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He should have fallen on his sword. That would have been the sensible thing to do.
Punched his ticket for Elysium right away, no waiting around.
He thought they'd only kill him.
Why did he think that? How stupid was he? Why in the world did he think that?
And now instead of his next great adventure he's flubbed a save against dominate person.
I'll shout that we're under attack by gods and she probably needs restoration or something, in my expert medical advice. Um. Expert opinion.
Brie Endrin: 1d20-1 = 12
Lord Arkona's attack was accompanied by the sound of twice-a-dozen chairs scooting back from the table and the sight of wizards winking out of view and Salgar Irevotnin's instantaneous forcesphere but Glorio was faster still
and men rushed in to pull him down and beat him
and people were moving and seeking each other out
and Ileosa's bodyguard pulled her through her falling clattering chair and away away from
and more wizards were casting and Arkona's retinue were on their feet taking defensive casting postures scanning the room for spellcasters looking his way while working their arts
it escalates very quickly as those reluctant to draw steel first were within heartbeats no longer the first and ferns and hands are thrown and so are naked blades
and none alive could track all the things which happened then -
- and her attention's mostly on the fighting nearest her while she draws her sword and makes a snap judgement where to stick it.
Jope Chantsmo is shouting "This isn't a show, folks! Clear out!" to some solly fronters and the sort-of runty one is shouting "what's your life worth, Queen's Dog?" and they're about to get into it and she and Jope go way back and he's outnumbered so she's got to back him up with an action readied to attack whoever he attacks.
but she was military, once, as is the Endrin family tradition, and she served under Cevil Palastus (a man who compensated for any weakness at tactics with twelve levels of fighter, an unruffled personality, and coffins enough to bury all as couldn't match his 12 BAB pace); she's used to hectic fights and from the corners of her eyes and ears notices
Cressida Kroft enlarged to nearly twelve feet tall
thousands and thousands of spiders
and Brie is an Endrin - possibly the Head of her House, depending on who survived up there - which means she needs to think five rounds ahead.
Decisions made in the course of rounds have repercussions for centuries.
There's a faction in favor of Glorio Arkona and/or Queen Ileosa (who've been yoked together by a common enemy) (a state of affairs she expects to last approximately as long as Toff Ornelos does). The people in this faction may or may not realize that at the end of this, if they win, they'll probably have to kick House Ornelos out of the Peerage Review or else throw out the Peerage Review or else strip rather a few Houses of Great status, any of which might require leaning on one of the remaining Arbiters.
There are people fighting for Queen Ileosa who would consider themselves Traditionalists, and don't realize what they're enabling... including, d'oh, Jope Chantsmo and her. Is it too late to take back that readied action?
Probably it is, it's already a stretch that she can think all of this in one six-second round.
And it's not like she can leave Jope hanging, after they fought together in Biston. And what would she tell his wife?
a horse and pony show
noise like splitting stone, the Caydenite with the halo at the epicenter of a growing pile of bodies
There's a faction in favor of Toff Ornelos, because they think that he is powerful enough to save them, or because he will give them the opportunity to cast down their enemies, or because they think that he'll win and they want to be on the winning side.
What happens if Toff Ornelos wins?
...Well, Lord Arkona dies, an Arkonan runner-up winds up in charge of their House, and the rule of law survives.
...The rule of law maybe survives, "We killed the city's most famous philanthropist and removed the Queen from power (or killed her/she died in the chaos leaving the throne in dispute, a dispute we can't turn to the Seneschal to resolve because the legitimacy of the Seneschal is in dispute and we can't turn to the Field Marshall to appoint a Seneschal because the legitimacy of the Field Marshall is in dispute)" might not go over entirely phenomenally.
giant Cressida Kroft reaching across the room to pluck a ruffian off her Spellmaster and she throws him on his back shouting "STAY ON THE GROUND" and takes off running and makes it six giant steps before falling down
a Guard wizard is running to check on her
Now that she's answered the question of who she wants to win (no one, she wishes this weren't happening, people will be writing books for centuries about the mistakes which were made last round, but Toff Ornelos if no one else), she can ask who she thinks will win.
...And how difficult a question that is really depends on the loyalties and inclinations of the room's other eighth-circle wizard.
the Guard wizard is shouting that the Field Marshall needs restoration (restoration like lesser restoration takes multiple rounds to cast and for obvious reason there is not a single potion of lesser restoration in the Vault)
and that Cressida Kroft was struck down by the gods, because she's evidentially gone hysterical
Togomor: 1d20+5 = 11
Ow.
Yet alone of all the wizards in this room with permanent arcane sight or permanent detect magic, CL 15 Togomor kept tight hold of his wits. If he doesn't work with divine-level magic on the regular, neither are the spells he weaves so very far away.
He's replaying that miraculous intervention in his mind, trying to learn from it what a wizard can.
At the same time, he'll cast quickened invisibility and get started on summon monster VI - they're sixth-circle spells, it's not like he could mess them up.
Rem Ornelos: 1d20+0 = 11
Queen Ileosa stands by her Field Marshall, 20-odd feet from the head of the table where they sat.
Where the wizard Togomor sat nearby her - the second most dangerous wizard in the mansion, and the biggest wild card, and where he still sits - invisibly - that is, unless Togomor moved.
But his seat hasn't been pushed out, yet, so.
Courage, old boy.
Rem Ornelos casts glitterdust at DC 14.
Togomor saves, obviously (he rolled a 12, +16), but is now outlined in golden dust.
Some other people are also caught, and blinded by and large, but no one who has entered our narrative as yet or who so much as hoped to.
There's standing room only, but that doesn't mean that people are tripping over each other to pack themselves into the far corner of the room. And a ten foot radius circle just isn't all that big, all told - it fills maybe a twelfth of the conference room.
"Get the wizard!" bellows Rem Ornelos, pointing. "Interrupt that spell! He's a bleeder!"
Spellmaster Tavid Bromathan: 1d20+0 = 10
His three prepared spells aren't much use for this, nor particularly are his cantrips, so he'll draw a sword and move to stand over the fallen Field Marshall with an action readied for if anyone tries anything.
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