>>23543135
Good to see you OP, appears you're a wee late again but no matter.

As I asked right before the last thread ended, can we jump on the shadow of one of the captains and follow them around unseen?

>>23543172

Yes. It's at night which means you won't even have to worry about staying perfectly inside their shadow half the time, only when they're in the light of a torch or lantern or whatever. Since you don't have any Celerity you won't be able to perfectly mimic their movements, but it should be close enough that no one notices.

>>23543275
Let's do this then, find a captain that's about to be off his watch and jump in his shadow until he goes to bed. We should be able to kill him in his sleep easily at that point.

>>23543353

You slip into a passing captain's shadow and follow him for about two hours as he chats with another captain about the supposed fate of the last raiding party. He says they'd have thought the reports the gibbering of madmen if more survivors hadn't come trickling in telling it all the same way. The captain spends some more time chatting with officers about home and how much they disdain this savage land, and what a favor they'll be doing everyone here by civilizing it and it'd be a lot easier if they'd step out of the way.

Finally, he retires to his chambers. The officers quarters consist of two rooms split by an uncovered archway, the inside room a bedroom and the outside room a receiving room, you presume. It's got musty old chairs in it, anyway. There's a guard stationed out in the receiving room.

>wat do?

>>23543482
Whisper to the guard once the officer falls asleep: "All of your muscles dont work because your nerves dont respond, you are paralyzed."

Hopefully he'll slump quietly and be unable to speak like the sacrifice we made for Olberek, then go kill the Captain with his or the guard's weapon silently. Then of course do the same to the guard.

>>23543611

"You can't move or speak," you whisper to the guard. He moans in distress through a locked jaw as you relieve him of his halberd and then ram it through his throat. He's much quieter when you do the same to the captain.

Well, that's one down.

>wat do?

>>23543665
Perfect. Alright then, let's quickly rifle through this guy's quarters and see if he has any interesting documents and such lying around. If we can't find anything slip out of his quarters and use unnoticed by the door until someone comes by.

>>23543744

You rifle through the chamber. The drawers of the bedroom's desk have locks on them, but they aren't in use, presumably because the keys have gone missing. Anyways, the wood might have been sturdy oak once upon a time, but now it's rotten enough you probably could've pulled it apart if you have to.

The papers inside are a bit more fresh (though the layer of dust they're sitting on top of might well be an older generation of papers that didn't hold up so well as the desk). They contain a letter to his family which you discard as useless and, more importantly, a half-finished report for the high commander of Golgothan forces in Dorrik. This captain has apparently been fighting mostly in the west, and you glean from the report that it is both more densely settled and also swimming with blood. Far from the sporadic skirmishes that you've seen in the east, the west is apparently active war between swarms of raiding Dorriki and the Golgothan legions. It's hard to tell who's winning overall from just this one report, but this guy doesn't seem to have won a single battle since he got to Guille Fortress. You wonder if maybe you did the Golgothans a favor by offing him.

It's not hard to wait for a passing patrol to slip into once you've finished searching the captain's room.

>>23543936
I hope we're keeping a mental map of these corridors handy so we can reach this room again if need be. In any case follow the patrol until they bump into another captain and jump shadows. We'll see how many they have on patrol at any given time. Hopefully it's three.

>>23544011

The night has grown deep. It's like midnight already, and for a pre-electric society, that means everyone is either on watch or asleep. Right now there is exactly one captain who is on watch. Takes you a while to find him, seeing as he's sitting in one spot (specifically, in the gatehouse) and the patrol doesn't go near that spot. Eventually you get bored and start hopping from shadow to shadow, making use of the darkness of night to free up your movement a bit (you can't follow anyone like that, but you can move from person to person so long as they're not watching each other, and they usually aren't).

The captain in the gatehouse is surrounded by four other soldiers, though. They sit around on the decaying furniture talking with one another, hypothetically waiting for an alarm to be sounded. They're stationed on the western gate, though, as no one really expects an attack from the east. Hardly enough people out there to justify guarding the gate at all, in the captain's opinion, but the commander said but thirty men on it so they did.

>wat do?

>>23544011
Agreed. Do we have any plans to use our minion?

>>23544135
Go find the quarters of a sleeping captain and slip under the door with shadow form, let's repeat our methodology of killing the last captain after making sure this one is still asleep.

>>23544178
Our minion isn't with us, we're just silencing the chain of command tonight to freak them out and demoralize them.

>>23544178
Find out where the alarms are, how many are accessible for those who would see an assault, and how those could be disabled. Maybe there are ways to have the disabled that are not very visible. For example if bells are used as alarms deluding someone into thinking the clapper needs to be removed for repair, cloth needs to be put into it so the wind won't ring it and distract him, or whatever they use as alarm needs to be taken apart for maintenance might be possible.
This would of course only slow down the initial respone to our attack but even a single minute would mean our forces at the gate before they can form a proper line of defence.

>>23544258

This is a very big fortress. How will you find which quarters contain a captain and which are empty?

>>23544334
Fine then, I can't recall if patrols are just one or two men. Which is the case?

>>23544394

Two.

>>23544411
That throws a spanner in the works then. Hm. Was gonna say just delusion the patrolman that now is the time to quietly check in with the nearest captain's guard to make sure everything is okay.

Start manually searching using shadow form and unnoticed as needed, only peek under the doors (assuming these doors have a small seam for us to slip under) if we see no light coming from within, and check who's inside.

>>23544448

You spend the rest of the night searching the fortress for more officers. As you do so, reports of Girdin having turned a half dozen men into paste begin circulating, and eventually they shut and bar the door down to the dungeon with instructions from the current captain of the guard to avoid that part of the castle and hope the beast stays there. There's also some muttering about how this freaky shit never happens back home. Of course, the surprises don't end there (for him, anyway), because you're able to locate and murder two more captains before the night is out, so you're pretty sure that the captain on guard and the commander(s?) are the only ones who are still around.

Dawn is fast approaching, however, which means you're very soon going to have a much harder time of moving around undetected.

>leave now, or stay to see the fruits of your efforts?

>>23544594
3 captains down and a handful of soldiers killed? I'd say we did pretty well considering.

If we have the time let's quickly stop by the dungeon entrance and see if there's any way we can slip on through the barricade in shadow form (We don't need to right now but just gauge it). It might be a problem if we can't when we'll need to later.

>>23544594
We should have at least another 24 hours before the others catch up, right? In that case, we can return when night falls again to see how they've responded and, for now, go tell Mari grisly details of dead soldiers.

>>23544594
Make sure they don't send messagers out. Don't want to give the higher ups enough information to gather there is a daemon uprising.

>>23544671

The dungeon door is large and heavy, but the craftsman didn't seem to put much effort into sealing it up proper. I suppose the main thing is that people can't get through and shoving notes under the door wasn't really considered an issue. You'll be able to get in and out so long as you can avoid being spotted.

You slip back over the castle walls as dawn breaks, though it's made more difficult as the grey light makes your shadowy form more noticeable. Fortunately you're pretty good at being sneaky.

Also fortunately your shadow form weighs nothing, because Mari has apparently been spending her free time making like four different human-size snare traps. You know, the sort with a counterweight that'll dangle you by your ankle until someone cuts you down or you die from all the blood rushing from your head? You're not sure how solid it is, though. It seems like the string has been made primarily from sinews woven together, and even with the triple-ply weave you're not sure if it's going to actually hold. Apparently Mari did not bring nor does she know how to make actual rope. It doesn't help that rabbit sinews aren't nearly long enough, so she had to knot a bunch together.

>wat do?

>>23544772
Applaud her for the effort, and tell her the structural issues her traps have in a not-so-condescending way. Practice makes perfect, if not finding a teacher later.

As >>23544711 said, let's tell her what went down in the fortress and spend the bulk of the day carefully watching for any dispatched messengers like >>23544760 said. Also ask Mari how she fared in her flesh-shaping attempts.

It's a pretty solid plan to pass the time.

I like how every time we leave her alone she starts doing stuff like that. Making traps, finding holes in walls, generally stuff other than cowering in a corner waiting for soldiers to find her.

>>23544895
She definitely seems to be resourceful, that's a major plus. Once she starts learning the art of combat I think she'll turn out nicely.

>>23544760

How do you plan to do this, exactly? You won't be able to catch a messenger on horseback if they move at top speed, which messengers usually do.

>>23544931
I suppose that's a valid point. How far can Mira use her fleshshaping? If it'd be deadly for her to use it at extreme range then we may as well just keep note of if they DO dispatch a messenger or not. Either way, we're low on options.

>>23544931
Which direction is Golgotha from here? They'd probably move that way. But honestly, who cares if they send a messenger, they probably keep regular reports so they'll notice quickly if the fortress goes off the grid anyway.

>>23545010

Golgoth is west of Dorrik.

>>23544984

The range on Mari's fleshshaping is basically whatever she can get a good view of, so anything within a hundred yards or so will be fine so long as they don't have cover.

>>23544931
I thought about spending the day watching the gate and road. Even if they are faster we can get them if we are somewhere they pass on their way. If there is a single road they will most likely take, wait out of sight of the castle and either have Mari kill him or use something like "Your horse is on fire." to have them dismount (which would let us interrogate them before their death).

>>23545114
This. Let's watch the road we think the messenger would most likely take and have Mari flesh-shape his horse to death however she prefers. Then we can both ambush him and interrogate him.

>>23545151
>find Mari has set up a bunch of traps around her
>relocate her

That's just being plain annoying, isn't it?

>>23545333
Delusion is not suggestion.

You follow the road west until it's out of sight of Guille Fortress (since, after all, if they see you intercepting their messenger they'll just send another one with a heavier guard) and wait for messengers. Before long, one comes along and Mari fleshshapes a few new bones into the horse's brain, killing it in a hurry. The rider goes tumbling to the ground and it's not hard for you to subdue someone with a broken leg.

Which means both that you have a messenger to interrogate and that, for the first time, you can actually physically hand off some loot to Mari. This messenger comes packaged with the standard black studded leather armor, a shortbow, and a short sword. You check for the boxtop you can send in for a copy of Age of Empires, but all you find is the message, which requests immediate reinforcement because of mysterious assassinations and a monster found in the basement.

>wat do?

>>23545333

The depth and subtlety of your impersonation is awe-inspiring. Surely five-year olds the world over are convinced that I actually said that.

>>23545366
I have no idea what anon wanted to interrogate him for, but I suggest that once we're done with that, we let Mari play with him, however she chooses to interpret that.

>>23545392

Oh, now I get it. That's pretty clever. But I have a twitter feed, a wikia account, and a Skype account that can all confirm you aren't me, so I'd recommend you give it up.

>>23545366
Oh god my sides. Thank based gods for having some gear to give to Mari, she needs it badly. Let's have Mari drag our captive back into the woods and keep him at sword point at the base of a tree.

"So nice of you to join us, soldier. Why don't you start by telling us everything you know about your superiors and the Blood Guard in the fortress."

>>23545420
Worth a try though

>>23545392
This one not being our dear DM would be is hilarious.
>>23545366
Find out what standard procedure in case of enemy attack is. Where do they gather, which alarm signals mean what etc.

>>23545451
See I would've asked this straight off, but I want to confirm if this guy is gonna readily lie to us by asking him something we mostly know already.

>>23545498
Delusion: "You are completely incapable of speaking anything but the truth"

>>23545546
That's...actually an interesting idea. I'm not sure if this qualifies as suggestion or delusion, but its worth asking.

>>23545546
Just tell him that we are his superior/the guy he was supposed to report to.

>>23545599
If we combine it with just telling him we put a spell on him to make him tell the truth (which might just work on its own) it should work really well.

>>23545546
>>23545428

He tells you some information about his superiors so far as he knows, which isn't much that you don't already know but which does prove the delusion is working. Procedure in case of attack is just to get all the soldiers up to the walls and rain down arrows, with a small contingent stationed at the gate in the unlikely event that they actually manage to breach that behemoth, and a few more positioned in the castle proper as guard against infiltrators. Their main fear is getting bottled up and starved out, though. The officers don't mention how many supplies they actually have, but they didn't stock this fortress, they just unloaded their supply wagon in it, so it can't be all that much even with the plunder from raided villages.

>wat do?
>chariots chariots

>>23545599

That would qualify as a delusion. It's a belief in the factual nature of the universe, specifically, his ability to tell lies. So "you want to tell us the truth" would fail, but "you are incapable of lying" would work just fine.

>>23545705
I am so getting the hang of this. It took like a full week of questing, but still.

>>23545688
>we absolutely do not plan for anyone to breach the gate
These guys are so lined up for disaster, it's almost not funny. Almost.

Anyone want more out of him, else I still suggest we let Mari do whatever she wants to him, you know, to see what she'd actually do and such.

>>23545705
Excellent. I'll keep that in mind for the future.
>>23545688
"Tell us of Golgoth, and how it has grown over the years. Tell us of the leaders of your country and the size of your armies. Is the campaign against Dorrik the only one you know of?"

This may be one of the only chances we get to ask about stuff regarding our enemy, so let's scournge whatever useful info we can.

>>23545786
Scrounge*
>>23545764
And yeah good call. I'm down for letting Mari deal with him once he's said his stint about the questions I just asked.

Oh, and I still have the impression that if that stone daemon can shake up his place enough, that might just send the walls, or at least sections of it, crashing down. Old structures like that really were not very resistant to earthquakes. If the soldiers are ON those walls...

>>23545786

These aren't even military secrets or anything, so the messenger is totally happy to tell you this in exchange for hopefully not getting his throat slit. Golgoth is led by a mighty sorcerer named Kalen, he says, who is wise and cunning in equal measure and who has expanded the borders out to claim the lands of Arkas, Destos, and most of Tulivinen. The empire presses its boundaries into the land of Margell while mopping up Tulivinen, he says, but they were sent here in an effort to exterminate the cursed children who bring misery and misfortune to all those near and far. "We came to do you a favor, really," he says, fearfully, "for our own reasons, sure, but you'll be as better off without them as we!"

Mari is not amused.

>"Are we done with him?"

Okay, so the plan thus far is to have Girdin smash the gate open while not giving a fuck about arrows and swords, allowing the direwolves into the fortress. If done under cover of night, the archers will be relatively inneffective and the wolves should be able to make short work of the soldiers in close quarters. We can use delusion on the commander or his twin and get the two to fight each other, perhaps. Mari can help cut off any escape routes and/or fleshsculpt archers to death from the cover of the forest.

I would recommend leaving 20-30 of the wolves on the outskirts of the fortress. We don't want any survivors this time around, and anybody fleeing the battle will be extremely easy prey for a direwolf.

Unless I'm missing something, this should be the most effective plan of action. The village soldiers should hang back until the attention of the archers is focused away from the outside of the fort (IE. When Girdin is charging the gate, or when the wolves are inside) so that they don't become pincushions. Once the archers are disrupted they can go ahead and charge into the gate.

>>23545920
>Mari is not amused

Somebody get the popcorn.

>>23545931
Yeah that's about it, really. And it would give Mari some satisfaction to kill some archers from afar with her powers.

>>23545920
We're done with him.

"Mari, he's yours to toy with as you please. Be sure to get in lots of good practice..."

>>23545920
"Of course, Mari. Go ahead."

>>23545980

Mari apparently hasn't quite developed the cruel streak you were hoping for, because all she does is shove her shiny new sword straight through the messenger's throat, and then give it a vengeful twist. But hey, information gathered, dude murdered in cold blood, mission accomplished.

>wat do?

>>23546082
"Well done, Mari. I think we should work on your technique with the sword, now that you have a proper one."

Let's spend the day teaching her how to swordfight using our experience and being very careful. She needs to learn this sooner or later.

We can use the old blade she had as a training weapon while she practices with the shortsword.

>>23546082
Perhaps not cruel, but certainly efficient. No second thoughts, no internal moral struggle, just "Is he Golgothan? Yeah? He dies."

Anyway, I would say the best course of action is to go and see what is going on in the fortress, and tell Girdin where he fits in the plan if we didn't already (Charging the gate and ignoring the soldiers until the gate is broken). How long until Olberek and his wolves arrive?

>>23546149
We cant go meet Girdin until night falls. And they should arrive tomorrow morning I think.

>>23546149

Olberek, the wolves, and the army of the eastern villages will arrive tomorrow morning like >>23546170 said. And also like >>23546170 said, it's nearly impossible to sneak around the castle before dusk. Not many shadows, which means yours sticks out a lot.

>>23546170
Right, well, we have to be sure that the villagers know the plan as well, otherwise they're just going to charge and die like idiots. Wolves go first, then villagers.

>>23546142
Still say we should do this while we wait for dusk. Nothing better to do.

>>23546415

Sure. After returning to Mari's camp, you practice swording with her for a while. After four or five hours of practice, she is exhausted but has a few important basics down. She's still miles from being an actually effective swordswoman, but she's got a pretty good grasp of the basics.

One night between now and the arrival of the army. What are you going to do with it?

>>23546454
First head into the fortress to ensure Girdin knows what the plan is, then rush to Olberek and the army and ensure they know it too.

Then, if we have time, go and hide in the commander's shadow and wait for the fireworks to start.

>>23546454
whittle down their numbers as much as possible. In particular, target the sergeants and corporals

>>23546503
A little too early, and Girdin sorta knows the plan. We can check in with him later. Let's just try and off lone soldiers we can easily hide with the ever so effective paralyze and kill delusion method.

>>23546503
>>23546540

Since the army of the east is several hours away yet, these two are mutually exclusive. You can slip in to tell Girdin, but then you'll have to choose to either go and inform Olberek and Jens or else stay and have fun with the locals.

>>23546588
Stay and have fun with the locals.

>>23546588
Inform Olborek. Have them wait away from sight while you tell Girdin. Him destroying the gates will be their sign to attack.

>>23546588
We can go back in and screw with the commander when the battle starts proper, so let's go tell Jens to wait till the gate is down and the wolves are inside to have the militia charge, and tell Olberek to have a few wolves hang around at the edge of the fort to kill any soldiers trying to escape.

>>23546708
>inform Jens of battle plan
>fuck you spirit you're not the boss of me
>CHARGE

>>23546588
Tell Girdin about plan, then tell Olberek/Jens about plan.

When the battle starts we can take advantage of the chaos to get inside and kill the commander and his twin.

we should probably grab our necessary hour of sleep soon

>>23546891

You had plenty of time to grab that on the way here, since Mari needed to sleep 8 hours a day and all.

>>23546764

You have to wake Girdin up again, but it's a lot easier this time. Since his eyelids are just rocks that close over other rocks, it's kind of hard to tell, but you think he was sleeping with one eye half-open. Regardless, after informing him of the plan, you slip out again and meet up with Olberek, informing him of the plan. Which is way more palatable to him than what Jens was planning on, which was to lay siege and fashion ladders from trees in nearby forests so they could attempt to storm the walls. Finally, you appear before Jens and tell him not to bother with the ladders, because at daybreak the gates will be destroyed. Jens just nods.

The battle is imminent.

>Any last minute preparations?

>>23546992
Ehh, we might want to tell Mari what we want her to be doing.


What do we want her to be doing?

Also goddamn Jens, your pretty name isn't going to keep saving you from that attitude of yours forever.

>>23547047

Good question. I'm all ears. Or eyes, I suppose.

>>23547072
Silly OP, I was asking the others, not you.

>>23546992
Wait, why in the world are we attacking during the day?

Most of the damage we can deal will come from those wolves, and they don't care whether it's day or night, so attacking in the day just means the enemy gets to use their archers to maximum effect.

>>23547103
I guess because camping the entire army outside of the fortress will get spotted so the timing should match up with their arrival?

>>23547103
Best to strike at dawn before they realize a whole fucking army is seething in the woods.

Also tell Mari we want her to pick off archers on the battlements once the gates are destroyed. Dont drain herself but kill whatever she can comfortably manage. Stay I the treeline.

File: 1362609440103.png-(54 KB, 236x262, 1361412401045.png)

54 KB PNG

>>23547207

I don't have time to play, but I just wanted to stop in and let you know how much I enjoy this quest.

With all of the shitty fetish quests clogging up tha/tg/lorious board, I enjoy this for having no stupid fapfiction.

I also enjoy the style in which you GM, in that you'll allow pretty much anything as long as it's within the limits of our power to do so.

I've read every thread ravenously in the archive, and look forward to reading this one later tonight. Thanks!

>>23547258
Alternatively, it may be interesting for us to bring her with us to the battle proper. We still expect daemons SOMEWHERE in there, and her powers may work on them. I certainly want to know if they do.

>>23547317
I mean, that would explain the big fuzz they make, wouldn't it? Having kids running around in this forest, using the same powers Dominion uses and fucking making it work? How terrifying is that not?

>>23547380
On the other hand if news gets out via a clever daemon slipping away that theres a girl with dominion powers here I guarantee you they will send assassins or abduct her. They had to be lo oking for kids like this for a reason.

I can't really tell if we favor having Mari pick off archers from a safe distance or join the battle proper. It's important to note, however, that battles are dangerous and Mari is mortal. Her dying in combat is far from guaranteed (even a total bloodbath only has fatalities for maybe 20% of the combatants), but if you bring her into a fight it's possible you'll turn your back for thirty seconds and then she's got an arrow through her eye and there's not a damn thing either of you could've done to stop it.

>>23547450
Hence why I said keep her at the treelind and let her continue to use her powers and grow. She doesn't need to be in thr thick of it until she learns how to swordfight properly.

>>23547450
You know what, I'm convinced, though I really would've loved the chance to have her try her thing on a daemon. Assuming there actually are any at all. But let's keep her at a safe distance.

>>23547450
Then we won't take her to battle then. She's first disciple of the shadow anomaly. Let's teach her to infiltrate.

>>23547450
Keep Mari out of the firing line.

Her powers do nothing to protect her out in the open.

>>23547623
That reminds me, we can teach magic to mortals right?

>>23547751
I dont think we are strong enough yet, hopefully in thr future.

All is quiet as the army approaches, doing their best to remain hidden in the trees, those mounted guiding their horses as softly through the woods as they can. Ahead of them, the wolves, stealthier despite their size, are the vanguard. About thirty feet from the edge of the forest, the wolves stop at the silent command of Olberek, and wait.

From within the fortress, the sound of battle. Shouts, the twang of bowstrings, the sound of swords clattering against stone, and then panicked cries as they discover that Girdin is not really vulnerable to swords. For that matter, he's not really vulnerable generally speaking.

The shouts grow closer as Girdin charges through the fortress, bringing down whatever walls happen to stand between him and the courtyard. He bursts through the gate with a single ram, then grips one of the massive doors in his mouth and rips it off its hinges, chucking it at the army inside. Good gods, he's strong.

The wolves charge forward, howling and snarling. The archers on the wall begin firing down on them, but the dire wolves shrug off the arrows to the thick hides on their backs and flanks, and only the occasional lucky shot to the head brings one down. They charge in through the gate and begin a bloody melee, followed soon after by the humans, mounted and foot.

>wat do?

Oh, by the way, OP, kind of a sidestep, but I'm trying to give myself an overview of the various courts and their relations, my main resource being the descriptions from thread 1. I just have this tiny problem, being that you make numerous references to a court of Strife, but you didn't include it in the list of courts we could pick. I know some of their relations, but I don't really know exactly what they represent and such (aside from, obviously, strife). Do you have anything about them?

>>23547782
"Oh its GOOD to be back!"

Run on up in the chaos while in shadow form and get a general idea of where they are holding out the strongest. Time to pick off officers.

Also keep an eye out for where Girdin is fighting and if Mari is racking up any kills.

>>23547751

Yes, but it requires about a decade of study for even the quickest students to master the basics. Once they have those basics mastered, though, it's usually much faster to teach them further powers and even other Talents. However, progress is still measured in months.

You have no idea how much of this applies to Mari. She's told you that she had no teacher at all, and anyways three is way too young to begin the study of something as complicated and tricky as magic, so she's apparently able to use Talents naturally, the same way daemons do. Given this, you have no idea what the timetable for teaching her new Talents would be.

>>23547782
Let's go screw with the commander.

Him and his twin will probably be near each other, so let's move between them in shadow form and delude them both at the same time.

"Your partner is an imposter sent to kill you when you turn your back."

>>23547790

If there was no Court of Strife, then that was a mistake, probably from my fiddling with the character limit. The Court of Strife's spiel was supposed to be this:

>>Are you from the Court of Strife? The Court of Strife governs conflict of all types, but those on a massive scale, like war. They were a minor Court before being catapulted into power by the rise of mortals. As one of the relatively young Courts, they are not apart of any of the primordial alliances, but instead are loyal to the Court of Dominion, which put many lesser Courts into power during their own rise. The Court of Strife uses mortals like chessmen to play out conflicts with one another, while viewing other daemons primarily as opponents, either friendly rivals or hated enemies.

>>23547890

And there's a typo in there. The first sentence should read "but especially* those on a massive scale, like war."

>>23547751
>>23547870
Fuck that, we're not running a wizard school here. She has useful magic already, what she needs to learn is just about everything else.

>>23547890
Thank you.

>>23547887
They seem to be pretty good friends, so I would adjust it to this:

"Your partner is an imposter sent to kill you, the only way to get the real one back is to kill him."

>>23547982
We're not running a school. We're trying to start a cult.

>>23548037
Teaching her some of our powers down the road will only make her deadlier. I don't see the problem with teaching her combat skills until she's progressed enough to inherit some of our magic.

>>23547842

In the chaos, checking to see whether the Golgothans on the wall are dying from arrows or from having their insides fucked up is basically undoable, especially since Mari can realistically only kill three or four of them before she'll be exhausted.

Girdin is a lot easier to keep track of, though. The Golgothans flee from him, as he is quite plainly invincible and also tends to insta-gib mortals. Every now and then a Dorriki warrior or one of the dire wolves is accidentally caught in one of his charges, but the damage is mostly to Golgoth.

From the pile of corpses strewn about the tent, it seems the Blood Guard fared pretty well against their attackers, but there's hardly more than a dozen of them. The position of their corpses would imply that they didn't break their formation around the tent even as they were fighting, or at least not very much, which probably made them that much easier to kill.

Near the ruins of the half-pulled down tent, however, you can see a four-armed woman with a blade in each hand, hissing like a snake and slicing up Dorriki like a blender, and similarly what appears to be a massive blob of ooze and pus makes its way around the battlefield simply absorbing and dissolving everything, like if a gelatinous cube were made of ew.

>wat do?

Have the commander (whichever we reach first at least) order the men to lay down their arms.

And then you just let the wolves eat them. Most of them will pick up their swords again but we'll kill a good chuck.

I wonder how effective delusion is against daemons... What do we know about that, OP?

>>23548136
Can we identify if the woman is a daemon or not? find the nearest soldier and delude him into thinking "Sneaking up on that woman and stabbing her in the back is the only way to make the invaders leave. They are here for her blood."

If not see if we can guide Girdin towards her, I have a feeling as long as that ooze doesn't touch him he should smash her into little bits.

>>23548136
Looks like we have further company.

Get Girdin to deal with the snakewoman, since he's basically immune to physical damage. Not sure how to go about dealing with the ooze. Perhaps lure it into a pit or something.

Delusion the pair of commanders into attacking each other.

>>23548237
Delusion is not suggestion. We can't make him give it, only believe he wants to or should; a compulsion he can throw off.

Better to delude the four armed sword blender into thinking that all humanoids are hostile, so she starts attacking Golgothans too. It's in the middle of a huge battlefield and she may very well be overcome with a bloodlust already, so it's a small delusion that should take hold fairly easily.

>>23548087
I think the main difference is that in a cult we would have other smucks do the teaching for us.

>>23548278

Against both daemons and mortal wizards, delusion is chancy. It gets riskier the more powerful they are, and you're still pretty weak which means anyone who knows any magic has decent odds of resisting a delusion. Plus, they'll probably know what you're trying to do and make cutting your throat out their first priority if you try it and it doesn't work. And on top of that, if they happen to know about Dementation (unlikely, you've never seen these dudes before and Dementation is a House Talent, but still possible), then they might commit to not reacting to any new information and only sticking with whatever their plan was at the start of the battle, or some similar safeguard against being deluded. Of course, you could use delusion to make them misremember what the plan was. It's all very complicated.

You can't see the commander or his double on the battlefield. They must be deeper in the fortress. Do you want to abandon the battle in the courtyard to go looking for them?

>>23548354
Find Girdin and have him try to smash the shit out of her, and while shes preoccupied facing him yell at her in shadow form with our typical paralysis delusion.

It's worth a shot, and the momentary distraction may be all Girdin needs to pulp her.

>>23548316
Make the ooze think the only way to survive is to kill the four armed girl

>>23548354
No, deal with those daemons. Tell Girdin to deal with the woman, while we distract the ooze (carefully) to keep it from interfering with him. Once the blade lady's down, us and Girdin together should be able to deal with the ooze.

>>23548037
I dunno man, a cult seems like a lot of responsibility. The kind of stuff boring daemons like to get into. Couldn't we just find someone else's cult and make it do what we want?

>>23548422
I like this, lets try it

>>23548354
Approach the snakewoman, delude her into believing that her arms and legs don't work.

We might be able to neutralise the blob in the same way.

You try your usual "you're paralyzed" delusion, but it doesn't take hold on the snake lady daemon as Girdin rounds on her. Girdin charges, but the four-armed daemon leaps handily over, slicing at Girding with all four of her blades. Not that they do anything, but it looks very elegant. Girdin snaps and stamps at her, but she's much too fast for him. Still, at least she's not playing Will It Blend with your allies anymore.

>wat do?

>>23548722
Alright well that keeps her from causing trouble for the time being. Resistant to delusions, check. Let's scale the walls and delusion a sharp eyed archer or two with: "That woman is the commander of the enemy forces, killing her will surely net you a promotion and drive the enemy away!"

>>23548722
Attempt to delude the ooze into believing that it is completely paralyzed.

It seems to be about the only way we can stop it right now. Girdin can keep snakewoman busy for now, hopefully some archers will be able to score a few hits while she is distracted.

>>23548774

A well-placed arrow is aimed straight at her heart. She splits it in half. She is very fast.

>>23548873

The delusion doesn't take on the ooze either. Today is not your lucky day. Irritated now, the ooze begins moving towards you, the grass of the courtyard dissolved and absorbed in its wake.

>wat do?

>>23548950
Don't suppose there are any kegs of alcohol around? I have a sneaking suspicion that the ooze will not get along well with booze. Try to lure it into eating a keg of ale if one is around.

Otherwise, try to lure it off the battlefield. Perhaps into the fortress proper.

>>23548950
Damn it all, release those delusions because they'll do us a fat lot of good. I guess the only thing I can think of is finding Olberek and asking him if he's got anything up his sleeve to deal with her. Hoping for some crazy nature vine-foot-snaring magic or something.

>>23548950
How to kill ooze?
Delusion someone into pouring flaming oil at it?

>>23549001
You're thinking of vinegar, but I see where you are coming from with that.

Try to lure the ooze into something that is pickled in vinegar. It's more likely to be present, and probably more effective if this hunch is correct.

File: 1362615741995.jpg-(95 KB, 1225x707, Chart of mild dislike.jpg)

95 KB JPG

>>23548950
>the ooze moves towards you

Well then we take it for a walk in the direction of bladewoman. Don't be corporeal near her though, that's stupid.

On a sidenote, based on the info on the courts, I've sketched (7000 years in daemonsoft Paint) a very rough chart of people who want other people to die. Obviously not to be used as more than a rule of thumb, but figure it'll make it a little easier for me, and maybe some others, to keep track of things.

>>23548950
Where is Olberek in all of this? Does he have any other tricks than commanding a bunch of wolves?
Try to use our shadows to limit the snake womans vision so that the rock guy can get a clean hit on her.

>>23549047
Also when we are doing this try to make a lot of noise so that we effectively both blind and deafen her.

>>23549008
This

Olberek's nowhere to be seen. You certainly recall him having a few more tricks up his sleeve. He used to turn into a giant tree-thing and stomp around the battlefield crushing fools. You were never quite sure if anyone could do that or if you had to be part-tree to begin with. Regardless, given that he's not doing that now, it's probably safe to say that commanding the wolves is his only relevant trick.

You begin luring the ooze inside the fortress. You start climbing up towards a window, being that the door is shut and you don't want to lose it, and it eats straight through the door below you, then comes up through the floor into the room you've climbed into. A stray droplet of pus lands on your shadowy form and actually hurts, but doesn't seem to do much damage before you're able to get out of the way.

You know where the storerooms are and you turn corporeal (it doesn't seem to make much difference to this thing) long enough to roll a barrel of ale and pickles into it. It consumes both without any sign of any particular trouble. The torches mounted on the wall don't seem to be doing much either.

With the door knocked down, the battle spills into the entrance hall, where the commander and his double was gathering his forces to sally and try to escape. They join in the fighting. The walls have pretty much been completely cleared of Golgothan soldiers and the Dorriki and wolves, while they've taken some significant casualties (especially from the daemons), are mopping up the rest in the courtyard. Nevertheless, fighting remains vicious.

>>23549323
I feel like this is a futile prospect at this rate. Did we see any barrels of gunpowder in the store room we could roll into this asshole?

>>23549323
Well, I'm out of ideas.

It's gotta have a weakness of some kind, though, right? Pure water? Salt?

Could be salt. There's probably a barrel of salt around to quickly test that theory.

>>23549397
I just realized these guys probably aren't to that point in tech. Oh damn. Go with >>23549410 instead.

>>23549323

Any flour around? If it's an ooze if we make it less liquid it might not be able to flow as freely. If we fuck with it's viscosity enough it might be immobilised.

Although there is a point where we're just throwing kitchen supplies at it.

>>23549410
Roll EVERYTHING in its way. Something has to work. The world is fair like that, right?


Right?

>>23549410
>>23549438
Are we trying to cook a pizza here, or fight this shit?

File: 1362617564265.gif-(973 KB, 312x213, ItsHappening1.gif)

973 KB GIF

>>23549535
BRILLIANT! We turn the ooze into a pizza and then let everybody eat it one we neutralize the acidity! Everybody wins!

>>23549535

I'm not the one who picked 0 combat powers. Cooking it to death is the only plausible tactic.

>>23549535
We just need some tomatoes.

Blood can substitute for tomato sauce, right?

You wheel out the salt barrel next, and try rolling that into it. Some daemons are inherently weak to salt, and besides this thing seems like the kind of thing that would respond to some kind of purification bullshit, but no dice, it gobbles it up and continues advancing down the corridor. So then you hurl a bag of flour into it. Still nothing. Not having much space left between the storeroom and the blob, you try out your last theory, and grab a barrel full of water, rolling that at the thing. It eats through the barrel no problem, but then there's a sound of hissing and what almost sounds like mutant shrieking and the blob retreats a bit, but then begins advancing again. Fortunately, being that they're preparing for a siege and all, these guys have plenty of water, which you chuck down one after another like Donkey Kong. It's pretty tiring, but after a while the thing gets the message and retreats down the hallway.

>wat do?

>>23549535
>>23549589

No pizza, we're out of cheese.

>>23549615
I don't see a direct relation between any of the powers we could have originally picked and fighting this thing. It doesn't seem either of our allies see an obvious way to kill it either, or they'd probably have done so. And even Mari only does FLESHsculpting. Alternative solutions is what we've got right now.

>>23549649
Well, if it can't then I've been doing it wrong all these years.

>>23549666
Well, that's SOMETHING. Nature and Water are allies, maybe Barry can do something water-related that'll do the trick.

>>23549666

Truly this is our greatest hour. In tribute to this moment we shall teach all our High Priests to be gourmet chefs in honour of our tactical prowess!

In the shorter term, maybe go check out the battle. See if the chick is dead yet, or go find the enemy commander.

>>23549666
Keep rolling water at it. We want it weak enough to perform a quickening I would guess. That thing is about the most dangerous creature on the field, so taking it out of action is priority #1.

HOWEVER, let's see if we can get some pac man going up in this bitch. Grab a few buckets of water, and drive it towards the commander and his extra troops, see if we can get the blob to eat them all.

>>23549768
Supporting the pac man plan.

>>23549768

It's around the corridor, and you can only carry one barrel at a time, so you'd have to run back in between every single time you chuck a barrel of water into it. That'll wear you out very fast.

Am I the only one having trouble posting?

>>23549881
It's been taking a couple minutes for my posts to go through as well. No idea.

Can the threat of us simply carrying one barrel of water intimidate it? Not sure if it can see, but worth a shot.

>>23549881
Does Guille fortress have a moat with water in it?

>>23549768
>perform a quickening
How is that done?

>>23549881
Seems we can't do much to the ooze.

Could Mari's fleshshaping work on the demon lady?

>>23549924

It's already running from you, so it's about as intimidated as it's going to get.

>>23549938

No.

>>23549962

Magic.

>>23550030

Fleshshaping works on pretty much everything with flesh. She might even be able to do something with the ooze, but since it doesn't really have any vitals it probably won't notice.

>>23550054
Can we do it, how do we do it. Fuck, is this thing even a daemon, it might as well just be some weird construct.

>>23550054
Well, take a barrel of water and chase it into the commander and his troops.

>>23550054
Is there any realistic way for us to kill this fucking thing without an endless supply of water? Please tell me there's a well or something we can shove it down.

Let's go back and try to deal with the snake lady again. Look around and see if there's any way we can create a bright flash of light.

>>23550054
Scare it down into the caverns for now, then go deal with the snake lady.

>>23550136

If it's a daemon and not a construct, then the ooze is completely immortal and since you can't make oubliettes right now, the best you can do is find some equivalent to decapitation that'll take it out of the game for at least a few months while it heals.

>>23550211
So we can't just pour water on it until it's weak enough to perform a quickening?

>>23550211
If it's a construct, maybe it's controlled by something and will go away if we kill said something. Maybe.
If it's a daemon, I have no idea what kind it would even be.

>>23550279

Quickenings don't kill daemons, just takes some of their power.

Are we directing this thing towards the fight or into the caverns?

>>23550351
Caverns.

>>23550351
Didn't this thing ooze right through the floor of the fortress. If we chase it into the cave, it'll just ooze right back out into the courtyard.

>>23550401
Pour water onto the floor by the door.

>>23550464
No I mean if it could ooze through the floor, maybe it can ooze through the ground too, which would take it right back into the courtyard.

>>23550524
We don't know where it came from, although it was heavily hinted they were within the tent. Both daemons showed up when we were preoccupied. I do not believe we have seen it able to eat through stone yet.

In any case, the longer we distract it the more time Girdin has to wipe up the lady daemon.

>>23550685
That depends on if she tires out faster than he does.

Whatever, this is too slow. Try the cave then.

>>23550351
TM I just realized something. If this "thing" has an aversion to water, how can it eat people? People are largely made of water, unless biology lied to me.

>>23550704
He slept for 10,000 years. I don't think he's getting tired any time soon.

>>23550806
it probably just melts a bit of tissue and spits out the water

>>23550806

While we're asking physics questions, where does the mass from the extra parts caused by Mari's fleshshaping comes from? How could her stamina for using it have nearly tripled over the course of just a few weeks when it apparently taxes her metabolic energy reserves just like regular labor and her tolerance for things besides Fleshshaping is basically the same? How can she will biological differences into other beings at all? How is it that a daemon can look mostly human and have primarily human parts, and yet literally 100% of their physiology is unnecessary, and they can regenerate a completely new body over the course of just a few years even if completely squished into paste, scattered, and buried? Where does the energy from this regeneration come from, given they aren't taking in any nutrients? For that matter, where does the energy for just the normal course of living come from, give that daemons don't need to eat? How are daemons spontaneously generated just because a new concept is created, and what mechanism determines what counts as a daemon-worthy concept, since even a single house contains an effectively infinite number of increasingly minute concepts?

The answer to all of this is of course magic.

Also, holy shit my computer is locking up a lot.

>>23551145
Jesus, I was only asking a simple question. I apologize if that last sentence was a bit snarky, I'm just getting frustrated that none of the shit we're throwing at it is working except water, and I don't know where on earth we're going to get more.

Alright, you're able to chase the thing into the caverns. Hopefully it'll take it a while to bore its way out of there. You then follow the holes in the wall Girdin made on his way out back to the main battlefield, where the battle yet rages on. Girdin fights the four-armed daemon lady, the commander and his double fight against the Dorikki and the wolves, and my computer is working properly again so we might actually get updates at a reasonable pace. Yay!

>wat do?

>>23551408
>literally nothing has changed
>everybody is useless except us
>we're useless too

We've already established that Mari should be an excellent counter to Bladegirl. But should we risk it, and how long would it take to get to her?

That's of course assuming she hasn't already knocked herself out completely.

>>23551408
Alright now that thing is out of our hair for the moment, lets get within range of the daemon lady and look for something slick to throw on the ground at her feet, try to disrupt her footing somehow.

>>23551408
find mari

>>23551408
This:
>>23549047

Use our shadows to block her vision and shout in her ears so she can't hear anything. Hopefully this will give the stone guy a chance to land a solid blow on her.

>>23551408
Go to the commander and his double, delude both of them into believing that their partner is an imposter, and that the only way to get them back is to kill the fake.

Then go get Mari to take a shot at snakegirl.

>>23551636
A shadow doesn't block vision at all...

>>23551408
we could always amuse our self by telling random enemy soldiers that "the only way you can survive is by killing demon lady/the commander"

>>23551713
Maybe I misread, but as far as I remember we lifted our shadow off the ground to intimidate the Golgothans with the prisoners. If we could do that it would not be a stretch to be able to lift our shadow in front of her eyes.

>>23551713

Indeed, there is a totally separate Tenebriety power that is about making things actually darker but as it is that snake lady is probably in the shade of either the castle or its wall already.

>>23551642

You fire off the delusion and one draws his sword and turns on the other. Soldiers stand about dumbfounded, having no idea which one is the traitor as the two duel, and quickly shrug their shoulders and get back to trying to fight their way out of the courtyard and flee west. Since it's the east gate you broke open, this isn't going well for them.

You leave the battle and find Mari hiding in the woods. She's breathing heavily and is resting against a tree, and you can see her quiver is missing most of its arrows. There's no Golgothans left on the wall since the Dorriki stormed it, though, so now she's just resting. "Mari," you ask, "do you have enough energy left to fleshshape something?"

She nods, "I've been trying to pace myself...Leave enough for one more, in case I'd need it." She looks around the forest, which is now inhabited only by the distant rearguard of the Dorriki army. "Things seem to be working out pretty okay from here, though," she says.

"You need to kill something in the courtyard," you say, "come to the gate quickly."

"Okay," she says, already following you towards the gate, "what is it?"

When you arrive at the gate, you point her at four-arm daemon lady. Mari practically collapses onto against the wall, barely conscious, but the daemon clutches her head and grunts with pain, slowing down long enough for Girdin to smash one of her legs into paste. The rest of her body soon follows as Girdin pounds every inch of her into a read smear.

At around the same time, one of the commander or his double has just finished killing the other. Seems like it was the one you delusioned that won, since you can still feel that going.

>cont.

The blob erupts from the earth just then, consuming several soldiers in the courtyard. It spews pus atop the victorious commander (or his double or however the Hell that worked, one's dead now, it doesn't matter anymore). Some of the pus forces its way down the man's throat and he chokes, gags, and then begins to deform. You can feel your delusion lifting as his ability to comprehend it is crushed, his body bloating out with sacs of tumurous flesh containing presumably more pus, or maybe something else putrid, sprouting up all over his increasingly loathsome form. The blob itself, apparently having decided its in over its head, chews through the castle wall and tunnels into the earth, heading away from the battle. Girdin snorts in anger in its direction but there's bugger all he can do to stop it and he's not eager to chase down the one creature in the fight that can actually harm him.

The bloated creature begins attacking troops on both sides, but seeing as the Golgothans are by now heavily outnumbered and mostly running away, this basically means he's attacking your team. It seems remarkably resilient against normal sword and spear thrusts, and when Girdin attacks it, crushing its right arm handily as he pins the thing to the ground, the explosion of the pus-filled sacs eats into Girdin's skin, and he backs off, howling in pain.

>wat do?

-----

>>23551769

Turn off all the lights and if it is daytime where you are close the blinds, but leave your computer on. Now go stand in a shadow cast by the monitor light. Can you still see? Now try standing outside of the shadow and looking into it. Can you see the things in the shaded area?

>>23551982
Gonna say that pus ooze shit is a daemon of Decay, but why on earth would it be allied with Dominion?

Either way, yell out to our troops to grab as much water as they can find and douse the thing. It's the only stuff that hurts it.

>>23552030
Also TM, can we use Quickening on the snake daemon's remains or since she's been pasted and "dead" will it not work? I don't think we got told the specifics of the process.

>>23551982
Order everybody to find water and throw it at him.

>>23551982
find some more water if the blob-dude is still up since that seems to be able to harm them

>>23552030
>>23552088
>shout orders to the troops
>nobody gives a shit because who the hell are you and why are you even here

We might have to look for someone in charge and give them the instructions.

>>23552131
>implying we cant just delusion random troops to shout our orders for us anyway.

>>23551982
Go over to Girdin and whisper "It is weak against water."

>>23552183
most people here probably don't know where they keep their water in the fort. let's just do it ourselves.

>>23552210
But we might need lots. It would be nice if we could lead a bunch of them to water.

>>23552328
good point

delusion: it's vulnerable to water
another on same guy: there's water this way

then he will hopefully lead some dudes to the supply room.

>>23551982
Wait...couldn't we just get Girdin to smash this thing underneath one of the doors to the fortress like a giant flyswatter? That way he doesn't have to hit it himself.

I'm not the only one having issues posting, am I?
>>23552381
That's actually a good idea. Let's do that.

>>23552373
>this way
That's basically pointing at the fortress. Not helpful.
Delusion on two guys: "I know its weakness"
Not delusion: "Follow me"

Might work?

>>23552080
Yes, we need to perform that quickening ASAP.

More power.

>>23552433
i figured we'd lead them in our shadow form.

anyway, changing to this>>23552381

>>23552204

"Girdin, the door! Smash it with the big door!" you say.

"Excellent idea," Girdin says as he dodges another of the creature's clumsy lunges with surprising agility, and then turns to run for the door. The creature is mostly bleeding on things now, hardly even using its sword, but its impenetrable hide makes the tactic of staggering towards the enemy surprisingly effective. When the door comes flying into it at top speed, however, it pops like the overgrown pimple it is, the door snapping into pieces from the impact, and cracks appearing in the castle.

What Golgothans remain throw down their weapons and surrender. They didn't sign up for this shit and are kind of wondering how the Hell Dorriki survive out here with all these monsters.

Girdin shakes his head and snorts with satisfaction. You're pretty sure he's smiling at his handiwork. "And the same fate to all...Who would rip stone apart," he announces. The Dorriki aren't really sure what to do with the information, so they just start cheering over their victory.

>>23552545
so, can we do something with the remains of the ninja demon?

>>23552545
I love it when a plan comes together! Give Girdin a big ol' pat on the shoulder and tell him "I'll remember not to start any quarrels with the Court of Stone after seeing all that, friend! I hope you got a good workout after all the rest."

Check on Mari, and then go to where the Daemon died and see if there's any residual energy we can Quicken with.

>>23552545
Quickening time?

I assume we can still perform it even if snakelady is paste?

>>23552545
See if we cant start funneling large amount of water down the hole where the blob went

>>23552789
we don't have any sensible means to do that. if anything olberek should be the one to attempt to do something about it.

>>23552657

Mari is practically asleep in the gate. Much like the first night you saw her using her Fleshshaping power, you could probably poke her into moving towards a safer spot, but there's nothing immediately threatening around.

And yes, you can quicken the paste. She doesn't have a whole lot to give, though. She was a hedge daemon to begin with and most of the power is lost in the transfer, you might recall.

Quickening requires devouring a piece of the daemon. You scoop some of the paste up and eat it, and that does it, though it's mildly horrifying. Man, and quickening that pus daemon? Blech. That might not be worth the power boost.

But speaking of power boosts, you feel one coming on right around now.

[X] You dealt with Guille Fortress
[X] You kept Mari alive
[X] You released Olberek from the oubliette

Select any three:

You have gained Celerity as a Minor Talent.

Obfuscation

Hidden Party: You can extend your Obfuscation powers to others nearby.

Always Unimportant: You can use the Unimportant power no matter how long it's been since the interaction you want the target to forget.

In Plain Sight: You can use Obfuscation powers even when in plain sight of others.

Tenebriety

Grasping Darkness: You can command shadows to reach out to others and hold them in place.

Blinding Darkness: You can make shadows rush into someone's eyes, effectively blinding them.

Dementation

Extraordinarily Insane: Your Dementation powers now work on other daemons.

Depression: Crush someone's morale, driving the very will to live out of them.

Celerity

Marathon Runner: You can keep your Celerity powers active for days at a time.

>>23553212

Formatting issue. The line about gaining Celerity should have been above the line for selecting three powers. You gain Celerity automatically for quickening the four-armed daemon, the three powers are gained for achieving the three objectives of Chapter 1.

>>23553212
>Hidden Party: You can extend your Obfuscation powers to others nearby.

Grasping Darkness: You can command shadows to reach out to others and hold them in place.

Marathon Runner: You can keep your Celerity powers active for days at a time.

>>23553212
>Marathon Runner: You can keep your Celerity powers active for days at a time.
>We have no other Celerity powers

Uhm, am I missing something

>>23553212
Fuck YES!

I have question before I pick TM:

I thought we had Unnoticed, not Unimportant. Unless we can straight out buy this upgraded version.

Does the In Plain Sight upgrade mean we can use unnoticed even when somebody has seen us and they will basically think we vanished?

Marathon: What Celerity powers do we have?

>>23553212
>In Plain Sight: You can use Obfuscation powers even when in plain sight of others.

>Blinding Darkness: You can make shadows rush into someone's eyes, effectively blinding them.

>Grasping Darkness: You can command shadows to reach out to others and hold them in place.

We should SO be getting Extraordinarily insane. Manipulating mortals is useful, manipulating daemons is, well, extraordinarily useful.

>>23553267
I think we should grab Extraordinarily Insane. Also, Is it just me or is there a lot of overlap between Tenebriety and Obfuscation?

>>23553292

The randomized nature of power selection means that you will occasionally draw one or two powers that don't actually do anything, like Marathon Runner or Always Unimportant (since Unimportant is a different power from Unnoticed, and you don't have Unimportant). Just ignore them and hope you draw something more useful later on.

In Plain Sight does indeed mean that if someone is looking directly at you and you use Unnoticed, they will begin looking for you. Even though they were staring directly at you. It doesn't necessarily mean they won't find you again if you're, say, breaking into a heavily guarded military camp and thus obviously out of place. Mostly, though, it means you can activate Unnoticed at-will. Usually you'd have to be alone or at least not in view of anyone you're hoping to be Unnoticed by.

Hidden party, Extraordinarily insane and I don't know about the third.

>>23553367

Well, Tenebriety and Obfuscation have the same basic function, i.e. to make you sneakier. But in the same way, Conjuration and Potence have the same basic function: Making people die.

>>23553212
>Hidden Party: You can extend your Obfuscation powers to others nearby.
>Blinding Darkness: You can make shadows rush into someone's eyes, effectively blinding them.
>Extraordinarily Insane: Your Dementation powers now work on other daemons.

>>23553294
Changing from Blinding Darkness to Extraordinarily Insane

Oh, also, there are limits to Extraordinarily Insane in that if a daemon is significantly stronger than you they still might not be affected. But your powers will work on daemons of similar or lesser power no problem.

>>23553360
My other two picks would be Grasping Darkness and Hidden Party.

>>23553452
That still seems more than potent to me. Daemons, as we have by now learned, can be extremely useful.

>>23553395
Thanks.

Hidden Party, Blinding Darkness, and Extraordinarily Insane

Here's my reasioning:

Hidden Party: Will come in very handy for taking Mari with us places, as we can Unnoticed the both of us.

Blinding Darkness: Removing an enemy's ability to see will cripple his ability to move just as well as binding him to the floor. Plus it makes it easier for us to disorient enemies Mari may be fighting.

EI: Fnakly, being able to Delusion daemons into doing shit for us in INCREDIBLY useful. I was tempted to take this and Depression to make daemons kill themselves, but we need to manipulate not destroy.

>>23553395
Grasping Darkness: no reason to ever go corporeal
Hidden Party: for Mari
Extraordinarily Insane: for reason that should be obvious.

>In Plain Sight

>Celerity

>Either Grasping Darkness or Extraordinarily Insane

We NEED celerity. Celerity is overpowered as all fuck.

>>23553604
We get celerity automatically as a minor talent, read.

Blinding Darkness is a clear front-runner, so we're definitely taking that one. Extraordinarily Insane, Hidden Party, and Grasping Darkness are all getting similar amounts of support, but one of them has to go.

>>23553602
agreed

>>23553632
Get grasping darkness out of there, with blinding we don't need it honestly. We have the paralysis delusion for keeping people still, and now that will work on daemons too.

>>23553632
As long as we get Hidden Party, EI and one of the tenebriety powers, we've made the right choice in my book. Anything else is dead wrong.

So, Hidden Party and EI.

>>23553657
this grasping Extraordinarily Insane, Hidden Party

>>23553632
Oh and does this mean the end of Chapter 1? About to archive this.

Alright then, your Talents and powers are going to look like this:

Talents: Obfuscation+, Dementation, Tenebriety, Celerity-
Powers: Delusion (Dementation), Extraordinarily Insane (Dementation), Unnoticed (Obfuscation), Hidden Party (Obfuscation), Blinding Darkness (Tenebriety), Shadow Form (Tenebriety)

And that is it for Chapter 1. In order to try to avoid getting exhausted and burnt out, I'm going to be taking a slightly-more-than-weeklong hiatus. Trickster Daemon Quest will be back the Friday after next, March 15th.

In the meantime there's a Skype conversation I started with some of my D&D group to help flesh the setting out. It occurs to me that since that conversation already exists, some people might want to be a part of it. So. That's a thing we could work out maybe if people care.

>>23553966
Oh cool, sure if you'd like to get feedback on the setting and shit I'm game.

>>23553966
But that would ruin the whole "exploring the setting" thing for me. Gotta pass on that.

Thanks for now, OP, you've been a real champ.

>>23554008

Sounds cool. What's your Skype information?

>>23554221
Visorak06, just shoot me a message.

>>23553966
I'm down for feedback too, apocalypseWalker

>>23554266

Message sent.

TM I just wanted to say this is one of the best quest threads I've read in a long time. The fact that you've actually made an interesting challenge without having to resort to dice rolls is awesome. I'm pretty sure
There's something to be said about a FORTUNE daemon or having to roll for everything. It seems like we're actually controlling fate rather than being bound by it. Anyways, great thread TM I'm looking forward to your return.

>>23554590
Not having to roll, rather. Stupid phone. Polite sage for correction.

>>23554590
You should've seen him do Super Villain Quest.

My nostalgia knows no bounds. That remains, to this day, my favorite /tg/ quest.