Evalee Ribbinz's page

Frog isn't being super useful in this fight, so she'll just make a stabilization roll 1d20 ⇒ 15 and Racoon will fire his crossbow. 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17 damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5

Looking up from the rulebook, Evalee says, "Ok, I'm at zero hitpoints, but I can still take actions - I'm just staggered and I'll lose a hitpoint and start dying if I do."

"That means nothing to me," Semsephiel requests further clarification.

"You're character's a healer. I need you to heal me."

"Ah. By the grace of Big Chief Bosun," Sephy extends his arms to the heavens - or rather, to the upper decks. "You are healed. That was my turn?"

"Well, you need to roll the dee-eight."

"Deewhat? The eight sided die?" Semsephiel picks it up and drops it.

1d8 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7

"Awesomesauce!" the summoner exclaims. "I'mma do my hand of the apprentice again, since that's been working so well for me."

Unless she can hit multiple seagulls without hitting her friends, in which case she'll use burning hands for 1d4 ⇒ 3 damage.

hand of the apprentice: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
damage: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Yeah, that's pretty weird.

Raccoon will split again as a move action, and then spend his other move action to flank with Rabbit. Acrobatics: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25

Frog will try the hand of the apprentice again.
to hit: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (17) + 5 = 22
for damage: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (4) - 2 = 2

If Boar is flanking, shouldn't Rabbit get sneak attack?

"I'll five foot reposition away from the seagull, and use hand of the apprentice again, on Big Seagull."

to hit: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12
for damage: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1

"Sephy, you should reposition out of melee as a free, copycat as a move, and fire your crossbow wait damn loading it is a move action, scratch that, just copycat and load."

Having absolutely no idea what any of those words mean, Semsephiel lets Evalee move his character for him.

The seagulls are spread out at this point, surrounding you, so you wouldn't be able to hit more than one unless you want to wait...

Than I'll use hand of the apprentice, on the big seagull.

to hit: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
to hurt: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (1) - 2 = -1

Evalee looks up from the rulebook she's been flipping through. It's a long rulebook, but she thinks she's read the relevant parts for her and Sephy's classes.

"Wait, what's happening?"

"We're being attacked, Ms. Ribbinz," Semsephiel explains, [b]"by three seagulls and a pelican."

"Oh!" Evalee furrows her brow. "That could be a problem, if they fly and we don't. Um, Sephy, you have a crossbow, but the penalty for firing it into melee is -4, sometimes -8. I think, since we all go before the seagulls, we should delay our . . . nevermind, your initiative is one of the best. Um, go ahead?"

"In the name of Big Chief Bosun," Semsephiel monotones, "you will pay for your misdeeds. What do I roll?"

"First, a twenty sided die, and then add three. Oh, and what's the bardic performance bonus . . . um, and then add another one. To hit and damage."

Semsephiel stares at the dice as if expecting them to roll themselves.

"I got this," Evalee says, taking over for him.

to hit: 1d20 + 3 + 1 ⇒ (18) + 3 + 1 = 22 damage: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

"If I'm reading the rules right," the half-elf hedges, "Racoon has a twenty-two to hit and a three for damage. At . . . the big seagull."

As for frog . . ." she continues, "I move here . . . no, here, and cast burning hands."

How many of the seagulls can I catch in the spell effect?

I don't know that Erin will be able to make this game within a game; I'm in another game with her and as far as I know she hasn't posted anything anywhere since the second of the month.

This is an awesome idea!

"Oh, cool!" Evalee bounces excitedly. "Uh, I choose Frog, naturally, wait, actually, let me read them all." She has no idea which one is strongest, which stats are most important. "I guess . . . I'll play Am Raccoon, since it sounds simplest, and I haven't played before and I'll need to learn the ropes wait actually, Sephy, why don't you play the healer?"

Semsephiel raises an eyebrow. "Funny, how you brilliantly deduce the easiest character to play, and then suggest I play it." Semsephiel takes the character sheet anyway.

"Ok then . . ." Evalee thinks about it. "Frog," she decides.

Kn. Arcana: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

I haven't gotten around to updating my character sheet yet (bad form on my part), but it doesn't matter for this particular skill check.

"A new experience for me! Ho ho! I have yet to set foot on such a craft and perhaps I'll be free of my shadow due to so much water."

"Oh!" Evalee turns to investigate the boxes on the train. "It followed us. Huh." She reaches a hand towards the cat, and hold it there for a moment before letting her arm drop. "Have fun being alone then," she tells the asocial animal.

"People!" Evalee announces, gesticulating wildly. "I figured something out last night."

With a word murmured in Infernal, Evalee fades from view. "Check it out! I'm invisible! And I can see too, which is a problem I was having earlier, the light passing through my eyelids . . . turns out I had pretty much everything wrong but that's ok now no need to dwell on it we're moving forward, onward and outward, following the call of adventure and all that jazz. I'm excited!"

Haven't heard anything from Erin in a while; I'm in another game with them and they haven't posted anything in ~a week. Nothing posted in other games, or on the forum either.

Worried. :(

Last Night

With so many people in the tent eating, Evalee quickly feels overwhelmed and excuses herself on the pretense of going to sleep.

Sitting outside, under the stars (Goodbye clouds, she says her farewells to the floating lakes in the overcast sky, only now blowing off to blind some other half-elf.) Evalee sets to work.

Earlier tonight, it would have been really damn useful to know how to turn invisible.

Invisibility isn't an incredibly difficult spell to learn. Elven wizards have been turning invisible since before humans invented language. The principles are well understood, and the collective pursuit of wizardry has had an epoch longer than civilization to refine the spell, to learn how to cast it with the least possible expenditure of energy.

All of it less useful to Evalee than it should have been.

Because I'm trying to invent a spell that does the exact same thing as invisibility, in the exact same way as invisibility, except without invoking the Isugumarimium effect because apparently my screwy sorcery can't calculate Otkius conjunctions and I have to math every little thing out myself.

She heaves a heavy sigh while rummaging through her things for On the Conjuctions of the Outer Planes and the Nature of the Otkius. She'd given up on the overly verbose tome after reading the preface less than a week ago. But last night reminded her how much she stands to learn, so she flips to the table of contents.

Page IV: Preface . . . Page LXIV: Preface II . . . where does the actual book start? Ah, page one. That's helpful. It's really helpful the way they switch number systems right there. Awright. Page one is . . . an introduction to the concepts introduced in this book. But where does the actual book start??! She flips forward a few pages in the Table of Contents.

Chapter forty-eight, page three hundred-twelve: Spontaneous Spell Casting and the Otkius; Ruminations.

Evalee Ribbinz reads chapter forty-eight. And then she reads it again. A third time, just to make sure she's reading it right, and then she skims it a fourth time. And then she throws her head back and laughs.

This makes everything easier.

This Morning

"Clyde! Hiya! Oh! And you have a cat! Isn't it gorgeous?" Evalee jerks her hand back, put pressure on it until it stops bleeding holding her hand under her armpit. "Is it a boy or a girl? What's it's name?"

Hmm . . . if I go with the option where the summoner progresses normally and can assign bonuses to the eidolon, I'd have to pick either/or stuff like a resistance bonus to saves, instead of paying extra cash for a vest of resistance, which means one of us is utterly defenseless against spells. And I couldn't boost Evalee's CON at the same time as Sempsephiel's STR, which is problematic to say the very least.

Though this would be equivalent to a greater character wealth (considering that the summoner still gets the full progression), I think it is low enough to not be game-breaking.

I took Craft: Wondrous Item in large to afford enough magical bling to equip both summoner and eidolon, but with ABP stripping number-boosting items from the game it's a far less useful feat. :(

Whatever we decide on, unless it doubles the ABP completely, it'll be equivalent to lesser character wealth for this summoner.

Could I have Semsephiel increase like he was the PC, and have Evalee be the one that lags behind at her hitdice -2 (capping out at level 18)?

I'm kinda waiting to see what your characters will do/say when they discover the feast waiting for them.

On another note, though you will be getting some money for successfully completing the audition process, you're probably going to be significantly behind the wealthy by level table for a while (especially if you don't elect to try fighting the champions again). How would you guys feel about using the Automatic Bonus Progression system? Of course, if any of you have already bought items that don't exist under that system, I'd offer you a chance to get that money back (though, off the top of my head, I don't think any of your characters do have those items yet).

Ev's got a cloak of resistance.

How would automatic bonus progression work with my eidolon?

Don't worry about the boy, Doc will see to him. Leave this one to me. Gregor says. His tone leaves no room for argument. There's food and wine in my tent. Wait for me there.

Evalee watches the doctor go about his healing anxiously. I hope he's all right . . .

"There's food and wine in my tent. Wait for me there."

Evalee's head snaps up. "Oh! Wine! I'mma go get blitzed!"

I'll note, however, that the original recruitment post explicitly said that evil PCs are welcome, so it would not be unreasonable to expect that a carnival worker might show cruel or vicious behavior as well. For that matter, isn't Semsephiel himself Evil with a capital 'E'? It's been played for laughs rather than for shock value, but didn't that backstory mention something about slaughtering armies? My point being that maybe we don't need to view the carnival as anything remotely resembling 'the good guys.'

That’s certainly fair. It’s more than a little hypocritical for the player of an Evil character to complain about there being a violent and cruel NPC.

I guess where I see the difference is, I’m a fan of group cohesion; as long as the party can sort out their differences without infighting or splitting the group, well, it takes all sorts, dunnit? And part of that is not playing a wantonly dickish PC a la Belkar Bitterleaf. Where I made my mistake is, I think, that I’ve been viewing the NPCs in the carnival as, more or less, part of the group, and expecting them to follow some manner‘ve social contract.

None of this is said to defend what took place, but simply to suggest it might be helpful to keep questions of in-game realism separate from questions of real-world tonal appropriateness.

Aight. You’re right.

Really, it’s concerns of tonal appropriateness that get my proverbial goat; I’m certain that if I wasn’t peeved at this portrayal I’d have no issues with in-world verisimilitude.

And a particularly concerning caricature given how her relationship with Zeera is presented. I'm not sure I'd quite call her man-hating, given that she unleashed similar protective fury on a squirrel, but the portrayal is problematic to say the least.

Well, she was stated to have a starting attitude of "unfriendly" to all people of the male persuasion. I think her sexism and creepy possessiveness combine to give the impression of a low key psycho lesbian. (Low key being, of course, relative.)

Ashyr ended up with all of the dangerous-to-be-around story genes. As for "fully half of the lesbians", I didn't really consider that particular correlation.

From a perspective outside the writer's head, Ashyr being both lesbian and violently mentally ill doesn't seem like a correlation at all; it comes across as a causation or perhaps just one thing that's untangleably tangled up with itself. The reasons that she's dangerous to be around are that she hates all men and is distressingly dependent on/protective of/possessive of her girlfriend. Those psychoses would make one heck of a lot less sense if Ashyr was straight.

I wouldn't bat an eye if Ashyr was both a lesbian and, say, paranoid and untrusting in the extreme. That's a grade-A antisocial tendency right there. Or, if I did bat an eye, it would be an in-character eye instead of an ooc "I'm feeling vaguely offended and less vaguely uncomfortable" eye. Likewise, I wouldn't bat an eye if you gender inverted Ashyr and Zeera and kept Ashyr as is; the persistent negative stereotypes associated with being a gay man don't include being sexist and violent. Hell, I'd happily roleplay Evalee's way through social encounters with a male woman-hating Ashyr. (Though I imagine she'd take to avoiding him pretty darn quick.)

. . .

Well, I've said my piece, more or less. So, I'll thank you for your candor too. I think I see where you're coming from, and I know you didn't mean to give offense (not that I ever thought you meant too), so . . . yeah. Signing off.

Words.

Chagrin. I'll stop talking so's that you can get in the game.

I don't always have the most, uh, clarity in my writing. Somewhere between when I think my thoughts and when I commit them to a computer screen they get . . . jumbled. I'll try to be concise. Tell me if anything that I'm saying makes any sense at all.

I also sometimes offend people without meaning to. I default to being politely direct because I lack the social graces for anything more, but sometimes the 'polite' part doesn't come across, especially in writing.

So, Ashyr was initially described with male pronouns, but then (surprise!) she turned out to be a girl. 'Course, no one really cared what gender she is, any more than any other descriptive detail. It's not even a "check your assumptions" moment, because she was described with male pronouns. It seemed to me that we the readers were supposed to be surprised, like it was a big reveal, presumably on account of her being a lesbian (how extraordinary! How beyond the pale!) but as far as I can tell it didn't change how any of our characters thought about the halfling at all.

And then Ashyr picked a fight with Whitecloak, a fight that as far as I could tell the swashbuckler had no interest in fighting. Whitecloak responded to the unprovoked aggression with a quip, as one would expect, at which Ashyr apparently became homicidally hostile, biding her time to light him on fire. At no point in this did Nate really have any control over events, the subplot was more or less forced on him (and, by extension, the rest of the players).

Reading over what I've written, it isn't looking particularly concise. So, let's take two.

Any person who'll attack someone with a lethal weapon for being the wrong gender in the wrong place at the wrong time, anyone who'd stab someone (let alone light them on fire) for stumbling in on their girlfriend taking a bath would wind up under lock and key sooner rather than later.

Ashyr doesn't seem to me so much like a real person in a real setting as she does a caricature of a person, a "hot-headed" "fiery redhead" who . . . well, who lights people on fire. She is, to put it bluntly, a crazy lunatic who should under no circumstances be free to interact with the public. Alignment is kinda sorta really bogus, but if Ashyr didn't ping as Evil (hitdice limitations aside) I'd raise an eyebrow so high it'd float right off my face.

And it's really unfortunate that fully half of the lesbians in the carnival are man hating psychopaths with impaired empathy and hecka strong antisocial tendencies.

Honestly? I'd expect Ashyr to act like a person, rather than a caricature of a person.

To start, how the hell is she not in prison?

But the thing that really gets my proverbial goat, even more than the assault with a lethal weapon, is what I perceive as the contrived nature of the plot that seems to be playing bigotry for drama, on a handful of levels. It's probably not your intent to offend or make uncomfortable, but I'm vaguely offended and less vaguely uncomfortable.

:\

It is written that, "Another useful application of this concept involves accepting story hooks your DM gives to you. Try to never just say, "My character isn't interested in that adventure." A lot of people mistake this for good roleplaying, because you are asserting your character's personality. Wrong. Good roleplaying should never bring the game to a screeching halt. One of your jobs as a player is to come up with a reason why your character would be interested in a plot. After all, your personality is entirely in your hands, not the DM's. Come up with a reason why the adventure (or the reward) might appeal to you, no matter how esoteric or roundabout the reasoning."

But I'm having a really hard time grasping for a reason why Evalee would remain with the circus rather than summon a horse and ride off to Veilsport to report an assault with a lethal weapon/attempted murder. And I'm having an equally hard time trying to think of a reason why Semsephiel would let Evalee stay with the circus, this place is friggin' dangerous and Sephy don't care to work with cannons so loose they burn people's eyes out for . . . voyeurism? It doesn't really fit Whitecloak's characterization, so it seems more likely to Evalee that the knife-thrower was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. We were kind of told to try and break into this place; why would anyone be taking a bath instead of keeping watch?

That's . . . that's one way to write a character out of a story. ಠ_ಠ

Evalee is without words.

". . . are you OK? Evalee will follow Maleffect.

Evalee skips over to the group. Skipping is faster than walking, but less exhausting than running. Also, you bounce up and down, which is fun. But, skipping looks kind of stupid, so she stops as she gets closer. Darn societal norms, she thinks.

“Tonight we are victorious!” she exclaims, “all my friends were glorious, tonight we are victor-re-ous.” It appears to be some manner of rhyme or song.

The DM mentioned it in the gameplay, but my posting will be fairly limited until next Saturday. I’ll still be reading the game, and posting most days, but stuff like rolling tons of dice or moving about on a battlemap may prove beyond me.

Acid orb is an instantaneous effect. The acid doesn't stick around.

Sure. But it does hitpoint damage, which means it hurts. And it doesn't stop hurting immediately, any more than a knife wound would. (I don't speak from actual stabbity experience, but it kitchen knives are any indication "non-lethal" knife wounds hurt like hell.) What are you supposed to do if you're burned by acid? Rinse it off, immediately. Evalee is feeling burned, and since she knows the spell she knows that it's acid what's burning her, so she's going to roll around in the dirt until it makes her feel better or she's certain that it won't.

“Oh, dear goodly gods it burns! I’m covered in acid! Sweet merciful deities, I’m covered in acid! Why am I covered in acid?!”

In shock, Evalee looks around for an emergency shower or drench hose. Wait no that’s stupid, this isn’t a lab it’s a circus. She casts her eyes about instead for a body of water deep enough to at least roll around in. Finding none, she drops to the ground and rolls on that, figuring that if it doesn’t help at least it can’t hurt.

Your health comes first!

If there’s anything we can do for you, just name it.

Evalee is an elf; she’s immune to magical sleep effects.

I vote we induct Clyde McClod; he’s one of our most consistent posters.

Did Halador make his reflex save?

Eventually I plan to get Semsephiel a merciful weapon and the enforcer feat, which should make up for Evalee’s less than stellar casting stat.

Evalee wishes she could turn invisible.

This isn't a recent developement, she's fantasized about turning invisible since she was six or seven. "Evalee~" her dad would call, opening the door without knocking, "are you in here?" Nope, she'd think, turning invisible and continuing what she was doing unperturbed.

The memory comes too suddenly to repress, and she dwells on it far longer than she should, with Halador sprinting towards her.

She's read all manner of different wizard's takes on the classic spell, and has been trying to figure out how to do it with her own strange brand of sorcery for a while now. She mutters her latest rendition of the words, knowing before she even tries that they won't work.

The magic that binds hers and Sephy's souls together lets her access the power that the Godscourge no longer can, which is infuriating. She has all sorts of magical potential, but no idea how to cast spells with it. I really should get around to learning proper wizardry, she thinks, wishing she could just copy other people's work into a spellbook. But she's self-aware enough to know that she never will, not when her infernal sorcery is so much more convenient. She'll keep struggling to reverse engineer spells one by one by one by one, sighing wistfully all the while at all the wizards perseverant enough to stick with their craft long enough that it comes naturally to them.

Instead, she'll quickstep backwards as Halador approaches five foot reposition, free action and cast grease standard action, DC 15

I was flummoxed on account of being positive I’d read somewhere that lowlight vision let you see at night, and I eventually found this:

Low-Light Vision
Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light that they can see twice as far as normal in dim light. Low-light vision is color vision. A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to him as a source of light.
Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a moonlit night as well as they can during the day.

Ah, my bad. Sorry for slowing things up.

I kinda assumed that having the same vision type as an owl would let one navigate by the light of the moon and stars; it isn’t supernaturally dark out. If she can’t and never could see in the dark she’ll have to start going to bed at a reasonable time instead of staying up to read into the early hours of the morning, which she’ll be sad about.

If it’s too dark to see, she’ll stop running.

My bad, for some reason I thought it was a cart. The chain hit a support-tent-stick-thing instead, then.

With my armor check penalty, that's a flat roll. :[

acrobatics: 1d20 ⇒ 14

:D

Fast stepping her way out of the horses stirrups as it collapses, Evalee manages to keep her footing. "I am a graceful and ancient being!" the half-elf triumphantly proclaims.

Stumbling over her own feet, she hastens to distance herself from the bearded man. It's my tun to move, right? If not, ignore what follows.

She quadruple moves in the direction of Vilesport. The bearded man has longer legs, so he'll probably catch up to her eventually despite her head start [ooc](If it comes to consitution checks) but she's a distraction, right? If he doesn't chase, I'll summon a new horse and loop back around.

She's now four squares off the edge of the map.

Semsphiel watches her run. She'll be fine, he assures himself. But he should probably get to work distracting people. Eerily quiet for someone of his size, limbs bending at all the wrong angles as he compresses himself into the shadowy recesses of the cart, Semsephiel holds his chain weapon taught in his four hands as he moves (to keep it from clinking).

Double move, using stealth.

stealth: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (2) + 7 = 9

Even with distance penalties, that's got a fair chance of being heard.

Startled into watchfulness by the sound of his metal weapon striking one of the cart's windows, Semsephiel holds his breath and waits to see if anything comes around the corner of the parked vehicle.

If someone provokes an attack of opportunity from him, he'll attempt to trip. His bonus is +9

Time to be distracting, I suppose.

Evalee will rise her horse into open view to the south of Pogug, careful to keep herself just out of reach of anyone’s double move. If they come after me, I’ll ride off into the sunset, and Pogug’ll be in the clear. If they don’t, at least I’ll be closer to the action.

I don’t have a keyboard, so if someone could move Evalee for me I’d be much obliged.

Semsephiel will move behind the closest tent, getting closer to the action without risk of being seen. Again, no keyboard, so if someone could move him for me I’d appreciate it greatly.

Evalee will ready an action to cast grease if someone spots one of her friends.

Ah, I didn't see that the spells had to come from the summoner list. It appears that my group has been doing it wrong since the Advanced Player's Guide. In that case, ignore my post.

Evalee breaths deeply. Why is it, she wonders, that nighttime air always smells better? Perhaps it's just to do with the temperatures . . .

"Alrighty," she says aloud. "Onward to victory!"

She sends her air elemental above the camp, to verify the positions of the defenders. After it returns to her, she dismisses it and summons Semsephiel.

To verify; the person on bottom left is Gregor Malefect, right?

"Glad to have ya back, Sephy. Here's the plan. I'mma gonna glamer you to look like the one Mr. Malefect, 'cause he's tall and you're tall and it'll work out. Also, he isn't right next to the door. I'mma hafta lead him away, I think . . . anyway, we don't know much about Mr. Malefect, so be careful out there. Don't get caught." She's worried.

The devil isn't worried. "Deceiving mortals is kind of my whole shtick. I'll be fine," he rasps.

"Wonderful word, 'shtick'," Evalee notes.

"Indeed. Now, if you would, cast the spell?"

"I'm not casting a spell, I'm activating a magical devi-"

"The glamer."

"Right." Evalee draws the wand, and activates it.

UMD: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

She watches as the demon morphs and shifts, his too-long and too-thin body compacting into a more human form. It's only an illusion, of course, but it's a most convincing display.

"How does it feel?" Evalee wonders, having never worn someone else's likeness before.

"Glamerous," Semsephiel quips.

Smiling, Evalee will summon a mount and climb atop it.

A while ago I fell into the habit of saying, "ready to rock and roll" ironically, to annoy my friends. But then, because entropy tends towards a maximum, I started saying "ready to roggenrola" because that annoyed them more. Now I tell people "I am prepared to rock type pokemon that is really just a clone of Geodude with better typing but not good enough typing to make for it's shallow move pool, so no one actually uses it" all the time, in front of people who have no idea why I do this thing.

I typed this up after typing, "ready to roggenrolla" and realizing that none of you would know what that means.

I'm ready to roggenrola!

Yup, that’s cool with me.

It's much slower to come up with a budget on the internet than it is face to face.

I say we buy the wands that Erin suggested, and then any reduce person wands that are in stock.

As far as our plan goes, what does everyone, individually, plan to do?
For my part, Semsephiel plans to have disguise self cast on him and try to bluff his way into the tent. (He's a +14 to the skill, so it's certainly worth a try.)

Evalee doesn't have anything in particular that she plans to do. If someone needs her help to make their plan work, she'd be glad to.

Failing that, she's going to summon a mount and just make a mad rush for the flag, using total defense. With luck, even if there's no way she could ever get to the rope, get off the horse, get on the rope, and climb it (noodle arms, so that alone is a near impossibility), with luck she'll distract some of the defenders from someone who has more of a chance.

Some people are interested in amassing wealth and power, others seek the thrill of adventure, or the fame that comes with heroism, the sleeves of Basil's garish indigo robes flutter as he thrusts his arms into the air, excitedly, my only ambition is to be the greatest purveyor of the arcane that the world has ever known! As he says this, illusory sparks and fireworks go off above his head, and he smiles broadly.

Evalee puffs out her cheeks and shrugs her shoulders. "People are strange monkeys. Well, I won't judge you on how you get your endorphin fix if you won't judge me on how I get mine."

[Erin] looks to the others. "Think three charges will be enough?"

"Three charges should be plenty," Evalee opines, "as it's the number of times we plan to use the wand. Unrelatedly, am I to summon an elemental so's you can once more brave the avian defender, or is Sephy to walk in under guise of disguise?"

She remembers there was something she meant to ask Arcto. "Say, have you ever met a man named Doc, uh, shoot, if I knew his actual name I've forgotten it." That's unlike me . . . "but he has an awesomecool pen and works at the Sirensong Traveling Carnival? Has a liver dwarves envy? He mentioned that he knew you from somewhere. Or maybe just someone with your precise name."

She isn't sure where she was going with this, so she decides to just stand silently and awkwardly until someone picks up the conversation.

"Less hitting and fire than normal game."

"I found there to be altogether too much hitting and too much fire for a normal game . . . I always thought that normal games had a marked dearth of hitting and fire. But, as I am unversed in the athletic pursuits, I'll defer to your expertise, Pogug."

"Well, I had intended for the sale to be a one-day affair, but seeing as you're my first repeat customers in this new location, and not all of the wands I prepared for the sale were purchased, I suppose I could extent the discount on those that are left."

Victory! "That's splendid! This is, will be, the start of a wonderfully mutually beneficial business rela- wait no, this is, the start of something grand! You'll make us stuff, and we'll give you money! It'll be a blast." tho . . . "What does a wizard of your obvious power have need of money for? What is there to spend it on? You've got magic! Eh, I guess enough money is like ultimate cosmic might in itself, but personally managing a store doesn't seem like a great way to get super rich . . . "

Re: Wand of Invisibility, I dislike the idea of trading away a permanent magic item for a consumable . . . especially when the party summoner is one level away from learning the spell.

"Only the most incongrous and hazardous constituents of all!" Evalee proclaims. If there's something for her to stand on dramatically that wouldn't be too inconvenient to get on top of (so, not a counter, but yes a chair) she'll stand on it. "Which is to say, single charge wands of harmless spells that don't offer a save. We used up the ones we had, but need more reductions to our persons."

Is the opening sale still going on? I should ask about that. But first I should to make him more amenable with flattery! Like a cunning businessperson! Much cunning. Much business. Yes . . .

"Your eyebrows are pretty cool, nice eyebrows, I like the shape, also can I have a discount on my purchases? Uh, not that I'm asking for, that is to say, there was a discount earlier. Because of your recent opening."

I think I handled that rather well.

I concur; there's nothing to gain sneaking in like thieves in the day. (Though, unlike the thieves we'd be emulating, we'd be doing it at night. I was just asking about the city's defenses to get a better feel for the setting.

There's nothing I want to do tonight, so...

In the morning Evalee wakes up, takes a moment to summon Semsephiel, and then wakes up everyone who didn't wake up before her.

Are there any defenses closing the city off by sea, or can boats dock at any time?

"Ech, you're right. Gates are closed. Forgot."

"I never understood why they do that . . . I don't understand why they even bother guarding the walls, to be honest. We aren't fighting anyone, there isn't a toll to enter, there's no plagues to watch out for, there aren't any limits on the weapons you can take in with you, and, most of all, the guards couldn't stop anyone who was really dangerous . . . or very determined." Evalee tilts her head back and looks at the sky.

"I'm neither, so I guess we're locked out for the night. I guess I should find somewhere to pass out. Doesn't look like raining, so I'm going to find somewhere out of the way . . . meet you at the gate tomorrow!"

First step is get more reduce person wands.

"Think they're closed?" Evalee wonders. "Welp, I don't think I can sleep, so we might as well go have ourselves a look-see."

"You two don't even need an act, you can just get on stage and talk all night."

"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night," Evalee bows graciously, then skips a step to keep up with the others. "Except I won't actually be here all night, as I am currently in the process of leaving here. But I'm following you, so the effect is similar. Where are we going, anyway? Is this one of those awkward situations where everyone thinks that someone else knows where they're going, so we just meander aimlessly?"

She considers this. "Not that I've anything against meandering, it's the only way to turn unknown unknowns into known unknowns. And maybe even known knowns!"

"Y'know what we should do? We should get blitzed out of our skulls, bond as fellow hobos who are all looking for work. That's what coworkers do, right?"

Semsephiel displays apprehension by making weird noises in his throat. He doesn't say anything, though, so Evalee prattles on, knowing she'll get a rise out of him eventually.

"I've never gotten drunk before. I hear it's a lot of fun. Hooray for new experiences!"

The world-weary devil begs to differ. "You are misinformed. Drunkenness is wretchedly uncomfortable for everyone involved. The last time I let a charge of mine impair their own thinking, your father mistargeted a teleport and we found ourselves halfway across the continent - standing on an altar surrounded by the restless dead. While, I was standing. He'd just fallen over."

"See! Adventure~! New experiences~! Fun!"

"I am not an adventurous avatar of Law, Ms. Ribbinz."

Evalee makes a fist to show her support of the plan. "Yes! With booze they shall be bribed. It's like my dad always said, there's no problem that can't be solved with intoxicants!"

Semsephiel makes a face. "Your father never said that, much less always."

The summoner raises her hands to the sky in defiance. "I refuse to let tradition decide my fate! I am free! Free like an avocado!"

Now Sephy's just confused. "What? That...that doesn't make any sense. In or out of context."

"History is written by the victors! And we have conquered our fears! Not our actual fears, but if we pretended we were afraid of stuff we could impress each other with our bravery. That makes us victors! And authors! And my first act as a victorious revisionist historian is to attribute the preceding supposed quote to my dad!"

The bound fiend is catching on. "You're just messing with me now, right?"

Evalee continues her enthusiastic but ultimately nonsensical spiel. "Come, loyal comrades! Friends! No, family! For we are brothers, and sisters in arms! Even Chi, who has no arms! He can borrow Sephy's arms, no way does he need all of those. Come! To the watering hole! Which is some sort of euphanism for bar! I think!"

Semsephiel watches with some amusement, but decides to interrupt. "I doubt our budget can afford drink enough to drown our opposition's wits, even if we could convince our guards imbibe."

"That should be 'to imbibe'," Evalee points out.

"I was being poetic," Semsephiel protests.

Evalee squints. "Noooo, no you were not."

Sorry I haven't posted these last few days, I've been a bit under the weather.