The Golden Age. Act 2: Converging Paths.

[Xinnidy]

Raz to O9, Silver Bow Cav A.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Xinnidy

[riariadne]

Kaya heals Joviana back to full HP [15 exp/2 wexp]. (47, 36) Raz chunks the cav for 14 [11 exp/1 wexp].

On other phase (56, 91) Koerm Cavalier A deals a savage 21 to Merc B [36 BEXP/170 TOTAL] and then steals his spot. Koerm Monk A, meanwhile, (23, 8) roasts Fighter B with Irradiate for 30 [33 BEXP/203 TOTAL], and Koerm Monk B (58, 93) does 15 to Cavalier A [36 BEXP/239 TOTAL], sending a Speed Vial to the Convoy. Lastly, (7, 10) Judas uses his killer axe to cut Soldier A down real quick [30 BEXP/269 TOTAL].

Enemy phase time:

Usavrn goes first (14, 86), hitting Joviana for 21 (26, 40) and taking 9 back [14 exp/1 wexp]. Next Archer B tries to finish her after triggering All In, (90, 70) but misses (22, 14) (76, 17) and takes 17 then 8 damage for his efforts [10 exp/2 wexp].

Mercenary A goes after Judas, (1, 37) (83, 59) (73, 18) hitting for 11 and 5 and dodging Judas's counter. [1 BEXP/270 TOTAL] Fighter C also goes for a finishing blow, (90, 27) but misses, (45, 27) and gets crit for 36 for his troubles. [30 BEXP/300 TOTAL]

Last but not least for enemies, Valerie carefully aims down her bow. "Mister Whitman... Are you really so foolish?" she muttered under her breath.
(80, 18) She let loose a fierce shot, barely missing his neck but still connecting with his shoulder for 13 damage [1 exp].

"What are you doing?" Shylah snapped. "Of any way you could go, you walk towards her? I don't need your help, so quit following me! You'll regret it... and not just because of her."

It's Turn 7, the second to last. Player phase begins.

the spreadsheet. Also, pretend Fighter C is dead, I forgot about the Killer Axe I just used. Try not to take about a month for this turn?

[eclipse]

"If you wanna take a bolt, be my guest," Kolmar gasped out.  "I got what I needed outta that."

I wonder what she said?  Bitch with the bow looked like she KNEW me, but I'm positive I've never met her before.  Right?

Kolmar backs up to Ab-13

[SB.]

Aaron to Q10,
Yarvus to T13 Irradiate Merc A, canto to T10

[riariadne]

I love computer problems...

(58, 28) Yarvus blicks the guy. Tomorrow at my home computer I will update the spreadsheet properly to reflect this.

[Bluedoom]

Mika to s13, idle. 

Jovi to p11, cast gust on archer c. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Magnificence Incarnate

[riariadne]

(21, 87) Jovi connects, dealing 13. [10 exp/ 1 wexp, not on sheet yet]

[Juliette]

Velvet P12 shuriken the archer, ask green cavaliers to rescue her & Jovi away

[scorri]

5 right physic jovi

[Xinnidy]

Raz to R10

[riariadne]

Sorry if this looks odd. Still need to get comp fixed.

Velvet hits (22, 69) Archer C, taking him down. [33 exp/2 wexp]. Joviana is healed to full by Kaya [15 exp/2 wexp]. On other phase, the Cavaliers rescue-drop Joviana and Velvet as requested, and otherwise only non-combat moves occur.

Now for enemy phase, only two combats happen. After being Rescue staved forwards, Usvarn attacks Koerm Cav B for 20 (47, 100) , killing him. And Valerie snipes Koerm Soldier B (74, 2). Sorry, since both have deaths, no bexp for you guys...

Lastly, Shylah vanishes for a moment... then reappears near Valerie. "Hello, Ruby Deadeye. Surprised to see me?"

It's the last turn. Go get 'em!

[eclipse]

He'd wanted more information on their erstwhile ally, while observing their enemy.  He hadn't counted on bringing one of the enemy's arrows with him.  Still, the group could study the arrow he'd inadvertently taken, and maybe figure out just what the hell the bad guys were wielding.  It wouldn't do if he bled out here, though.  If he could get close enough to the road, someone would find him.  Hopefully, it was someone he'd cooked for.

Kolmar to Z10

[Bluedoom]

joviana to u14, attack  usvarn with ice beam. 

[Juliette]

Velvet goes to U13 and uses Inspiration on Joviana! Let's get mr bossman!

[Bluedoom]

joviana stays in place and uses ice beam. 

[riariadne]

(75, 12) (14, 22) (6, 84) Joviana, over two combats, connects with all three hits counting Adept. [28 exp/3 wexp] 33 damage total.

Velvet gets 10 exp for her inspire too.

[SB.]

Aaron R13 Lionheart Usavrn

[Xinnidy]

Raz to T13, longbow vs Usavrn.

[riariadne]

(54, 1) Aaron hits hard, or at least he would if it weren't for Usavrn's Miracle. As strong as he is, Usavrn can't do much about Lionheart's protective factor. [14 exp/1 wexp]

(21, 15) Raz strikes true, felling Usavrn. [59 exp/2 wexp] "Hahar... I thank you all, for giving me a battle like no other! I only regret I could not fight on longer..."

That bosskill nets an easy level up for Raz. (39, 92, 18, 44, 91, 37, 89, 81) Magic, Luck, and rounded HP.

Raz sends a pair of newly acquired items to the convoy- the listed Seraph Robe, but also the mentioned-on-discord bonus reward, which is a Beginner's Manual.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Reinfleche

[scorri]

Mika hold

Yarvus 1 right

Kaya hold, equip shurikan

Request NPC healer heals Aaron

Edited June 4, 2018 by scorri

[riariadne]

Those happen. On ally phase, Monk A goes to Q14 and heals Aaron, who is at full now. [11 BEXP/311 TOTAL] But also on ally phase, a large group of soldiers marches up to the south. At their head is a blonde woman in white armor holding a glistening golden sword. "Soldiers of Timaeus, stand down!" she shouted. "I am Thalia Moore, the Knight Commander. If you do not surrender, I will finish off all of you myself!" When none of them yielded, she gestured towards a mage next to her, and disappeared for a moment before returning, much closer to the soldiers, and swinging her sword.

(37, 16) Myrmidon B takes 96 damage from a Luna crit. Hate to see that. [1 BEXP/312 TOTAL] All other nearby enemies are dropped to 1 HP by Bamung's effect and Thalia's talent, Thunder Scion. They are cleaned up pretty quickly by the nearby ally units afterwords in a bunch of numbers that really do not matter at this point, so I will average things out to [120 BEXP/432 TOTAL]. The surviving enemies start fleeing, but since I'm cheeky, Troubadour B attacks Kaya since she's not equipped with a ranged weapon (89, 71) and misses. [1 exp] Gottem. Well, that accounts for all the surviving enemies but one...

"I thought you were more neutral, Dark Prophet. Has your brother's plight moved you so?" Valerie asked, putting her bow aside. "We both know any further confrontation would be pointless...   in my current state, I can't harm you. And you surely know you can't harm me."

"My brother? Regus is doing quite alright with helping people himself, I think... But even if you can't be killed, Valerie, do not twist the truth. I can certainly harm you." Shylah cackled, her hands enveloped in a shadowy magic, gesturing with a finger. "Give me the Gem. You've done much of the important work, finding it in the first place... if you give me it, I'll let you go without pain."

"Why would you ask something you know I'll decline? Pain is nothing to me. I would endure. But surely, you don't expect me to stay either." Valerie reached for a pouch at her side, withdrawing the same golden powder that Dimitrius had once used. "I will report to His Majesty about you. And while we did not take back our rightful control of Veiro... we have found value in this visit nonetheless. And you've shown your hand now, too. I don't need your powers of prophecy to know we'll meet again." She crushed the powder, vanishing in a shimmer of gold.

With that, Map 6 is over in 8 turns.

--

Her sword put away, Thalia approached the beaten-down group with a smile. "Thank you, all of you. You performed admirably in keeping the people of Veiro safe from danger when the numbers were against you. Timaeus's tactics to spring such a sudden attack were underhanded... but admittedly rather clever. But you've staved them off for now, and for that I must extend my gratitude. For those of you who don't know... I am Commander Thalia Moore, leader of the Knights. My great-grandfather, Tyrius, was once my rank and later King, protecting the lands with this sword, Balmung. I am acting leader in Madrigal, but I've come here to meet the Dukes and Duchesses to discuss Timaeus's rise to power, and what actions we must take with regards to him."

"A stunning display." Shylah spoke up, sitting atop a roof near the assembled people. "The Balmung is a marvelous artifact, one of few I respect the power of... much like that Lionheart, hmm?" She gestured towards Aaron. "I think I need no introduction. Nor do I plan on joining your gathering later, either. But I witnessed what I thought important to see here, and while I plan on departing soon... perhaps I'll humor you all if you have some questions."

Thalia didn't seem too fond of that, frowning. "Well, anyway... I heard you are the group that was sent by Duchess Mazzarin, yes? I was traveling with Dukes Reid and Damas, and Duchess Eliza, before my knights and I rushed ahead when we heard of Veiro being attacked. They are well defended, enough, anyway, and shall hopefully arrive within the hour. In the meantime, let me know if you have ideas for what best we can help with while we wait- you all likely understand the situation better than I. And, being honest... I'd rather hear the rundown from people who actually fought here rather than the Dukes who merely observed."

--

The map is over. NPCS earned you 432 BEXP to distribute amongst yourselves, and the map's completion is good for 300, totaling at 732. Do what you want with that. Additionally, you visited 3 of the houses, enough for the modest reward of 1 Silver weapon of your choice (or equivalent magic: Conflagrate, Irradiate, Debilitate, or Physic). Also, you guys have a bunch of statboosters. Submit distributions for BEXP and those and which weapon you'd like in one post either via PM/ Discord/ OOC thread/ whatever.

[Juliette]

"Ah." Velvet practically fell over as soon as the battle fell to a halt. If it wasn't the carnage of combat itself, then the lightning sword put all her fur on end! All this about three hours before her preferred wake-up time. "I don't know how people wake up so early... Emm, thank you for the help, Commander." She half-bowed from her seated spot. "Um, to put it briefly, I think the west got hit the hardest, so we made our way here through a tunnel as the best place to be defensive. Then, we mostly just held on against their charge. I'm hardly a fighter anyway, myself, but they seemed pretty well trained and equipped. And this is the first time we ran into real humans following him instead of those sand soldiers, besides the four leaders, so that made for something pretty different... scarier, if you ask me."

Then she looked over to the other imposing woman who'd come to help them... she seemed mostly helpful, anyway. "Yes, yes, you're very mysterious, miss Shylah. Thank you for helping us. I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell us more about what you know about these people, since it seems to be more than the rest of us? It sure would be useful for us to know, anyway. Even Regus seemed less informed than you, when we saw him in Fordright."

[eclipse]

He'd kept his feet, barely.  Moving around hurt, but he'd be damned if he was going to let one of Timmy's goons seal his fate.  Dark and Mysterious greeted the crowd from the top of a roof.  How fitting.

"Thanks for showin' up and applyin' some 'Bad Guy B Gone' to 'em.  Ya got any for sale?  They keep pesterin' us, an' I haven't the faintest clue why we're so interestin'."

[Xinnidy]

That fight was finally over, good. That was enough of a hassle for that day. "They don't waste time at all, but at the same time, they're really impatient." Such a chaotic group was always going to leave a mess in their trail. Thankfully this did not include Veiro this time. Rather, Thalia herself seemed to grace them with her presence... and so did Shylah. "

Raz walked towards Velvet and gave the cat some headpats for her efforts, all the while giving the magi an unamused look. "Having fun?" Why did she have to be everywhere they went now? Great.

[riariadne]

"The west, you say? Alright, we'll get people on it right away." Thalia gestured to the soldiers following her, all but one lance-wielding woman who immediately saluted and followed off as quick as they could to get to work. "Help for whoever needs it will be here in Koerm today. Aurea, if you'd check the castle for me..."

The young lancer- Aurea, apparently- nodded. "As you say, Commander! I'll give Dukes Barus and Anwir a complete summary of everything that's gone on, and an update on the status of the other three Duchies." She headed off swiftly past Fia, who seemed rather reverent at the people before her.

"Thank you, Lieutenant... I'm not too good at talking with nobles, understanding what exactly they want, all that sort of nonsense. If I was, I'd probably be Queen, and we'd have a much less inane situation." The Commander huffed. "I think I'm better off leading the Knights than the whole nation, but having no leader, or someone like him who wants to seize the throne by force... we need someone to lead, and I'll do it if I have to." Perhaps a bit delayed, she took notice of Aaron and what Shylah had said. "Is that really what it looks like? The Lionheart?"

"Oh, it's real. I can tell. What a strange way you obtained it, Sir Lawson... or are you not quite the knight you look somewhat the part of?" Shylah vanished in a puff of purple smoke, reappearing looking at the axe from over Aaron's shoulder, then slowly circling the party, looking each of them over. "Yes, truly this is a curious scenario indeed. Well, no matter. I'd love to say I'm a lot more knowledgable about how Timaeus thinks, or how we can put an end seemingly immortal refugees of time, but what good would it do me to lie? For the time being, we can merely play their game and stop them, with no way to vanquish them in sight. But all things, in time, must come to an end, for that is one of the natural truths of the world. Nothing lasts forever." She smiled as she reached Raz. "Happy to see me, Raz Caecina? Mm, no- I wouldn't exactly call it fun to rend the souls of my enemies, bringing suffering beyond death and thus condemning them to a horrible oblivion until some later time their spirit finally moves on, but I do think it important to play what fate dictates be my given part. And in this case, it was to provide some form of assistance to you here, and make some token attempt doomed to fail at retrieving the Lazarus Gem, which Valerie was very keen to protect, given that it doesn't seem of much use to people who boast they are unable to die. An attempt doomed to fail, but nonetheless destined. At least... that's what I foresaw." She shrugged.