You *Cheater!*
Oct. 25th, 2003 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was Lazar's Friday Shadake game, which once again was mostly a long combat session, although there was some talking beforehand.
It was my turn to get dinner, and I didn't get anything for myself, since they'd fed us and fed us all day at work as part of the Giving Campaign -- trying to avoid eating *too* much since I was already running a little heavy thanks to all the family dinners over the weekend and on Tuesday, and Azteca on Thursday which is a bit more food than the usual cafeteria fare... but then Murdock brought out the cheesecake, and I was doomed. u.u
So, Sophie tried to figure out exactly whose side this person was on. After a while, she figured out that he was, indeed, working for the Argent Claw, but that the Argent Claw wasn't the one trying to piss off the dragon. Since *supposedly* Tormierre wasn't either, or at least the cell she'd joined wasn't, that was just... confusing.
He promised the three of them -- Asher was there, but cowered in a corner hoping no one would see him -- fame and fortune, as they'd be able to get in on the ground floor, with absolutely no mind control. Oh, and to not kill Tsuru's family, as they were otherwise planning. And to kill Kiet's grandfather. And to remove Sophie's demon brand, since the demon who'd branded her wasn't working for them after all.
While he was talking, Corrain snuck up behind him, visible to Sophie -- probably thanks to her strange magic-sight, which seemed to be getting more powerful as time went on -- but not to the mage or the dragonish elemental he summoned. Corrain obviously wanted Sophie to attack, but Sophie wasn't sure she wanted to attack. She was, after all, in the middle of his demense, and none of her companions seemed awfully combative.
So she announced that they were leaving, and turned to... find the door locked. The mage offered to sweeten the pot by giving her Lazarus' head on a pike -- yes, that's the way to convince someone that you aren't insane, offer to kill their classmates. So, under the guise of casting a spell to open the door, she summoned a swarm of seven smoke elementals.
And so the battle began -- with the mage casting a blinding flash of light, which failed to affect Sophie, Tsuru, Kiet, or Asher (since they were seeing with spirit sight still, not real sight) but blinded Sophie's newly summoned harmless puffballs. Sophie's firecat attacked, as did Kiet, while Tsuru send his blinded flitter to magnify Sophie's magic.
Sophie set her plan into motion, having her harmless puffballs attack the mage to distract him, while she cast a powerful attack spell, and it worked -- the mage parried and dodged the swarm of smoke elementals, unaware that they were harmless, and was hit squarely by Sophie's spell, which wrapped around his arm, and eyes, and neck, severing his limbs and head... momentarily.
Then he was healed. Obviously, he had some magic spells hanging around to save him if he was injured*.
He lunged at Sophie and failed to stab her with a sword, thanks to a protection spell that *should* have destroyed his sword, then screamed as Asher and Tsuru leaped on him and clung, Tsuru stabbing him in the ear while Asher gnawed on his arm and shocked him, killing him again. Corrain, meanwhile, retrieved his sword and rubbed out his eyes, while Kiet stabbed the mage in the back with a deadly necromantic assault, which killed him instantly. He was unharmed.
Sophie tried dispelling the magic that kept healing him, and as her spell burned away the protections she could see that it wasn't just pre-prepared magic that was saving him -- someone was constantly refreshing the spells. "He has support!" she cried, "We need to cut him off from the source... can you do that, Kiet?"
After blocking an area pain spell that left Tsuru fleeing in full-bore linear panic and Asher enraged and berzerk, Kiet did indeed cut the mage off -- casting a spell to change his magical identity, so that whoever was casting at him from some other place would miss his target. It was close, but the spell stuck... which turned out to be a mixed blessing.
He still had enough spells around that Sophie and Asher and Corrain were unable to kill him, as they inflicted various deadly wounds, but Sophie was sure he was running low now. That was the good news.
The bad news was that the unknown mage who had been providing support turned instead to Sophie's firecat, branding it with his symbol (different from the brand she had, so likely a different demon) and turning it, much enhanced, on Flokin.
Then Corrain ended the battle by accidentally stunning all the combatants, excecpt for himself, Tsuru, and the firecats. He skewered the mage with his mage-bane sword, then tried to help Tsuru, and inherited a bit of the feriphal's panic, running off without his weapons (although he did remember to re-cloak).
Flokin won his little fight, although he was heavily wounded, and complained to Sophie about how much he hated 'bound spirits' until she recovered from the stun, fifteen minutes later. Sophie sealed the open door to the room, since people were in bad shape -- especially Kiet, who looked very very dead -- a fleshless skeleton. Then, after some planning, she summoned a phoenix to heal Flokin. It was a short summoning, and the phoenix disappeared just after a seal was placed on its forehead. "Stop stealing my elementals!"
At that point, the wall started to glow again, showing that the magma dragon was about to come back. The party decided to flee, and did so, although on the way out Sophie saw some signs Corrain had left pointing the way to the life professor. So they rescued/rekidnapped him, has Tsuru use the mage-bane dagger (it had been a sword, until Tsuru picked it up) to 'disarm' a bomb that had been set as a guard at the entrance, and left the mine without much further ado.
Then they flew to Lord Mosher's place, to present to him both the Life Instructor and a Zombie to research (since the life professor had been zombified).
last week next week
*Bound spells were explicitly removed from the magic system for this revision, although technically they could be brought back with personal tricks. I was definately under the impression that that was NOT supposed to happen, since they're horribly abusive, as this battle demonstrated: a single mage with less skill than any ONE of the party held off the entire party thanks to his instantly healing all incoming damage.
It was my turn to get dinner, and I didn't get anything for myself, since they'd fed us and fed us all day at work as part of the Giving Campaign -- trying to avoid eating *too* much since I was already running a little heavy thanks to all the family dinners over the weekend and on Tuesday, and Azteca on Thursday which is a bit more food than the usual cafeteria fare... but then Murdock brought out the cheesecake, and I was doomed. u.u
So, Sophie tried to figure out exactly whose side this person was on. After a while, she figured out that he was, indeed, working for the Argent Claw, but that the Argent Claw wasn't the one trying to piss off the dragon. Since *supposedly* Tormierre wasn't either, or at least the cell she'd joined wasn't, that was just... confusing.
He promised the three of them -- Asher was there, but cowered in a corner hoping no one would see him -- fame and fortune, as they'd be able to get in on the ground floor, with absolutely no mind control. Oh, and to not kill Tsuru's family, as they were otherwise planning. And to kill Kiet's grandfather. And to remove Sophie's demon brand, since the demon who'd branded her wasn't working for them after all.
While he was talking, Corrain snuck up behind him, visible to Sophie -- probably thanks to her strange magic-sight, which seemed to be getting more powerful as time went on -- but not to the mage or the dragonish elemental he summoned. Corrain obviously wanted Sophie to attack, but Sophie wasn't sure she wanted to attack. She was, after all, in the middle of his demense, and none of her companions seemed awfully combative.
So she announced that they were leaving, and turned to... find the door locked. The mage offered to sweeten the pot by giving her Lazarus' head on a pike -- yes, that's the way to convince someone that you aren't insane, offer to kill their classmates. So, under the guise of casting a spell to open the door, she summoned a swarm of seven smoke elementals.
And so the battle began -- with the mage casting a blinding flash of light, which failed to affect Sophie, Tsuru, Kiet, or Asher (since they were seeing with spirit sight still, not real sight) but blinded Sophie's newly summoned harmless puffballs. Sophie's firecat attacked, as did Kiet, while Tsuru send his blinded flitter to magnify Sophie's magic.
Sophie set her plan into motion, having her harmless puffballs attack the mage to distract him, while she cast a powerful attack spell, and it worked -- the mage parried and dodged the swarm of smoke elementals, unaware that they were harmless, and was hit squarely by Sophie's spell, which wrapped around his arm, and eyes, and neck, severing his limbs and head... momentarily.
Then he was healed. Obviously, he had some magic spells hanging around to save him if he was injured*.
He lunged at Sophie and failed to stab her with a sword, thanks to a protection spell that *should* have destroyed his sword, then screamed as Asher and Tsuru leaped on him and clung, Tsuru stabbing him in the ear while Asher gnawed on his arm and shocked him, killing him again. Corrain, meanwhile, retrieved his sword and rubbed out his eyes, while Kiet stabbed the mage in the back with a deadly necromantic assault, which killed him instantly. He was unharmed.
Sophie tried dispelling the magic that kept healing him, and as her spell burned away the protections she could see that it wasn't just pre-prepared magic that was saving him -- someone was constantly refreshing the spells. "He has support!" she cried, "We need to cut him off from the source... can you do that, Kiet?"
After blocking an area pain spell that left Tsuru fleeing in full-bore linear panic and Asher enraged and berzerk, Kiet did indeed cut the mage off -- casting a spell to change his magical identity, so that whoever was casting at him from some other place would miss his target. It was close, but the spell stuck... which turned out to be a mixed blessing.
He still had enough spells around that Sophie and Asher and Corrain were unable to kill him, as they inflicted various deadly wounds, but Sophie was sure he was running low now. That was the good news.
The bad news was that the unknown mage who had been providing support turned instead to Sophie's firecat, branding it with his symbol (different from the brand she had, so likely a different demon) and turning it, much enhanced, on Flokin.
Then Corrain ended the battle by accidentally stunning all the combatants, excecpt for himself, Tsuru, and the firecats. He skewered the mage with his mage-bane sword, then tried to help Tsuru, and inherited a bit of the feriphal's panic, running off without his weapons (although he did remember to re-cloak).
Flokin won his little fight, although he was heavily wounded, and complained to Sophie about how much he hated 'bound spirits' until she recovered from the stun, fifteen minutes later. Sophie sealed the open door to the room, since people were in bad shape -- especially Kiet, who looked very very dead -- a fleshless skeleton. Then, after some planning, she summoned a phoenix to heal Flokin. It was a short summoning, and the phoenix disappeared just after a seal was placed on its forehead. "Stop stealing my elementals!"
At that point, the wall started to glow again, showing that the magma dragon was about to come back. The party decided to flee, and did so, although on the way out Sophie saw some signs Corrain had left pointing the way to the life professor. So they rescued/rekidnapped him, has Tsuru use the mage-bane dagger (it had been a sword, until Tsuru picked it up) to 'disarm' a bomb that had been set as a guard at the entrance, and left the mine without much further ado.
Then they flew to Lord Mosher's place, to present to him both the Life Instructor and a Zombie to research (since the life professor had been zombified).
last week next week
*Bound spells were explicitly removed from the magic system for this revision, although technically they could be brought back with personal tricks. I was definately under the impression that that was NOT supposed to happen, since they're horribly abusive, as this battle demonstrated: a single mage with less skill than any ONE of the party held off the entire party thanks to his instantly healing all incoming damage.
