Duvors

(Kiray is hastend, that means she'll take both free hits this round.) (Edit; Apparently I was wrong about how free hits work, the battle order will receive minor revision shortly. However, I must point out that It still would've been unlikely for Eric to take a free hit. If Kiray hits Diana this round she'll do enough damage to KO the enemy in one hit. If she does that on the first attack [which is probable given the fact that she's lucky] then her second attack would automatically target Nazgulie meaning she'll be targeted this round as well. If that happens then there'll only be one free hit this round and Kiray will be easily able to ignore it. However the risk of Eric taking damage this round is real enough to make changing the battle order worthwhile.)

"Err, no he won't. Kiray will absorb that free hit without taking damage, that's why she's going first." There was a brief pause as Throlar went over what Lind just said. "'His health is one-hundred and four'? Lind, are you drunk again? What the hell does that even mean?"

"Lind," said Throlar, "I appreciate the work you've done, but I think I have an idea what to do next, would you mind if I took the tacticians' chair?" Suggested Battle Order and Actions, Right Flank; Kiray vs Diana - Hunter's Crossbow, Back Row. Kiray vs Diana - Hunter's Crossbow, Back Row. Petaldan - Throw Fire Bomb at Restoring Root F, Front Row. Eric vs Twisted "Eight Ball" - Godricsleif, Front Row. Lind vs Jinnipher x2 - Bifrost Blades, Font Row. Lind vs Jinnipher x2 - Bifrost Blades, Front Row. Heckz vs Heckz - Darkness spell via Weatherfax Broom, Back Row. Germ vs Reflecting Root F - Flying Talon "of the Salamander", Back Row. Torald vs Waldorf - Torangu's Trident, Front Row. Ezeran vs Sküld - Darkness spell via Ooze Wand, Back Row. Throlar - Heal most injured, Front Row. Conditional; if there are no injured Throlar will throw a Fire Bomb at Reinvigorating Root D.

"Petaldan, I don't think that would be the best course of action. I suggest you simply be ready to either heal whoever's the most injured or throw a fire bomb at one of the roots. In fact..." Throlar heals whoever is the most injured, if no-one is injured he will throw a Fire Bomb at Reinvigorating Root D.

(I think he may have meant that only the bearer of the seal gets a free item use, not that they can't use it on allies.)

(Throlar doesn't have a second action. Like I told KotZ, I made the offer under the incorrect assumption that we'd have a moment to prepare before the battle began.)

"If everyone here intends to continue their current corse of action then I suggest Heckz starts hitting himself. His eviler twin should not be left un-targeted under any circumstances."

(Sorry to bother you with more work, but I've noticed that Heckz's evil twin has a passive special but what the special actually does is not described.)

"in that case, Kiray and I should go first, she's immune to free hits and none of these enemies are capable of harming me."

(Pretty sure this is wrong. According to both the wiki and the Training Room Dim weather simply doubles darkness elemental damage while halving light damage. Unless there's been some change to how it works that isn't reflected in either source or if someone has an artifact that changes how it works I see no way this statement can be correct.) (Edit: Just checked, turns out it's a special quality of the Dies Irae ability. It appears I missed it by mistake.)

(Are you sure that'll work? The roots are all immune to AoE effects which may include Circle of Might and Magic and Razzmatazz.)

Throlar looked at the... things surrounding the party. Some he recognized; Hoples, the man who had been willing to give his life for the lives of Throlar and his companions, Nazgulie, someone he had until recently believed dead, and Periwinkle, someone he had briefly met on the same quest. He also recognized Heckz, though his presence wasn't surprising, Throlar knew all along that the man only really cared about himself. And finally he recognized Cronk. Throlar had only met the man- well, orc- once, at the very start of his own career as a hero. Now he remembered something that the other paladin had said, 'Duty is an honorable cage'. I wish I'd paid more attention at the time, Throlar thought, well, I suppose now I get to lock myself in and throw away the key. "No, don't do that, there's only one enemy in the entire battle that deals darkness, and that's on a random chance! You're better off leaving your artifacts as they are."

(I'm confused, I thought Throlar would be encouraged from the Amulet of Elven Loyalty, does that not work unless Throlar is in the same flank as Nerwen or have you simply not updated the stats yet?) (I made those suggestions under the impression that we would have a moment to prepare before the battle began, now I'm not certain. Do you still want to spend your action on the exchange?)

No! Down that path lies only madness! Stop before it's too late!

"Lind, 'I told you so'-isims are not endearing. Now let's focus on the task at hand." "Kiray, you should take my Shield of Invisibility. Althior, I tried to give you this before, but take this Scroll of Elemental Aura." (One thing, Throlar should be encouraged from the Amulet as there is at least one elf in the party.)

"Tweet tweet chirp katoo." (Does the rule about consumables apply to the scroll I tried to use?)

"I see. Well that puts the kibosh on that plan. Thank you anyway." "Kiray, this isn't real, none of this is. Do you honestly think Ulric would give up that easily? And don't you think it's a bit suspicious that this person would show up as soon as you mentioned them? Look, you see over there? That's Violetta, you know, Karie's dead sister? You were on the quest where she died! Even if you didn't see it in person. If the Miracleworker crumbled into dust as soon as Rosier was defeated then how can she possibly be here?" "Acctually I'm pretty sure there is, otherwise why would Rosier be so insistent on us not going through i- Wait, what are you doing- Atramor, put those dow- no, wait!" If he has any ether left Throlar franticly tries to heal Atramor. "You fool! We have no idea how real what we do in here is! Ah, damn it, we need to get out, now!" Throlar snarled to himself wishing he had time to let the people before him finish, to let them come to terms with the past, but there wasn't any time left. Without hesitation he reached out and tried to grab Karie and pull her away. "I'm sorry," he said, "but we don't have any time for this now. I know you'll never get the chance to do this again, but Atramor is badly injured and there's an undead invasion going on in Eubric. People are dying up there! We can't afford to wait. Listen, you remember when we were trying to free Euflear and I told you that we should wait before calling down holy fire? Well to hell with waiting, we need that now." "You bitch." he said, seemingly into thin air, "How dare you. What makes you think you have the right to torment people like this? To use their feelings and memories to manipulate them like puppets on a string? Well, we know this for what it is and all it's accomplished is making us, making me, angry." He began walking towards the doors as he spoke. "Do you think I'll be deterred if you show me someone from my past? Try to play on my guilt or my sorrow? On my love, if you can find someone who matters to me? Well it won't work you see, because no matter who you send I'll know it's you, so do your worst! Ophaniel," he roared, "if there's anything you can do to get us out of this nightmare then do it now!" So saying he marched through the doors, attacking anyone who appeared to stop him.

"Ah, yes. Tell me, is it possible to send an object through the Z-mail system if it would harm the recipient upon arrival? And if there are countermeasures in place to prevent that then can they be removed? I'm somewhat worried about the possibility of someone using the system to send, say, a bomb to an unsuspecting victim."

"Everyone here I think. I actually have an idea how to use them too but it depends on a few variables I'll have to ask Arthur Ziegfried about. It should suffice to say that if the idea works then we'll be at a safe distance when they go off." "Extremely sure. Haven't you heard them? The words behind the words? Difficult to hear anything else once you know they're there." "Excellent." "Gnomes? I think I read something about that. I'll have to check the archives later though. Never been to any cities under Eubric though I think there are at least two. Three if we count Nu Mercuton." Throlar casts the Scroll of Elemental Aura (fire) on himself, drinks a grand tonic, and continues casting until successful if the first attempt fails. "Unusually cold in here, isn't it?"

Throlar seemed a little distracted as the Sand Queen spoke, as if he was trying to listen to two different things at the same time. Probably just Ophaniel talking to him. Throlar drinks a Nostrum. He looked at the book they handed to him as if it was a poisonous serpent that would bite him if he made any sudden moves, a not unsurprising action considering the power supposedly contained within. He gingerly removed his Gloves of the Hypocritical/Hippocratic Oath and took the book from the person before him, looking at it for a second before equally carefully placing it on a table before him and equipping his Amulet of Elven Loyalty. Throlar drinks his Soma. "You don't understand why I want this, do you?" Throlar muttered under his breath. Throlar drinks a Mulled Wine. "Atramor was right," he said, "it does feel unusually dry in here. I had something else to say, what was it? Oh, yes." Throlar drinks an Ambrosia. "You know, I can understand why Germ thinks this isn't real. I mean, waking up here without any memory of how we got here does feel a bit dreamlike. And everything being so... perfect. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting to say the least." Throlar consumes his Myrrh. "I mean, if this were a story, something that wasn't real, I'd be a bit disappointed honestly. I mean, what kind of ending wouldn't want the include the climactic final showdown? And everything working out so well would feel like a bit of a copout in a story, like the author was pressed for time and couldn't think of a good ending. It would feel like it lacked realism. No wait, not realism. What was the word? Ah yes, Verisimilitude, the appearance of being real or something that feels as if it could be real. But lets be honest, things happen all the time in the real world that no-one could believe if it was in a book. And Germ has always been a bit paranoid anyway, he's not really happy unless danger lurks under every bush." "But anyway, I have something I want to ask Karie, if you'll excuse me." Throlar got up and approached the door. As he got close he briefly glanced at Karie's husband and child before turning to speak with her. "Err, sorry to interrupt, but would you mind telling how you met your husband?"

"Perhaps... did the Miracleworker leave anything behind? A book, a scrap of paper? Anything he had written down? It would be awful if the secret to true resurrection perished with him. There are many who died today and I think there may still be time to save them."

Throlar heard a muffled voice in his head, as if someone was trying to speak to him from a long way off and through several layers of thick cloth. He briefly wondered about that, but was distracted by the words of those speaking to them. "What? No... none of this makes sense! It can't be that easy, not fixing Eubric, and certainly not fighting an archdemon. I don't even remember fighting, all I remember is falling asleep before we even..." Something buzzed in his head, when the veterans had spoken certain... he had no idea what it was, but something... Arrgh! It was like trying to think through a wooly blanket. He knew there was something about what they'd said. At least, he thought there was? "Maybe I was just... an oddity? Does anyone else remember anything?"

"Thank you." said Throlar as he accepted the items given to him by Atramor. "Just a few things before we continue, Althior, as the only ether-user here with a full set of gems you're the best choice to use this." he said handing him the Scroll of Elemental Aura. "Vindsval, Ludeus is an excellent weapon but its elemental properties mean it may not be useful against Rosier herself, may I also borrow your Crystal Blade?" He seems about to leave it at that, but then spoke again; "Euflear," he said, "like Lind said it's been an honor working with you. And... I'm sorry neither Heroica nor anyone else was there to save your people. But I promise that if the best we can do is avenge them, then we'll damn well make sure that happens."

"I agree with you, but there are other people more suited to the job then me. Now, why don't we leave finishing this discussion about who'll rule the city until after we know if the city will still be here tomorrow, hm?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I've been thinking." "Perhaps- perhaps I don't know really, it's all a bit confused to be honest." "Thank you. I've chosen violence as a first resort too often in the past, I don't intend that to happen again. And it's been an honor working with you too." "Lind, I only know about three watchmen by name and they've all been rather brief acquaintances so far. I don't think I'd get many votes even if I wanted the job. And quite frankly I don't think I'd be suitable anyway. I feel more comfortable in the thick of the action where I can protect and heal people in person and where I can talk to people face to face, not sitting behind a desk ordering people to risk their lives on a daily basis. And I'm not someone who'd take well to leadership, I'd get nervous, make mistakes and rash decisions that could easily get people killed. And what you've said about me being able to do more good leading the watch in the city is quite frankly hogwash. The people who can devote their lives to making one little corner of the world the best it can be are quite frankly amazing, probably far better people than me to be honest. But we live in a world where an archdemon can subtly invade a city the size of Eubric without anyone noticing until it's almost too late. And it's not just that, you heard me mention Amber Makepeace? She's a necromancer who wants to kill everyone in Eubric and raise them as undead in the misguided belief that it will make all the city's problems vanish and undead accepted by the living, and she can do it too. She's currently imprisoned but she has allies who share her goals and could break her out at any time. Being a watch captain seems kind of ineffective in the face of nigh invincible enemies who could suddenly appear out of nowhere and wipe out everything you've worked for for reasons you don't understand? The world needs people to make little differences but it also needs people to stop the things that could destroy all those little differences in an instant. Do I think I can deal with things like that by myself? Hell no! But I can't stand by and just let them happen either. I've had enough of waiting for opportunities to do good when I know that this is what happens when you do that."