Rolled 76

>>25453641
It's too bad we don't have clarity, but since we haven't been able to find anything with just our eyes we should probably assume it is safe. Let's stick around and watch the area to make sure it stays safe. Have we filled Girdin in on our intentions? Does he have any comments on it?

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>>25453767
Fuck, I still had that roll turned on? Gotta get better at remembering that.
Also, made this map with a bunch of info about what's going on, figured it should be helpful.

>>25453767

You've filled Girdin in, but his only immediate comment is that yes, this could definitely be a trap, especially since Decay daemons, while often paranoid, are not necessarily smart. Paranoid and dumb is a bad combination. Plus there's no guarantee this guy is Decay at all.

>>25453788

The Caelum aren't exclusively female. In fact, the majority are male.

>>25454015
Well we're not necessarily smart either, so we're going to the meeting anyway. Bringing Girdin too, if he's fine with it, since we could use his perspective and will probably need his strength.

>>25454015
I didn't really intend to imply that, but I guess the wording was unfortunate. I'll correct in the next version.

>>25454078
Let's wait outside however, where we can keep an eye on the area and have several escape routes. Inside the cove there's only one way out which could be blocked off by enemies.

>>25454143

It's a day earlier than the statue daemon said he'd show up, but show up he does. Now far outside the city, he strides down the road, a nine foot heap of junk in the vague shape of a skeletal overlord, moving with surprising elegance given his haphazard construction. This or that piece always seems poised to fall off at any moment, but it never does.

He kneels down at the edge of the cove, viewing Girdin for a few moments before descending the steep and treacherous path down to the shore. "You are the representative of the Court of Stone Anomaly promised?" he asks, "may I ask precisely what you are daemon of?"

"A network of caverns that stretches...Many miles below the earth...though I govern the stone and the caverns...Are more holes in my domain," Girdin says in his usual ponderous way, "I am not from the mainland," he adds.

"Good to know," the statue says, glancing up towards the sky. Much like Girdin, he holds perfectly still, though you're not sure if that's because it's his nature to sit unmoving for hours (or eons) or just because he's gotten good at the act.

>wat do?

>>25454506
"Hope you didn't have too much trouble getting here. You seem to be alone. Did you consult the other daemon you mentioned and do you speak on his behalf?"

>>25454506

We'll introduce openly, and out of shadow form as a gesture of honesty. "Greetings. I'm glad to see you are considering my proposal, and surprised to see you have arrived so early. I want to apologise for my initial rudeness last time we met; I was not sure what to expect when I heard rumours of another daemon, so I was being cautious. If your Acquaintance has agreed to attend then we have a day or so spare; if not then we can begin immediately."

>>25454710
Well that's certainly very formal. I guess we could go that way instead.

>>25454710

"He should be here," the statue says, "he said he would come, though the meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, of course."

It's about an hour later, the statue still scanning the sky, when Girdin tilts his head upwards as well. One eye narrows as he stares, apparently straight into the sun, and then says "what are those?"

"I see nothing," the statue says, but a moment later, it's obvious that there are four figures plummeting towards the ground from the sky. A knight in full armor with brilliant white wings, a wyvern with long, leathery wings, a large bird trailing fire from its wings, gripping in its claws a massive man with four arms, one set pointing forward, the other pointing back, whose face is concealed by a mask. The phoenix releases the man from his talons and he slams into the ground, sending up a cloud of sand from the beach and drawing a greatsword in each of his four hands, the wyvern spits out a gout of flame at Girdin (uselessly) as he lands, while the phoenix and the knight land on either side of the cove, blocking escape.

Chalk one up for "ambush" then.

>wat do?

>>25455197
Can't say I'm surprised. What's the likelihood some are just golems? Or are they all daemons?

>>25455197
Can we draw shadows all the way from the cove for use with Blinding Darkness? If so, blinding all of them is a good start.
We also did not take extraordinarily insane for nothing. Let's delusion the wyvern that "the only way to harm me or my companion is by attacking the man with four arms."
And Girdin should probably try to trample the junk statue first before he can do something annoying with pestilence.
Whatever the knight and phoenix intend to do, they're at a distance for the moment so they'll have to wait.

>>25455432
Uhh, the wyvern obviously should not be blinded if we're delusioning it. Minor brainfart.

>>25455432

I dunno, we probably don't need to worry about the Wyvern. We should take care of whatever looks most likely to harm Girdin, which would be the four-armed man or the Knight. I'd suggest using that Delusion on the knight, and then when he makes the attack, drop the delusion and throw a delusion on someone else saying "The knight is secretly my ally, and will kill all of you for me." That should start some infighting proper - assuming they don't just use Clarity to see right through our delusions. Which we know they have.

I'd try talking out of the ambush but I can't think of anything that would even remotely work.

>>25455479
>I dunno, we probably don't need to worry about the Wyvern

Sorry, by which I mean the wyvern doesn't seem to be the most dangerous target. Clearly we do have to worry about it.

>>25455479
Clarity can see through a delusion? There's nothing visual about it. Oh, and I think that if the fire from the wyvern is of a magical nature (as in it's pyromancy) it should be able to harm us in shadow form. I think so at least. Do we know, TM?

If so, that bumps it up to high priority for me to deal with it. But the point of the delusion of course is to tie them both up, and while the wyvern can just fly away from swordsman and do stuff from the air, the swordsman can't escape the wyvern. By that logic, I'd prefer the wyvern to attack the swordsman. Better chance of occupying both of them.

>>25455544
I generally take Clarity to be a detection talent, not necessarily a seeing one. I obviously couldn't be sure but I'd guess that at least one power would be a "clarity of mind" type deal that, if it doesn't counter a delusion completely, would at least let them know one would be in place.

Though having said that, there's four of 'em there. One needs only shout that we're trying to use a delusion to the other, which would be enough to make them act on it. Still, we're pretty much a one-trick pony here so we'll have to rely on it.

Hm. Something came up. It should only take an hour or so to take care of, so...Expect me back in like three hours, considering how these things usually go.

>>25455659
Sure thing. See you tomorrow!

>>25455630
Well, they'd of course need to actually have that power in clarity if it exists, which is not guaranteed. And even if you're told that you're being delusioned doesn't negate the delusion. It will still be there and the target will fully believe it. Opinion regarding what I said about the delusion?

>>25455676

I suppose, but I'm just saying that if our delusions are not working we need to switch from "Divide and conquer" to "make like a librarian and fucking book it" because this fight is unwinnable.

As for the delusion, yes, having the Wyvern on the offensive is probably the better idea then.

>>25455732
If our main weapon isn't working, then yes, simply squeezing our way out of the trap will have to suffice, though that in itself will be difficult if we can't use delusions. If it is working, we might just have a chance depending on what these guys will be bringing to the battle, and it would be quite a sweet 'fuck you'. Plus opportunity for tasty quickening. So all in all, I say we should at least take a stab at this fight. There is, after all, only five of them. What kind of Fortune daemon can't find a way to turn the odds around?

And I am back. We don't really have a clear course of action for me to follow up with, so wat do?

>>25457544
Identify if either of the supposed strife daemons have enchanted weapons and warn Girdin. Follow through with the two delusions the others were talking about and stay mobile. Drop blinding darkness on the most threatening target to girdin and see if they have any thaumaturges on board that could cancel it out.

>>25457666
This.

>>25457666

Both the sword-wielding daemons appear to have enchanted weapons in that they're covered in runes and such. You can't say for sure it's not just for show because you're not an Alchemist, but it's a good bet. Girdin is already backing away as the four-armed man charges him, but Girdin takes a long time to get up to full speed (or turn around) and this guy doesn't.

The knight and the phoenix begin closing in from the side while you turn to deal with the wyvern, Girdin and the four-armed knight swiping at one another and both failing to land any blows for now. "The only way to harm me or my companion is by attacking the man with four arms," you say quickly, half in a panic a split second before the lightning-fast creature catches up and breathes fire over you. Fortunately it doesn't harm your shadow form in the slightest (I will assume your first reaction to danger was to re-enter shadow form).

The wyvern turns towards the four-armed man, streaking towards him, and the knight flies forward on his wings (surely a result of magic, they aren't nearly big enough to hold him on their without the problem of sudden acceleration), clenching his left fist. Blood leaks out of his gauntlet, and he flicks it quickly across the wyvern's head as it unleashes a stream of fire towards Girdin and the four-armed man. The man hides behind Girdin's own body, saving him from the fire, but Girdin shoves to the side, sending the man flying a few dozen feet into the surf. Girdin grunts and begins charging towards the knight, who flies away while the wyvern dives towards the man again.

The man struggles to his feet in the water, moaning in pain, his bones reduced to gravel, when the wyvern wraps itself around him and then darts off towards the battle again. Now recovered, the man lets loose a battlecry and charges towards the fight.

>cont.

>>25458021

The phoenix, meanwhile, has used one massive talon to draw some of its own blood, which sizzles slightly as it begins flinging symbols down towards the ground. You're not sure exactly what sigil it is, but since it's targeting you, the Talent-canceling one is a safe bet. You start shouting a Delusion towards the four-armed man concerning the knight, but the knight flicks some more blood across him and it doesn't sink in.

Blinding Darkness is still an option, but you can only blind one or two at a time this far away from the crags (and at high noon at that), so you'll only be able to blind one or two. Which ones do you want to target?

>and wat else do?

>>25458073
Blind the Phoenix, hope that messes up its ability to make runes, and the one attacking Girdin.

>>25458194

There's two attacking Girdin. The knight and four-arms are both headed his way.

>>25458194
I don't think anyone is attacking Girdin yet. The knight flew away from him. If we blind the knight, that should make it a lot more difficult for him to counter our delusions. Blind the phoenix as well so it can't target us with its signs. Then use the delusion again to make the wyvern attack four-arms.

>>25458296
Knight and Phoenix then. We'll Delusion four-arms that the knight is secretly our ally and will turn on everyone.

>>25458569
I don't like that delusion. It doesn't give him a reason to stop attacking us and attack the knight instead. The "the only way to harm us" delusion does. You're also leaving the wyvern unoccupied and free to heal up the others again. I think it's better to have it be the deluded one.

>>25458636
In that case we'll have to leave the Wyvern deluded and blind the phoenix and knight. Though if Girdin gets too badly injured we could try a delusion like "The stone daemon is your ally and desperately needs healing" or something

>>25459020
If they don't shit all over everything we do now, one of the daemons targeting him will be blind, the other under attack from the wyvern. I think he'll pull through.

>>25458636

Well no one's argued with this, so I'll assume people agree with it I guess.

---

You call what shadows are available and blind the knight and the phoenix. The phoenix streaks upward and soon flies out of the range of your power, the shadows peeling off of its eyes and drifting towards the ground, but by then you're already beginning the delusion on the four-armed behemoth. "The only way to harm us-" you begin and the knight is on top of you a second later. His eyes don't glow with the shadow-piercing power of Clarity, so he must be targeting by ear, but he's fast enough you can't get away before his blade strikes. You duck to the side and his enchanted blade rips through your incorporeal shoulder. You feel bad, but at least shadows don't bleed, otherwise you'd probably collapse before long.

Still, if you say a word that knight will be on top of you in a heartbeat. Even now he holds still, sword resting in his hand, visorless helm motionless, listening. Shadows make no sound when moving, but a delusion will draw his attention for sure. He won't hear you if you delude him, but he can also cure himself, blind or not.

Girdin has resumed his fight with the four-armed man again, and the phoenix is circling far above.

>wat do?

>>25459137
Hmm. We could blind four-arms instead of the phoenix, run under four-arms, shout the words of the same delusion without actually making it a delusion, then quickly get out of the way. Might work?

>>25459239
Let's try it.

>>25459287
>>25459239

You blind the four-armed man, leaving the phoenix to circle above, and run towards him while he fights with Girdin. Even swinging wild, one of his swords sinks into Girdin's flank, and Girdin grunts with pain, staggering away, but blinded the man is unable to finish Girdin off.

You make it to beneath the battle, the sand churned beneath you by the heavy man and the even heavier Girdin. The knight flies to the battle but stops short of actually entering the melee, instead flicking blood from his wrist a few times blind across the battlefield while the four-armed man continues fighting with Girdin. "Who can still see?!" the knight demands.

"I can," the wyvern responds, "but I can't harm either one of them."

"I'm blind," the four-armed man grunts in between swings.

"Where's Antilan, dead?" the knight asks.

"Up above," the wyvern says, "can't hear you."

"Find him," the knight says, "the more eyes, the better."

>wat do?

>>25459805
Can we guess which courts each of these daemons belongs to? it'd help if we had an idea what we were dealing with.

>>25460000

Not especially. Daemon appearances can vary quite a bit. More humanoid ones tend to be from younger Courts, but since all the Dominion-allied Courts are younger, that doesn't help much. The other alliances don't have the forces to be pulling this kind of shit to begin with.

>>25460069
Well what powers have they used so far (albiet briefly) that we can identify?

>>25459805
Well then, if he's going to be that way I guess we can use delusions again. Start with deluding four-arms that "the stone daemon is <whereever knight is right now relative four-arms>" quickly followed by "the stone daemon is your ally and needs healing" to the wyvern. The first is mainly to force the knight to respond, either by moving out of the way or by throwing blood to remove the delusion from four-arms, so that he won't have a chance to remove the delusion from the wyvern before it's moved from the last known (to him) position. If the delusiont takes, this should either get Girdin patched up if he's so inclined or get the wyvern stomped by Girdin. Either is good in my eyes.

>>25460168
Actually as a shadow we could slide under four-arms, shout a fake delusion on him to trick the knight into attacking at him, then book it and drop the delusion on the wyvern after.

>>25460256
So you're saying do exactly what I suggested except make the first delusion fake?

>>25460319
Sorry I skim-read the post, I thought you were just suggesting the two delusions.

>>25460406
The knight didn't attack before either because he could hear the battle and decided not to risk harming his ally, or because he can somehow feel them. I'm hoping for the first. If so, then he's unlikely to do attack this time, as the short conversation will have given him the location of both four-arms and wyvern. That also means he could probably remove any delusion we place on those two if his hearing and aim are sharp enough. That's why I want to use the first delusion to force him to respond to it (though it could actually be a fake, that would be fine too), then quickly placing the second on the wyvern so he doesn't have a chance to counter that one.

>>25460094

Four-arms and the knight have alchemical weapons, but those may or may not have been created by these guys. Another daemon could make them and hand them off to these guys. Four-arms definitely has some Fortitude to take a hit from Girdin and the knight clearly has Celerity and Thaumaturgy. The wyvern's a Fleshshaper and might also be a Pyromancer, and the phoenix is also a Thaumaturge.

>>25460168

You spit out your first delusion, and the knight's immediate reaction is "Grundle, hold still." Grundle, apparently the four-armed man, raises his blades defensively but doesn't move while the knight dispels the Delusion, giving you enough time to shout your delusion out the wyvern as it takes to the sky. You're not quite sure if he'll be in range still, but you feel the delusion take. Unfortunately this doesn't stop him from continuing to fly upwards to meet the phoenix Antilan. You can hear the two of them shout back and forth for a few seconds, and then they begin descending towards the ground again. Antilan's descent is briefly interrupted as his feathery form shifts around, shrinking dramatically down to that of a medium-size hawk, but he regains his balance at the end of the transformation.

>wat do?

>>25461072
This isn't working. Unless we can figure out what other talents they have and how to use them on each other, we'll have to run. And I don't think we can run without leaving Girdin behind.

>>25461072
Drop a paralysis delusion on the fast one (Make sure we arent stepping on blood), and then drop another on the other thaumaturge once it gets in range. If both thaumaturges cant move Girdin can pulp them. Keep the knight blinded and also blind the wyvern to force it out of the fight and unable to heal the ones Girdin pulps. If we can manage more blinding, get four arms too.

We need to remove their dispelling forces from the fight long enough for Girdin to murder them.

>>25461857
Also make sure to tell girdin to fucking murder them too, we cant waste this strategy. Our paralysis delusion is only a couple words, so we should be able to hit the fast guy before he can strike us.

>>25461857
Huh, I forgot we could do the paralysis thing. Supporting this.

>>25461857

The wyvern touches down, and the Antilan latches onto Girdin's back. Girdin shakes himself a bit, but without any leverage back there he can't bring his impressive strength to bear and get rid of the thing. "Grundle, I'm on your target," he says while you start Deluding the knight, "attack towards my voice!" Girdin has backed himself into the surf now, but Grundle, guided by Antilan's voice, is able to strike true again, landing another blow on Girdin, who grunts in pain as he staggers away.

Tempus flicks his blood onto the wyvern as you finish the delusion on him, dispelling your previous delusion (not that you weren't about to drop it anyway). Your breath comes away ragged and your head starts to swim, but the delusion slides right off Tempus. He must be a common daemon, and probably leader of this pack.

Your Delusion on Grundle takes, but your vision swims momentarily and you need a moment to recover. You feel dizzy, but the blind Tempus can't see where Grundle is. "Antilan, get on Grundle, tell me where he is!" Tempus shouts.

Antilan hops onto him, and shouts "here!" A moment later, the Delusion on Grundle has been lifted by Tempus' Thaumaturgy. Girdin, meanwhile, turns himself around and begins chugging towards the safety of the ocean.

"No you don't," the wyvern hisses, streaking towards Girdin. The tiny claws on its wings struggle to find purchase on Girdin's stony head and pull at his massive bulk to no avail. Giridn's mouth snaps out at the wyvern, catching one of its wings. Girdin tosses the wyvern away with enough force to tear the wing out of its socket, but the wyvern is reshaping itself almost immediately.

Antilan hops back onto Girdin, announcing his position to Grundle and Tempus. Girdin's turned around and built up a bit of speed, so only Tempus will be able to reach him before he's submerged, but Girdin will move slower underwater.

Also, you're about to keel over.

>wat do?

>>25462366
Drop a final paralysis delusion on Tempus to stop him from killing Girdin potentially. We got Girdin into this mess, and damn it we're going to make sure he gets out even if we risk blacking out.

Then slip underwater after him and make out way down the coast towards the city, popping up at our breath limit and then submerging again. Repeat until we escape. Dice gods please be with us on this one, Girdin is our friend!

>>25462787

"You can't move or speak!" you shout desperately. The delusion worms its way through Tempus' mind and holds. You breathe a sigh of relief and it feels like a lung fell out, and dive under the water, your shadow gliding across next to Girdin. Antilan tries croaking out directions underwater for a bit, but soon gives up and begins making his way back to shore. Grundle, blind and unable to hear underwater, swims in a random direction. Girdin angles slightly away from Grundle and you follow, and that's the last you see of him.

>cont.

>>25463441

Your shoulder burns and you can't recover your breath underwater; even incorporeal you need to breathe. You can hold your breath a very long time, but under the circumstances you barely make it five minutes before you get desperate for air. Your body is flung corporeal again as you begin scrambling up towards the surface, but something catches your leg. You're tugged along the surface as panic takes you, you swallow a mouthful of water, and thought leaves you.

What follows is a haze. You fade in and out of consciousness deep underwater, each return to consciousness punctuated by frantic struggling to be free of the vicelike grip on your ankle.

Eventually you come to momentarily, coughing up water from lungs that have been well and truly filled. Girdin stands over some man you don't know who's caught beneath the stone rhino, unharmed but not going anywhere anytime soon. As soon as your lungs are emptied, your exhausted body collapses again.

>cont.

>>25463454

When you wake up for real, you're back in Shorefall. Atop a rooftop at a makeshift camp, Mari practicing swordplay on a makeshift dummy nearby. "Mari," you say, your voice hoarse. You haven't eaten in days. Granted, that means you're like a cup of water behind on your nutritional needs, but it's still unpleasant.

"Hey, you're awake," she says, sheathing her sword.

You pull yourself into a seated position, your shoulder aching from the pain. It's been bandaged up, but you feel the familiar burn of an infection. It'll be a week or two before your immune system sorts that out and gets your shoulder working properly again, and until then your ability to move around might take a hit. Also don't try to sword fight anyone, but that was never your style to begin with. "Where's Girdin?" you ask.

"Underwater. Said he'd be able to recover there, would be back up in two weeks exactly just off the cove, in the water. That was three days ago, though, so eleven days from now, at noon. He said they probably wouldn't be able to find him underwater, since they can't send their followers under there."

"Unless they fleshshaper some gills onto them," you say, "did he come here to the city?"

"No," Mari says, "he, uh, persuaded someone to come get me, and I paid him to keep quiet about it. Also, no sign of those five daemons you fought. The one junk guy might still be hanging out below, but I haven't seen him when I go down there."

>wat do?

>>25463441
>>25463454

And if anyone's wondering, yes, these two were supposed to be the same post. Accidentally cut off at the wrong spot. Oops.

>>25463484
"Thank you Mari...did Girdin appraise you of what happened? And thanks for watching over me, I owe Girdin big time. I could really use some water though."

At least we made it out alive.

>>25463573

"Just that the thing that was probably a trap was a trap, described the five daemons you ran into and said to hide if I saw anything like any of them. Haven't seen them so far, though," she glances around her camp. "Haven't seen the city watch in a few days either, which is good. Hauling you around while getting away from them wouldn't be easy."

>wat do?

>>25463997
"I see. I'll be thinking about our next move for a bit, so would you be a dear and fetch me that water? I wasn't kidding about that, us daemons still require some. I'll answer any questions you have when you get back."

For now, lets just rest up and placate Mari. She must be worried, and we can check in on the duke later.

>>25464365

"Right, the water, sorry," Mari says, tossing you a water flask, "don't know exactly how much you'll need, but I can refill that. It's easy to set things up to catch rainwater here on the rooftops."

>wat do?

>>25464590
Drink at a healthy rate and fill her in on the details of the battle. Hearing how some talents work and the specific instances of powers being used might help her understand more about Daemon combat. Answer most questions she gives us, unless its something tricky like tying Dominion specifically to Fleshshaping.

>>25464707

Alright. You're feeling refreshed, rested, and significantly less drowned. That said, your shoulder is still burning with infection. You might be able to find someone who can treat that, but that could draw attention. In any case it'll sort itself out on its own within two weeks or so. You'll feel bad until then, though.

Mari's happy to hear about the details of the fight (it only takes about ten minutes to fill her in). She seems a bit distressed at the notion that the only real counter to Talents is other Talents. The power available to daemons seems to have stunned her a little bit.

That is all for the quest tonight. We ran way later than normal but weekends are nice like that (plus I had to take like two and a half hours out because of irritating life stuff). Next time, we...Do something else, I guess. I dunno, we're kind of between short term objectives right now.

>see you then