There's only ten minutes of air in a bag of holding.

Necklace of Adaptation.

Nine months later, Estrella was born into her native world.
It was really more of a cesarean.
The fetus support mechanism did not survive the procedure.
Fortunately Stristyko anticipated this and had his Cacodaemon at the ready, so there was no information lost.

Stristyko had always lamented the fact that his own mother had been too poor to afford a Bag of Holding to give birth in, and too Good to just steal one as a loving mother should. Because of that he has been forever forced to choose between a contingencied Teleport targetted towards home, which only really protects him on the material within a teleport of home, or a contingencied Homeward Bound which protects him on all other planes as well as from adversarial planeshifting but is useless for self defence on the material where he's cursed with being a native.

Being a loving master of unmatched foresight, he of course endeavoured to avoid inflicting this fate on his own minions, where possible.

Anyway, on the day of that girls 16th birthday he wanted to reward her coming of age with vampirism, and had arranged a suitable carrier under a Threnodic Geas. Being ever cautious and not entirely sure whether having her mortal positive energy soul converted into a superior negative energy version would count as a rebirth for the purposes of planar nativity, he made sure that her transformation happened in that same Bag of Holding in which she was concieved, ensouled, and born, and it still has the same coffin in which Estrella originally rose as an undead, to which she must return to regenerate herself.

Fine. You can Homeward Bound to your Bag of Holding.

The entrance to the Bag of Holding isn't at Stristyko's primary dungeon, currently.

That would present security issues.

It's in a secondary dungeon nearby.

Estrella will have to use another teleport off of her boots.

And Stristyko will be there to meet her.

It's almost midnight now.

When the clock strikes, he can start preparing his spells.

It's a difficult decision as to whether to attempt another Control Weather.
It'd cost another scroll, and at 7th circle they're not cheap.

If that wizard vampire - and it's obviously a wizard vampire, the bow she was carrying was clearly intentionally put there to try to throw them off, along with the rest of the disguise - if that wizard vampire was working alone or else was the only caster they had who could dispel a high-level spell, and the contingencied whatever-it-was that helped her escape worked by moving her far away outside the range, and she isn't just going to just teleport back and try again, then a second attempt at Control Weather would solve all their problems.

If she is just going to teleport back and try again, it'd waste a scroll.

If she isn't even gone, but has merely moved somewhere else in the city, it'd waste a scroll.

If she has at least one ally of at least moderate magical ability still around, it'd waste a scroll.

If just one caster thinks it'd be funny to dispel it again, anywhere in the whole city, it'd waste a scroll.

Wow, you're way off.

Still, Stristyko will totally spend two scrolls of teleport, coming back and leaving again, if they try another Control Weather.

It didn't take them long to destroy all the burning skeletons, but her cathedral is burning too now.

It's too organised, too competent.
That wizard vampire did something she doesn't understand and she doesn't like it.
She doesn't think they'd leave a gap like that.

She's not going to try another Control Weather.

Works for me.

Is it midnight yet? Great.
I've got some spells to prepare.

She's transferred enough resources to extinguish her cathedral, because that's always going to be higher priority.

They've got a secure cordon at the edges of the largest infernos, and they've decided to let them burn themselves out. A lot of the city is going to be destroyed, and it's too late to save it now.

After the vampire was cornered, and forced to burn her contingency, there haven't been any more dominations or elementals or flaming skeletons. She's going to call that a win, from the vampire being too scared to risk being caught again, almost certainly without a contingency anymore, though she's not convinced the threat is over.

She needs to let her casters sleep, if she wants any magical aid cleaning up this mess after first light. She needs to let a lot of the guardsmen sleep too, because exhausted fighters aren't great at defending a city either.

She lets a lot of them sleep.

And we're back!
The Boots of Teleportation are back too!

Estrella has spent an hour in quiet meditation, reflecting on nature and her place in it.
In her case, nature is predatory, and her place is to feed on the living.
In her case, nature is orderly, and her place is to follow as her master commands.

Sometimes the living try to stop her.
This is an unacceptable sin, against the natural order.
She'd like some spells, please.

She gets divine spells, though she's not entirely sure why.
She's never worshipped a god. She's just being herself.

She doesn't get nearly as many spells as Stristyko, of nearly as great a variety.

He has tried to explain to her that this isn't her fault or even a problem really, rangers are just like that, and that it's important for party balance, and he'd be incredibly foolish to only want more wizards as minions, and something about comparative advantage and strategic niches, and really Estrella gets infinity spells because she has Dominate Person at will and that's just completely insane.

She still wishes she'd get to do magic like what Stristyko does.

And we're back!

More spells than you'd ever imagine!
They've both still got their Mind Blanks from yesterday.
He gets to prepare three Incendiary Clouds (8th).
He gets to prepare four Plague Storms (7th).

He needs a 6th, a 5th, and a 4th for replacing Estrella's Contingency.
You are still a good girl. Stristyko isn't upset. It's what the contingency is for.

He gets to prepare four Acid Fogs (6th).
He gets to prepare five Cloudkills (5th).
He fills up on Dimension Doors (4th), for rapid movement.
He'll prepare a few dispels, in case they try any more AoE effects of their own.

He's got a few more scrolls he'd like to try out.
He's got another batch of burning skeletons ready to go.
He'll dispatch some more runes, to hand out, if they're still dumb enough to read things.

He'll ride along with Estrella, in her bag, to save a teleport on his own boots.

This is the point where she should release her spawn again, by the way.
See how long it takes Egorian to catch them.

If the mortals cluster together, that's Stristyko's job.
If they all spread out, that's Estrella's.

Lets do this!

Oh shit wake the wizards back up I don't care about their sleep they'll all be dead before morning anyway.

The sun is rising again on Almas, and many a caster has more spells to throw at the other side.

Robaldo has hung a Teleport, which he intends to use if he gets caught in an otherwise inescapable trap, and he has a quick means of suicide he's pretty confident in to protect against being knocked unconscious and kidnapped and tortured.

He'll keep fighting until somebody makes him stop.

It doesn't take him long to spend most of his spells, making good trades agains the enemies.

He's spent most of his heals on people who needed them more.

No matter how clever you are arrows still hurt a lot, and he's already traded the mud buddy's arrow-catching shield to someone else who could use it better.

He's low on health, though that's not saying much for a Robaldo.

Enemy forces have a temporary numerical superiority here, and he's gotten seperated from most of his support.

This local subgame seems unwinnable and he should retreat.

Would they like to be lead into an ambush?

They've been led into enough ambushes, thanks.

They decline.

Then he'll retreat sideways, down an alley towards a less active part of the front, into a basement that was empty the last time he checked.

Nobody ever expects you to retreat sideways.

The Pit Fiend has being fighting some of the strongest heroes in all Andoran, and they've got a lot of Good aligned attacks. He's spent all his daily-use abilities, and his hp has fallen to just below 100.

Enemy forces have a temporary numerical superiority here, and he's gotten seperated from most of his support.

This local subgame seems unwinnable and he should retreat.

He'll gesture to a wizard, who will grab his hand and Dimension Door them both sideways to a less active part of the front, into a basement that was empty the last time he checked.

Nobody ever expects you to retreat sideways.

It'll buy him time to Regenerate again.

The injured Pit Fiend appears in what the wizard was expecting to be an empty room.

It's not an empty room.
It has a Robaldo in it.

They're both looking right at each other.
There will be no surprise round.

Robaldo will-

No he won't. The Pit Fiend moves first.

The Pit Fiend rushes in the trivial distance and uses Bite.
The Pit Fiend has Improved Vital Strike.
Its +23 to hit, 12d6 + 13 = 59 damage.
How much HP do you have?