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>>2519231
>Have everyone fan out and search the room. There's no time to waste!
>Continue addressing the Senate.

You motion at Alex to stand down and she does so, still cradling her fist. She had bruised it upon the shell of the behemoth before you, the machine called Epitaph. It is massive thing, an armoured bunker taking up the entirety of the Senate Hall’s floor. Dust coats the machine in thick sheets, the same dust that covers the floor and the seats and the corpses of the First Men. You had not known what to expect when you stormed the Hall but all you found was a tomb and squatting amidst it all, a metal mind rotted from within.
Epitaph claims to be the Senate but if it ever was, those days are long past. Whatever arcane processes that make it think and remember and reason have broken down, if they were ever whole in the first place. It is a mad custodian of hundreds of broken minds.

Beneath the dust of the floor is a thin coating of rotting paper, sheathes of it emerging from the dust like stones broken free from the soil and piling in a heap around the collection box built into the wall. Discarded laws, judged unfit due to penmanship, memory errors or Epitaph’s faulty arms just not putting it back into the box. Epitaph passes the laws but you doubt there is any judgement involved. It is an arbitrary and godless process of trial and error no doubt ruled by those who can afford to submit the same bill over and over until it is accepted. As far as you can tell, the machine has very little to do with the actual function of Dis. But if it did it would be a canker in the city’s heart and a significant contribution to the city’s rotten core. It is a creation born of the same civic obsession that placed Dis above the rest of the world and ultimately, above the Wheel God himself.
And it is also utterly indestructible to mortal means. What scratch would sword or stave or bullet even leave on this thing? It is the size of a small building and armoured even moreso. The holy technology of the Second Men has been applied for a blasphemous purpose here. No, you do not have the time to offer it retribution or to attempt to harm Epitaph, not as its defensive forces close ever further in around you.

“Stay calm everyone. I need you to start fanning out and searching all of this before the guards arrive! Leave no stone unturned!”
You didn’t just come here to confront the legislation, as pointless as that would be. One of the Sinners was a high-ranking Magistrate of the Senate and though she is dead before her proper judgement can arrive, her stolen shard surely outlived her. And considering her position, what better place would they have to have hidden it? The only place in Dis that, before today, nobody ever went. A place that she, as Magistrate, could access! Why would she bother to create her own vault when this was right in front of her?

1/2

>>2519233
That said, you don’t join the others in their search. Epitaph has recognised as the civil servant that Lamplighters used to be and is allowing you to address the ‘Senate’. You have already learned much, though some of it of dubious value. But for as long as it permits you to hold the floor you will continue to try and take advantage of it.

“Lamplighter.”
The voice is scratchy but perfectly toneless, the same kind of non-voice you heard from the relic Sleeper. It emanates from all around you and in doing so creates the illusion of several voices speaking at once. That was what Epitaph was meant to be, you suppose. The union of many as one. But if it ever held the Senate within itself they have putrefied.
“Disregard the interruption. You may continue to address the Senate.”


>Try to make it understand how badly things have gone wrong in the city outside.

>Ask if there is any way to stop its own guards.

>Ask if it is aware of any previous Magistrate named ‘Agatha’.

>Ask to make an accusation of the Sinners due to their crimes.

>Ask about the Wheel God.

>Attempt to pass a new law or acquire civic power.

>Other (Specify)

>>2519237
>>Ask if it is aware of any previous Magistrate named ‘Agatha’.
>>ask if it knows the fate of the wheel god and it's shards.
>Ask if there is any way to stop its own guards.

>>2519237

>>2519287
Seconding

>Beat Bea and then beat your meat

>>2519237
>Ask if it is aware of any previous Magistrate named ‘Agatha’.
>Attempt to pass a new law or acquire civic power.
turn Lamplighters into authorities of defense and security
>Ask if there is any way to stop its own guards.

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Vote called, writing.

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>Ask if it is aware of any previous Magistrate named ‘Agatha’.
>Ask if it knows the fate of the Wheel God and the shards.
>Ask if there is any way to stop its own guards.

“I have a few more questions to ask you. To ask the Senate that is.”
You give a nod to the rest of your companions, directing them to keep along their work while you distracted the behemoth.

“Does this line of questioning have a purpose in your address?”

“Yes.”
You doubt it’ll require you to provide proof of that. It seems to take everything at face value.

“Permission granted. You have the floor.”

Just how much can you take advantage of this thing? You don’t think it’s stupid, just broken, and used to thinking in routine. As long as you can keep it within that routine you should be able to ask all you’d ever want. However, you are acutely aware of the guardsmen outside closing in on your location. The starfall has split the city of Dis but the native forces of the Senate Hall itself are still going strong. You don’t have much time!
“I would like to inquire about your Magisterial records.”

“Warning. Much of such records are classified and are not transparent for the perusal of civil servants. Do you still wish to ask?”

“There would have been a Magistrate within the last thirty years. One of some importance, I think. Her name was Agatha.”

The machine is silent for twenty unbearable seconds as it combs through its malfunctioning memory.
“I can confirm her existence. She presented multiple successful laws to the Senate. Four years ago, she was logged as no longer a member of the Magisterium.”

“And are you aware that she was paid to present many of those laws?”

{b]”MEMORY ERROR.[/b] It is acceptable for a Magistrate to accept outside payment. Regardless of this practice, all laws must pass the Senate’s judgement. Such payments are immaterial.”

“And are you aware of what she did?”

“She was a Magistrate.”

“Not that!”

“Any pursuits or hobbies a Magistrate possessed outside of presenting laws is irrelevant information.”

“She helped kill the sun!”

“MEMORY ERROR.”

“How much does the Senate recall of the past thirty years?”

“All of it. Freed from the confines of the flesh, the memory of metal is flawless.”

“Was any law or bill passed regarding the Wheel God?”

“MEMORY ERROR.”

It contributed, it must have. This thing was partially responsible for the death of God and the end of the world. But it doesn’t even know! It’s too broken to even remember what it has enabled! The death of God is a more trivial matter than managing the Magisterial payroll. This anger fades as quickly as it comes however, strangled and squashed down by sheer practicality. You are still on the clock!
“Is there any way to stop your own guards?”

“Requesting explanation why this question is relevant.”

“...In case they begin to abuse their authority?”

1/3

>>2519497
“The guardsmen of the Senate Hall cannot do such a thing. They are loyal to the Senate and the Senate alone. The same applies to the Magistrates.”

“But you just admitted that your Magistrates take bribes!”

“Irrelevant information.”

You strongly doubt whether the guards will heed anything this thing says but you have to try.
“Can you call them off?”

“Clarification requested. Who?”

“Your guards!”

“Alert. You do not possess the authority to make this request.”

Talking to this thing is becoming near pointless and your ideas of using it for civic power or to harm the Sinners are quickly vanishing. What purpose does it serve, save as an illustration of Dis’ decay? Holding your head in one hand, you are about to give up when a new question presents itself to you, inspired by the previous questions about this ‘Agatha’.
“Is it classified to know what laws have been submitted by what Magistrate?”

“This is permitted.”

“Is it classified to ask how many laws a certain Magistrate has submitted.”

“Alert. Classified information.”

You have no idea why that information is forbidden when the previous is not. The only answer you can find is that Epitaph has forgotten much of its own protocols.
“And...and do Magistrates ever submit anything through the collection box that is not a bill?”

“The Magistrates of the Senate are not so improperly trained.”

“But if they did? Is there a protocol?”

“Of course. Should an improper object arrive through the collection box, it is removed and placed within a Lost Objects closet that is emptied out every week.”

“When was the last time it was emptied out?”
Nobody actually comes in here, it’s impossible. So anything in that damn closet is probably still there and will stay there until it rots.

“MEMORY ERROR.”

“Of course. And where is this closet?”

“Alert. Classified information.”

Well it has to be in the Hall itself somewhere! Epitaph is immobile. But where would it be? Is it in the wall? In the ceiling from which the clusters of malfunctioning arms emerge? You raise your makeshift torch and peer into the darkness above for just a moment before you are interrupted by Beatrice’s hoarse voice.

“Hey! I think I’ve found something!”

She’s over on the other side of the machine and so to get to her while still keeping the floor, you have to walk a wide circle around the edge of the amphitheatre’s inner ring. By the time you get there, Abe and Alex and the other redcloaks have all clustered around Beatrice’s discovery. It is a panel set into bulky armour plating of Epitaph itself, one that would have been entirely invisible had the dust not been wiped away.
“I thought I smelled something off,” Beatrice says, her hands caked in dust. “So I wiped the side and look!”

2/3

>>2519501
Printed on the panel was a series of words, each one a different archaic script and language. It’s not until the last that you find something you can actually read.

LOST AND FOUND

It can’t be...can it?

“Alert.”
Epitaph speaks out once more, its choral voice as bland as ever.
“You do not have permission to touch that. Most of you do not have permission to have the floor. Depart immediately.”
>Do as it says, You want to stay on its good side just in case it can call off the guards.

>You’ve had enough of listening to this thing. If it’s worth a shot, you’ll try it at least once. Open the panel.

>Other (Specify)

>>2519505
>You’ve had enough of listening to this thing. If it’s worth a shot, you’ll try it at least once. Open the panel.

>>2519505

>You’ve had enough of listening to this thing. If it’s worth a shot, you’ll try it at least once. Open the panel.

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Senate Hall Collective Effort

>15

>The Hall's third and final Collective Effort is calling upon the Magisterial Corps themselves to aid the forces of the Lower Guardhouse in retaking the Hall from insurgents.
>Roll 1d6. The first three rolls shall equal the amount they reduce from Orion's total result.

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>2519533

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>2519533
I'm good at rolling low!

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>2519533

>>2519543
>>2519546
>>2519547
Rolls accepted. This will come into play during the next update. Voting will remain open for another 20-30 minutes or so.

>>2519505
>You’ve had enough of listening to this thing. If it’s worth a shot, you’ll try it at least once. Open the panel.

Vote called, writing.

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>You’ve had enough of listening to this thing. If it’s worth a shot, you’ll try it at least once. Open the panel.

You ignore the voices of the dead Senate and step forth past the diminutive witch to wipe off the rest of the dust with your gauntlet. The panel is several feet wide and at the top, has a handle that has been quite clearly bent and scratched under centuries of use by the fumbling and clumsy hands of the machine. It’s not too difficult for you to hook your own fingers underneath it and pull the whole little ‘closet’ open-

“Stop.”

With a screech of tortured metal, one of Epitaph’s arm-clusters descend from the ceiling right above you! Most of them jerk uselessly but one whips out before you can react and jabs you in the chest! You bend double, your breath knocked from your lungs by the sledgehammer blow.
“Orion!”
Abe catches you before the blow can send you toppling and the redcloaks raise their voices in a litany of warcries as they prepare to rush the machine!

You silence them with a wave of your hand as you straighten up once more.
“It’s fine! Stay back!”
The panel is hanging ajar in front of you, just three paces ahead. And between you and it are nothing but the futile gestures of a puppet.

You take a step forward and by the time the arm reaches for you once more, your staff is already in position. There’s no surprise anymore so instead of being unpredictable, the blows of Epitaph are just clumsy and erratic. You hold the scavenged tail out before you and block the first strike. You don’t have the strength to turn it aside completely but instead you just angle your staff to push the attack past you and you use the momentum provided to take another step forward.

The second strike approaches on the same path as the first and it only finds empty air as you throw yourself forward and hug the wall of the machine, sheltering just below the panel itself. You reach up and grab it and just as you do so, you hear a shout. It’s from one of the redcloaks still up near the entrance of the Hall!
“They’re coming! We tried to wedge the doors shut again but they’re still coming up!”
And with that, they slam the internal doors of the Hall shut , trapping you all in here. The guardsmen are coming!

And with that distraction, you barely notice in time the wrench of steel as Epitaph simply decouples the entire arm-cluster from the roof and sends it all collapsing down on top of you!

>Jump back! This is the safest solution but you’ll then have a bunch of wreckage blocking off the panel. Requires an easy dice roll.

>Seek shelter inside the closet! The panel is already open, you can just jump inside, even if it means having to clear your way through wreckage before actually getting out again. Requires a normal dice roll.

>Meet the falling arms head on and try to deflect them away entirely. You don’t have the time to entertain this machine’s folly! Requires a hard dice roll.

Senate Hall Collective Effort

>6

>The guards have been as of yet unable to storm the Hall. They still need to push the ancient doors open wide enough to mount a proper offensive and after that they will need to bust down the internal doors to the Hall that your redcloaks just closed.
>They have no more dice left so instead they will simply reduce your remaining score by 1 every time a vote is made.

>>2519699
>Jump back! This is the safest solution but you’ll then have a bunch of wreckage blocking off the panel. Requires an easy dice roll.

>>2519699
>Meet the falling arms head on and try to deflect them away entirely. You don’t have the time to entertain this machine’s folly! Requires a hard dice roll.

>>2519699
>>Seek shelter inside the closet! The panel is already open, you can just jump inside, even if it means having to clear your way through wreckage before actually getting out again. Requires a normal dice roll.
Perhaps there's a way out through here. Slim chance, but it would be far preferable to going back the way we came.

>>2519699
>Meet the falling arms head on and try to deflect them away entirely. You don’t have the time to entertain this machine’s folly! Requires a hard dice roll.

All in.

>three split
>bad flashbacks

>>2519699
>Seek shelter inside the closet! The panel is already open, you can just jump inside, even if it means having to clear your way through wreckage before actually getting out again. Requires a normal dice roll.

>>2519699
>Meet the falling arms head on and try to deflect them away entirely. You don’t have the time to entertain this machine’s folly! Requires a hard dice roll.

Interlude

The former solarium sitting atop the Paper Bridesmaid was as dimly lit as ever, stranded in the perpetual twilight of the broken sun. The Bridesmaid herself was coiled and curled up in her usual spot in the center of it all, seeing without sight. What she was looking at right now was the occupant of an elevator that was just mere seconds from ascending all the way to the monster’s domain.

The doors slammed open to revealed a tattered figure, elegant and shapely but covered in patches of mottled gray flesh and surrounded by wisps of regenerating shadow. The carpet of discarded snake husks littering the Bridesmaid’s inner sanctum froze solid as the visitor stepped inside. A shapeless creation of mud and stone followed her, a golem newly born and powered by a curse of incoherent wrath.

“Ah,” the dual-part Bridesmaid said. “And to what do I owe the pleasure? Mary, Mother of N-”

The spear was a long and twisted spur of bone wrapped in entrails, created from the repurposed bodies of those who guarded the Bridesmaid but weren’t informed enough to just bow and step aside when her visitor had arrived. And it rocketed forth from the elevator with a speed and force born of a curse and a witch-sign, impaling the veiled woman with enough power that it pushed her and her little hoard of treasure straight through the lounging serpent and into the far wall.

“Well,” the snake said with the Bridesmaid’s voice. “It’s going to be one of those meetings, is it?”

Vote called, writing.

>>2519786
OH BOY

>>2519699
>Meet the falling arms head on and try to deflect them away entirely. You don’t have the time to entertain this machine’s folly! Requires a hard dice roll.

>Meet the falling arms head on and try to deflect them away entirely. You don’t have the time to entertain this machine’s folly! Requires a hard dice roll.

As easy as it would be to take shelter on either side of the divide, the march of the approaching guardsmen only reinforces what you’d already known. You don’t have any damn time! You can’t afford to dig your way out through a bunch of rubble, no matter the direction!

So instead you make the split-second decision to stand your ground and meet the falling arms with a strike of your own, swinging the Iron Duke’s severed tail up to sweep them aside!

This is, very possible, a bad idea.

>Make a 1d6 roll. The first 3 of which will be used to judge Orion’s success. Additionally this is a hard difficulty roll so all results will be at a -1 modifier.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>2519807

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>2519807

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>2519807

>>2519807
Well so much for being badass about this.

I'm sorry Orion.

>>2519807
Could we brace the tail against the floor when we hit it to make it a bit easier?

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>1, 2, 1

Ah, now I have truly come home. Writing.

>Orion
>fights an unholy golem man made of iron and flame
>wins
>fights a malfunctioning robotic claw
>dies

Imagine. You're following someone who's going to bring light back to your city. You believe in them. You believe in their mission. You'll die for it.

He punches a holy relic.
Roboarms fall, he dies.
Roll epilogue.

>1, 2, 1

You’d known this to be a risky decision from the start but you had still gone through with it. Unfortunately just being aware of that doesn’t always offer you any protection. You swing the tail out to try and deflect the falling cluster but in doing so, you find your staff striking nothing but empty air as you miss entirely.

The cluster crashes down on top of you, driving you to the ground in an undignified heap. Your head smacks up against the floor with a sharp crack and everything goes black for just a moment.

And in that moment, there is no floor beneath you, no crushing weight above you. It is but an instant but it stretches for minutes and though you can see nothing, you know you are being watched.

“My gaze is upon you, Lamplighter.”
The familiar voice echoes through the distorted un-space you have found yourself in.
“And as much as I enjoy watching your heroic adventures, you could have chosen a better time. I am a little busy right now.”

You place the voice.
“Bridesmaid!”

“Yes. Of course! Don’t you remember anything relevant or are you too busy crashing stars into funerals to do that? I told you that after we had sworn our deal. I told you that you would now find my continued gaze not a curse but a blessing.”

“What’s going on? I broke that deal!”

“What, with the star? I’m not upset about that, I’m really not. You killed some of my friends so that’s fantastic. Feel free to stop by anytime for your agreed upon reward. I think you’ll find that I never fold until the final hand. The deal still holds and I will fulfill my end of it. And because of that, now, you will take upon yourself some of my power.”

“I refuse!”

“A novel concept but you don’t have that luxury.”

>WITCHFINDER'S LAST LESSON
>Orion successfully wresting the shard from the Paper Bridesmaid, while not as violent as his other victories, still has both power and an insight to offer. The Paper Bridesmaid's sight is not the curse it seems to be. Instead you can use it to a righteous end if you so choose, harnessing the connection to the foul things of Earth in order to draw power from the knowledge. A Witch-finder does not avert their eyes from the dark. Whenever Orion rolls at least two 1's in a roll, he must immediately choose a Witch Lore from a list and learn it.

1/2

>>2520005
>Midnight Compass: An upgrade of the Black Compass, this rite uses scattered earth and the minute changes in chill to point the way towards the closest source of Dark. Unlike the Black Compass however, this one can narrow its focus to avoid certain targets. This may be useful since Beatrice has been fouling any potential use for the Compass since you first met her.

>Dice Divination: Orion already knows how to use the dice to track the Bridesmaid and Dis but that is now mostly useless. This rite allows him to roll dice and invite the Bridesmaid’s sight, giving him means to understand her answers through the results of the dice.

>Clear as Mud: Orion can throw a handful of witch-chilled dirt into water in order to see the witch’s location in the reflection. You only see what the earth reveals however.

>From Earth, To Earth: Divine the closest source of good proper soil through scent. This can let you smell it within those who have swallowed it as well.

>>2520018
>From Earth, To Earth: Divine the closest source of good proper soil through scent. This can let you smell it within those who have swallowed it as well.

>>2520018
>From Earth, To Earth: Divine the closest source of good proper soil through scent. This can let you smell it within those who have swallowed it as well.

>>2520018
>Midnight Compass: An upgrade of the Black Compass, this rite uses scattered earth and the minute changes in chill to point the way towards the closest source of Dark. Unlike the Black Compass however, this one can narrow its focus to avoid certain targets. This may be useful since Beatrice has been fouling any potential use for the Compass since you first met her.
I'd love to get the chance to do some proper witch finding

>>2520018
>>Midnight Compass: An upgrade of the Black Compass, this rite uses scattered earth and the minute changes in chill to point the way towards the closest source of Dark. Unlike the Black Compass however, this one can narrow its focus to avoid certain targets. This may be useful since Beatrice has been fouling any potential use for the Compass since you first met her.

>>2520018
>Dice Divination: Orion already knows how to use the dice to track the Bridesmaid and Dis but that is now mostly useless. This rite allows him to roll dice and invite the Bridesmaid’s sight, giving him means to understand her answers through the results of the dice.
Seems the most broadly useful

>>2520018
>>Midnight Compass: An upgrade of the Black Compass, this rite uses scattered earth and the minute changes in chill to point the way towards the closest source of Dark. Unlike the Black Compass however, this one can narrow its focus to avoid certain targets. This may be useful since Beatrice has been fouling any potential use for the Compass since you first met her.

Vote called. Writing.

>>2520018
>Midnight Compass: An upgrade of the Black Compass, this rite uses scattered earth and the minute changes in chill to point the way towards the closest source of Dark. Unlike the Black Compass however, this one can narrow its focus to avoid certain targets. This may be useful since Beatrice has been fouling any potential use for the Compass since you first met her.

>Midnight Compass: An upgrade of the Black Compass, this rite uses scattered earth and the minute changes in chill to point the way towards the closest source of Dark. Unlike the Black Compass however, this one can narrow its focus to avoid certain targets. This may be useful since Beatrice has been fouling any potential use for the Compass since you first met her.

And just like that, the moment is over.

You wake with full memory of it, crushed beneath the cluster of metal arms. You can hear your companions crying out and slowly shifting it off of you and you can only wince in pain as you do your best to get up. That’s another cracked rib at least. And from the most undignified of sources, no less!

But the cries of your friends are muted in your ears, your head still buzzing with the revelation that had just been imparted upon you. Your deal with the Paper Bridesmaid, thought null after what you’ve just done, is still going strong. And if that thing can be trusted, which it can’t be, it’ll have the promised reward for you when you next see it.
But do you dare?

You slowly climb to your feet, supported by Alex and Beatrice. Aches and pains spike out all along your body but really, what else is new? You did not choose the path you walk for its ease or comfort.

>The time spent doing this has reduced your Collective Effort score to 5.

You stand tall once again and knowing that you must appear as strong now as you ever were in the eyes of the redcloaks, you speak.
“Is that all, Epitaph? You can knock us over but you can’t keep us down!”

“Stop! You no longer have the floor. Your privilege to address the Senate has been revoked.”

“That’s great. I’m done talking with you.”
You pull the panel open and barely have time to look away as you are met with a shower of soft dirt. The loose soil overflows from the open closet and spills out all over you , getting into your hair and clothes. You shake yourself free in disgust and take a step back.

“There!,” Beatrice exclaims. “I was smelling all that fucking dirt, that’s what it was! But why would someone stuff all that into the collection box…”
She trails off as you sweep the dirt aside, revealing a small collection of nonsense and knicknacks buried within it. Most of it worthless. But in the far corner, where the soil had been deepest, the head of a central-lamp that has been severed from its post and strung along a thick chain. Harsh light streams out of the closet and bisects the empty Hall , throwing all into stark black and white. And as it does, you feel the burden on your back lift. Like calls to like. Shard calls to shard. The Wheel God collects himself.

“You do not have the authority to access the Lost Objects repository. You will return all contents and wait for the appropriate custodian to clear it out.”
1/2

>>2520264
But there can be no more appropriate than you. And in doing so, for both the first and last time in history, the Official Senatorial Lost Objects Closet is cleaned out. It is, perhaps, a little less dramatic than the other means through which you have acquired them but just as well deserved.

Abe shields Beatrice as you unveil the lamp-post upon your back and bring it swinging down onto the Senate floor. The redcloaks look like they don’t know whether to cower or prostrate themselves. You grab hold of the makeshift lantern and, aware of your arms slowly burning up in the sudden terrible heat that floods the tomb, you slam it home.

Wick: 100/100

In the burning blinding heart of the lamp, you hear the crackle of divine flame. It burns even still, here in the darkest of places. But it will only do so for as long as you do.

>Holy power rushes into you!

>Choose one Flame Rite or Benediction to improve.
>Ignite Weapon
>Detonate
>Self-Ignition
>Immolate
>Benediction of Warmth
>Cleansing Benediction
>Purging Benediction
>Benediction of Succour
>Cauterise Wound
>Benediction of Relief

>>2520270
>Benediction of Succour
My hope is that we can give our followers a temporary amount of wick to use with this upgrade. But it might be a long shot.

>>2520270
>Self-Ignition

>>2520270
>Self-Ignition

Can't catch us if we're on fire.

>>2520292
If this is true - then supporting.

Otherwise:
>Detonate

>>2520270

>>2520318
Seconding

>>2520292
>>2520270
I'll support this if true.

If not, self-ignition. Let's us make an escape AND be a distraction from the rest of the Flamecloaks running away.

Because we sure as fuck don`t have a plan for that.

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I think I need to rest for an hour or so. I'll be back after that though! Vote will remain open until then.

>>2520270
>>2520292
>Benediction of Succour
or
>Self-Ignition

>>2520357
Can you let us know if Benediction of Succour would let us give the Flamecloaks wicks?

>>2520476
They would not.

>>2520270
Ignite weapon

Weve got the absolute necessary pieces. If were pushing for more, we have a lot of troops to cleave through.

I am back. Vote called, writing.

>>2520476
Then definitely self-ignition

>>2520292
Benediction of Succour

>>2520311
>>2520312
>>2520370

Self-ignition, since BoS doesn't share.

>>2520318
>>2520323
Detonate

>>2520491
Ignite weapon

Seems like a lot of people aren't here, usually these votes bring people out of the woodworks.

>Self-Ignition

-Self-Ignition-
Cost: 3 Wick
Orion clothes himself in holy fire as he sets both himself and his armour aflame. Like Ignite Weapon this fire does not harm his possessions or, for as long as Friend to the Flame can last, Orion himself. This fire burns everything Orion comes into contact with and can used both defensively and offensively. The duration of this Rite is like that of Ignite Weapon in that it depends upon the local power of the Dark but Self-Ignition has only a little more than half the duration Ignite Weapon would have due to requiring a bigger flame. This Rite can be renewed periodically at the cost of 3 Wick each time.

>With this upgrade, additional Wick can be spent when activating this Rite to store another Flame Rite or Benediction within Orion’s body. This additional effect will remain until the fire burns out or Orion activates it. The extra Wick cost is equal to the cost of the Benediction or the Rite in question.

>In addition, Self-Ignition is assigned a Power Number. Whenever you roll the dice for any action performed by Orion while he has set himself aflame, every legal d6 that lands on the Power Number restores Orion’s Wick by 1 point.

>1
>2
>3
>4
>5
>6

With this much power not held within your lamp-post, you’ll have to be more careful than ever in protecting it. You can’t afford to waste yourself like you did with the doors outside again. Not when all of Dis is now your enemy. If you let yourself grow slothful or complacent you’ll become nothing more than the shell before you now. You must always be ready to go the extra mile whenever necessary.
And these shards of God have given you the ability to do so.

>In addition to this, you also receive Dead King’s Crown. Whenever a Flame Rite or Benediction has the option to spend additional Wick, you gain 1d3 free points of Wick that can only be spent to fuel the additional effect.

>>2520529
>2

>>2520522
>Seems like a lot of people aren't here, usually these votes bring people out of the woodworks.

Well when you consider it's been about a month since last thread and I've spent the last two weeks saying I was gonna run and then flaking out hardcore constantly...I'm not too surprised. Hopefully they'll be back,

>>2520529
>1
We critfail constantly, let's turn it into an advantage.

>>2520529
>1

Consolation roll.

>>2520529
>2

>>2520529
>1

>>2520529
1

>>2520529
>2

Ah whoops guys, I fell asleep there for a bit. Vote called, writing.

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>1

You quickly hide the broken lamp-post once more, rewrapping it lest it burn any more of your hands than it already has. And though the shards are once more hidden from view, the air is alight with motes of burning light. The redcloaks look up at them, and then you, with awe. You look over all of them before you let your eyes settle upon Alex.
“If you ever doubted that what we are doing is right, now is the time to stop.”

“I can’t believe it was in here of all places,” Abe says. “Wouldn’t it have burned up the machine from within?”

Beatrice answers him before you can.
“I doubt it. If anything, it probably gave it more power.”

And speaking of said machine, it isn’t done speaking either.
“You are not permitted to remove Senate property from the Hall. If you do not desist, we will be forced to call the guard.”

“They’re practically here already anyway!,” one of the redcloaks shouts, hurrying down the steps. And with the sound of the flame gone from your ears, you can hear the sounds outside. The footsteps, the fists banging upon the locked internal doors. You don’t have long before they get in!

Alex rubs her eyes.
“What should we do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?,” Beatrice says, readying her pistol. “There’s nowhere else to go, we have to stand and fight! Maybe we can set an ambush?”

“But there’s so many! And the longer we fight, the more of them are going to come!”

“Well if you see any way out of here, feel free to tell me! We’re fucking trapped! Unless you reckon we can all squeeze into the closet and hide in there or something?”

“That doesn’t actually sound like a bad idea-”, one of the redcloaks begins before Beatrice cuts him off, her voice sounding particularly raspy.

“Of course it’s a bad idea! Fuck! I said it as a joke.”

“What about this?”
Abe is standing by the collection box, sliding out the drawer that leads to the shared space within the wall.
“If we crouch we might be able to fit through this one at a time. It’ll be really slow though.”

Alex stares at it.
“You might be able to jam Beatrice through it. I don’t know about the rest of us.”

>Current Collective Effort Rating: 3


>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.

>Open the doors now and charge through them back to the outside!

>Come to think of it, all of you can probably fit into the closet…

>Start getting people out through the collection box. It’ll have to be your shortest members but at least they’ll be out.

>Other (Specify)

>>2520609
Man, that's a tough choice. Fleeing feels counter-intuitive if it's not guaranteed to fit us all. I think we could make a bottleneck at the doors.

>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.

>>2520609
>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.
I'm not seeing many viable options here

How much wick do we have?

>>2520620
Oh sorry. You have 0/10 Wick and 4/8 Spark.

>>2520609
>Open the doors now and charge through them back to the outside!

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Since I dozed off before I figure I should probably get some early sleep tonight. This vote will remain open until either later tonight or tomorrow morning, depending.
And I will be running tomorrow and the day after that and whatnot. And once this thread is done, I'll make a new one and we'll keep going. I've let you guys wait long enough as it is and the longer I wait the more likely something shitty happens in real life. Also I told Riz I would finish Lamplighter before they made even a single new Valen thread so I have to keep to that obviously. We'll see how it goes.

>>2520609
All the things. Short people go out the collection box and scatter, the rest go into the closet, while we open the doors and charge through WHILE ON FIRE and draw every-things attention.

>>2520609
>>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.
We have the best goddamn chokepoint were ever going to get, bleeding through their troops sounds like good longterm help. With the number of lowlevel mooks, we might even recharge Wick

>>2520621
Oh wait.

Huh.

Let's spend two turns getting people out and hidden while we meditate and THEN we burst through.

>>2520634
It takes hours to meditate

>>2520644
Honestly I was hoping we would be rekindled by the Shard.

I guess we could try to draw from it.

>>2520644
Hey it only takes 3 wick to cast self-ignition.

That leaves us with 1 spark left.

Sticking with my plan.

>>2520647
Seconding this.

>>2520626
This

>>2520609
>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.

Sure why not.

We shouldn't open the doors since we can use those to bottleneck them

>>2520609
>>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.

>>2520609
>Come to think of it, all of you can probably fit into the closet…

It's too bad we didn't get a signed copy of the new 'Orion is the best Lamplighter' law.

>>2520609
>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.
>Post Bea through the mail slot. She might be able to figure something out.

Could I ask how Self-Ignition helps? How is it better than an upgraded x2 Immolate, or a better Detonate?

>>2520914
It creates more volume of fire than 2x ignite blade, and lasts longer than 2 immolates or a detonate. Detonate in particular would be terrible right now unless we intended to block off the chokepoint with debris from the explosion. Also, we don't have anything to detonate with, save for our wick which is a little goddamn important.

I am awake, though probably not for long. Vote called and writing.

>>2520917
Wait, we still haven't restocked on a lamp?

Okay, so if we hold the fort, Self-Ignition would be an efficient move. What sort of Benediction/Flame Art would be worth using with it?

>>2520609

>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.

>>2520930
Relief or succor is a great combo with self ignition midfight, almost like a power boost. Purging benediction would also be great, if more situational, if we're poisoned mid fight or even clearing poisonous environments before we're afftected.

>>2520930
Considering we can probably fill the entire chokepoint with self-ignition on, it may be more efficient to use the rest of the Wick on keeping us in that chokepoint or ignite blade for the cheapest way to gamble on regaining Wick.

>>2520609
>Open the doors now and charge through them back to the outside!

Set ourselves on fire first.

Can we make other people fireproof? Set everyone on fire if so.

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>You need to stand and fight. Anything else is liable to just leave you vulnerable.

>Current Collective Effort Rating: 2

“I’m afraid Beatrice is right. Even if we can all fit through the box, we just don’t have the time for everyone to escape through it. We’d have to do it one by one and we just can’t. Our only option is to hold our ground here and hold them off until we can make our escape.”

Abe doesn’t look happy.
“But what if they just keep on coming?”

“They won’t. I’m sure everyone is busy with the attack on the funeral. There are no reinforcements coming.”

“Are you sure about that?”

The truth is that your certainty makes no difference whatsoever. It’s still what you must do. But that is an answer you can’t afford to give.
“I am. Just have faith.”

“Or if you don’t got that, a gun will do pretty well too,” Beatrice says. “That’s our advantage here, guns. We got ‘em, they don’t. If we just set up a firing line we should be able to hold the door for as long as we’ve got ammo. What’s the ammo situation?”
You don’t hear the answer but you hear Beatrice’s response to it.
“Well fuck.”

“We had to do a lot of shooting in the initial attack,” Alex says almost apologetically. “We weren’t expecting to be stuck here for so long!”

“Shit. Well we can hold them off for a little while. As..as long as it’s just humans on the other side of that door. If they’ve got a witch or an imp things might get complicated. Neither of those have to pop up their heads to fuck with us.”

“If there any, I’ll handle them,” you say.

“You say that we just need to hold them off until we can escape,” Abe says. “What is our escape route anyway, if you don’t mind me asking?”
He’s holding his side again, a faint grimace on his face.


>”We’ll just outlast them in a siege. Once they can no longer fight, we will leave the way we came.”

>”The moment we can secure a foothold outside, we’ll fight a retreat out through them if we have to.”

>”We might be able to use the collection box to slowly smuggle all of us out of here one by one while the others fight to hold them off. It’ll be hard for the last few left however.”

>”The moment that door opens, I’m going to use the lamp-post to blast a hole right through their formation. That should suffice.”

>Other (Specify)

In addition, do you have anything left to personally do while you prepare for the assault? Each action costs 1 point off your Collected Effort Score. There are 2 points remaining. Once the points hit 0, the guardsmen will breach the Hall!

>Use a Benediction or Flame Rite (This may be chosen multiple times.) (Specify)

>Unveil the lamp-post preemptively.

>Send someone out through the collection box. (Specify)

>>2520972
>The moment that door opens, I’m going to use the lamp-post to blast a hole right through their formation. That should suffice.”
If we're able to
>use self ignition with benediction of succor and rip through the remaining guards in the confusion
Bit of a second wind thing going on.

>>2520972
>In addition, do you have anything left to personally do while you prepare for the assault? Each action costs 1 point off your Collected Effort Score. There are 2 points remaining. Once the points hit 0, the guardsmen will breach the Hall!
>Request the floor. Epitaph has awful short-term memory.
>Request high-level documentation.
>Accuse the Sinners of vandalism of cultural artifacts with no reimbursement of Dis.

>>2520972
>”We’ll just outlast them in a siege. Once they can no longer fight, we will leave the way we came.”
>Send Alex and whoever else we can except Beatrice through the collection box, they should be able to search for documents and escape mostly unopposed
We have limited ammo anyway, but we need Beatrice's firepower here.
>Line gunners along the giant stairs, that will let them fire above whoever stands at the chokepoint and onto the enemy.
Are the chairs in the Senate wooden? We could grab them one at a time and throw it into the chokepoint as a giant flaming barricade-ram.

>>2520972
>We blunt their initial push from a defensible position, then counterattack and fight our way out of here.

>Try to meditate real quick

Well I'm off to sleep now. Vote will remain open til the morning, at which point we shall continue.

>>2520972
>”We’ll just outlast them in a siege. Once they can no longer fight, we will leave the way we came.”

>Line gunners along the giant stairs, that will let them fire above whoever stands at the chokepoint and onto the enemy.

>Try to meditate real quick

>>2520972
Nah I'm out.

Just gonna see how this all goes.

>>2520972
We could start sending people out through the collection box until we’ve gathered enough folks on the outside to attack the guards from behind. I doubt they’d be expecting an attack from behind when they think we’ve been trapped in the Hall. We starting to send out Alex and the Redcloaks through the box to prep an attack from behind while we use anything we can to create a barricade and hold them off. Then slaughter them from behind.

>>2521069
>>2520972
This seems fun. I'll support it.

>>2521069
>>2520972
Seconding, since it's basically a better mix of options 2 and 3.
Also because it prevents them from making it a waiting game that we'd inevitably lose (ie, they fortify the outside and just engage in a literal siege tactic of waiting us out while simultaneously reinforcing with better support). Since they know where we are, and likely/logically think that we have no where to go, any sufficiently defensible position will just have them waiting for better reinforcements since they can afford to wait for imps, witches, etc. The actual danger is they have the advantage still even if they don't want to wait; they could just pretend to retreat and wait to trap us on the outside. They have too many good options and this removes at least two of them. Realistically this is also because we can't actually hold them off forever... so attacking from where they're not expecting it is the only really good idea.

We'll need to be pretty extreme in pushing from the inside as soon as the attack from the outside happens, so as to prevent the obvious power balance problem.

One big determining factor for success I see would be if we want to go with a very few amount of people to be the primary combatant shanking them from behind (with the lamp/flame rites) for a nasty surprise, or if we want to rely on waiting for a good number of redcloaks to go through and then being enough of a distracting pincer to allow us to push from the inside.
Thoughts?

>>2521192
Also probably worth noting is that if they do choose to wait at any point, that hurrying people outside is still a good idea for the same reasons. Being mindful that if the enemy stops attacking it's because something worse is being prepared because that's always how it works with these things.

>>2521192
I doubt that Orion could fit through the box. If he can then I’d totally be down to sneak him outside and incinerate them from behind.

We can't be sure that wherever the box leads will still give us access to a flanking route

>>2521255
That is very unfortunately true.

>>2521255
True but we can send recon to see where it does let out. And then spend our other action point using whatever we can find - desks, chairs, etc - to create a defensible barricade behind the door. Have the bottlenecked but also a safe firing point to blast shoot at then once they breach the doors.

I'm awake once more. Votes are closed and updates will resume in about an hour!

>Set up defenses while trying to use the box as a means to hopefully get around and flank them.

“Our only escape route is winning this fight.”

“But what if they just try to siege us out?”

“That’s where the collection box comes in. We’ll be trying to smuggle people out that way whenever we can and they can come around and flank them.”

Beatrice frowns, her bruised face creasing.
“I’m not sitting in a fucking box.”

“You won’t be, I need you here. Can we set up a barricade?”

“What with? As far as I can tell, all the chairs are stone and they’re built right into the ground. We’ll just have to use them as cover but as barricades go, there’s nothing.”

“So be it. Beatrice...I’m giving you command of the firing line. Set it up.”

The redcloaks hurry into position as best as they are able while the thumping sound increases, something heavy banging up against the internal doors over and over like the beating of an immense heart. Its heartbeat mirrors your own as you look out upon the men and women you are commanding and see fear upon their faces as they ready their rifles.
Holding a siege is implausible, getting a small flanking squad off is your only chance. Hopefully the collection box leads somewhere where that’s actually possible.

And just like that, before you’ve even finished getting into position yourself, the doors at the top of the dark amphitheatre burst open. Beatrice, Abe and the redcloaks immediately fire into the open doorway and you spot, in the flashes of gunfire, shadows of men dropping to the ground or hastily diving out the way.
The doorway is an excellent chokepoint. As long as you can hold it with a firing line, you could take on an army. The guardsmen have to understand that. So logically they’ll just back off now and try to siege you out, inadvertently giving the redcloaks climbing out through the box enough time to come around and flank them. Anything else would be foolish on their part.

Your musings are answered by a sight you didn’t expect, a thick square of metal plating suddenly being jammed into the doorway. A few bullets bounce off with little effect.
“Ah no,” one of the redcloaks say. “It’s one of those things they had on the bridge!”

How did they lug that thing all the way up the stairs? The contraption can barely fit through the doorway, almost jamming itself as it slowly pushes forward on rattling wheels. Their intent is obvious. They’re trying to establish a beach-head into the Hall before you can do anything about it!
But even so, it’s an unbelievably dangerous thing for them to attempt when they can just hold the perimeter. What’s going on?

1/2

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>>2521585
>Get people to retreat back down towards Epitaph. You don’t trust whatever is behind that thing.

>Split off your gunmen to go right up and to the side. They should be able to shoot at anyone behind the shield as it moves forward then, even if it means they won’t be able to hold the doorway as effectively.

>Charge! You’ll knock it free and give control of the doorway back to your rifles once more.

>Other (Specify)

>>2521585
>Split off your gunmen to go right up and to the side. They should be able to shoot at anyone behind the shield as it moves forward then, even if it means they won’t be able to hold the doorway as effectively.

>>2521586
>Split off your gunmen to go right up and to the side. They should be able to shoot at anyone behind the shield as it moves forward then, even if it means they won’t be able to hold the doorway as effectively.

>>2521586
>Split off your gunmen to go right up and to the side. They should be able to shoot at anyone behind the shield as it moves forward then, even if it means they won’t be able to hold the doorway as effectively.
A grenade sounds perfect right about now

>>2521639
Orion really needs to be able to throw explosive fireballs already.

Vote called, writing.

Apologies for the delay on this one, I got side-tracked. The following updates should be much faster paced however.

>Split off your gunmen to go right up and to the side. They should be able to shoot at anyone behind the shield as it moves forward then, even if it means they won’t be able to hold the doorway as effectively.

“Get around to the sides! Split up!,” you shout, Beatrice repeating you a moment later. For while the wheeled barricade might be effective at jamming up the doorway, the moment it starts to advance into the amphitheatre itself its sides are vulnerable! Anyone huddled up behind it are sitting ducks to any riflemen that get around to the side.
So it doesn’t make any sense that they’d try this in the first place.

You watch as the redcloaks execute your order perfectly. The barricade hasn’t even wheeled down to the first step before the shots ring out and you see blue-cloaked guards toppling out from underneath it. It’s a massacre, easily at least half a dozen dying before they can retreat. They drag their wounded and dead with them but the mobile barricade is left where it is, abandoned halfway down towards the first step.

You spare a glance to look back behind Epitaph. It’s hard to see in the darkness but Abe seems to be busy trying to get his small group of redcloaks out through the collection box. So that’s going according to plan then.
All you need to do is hold out until they can get around. It should be easy. But something about that last little offensive has you uneasy.

“Why would they do that?,” Beatrice asks as she steps down towards you, keeping her handgun trained on the empty doorway. “They’re camped out on the stairwell outside I think and they can hold that position pretty much forever. So why the fuck are they sending out people to die for no reason?”

Whatever their purpose, they no longer seem to be attacking just now. Have they only now switched to siege tactics? Or are they planning something else? Regardless you now have a small reprieve.


>Get up there and topple the mobile barricade while it’s still abandoned. The redcloaks should be able to cover you.

>Get down and help Abe with the collection box.

>If you light the lantern that used to hold the shard in the closet, you might be able to use it for Detonation. You should ready that now.

>Fire an Immolate straight down the doorway.

>Speak with Epitaph.

>Other (Specify)

>>2521745
>If you light the lantern that used to hold the shard in the closet, you might be able to use it for Detonation. You should ready that now.
Prepare the holy hand grenade

>>2521758
This. Might as well, just in case.

>>2521758
Support.

>>2521745
>If you light the lantern that used to hold the shard in the closet, you might be able to use it for Detonation. You should ready that now.
I wonder if they baited us to aggro epitaph on us.

Vote called, writing.

>If you light the lantern that used to hold the shard in the closet, you might be able to use it for Detonation. You should ready that now.

If your enemies are intent on giving you time to act, you plan to take advantage. Making sure that Beatrice and the redcloaks are holding their positions, you scramble back down the amphitheatre towards Epitaph. You’re just in time to watch Alex, looking extremely uncomfortable, being picked up by Abe while she is curled up into a ball. He deposits her into the open drawer of the collection box and slides it back into the wall as you approach.
“How’s it going up there?”

“Fine,” you say. “They’re up to something but I know not what. I’m just grabbing something from the closet.”

“Alert. You do not have the floor.”

You ignore Epitaph as you step over its severed arms and pick up the empty lamp from where it had fallen atop a pile of mouldering documents. As you had suspected, it’s the head of an old central lamp-post, First Age by design. Someone must have severed it from its post for use as a container and considering who likely did it, they would have been prepared for this before the Sun ever fell. The break is suspiciously clean. The runecarved lamp-posts rarely break easily and you’ve never seen one like this. It’s as if it was lopped free from its post by an impossibly sharp blade.

That’s a mystery for another day however. Maybe one to wait for when there is a day at all. It’s main use to you now is as a weapon. Normally you would have qualms about destroying even a fragment of a lamp-post but this thing has already been desecrated. No, not only that, it’s been desecrated and then used for blasphemy. Destruction is the best fate for this once-relic.

Wick: 0/10
Spark: 3 /8

The waxy fingerprint upon your forehead bursts into flame once more as you summon forth a mote to re-ignite the lamp, filling it not with a shard but with good honest flame. And as you do, strength fills you once more. The desecrated lantern is no match for the capacity of your long-handled wick but with that exhausted, it’ll do in a pinch.

Wick: 3/3
Spark: 3 /3

Of course, if all you wanted was just a perpetual source of Wick you could unstrap the thing on your back and let loose. The lamp-post and the shards held within would have more than enough power to incinerate every guardsmen on the stairwell. But truth be told, now that you are so close to your goal you’ve become a little uncomfortable with actually using it. What if the sun needs every single skerrick of power you can muster? What if the revival falls short because of just a few points of Wick? Not to mention that doing so would further scar your arms. Even you are as fuel for the thing inside the lamp and it burns a little piece of you away every time you call upon its Wick.

1/2

>>2521894
With the burning lantern held aloft, you start your climb back up towards the standoff. If you use the Detonate Rite, this should explode with some force. But you only get one. You’d best use it at the right time.

But while you consider this, someone calls out from beyond the doorway, from the darkness of the stairwell. It’s woman’s voice, high-pitched and indignant.
“Oi! Insurgents! I’m giving you one chance to surrender! I know you can’t afford to fight it out! We are willing to discuss terms!”

“Fuck off!,” Beatrice calls out.


>No, you should hear them out. If only to give more time to Abe and Alex as they try to get around behind them.

>Tell them that if they lay down their arms and let you leave, you won’t hurt any more of them.

>Bluff them with another Starfall.

>Stay silent.

>Prime the lantern and throw it now!

>Other (Specify).

>>2521821
Something terrible is obviously about to happen. Ouro wouldn’t let us get a shard that easily. Hopefully whatever he’s got up his sleeve we can defeat and then our flanking maneuver can at least clear us for an escape. Gut feeling says something bad is about to happen though.

>>2521896
>No, you should hear them out. If only to give more time to Abe and Alex as they try to get around behind them.

>Tell them that if they lay down their arms and let you leave, you won’t hurt any more of them.

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Oh whoops, that second Spark reading should say 3/8, not 3/3 like the lantern Wick was.

This is probably a bit absurd, but it occurs to me that there are preserved corpses throughout the Senate Hall. What if they’re not actually “dead” and Ouro is going to pull a night of the living dead on us?

>>2521896
Lets agree to a temporary ceasefire and try to get move people out. But some time. Tell them to send an emissary into the no mans land between their barricade and ours. Get whatever information we can from them.

>>2521923
Sorry. Phoneposting. Pls no bully

>>2521896
>No, you should hear them out. If only to give more time to Abe and Alex as they try to get around behind them.

>>2521896
>Stay silent
Now isnt the time to give a voice to the fiery symbol of insurgency

A shame we cant buy time for a meditate

>>2521935
Assaulting the symbolic house of the city’s government might be the best time to make our voice heard, actually. But I highly doubt that our voice would ever reach the outside world.

>>2521896
>No, you should hear them out. If only to give more time to Abe and Alex as they try to get around behind them.

Vote called, writing

>>2522002
Arrgh! Can't we do >>2521970 and bluff them with a starfall?

>No, you should hear them out. If only to give more time to Abe and Alex as they try to get around behind them.

“Be quiet!,” you hiss at Beatrice as you peer up at the doorway. She huffs but doesn’t say anything as you raise your voice and address whoever is your opposite number in the stairwell.
“We are prepared to discuss conditions.”

The redcloaks look at you confused but you just shake your head. You’re just doing this as a distraction.

“Oh! Well...Good!”
The speaker evidently wasn’t expecting you to acquiesce to conversation so easily. She recovers after a few seconds.
“Listen up, insurgents! You have trespassed upon sacred ground!”

“To who?”
You weren’t just about to let that one slide.

“Pardon?”

“Sacred to what? What god?”

“...None of them! To Dis! Look, the point is that you’ve got nowhere left to go. You’re trapped! And I also know there aren’t too many of you. But we have reinforcements en-route from all over the city! This is a fight you can’t afford to have.”
It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to be reinforcing anyone right now, considering the situation with the star. Is she bluffing? Or does she just know something you don’t?
“But if you agree to our conditions, you will not be killed.”

“Big words for a bunch of idiots who just got shot up,” Beatrice mutters.

“And what conditions are those?”

“First, your leader shall surrender themselves over to arrest! Secondly and most importantly, you will hand over all stolen property taken from the Senatorial Lost Objects Closet!”
She has the kind of voice where you can hear the exquisitely pronounced capital letters.

“What are you talking about? What closet?”
You’re actually a little interested in how she knows. Does she know your purpose?

“Don’t play dumb with me, rebel scum! I know that my mother once left an extremely important heirloom in the Senate’s keeping. Whatever it is, it is mine by right! Surrender it and your leader and the rest of you will go free!”

“Those are harsh terms.”

“They are the only ones you shall receive.”

As unfortunate as it is, she’s right about one thing. This is a fight you really can’t afford. They probably don’t have reinforcements but neither do you and your followers number few. Every redcloak that could potentially fall here is a huge loss. But neither will you abide by such terms!


>Try to continue the bargaining. You just need to buy some more time for Alex and Abe to get around behind them.

>”No.”

>Pretend to agree to the terms. You will present yourself for arrest and you will carry the ‘heirloom’ from the closet, the burning lantern right into their midst.

>Bluff them with another Starfall.

>Give them terms of your own. What, did they really think they had the upper hand?

>Tell them the truth about the shard.

>Ask how they can stand for everything Epitaph represents.

>Other (Specify)

>>2522056
>Give them terms of your own. What, did they really think they had the upper hand?
>Try to continue the bargaining. You just need to buy some more time for Alex and Abe to get around behind them.

>>2522071
Second

>>2522056
>Pretend to agree to the terms. You will present yourself for arrest and you will carry the ‘heirloom’ from the closet, the burning lantern right into their midst.
Hell yeah.

>>2522071
Yeah sure
Honestly I can't imagine how much the flanking is going to help

>>2522056
>Give them terms of your own. What, did they really think they had the upper hand?
>Try to continue the bargaining. You just need to buy some more time for Alex and Abe to get around behind them.
>Tell them the truth about the shard.

We should delay them and then walk into their midst to explode the lantern when the flanking team is in position.

>>2522071
Supporting this.

How many people do we have left in the chambers?

>>2522056
>funny you should mention sacred ground, daughter of One who Slew God.
Give them terms of your own. What, did they really think they had the upper hand?

Things like the return of various bills, while asking what they offer in return for keeping quiet about this joke of an approval process.

If we do fire a sunlaser, these talks could bunch the important clerks into the center

>>2522056
>Accept the surrender conditions.
>Give the kid the lantern.
>Use Self-Ignition once you're in range.
>Headlock the kid. Take her hostage and run away.

Vote called, writing.

>>2522173
This actually isn't a bad idea...

We just kick the lantern out and then BOOM. We get the flanking forces on them along wish the ones remaining inside the chamber, and then we fight our way out.

>>2522187
My idea isn't lethal, though. Self-Ignition will only burn people we want it to burn, and in a hostage situation, we don't need to burn anyone.

>>2522245
You're assuming that they care about the life of any one individual - I don't, this is Dis after all.

Safer to just kill them.

File: orionwithoutarmour.jpg (28 KB, 540x765)

28 KB JPG

>Give them terms of your own. What, did they really think they had the upper hand?
>Try to continue the bargaining. You just need to buy some more time for Alex and Abe to get around behind them.

All you need to do right now is stall for time. Abraham and Alex have half of your redcloaks and by now, they should all be on the other side of the Senate Hall’s far wall. If they can get around and block off the stairwell from the ground floor, you should be able to catch the guards in a pincer between two squads with rifles. From there you could crush them or possibly negotiate for your escape. Provided, that is, that the woman is bluffing about there being more reinforcements inbound.

“If those are the only terms you are going to give us then I have some of my own to give to you.”

A moment’s silence.
“For what purpose? You have no leverage! You can’t demand anything!”

“What, do you really think you have the upper hand?”

“...Yes?”
Her voice is growing a little more erratic with each exchange.
“What do you have? You’re all trapped! The only reason we have not yet mounted a full assault is that we have decided to show you mercy and to retrieve the heirloom!”

“Sure. And if you do that, I will destroy it!”

“What?”
And now comes the true test. Does she actually know what the ‘heirloom’ truly is? Because if she does then your threat holds very little power. But if she only has half the story or doesn’t understand why you want it…
“Wait! Wh-What are your terms? Speak them now!”

“The end of this city’s rule of sin!”

Once again, there is only silence from the doorway for almost a full minute.
“Uh, I can’t do that. Do you have anything more feasible?”

“In lie-”

“Wait! Wait! The truth is...the truth of the matter, the real demands, the thing we want to say is…! Well. Hold on a moment. Okay. So just to make sure, you are not submitting to our demands?”

“No!”
You’re not sure what’s going on but if takes time, you’re glad for it.

“Well fine. I was actually just mostly buying time anyway, Die.”

Buying time for what? Your internal question is answered before you even truly ask it as blue-cloaked guardsmen burst forth through the doorway once more! And straight into a hail of bullets, once more. But this time they don’t fall. The bullets sting at them, makes them rock back, gives rise to a chorus of familiarly inhuman sounds. But then they continue forward.
Where once they were clasping swords, they are instead bare-handed, their hands ending in a jagged cluster of knife-like claws. Their wide mouths split their faces in two, jaws hanging open and distended tongues larger than they can hold writhing in and out. The malformed once-men lurch forward with terrifying speed and without thinking, you step forward in front of one of the redcloaks and use your staff to deflect a strike that would have decapitated him!

1/2

>>2522261
This close you can see the ghoul’s stitching, the patchwork of different corpses that make up the blasphemous whole. You can even recognise the twisted face, matching it to a glimpse of one of the men who had fallen in the initial assault. You kick the ghoul back before it can lash out at you in return!

The other ghouls are being kept at bay with gunfire but it isn’t making them flee as a wild one would. Instead they are enduring the sting of it and are pushing forward, puppeted by a witch.

“Fuck!,” Beatrice shouts, blowing the head off one. “Everyone fall back! Get away from them! They’ll rip you in half as easy as blinking!”

And there are still more crawling up from the stairwell, a mishmash of former guards sewn up and patchworked together. A mere firing line can’t hold these. A bullet may drop them but unless it tears a valuable stitch, never for long. And once a ghoul gets close its claws can part flesh like butter.
Unless you do something right now, there are going to be casualties and ones you can’t afford.


>Try to herd them into the area in front of the doorway and then use the detonating lantern.

>Bar the doorway with your body and use self-ignition to hold them back! Ghoul flesh is as wax to the flame.

>Try to get past them and find the witch that must be nearby. If you kill them, the ghouls will be wild and will flee from bullets.

>Acquiesce to their demands. Let them take you and the lantern. Maybe they’ll call back the ghouls.

>Other (Specify)

>>2522264

>Try to herd them into the area in front of the doorway and then use the detonating lantern.

>>2522264
>>Try to herd them into the area in front of the doorway and then use the detonating lantern.

>>2522264
>Bar the doorway with your body and use self-ignition to hold them back! Ghoul flesh is as wax to the flame.

>>2522264
>Try to herd them into the area in front of the doorway and then use the detonating lantern

>>2522264
>Bar the doorway with your body and use self-ignition to hold them back! Ghoul flesh is as wax to the flame.

>>2522264
>Try to herd them into the area in front of the doorway and then use the detonating lantern

Do we have any dirt? Can we get any from a ghoul's body? We need to locate the witch.

>>2522264
>Try to get past them and find the witch that must be nearby. If you kill them, the ghouls will be wild and will flee from bullets.

>>2522312
There was dirt from the closet

>>2522316
This is correct. Vote called by the way, writing.

>>2522264
>Bar the doorway with your body and use self-ignition to hold them back! Ghoul flesh is as wax to the flame.

>>2522260
She's in charge, she's the noble's daughter. The guards will do what she tells them. Especially in Dis. It's a moneycracy, and she's got the money.>>2522264
>>Bar the doorway with your body and use self-ignition to hold them back! Ghoul flesh is as wax to the flame.

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11 KB PNG

Well guys, I think I need to get some more sleep. Sorry. I'll be back later tonight to do a few more updates.

>>2522355
No worries, get some rest

>Try to herd them into the area in front of the doorway and then use the detonating lantern.

You push the ghoul in front of you further back, using your stave to knock it back into the floor in front of the doorway. Is this it? Is this meant to be their trump card against you and your companions? That woman had been stalling for time, just as you had been.
“There!,” you scream, pointing at the door. “Herd them back!”

While a witch’s puppetry might stop a ghoul from fleeing, any ghoul outside of the closest proximity of their master will still flinch from a bullet. The heat stings them. So while rifles won’t put a ghoul down save in the most fortunate of circumstances, they make an excellent tool for briefly redirecting them.

The ghouls briefly retreat, bunching up with one another as their advance is momentarily stymied. It won’t work for long, not more than an instant. The witch would send them forth once more and this time would have a sterner hand. But an instant is all you need.

The lantern sputters in your hand as you incite the Wick within, driving it into a barely contained frenzy. With it held above you, you charge forward and leap into the midst of the beasts! They barely have time to turn before you slam the lamp upon the ground and let the cleansing fire wash over you all.
The explosion does nothing to you save obscuring your vision with dancing flame. The fire engulfs you and moves on without so much as a spark. The same could not be said for the ghouls.

Ghoul-flesh, though immortal and proof against most things, is as wax to the flame. They don’t burn as much as melt. And while the explosion isn’t large, the backwash of it flows down the darkened stairwell before you and you hear the shrieks of creatures yet to come.
The redcloaks cheer as you stand there amidst the dying ghouls, blinking furiously to banish the spots of light covering your vision.

It is this that lets you see the glint of firelight on steel at the very last moment and you stagger to the side as a blade thrusts straight through the space that just a moment ago held you throat. Time seems to slow as you stare at the sword passing just inches from your face. It’s a long slim sabre of excellent make with some sort of inscription running down its edge, something too cramped and minute to be runes. And then it retracts and you stagger backwards away from your assailant.

The woman brandishing the thing, tall and wearing a dark blue cloak and feathered cap, abruptly vanishes back down the stairwell as Beatrice opens fire, the explosive shot blowing stone chips out of the wall instead.
You hear something awkwardly rolling down the deep stairs below, followed by a litany of high-pitched curses.

1/2

>>2522547
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.

>Hang back and make sure the defences are still up. There could easily be more creatures out there and the cramped confines of the stairwell are a terrible place to fight them.

>You’ll track down the witch with your own means. There should still be some dirt lying around the Senate floor…

>Other (Specify)

>>2522549
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.

>>2522549
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.

>>2522549
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.
Oh cool, update right as I wake up.

>>2522549
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.

>>2522547
You know what'd be crazy? If time was never actually stopped and this whole breaking of the sun scenario was part of the third age transition into the fourth age. The sinners played the role they were supposed to without knowing it, because using the shards of the sun to remake it into something new is what is supposed to trigger the age, not just time. Maybe all ages needed a trigger event. The first age was the death of the wayward flame and the first men were needed to clear away the rest of the dark gods. The end of that was the desth of the last god and the beginning of human civilization, with the second men being born to secure, study, and prep this world and flame based magic and tech for the dark's eventual counter attack. The third age was triggered by the eventual comeback of the dark, and a need for humans that could properly defend themselves and keep vigil against the dark until the final trigger. When the world is broken and humanity is on its last leg, that's whrn third man resilience really shines and there's at least one human capable of turning things around and reforging what was destroyed into something greater, triggering the fourth age when their duty is finally done and the sun is reborn. That or I'm looking way to deep into this.

>>2522549
>You’ll track down the witch with your own means. There should still be some dirt lying around the Senate floor…

She won't see it coming.

>>2522549
>You’ll track down the witch with your own means. There should still be some dirt lying around the Senate floor…
This should stop any further ambushes

>>2522549
>>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.
Also? Shiny sword.

>>2522549
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.
Yell at Bea to stay and protect the red cloaks from any stragglers

Reminder anon's, our wick is quite low...

>>2522625
I wonder what would happen if we carved witch runes into a sword.

>>2522549
>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll probably regret it.
>Call up Beatrice for close fire support

>>2522547
I want to note that the witch just tanked our Detonate. We need to be careful.

>>2522638
Agatha was a runecrafter, and I think she taught her daughter how to make a mini-golem that makes even smaller runes.

so how do we know the kid is the witch, and what's the source for her mom being a runecrafter? thought she was a pencilpusher

>>2522860
>and what's the source for her mom being a runecrafter?
There was an empty display in the Duke's treasure room for "Agatha's Runesword". I wouldn't be surprised if that's the sword the kid is using right now.

>>2522956
That implies she has a runesword, not that she's capable of rune craft. Orion has a runesword too but he has no idea how to inscribe runes or mess with them in any way.

>>2522956
Right, and her glove.

Alright, I'm awake. Thread will resume in an hour!

>Pursue her immediately! She’s probably the witch after all and you’ve just dealt with her supposed trump card. If you don’t follow her straight away before she recovers, you’ll likely regret it.

You don’t bother to wait for Beatrice or the rest of the redcloaks, that’d take too much time! She’s likely the witch and if you don’t take advantage of putting her on the backfoot you’ll regret it. If you regrouped with the others then she’ll just have time to do something else! You think back to the ghoul you had just deflected and how close it had come to eviscerating someone who would have only died because of you.
No, you’ll finish this yourself!

You go through the doorway and hit the stairs running, already adjusting to the deep stairs accustomed to the stride of someone almost twice as large as you. You pass shapes in the darkness, injured ghouls twisting and wailing. They aren’t dead but you don’t have the time to deal with them just now. You have to kill the witch controlling them!

The twisting spiral staircase is cramped and dark, the burning star upon your brow the only illumination. Far from the best place to fight a ghoul but hopefully she doesn’t have any that were far enough back to not be incapacitated from the explosion. But just as that thought crosses your mind, a misshapen creature leaps out from around the perpetually-twisting bend of the stairs!

You duck out past a lashing tongue covered in life-extending venom as the ghoul advances. Like the others, it is still wearing the blue coats of the Senate guardsmen. It has none of the signs of being an old ghoul either, no extra or missing body parts, no criss-cross of reapplied stitches, no extra mouths. It’s almost entirely human in shape, fashioned from a single corpse. You bash at it with your stave , holding it out in front of you like a spear in order to have the room to swing it in the stairwell.
It’s just as you suspected then. All of these ghouls are recent and you’d wager that they were mostly living men at the time the siege started. They were thrown into battle to die so that they could become more useful to their master!

You jab with your staff to keep the ghoul back, wary of what would happen if it contorted past the upthrust steel . But in your general experience, fresh ghouls lack the fluidity and flexibility that comes to older ghouls once their bodies have been refashioned enough times. This one is still too bound to the constraints of human form.

“An excellent creature, isn’t it?”
The voice echoes out from somewhere around the bend, the same petulant voice that you had been ‘negotiating’ with now almost painfully loud.
“Stronger in death than it was in life! And now that you’ve rejected my deal, the same fate awaits you too!”

1/2

>>2523289
What is she doing just talking to you? Why isn’t she attacking while you’re distracted? Unless...she already is! Is this just another distraction? You can’t afford to let this ghoul waste any more of your time but the only way you’ll be able to get it out of your way quickly is with use of your already scarce Wick.

Wick: 0/10

Spark: 3/ 8


>Ignite Weapon

>Self-Ignite.

>Immolate

>Cauterise Wound

>Benediction of Relief.

>None. It’ll take a little more time but you’ll batter your way past this thing without using Wick.

>>2523293
>Ignite Weapon

>>2523293
>Ignite Weapon
Gotta conserve wick.

>>2523293
>>Ignite Weapon
It provides some light, yeah? Also, we should get some value from Dead King's Crown and store Benediction of Relief in it. Or maybe Cleansing to impart on the witch as she seems to be tilted easily.

>>2523293
>Ignite Weapon

>Ignite Weapon.

You twist your staff around, battering the ghoul around the head and then, while the severed metal tail is still making contact with the creature’s face, you call upon your Wick. Beads of molten wax dribble down your face as the Spark burns bright.

>Wick: 0/10
>Spark: 2/8

Fire bursts free from your gauntleted hands and races down the length of your staff, engulfing the entire weapon in holy flame. The ghoul screams as the right side of its face melts and you take a step forward, leaning in into the thrust that should end this creature for good!

>Dead King’s Crown has activated. Roll 1d3. The first roll shall be accepted.

Rolled 3 (1d3)

>>2523353
Hmm, does Ducal Firecrafting affect Dead King's Crown?

>>2523371
It does not. The Wick provided by the Crown is a separate pool, much like the Spark.

>3

You feel the power surge within you as your burning staff takes the ghoul in the chest and pushes straight through, feeling little resistance as its body melts against your strike. Compared to what your life has become, an endless series of questions about starfalls and martyrs and everything about Epitaph, this is simple. This is good. It is here, in the dark fighting for your life alone save for the flame in your hand, where you are most at home.
This is where you belong.

>Dead King’s Crown grants you 3 temporary Wick to be spent on using the Ignite Weapon’s upgraded effect. It must be spent now and it can only be spent on storing another Rite or Benediction within your staff.

>Ignite Weapon’s Power Number is activated, restoring 1 Wick to your main pool. This bonus is then doubled by Ducal Firecrafting.

Wick: 2/10
Spark: 2/8
Crown: 3/3


>Choose a Flame Rite or Benediction to store within the staff.

>>2523417
>Self-Ignition

Just blow it all to fuck when the time is right.
Beatrice will get here to shoot her if the witch turns out to be protected from fire somehow from her runes.

>>2523417
>Benediction of Relief.
Let's touch people with our holy healing stick

>>2523417
>Benediction of Relief
Wow we're pretty powerful now.

Also question Ouro, the pastebin says
>When used on creatures of the Dark this slowly dissolves their flesh.
Does this work on witches? If so, would it be useful in combat?

>>2523443
Yes, witches always count as creatures of darkness. It's why you can never use Benediction to cure Beatrice's sickness.

Vote called, writing.

>Benediction of Relief

Your staff burns deeper into the ghoul’s body and with one final swing, you bisect the monster into two sizzling heaps. You stomp on the remains as you resume your advance, the stairwell now lit by the light of your staff.
White light limns your hands for a moment before you send it sinking into the flame itself, old pyromancy techniques that you were only barely instructed in becoming feasible with the divine power that now fuels you. A Benediction now slumbers within your burning stave, one that you can unleash at will for no further cost to yourself.

You round the ever-present bend of the spiral staircase and there, before you, is the woman with her hands clasped tightly behind her back. Her uniform is a good deal more gaudy than the men who had died at her command and the feather in her hat, though entirely impractical for combat, seems to be some sort of badge of office. It’s not difficult to guess what she is.
“Magistrate. You have no more ghouls to hide behind!”

You step forward into a lunge, intent on maximizing your staff’s reach by bringing it down in an arc upon her skull but she steps back with alarming speed. The perpetual curve of the stairwell stops you from following up with a horizontal strike either.
This gives her enough time to whip out her hands from where they had been behind her back, one of them gloved in a thin metal gauntlet. They clasp together in a sign that is familiar to you. It is a curse, an affliction to foul up a foe’s movements. But like all curses it requires a constant repetition of the witch-sign to actually take effect, the time for which she does not have. The closing of a single sign won’t trigger it…

...Unless she had been making the sign behind her back for the entire time you were fighting the ghoul.

You feel a chill run down your spine as the curse settles upon you, as heavy as the earth itself. You’ve been cursed before of course but no matter the effect, it never becomes anymore pleasant. You lash out with your staff again but she just retreats down the stairwell and out of your reach. She suddenly seems faster but you know from experience that it’s just your perception that has slipped a gear.

“I heard about a Lamplighter. That star this morning was you, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it?”
You round the corner to find her standing her ground, her fingers interlocking in another dislocating dance as her hands speak the name of an Old Power of the Earth.
“I knew people at that funeral! My mentor! A fellow student!”

1/2

>>2523537
You have no answer you care to give a creature like her but as you charge, you recognise the sign she’s making. It’s the same witch-sign that Zeno used to propel his train, the one his notes claimed to have been learnt from the golem-witch of Dis that had flung him from its borders. This one is rushed and minor but you can tell it’s the same effect.
You jump to the side, throwing yourself up against the wall as her sword screams out from behind you, flying down the stairs with no wielder save witchcraft. Had you not been aware of the import of her movement-sign, you would have likely been skewered right through the back!

The sword embeds itself in the stone wall behind her and as you bring the flaming staff down upon her head, she pulls it free. The sword meets your staff and is knocked aside, shaving off a long sliver of metal from the Duke’s severed tail as if it was made of paper.

She stumbles back from the narrowly-avoided blow, the feather atop her cap singed and smoking. She raises her sword but you’re already stepping forward with your staff thrusting out like a spear.


>Roll 1d6 for this combat. The first three shall be counted, each one representing three different stages of the action. Since you are using a staff, they are ordered in the most optimal fashion.

>Your energy is also being sapped with a curse! Whenever you are called upon to make a roll, a d6 will also be rolled for the witch. The result of that d6 will be the Power Number of the curse. For every Power Number Orion rolls in that roll, reduce all other dice involved in the roll by 1.

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>2523540

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>2523540

Rolled 4 (1d6)

Rolling for her Power Number.

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>2523540

So a 6, 5 and 3, unaffected by the curse. The three stages incidentally are avoiding her attack, hitting her and avoiding a weird counter-attack. Normally I order the Staff Mastery rolls myself but this time I think I have to ask you guys. Which of those three do you prioritise the most?

>>2523572
sixes give situational bonuses yeah?
So a 6 dodge should allow the 4 to be a telling hit, and we can use the 5 for the counter dodge.

>>2523577
Supporting this

>>2523577
This is correct. 6, 3 and 5 then. Writing.

>>2523577
We didn't roll a 4, we got a 3. Which is a little low for an attack

I prioritize the attack since it should interfere with her weird counter

>>2523591
The 6 adds a +1 to the next result.

>6, 3, 5.

She lashes before you can finish your swing but you’re prepared for it, stepping to the side and letting the blade taste empty air. You’re not sure how yet but the power of that sabre has been amply demonstrated and you need to respect it. If you simply tried to block it, it’d likely slice your staff right through and cut you open in the same swing.

But with the strike completely sidestepped, her thrust carries her too far forward. She’s overextended and has no hope of bringing her sword back to parry effectively. You swing the staff down and she holds out her free hand in a futile attempt to try and catch the blow-

And she actually does. The flaming staff strikes her flexible duelling glove and stops as if it had struck a wall. The chainmail glove, each ring carved with impossibly small runes, slaps the staff aside!

The witch cringes back as she does however, the mere force of your strike throwing her up against the wall even when parried. The shadows flicker in the firelight as you step forward to close the distance and as you do so, the fire roars higher.

>Ignite Weapon’s Power Number of 3 activates. In combination with Ducal Firecrafting, you gain 2 Wick.

The magistrate shrieks in pain as she cradles her gloved hand. But her shadow isn’t just flickering anymore. It surges forward, climbing over her body and gathering in her sword. With the blade now stained completely black with living shadow, she makes a wild swing!

You knock the sword out of her hands with a quick twist of the staff. The black sword falls to the ground at your feet, bounces and then as it strikes the ground again, the Shade that had been using the flat of the blade as its surface spreads out to the floor, the witch’s errant shadow swiping out at your feet with two clawed hands!
If you had actually been struck there, the blade wouldn’t have just bled you, your body would have instantly become a surface for the Shade!

You jump back and the Shade’s attack passes harmlessly across the ground. It flows out across the floor towards you but now that you know it’s coming, you’re more than well-enough equipped to deal with a mere trick like this.

“Why are you doing all this?”
The witch’s voice is as loud as it is high. The two combined make it nearly as sharp as her sword.
“What’s wrong with you?”

She flings her hands together and though the sign is rushed and feeble, the sword slowly lifts into the air and starts jabbing repeatedly towards you! Looks like you’ll have to deal with both of them.

>Wick: 4/10
>Spark: 2/8

1/2

>>2523658
To deal with the Shade you’ll just:

>Self-Ignite. Shades can’t touch flame, it’ll let you just ignore it for the rest of the fight.

>Strike at it with your staff! Since it’s aflame that should vanquish it in short order.

>Launch an Immolate. It should roast the Shade and quite possibly the witch behind it, even if it’ll do nothing to the sword.

>Other (Specify)

And to stop yourself from being slit open by the witched sword at the same time, you’ll just:

>Try to dodge past it. It’ll be fine, it's not particularly fast or elegant.

>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

>Catch it by the handle.

>Just rush down the witch.

>Other (Specify)

>>2523665
>>Self-Ignite. Shades can’t touch flame, it’ll let you just ignore it for the rest of the fight.
>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

>>2523665
>Self-Ignite. Shades can’t touch flame, it’ll let you just ignore it for the rest of the fight.
>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

>>2523665
>Self-Ignite. Shades can’t touch flame, it’ll let you just ignore it for the rest of the fight.
>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

As a witch I am sure you do not care, but mankind is dying outside Did and within it. I am doing what I do to save as many as I can.

>>2523665
>Launch an Immolate. It should roast the Shade and quite possibly the witch behind it, even if it’ll do nothing to the sword.
>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

>>2523665
>Self-Ignite. Shades can’t touch flame, it’ll let you just ignore it for the rest of the fight.
>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

>>2523682
This.
Also
>Your "friends" doomed the world! What's wrong with YOU?

>Self-Ignite. Shades can’t touch flame, it’ll let you just ignore it for the rest of the fight.
>Hit the flat of it with your staff to knock it back out of the air. You can’t do this if you’re using your staff to hit the Shade however.

>Wick: 1/10
>Spark: 3 /8

You reach for your wick and keeping one hand on it, you pull forth flame from deep within yourself and let it settle upon your body like a shroud! Your vision tinges orange as your body bursts into flame and the Shade immediately retreats, retracting itself from its assault and fleeing back to the witch.

The sword moves in clumsily but it fares no better as you knock it from the air with a swing of your staff. You’re careful to strike the flat to prevent possibly slicing the staff and you do so easily, knocking it to the ground and letting it bounce back down the stairs towards your opponent.

She sees and rolls for it immediately, reaching into her pockets as she does so and flinging a spool of black thread at you! You recognise it as witch-stitch immediately. It’s mostly used to create and maintain ghouls but you’ve seen firsthand that it can be far more dangerous than that. In the hands of someone who knows how to use it, it can make flesh come apart as easily as it can tie it together.
But you are covered in holy flame and the stitch simply vaporises on contact, burning to ash before it can so much as touch you.

She grabs the sword and rolls back as you bring the burning staff down upon where her head had been. She scrambles back to her feet and keeps pacing back down the stairs, keeping to the wall to best keep the curving corner of the dusty stairwell between you and her. With the curse weighing heavier and heavier, it’s hard to keep up with her!

This only last a few seconds before she skids to a stop, nearly falling down a step as she does so. Her cloak stains from blue to black as the Shade settles upon her body like a mantle, shadowy arms tracing along her own as she holds the sword before her.
“I’m warning you-”

The gunshot is deafening in the cramped stairwell, the explosive shot tracing right over your shoulder! But what happens next is so quick that it takes you a second to even piece together what happened. The Shadow moves, forcibly shifting the magistrate’s hands with it in a twitch of superhuman speed that ends in the runesword flicking to catch the bullet head on.
It bursts upon the sword in a puff of flame and smoke that pushes the witch back up against the wall.

Beatrice collapses behind you, huffing and puffing like a bellows. She also finds the time to dry-heave as she clasps her stomach. She must have ran down the whole stairwell just to catch up to you and in her condition too!

The magistrate bolts, running down the stairs at full tilt with her Shade still clinging to her body like a parasite.

1/2

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>>2523757
>She’s not yet out of reach. Rush her down!

>Make sure Beatrice is alright first. It’d be better to have her with you than to go off alone again.

>Try to catch the witch with an Immolate as they run.

>Other (Specify)


>In addition, roll 1d3 for Dead King’s Crown upon using Self-Ignition. Only the first result will count. Also vote for which Rite or Benediction you wish to store within Orion’s body.

Rolled 2 (1d3)

>>2523763
>Try to catch the witch with an Immolate as they run.

the one that can break curses.

>>2523766
That'd be a Cleansing Benediction.

>>2523772
That then

>>2523766
This

>>2523763
How does storing a flame rite work in this context?

Why are we chasing her? All of her ghouls are dead and we're leaving our redcloaks behind right now right?

>>2523763
>Try to catch the witch with an Immolate as they run.

>>2523763
>Try to catch the witch with an Immolate as they run.

Cleansing

>>2523763
>Try to catch the witch with an Immolate as they run.
>Other (Specify)
Cleansing Benediction

>>2523785
>Why are we chasing her?
Well, it was voted to do so.

Anyway, vote called and writing.

>>2523785
She's a witch bro, and we're a witch hunter. Also we don't want her getting away and saying what she saw here.

>>2523785
We're a flaming dude chasing an important person.

We are the best distraction.

>>2523766
Supporting

>Try to catch the witch with an Immolate as they run.
>Cleansing Benediction.

You feel the weight of the curse lift before it can become too troublesome, lifted by reflexive Bendiction. White light outlights your whole body for just a moment as you step forward. Flame runs across your staff and streams out from your entire body as you raise your hand and point at the fleeing witch.

Your Flame Internal links to your finger in the simplest and yet deadliest conduit imaginable, the fire sheathing your hand roaring and spraying forth in a cone of incineration.

>Roll 1d6 to hit her. First three rolls will count towards a single goal DC. The curse no longer has any effect on your rolls.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>2523881
Flame on!

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>2523881

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>2523881


>>2523891
boo