>>25567113
Are they moving in a specific formation?

>>25567113
>But if you ambush them and can take a key enemy out of the fight before it gets rolling, you can still win.

Put on our kamina glasses, and prepare to have our dice luck pierce the heavens.(in a good way)

Can we make an actual trap? Last time they charged us when we tried to delude them so anything that stuns them long enough to land a delusion would probably be pretty useful.

Since they're not immune to blind anything that isn't obvious from a bit of distance would probably work.

The plan that the irc group has devised goes as following:

T<0 : Mari and Lark conceals themselves in bushes/trees whatever, possibly we can aid by use of Unnoticed.
T=0 : Shade blinds everyone, signaling the initation of the plan, Girdin begins charging, Mari uses fleshshaping to disable Tempus, we deploy no-talents delusion on Antilan, Lark firebolts Tempus for extra pain
T<Girdin : Girdin continues charging, paralysis delusion on Grundle, Mari and Lark keep focusing on causing as much pain as possible to Tempus
T=Girdin : Girdin smashes Tempus, Mari and Lark change focus to Grundle, drop delusion on Grundle, paralyze wyvern
T>Girdin : Girdin smashes wyvern. Clean up from here on.

The idea here is to land a lightning fast, coordinated attack before they have the chance to respond, blowing all of the missiles on disabling them long enough to land a crippling blow that they cannot recover from. It is absolutely crucial that everyone follows exact timing, but if they do, it just might work.

>>25567208
They can hurt us in shadow form but nothing else can, right?

We could simply stand under a cliff with boulder on it and rig it so we can pull it down on both of us and turn incorporeal while it falls.

>>25567302
As one of the IRC people that thought out this plan, I'm supporting it. I believe it's got a very solid chance of working and doesn't rely on chance like the "Delusion Tempus until it works" plan. We have to be fast and take out their most threatening members in an orderly fashion. This plan does just that.

>>25567342
Also I should clarify for TM: We emphasize Girdin using "Kill the Fuck Out of Them" tactics, stomping their heads in to ensure they die when he kills them. We cannot risk fleshshaping mending them back before they properly die.

>>25567308

Basically, yes, Tempus can hurt you in Shadow Form, Antilan can cancel your Shadow Form if you hold still long enough, but otherwise you're basically invulnerable (so far as you know, Grundle has enchanted weapons and might also be able to hurt you, but still, the boulder won't do a thing).

That said, you don't have a cliff or a boulder. You'd have to reposition yourself to find one and you're fast running out of time, they're only about twenty minutes behind you now.

>>25567302

This looks like the winner so far with two votes.

>>25567480
Oh silly TM, this will not just be the winner, it will be the game winner. The grand sequel to Operation ALL THE DELUSIONS. The Anomaly will not be contained.

File: 1371843166116.gif-(839 KB, 500x360, Missiles.gif)

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>>25567517
Shall I repost the GIF milord?

ALL THE DELUSIONS + GIRDIN + SURPRISE AMBUSH. The triforce of ungodly power, I almost feel bad for them.

>>25567302

Mari and Lark hide, Girdin lies down and pretends to be a pile of rocks (it's pretty convincing), you...Well, you're a shadow. So you just stand in some other shadows. You expand hidden party as far as it can go, but you're not sure if it's reaching everyone.

As the group draws near, however, it splits up, the wyvern and the phoenix taking to the skies while Tempus and Grundle charge forward. As they enter the kill zone, the Shade blinds them both and Tempus stumbles slightly as Mari Fleshshapes some of whatever he's got underneath that armor, but it doesn't slow him down much.

Antilan is just barely coming within range, diving from the sky, so you begin shouting a delusion at him. Tempus immediately carves a path through the trees towards you, but between the blindness, the attacks from Lark who's just started sniping him from the trees, and whatever it is Mari did to him, he isn't able to make it until after you've already put the delusion down on Antilan. You're able to dive out of the way before his sword tears you up again.

Girdin comes smashing through the brush, but he's not hard to locate with all the noise he makes. Tempus groans with pain as he turns to confront him while Grundle charges straight towards the noise, shrugging off all the trees he's running into.

The wyvern descends right on top of Mari, who nimbly climbs through the one tree and into the other. Though blinded (plenty of shadow to go around in a forest), the wyvern turns its head straight towards her and lets out a gout of flame. Mari shrieks as the fire covers her, and the wyvern leaps onto Tempus, healing whatever damage Mari did to him, before leaping through the air again towards Lark and...Running straight into a tree.

>cont.

You've placed the paralysis delusion on Grundle, but Tempus times his first strike to connect with Girdin's charge and Girdin, being that he's charging, cannot avoid the blow. The sword tears through his stony hide and Girdin howls in pain, but his momentum carries him through to smash into Tempus' chest. Tempus is sent hurtling through the air and is smashed into a tree, Girdin's weight crushing him against it. His breastplate implodes under the pressure, and you can see blood leaking out, but not really any guts or anything. Looks like he probably only has enough organs under there to give him blood for Thaumaturgy, but judging by his screams of pain, that doesn't mean he's hurt any less.

"Tempus!" Antilan shouts, and Tempus turns his head towards him, flicking some of his blood across Antilan. You feel the delusion lift, but then Girdin smashes Tempus' head in, and that's the end of him.

The wyvern has found its way around the tree and now grapples with Lark, gouts of flame shooting out in all directions. Mari desperately tries to put herself out. Girdin pulls himself to his feet and prepares to charge the paralyzed Grundle. Antilan is shouting for Grundle to identify his position and asking Tempus what happened, but for various reasons, neither can respond.

>wat do?

>>25567849
Paralyze the Wyvern to give Lark and Mari some breathing room, keep the paralysis Delusion up on Grundle to let Girdin destroy him in the same manner as Tempus.

Shout to Lark and Mari to move away, and prioritize targets. We need to see what happens next before we can make a move.

>>25568099
>Shout to...Mari to move away

She is on fire and dying. It is extremely unlikely she will be responding to commands right now.

>>25568119
Well as long as she's trying to put herself out I can't fault her. Really hope she survives though, she played her part well.

>>25568137
Could we help? Perhaps using our clothes to help put out the fire?

>>25568152

stop drop and roll?

>>25568152

Yes, a bit. Two people putting out a fire are going to work faster than one, and unlike Mari you can't take any permanent damage.

>>25568522
So let's just do >>25568152 while we are doing >>25568099 on the way over to her. We should be able to manage that.

>>25568522
that seems like a fairly reasonable course of action then

>>25568522
We should do that. Our delusions do their own work once they're up anyway, no good reason not to try to save her. Because fuck, I don't want to lose her so soon, we won't even know if she'll magically develop new powers or even talents.

>>25568555
>>25568554
>>25568539

You run to Mari, shouting out the delusion on the wyvern. Lark shoves the creature off of him and then grabs a rock, bashing the wyvern's head in with it while you go corporeal and help Mari put the fire out. The bulk of her left arm and the left half of her face are covered in terrible burns and she stares at what's left of her hand, right eye wide with horror and left eye damaged beyond repair.

Girdin collides with Grundle and is able to pulverize him with a few moments of effort, while Antilan, not hearing responses from any of his teammates, takes to the skies again. He watches from above for a moment and, seeing his team destroyed, flees.

Lark's covered in multiple bite and burn wounds and will take a few weeks to recover. Girdin's pretty much just got the one big wound from Tempus, but it's a significant one. He'll be slowed down a lot until he heals, which will probably also take something in the range of 3-5 weeks. Assuming Mari can heal at daemon rates, she'll make a full recovery as well in about the same amount of time, but if her healing rate is mortal, it will be something like four months before she's recovered and she'll never use her left arm again. Also if she doesn't receive more advanced medical attention than exists on this world (barring daemons) within the hour, she faces a strong chance of death.

>wat do?

>>25568809
We DO have a dead fleshshaper. If it wasn't for QUEST MECHANICS we could have quickened one and prayed to the dice to get some kind of mending power. Not sure where else we have a chance of finding someone to help.

>>25568809
Sigh. We don't have any fleshshapers on our team except Mari herself. There's no way to give her Daemonic healthcare to save her life because of that.

I think our only option is to have Mari Quicken the Wyvern. There's some miniscule chance that she works different than Daemons do and might actually learn some powers from the action. Perhaps she can learn Mend and save herself. I don't know, but it's all I've got.

If Lark or Girdin interject: "Desperate times, you were told to keep her alive no matter what. I'm trying to fix that."

I calculate that there is an approximately 4% chance of this happening. In other words, you are slightly more likely to roll a natural 1 on a d20 than what actually just happened.

In any case.

>>25568920

You carve off a piece of the wyvern and bring it over to Mari. "What are you doing?" Lark asks.

"Trying something out," you say, "I want to keep her alive long enough to know what's up with her and so does Olberek. Maybe this'll work." You slip the piece of raw wyvern meat into Mari's mouth and say "swallow it, Mari, it might help." You're not sure if she hears you or swallows reflexively, but either way it's down the hatch.

Mari screams in pain, her back arching as she tries to get away from the agony crawling around beneath her skin. After a few moments of writhing on the ground, she falls still again, breathing heavily (so hey, at least she's alive for now).

Then she pulls her dagger from her belt with her right hand cuts her leg open. The cut is long, jagged, but not deep. Smearing blood on the blade, she looks around and, finding a fist-sized rock, crawls over to it and begins inscribing something on the stone with her blood. So apparently she's become a Thaumaturge. Yay.

After she finishes inscribing the sigil, Mari grasps the blade in her one good hand and tightens her grip until she bleeds, then grabs the rock. She grows pale, or at least, paler, her breath growing short and gasping, and the bleeding from her leg slows, the blood from her palm racing out to the burn wounds, where they evaporate into a red mist.

After about five minutes, she collapses onto the ground. Her burns have healed as well as they can. Her left arm is permanently crippled and so is the left half of her face, but the fresh burns have been replaced by a carpet of scars. She's still breathing, and checking her pulse reveals that she is still alive and her pulse isn't growing any weaker. She's lost a lot of blood but there aren't any open wounds anymore so she'll be fine

>wat do?

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76 KB JPG

>>25569269
What the hell just happened. She seriously just quickened a daemon? Holy shit everyone is going to be mad if this gets out. EVERYONE.

And what the hell, the wyvern knew thaumaturgy as well? Or maybe that was how it was mending the others all along. Fuck I am so confused.

Also I just realized it would have been nice to quicken that one since it seemed to have clarity, which is awesome. Though, whatever the fuck just happened is awesome too. We should pick one to quicken as well. I'm guessing two people can't quicken the same one, right? Like, it must count as depleted or something?

>>25569269
My prayers to Quantum Girdin were answered. All hail Quantum Girdin, and let nobody's faith be shaken.

Ask Mari if she feels strange, what's different, etc. We need to make sure she's okay, then probably carve off a piece of Tempus for ourselves.

>>25569381
Why Tempus specifically? Does he have anything we want to try to steal?

>>25569449
Thaumaturgy, and he's confirmed a Common. Faster rank boost which means our Delusions are more apt to affect Daemons like him. Yeah we might be able to use the Fortitude from Grundle but we were never a direct combat Daemon to begin with.

>>25569464
If the wyvern DOES have clarity and we can still grab it (I don't know the rules with regard to that) I'm thinking that would be insanely useful. Thaumaturgy seems to be mostly useful if you have a large supply of blood.

>>25569489
Don't think it does. Clarity usually makes your eyes glow through shadows, which this one didn't. He also ran smack into a tree even though he knew where Mari and Lark were.

Plus he's probably a hedge if so, and we have a higher chance of Quickening a power from a Common than Hedge to begin with + Rank Boost more.

>>25569375

It's possible to quicken the same daemon, but the victim loses a shitton more power than the quickener gains, especially in the immediate aftermath. The wyvern almost certainly doesn't have any power left to give. He might not even make it back to hedge once fully recovered.

>>25569571
Well let's not bother with him, then. And while Fortitude isn't a bad thing to have, Anomaly should rely more on avoiding hits entirely. So Tempus is dinner I guess. Lark and Girdin probably don't want any trabble and will prefer to skip the meal.

>>25569651

Right. Sorry for delayed response, had to bug out for about 40 minutes. Back now.

---

Lark rolls his eyes, but says nothing as you hack off a piece of Tempus and swallow it. Power courses through your veins and momentarily blinds you as a bright light fills your eyes. It passes after a moment, however.

Anomaly
Rank: Common
Talents: Obfuscation+, Dementation, Tenebriety, Celerity-, Majesty-, Clarity-
Powers: Delusion (Dementation), Extraordinarily Insane (Dementation), Unnoticed (Obfuscation), Hidden Party (Obfuscation), Blinding Darkness (Tenebriety), Shadow Form (Tenebriety), Shade (Tenebriety)
You feel sore
>Trickster Daemon Compendium: http://pastebin.com/zgCkGZTj
Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=Trickster%20Daemon%20Quest

So now you've got Clarity as a minor Talent.

>wat do?

>>25570573
CLARITY FUCK YEAH

Now we just need to get something useful for it. Is Mari conscious and awake? We're probably safe enough here for a while longer, unless they have a set of reinforcements REALLY close by that Antilan could call on. And I doubt that, otherwise why wouldn't they have done so the first time. Their opinion of us can't be that low.

So yea, take some time for everyone to rest up. Obviously not going to fix up Girdin and Mari, but it sure can't hurt. If Mari's awake, ask her how she feels, aside from IN FUCKING PAIN.

>>25570710
Oh shit, just noticed we ranked up too. Now we can use delusions on Girdin!

Not that I want to or anything...

>>25570573
What a tweest! Clarity is the best unexpected Talent we could have hoped for. Truly Quantum Girdin is benevolent this day.

Let's have Girdin carry Mari if he doesn't mind and simply head somewhere towards the forest but a safe distance away. We can recover there and wait for Mari to wake up.

>>25570710

Mari is unconscious. She's not comatose, but considering her blood loss she'll probably be in and out of consciousness, and never fully coherent, for several days. Mortals are fragile.

>>25570815
Then we'll watch over her. Her perceived value just EXPLODED. Meanwhile, send the shade to the HAUNTED WOODS to look for Night Daemons.

>>25570846
This.

>>25570846
>>25570794

You begin heading towards the haunted woods again, and once more your Shade is sent ahead to scout. It gains a pretty solid lead while you and Lark put together a litter so Girdin can carry Mari's unconscious body. Your wounds are going to slow you down, which means mortals, especially those on horseback, will be able to catch up, and your trail is as easy to follow as ever, but at least you've got the heaviest hitters taken care of.

Either we your Shade, unwounded, can race ahead much faster than the rest of your group. She'll reach the edge of the haunted forest within a few hours.

But while your Shade is still only halfway there, a small army of mortals begins to converge on your position, guided by Antilan, who you can see flying far above, outside the range of any of your Talents, but who can still no doubt see Girdin and his trail. There's about a hundred trackers on horseback converging on your position, lightly armed and armored, but fast, carrying bows and javelins, and they have you horribly, horribly outnumbered.

>wat do?

Find a squad leader or some such and delude them with "[some other squad] are traitors and will kill you with javelins in a moment unless you strike first"

If he tries to intervene, make him forget how to fly.

>>25571096
Seriously, Sholta? Seriously?

Alright so, Mari and Lark will die horribly quickly to that number of soldiers, we ourselves are pretty safe, Girdin should shrug off their attacks easily, but given his wound, can he even fight them at all? He's really our best shot against this size of force.

>>25571213
How long do we have to mess with the riders before they charge our friends? Above anons plan is solid but why just make Antilan forget how to fly? Make him attack his own allies and get them to start shooting him in return over the paranoia.

>>25571287
because he's the one actually likely to pose some kind of threat

If he's okay after falling to the ground we can delude the humies to attack him, instead.

>>25571258

Girdin can't fight as well as normal, but he can still move and can still fight, so as long as nobody here has enchanted weapons he'll be able to win sooner or later.

>>25571353
I'd be willing to take the bet that they are not armed with those. Even on the off chance that Antilan can make such weapons, can he make them in such short time? Would he make them for non-Golgothans? I doubt it.
Now, if we can hide Mari and Lark somewhere, since those will be cut to shreds in no time here, Girdin and ourselves can deal with the soldiers. Well, Girdin won't need help with the soldiers really, but we don't know for sure that Antilan doesn't have a yet unrevealed trick that could screw us over.

>>25571436
we can just tell them to run away/hide while we go fuck with the mortals. they're not likely to be interested in much else if we make them fight eachother. as long as they're not in the immediate vicinity or clearly visible they should be safe.

>>25571464
I wouldn't be surprised if Antilan/Ivan just removed squad leaders and gave the order of "follow the bird" to counter that. Because after this amount of nice stuff happening, I would expect nothing less.

>>25571494
well... there's a reason you have leaders. If there's no one to keep them in line the chaos we can cause it going to be much more effective.

>>25571523
Hmm, possibly. Since they're probably Sholtan and not Golgothan, they're probably less disciplined than what we're used to, so that helps as well. So either Girdin fights, or he can act as a living shield for Lark and Mari if we can't hide them.

>>25571574
If girdin's with us it might just unite them against a common threat. he should keep our more vulnerable allies safe.

anyway, if our plans don't work it'll pretty much come to him no matter what we do.

>>25571614
Everyone please keep in mind there's a hundred riders and they could easily encircle Girdin Mongol Style and pick off whichever side he's shielded them on.

>>25571737
Does Girdin have an underneath? That seems like it could be a nice place to hide if so.

>>25571839

He does. There's enough room there for Lark and Mari to slip under, but it won't necessarily provide perfect cover from ranged attack either, especially not with dozens of arrows flying their way.

>>25571913
Well the alternative is trying to hide them somewhere. We're currently out in open terrain right? Is there any place nearby that seems like we could hide them?

>>25571960
Seconding this. What do our non-elf eyes see?

>>25571960

You're in a lightly forested area, growing thicker by the moment. You aren't in the haunted section yet, but you are in a forest (which is why blinded enemies in the last fight had occasional trouble with trees).

With the power of Unnoticed, you could hide Lark and Mari in basically any tree at all, so long as all three of you are in the same tree, no one calls any attention to themselves, and no one moves.

>>25572088
Ask Girdin if that's what he wants us to do while he deals with the mortals. We can spring out and provide Delusion support if it looks like he's in trouble.

>>25572088
So it's either
a) the three of us hiding while Girdin fights, which will go badly if Antilan can do something to harm Girdin
b) trying to intercept the riders before they reach the rest, which will go badly if Antilan manages to hit us with a sealing sign or if even just a few of them make it past us.

I'll place my vote on A as my last act of the night.

>>25572130

Girdin's badly wounded and not quite thinking straight. He's good with whatever.

>>25572143

Then that would appear to be consensus.

---

You wait until the mortal forces get near and then hide with Lark in a tree, dragging Mari's unconscious body along with you. It's fortunate she's still so weak as to be completely motionless, as even fairly small unconscious gestures would break Unnoticed if she had the energy to be performing them.

The mortals close in and Girdin lets out a furious roar before charging into their midst. Javelins and arrows plink uselessly off of him as he begins the melee, and the horseman draw up spears and lances and begin attempting to wound him, to no avail. The phoenix Antilan, now about the size of an eagle, calmly comes to rest in a tree, ignoring the battle entirely and scanning the area. Every time his eyes pass over your position you get the feeling he might have spotted you, but every time he passes right on.

The battle goes poorly for the mortals, though they continue fighting on despite their apparent incapability to harm their foe. Antilan flies from his tree to perch on the captain's shoulder and speaks to him for a few moments. The captain orders a retreat, but calls up a few specific names to follow him, racing away from Girdin, but not in the same direction as the others.

Instead they're headed directly towards you.

A few arrows thud into the tree. One catches Lark in the shoulder, and he returns fire with firebolts, lighting a few of the riders on fire. The rest continue charging towards you.

>wat do?

>>25572296
Blind the riders, if Antilan is with them delusion him with "You cannot use Talents" and "Attacking the horsemen is the only way to kill your foe". Since the jig is up hop out of the tree and make sure we're close enough for our delusion to be heard.

>>25572368

The riders, blinded, rear up the horses and continue firing at random in your general direction. You smack Antilan with the first delusion, which he ignores, and he's already tearing out Lark's eyes by the time you put down the second. The delusions take a rapid toll on you; you feel bad. They don't seem to be having much effect on Antilan, though, who's finished ripping Lark's throat out (without using Talents, granted).

>wat do?

>>25572742
Shit shit shit, drop the attack your comrades delusion, add him to the blinding repertoire and hit him with a paralysis delusion and maintain it. If he cant respond to it grab a nearby sword or rock or something and bash his fucking head in. Keep the riders blinded.

>>25572851

You blind Antilan and smack him with the paralysis delusion, but you can't tell whether or not it worked because since blinding him he's held perfectly still atop Lark's unmoving body. He doesn't do anything while you grab Mari's sword and chop his head off, though, so that worked out alright.

Girdin, meanwhile, comes crashing through the trees to mop up the rest of the riders. Blinded and under attack, they flee as best they can. The horses, still sighted, guide them out mostly unscathed (with the exception of the ones in Girdin's immediate path). The mortals have scattered, but now Lark and Mari are both so much dead weight.

Getting them both onto Girdin takes time, but your mortal enemies do not regroup and attack again, apparently convinced that Girdin is well and truly invincible. You begin heading towards the haunted forest again. If the ghosts and such in there are hostile, you won't have much left to fight them with.

Ahead of you, the Shade enters the haunted forest. The trees grow thicker, shadows are omnipresent. It's not hard to stay hidden, but it's also difficult to see further than 20 feet out. It'll be basically impossible to find anyone who wants to stay hidden in this place.

It's about time to wrap the thread up for tonight, though. Stay tuned next time, when we arrive in the haunted forest and pray to God that the inhabitants are friendly.

>see you then