>>3538796
>prior thread
Henry grabbed some food from a nearby stall, located near the city’s gate and promptly returned to Rosa. He’d decided that exploring the leylines any further would be a waste of time and he wasn’t in the mood for a walk in the countryside. He needed to know more about the leylines and the mysterious group of people connected to Requin before he could find anything useful at the leyline sites. Rosa looked at the meat skewer’s he’d bought with a thinly veiled hunger. The two found a nice place to sit, underneath a weeping willow inside a small park, and proceeded to eat their meal. Rosa sat in Henry’s lap, her back pressed up against his chest.

“You’re warm today, coming down with a fever?” Rosa joked.

“Can I enjoy my meal?” Henry responded, causing the woman to laugh.

“Henry, I want us both to survive this, after that… maybe we could settle down with the gold, live normal lives again, you’re a talented mage, so you could find less dangerous work!” Rosa said, in between eating her food.

“Yeah, that’d be nice, Rosa.” Henry said, wrapping his free arm around her belly and squeezing a little bit.

The two continued to eat a little while longer. The park they were in was quiet and a gentle breeze occasionally caused the willow to sway.

“Rosa, I had a question.” Henry said after finishing.

“If I can answer it I will.”

“Do you know of the cracked bell incident?” Henry asked.

“What?!”

>>3538797
“I was trying to find out about it, for some reason I believe it is connected to the bug, or something.”

“Ah… oh… it was a factory explosion, about six or seven years ago now. I don’t really want to get into the details.”

“Rosa, I need to know as much as possible, it could be vital to my investigation.” Henry said. “Anything that will help us understand what’s going on could save our lives down the line.”

“Okay Henry, I trust you, I shouldn’t try to hide things from you like this. We need to be honest with each other, right?” Rosa said after some thought.

Henry was happy the woman was still in his lap, he knew for a fact his inner guilt was leaking onto his face. It was for the better she couldn’t see him. He sighed and listened intently to what she had to say.

“It was a factory explosion, about six years ago. About two thousand workers were working in the cracked bell factory. It exploded, because of poor maintenance I think. It was a big experiment by the cult of progress to make a better factory I think, they covered it up, put the blame on the locals, and the church believed them, and that was that. I was working in Magica’s only hospital at the time as an apprentice. I saw things that day I’ll never forget Henry, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I don’t know how this will help you but I hope you found it useful.”

“Thank you, Rosa.” Henry said. He wondered what any of this had to do with Venser.

The two departed back to the mage’s guild in silence. Rosa seemed to be lost in thought, Henry didn’t know what to say to the woman. Bringing up the incident had ruined the mood but it had given Henry a solid lead. What exactly had happened during that incident?

The Gold Hands mage guild came back into view and quickly grew large as the two approached it. Henry rented a room while Rosa simply gave him a look of confusion. He explained they needed to practice. He had a couple of spells he really wanted to try out and this would be the safest place to do so. He also wanted to see what Rosa was capable of so they’d be able to work more efficiently. Rosa simply nodded and went along with it.

(-2 silver)

The mage room was smaller than Henry had expected, around two hundred square feet in total. A cursory glance revealed the runic symbols on the wall were in excellent condition and had been properly set up.

Decisions:
1. *practice some spells* (write in)
2. *create something new* (costs 1 special point, write in)
3. *see how good Rosa is at blocking attacks*
4. *have Rosa try a few spells out*
5. (write in)

>voting open for this,

>>3538803
>1. *practice some spells* (write in)
Also let rosa know we use black mana if she doesn't already

>>3538803
>1. *practice some spells* (write in)

Lightning Talons, if we have to pick from the list we already know. Maybe we can increase the duration by having it be a single shot on-contact spell instead of having it be multiple use within a short time period.

Like, have it be stuck in a capacitor.

That way we could "booby trap" minions with it, or cast it on Johnny to use when we aren't in direct line of sight.

>>3538859
Good idea, but that might still take a sp

>>3538847
the general policy so far has been to not do this, is anyone else okay with it?

>>3538859
can you further elaborate on this concept?

>>3538897
Oh.... okay.
No showing her.

>>3538906
the main reason is that black mana has several negative connotations. The biggest two being its relationship to necromancy and demonic magic. Black mana abilities don't necessarily make for a bad person, but the two often do go hand in hand.

Black Mana's main attributes are ambition and amorality

>>3538897
no showing her we have black mana

>>3538803
did we NOT get this red mana spell
>Internal Combustion: Destruction of a different sort. Dislike buildings? Weapon or armor getting in the way of a killing blow? Gargoyle getting you down? Not anymore! With this little spell any unliving material can be blasted from the inside, assuming you can get close enough to give it a little love tap. The effect can be instant or delayed, allowing you to set traps in certain areas! (Costs 1 red mana to cast)(costs 1.5 red mana to snapcast)(EFFECTS MAY VARY)
Why is it not on the list?

>>3538924
necromantic heart and haste won the last time after Lady Marlene's Party concluded. I gave 3 mana votes and 2 spell votes.

>>3538924
Lets try it, but do we have subjects to test it on?
Also test haste

>>3538897
Lightning claws only lasts 15 seconds from being cast, right?

But what if we could cast a sort of "delayed" version where it wouldn't go off until we needed it? So we could have it cast ahead of time.

Then it would go off, maybe for just one attack but still that would give a ton of options for casting it on minions so that we don't have to be right there with the minions. That's dangerous.

>>3538945
you'd need something to stabilize it... perhaps ask Rosa to lend a hand?

Or could you try to mix blue mana into the spell to make something new and more easily controlled... (this will cost the special point or you can roll for it but failure might not end well)

>>3538937
We need Larry's help to get Haste

>>3538931
Oh yeah, for some reason people wanted Haste instead of Internal Combustion
Uhhhhhh maybe do what >>3538945 said about having it be slightly delayed? Like the electric charge enters the enemy, remains there, then blasts their shit up? Would be a good precursor and future combination move with Internal Combustion (when we get it) and Dark Touch (when we get it). It can also be easily practiced and tested with filled bladders (which they had instead of bouncing balls back then, I think). This way we might be able to figure out different results Lightning Talons has with things that have liquid in them (like people for instance), as well as figure out how to force the charge to retain and delay in the enemy without fucking Henry up with deadly shrapnel in case things go wrong. And if things do go wrong, all Henry will need is a change of clothes.

>>3538965
you've had 2 months in avignon, Henry's learned haste. I apologize for not being clear on that. If you check the spell list it says he's learned it.

>>3538975
Ah okay my bad
So attempting to practice Necromantic Heart could help, yes? It would out Henry's black mana to Rosa, but it's also a ridiculously good stealth spell that might keep them alive.

So far, the feasible spells we could practice are
>Haste
>delayed Lightning Talons charging
Rosa could help with Lightning Talons, so I'd rather go with that while she's here with us. In the big clusterfuck fight, Larry can help with Haste briefly enough for it to work, so leave that to then.

>>3538859
>>3538876
>>3538906
>>3538919
>>3538924
>>3538931
>>3538945
>>3538955
>8955▶
>>>3538945
>>3538965
>>3538975
going to make a small post, with more concrete options.

>>3538803
Henry sat down and grabbed out a couple pieces of paper, a clipboard he’d managed to nab from Ophelia, and a couple of pencils. He quickly began drawing out a couple of idea’s he’d had while Rosa watched with a mix of curiosity and caution.

His best attack spell was lightning talons. It had a reasonable mana cost, no threat to himself, a good fifteen second window of use, and it really packed a punch. He needed to figure out some way to make it more stable and longer lasting. If he could make it into an enchantment that’d be the best, akin to what the angels used. He had two options for that, blue or white mana.

Blue mana would allow him to do it himself but it’d have a few downsides. While blue by itself was the most stable color of mana, red and blue didn’t like mixing. They often resulted in unstable and dangerous spells, and people. He could certainty increase the duration of his talons, and probably give them other additional attributes but the cost would probably be increased risk to himself.

The other option would be dual casting with Rosa. She could provide white mana which was the better choice if pure stability was what he wanted. It’d keep the damage from the red mana while hopefully increasing the spells duration and durability. Maybe he could even swap one of the claws for a shield… if he could manage it of course. The only issue would be he’d have to rely on someone other than himself, which he’d never really done since Sophie had left.

There was also the necromantic heart spell, and the haste spell Larry had taught him. He could probably use the haste spell on another person like Rosa but he doubted anyone but the caster could control it… maybe he could turn it into an attack? Make someone move too fast? Food for thought. As for necromantic heart, he’d tested it extensively on himself, and had even managed to avoid the notice of angels, which was just grand. He knew he could cover another person under the spells effects in theory but he’d never actually done it in practice.

He had a couple choices to make.

Decision 1, Lightning Talons:
1. Try to increase the spells potency and longevity with blue mana (yourself)
2. Try to increase the spells durability and stability (with rosa)
3. (write in)
Decision 2, Necromantic heart:
1. Try it on yourself and Rosa (will reveal you can use black mana)
2. Don’t show it off

Decision 3:
1. Try to weaponized the haste spell on Rosa, just let her know before hand, of course
2. Don’t put the woman in harm’s way

>>3538991
Yay

>>3539027
>Decision 1, Lightning Talons:
Ask Rosa if she can help.
Decision 2, Necromantic heart:
2. Don’t show it off
Decision 3:
1. Try to weaponized the haste spell on Rosa, just let her know before hand, of course

>>3539027
This >>3539033

>>3539045
>>3539033
roll 2d100

Rolled 96, 35 = 131 (2d100)

>>3539057
With my shitty luck, I might have to reroll one or both

Rolled 37, 19 = 56 (2d100)

>>3539057
Oh boy.

Rolled 90, 18 = 108 (2d100)

>>3539057
hmmmmmmmm

>>3539060
>>3539059
so far only these two rolls count. If anyone else wants to roll I'd do it now.

Rolled 7, 16 = 23 (2d100)

>>3539057

Rolled 57, 35 = 92 (2d100)

>>3539057

>>3539138
>>3539059
>35,35
Someone's getting hurt

>>3539138
>>3539135
>>3539061
>>3539060
writing

>>3539027
“I’d like to try out an experiment, Rosa.” Henry said. “I want to test this haste spell Larry taught me on you.”


“Uh, okay?” Rosa said, backing up a couple of steps as Henry stood back up.


“I want to see if I can cast this on someone else and make them lose control of their movements, can I trust you to help me here? It could be critical tomorrow.”


“Uh, sure?” Rosa said. The woman muttered a fearful prayer and braced herself as Henry charged up the required mana.


“It’ll be fine.” Henry said.


The spell went off, hitting Rosa. The next thing Henry knew he had bounced off a wall and had been flung backwards into Rosa. Henry tasted the dirt floor as Rosa landed on top of him with a groan of pain. Henry’s mind felt jumbled, he’d been standing still and the next moment he’d been flung at a wall. The spell was intended to be used on yourself. Of course he didn’t have the skill to do this yet…


“Oh god are you okay Henry.” Rosa said, gripping her nose and rolling off of Henry.


“I’m good, you okay?” Henry said, noticing a trickle of blood rolling down the woman’s nose.


“Just a nose bleed, I’ll be fine. Just don’t do something so stupid, please?” Rosa said, anger and pain mixing into her voice. “None of the spells of the church have such… detrimental effects, do you actually know what you’re doing?!”


Henry decided against using necromantic heart, especially while Rosa was so emotionally vulnerable due to being flung into a wall. His head spun for several minutes while he plotted out his next move. Rosa sat as far away from him as possible, hunched over and glaring at him with malicious intent. Henry grimaced every time he worked up the courage to look at her.

“Are you going to say something?!” Rosa asked, finally.
“I had another spell I wanted to try.”


“Oh is that all!” Rosa yelled. “I guess I’m not getting a sorry for you flinging me into a wall!”


“Sorry.” Henry said in an attempt to clear up the tense atmosphere that had developed..


“Just a bit of compassion is all I ask for.” Rosa said, boring holes in his back with her stare.


>casting lightning talons w/ crit next move

Decisions:
1. *actually apologize to the woman* (roll charisma)
2. “Nobody ever got anything done by playing it safe. I just want to try and keep everyone else alive Rosa. If a bit of pain is going to make you forget that then you can leave.”
3. “You’re going to fall apart over a nosebleed?”
4. (write in)

Rolled 68 (1d100)

>>3539206
>1. *actually apologize to the woman* (roll charisma)

Rolled 36 (1d100)

>>3539206
>1. *actually apologize to the woman* (roll charisma)

>>3539209
you're welcome to add speech ideas

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>3539206

>>3539214
>you're welcome to add speech ideas
I'm not smart enough for this

>>3539209
success, writing

So does it launch Henry at the Haste spell target, or does it launch both Henry and the target at each other? Or to different directions? The fuck happened there?

>>3539230
Henry and Rosa both got launched at the wall, they bounced off, impacted each other, and landed in a heap.

>>3539206
“Rosa, I’m sorry for putting you in harm’s way like that and I’m sorry for not seemingly like I was worried.”

Rosa perked up a bit. The woman had calmed down and wasn’t stewing over things anymore. Henry smiled and sat down next to her, rubbing his shoulder against hers. Rosa fidgeted about uncomfortably while Henry checked his notes. He only had the lightning talons spell to try out, but he’d need a target, other than the walls of the mage chamber. He got up, headed back out into the lobby and spoke with one straw and clay targets used for target practice. This would give him an idea of just how destructive his spell could be.

He charged up a normal lightning talons spell and swung through one of the clay targets, cutting it cleanly in half and reducing the rest to slag. He raked the lightning claws over the pieces, tearing molten lines into the dirt floor. The spell fizzled out a moment later. The damage wasn’t the problem, it was the spells durability and its longevity. The spell only lasted fifteen seconds, good to deal with a single opponent but they wouldn’t have that luxury the next day. They need something that could deal with the problem. A spell that’d last longer, and be far less unstable. Henry had found that the lightning talons could be disrupted by a good enough mage, Ophelia had shown that fact to him several times. The woman had been able to pull apart his spell with her bare hands after a few days of playing around with it.

>>3539296
He charged up a normal lightning talons spell and swung through one of the clay targets, cutting it cleanly in half and reducing the rest to slag. He raked the lightning claws over the pieces, tearing molten lines into the dirt floor. The spell fizzled out a moment later. The damage wasn’t the problem, it was the spells durability and its longevity. The spell only lasted fifteen seconds, good to deal with a single opponent but they wouldn’t have that luxury the next day. They need something that could deal with the problem. A spell that’d last longer, and be far less unstable. Henry had found that the lightning talons could be disrupted by a good enough mage, Ophelia had shown that fact to him several times. The woman had been able to pull apart his spell with her bare hands after a few days of playing around with it.

“Rosa, I want you to dual cast a spell with me, I want to turn this clumsy thing into an actual weapon, something that I can use to defend you and everyone else. Something that’ll keep us all alive and well. I need white mana for that. Do you trust me?”

“Yes I do Henry.” Rosa said, “I’ll do it, I promise. Just… no flinging me into walls okay?”

Henry smiled at her and began to concentrate on summoning red mana into his palms and then his arms, giving Rosa as big of a canvas as he could for her to work with. He strained himself to keep the effect up. Rosa hugged him from behind, wrapping her arms up under his and placing her hands on his chest. The woman’s eyes were shut in concentration, channeling white mana to both strengthen and protect the man she cared so much for. Henry gasped as he felt the white mana flowing through his body, he suddenly felt a surge of calm and watched as the lightning talons changed and solidified before his eyes.

Important Decision: New Spell (based on lightning talons)
1. Defender’s sword and shield: Your talons morph into a bright sword and shield, able to defend and attack in equal measure. The shield protects you from lethal spells while the sword strikes down your enemies.
2. Shared talons: The talons become a bit smaller, but no less potent. They’re shared between you and your dual cast partner and grant both of you a boost to your speed and power.
3. Talons of the Righteous: The talons grow to twice their original size and potency. They offer no effects other than their increased size, longevity, and increased damage against unholy creatures, horrors, and demonic things.
4. (write in: Share and idea you have)

>Upgrade Unlocked:
>Lightning talon's duration has been increased to two turns instead of one due to the bond you've shared with Rosa

>>3539306
>take your time voting and feel free to ask questions!

>>3539306
>1. Defender’s sword and shield: Your talons morph into a bright sword and shield, able to defend and attack in equal measure. The shield protects you from lethal spells while the sword strikes down your enemies.

remove squish.

>>3539306
Guess I'll go with this >>3539374. As much as I would want Talons of the Righteous to fuck up Abraxas with, Henry needs to live and not die to get to that point. So lightning shield is what we need - and maybe we could project it onto others too, as we develop it.

>>3539383
This and
>>3539374

>>3539421
>>3539383
>>3539374
will wait for additional votes/ideas and continue tomorrow.

>>3539383
I agree with this anon, the sheer amount of damage would be nice but we kind of need to survive long enough to be able to use it, so:

1. Defender’s sword and shield: Your talons morph into a bright sword and shield, able to defend and attack in equal measure. The shield protects you from lethal spells while the sword strikes down your enemies.

>>3539761
>>3539421
>>3539383
>>3539374
writing

Henry’s eyes widened as he felt the sensation of white mana coursing through him. He’d never felt anything like it. Calm, peace, loyalty, and unity. Emotions and concepts Henry had never felt before, and had never had much concern for, flooded his mind and body. These… these were Rosa’s emotions, not his, and yet he felt them all the same. He let out another gasp as the mana worked its way through his chest, around his arms, and into the lightning coming out of his hands. He needed to get this right. He could control the lightning, harness it for himself, and to protect his people.

He didn’t care much about the city, the church, the cult, or anything so grand, but he’d protect what was his. He could feel his emotions stir, he’d protect his group, the people he’d gathered together, who he led with his own determination.

Upon feeling this urge to protect, the claw on his left hand absorbed a huge portion of the white mana, crackling and expanding into a round shield that hung from his forearm. The shield was mostly made of white mana, with streaks of red running up and down its base. His hand free to cast spells and grasp at empty air. The heat from the talons fading into a gentle warm in the white and red shield. He could protect himself and his allies with this.

>Defenders Shield: Protection from Red and Black mana spells that impact it

He felt the remaining mana travel to his right arm, then spike down into the claw. Defending had never been Henry’s strong suit, he’d always enjoyed spells that destroyed his opponents, like the bolt spell. Until now he’d never needed anything else. The opponent he’d be facing had seen his lightning talons and had lived, barely, to tell the tale. He would let his opponent get away a second time, not with eighty gold on the line. No, the gold was secondary, it was because the thing had attacked his scientist, Ophelia, the woman was irreplaceable. Nobody else could’ve invented Ticky, nobody else could’ve found the beast’s location, or cracked its journal.

>Defenders Sword: A more stable spell based off of lightning talons. Still inflicts the same amount of punch. The sword is bound to Henry’s hand, it cannot be knocked away or shattered by normal means.

Henry stepped away, hearing a thud behind him. Turning he saw Rosa had tripped backwards, the woman’s clumsy nature once again rearing its head.

>>3540177
“Henry, you’re…” Rosa said, her eyes widening as she stared at the spells’ results, transfixed.

Henry offered the woman his hand, helping her up. Rosa bit her lip for a moment before giving the man some space.

Henry rushed at the claw and straw targets, shattering, scattering, and burning them with a tactical precision. He held up his shield and inspected it. The thing looked like it would be able to block both spells and more conventional weapons. He grinned in excitement before realizing the spell was still active.

“Did we make an enchantment, Rosa?” Henry asked.

“I… I think so, Henry.” Rosa said. “I… wow.”

>New Enchantment Acquired: Defender’s Sword and shield
>mana cost: 2 red, 2 white
>A spell based on Lightning Talons. The white mana added has stabilized and granted additional abilities to the talons. Henry now wields a sword and shield. The sword grants Henry additional reach, at no cost to power. The shield has no offensive capabilities, but grants complete protection against most red and black mana spells that it is able to block. Henry gains the ability to be wounded one more time before death while it’s in effect. This additional wound is an enchantment wound, it is taken off of Henry’s total before his normal pool is depleted. He gains a small increase to his speed while its effects are active. Finally, he can cast additional spells onto the enchantment to adjust or amplify its effects.

Henry turned around to see Rosa crying, his own smile quickly faded as he dispersed the enchantment and rushed over to the woman. Rosa was uninjured from what he could tell but the woman looked like she’d gone into shock. After a few tense minutes she regained her senses and looked at Henry with a terrified expression. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled close.

“I felt so much pain and terror in you Henry… oh god did I hurt you? I… I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Decisions:
1. “Those are my emotions, Rosa, you caused nothing.”
2. “It’s okay, I’m okay.”
3. “I’m sorry I didn’t think there be emotional backdraft, I should’ve been more careful, Rosa.”
4. “Its fine, let’s not dwell on it further.”
5. (write in)

>as an optional decision, you may rename the new spell to something different

>>3540179
>3. “I’m sorry I didn’t think there be emotional backdraft, I should’ve been more careful, Rosa.”
>as an optional decision, you may rename the new spell to something different

"The Cowards Victory"

>>3540188
Supporting

>>3540179
This >>3540188

>>3540179
but also
>"Remember what I tried to tell you back at Celeste? Pain and terror isn't half of what they did to me. I'm not ready to tell you about them yet, but when I do I will."
>Hug Rosa.
>"I'm just glad you're still with me. It helps more than you think."

>>3540222
>>3540217
>>3540201
>>3540188
writing

>>3540179
“I’m sorry I didn’t think there’d be emotional backdraft, I should’ve been more careful Rosa.” Henry said, trying to ease her fears.

“Those are your normal emotions? Good lord Henry.” Rosa whispered.

“Remember what I told you back at Celeste, Rosa? Pain and terror are vivid memories for me, I wasn’t exaggerating, it’s a part of who I am and I’ve come to terms with it. Maybe one day I can share it but for now it’s going to remain locked up.”

“Henry, it’s not normal, it’s not healthy to feel like that. Please let me help you!” Rosa pleaded. “I’ve been asking you again and again, pray with me, please. I want you to find peace! I want us to be happy!”

Henry hugged the woman tight; he could feel her relax as he carefully wiped her tears away. Henry leaned back against the wall and watched Rosa’s chest rise and fall as her breathing returned to normal and her emotions calmed.

“You help me by just being here, Rosa. It helps me more than you think.” He said, forcing a sad smile and trying his best to keep up eye contact with the woman.

“Excuse me! Closing time is in fifteen minutes… ah… oh.” A man’s voice called out. A blonde man in mage robes wielding some sort of magical bell was standing in the doorway.

“I sincerely hope you weren’t using our mage chambers for acts of indecency. Not befitting of a mage or a sister of the church.”

Rosa blushed crimson and buried her head into Henry’s chest. Henry decided to respond else the poor woman would never recover from the embarrassment.

“We dual casted a spell, give us a moment.” Henry said, “I let some of my emotions flow backwards into her and she wasn’t prepared for it, she’s trying her best right now to cope, give us a little more time and we’ll be out of your hair.”

The mage sighed, told them they had ten minutes tops, and left.

Decisions:
1. *have a moment with Rosa* (write in optional)
2. *walk the woman back to her Abbey, you need to head out.*
3. *ask if she’d want to spend the night at your lighthouse so you can all prepare for the big day tomorrow*
4. (write in)

>>3540297
>*have a moment with Rosa*
>*walk the woman back to her Abbey, you need to head out.*
>"When we survive tomorrow and everything's all right again, I'll show you a little something related to my past. I trust you more than you think I do Rosa, but I can't tell you everything all at once. You probably won't be able to take it." Rueful laugh. "Johnny will hate me for it, but fuck him. You deserve to know. Just wait until after, okay?"
No having her at the lighthouse, she's too nosy and will eventually discover the bodies. We can't have the necromancy outed yet - but we CAN start by showing/telling her Johnny is a skeleton and used to be friends with one of the big priest guys of the religion back when he was alive. This will have to wait until after Del Mar is dealt with though

>>3540319
This

>>3540319
>>3540297
Full steam ahead boys.

>>3540324
>>3540319
>>3541149
writin

>>3540297
Henry decided to stick with Rosa for the time being. He didn’t really need to rush. Sure a couple of gheists might come out later but he could handle them. Henry held the woman in his arms as his accumulated emotions slowly worked their way through her system. Rosa eventually stood up on her own and walked out the door without another word. Henry stood up, took a moment to gaze over the destroyed targets, then followed her lead.

The two walked back to the abbey in silence, Rosa leading the way, her fists clenched. Henry remembered the kick he’d gotten outside of Blaise and decided to hang a bit back just in case. Henry sighed, he’d probably fucked things up. The mana link they’d shared wouldn’t have given her any access to his memories of course. If there’d been even the slightest chance of that he’d have never asked for her help. But she had obviously been shaken by that brief connection to his soul. He carefully made his way down a set of steps in a back alley as Rosa pushed on ahead. Henry glanced nervously at a couple of kids sitting on a dumpster, whispering to themselves. He knew they weren’t talking about him but his brain refused to believe it. He still glanced at them in-between glancing at every entrance into the alleyway, the rooftops, and the sewer grates. The two made it back to the abbey just as the sun was going down. slowly dripping off of the horizon.

“Rosa, after we beat this thing and survive tomorrow and everything’s okay again. I’ll show you something related to my past. I trust you a bit more now after all.”

“Thanks.” Rosa said, staring ahead. “I don’t really know who you are Henry, and I’ve still followed you regardless, because you’re a good person. Your past isn’t going to change that.”

“To be honest Rosa I’m scared of telling you too much, not just because it could put you at risk, but I don’t think you’d be able to handle it.” Henry continued, leaning against the wall that ringed the holy grounds. He stared out towards the ocean, already the ghiest tide had started to roll in. He have to make this quick.

“Henry, I’ve been thinking, maybe I shouldn’t know. I’ve always been a nosy woman and the abbess here calls me selfish for it, I think she’s right. Henry if it’s going to hurt what we have I think you should just bury it and be done with it.” Rosa finally said. “I’m extremely curious, I always will be, but I want to be with you, I want to give you a family…” Rosa sighed. “But I suppose god sometimes has other plans, if you think it’s something I need to know… it’s up to you Henry, I don’t know what I really want. Thanks for hearing a silly woman out.”

>optional write in, or say nothing

>>3541218
> We'll leave it for now. then.

>>3541218
Hug the Rosa

>>3541218
This >>3541222 >>3541527
Starting by telling her about Johnny and showing him to her would be best honestly, but the time will come later.

>>3541527
>>3541222
>>3541642
doing a short post and then leaving for work

>>3541218
Henry simply hugged the woman and said his goodbyes for the night. He had so much he wanted, no, needed to tell her. It had to wait for a while. He figured sharing Johnny’s condition would be the safest and easiest way to start opening up to Rosa. Learning that a friend is undead might be easier than learning the person you love is a necromancer and a former demonic cultist. Johnny would vehemently refuse if asked of course, so Henry figured he’d have to force the skeleton. Johnny would forgive him in time, especially if it went well.

Henry left the second Rosa had crossed the threshold into the safety of the holy grounds and then began walking back home. He’d probably just spend the night in the warehouse, walking to the lighthouse after the sun had gone down with no stealth spells was a horrid idea. It added nice security to his house of course, but it still was a hassle.

He was knocked out of his thoughts when a ghiest came into view. The thing was a misty blue skull with a pair of dangling hands, cackling and snatching up random things off the ground, shoving them into its open mouth, and then repeating the process when those objects fell through its incorporeal form.

Henry skirted around it and continued on his way, turning back to watch a couple of Cathar Night Watchmen fling some sort of white mana banishment spell at the thing. The Ghiest shrieked and then flickered away a second later. The Cathars continued their patrol after ensuring Henry was unharmed. At least they were doing their damned jobs. The city was far safer with them around.

Henry got home to find everyone already seated. Ophelia, Charles, Johnny and Larry were all at the table talking. Sophie was nowhere to be found, Henry hoped that meant she was actually gone and not nude somewhere. It made him incredibly uncomfortable thinking about what that shameless woman might be up to.

“Good you can join us.” Johnny said, dryly. He gestured to a roughly drawn map laid out on the table. On it was a sketched diagram of the observatory, its interior, and the surrounding area. There were even some diagrams detailing enemy patrols, numbers, and predicted danger levels. Sophie had even gone so far as to lay out entry points and escape routes. There were even, estimations for the time the Magica Cathars would take to notice the fighting, possibility of angelic intervention to the fight, etc.

===============================(Begin Strategy Meeting)==================================

>>3541685
>going to need to draft up the actual diagram of the area from my notes, get set on some plans for everyone. I'll list out equipment owned by Henry that might be relevant.
>I'm going to be pulling a double shift today so I won't be posting for about ten hours or so.

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>>3541685

>>3542166
fucking sick

>>3543001
alright folks, I'm going to postpone the map drawing and updating till tomorrow, I'm off from work though, so I will be updating throughout the day.

>>3543001
Not my work, obvvy. Just stolen from the internet somewhere.

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Posting Sophie's Gathered Info

>Part 1

>>3545560
so it seems that the photos I took do not agree at all with 4chan, I'm going to RETAKE them VERTICALLY and see if that fixes it.

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>>3545564
REposting Sophie's Gathered Info

>Part 1
>I really hope this works I'm up for admin review soon

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>>3545569
>IT WORKS, HOLY FUCK
>Part 2

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>>3545572
>Part 3

I wrote this sloppily to try to facilitate a rushed and tense artist (Sophie). Her handwriting is far nicer than mine is though.

If you have any further questions on the images or things I missed, feel free to ask! I'd also recommend getting some ideas together for the assault gameplan.

>>3545579
>Her handwriting is far nicer than mine is though.
Doubt

>>3545579
Huh, so that first floor is sealed, hey?

Hay!

Literal Hay. What if we get a bunch of dead birds, load them up with pitch and hay, and have them fly up to the roof and set it on fire?

And I was thinking we could hide some undead in the forest for a path of retreat so they could be buried and such under the foliage, that way we could run through them and then have them attack the bugs after we pass so that people (Rosa) doesn't see them. Also traps make up for zombies slow rate of movement. We could hide explosion runes in the zombies too so that it cleans up the mess and we can just claim we found their feeding grounds and put the explosives there.

So we could draw the bugs off into the woods, set the place on fire, then hit the rest when they try to get out.

>>3545611
Well this sounds good, I'll support.

>>3545611
>>3545637
writing shortly

>I would also recommend reviewing Sophie's notes.

So far, stuff to note
>Storage shed outside?
>Stream nearby for escape
>Forest nearby for escape
>Cliff nearby for DARING escape
>Tunnel nearby for DARING escape
>Three ways into Observatory: Metal front door, second floor doorway into the roof, observation telescope opening on third floor.
>Third floor is empty except for bookshelves, maybe barricade or arson fodder? Not much space up there compared to the rest of the place.
>Second floor also empty except for head mage (NOT DEL MAR), which can be ganked free if we do it right. Only 3 rooms, decent space to maneuver.
>Stairs to/from ground floor are OUTSIDE the rooms on the roof itself. Stairs to/from third floor observatory are outside the room containing the head mage, would have to walk above the ceiling/roof of the rooms as you leave the observatory. Jumping down would make noise on the ceiling/roof and fuck up cover.
>First floor has a narrow main corridor, small rooms, four guards. Also holding cells with people in them, status unknown. Fungi growing room is where the stairs to/from second floor are, so that's where the party will come down into if outside infiltration option is selected.
>REQUIN DEL MAR, the boss of this case, is located in the basement. He's there between the stairs and the chemistry lab section of the place. Also like 20-30 corpses nearby to use if needed. He's backed by three blue mana mages who WILL heal Del Mar if we go for him. Del Mar possibly immobilized/stationary? Forced state?
>Chem lab destruction might be worth it, might be worth preserving to loot instead?
>Is that fungus they're growing worth looting at all afterward or no? What could it even be used for?
>Freeing the human captives in the holding cell room on ground floor worth it, or better to do after the raid ends? Possible bait? Possible witnesses to vouch for Henry and co. when the Cathars and angels arrive from Magica? Are their mental states stable enough to warrant rescuing or anything during or after the raid?
>Del Mar's three mage flunkies have runes on them, worth looting if they don't pop them off on us first.
>Outside has the two elite guards who are slow to react and have the big bug armor shit and blue mana magic. These need to be slain straight up.
>Guards inside could possibly have their conditioning broken, become assets?
>Loot welding masks off of the guards?
>Light is a weapon, but when is the raid? Daytime? Nighttime?
>DEL MAR NEEDS TO FUCKING DIE BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

>>3541685
“So what’s everyone’s status?” Henry asked.

“Nominal.” Ophelia replied.

“Before you ask, Larry, he just wants to know how you are.” Johnny explained. “And I’m fine, wrapped up training an hour ago for dinner.”

“I’m good boss.” Larry said. “Getting real excited for tomorrow, gonna get to fight something nasty.”

“I’m fine Henry.” Charles said. “Just worried.”

“You’ll be fine, Charles, I believe in you.” Henry said.

Henry cleared his throat and sat down at the table. Sophie’s notes were helpful if crude, he really wished the woman had taken his reading and writing training more seriously, and it looked like she hadn’t improved too much either. Still, they had data on the enemies numbers, relative strength, and most importantly, where their bounty target was.

“I noticed that there is a lotta flammable material in the place. We could probably rig up some dead birds and load em with flame runes. They could fly up to the roof and light it on fire, right?” Henry said. The easiest option was usually the best.

“Yes, but that would alert any nearby authorities.” Johnny replied.

“As long as we’re in and out who cares?” Larry asked. “Sides we might as well use the help.”

“They’d try to collect the bounty for themselves.” Charles explained. “They’d probably just confiscate the corpse.”

“Right, hence why we need to lead the thing away.” Henry continued. “ We burn it out, use a wave of undead to whittle them down, drive them into the forest and me or Charles can sic a secondary group on the survivors.”

“The big one might just fly over the river or up the base of the cliff.” Johnny replied. “Do you have a plan for that? It was able to flee after taking damage from Ophelia’s spells after all.”

“No.” Henry admitted. That would be a problem…

“I could try setting up a magic circle to stir up a localized storm.” Ophelia said. “I’ve never done it before but I can probably figure it out. Kick up some heavy winds and bog the thing down.”

“Materials?” Henry asked.

“About twenty silver worth, I’d be willing to front the cost of course, assuming we get rewarded.”

“I could set up traps and ambushes along the forest.” Charles offered.

“Perhaps it’d be best if the young man stayed with Rosa?” Johnny replied. “I don’t mean to be rude or doubt your abilities but Henry is far more skilled with undead.”

“Right…” Charles replied, wincing.

Decisions:
1. “We should burn the place to the ground and drive them out.”
2. “We should siege the place with undead and wait for the dangerous ones to come out.”
3. “Ophelia’ could you try setting up an artillery spell, it’d burn all our red mana but it’d let us level the building.” (risk of corpse being destroyed)
4. (write in)

>>3545768
>blue mana can't be used for healing spells.
>the head mages chambers are unoccupied
>what the fungus is or isn't is up in the air

>>3545853
Damn, too bad we can't chase it up the cliff, and while it's on the cliff hit it with artillery.
AND set fire to the facility also.

>>3545872
Chase it up the cliff, have undead up there to drop boulders on it, it'll dodge but it will be slowed
And then we bombard it with artillery

>>3545872
that'll use up all Henry's and Ophelia's red mana. Which means no killy spells if it doesn't work. It'll do a ton of damage if it all hits of course.

>>3545853
>1. “We should burn the place to the ground and drive them out.”

It's non-magical fire, worst comes to worst we haven't even exposed ourselves yet and we waste their time and mana dealing with the fire.

>>3545921
Yes, and we can hit them with artillery when they leave the building

>>3545853
>>3546000
>>3545921
>>3545903

Right, so

a) Bait outside forces with zombies

b) Set fire to house roof

c) Artillery them when they come out to fight the fire

I'm only conflicted about those holding cells on the first floor. Is there any way we can get them out of there? Maybe knock the wall down?

Can we range our artillery in with some really weak spells first?

Or should we just write it off as necessary casualties.

>>3546220
> I'm going to do a bit of explanation on artillery as a Lore Post

Artillery is a fairly advanced form of spellcasting that requires a complex magic circle, a clearly defined target, and a large amount of red or white mana. White mana can only be used to attack clearly evil or aggressive targets, and is generally used for defensive installations like Castles or Paladin Outposts. Red mana on the other hand can be fired indiscriminately and is uncontrollable once unleashed. It is generally used for sieging and was used to great effect during the Vampiric Wars fifty years prior. These sorts of spells make the bolt spells you’ve been casting thus far look like firecrackers. These are the sorts of spells demon slayers make use of for their work.

The catch is they require a lot of setup, a good deal of prep time, a potentially prohibitive amount of materials, and total concentration. Making them horrible for anything other than an opening salvo, or a defensive action, in most battles. The tendency for the mortars of red mana to go wide also leaves open the possibility for friendly fire once a battle has started. The destruction caused by these attacks are very loud and very visible as well. You should expect a rapid response from local authorities if magic of this scale is actually used. The church generally frowns on casual usage of such destructive magic, although they will be fairly understanding as long as any of the bodies in the rubble are sufficiently burned or tainted. There will be some CHOICE words if they find out you murdered the untainted if there were other options available.

This is not a finesse heavy strategy. It’s quick and dirty and you should consider the prisoner’s lives to be forfeit if you pursue it. This is not something to be done lightly.

Lastly, Henry predicts he could fire a total of three or four mortars based on the total mana he and Ophelia have. These should be sufficient to completely level the compound if they all stay on target. If you fire close enough this shouldn’t be an issue, of course, the mortars won’t have time to go off track. Though that’ll leave you open to counter attack by survivors.

The strategy of setting fire to the building will likely be unnecessary, I very much doubt there would be anything other than the big bug remaining if a red mana artillery spell is cast. There is the matter of baiting the big bug out though, it would be highly recommended to try and separate him from the rest of his forces, to avoid the possibility of him being completely pulped. How to do this is something you should consider.

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>>3546266
To give you an idea of what you'd be casting

>>3546266
Huh.

Well.

What if we have a zombie run up and ALLAHU AKBAR the wall of the prison with some explosive runes?

>>3545869
>>3545872
>>3545903
>>3545913
>>3545921
>>3546000
>>3546220
>>3546306

>>3546859
I wasn't supporting the blatant blasting of random targets with the artillery spell, but the bug once flushed from hiding.

>>3545853
“The safest option would be to just mortar the place, we can make three or four mortars between us, Ophelia. You could set them up, correct?”

“Yes, I’d need about thirty silver worth of materials for the volley I figure but those shouldn’t be hard to acquire. We’d need to set up within a thousand feet of the place to ensure none of them miss, I can’t promise anything beyond that, and I’ve never cast a mortar spell before.”

“Neither have I.” Henry replied.

“Utterly unacceptable!” Johnny yelled, slamming his fist onto the table and startling everyone. “There are a total of seven prisoners, several of which are confirmed untainted, I refuse to allow you to throw their lives away.”

“This ain’t a debate, Johnny. I’m not throwing any of our lives away because of some randoms.”

“Oy, hold a minute there. I’m not going to just go along with killing some folks just cause they’re commons.” Larry said, “Johnny’s right, I ain’t gonna let us become a bunch of monsters just to kill a monster.”

“Couldn’t we blow the wall up with bomb runes?” Charles asked.

“They have patrols, they’d notice if we tried.” Ophelia responded matter of factly. “If we want the element of surprise then we should just ignore them, their own fault for getting caught.”

“I refuse to go along with this if it involves sacrificing innocents.” Johnny replied, fury in his voice. It had been a while since Henry had seen the skeleton that angry.

“Frankly speaking, you don’t have a choice.” Ophelia chided. “Your decision is Henry’s decision.”

“Ophelia, he’s a member of this group. I’m not going to force him to commit an atrocity.” Henry said. “It’ll be the two of us who get to shoulder the burden if we do it.”

Decision 1: Undead
1. Lay siege to the location with waves of undead
2. Use undead to deal with outer guards and fire to smoke out the insects.
3. Don’t use undead

Decision 2: Mortars
1. Use Mortars to blast the observatory and the insect abominations
2. Don’t use mortars

Decision 3: Requin’s Corpse
1. Try to get Mallory on board as a transport for the corpse
2. Try to procure a wagon and a horse for transport.
3. Hide the corpse in the forest

Decision 4: Rosa
1. Have her with you providing support and enchantments, her abilities to destroy enchantments could also come in handy
2. Keep her in the back far away from the undead
3. (write in)

>>3546879
>Use undead to deal with outer guards, but kindling placed around prior to the raid as well as prep for starting a big fire should be in place as a potential FUCK THIS option
We could have things set up to start a fire but end up not having to start it if the raid goes well enough. It'll be more insurance/assurance than anything, especially since a fire will destroy both valuable evidence AND loot that Henry might want.
>Don’t use mortars
I don't wanna alienate Johnny or Larry. Also we need the corpse intact and we need stuff to loot from the place. Imagine what Ophelia could do with the things Del Mar must have collected in there.
>Try to get Mallory on board as a transport for the corpse
We did mention stuff to her in passing, so she'd be pissed off if we refused to include her, and that'd suck because she's our water transportation.
>Keep her in the back far away from the undead. ONLY bring her up for support and enchantment destroying if we need it AND if there's no undead linked to Henry or any evidence that would suggest Henry is a necromancer.
KEEP ROSA PURE until Henry decides it's time to do otherwise :^)

What do you guys think?

>>3546963
We could have the mortars aimed at the escape routes, and when the fire is under way just bomb them as they run, seeing as they wouldn't waste time retrieving the prisoners.
And we could send in someone to rescue the prisoners in the ruckus.

>>3546963
All of this is perfectly acceptable from my perspective, if the other players agree to it I'll begin making preparations on my end.

To fire the mortars both Henry and Ophelia will need to be present and will need about thirty minutes of preparation time. This isn't something that can be done during battle.

>>3546976
Did you not read the part where it's FUCKING LOUD and will cause the whole nearby city to send people in? It'll destroy everything plus the cool loot inside too. Mortaring is the retarded option for this mission

>>3546879
>2. Use undead to deal with outer guards and fire to smoke out the insects.

More smoke than fire.

> 2. Don’t use mortars

> 3. Hide the corpse in the forest

> 1. Have her with you providing support and enchantments, her abilities to destroy enchantments could also come in handy

If we ain't sieging with the undead, we can bring Rosa.

If we don't bring Rosa, then I vote we use the undead to siege and waste the enemies mana.

>>3547116
That's why you use it for killing the bug as it's fleeing, after the fire has gotten bad enough they must abandon the facility.
While the fire starts, we should infiltrate and procure the object and the hostages. And the finishing touch is the mortar

>>3547338
You make a compelling case, but the set-up time concerns me.

If only we could make, like, an undead "spotter" to markerlight the targets and guide the artillery.

>>3547441
>>3547338
>>3547123
>>3547116
>>3546976
>>3546963
reading and then writing

>>3546879
“I don’t think the mortars are a good idea, too much risk of the corpses being blown to tiny pieces.” Henry said, after several minutes of thought. “The setup time and noise alone would make them prohibitive.”

“So I don’t get a chance to showcase my talents?!” Ophelia whined, flailing about in her chair and nearly tumbling backwards.

“I think we should have ways to start a fire prepared but only use them as a backup. Best case we keep the place intact and grab any research or materials that are leftover, could be some real good stuff down there.” Henry explained, pointing out the chem lab that had been drawn on the map.

“So what do we do once the things out and about?” Larry asked. “Cause it’s not gonna stand still.”

“We can lure it into that nearby forest, I’m guessing it isn’t too dense right now but if we can lead it into an ambush that’d be ideal. I can probably set up undead on the ridgeline to deter it from fleeing that way.

“That’d be a safe bet but you’d need someone in the forest to oversee things Henry.” Johnny replied.

“Not if we bring the undead horde to the west side and keep ourselves on the eastern end, that way we can move right towards the forest.” Henry replied, drawing a line on the map with his hand.

“Ophelia, could you gather mana up and direct it? Assuming we do go with the artillery spells.” Henry asked, eyeing Johnny.

“That’s… a lot of mana… I mean of course I could! What do you take me for?! I’d… I’d just need to maintain complete concentration…” Ophelia continued.


>Plan so far
>Use Mallory’s boat as an entry and exit point
> Rosa will remain at the boat to give enchantments to the group and provide emergency healing as needed
>head to the graveyard and create a horde
>lead the horde to the outskirts of the observatory and prepare the artillery spell, leave Ophelia in control of it while the horde attacks
>at the same time, use undead birds with torches/flame runes to create a fire on the second/third floors to smoke the enemies out
>the elites should be dead by this time, the remaining forces will be picked off by the undead and artillery strikes will be used to force Requin into the forest and into an ambush, led by Henry, Johnny, and Larry. Larry’s flameblade techniques will be the key here, as Henry will have no more red mana.

Decisions:
>further ideas/planning
>discussion?
1. continue
2.(write in)

>>3547833
couple of things to consider

1. might be nice to let charles control the birds with the torches

2. what to do about the prisoners

3. is it worth trying to collect evidence

>>3547833
>>Plan so far
>>Use Mallory’s boat as an entry and exit point
>> Rosa will remain at the boat to give enchantments to the group and provide emergency healing as needed
>>head to the graveyard and create a horde
>>lead the horde to the outskirts of the observatory and prepare the artillery spell, leave Ophelia in control of it while the horde attacks
>>at the same time, use undead birds with torches/flame runes to create a fire on the second/third floors to smoke the enemies out
>>the elites should be dead by this time, the remaining forces will be picked off by the undead and artillery strikes will be used to force Requin into the forest and into an ambush, led by Henry, Johnny, and Larry. Larry’s flameblade techniques will be the key here, as Henry will have no more red mana.
Sounds good, and when we're through with the undead, we can obliterate them with the artillery also.
>>3547843
>1. might be nice to let charles control the birds with the torches
Sure, as long as Rosa won't find out.

>2. what to do about the prisoners
If possible, quarantine them for a while to make sure they aren't turning into bug people.

>3. is it worth trying to collect evidence
Evidence, maybe not. Research papers and notes? Yes, but only if a chance opens up, we shouldn't risk our friends for this.

>>3547833
this >>3547981

>>3547981
>3547981
Lol I started writing the same thing for #2 before I read this.

Exactly what I would have recommended, except "use the quarantine excuse to milk them for benefits and find out what relations they have first".

It might be better if they end up "regretfully tainted and disposed of" or we could sell them off to rivals etc.

>>3547833
“So the basic plan is as follows. We’re going to procure Malory’s services and take her boat up until we reach the landing point described on the map. From there we’re going to split into groups. Malory and Rosa will stay behind on the boat and provide support from there if needed, Rosa is going to apply church blessings to all of us, and hopefully they’ll be of some help.”

“They’ll be a lot of help, Henry.” Johnny said, rubbing his temples and flicking at his helmet that’d been laid on the table.

“Me and Charles are gonna get the mass raise dead spell ready, and try to raise about a hundred and fifty zombies, I think that’s the most we’re going to be able to control right now. Ophelia is in charge of the mortars. Once we have are army, I want Charles to pilot a couple of bird corpses with torches and set fire to the observatory, we can start it in the upper floors since I don’t think they’ll be noticed as quickly there.”

“The prisoners would die of fire, smoke, or the building falling on them, Henry.” Johnny argued, “do you have a plan for that?”

“Kill the bug quickly, Johnny.” Henry explained.

“Ah of course, how silly of me.” Johnny shot back. “I suppose we’ll be leaving the rest of this plan to lady luck as well, hrm?”

“from there we assault the place with undead to take out the outer guards and try to lure the rest of their forces towards the forest. After that, Ophelia lets those mortars loose, destroying their forces while my undead mop up the remainder. If the thing tries to fly away we can simply pursue it, I don’t imagine it’ll be too good at hiding. As for research materials, it isn’t going to be worth the risk, and quite honestly there’s unlikely to be anything we’d want, all the good stuff probably went up in flames with Requin’s home.”

Decisions:
1. End the meeting
2. Try to figure out a way to save the prisoners (write in)
3. More ideas? (write in)

>>3548102
>3. More ideas? (write in)
We could have Johnny sneak in a minute or two before we head in, so he can find the hostages and have them ready to run.
Seeing as he's undead and most spells aren't readily looking for undead.

>>3548102
This >>3548121
According to Sophie's map, the holding room is literally straight down the hall from the front door. Once the elites are down as well as the one-two guards on floor 1, Johnny needs to go in, free the prisoners, escort them out, and maneuver them AWAY from the horde of "friendly" zombies they might panic upon seeing the moment they leave the building. Once the friendlies are evacced, all that's left are enemies that are OK to mortar to bits.

>>3548132
Sounds good, but we still need to get the object, and possibly research and bug bits.
And side note, we probably need someone to watch ophelia, in case the bug can determine the mortar is from her and rush her.

>>3548132
writing

>>3548102
“Johnny, I’m going to give you the chance to save them.” Henry said, grudgingly. “Kill anyone that’s too tainted, save anyone who you can. I assume all the captured people have magical talent since Del Mar was going after mages. Might be useful to us.”

“We should just let the church handle it, Henry. They’ll come running due to the noise anyway, yeah?” Larry said, speaking up. “No sense holding em against their will, yeah? Will just cause more problems won’t it?”

“We’ll play that part by ear, what about Malory?” Henry asked.

“I already took the time to contact her, she’ll be here tomorrow morning.” Johnny explained. “I couldn’t imagine us doing anything else, so I figured I’d save some time.”

“We could wait till the hostages are out safely before setting fire to the building, right? Charles asked.

“They’re liable to seal the door and lock us out.” Johnny explained. “As much as I don’t like it burning first and then figuring things out from there is the most optimal option. If we have to siege the building our chances drastically decrease. I need you to all have faith in my abilities. It’s rare that I have to use them like this so but I’m relishing the opportunity.”

“I’m going to need some guards, Henry.” Ophelia said, twirling a piece of hair around her finger.

“Why?” Charles asked.

“I’m going to be by myself, casting a massive and incredibly dangerous spell. I won’t be able to respond to attackers without the entire thing going off. I don’t really want to die to such a small explosion, thank you. If I’m going to die I’d rather take out half a city with me.” Ophelia explained. Everyone stared at her for a moment until the woman flipped around and asked what everyone was looking at.

>>3548121
Can't Johnny turn into a bone bundle?

We could sneak him in that way, no?

>>3548202

“I have just the thing for that, Ophelia, those special guards I have laying in the cold room. All the enchantments and runes are ready, we can give them some basic clothing and I believe we have a few pieces of armor lying around right now. They’ll be able to follow more complex commands than the basic undead we’ll be making, so that should be sufficient.”

“Fine, I guess they’ll have to do.” Ophelia said, she uttered a few grumpy retorts and settled down.

“I think the plan is pretty good cause I can’t think of anything else.” Larry said.

“I just hope nothing goes wrong.” Charles said, nervously. Henry didn’t have the heart to call him a massive fucking idiot, why would you EVER say something like that.

“So the plan is set. I’m going to go over everything once more.” Henry said, grabbing out a piece of paper and scratching out a list for everyone to look over.”

1. We gather the armor, raise the two special undead, get the bird corpses from a local supplier I know, and Ophelia and Johnny will go out shopping for the artillery spell supplies. I then grab Rosa and then we set off with Malory.
2. We travel up river going off of Ophelia’s map until we get to the landing spot. Rosa and Malory will stay behind. Rosa will give us her blessings and I’ll make my new special enchantment with her and then we’ll head out.
3. Me and Charles will get to the graveyard to raise our army while Johnny, Ophelia, and Larry get the mortar spell set up. We’ll raise the dead in the meantime and then head out from there. Gonna need to use up pretty much all of our supplies for this so don’t mess it up.
4. Me and Charles lead the horde into position. I help Ophelia get the mortar spell ready. We then wait for one of the guards to get close, and send the undead in. Charles will use the confusion to lite fire to the building using a controlled bird. This will hopefully smoke the majority of the bugs out and leave the building empty so Johnny can do his rescue. I hope that makes you a happy skeleton, Johnny. Charles will take a small group of about thirty undead into the forest for the ambush. I’m counting on him to keep them under control.
5. We get the undead and the bugs together into a nice neat pile and blow the shit out of them with the artillery spell. We need to make sure we’re all well away from the building before anyone realizes what happened, hopefully none of the first responders will notice or see us.
6. We pursue the bug into the forest, right into Charles’ ambush. Then we kill the fucking thing and bag the bug.

>>3548208
“You won’t be able to use any fancy red mana spells, Henry.” Ophelia said. “I’m expecting to have access to all of the red mana you can produce, otherwise I’m not going to have enough. I never really focused on red mana as much you know.”

“Just have Larry donate some, good lord.” Henry explained. “I made a new enchantment with Rosa today, so we’ll be much better off if two of us are combat capable.”

“Whatever.” Ophelia muttered.

“I believe that’s everything for this meeting, we just need a good night’s rest.” Charles said, excited to go to sleep.

Decision:
1. End meeting (begins next day)
2. Final comments (write in)
3. Pep talk (Write in)

>>3548209
Can we charge up some runes now, so Ophelia can have some extra for tomorrow?

>>3548212
yes, do you have any in mind?

>>3548245

The bugs, can they also fly? Should we get some wind runes up and running to pin them to the ground if try that?

>>3548261
The big bug can for sure, Sophie didn't specify in her notes.

>>3548268
Then yeah let's get one just in case.

>>3548261
alright

>>3548272
>>3548261
>>3548212
gonna update tomorrow in case any of the lurkers have anything to add. After this combat is a go go and the plan will be placed into action.

I can't wait for shit to go wrong.

>>3548208
>We travel up river going off of Ophelia’s map until we get to the landing spot.
Sophie's map

>>3548485
fuck I did it again

>>3548209
The meeting ended and everyone more or less collapsed into their beds, and Johnny eased himself into his favorite corner, which was the left corner opposite Ophelia’s loft in the lab. Henry made sure to raise the two corpses inside the cold room and simply left them there for the evening, not like they could get into any trouble with the door sealed shut. He of course let Charles know not to open it and figured nobody else would be stupid or interested enough to, which of course was correct. Nobody else, not even Ophelia, bothered with the cold room.

The next day came and group breakfast was had. Ophelia revealed a piece of polished glass reinforced with strips of metal containing what appeared to be a ghiest based on how it let out silent shrieks and tried to unsuccessfully claw its way out. The madwoman had the time to make a ghiest rune and Henry hadn’t realized? Ophelia claimed that this would ground anything that tried to fly away without wasting much mana. The thought of using the thing made Henry nervous but it’d be nowhere near as powerful as the mortars. He hoped Ophelia knew what she was doing.

The rest of the group got their supplies together and Mallory arrived about thirty minutes later, around eight. Henry brought everyone down the warehouse’s pier at the midpoint between it and the lighthouse, and the group departed. Mallory demanded a gold piece for the trouble, since she wasn’t going to do something so dangerous for free. The woman thought she was getting a good deal but had obviously not seen the actual bounty. Nobody thought like correcting her, of course, since any additional payment would be coming out of their pay if they spilled the beans.

Rosa sat on the deck silently saying prayers out of a small pocket copy of the book of omens, another of the church’s four holy books. Charles, Larry, and Johnny busied themselves with the actual running of the ship while Mallory shouted orders and steered the ship around of a couple of shoals in the bay. The depth of water would actually increase once they reached the river so these issues would subside.

Ophelia was sitting beside the two undead Henry had raised. The things had leather and metal armor on, whatever they could scrounge really. Henry didn’t really want to spend the time or the money until he knew they’d actually last a while, for all he knew they’d both be destroyed during the battle. Their hoods and masks had been properly pulled over their faces, and Henry had made damned sure that no smell of rot would leak through. The things were much closer to stichers Franks than zombies at this point. Ophelia was giving a lecture on the properties of ghiest runes to them, Henry was 50/50 split on whether this was to calm her nerves or to boost her ego.

>>3549343

Henry sighed, not much left to do but hope everything went to plan. He tugged awkwardly at his gambeson. The things were protective enough but Henry had never been used to wearing much armor. The other Gambeson was laid out neatly on the deck next to him. Larry had opted to remove it while working the rigging the best he could. The guy wasn’t really talented at it.

Time Limited Decision: (pick one)
1. Mentally prepare yourself (talk to nobody)
2. Talk to Rosa (write in)
3. (help Larry, Charles, and Johnny)
4. Speak to Ophelia (write in)
5. (write in)

Optional Decision:
1. Dole out equipment from equipment list (https://pastebin.com/raw/w7WUxyK6)

>>3549360
>2. Talk to Rosa (write in)
And charles if we can, let them know they're our family and what not.

>>3549360
this >>3550326
but what about equips?

>>3549360
Gold plated Owl Charm (Converter) - a small pocket sized owl charm plated with gold, and with two small emeralds for eyes. Contains a very strange enchantment. Converts any color of mana into green mana for its own use only. Creates a small spectral green owl familiar, the familiars sight hijacks the casters and allows the caster to observe everything the owl does. The owl can be controlled perfectly by the caster with enough practice. (In Ophelia's Possession)(Requires 3 mana of any color per use)
Could we focus the mortar spell onto the spectral owl?

>>3550600
to make a mortar owl? sure, it'd break the charm completely after two uses though.

>>3550875
Not really a mortar owl, but add a spell segment to the mortar so that it homes in on the owl, so you could "aim" the mortar by just flying the owl to the location.

>>3550875
But an explosive spectral owl is cool too.

>>3550884
ah... yes that is very doable. using the owl as a beacon. only ophelia could manage it, of course. it'd cost 2 additional blue mana and would put a lot of strain on the woman. she can handle it but she can have no distractions until the mortars are fired.

accuracy will improve.

>>3550894
Ah yes, almost guided missiles.
Can we charge some blue mana runes up in a library to give Ophelia some wiggle room for these castings?

>>3550903
to be completely honest i'm not going to make you take additional rolls, it'll just be subtracted out of her mana.

>>3549360
>>3550917
>1. Dole out equipment from equipment list
Ophelia gets the Gold Plated Owl, Johnny gets the short sword, even though I was sure we had more swords than 1, Henry gets the Gravedigger's Necklace, we should look into putting small mana runes on each card in that deck so we can do minor spells without incantations, we need to drink from that flask more, and the gemstones are for later.
Oh, and Rosa gets the minor angelic ward charm. Cause she the cutie patootie

>>3550921
THIS

>>3549360
Henry spent the next few minutes going over the equipment he’d laid out upon the deck. He’d decided to keep the boar spear for himself, as Larry had no interest in any weapons besides that stupid sword of his, Charles and Ophelia were too weak to wield it, and Johnny wouldn’t be able to use it in the cramped interior of the observatory. Henry of course kept the Gravedigger’s Necklace, the thing would be invaluable in the graveyard, and it’d save him from days’ worth of digging. He’d kept a few of his valuable items in the lighthouse like the gems and the flask. He’d actually been tinkering with the flask to make it produce whiskey to little avail, the enchantment was far beyond his current abilities.

After some deliberation he had Charles give Rosa the angelic ward charm only to find the woman could cast the spell on her own. Charles shot Henry a couple of annoyed glances before sliding it back into his pocket and going back to work. Henry decided to let the kid know he was appreciated.

Henry took the kid aside and thanked him for putting up with everything so far. Charles thanked Henry for bringing him along and not viewing him as a burden, although he didn’t really want to give HIS charm away just because Henry wanted to impress some girl. Henry slapped the kid’s shoulder and told him to stop slacking off, the two laughed before Charles returned to work.

“Hey, Rosa?” Henry said, sitting down next to the woman and grabbing out his deck of playing cards, laying them out upon the deck and setting up a game for himself.

“Yeah?” Rosa asked, sliding a piece of parchment into the book and shutting it. Forming an impromptu bookmark.

“If we survive and win this, I want to talk to you about some things, the future, namely.” Henry said. He could see her eyes light up as what he’d said dawned on her.

“Oh Henry…” Rosa replied. “Yes, of course. Are you saying you’ll propose?!”

“I… uhm.” Henry said, feeling his face flash crimson for a moment while Larry snickered nearby.

“W-was I too forward?!” Rosa asked, panicking and pulling up her book in front of her face as a sort of shield.

>>3551043
“No, no I guess I just thought I’d die long before I’d have a chance to settle down, I’ve beaten the odds far more than I expected.”

“Don’t say that! Especially not now!” Rosa said, bumping Henry on the head with the book. It didn’t hurt but the woman was pouting now.

“Oy, lovebirds, stop playing cards on my deck!” Mallory yelled from behind the wheel.

Henry grumbled a couple of choice adjectives before sweeping his cards back into one of his pouches.

“Henry, would you like to help me run my clinic in Magica?” Rosa asked. “I… the old hospital I used to work at is still there of course but they still never opened up a proper pharmacy. I wanted to do so to help people. I realize it’s not really your dream but there’s no way I could do so on my own.”

“Yeah, I doubt people would like seeing a woman running her own business.” Henry said.

“Henry, after this, we’ll have all the money we need, so you won’t have to risk your life anymore!” Rosa explained, biting her lip. I won’t have to worry about losing you, okay? If you get hurt or sick I can heal you, I want to make a good home for you.”

Decisions:
1. *hold the woman close*
2. “Why don’t you set up in Avignon, I can’t leave these knuckleheads alone for too long or they’ll blow the warehouse up.”
3. “I can’t promise that Rosa, I still have a lot I want to do.”
4. “Yeah, maybe I should just leave the past behind me already.”
5. “I don’t know.”

>>3551046
> 4. “Yeah, maybe I should just leave the past behind me already.”

Begin SoL quest route.

calling it a night here, see ya's tomorrow

>>3551046
>“I can’t promise that Rosa, I still have a lot I want to do.”
>*hold the woman close*
>"But no matter what happens, I want you there with me."
We gotta git gud and get revenge on Abraxas for what he did to us.

>>3551246
why though?

>>3551311
supporting

>>3552201
>>3551311
writing

>>3551311
Also, Assbackas will never let us live happily.

>>3551046
“I can’t promise that Rosa, I still have a lot I want to do.” Henry said. looking at a distant place that didn’t really exist.

“But… Henry.” Rosa muttered, gripping her arms and pulling her knees up to her chest.

Henry hugged the woman tightly, and he could feel Rosa fumbling and trying to break loose. She hated this, didn’t she.

“I can’t be at peace until a certain person is dead, Rosa.” Henry said. “I can’t say more about it, but that person is vile, despicable, and horrible. If he dies, the world will be a much better place.”

“Don’t say that, Henry. No matter what a person has done, you can’t hold that kind of hatred in your heart, if you go on a journey of revenge, you won’t come back from it.” Rosa said. It sounded like a quote out of the Book of Journeys. The poor naïve woman was trying to lecture him using her faith.

“I don’t care.” Henry replied. “I’ve decided I was going to do it when I was young, and I already got sidetracked once but I’m a lot smarter and stronger than I used to be, and I’ve got you and the others to support me, I know I can do it.”

Rosa bit her lip but said nothing.

“No matter what happens, I want you there with me, Rosa. There isn’t anyone else I’d rather be with.”

“You shouldn’t waste your life trying to hurt someone else.” Rosa said.

“It’s not just for me, Rosa. There are a lot of people that person has hurt, more than I can count. His death will save millions of people, I can guarantee it.”

>>3552343
Rosa shook her head and wiped her face with her sleeve. Henry got up and walked away, he didn’t want to keep talking about this, and he’d once again made up his mind when he’d learned about the death of Charles’ family. He knew that bastard was involved, somehow. He couldn’t keep running away but he had to get a bigger group, and get much stronger. His magical abilities were subpar, he’d wasted away for what? To stay safe?! How’d that gone?! He’d been kept under Vermillion’s thumb, when he should’ve been the one giving orders and commanding respect.

Henry thought back to his days working with Sophie, and Gilly, and Samuel, Mark… Abraxas had taken the last group of people he’d led, he’d only managed to save Sophie… no he couldn’t bring up the past, again, this close to the mission. He could think about it afterwards. He wouldn’t’ let that bastard take anything else. He would avenge them too. His fear and uncertainty had been replaced with a dark determination.

The boat traveled up river for another hour, the sails using the sea breeze and Johnny and Larry working oars. The landing point was exactly where it was described as being, and Mallory dropped anchor and the group departed from the ship using a small rowboat lowered from the back. Rosa stayed on the ship with Malory while the group broke up into two parties. Larry, Johnny, Ophelia, and the two undead grunts made way for the observatory while Henry and Charles struck out towards the graveyard. Henry and Charles shouldering heavy backpacks full of alchemical ingredients and a couple of pieces of parchment with spell circles written down. Henry hadn’t cast a mass raise dead spell in a while and he wanted it to go perfectly.

It took about twenty minutes of walking to make it there, the road holding no surprises. It was about ten in the morning now, based on where the sun hung in the sky. With any luck they’d finish by noon.

Henry and Charles scouted around and found the roads and outlying farmland incredibly quiet. Their chances of being detected would be low, and from Sophie’s notes the angelic patrols in the area had become subpar lately. For once the missing High Seraph had proven to be a massive benefit.

>>3552347
The graveyard took up several acres, most of the plots having small stones or simple wooden grave markers. Up the hill were actual tombstones, denoting wealthier people’s corpses, and at the top were mausoleums containing well off people. Henry had a couple of choices to make; the richer graves might contain knight’s or warrior’s corpses, which would be far superior to a rush of peasant corpses. The knights might even still have their weapons and their bodies would remember their skill. The only issue would be the defenses to their tombs or graves would likely be higher and from what Henry could tell the wealthier sections had a couple of wards functioning properly. It wouldn’t stop him of course, but Sophie hadn’t realized they would cause a delay and would eat up more mana to bypass. The woman’s lack of knowledge on necromancy was an annoyance.

“So what do we do Henry?” Charles asked. “I uh, I’ve been doing this with you for a bit, and I even saw you raise those two last night, but uhm… doing this in real life like this, to actual peoples graves…”

Decision #1:
1. “They’re dead, Charles, they aren’t people. Thinking about good or bad like that will get you killed.”
2. “I always thank them for their help, Charles. I’m happy you understand what it means to disturb their rest.”
3. “It’s better not to think about it too much. Life goes smoother.”
4. “We have people counting on us, Charles, a bit of desecration to keep them alive will be more than worth it.”
5. (Write in)

Decision #2 (pick one):
1. Take corpses out of the peasants graveyard, you can raise and control about a hundred and fifty with the mana you current have (costs Henry 5 black mana, Charles 1 black mana, and about an hour
2. You want more talented troops, even though the detection risk is higher their increased skill and potential weapons will make them worth it (costs Henry 7 black mana, Charles 1 black mana, and 2 hours of your time. May make your group worry about you since you’re taking longer)
3. (Write in)

>>3552350
>2. “I always thank them for their help, Charles. I’m happy you understand what it means to disturb their rest.”

>4. “We have people counting on us, Charles, a bit of desecration to keep them alive will be more than worth it.”

>>3552350
>1. Take corpses out of the peasants graveyard, you can raise and control about a hundred and fifty with the mana you current have (costs Henry 5 black mana, Charles 1 black mana, and about an hour
If we go after a more "prominent" graveyard, it'll attract the attention of nobles, whereas, they wouldn't care as much about the pauper's graveyard.

>>3552366
>about the pauper's graveyard.
I meant peasant's graveyard

>>3552350
These >>3552363 >>3552366

>>3552390
>>3552369
>>3552366
>>3552363
writing

>>3552350
“I always thank them for their help, Charles, even if it isn’t verbally. I’m happy you understand what it means to disturb their rest.”

“But isn’t that just what the church believes?” Charles asked.

“I don’t care about that; I care because every single one of these people had someone who cared for them enough to find a place to lay them to rest.” Henry explained. “If they didn’t their corpses would’ve ended up burnt or tossed aside or in on display at a corpse market.”

“Then why do we do this in the first place?” Charles asked.

“We have people counting on us, Charles. A bit of desecration to keep them alive will be more than worth it.”

“You’re right Henry. I guess I’d just like there to be a way for us to do this without having to desecrate a bunch of corpses.” Charles continued.

“The world isn’t nearly that clean, Charles. I thank them and feel some remorse but neither of us can truly afford to do more.”

With that, Henry and Charles got to work. Henry set up the main magical circle which was a large undertaking. The thing was large and fairly complex. If he messed any part of it up the spell could fizzle, there could be a horrible back blast of mana, or worst of all the undead would rise and be out of control. Henry shuddered at the thought of a mob of undead a couple hundred strong going on a rampage in the countryside.

Charles busied himself by marking each grave with mage powder and other reagents and carefully laying lines of the stuff back towards the spell circle. Using the techniques Henry had taught him so he didn’t waste any of the valuable materials.

>>3552463
By the time they’d finished about forty five minutes had passed. Charles and Henry stood inside the magic circle and began to summon up the necessary mana. Henry was knocked out of concentration by a voice from behind him.

“Excuse me sirs, what are you doing here?” A female voice asked.

Henry winced and quickly dialed the spell down, and ensuring neither him nor Charles got involved inb the backblast.

He spun around about fifteen seconds later, after safely defusing the spell, to find a brunette woman in farmers clothing and topped off with a straw sunhat. She wasn’t from the church; she didn’t seem to be mage. So she was a farmer then? The woman tried to grin to lighten the mood and Henry noticed she was missing a couple of teeth. She looked to be in her early twenties and from what Henry could tell was slightly malnourished. She wasn’t’ starving but it was fairly obvious she hadn’t eaten well in several months at the very least.

He took a moment to readjust to his situation. He fortunately hadn’t gotten far enough into the casting to waste any black mana, the woman hadn’t noticed him cast the spell, and in all honesty likely couldn’t use mage sight in the first place. For all she knew they were doing some kind of prayer.

“Are you here to visit a grave too?” She asked.

Charles nervously glanced at Henry for guidance, one of his hands slipping towards the dagger he kept at his waist. The one Henry had gotten for him. Henry realized if he didn’t act the kid might do something he’d really end up regretting.

Decisions:
1. *kill her via a throwing dagger and get back to work, you can use her corpse as well. Better yet the evidence will be tossed in with hundreds of other corpses. At the observatory.*
2. *try to come up with a story and get her to leave* (write in)
3. *cast a spell* (Write in)
4. (write in)

>>3552465
>*cast a spell* (Write in)

We have some kind of mind scramble spell right?

>>3552470
Memory Scatter, yes. Muddles short-term memory, so it's fair to use

heading to work, will be back around 10pm eastern

>>3552465

>3. We're here to pay our respects to the dead. Is she related to anyone here? Maybe we're distant family!

We can memory scatter her after seeing what's going on.

>>3552465
This >>3552605

>>3552470
Can we try to send her of without spending mana first? We do have kind of a big fight coming up.

>>3552608
Yeah this is ideal. Every little blue mana could be a dispel that saves our life

>>3552653
We could also always combine it with "we're here to pay an old debt to your relatives".

Money tends to make people stop asking questions right away, especially poor people.

We can even visit her afterwards and say that we were investigating the insects and disappearances and apologize for not telling her about the risks to keep panic from spreading.

Clearly we were in the graveyard to check corpses for taint.

Cover our bases coming and going.

>>3552470
>>3552472
>>3552605
>>3552607
>>3552608
>>3552653
>>3552717
writing

Rolled 67 (1d100)

>>3552998

>>3552465
“We’re here to pay our respects to the dead.” Henry said.

“Incense burning?” The woman asked, “That’s a heck of a lot of powder for it though.”

“We’re paying respects to the entire graveyard, we’ve been traveling around to a lot of the local pauper’s graveyards to do the same.” Henry continued, lying through his teeth.

He placed a steady hand on Charles’ shoulder and pressed down on him enough so that he wouldn’t get any ideas. Charles got the message and quickly removed his hand from his knife’s handle. He wasn’t’ calm but he wasn’t nearly so jumpy either. Henry smiled a tiny bit, the kid was holding it together.

“Are you related to someone here?” Charles asked.

“Yeah, my pa, he didn’t make it through the winter last year, since our harvest failed. It’s tough and the old bastard decided to quit on us right when we needed him the most, but that ain’t his fault. We’ll manage somehow.” The woman said.

“Well, I suppose I might as well offer a bit of charity then.” Henry said, rummaging through his coins and pulling out a couple of silver ones.

The woman stared at the coins for about a minute, wanting to say something. She bit her lip as she pondered. Eventually she shook her head and pushed Henrys hand back.

“No…no I can’t take this, I’m not gonna accept charity when I’m still able to work. I suppose yer hearts in the right place but you’re a city boy thru and thru. Lotta folks round here would jump to punch ya for offering coin for no work, out of pity like that. Nobody round here wants pity from people from the city, alright?” The lady said, smiling with that same, partially toothless, grin.

“Stay safe then.” Henry said. “By the by, I’ve heard about a monster that’s been terrorizing the city and has reportedly been spotted in the countryside, keep an eye out.”

>>3553076
The woman’s expression changed suddenly, as if she’d realized something very important. “Ah… yeah… thanks.” She said, biting down on her finger and shivering. “I… I’m gonna head on back home, I think there might be a big problem.”

“Yeah the bounty only came out a couple days back, I guess word hasn’t spread this far yet. To be honest that’s one of the reasons we were out here, to check for taint. The church’s been overworked lately so we took it upon ourselves to do this. Gives my apprentice some good practice too.”

“God bless ya.” The woman said, her heart not really in it. “Look, if you fellas see a boy about yer apprentice’s age, missing one of his fingers… he’s my son. He hasn’t come home from the market today and I’m really worried now that you mentioned the monster. Could you keep an eye out for him and tell him to come home right away if you see him?” The woman asked.

“Yeah that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Henry said, not liking where this was going.

Henry waited thirty more minutes before starting up the spell once more.

>roll 1d100

Rolled 64 (1d100)

>>3553077
>>roll 1d100

Rolled 77 (1d100)

>>3553077

>>3553117
PAPA NURGLE!

>>3553117
>>3553085
pass, writing shortly

>>3553156
ALSO DUBS NIGGA

>>3553077
Henry calmly stepped back into the complex and fragile magical circle he’d constructed and waited for Charles to get back into position behind him. Having a second mage to shoulder some of the burden of casting this was extremely helpful. It allowed him to spend a small bit of his focus on trying to hide the mana signature from prying eyes. A spell of this size could easily attract some very annoying prying eyes. . Charles closed his eyes and began to sweat vigorously and it was obvious this spell would normally be far beyond his abilities. Henry stepped in and began to help, conjuring a hell of a lot of black mana, almost his entire supply of the stuff. Charles began to breath heavily and Henry briefly worried if the kid would be okay. The spell was too far along to cancel now, without losing the mana.

A tense couple of seconds passed as the spell began to slowly emanate away from the massive magical circle they’d both constructed. As the mana began to creep into each of the graves an ominous feeling settled into the back of Henry’s mind, a feeling he was very familiar with. The corpses were coming out to play.

His gravediggers charm lit up with a cold black fire as corpses began to rise up from the ground, kicking over grave posts, overturning grave stones, and making a general mess of the cemetery. Dirt and maggots spilled out of their mouths as they all slowly stood to attention. Henry felt a pang of guilt over all of this, but it quickly faded to be replaced with a feeling of absolute control. He had a god damned army again. He hadn’t had this many undead under his control since he was a kid, and it was all for a good cause for once. All around them about a hundred and fifty undead rose up from the ground. Among them were about a hundred and twenty zombies, and thirty skeletons. They had no weapons to speak of, so Henryv sent gave a general command through his mana connection to pick up gravestones or the wooden gravemarkers and use them as crude weapons. It would be slightly more effective than them swinging their arms around and trying to dogpile their enemies.

“Oh my god, finally.” Charles muttered, collapsing to the ground in a heap as the spell finally concluded.

“You did good kid.” Henry said. Charles was too exhausted to complain about being called kid, he merely grumbled something incoherent out. Henry considered having one of the undead pick Charles up but thought better of it, Charles deserved better than that. Instead he lifted the child up over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and command his small army of undead head to off through the countryside, beating a path towards the observatory. Henry acted like a sheepdog. Carefully herding his minions back into formation when they tried to wander off. Charles was well enough to walk by the midway point and their pace quickened considerably with two necromancers there to herd the undead.

>>3553307

Henry laughed a little bit to himself, fucking hell he’d really missed this hadn’t he. He had a god damned army. He sighed contently, he didn’t really need to laugh, but laughing like an idiot was a thing necromancers tended to do. It was just what they did. He’d have to indulge later.

By the time they got into position the sun hung much higher up in the sky. Henry figured it was a bit past noon and hoped the rest of the team hadn’t panicked. Johnny was with them so of course they wouldn’t have, the worry was small but still tangible in Henry’s mind. He just had to make contact with them while he prepared his force of brainless fodder. Once they’d been sent off he could set up the mortar spell while Charles nominally controlled the horde. The boy wasn’t nearly skilled enough to be able to have any real effect but it’d make him feel like he was doing something important.

By the time Charles had gotten back Henry had begun to tap his foot impatiently. The news was not horrible but it could’ve been better. Apparently a third elite guard had been added to the outer patrol and a single mage was flying around the observatory for some reason. Larry was itching to just get it over with already and Ophelia was all set up. She just needed the red mana.

Henry checked over his forces once more. From what Charles told him the elites were unable to fly, as they seemed to be too heavy for such a thing. The mage bug had been casting various spells on the observatory for some unknown reason and had actually burned through a good chunk of its mana. This signaled to Henry that the bugs didn’t realize they were about to send in an assault.

Decision:
1. Lead the assault directly and have Charles break off a force to set the forest ambush up.
2. Have Charles send the undead in and head over to Ophelia to set the mortar spell up.
3. Henry and Charles lead the assault, both of them will be able to exert greater control on the undead
4. (Write in)

>>3553307
>A spell of this size could easily attract some very annoying prying eyes.
No angels in the vicinity, and I doubt Del Mar's senses are that fucking strong enough to sense this magic circle going off from his basement lab. He's probably asleep because it's daytime too.
>“Oh my god, finally.” Charles muttered, collapsing to the ground in a heap as the spell finally concluded.
Our boy finally did it. This will definitely help him in the future.
>He hadn’t had this many undead under his control since he was a kid, and it was all for a good cause for once.
At least it doesn't count as evil if they're being used to fuck up a magic bugman that plans to destroy all of Avignon, and maybe kill even more people or worse. Right? Even if their souls were still around, these farmers and other regular people would probably be okay with being unsung heroes after death.

>>3553311
>he didn’t really need to laugh, but laughing like an idiot was a thing necromancers tended to do. It was just what they did. He’d have to indulge later.
I like how laughing maniacally is a side effect of having black mana in-universe. Being edgy is its own kind of fun, especially if your magical affinity makes you more liable to revel in it. Wonder if Charles will ever do that too...
>By the time they got into position the sun hung much higher up in the sky. Henry figured it was a bit past noon
Great, we still have the daylight on our side against the bugs.

So far in the plan listed in >>3548208, we got Steps 1, 2, and 3 done. We are on Step 4, but we gotta multitask a little.
>Have Charles move the undead into position and head over to Ophelia to set the mortar spell up.
Once we get there to take over the undead from Charles for the assault, he does the firebombing dead birds part of the plan then skedaddles with some undead to set up the forest ambush. This is when Johnny will go in, get the captives, and lead them out and away - won't matter where, just AWAY from the soon-to-be blast zone. At that point everything should be enough of a clusterfuck that Henry won't need to stick around to continue issuing commands to the undead horde, who should automatically continue following their previous commands to ATTACK THE BUGS. Then all that's left is Henry and Charles readying the forest ambush clincher (with Johnny and Larry Haste-ing over to come in clutch?), while the mortar rain blasts everything to hell and back. We can worry about where to have the freed prisoners when we get to that point.

>>3553732
black mana doesn't make you laugh evilly, its more a side effect of having an army of undead at your beck and call

>>3553810
I hope Charles will know such joys one day.

>>3553838
Agreed

>>3553311
>Once we get there to take over the undead from Charles for the assault, he does the firebombing dead birds part of the plan then skedaddles with some undead to set up the forest ambush. This is when Johnny will go in, get the captives, and lead them out and away - won't matter where, just AWAY from the soon-to-be blast zone. At that point everything should be enough of a clusterfuck that Henry won't need to stick around to continue issuing commands to the undead horde, who should automatically continue following their previous commands to ATTACK THE BUGS. Then all that's left is Henry and Charles readying the forest ambush clincher (with Johnny and Larry Haste-ing over to come in clutch?), while the mortar rain blasts everything to hell and back. We can worry about where to have the freed prisoners when we get to that point.

Proceed with this.

>>3553732
>>3553838
>>3553885
will begin writing in about an hour, after i get home from an ice cream run

>>3553311
Henry motioned towards his undead and sent the command down the mana link to begin the assault. Slowly chunks of undead began to respond before the main force moved out, leaving a small force of about thirty undead behind with Charles to both protect him and to act as the ambush force. It was a tad risky of course, but it’d let both of them exert far more control over each individual undead this way. For the bigger force, Henry merely pointed them at the observatory, and sent them on their way, occasionally sending out commands for them to correct their course.

The reaction was near instantaneous, with three more guards emerging from the building to join their elite fellows. Henry couldn’t’ really make out the features of any of the guards but he did see that they all carried blades of differing types. All it would take for them to be overrun would be for the blades to get stuck in his undead. The churches general policy was to either lay traps such as spike pits or rockfalls, or to hide behind walls and stab at the undead with spears while getting assistance from mages or angels. It was fairly obvious from this reaction that Requin wasn’t used to fighting off hordes of undead, or he wouldn’t be doing what amounted to throwing troops away.

He watched as Johnny rushed through the confusion, blending in with the undead and using them as shields to reach the entrance. A couple blasts of blue mana flew out of it as Johnny plunged inside. Already Henry could hear various screeching coming from the battlefield.

With that, Henry left Charles, who had already completed his small magical circle, to his own devices. He knew the plan after all. The torch was lit and the bird was off before Henry knew it, and the man headed out to meet up with Ophelia’s group. He began to feel the mortars would be a bit overkill, but it’d be easier than having to dispose of all the corpses, for certain. It’d also be one of the largest spells he’d ever casted.

Ophelia was already huddled over a massive spell circle on the sole patch of flat ground in the entirety of the hilly area surrounding the observatory. The woman was sitting cross-legged in the center, her owl charm in between her legs. Henry had no idea what the woman planned to do with it exactly but didn’t have the time to ask.

Larry paced around nervously while the two undead grunts stood at attention. A contrast been patience and impatience. If Henry was artistically inclined, he might have taken notice of such a duality. Instead, he waved over at Larry, and sat down next to Ophelia to get the spell started.

“Took you long enough.” Ophelia muttered, barely audible over the sounds of the nearby battle.

“Oy lay off him, he’s here.” Larry said, trying his best to keep things running smoothly. Henry very much appreciated it.

>roll 1d100
>say something: optional write in

Rolled 98 (1d100)

>>3554809
>"Situation okay. Johnny should be back with the captives soon, assuming Del Mar himself didn't leave his basement to fight yet. Probably trusts his minions to keep the place safe. We'll prove him wrong before sunset."
>"Once Johnny's back and the innocents are secured, we're going to mortar everything there to the ground. The owl should help guide the barrage and stop it from spreading too wide. It'll get rid of any evidence against us too."
>"After that, we move over to the forest ambush where Charles will be. Might have to use a Haste or two depending on how things go, but we should get there in time. Once we fight Del Mar and beat him, the gold will be ours."
>"I don't plan on dying a second time, okay guys?"
>"LET'S DO THIS!"

>>3554846
nice
Full support

>>3554851
>>3554846
writing, gonna go for something good, I hope I can do justice to this

>>3554846
Awesome roll!

>>3554809
“Alright, Johnny should be back with the captives soon. Assuming Del Mar doesn’t bother leaving his basement anyway. He probably expects that his minions will keep the place safe, and the door will hold. He’s wrong about the first point, but that door will hold I think. Luckily, Johnny’s already inside.”

“Couldn’t we just raid the place?” Larry asked. “The door’s kicked open and Johnny’s in there to keep it open

“If you want to die to some stupid trap be my guest.” Henry said. “It’s far safer to lure them all out into the horde and bomb them from afar.”

“It’s just that it’s such a cowardly thing to do, alright?” Larry complained.

“Please wait here and let the mages handle this Larry.” Ophelia replied. “Please?”

Henry raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t voice any of his opinions on Ophelia’s tonal change. He began to channel all of his red mana into the mortar spell, which began to accumulate and grow above Rosa’s head. From the initial burst alone the thing was going to be massive, and Henry worried that Ophelia wouldn’t be able to hold all of this mana by herself. There was no way he could after all.

“Once Johnny’s back and the commons are out of the way, I’m going to… to use… mana…”

The woman murmured, sweat running down her head, her eyes going dull, and a soft otherworldly murmur began to leak through the space behind her. Henry clutched at his head while Larry began to stagger. The undead were completely unaffected for some reason, perhaps because they didn’t have any minds in the first place. Henry had no idea what was going on but the woman was pulling all oftheir is mana together with ease, to the point Henry felt comfortable stepping out of the circle. He did so the moment the whispered died down. The gold owl charm emitted a soft green mana glow and a moment later a translucent green owl emerged from it. The red mana above her formed into a massive red egg, pulsing with light and readying itself to hatch four mortars.
-30 sanity, Larry and Henry (△)

>>3555165

“I’m going to use the mana to bomb everything into dust. The owl should help guide the barrage and stop it from spreading over too wide an area. The resulting maelstrom serve to get rid of any evidence and the corpses you drug out here. So the church won’t have any way of tying us to this, or Requin for that matter.” Ophelia said, as if she hadn’t missed a beat.

Henry and Larry rubbed their heads and shared a mutual look of fear and confusion before Henry coughed a couple of times and got back to business, he could ask Ophelia about whatever the fuck that was when there wasn’t a battle going on.

“Assuming all goes to plan, we’re going to launch the forest ambush after Requin’s been cut off from his forces. Now that I’ve contributed my mana to that massive red egg above Ophelia’s head I’m going to go lead the troops.” Henry said, dusting himself off and heading back to command the assault

(-6 red mana from Henry, -10 red mana from Ophelia, both mages are out of red mana)

“Larry, I want you to come with me for the time being, I need to make sure you’re on hand to kill the fucker if things go wrong.”

“Finally something I can really get behind.” Larry said, excitedly grabbing at the rune engraved flame blade at his hip. “I can also cast a mean fireball if you need me to.”

“Bad idea while our forces are all clustered there.” Henry said.

“Once we kill em the golds all ours.” Larry said, excitedly. “I don’t even know what I’m gonna do with that much coin, truth be told.”

“Stop talking and follow me.” Henry said.

“Try not to die a second time.” Ophelia called after them. Henry winced then glared at Larry.

“So maybe I told her about our fight against ticky…” Larry said.

“As long as Johnny doesn’t find out we’ll both be allowed to live.” Henry said, not altogether reassuringly.
“LETS DO THIS!” Larry replied, pumping the group up more than either Henry or Ophelia could.

>>3555165
. . . . Henry has SAN left to lose?

>>3555168
san is a rarely used system but it does have an effect. Its treated similar to mana in that it does regenerate over time. However its far slower to do so and rapid losses may have permanent effects on characters. Horrifying shit, otherworldly shit, and weird shit, can all lead to sanity loss.

>if too much sanity is lost it can begin to mess with a character's perception of the world, the console, and in extreme cases it may boot the voters out of a character and render them completely unplayable, like they had died.

>>3555167

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Charles carefully guided his bird into the observatory’s interior. The whole upper two floors of the building was nice and undefended making Charles’ job laughably easy. He settled the hawk corpse, torch in talon, down on a dry looking bookshelf and got to work spreading the flame out, igniting as much material as he could. He then flew back out through the telescope he’d used as an entry way and down into the second floor, through a broken window. He ran the torch over whatever he could, spreading flames and smoke across the decaying space, then left the corpse as further kindling. When he came to inside his magical circle he saw flames already starting to spread. The undead in front of him had been thinned down to approximately seventy heads. But the bugs had taken major losses. Only one elite and the mage were left standing, and were attempting to retreat back towards the door. Like hell he would let that happen.

Charles tugged on a couple of the zombies using a mana connection and managed to exert enough influence to have them rapidly pile onto the mage. The things were still nominally under Henry’s control, but since he’d taken a part in the spell to raise them, he was able to command them to an extent, like Henry had taught him. As the trio of zombies pinned the bug mage down they took turns taking bites out of the squirming humanoid. This had the effect of sending any other zombies nearby into a feeding frenzy and they made short work of the pinned bugman. Charles smiled wickedly at his handiwork and began to do the same for the elite. The bugman, realizing what was happening, leapt into the air and landed on the second floor of the observatory. Charles watched in confusion as the thing backed up and took a running leap towards him.

“Oh no.” Charles muttered as the bug cleared the majority of the zombies, most of which had taken to banging on the exterior of the building in a vain attempt to get inside.

Charles desperately tried to rally the skeletons near him, in the smaller ambush group, to form some sort of defense. He didn’t have nearly enough control to do that, only managing to place a couple bodies between him and the bug. He held out his dagger in his right hand and the warding charm in his left. If it came down to it he could probably make a break for it. He didn’t have to, Henry ran the elite through with his boar spear a right as it had crested the hill Charles was standing on, and Larry decapitated the thing with his flameblade. The cut immediately seared closed and the now dead elite dropped limply to the ground.

>>3555206
“Almost a shame we’re going to destroy these corpses.” Henry muttered, placing a foot on the dead bug and pulling the spear out after a couple attempts.

“You’ll be able to buy plenty more with that bounty man, heck you could make some really nasty things with all that coin. So don’t get too bummed out, yeah?”

Henry nodded and smiled, then turned to Charles.

“Good work with that mage, Charles, and good work keeping that horde focused. Looks like we lost a few but what we have now is still plenty. All we gotta do is clear a path for Johnny.” Henry said. “Want to learn a little trick in the meantime?”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Johnny made a swinging motion with his arm and short sword, clearing the disgusting blue blood off the blade. He’d made short work of the two guards remaining inside the entrance hall and hadn’t even taken a single hit, like that would actually matter. He sighed. He never had gotten used to his skeletal form. Even after five hundred or so years. He still expected swords hitting him to hurt immensely.

Pain, he even missed pain.

He kept his sword out and checked the corpses. The things had been cleaved the pieces and occasionally twitched. Johnny’s instincts were to burn them immediately but he didn’t’ have the time, the ceiling would be coming down soon.

Decisions:
1. Rush in, try to avoid the guards
2. Try to kill all remaining hostiles on this floor
3. Sneak into the prison, you can fight your way out afterwards.
4. (write in)

>>3555208
>Sneak into the prison, you can fight your way out afterwards.
Johnny can regenerate his bones or something right? Because of his contract link to Henry? He can take the hits but the defenseless prisoners cannot. Gotta play this safe but heroic.

>>3555625
its not regeneration per say, anything that gets knocked off of him can be put back via black mana. his actual body is neigh indestructible using normal methods.

>>3555701
Okay so could he survive being mortared and having the whole building come down on him? Could Henry use his mage-senses or the contract to locate his body parts accurately through the rubble, and collect him to reconstruct later? Just in case Johnny DOES go down with the building but the hostages are freed and secured.

>>3555710
he could easily survive it but the metal plate attache to his skull might end up damaged. as for finding the body parts, henry could simply use black mana connections to find them.

>>3555779
Ah okay. So we should be in the clear then in worst case scenario. Him going in, freeing the hostages, then extracting them is the key part

>>3555165
> was informed that it said the mana was forming over Rosa's head, this is a typo. i meant Ophelia

>>3555208
Johnny turned to his right and carefully pried open a small door which led into an empty hallway. If the bugs had a central intelligence, then Del Mar would either try to hunker down or send in reinforcements. If the bugs were merely being controlled by Del Mar, then he’d have no way of knowing Johnny had fought his way inside beyond the few noisy clashes of swords it had taken to end the fight in the entrance hall. But the bug had no way of knowing that they knew about the prisoners, nor that they planned to break them out. Johnny crept into the hallway and immediately noticed a tripwire connected to a pair of bomb runes. The entire setup was professionally made and Johnny carefully stepped over the contraption before continuing onwards. He passed several more of the things and noticed several more complex runes attached to the ceiling with some sort of silken substance. Johnny made a mental note of them and swore under his lack of breath. Had the enemy gained new abilities?

He could hear the sounds of fighting from outside and what appeared to be footsteps on the roof. He nervously swung his sword around, readying himself. As he moved down the hallway he found that it matched perfectly to the map Sophie had drawn up. The windows had been boarded up and were covered by cloth, the entire place was covered with dust and mold, and it would probably be very uncomfortable breathing in this space if Johnny still had lungs. He stopped upon reaching the turn. He poked his head out carefully and found an empty hallway in front of him. The door to the basement was hanging open and the guards that had been listed off on the map were nowhere in sight.

>Roll 2d100

Rolled 18, 99 = 117 (2d100)

>>3556107

Rolled 19 (1d100)

>>3556107
rerolling the 18

Rolled 13, 4 = 17 (2d100)

>>3556107

>>3556116
>>3556144
heading to work for the time being, be back a 10

>>3556107
Johnny cautiously proceeded down the hallway, his blade at the ready. He carefully avoided a couple more bomb rune traps before managing to get into the prison. What he found struck him as odd. The place wasn’t makeshift, it was an actual prison, it had been part of the building since its construction from what he could tell. As he stepped inside he could see that the bars were properly constructed, the place was better kept than most other parts of the observatory, and there were five cells in the room. Each containing a couple of people. In the first few cells were the most tainted people, who immediately lashed out at him and tried to grab at him with their insect like arms. Johnny tensed up and grit his teeth together as he effortlessly hacked their arms apart, stepping away while the insect people began to screech and bleed out. If they had expected him to hesitated they were sorely disappointed. In his old life even if they had surrendered he would’ve gladly hung them both from a tree of redemption, there was no going back for them, clearly. He cursed and offered several apologies for causing them so much pain, it was still incredibly sloppy of him. He felt several pairs of eyes on him as a couple of children peered out from the second cell from the right. They both tried to warn him of something, far too late as it turned out.

He didn’t even notice the guard hanging from the ceiling right above the entrance way until it had already pounced on him. The beast used its clawed hands to pin Johnny to the floor, spearing through his clothing and into what would’ve been his fleshy arms if he had them. The guard then proceeded to take a bite out of Johnny’s neck. When the bug met open air and recoiled in surprise, Johnny kicked back, bucking the creature off and placing it on the backfoot. He then swung his blade around in an arc, the hit bounced off the creature’s carapace but threw it egregiously off balance. Johnny proceeded to tackle the creature to the ground and stab it repeatedly in the head, not letting up until its upper torse resembled a particular type of cheese he’d once been fond of. When the creature was finally dispatched Johnny could hear an ominous thrum coming from the basement, he had to act fast. He swiped as much blood off of his sword as he could, gave his blue blood soaked clothing a disapproving glance, and then proceed to his actual task.

>>3556224
Not wasting a moment, Johnny checked the far wall for keys. He found a couple different stacks of them and began trying all of them on the first door, eventually finding the correct one. His next few actions consisted of putting the tainted humans in the two left most cells to rest and offering a few quick prayers, he didn’t have any illusions about it being enough, he was not worthy of giving such prayers in his state, yet he had to do something. The two rightmost cells contained humans, an unconscious adult male and a terrified child. The occupants of the rightmost cell were completely untainted while the two kids in first cell from the right had glazed over eyes and some mottled skin but nothing else was obviously wrong with them. The three kids tearfully begged to be released and Johnny hesitantly obliged, keeping his sword trained on them and demanding they stay at least five steps back from him at all times. The kids huddled together behind the sole desk in the room in an attempt to hide.

The cell in the middle of the bunch proved to be the most difficult. Inside were a couple of humans, two female mages from the looks of their clothing, struggling to control themselves.

“Please let us out, we just want to go home!” One of them pleaded.

“We don’t want to die, we’re still human, please!” the other continued, shivering and hunching over, they both fell into fits of terror.


Johnny adjusted his clothing to ensure they hadn’t seen his actual form, and grit his teeth. He needed to make a decision. The smell of smoke was already wafting down from the upper floors, as well as a large amount of footsteps.

Johnny checked back inside the rightmost cell. The sole adult male inside was roused through a series of swift kicks from Johnny. He quickly explained he had been a mercenary hired to deal with cattle that had gone missing. His buddies had been captured earlier and he’d tried to spring them before getting caught, and he’d only ended up getting caught himself but he didn’t know what had happened to them. Johnny remembered the extra guard that had been posted outside and simply told him that there wasn’t the time to talk, and to get ready to move.

Decisions:
1. *Release the two female mages, taint or not you can figure out what to do with them later.*
2. *Put them both to rest, that’s the only mercy you can provide them now.*
3. *apologize and leave them to their fate*

Secondary decision:
1. Provide the merc with a weapon of his own. He doesn’t seem tainted in the slightest and he should have some proficiency with a blade.

>>3556227
>2. *Put them both to rest, that’s the only mercy you can provide them now.*
Feels more in character for Johnny
Give extra sword.

>>3556227
>1. Provide the merc with a weapon of his own. He doesn’t seem tainted in the slightest and he should have some proficiency with a blade.

Y

> 1. *Release the two female mages, taint or not you can figure out what to do with them later.*

I mean, even if they become insectile or alien that's not the same as *evil*. Humanity is plenty evil on its own.

After all, we hang with Johnny.

>>3556235
We can always kill them later.

But if there's a hope, any hope at all for redemption . . . Well, there's a reason Johnny supports Henry instead of just obeying him.

>>3556552
And if they turn while we're rescuing them, they'll kill the other hostages.

>>3556227
Backing >>3556543 but with subtle threats to back it up. Something like
>"I hope you two are able to keep yourselves together, at least until we get you all to safety. You don't want to end up like them, do you?" (Johnny points at the two tainted humans he just put down in the leftmost cell)

>>3556804
Reminder they got experimented on by Del Mar. If they're sane enough to speak and beg for rescue, they're sane enough to still be purified or rescued. So far all they've done is shudder and have minor fits from what Johnny has seen. As a paladin, undead or not, he would try to do what's right if possible. He knows if they fuck up and interfere with the untainted hostages being rescued safely, he'll cut them down without hesitating. It's fine.

>>3556833
>>3556804
>>3556552
>>3556543
writing shortly

>>3556227
Johnny tightened his grip on his steel short sword and stood outside the mage women’s cell. He needed to make a decision and quickly. He decided that he’d let them out, and if they turned then he’d simply cut then down and offer the appropriate prayers afterwards. He was a blade of god, not a priest. He decided he couldn’t make the determination whether their souls could be saved or not, and it would ultimately be up to them, so with a heavy heart and steady hands Johnny opened the cell up and jumped several steps back, holding his blade at the ready.

“I hope you two can keep yourselves together until the one trying to control your minds is dealt with. Otherwise you’ll end up like those poor wretches.” Johnny said, pointing to the cells containing the still warm bugmen corpses and their attendant blood pools.

The first woman merely sobbed and covered her face while the second went wide eyed and nodded before clutching her head.

“Couple of rules, first, you are in the front where I can see you, two, you stay ten feet ahead at all times, and three, you’re going to have to avoid the church unless you seek to be hung from a redeeming tree. If you choose to do so then I understand and will offer my own prayers for you.” Johnny said, eyeing their antenna and the carapace pieces that had formed all over their bodies. Their skin hung like sheets of cloth in certain places where the carapace armor had torn out off.

Johnny grit his teeth as the two woman stumbled towards the entrance while gripping their heads, Del Mar must’ve been trying to exert control over them, poor things.

Johnny picked up the guards blade, a crude and rusted short sword, and offered it to the merc. The man still had his leather and metal studded armor and seemed healthy.

“Finally.” The man said. “Thanks friend. Let’s deal with this shit show already, I think it took my friends downstairs.”

>>3557251
Let’s escape with our lives for the time being.” Johnny replied

“You ain’t here to kill the big one?” The man asked.

“Not yet, you’re welcome to help if you want to.” Johnny replied. “There’s going to be some fireworks in a bit, and I’d recommend you get well outside the blast area.”

“Good, soon as its dead I can find my friends.” The man said. Johnny clenched his jaw and said nothing, the last thing he needed was an emotional breakdown from the man. His friends were most certainly completely tainted, or dead.

The two mages took point, slowly making their way back into the entrance hall. Johnny and the Merc followed with the children bringing up the rear. From what Johnny could tell the fighting had died down outside and now all that was left to do was to wait for the bugs to be smoked out.

Johnny emerged outside to see a couple towers of undead that stretched up to the second story. There were about thirty undead on the roof, with a few more joining them by climbing up the piles of undead. Henry was laughing and pointing while Charles watched wide eyed and excitedly clapped at the show. Larry stood at the ready while impatiently tapping his foot. In the distance Johnny could see a massive ball of red mana, visible even to him, waiting to be unleashed.

The two mages in front screamed and fell down, scrambling to get away from the undead. The children all cowered behind Johnny and the Merc. The Merc for his part let loose a stream of curses and held his blade up, his entire body shaking and sweat pooling off of him. Poor bastard thought he was about to die.

>Write in

>>3557253
>"They're not attacking us, they're not our problem! We need to get you to safety first, away from here! Let's move over there!" (by 'there' Johnny would point to a nearby hillside far enough away from the observatory that it's outside the mortar blast zone but close enough to where Ophelia was that he could guide the innocents there)

>>3557889
>>3557253

This, but take them to the ambush Charles has ready in the Forest so that they don't lead the rest of the forces back to our artillery.

>>3557990
Won't Del Mar try to kill them or take them hostage to make Henry and co. let him go, in the worst case? Why?

>>3558004
Doubtful. He's not super sane. But we have a trap set up specifically to deal with the pursuit so why not use it instead of drawing them back to our non-combatants.

Remember, Henry and Ophelia are out of red mana so no damage spells.

>>3558004
Also, there's the risk of the two mages turning if they get caught. Or if they don't get caught. I'd like to have them farther away from us if possible until we can focus on them.

>>3558033
>>3558021
Fair enough. Backing your idea in >>3557990 too

>>3558033
Agreed

writing tomorrow, pulled a double shift today and am exhausted

>>3557253
“They’re not attacking us, push forward!” Johnny bellowed, snapping the commoners out of their fear induced haze. The Skeleton shoved and pushed the escapees forwards, eventually getting them out from underneath the shadow of the horde of undead and into the relative safety of the hillside where the others were. Far enough away that the mortar rounds wouldn’t reduce them to cinder.

“Holy shit you actually did it.” Henry muttered. “I figured we’d just have the blast the building apart and hope the big bug suffocated under the rubble.

“Your lack of faith is noted, Henry.” Johnny muttered under his breath. “And your willingness to sacrifice others.”

Henry ignored him, he was in too good of a mood.

“Alright Charles, its show time, get your group into the forest, the main events gonna start.” Henry said, slapping the kid on the back for emphasis. Charles quickly sent out tendrils of black mana, seized the undead he needed, and sped off with his miniature horde of about thirty undead. It was the most he could manage, although it was more an amorphous blob of undead due to the child’s lack of practice, he couldn’t keep them in formation at all.

“Johnny, for the time being take the civilians with you, and head to the forest with Charles, they’ll be safer there than here.”

“Shouldn’t I take them back to the boat?” Johnny asked.

“I want you to help with the bug once the fighting really starts, Johnny. From what I can tell those two would be a danger to Rosa and Mallory” Henry said, pointing at the two mage woman, still struggling against unseen binds. “Not just that, I want you there to help me and Larry, I’m not taking any chances..”

“Fine, but I’m going to prioritize keeping as many people safe as possible.” Johnny spat back. The skeleton was clearly annoyed at the prospect of putting the innocent children in harm’s way.

>>3560593
Johnny barked a few more orders, and led his group like a military commander right after Charles. Henry noticed the mage women’s mutated forms and two of the children’s irregularities. The church would likely hang the lot of them if it caught them, and the cult… the cult would likely experiment on them if it got a hold of them.

He rubbed his temples and watched with Larry as the flames and smoke the building emitted began to kick up into the sky. The observatory was really burning now; all they had to do was wait for the bugs to get smoked out. They didn’t have to wait long. Three more guards and two mages emerged from the entrance, cleaving and firing blue mana magic at the undead horde, clearing a path for their leader. Del Mar. Henry’s nervous anticipation was reflected in his horde, which all began to quiver and all turned their heads toward the entrance as they slowly backed away and made room for the combatants. The undead that had climbed onto the roof all gathered over the entrance, ready to pounce and claw off Del Mar’s wings. Hopefully it’d be enough.

As it emerged Henry’s breath caught in his throat. No trace of humanity was left on the creature. A massive pair of moth like wings extended behind it, and a second pair of fly like wings began to buzz. It scooped up a pair of undead in its hands and violently began ripping them apart. Del Mar was easily the size of three or four people and his pulsating carapace signaled a massive amount of blue mana contained within. His round compound eyes scanned the battlefield, and locked onto Henry.


‘YOOOOOOOUUUUU.’ It screeched, Henry covered his ears before realizing the fucker was using telepathy. He grit his teeth and endured, he’d faced far worse than this.

Larry cursed up a storm and yelled at the bug to fuck off and die already. Hopefully it would.

===============================(Boss Fight: Del Mar – The Overmind)=======================

Theme: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYY8X2bhBrU)


Decisions:
1. Henry’s Action
2. Larry’s Action
3. Ophelia’s Action
4. Write in

>>3560595
>A massive pair of moth like wings
Hey now, moth wings are fuzzy, and fuzzy things are flammable.
Get one of the zombies on the roof to get good and flamey before it jumps on del mar.

>>3560632
excellent idea, will require 2 1d100 rolls, 1 to see if the zombie can be controlled long enough to use after it combusts, and two to see if del mar reacts

Rolled 2, 39 = 41 (2d100)

>>3560642

>>3560649
well shit

Rolled 13, 23 = 36 (2d100)

>>3560632
>1. Henry’s Action
>>3560632

>2. Larry’s Action
> Cast Fireball at Del Mar

>3. Ophelia’s Action
> Magical defenses with whatever her spell options are.

Don't we have Fire Birds with Charles?

> Charles sends undead birds that we prepped to burn the roof at Del Mar to burn his wings

Rolled 47, 27 = 74 (2d100)

>>3560656

This is why I had 3 people send fire at him.

Rolled 10, 83 = 93 (2d100)

>>3560642
Here's some rolls for Ophelia

>>3560662
Charles left the body as kindling, and he's preparing the ambush so he's out of range.

>>3560649
>>3560662
those ain't good my man.

>>3560671
>Charles left the body as kindling

Quoi? Of course his were my only decent rolls.

Fine, Charles has an ambush prepped and big wings suck in forests.Can we lead Del Mar towards said ambush, then?

> Need for Explosive Corpse spell intensifies.

>>3560681
No shit

Rolled 33, 76 = 109 (2d100)

>>3560642

>>3560595
>>3560701
>>3560686
>>3560685
>>3560669
>>3560662
>>3560656
>>3560632
After giving it some thought, I'm going to have events happen like this.

1. the zombies thrown into the blaze are lost
2. Del Mar is not alerted to the presence


Ophelia:
1. Ophelia's only real actions presently are to fire off the mortars or use her owl, anything else would put too much strain on her mind, and might break it... more
>Roll 1d100 for Larry's fireball, list how much mana you want to have it us (Larry has 6 red mana)

Rolled 90 (1d100)

>>3560716
One red mana. This is a proper bossfight and we cannot afford to be wasteful in an uncontrolled environment like this.

>>3560722
Supportin
I ain't gonna roll cause my last rolls were shit.

Rolled 4 (1d100)

>>3560716

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>3560722
a direct hit, his wings will be affected, making a secondary roll to determine damage and if he can respond

Rolled 25 (1d100)

>>3560716
>>3560728

>>3560716
1 red mana should be fine for now.

>>3560728
o-oh no a crit fail, w-writing

Guys we haven't even mortared yet and Del Mar is already out. The fuck are we gonna do after we cripple his wings? We need to bait him to the ambush in the forest but also drop the load over the observatory and nuke it all without Del Mar's body getting straight-up annihilated or anybody else on our side getting blasted dead. We could use Ophelia's owl to get it on the observatory before she launches the barrage - that should be enough time to bait Del Mar away to the ambush site with everybody, and he should be sufficiently pissed off enough to commit to the pursuit with his wings fucked if his hideout is also nuked behind him.

>>3560755
Aight, but remember, dead people can't spend gold.

>>3560762
>>3560755
>>3560731
>>3560716
writing

>>3560755
>We need to bait him to the ambush in the forest but also drop the load over the observatory and nuke it all

Del Mar (the target) is outside the building now.

No reason to nuke it. Hell, that's where possible loot is.

We're trying to burn his wings so that we can hit him with the mortars, no??

>>3560790
Read nigga read. We need Del Mar's body INTACT to get the big gold bounty. We can't do that if his body is mortared to nothing. We need to blast his base and the zombies to get rid of our own evidence, in addition to whatever the fuck Del Mar might have in there. We decided we wouldn't bother going for looting the place the moment we decided to set fire from the roof with Charles' birds.

>>3560795
There's still no reason to mortar the whole house if there aren't any bugs left in it.

Maybe we can separate Del Mar from his Guard by enraging him, then mortar the guard.

Or have Ophelia pop off mortars to drive Del Mar away from us.

I feel like we put all our eggs in the mortar basket now.

>>3560795
Oh wait, you want to get rid of the evidence that we took Del Mar's body? Will Sophia keep quiet about it?