"Wasn't currently planning to."

Pilar will head off, then.

Seems like their Heretical Safety Officer ought to hear about this?  Or, to be more precise, Ione should hear about it from Pilar, so that Pilar can see any interesting expressions Ione makes.

"Actually, this is now causing me to wonder if I would've otherwise been a lot more injured, even with the Resist Energy (Acid), by that exploding explosion of boiling liquid I was standing right next to... might owe Ione a reluctant nod, there.  On the plus side, less caution needed in future SCIENCE! experiments!"

"Anyways.  I wasn't expecting that result.  I thought I was going to have to do something more elaborate before I started being slightly injury-resistant.  But since I got the unexpectedly more convenient result, I'm going to go see about getting retaught martial arts by Security, until I've used up my three healing surges left on the day.  Not private if you want to watch... though, what's your own martial arts level?"

" - I'm a wizard. If I get into a hand to hand fight something has already gone horribly wrong. In a fight I -" 

They've made some progress on planning the hypothetical escape. She snap-casts Gaseous Form.

He'll take a sudden unplanned step back!  And hold his breath, inconveniently on an exhale!  His mind goes to spells he could use as counters, if Carissa is about to make a point by subduing him; but Keltham has stopped prepping spells like Sanctuary, so he's basically got nothing.

- rematerial Carissa. "And then I'd leave. Best combat strategy is running away. You'll recall that when I couldn't run away because you were in danger, I did a destructive cancellation of my Fly spell over the guy's head so I would break his neck when I fell on him."

"Yeah, I remember."

"...the Security wizards probably have unarmed combat skills, though, right?"

"Yes definitely. They're not supposed to run away, and they're supposed to be competent to do their job even if someone does an antimagic field or something."

"Kay.  Dath ilani get, like, asymmetrical unarmed combat training for emergencies only.  Sequence one, how to defend yourself from a single attacker, hopefully without injuring them, trained in a way that does as little as possible to increase the combat potential of somebody misusing that skill for assault.  Sequence two, how to coordinate with at least five other people with the same training, to immobilize somebody without them hurting themselves or you."

"I'm off to see Security about retraining in that.  Don't mind if you want to watch, doubt you'll see much interesting or impressive on day one though."

"I might go stab Pilar, I think you disappointed her."

"Yeah, I got that vibe off her incredibly straight expression, somehow.  I don't even know how, but I did."

"Problem is, I don't have the kind of relationship with her that I have with you.  I'd feel really odd about stabbing her if it wasn't in a scientific context.  I don't think I'm ready to initiate a relationship with Pilar, anyways.  But even if I were, it sounds like I might need unarmed combat retraining to start one off correctly?"

" - you know, yes, I think you might. All right. Good luck with your unarmed combat training."

Right, well, let's go get a bit more psychologically acclimated to Golarion, then.  Where do Security wizards do martial arts practice around here?

They have their own barracks and a training yard beyond them.

Welp, Keltham's here for retraining.  He's got three healing surges he can use on the day, don't blow through them all at once.

Specifics of required training lean towards 'physically subduing Carissa Sevar after disabling her magic in a surprise attack'.  They're not to mention this to Carissa.  If anybody's wondering what's up with that or if it's really okay, he's got a letter from Abrogail Thrune about it.

That's terrifying.

Awww, how romantic. Yes, they can absolutely teach that. If he's going to be mostly fighting with boosted Strength he should mostly train with boosted Strength; it does change some tactics.

Also, specialized non-combat clerics can convert unused spell slots to healing if they just untie the spell instead of casting it, discharging all that positive energy.

Oh, interesting.  That'll potentially get him through more rounds that require healing at the end, if he can do that.  He's got a lot of truthspells just lying around.  Also, is that kind of conversion less expensive to his god than if he does the whole channeled healing surge thing?

He didn't actually queue up Bull's Strength for today, or Cat's Grace.  Seems worth doing some training even if he doesn't.

Current pain tolerance level: managed to keep up Detect Magic for one minute with the heating stone, took it off his arm maybe eighteen seconds after that.

They've put some thought into the face Chelish security should show him. Obviously, they want him when he decides to escape to find it plausible he could overpower them if he got the jump on them. Probably they want to be substantially better than random civilians at hand-to-hand combat, but not actually all that scary when they can't spellcast, and probably lots of their combat skill is aimed at disrupting spellcasting, which they'll teach Keltham even if he plans to otherwise suppress his girlfriend's magic. 

They're happy to do this for as long as he wants to or has healing, and can call in a cleric for more healing, after that, if he wants.

Keltham's going to have weirdly overoptimized defensive skills if nobody puts a little effort into blowing through those.  Conversely, his form is going to go hugely bad as soon as he tries to go on the offensive or grab anybody, leaving openings somebody could drive a truck-sized fist through.

He's not going to find it particularly plausible if Security wizards can't take him.  Anybody with Governance-level combat training should be able to take him.  Anybody with the nearly-mythical quality of having Been In A Real Fight should be able to take him, which is why Keltham's so concerned about Carissa being able to take him even with her magic disabled.

Yeah, they didn't figure they could get away with "Security are complete amateurs", just "Security are possible to beat once you have some real combat training". Carissa probably could take him, in their professional assessment, just because she seems like the kind of person who's scary when cornered and who has been in some real fights. But that's fixable!! It is the foundation of much of romance, that men are stronger than women and can beat them in a fight.

...if men get the drop on women, disable their magic with a magic item used in a sneak attack, and have already cast physical enhancement spells on themselves?  He's pretty sure a symmetrical attack by Carissa would work on Keltham, if everything about their relationship were completely different.

The point of this isn't that he can beat Carissa in a fair fight, it's that he could and would do whatever it took to beat her unfairly.  Beating her in a contest of physical strength is something that any physically specialized male could do, and that doesn't qualify random muscular guys to own her.

Anyways, Keltham will go on trying to upgrade to Having Been In A Real Fight...

...until he's out of healing except for one unconverted truthspell, which seems like a natural time to stop.

...it's sort of weird, actually, he would have thought he'd want to be with Carissa, after this, but his brain is saying "Asmodia" instead.

Does she happen to have the time?

Actually, no

Sure, Asmodia has totally been in her room studying this whole time, and was not doing very important Conspiracy things just before then, and did not frantically run in here ten seconds before Keltham arrived after his intended destination became clear.

What's up?