Flipz

"More than that, Heroica needs to be a check on political power. Look at what we've done lately, the Founders tried to implement an authoritarian regime and we said 'nuts to that' and stomped it out as best we could. That's important, whatever system we get going it needs to have accountability and Heroica is in a pretty darn good spot to provide that." "Will do." Arthur sends off quick missives for Noctus, Hoples, Knyghton, Zelda, and Daneeka. After a few moments' thought, he also calls for Valentine and Noel, just to be able to see them again after recent events. "I don't disagree with you, Atramor, but I do think we should tell her that to her face. Her response after we stormed the fort was...disappointing, to say the least. I don't think anything short of an in-person confrontation, showing her the bodies of her fellow Veterans who she couldn't even be bothered to help when everything went to Hel, will get her to actually accept that she's done anything wrong. By all means, let's pick Attina as our official Bonaparte rep, if she'll be a more reasonable leader than her parents or her uncle, I'm all for it, but we can't just let the Falconer fade silently into obscurity without confronting her with her failures and making it clear that she's lost the right to helm our fates any longer." Arthur pauses. "I...may have a bit of a grudge, now I think of it." He shrugs. "Personally, I'd rather stick Illdria in the quartermaster's office, since she's most familiar with exactly what's wrong with the Bonapartes' whole regime, but having said that I'm pretty sure she'd personally murder me for sticking her behind a desk rather than a ship's helm, magical immortality or not. Still probably worth a call... she'll have insights the rest of us lack."

As he sits down at the bar, Arthur frowns, realizing that Throlar is missing, but before he has time to consider the matter further his attention is drawn elsewhere. Arthur slams his head down on the bar next to his Flaming Gumball. "No," he intones sarcastically, voice slightly muffled by the counter, "I was murdered by the archdemon Rosier and every last bit of my being was flung to the edges of the universe, triggering a chain reaction that destroyed the entire Z-Mail system and prevented me from ever having to deal with people who think they alone deserve the power to rule Eubric as king ever, ever again." The Skirmisher groans, then drags himself back up to address the request seriously. "I...can do that. One better, even; pretty sure Lord Knyghton himself would be willing to come out for this, and if I know him he's most likely already at the city's edge. It's a similar scenario with Mabel; I think my Great-Aunt Zelda might be the more prudent invitation...although frankly speaking, my mother would probably be among the better picks from the family, diplomatically speaking, since she's got one of the more open minds among those of us who are of age. She's not main branch, but after what Ulric pulled inviting Baba into the Wolfgang I don't think any of the main branch would be willing to work with him, especially not Mabel." "...Going to need a full name for this Mynatt guy if we want to send a letter, and ideally some kind of portrait or likeness--helps with accuracy. I'm pretty sure I could wrangle an appearance from one of the Ji Pei, but I've no clue if they're still in the city or if they're in Xu at the moment. Good call on Daneeka, though, I'll shoot him a message now." Arthur sadly nods. "Have to agree there. But that said, we do need to get Hestia here, if only to decide how exactly we're dealing with her Veteran status. I've not been particularly impressed by what she's done as a Veteran, but then again I haven't gotten to know her personally the way I did with Cain or Jacques, so I'll be looking to those of us who did for cues. Speaking of the Veterans..." At last, Arthur finally turns to address Ulric directly. "Ulric. With Kukulkan dead, what exactly are your intentions regarding leadership of the orcish rights movement, and the promises you've made to them? I have to admit, I and some of my family have been pleased by some of the reforms you've been promising, and have even been pushing to do more to help people in our own way, but the big issue has always come back around to your trustworthiness--or rather, your potential lack thereof. Care to make your case?"

"Be at peace, Vindsval," Arthur assures, though his own face had gone a ghostly white at Torald's sudden action. "The order of the Bearer of a Pandemonicon is a binding contract. There is no means, in Olegaia or Azazot, that may break that order, and with the last Pandemonicon lost to that realm there no longer exists a way by which it may be rescinded; demons cannot use that forbidden tome, and no order coerced of a bearer will function. Never again will Rosier trouble this realm, and I for one shall rest easier for it." "The Pandemonicon is not a tome so easily discarded. The demon could have been banished without such a sacrifice--Byblos himself did it once, in Azzurat--but that was not the purpose. Byblos cast himself into the Void to keep his copies of the Pandemonicon out of corrupt mortal hands, and no doubt our heroic barbarian Torald--" here Arthur stumbled, surprised by his own ability to utter the Pandemonicon-bearer's name now that he was no longer in the tome's presence "--Torald sacrificed himself to a similar end. A tragic but noble gesture for the sake of saving us all."

Arthur's consciousness rises from darkness, as one force drags him toward life and another toward the sucking darkness of the Void. The moment passes, and the Skirmisher finds himself solidly in the realm of the living once more. He watches the inky blackness recede from his skin, his demonic nature suppressed once more by his latent humanity, and sighs with relief. Good to know there's a viable... option... for me, should it become...necessary. The former mage shakes his head virulently, determined to banish the gloomier aspects of his disposition just as they had banished Rosier. He reaches out, grasping one of his dropped halberds and using it to lever himself back to his feet before helping Dyric and Pretzel back up as well. "Well. We've done it. Unless someone knows where any other archdemons are to go hunt down, I think we're more than overdue to start cleaning up the mess that prick caused. We meeting up for one last drink in the Hall, or should I just head home to start coordinating the Ziegfrieds' part of the cleanup efforts?" OOC: Wouldn't say no to that halberd, not that it particularly matters now. If Arthur's borrowed something from you, feel free to reclaim it; I'll probably go back through the topic in a couple days to track down whatever Arthur's lent out and write it down neatly for posterity.

"All right, if you're sure you don't want to use Master's Pandemonicon to stop Rosier, then I'm willing to take my shot." Stepping forward, Arthur attacks Rosier twice with the Icy Halberd from the Front Row. If he loses the Icy Halberd, he switches to the Clockwork Lance instead.

At the mention of the forbidden book's name, Arthur suddenly jolts. "Shame we don't still have Byblos," he says casually. "As I recall, he was able to seal away demons permanently, if sufficiently weakened like this. Oh, well, at least the other group can definitely bomb the last Aspect to death and join this fight properly before it's all over."

Arthur stands boldly in front of the other Heroes, body and shield poised to divert as much damage as possible from the rest of the party. He raises his weapon for what could be a fatal strike, when... The Skirmisher shrugs. "'Say cheese'?" Arthur meditates with the First Breath twice from the Back Row.

Arthur surveys the others as their counterattack takes shape. "Well done, everyone, but we've still got a bit to go. Nobody should attack Rosier twice in a row before someone's had a chance to heal them; if your first move is an attack on Rosier, your second is a conditional self-heal, or some other action that can't take you down if you're hanging on the brink. Heckz, I think some Cold weather would be in order." Following his own advice, Arthur uses the First Breath to meditate, then consumes the Hero's Cocktail from the Hollow Blade of his Duplovian Swift Halberd and melee attacks Rosier with said Halberd from the Front Row.

"Oh, by the way Atramor, you should put anyone attacking the Right Arm after whoever throws the Sleep Bomb for the round and everyone else before the Sleep Bomb; for this reason, no one with area-effect damage abilities should target the Right Arm. If we manage that, we should be able to guarantee that even if we all get put to sleep, Rosier can't capitalize on it." The Skirmisher frowns for a moment, thinking, then continues. "If you want, you can have exactly one Hero attack the Right Arm before the Sleep Bomb, to try and capitalize on Jinxed before the Sleep Bomb replaces it...actually, it should probably be you, since you're Lucky at the moment and we could probably make decent use of that equipment here if you swipe it. Everyone else attacking that arm should definitely go after the Sleep Bomb, though." OOC: Pinging @CMPbecause this is a Battle Order issue.

OOC: Calling Rosier a "Face" has officially set this as the music for this battle. xD "On it," Arthur replies, melee attacking Rosier's Right Arm with his Icy Halberd from the Front Row. "Can someone destroy Reflecting Root A so that this actually works? Pretzel, I need you in the Front Row with me, think you can take out some of those vines and then throw another Sleep Bomb at the end of the Round? Miracle Worker, you've done us proud, just try to stay the course a little longer. Lady Luck, same to you, a couple more daggers thrown at the Remedying Roots would not go awry." If his first attack does not defeat the Right Arm, Arthur repeats, otherwise he melee attacks Rosier's Left Arm with his Icy Halberd from the Front Row. If somehow disarmed, he retrieves his thrown weapons instead. OOC: 3,168 damage on a Hit, or an even 3,600 damage on a Critical, assuming Pretzel takes the Front Row with me and at least two other Heroes.

OOC: Erm...Rosier shouldn't be taking damage from most of those elements, the Reflecting Roots are still present.

OOC: As it stands, Rosier would be immune to both of those actions; additionally, unless you Essence someone up, you're the only PC on the center front; Torc is KO'd.

"Dyric, I need you to either finish off Guts and have the spillover go to Chesterine, or else target her directly, your call. Everyone else, if you're not Lucky, don't target Chesterine directly." Arthur melee attacks Reflecting Root B with his Icy Halberd from the Back Row. If Reflecting Root B is eliminated, he attacks Reflecting Root A instead, or C if A is already down. Lady Luck and the Miracle Worker repeat their previous actions.

With his newly-gained second action, Arthur repeats his attack on Bennetton if it was unsuccessful, otherwise he melee attacks Reflecting Root B from the Back Row with his Icy Halberd.

Just to be clear, does defeating all of the Aspects and getting moved to the Center move the roots with us, or do we just lose our shot entirely when the last Aspect goes down?

"Atramor!" Arthur yells, "If you do that none of us can damage the roots at all, and I have no idea if we'll get a second chance at them once the illusions are gone."

Arthur immediately takes command of the forces on his flank. "Lady Luck, you're on Kayla as long as possible. I'll take Bennetton and Pretzel Guts, but Chesterine and Nyx are our priority targets. After they're down, we should focus the Reinvigorating Roots before we finish off the other Aspects--we don't want to leave any roots up when we move on if we can possibly manage it. Miracle Worker, we'll need you to get us up if we fall, but if there's no one down or hurt take on a Reinvigorating Root. Karie, we should be okay without a song if you want to take on one of the roots as well. Try to stay in the Back Row if you can--my Encouragement will counter the weaknesses of fighting melee at range, and I'd prefer we minimize our damage taken for now." Arthur throws his Dauntlet Index at Captain Bennetton - Aspect of Rosier from the Back Row. OOC: One realization and one question: I've just realized that Arthur is in fact Encouraged by his Job Trait thanks to it Encouraging Pretzel, so that should be taken into damage calculations; as for the question, does the Roots' *Immune to AoE* also make them immune to Murder on the Dance Floor for the purpose of that song's Ether cost?

I think Bennetton's SP is lower than intended; I'm guessing the passive was originally written to be +1 to Level and SP before balancing, and then when you upped the boost from 1 to 2 you only updated Level instead of SP. ...oh, right, speaking of Power bonuses, Arthur only has a permanent +2, so with his 3x First Breath he should have +11 (assuming he isn't getting a Power bonus from another Hero's equipment somehow). I'm...not sure what this means? IIRC Quickened is like Hastened but not ridiculous unsatisfying nonsense with multiple gained Free Hits that can be countered by an equivalent number of enemies targeting it, but what's the "#Heroes in Center" part supposed to mean? Is it just that Rosier gets more Free Hits the more Heroes end up on their flank? Oh, and Infernal Constitution should probably be represented next to the immunities by *One Negative Effect At A Time*, just for easier reference; I managed to gloss over it my first read-through, so others might miss it as well. Other than that, I don't see anything on Arthur's flank that's blatantly out-of-order, nothing seems too easy to wipe but also not too hard to do so, either. Looking forward to the fight! EDIT: for clarity's sake, that's a jab at how Hastened works on enemies, I personally find Quickened far superior on multiple levels, sorry if that was unclear.

Wow, I know some people in this world have no respect for science, but I had no idea it was this bad.

"Depends on what you're sending. Poisons would go through just fine, since we knew there's people who need to ship toxic reagents for various applications, and some of the spells to detect such poisons can have unexpectedly volatile reactions with the substances themselves. Weapons go through as well, for obvious reasons, and the School of Enlightenment incident proved that living creatures can technically survive transit, though not necessarily uninjured. Bombs, though?" The former mage sits thinking intently. "I know un-primed bombs--like the ones we tend to carry, before we twist the knob to deploy them--fall under the same loophole poisons do since they're chemically inert before then, and the deployment mechanisms are engineered to be impossible to set off accidentally. Anything more delicate than that, though, wouldn't work; the transit is not gentle on the package, so any sort of explode-on-opening setup would just explode harmlessly in the Void before it ever reached the victim. Does that answer your question?"

Arthur sees Matthias looking dazed and Confused, and sportingly uncorks a Remedy for him. Having heard his name mentioned, he then approaches Throlar. "You rang?"

Resisting the urge to scream 'Wrong!' over and over at the top of his lungs like a madman, Arthur quietly Meditates with the First Breath, staying close to the Back of the group as he does.

Arthur nods toward Karie. "Kayla. If I'd chosen to walk into their trap alone that night like my first impulse was, she and Dozenhands might have managed to convince me of the problems in this city sooner. Kayla and Dozenhands would still be alive--or at least, they wouldn't have died right there and then--and maybe their influence would have convinced Ulric of his mistaken alliance with Baba sooner. There's...also the matter of the Syndicate. I'm thankful we convinced Masson of the evils of the Harvester and got him to destroy it, but... that doesn't bring back the members we killed in the process. Octavyn may have forgiven me for killing his best friend, and it might have even been 'necessary' in the grand scheme of things, but it doesn't change the fact that they were good people trying to achieve good ends. If I hadn't been so rigid in my beliefs back then--just like Patricia--then maybe I would have held back, not gone for the fatal blows. I'm not naive enough to think I could have solved the whole thing without bloodshed, but at least it wouldn't have had to have been fatal bloodshed, you know?" Arthur groans as the discussion over future Veterans swells. Personally, he saw quite a few Heroes who ought to be elevated to the position, but the timing was awful and the process unbearable. "If anyone's still thinking of putting my name up, I want to point out Hestia Bonaparte and exactly how much good her Veteranhood has helped us in this crisis... which, namely, is not at all. Her parallels with me should be taken into firm consideration. I should also point out the complication of promoting an ageless being to a lifetime position. While there are some of us with that trait--" Arthur's eyes dart to Matthias for a moment before darting away "--who I feel would be a boon for Heroica as a Veteran, I'm not sure I'd count that as an advantage if I were given such a role." "...also as a side note, do we really need a representative for each Veteran Class? Just...pick whoever's the best for the job and move on." The Skirmisher shrugged, and went back to organizing his gear. OOC: Wasn't there an Artifact from 93 that triples damage against demons? Someone should probably equip that, if we have it in the party. Watt's Artifact I think it was called?

"At the time? I was. It's only in retrospect that I realized what a mistake I'd made. I'm thankful my Lieutenant had the foresight to fudge the paperwork and kick me out before I caused even more harm to this city than I already had." Arthur leans over to Marco and nudges him with his shoulder, nodding his head in the direction of Matthias and Chesterine. "50 gold says she'll have us planning their wedding by this time next year." He chuckles, then raises his voice back to normal speaking tone to address Chesterine as well. "Stay safe, you two. With luck, I'll be back in time for dinner." The Skirmisher does his best to ignore the political posturing going on around him, instead approaching Illdria. "Here," he says, handing the Captain he'd met so long ago a parchment with his mother's address. "My family and I want to help fix the mess that's been made of Eubric, and part of that means undoing the damage the Bonapartes and the rest have done over the years. The problem being, of course, that we've been so isolated in the past that we lack perspective on the finer details of what exactly went wrong. When you've got some time, we'd like your perspective." He pauses. "Oh, and..." Arthur gives Illdria 1,000 gold. "My contribution to repairing the Magpie. She's a good ship, she deserves a good overhaul after everything she's been through. Take care, Captain, and I hope to see you soon." Arthur next looks to the Shadeaux, but sees the group of them huddled together, offering each other what comfort they can. Rather than interrupting them, he merely catches Bellanotte's eye and offers a grateful smile and nod for her help. With the civilians addressed, Arthur returns his attention to Pretzel. "What do you think?" he asks. "Hero's Cocktail now, or leave it in the Swift Halberd as an emergency measure?"

Duvors, I'm pretty sure Hoples is dead, based on what Patricia said when she first came out. EDIT: ...or I guess the posts got edited. Huh.