This post has the following content warnings:
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.
SHADOWS SHADOWS SHADOWS FUCK
....No, wait, this is good for her.
Headmaster Ornelos's reputation took a hit after presiding over the fiasco with the Breaching Festival,
in the aftermath the Guard wanted to go through the Acadamae with a fine-toothed comb, account for every item and spell aura in the place, and Toff didn't have the cachet to refuse them.
And.
They found so many crimes.
Turns out the school that kills three-tenths of its students played fast and loose with safety regulations and informed consent and illegal spells and illegal uses of magic!
Who ever could have suspected this.
Would the city issue fewer citations after a raid of Arkona Manor?
What's important right now is that I can and clearly should announce as royal diktat that all the shadows in the Vault need to be named and listed and randomly checked in on and what's important is that your Dean of Necromancy is the impetus for this and it'll remind everyone that you're incompetent in certain ways that count for a lot right now actually!
What's important right now is that I can tell the Archbishop and this lunatic Hellknight that they should leave me alone because dealing with the rogue shadow is more important and it'll be my spell or one of my people's spells that kills it!
This is how I get out of the fight without killing everyone in this room and without losing face!
I find the nearest half of Zenderholm's holy symbol and shout "I've got the half of your holy symbol!" to make it clear that I've got half of her holy symbol!
I say, "The shadow's more important, leave me be that I can cast on it!" to make it clear that I want to cast spells on the shadow!
We're sensible and useful people cleaning up after Toff Ornelos's messes!
If this somehow gets spun against her and in favor of House Arkona when House Arkona were the ones who freed the shadow in the first place Orianna Delmore is going to become the Joker.
...But I'll back you up on your version of the story and act publicly unrepentant and vaguely unhinged and if anyone calls me out on it I'll hysterically demand that Toff Ornelos delete them from existence in exchange for enough spellsilver to craft a lich's phylactery.
The guys discuss this turn of events and determine that even if the situation looks in-hand, there's no way a shadow gets free and they don't wind up fighting it.
Probably they'll have to fight all six.
Lyvina casts magic weapon on the Megapope's rapier, and the Megapope moves close enough to Altronus to Channel Energy and gets him back on his feet.
Choryon rendezvous with the Megapope to receive his casting of magic weapon next round.
The shadow that spawns has 21 hp.
Glorio Arkona gets the final hit in.
Zenobia Zenderholm gets her holy symbol assembled, she's going as fast as she can,
Watch Sergeant Cressida Kroft lifts her compass and Channels Energy to stabilize the dying.
1d6 = 4 points of healing even gets some of the less injured (almost everyone who made their saving throw, or had 13 hitpoints going into the fireball) back on their feet.
Arbiter Zenderholm follows it up with a much meatier 5d6 = 16 channel.
Those who survived the fireball are mostly back to full health, if minus their hair, clothes, and equipment.
The Field Marshall stands nigh-on twelve feet tall, surrounded by the hellscape overlaid atop the smoking ruins of the magnificent meeting room, a room strewn with corpses charred and otherwise.
They lost seven people today. Eight if you count Delmore's bound shadow, which most do not.
The Field Marshall holds an unfamiliar holy symbol, through which she Channeled Energy - from afar it looks like a nutcracker or maybe a drawing compass.
She's staring them down with weary eyes.
"This is over now."
Her voice brooks no dissent.
Why to skip the "all powerful" Save or Die spells:
Yes, Save or Die is powerful, we've all heard why (who cares how many HP the monster has? If they fail their save, the fight is over) - however, it is overrated. This is why:
Lots of enemies: You take down one and do little else to help your Big Stupid Fighter and Glass Cannon. You spent a high level spell doing so. Congratulations - you've been demoted from God to Glass Cannon. Ouch!
One Big Enemy: You either do nothing or everything. The Big Stupid Fighter and Glass Cannon are either in lots of trouble or are feeling useless. This is like the chess player who is addicted to using his queen - ends up losing it, and then sucks for the rest of the game. Use your lesser pieces (That's the big stupid fighter and the glass cannon - your peons) to your advantage - let them do the dirty work - your job is to make it easy for them, not to take their place. Try to take their place your spells will run out fast. Besides, you are a team, enjoy the benefits of that.
By Yourself: Now in this rare circumstance - save or dies are actually quite good. However - avoid this situation like the plague. If you choose to test your "phenomenal cosmic power" by going out alone, then YOU are the Big Stupid Fighter, except you aren't Big, you aren't a Fighter, and you're not....well, that's it pretty much.
Wizards in this version of Golarion prep more Save or Die than you'll find advised by the Pathfinder char-op community.
It's not that the author disagrees with the char-op consensus, nor that they write wizards too dumb to come to the same convergent answers. For example, wizards in this Golarion use less evocation than in Paizo's Golarion (where most statted wizards are evokers), or Glowlarion-broadly-construed (where chain lightning is a spell that people ever cast).
Their reason for casting Save or Die spells are threefold: they're more likely to find themselves By Themself without a Thief, Fighter, and Cleric in tow; they're less likely to need to pace themselves for an adventuring day; and they don't typically care in the slightest about outshining the rest of the party.
Non-Lyvina Mayyad wizards on Golarion are playing for keeps on a level that most Pathfinder Guides will gently suggest you avoid.
But this only extends to the spells they prepare and how they cast them; unlike Player Characters they don't get to allocate their stats or decide on their feats with the sourcebooks open in front of them. Toff Ornelos had 17 starting INT, Togomor 15.
Toff Ornelos doesn't have Persistent Spell or Spell Perfection.
His rival Togomor's trap the soul is considered impressively irresistible theseaparts - Altronus would call DC 32 rookie numbers, and he'd be right, but it all the same makes some demigods nervous. (Even with his higher INT Toff can't top it.)
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
