Instead, you turn the tables, keeping her distracted while Scinnari pursues her target. As the two of you face each other down, threatening with feint and counter-feint, a pained shout from Tereva'senthasen The sounds of a struggle warp and echo through your lair, seizing part of both yours and the paladin's attention. Between scanning Scinnari's mind and making sense of the sounds, you get a very good picture of the fight, while feeling very satisfied that you have Alyvia's back to the fight, and she can't turn from you to see.

The elf, somewhat recovered, reacting with lighting speed- Roll, deflect, feeble counter attack, and a second roll, sending her tumbling down a mound of your hoard. Perhaps she didn't have enough time to look beforehand. Scinnari follows with leisurely, cat-like grace, arriving a second after the elf stops rolling, and smoothly planting her sword in the elf's stomach. A momentary, almost-carnal pleasure at the adventurer's confused twitching, muscles tensing momentarily in agony, then a swift twist of the blade, extraction, and step back, sword back on guard. A very bloody moan rises from the elf, echoing hauntingly through the darkness.

“And then there were three...” Alyvia sighs from before you, not knowing the details of the fight, but accurately guessing the results. “May she have achieved her redemption.” she mutters, circling and backing off, trying to draw you away from her surviving comrades. You decline to be pulled, and back off yourself, obvious in your intent to turn on her companions. That forces her to threaten you to hold your attention, an you trade a series of attacks, claw versus blade.

Despite your incredible size and strength advantage, she resolutely refuses to be intimidate. You each land a few blows, yours throwing her back quite a ways, while hers rip you a bloody-but-otherwise-superficial shoulder wound. An over-eager advance of yours gives her lucky opportunity, but the hit fails to penetrate your scales. A painful bruise, and cracked scale, but nothing else.

Scinnari returns, flashing the paladin a mocking smile. “Your friend won't be joining us, I think. Though she isn't dead yet- were you to surrender, it might be in time to save her...” Alyvia replies with a harsh laugh, perhaps one of your hits having cracked a rib.

“Surrender? So you can kill us all as slowly as possible?” she pants, “Thanks, but even Val knew not to do that. Still, suppose I should return the favor- Do you wish to surrender? Pelor says that all may find redemption, if they are truly contrite- I personally hope you die and burn, but I'm obligated to ask.”

“Allow me to consid-” Scinnari begins, miming contemplation. “No.” she finishes, interrupting herself, and throwing a knife that seemingly appeared from nowhere. The paladin reflexively tried to block, but ends up accidentally deflecting it with her gauntlet. Her hissed cursing suggests that it was not without pain, though, and she backs up, attempting to keep you from flanking her by increasing the distance. From behind, you can hear the dwarf- Kotri- speaking quietly, though whether prayer, spellcasting, or simply gibbering to herself in terror, you can't tell.

Fuck yeah, Dragon Quest!

I'm surprised more people haven't jumped on this yet. A bit too early, maybe?

>>16487527

"You have us all wrong Paladin, we can be quite merciful when we wish. For instance-"

*Massive firebreath to immolate the Dwarf...and probably the Sorceror too (though I gather we want him alive)*

"-I've kindly spared them *your* fate, which I assure you does not involve dying."

>>16487591

I like the sentiment, but we likely do want that Sorc alive in case we can't secure the paladin. On the otherhand, we can't risk the Sorc waking up, which the Dwarf is surely getting around to do.

Alas, I don't think the Paladin is up to deal-making, so...what to do, what to do...

We should get watcher in here to start brain draining the remaining adventurers. Then kill them.

Well, about time we make with the capturing. Get Azyra to counterspell or otherwise inhibit the dwarf without getting physically closer. Paladin's just about taken care of. Send Cygnis off to get the guards and we should be in the clear.

That's a pretty bossing paladin if she can trade blows almost equally with us.

Lets 'port over to the dwarf and pont-blank roast her. Or nom her. I believe Enyrines also get a 50 ft rope they can use? Use it to hold Pelor chick up from a safer distance.

>>16487674

I'm fine with killing the others, but the paladin deserves something a little more repentive.

>>16487699
It's pretty clear shes' receiving some hard-core divine favor. If Scin has a rope, seconded, though I don't think she's ever mentioned it before.

>>16487732
I don't know, I like her. She's got guts and she's pretty funny. Once we have the information we want, I'm in favor of just killing her.

>>16487741

Yeah if not, better to telepathically tell Scin to do something else ranged- some spell or something. I doubt the Paladin will be able to move in time to stop us, but any delay is good.

>>16487769

I don't like her enough to excuse everything she's done. Enough to excuse her friends, sure, but not her, personally.

Eh, if we win and the paladin survives I say we use that Black Dragon we've had forever and do some magical evil force conversions, half-black dragon blackguard?

The dwarf might be a native, seems totally nonthreatening. Elf could be useful if it survives since most of our cult is rather short lived.

YAY! Dragon quest! :D

But it's 00:48 here D: I'm going to be unconscious soon regardless of whether I want to. I shall catch up in the mroning! (ti)

>>16487995
rape? really?

Well, I suppose we basically done worse already...

I want her and the sorceror's souls ready to be valued by Scinnari as to their value if sold to the hells, and the dwarf at least mind-drained and disposed of permanently, unless we have a better idea. I'd like to know whether the stunty is related to the ones on our island, too. Fucking stunties...
Also, that elf. We might want to look into healing and recruiting, or at the very least mind draining, her, since I'd like to know what she did that got the church so angry with her, and whether this could be useful. I wouldn't mind doing something that would hurt Pelor after he pulled this.
Also, we might want to look into worshipping a better god- Tiamat's a useless bitch, and there are a fair few in the Draconomicon.

>>16488024

I prefer the term 'Minion factory'.

But I don't think we want half-blacks. And that's without being racist.

Might want to send Scinnari to get Watcher while we secure the remaining adventurers.

>>16488048
I laughed. I'm a terrible person.

There is that green we dealt with.

>>16488048
Wasn't so much rape as using that life draining thing we've been using on and off, honestly that dragon is going to waste.

>>16488032

Tss...okay, we conk the paladin out, and we discuss their worth to both the hells and as playthings. If Scinnari thinks they might be worth enough to get her back into a possible promotional loop, we ask her whether she wants that or them as 'gifts'.

Given we'd be ding it for her anyway, it seems logical to give the choice to her. Also, nice to see the armour we gave her's good.

You've redeemed yourself WD.

As someone who walked away from this quest, I just had to say, good on you!

Because, of course, what really matters to you is the opinion of fickle neckbeards, right?

>>16488048
Half blacks, maybe not, but we had a helm of opposite alignment from that psuedodragon experiment, didn't we? A blackguard isn't beyond the realm of possibility... Even if we can't send them on missions, someone to train our cult... Actually, not a helm of opposite alliance, that would be Chaotic Evil and we don't want that, but the point stands we were experimenting on alignment conversion.
Then we just keep them in our lair, and gain a) a specialist to train our cult. b) a certain way to get the info out of her regardless of paladin protection, c) a hilarious trophy.

>>16488056

I think I'd prefer all hands to be on deck for this; there should be time for the fetching after they are secured.

As for the helm idea...I'm leery on whether that would work to our will and ideals. Unless this was some full-on epic-magic perpective-altering helm.

>>16488155
Scinnari can teleport at will. It would take maybe 5 seconds.

>>16488155
It's a cursed item, not epic, but that is pretty much what it does. However, I realised that would be chaotic evil, and thus not much use to us, so we'd be better off just seeing if we can fuck around with mind rape or marinating them in evil or whatever. Though it may be worth it to slap the helm on them anyways to knock off any pesky paladin mind protection before the mind-raping.

"Helm of Opposite Alignment
This metal hat looks like a typical helmet. When placed upon the head, however, its curse immediately takes effect (Will DC 15 negates). On a failed save, the alignment of the wearer is radically altered to an alignment as different as possible from the former alignment—good to evil, chaotic to lawful, neutral to some extreme commitment (LE, LG, CE, or CG). Alteration in alignment is mental as well as moral, and the individual changed by the magic thoroughly enjoys his new outlook. A character who succeeds on his save can continue to wear the helmet without suffering the effect of the curse, but if he takes it off and later puts it on again, another save is required. The curse only works once; that is, a character whose alignment has been changed cannot change it again by donning the helmet a second time.

Only a wish or a miracle can restore former alignment, and the affected individual does not make any attempt to return to the former alignment. (In fact, he views the prospect with horror and avoids it in any way possible.) If a character of a class with an alignment requirement is affected, an atonement spell is needed as well if the curse is to be obliterated. When a helm of opposite alignment has functioned once, it loses its magical properties.

Strong transmutation; CL 12th; Craft Wondrous Item, creator must be 12th level; Price 4,000 gp;Weight 3 lb."

>>16488167

That's a lifetime in combat terms. Where's the rush?

>>16488127
Well originally I was suggesting transferring some Dragonness to the paladin and using something like the helm of opposite alignment for a hilarious underling, but everyone seems to have read it as "RAPE RAPE RAPE" instead.

>>16488199

Thoughts on this, gentlemen?

>>16488206
Some of them might be dead if we wait until we've got them all pinned/unconscious/dead etc. I would rather be able to brain drain as many of them as possible in case that only some of them know certain things, or in case some of them are resistant, etc.

>>16488244
Oh, whoop. Sorry about that, maybe I just have a dirty mind.

Forcibly make her half black dragon? I don't know if it's worth it- for maximum hilarity, she'd have to show some serious contempt for dragons. Still, could work. I'm open to useful underlings. Biggest problem would be that she'd probably still hate us, though.

In the short term, can we get to securing and brain draining them?

We can decide if we want to do stuff with a helm of opposite alignment or selling them to the hells or whatever later. Who knows, something else might come up that renders the entire discussion moot.

>>16488288

I vote against. We're still up against a badass paladin, I'd rather not split efforts between a combat and a mind-scan. So long as the Paladin remains alive, or at least the Sorceror, I'm happy with other losses we may incur before a scan.

>>16488322
In combat time, it would literally only take a single round. The sorcerer is out of commission, the paladin can't attack us very effectively, and we could go sit on the dwarf or something. Once Scinnari's back, we can deal with the paladin. Also, it means that the brain draining starts sooner, so we can potentially start getting rid of them sooner.

>>16488388

The Dwarf could have awakened the Sorceror with that little chant of hers, the Paladin will notice Scinnari's absence and use the moment to Giga Drill Break us- or that's what I'd do if I had the power of a god behind me. Too much risk for not enough gain- and why the rush to get rid of them?! We haven't even decided what we're doing with them yet!

rolled 90 = 90

>>16487506
Is this paladin Immune to Fire or something? Are we without spells for some reason?

Why haven't we Dispelled and roasted these impudent fools already? Why are we locked in a MELEE as a DRAGON?

Personal opinion, circle them until we can get all three remaining in a cone of fire, then roast them all.

What spells have we? Evards Black Tentacles, then fire? Greater Dispell Magic?

Seriously, we're smarter than this.

Concerned about the dwarf more than the paladin. While the paladin is obviously a bigger melee threat than anything else in the room, the dwarf we know little about in terms of her abilities. Normally I wouldn't care about the dwarf in these circumstances, but she is next to an unconscious sorcerer and may be capable of awakening her.

I'm far too concerned about the immediate circumstances in a way that would effect our ability to maintain control of the situation and keep it going at our leisure. Scinnari isn't in melee combat with the paladin at the moment, have her teleport back and stabilize the situation behind us. It's easy enough to keep the paladin occupied for the time being.

>>16488526

We need them alive if possible to scan their memories and find out who sent them, from where, and etc.

As well as potential useful bargaining tools for Scin promotion or general punishment. Roasting them is a wasted opportunity and- I might add, an action born out of short-patience and fear of what the GM might do rather than a look at the possibilities.

>>16488526
>immune to fire or something?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: If you want to go argue with her god be my guest.

rolled 1 = 1

>>16488615
Even dead they are useful. Speak with Dead?

The Elf seems comatose but living, leave that one alive.

I'm just saying: why haven't we utilized our arsenal of magical capabilities? We don't need them ALL living: and we have our pets already - a paladin is a foolish choice.

Dispell, Fire, leave one alive for questioning.

>>16487506

We're currently in our hoard room. Our breath is hot enough to melt most of our wealth in the room. While gold is still gold, I'd prefer not to lose any more value of expertly worked objects by turning them into golden slag just because we wanted to be slightly more intimidating.

>>16488685

Our we could soul trap them, still be able to converse with them, and sell them at a high price-five them to Scin as fancy jewellery.

I'm in no market for servants either, but there's other things to consider. You yourself said we have magic at our disposal- it should be easy to non-lethally contain them.

>>16488738
'tis a poor red dragon that doesn't have his hoard spelled against heat.

>>16488738

On the upside, if they are immune to fire, golden slag would immobilize them completely.

>>16488685
They'll get will saves against speak with dead if they're of an opposing alignment. And you can only try once per week, and the answers are very limited. It's not a very good option for questioning dead enemies.

Fed up with the dwarf, and wary of the risk, you back off enough that you can turn to look while Scinnari and the paladin trade blows and banter. What you see is the dwarf cowering behind the unconscious sorcerer, but within a semi-solid cylindrical barrier. Suspecting what it is, you open your jaw to unleash a puff of flame- The paladin shouts warning, but dwarf gives no sign of heeding it.

As you suspected, the barrier parts the flame. Despite it, though the dwarf's skin still blisters, and her shout of pain rebounds off the ceiling. Oddly, the sorcerer's skin barely reddens. Perhaps he was warded against such heat beforehand. Idly you weave a minor enchantment to dispel the barrier, and are mildly surprised to see it endure. You retaliate with a stronger disenchantment, and are rewarded with the barrier flickering and dispersing. The dwarf fails to notice, cowering as she is, and you turn back to the paladin just in time.

“Scinnari, please fetch Watcher.” you instruct her telepathically, transmitting accompanying instructions to locate the crystal- Out of paranoia, you've been making sure that only you know where it is stored each time. Scinnari acknowledges and teleports out, while you leap back from the paladin's charge. . .

“Pelor's power defies you, beast. The Rays of the Sun reach even here- you shall not have us this day.” Alyvia says loudly in measured challenge to you. “Your fires are nothing compared to the Sun- your powers nothing compared to Pelor.”

“Your god hardly has infinite power to invest in you- if he did, you'd have struck me down in the first moment of combat, no?” you reply mockingly, circling. “Eventually, your god will simply have no more power to protect you with- you aren't his only worshiper, nor are you irreplaceable. Tell me what you think will happen when his power finally leaves you- How then you will escape, what will keep me from 'having you this day'? Are you at peace with an eternity of pain?”

“If you would stand yourself against a God, I suspect that's the least of my worries. Your arrogance will undo you long before that.” She pauses to shift her sword to her left hand, pulling a spiked mace from /your/ hoard, testing its balance in her hand. Recognizing the weapon- yours, after all- you recall that it's enchantment is slightly more powerful than that sword's. A pity, but perhaps you can persuade her to drop it.

You swing your tail around, slightly off the ground, intending to bring it down on her shoulder. Ideally, a solid breaking of her collarbone and paralysis- In theory, at least. Instead, she notices it. A reflex throw of the sword, end-over-end at your flank. It doesn't embed itself in your flesh, though it shreds a painful hole into your folded wing. As your tail closes in on her, you knock a pile of golden coins in her direction, similar to throwing sand in a foes eyes, though on a larger scale. The room echoes with the clangs of coin-on-armor, but she succeeds in diving under your tail anyway. Her armor, though battered, holds.

Scinnari returns a moment later. She teleports out dangerously close to where the paladin now stands. She teleports again to escape danger, as the paladin comes to her feet and lunges at where the devil once was. Scinnari laughs from just out of range, backing off, and you use the paladin's foolish charge to land a hit with your left foreclaw- beating her down, then knocking her halfway across your hoard. It might have been more effective to do with your jaws, but you are loath to place your face and skull any closer than you have to. She rolls on impact, coming unsteadily to her feet worrying close to Azyra. Azyra scrambles backwards, but the paladin merely shoots her a warning look not to get involved, and moves back towards you.

“I cannot read her.” Watcher chimes with surprising irritation, “She is one empowered by her god at the moment. Their mind is impervious to me.” Scinnari's expression is venomous, whether at the crystal or paladin you can only guess. She does not comment though, and draws backwards, moving to give Watcher a view of the dying elf.

“Correct. I am one with the blazing sun- I have not abandoned him, and he has not abandoned me!” Alyvia calls after Scinnari. Her breath is coming harder to her, you think, though you are worried that it may just be your imagination, or a ploy on her part. Scinnari seems to twitch at the insult, but continues.

“Dying but readable. She will not shed her coil for at least ten minutes, however.” Watcher states, impassive as ever. “Quite pained, of course. Continue.”

“Pasa! Protect yourself /now!/” Alyvia calls. Interpreting her command correctly, you spin in time to interrupt the aasimar's casting. The dwarf's barrier dispelled, nothing stops you from simply knocking the sorcerer down, pinning the dwarf and him down beneath your claw. You cannot hold such a position, obviously, as you'll need to move to be able to face the paladin, but for the moment, you've got three out of four well in hand...

>>16488093
Welcome back.

May I ask what you I did to send you away and what brought you back?

>>16488664
Precisely.

>>16489061
Without going on a tirade, it was mainly your nonresponiveness during that comeback thread.

That solved, things seem to be back at status quo, so here I am, back on board.

>>16489030
Look do we want to kill these guys?

Cause if we don't now is probably the time to just raise a hand in the air and say

"Alright, fighting is getting us nowhere, lets just try and use words like reasonable people for a change."

>>16489200
Nah, we go to murder the fuck out of that paladin. Too dangerous to let go.

The dwarf may or may not be useful as a prisoner, and the sorcerer would be nice to interrogate.

I'm also against attempts to imprison the paladin, becuase that's just a liability. But I won't shout it down if that's the majority's feeling on the matter.

>>16489200

Depends on what we want to do.

If we want them alive. I suggest this.
Bring our great maw to bear, acting as if we are about to purge the intruders with flame before stopping yourself. Push down on the sorc and dorf to make them wince but DO NOT KILL THEM. Turn to the paladin and begin negotiations. You are willing to let them live if she gives up. If she refuses, say your tried and look down at your prey. Bite them both and hold them in your mouth, shaking vigorously while shooting fire contained in your mouth, burning them to death while ripping them to death.

If you just want to kill them, see the end of above.

And to add insult to injury, if kill them, spit their bodies at her.

It's getting a bit lonely on the chat, if any of you feel like joining us.

IRCHighway, #dragonquest

Or we could just have watcher just read the ones it can and then kill them in order to reduce the number of things we have to keep track of? Because apparently we can't pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

>>16489330
No bartender, I'll get my juice at home.

Have watcher pull what it can from the elf's head, then finish her off. Also, make mental note to thoroughly obliterate the body afterward. That will be enough to stop most resurrection attempts. We need to incapacitate and restrain the remaining three. Perhaps summon guards with restraints?

>>16489330
her dress matches her dragon, now that's fashion sense

>>16489466
She is a high-level PC being backed up by her god. She'll go through our minions like a chainsaw through butter.

We probably have enough minions, of course. But it still will undoubtedly be a lot.

Sure, though, call minions to secure the sorcerer and the dwarf for us. Then we can focus on Mrs. Holy And Pure. As we have pointed out, time is on our side. She or her god will have to rest eventually.

rolled 5 = 5

Forcecage. Forcecage the Paladin. Or Wall of Force in a Semi Circle.

If the paladin has dimension door, then shit.

But seriously, either one of those spells fucks up a melee fighter like no ones business.

>>16489488
Truth. We should make sure Azyra's doing that too.

Voting for having Scinnari hold the two we've got until they can be restrained, and we'll deal with the paladin. If all else fails, we could probably just sit on her. Unless she's full fucking avatar, she shouldn't be able to deal with ninety tons of dragon.

I would like it if we try to deal with this situation through words if possible

It would confuse the hell out of the Pally at least

What would Cibach do?

Shenanigans aside, why isn't Scinary using her bow instead of this sward that requires her to get all close and burny with the pally?

>>16489716

We did a decent amount of talking this and last thread. The paladin isn't really interested in talking to us. Her goal is to leave the island alive with as many members of her group as possible, something that we can't allow. Failing that, she wants to go down fighting. So I think the "talking things out" ship has sailed.

Once we have her secured, though, I'm all in favor of having a chat. Hopefully while we wear down her defenses enough for watcher to read her mind.

Maybe ask for some relationship advice.

Just freakin squish them, or burn them. Then we can beat down the paladin with help from Scinnari.

I don't think we can risk playing pattycake with the paladin. Lets end her quickly and be done with it. Less satisfying, but less risky also.

>>16490168
Although the mental image of a red dragon and a paladin of pelor playing pattycake is very amusing.

>>16490177
I concur.

I feel that simply killing the paladin is entirely unacceptable, as it means that anyone who's a suitable threat to us is exempt from the usual scare-tactics of deterrent. It motivates people to be a greater threat so that they no longer risk eternal torment for defying us. Which is bad.

Also out of character for an evil overlord who's wrath has been stirred.

>>16489590
>>16490177

Lets play it smart and put her on the Forcecage. Them we can have help Scinnari deal with her companions(Lethal or non lethal as the situation calls for it) fast so we can keep playing with the paladin somemore.

>>16490227
Some enemies are better off dead. Our terror and revenge tactics of deterrent will follow soon against the true mastermind of this intrusion. I know how you feel about making the paladin pay but I think that for this enemy a simple soul trap and the special attentions of Scinnari will have do.

I love your dialogue writer-dude and always the best part of the quest. But its been SOOO LONG.

>>16490506
Your post literally appeared while I was preparing to post this one.
#####
“Azyra, please fetch some of my servants to restrain these ones.” you request. Azyra, out of some ill-timed desire to prove herself to you, or even- a more sinister thought suggests- out of desire to protect the sorcerer whom she is... infatuated... with, protests.

“I could do so, fat-” she offers. Her desire to redeem herself with you is genuine, as far as you can sense. If she is being moved by her... 'crush', then has not yet admitted it to herself.

“These are adventurers, Azyra. I would not risk you. Fetch my servants before I am forced to kill these two.” Though you disapprove of her desires, they are at least functional leverage on her. She springs into motion. Meanwhile, you begin casting with your off-hand. An invisible cage surrounds the paladin, reduced in size to keep her contained. You gave her about five feet on either side. There is satisfying clank as she runs into the walls of the cage unexpectedly.

Her raising your mace and literally destroying the walls of it by invoking her deity is less satisfying. You shift your hand on the dwarf and mage, keeping them pinned as you turn to face the paladin. Playing a game of delaying, you conjure a wall of force in front of her, and again, she breaks it. The second you conjure she merely walks around, but again, buys you time. Judging her immune to negative energy, empowered by her god as she is, you decide instead upon another form of immobilization- That one from the wizard with an unhealthy interest in the aberrations. Still, quite functional.

You go through the motions to invoke a field of threshing black tentacles, and are rather nonplussed to have your spell instantly fizzle out- The source being the sorcerer beneath your claw, who apparently doesn't need to move to counter your spells. You resolve this by placing one of your claws upon his face and pressing down gently. Pinned, there's nothing he can do and he apparently can't maintain his concentration while his skull is on the verge of collapsing.

The field of lashing appendages- not quite tentacles, though you certainly wouldn't describe them as anything else- emerges from beneath your gold, immediately and sightlessly fixing on the paladin as the only living creature within reach. Half a dozen tentacles dumbly try to adhere to her, while the others try to bludgeon her to the ground. She is not overwhelmed, probably due to divine assistance, but is stopped almost completely, caught up in the maze of groping appendages. You pause to enjoy the sight, and telepathically order Scinnari to find herself a ranged weapon. She happily agrees, especially when you request that she not kill if she can avoid it.

As Scinnari pulls a particularly finely enchanted bow and quiver out of your hoard, both you and her are consumed by columns of fire. You are initially unconcerned, it being fire, then very when it starts to... /burn/. An alien sensation, yet horridly unmistakable, you feel your wings wilting and scales almost melting beneath a blast of pure white flame. Scinnari seems to be encountering similar problems, letting out a startled shout and teleporting from where she stood.

Ah. Of course, the aasimar. Able to overcome even that, and call upon powers Holy. You resist the urge to simply crush him, and instead press down on his body, staring with abstract interest until you hear three ribs crack within him. By that time, he isn't doing anything, merely squirming futilely against your hoard and claw, gasping for air.

“Father!” Azyra calls from the entrance. A squad of lizardmen, armed with shackles and an assortment of melee weaponry. No nets, sadly, perhaps you should see that they have some in the future. And, of course, your daughter...

“Ah. Good. Enter, and you may deal with these two.” you order absently aloud, decreasing and increasing your weight on the pair minutely. Enough flux to keep them distracted by the pain. “Azyra. Do maintain your distance.” you add. She doesn't look happy, but obeys. Your servants do as well, rushing forward. You increase the pressure until you hear something else break- A shoulder or pelvis, perhaps- and then let go, allowing your servants access to the distracted adventurers. They manage to shackle them before they recover enough to exist, then at your command, drag them back, towards the edge of your lair. The light in your lair seems more red, now, than gold, reflecting weakly off the obsidian pillars and ruby mosaic. Alyvia seems to be breaking free of her tentacular assailants, but is still hampered by her lack of a bladed weapon. Scinnari, recovered, intercepts your servants, allowing Watcher to scan the prisoners, then teleports out to deposit Watcher somewhere safe, returning to your side a moment later.

>>16490567
Whack the paladin with our tail until she stops moving.

Azyra...

*sigh*

We're going to have to give her The Talk, aren't we?

>>16490688
I thought we did that before...like twice.

>>16490704
I think it was mentioned last thread. Dunno, though. Don't think we really had time.

>>16490704
We've talked about doing it, but we haven't had the time to really sit down and talk with Azyra about it.

>>16490656
second

We'll have to break her into being truely evil one day. Looks like we may have finally have the opportunity if we can get the aasimar to show his "true" feelings towards her.

>>16490656
>>16490752

Just be careful the paladin is looking for a glorious dead and with her god's help it may involve a mayor pain in the ass to us.

>>16490771
she's half devil/ half chromatic dragon, i don't think we'll have to do any breaking, it'll come naturally. she's just a bit sheltered is all

>>16490800
Still, having her kill the person she thinks may be her One True Love (teenagers, amirite?) might not be the best way to un-shelter her.

>>16490811
>>16490800

Let her mother do the talking on this one, gods know we have been doing all the raising around here.

>>16490811
"now dearest, stab that horrible, horrible man who manipulated you... go on now, make daddy proud!"

>>16490832
this sounds good to me

>>16490832
I don't know, I get the impression that if anything Scinnari has been very, VERY protective of Azyra. To the point of making Azyra a bit uncomfortable around Scinnari. We might need to do this, or at the very least take part in it.

>>16490851
Oh so we have to be the bad-guy and lay all the discipline around here? Woman, we have to run a kingdom, researcher the Binder, keep her ass off the material plane, deal with all the asshole neighbors we have and keep the climate around the island nice and easy. We do everything around here!

>>16491173
Oh please, it's been just over an hour.

“I'm glad that we returned, we aren't finished quite yet.” you remark, observing the paladin's efforts to escape the field of blind, groping appendages.

"You couldn't order me away from this if you wanted to, my lord... I wouldn't miss it for the world..." your consort purrs from your side. "Alone and without her allies, my, my. What shall we do with our paladin?"

“Disabling her seems a solid starting point. Hmm.” you respond, approaching slowly. She notices, and turns to face you, almost free of the tentacles. She sees your tail coming, and moves to soften the impact, but she can't escape completely, and your tail strikes her solidly with what would be a sickening blow if it wasn't exactly what you wanted. The tentacles are inconvenient in this, giving her a sort of elastic shield and keeping her on her feet, but they aren't sufficient to totally nullify the hit. You haul back and bring it down on her again- Her armor buckles under your scales, and she's obviously reeling. Half-paralyzed, too- you've crushed the joints in her plating on her left side to the point that you don't think she can move them any more, certainly with no degree of agility. You bring a third blow down on her from the right, and are rewarded with her right arm freeing itself at the worst possible moment- her mace slams into your tail almost a foot before you hit her, lightning pain shooting through your body as you realized the hit must have broken it. Your hit still bludgeons her, even knocking the mace out of her hand, though the lanyard around her wrist prevents her from loosing it completely. Your hit also sends a symphony of agony shooting up your spine, and you keep from roaring in agony only by sheer willpower, and the level of hatred you feel for this perpetrator of a veritable litany of crimes.

Your tail, however, is obviously broken to those aware to look for it- Scinnari frowns in worry, and telepathically asks you, and a couple of your lizardmen seem aware that this particular individual has injured their god, and make signs of warding against her 'unholy' power. Azyra doesn't realize that it's broken, but does seem to realize that you were hurt, and moves forward with the intent of offering what assistance she can. You warn her as she opens her mouth not to speak and to stay where she is, not wanting her involved or at risk. Instead, you walk forward, somewhat hampered by your tail's inability to act as a counterweight, and bring your claw smashing down on Alyvia. The paladin, again restrained by the field of tentacles, stands yet defiant after one hit, though obviously weakened. You pause, raising your claw to smite her once more. Her right arm again snakes itself free, and she hurls her mace at you, vaguely reminiscent of a god throwing lightning. Slower, though- You barely manage to react, and it strikes you just above your eye, deflecting upward where it takes a painful chip off of your right horn.

>>16491201
>Twenty characters too long to do as a single post.
######

Had it hit where she aimed, she might have killed you. An unnerving though. You pause, calmly picking the mace up and tossing it away, then proceed to drop another hammer-blow on her. She finally drops to one knee, and you think you can hear her muttering in vain to her god. It strikes you as mildly amusing that you seem to literally be beating the holy power out of her, and pause as Scinnari makes a request. Giving your assent, you carefully dispel sections of the field of aberrations, allowing Scinnari to walk slowly through them, and grip the paladin in a solid choke-hold, where you blows knocked her helmet off. Unable to struggle, caught again by the groping aberration, the paladin can only gasp and slowly turn blue as Scinnari methodically throttles her. You can't quite hear what she's whispering in the paladin's ear, but the gist of it is quite easy to guess.

By the time the the tentacles vanish, the paladin is too weak to even struggle, and moments later, finaly passes out. A tense silents

>>16491208
>A tense silents
Allofmyhate.jpg

"A tense silence is instantly felt, everyone in the room waiting on edge for your next action."

HOLYSHIT DQUEST IS BACK HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG

im sorry pls continue

Get our tail and horn healed.

Make sure that the paladin and co. are searched, stripped, and tightly secured in whatever we have that passes for a dungeon.

See if watcher can read the paladin's mind now.

Have a chat with Azyra about adventurers.

>>16491302
sounds good to me

>>16491208
"keep her alive...but just barely."

>>16491263
Very, very tempted to break all the paladins arms and legs. However, I'll settle for a way of cutting her link to Pelor.

The other adventurers should be stripped of their gear and thrown in cells, and we require medical attention. Then we need to deal with our little girls adventurer fantasies. Hopefully this is just a teenage idol phase, so to speak.

>>16491321
I'll second crippling the paladin. At the very least it will use up divine power if she goes for a breakout.

Welp, first, lets secure the Paladin.

Then there are a few things to do- first, we need to check what went wrong with Cygnis; as satisfying as her capitulation was, the fact that she struggled beforehand really should not have happened. If Scinnari mussed up inform her, but for the moment she's done really well so lets not be angry.

As for Azyra, lets prepare ourselves for a nice...chat.

Our prisoners can wait for the next, and we should talk with Scinnari over their possible use and eventual- whether they're more valuable as souls to be bartered with, or used as something else. Or just plain punished. We're an evil overlord afterall; SOMETHING has to happen.

With a cold purpose, you limp over to the paladin, and slowly step on each of her splayed limbs. A couple viscerally satisfying crunches of cartilage and bone reward you each time, though you refrain from actively killing. Finally, satisfied, you telepathically send Scinnari to fetch you healing. She nods in obedience and teleports once more, returning with a small pouch of healing potions and, though you didn't order it, Watcher. Watcher chimes quietly, but does not speak, and Scinnari offer silently to produce the potions, should you desire it now. You inform her that you'd prefer your minions leave, first, and turn to give instructions.

“Chain her. Move them all to the cells. Keep her alive, barely.” you order shortly, rage audible in your voice. “Keep watch on them at all times. A second watch capable of seeing them, and the first, at least twenty feet from the first. Do so now.”. Your servants leap to obey, and both the dwarf and aasimar give weakly pained groans as your servants manhandle them away. “Make sure they are all incapable of casting spells.” you intone as a final warning. The guards not carrying the prisoners pause and bow, then rise and hurry after their brethren.

Once your minions and the prisoners are gone, you turn back to your consort. Scinnari opens the pouch and begins tossing you healing potions two at a time, and you devour them whole. You can feel the pain in your tail lessen, and your cuts and bruises shrinking away- not the least of which was the impact wound above your eye, which was granting you a splitting headache. After nearly a dozen, your wounds are fully healed, except for your horn. They seem to have had no effect on it, and it remains raw and pained, unaffected by magical aid. Likewise, your tail, though functional and capable of moving without sending pain through your whole body, remains somewhat sore, a residual pain the potions did not see to effect.

“Now, I think, we must see to our daughter.” you mentally inform Scinnari.

“Oh?” Scinnari responds with some worry. Aloud, she asks, “Azyra, were you injured in the combat?”

“Not at all, mother. I.. Father told me not to get involved.” Azyra replies, sounding faintly worried herself. A different kind, though, worried that she doesn't measure up, or didn't act as well as she could have in the chaos. Wanting to please. You can't help but love her devotion.

“Of course. That's exactly what I would have said- I'm quite pleased you didn't. If you had been harmed, I fear I would never have forgiven that paladin.” Scinnari replies, embracing Azyra. Surprisingly, she says the title without venom, perhaps riding some sort of post-battle euphoria. “Not that I intend to anyway, but it would certainly have been far too dear a price.” Scinnari responds happily. Were it you she was referring to, though, you suspect chills would have just seized your body.


“I assume you meant about the adventurers themselves, then? They can often be a... poor influence on the young.” Scinnari telepathically asks you.

“That and her infatuation with the aasimar.” you reply, with feelings that make it abundantly clear about your opinion of the matter. “Though there is one other thing...”

“My lord?” Scinnari prompts.

“Cygnariassis should not have caused you so much... trouble, I think. Certainly, I thought your handling of her had proceeded past that point. Do you have anything to say?” That certainly stops Scinnari short, and she quietly bows her head, as if considering. She also surreptitiously nudges Azyra away from her, before going down on one knee, head still bowed.

“I apologize, my lord. I fear I have... Accidentally stripped her name from her, against your wishes.”

“Accidentally?” you reply blandly, your thoughts making it very clear that she is walking on a fine edge here.

“I... Have not gone out of my way to do so, but I personally only tend to refer to her as 'slave', my lord. I fear I am the one with whom she interacts most, second being Azyra or you. Your daughter calles her 'Cygnis', and perhaps that is the name she hears most know.” Scinnari answers contritely. “I have failed you and accept whatever punishment you think fit, my lord.” Hmm. While you are pleased by such subservience, you suspect she believes you to probably be too pleased by the outcome of the battle to truly grant one. While you might otherwise be, your chipped horn remains a sharp, if comparatively insignificant pain, and your tail retains a quiet ache. Combined, you are not in quite as good a mood as she might hope.

“Noted. I shall think on the subject.” you reply, settling the issue for the moment, but making it clear that it is not resolved. “Rise.”

Scinnari obeys, and you detect faint trepidation in her mind as she stands. Azyra, for her part, looks torn between worry and outrage at being excluded from this obviously weighty conversation.

“Slave. Acknowledge your master.” Scinnari commands. Obediently, Cygnariassis stands and walks before you, head down. As she approaches, she drops to her knees, then arms, completely abasing herself before you. It is a pleasant sight. Scinnari does not comment, obviously pleased with herself and hoping the display has abated some of your displeasure. You do not comment, attempting to decide which you wish to deal with first. At length, you decide that Cygnariassis and Scinnari can wait, as the issue with Azyra has already waited long enough...

So, for breaking Azyra's infatuation with the sorcerer. Mind probe them first. Figure out all of the sorcerer's dirty little secrets, and use them to diminish him in Azyra's eyes. Let her realize that she's been played.

>>16491949

Tssh. Lax of you Scinnari, though it seems a simple enough fix. So fix it.


Right, for Azyra what're we doing? That Ass-whatever trick?

Regardless, we should say something to the effect of.

"Now, Azyra, though I am glad you are unharmed in regards to your encounter with these...'adventurers', I must say I am rather *less* pleased in regards to your conduct with them. Providing them with information, not signalling me as I know you can at the first sign of something being wrong, and- if I don't miss my guess- becoming half-fond of their attentions even *after* I have warned you COUNTLESS times over how they lie and what they promise you in order to get what they want.

Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I think we should try probing their minds ourselves. Watcher might try to lie to us about certain details in an attempt to get us to be more merciful than we otherwise might be. I'd be interested to know as much about these people ourselves before talking with watcher and asking her what she uncovered.

Just a reminder that we probably shouldn't wait very long to start tracking what is happening with the Bard that was taken by the Gith.

>>16492100

Ah yes, this should be a priority too, though I do wonder about how we're going to manage this.

Also, though naturally there's still much to do, I'd like to get a start on getting a partner in those Githyanki; send Nehmeska out to confirm where the Illithid nest is, then use that info to set up some business.

I have special plans for the Paladin. If I may make a suggestion, she shouldn't be killed, or tortured, or further harmed in any way. What should be done is that she should be restrained, and her party should be killed, slowly and painfully, so she can watch every second. Then, after all her possessions are confiscated, she should be released. Body broken and soul crushed, she should be left alone to suffer in her own grief, abandoned by her god, and having failed in her obligations as a paladin. She could never recover.

To rob her of her very identity as a paladin and force her to live the rest of her life as an empty shell is the only punishment severe enough for challenging our resplendence.

>>16492123
It might have been posturing, but they did say they knew about most nests. We may have to go in for more than merely spying on their enemies.

As for Azyra, lets personally mindprobe the sorcerer, then get Watcher's readings on the adventurers, then we can decide what to do with Azyra and them.

>>16492141
What if it doesn't work? I mean, we can try, but we risk failure and basically making sure this woman who got to within literal inches (actually maybe feet. Our head is big.) of killing us will never forget us, never forgive us, and letting her go. Does not sound wise.

>>16492141
That's not going to break her. That's just going to royally piss her off and fill her with (even more of) a desire to bring us down. She'll then tell whoever hired her all about us, come back with reinforcements, and kill us.

No. We do not let any of them go.

>>16492141
While I understand the appeal of this, I think it might be heading into Stupid Evil territory. And I'm not for needlessly pissing of Gods more than we need to.

>>16492141

>Crippedly drags herself to a Pelor temple
>Heals up
>Meets person who sent her on mission
>Tells info
>Begins plotting revenge

Yeah I think I'm going to veto this idea and go with discussing her worth with Scinnari.

>>16492186
Except Glittergold, because fuck gnomes.

>>16492141
How would torturing her companions do anything but fill her with RIGHTEOUS WRATH? She's a paladin. Seeing people suffer doesn't make them empty shells that will never recover. It makes them go out and SMITE EVIL.

>“Chain her. Move them all to the cells. Keep her alive, barely.” you order shortly, rage audible in your voice. “Keep watch on them at all times. A second watch capable of seeing them, and the first, at least twenty feet from the first. Do so now.”. Your servants leap to obey, and both the dwarf and aasimar give weakly pained groans as your servants manhandle them away. “Make sure they are all incapable of casting spells.” you intone as a final warning. The guards not carrying the prisoners pause and bow, then rise and hurry after their brethren.

Eh...
Order you guards to COMPLETELY STRIP THEM!

Yes, not a single bit of clothing or equipment can be left on them. Not even "sentimental, family trinkets". Heck, make sure they ruffle through their hair and, uhg, check the orifices.

The cells they are to put in should be warded from EVERYTHING.

Gents, this looks interesting, but, I can't find part one on sup/tg/. WHERE IS IIITTT?!

I'm desperate. Many internets to he who assists me. The search brings up everything, so it seems, up to part two. And there's an alternate line marked with an L before the roman numerals. Help?

>>16492196
# 1 wasn't archived. As for the rest, the numbering is proper, but the archive's order is slightly wonky. Don't worry too much.

Someone might actually have the first thread preserved, but I really doubt it.

>>16492196
Part 1 never got archived, but there's not too much important stuff in it that you won;t be able to pick up on in the later threads.

>>16492196
>>16492219

I also believed that a thread or two have been misnamed or poorly tagged.

>>16492219
WHHHHHYYYYYY?!

>>16492166
You're thinking too much like a vengeful dragon. For the devout, a crisis of faith can be as fatal in the long run as if we'd just crushed her chest in.

But since I'm new to the thread, I'll defer to the "possible reinforcements" argument. Just try to keep her in reasonably good condition.

>>16492196

Part 1 isn't archived for whatever reason on sup/tg/, have an easymodo instead.

http://archive.easymodo.net/tg/thread/12171039

>>16492231
I love you with all my heart. Have a Mario-Stalin.

>>16492227
They all seem to be named 'Dragon Quest' in the title, so it shouldn't be a problem. I just have to faff about with the roman numerals to search for them in their proper order from the sup/tg/ page.

Thank you all for taking a moment from your day to help me out. It's appreciated.

Oh yeah, for those new: http://dragonquest.netau.net/dragonquestmap.html

Opens best in firefox- the character page doesn't work in it. There's currently no info in the World Info tab, but if anyone wants to write anything for it, then post it up and I'll see about fitting it on there.

>>16492230
> For the devout, a crisis of faith can be as fatal in the long run as if we'd just crushed her chest in.

That's not a crisis of faith. It's a reaffirmation of it. She believes that there is evil in the world that need to be destroyed. She believes that said evil is a threat to good people, and will inflict great suffering on said good people unless destroyed. She believes that we are an example of such evil.

By torturing her friends in front of her, what have we done? We've demonstrated that we are a great evil that will inflict horrible suffering on good evil, and that we need to be destroyed. That's it. We haven't challenged any part of her faith, we've just demonstrated that we're a colossal douche in need of a good smiting. And she already knew that. It will be an unpleasant experience, of course, but she is a paladin, one highly favored by her god. She is no stranger to seeing horrible suffering and channeling that into purpose. If anything, it would make her stronger in her conviction.

>>16492255
One of them is mistagged, meaning it won't show up if you search for "dragon quest."

One of them is misnamed "Beren Quest."

>>16492265
> good evil

Blargh. That should say "good people."

>>16492261

I meant 'doesn't work chrome', sorry.

The interrogation will be simple. We should have our kickass wizard dude in on it too. Information is his specialty.

The others were read by Watcher, they won't be too useful now. But the paladin we need to get at. We need to drain her divine energy first so that Watcher or the wizard can get at her. I'm sure there's a way to do this besides a simple anti-magic field, but we may need to do that after all. Perhaps we can lock her in the deeper parts of the castle, where the ambient negative energy from the old lich will sap her strength.

And as I said in the last thread: Remove all weapons capable of harming us from our hoard. Keep them in a separate area, or melt them down into bullion or something. We've gotten injured twice, *badly* injured the second time, by weapons we kept nearby. That shit is unacceptable. Alternatively, we could enchant them with *does not harm dragons* or *harms the wielder when used in combat* or something.

We should also look into protection INSIDE the hoard. Not living ones, but golems. A few good-sized golems made out of the stuff in our hoard should be good. We could probably make adamantine golems too, since we've got a source of it on the island.

3 big honkin' adamantine golems, who's only purpose is to protect the hoard and its owner (Scinnari counts as part of the hoard).

>>16492403
>(Scinnari counts as part of the hoard).
No. If we ever go Dragon Ascendant, we have to eat our hoard.

>>16492261
some of the Character bio information is wrong so you know.

for example, it labels one of Azrya's bodyguards, Ry'larra whatever'the'rest'of'it'is'a as a human, when she is an elf.

neat site you got going there though...

>>16492422
how can we sleep on our hoard if we eat it?

>"my lord, you are VERY VERY HEAVY"

“Now, Azyra, though I am glad you were unharmed by these... 'adventurers', I must say I am rather /less/ than pleased in regards to your conduct with them. Providing them with information... Failing to signal me, as I have ensured you can, at the first sign of something being wrong, and even- if I don't miss my guess- /enjoying/ their attentions despite my having warned you /countless/ times of the ways the lie and things they promise in order to get what you want.” you speak quietly, voice still audible anywhere in the room in the near-silence. Azyra pales as your displeasure becomes clear, and flushes with embarrassment when you mention her feelings for the adventurers, however obliquely.

“I... I attempted to contact you, father. I... couldn't. When the opened the door, I could not contact mother or you. I... didn't want to tell them anything, but would have killed me if I hadn't-” Not true, you believe- They certainly never said anything of the sort. She may believe it, of course, and they very well might have, but she can't know for certain. “And then they caught Cygnis and questioned her as well. I- Between questioning her and I, they found out what they wanted, father- I tried not to tell them anything.” True, of course- though mostly because she was affronted by them having the boldness to break into her own room, and because she instinctively disliked the fear she felt for them.

“And as for the bard and the sorcerer?” Scinnari prompts. Her blush heightens, and she lowers her head further, trying to hide it.

“I... They were very... polite.” she says, obviously highly uncomfortable. Technically true, you suppose- Handsome, dashing, in her mind, and making efforts to be kind and polite to her despite the fact that they obviously didn't have to. Kind, even- people who looked at her and expressed neither fear nor horror. Enough to leave an impression on her, at any rate.

>>16492433
We can get a new one, we just have to eat the current one.

>>16492444
I think the objection was to eating our consort. Come to think of it, she'd probably object to that too.

>>16492423

I'll get around to fixing it for the next thread, thanks.

Any other errors feel free to point out.

At this point what we should do is set up Azyra in such a way that she gets to listen in on the interrogation without actually being present.

Then let her hear what the adventurers really think of her.

>>16492435
So wait, the emergency signaling devices we made capable of tracking our daughter if she should ever get abducted by someone with direct connections to an arch-devil get foiled by adventurers? Am I reading this right? They were crafted to signal through planes and anti-magic fields, yet something the adventurers had nulled them? I mean, the bag thing through epic magic was bad but... ugh.

Whatever, flay open their minds and show Azyra that they were just trying to play her. It's a lesson she needs to learn well. Especially the bard, show her how the exact same lines he used to charm her were used to woo countless women he dumped or abandoned and (ideally) how they viewed her as nothing more than another monster to smite.

Obviously we need to make sure that they actually think these things first. Wouldn't do to have them confirm her romantic notions. But I seriously doubt they ever for a second saw her as anything but a monster.

>>16492450
Yes, that was why I said we shouldn't count her as part of the hoard. Maybe a trophy room? Achievement system?

I absolutely refuse to be the villain who's successful at everything, but gets undone by a daughter who falls for the hero. Fuck that with a rake.

The smear-job is a good idea. Root up anything bad he's done, or any people he's wronged or caused to be wronged. If he's clean, make shit up. Make sure Azyra doesn't see any of them again. Do not let her have a key to the cells. Do not let her know where the keys are. Do not provide each guard with a set. The keys will be hidden behind the third brick up from the floor, sixth from the left wall of the guard post. And those will be the fake keys. Using them will cause paralysis in the user and an alarm to be sounded.

The real keys don't exist. The doors have to be magic'd open.

Interrogate the FUCK out of these people. If we and our info-wizard can't do it, ask Scinnari if she knows any devils particularly good at information retrieval.

>>16492468
HORRIBLE idea.

She gets nowhere near them.

Absence makes the heart forget. Especially if she's busy with other things like learning magic.

Maybe we can find a nice cleric of Tiamat for her. I'm sure there's another half-dragon out there somewhere.

>>16492450
I object to eating the hoard period. We like our hoard. Weapons and all.

We just need to make sure that the hoard is defended by adamantine golems like someone else suggested. And maybe spelled so that anyone who picks up something in it without our express permission (except Scinnari or Azyra) get their fingers burned to the bone.

>>16492488
Achievement Progress: Devil Seducer
1/45252161907456971324075617623745170456019762340510783560173645

Well, every journey starts with a single step.

I think we should give watcher some time with each of the prisoners, but before consulting with watcher, make sure to also mind probe each of them ourselves to the best of our ability. I'd like to compare the answers that we get from our own investigations to those that watcher gives us.

Ask questions such as who hired them, where, for how much, to do what exactly, how did they gain access to our lair, etc. Also make general inquiries into their past, sift around for useful information on the sorcerer specifically, in order to help diminish him in Azyra's eyes and maybe nip this infatuation of hers in the bud.

I vote for mind-raping them and showing Azyra that they really just thought of her as an evil monster and were lying and tricking her. We need to stamp this ember out permanently. The only people she can trust are family, we've drilled that into her from day one. And she can NEVER trust adventurers. We've drilled that in too. Now it's time for a practical demonstration of why.

Also, we should try to scry the bard. We need to figure out what's going on with him.

>>16492512
The bard too. Paint a picture to make them seem like the cruel and cunning robbers interested in nothing but murder and plunder that we know them to be. Selective editing of the memories we retrieve from them can go a long way to that too when we show them to Azyra.

>>16492523
I'd agree in principle, but if she does like him, maybe we can get her a sort of setup like we have with Cygnis? Maybe not quite so terrible, of course, but if he genuinely is okay with her, are we going to lie and fabricate things to her (Imagine if she found out somehow,) or are we going to concede that he's a nice guy, but he's a nice guy to everyone, she's not special or anything?

I feel evil, but she is our daughter. I'm not quite sure I want to treat her as... callously as this.

>>16492541
It's not callous, we're protecting her. You don't let your daughter who you love get mugged because you are afraid to tell her about people getting murdered in the streets.

We're showing her the truth. We present it nicely, lovingly, and we're there as a shoulder to cry on if she needs it and we give her a BIIIG hug afterward. We love her dearly, after all. But this is something she needs to learn, because as much as I hate it she WILL get plied by people trying to seduce her for both power and information. And she will be the target of adventurers merely by being what she is.

Before we do anything, lets free the Adventurer we caught on the island.
Make sure that he doesn't see or come across the other ones.

We should personally see him off, give his a small amount of money (10-50g) and a Fruit Basket for "his troubles" and "doing the right thing"

>>16492564
We're also going to kill the person she thinks she loves. "for her own good", of course, but still.

I object, but I'm not going to make a fuss about it. Go ahead.

>>16492585
Sounds good.

Actually, maybe we could hire him on as a professional "adventurer-rat." He signs on with adventurer groups looking to infiltrate Mza, then ditches and informs us. Our troops swoop up the others and pay him a bounty.

He might just like that.

>>16492588
She's just infatuated, there's no way she thinks she loves him yet. Even teenage "love" needs more than five minutes of interrogation to blossom. She was just charmed and it will be undone instantly when we reveal what they really think of her.

>>16492595
AllOfMyDragons.jpg

This is a wonderful idea.

>>16492595
Second.

>>16492595
I've got like a million ladyboners right now

I'm using this for my next campaign

I vote we kill Azyra, then we don't have to care about her feelings.
Afterall, killing's an easy way to get rid of problems, right?

>>16492653
Butthurt detected.

>>16492653

>>16492653

>>16492615
>>16492624
>>16492633
I did something right!

>>16492653
Goofus

>>16492595
Gallant

>>16492858
I love how all these "waiting" pics use a fossilized dragon.

It's just so appropriate.

>>16492866

They were specifically made for this quest, after all.

In order to kill time in between WD's posts.

>>16492887
I hope her vag is REALLY stretchy.

“I see. Very well. I think we shall have to speak on this again, after I am finished interrogating the prisoners.” you declare. Azyra obviously fears this, but nods meekly and does not protest. A good daughter, with some oversight, you feel. Without further discussion, you turn to depart, other business to attend to.

######

You finally send word down to Mza to release the sixth adventurer, along with orders for a small bounty, even a gift, to be given to the man for his assistance and troubles. You suspect you're startling your minions with such orders, but that hardly bothers you- The man did assist you, after all, and gave no false information- Not that he actually had any choice. You even tentatively bring suggest the idea of hiring him as a spy, though Nephrame and Watcher both shoot the idea down- He already feels terrible about betraying his friends, Nephrame even suspecting that such 'compensation' may drive him to suicide. You're inclined to believe Watcher, who disagrees on that point, but they both agree that he would not respond well to any such offer. That bizarre sense of brotherhood that keeps adventuring parties together beyond all reason is a powerful, if inscrutable, force. You return your attention to the adventurers, visiting them to mind-probe them, then re-scan with watcher, since they all survived.

The sorcerer and dwarf remain conscious, though certainly not enjoying it, and are quite helpless. The spell-preventing shackles your servants placed upon the are quite effective, and even though the the sorcerer demonstrated the ability to call down his holy fire without moving, he can't do anything of the sort from here. The elf- healed enough to survive- is unreasonably hostile, defiant even defeated and imprisoned as she is. You get the very real sense that if you were bleeding out, she'd stand there and watch you die. As it is, all she can do is curse, threaten, and spit at you, not even particularly well. For simple convenience, you silence and paralyze her while you mind-probe her, moving on to the leader last. You cannot mind-probe her, as she remains protected, but Watcher declares it is able to get a reading, and you retire to go over your findings.

In most cases, Watcher corroborates your own findings. The elf, for instance, once tried to assassinate Alyvia, who at the time was on the bad side of her superiors in the order. The elf was geased to assist Alyvia, and Alyvia charged with helping the elf find redemption. Not terribly successfully- they both dislike each other, but have grown to tolerate and found some tenuous trust with each other. The elf, in particular, dislikes her bound state, but has grown unwillingly fond of the group, and concedes that it has been a profitable, if confining, experience for her.

The dwarf, for her part, is, in fact, related to those on the island. Very difficult to read, for you- Evidently her mind has been inherently strengthened against reading. Regardless, you can determine some things from her- Her family as a middling-ranked group in the outpost, and she has never been on the island- She left her family for her research and later adventuring before they moved to join the Mza outpost, all long before you ever took over. This was the first time in over forty years she had been able to visit, and she had been waiting until afterward to actually do so, just in case she provoked your wrath. Obviously, she was not prepared for just how much of your ire she earned, but life is a process of learning. Except, of course, for when you make a mistake slightly too great to learn from...

You are initially uninterested, however, but Watcher gets more from her, stating that, according to some of what she has learned, she is probably capable of taking a stab at Scinnari's True Name- According to the knowledge Watcher gleaned, such things are semi-forumlaic, and Kotri could probably predict it in part or the foundation of it- Again, according to what Watcher learned, this would be enough to issue commands, but not enough to truly alter the nature of the subject. Watcher, too, however, was hampered by the dwarf's mental fortifications, and suggests that should you want it, you will have to get it from the dwarf. A delightful idea that you file away for later.

And, of course, the sorcerer... The unfortunate target of Azyra's affection, something you are most displeased with. He is an interesting individual- Sadly, not nearly as corrupt or flawed as you might desire. While he has indeed found companionship in a few disparate town, he has been... irreproachable in practice, and probably not something you could damn him with in your daughter's eyes. His great-great-grandfather, though, was a planetar, you believe, and in fact, was responsible for his name- Mephisto Pasa. Apparently named as his ancestor once knew the Arch-devil before his fall, and remembers what the individual once was with regret. Details like this, and the dwarf's knowledge, make you feel vindicated to have proceeded with your interrogations without your consort's presence.

Penultimately, and obviously most immediately relevantly, he sadly does not view your daughter as a monster as you had hoped- Indeed, the aasimar is so insufferably irreproachable in his comportment, you find yourself probing to make sure he isn't a paladin as well. He isn't, mostly out of disagreement with his family, and an individual streak, but if you desire to paint him as a monster in Azyra's eyes, you will need your own evidence.

Finally, the paladin... Little do you determine about her of great interest- nothing you can use against her, at least. A few friends she remains fond of that aren't in your possession, residual duty to her noble lands, though she has appointed a competent seneschal in her absence, and does not truly think of them as 'hers'. Most paramount, however, is her employer- A dragon, indeed, one she recalls as slightly smaller than yourself. Type, however, is somewhat of an issue. Though you consider each breed of dragons to be most distinct, unmistakable, even, and Watcher wholeheartedly agrees with you... Going off of the impressions and second hand images from Alyvia's mind, Watcher can't quite determine whether the dragon is a Gold or Brass, obviously a significant difference. Not helpful at all, of course, as Watcher does warn you that what she saw does not have to be what it was... But still, aggravating that you can't even pin down what 'face' was used to deal with her. She is, however, certain that the meeting took place out of your own Ivory Gates, your twin cities of recent acquisition. Not pleasing, but undeniably useful...

###############

>Yes, I forgot to post it above.

Anyway, given the information and the time you have to interrogate, you can obviously ask for more specific information and I will try to deliver. I think I may save the complete (or your personal) reading of Alyvia for next thread, or not. We'll see. At any rate, time for questions and time for plans, obviously.

>>16492991
> he sadly does not view your daughter as a monster as you had hoped
What does the sorcerer think of her, at any rate?

>>16492988

> she is probably capable of taking a stab at Scinnari's True Name- According to the knowledge Watcher gleaned, such things are semi-forumlaic, and Kotri could probably predict it in part or the foundation of it- Again, according to what Watcher learned, this would be enough to issue commands, but not enough to truly alter the nature of the subject.

Well, she's definitely not leaving here alive.

>>16492997
Well, I'd say gut everyone but the sorcerer -- very painfully -- then eat them. After that let's whip up some powerful mind-magic to alter the sorcerer's views to what we need them to be before presenting him to Azyra. If we can have him sneer at her and scornfully state how gullible she was to believe them then that would be perfect. We could even let her kill him.

>>16493026
Point of order, it's not "Scinnari specifically", but "When faced with an outsider, can learn the basics for summoning or commanding". As far as you found, it's mostly to assist with her research or investigation.

Sorry, carry on.

Can we wipe the sixth adventurer's mind of the information he knows about us?

I really am not comfortable with him wandering around feeling that guilty. He would spread information about us to anyone interested in repentance.

It's not worth it to frame the Aassamir. Killing him will make sure that Azyra never is at risk with him again.

As for Scinnari's true name... that's iffy. I think that after all we've been through, especially with the deal with her superior, that a modicum of trust is called for. I do not think we should pursue learning her TN. It would definitely make her uneasy around us: How comfortable would you be, knowing that your consort could absolutely do anything to you, even rework your thoughts, with just a few words? How would you know they hadn't done so and wiped your memory?

Leave it alone. It'll do nothing but drive a wedge between us.

Elf is worthless, Aassamir is too much work, dwarf is a mixed bag.

Kill the elf, the dwarf, and the Aassamir. Let's try to crack the paladin to confirm and improve the info Watcher got. We can also begin investigating the dragon personally. My suspicion is that the dragon has ties to the avarial community and is trying to dig up dirt on us to get a counter-invasion going.

>>16493056
Extract this knowledge but don't specifically look up Scinnari's name or anything. It's good to know how to do such a thing on principle, I'd personally like to look into getting Scinnari's /superior/'s name....

>>16493056
Probably any mage or scholar who works with planar magics knows this. The dwarf shouldn't be that special.

Still, kill him(her?) for the invasion. They didn't even knock.

I'd vote for keeping them all. As-is, they shouldn't be able to escape, and we might regret hastily disposing of any of them. Besides, we owe them some serious punishment for stealing from us. We can hardly repay that if we kill them.

Maybe trap their souls in gems to make tormenting and storing them easier.

>>16493059
He knows nothing. He abandoned the party the moment he learned he was going to infiltrate OUR castle.

>>16493072
Agreed. If we don't know this then learn it on principle because it's something we should know. We deal with extraplanars after all.

But I agree with everyone else in saying we trust our devil. Crazy I know, but Azaladon has been extremely consistent (especially for a hivemind) in having a very soft spot for his family.

>>16493090
Oh. Carry on then. Hell, I'd even give him a couple thousand gold. And then let everyone on the island know that large bounties are paid for informing on parties threatening to raid the Emperor of Mza's estates.

I would also look into getting a few seedy roguish types to loiter around common adventurer hangouts and offer their services. Adventurers might well have a sort of brotherhood, but I'll be damned if that's consistent. We'll hire on several who ARE willing to betray the parties they join up with to loiter about and offer their services and use their adventuring contacts to sniff out people preparing to raid our areas.

>>16493092
>>16493065
>>16493060
D'awww, /tg/ loev devil.

But that's ok, I do too.

>>16493065

Ah, now THAT'S an idea with merit! We should totally look into that.

I think we'll probably kill th elf...but might not need to, considering the geas on her. Perhaps if we can offer her an even more lucrative operation with just a little more freedom, and she might be happy to deal with us.

That employer dragon sounds like the Brass we wanted to keep an eye on in the Ivory Gates...but lets go worst-case and pretend it's a Gold for now. We should likely investigate the Brass though, if he's the cause of this.

Kill them. Extract the information from the dwarf, (don't go for scin's name cuz we do trust her and all) mind fuck the aasimaar to be full of rancor and disgust then kill him too after educating our daughter.

>>16493119
Looks better in red.

[spoilersdon'tworkon/tg/]Orwithredinher.[/spoilersdon'tworkon/tg/]

So, for the elf, dwarf, and sorcerer, I think at this point we should glean what we can from their brains (knowledge of general rules for true name-ing, that sort of thing) and then thoroughly obliterate them. The paladin we can work on next thread.

Also, we really need to get what info we can on the bard, either from the brains of the ones we have, or from scrying, or whatever.

>>16493122
Don't employ the elf. She's become fond of the party, and if there's anyone who can't be trusted, it's the evil assassin who's slowly come to enjoy her comrades.

Cmon man, this is basic overlord stuff.

>>16493122
> I think we'll probably kill th elf...but might not need to, considering the geas on her. Perhaps if we can offer her an even more lucrative operation with just a little more freedom, and she might be happy to deal with us.

She's a merc who knows way too much. I think that if we want an assassin, we can get our own. We don't have to leave all that sensitive knowledge floating around in a package that is only interested in the money. We need to plug this security hole.

>>16493128
this red enough for ya?

>>16493133

Mmm, we've a promise to keep regarding all his friends and family too.

Yes, learn the workings of finding a true-name which we can start applying toward Scinnari's boss, then lets talk to Scinnari over their worth as souls or what we could do with them.

>>16493133
Speaking of brains, we do have polymorph, and I doubt the dwarf has been taught how to resist having her brain eaten by a mindflayer. Asides from not letting it get attached, but that's why we have them chained up...
Plus, it's an amusing little "fuck the gith" they won't find out about.

>>16493155
Except for the hair, yes.

Though to be quite honest I do approve of the feather-wings, as opposed to the leather-wings.

>>16493138
>>16493146

Alright, it was only a half serious suggestion anyway.

Stll, her soul might be worth something, so lets at least soul-trap her. Scinnari might want something to torture for a while anyway that's also fashionable to wear- though methinks she'd prefer the paladin.

Though really I'd prefer she fix her screw-up with Cygnis before we favor her with things.

>>16493168
Nah. I'm not sure that polymorphing into an aberration that doesn't understand feelings is a particularly good idea. Besides, that reeks of "Dr. Evil." We're too classy for that.

Quick and painless execution for the dwarf. Didn't really hurt us much anyways, just played a straight defensive cleric.

>>16493182
Yeah, what are we going to do about that? Not only did she fail us, she was busy trying to manipulate us. (granted, a fairly benign manipulation, but still.)

I'm not quite certain what we can do to adequately punish her. Perhaps withhold the paladin from her.

>ouroboros end
Captcha, ouroboros don't have ends.

You know, I think at this point we're better off just plain killing the three aside from the paladin. Not anything particularly special, just kill them and dispose of the bodies. We've got a convenient supply of lava for that, which means that short of true res they're not coming back. Get info from the dwarf on true name rules, but then dispose of her.

>>16493177
Erinyes do have feather-wings. That pic is a succubus, I believe. They have bat-wings.

Another possible Scinnari. Because goddamn dat everything!

>>16493197

I say we scan Cygnis' mind to see whether or not it was actually accidental like Scinnari says. If it was, then we let it slide. I think if there was duplicity in what Scinnari was telling us we would have picked up on it though.

And don't kill the dwarf until we get that true-naming formula from her.

>>16493226

-Let it slide so long as it's proven fixed and fixed soon, that is.

>>16493197
We just need to let her know that while we <3 her she does have responsibilities. Take Cygnis away and train her ourselves for a while. That way we can find out exactly what needs to be done and when we give her back we can give *very* specific instructions and do a whole "I was disappointed in the results last time. Do better this time, dear."

>>16493197
>>16493182
She didn't really fail so much as be overly-imperious in her brainwashing. There's always ways to undo such conditioning and it'll be impossible to maker her completely servile under every condition.

No need to punish her. Just direct her to make Cygnis think that she WANTS to be a slave, rather than believing that she has no other choice. That's really what our spellwork was aimed at, anyways. Scinnari was taking too much pleasure in removing what she thought was a threat to her position as consort, which, while a ridiculous thought, was one she had nonetheless.

So, for the sorcerer. You know, I'm thinking that just killing him is the way to go. We can talk with Azyra about it afterward, but if he is just gone without any serious fanfare, I think that might help her get over it. It lends an air of finality to the whole thing. We don't really need to do any memory twisting or stuff like that. Just play on Azyra's desire for our approval by expressing disappointment that she let herself get played.

>>16493243
I think she's vastly better at this kind of thing than we are (devil, and all that, as well as her age-advantage.) She probably just forgot herself.

Let's give her some punishment, but let her get back to fixing it. Provided, of course, she wasn't lying. I hope we were listening in when she was confessing. We were, right? We know she was telling the truth?

>>16493238
Agreed. Let it slide but make our displeasure known and tell her that as our wife that, while we trust her, we expect that when we give her free reign over these projects they be attended to with the same attention and exactness as we would. Then give her a kiss and tell her to fix it, we know she is capable and we'll be checking in regularly to monitor progress. Give her a chance to get things back on track herself.

>>16493243
We've got to track this dragon who's trying to undermine us. No time to deal with slaves.

>>16493197
>manipulate us

Nah, she just wanted to prove that she was useful to us, and that she was competent. She did, in the end. But that her competence was called into question at all, calls her competence into question.

Boy, this stuff is weird.

>>16493265

Yeah, can we get a confirm on this? And has Scinnari been teaching her the good ol' 'I deserve/want to be a slave' thing or not? I can forgive a blip.

>>16493243
here

In light of
>>16493238
>>16493249
>>16493265
>>16493270
>>16493271
I change my vote to just letting it slide. Good points, it was just an honest mistake. Tell her we understand and that she needs to fix it then give her a hug.

>>16493271
>manipulate us
I meant: >>16491949

I could be wrong. Just what I got from it.

>>16493249
Agreeing with this. No need to punish just tell Scinnari to fix the problems that this incident brought up.

>>16493196
You keep your own mind when you polymorph, so that's not an issue. And the dwarf has no-one to blame but herself, if she didn't insist on fortifying her mind, we could just take everything she knows and kill her relatively painlessly. As it is, I want to be sure we get everything, and there's nothing hiding in there behind better protections.

>>16493317
>kill painlessly
>laughingdragons.jpg

We owe them all some hurtan'. Wasn't their a misery-garments idea in the last thread?

>>16493346

I must admit I did love the misery garments, but I think we might be in the minority here.

I just don't want them to get away with a clean killing, come the bottom line.

>>16493304
Yeah, we've never punished mistakes (well, honest mistakes made while executing our will or doing what they thought we would like...) before because everyone makes them. Our policy so far has been less cackling evil moron who shoots the messenger and more refined mastermind who thanks the messenger for trying to get the message through and telling him to brush up on shortcuts for next time.

>>16493278
Confirm.

>>16493010
He views her as another person, but neither loathes nor adores her. As for evil, he thinks she's not terribly cruel or evil herself, just ignorant.

Granted, that's a step up from what most people think, but it still isn't exactly what you hoped.


As usual, please post what you want answers to and what you want to do next. Obviously, if you have a stance on the prisoner-issue, go ahead and state it. I'm calling it a night because its nearly four here. Will hang around on the chat a bit longer.

>>16493346
/Relatively/ painlessly. Compared to, say, having your brain sucked out through your skull by a tentacle-headed aberration.

Alright, let's dispose of the elf and the sorcerer. Kill them, dump the bodies in magma, and make sure that there's nothing left to raise. Dial up the brain drain on the dwarf, maybe use the mind flayer idea, to get the knowledge from her head. Although, we should give her the option of voluntarily lowering those mental defenses so that we can get the info painlessly. Tell her that we'll extract it the hard way if she resists, but if she cooperates we will give her a quick and painless death and make no moves against her family afterward. Also, try to get info on the bard, he's a loose end that needs addressing. Start scrying him to try to learn what is going on with him now.

In the mean time, start investigating this brass. Right now he's our prime suspect.

Then, on to chatting with the paladin.

>>16493387
>Then, on to chatting with the paladin.
I rather just kill her after eating her brain or flaying her mind or something.

Really not at all interested in trying to break her or whatever, way too much work for a True Believer. Eat her and be done with it.

Oh come on guys, where's you sense of justice? Interlopers deserve punishment! We've done worse to people who've done less than this!

At the very least get their souls for bartering, but that paladin should suffer before she dies. If she should die.

>>16493410
2nd

>>16493387

Actually brains don't have pain nerves, so eating the brain, outside of the initial hole, is a relatively painless experience.

Last post for real, forgot to answer this question. (Has been asked above, I know.)

>>16493387
Valerius, the bard, has been taken somewhere. Where ever this somewhere is, you can no longer locate or penetrate it with scrying. You have nothing.


The DQ schedule is going to stabilize to Saturdays, and by stabilize I mean I'll try to do it every week, but can't promise it. If I do, though, it will be on Saturdays.

Finally. Going to go to bed, nice to have you guys all back.

>>16493410
I'd be interested in chatting with her just to chat with her.

It's odd the things that you can say to someone who you are going to kill immediately afterward. Like we could say pretty much anything, hell we could ask her for relationship advice. I'd like to do that just for her reaction.

But anyway, brain draining is the main point, yes. We might as well give her the same offer as the dwarf, if only for formality's sake as we know she won't take it, before nomming her brain and dumping her body in magma.

>>16493432
Second.

>>16493432

This.

>>16493442
Well obviously we try to get a handle on any possible place this bard could have gone by pulling it from their minds before execution.

Really, this bard situation deserves ALL OF OUR RESOURCES. He knows way too much.

>>16493456
I would guess he's all snug and cozy in some githyanki fortress.

I don't believe for a moment so many people support a simple, quite wasteful killing. No artfully cruel plan to use them against their will? No punishment for those who stand against us? Is death REALLY the best you can come up with?

I refuse to believe this is the same being that made a dress out of a Gold Dragon and forced its Half-sister to wear. Where's the FUCKING EVIL? Not even putting their SOULS up for auction?! We love souls!! What's wrong with you all? It's not like it's any trouble to soul-trap them!!

>>16493432
>If she should die.
This is no question. Though giving her soul to the hells afterward (and after we wipe ALL the information about us from her mind) is fair game.

But yes, I want all of the information about us purged from their brains before we sell their souls to the hells. Just to be precise in our information leaks. The bard is out of our hands for now, but we can control the rest of them.

>>16493487
Summer hiatus. Their skills of artful evilness 've got rusted during it.

>>16493487
> I refuse to believe this is the same being that made a dress out of a Gold Dragon and forced its Half-sister to wear.

Actually, I think the second part of that was a bit much.

>>16493504

No such thing, in the land of evil deeds.

>>16493495
The people in the hells that we would be selling to (Scinnari's contacts) would know all this already. After all, Scinnari had to make reports to them on the subject.

>>16493487
If we could break the divine protection on the paladin, we could dominate her and make her kill her allies one by one, slowly.

That would be nice.

Alternatively, we could polymorph into her form and do it while she watches, her friends crying "why!? Why?!" as she screams from behind a one-way, sound-blocking mirror.

>>16493487
I'm fine with selling their souls to the hells.

To repeat from chat:
I am not especially concerned with the bard. The information he has is (let's be honest) something any high level caster could get his hands on already. Even non-epic casters. Hell, he doesn't even know how old we are, if Prestor is just a pawn or the dragon, if Lady Prestor is the dragon or also a pawn -- nothing really. All they found out is our name, color, and that our lair is *probably* in the mountain. They didn't even know this for sure by the way, they never actually saw the hoard before they left.

Oh, and they know that there was a slight hole in the anti-teleport defenses. One that we are closing IMMEDIATELY.

Hear that WD? We are now altering our epic spell to account for magic bag shenanigans. Also we use our dragon-intelligence to think of any possible "loopholes" like this we can possibly come up with then close them too.

Because I still insist that was bullshit. Epic magic is not so easily defeated.

>>16493539

I think you're being intentionally childish here.

Personally, I'm still all for the torment-clothes or gems. Perhaps our final victory would not be to eat her brain, but for her to willingly lower her mental shields to let her suffering end.

Though we might want dragon-info a bit sooner than that would allow. Giving her soul to Scinnari would be good though- I can't imagine she'd be happy with a simple, merciful killing.

>>16493543
> Hell, he doesn't even know how old we are, if Prestor is just a pawn or the dragon, if Lady Prestor is the dragon or also a pawn -- nothing really. All they found out is our name, color, and that our lair is *probably* in the mountain. They didn't even know this for sure by the way, they never actually saw the hoard before they left.

Ummm... you do know that they did get more accurate info than that, right? They got it from questioning Azyra and Cygnis right before they escaped. And after that last fight they have seen our hoard.

>>16493566

Well the bard still hasn't, but he *does* know Cygnis' name, which might be a problem if he escapes.

And he will. It's inevitable.

>>16493498
>>16493487
Hey, /I/ want us to make the paladin evil and use them to train our minions, turn into a mindflayer and eat the dwarfs brain (Hey, if the gith want to protect our prisoner, we can at least turn into their hated enemy to kill one of the others), and either turn the celestial-blooded named Mephisto evil or sell his soul to the hells.
Oh, and I wanted to see about recruiting the assassin before, but given what we got out of her mind, I think it would be more amusing to either store her soul in a soul gem and have the paladin wear it, or make sure she follows her geas to assist the paladin after we corrupt her (the paladin). Muaha.

>>16493543
> Epic magic is not so easily defeated.

Epic magic is also a lot more costly than what WD has been asking us to pay for. It's powerful stuff, but it's also the sort of ting that, if WD actually stuck to the rules, we would have no right having. He's been bending things in our favor already, stop being so greedy.

Arright, after we've handled the prisoners, however we do, here's the plan:

Go see Nehmeska, get her started on looking for Illithid places in prep for us strengthening contact with the Gith

Send minions to the Ivory Gate to proper the way for our arrival there (though lets not tip our hand- perhaps only one of our best- it'd be a bit suspicious if the Brass lost contact with his team and then suddenly found people interested in him)

And we get on the ball with a powerful scrying spell to find that Bard and shut him up. And wasn't there one other party member?

>>16493681
> And wasn't there one other party member?

The sixth man. He had backed out before the party tried to break into our lair because he was afraid of getting on our bad side. He knew nothing, and had taken no actions against us, so we sent him on his way. With a complimentary fruit basket.

>>16493599
I would rather not have it than have it fail at a sneeze.

It's better to be aware of your weaknesses than not. We assumed we were safe from teleportation shenanigans or gates. Then suddenly oh no! Somehow we weren't. If they had used some sort of greater artifact? Fine. Direct plane-ripping by the hand of a Major God? Fine, that too could breach it.

But there is no point in having it or even calling it "epic magic" if some ridiculous thing like a portable hole in a magic bag defeats it. Nothing is absolute but nobody would stand for a DM who says you have a DR of 20/- and then during the first combat encounter going "oh by the way every weapon is the game ignores DR lolololol"

That's just troll GMing. Be consistent. If we have epic magic we have it. If we don't we don't. Don't tell us one thing then bait-and-switch. /That/ is what I am saying.

>>16493705
Remember that the portable hole + bag of holding trick didn't actually work out very well for them. It didn't actually help their position at all. Hurt us a bit, but they're just as fucked. That's why it previously wasn't the sort of thing to cover, it's not actually a good idea, it's something you do if you're desperate and you don't have a whole lot of alternate options.

>>16493719
You forgot, Watcher said they were spooked. It sounds like that was their emergency escape plan, and they didn't want to waste any time in getting the fuck out of dodge. (not that they coudl

>>16493705
> But there is no point in having it or even calling it "epic magic" if some ridiculous thing like a portable hole in a magic bag defeats it. Nothing is absolute but nobody would stand for a DM who says you have a DR of 20/- and then during the first combat encounter going "oh by the way every weapon is the game ignores DR lolololol"

Don't be ridiculous. You're overreacting. This has happened once. A grand total of once. It's hardly a case of the DM making a ruling that screws something up for the whole game.

>>16493705

You know, I don't actually recall WD specifically calling our wards "epic magic." That seems to be something that the complainers mainly do. When we requested them, WD pretty much just took a list of stuff we wanted to ward against and said "alright, you've got wards against these."

>>16493705
Of *all* the people that could complain about things the players assumed based on what they thought a name implied, when the DM had a different idea, you're going to do it? Look on the bright side, at least the paladin seems fairly standard.

>>16493782
>You know, I don't actually recall WD specifically calling our wards "epic magic."
Pretty sure he has.

>>16493825
Really? Where? I wasn't even aware we had access to level 9 spells, of our own, let alone epic stuff. We certainly couldn't cast wish on our own, we had to get help for that.

>>16493759
Well, lost my post but the essence of it was: Many, many bog-standard adventurers have holding/holes on them. Being able to buy a "epic ward-skipper special" at ye olde magikal wal-marte does in fact change the game unless it was a one time thing. If we made a simple mistake or oversight due to being inexperienced with such powerful magics? Or hell, even through not expecting it to ever occur? Such is life. We go back and review stuff with our supernatural intelligence to close these kinds of holes and do better next time.

But the entire concept is to have security and something interesting we can flesh out our character with and just *have* without crippling paranoia 24/7. It's a matter of knowing where the "backstory line" is in more traditional campaigns. Step over it too often as a DM and your PC backstories start all becoming "I'm a wandering freelance merc with no family or friends."

>>16493799
Smitey hardcore paladins are and have always been a well entrenched trope.

>>16493861
Not the person who just answered there, but I've seen him say it in chat at the least.

>>16493924
> Many, many bog-standard adventurers have holding/holes on them.

And among them, putting a portable hole in a bag of holding or vice versa is rightly considered to be a very bad idea.

I'm still not seeing anything that justifies the "WD is troll GM" accusation.

>>16493989
Not saying he is. Saying that particular element (the bag thing) was a bad move in my opinion.

Everyone makes mistakes. Dragons, silly humans who steal from them, and GMs too.

As long as it gets addressed one way or the other it's water under the bridge... which is why I am saying we now need to /go address it by combing the defenses for loopholes./ Which was my original point that you got all pissy over.

>>16494009

First off, you claim that he has said that we have epic magic. Considering that we don't even have 9th level magic, I find that questionable. But let's ignore that for now. When we made these wards we pretty much just went down a list of things we wanted our lair warded against. Scrying, teleportation, etc. and WD pretty much just nodded, went along with it, and gave us those wards. That was a stretch even then. I think it was the right choice on his part, because as you said it gave us a way to continue with being crippled by constant paranoia, but it was still a stretch.

Likewise, I think it was a good choice to not just leave them as blanket protection against every damn thing that a bunch of lunatics might try, because there's such a thing as giving players too much slack. Yes, giving players enough freedom from paranoia to play is a good thing, but there's also such a thing as giving them so much freedom that it removes that paranoia entirely, which gets in the way of having an interesting story. Having wards that protect against every possibility, even things beyond the already generous list that we asked for, is a step across that line. It's a step towards making players lazy. A story needs an element of risk to be interesting, and when you can just say "we've got epic wards, we can just indulge in this or that" it removes too much of that risk.

Beyond that, it wouldn't even make sense for our character to have that kind of power at the time. We're not prescient, nor are we capable of covering all bases to make up for it. You seem really pissed off that he didn't give us that much slack. Sure, GMs can make mistakes, but understand how ridiculous what you're asking for is, and how silly it is to claim he made a mistake just because you didn't get everything you wanted. GMs can make mistakes, but this wasn't one.