>>25531031
We skipped ahead of Mari, right? So, if Girdin isn't here yet, let's just sneak around for a bit to make sure nobody is here. If after that he still hasn't shown, just find an elevated position from which to keep an eye out for Girdin and unwelcomes while Unnoticed. How long until he was supposed to arrive?

>>25531134
Let's also try to stick to the caves, the darkness will help us a lot compared to being out in broad daylight.

>>25531134

Yes, you went ahead of Mari, traveling through the night in order to make it here on time. You've arrived about an hour ahead of schedule. Assuming Girdin is as punctual as he is patient (and he made a big deal about exact timing to avoid detection, so probably), you'll have that long to snoop around.

And snoop around you do, finding the area to be mercifully deserted. Seems like Dominion and co. didn't expect you to be returning here, and haven't tracked you here either.

An hour later, you see Girdin moving up just beneath the surface of the water and head out to let him know the area is clear. He emerges onto the beach and shakes off some algae. Looks like he's mostly recovered from his wounds (as for your shoulder wound, the infection has died down and you're on your way to recovery, but it'll be a few more days before you're there).

Girdin's first reaction to reaching the surface is to take a deep breath in and out. He doesn't need air, but apparently he appreciates it. "So...Dominion has not caught up with you."

>wat do?

>>25531296
"Indeed they haven't friend. It seems I owe you one for the save back there, it's much appreciated. And I owe you an apology for dragging you into that ambush, I had my suspicions but figured it was a chance worth taking."

"I've been in Sholta with Mari, had a narrow scrape with Ivan...or should I say Spectis now...and failed to get Sholta to join Kestis in the war for the time being."

Fill him in on the details of what transpired (Not everything, but a fair bit), and tell him we were considering heading to the haunted forests and see if there's any Night Daemons that could use some help resisting the same hit squad tearing it up over there. Also let him know Mari's safe and will be here shortly.

>>25531345
And that Lark is apparently headed to Arn, probably in pursuit of the Caelum.

>>25531345
>>25531425

"A wise course...Of action," Girdin says, "we need more support...To fight off Dominion. We are so terribly short on allies...Mortal and daemon alike." He shakes his behemoth form, water trapped in the crags of his stony body spraying in all directions. "There is another beach...A few miles up...With much easier land access...I'll head there, rather than climbing...That precipice." He nods his head towards the steep, rocky path leading down to the beach.

Lark, meanwhile, has actually arrived on Arn, along with your Shade. Things are, for the most part, the way you left them. Guild lords run a tidy profit, their workers grumble occasionally but don't want to risk their positions, and those not favored by the guild are slowly ground into dust. Grist's tarred head is prominently displayed on a pike, though he's recognizable primarily from the caved-in skull you gave him due to how much it's decayed at this point.

A bit of investigation on the part of your Shade (via stealth) and Lark (via snatching travelers and shouting "where's Scarecrow") yields results. The Caelum arrived about two weeks ago, but had barely even begun discussions when the Duke's investigators arrived the next day. The Caelum were cornered in the inn where they had been staying, most of them were killed (a few of their heads are piked alongside Grist's), and a few of them were brought back to Shorefall for interrogation and the Duke's justice. Neat.

>wat do?

>>25531696
I hate to jinx, but did something nice just happen? I think something nice happened. So, we should assemble Team Blue properly and catch up with Mari. She's sure to be excited about our next destination: THE HAUNTED FOREST OF HORRORS AND BAD STUFF. Should we even be bringing her? What else could she do?

Lark will probably head to the mainland asap, at which point the shade can guide him to us, if he actually bothers to even look at it.

>>25531696
About damn time something paid off with some nice returns. I'm sure the Duke will love having some Caelum prisoners to interrogate if he can keep them locked up properly. Golgoth's gonna be mighty pissed.

>>25531821
Yeah let's bring Mari, shes pretty good at hiding in forests and we'll have both of the daemons around to protect her. We also could really use her fleshshaping in the future, but we do have to be cautious.

>>25531869
Of course the problem here is that we won't be stealthy. If the area is still being hunted for sneaky Night daemons, Girdin will be spotted instantly. As much as splitting the party is a horrible idea, it may be smart to scout ahead, see if we can find a clue what's going on in there.

>>25531969

So is this one the official plan, or are we sticking together? Waiting for Lark to show up or hoping he catches up later? Leaving Mari in Shorefall or having her join the scout group or what? Where are you putting your people?

>>25532234
Start by finding Mari so we've got both her and Girdin. That'll give us time to see if he's making his way here already. If he isn't, no sense waiting around. If he is, well, it still may not be a good idea to bring him into the actual forest if we're looking to befriend some daemons of Night. Having him somewhere nearby wouldn't be a bad thing, though. Getting our shade back would be nice too, that way it can do our scouting. Or spy on Ivan (I refuse to call him anything else, sorry TM)

But yea, start by finding Mari then we'll see if we should start moving or wait.

>>25532294
Fair enough, I'm fine with this.

>>25532294

Alright. It only takes a day to find Mari again (since Mari is fully awake and not trying to hide from pursuers, I will assume you arranged a meeting place in advance). By then, Lark has already smuggled himself into a ship, but it'll be three or four days before it arrives at Shorefall.

>so are you waiting for Lark or what?

>>25532514
Let's wait for Lark and Shade. We can pass the time by terrorizing rats.

>>25532636

You hang out in Shorefall for a few days until Lark and the Shade arrive. The Shade leads Lark to you by pointing the way from his own shadow, and he stalks through the city in his oversized cloak. Not extremely inconspicuous but better than a giant man with unnatural skin walking around downtown dressed in leaves. Not that these people know what the standard range of human skin colors is to begin with, but if anything that'll just make it worse.

Regardless, the leaves are starting to change color as Lark meets up with you. Autumn is coming, and once winter starts Kestis and Gigan will no longer be able to move against Golgoth.

>wat do?

>>25532987
Congratulate him on his work in Vin & Arn, and apologize for our shade's crude means of communicating. Tell him we're setting out to garner some potential allies, and going into enemy-patrolled territory.

>>25532987
Alright, time to get a move on toward the HAUNTED FOREST. Let Lark know he did a good job and fill him in on what he missed while heading there. Send our shade ahead to do recon (it can move a lot faster than the rest of our group) in that area. Won't be easy to find anything, but you gotta look anyway.

So yea I still think that it might not be a good idea to bring Lark into the actual forest if there actually still are any Night daemons there. They're supposed to not be best buds, I believe, and his temper could wind up ruining our chance of gathering delicious allies.

>>25533131
>>25533088

Right. After several days of travel you arrive in the region around Sholta City. A keen eye on the sky shows that the area is being patrolled by the flying hit squad that ambushed you at the cove. Your Shade, moving ahead of the rest of the group, is basically guaranteed not to be spotted, but they're going to see Girdin once your main group arrives in a day or two. The place is also crawling with Sholta City soldiers searching for...Something or other. In any case they're also going to notice Girdin. Even if Girdin himself manages to stay out of sight, his tracks are distinctive and basically impossible to cover, seeing as they sink like eight inches into the ground.

>wat do?

>>25533481
How are we doing on wounds?

>>25533555

Your wound has, for the most part, healed (you feel sore). The odds of reopening are pretty slim, the infection has been completely consumed by your crazy immune system, and it won't even leave a scar because a daemon's form is eternal (which is good, because you've been pissing people off for a hundred thousand years and would be nothing but scars if you could have any at all). That said, it'll be another few days before you're back at full strength and the wound heals completely.

>>25533641
That's.. pretty good. Maybe we could try to set a trap for them, now that we have Lark and Mari as well, which they probably don't know. We still don't really know how effective Mari's fleshshaping is on daemons, but hey, science has to be done sometime.

Otherwise, we'd have to split up, at the very least leaving Girdin behind, making us so much more vulnerable if we do get spotted.

For now, let's halt the march, see if there's a wooded area or something that could provide some cover for Girdin, while we send the shade to Sholta to try spy what they are looking for, and to keep an eye out for Ivan.

>>25533782
Agreed. I would also like to mention that we should be careful with our ambushes because both Lark and Mari have no defensive mechanisms to really make note of. Their combat bruisers will be brutally effective at killing those two if we aren't cautious.

>>25533782

Your Shade begins stalking some of the soldiers while you try to keep the two-ton, twelve-foot long stone rhino from being spotted. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't work out and some of the mortal hunting parties find the group. "Look, there's a...Good god, one of the monsters of the wood!" the scout shouts, firing an arrow uselessly into Girdin's hide while the rest turn their horses around to flee.

>wat do?

>>25534064
I think we've done this before. Blind the horses to panic them and hopefully send the riders crashing so we can catch up and murder them. Whatever these soldiers are searching for, they're not going to report our presence.

>>25534140
I would also suggest telling Lark to snipe one of two of them with Firebolts if he can manage. If Mari has her bow out, snipe, do NOT fleshshape.

>>25534233
...because technically we never told Lark that Mari does fleshshaping instead of just being good at hiding?

Quick revision on the hit squad because that's always nice to have:

Tempus - The winged knight. Supposedly the squad leader. Can fly, wields enchanted weapon, is fast as fuck thanks to Celerity, uses Thaumaturgy to remove our delusions (and possibly other magical effects?).

Grundle - Large four armed man, wielding as many enchanted weapons. Has Fortitude and probably at least one other talent.

Antilan - Basically a phoenix. Flies, uses thaumaturgy to cast sealing signs (supposedly) which cancel active talents and prevent their use for a period of time. Also managed to change his shape to a much smaller bird. Fleshshaping?

The wyvern - Don't name his name yet, don't need. Flies, spits fire, uses fleshshaping to heal his comrades. Annoying.

>>25534316
Correct, and we dont want them finding fleshshaped bodies.

>>25534140
>>25534233

You blind the horses and they freak out. The riders struggle for control as Lark lights a few on fire and Mari fires her bow. Not to much effect, what with all the tree cover and the moving targets, but she tries.

A few are already in flames when Girdin comes smashing through the trees to flatten the patrol. The horses are faster than him, but prone to smashing into trees blindly fleeing from the noise, while Girdin smashes THROUGH the trees in pursuit. After a few minutes the patrol has been mopped up, though the signs of the battle are extremely distinctive. There's no covering up what happened here.

>wat do?

>>25534680
Well, it's as well as can be hoped I suppose. It'll delay word getting out for a bit. Keep moving away from the battle site and set up like we were before watching cautiously. Make sure Mari is hidden best she can and ready for sniping again. Then check in with the shade and see if it's found anything out.

>>25534815

It's not long before the flyers are spotted in the skies. Tempus and his crew come trailing in over the next two hours, drawn to the site of the battle, presumably by reports from the next group to find it. The four of them form up and begin pursuing Girdin's trail through the trees. They're moving faster than you, but not as fast as they could be flying, since they have to follow your tracks. Still, they're going to catch up before sundown, and a solid half-day before you even reach the haunted parts of the wood.

>wat do?

>>25535141
Battle is unavoidable then. Is there any terrain we can use to our advantage for setting up an ambush? If so keep walking through it with our party but stop at the other side and tell Girdin to stay in his current tracks while we talk. It's time for a plan to catch these guys and win.

>>25535227

Well, the good news is that the place is covered in decent ambush spots. Woods tend to be like that. The bad news is that an ambush may or may not be feasible since you have no idea what kind of detection powers the enemy is bringing.

"So, do we have a plan?" Mari asks, "I'm not sure how much good I can be against enemies, uh," glances towards Lark, "well I've never fought a Fleshshaper before."

Lark either doesn't notice or doesn't comment upon Mari's slip and says "I can spit out some fire, but I'm not sure how much good it'll do. I'm still very weak from the oubliette. I might be able to take the wyvern or the phoenix if they don't have any surprises for us, but not both and none of their heavy hitters."

Girdin would probably say something right now if he weren't busy making a misleading trail leading through the ambush point. He'll be back later.

>wat do?

>>25535444

We should come clean if we want to use our full potential for this battle. Luckily we did have an excuse for not revealing this immediately to Lark.

"It's okay Mari, I did promise I would keep Olberek updated on your condition after all."

Take Lark aside out of earshot, and whisper to him.

"Lark, in the time that you were at Vin with my Shade Mari developed Fleshshaping. Now don't go setting her fire, she hates Golgoth with a fiery passion and is on our side. I haven't told her that Dominion is the origin of this power, because I don't know how hard she will take it."

"She's been practicing quietly and can manage a couple uses before it tires her out, and I think it will be a great asset in this ambush. She can remain in the shadows and disable them with a tactic they will expect the least. It's...distressing that's she seems to be learning Talents completely at random, but I trust her. I just need you to be on board with it, you can probably guess why I didn't immediately mention this development."

>>25535602

Lark shrugs. "My job is just to make sure the little brat doesn't get herself killed or stab us in the back. Figuring out what to make of her is Olberek's job. Anyway, a Fleshshaper probably isn't going to do much good against, what, two, three other Fleshshapers? Girdin is going to have to fight three of these things at once unless you've suddenly developed Fortitude."

>wat do?

>>25535984
Me and Olberek held out fairly well against them for the brief time our combat lasted previously. We will still have some tricks they couldn't prepare for on our side, plus the advantage of more energy to throw into this fight. I'm more adept at disabling them than you might give me credit, and my shade can manage the draw for Blinding Darkness this time around. That way I can focus on my delusions."

"But enough of that, let's rejoin the others and plan. I will want Girdin's imput on this matter too. I've already got something in mind."

Then we go catch up with Girdin and talk business.

As you may have gathered from my delayed response, I've gotten pretty busy all of the sudden and it's about time I stopped for today anyway. Tomorrow, we confront the hit squad. Follow @MCJohnnyQuest so you'll catch the tweet announcing when it starts. Could be anywhere between 1200 and 1500 server time. My schedule is fickle.

>see you then

>>25536953
Sure, I'll go ahead and post my thoughts for the plan next thread so that way I can just copypasta. Coming up in a sec.

>>25537055
First, go over what we know about the last battle. Talents we’ve confirmed on our enemies, battle tactics they were using, etc. Then, we suggest everyone taking up ambush positions along the trail. Girdin will wait just out of sight if possible, and wait for the first delusion to drop before he charges. Lark can hide in a tree or in the underbrush if he likes; whatever he prefers. Mari will hide likewise and try to stay away from where the combatants will be. We will be situated away from Mari and draw their attention by opening up the fight. The ambush will flow like thus:

Our shade drops Blinding Darkness on as many targets as it can manage, hopefully all four with the shadows of the forest around us. We open up with a repeated paralysis delusion on Tempus until it sticks, taking their leader out of the fight and then dropping the same paralysis delusion on Antilan so neither can use their Thaumaturgy. We can switch our delusion from paralysis to negating Talents if somehow Tempus can negate the former. Then, Lark can fire bolts at his discretion at whichever target he thinks is vulnerable and needing to be suppressed. Girdin immediately charges in after we delusion Tempus and smashes him to paste, standing over his body and not letting the Wyvern get near him. Mari uses Fleshshaping on Grundle to inhibit his ability to fight Girdin on top of the blindness. Everything after that is discretionary.

>>25537893
That’s plan A. We ask Girdin for his insight on strategy (Surely he’s thought of the battle extensively while underwater and has gleaned something useful).