"I'd like to join you at the Opera House, assuming your prior offer is still open. It would be a good opportunity for me, both as a priestess and just as someone who likes to sing."
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Lydia stands stunned for a moment when the lemure is stripped from the mortal plane by her great arcane prowess. She snaps back to reality at the sound of Jessibel's gushing. "Well, you know, all in a day's work for a sorceress." Lydia blushes slightly and smiles, but this dissipates rapidly when Jessibel falls into the sludge. "Shelyn's grace, are you okay Jessi?" Lydia goes to help pull her up but Domitius gets there first (which is likely for the best, as Lydia is more likely to get pulled down than to be any of help).
Unsure of further means to poetically describe "I'm out of first level spells and have been reduced to tossing cantrips", Lydia just shoots another Jolt with a frown on her face.
The MTT in particular had a whole section dedicated to clarifying combat rules. There are a few bureaucratic reasons that we're only partially aware of that sneaking in rules clarifications through the player companion line is a lot easier than getting an FAQ through.
Lydia snaps her fingers, sending a spark towards the final lemure, being drained of magic other than this one trick. The spark of electricity flies wide, leaving a burn mark on a nearby tile.
"Hmm... Immune to poison, but not to pain, I think. Let's see if I can make this creature's existence even more miserable. Power Word: Wrack." Lydia clenches her fist as she glares at the devilish glob that struck Lucius.
Lydia fires a jolt at the nearest lemure.
Lydia makes her move forward into combat but stops just short of being able to attack the lemures. "Disgusting little fiends, aren't they? I wonder how long they have been down here, and more importantly, who summoned them."
Lydia lifts her arms and examines them for a moment; upon confirming their noodliness, she shouts at Leora, "You can do it! I believe in you!"
Lydia grimaces, feeling a little foolish for spending that content slipping in a grease puddle. [b]"Well, nice job everyone, great teamwork. And yes, thank you Jessibel, I certainly could use a cleaning. With the grimples gone Lydia takes a look around the room.
Lydia follows along with the group, staying towards the back.
Lydia cannot help but giggle softly at Dom's minor misfortune; the grimples were certainly making nuisances of themselves.
As Lydia comes down the ladder she sees Dom mimicking a clarinet. She uses her special elf ears to try to confirm the noise. When she realizes he got the wrong instrument she makes an offended face and does the proper miming for a flute.
Satisfied with the speed at which the fey creature was disposed of, Lydia turns her attention back downstairs. She shoots a jolt of electricity towards the remaining rat.
Looks like the prankster has decided to show itself. Mind the ladder, everyone. Our new friend seems to have greased it." Assuming this is probably one of those gremlins mentioned earlier, Lydia decides to give it a taste of its own medicine and casts wrack.
What's LoS like? Would I be able to cast spells on anyone within the basement from the top of the stairs or do I need to go down there to participate?
"Look on the bright side: when we're done with all of this, that the revolution of Kintargo was nearly stopped dead in its tracks by a pack of wild dogs will make for a hilarious story. The bards will love it, I'm sure." Lydia makes an effort at lightening the mood a bit to counteract Kiri's bluntness; Lydia is of course frustrated with how poorly they all handled that encounter (herself included) but it is not going to do anyone any good to dwell on it. "All right Domitius, lead the way. If you get bit by anything, try for more of a gruff roar than a scream. It helps the image of you as a stalwart protector of your allies."
Ah... Mundane after all. A little disappointing." Lydia returns the ring to Kiri, not particularly interested in it now that she knows it harbors no deep, dark secrets. "I suppose I should make myself useful." Lydia opens the remaining door, and makes a cursory search of the room. She does not notice much of anything other than more of those tracks that Davina spotted.
"Interesting ring you have there, Kiri. Mind if I give it a quick look? If the literature is anything to go by checking every little trinket for magic properties is standard practice." Assuming Kiri hands over the ring, Lydia uses sense magic to determine if it has any magic properties and if so what it might do. She has no particular reason to believe that might be the case, but it never hurts to check.
"I can't afford to waste any more spell slots on this pack of mutts... I'll just have to hope this feeble amount of electricity I can produce does something this time. Ugh." With her sympathy for the canines waning significantly in the wake of her frustration, Lydia shoots another Jolt at the blue dog, hoping to hit something of value.
"Well, let's try that again." Lydia fires another spark at the green dog, hoping to finally incapacitate it.
Lydia snaps her fingers and a jolt of electricity flies towards the dog that bit Jessibel. It flies wide, leaving a small burn mark on the floor.
Lydia grits her teeth as the situation deteriorates. This revolution will not be stifled by a pack of stray mutts, she thinks to herself. The lighting will make it difficult to aim a damage spell, but she has plenty of options that require no aim at all. "Power Word: Wrack," she calls out, her sharp voice echoing in the mind of one of the dogs.
"Leora, back away! It's not working!" Unsure as to what to do, Lydia steps forward and uses a spark cantrip at the closest dog's feet, hoping that it would respond better to fear than it did bribery.
Just in case the dogs go violent Lydia casts a force shield on herself.
Lydia shakes her head at Davina. "Not particularly so, no. I could try spooking them with some lightning magic but the effects of that would be naturally unpredictable."
Lydia looks at Davina questioningly. "Hear what?" she looks around, not really sure what she should be trying to find.
I think we should leave him behind. From a character standpoint I trust him to be honest about his own abilities and think that if he felt up to the task he would not have admitted his frailty, and from a meta standpoint I'm generally not fond of NPC tagalongs, especially ones that might be expected to contribute in combat. Having him stay behind at the quest hub to feed us information would be a better role for him IMO.
"There were few enough Queensmen out that people felt they could gossip openly about yesterday's events out in the open, at least. I'm sure you know as well as I that that could change with a wave of Barzillai's hand, though." As Jessibel and Davina discuss the Opera House, Lydia nods her head with a smile. "The Opera House Society would be a great ally at this time; my parents have of course had many successful dealings with them in the past, and they have never been afraid to push the boundaries of what Cheliax may deem acceptable. I'm sure we would find a number of people bold enough to support rebellion." "Taking a room here may be wise for me as well... Traveling to and from the temple may get more risky as time goes on. It would be for the best if we can stay together for the most part."
Lydia gives Leora a wave, happy to see a familiar face. "A cup of coffee would definitely be good for me right now. I'm afraid I'm a bit rattled at the moment... I heard some gossip about Barzillai's latest antics on the way here. You wouldn't happen to know what doghousing is, would you?"
Lydia has to fight the urge to march over to the gossipers and ask what doghousing is so she can be properly furious about it. It is becoming increasingly clear that the revolution could not come any sooner; this sort of reign of terror would cause all citizens of Kintargo to suffer, even just regular people living their everyday lives. For one moment, Lydia imagines Barzillai executed with one of his own cruel methods, before retracting the thought in disgust. She finds her way to the coffeehouse and waits for her co-conspirators to arrive.
Lydia awakens the next day, gets dressed and suddenly feels very foolish; despite knowing that she would need to travel to the coffeehouse today it had entirely slipped her mind to pair with a group member to ensure safety. "Well, nothing to be done about it now. I'm sure I'll be fine." She certainly is not going to miss something as important as the history of the Silver Ravens for some trifling safety concerns. Lydia puts on some old clothes from before her life as a priestess; dressed as nothing more than a fine young lady of the merchant class, it would be entirely feasible for her to be going on an innocent morning walk. She hopes so, at any rate.
Lydia agrees to the exchange, taking the wand as well as the potions. She returns to her chambers, exhausted from the day's events but filled with an excitement for what comes next.
With the group dispersing, Lydia goes to speak to the temple's quartermaster to swap the bracers; she would stay in Songbird Hall tonight. It's where she usually sleeps anyways as a priestess, and putting herself at more risk than necessary would only cause trouble. "Hello (sir/madame), I would like to request a cure wand; given the most recent... difficulties, I believe having one on hand would bring me great comfort. I can offer these magical bracers in exchange," she says, presenting the bracers of armor.
"My parents live in Jarvis End; it's a fairly independent community of artists and those who work for artists so I doubt they would side with Thrune. Still, it would make me more... comfortable if I knew mother and father were safe. Having the High Priest send a message may be our best option considering the circumstances." Lydia stands up and takes the bracers. "If no one objects I would like to see if I can convince the High Priest to trade these for a healing wand; something about getting your skull crushed by a mace makes reliable healing a much larger priority."
Ah, yeah that's a good point. The CLW wand is a higher priority. Also, where does Lydia live? Her parents are merchant class so it'd be a fairly wealthy area but separate from the noble estates, I think.
Lydia rubs her face in thought. "I need to find some way to contact my family; we're not nobles, but they are fairly public figures due to their profession... It would not be difficult for Thrune to trace a description of me to them." I'm running quite low on arcane energy myself; I think I only have one strong spell left in me, other than that it's just minor sparks of electricity in my repertoire. Considering our number of casters getting some rest before doing something truly dangerous may be our best course of action."
Would everyone be okay with trying to swap the bracers for a wand of mage armor? I think I'm the only one without armor proficiency here but even with those bracers my AC will be pretty pathetic, I really would get more use out of the wand and we can spread it around to anyone else running with less than 4 armor bonus.
Lydia had forgotten to consider her own family; merchant class as they are, they have no title or land to lose... but they could still lose their lives. And yet... "Kintargo is the only home I have ever known. The only home I want to know. I cannot turn my back on it when it needs me most." Lydia turns to Jessibel and says, "I can confirm Leora's testimony; the Night of Ashes was a targeted assault on the illegal shrines found in Kintargo. We've been secretly treating some of those who escaped from the fire at the Silver Star; Sarenrites, who were there to worship their goddess. Their plight is why I joined the protest."
Lydia nods in agreement at the speech. "I could not possibly agree more, Jessibel. I see now that civil action will provide no results; for those of us who love and cherish Kintargo, there is no valid response but to meet blade with blade. Shelyn waged war against Zon-Kuthon until he would meet the terms of peace... it seems we must do the same for Asmodeus." Some elder priests may criticize her decision to become part of the violence that was about to envelope Kintargo, but Lydia knows that the shedding of blood would not stop by Barzillai's orders. The events of that morning had made that fact perfectly clear.
Lydia breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank Shelyn that they are safe... I'm afraid that all of the worst things you've heard are true, Maestro. I fear that Barzillai Thrune is truly mad and has passed the point of reasoning. I don't think the 'unpleasantness' will work itself out on it's own."
"Thank you, Maestro. An opportunity to rest and regroup would certainly be appreciated." Lydia is still new enough to the order to speak to the High Priest more formally than most, despite his own relaxed demeanor. Lydia turns her head back and forth with a worried look on her face. "You... don't seem to be familiar with the specifics of what's going on. There should have been a group that got here before me to report to you. Have you seen them?"
What's the appropriate title a junior priest would use to address Vhast? High Priest?
"Ah-no, no, you're right. My apologies." Lydia looks more uncomfortable than she did getting bludgeoned in the face earlier. It had been a weak request but she did not expect it to backfire so seriously. At Rexus's request she retrieves his cane for him, looking for something useful to do. "Here you go, sir. My name is Lydia Tivyr; I believe you were still unconscious when I introduced myself earlier. We're currently headed to Songbird Hall-I'm a priestess there-and I assume you won't have any objections to joining us."
Occult classes are pretty cool, most of my delving into them has been for the Kineticist and Occultist but I've heard good things about the Psychic as well.
Psychic casting uses thought and emotion components, you don't have to actually say anything to cast so we shouldn't have been able to hear the "verbal components" to color spray.
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