of shield and stows it just prior to the assault. "Once more into the breach. May our blades strike true and our valour be remembered." He says as he hoists his sword, ready to engage whatever lay beyond.

I will update the statline later, but I believe all buffs are available except haste atm. Did someone have a spare heroism for Elliot?

Please take care, GM. We'll be here.

Apologies, my week is incredibly busy with work.

Elliot will spend 2 mp and 2 of his level 3 spellslots to cast shared training on everyone to share improved outflank and paired opportunists. He also gives himself, merixia and Azira Keen Edge so that they have double crit rates for 80 min. Finally he uses reduce person, shield from his wand and weapon tutor's spirit on himself.

That's all his relevant buffs i believe.

Yeah, we should probably get back to the dungeon to get some tempo back. It feels like we're meandering a bit. Maybe that will help in keeping everyone engaged.

Oh, I see. Apologies, i must have remembered incorrectly. Does Verene have a MP point left to teleport in everyone at once? Otherwise we might have to use the dimension door wand and ferry it back and forth to those who are still waiting.

Well okay then :) With many of our spells down, do we follow Meri's suggestion of kicking down the front down and clearing out the main entrance before heading to the fake Sword? It is probably convenient to have a normal entrance and exit. Logically, the main entrance would be the most defended but at least it is easy to retreat if things go wrong.

If I'm honest, I still don't really see why we're pushing so hard to clear the mimics out of the trap/fake Sword of Valor room, even going into the fort again with many of our spells expended with that as our main goal? I think we've had this discussion before though so if the group is still set on doing it, Elliot will withdraw his objections and do his best to support the others.

Yesterday...

"Elliot, what on earth can you mean? I have hardly spoken a word to Master Aravashnial outside of command meetings these last four or five days!"

"Really? Oh." The magus looks away. Before these things started he'd only had his adoptive sister to worry about. He'd played the role of protective brother at times if he felt the next guy trying to hit on Lyra was of the bad sort, and it usually came as a sort of relief if that didn't work out. But now... if he was honest with himself, he was... disappointed? "I must have accidentally happened upon you two at the wrong moments to the point where I'd started to assume. I'm sorry."

"So whatever you have imagined is going on, please know it is the opposite. He is being polite about it, but I think he simply does not like me, and I cannot even blame him."

At this, however, he blinks in wide-eyed surprise. "Really? Well... at the risk of making a fool of myself twice, I don't think Aravashnial dislikes you, or he wouldn't have offered to help you on the studies so often. Especially if it were true that he felt threatened on his area of expertise by you." Unsure what else to say, he turns to leave. "It's just... from what I know of the both of you, my impression is that you've both lived somewhat lonely lives laced with significant hardships. You're both great people and I believe you deserve to be happy, especially in these uncertain times." And with that, he leaves.

Today...

"I know we have a funeral to perform, Keystones in need of magical liberation, and that spells will be needed for this morning's communication, but I still firmly believe that we need to continue pressing the attack."

"I understand where you're coming from, Azira, and part of me feels the same way. However, yesterday I almost died twice in the span of minutes, and that was with us going in with all our magical protections active as well as succesfully catching the demons off-guard. I just don't feel like going in with having both our casters out of all or most of their spells is a very wise idea. Unless the majority of the group feels otherwise," Elliot responds, offering his opinion. "Though, if we don't need to worry about prisoners to get out, that would make leaving and entering easier."

Reading the list of expended spells from the Sendings and dispel magics on the Keystones I just don't think it's a good idea to go that same day TBH.

Wand rescharge dimension door wand: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10

Dimension door wand charges to 25/50

Wand recharge, Dimension door: 1d10 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Wand of Dimension door charges 15/50 .

Once rested, the previous day, Elliot assists his sister recharging the wand. He is about to finish retraining his arcana with his master as he hesitates - holding this wand gave him some ideas for practical applications in combat. "Verene? Do you mind if I hold onto this while we're fighting in the castle? I think it can be used for more than just getting us in and out quickly."

I just realised, with us having found a dimension door wand and both Verene and Elliot able to keep its charges high, Elliot can use Spell Combat to semi-permanently teleport-pounce full attacks into enemies, by activating the teleport before doing the full attack. Which would take his Wand Wielder magus arcana from never used/kinda useless to really powerful.

Afterwards, he joins Merixia for dinner and takes it easy the rest of the day, enjoying what remained of it in the mess tent with the soldiers and the stories shared around the fires in the night.

The next day, he joins his Sister for her rounds as they visit Nurah, Joran, Akravesh and the previously captured cultists and Tieflings to see whether they could nudge some of them back to more noble lives.

diplomacy assists: 3d20 ⇒ (8, 3, 2) = 13 Poor Elliot is so terrible at actually converting people back desbite being a Sarenrite.

At some point, he takes a deep breath. "Hey... sis? I've been wondering. It seems that lately, whenever I seek out either of you, you and Master Aravashnial are almost always spending time together. Is... there something... um, going on between you?"

Sorry, I'm here. Just had a lot to deal with mostly with work-related matters but also that my brother's health took a hit and I needed to be there for him. He's fine now though (I hope). Also, I may have missed something to respond to and If I had, sorry. I tried parsing through everything but the meticulous level of detail and planning is a bit hard to keep up with for me OOC.

That aside, thanks for your concern @Merixia :) My wrist is fully healed now though and I've started trying to get back in shape from my break from fitness. It seems to function better than before surgery so overall the procedure was a succes :) The hard part is trying not to overdo it...

Elliot does his best to remain cogniscent of the further proceedings of the meeting, but it is clear to anyone paying any real attention that the magus is completely spent and struggling to keep up, showing obvious lapses in concentration like nodding along but asking for a repeat of what was said a few moments later. Yet, if he were completely honest with himself, the level of meticulous planning and spellcraft on display here was probably beyond him even on a good day. Maybe if he had continued focusing purely on the arcane could he have offered some worthwhile support to Verene and Merixia in their communication efforts with the Queen... but that ship had sailed. Now, all he could really do was to protect them as they made their preparations.

Regarding the succubus, he similarly has little to add. The suggestions for communication and camp protection were all good. "...Maybe we are overthinking our approach on this Arueshalae? If I were her, regardless of whether I were truly wanting to convert from my demonic ways or just an intended spy to be inserted among us, the last place I would want to go is an active warzone between the demonic and crusader forces. Everyone here is pretty much guaranteed to be on edge and there is a lot of fighting taking place. It's hard to think of a *less* safe place for a demon to be in. If we want to meet her, the best thing to do seems to be to simply win the fight here and establish order, then wait for her to contact us. Or perhaps Thesius, as Desna's chosen, can pray to his patron for guidance on how to find her. If she is truly a worshipper of her, perhaps Desna herself is willing to bring her to us. I know, I know. Perhaps it is crazy and perhaps I am overstepping a line to assume anything from a god. However, these events have all been extroardinary, and each of us *has* already had contact with our respective patrons. Assuming our shared dreams back in Kenabres were real."

When the meeting is dismissed, Elliot feels relieved, intending to rest his weary bones straight away even if it was but midday. He does his best to straighten and smile to Merixia when she approaches him to help cleaning with her armor which he...

Willpower: 1d20 ⇒ 15

...Does manage to do, squeezing pretty much the last bit of energy he had into cleaning it for her. There was still a certain shyness to the magus as he helped her get out of it, which felt like a strangely intimate act to perform alone with his girlfriend, even if it was technically entirely functional. "Here. I think I got everything with the cantrip," he eventually says, trying to keep the blue fumes from his hair. "I... need a bit of rest now but maybe we can, ah, go for a spar tonight or such?"

Elliot obviously wants to spend more alone time with her, ooc though I am fine with this happening off-screen as I don't want to hold up the story and there is a lot left to be done in this siege.

I'll be honest, it sounds as if you're going through some greatly positive change in your life and that you feel as if the time you spend on the forums is detracting from that and/or is not productive or meaningful enough compared to the effort it takes to run the games. I can understand such sentiments; while writing PBP is fun, it ultimately doesn't really get you much else for your time; you (unfortunately) very rarely get to know new/other people on more than a surface level and whether you become a better writer depends on if the other writers are good enough to teach you new things.

In your position, if I felt running PBP games was disproportionally draining to the enjoyment I got from them, especially with my life heading into a more positive direction, I would cut back on my time spent on PBP and embrace this change instead. If you can do that and continue to juggle real life and running these games, that is great for us as players. If not though, I would understand since real life should always take priority. I would, however, still greatly miss this group of writers if that was the end of the campaign.

One final thing or alternative you could perhaps do, if you do want to step away from it, is find a replacement GM to take over the game. But that could be done by us/the players as a group as well.

It's a difficult thing to struggle with and i hear you, gm. We all pay for participating in PBP's with our limited time and running them takes a lot more of it than being a player. I'll echo the others though in that i feel this group of writers is easily one of the best I have seen in the seven years I've done thi and I would be sad to see it end.

For concrete advice, do you enjoy these extended RP/planning sessions with the crusader command? They can probably be shortened quite a bit. For combats, not every fight *has* to be challenging to mythic pc's so maybe merging a few and otherwise sticking to some templates? It might also save time to call a fight when the enemy is near-defeated. DBH, another great gm on the forums of whom i've been a player in some of his campaigns is very good at maintaining tempo and he might be willing to give you some advice - i can ask him if you wish.

One other time saver i can think of is moving the campaign from the paizo forums to discord. Discord has a much quicker and more user friendly way of making posts and rolling dice as well as being doable with a phone by anyone from wherever they are in spare moments, rather than having to sit down at a PC to do them all at once with a lot of macro's involved.

I.e. To roll a d20, the discord command is ".r 1d20+x" without the parenthesis and #(something) following that immediately says what that roll is for. Tou can also switch between dialogue and non dialogue by putting dialogue between ** and ** instead of having to paste ['b] and [/b'] everywhere.

"So... we continue our assault on the castle... when exactly? Are we putting it on hold for until after we do the sendings? Opposition in the castle was fierce. We would be going in with either reduced spells or less wardstone power to make this magically possible. Unless we rest multiple days." Elliot says, thinking that, by the goddess, he could sure use that right about now. Maybe when he woke up, he would be more alert to follow the strategizing - and maybe more able to digestief the shoking implications of non-evil succubi.

"I am so, so relieved Verene is on our side rather than the demons," Elliot thinks as the planning phase continues. "Iomedae, what could you have possibly been thinking when you considered her unworthy...? I once thought it was because you needed her as a wizard. But... what if her hate turned her to evil? Were you really so desperate to want to take that chance?"

"But I see no reason why we shouldn't allow Verene to study it when she's able. I would be willing to help, for that matter."

"I'm sure you would be, master," The magus tiredly thinks, glancing between him and his sister. "Surely I am not imagining things... right?"

Of course, that was the exact moment he started hearing voices in his head.

"I..." It trails off for a few moments. "I would like to spare it. There's something... I don't know. Forgive me."

"You're more attracted to Soulshear than Radiance...? Well, I guess we all have our tastes. Kind of problematic to fall for an evil artefact during a siege just after we killed its master and it being our prisoner now, but hey. I can see the thrill. Don't worry, I'll do this subtly." Elliot thinks back to his sword, then speaks up. "Actually, Eclipse wishes to spare Soulshear for... reasons. It can't fully explain why, except that there is something about it." He shrugs. "Best case scenario is probably that it can be cleansed somehow. Or maybe it is sentient too and guidable back to the light. Hmm... maybe Soulshear was corrupted in that forge in the journal here..." he finishes, pointing to the entry as it comes up.

"There. Smooth as butter. Plausible deniability - you're welcome, my friend."

"With some luck, he wrote down information on the exact demonic and cultist forces in the region. Or the actual location of the Sword and how it is defended," Elliot muses as Thesius continues studying Staunton's Journal.

Elliot stands by in the back, nodding along with the coversation. His exhaustion was wearing on him, having used up both all of his magic and wardstone power in the span of less than ten minutes. He felt like he could lie down in his tent and sleep for days straight. "I agree we should hide the glaive if we can't destroy it immediately. And... while I can't deny really wanting to rest, I am curious as to what information Vhane had written down in his journal." The magus looks at Thesius expectantly, wondering what the bard would find.

Sorry, a side question, what about Vhane's armor? Did we recover that? Can it be resized magically? I believe there was a spell for such.

"A few minor injuries - you've exhausted a lot of healing, I assume."

Elliot's hair flares blue at this, covered in his own blood as he was. There were more than a few times today where it felt there was more of him on the outside than on the inside. He'd definitely overdone it today, underestimating the enemy and overestimating himself. It wasn't behavior worthy of a champion, to say nothing of a chosen by a goddess. At least, though, he had subdued every humanoid enemy non-lethally, given multiple chances to all of them to surrender and mostly kept Merixia and his sister from harm by taking the front. Or so he told himself.

Trying to keep his fatigue and disappointment over his performance in check, he nods at Azira's, Verene's and Thesius' endorsements of Jhoran and Nurah, but, having nothing to really add to the very detailed report from Thesius and Verene, he remains silent.

Until Verene identifies the True Resurrection elixir. He remembered the words spoken among the group so long ago beneath Kenabres, on what to do if the chance to restore the fallen Guardian was ever in their grasp. "If- if it is truly that powerful... could we use it to return Terendelev to life? We have her scales with us. Surely she could assist the crusade during this siege?" The magus wonders.

Reading True resurrection, it seems as if just sprinkling it on one of her scales should Resurrect her fully. I'm not sure if Elliot would know the details of level 9 divine magic, though.

I am in favor of finishing a thorough search in the office here and then getting out to rest and report.

Yeah, good point Merixia. To succeed on Raise Dead they would need an intact body. If they have resurrection... well, then we realitstically couldn't really stop it :)

On the mimics, it seems very unlikely there is significant treasure there. Why would the demons and cultists leave it in a room that is specifically designed to be a trap for us? They already have the fake Sword of Valor there to lure us in. It just seems unneccesarily risky for very questionable gain.

"I... think someone disturbed his remains, though I'm not fully sure. It's hard to estimate how much of him is still here and what might be missing," Elliot says to Nurah and the others, wincing as he looks at Jhoran. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive. However, the demons would only need some small part of him to resurrect him, if that is their plan. And if it is, they might have gotten away with it while we were elsewhere. Maybe we should take the rest of Staunton's remains with us so this cannot happen again. It also might boost the crusader's morale to see one of the enemy commanders beaten." We can probably gather the remains in a bag/bedroll and add that to the bag of holding for later use/destruction?

The magus' fatigue is clear as the party moves into the office. "Let's search this place quickly and withdraw for today as we planned."

"Well, so long as Staunton is dead, we did well enough. If they're merely animating the dead, they should be much weaker the second time around. And you need very expensive components to fully resurrect the dead back to normal. I wouldn't suspect the demons keep many diamonds worth many thousands of gold just lying around for a rainy day. And then, even if they did, they would still need more powerful magic and large amounts of diamond dust to get back to full health," Elliot says, then freezes as he gets a dreadful feeling of foreboding. "Wait. If the Tieflings are missing, what about Staunton? " Should his body not be in sight, he looks into the adjacent room where the dwarf fell, ready for anything.

Staunton was killed in the room adjacent to his study, so his body should be there. He's also very recognizable I assume. Is he missing?

Elliot continues watching the doors, still expecting another demon attack at any moment while the discussion progressed. He paces about uneasily and is relieved when the wand provides a workable way out for the prisoners.

"Agreed, Thesius. Let's fall back to Staunton's office first. Whatever is behind that wall was made to be a trap. Whatever is in his office is something they probably do not want us to have or know." He reasons, and behind heading back towards Vhane's office.

Going to push to the office a bit, I don't see why we should risk willingly walking into an essentially trapped room containing a false Sword. Since we know it is a trap, we can assume the demons will leave it intact for us to walk into the next day.

My preference would be the wand to get the prisoners out. It depends on how many charges it has but between Verene and Elliot we can easily recharge it over time.

Also Elliot will wait to see what Thesius finds but he would advise extreme caution since we know the area of the sword had mimics and they can disguise as anything.

"I'm not sure we should start another fight with that succubus just having ran away, even if it's mimics and we know where they are," Elliot figures, watching the door warily, even though he had no idea where she had truly teleported to. "I'd say we instead drag these people with us and withdraw, perhaps also searching Staunton's office if it is near here on the way out. We've done enough for the day. Staunton is dead. The prisoners we came to rescue are still alive and in our custody. This is where we shouldn't push our luck and get Jhoran and everyone else to safety. We know the Sword kept here is fake so there is no reason to risk ourselves needlessly."

So what exactly is our exit strategy? Can Verene teleport us out again? What about the prisoners? Can we stoneshape an exit through one of the walls or such? If it matters Elliot can probably just fly out of the crack in the wall we used to get inside here.

Good call. Though really it is moot either way. Meri can definitely knock that guy flat on their ass on her own without any backup too.

Ah, ok. Np. I'll delete all attacks after the first.

Elliot's eyes widen as he realizes he'd just almost killed an innocent. Demons and their cruel trickery. He shakes it off, thankful he'd kept the enchantment on his weapon going, and attacks the two remaining targets with his enlarged range. "You only make this harder upon yourself. All we seek is a peaceful resoltion with you. Surely you can see now that one of your own was a demon disguised." He says to the remaining two keystones.

All right, scratch that post then, I'll try having Elliot full attack with the macro, here goes...

All right, some good news: with the anaesthesia gone and the thumb out of the plaster with good enough range of motion, I can probably manage simple posts from the phone. Wouldn't be able to run Elliot through a combat with that but I should be able to then edit thepost upstairs by copy pasting the combat macro's into combat posts. Please don't expect fancy editing or citation but it should be good enough to avoid having to be botted.

Edit: Ah, Ninja'd by Thesius :) I'll save myself the trouble tonight then. Thanks again.

Posting with one hand: Thanks everyone. @Verene/Thesius go ahead and bot. Surgery went well. Waiting out recovery.

Posting this to all of my campaigns: I will undergo surgery on my wrist tomorrow the 19th (it was planned for a while, old boxing incident. I just didn't think of posting it here yet, apologies). It is my dominant hand and I cannot use it for a while afterwards. The expected recovery time is somewhere between 1 and 3 weeks, during which I cannot use the hand and posting will be very difficult. As such I'm giving everyone permission to agressively bot my characters during this time period. I will still read the forums but any posts I can make will be very short and shouldn't be waited for/expected.

I'll post a basic attack macro for Elliot here and in his profile:

All those rolls and i forgot to roll spell resistance still... here, assuming fake iomedae is an evil outsider, take higher of each pair for the attacks 1-3:

vs sr: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (13) + 14 = 27
vs sr: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21

vs sr: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30
vs sr: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (18) + 14 = 32

vs sr: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (15) + 14 = 29
vs sr: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19

If they take any cold damage from frostbite, it is entangled + fatigued next to the potential frightened (from the crit enforcer effect). The magus crits also double the frostbite damage due to spellstrike, which should help get through cold dr.