Raichel hops away from the last angel and turns into lightning. For a brief moment, the bluespawn begins to laugh when suddenly, it finds Raichel's lightning actually HURTS. Raichel emerges from the dragonspawn's spine and appears behind him. "So... just curious. Why did you guys decide to ambush us?" If he doesn't answer, Rai will gladly translate the question into Draconic, one of the languages she started out her adventure with.

---

Spark Form v Bluespawn. Hit(37)!
 dmg: 24

Bluespawn HP: 422 - 24 = 398
This message was last edited by the player at 06:22, Tue 08 Mar 2016.

Kada'ne teleports forward then piles on his quadruple attack.

"Seems to me pretty clear they were sent to by Zechy to kill you."

  Kyle surprises himself backhanding the angel that stabbed him's face clean off.  "These must be the unimportant Angels."

  He tosses an alchemy vial at two more Angels further down.  Who smugly polish their 'Resist fire' status before falling over frozen like Christopher Lloyd in Suburban Command. (KO, haha).

  Kyle of course, toughens up May.

May thanks Kyle, then clangs the dragonspawn's armor again. And manages to do needle damage to him again. "Seriously? Now I know how my enemies feel." She grins up at bluespawn face. <Draconic>"Nice hide there, Mister. Can I have your name?"</Draconic>

---

May Misses. The sequel. At least she marks and does 5 dmg.
 dmg: 5

Bluespawn HP: 398 - 5 = 393

The dragonspawn doesn't look like it understood anything in Common.

<Draconic>"I knew it!  What kind of weird hybrid are you, anyway?  Name's Ralph."

It takes a swing, and again does nothing to May.  It hisses in annoyance.

  Kyle steps up closer to two thirds of the kitty cats, and snaps off a crossbow shot that would have just barely been useless if not for the arcane force damage packaged in.

393-25=370

<Supernal>"All shall bow to Tiamat!"

The last angel manages to power through Mittens' residual burn and slashes Timothius!

Timothius looks over at the angel. <Supernal>"After this many millennia? I don't think all will bow to any one being."</Supernal> He walks away from the angel, allowing it another hit and it strikes true! Timothius winces, but doesn't allow himself to yell out in pain, lest he give his enemies the pleasure of thinking themselves capable.

He bursts with radiance and on top of the feeling of being stripped, the bluespawn also feels the peace this cat exudes.

---

Move: To bluespawn
 provoke from angel, who crits
 dmg to Tim: 18
Minor: Healing Word on Self: 65
 +7 defenses
 +5thp to everyone
Minor: Solar Enemy (Bluespawn is now 5 more vulnerable to radiant)

Timothius HP: 58 - 18 + 65 = 105+5thp

"Naughty angel!" Mittens chastises, "You get a time-out!"

An alarm clock bonks the angel, knocking it out.  Mits also eye-beams the dragonspawn.

"I always figured 'Bluespawn Godslayer' to be a tad overblown of a name for a half dragon meant for fighting the minions of gods."

She flies to sit on the dragon statue's head.  "I should call myself a 'Catspawn Worldbreaker' or something."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:04, Wed 09 Mar 2016.

Raichel raises a hand and lightning begins balling up in her hand. She doesn't want to attract the attention of the whole city with a lightning bolt, so she turns it into a compact ball that she thrusts into the bluespawn and it explodes violently! <Draconic>"Knew what? Just because she speaks draconic doesn't mean she's half dragon. I speak draconic and I'm not half-dragon."<Draconic>

Raichel looks to her sister. "Well we can honestly call ourselves exarch besters. Close enough."

---

Thunderstroke v Bluespawn. Hit(37)!
 dmg: 61

Bluespawn HP: 324 - 61 = 263

Kada'ne teleports to flank the enemy with Timothius and uses his quadruple attack.

"Don't be too surprised at the blind devotion of Tiamat's minions."

May hits again with a loud clang. <Draconic>"I'm half green kobold, half gold dragon. Long story. My name is May!"</Draconic>

---

Third miss in a row. No big surprise, I keep rolling 4.

Another swing, another does-nothing-to-May.

<draconic>"Guh.  I'm not paid enough for this.  I surrender."

The dragonspawn drops his weapon.

  Wow, they weren't even bloodied yet.  Kyle will never get used to enemies actually surrendering instead of 'I'm not attacking I'm only kidnapping people!' and the like.

  "It warms my jaded heart to see a mercenary with some common sense."

Timothius ohs and smiles. "OK. So... why did you attack us, anyway?"

He's SO glad he didn't have to break out any big powers. He keeps expecting things are going to suck REAL bad later on.

May smiles and loots the weapon. "Nice weapon, by the way." she was sure to use draconic again if he seemed confused.

Raichel huhs? She is not sure why the bluespawn surrendered, but shrugs and begins binding him.

Mits helps with the tying up of baddies.

"Only way any of our captives will survive longer than a little while is if we teleport 'em to the Well or World Gate."

<Draconic>"Only speak Draconic.  So if your friends are making demands, I can't oblige."

Auto translate is go!

"Thanks for the compliments.  I was hired to kill you off.  Some underling of Zech'r was willing to pay a huge bounty."

Mits asks, "So were you the one to kill our githyanki contact in Mercane?"

"Me and these angels, yeah."

"Well that's one loose end tied up."

  Kyle checks his crossbow, because we haven't typed that in a while.  "I'll leave it to you for how this survivor gets dealt with, but sending them to the gate will probably make it quite crowded before we are done."

Timothius says, "Once we have him bound to our standards, we send him to the gate."

He then looks at Kyle. "As rare as actual surrenders are? I don't expect any place to ever get crowded with our prisoners. The reason we have the reputation we have is because our enemies usually insist on fighting to the death. We leave way more corpses in our wake while the number of surrendering enemies can probably still be counted on two hands."

May shrugs. "As long as he isn't here, he won't be able to report anything, so I vote sending him away either way."

The dragonspawn doesn't know much else of value.  It's easy enough to punt him through a portal to the World Gate...  Sending him to the Well would mean branding him with the whitefire mark, a ritual that costs vitality.  Before long the group is back to searching for the Separatists.

The crowds fill the streets in a seething mass. Finding the
Separatists here is tantamount to finding courage in a
kobold tribe. Yet even as this realization sinks in, you spy a
hooded githyanki moving through the crowds, scanning for
something. His eyes fall on you, linger for a moment, and
then he moves away. It seems he wants you to follow.

The adventurers can trace the githyanki’s route
through the streets to a building not far from the
docking towers.

The githyanki ducks into a two-story building constructed
from stone, encrusted with leering gargoyles, and supported
by flying buttresses. No sign hangs above the door, but the
raucous laughter and clinking glass sounding from within
indicate it’s an inn or tavern or both.

The building is the Morningstar Inn, an infamous
tavern with rooms to rent upstairs. It has the look
of a gothic cathedral, so it blends in with the other
buildings. Tall windows covered by rich curtains
offer access into guest rooms on both floors. Double
doors on one side lead into the common room, while
another set offers discrete access to the private
rooms.

The bawdy sounds you heard on the street are absent inside
the large common room. An octagonal bar, painted black,
commands the view and behind it stands an attractive
tiefling in a revealing red dress. She smiles. The tables
around the bar are empty except for one. There, you spot
the githyanki you spied on the streets. He invites you to sit
with a gesture.

Mits and Kada'ne take seats.

  Did we mention Kyle never ditched the Banquet Ring?  He sits beside the Mittens Kitten, wondering which side of diplomacy or verbal grandstanding this will end up on.

Upon seeing the tiefling, Raichel gives a bright smile and a wave. May does similar. Timothius gives a small smile and a nod.

May and the twin kittens sit at the table. Timothius looks at the githyanki and says, "You clearly know who we are. So what comes next?"

May keeps an eye on the tiefling.

"My name is Gharvag.  The girl is Rhapsody.  We are members of the Separatists.  I never expected to see you adventurers here.  Your appearance confirms suspicions that the envoys we Separatists sent are now dead.

"I’m afraid you’ve come a long way for nothing. Our leader
has been captured and is held at a flying fortress outside
of the city. We haven’t mounted a rescue mission since it
would expose more of us to Zetch’r’r’s reprisals.
While Vlaakith lies in chains, there can be no alliance.
Should she become free, however..."

Mits ohs.  "So the thing we were thinking of doing anyway if we couldn't find you is what needs to be done first."

  "Well, that's why people keep asking for us after all.  They can't or won't deal with something.  I'm going to optimistically assume it falls in the 'can't' category here."

Timothius says, "I'm Timothius. This is Mittens, Raichel, Kyle and May. Every detail you can give us will help increase the chances of her safe release. What is the guard like? How long has she been prisoner? Have any of your members ever seen the inside of such a fortress. If so, do you have a map of the interior? Stuff like that."

May and Rai nod sagely.

"She’s in the Fortress of Three Sorrows, the
stronghold in sight of the Chromatic Bastion, the seat
of Zetch’r’r’s power.

"Vlaakith was captured (Error: file not found) days ago.  None who have gone there have ever returned to tell the tale.  We have a permanent teleportation circle in a locked room on the second floor we could give you the sigils for, but I have little else for you to go on.  One of our own is the commander of the nearest fortress, so he may be of more help to you.  But it will be difficult to find a way to communicate with him that doesn't give him away."

Kada'ne speaks up.

"To most githyanki, attacking a floating fortress is
a suicide mission. Each fortress boasts dragons and
a full company of warriors. Worse, it’s not like the
fortress is somehow out of sight from the city, so there
are bound to be reinforcements waiting to jump in
and destroy the attackers. The sheer improbability of
success and the brazenness required are what makes
this entire foray possible.

"We have two key advantages. One is
speed. A sudden strike at a fortress should let us
punch through the fort's defenses in about 30 seconds.
The other fortresses
can’t mobilize this quickly, so we can land
and get inside before others can intercept them.
Second, the fact that the nearest fort is
commanded by a Separatist will buy us even more time.

"To get there we could use an astral skiff, stow away on
a supply ship, or use the Well to bypass the outer defenses entirely.
Whatever you decide, we can reach the fortress without too much trouble, aside from a likely
skirmish with the fortress’s defenders and the expected dangers
posed by snatching a prisoner from the fortress.

"I can draw us up a map and give descriptions of each location.  I've been there a number of times and know the captain's habits."

Gharvag and Rhapsody gawk in shock at how much the mysterious disguised companion of the heroes knows.

"Your voice is familiar..."

Mits grins.  "We picked up quite the useful ally along the way."