Round 83 (12:08:18)

"IF A SHADOW MIGHT KILL YOU, CUT YOUR THROAT FIRST. THROW YOURSELVES FROM ROOFTOPS! OR BECOME A SHADOW, EAT YOUR OWN CHILDREN, AND BE DAMNED."

Toff Ornelos found his scroll of mage's decree.

Gods.

What would this city do without him.

Sending is a fifth-circle evocation that takes 10 minutes to cast.

Tedious grunt work. Toff hasn't cast the spell in 15 years.

Jandar Lilswin, based out of Absalom, is an adventuring wizard in the Pathfinder Society. He took the job on his headmaster's advice; it's a good way to gain experience, and gives Toff a man inside the Society.

Lilswin is a wizard at wizardry - 4th circle already at age 28. Toff wants him to hit 5th and return to the Academae a teacher.

One would worry that this rising star might resist a DC 20 scroll of greater scrying, and thereby flush 2,000 gp down the drain, but there are mitigating factors.

The first is that Headmaster Toff Ornelos has always filled his innermost circle with yes-men and those of weak will.

The second is he carries on his person a certain twist of string which ensures his scrying seldom fails against Korvosa's halfway notable.

(If you ever attend the Academae, or just in passing through the city catch Toff Ornelos's attention, you'd be well advised to stay away from barbers.)

Round 85 (12:08:30)

Message, unlike sending, takes all of three seconds to cast. And operates through a scrying sensor. And allows back and forth.

Toff thinks it a much better spell.

"Jandar! this is Toff. Get your venture-captain on the line."

Absalom isn't a small city; it'll take several minutes for Jandar to get the venture-captain's ear. From there, maybe two minutes to bring in a teleport-capable strike team of Pathfinders. But some random high-level party won't do any better against those shadows than Irevotnin and Tuttle. Korvosa needs specialists. Half-constructs with ghost-touch weapons. Oracles that can pour out positive energy. Iroran hummingbirds with 30 touch AC. The Pathfinder Society can supply those, for a price, and House Ornelos can't afford not to pay. But competent reinforcements will be slow to arrive.

It isn't true that Korvosans waste no time, but in Toff's experience they certainly waste less of it than other kinds of humanoid.

The absolute soonest they might see a Pathfinder is six minutes from now; the strike team on standby. With good luck some relevant specialists will live in Absalom and be reachable at their homes; they might get here within 10 minutes. Or they might not. Others will be deep in unknown cities or dungeons and only reachable by sending. Or asleep and unreachable for hours.

Until then, it's up to Toff Ornelos to preserve what he can of Korvosa.

Shadows can't damage other shadows.

But they can physically bar the way.

And they can grapple and drag.

Round 88 (12:08:48)

It's been 7 rounds since the Church of Asmodeus took off wind walking. Airborne at 60mph they took only twelve seconds to retrace the path that took six minutes for Beri Ellen, but upon arriving they needed 30 seconds for their mouths to turn solid again.

Some shadows came over curiously while the Asmodeans were coalescing, but they couldn't pass the undeath ward, got bored and left.

"Who can Command Undead?"

No one has the spell prepared, but the third-circle took the feat as did Archbishop Reebs himself.

Reebs can Command 11 hitdice of undead - 3 shadows. The third-circle can Command 2. Five shadows aren't enough for Ornelos's plan.

Round 89 (12:08:54)

Looking for a shadow... found one.

Round 90 (12:09:00)

Reebs binds it to him.

"New orders. Kill only those I specify. Return immediately to my side. Command your spawn likewise."

Rutio killed 2 shadows who were intentionally feeding, the rest of the Sable Company killed 5. Vencarlo Orisini killed 1 shadow. Tuttle's party got lucky and killed 5, the Pharasmins (who we haven't been following but who must have coalesced by now in Midland) also killed 5. Other people have probably have killed a shadow, we'll optimistically say another 17.

The city has killed 34 shadows and enslaved one.

Most of that happened towards the end of the minute and a half, and to avoid having to do calculus I'll do the doubling first and then subtract the fallen.

As of 12:09 AM there are 508 shadows in Korvosa.

-

1. Take the near-ideal case of a 10 Strength adult carrying a dagger, who's attacked by a shadow and takes 3 Strength damage. They attempt a coup de grace - a full round action which provokes an attack of opportunity. Presume the shadow misses the attack of opportunity, though it's favored to hit. The 7 Strength adult takes at most 4 damage from their attempted suicide, and 75% of the time will take only 2. That's unlikely to drop even a 1st level commoner, and if it did they'd still have to spend a minute bleeding out before they would be dead. The coup de grace also forces a fortitude save against instant death, but the save DC is 12 or 14. That's better odds than a coin toss, but I wouldn't call them good.

Of course, if our 10 Strength adult carrying a weapon starts before the shadow even touches them and has multiple rounds in which to make coup de grace attempts, they're nearly sure to get it in two or three. (Unless they knock themself unconscious but make the save against instant death, which would be unfortunate.) And anyone with a sufficiently tall roof to jump from can jump from it. (Unless the fall knocks them unconscious but doesn't do enough to instantly kill them, which would be unfortunate.) But those without weapons or roofs are just out of luck, and the roughly 85% of Korvosans who start with a strength penalty simply aren't going to survive a surprise round from a shadow, and then an initiative round, and then an attack of opportunity.

Eh, he'll probably be scried on tomorrow and assassinated in revenge. A hazard of attacking scores of high-level characters on your own as a third level character with no institutional backing.

Whatever, Elysium's waiting for him. He'll leave depopulating Golarion of all sedentary peoples to the world's other low-level clerics. Gods know there's more than enough to do the job.

In the meantime he'll get started on phase 2.

How many can they really get?

When they're lining up a solid shot every couple rounds if they're lucky?

When they have less than four blast spells prepared?

When if they make themselves a target they could get jumped by a shadow and dropped inside a round?

Is it, perchance, less than 508 shadows in a minute and a half?

This is a wild guess, but I'm thinking it maybe might just be something less than 508 shadows in a minute and a half.

Damage spells aren't going to do anything that hundreds of sixth-level archers couldn't.

I guess wizardry isn't all that it's cracked up to be.