The Night Swan takes off her helmet and mask and takes a knee before the young prince. ”I want tell you a secret. I do not believe that office or station of royalty should exist. After how easily these past emperors were turned to see you as a mere tool, I hope you can understand why I feel this way. I tell you this so you know that I kneel not because of deference to your position, respect for your title, or any nonsense like that. I do it because I respect and trust in you. Because I see echoes of the suffering I endured in your own, so I know better than anyone how you must feel. You deserved none of this. You should have never been subjected to any of it. None of these villains ever cared for you as anything but an empty vessel for their own desires and dreams. I wish you did not have to go now, right when there is a chance of freedom. I wish you could have the opportunity for a life without all of that weighing on you. I hope that at least you can have it in death. You no longer have to be anything or anyone save yourself.” She stands and begins to put her mask and helmet back on. As she turns away, she looks back over her shoulder. ”That is my dream, my desire. So do not feel constrained by it either. Go forth and remain Carrius, whoever you think that should be.”
The Night Swan also accepts some fire resistance. ”Anyone have any method to handle an enervation? The late emperor’s strikes had a strength-sapping effect on me.”Got two negative levels :(
The Night Swan is unpleasantly surprised by the emperor finally connecting with her. She quickly shifts focus to taking him down, now that several of the floating swords have been destroyed.
The Night Swan takes a step back to make it harder for her foes to surround her. She slashes again and again at the closest scimitar, trying to take it out of the fight.
Will Save (heroism):1d20 + 19 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 19 + 2 = 37
The Night Swan does not fear an empire, so why should she fear a man? She steps up towards one of the blades and aims a perfect strike, intuiting that removing some of them from the fight might make this battle more reasonable
“‘If the cup does not have scales, then it has hooves.’ Eagles have neither. Scallops are not scaly or behooved either.”
The Night Swan is beginning to get perturbed at the emperor for not being helpful. She tries to get a read on him to figure out whether he is holding anything back.
The Night Swan can guess that some selection of cups will be called for. She considers the possibility of them all being poisoned and some sort of acquired or magical immunity immediately, but decides there are other points against that theory. If this were, say, a contest of wits between a single charlatan and a rogue in which death is on the line, she would consider it a given. But Beldam would not want to poison too many people, as he would have too many webs in place; pluck a single string from a web at a time and it shall always recover, but pull a handful at once and it will collapse. No, there must be some logic, some puzzle here.
Those designs on the cups look heraldric. The Night Swan is gonna try to see if they remind her of any noble houses, current or former
The Night Swan, emboldened by her success versus Taldaris, sees no reason to cease now. She remembers Cyricas as one of her favorites growing up, before she soured on the idea of emperors altogether. Rulers with good hearts are the most tragic to her, as empire and kindness are the most starcrossed of pairings. She decides to press that tension.
”You speak of travel, adventure, the comforts of home…why do you think you can find those here? If you chose to stay, you will be entering a civil war, and even if you finally win it, you will have to stay to cement your victory. Do you think these other emperors your soul is chained to will let you act with impunity? What adventures would they allow you, when most of your fellows lack your explorer’s spirit? This world is known now, and there are no more lands that are unmapped. But there are worlds other than this, worlds that only you in your death can see, worlds beyond anything you experienced here. Does that not excite you more than war and politics?”
The Night Swan scoffs at the quasi-resurrected first Emperor.
”Oh please. We all know who you are, so you can stop the posturing. We have all spent our entire lives listening to people invoking your name to justify more taxes, less taxes; more rights for the poor, less rights for the poor; more laws, less laws. Your name has appeared on documents marrying people who loathe each other, promoting the cruelest and least competent among us, on deeds for land stolen from its inhabitants. It’s all you, First Emperor. You see, we do not get to decide our legacies, not even you, and that legacy is all that’s left of you. You aren’t even human anymore in the afterlife. We met you. You are more concept than person now. This shade of you here is just the leftovers, the bits that didn’t fit into a body of shiny metal. And which bits are left? What is there underneath the legend? I don’t think you want the answer, but I give a rat’s piss what you want, so I will tell you anyways.
You really are the same as every other conqueror: you expanded nothing except lines on pieces of paper and built nothing but piles of corpses. You are a murderer who killed enough people that those who are left gave up on stopping you. You are a tyrant who managed to get them to build some statues that would last long enough that people would forget the blood soaked into their masonry.
Go back to sleep and leave the living alone to mourn the freedom we lost to your vanity.”
She does not expect him to give a damn about anything she says, so she prepares for battle to be joined, entering her battle stance and adjusting her tactics to account for the grogrisant. Entering Snake Style as a swift and using martial flexibility to pick up Blind Fight
Snake Style (to use if she is targeted by a spell with an attack roll):
The Night Swan produces the necklace and holds it up. ”I have it. It containing her soul would not be unreasonable. A good contingency, one that may soon prove its worth, should it be so.”
”Personally, I think we should get this traitor false Virgil and interrogate him. He may be able to provide information on what sorts of conspirators we will find back in Oppara as well. I doubt the Duke would be helpful even if we did risk bringing him back enough to interrogate, and I worry he will slip out of our fingers.”
New Vigilante Talent: Armor Skin (combines with Steel Soldier to make her ignore speed reduction and ACP for acrobatics, escape artist, and stealth in heavy armor)
Skills 6 class + 2 int + 1 human + 1 headband + 2 background
Acrobatics +1
Bluff +1
Diplomacy +1
Intimidate +1
Knowledge (nobility) +1
Knowledge (local) +1
Perception +3
Sense Motive +1
Sleight of Hand +1
UMD +1
The Night Swan focuses a flurry of strikes on a single wounded target before moving to the next. Starting on green and if it drops she will switch attacks to whichever within range is most damage
The Night Swan rushes out from behind the door frame to hack at the nearest bloodspawn. ”You should have trusted your nose. Your deference to authority will get you killed.”
”Stone Golems. I have a sneaking suspicion that the gap between them to squeeze through is bait for intruders.” She scans the golems for any clues as to how to deal with them, such as any peculiarities to their designs.
The Night Swan produces the Princess’s necklace from her pathfinder pouch. ”We have this token from the Princess. Do you think we could use the…psychic…energies…or the like to do…something.” She shifts uncomfortably. ”I do not really understand how all this works.”
”Oh bloody heavens, what is this?” The Night Swan is taken completely aback by this horrible device, this aberration of magic and science, as she struggles to fully comprehend its ramifications.
The Night Swan holds the image of Thassritoum in her mind unflinchingly. A monster that looks like a monster is the kind that scares her the least. The worst monsters will look like anything but.
She listens to the Major’s explanation as best she can. She is clever and well-studied but nit in this particular field, having always preferred the social sciences to metaphysics. ”If it were not for everything I have seen, I would call Lotheed’s work the meaningless ramblings of an insane old man. Unfortunately, they seem to be the extremely meaningful ramblings of an insane old man.”
The Night Swan is not sure how to process what she is hearing about the young Prince. He has been subject to tortures of the soul beyond her wildest imaginings, she is sure of that though, and she will do whatever it takes to free him.
The Night Swan scowls under her mask at the altar and the Major’s description of its purpose and power. ”So this is his friend that has been keeping him alive.”
The Night Swan scowls under her mask. The gods truly are useless, if their gaze can be hidden from by the rich and powerful. If even death cannot be counted on to save the weak from those who exploit them, no wonder the the nobility and royalty hold such an iron grip. She thinks back to Count Bartleby Lotheed and his manor in Meratt County, how it had that living painting—a trompe l’oeil—masquerading as his wife.
She kneels down next to the Duke’s head. She does not know if he can hear her, but she speaks nonetheless.
”Did you not think your wife worthy of your immortality? Did you find her human traits inconvenient and desire a version that would never change? Or perhaps I am too harsh. Maybe you merely were unable to pull this trick until after she died, and that painting was the best you could muster. Or perhaps she died and drove you to this obsession with death until you learned to cheat it.” She pats his cheek. ”None of it really matters. Underneath it all, you are just a scared little boy, scared to death something in this world might change. I am here to tell you that it will. Oh yes. You cannot stop the world turning, and each revolution will leave you further behind. The people will be free. Pray Pharasma finds you quickly so you don’t have to see all your works come undone.”
The Night Swan also calls down the hall for the others to move before returning to attend to the Major and bring him up to speed. ”He is somehow not dead despite being in pieces. I could dice him and he would still be alive. I have never read or heard of such an atrocious state. All I know is there must be horrifying magics at work here.”
If she hits and does damage, he will be sickened 1 round due to the cruel quality on Aymr, if she kills him, then that same weapon quality will give her 5 temp hp for 10 minutes
The Night Swan’s iron fortitude rejects the lure of the Banshee’s Wail. She jumps onto the table. She can’t fail the acrobatics She moves in to confront the Duke.
”How does it feel, Lotheed, to know that you gave yourself every advantage, used every craven dirty trick, all for your own selfish pride. And you are still going to lose.”
She hammers her halberd down towards his head.
Attack with Aymr (heroism, high ground, power attack):1d20 + 26 + 1 + 2 - 4 ⇒ (18) + 26 + 1 + 2 - 4 = 43 Damage (power attack):1d10 + 12 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 12 + 8 = 30 Cornugon Smash Free Demoralize (heroism):1d20 + 27 + 2 ⇒ (9) + 27 + 2 = 38 Looks like the Night Swan won’t get the poetic inspiration until next round so I didn’t include it
The Night Swan grumbles, seeing this is a dead end. She will look down the tube to see what she can gather about what’s on the other side, so they know which kind of room they are looking for.
Once she’s taken a look, she finds something to block the hole so this vampire lady cannot pull the same trick again.
”We should be wary. This entire place was clearly designed to accommodate and enable a vampire’s abilities. There will be other tricks and traps to be sure. We should be especially careful of whichever ground she picks for our next confrontation.”
The Night Swan stows her halberd, produces a crowbar, and rushes over to the floor and tries to break open the hole in the floor.
Strength Check (armor trick, crowbar):1d20 + 7 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 7 + 2 + 2 = 31 It’s an ability check so I’m pretty sure that means no heroism bonus
GM Euan:
Part of her bonus is from this Armor Trick:
Steel-Plated Smasher (Power Attack): You gain a bonus equal to 1/4 of your armor’s armor check penalty (not including any reduction to the armor check penalty from class features or feats) on Strength checks to break doors and objects with less hardness than your armor. When your base attack bonus reaches +8, this bonus increases to 1/2 your armor’s armor check penalty. When your base attack bonus reaches +16, this bonus increases to equal your armor’s full armor check penalty.
