>>6109279
“Everyone use cantrips to cover me and him!” 1 red token.

Panicking, William goes over his body trying to find Rose’s equipment as he quickly passes healthing and adrenaline between him and Virgil as he tries to keep his breath calm from the fight. Both men stabbing whatever drugs in the syringes as they feel a surge of energy and warmth as wounds knit back together good as new. Skin burning as it stretches out and over wounds as organs stop bleeding internally from the shock to get back to work. Glancing upwards to see the axemen beginning to turn to his direction only for their attention to be dragged to the supports as another ray of frost and thorn whip glance off of their armor as a scorching ray beams one of them to the back of their head. Being too fast and distracted with multiple enemies surrounding them. Looking between groups the axemen pivot towards Muffin sees her the most nervous as her hands shake from the intensity as panic floods her eyes as she trips backwards to dodge the first swing only for the follow up attack to land. The gleaming fire stained axe flares to life as it lodges itself into her stomach making her whimper in pain as skin and fabric are ripped loose as a trail of blood is pulled into an arc above her. Raising their weapons again to finish the job only for Virgil to roar as he rushes to both axemen and lands a vicious full body swing into the neck of the half dead axemen to drop him in a single blow before turning his fury on the person that hurted Muffin. Bringing an uppercut to rattle the axemen’s skull followed by a series of vicious punches as ribs crack apart before socking the axeman in the face and dropping him to the ground.

>-6 energy. 1/10 energy left.

With the axemen taken care of William points his hand to the building knowing more shadows were moving behind the curtains as he launches two fireballs to finish off whatever traps are inside the building. Hearing a satisfying boom and silence as he spots no movement in the upper floor of the building as he turns his attention back to the smokescreen. A soft scream echoes in the air as William turns to his right to see Alice and Betty’s bodies buried in the ground up to their chests as they struggle to grip the ground.

“Something is grabbing our legs!” Yells out Alice in a panic.
“I can’t kick?! Everything is pressing in!” Adds Betty with a bit of color and panic seeping into her eyes.
“Just hold on I a-”

Another fireball explosion rocks the area as William feels the air turn oppressive and hot as the air smells of smoke and ash forcing him to turn toward the Purifier leader.

>Daybreaker’s Wrath
>Inside Purifier killzone territory [Succeded]
>Pre-casted fire armor [Succeded]
>Activated communication network and traps [Succeeded]
>Have upgraded Daybreaker equipment[Succeeded]
>Self detonated a fireball spell[Succeeded]

part 1

>>6109280
From the explosion a gust of wind rips apart the smokescreen as the leader walks forward with a burning malevolent haze coating his body in the familiar color of Hellscream’s magic. Rubber seems to be replaced by metalskin as flames roar behind him demanding blood to fuel its hunger as its red glowing eyes stare down into his soul as William takes a step back from another predator. Patches of burning hellfire dancing along his armor moving like ocean waves making sure to touch every part of his armor while not even causing a single scorched mark on his body. A glowing red antenna pokes out of the top of his backpack as motes of fire twirl around its base before returning the fire back to his body. Constantly glowing with runes pulsing as it channels and redirects the flames in a controlled manner while avoiding losing its energy from bleeding off. With a sudden sprint the Purifier Leader closes the distance to be between the support party, William, and his down axemen as he cocks his head to the side trying to decide his next move as he hears two more shield and flare gun users reinforcing his battle.

>Battlefield conditions
>William HP 68/80, Virgil 42/53, Muffin 10/21, Alice and Betty are half submerged in the ground.
>Daybreaker’s Wrath ???/??? and 29/???
>Patrol reinforcements 2 shield users and 2 flare gun users.
>Axeman and archers downed
>HQ reinforcements coming in ? turns

>Inventory: 2 smoke bombs, 1 adrenaline, 1 heavy stunk bomb(stinking cloud tier)
1 red token

-“Virgil help the party. I will keep him busy.”
-“Retreat. Muffin help Virgil get them out.”
-“Tell the team to use whatever magic they got to escape the hold.” (Get 1 blue token if not chosen)
-”Burn two tier 1 slots and cast shadow blade and rush the fat fuck.” (Get 1 red token if not chosen)
-write-in

part 2
QM note: I thought I had one more day before it dropped off the list to squeeze out a last update before making a new thread.

>>6109281
-“Retreat. Muffin help Virgil get them out.”
--Drop smoke bones to cover retreat.

>>6109281
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=student+ascension+quest

da archivos

>>6109281
”Burn two tier 1 slots and cast shadow blade and rush the fat fuck.” (Get 1 red token if not chosen)
>use the last adrenaline shot

>Drop all our attacks into the leader.
>Have Virgil flank the leader so we get advantage on attacks.

That should force the new reinforcements to run past us to get to our allies that are stuck. So we get attacks of opportunity.

>Have the two support guys try to get out of the mud.

No worries qm.

Same thing I said last time. We should be able to kill that leader dude in one round of combat. Especially with advantage from Virgil. We will most likely hit with all of them.

Mac DO NOT retreat or run away. We're fine mate. Don't worry about muffin. We can still use healing word once and plus rose is watching with spare the dying.

I would be fine with muffin using a smoke though for cover to get out of the mud.

>>6109281
>>6109702
Fine well try things your way.

Rolled 64, 14, 8, 91, 28, 24 = 229 (6d100)

>>6109702
First three dice at +50 each dice is two hits landed between William and Virgil six attacks.
Next two is Betty +25-50(-25) and Alice +35-50(-15) trying to get out -50 as they are buried and not helped.
Next did Muffin panic at being half health, two teammates buried and more reinforcements coming down. DC 70

End of party turns next is Purifiers.

>>6110372
Next 6 dice are dodge rolls at +55 from leader.
Next 2 need to beat Alice and Betty to get fully buried to take suffocation and blunt damages.

Rolled 92, 48, 85, 86, 68, 77 = 456 (6d100)

>>6110374
Forgot the dice

Rolled 74, 71, 47, 31, 16 = 239 (5d100)

>>6110376
I should have just used 6 dice for William instead of just 3.
First 3 dice is William and Virgil with advantage on attacks.
Second two is Alice and Betty potential burial by enemy purifiers +25.

Rolled 4, 4, 2, 6, 2, 1, 3, 1 = 23 (8d6)

>>6110378
William and Virgil 74+50,71+50, 47+50
Purifier Leader dodge 64+55 and 14+55, 8+55 and 91+55, 28+55 and 24+55. Four hits against purifier.

So William and Virgil 2d6+5 x 4. So 8d6+20+8 fire damage

>>6110381
I need to find a better way to do dice maybe roll off site?
Also uhhh shadow blade gives a +4 for psyich damage so another +8 to total damage for a total count of 59 damage reduced by 29 points by the fire shield to 30 damage.

Rolled 30, 33 = 63 (2d100)

>>6110384
Purifier self detonates a fireball again at point blank range. DC to dodge 105-155 for William and Virgil +50

Rolled 5, 4, 5, 4, 4, 5, 1, 6 = 34 (8d6)

>>6110394
Full damage for Will and Virgil. Half for Purifier leader equipment, half again for fire armor. So 1/4 of the damage back to him.

>>6109702
”Burn two tier 1 slots and cast shadow blade and rush the fat fuck.” Snarls out William as his hands burn a comforting warmth.
“What?” Asks a confused Virgil as he follows William’s lead.

Immediately William and Virgil rush forward to the Purifier leader’s side forcing him to split his attention in two as the flames on his body flare up in intensity. Gripping the tendrils of the leylines William demands his will to be followed as magic latches on his hands as claws of psychic energy coil around his fingers as embers leak out of his fingertips. Rushing forward first William baits out a axe strike ground the ground as Virgil jumps from behind only for the malevolent fire to turn around and launch pieces of its scorching embers toward Virgil. Breaking his stance as he backs away from an easy hit only for William to lash out with his own claws only to see the leader step back again as a wall of fire blocks his attacks as well.

A small dance of feints, blocks, and embers light up the light as magic claws get melted by a swing of flame, a kick gets pulled back as a jut of fire aims for Virgil’s head, footwork pushed to its limits as the leader has to parry multiple hits from all sides as his breathing gets heavy. With accidental coordination both Virgil and William move forward as the purifier’s embers run out as multiple kicks and punches land across his body. Metal slowly bending, a cough uttered out, and flesh shifting ever so slightly as the flurry of blows ends to see the leader still standing. Backing away to gather a quick breath as the leader looks at his axemen as he yells out personnel recovering before diving into his backpack and pulling out a molotov as he yells fireball. Lighting up the night in a flash of heat and pain as William and Virgil are knocked to the ground as hair curls, skin cracks, and bones ache from another sudden explosion. Virgil being tossed into a wall as he barely has enough strength to attempt to get back up. As William forces himself to look up at the fire titan as the familiar orange embers turn red as they swirl across his body once more in a protective coat.

His burnt shaking hand twitching from the intensity of the spell as it reaches into his pack again while staring William feeling his hatred and anger boiling behind his gas mask. A glint of metal is pulled from behind his back showing a familiar red syringe as he stabs it into his neck and lets out a quiet sigh. Dropping the used medical aid on the ground now littered with adrenaline shots to be a part of the garbage of the junkyard. William’s thoughts are interrupted as Alice screams for a short moment before silence as she “sinks” underground as not even a strand of her blue hair is left. Pushing a bad situation into a much worse place as Muffin begins hyperventilating from the pain, screams, and fighting going all around her as she curls up against a wall trying to hide from the fighting.

part 1

>>6110418
With a shout Betty rips her limbs and body out of the ground as she slips out of whatever is holding her in a desperate surge of adrenaline to avoid Alice’s fate. Stumbling a bit as she relaxes from the sudden burial only for the same two hands to reach out from under her again as they latch onto her legs again but this time Betty pulls back to avoid getting submerged immediately again.

Out of the corner of William’s eye he spots the patrol team moving to secure the fallen axemen as they keep their shields up against the party as they try to escort their down friends out. Slapping on two scrolls on their downed bodies before grabbing them and half drag and half carrying them out of the danger zone. Not bothering to even fire a warning shot at his party as the two shields and flares guys hobble away with their friends. Before yelling out for cover and escort to the growing animated junkyard as more people begin rushing to the noise.

*Alice suffocates in minute, can call this off now or you can keep going for two more rounds. You decide.* States Rose inside William’s mind.

>Battlefield conditions.
>William 34/80 HP, Virgil 8/53 HP, Alice 27/28 HP losing 1 HP per round from constriction after 6 rounds instantly die from suffocation.
>Shadow blade active +4 psychic damage
>Inventory: 2 smoke bombs, 1 stunk bomb, 1 red token.

>Alice is being targeted again for burial.
>Patrol is escorting their downed personnel out.

>Daybreaker’s Wrath
HP ???-19/???, Fire armor 34/??
Mod: +55
Armor: Hellscream enhanced Purifier armor
Equipment: 2 of ?, 1 of ?

-“Rose call off the fight I know I lost.” (DC 40 to choose this option half XP gain for the party)
-”I… can you have them give back Alice so we can do a final round?” (Entire party vs Purifier Leader full XP gain for the party)
-I have nothing, no amount of violence can be used to beat this losing fight.
- No energy, no magic, no resources left, no blood. How do normal mages handle fights like this?
-write in

>>6110419
-”I… can you have them give back Alice so we can do a final round?” (Entire party vs Purifier Leader full XP gain for the party)

>>6110419
We got 10 rounds until Alice suffocates. We then get 3 rounds of dying. More than enough time to see if we can eek out a win.

While Betty snipes from range and pep talks muffin into pew pewing too.

We just keep swinging our shadowblade.

One question why is the shadow blade only +4? It's a 2d8 in game so shouldn't that be +8 or +9?

These purifiers are almost cleaned up I think we can win it. It'll be close though. Mac don't give up we got this trial by fire. Remember no one's gonna die here it's all practice. And rose is there observing with spells and pots.

>>6110928
Okay I misread the spell sure +8 damage.
??-23/?? HP on leader.

Also Alice doesn't get 3 rounds of dying as the ground is crushing her.

>>6110928
>>6110738
1 all in final push
2 half push

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6111502

>>6111208
Ah makes sense. We'll still quite a bit of time. We'll either win or loose in two rounds.

>>6111503
“Hello, is this thing on?”

Asks William as he turns to look at the Purifier leader as a snarl escapes from his mouth as he casts message cantrip before uttering erupt. Before yelling out for them all to come at him, making the hands on Betty’s legs immediately let go and dive under. Followed immediately by a thunder sound from below the ground as the ground erupts like a geyser as Alice’s body is flinged out of the ground and ten feet into the air before her body slams down on the ground. Quicking rolling to her side as she rolls to the side right next to Betty as they both take a moment to look themselves over before adjusting their positions.

>Co???t K??p?? and G??d?? ?h???e? fails to activate

“I call upon the arctic winds to armor my body. Frost Armor!”
“From the leylines I beg for their assistance, Mage Armor!”

Yells out Alice as a coat of frost flows across her body turning her sweater into a harden block of ice acting as armor. With cold chills flowing from her body as she wipes her heads trying to clear them from the blood flowing down her head. Betty meanwhile has a shimmer of light ripple across her body as golden armor forms over her body as Muffin continues to panic against the wall. With a cough William picks up Virgil as they prepare one more fight as everyone has fear and worry etched across their faces. With no one attempting to run knowing they will be hit in the back by the leader as Alice and Betty prepare a third level spells.

>Battlefield conditions
>William 34/80 HP, Virgil 8/53 HP, Alice 16/28 HP, Muffin panic 10/21 HP, Betty full
>Rose will arrive in one round.

-write in or just roll 2d100+40 and I finish up the fight

QM note: Sorry got distracted with a slugfest of a quest on a different site.

Rolled 97, 33 + 40 = 170 (2d100 + 40)

>>6111696
What's the quests name?

>>6111722
Code Geass Bolivar's Nightmare was supposed to be a quick in and out mission turned into an IRL two-year struggle to complete with us dodging death way too many times. Barely survived with a pyrrhic victory and an even more bittersweet after action report.

Rolled 77, 93 = 170 (2d100)

>>6111722
Purifier leader at +55 to see how well he does.

>>6113208
Fuck family is calling I should be back at the end of the day to finish up the update and move to the next scene.

>>6113208
>>6111722
“Everyone go in order Betty, Alice, Virgil, and me to avoid our attacks getting in each other’s way.”
“S-sure!” Yells out Alice as her hands shake as she breathes in for a moment.
With a slow running walk the Purifier Leader charges the line of mages as flames lick the pavement lighting up the night like a lighthouse as he races toward the party. Immediately Betty rushes forward as she swings her backpack to the side as her hands race inside looking for something to help turn the tide.

“I beshee thee to lend your strength to the earthen gifts! Catapult upcast tier 3!”

A humming echoes inside her backpack as metal grinds against itself before exploding in a shower of gleaming steel as knives, forks, and nails shoot out toward the leader. Pivoting on the spot the leader dived forward trying to dodge some of the projectiles by lowering the surface contact that could be made. Metal slicing across the air as red fire flares to life as it slags the incoming projectiles turning them into harmless mist. Only for every swing of fire causes it to dim with each successful interception slowly losing more color and intensity as its energy is steadily drained. Betty swings back around as Alice follows up from behind as she brings her hands up as the leader continues his march.

>D40 on full hit reduce to 20 damage on good save.

“Of the arctic winds of the North and South, I demand your power at my fingertips! Frost Fingers upcast tier 3!”

>D32 on full hit reduced to 16 damage on good save doubled due to fissure damage 32 damage.

With a howl of wind across Alice’s fingers as they are immediately encased in ice as a hail of frost shoots in a cone. A panic yelp is heard from the leader as he crouches down and users his legs to fling himself to the side only for the cone to catch his legs as the protection flame flares and sputters out. Cracks from intense heat and cold run along his armor at the sudden temperature change forcing a pained yell to come out of him as bits of metal and leather fall off his body. His yell shakes Muffin free from her panic attack as she sees his body on the ground as she quickly gets a cantrip up.

“Th-th-thunder and lightning I pray for your guidance to smite my foes. Lighting Lure!”

>D4 on full hit reduced to 2 damage.

A blast of lighting shoots out of Muffin’s hand with her back against a wall of garbage as the night is lit up. The crackle of energy sizzles the air to create ozone as it slams into the purifier’s body, electric tendrils coiling around his arm as it buzzes in the air before he raises his hand to grab the magic lure and snaps it off like a twig. Denying Muffin’s attempt to fling him into the air with a growl to ensure he does not get pushed away from his victims. Getting back up slightly scorched, cracked, and stabbed as Virgil and William come in.

Part 1

>>6113475
Fists and kicks swing into the leader’s body as limbs further crack his armor as its magic runes cannot grab any flame to create its protection. Ribs cracking underneath blows, bits of blood trailing underneath his firefighter equipment, and chunks of the armor being ripped apart as its magic blinks in and out of existence trying to maintain its shape. An uppercut from Virgil races towards the purifier face only to be sidestepped at the last minute, a shadow blade claw pushing for his stomach to disembowel him only to get parried by his fire axe at the last minute. Limbs and attacks being countered or landed as the leader struggles under the weight of multiple attacks at the same time before a kick from Virgil sends him to his knees. Seeing the opportunity William raises his hand and claws downward ripping apart the side of the leader’s gas mask to reveal a brown colored eye with a burning hate still inside him.

>2d6+13 times 2 for will= d50 and 2d6+5 time 2 for Virgil = d34, d84 reduced to 42 damage.
>96 total damage
>Purifier Leader at 103-19/103 HP and 34 fire armor.
>22/103 HP no fire armor.

And he gets back up. Struggling under the weight of the damage he survived, his armor in rags as it magically tries to reknit itself back. Blood streams down his body as his breathing becomes labored as he sucks in the crisp air as he steadies his breath, gripping his weapon tightly as his entire body shakes with untapped energy, all the while he pulls out a familiar adrenaline syringe.

>+16 HP second wind proc. 38/103 HP, 0 fire armor.

In one second his body becomes a blur as his human body surges with a slight shimmer in the light as he moves his axe high above his head readying a downward swing as William and Virgil’s bodies immediately side step the attack. The axe dives downwards only to get adjusted as the swing’s momentum is pulled to the side and behind him. Half spinning the purifier in a 360 swing as the axe slashes across Virgil’s chest, rending a light gash letting his ribs peek out into the open air. Being on his last legs Virgil immediately collapses after all the previous damage he sustained as the swing still carrying its momentum slams into William’s side as magic armor stops the rest of his momentum. Feeling the biting metal dig into his flesh being less painful than when he was disemboweled by Animus.

>26HP William

A gush of air licks his exposed organs as William’s breath is knocked out of him, feeling the Purifier pushing him back into his allies as Alice and Betty get knocked to the ground by his momentum. A tangle of limbs and frantic movements as they try to get up and move as the Purifier shows in a blink of an eye as everyone tries to cast, move, or shout at the enemy only for a whirlwind of slashes descends upon them.

part 2

>>6113476
Betty raises her hands as a golden light tries to pool in her hand, Alice scrambles for her notebook, and William lashes out another fist as a hand smacks his fist away as the axe immediately follows up the counter. A bloody metal blade slicing across everyone’s faces as they attempt to stagger back to recover from the pain only for the same pain to bloom across their stomachs and legs. Multiple sweeping attacks cutting them all open like fish as more blood soaks the ground too fast for any counter or cries of pain to echo in the night. Clothing, armor, and backpacks torn into rags as the Purifier Leader is relentless in his execution using only his technique, strength, and metal to give small minor cuts to slowly bleed everyone to death. A flare of light encases Alice as she goes down while standing before the rest of her allies follow her lead as everyone collapses to the ground. Pain, trauma, and numbness paralyzing Betty and William as they try to process the damage they just took as breathing becomes a problem.

>3 sweeping attacks on everyone. -24 HP on everyone
>William 2HP, Alice -8 HP procs spare the dying and gets leg injury, Virgil down, Muffin 10 HP, Betty 2 HP
>Multi-attack, action surge, adrenaline syringe proc. 0 superiority dice left. 1 attack left.

Seeing the fallen enemies around him the Purifier eyes immediately lock on Muffin still being conscious as he winds up his axe and tosses it straight into Muffin’s chest. Sinking in a good two inches as she goes into shock trying to paw the axe out of her only for her hands to slide off the axe from all the blood and mud on the weapon. With a growl the leader makes his way to Muffin as a crackle of electricity comes from beyond the horizon immediately his hands rise up to block an attack as Rose jumps in the air and dropkicks the leader into the ground. Sending sparks of lighting and thunderclaps echoing across the junkyard as the energy of her pack all get sent out at once as power courses across his body. Burning skin, hair, and armor as he spams on the ground trying to get his bearings as a still buzzing Rose in her striker gear stands at attention as she looks through her items. Her attention is still cackling in power ready to unleash itself at a moment's notice.

>Purifier Leader 10/103 HP 28 damage on successful save.

“Enough D-Purifier Lead you had your fun.”
“Half of my team will be dealing with 3rd degree burns.”
“They can literally sleep it off after a week. Now get medical set up and call off everyone else.”
“Fine. Message. This is Lead comm to base, Resistance practice run this is a false alarm and we are not being raided.” Hisses out the Purifier Leader as he gets up and begins walking back to the base after stumbling a few times to get his footing.

part 3

>>6113479
“Ah okay. Will, Betty, and Muffin take a nap as you guys need the leyline recovery.”
“Yeah a nap sounds good right now.” Adds William as he slowly closes his eyes.
“What the fuck you mean I can nap now!?” Yells out Muffin.
“I am grilling you all when I wake up.” States Betty as the darkness takes William.

>XP rewards
>First line 4 XP, second line 8 XP, secret archers 6 XP, last line absorb elements fire axe team 10 XP, purifier leader with mantle activation 15 XP
>William gets 1/10 of XP due to knowing its practice. 4 XP
>Everyone else gets 43 XP
>Purifier division patrol, 2nd line, axe team, and leader gains 30 XP fighting a mage team.

>William with +3XP overflow and +4 XP pushes him into level 9 with 1 XP overflow.
>Virgil level 7 fighter goes to level 12 with 3 XP left over.
>Muffin level 3 alchemist armorer goes to level 9 with 4 XP left over.
>Alice level 5 wizard/level 2 rogue to a pool of level 12 with 3 XP left over.
>Betty level 5 bard goes to level 10 with 4 XP left over

—------------------

Blinking his eyes open to see a familiar classroom ceiling with desks poking out the side of his vision as a scuttle and curses break out somewhere. With a groan William shoots up straight realizing he is inside Astra and on the ground while class is in session he looks to the side ready to dive for cover. Scanning his area before realizing if he should run instead of hiding to avoid getting trapped in the classroom. His thoughts interrupted harshly by desk slamming into him making him jolt for cover as he dives closer toward the as he looks for an escape. Taking a moment to look outside to see shattered floating glass flying in the air as cracks in the sky and ground pulse with green, red, and bits of blue energy.

No students in sight as trees, buildings, hills, and the sky are shattered in fragments drifting in scape as thin tendrils of string seems to attach themselves to the ground and the floating fragments. Barely keeping everything together with a small black void missing a shard and just appears gone with small tendrils diving into the inky blackness. More scuttles echo to William’s side as he gives out a sigh before turning to see what is making that racket as he suddenly freezes in place to what he sees. A demon in black colors and a suit as dark as midnight with a red collar barely peeking from his neck. Cloaked in sentient shadows with gaping red maws looking for their next meal as piercing red eyes scan the room. His arms locked down on some woman with white hair and some kind of armor as she struggled half heartedly to escape from the grapple, focusing more on laughing at the scuttle than actively fighting.

-”Nope.” (William leaves the room and explores the dream.)
-Face the shadow demon.
-Face the woman.
-Tackle both to break the fight.
-Throw a desk at them.
-write-in

part 4

>>6111888
Ya I've read that one. It was supposed to be a one off? Love the condor sniper.

Also this was my bad, that extra turn of dmg could have probably made a difference considering how close this was.

>>6113544
It was a full on quest, went into haitus for a year, came back, and now chat is going feral as we got a bankroller, excel user, military researcher, and a war council. Shit gets intense with the rolls and panic.

Back on topic. Yeah the purifier leader had to keep using items to survive a 5v1 and make his build viable as he needed fire to keep his shield up but made him vulnerable to Alice's fissure damage. But take away his fire then he loses a lot of his protection and damage modifiers as he is forced to rely on muscle and technique. Had to burn all of his superiority dice for positioning and sweeping attacks after running out of magic.

In other news I will be missing for today, tomorrow, and I might be back on Wednesday as I have to visit friends and family.

>>6113544
Well looks like the practice fight worked. If ya learned something from it. Dnd is mostly about nuke damage. Can you nuke the person faster than they can nuke you. And we built ourselves to be the ultimate nuke.

We got action surge, gloomstalker bonus attack with bonus damage. Soon we will have assassin rogue auto crit ability.

Tbh we missed a few things. Any swing the boss made that missed we should of burned out superiority dice for Riposte. We should of flanked the boss with Virgil and then trip attacked to prone his ass so we can kick him while he's down. There's also the fact that we for some reason didn't use our familiar to scout everything out before hand.

Here's how I wanted the fight to go Mac.

Oh look it's the boss and his 4 guards. 5 fireballs later. I think they're done with the fighting. Time to clean up the stragglers. Shadowblade and using control flame to put out light sources. Delete everyone in the dark. I think qm forgot that when it's dark out people can't see us with dark vision. That's one of our special things.

So basically if it is night. We're unseeable. Which gives us advantage on all attacks.

>How fucked up are we atm? If we semi healed... shadowblade and sneak attack the demon. We should get 5 attacks with one being +1d8. Throw in a trip attack on the first for an extra 1d8. And an action surge. GGWP.

Fun fight qm thanks for running the quest.

>>6114094
Ye thanks so sticking for the quest so far. It is a blast running it and I didn't think I was going to last this long. So anyway any improvements or questions so far? Still trying to think how to make fights faster or how to improve dialogue.

>>6114094
Full health and you returned to the fighter/ranger class with all your abilities refilled. The mana gloves can be willed into existence and 6 attacks since technically two attacks are for the first surprise round, followed by your turn, then action surge as both personalities are distracted.

>>6114502
>roll a perception check first make sure they aren't people that work for rose.

But yeah gank the monster first.

I think it's mostly fine. We could probably simplify combat though. Not exactly sure how but it would be do able.

>>6113544
>>6114918
>>6114094
back home will write morrow big maco vote need sleep now spent two ngihts ignoring sleep to binge watch some shows with a friend

>>6113482
>>6114918
+1

I'll just go with this since I don't have any major opinion either way.

Rolled 86, 43 = 129 (2d100)

>>6115864
>>6114918
William recognition higher the better

File: William demon form.jpg (120 KB, 850x776)

120 KB JPG

>>6116177
Taking a moment to examine the fight in case this is another Rose training session. Inspecting the guy to spot jagged horns jut out of his head as sharp as steel nails ready to gore a helpless victim. Shadows give way to a well pressed dark and gray suit keeping away wrinkles or folds in the uniform as he continues straggling the woman. No wings can be seen at the moment as a long serpent-like tail coils around the ground aiming its spear-like tip of a tail at the other person. Just waiting for the window to impale its enemy before his head snaps up to see William only to get a hard elbow to his rib as the woman spins on her heel and turns away from the attack as she slides across a table. With no distractions going on anymore the demon adjusts his gloves as he gives a cold stare at William preparing his introduction but you already know who I am

“Well nice for you to finally met me William. Took you only a few days or a week, time is a bit blurry inside your mind.”
“Who are you?”
”Isn't it obvious? My name is Hayden Daylight Hellscream, the future of whatever job position Hellscream throws at me. You didn’t really ask what Hellscream plans for me as you were too busy running around doing your own thing.”
“Wait, Hellscream already converted me while I was sleeping? Is that how I got temporary magic during the fight? I don’t remember any rituals.”
”No you dumbass you gave away the demon stone our one fucking lifeline to survive. Hellscream already started your conversion when she pumped a high tier spell to keep you alive. That Heal spell overrides half of your brain with new nerve clusters and deletes sections of your original personality.”
“That doesn’t make sense, it was not a mana stone.”
“Mana stones are basically pooled high tier spells but here it had to pull your soul fragments back together after the spell exploded you.”
“Better to die human than become you.”
”So much pride for what someone that was originally at the level of Hellscream’s boot.”
“I survived and grew stronger. Now I can actually survive and fight back.”
”What use is power if you can’t even use it without outting yourself as an awaken ord to Astra, mages, Hellscream, or the Arbiters. You might as well still be a worthless ord.”
“Purifiers, gangsters, and Rose would disagree.”
“Practice, worthless ords, and she dropped you in one drop kick.”
“After tricking me into a trap and bleeding me out.”
“Excuses you coward. You are just too afraid to grab real power as your always hiding in the shadows.”
“I fought and almost beat the Animus mook.”
”Bravo you hero beating one mage that was holding himself back from deleting you with a fireball. You must be proud to scratch someone.”
“I have done more in one hour than what you do in a week.”

part 1

>>6116220
“Mana stones are basically pooled high tier spells but here it had to pull your soul fragments back together after the spell exploded you.”
“Better to die human than become you.”
”So much pride for what someone that was originally at the level of Hellscream’s boot.”
“I survived and grew stronger. Now I can actually survive and fight back.”
”What use is power if you can’t even use it without outting yourself as an awaken ord to Astra, mages, Hellscream, or the Arbiters. You might as well still be a worthless ord.”
“Purifiers, gangsters, and Rose would disagree.”
“Practice, worthless ords, and she dropped you in one drop kick.”
“After tricking me into a trap and bleeding me out.”
“Excuses you coward. You are just too afraid to grab real power as your always hiding in the shadows.”
“I fought and almost beat the Animus mook.”
”Bravo you hero beating one mage that was holding himself back from deleting you with a fireball. You must be proud to scratch someone.”
“I have done more in one hour than what you do in a week.”

reedited to fix missing /

File: Willow form.jpg (134 KB, 850x1030)

134 KB JPG

>>6116221
”But I did. I helped you during the gangster fights and the Purifier Leader encounter. You dumbass almost blew my arms off so I had to step in to vent the excess magic out.”
”Weeelll it was a team effort Hayden.”

Immediately William’s head snap to the other entity in the room as red bright round red eyes peer at him with her long white hair flowing down her shoulders as his skin tight arm hugs against her skin with two obvious additions along her chest. A soft smile spreads along her face as she cradles her face with a hand as the other arm leans on her knee as she sits on top of a desk. Unbothered by the hostility of both Hayden and William as she just soaks in the atmosphere patiently waiting and learning.

”Heeey Willie nice to finally see you visit us. It's been so lonely here without fresh company other than mister, the always angry demon.”
“Who are you?”
”I am hurt you don’t recognize me but I guess I can give you my introduction. My name is Willow.”
“Really Willow of all things? And when did you come in here?” Growls out William.
“It was either Willow or Willa and for the second question dunno I just popped in here and mister horny here just jumped a poor helpless little girl.”
“She would just not shut up and keep talking days on end.”
“Well what else were we supposed to do until we broke out? Draining magic from the leylines and our soul takes a bit.”
“You ate my magic?”
“No silly. We scrapped out some leyline magic that is keeping your soul intact to reinforce ourselves. You would not believe the dangers of soul fragmentation when your partial demon conversion is the duct tape keeping us all alive.”
“You parasites were eating my soul.”
“We were not eating our soul.”
“We merely took some leyline magic to keep ourselves tethered to the other soul fragments. Believe us, dealing half your soul missing is not a good time. Although losing a soul fragment to the soul bind is annoying after all the work we went through to recover fragments.”
“It's why this dreamscape is so damaged as surviving death on a Heal spell instead of a revive spell left some damage.”
”Also spare the dying spell that had to be upcasted to keep us alive long enough for the bone fragments to be pushed out. Now we lost most of our childhood, young years memories, and all the soap operas we watched.”
“That is not important now so what are you then? Just soul fragments.”
“William, that is a stupid question. I am the original personality.”
“Bitch we are born a man you can’t gaslight reality.”
“Take a joke Hayden as we got a guest. So Willie can I call you Willie? So Willie. Got any questions for your guardian angels?”

-nope(Leave the classroom)
-write in only

part 2

>>6116231
“Really Willow of all things? And when did you come in here?” Growls out William.
“It was either Willow or Willa and for the second question dunno I just popped in here and mister horny here just jumped a poor helpless little girl.”
“She would just not shut up and keep talking days on end.”
“Well what else were we supposed to do until we broke out? Draining magic from the leylines and our soul takes a bit.”
“You ate my magic?”
“No silly. We scrapped out some leyline magic that is keeping your soul intact to reinforce ourselves. You would not believe the dangers of soul fragmentation when your partial demon conversion is the duct tape keeping us all alive.”
“You parasites were eating my soul.”
“We were not eating our soul.”
“We merely took some leyline magic to keep ourselves tethered to the other soul fragments. Believe us, dealing half your soul missing is not a good time. Although losing a soul fragment to the soul bind is annoying after all the work we went through to recover fragments.”
“It's why this dreamscape is so damaged as surviving death on a Heal spell instead of a revive spell left some damage.”
”Also spare the dying spell that had to be upcasted to keep us alive long enough for the bone fragments to be pushed out. Now we lost most of our childhood, young years memories, and all the soap operas we watched.”
“That is not important now so what are you then? Just soul fragments?”
“William, that is a stupid question. I am the original personality.”
“Bitch we are born a man you can’t gaslight reality.”
“Take a joke Hayden as we got a guest. So Willie can I call you Willie? So Willie. Got any questions for your guardian angels?”

-nope(Leave the classroom)
-write in only

repost to fix the editting again

>>6116233
What do you guys bring to the table, potential wise, ability, skill?

How do you influence me(tokens)?

How do I fully heal my soul/memories?

How does this effect the soul binding?

>>6117079
Added question

How do you have knowledge I don't?

How did female will get here?

>>6117079
>>6117080
>>6116233
>+How do we gain more power. (Aka patrons for le warlock)

I was wondering what you was doing qm. Good twist I like it.

I don't see a reason for patrons. We have mage armor thay can learn any spell.

Plus we have no idea what would happen with this broken soul. Prisma introducing mana through suggestion created female will. Now it makes me wonder if the face or the animal hybrids can do the same due to the state of the soul.

>>6117173
I had this planned way back when I switched the green text to plain text and adding in the colored text. Spent days trying to figure out color for this bit and setting up the colors personalities. And adding in bits of info here and there to set this up cleanly. Also might not post today or Sunday as I have back to back birthday parties to visit.

>>6117079
>>6117173
“What do you guys bring to the table, potential wise, ability, skill?”
“We both have the same abilities as you but I specialize in the field of if you need to say the correct things to make friends, pacify a leader, or reduce a threat then I am your girl. Just leave all the talking to the best.”
(Gain an auto pass on diplo or a +50 to talking.)
“If you let me take the wheel I can enhance your punches to deal more damage or I can force through a critical hit in the smallest window of opportunity I can see.”
(Enforce one critical hit once per combat or double all melee damage per attack.)
“Anything else?”
“We are the same person and need more magic to unlock more things. So ah think of us as a boss’s second stage!”
“Eh, more of a mini-boss since we still got rolled by anything stronger than me.”
“How does this affect the soul binding?”
”I am still under its effects but it was annoying losing another piece of soul to some other entity.”
“How do I fully heal my soul/memories?”
“That is the neat part. You can’t.” Says Willow as Hayden smacks her face with a desk as she gets knocked to the floor with a yelp.
“Magic replaced the missing nerves but didn’t replace the nerve pulse memories. It was how you just kept absorbing every bit of magic data as you had the space now.”
“How do you influence me?”
(red and blue)”Ask for our help and we will take over till the danger passes.”(red and blue) States both Hayden and Willow in a sync voice.
“Is that how you have knowledge I don't?”
“We scraped together data from inside the mind and made guesses from all this space in the mind and magic taint.” Adds Willow as she sits back on the table again.
“I think half of my data is bleeding over from Hellscream’s magic and how maddening darkness was so easy to learn.”
“How did the female will get here?”
“That is hurtful. I have a name, Willie. But anyway usually it's just what intense leader magic our soul absorbs to recover like how there is no wolf Willie when Animus slapped a heal on you. While Prisma had a leader make magic robes that were closer and had skin contact.”
“I checked around and found no wolf copy but did hear whistling near the void hole from the soul binding. Stay away from there.”
“How do we gain more power or patrons for warlock options?”
“I am not dealing with more voices in my head.”
“Hmm, what would you be willing to trade for that info?”

-”I am not a merchant that can be bought.”
-”Are you sure there is no wolf William because if I come back and there is another fucker in here?”
-”Wait then which one of you gave me magic at the end there?”
-”How is my soul’s health?”
-write-in

>>6118321
-”I am not a merchant that can be bought.”
-”Are you sure there is no wolf William because if I come back and there is another fucker in here?”
-”Wait then which one of you gave me magic at the end there?”
-”How is my soul’s health?”
-write-in

reedited fuck the color typos are annoying me now

>>6118324
Idk mac...

>ask for their true names.
>look into planar binding.

I don't trust anything that "takes over for a while". I say we either bind them or mind rape them with encode thoughts then purge/Absorb them.

>>6118324
>>6118377
+1
-”I am not a merchant that can be bought.”
-”Are you sure there is no wolf William because if I come back and there is another fucker in here?”
-”Wait then which one of you gave me magic at the end there?”
-”How is my soul’s health?”

Insight check

Can't forget to check there words but ya I don't trust them. If there's a way to put them under heel I'll take it.

>>6118545
>>6118377
Roll insight Big Mac and anon. Flat d100 no mods.

Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>6118567
Dice better not cuck me...

Rolled 91 (1d100)

>>6118321

>>6119200
>>6118837
A moment passes through William’s head on where he can find planar binding to leash these voices before putting it on his to-do list to look for in the future. Turning his attention back to the voices in front of him first.

”I am not a merchant that can be bought.”
“Well you know where you can find me if you change your mind.”
”Are you sure there is no wolf William? Because if I come back and there is another fucker in here.”
”There is not currently a wolf William, I think. Just avoid the void hole and don’t let Lora hit you with any of her magic.”
”Speaking of magic, which one of you gave me magic at the end there?”
[red and blue] “Joint effort to avoid getting our limbs blow off!” [red and blue] Both Hayden and Willow yell out as the memory is a sore point for both.
”Okay now how is my soul’s health?”
“Healing well enough with your constant fighting. Soul fragments are still shattered but are pulling themselves together.”
”Just keep getting into fights and my soul will use the leylines to naturally recover.”

Taking a quick inspection of Hayden’s and Willow’s faces William is confident there are no lies in there answers and the status of his soul health. Until he remembered a specific part of their last conversation about influencing, take over, and needing more magic. Enough crumbs of doubt to make him question their real motives.

“What are your real names then?”
[red and blue]“We told you.” [red and blue.] States both voices in a confused tone.
“Hayden is the name I chose.”
”Willow is the closest name flip I could do.”
“We aren’t fey and are you.” Says Hayden offended at being considered fey.
”Well you are us leaning in a certain way but no we are not fey. Maybe the void is part fey from the singing but we both aren’t illusions” Adds in Willow confused at the question about their names with a slight fear in her voice when speaking about the fey.

Not real fey and are a part of William so no soul parasites or anything as he notes Willow’s fear of the void that may or may not have a fey inside. Satisfied he isn’t dealing with fey bullshit William returns to his real question.

“What are you aiming for other than just “helping” when you take over for a bit?”
“Ah little Willie finally asking some real questions took you long enough. So me and Hayden want one simple thing: a temporary spell of Shapechange or True Polymorph.” States Willow with a smile as her head rests on her hand.
“You fucking traitors.” Hisses our William as he wills his gloves into existence as he takes up his fighting stance.

part 1

>>6119415
>William HP 80/80, gloves 20/20 energy, full equipment restocked.
>Mental/Soul stability 40%
vs
>Hayden and Willow ?? HP, ?? HP, magic ?? and ??
>Mental/Soul stability ??% and ??%

”Wait William before you start swinging, let us finish first!” Yells out Hayden as he flares his magic preparing for a fight too.
“Fine, keep talking.” Adds William as he squeezes his fists activating booming blade cantrips as he mentally adjusts the placement of his adrenaline syringes for easy access.
“So you know how our soul is fractured and needs magic to recover? With a conversion spell it will boost the magic available to help recovery efforts.”
“Then you can just confirm the change and erase me.”
“As much as I would like to take back control you would still resist it and with a fractured soul it could just kill all of us.”
”Plus with what we know about Prisma, a still unwilling soul only creates a crippled one making it a lose-lose situation for all of us if we try to force a conversion. As much as it pains me to admit both of us can’t force a full conversion without it becoming a group suicide or worse.”
“What could be worse?”
“Oblivion.”
”Where ever Hellscream is from.” Adds in Willow as Hayden scoffs.
“And what if I fight you here right now?”
”Dunno, maybe a lack of restful sleep?”
“I think you would just be smacking yourself in the face as this is a dream.”

-”Well let's find out then.” (Enter combat. Pop action surge, booming blade, and 2 superiority dice to prone both and commit two sweeping attacks at autocrit for the surprise round.)
-”Any advice for tomorrow for school?”
-”Hayden do you have all of Hellscream’s spells?”
-”Willow do you have all of Holly’s spells?”
-”So you both want shapechange what will you offer me?”
-”No shapechange even if it heals me.”
-write in.

part 2

>>6119417
-”Well let's find out then.” (Enter combat. Pop action surge, shadow blade, and 2 superiority dice to prone both and commit two attacks to one and 3 to the other with autocrit for the surprise round.)

5 attacks with autocratic with +16 on all of them from shadow blade (+8×2 for crit)

Should be a fuckload of damage.

Plus our bonus gloomstalker strike with a +4 dmg.

We don't gain much exp from dream fights. The only reason to fight is to see how our kit would be used by different factions.

>>6119417
>>6119458
+1

>>6119458
So the surprise round is the only one that gets the auto crits so do you want to pop 4 crits with gloom and shadow blade on them, or burn 2 attacks to prone them then followed up by two crits?

Next turn it becomes a normal battle as everyone rolls for initiative so doing 5 attacks, prone both of them, and autocrits is beyond what Will can do as the dream is mostly realistic.

>>6119795
I'd knock them prone first.

>>6119795
So here's how'd it go

Bonus action (BA): Shadowblade
Attack three times: First attack is with trip attack, second attack is for trip attack, if either of those fail trip attack again with our final superiority dice (pick female over male if we miss both). Those all get +8 from shadowblade damage and +4 on two attacks from superiority dice damage and then an additional +4 on the final attack from gloomstalker shot proccing on first round of combat.

Action surge: Attack two more times with shadowblade. For a +8 on each strike

2 attacks +12 dmg, 1 attack +12 or 16 (if we missed a trip attack)

2 more attacks at +8 dmg

Idk what our dice damage would be since we converted the d8s to flat damage boost...

Cause in game it would be 3d8x5 or 15d8+25 a d then the 15d8 would x2 to 30d8+25 damage. If that doesn't insta kill at least one of them. I say we switch back to diplomacy... and try again later...

Anything with more than 150hp kinda out of league....

Mac once we're level 3 rogue we need to get fighter 11 asap.

We could be doing 7 attacks with auto crit and if we can upcast shadowblade it can do 3d8 to 4d8 per hit.

>>6120410
At the start of your first turn of each combat, your walking speed increases by 10 feet, which lasts until the end of that turn. If you take the Attack action on that turn, you can make one additional weapon attack as part of that action.

Ah it was gloomstalker that was giving the third attack okay yeah 2 crit trip attacks then 3 crits with the last one going to Willow.

If both Hayden and Willow get dropped before they can do anything I would be impressed. Going to eat right now and do the math and start thonking on the descriptions.

Rolled 1, 1, 5, 3, 1, 3 = 14 (6d6)

>>6120428
Add 12 then times by 5 attacks then double it for due to auto crits.

>>6120518
”Well let's find out then.” States William as he eyes Hayden’s position merely five feet away from him and across from Willow.
“What?” Asks Willow as William starts his plan.

With a thought William brings up shadowblade with a flick of his wrist as shadows get dragged away from his clothing and coiling around his limbs. Magic buzzing as the gauntlets crackle with energy as it follows his will, enhancing his limbs with spiked shadows ready to burrow into skin.
Immediately stepping close to Willow as he reaches out with both hands to grab her thinner leg relying on the dream and magic as he yanks her across the table as a yelp escapes from her mouth at the sudden acceleration. A quiet pop and tearing of skin sound reaches William’s hears before he ignores that to focus on the fight instead. Shadow claws dig into Willow’s leg even deeper as it searches and pierces muscle, bone, and blood to give a better leverage point as bone creaks from the sheer force. Fingers tense from the strain and power coursing through William’s limbs as he stopped breathing to focus on his actions as his teeth grind against one another from the stress. With an explosion of force William tosses Willow at Hayden who was also caught by surprise. Skull meets a chest as Willow’s head slams face first into Hayden’s ribs as several light snaps are heard along the crumpling of a desk from an entire body slamming into each other. Both enemies collapse to the ground in a tangle of limbs and clothing as they try to scramble back up with blood dripping from Willow’s head staining her pristine dress and hair while Hayden coughs up blood as he wheezes from the lack of air.

Seeing his surprise attack is still being recovered from, William takes a breath as he feels a surge of energy invigorate him as he steps forward aiming for Hayden’s knee and channels the shadow blade into spiked shoes as he stomps down hard on his target. Bone cracking and slightly sinking in as spurts of blood begins staining his pants as a yell of agony echoes from the room. Not forgetting about Willow as William pools the shadows along the edges for his fingertips of his right hand and swipes it toward Willow as he feels something tearing at skin, blood, cartilage, and touching a bit of bone. Letting a bright crimson pool out of her throat as she coughs out a quiet gurgle before falling back first on the floor, as Willow holds a hand to her throat while using her legs to kick off from the floor in an escape attempt only for William to use another stomp to catch her ankle. A louder gurgle escapes from Willow’s mouth as her foot twists from the violent stomp as ligaments are torn and bone bends from his latest assault.

part 1

>>6120529
Both hands immediately raise toward William as malevolent fire and blue hues cover Hayden’s and Willow’s hands forcing William to toss his body to the side to dodge the attacks. Sliding along the floor as he begins running counterspell into his gauntlets making them hum in anticipation as he tries to decide who to counter first. Magic swimming along both of their hands as they both try to aim at William before falling limp on the floor as Willow shatters into glass fragments and Hayden bursts into a small inferno as both of their bodies are gone.

>Damage dealt 260
>Hayden HP 0/80
>Willow HP 0/80

Looking around the room for flashes of magic William preps his counterspell just in case as he begins searching for them. Pushing past desks tables and looking into adjacent rooms for any traps only to find nothing else hunting for him.

“I thought you guys would be more dangerous than this.” Mutters out William at how easy the fight was.

Walking toward a window as William tries to inspect his mind seeing a few notable landmarks along the horizon. An ominous red glow inside the forest as flares of fire jut out of the ground as they claw at the sky. A light blue glow pulsing along the entrance of the school with tendrils of magic whipping lightly at the air. The dark void in the middle of the field with bits of a dirt dome being erected along the sides of the anomaly in an attempt to cover up the site. Trailing his eyes a bit higher, William spots pillars of glass shards flowing through Alice’s library, the forest, and the entrance of the school.

-Explore the red glow.
-Explore the blue glow.
-Explore the voidhole.
-Explore the memory shard library.
-Explore the memory shard forest
-Explore the memory shard entrance.
-Sleep(Wake up)

part 2

Hmm this is a chance to learn more about ourselves but at the same time I do wish to see what happens when we mess with there stuff.

-Explore the blue glow.

I'm hoping we can dominate subsume the power. I'd pick demon but if he's truthful that means it's the thing that's holding our soul together.

Blue usually is knowledge and red power but it's also the factions. The memory shards are likely old will memories that might open up opportunities or clear up the mystery on how Will got here.

>>6120877
>agreed

Blue then red. Time to absorb them... with force. Burn out their personalities but absorb their power.

Ayyyyy Mac we fucked them good.

>>6121569
>>6120877
Seeing a blue glow gently pulsing rather than looking like a forest fire William easily settles in for his pick. Looking at the ground for a bit before deciding that fall damage might wake him up he looks for the stairs instead to be on the safe side. Walking through pristine hallways as sterile as, as, something before refocusing back to his goal as he exits the school and walks toward the entrance. Spotting a makeshift tent made out of leaves, his Prisma armor being used as a blanket, several fire pit holes with shards inside, a pile of garbage and trash alongside, and a blue campfire with tendrils of flame poking and prodding at the wave of memory shards going from the sky to underneath ground. Taking a closer look to see all the memory shards are fuzzy, fragmented, and with no holding any visible picture.

Yanking a memory shard from the air water fall William tries to peer into the shard for any scrap of memory he can find only to see constant static or a void. Letting out an annoyed sigh William crouches down to the fire pits as he immediately recognizes some notes. Shards mostly contain Rose’s fight in the forest with more attention given to her positioning and striker equipment. Going through Willow’s trash he spots wood and rocks with carved engravings of absorb elements and makeshift equipment attempting to copy her. Investigating the other fire pits reveals more memory shards focusing on Alice’s Frost Armor with glowing magical formulas being carved on the ground trying to make sense of her magic. Looking around the campsite also pops up other memories of magic formulas William has studied for like absorb elements, maddening darkness, misty step, and counterspell. Confusing washes over William’s face as he tries to think if these are his memories or copies of the original and whether Willow can lock these away from him.

Looking back at the blue campfire shows the tendrils of blue flame picking random shards and throwing back the fuzzy ones back into the flow. Keeping only the ones with magic or combat data to be deposited in one of the fire pits for either investigation or something else. Letting his intrusive thoughts take over for a bit William tries to grab the tendrils of flame only for them to break at his touch as another flame tendril takes its place from the campfire.

-what do

QM note: Sorry for the delay had paintball, heatstroke, and a marathon fighting Indonesia and Liam in civ 6.

>>6122233
>try a combination of control flame and mend to make the fragments into a single memory shard.

Maybe add a detect magic.

>>6122233
>>6122411
+1

I'll go with this, the whole point is to reabsorb all the memories and destroy the influences.

Rolled 35, 69, 94 = 198 (3d100)

>>6122523
>>6122411
First roll mend attempt. DC 20.

Second roll memory quality. Higher the better

If both rolls succeed third roll will be the insight check DC 50.

>>6122523
>>6122411
Tapping his chin in thought William grabs a handful of the fragmented fuzzy shards from the pillar of glass as he focuses on them. Muttering out the mend cantrip from his studies as he squeezes his fists together as memory shards bite into his hands vibrating and heating up. Feeling a buzz and static clinging on his arms as William gently pumps in magic slowly as shards liquify and reshape themselves within his hand. Opening his hands to see a mirror as he peers into the glass to see nothing but a blank emptiness devoid of memory or emotions. Putting away the empty mirror in his pocket William reaches out to grab another collection of fuzzy shards and does the same plan again.

Another empty mirror greets William as he scoffs out in frustration at the lack of progress to see the same emptiness in the glass. Pausing for a moment as he looks at the fire pit full of memories as he recalls what Hayden said.

“Magic replaced the missing nerves but didn’t replace the nerve pulse memories. It was how you just kept absorbing every bit of magic data as you had the space now.”

Looking at the broken shards, the empty mirrors, and the fact magic is easier to learn made William finally accept that they were not lying about the lost memories. With no real way to regain his memories from the accidental brain lobotomy he got from the forest. Sitting back on the ground as he inspects the other memories to notice Willow is trying to recreate Alice’s new spells.

>Discovered fragmented memories can’t be regained.
>Discovered Willow is trying to recreate new spells and investigating Rose.

-Explore the red glow.
-Attempt something else with Willow’s campsite.
-Explore the voidhole.
-Explore the memory shard library.
-Explore the memory shard forest
-Explore the memory shard entrance.
-Sleep(Wake up)

>>6122711
>encode thoughts from the repaired fragments. Re order our mind aka make a new bookmark with encode thoughts.
>We absorbed all the power ya?
>Go to red. Get ready to do the same thing.

>mend the fragments into a shard. Encode thoughts the shard so we save the memory with magic.

We really need to learn greater restoration and some other healing shit.

>>6122711
>>6123015
+1

Don't we already gain the knowledge since this is in his head? So encode thoughts dont matter.

Also what is the cost of going ot all these other rooms? Are we limited by time or just missing events if we domt go outside?

>>6123219
">Discovered fragmented memories can’t be regained"

Hence maybe encoding them will save them... maybe... I'd like willows magic tests and info she find looking into rose.

Yeah what Mac said too qm. Can we go to all the locations or are we time strapped?

I mainly just trying to follow our characters ethos of we stay us and we stay "human". And personality fragments that aren't us either need to be enslaved or deleted. And we chose to delete these invaders. I would like to absorb any power or info from them if possible though.

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>6123015
There is nothing to encode as these are already William's memories since he experienced them. Its Willow trying to search out data for her plans as the magic formulas are the spells William already learned.

Its like a conspiracy theory board where Willow is trying to connect the dots and R&D her own theories on how others fight and work.

>>6123219
uh DC 30/60/90/100 each DC met can visit one location before snapping awake.

>>6123304
I will say right now all the fragmented memories are lost and wiped as the brain heal regenerated too violently to let the memories settle. Willow made the entire campsite to try and sift through the hazziness to find actual memories she can study.

>>6123304
>>6123219
>Time for 2 explorations before waking up.

More Mending cantrips are pushed into the shards as more empty mirrors pile out onto the ground. Another round of encoding memories just doubles his original memories again into another perfect copy of the events of Rose’s fight and Alice’s magic. Flicking his eyes to the blue flame William utters out a Control Flames cantrip with a tap of his gauntlets as he yanks the flame off the ground and pools it into a ball of light in his hands trying to inspect for any secrets. Seeing a few layers of magic inside the flame with an entangle and control flame spells designed to grab and deposit shards to the closest fire pit. Getting a quick idea in his head William pops an Absorb Elements to take the magic of the campfire into himself only for the fire to break apart upon contact with his body. Either being too fragile of magic or not being Willow’s real source of power in his mindscape.

A grunt of frustration escapes from his mouth as he turns his attention to the next location as the red glow greets him. Quickly making his way toward the forest as he walks past broken ground and floating islands as shards of glass clouds hang overhead as tendrils of fire try to lash out toward the open sky. Small geysers of flame erupt from holes in the ground that scorches the nearby vegetation turning the bright green into a small ashen wasteland. Pushing deeper into the forest until he spots a deep cavern billowing out pillars of fire toward the sky as it grabs a hold of a floating island and begins pulling it toward the ground.

Coming upon the edge of the forest as William spots the dark void beneath his feet as it lights up in a fiery aurora borealis leashing dozens of shattered islands of his mind before they drift too far. Inspecting the ground a bit further to see veins of green leylines stab across the shattered ground pulling at the closest islands, glass, and leashed ground to rejoin the whole mind. Only to see the red and green magic energies clash against one another trying to heal the area in their differing ways. Lush greenery trying to overgrow over the flaming inferno as ashen ground and burnt trees welcomes their charges with flame. Fire smothered in glass, ground, and vegetation with small geysers of fire melting into existence to enforce its will on the mind. Looking around the area a bit more to see no campsite, living space, or investigation site being erected by Hayden.

-write in

>>6123340
>control flames and bend the fire to our will. See what happens when this green stuff takes over.

Hmmm interesting. Where ever you want to go after this Mac

>Detect magic. See if we can see where the twos power originates. To get it from the source.

>>6123340
>>6123402
+1

Depending on how this goes I guess we check the library next.

>>6123826
>>6123402
Today's update will be delayed to tomorrow as I need to update my resume for a potential new job.

>>6123828
Good luck on the job qm.

Rolled 16, 93, 92, 67 = 268 (4d100)

>>6123828
>>6123402
First dice William's control flame
Second dice Hayden's Will.

Third dice Willow's retribution DC 160
Fourth dice Hayden's retribution DC 80

Rolled 82, 11 = 93 (2d100)

>>6124424
First dice Will, second dice Hayden's auto defense.

William dodge roll vs Hayden's defenses. On failure to dodge take 24 damage.

>>6123826
>>6123402
Seeing the dancing fireworks below his mind William pulls up his detect magic formula as he closes his eyes to rattle out the design. Tapping his gauntlets gently as it pulses in power before a wave of static pushes outward from him as he pings the magic. Feeling the cool air flowing across his body as a soft warmth cradles him instantly knowing the green magic is the leylines of the world made by the old forgotten gods. Leylines stitches his soul slowly together trying to avoid magic overdoses or intoxication that could damage his life. Staring at the old designs of magic and appreciating the complexity of Divination magic.

The cool green is immediately burnt out as fire pushes out its efforts as tendrils of flame coil around shards as both compete for more territory. Power sizzling and yearning for more material to stoke its will across the mind as geysers of fire bellow from the ground to paint the sky in its malevolent crimson hue. With more vegetation being grown to attempt to stall its progress making the healthy green magic lose bits of its luster as the fire keeps up its intensity and amount. Looking closer at the flames William already knows who’s magic this is.

Hellscream's Evocation magic.

A growl escapes from William’s mouth at the half truth Hayden gave him to cover up his own efforts of trying to spread. Reaching out a hand as he pushes out a control flame to see if he can stop the flame’s wrath. With a thought and muttering out the control flame cantrip William sees the fires stutter and choke as leyline magic now free from assault continue their slow work knitting the ground back together. Vines and bush growing over the ashen ground only for the fire to blaze in intensity as it vibrates heavily to be free. A flare of fire shatters the control flame spell as William’s hand spams out from the feedback before the stuttering flame concentrates itself into a point and flies straight towards him.

Acting on instinct and with the control flame spell still on his mind William slaps his left hand on his right as he upcasts control flame pumping more magic into the cantrip. Precious seconds pass as the fireball approaches closer to him preparing to scorch his body just like how the Purifier leader did before. With a roar William lashes out the back of his fist into the fireball as he deflects the magic toward his right sending the fireball flying into a tree before harmless detonating away from him. Blowing apart trees, bushes, and dirt from where it landed as the fires glow intensity as they return fighting the leylines for control.

>1 exploration slot left

-Write in

>>6124428
Fuck we failed Mac

I say we try again. I'd rather not let him fester there or mess with our leylines...

>Try again to purge Hayden. Cast dispel magic (up cast as high as we can).
>Then hit him with a control flame and purge him.

Hopefully we can come back again Mac. But I think Hayden fire stuff is top priority to get rid of .

>>6124428
>>6124462
+1

I agree we must destroy the heretic and burn the mutant. William will become pure!

Rolled 49, 74, 72, 62, 22 = 279 (5d100)

>>6124880
>>6124462
Wizard level 8 tier 4 dispel

First dice dispel magic+20
Second dice Hayden resistance
Third dice saving roll higher the better +40
Fourth Willow's retribution DC 120
Fifth Hayden's retribution DC 60

>>6124944
Pulling at his magic as William gathers it into the palm of his hands as he mutters out the incantations as he aims it at the roaring inferno below. Searching for the center mass of the hellfire magic swirling below as he takes a breath and sends out the dispel pulse. A ball of static fuzz drops towards the cavern as it pulses away static as it extinguishes tendrils of flame before it pulses in anger. Retaliating by sending out a flare of molten plasma to bathe the area with the dispel spell. Fire chocking and breaking the spell as its sputters out from the intense magic overtaking William's formula.

With the dispel destroyed it launches out a whip of flame right at William he ducks the crimson wave as it scorches the entire treeline above his head.

Seeing it continues to fail to even touch William the fires stop attacking the leylines as they begin forming small fireballs along its surface. Flares of magic coiling around the surface as it builds up its magic to stop missing its attacks as the ground cracks underneath William’s feet. Stabilizing his footing to avoid falling down a cliff William feels several eyes glaring at the back of his head as he feels two presence watching him. Looking around the area William can’t spot anyone staring at him as only the sounds of crackling fire meet him.

>.5 exploration slots left.

-write-in

>>6124953
Well fuck Mac....

I say we regroup and maybe go find either Lora or hellscream or rose. Probably rose first. Tell her we got some free riders in our head we need help purging.

>try to force the mindscape to our will. Boost our strength lower anything else's power this is our domain.

Basically just try to enforce our will on this space. For our last .5. Hopefully it'll boost us when we come back with plan B.

Top priority to burn these cunts out.

That prisma whore is now at the top of the shit list. We should have rose help us kill her and frame Animus or Coven. I'm thinking alter self then comit the crime as them.

I don't think it's wise to tell Rose. The Demon magic is what's keeping us alive. Better we study the soul using hellscrens library first.

>>6124953
>>6125604
It's worth a try.

Rolled 81, 57, 53, 22 = 213 (4d100)

>>6125935
>>6125604
First dice William's attempt to assert his will without knowledge. -60 to the roll.
Second dice William's saving throw against ??? higher the better
Third dice Willow's retribution DC 80 but with a +5 mod.
Fourth dice Hayden's retribution DC 20 but with a +20 mod

>>6126696
Looking at the burning flames below him and deciding he needs to triage the damage William focuses on his soul and its magic as he tries to smother the infection. Reaching out his fingers pushing his magic and will to dig into his mind as he grips the ground. Imagining the dirt compacted to smother the flames or at the very least burying his ass to delay his plans. With a plan in mind William reaches out both of his hands as he grips the ground and PULLs.

PAIN.

Leylines split apart as the ground is cleaved like veins were ripped apart while spilling magic onto the ground. His soul shatters even more as magic stitching breaks apart as his vision blurs out from the pain of feeling himself stretching, hollowed out, and bleeding magic into the void. Every nerve ending screaming in pain from feet to hand from the deepest pit of his stomach to the entire buzzing in his head. His body and arms seizing up from the action as he kneels on the ground trying his best to stay conscious from all the sensations wracking his body.

>Mental/Soul stability 35%
Hayden mental/soul stability ???%+5%

The ground in front of him shatters into glass shards as leylines try to reach out for recover efforts only for a wave of flames to pierce the shards and drag them downward. Glass melting, warping, and earning a crimson hue as more ground turns to ash from as tendrils break free from the underground trying to hold the broken landscape together. A scream of pain echoes in the sky as blue tendrils rise up from the school before digging straight down. Hayden and Willow magic tendrils coring into the ground as a familiar yell echoes from the cavern as a demonic hand rises from the ground as a singed and bloody Hayden crawls out of the fire. Panting from the effort as he coughs out in pain before wiping the blood off of his mouth with burning hatred in his eyes.

“I told you I was the glue, you investigated the leylines, and you thought you could erase us with just your will? If it was that easy Willow or I would have done that already!”

“You're both parasites to my mind.”

“And you're one to mine. I expected we could at least push out Willow first then deal with each other later, but after this almost soul shattering I guess I now have to take her deal.” States Hayden as a wave of flame burns across his body as Hellscream’s robes come into being.

“And you trust her?” Asks William as he gets back up as he readies his gauntlets.

“She at the very least won’t kill my soul and with what will happen at the school when we go back she is the best chance to keep us staying alive. So come and burn in my lair”

Part 1

>>6126715
Two tendrils of flame rush out of the cavern as they sway side to side near Hayden preparing for any orders to be issued. Small motes of embers begin floating harmlessly into the sky as magic pulses from Hayden’s body. Staining the sky a red hue as vegetation slowly turns into ash from the intense heat as more fire tendrils snake across the ground for more glass shards.

>William HP 70/70, gloves 15/20 energy, full equipment restocked.
>Mental/Soul stability 35%
vs
Hayden HP 50/90, fire tendril 1 HP ??, fire tendril 2 HP ??, lair actions, Hellscream robes.
Mental/Soul stability ??%+5%

Willow recovering
Mental/Soul stability ??%

-Summon Prisma or Hellscream robes for protection.
-write-in

part 2

Do we have the striker gear on and the magic armor? I'll assume we still have it on.

I don't think summoning the representation of either sides taint is a good thing.

So blitz him, can't remember our stances and skills off the top of my head.

>>6126822
No armor, only the mana gloves, and William has 2 health pots, 2 smoke bombs, 3 adrenaline, 1 heavy stunk bomb.

Battlemaster skills: Riposte, Trip Attack, Disarming Attack, and four superiority dice locked at d40s to attack rolls or d8s to damage. Action surge and does 2x attacks per action.
Melee 2d6 per landed hit.

You could summon the skin armor Hellscream commissioned you for +30 since that one was made by a tailor.

>>6126822
Mac I say we Uber fuck this kid up. Don't worry about the robes and stuff I doubt the qm is gonna gotcha on that.

>summon both robes and suit.

>cast pass without trace. Trigger both the armor and the invisibility. Then run away.

>hide

>Gank this fool with a BA Shadowblade (drop pass without trace)

>3 attacks with should have advantage on all of them due to being invisible and unheard. They should also be auto crits.

Well not what I thought was going to happen XD

Do we have smoke bombs? Also summon familiar? I'm thinking to distract him and then fade for a sneak atk.

>>6127253
Don't want tess to die. Sucks to re summon them. We have smoke bombs. We could drop a smoke in addition to what I said but the smoke will hurt us too with sight.

>>6126718
>>6127251
+1 fine we'll see how an aggressive ask goes.

>>6127461
This is a dream sequence so tess ain't dying, you got the smoke, and stuffs.

>>6127584
Fuck it throw tess at him while we do all our other shit.

Rolled 84, 77, 94, 83, 59 = 397 (5d100)

>>6127251
>>6127570
First dice William's control. DC beat all the interference rolls or get stunned.
Second, third, and fourth dice interference rolls.
Fifth dice Willow's retribution DC 70.

Rolled 3, 1, 1, 1, 4, 2, 5, 1 = 18 (8d6)

>>6127610
Hayden's attack double damage on stunned William.

Rolled 8 (1d100)

>>6127610
Secret ??? DC 30/60/90

>>6127629
>>6127610
Gathering a plan in his mind William tugs at his magic as it starts burning and freezing his hands as Hayden’s and Willow’s magic scrapes against his. Feeling pieces of himself get swapped out to make room as a pulsing headache locks up his body as multiple robes try to complete for the same space as Hellscream’s robes are frozen in parts along his body as Prisma robes try to burst out only for his commission armor to explode underneath all his clothing. Gauntlets sizzling and crackling with energy as its trying to accept and reject everyone’s magic trying to guide its programming. Pulling its imaginary computer chips in multiple directions as it begins to overheat keeping up with the magic overflow. Everyone’s magic is fighting each other for control as magic crackles and pops above his skin, shattering his concentration again and again. Pushing his gauntlets to rip off Prisma robes to let the blue and purple flame fall on the ground. Every second tearing the cloth felt like he was tearing off pieces of his skin as it exploded at his touch before turning his attention to his magic. Seeing it spams and leashing out over all the foreign magic invading his body knowing it's not the gauntlet or the leyline magic it's accustomed to. Nerves screaming at the infiltration as it tries to defend the body forcing William to push all his magic into the gauntlet to stop the seizures. Dismissing his original skin armor to let Hellscream’s robes come fully equipped.

Letting a gasp of relief washes over William at stopping the system shock from the magic he looks up to Hayden to see a small mote of fire slam into the ground. A fireball detonating a bit too weakly than he expected but hitting a lot more harder from his lack of dodging the magic or counterspelling if it was a normal fireball. As soon as Hayden’s magic slams into William he feels pain piercing deeper into his soul as it gets crushed inward and stabbed by burning fragmented shards. Feeling like something is leaking out of his body as a familiar hollowness settles into the pit of his stomach. A wave of flame scorches the area as it blasts apart the cover and launches him backwards as skin peels as the rest of his body cracks from the blast. Getting back up as William rushes to cover behind the nearby trees to take a breather as he spots Hayden is still keeping his position as the tendrils stay near his body.

“Huh didn’t know you could do that. Guess we are learning a lot about souls today huh William?!”

Hayden turns his attention to the environment as the flame tendrils begin roaming around him in a circle as it burns the vegetation to ensure the whole area is a fire zone ready to light up anything that tries to move through. Every approach around Hayden is blocked by one of the tendrils of flame to deter charging into melee as he tries to search for William’s next attack.

Part 1

>>6127657
>William HP 34/70, gloves 15/20, items fully restocked, and Tess available for summon, Hellscream skin armor and cape on.
>Skin Armor: +30 dodge on a bonus action
>Cape: +25 Shield cape for one round activated on B.A limit 2 per fight.
>Mental/Soul stability 20%(-15%)
>??? to William’s body when we awakes.
vs
Hayden HP 50/90, fire tendril 1 HP ??, fire tendril 2 HP ??, lair actions, Hellscream robes.
Skin Armor: +30 dodge on a bonus action
Cape: +25 Shield cape for one round activated on B.A limit 2 per fight.
Mental/Soul stability ??%+5%

Willow recovering
Mental/Soul stability ??%

-write in

(Secret event will occur in the next update.)
part 2

>>6127658
??

Well I guess rocks fall party's dead.

Tbh qm I don't get why you're sand bagging us. But whatever.

So Mac we're dead I don't know why qm is doing that but yeah there's nothing for us to do. We can't beat 3 stun rolls statistically 92% of the time. In addition to the 4th roll of willow fucking with us.

Like we bodied them hard first time now they're demi God's? Like we would of died immediately against them if they hit us with 3 stun rolls.

So I guess can we just skip the fight QM? Do whatever it is you want to do. I'm assuming it's one of then taking us over or some shit. Cause there's no way for us to do anything. We're just going to get chain stunned and apparently take like 30 damage.

Screw it, is going out like Vegeta possible? Pull on the void or something and take everyone with us. This is within the mind, there has to be someway to fight back thats non standard.

Problem is what can we do that won't grant us a malus? Is this like SAO where our belief can superseded things? Can we become more stable? If we can exert that on ourself what's the malus?

Can I get a quick rundown of what happened?

We still have the territory. We can try going into stealth again. We can summon Tess as a distraction or retreat. Not sure what our options are here.

Also damn using both did have issues. Figured it'd give one side more control but it seems it overloaded things antpyway.

Anyway we can absorb and convert the magic since this is the mcs mind and that's demon will a version of will?

>>6128304
Summoning the magical representation of other entities and trying to use them all at the same time caused magical interference with each other as everyone is actively hostile. You can try to absorb magic but Hayden will resist hard against it.

>>6128283
Its not auto death as its a dream. Demi gods because your poking at Hayden's soul so he has to pull out everything to avoid getting deleted. Even then we came back damaged and got lucky that you choose to try and use everyone's magic instead of upcasting a spell against him. The three stun rolls only happened because you tried to use three separate magics instead of just one. The 30 damage was from a fireball not from the interference.

Also its not a take over as they lost too much magic from their first death and will spend some time trying to recover as they both were forced to come back. Its like cornering an animal against a wall so they both are lashing out with everything they got.

Ok what are our options to escape. I assume we're going to be weakened like them if we die? Or at least lose the advantage we have and be locked out until they've regrouped for round 2?

Can I just write the broad idea of the plan rather then the nitty gritty of the skills and we'd be given the likely options to do it based on Wills understanding?

>>6128589
To let you know you the secret roll was for how many rounds William will be in the dream. So don't really need a big plan as you just need to wait one turn before he wakes up. The easiest solution is just to either retreat or cast misty step and break line of sight. Also yes if you die you get weakened but recover much faster than them.

>>6128304
>>6128520
Tis a bit bullshit imo they didn't even make the items for us... like we literally met the tailor who made our armor she was not a demon.....

But whatever. You do you. Then do my original plan since we're un stunned and you say it won't happen again.

That should insta kill him.

It more that the items are a mental representation of those guys. Using them is will showing a willingness to use their corruption basically indicating on some level he agrees with them. That he needs to be more then human.

It's what I was worried about last turn and didn't want to risk.

Wait your plan is:
Pass without a trace, run, then gang?

Break your plan down again if I'm wrong.

What are our current class levels again? Trying to remember what we have and how many actions.

I'm thinking we do action surge. Items don't take an action to use or does it use our bonus action?

We have what three asks using action surge. Then we have the chem that can substitute for action surge again. So can we max 4 asks?

So how viable is smoke bomb, misty step and then our best Melee spell. Does that give us surprise?

>>6128813
Okay I reread the archives and forgot Hellscream commissioned her suit and did not touch it personally. So demon magic infection are not in the robes just inside Will. This was like 6 months ago and forgot all about the tailor.

>>6128892
Yeah it was the reasoning behind using their equipment as you gain benefits by being something else other than William.

>>6128894
>Fighter level 4, ranger level 2, High Ring wizard level 1, Prisma mage level 1.
Lose multi-attack, lose dread ambusher extra attack and extra damage, and gain 4 tier 1 level spell access.

>Hayden and Willow lose 1 mage level each and gain 1 fighter level, unarmed fighting, and second wind.

Also I forgot an entire update that was suppose to be part one of this post >>6127657

But yeah anon was right it was bullshit and I forgot what I wrote. Since I went too deep in now how about I offer a free crit to both of you in exchange for my mistake and finish the dream sequence in the next post?

They messed up our class distribution. Now we really have to kill those two.

There has to be a way to just shunt them into something else. Maybe our mage armor since they have mage levels.

>>6128931
Facts. Tis fine qm. You're not wrong it's been a while. So again props to you for continuing the quest.

Yeah that's why I wasn't worried about the items cause we knew he hellscream one wasn't made by a demon. And plus magic items (unless cursed items or sentient) are equivalent to a gun. Doesn't matter if it's a Austrian glock or a colt they're still just guns. And we were also in a dream sequence which seemed weird that items we didn't actually physically have some how are effecting a dream. Especially when we don't have any magic to summon stuff to us. Hence why I voted our last one as basically willing ourselves stronger and more in control of the inner world. Which then sparked us getting mobbed.

>Pop prisma cloak for invisibility.
>Cast pass without trace.
>send in tess
>hide check so he can't find us

>action surge x3 attacks with our 2 and 1 gloomstalker. Trip attack. Should all be with advantage since we're invisible.

If qm allows pop another action surge vial and hit him more.

But 3 auto crits should kill him

I changed it slightly since we only have a round left.

>>6129207
We domt have multiple atk anymore. We'd have tomuse action surge to get multiple atks.

>>6129207
Prisma cloak be bonus action then pass without a trace is action. One action slot so that takes up the normal turn.

Would have to pop an adrenaline shot as bonus action and hide check to further hide. Two action slot requires the use of action surge.

With the adrenaline shot you can get two attacks and send out tess for distraction as bonus action against Hayden who still has the twin flame tendrils defending him.

That the plan?

>>6129207
Yeah been a fast 6 well 8 months and its only been a week and a half in game.

>>6129207
>>6127658

Ok I'm good with this plan. Just domt want to use the crit for this. Hopefully it's worth it and does some permanent dmg to him even in this dream world.

>>6129329
William roll four dice for bo2 on both attacks with +30 levels, +50 pass, +10 tess distraction. (+90)
Each hit gives 2d6+5 damage +4 for trip attacks on each, and another +4 damage for burning another 2 superiority dice gives auto 13 damage but crits push it to 26 and to 52 damage if both attacks land.

vs

Hayden's two dice to dodge the attacks +35 levels, no skin armor as he forgot to activated it on the turn before, +25 shield cape, and +40 fire cover.(+100)

First 4 dice will, last 2 dice hayden dodge.

Rolled 47, 3, 53, 87, 60, 99 = 349 (6d100)

>>6129777
forgot the rolls will +90 vs heyden +100

>>6129778

Running through his options William as mentally checks over his options as he notices he still has his reserve of energy as well as his syringes. Pointing his finger out as he summons Tess to circle above Hayden waiting for the chance to strike as he begins his work. With a plan rapidly reforming his hands move to cast pass without a trace as the shadows move toward his limbs to muffle his steps and color as he dismisses Hellscream’s robes and his gauntlets. Pushing out all the summoned magic as he feels cold blue caressing his back. Focusing on the sky above as he pulls his hand backward to grab Prisma’s robes as he yanks it over him to pop invisibility as Willow’s magic hides his entire existence from view. This time ensuring he avoids another magic overload by only having one active magic system on at a time as he sinks into the vegetation to hide.

Moving along the tree line to get as close to Hayden as possible as the white haired demons continued to scan for the tree line as he directed the tendrils to move closer. Embers burning in intensity for the coming fight as William tenses his muscles as a surge of energy shakes him pushing into charging toward his enemy. Mentally nudging Tess to start diving at Hayden as he looks for an opening as fire dances around his target with the flying cat trying to claw at his eyes. Watching as the fire begins to lick the general area looking for William to block his progress continues to swirl before leaving an opening for a straight attack. Taking his change William grabs one of the syringes and stabs it into himself as another surge of energy flows into his body with every heartbeat demanding to be used. Already William starts rushing toward the window as he jumps into the air to use gravity to help add in more strength to his punch as his fist crashes into a wall of magic.

A shield flares to life from the cape as it senses an attack coming right for him as Hayden’s head turns toward William. Fire surges toward William as he drops to the ground and rolls on his back to dodge the heat slamming into the ground where he used to be. Rolling back on his feet William charges again as fire tendrils swing at him with one swiping at his legs forcing him to jump over it. Another tendril comes at chest level as a second one is moving along ankle level as well forcing a hiss out William as he jumps into a spin to dodge the raging fires all around him. Landing and jumping back as another gout of flame glasses the ground in front of him as he is already starting to think of another plan as Hayden reforms his fire cover. Walking backwards toward vegetation cover William feels the ground give way as he falls backward and into a void as his hands reach out to grab the ground only for it to slip past his grasp.

part 1

>>6129816
Darkness consumes his vision as his head collides against wood as he opens his eyes again to see a floor in front of him and a bed on top. With a blanket, pillows, and bandages covering his body with blood stains along the floor as he spots Alice, Betty, Virgil, and Muffin’s sleeping forms in the same room. With a faint argument being heard behind a door as William looks over his injuries.

>Short rest interrupted by mental fight 20/70 HP
>Soul recovery in one day.
>Regain levels back to 5 fighter and 3 ranger gloomstacker, gain back multi-attack and dread ambusher.

-Try to listen in on the argument
-slepp
-write in

part 2

>>6129819
-Try to listen in on the argument.

Welp qm rolled well for badies whole fight kek.

If we win what would have the effect have been?

>>6129819
Just get the rest out of the way.

-slepp

Rolled 1 (1d4)

>>6130103
Since Hayden didn't have time to hide his core I would have rolled a coin flip to see if he straight up died. Then a second fight with a desperate Willow and William as the soul glue comes undone as both scrambles to keep the soul together or fight each other and risk permanent level drains.

Now since both personalities got wacked very hard, they will need 1d4+4 days to get back to full strength so they will plan things when William comes back after them for round 3.

Also update tomorw as it late herw

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6130103
>>6130045
1 lisne
2 sleo

Damn it 1 day, the worse case scenario. We got to go all in on finding a way to destroy them.

I want at least one lasting win.

>>6130441
What? No, they need 5 days for full recovery but they will have an entire day to plan.

>>6130115

Laying on the ground for a bit as William feels the bruises and burns still tingling along his skin as he pulls his hand into view. Seeing charred skin and bruises slowly beginning to fade from the short nap as he carefully gets back up as bone slightly shifts as a hiss of pain escapes from his mouth. Slowly approaching the door as William lets most of his weight be placed on his best leg to avoid tripping as he gets close enough to the door to hear the conversation.

“-es they definitely passed your process and aren’t spies. It's bad enough that these mages are under our roof and now I have to write off materials too.” States a rough voice.
“Yes, the inductees need their striker equipment as they did join us. Plus we both know real government mages would use invisibility or pass without a trace if they really wanted to ambush us. It's why I gave you all those tripwire, fairy fire, and the control panel spells to know when magic is getting casted on the base.” Replies Rose.
“Well the sending control panel really helped with coordination and the fire equipment was a miracle.”
“Thanks took a little bit of blood to get that but I try to make miracles happen.”
“I am getting side tracked so back on topic. How did you even find these fuckers? It's bad enough we have to take orders from the warlock and now we have to fund some new unknown problems that are tainted with magic.”
“Oh get off that, fighters have physical magic. We are all technically tainted by magic or do you think magic items and artificers don’t have magic too? What about plants, the ground, or maybe ley lines are a myth and we are being controlled by ethereal beings above this reality… That are not the old gods or the current ones.” Rose quickly adds.
“No, not that. We both know how dangerous tainted magic can be on the mind then these kids you found are somehow mages but not?”
“Yeah it is an unknown variable on how much their magic tainted their mind but they don’t show any of the usual side effects of infection and act too human.”
“Act too human? What did the psychotic tendencies or errors stand popping up?”
“No, I think I used the wrong word. More like desperately human like eating out of the trash, being passionate, having normal parents, or trying to protect others.”
“Still too much of a threat. Just get them out as soon as possible before one of my guys tries something for all the injuries they sustained.”
“Why do you think I am waiting here for? Have to make sure they are in mostly one piece before sending them home.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just get home safe as the feds have been cracking down a bit harder than usual.”
“Don’t worry I know the streets like the back of my hand so see you later.”
“See ya peacock.”

part 1

>>6130728
Hearing the footsteps begin to walk away from the door William turns back to the bed seeing the rest of his friends all still sleeping off their injuries. Walking to his bed as he gently lay down hoping the aches and pain go away soon as he closes his eyes for a moment before being shaken awake by Rose. Seeing her in her striker equipment and carrying a backpack that jingles in metal and material. Taking a moment to look around the room as Betty looks over her injuries, Virgil is comforting Muffin, and Alice is hiding in a corner with her book to get chest.

“Hey so your finally awake. So I got your materials, gauntlets, and equipment restock to refresh what you used today.”
“What time is it?”
“Lets see the fight was around 9pm and its now 1 am as you guys had a short nap.”
“Ugh I have school in the morning.”
“Yup so before I send you out and let you sleep off the night you got anything to ask or say to your party?”

-”Nah.” Skip to next day.
-”How did we do?”
-write-in

part 2

>>6130729
-”Nah.” Skip to next day.

Ask the questions when everyone is up and we'll rested.

>>6130729
-”Nah.” Skip to next day.

>>6131042
>>6131368
Update delayed for today had another overtime day. Post should be up for tomorrow.

>>6131368
>>6131042

“Nah. I am still in pain so wake me up when my injuries fully heal.”
“I will just let you oversleep as leylines want to take its time reknitting your flesh or pushing the charred flesh off of your body like moldy lasagna.”
“That is disgusting.”
“Leylines choose the easiest path to healing even if that means it dumps a lot of magic into your bone marrow and stem cells to grow the new flesh. Like you would throw up from the stories of leyline healing out in the outskirts. An entire arm shattered and bent as it spams and reforges itself back into shape during sleep, or intestines dragging themselves back inside someone’s stomach like snakes.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to hear that I am about to sleep off my internal bleeding.”
“Sleep on your side so you can cough up the mouthfuls of blood so you don’t drown.”
“Kay… Night everyone see you tomorrow.” States William as he adjusts his body to the new information.

A chorus of good nights and the squeaking on bedframe answers back to William as Rose exits the room. Several thoughts run through William’s mind as tries to organize a plan for tomorrow immediately remembering Animus wants a fight, Prisma will be looking for him, Hellscream’s faction being rolled back, and potential rune knights roaming the area. Deciding to ignore those problems for the future William shifts on his bed a bit more as he balls up a blanket and pillow to hold him in place on his side as his eyelid close. Letting the exhaustion take him into slumber as he wakes back up feeling his muscles stiff and sore but functional.

>mental/soul stability 40% 80/80 HP

Looking around the room to see the rest of the party going their own things with Virgil keeping watch on the door, Alice and Betty exchanging notes, and Muffin hiding behind a bed as she carefully bleeds onto the mana glove gauntlets as she mutters out incantations.

-write-in
-skip to school and start the gauntlet
—----------

>>6132473
>DREAM WORLD 2.0: ROUND 2 MOTHERFUCKERS

If we can

Otherwise run the gauntlet but ask our librarian friend about planar binding.

Any other ideas Mac?

>>6132473
- Research souls
- Research magic taint
- Review the fight
- Talk to teammates about the situation

>>6133392
Yee what Mac said too

>>6133392
>>6133128
Looking at the phone's time to see it being 8am William knows he slept past the rematch against the parasites. Letting a sigh escape from his lips at missing his chance as he turns his attention to the present. Several thoughts pop into William’s head trying to think where he can learn about souls, taint, and planar bindings. Shifting through the only main option he has as he turns to Alice for his question.

“Hey Alice got any knowledge on souls, taint, and planar bindings?”
“Nope, the library at best only has tier 3 knowledge. Anything more advanced requires going into the mage libraries to find out more and avoiding whatever they have guarding it. Why?” States Alice as she writes in her book.
“Just trying to think what other ways to fuck with Astra mages and to keep up with whatever level 20 mages will do.”
“Taint? What like diseases or something.”
“Magic taint that you guys have that makes you not mages.”
“I just assumed it was an accidental experiment that gave me my halo.” Adds Alice.
“I don’t know if I got experimented or not to get my magic.” States Betty.
“How would you not know?” Asks Muffin in between bouts of concentration as she focuses on the mana gloves.
“Memory alterations or illusion shit from mages that can fuck with people’s minds.” Says Virgil as he flexes his hands.
“Anyway anything soul related sounds like fed level research and not something you can find in a normal university library. Sounds like something the Coven or Revelations would know about if only because one does dangerous experiments and the other has a focus on spirituality and the divinities.”
“Hmm, well onto the next topic, how did you guys think the fight went?”
“What the fuck do you mean how it went?! We are being held hostage and waiting to get killed or something!” Yells out Muffin as Virgil tenses against the door.
“We are safe.” States Betty in a cool tone.
“I doubt that as not a single gangster came in to say anything to us yet. Just waiting to slaughter us like animals.” Snaps out Alice as she grinds her teeth.
“No, Betty is right as they are an organization that hates mages and is trying to fight against them. Plus I am part of their group.”
“Huh? Then what was the point of fighting here if they were your allies?” Asks a confused Virgin.
“Live fire training gives much better hands-on learning opportunities than from a book. Although the sparring session was a lot rougher than what it should have been.” Adds in Betty.
“Yeah sorry about that guys but at least you all are much stronger than before now.”
“I fucking watched almost everyone get ripped apart!” Yells out Muffin again as she throws the mana gloves to the ground as her concentration breaks.
“I wasted so much blood and spells here for nothing?” Hisses out Alice as she glares William down.
“Really Will? Wh-yo-wa-ugh. It was necessary wasn’t it?”

part 1

>>6133782
“Virgil really, we almost died there.”
“No, the group would not have allowed us to die. Crippled, yes but not killed. As much as I hate being surprised we did get a lot of first hand experience from fighting things smarter and stronger than us.” States Betty.
“That is stupid! I have an axe tearing into my lung!”
“And you healed it in under a day so nothing was lost.”
“Bitch having a collapsed lung is not something you can just ignore just because you got stronger or healed.”
“No one is injured, we are healed, and learned we are nothing against real threats.”
“Fuck you I am leaving.”
“Muffin hold up. Will I’ll keep an eye on Muffin till she blows off some steam.” Adds Virgil as chases after Muffin as she leaves the room and closes the door.
“Well, William that could have gone worse but at least nothing was lost.”
“I lost a lot of my materials.” Mutters out Alice as she takes a seat with her hands ready to cast a spell in self defense.
“God being buried underground was terrifying and where did they even get magic equipment?”
“They have their ways of grabbing magic as they have been at this for a while from what they told me. But anyway I say we did well and only failed when they had that fire armor that tanked everything.”
“How close was the fight?” Asks Alice as she continues to stare at the door.
“He was one good fireball away from dropping or three fists after his skin got cracked from the heat and cold.”
“Heh, I am still proud of that combo I made.” Adds in Alice.

-”What do you think allowed them to bury you Betty?”
-”What was that combo Alice?”
-skip to noon school
-write-in

part 2

>>6133783
-”What do you think allowed them to bury you Betty?”
-”What was that combo Alice?”

Does Hellscreams library or the resistance have info on magic taint and soul stuff?

>>6134338
Roll for it 2d100 first for hellscream and second for resistance knowledge. Higher the better.

>>6134338
>what Mac said

Hey, Mac we can sneak into the library. We have pass without trace and invisibility. We should be fairly okay. And we can at least misty step away if need be. I say we search the library.

Rolled 95, 17 = 112 (2d100)

>>6134705

Rolled 16, 49 = 65 (2d100)

>>6134338
First dice Betty trying to guess on the spell.
Second dice Alice's openness level

>>6135644
So hellscream got the knowledge and the resistance some cliffnotes.

>>6135253
>>6134338
”What do you think allowed them to bury you Betty?”
“I have no idea as I didn’t hear any spells being yelled out and know for a fact they were not using somatic gestures as two hands grabbed me. Either they enchanted the entire ground to swallow me or they have their own mage to manipulate the ground.”
“They did have the whole ground wet so maybe that has something to do with the ground cave-ins or they have special items to cause magic effects.” Adds Alice as she continues to flex her hand as blue sparks coils around her fist.
“Can’t be as both of their hands were full.”
“Maybe it's an animal shape or something since I could not see anything down there.”
“Could it be a Misty Step being altered?” Asks William adding in his own theory.
“No, Misty Step needs the space to be open or it will just push you to the next available open space. Then you also have to add in corporeal phase to go solid and they still slide downward so it is way too complex to be a misty step.” Notes off Alice as bites her thumb in nervousness.
“Speaking of complex spells, what about your combo? Some kind of Frost Armor armor spell?”
“Ah that uuhh, yeah it was an altered spell I made after switching the magic coding from Armor of Agathys and mage armor.”
“How do you switch magic coding for tier one spells?” Asks Betty, confused at Alice’s explanation.
“I used tier 1 spells, bashed out their coding, upcasted with more magic to make it stable, and made a similar but more specific spell for my use. Mage armor made from frost to chill the ground around me while still providing the same level of protection to me. It was a two step plan for my actual battle kit that causes fissure damage when I bring out the fireballs or cone of frost.”
“So your plan was to burn and freeze them to death?” Asks William a bit impressed at the planning.
“Yup, every second the leader was near me his armor and skin would start to crack but the same also counts to me so I have to rely on quick damage bursts and hiding or I will crack my body if I stay too close to fire.”
“Why upcasting them?” Asks the blond chef as she inspects every word of the blue midget.
“Different spells have different magic codes so since I don’t have decades of magic research I have to brute force stability by pumping in more magic. So I turn two tier 1 spells into one tier 3 spell with specific effects ”
“Sounds very well made.” Says William nodding at Alice’s forethought.
“Oh that is like a third of my build. I still have absorb elements and haste equipment but I got dropped too fast to get any of my equipment running in the middle of getting grabbed, suppressed, and flame boiled.”

part 1

>>6135840
“Here I thought I was being over prepared with my equipment too.” Adds in Betty as he nods along with Alice’s explanation.
“You had a build too Betty?” Asks William a bit surprised how everyone has their own styles.
“Yes but mine required me to be in my kitchen or near a fire hydrant and not be stuck in the mud.”
“Yours isn't mobile? What do you think you would have a last stand in your kitchen or convince a mage to just walk in?” Scoffs out Alice.
“My workplace is always filled with mages so yes they can walk on in to my killzone.”
“How did that work for you last night? Such a great zone of control.”
“None of us expected the Purifiers to be a lot more dangerous and creative than normal gangsters. Well except for William for leading us in and waving off his boss.”
“I think she is my manager rather than boss.”

-write-in

QM note: So I will be gone for tomorrow and probably Wednesday as I am getting ready for another job interview a family friend set up for me. Going to spend that type learning the company and getting my skill selling in order so I should be back on Thursday.

>>6135848
Back.

>>6135848
I don't know what's left to discuss.

> Reassure the team.
> Move on and see if we can talk to Hellscream
> Read books from Hellscreams Library that has to do with magic taint and/or the soul

>>6135848
Fucking thing glitched and wouldn't let me post.

>have Alice teach us that new spell.
>ask about any security measures in mage library.
>make an anti-magic field item.

That's all I really got. When do we fight Loras wolf pup.

>what Mac said
>+ask hellscream about the mage library at school.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6137534
>>6137258
mac 1
anon 2

Rolled 43, 5 = 48 (2d100)

>>6135644
Rose's experience/knowledge in soul and taint magic due to ??? and ???.

Rolled 60 (1d100)

>>6138115
Rose's ?? high more lore, low end lore

>>6137258
“Anyway thank you, both of you guys for trusting me during the training exercise. And hey you both now got more experience in magic and pressure to help out with your future ideas.”
“I just wished I lasted longer than a few minutes.” Hisses out Alice still frustrated at her performance.
“Well see you all in school then and don’t pull another random base attack William.” Adds in Betty.

William begins to guide the group out of the room as he grabs his backpack before checking the inside of the pack. Seeing syringes labeled, vials reinforced, and some high quality parts scavenged from the junkyard as he takes note of their positions for future use. Giving a quick mental ping to sense Tessy roaming around the outskirts of the perimeter still alive and kicking as his party makes their way out of the junkyard as the eyes of Purifiers linger on them for a bit too long. With Rose coming in to see the party off as she glares at the resistance members to go back to work as a thought pops up in William’s mind.

“Hey Rose so does magic have any side effects or is that just leylines?”
“Depends on the amount of magic and the exposure rate.”
“What? Like an infection or corruption?”
“The rest of the faction won’t know this since it doesn’t affect them but since we are working together you guys should know about the magic taint.” States Rose in a whisper as the group passes by the junkyard entrance.
“Magic taint? That is a new term I have not heard about from my contacts.” Says Betty intrigued at the new information topic.
“Great, now magic is malicious too.” Scoffs out Alice.
“We would call it magic taint as its the closest thing we can agree on. While ley lines provide the power to fuel magic spells inside living beings' blood, it is still fuel that can be changed by the soul to have more specific effects. Like how mana stones are made from the blood or magic of mages to fuel conversions so it has a very high level of taint.”
“So it's a lifetime of experiences and magic condensed into a rock?”
“Yup as far as we can tell the mage mana stones basically have enough power to awaken ords but overwrite their base personality with habits or traits of the host’s main personality. It's why Prisma followers are so insidious, Animus territorial, and Revelations so devout. Even the healing syringes you got have low taint as they are refined as much as possible to avoid personality and soul corruption.”
“It's a danger?!” Yells out William before lowering his voice back down.
“Yes, it's the reason striker equipment was highly invested into as equipment using the magic avoids contamination with harvested powerful mage blood from enemy and resistance mages.”
“What is with the emphasis on resistance mages?” Pointed asks Betty as her eyes narrow.

part 1

>>6138129
“Technically speaking level 20 fighters, warlocks, and artificers are natural mages whose blood can be used to create mana stones to awaken others.”
“Wait, level 20 fighters actually exist?” Asks Alice, noticing the lack of mythical level fighters walking around as they exit the junkyard
“If you guys can make fighter stones why not mass produce them and overtake the mages then?” Asks William finally adding his own voice.
“Well anyone with blood can make mana stones. Me, you, mages, and level 20s but remember what I said about magic taint.”
“Wait wha-so the host still overrides the personality of the ord? There has to be a work around.” Asks William with a disgusted look spreading across his face.
“I have no idea if there is as I only know what I know and what my boss had said to me. But it's why level 20 resistance agents can’t rapidly replace our numbers with experienced recruits as it kills the old rookie and the rare times mana stones are made are only given to a person that would willingly kill their old selves to continue living.”
“Would anyone agree to such a thing? Won’t they be compromised too?” States William with a bit of anger lacing his voice.
“...I did. And I like to think I am still human.” Adds Rose as she shrinks into herself a bit from uttering that sentence.
“You're a mage?” Says Alice as her hand begins taking on a blue glow.
“Ranger and artificer still. Warlock… did not transfer over as I never made a fey pact like the boss did.”
“Are you still you, Rose?” Asks William as she tries to process what he heard.
“No, I would say I am overwritten. I still have my memories and my main goal but I act nothing like what I used to be as now I have a driving need for retribution and to be useful. Before I was just an orphan trying to keep things running and after Prisma and the warlock stone I am now Rose running recon missions from Astra, the streets, vetting recruits, and supplying armory upgrades to dozens of other agents.”
“Do you still remember your old name?” Asks Alice with a bit of fear creeping in her voice.
“No, I try not to think about it but every time I visit my little ones they pause for a few seconds before recognizing me. And… I don’t remember what I used to look like anymore.”
“So magic corrupts us all slowly then?” Ask Betty as she searches for any lies and stops.
“Your natural magic reinforces you but it might be tainted as something must have awakened you all to gain magic without a stone. What it could be, I have no idea.”
“Wait but aren’t we surrounded by Astra mages at all times so we are constantly being exposed to magic taint?” Asks William as his mind starts racing.
“Yes but it does not explain why so few ords aren’t awakening with you. So it is still a mystery.”
“Hmm, maybe there is something in Hellscream’s study to help know more about it?”

part 2

>>6138130
-write-in
-Offer to bring the party to research in the study
-Search the study alone
-Ignore study, finish repairs on mana glove

>>6138131
-Search the study alone

While more hand is better for a search, they dont have Hellscreams permission. We coukd do it without her batting an eye even if slower.

I'm hoping the mage armor can prevent mana taint as long as we stay away from the magic types of the demons and the blue guys. Maybe if we defeat them we can claim ownership of the magic.

>>6138298
I'll wait another day in case anon is busy.

>>6138298
>support
>>6138130
Sorry I was late.

>>6139149
>>6138298
Taking a quick glance at his phone William sees the time set at 10 AM for Wednesday while Hellscream is at Astra he could bring in more hands to help in the research of her study. Mulling over the decision he discards the idea once he remembered that Hellscream won’t accept any guests as he turns his attention to his party.

“Well I guess I will see you guys tomorrow at Astra.”
“You're not coming with us?” Asks Alice as he adjusts her coat.
“Oh right if you guys are going back to Astra, do only the minimum class attendance as the mage turf wars are still going on with everyone pushing into High Ring.” Adds Rose.
“Ugh, more blood to clean up. The only good thing about those mage wars is the rune knights keeping the cafeteria area mostly orderly.”
“Thank you for the warning Rose, and Alice I got some studying I want to do to catch up what I missed.”
“Okay? Well make sure your notes aren’t covered in blood.”
“I will try to clean it up. Bye everyone.”

William exchanges a few goodbyes with his party as he begins marching toward Hellscream’s mansion ducking between alleyways when available as he hugs the walls. Watching the sky as vultures begin flying across the sky in bursts of speed making William flinch as their shadows zoom past him. Having more power that he still can’t reach as he hides from their sight knowing he is still making progress clawing his way to the top. Passing by scattering people as they too rush from building to building with backpacks full of goods as doors quietly ajar themselves before quickly closing after rescuing one of their fellow friends from the streets.
Arriving at the mansion as William approaches the entrance with careful steps as he continues to scan the sky for any surprises as the door is opened by one of the maids. Bowing her head gently as she holds the door for the guest before William quickly enters to avoid being exposed to the sky above. Increasing the speed of his walk as he remembers where Hellscream’s study was located. Passing by a few more maids carrying magic reagents and paint as William reaches the study area and gently jiggles the handle to open the door. Letting the door swing open without any trap or lock stopping him as he peers inside for anything that looks different. Seeing nothing noticeable William walks in to see the entire four walls lined with books as he now regrets not getting more hands to help in his search as he checks his phone again to see the time is now 10:53 AM. Knowing there is only a few hours of time to search and read for anything useful to his situation as he begins searching. Trying to think what is more important for his research as he spots a few letters on Hellscream’s desk.

>Only have enough time for two picks before Hellscream arrives back home.

part 1

>>6139800

-Ascension Ritual Guide.
-Agreements, favors, and Oaths.
-Candidate Selection Screening.
-Hellscream Letters.
-The Fey Courts and Dangers.
-Astra University Graduation Career Brochure.
-Demonology: Age of Dawn, Ruin, and Desperation.
-World Geography.

part 2

QM note: If big mac rolled a nat 100 I have no idea what I would have done.

>>6139804
-Ascension Ritual Guide.
-Agreements, favors, and Oaths.

I'm assuming the ritual will teach us about how taint can mess with the soul. Oaths probably has to do with agreements that are Magically enforced on the soul. So maybe we can find an alternative path to keep the others down.

I was thinking selection screening to see if the base material made us more susceptible to the taint or there's some hidden power we may have but we can always look for it next in game day with the war going on.

Will Hellscream allow us to read about geography and grad stuff when she gets here? It's not like this is the restricted section and those dont seem like secrets compared to the other topics.

>>6140208
Or it could be how you ascend to God hood. Either way Mac. I like your picks.

>support

I'm super sick so if I lag over the next couple of days. Feel free to go with Macs vote.

>>6140738
sure hope you get better soon anon

>>6140208
>>6140738
Scanning through the shelves for material as William reads the titles one by one as he begins inspecting the area for anything relevant to his interest. Picking a random wall and walking forward to extend two fingers to cling on the spine of a book as he slides it off the shelf. Feeling the cold hardback of the book’s cover and its weight in his hand as he turns it toward himself to see its title. Investments and Century Planning. A groan escapes from William’s mouth as he puts the book back in its place as he spends a few minutes searching before his eyes latch on a stylish book illusions of fire embers licking its spine. Pulling out the book as a warmth greets his hand as its title burns into view on its front cover. Agreements, favors, and Oaths.

Deciding he actually needs to learn what he can, William pops open the book to its first page and begins burning a few hours learning. A thick wall of text and words too long that he needs a thesaurus to understand slows his progress but not enough to stall the snippets of valuable information he can read. Trying to condense hours of reading into smaller more important topics he can easily digest. Soul contracts, a demon’s value of their word, and the necessity of creating a support network to deter decapitation strikes.

Demons rely on trust and commitment to any oaths they agree on to ensure they portray themselves as a reliable partner or client due to reputation being heavily important to someone that will live for centuries. A demon’s word is an oath they make with another entity where both parties get what is asked for as these can range from minor favors between coworkers to lifetime debts that can run till one or both of the parties’ deaths.

Such trust is important to create a network of connections to ensure a demon is not isolated and executed by the numerous outer circles of rival demons, mage usurpers, elven purification squads, heavenly retribution, and other threats from beyond. Using favors a demon can recruit partners to provide a better circle of protection and defense to help elevate allies to new positions of power or used to further their own goals in infiltration, distraction, or harassment of other enemy circles. Partners can be equals as they pool resources for a common goal for a limited time or recruiting lesser agents to act as screens or molded for a specific purpose to support greater future goals. Any path is not beneath a demon’s pride as long as it paves the way for future gains as we have the time and patience to always wait for an opportunity.

Soul Binding. One of the most dangerous but secure ways to ensure two parties follow the spirit and law of an agreement.

part 1

>>6141095
Originally this ritual took a large chunk of a soul to be ripped out and used to fuel such agreements from the Age of Dawn around 600,000 years ago when the first sentients were made by the Old Gods. Since then magic improved, rituals empowerment sigils miniaturized, and the spell streamlined. Now in the Age of Noon a normal level 20 mage can use only a silver of a soul to ensure the binding and a few seconds for simple agreements. The more conditions added to an agreement does require more of the soul to power it but even with soul binding agreements being made more available it is still seen as a major form of trust to offer one.

Minor soul binds require minimal power and can issue one or two conditions as long as both parties consent to the bind. The conditions can be very open ended from making a sandwich a day for you to coming to your defense in your hour of need as more broad or lengthy commitments require more power to compel the entities to follow through. However all this can be rejected if one party rejects the soul bind at its inception. Dozens of experiments on ords ranging from kids, teens, adults, and elderly were attempted to be given a soul bind only for each of their souls to reject the tether. More magic kept being put in but every soul kept rejecting the link as their bodies expired from the trauma and magic poisoning.

Only when given a carrot and stick approach did we have a 50% success rate in attaching the soul binds with the other half choosing suicide rather than accepting the tether. Follow up resurrections pushed the 50% rate to 100% success rate after mentally grinding down their mental resistance after weeks of revivifications. Consent is still required for a soul bind to take effect but enough mental and physical abuse can grind down a victim’s will can make them more receptive to a bind to end their spiraling. However such methods are ill advised for Ascension Ritual candidates due to soul damage from the repeated traumas of revivification but that is a topic for their book. Now soul binds are very streamlined after millennia of refinement and merely require the power to be equivalent to the parties consenting to it.

>DC 110 to learn soul bind agreements.

Looking back up from the array of formulas from the soul binding spells as William rubs his eyes from too much reading as two words burn in his mind. Ascension Ritual. Either it relates to turning into a god or a level 20 mage, both of which pique William’s curiosity as he searches out for any books with those two words spending another twenty minutes inspecting each book as he runs into something that might fit the bill. Ascential Ritual Guide. With a quick swipe out of both books William cracks open the guide to see what secrets he can learn from the study room.

part 2

>>6141098
With the first thing his eyes land was the explanation on how to create mana stones to ascend the lesser specimens into mage ranks. Blood or magic is poured and concentrated into an empty ruby as days, weeks, years, or even decades are dedicated to harvesting their potential into a small blood crystal. First depositing heavy magics they have to create a deep pool of tainted magic with the personality traits of its host. With the next layer being a mix of medium to light magic to help compress the magic below it into a smaller shape to make more room for additional magic deposits.

Next is minor soul binds are itched on every surface of the ruby with painstaking care to ensure no surface is unused as even a small hole in the etching can have lasting consequences. While small mistake do occur at the itching phase they can be easily sanded down with a cantrip but more prouder lineages might just toss out the whole mana stone to start again. It is a very much waste of resources but only the best artful masterpieces will satisfy mage talents. This would take weeks to etch each minor soul bind to create a network of crisscrossing binds to encase a whole soul of the chosen candidate.

Now the soul binds are ready to flow around a soul to keep it in place as it shatters from the infusing of mage magic as no ord can survive mana stone activation. Instead the soul bind acts as a “net” to capture the shattered soul as the mana stone dumps its magic to seize and glue the soul back together. Infusing every inch of their essence with that of their patron forever marking them as their property to be used as seen fit. While this goes on another spell is also activated called reincarnation with the spell preprogrammed to rebuild a new magical body with higher potential than lesser ords. Customization is magic intensive as most of the magic is used to reincarnate the tainted soul but with enough investment the host can choose how their chosen candidate can look.

Finally acclimation is needed to train the new mage how to use their body now heavily enhanced with magic coursing through their entire body. A week of physical therapy is recommended at the new mage gets used to a much more powerful body and a large selection of magic that they did not have before. A normal ord would struggle to carry a heavy load but with a new magical body the ascended can batter down walls with brute or magical force. Depending on the mana stone investment the host can either wipe out the entire old personality of the ord, let them keep their memories, or alter some things to ensure maximum loyalty to their host.

part 3

>>6141099
While mana stones are varied between organizations they are easily understood and made by only expert magicians to ensure accidents don’t occur in ascending the ords. The specific spells must not be altered as without a soul bind the shattered soul will be erased from the lack of net to capture their fragments. A resurrection spell must be used and not any other form of healing or regeneration as the intense deposit of magic will reform the soul but leave the original body instant. Resulting in a foreign soul being trapped in a lesser body than what it truly deserves but can be easily rectified with another resurrection spell to fix their body.

>Learned Ascension soul binds
>Roll 1d100+65 DC 110 to learn soul binds.

A wave of revulsion washed over William’s mind at reading how clinical a book is treating soul death as if it was some insignificant effort. Preparing to turn the next page to look for any way to break its effects William hears the mansion door close as he glances at his phone for the time to see its 4:39 PM.

Hellscream is back.

-write in
-Have dinner and small talk with Hellscream about school.
-Retreat to the bedroom and skip to school tomorrow
-Greet Hellscream before leaving the mansion

part 4

>>6141101
>Have dinner and small talk with Hellscream about school.

>See if we can get her word on some minor stuff. Wordplay.

>Have Tess go body some imps or pseudo dragons and run their pockets. Cast pass without trace on her.

Question qm does our prisma cloak change size to fit its wearer? If so cast invis on Tess.

Thanks qm. I'm feeling a lot better now. Baller update.

Rolled 93 + 65 (1d100 + 65)

>>6141636

>>6141101
-Have dinner and small talk with Hellscream about school.
- Insight check
-Seduce

Have no idea where those other actions come from anon. I'll wait to see how this dinner goes before going for something else.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>6141653
>>6141636
1 tes
2 insgit

Also yes since cloak is magic it can refit as I am going by dnd rules.

And Soul Bind learn to attempt to leash the personalities.

Rolled 14, 83, 64, 36 = 197 (4d100)

>>6142721
runes, prisma, others, HG defense

Rolled 2 (1d100)

>>6141653
William insight DC 20

>>6142721
William looks over his tattered clothing from the fight last night and decides food is a good idea for the moment and to check in with Hellscream. Quickly changing his clothing and taking a short shower feeling the sticky dried blood and crusted mud begin flaking away from his skin. Enjoying the warm water as his body relaxes under the showerhead’s flow as each tense muscle relaxes and unwinds from last night's stress. Drying himself off and putting a fresh set of clothes as his steps tap against the floor with a bit of nervousness settling in the pit of his stomach. Trying to think what topics he can talk about to avoid saying anything about what he did for the week.

Reaching the dining room as William pushes the doors open as Hellscream sits upon the edge of the table in her seat with a large coat on and a glass of wine in one hand. Immediately William notices several poor excuses of steak in front of Hellscream so charred black that it might as well be asphalt. Inspecting his host to see Hellscream is not bothered by the menu selection as she awaits for dinner as maids come by to take away the wasted material.

“Wine after Astra? Did you need a break from putting down Prisma mages for trying to push into you?”
“Hmm, I needed a treat after a long day in Astra. From schoolwork, uppity mages, and consolidation of my forces.” Adds Hellscream as she swirls her glass for a moment.
“Can’t be anything too bad as it's just another day for you.”
“You would be surprised at the intensity of the work that goes into handling one day in Astra.”
“I maybe would like to see that, considering Astra will be in my future for a few years.”
“Already having second thoughts on my deal after bleeding a few times from my lack of protection?” Asks Hellscream as she sips her drink.
“No, but since I am still under your power, I might as well learn how to appreciate the work you invest in your faction.”
“What could you offer to get a small glimpse of my work? Even if you're my property I can’t just allow you to roam in my area.”
“Fair but we can hang out a bit more as you can show off your best accomplishments.”
“Ah, flattery. Unless you want to allow me to cast Shapechange then I can’t agree to a small date.”
“Maybe some other time. So anything going on in Astra?”
“What isn’t going on? Prisma still being a problem, knights cracking down on everyone, and other factions getting in on the action. It has been a mess there for the past week.”
“Hopefully it passes by soon as I imagine mage fights are very messy.”
“You would not know even a tenth of the damages that happen after each fight.”
“Can’t be that bad as the damages can easily be fixed with a few spells.”
“True but with multiple fights they are much longer. But anyway, did you find what you were looking for in my study?

part 1

>>6142828
-”Ascension Ritual was as bad as I expected.”
-”Why would you willingly subject yourself to 500 pages of agreements?”
-”I hope to read more from it.”
-write in

part 2

>>6142829
-”Why would you willingly subject yourself to 500 pages of agreements?”
-”I hope to read more from it.”
-insight

Damn it secomd times the charm! Throw her a bone to distract her.

>>6143172
>support

>Have tess go murder hobo some familiars with cloak and pass without trace.

Why send Tessa the owl to fight people? It was so hard to find people to fight on our own and we had to be careful of mages. On top of it being a weak summon only there for distraction.

Rolled 18 (1d100)

>>6143172
William insight check again DC 20.
If this roll fails again then William is just blind and won't notice this part.

>>6143323
I'll ignore this since William is at the table and doesn't have the cloak on him.

>>6143504
>18
Okay let me just delete and rewrite the update then.

>>6143415
Tess is not an owl. She is literally a familiar killer. She can see invisibility targets. And is immune to poison. With our cloak and pass with out trace she's gonna insta kill some familiars and loot their letters and items.

>>6143323
>>6143172
”Why would you willingly subject yourself to 500 pages of agreements? I mean yeah your a demon and deals are your kind of thing but five hundred?” Asks William with a tinge of exasperation in his voice.
“It is the tradition to know how to deal with politics and group dynamics. Also helps I can space out the material over a week instead of being forced to sit in one place and read the whole book.”
“Ah even demons don’t have the patience or the will to subject themselves to that level of torture.”
“I am still young, if anything short breaks still feel like it takes hours to pass on top of the other work for classes I have to do.”
“At least you don’t have to read the whole study.”
“I do have to read it all but that is over the weeks or months to get through them all.”
“Here I thought ords were oppressed.”
“Oh its much worse as I am expected to know the basics of each book.” Adds Hellscream as the maids arrive to deliver dinner.

A plate of chicken and potatoes with a glass of wine on the side as vapor steams off of the fleshly cooked food. Letting a small growl escape from his stomach as William pauses trying to continue the conversation.

“There are plenty of notable books in there that I hope to learn more from seeing as I am going to be here for a while.” Adds William as his fork stabs into a chicken thigh and brings it to his mouth.
“Such as?”
“You know magic, geography, history. This type of stuff is much more varied than what I can find in the ord library considering it only has low level spells and discounted books from some thrift shop.”
“Hmm, aiming high then. So what have you been up to for the past week since you have not been to Astra for a bit?”

-”Learning low tier spells that I still can’t cast with the motes of magic in my blood.”
-”Hanging out with friends and avoiding mages.”
-write in

I'm trying to think this through but coming up blank. Without insight I have no idea how much info she has nor how effective we've been talking to her.

Both of these options are like and might be picked up on. Trying to give her the truth but framed in a way she won't think k twice about.

>>6143513
So I will be busy for the week as I have to cover 11 hour work shift as one of our dispatchers finally got his vacation week. If I don't respond then I was either exhausted or head empty as I can't think. But I should be back on schedule on Saturday or Monday.

>>6143513
Idk I say we say we've been training and beating up ords. Trying to practice. So we can beat Loras goon.

What do you think Mac?

Ords aren't supposed to have access to that kind of training.

>>6143513
-”Hanging out with friends and avoiding mages.”

You know what I'll take this gamble. Technically we were hanging with our friends avoiding mages.

>>6144904
Sure sounds good. She already knows we beat up an ord for Virgil.

>>6144904
>>6144952
”Hanging out with friends and avoiding mages.”
“So basically hiding away from anything dangerous walking around then?”
“I do like my blood and organs to be inside of me rather than spilled out.” Adds William as his fork stabs into the chicken for a bite.
“That is a natural instinct for an ord to have but you're not an ord. You're my candidate so I expect you to make something of yourself and return back to class before you lose your admission. Otherwise you can’t make something of yourself by graduation time.” States Hellscream as she swirls her wine glass in her hand.
“I still have two days to work it out as I only have to visit school once.”
“While at the same time wasting time with some random no name ords that won’t have a future?”
“The-hmm.” Immediately a rush of anger settles in William’s stomach before keeping his silence to avoid leaking anything about his party.
“Nothing to say? Then you were wasting your time on some ords. Skipping all your classes won’t give you a degree with you slacking off on your work.”
“Well I do have bad luck with running into mages in Astra.”
“Then let me cast shapechange on you as Astra is much worse right now especially when you will eventually get caught by all the other factions.”
“What do you mean?”
“My faction lost their control of their floors so now everyone is rushing in to expand their control. After getting pushed out by both Prisma and Rune Knights we have to retreat back with everything to recast our revival spells to get our numbers back.”
“Normal mage fights then so what is the difference now?”
“Prisma destroyed our spell sigils and defense rituals leaving everything to be freely claimed and now the entire school is buzzing with mages looking to expand their power. And they will definitely come hunting for you for any insights into my faction.”
“But I don’t know anything.”
“They don’t know that and they might as well torture you for the fun of it if they realize you know nothing. So while you will get revived by the mana stone you won’t have the practice to use that power effectively while outnumbered and surrounded.”
“Won’t the power up keep me alive?”
“Not if you are jumped by a group and since you refuse to fully join mine. So unless you want to get killed or crippled then you have to get a shapechange for extra protection and actually survive a mage fight. Because your ord friends aren’t going to be much help to you when their heads get crushed.”

>write-in

QM note: Finally back after too many long shifts.

Whats her plan here? Shapechange us into one of hers for protection?

Couldn't we just as well hide behind the brainwashed? Who's name escapes me right now.

Also shapechange woukd introduce more of her mana which will power up red wg4wkvwill right?

>>6146552
Making the update for this and new thread in ten minutes.

>>6147521
Oh my god this piece of shit took me a bit to get working.

>>6147523

new thread