Lilith Stark's page

I'm going to be withdrawing from the game. It was a good run. I definitely enjoyed my time here. Thanks for having me.

"...Truth be told, I gotta say that my heart really isn't in this mission," Lilith says suddenly. "Too many contradictions. I... think that this where we part ways; I'd only hold you back. I won't stop you all from completing your mission; in fact, I think I'm going to go distract that chase team. I can probably hold them off for a day or two. Best of luck. It's been real."

Before anyone can stop her, Lilith transforms into a bird of some sort and flies off.

You never see her again.

Lilith leaves the lying to the liars and follows the group out without word.

Lilith thinks over Eris' proposal.

"When you put it that way, leaving now certainly sounds smarter. As for breaking an 'offical' order from the Vernai, well, unless we do nothing, we're going to be doing that not matter what; I'm probably missing something, but I don't think Vespid has the authority to override the rest of the council. Plus any engagement we have with this chase team is going to be... messy. Still, Lord Achaekek - our ultimate authority - has decreed we go, so we should trust him to help us sort out the details. Hmm... Alright, let's get going before I have second thoughts."

@Stal: What are the rules regarding fighting other Mantises? After serving over five decades in the organization, Lilith should certainly have some idea about what they are.

I recall Stal saying that we would hit Level 8 soon.

"Well, if you crazy kids insist on pursuing this mission without the usual approvals, then we might as well go all in and take the fancy Mantis Blade with us. The first thing I ever learned in my career was to stack the deck in your favor in every way possible," muses Lilith with a dark chuckle.

Forgot that the caster doesn't count against the limit. Still not a big fan of the revamped odds.

"Now before we go defy our superiors and cut ourselves off from all support besides Vespid's little 'I can totally cover for you if you defy all the odds and 100% succeed!', are we certain that Eris can even use that scroll on all present company and do so without the risk of a terrible misfire that would kill us all and thus render this entire debate completely pointless?" Lilith inquires. "Alenaya, dear, I understand where you're coming from, yet... when you've lived as long as I have, you get to see plenty of crazy kids who think they know better, and you also get to see reality promptly remind them that they don't."

Lilith looks at the skies and sighs.

"I'm probably committing some form of heresy or blasphemy or whatever when I say this, but before I go throw myself off a cliff into the unknown, I'd like something a little more... official than a drug induced dream and a little nudge, nudge, wink, wink from someone I just met. I don't mean to defy Lord Achaekek's intentions, but dying a pointless death doesn't seem like a particularly great way of serving his wishes either. If we get all defiant here, then that sets a precedent for other Mantises; 'There's no need to listen to the Vernai because of x, y, or z. I'm right because of a, b, and c.'

"While I can definitely see the problems with blindly trusting your superiors and never using your own judgment, I feel like... we'd be acting on a scale that would undermine the legitimacy of this entire order. Yes, I am aware of our previous mission and its murky circumstances, but last time, we at least took care to dot all our i's and cross all our t's."

That scroll would need a CL 15 to carry everyone, which would make it a challenge for Eris to even use properly. She'd need to roll like a 16 on for her CL check. With her CL of 7, that means there's a 45% chance of failure. And that's not accounting for random teleportation failure if it succeeds!

See Stal's post below. Still, a 30% failure chance is still kind of risky...

"A pleasure to meet you, Vespid," adds Lilith when Alenaya first introduces her.

Vespid gets a polite and professional handshake.

"I'm a priestess. I think. 'Druid' is probably a more apt description. I prefer huntress. Along with Kage's excellent speech, that's probably how we got Acantha to agree with our plans; despite everything, Lord Achaekek didn't revoke my spell privileges. That's a pretty solid stamp of approval," explains Lilith with a smirk.

"I've been with our organization for decades, but most of my field experience is from my time with Alenaya. We've been working together for a few years, and we've got good synergy; Ileosa learned that the hard way."

"As you wish," agrees Lilith as she too departs.

"Kage, how about you go next?" Lilith suggests, taking Jon's comment into account along with the blade's rejection seeming of him and Alenaya. "If there's anyone who can wield these sabres, it's you."

Lilith speaks as respectfully as possible.

"Mine is... interesting. It appears to be a little more... cryptic than those of the others. I was in a jungle. I saw several red-clad figures run out of a pyramid and into the depths of the forest. I followed them, their mantis masks unmistakable, as they hurried through the undergrowth, carrying a package that they clearly held dear.

"And then a representative of our Lord appeared. They said: 'That was the first one discovered. But its mate is still lost. However, one that knows the start of the path is found, and has a need. Would you begin the quest by offering the death that he seeks?'

"The vision ended soon after."

I figured that was probably a proxy, but Lily has something of ego. Of course ol' Achaekek would talk directly to her.

Lilith watches with a smirk as her friends and allies depart.

They've got the right idea! Time to enjoy ourselves a little!

Lilith finds herself... a bottle of the finest wine and big, juicy steak. After finishing them, she locates the most comfortable couch in the den and promptly passes out. She refuses to get up until directly told that it is an entire of cabal of Vernai who want to see her.

"What I saw was... interesting," Lilith remarks, very deep in thought. "It was in a jungle. There were several of our agents with a package of some kind. And then Lord Achaekek himself appeared! Or at least an avatar - I don't know many other literal big Red Mantises beside him. He said, 'That was the first one discovered. But its mate is still lost. However, one that knows the start of the path is found, and has a need. Would you begin the quest by offering the death that he seeks?'"

She gives a wide smile and shrugs.

"So I'm also mystified by my vision."

Lilith utters some nonsensical tweeting and chirping. After realizing what just happened, she flies off her perch and lands in a clear space in the room. A second later, she shifts back to her regular self.

"Seems that I got a little too in-character!" the redhead chuckles before stretching her arms and continuing. "From what I've gathered, probably before any of your parents were born, I was my folks' payment for services rendered. I was trained on and off by two generations of Mantises. For a while, I was basically magic support; I helped patch the people who actually carried out our contracts. With's Great Achaekek's blessing, in my free time, I taught myself the art of druidic shapeshifting to spruce up my options. That caught the attention of someone upstairs, so I was shifted to front line missions. It was a good fit."

Lilith tilts her head toward Alenaya.

"Alenaya here was partnered with me a few years back. As you can tell, we've got some great synergy. We've had a bunch of adventures since then, but axing Ileosa definitely takes the cake."

Still happily perched on Alenaya's shoulder, Lilith continues to be very smug.

Still in her songbird disguise, Lilith promptly flies over to Alenaya and roosts on her friend's shoulder. After studying Ileosa's corpse, she puffs out her feathery chest in pride at her accomplishment. The sheer smugness emitting from the bird quickly mixes with Alenaya's excited, sadistic glee.

However, Togomor's threat brings her back to a professional pause, and Lilith carefully weighs her options as she waits to see what the others decide to do; she would rather not an unnecessary fight, but she also figures that Togomor probably wouldn't fare well against the collective might of all the Mantises present...

Perception Aid Another: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

Intent on keeping her disguise, Lilith desummons her summons that don't die of poison and flies back over to Eris' side to continue playing the role of her songbird familiar.

Is combat still "ongoing"?

Predictably, none of the stirges are able to resist the poison.

Despite being poisoned, the two bleeding Ileosa dry continue to feast.

Ileosa takes another two Con damage for a total of four.

Three more stirges materialize by the Queen. Together, with their unattached peers, they attempt to drain her blood.

Strige Attach: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 7 - 2 = 18 Old Stirge.
Strige Attach: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 7 - 2 = 21 Old Stirge.
Strige Attach: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (12) + 7 - 2 = 17 New Stirge.
Strige Attach: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (1) + 7 - 2 = 6 New Stirge.
Strige Attach: 1d20 + 7 - 2 ⇒ (11) + 7 - 2 = 16 New Stirge.

Looks like 1-3 more attach?

Like a patient predator, Lilith decides to bide her time and resources... No actions.

Several big, fat stirges suddenly appear from nowhere and attempt to latch onto the Queen.

Attach: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
Attach: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23
Attach: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25
Attach: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
Attach: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (1) + 7 = 8

Looks like Ileosa takes two to three Con damage!

The ones that do start to suck her blood and weaken her constitution.

Deciding that she should probably save her useless Command Plants spell for a tiger or something to mop up the Grey Mooks, Lilith discards her extra Barkskin for another 1d3 ⇒ 3 stirges.

From experience, Lilith knows that some enemies - like Eris' long lost cousins for example! - could be absolute pains to hurt. For such foes, there's stirges!

A little less than two years ago, she and Alenaya (Lilith thinks; could've easily been another Mantis poison junkie, but she likes to imagine that it was Alenaya) had been tasked to assassinate some fool. Said fool had been held staying in some backwater bar.

As Maybe Alenaya was away sneakily slipping enough poison into the fool's drink to kill a stone giant, a bored Lilith had found herself striking up a chat with another bar resident by the name of... Robbie (she thinks; his name had definitely started with a 'R'!).

A Wheel enthusiast and fellow druid, Robbie had mentioned how one of the most useful tricks he had ever learned in his trade was to use stirges to weakened a foe. If the buggers were spammed in great number, either the enemy wasted time trying to kill the blasted bugs or they got sucked dry. Stirges were generally pretty good about attaching themselves to even the most armored foe.

While she sometimes forgot the trick, from experience, Lilith knows that Robbie's advice is very sound~

Stirges appear and try to attach to Ileosa. Lilith attempts to summon three more as full-round action.

Posting now since Kage and I are essentially acting at the same time.

Lilith spontaneously burns her useless Plant Growth spell and trades it out for a sweet Magical, Metaphorical Fishing Pole of Summoning Nature's Ally III. She casts her bait into some other plane and immediately feels 1d4 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5 tugs.

The songbird tweets in excitement and starts to reel in her catch...

Spontaneously trading out Plant Growth for Summoning Nature's Ally III. Calling up five stirges. I'll be placing them right by the Queen.

I should actually be placed further north. I flew behind the leftmost statue by the Queen's throne (the one against the northern wall).

Songbird it is! Since I can't seem to find the crunch for one, I'll use the stats for a raven like this one item does if that's okay.

Like any tiny, weak, insignificant creature would, Lilith the Songbird "panics" and flies away from the action, taking care to avoid getting into anyone's melee range. She then lands and hides behind the leftmost statue near the Queen's throne.

(And starts to plot the next phase of her devious scheme~)

Flying 80 or so feet into the air as two move actions. Lily will land behind that leftmost statue to get some cover against any ranged attacks.

Huh. Hey, Stal. Unless I'm missing something, I don't think that we actually picked a particular animal for Eris' familiar. Would it be alright if I am currently a tiny bird of some sort? I did say that I was thinking of a fox or an owl, but I also asked Eris if she had anything specific in mind. If not, no big deal; I just have two plans of action in mind, and my selection largely depends on my current form this round.

Lilith continues to play the part of Eris' bored familiar.

As planned, Lilith assumes the form of a tiny or small animal of Eris' picking and pretends to be her familiar.

Going with Eris because she's a spellcaster and the best liar in the group.

"Eris, given how you can spin a story, I figure that being your familiar is the best way to sneak me into the meeting. Got any preference for what animal I should be? I can become an assortment of [b]Tiny critters."[/b]

I was thinking fox or owl.

Before we go to the meeting, Lilith will prep by casting Freedom of Movement, Greater Magic Fang: All, Resinous Skin, Bark Skin, Delay Poison, Spider Climb, Longstrider, and Heightened Awareness. All the 10 minute per level spells will be bumped up one CL via Place Magic.

When Vimanda finally drops from bleeding or the melee men's attacks, Lilith chops her head off to make sure that the outsider stays down.

Coup de Grace with Scythe: 8d4 + 28 + 24 + 8 ⇒ (1, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 2, 4) + 28 + 24 + 8 = 82

Having few better options, Lilith takes another swing.

+1 Keen Scythe (PA, Song, Flank): 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 = 26
Damage: 2d4 + 7 + 6 ⇒ (1, 3) + 7 + 6 = 17

A normal-sized Lilith takes a step closer and takes a hasty swing at Vimanda.

+1 Keen Scythe (PA, Song, Flank): 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 = 18
Damage (PA, Song): 2d4 + 7 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (3, 3) + 7 + 6 + 2 = 21

Lilith again surges in size and takes a second swing at Vimanda.

+1 Keen Scythe (PA, Song, Flank): 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 = 15
Damage: 3d4 + 8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 1, 3) + 8 + 6 + 2 = 21

Is rakshasa shapeshifting a polymorph effect? If so, our strikes should be doing full damage. Since it is a Ex or Su quality, you lose your natural DR while polymorphed, and I don't see any indication that Fake Eris turned back to her natural form.

Now having processed what just happened, Lilith smirks and surges in size. The giant dwarf advances forward while drawing her sinister scythe and settles in a spot where she has blanking with one of her many allies. Making the most of her new ten foot reach, she takes a powerful, vicious swing at Vimanda.

+1 Keen Scythe (PA, Song, Flank): 1d20 + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 8 - 2 + 2 + 2 = 27

Damage (PA, Song): 3d4 + 8 + 6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 3, 1) + 8 + 6 + 2 = 22

I'll switch out Giant with Red Hand. Also seems more fitting.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14
Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (1) + 10 = 11

Distracted by her thoughts about what animal form to take, Lilith fails to notice anything odd about Eris.

"...You might be able to bring a total of five extra Mantises: four obvious ones and me as a Wild Shaped animal. I doubt that anyone will think much of a cat. A good liar like Eris can easily pass me off as his or her familiar," Lilith ponders aloud.

"Thanks, Alenaya," the Menhir Savant says as she readily accepts the potion.

Level 7 Shopping List:

+1 Light Wooden Shield ---> +1 Darkwood Buckler
+1 Keen Scythe
Weapon Cord x10

That's all.

Whenever Lilith drops by the armory, she exchanges her +1 Light Wooden Shield for a +1 Darkwood Buckler.

"As I recently learned, while you can't make bucklers from dragonhide, you can make them from darkwood. That's exactly what I need for those moments where I gotta put some back into my swings."

She continues to browse the offered selections. Figuring that they could be useful, she grabs ten weapon cords, but otherwise, the Menhir Savant does not immediately select anything.

Them Rashaka punks were hard to hurt. I think that it's time that I get me an upgrade from that spare table leg I call a club.

A glint catches Lilith's eye.

"...Hello," the dwarf coos as she materializes next to the weapon that caught her attention. "Let's see... Magic? Nice. Keen? Oh yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. You're just what this huntress ordered!"

Lilith grabs a rather wicked scythe from its rack.

"You and me will be getting along just fine."

I'm getting me a +1 Keen Scythe.

Lilith is all leveled up. Now I just need to think about gear.

@Stal: May I switch my +1 Light Wooden Shield for a +1 Darkwood Buckler? I didn't know the latter existed until Setsu and pals stumbled upon one in Runelords. The buckler is infinitely preferable because it makes switching to a two-handed grip much easier without sacrificing defense.

Lilith decides to play the ace card that was up the group's collective, metaphorical sleeve.

"For what it's worth, Lord Achaekek has not revoked my spell privileges. I understand that's... an occurrence for our clerics who displease him. I know that I'm not exactly a traditional holy woman, but I'm fairly certain that similar conditions apply to me."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (19) + 7 = 26

"...Point. Well, if Eris knows where to go, then I guess we can head out," Lilith also concedes somewhat wearily. She briefly looks over at Alenaya and shrugs before following the Jagen and Astrid out. That being said, she keeps her pace carefully calculated just in case anyone objects.

"Sure thing, Jagen. When Eris gets back, we'll head out," Lilith declares as she nonchalantly extinguishes her umtenth Light spell.

Kage returns to the sight of Lilith randomly casting her orisons for (seemingly) no reason.

"Looks like we got our prey. Good work, Kage," Lilith says with a smirk. "Say... Where's Eris? Unless I'm going senile in my old age, I could've sworn she was with you."

Lilith lazily waves goodbye to Eris and Kage.

Once Glorio is long gone, she leans over and quietly whispers to Alenaya, "I wonder if I'll get spells tomorrow. That'll probably be the big indicator. I ain't exactly a cleric of Lord Achaekek, but there isn't that big a difference between them and me."

"What Kage said sounds about right. That and presenting a smart argument. I've seen plenty of opinions swayed because the reasons behind an unexpected change of plans were rock solid."

Because of class alignment requirements, Lilith is Neutral Evil, so she's fine with only following the letter of the law while totally ignoring the spirit.

As a player, I'm honestly fine either way, but thanks to that ridiculous DR, I just don't think we're going to win a battle of brute force. If they catch us lying or suspect treachery, then combat with powerful, durable foes in the middle of an enemy stronghold is a very real possibility. As for lying, I'm also fine with that, but as a fair warning, it isn't one of this character's strong suits.

If you want to commit to such a path, if it isn't too meta for Stal, then it might be best to lie to Lilith as well so she doesn't ruin the charade. As of right now, she's siding with Eris because she sees fighting as suicide.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't understand Jon's points of contention. He is against taking a contract against a sitting, legitimate monarch, which makes sense. No one is going to kill the Queen while her authority is legit, and the mantises have indicated as much. However, Glorio possess a way to remove the Queen Ileosa's legitimacy. Only once that happens will we even humor his request.

Does Jon think that us agreeing right now to this particular sequence of events (Kalepopolis revokes Ileosa's legitimacy as Queen ---> We kill Kalepopolis ---> We take the contract against Former Queen Ileosa) still count as taking a contract against Queen Ileosa right this second? That I can understand. While technically following the letter of the Red Mantis Code of Conduct, we certainly aren't following the spirit. However, if that's the case, I don't think he's expressed that particular view very clearly.

All that being said, I still don't know how we're supposed to defeat a whole manor of Rakshasas. Their DR is ridiculous, and they probably have a small army and several more tricks up their sleeves. Fighting them seems to be asking for a TPK.

When objections finally get thrown her way, Lilith raises an eyebrow in confusion.

"Your earlier remarks to Glorio made me think you were contemplating acceptance, Jon," she remarks as she takes her seat next to
Alenaya. "As Eris said, we aren't gonna be axing Queenie while she's still a legit Queenie. I agree with you there. That's our gold standard. However, if she isn't legit anymore, then I don't see the problem with taking a contract on her. For that to happen, though, Glorio's gotta make good on his word."