"There it is!" exclaims Triphylla when she notices Xan. She uses her enhanced speed to get between the demon and Valeria, and then aims her horns at its thigh and goes in sharply.
Triphylla moves to flank with Lope, cutting through the cloud behind the carriage to avoid the reach of Xan, then charging at it again with her horns lowered.
Triphylla feels like she's rammed into the side of a house. Momentarily dazed, she shakes it off only to look and see Lope standing in front of her and Xan vanished.
Triphylla can hardly believe they've survived this long against Xan. The psychopomp’s attention seemed to waver lake a candle in the breeze - easily and fleeting.
Her contributions to this fight thus far aligned with her desire not to fight the thing at all, and her personal preference to allow the Prince to be removed from the increasingly complicated mathematics of civil war. But her companions seemed set on keeping him alive, and so now she threw herself into the fray while their foe's attention pointed toward Lope.
She drinks an extract of Expeditious Retreat, the steps forward with all of her Rage, horns screwing out of her skull. She lunges in head first to attack!
With the Prince absconded away and Lope calling for flame, Triphylla steps out of the wreckage of the carriage and out of the mist. She darts to Xan's right, quickly consuming her remaining Invisibility extract in the hopes of sneaking in to attack.
I should probably redo my turn. We're not that far from taking Xan out, but it would take Triphylla a full round to prepare to make a meaningful attack. Not sure the Prince is going to last that long. Maybe that's for the best.
Triphylla had one more trick up her sleeve. Knowing that the carriage was destroyed, she drops down to where the Prince was seated inside. Xan would surely lop the poor boy's head clean off with his next swing, so Triphylla, not knowing what Valeria will do next but hoping it's some powerful spell, produces from her bandolier an extract of Invisibility. With a practiced flick of her thumb she pops the cork from the vial and presses it to the boy's mouth, as she had done several times before with the opium tinctures she had made. (Infusion discovery)
5' step to move from the driver's seat inside the open carriage.
Triphylla is surprised when an impenetrable cloud suddenly engulfs her. She does her best to keep the horses under control and the carriage moving backward away from Xan, which she assumes will keep following.
This is not her fight. Hopeful that Valeria's spell sends the demon back into the abyss, Triphylla wheels her little legs around the back side of the carriage and climbs into the seat. She quickly wrestles the reins away from the gobsmacked driver (?), and proceeds to urge the horses to reverse, at least forcing their foe into tighter fighting spaces, and with hopes of actually turning this into a chase.
Triphylla waits apprehensively for the demon to respond. While she's out in a night's effort to keep the prince stable, it would honestly be less complicated to allow him to be taken. She had no desire to fight this thing.
Triphylla folds her hands together and takes a slow, steady breath before speaking, her tone calm and deliberate, each sentence carried on a measured rhythm.
"Patience and precision must prevail, Valeria, for this poor prince has been pushed into a perilous dependence, and pulling him free will require balance rather than boldness, and care rather than haste."
She arranges the tinctures in a careful line, each vial aligned and labeled, her fingers pausing briefly as if committing their order to memory.
"He has been kept in a cycle of sedation, and if we strip that from him suddenly, we risk replacing one harm with another, so instead we must guide him gently, reducing each dose in turn, measuring each moment with care, and watching for the signs that his body is struggling to follow."
Her gaze shifts to the boy, then returns, focused despite the fatigue behind her eyes.
"If he begins to tremble or sicken, or if he cannot keep food or sleep, then we hold steady and do not press further, for this is not a problem to force, but one to manage with restraint."
When St. John speaks of rest, she nods once, thoughtful rather than reluctant.
Her sleep is brief and uneven, but she rises anyway, packing the tinctures with quiet care, wrapping them among more ordinary remedies so they draw no attention, and dividing what remains so that nothing appears excessive.
At the carriage, she climbs inside and settles near the boy, watching the slow rise and fall of his breathing with quiet attention.
"As you say, Lope. And pray we are not ambushed on the road."
A pair of wonderful posts, Lope and DM. It's a shame we haven't been able to keep everyone consistently active. I have enjoyed this game more than any other that I have played in this platform. It is a well-written AP and has been carefully executed by our DM.
I admit my desire to play games has waned in recent months as I've battled stubborn rl challenges, but the storytelling here has my enthusiasm renewed.
With her backpack and sack full, Triphylla groggily heads back to the Inn. She needed sleep, but there wasn't time for it. She knew they had to get on the road back to Oppara immediately to avoid suspicion around the Prince.
Once she returns to the Inn she immediately calls for her things in the room to be brought down. For once, she isn't a mess of blood and gore after a fight, so she can skip the customary bath.
Instead, she orders a large breakfast and explains what she knows about addiction to the others. Go ahead and check the spoiler in DMs previous post.
While I'm sure the town council would like us to present ourselves for a full report, I believe our work in Yanmass is done. If any of you want to do that, I can ready the carriage and the Prince for the start of our journey home."
Triphylla spends the rest of the night making tinctures with opium. She makes as much as she can, reducing the opium ratio with each successive batch in order to ween the Prince from the addictive effects and give him the best chance to free himself from the cycle of dependence.
Make as much as she can and worry about how to carry them later.
"I'll go in and talk to her myself, but maybe she has already fled with the rest. Either way, I need what's in that lab to take care of the Prince here. It's the easiest solution that does not raise questions we do not want to answer."
Triphylla will do just that, venturing across the hall to the alchemy lab.
Triphylla frowns. "It's not that simple," she says, replying to Lope. "I will need to continue to administer regular doses of this mind-numbing agent for the foreseeable future. To deprive him of it would cause more harm than good. He may eventually be weened from it, with great care. We need to escort the, ah, Prince back to Oppara, with great haste and secrecy. No one can suspect his identity is true.
"But before we leave we must revisit the alchemist across the hall. I think we should dispense with disguises at this point. Allow me another minute to fortify myself." She finally allows the disguise she had been wearing to drop, that of the risen Prince standing only paces away.
When the group is ready, she leads the way to confront the dwarf, if she has not fled with the other cultists.
Triphylla decides that explaining the last part about the chemical dependency is not important right now. Clearly, the dwarf in the other room would still need to be engaged, hopefully without violence now that the cult was beheaded.
At St. John's urging, Triphylla ambles to where the collection of
K Arcana:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
Reading through passages of the first book on the cultist's desk, she directs her voice to Lope and Valeria.
"Recall the trompe l’oeil of Veleto Lotheed we found in the tower room at the Lotheed estate? I believe this book ties a bow on that bit of disturbing artwork. Coincidence? I think not!"
K Arcana:1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14
She can make no more of the books and so picks up the notes on the table. She turns the diagrams round in her hands to make sense of the mechanical renderings, then her brow peaks. She reads the note again, carefully.
With a heavy sigh she starts, "We may have a very big problem. These Twilight Child cultists believe that their Carrius is in fact the risen Prince. If that's true, well, I don't need to spell out what is obvious. This high cultist, Vaddrigan, controlled the boy and created the cult so as to perpetuate the, erm, truth of the boy."
Triphylla suddenly realizes she's been fighting nothing at all, and she feels a fool. The energy drains out of her in a rush and she turns to see what's become of their mind-scrambling foe. She sees Valeria approach with a dagger and throws up a hand.
"No. Wait!"
But she is too late to save the cultist, who might otherwise have been subject to interrogation to learn why all of this cult nonsense was necessary, and who benefited from it.
The halfling sits heavily and pours a vial of holy water over her own head to snuff out the burning and soothe her scalp. It will take a while to grow her hair out again, and she would need a good hat in the meantime. She looks over to see that Lope and St. John are similarly recovered.
Too tired to exert herself further. She sits on the floor and waits for the others to decide what to do next.
I thought that was a fun encounter. It exposed our weakness. Valeria saved our bacon this time but it would be great to recruit another full caster. We should also be looking for alternative ways to cast Dispel Magic.
Triphylla shrieks and lunges at the shadow, fangs and claws bared. She intends to send it back from whatever abyss it crawled out of, or die trying! Snarling, the halfling tears at the darkness, terrified and desperate to rid it from this world and every other. She's still burning, but disfigurement by fire is of no concern whilst the horror exists.
When the cultist moves two steps closer, Triphylla goes to plan C. Her rage powers are exhausted, leaving her fatigued, and shaken from the spell, and when her hair catches fire she pats her head almost hard enough to giver herself a headache. All the while she presses toward the cultist, attempting to lock him up, half-climbing up the man's torso to try to prevent him from casting any more damned spells.
Triphylla frowns at the cultist's taunts, but looks at her companions, all now acting chaotically.
"I gave each of you a potion to drink. Use it now!"
This is a reminder that before venturing downstairs Triphylla handed to each member of the party a dose of Essence of Independence.
When ingested, this thin serum awakens your potential for independent action. If you are under the influence of a mindaffecting effect, you receive a new saving throw with a +4 alchemical bonus to break the effect (you can gain this benefit only once per day).
Triphylla shakes off another attempt against her wits, but she's beginning to wonder how long her luck will hold. With the cultist feeling queasy, she takes a step away from St. John and then lobs another alchemical attack in the direction of their foe.
Throw Anything:1d20 + 14 - 4 ⇒ (16) + 14 - 4 = 26
She lobs the Cytillesh stun vial at the cultist, hoping the combination of effects puts him out of action for a short time, long enough to get in a solid attack.
When broken, a cytillesh stun vial releases a flash of blue light consisting of bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light in a 20-foot radius. All creatures within the flash area must make a Will save (DC 20). Creatures that fail are stunned for 1d2 rounds if they're in the area of bright light, or are confused for 1 round if in the area of dim light.
Dex Mutagen, Dex Rage, AC 27, Rage Rnds Remaining: 0
@DM, Triphylla is now out of Adaptable Luck uses for the day, and any Will saves going forward are at +6, although she does also get +3 vs Charm and Compulsion, which I have been forgetting.
The mirror image causes Trihpylla to fight against illusions, but she lands one solid hit. This cultist is proving a terrifying foe, moving with great speed and throwing charms out like bombs at the party. At least her mind is steeled against these attacks, and now the cultist has flown clear of the group, which allows the halfling to change tactics.
She pulls a Ghast retch flask from her bandolier and tosses it in the direction of the cultist!
Throw Anything:1d20 + 14 - 2 ⇒ (13) + 14 - 2 = 25
The target is nauseated for 1 round and sickened for 3 rounds after that. A successful DC 12 Fortitude save prevents the nauseated condition, but not the sickened condition. Creatures within 5 feet of where the flask hits are sickened for 1 round.
Dex Mutagen, Dex Rage, AC 27, Rage Rnds Remaining: 1
No sorry he moved away on his turn. I've moved Lope and St John back, they can move their tokens if they like. I assume you will defer to set up a flank, since you're all going in one block there's basically no downside.
Yes, Triphylla will wait until Lope and St. John move in and then move to flank, if available.
Triphylla feels a surge of pride that her dust trick works well enough for the others to spot the aasimar, although that wasn't what she was expecting when St. John hit it and the creature revealed itself. The sensation is quickly replaced by uncertainty. How many more are there?
And then the first thing it does is start telling her what to do! When will the indignity end?
I took Iron Will for my feat this level, and I'll use another full Adaptable Luck, so +8...
Luckily, her mind is not so easily tampered with. "I don't think so, Tim!"
I took the liberty of moving party members around the high cultist where they would have been able to attack. This gives Triphylla flanking with Lope with a 5' step. Please let me know if not okay.
The halfling sidesteps to allow the others access to surround the cultist. Not knowing any better, she assumes this one will be as easy to take down as the others. With a twitch of her head, she brings her demonic horns to bear against the robed figure and lunges at it with all the rage she can muster.
Mutagen+Rage+Power Attack+Sneak Att: Attack +12, Damage +6+4d6, AC +6
She looks past the group to where Lope is exploring, then something odd catches her eye. She does a double-take before realizing what it is.
"There! Another one!"
Leaping over the bodies of the cultists, she runs at the vaguely visible thing moving into the room, when she is near it, she takes a tube of Rusting powder from her sack and dashes it onto the floor in the immediate area, so that any movement by the unwanted figure could be tracked by its footfalls.
Dex Mutagen, Dex Rage, AC 30, Rage Rnds Remaining: 4
I'm gonna guess the table and chairs are difficult terrain.
Mutagen+Rage+Crowd Control+Power Attack: Attack +13, Damage +6, AC +7
With her pathway to flanking effectively blocked, Triphylla launches herself at the cultist engaged with St. John, hoping Lope can finish off the one now at her back.
While she's disappointed that her Prince Carrius ruse didn't have an effect, Triphylla springs into action, flying into a rage and moving to flank one of the cultists and then attack from behind.
Mutagen+Rage+Crowd Control+Power Attack+Sneak Att: Attack +13, Damage +6+4d6, AC +7
Triphylla ambles casually into the room, looking the spitting image of the dead (risen?) Prince Carrius II. She mills about looking for nothing in particular, noting this, that, and the other. Here eyes settle on the paperwork and whatever importance it offers to the casual observer.
