DM:	correct. No need to map the city, so this is just gonna be a text RP until we get to the next real scene.

Keenan:

yeah, i also guess its ok to leave the fort in the hands of the men for that long hopefully since this is a pretty important message

Officer Ekkhardt:

On the topic of the fort, Hunter, I advise we return and clear all classified material. God is on the offensive, and we don't have the means to defend every position.

Hunter 1:

I was just thinking the same thing, we dont want him to learn anymore then he likely already has.

DM:	The clearing out of fort takes about a week of trips, as the liquid men are still causing a major issue for most of the ordos.

DM:	You get a return word. He orders you to continue survelence and inform him of any future updates. Even over the still, minimalistic wording of the telegram, you can tell the concern in the man you have always know for his heart of stone.

Keenan:

oh yeah, i assume weve been checking that periodically, because it would be stupid not too, something hunter and ekkhardt wouldnt have forgotten even if i had

DM:	So you get to see Constance a few times (the scrying is getting tougher for some reason). She is now carrying the rock around

DM:	She is speaking in a relaxed voice to Ignatious. It's hard to tell what he is saying, but she seems to be happy that they are now living happily ever after...

Keenan:

ok, hunter is wondering if this is the real constance or not. also, is ignatius no longer a liquid? or is he still a liquid man

Keenan:

im trying to decide what a good idea would be, im kind of thinking of using a portal to go in invisible and jsut check things to try and see if this is the real constance or not,a nd if so, question her while being ready to run at a moments notice.

DM:	after the first day, the stone gets dropped on the ground for some reason, where it stays. Occasionally other personal possesions of the Constance's also drop there

DM:	yeah, we can't all be luck masters. How much time do you spend watching the scrys/nagging Ekkhardt?

Keenan:

well, since i dont ahve much other time, i guess a reasonable amount, though i do suggest trying to go through a portal there in order to spy in person to check for illusions, unless he knows a way for the portal back to be easily prevented

Officer Ekkhardt:

If you think it's a good idea, I will allow the portal. Just don't mess up whatever Constance is trying to do...

DM:	Ekkhardt explains that there are officers who can handle this kind of a two way trip, but it will require hunting down an officer out on the field, which will take time.

Keenan:

though gaining info on one of our greatest enemies is also pretty important, we don't know xactly what they know, or whether constnace actually betrayed us or someone where an ilusoion or somehting did

Keenan:

has anyone looked at where the map leads to yet?, you know the map on the back of the travel guide thing?

DM:	those were two seperate tablets, but it has been suggested that such an area may lie in uncharted territory to the east.

Keenan:

ah, do we have any word on a potentially close by and less busy officer that could potentialy help us with a 2 way portal so we could find out whats goign on, or a chance that we could get permission to explore that area later, or some other lead?

DM:	The 2 way portal looks like your best bet. The crisis is starting to wane, so you will be able to find a guy eventually

Keenan:

is the existence of the "god" faction known to all officers so that i could jsut say that i need a 2 way portal so that i could check out a plane that holds some people that might have info on him?

Hunter 1:

I need access to a 2 way portal to a different plane so that we can check on some people that might hold information on "god" as well as finding out more about him from investigating the area they are in. At first we may not try to interrogate them as at first I will liekly just be performing reconnaisance in order to learn more about the area, unless it seems like both can be done without much risk.

Hunter 1:

At the moment, the people we are checking on may not be in there right minds due to powerful magic from "god" so intial interrogation may be useless.

Hunter 1:

Yes, basically it jsut locks the mind so that it's perpetually happy and imagines itself in a wonderful place.

Officer castalot:

I can cast a spell on you that allows you to read minds. It is pretty easy to resist, but if they don't even know what's going on, it may be an easy process.

Officer castalot:

This will allow you to see what they think is happening, and let you get information without causing a scene.

DM:	this is you. Note that you don't nessicarily look like this in the illusion; you will have to follow me

Christopher:

Like, are we out in the middle of nowhere, or could he be bound any of a few other places?

Stranger:

You are right where "god" wants you, your in an illusion. You are in bliss. You need to snap out of it.

Stranger:

You probably shouldnt. Think about it, how did you get to this idyllic place. Where were you last before here. Did you see some illusion of killing god? if that was you,, do you really htink it would be that easy to kill such a powerful daemon

Officer Constance Stendatem:

This would explain a great deal. All my memories between then and now are fuzzy at best.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

And... and everything was a little TOO perfect, and I almost didn't want to go home...

Keenan:

I guess i just try to get them to grab my hand, since theres not really anyhting else to do in the current situation

DM:	you can go to her for move action, and grab for standard, but using a magic item is standard as well.

Keenan:

i said i delayed teleporting back till after chirs could grab on to me, didnt she grab on on her turn

Keenan:

actually, knock it out, who knows if this think could be useful, whats the policy on knocking out and interrogating daemons, and is this a daemon

DM:	interrogation is good, but protocols exist for how to hold a daemon captive so they don't just escape magically, and you don't have the stuff for that protocol

Keenan:

and how long does it take to set that stuff up so that we could hold it, cant we jsut keep it knocked out

DM:	it requires magic items and a whole shabang. You aren't even on a rail line, so it's gonna be a week or more...

Keenan:

guess hes trying to reconnect, and i guess it would be too hard to keep him out that long since i can do shit tones of nonlethal, though we will ahve to be careful nearby him since it'll be easy for god to scry on him, and all of us i guess, is there a paint room nearby by the way?

DM:	You currently have no possestions, Stendatems. Anything you were carrying you put down during that period, and only thought you picked it up again during that trip.

Hunter:

We are here to stop an evil monster who had kidnapped you, he just tackled you becasue he was worried you were aligned with him, now please get off of him, so that there will be no more violence

God:	Why Hunter? Why do you drag the innocent out of paradice? Are you not pleased until all share your suffering and loneliness?

DM:	nope. This is an ad-hoc camp in the middle of nowhere this officer was using as a staging post when travelling from one town to another

DM:	You are in a tent. Looks military. You recognise officer Ekkhardt in front of you, but not the other Ordos guy. There is some creature dead near you, and a wriethor under Ekkhardt.

Hunter:

I dont know, however, once we get to a secure area, I would like it for you two to tell me everyhitng that happened since we were seperated, first things first though, constance, what was the last thing you remember doing till you were taken by "god"?

DM:	if you shoot it, do you shoot it at the ground on this side, the ground on the other side, or at the veil itself?

Christopher:

well, i technically already channelled, but would you let me take the remaining square of movement to touch the midsection of the rift?

Christopher:

and rolling concentration to keep the spell then, since it's just DC=damage received, yeah?

DM:	you draw the direct attention of a greater daemon, an dyou think one portal of guys is all that you face?

Officer castalot:

There might be some paint here. I don't know if just throwing on clothes will hold them off for long...

Officer castalot:

The problem is that they can just use the clothes to scry with when you try to put them on.

Christopher:

short of committing suicide in such a way as to render our bodies unidentifiable, i see no way out of this

DM:	remember you have two wizard NPCs if you need extra magic (although I don't promise they have everything prepared), and it's still your turn guys

Christopher:

Okay, here's the situation as I see it: We need a permanent solution to being able to be scryed at DC10 by a greater daemon, who probably can't actually fail that.

DM:	remember that the paint seemed a pretty effective mundane solution, and dispelling is a good temporary solution to nearly everything

DM:	Keenan, do you? I was trying to give you an open-ended thinky final encounter to a thinky campaign. If you really want to have an NPC just think of somthing and end the game for you, I could do that...

DM:	not complicated. You can look at the rules for Planer magic. God is bound to the rules of the NMS, and is not absurdly high level

Christopher:

The thing is, God has DC10 to scry us, and once he does, he can open a gate on us. Both tasks are completely trivial for him.

Keenan:

since it seems to be only a large beast and those typically dont ahve reach, ill 5ft step and do full attack on it

Keenan:

and do any of the soldiers ome out yet with paint, or atleast guns to shoot stuff, theyve had 2 or 3 turns to do so?

Christopher:

And if he's managing this kind of unfailing accuracy with his portals, he knows this spot very well.

Christopher:

If he's not doing anything even at the fringes of the NMS, he knows the area. How can we mess with that?

Christopher:

It's a counterspell. It, in enough quantities, would shift the 4th effect, here Planar, to the 3rd position.

DM:	but the spell is being cast from Bliss, not here. You would need to be there when the portal is forming...

Keenan:

and cant ekkhardt also shoot since casting a spell is a free action, or did he channel as well

Christopher:

in terms of permanent solutions, i see only the option to create a loooooooot of anti-magic fields and cast a loooooooooot of permanency

DM:	Any plans you have, be ready to tell them, because I can't promise that the dinosaur won't kill you next turn...

Officer Constance Stendatem:

I don't care if you disassemble it or beat it to death, just see that it goes down!

Christopher:

To my knowledge, glassing and/or perma-anti-magicking this region are the only solutions.

Keenan:

and doing ti to the region wont help too muhc probably since hes not scrying the area, hes scrying us, and in particular you

Christopher:

Well, that's the thing: Portals can only be created at target areas, and scrying a target person only reveals them in the midst of a grey void.

Christopher:

Through process of elimination, as far as I can see, God has to be able to see this location.

Christopher:

Far as I've read, under the NMS, you cannot open a portal on a person or item, but only a locale.

Keenan:

except its a full round action, so if you stomehow get a moveaction from some other source it doenst ocunt

Keenan:

woah, where did all those ocme form, there were only 3 angels on the other side of this portal

DM:	it's DC 20 strength to try to pull someone behind you as you squiggle through a tent hole, and if you fail you are both stuck there prone

Keenan:

brian, im ot sure god was prepared for this, as such, would the angels really all be here this rapidly

DM:	I am assumeing that this time around that one of them notified God (this happend once before this time), and it's been about 8 turns now since the alert was triggered.

DM:	I think it's reasonable, given that it's spending most of it's energy for the day on these portals

DM:	and I don't need you alive for any further games, and if your kids become orphans, all the disneyer

Keenan:

ok, hopefully me and ekkhardt can lead all of the angels near where cosntnace is, so taht castalot can get them all at once

DM:	keep in mind that you will need to move fast; if they don't think capture is possible, despreate baddies might just cue, and there is no chance Constance survives that...

DM:	see, he can pin Contance's guards, and try to go for broke, or just pin the guys on you and hope you DPS the guys around him, and leave Constance to die.

Christopher:

If he goes to save me, Hunter has to dash in and out of attack ranges and will most likely die.

DM:	See, I am trying to figure out if it makes more sense to run you though one round of fire (you are sure to survive the 1d6, as are all these mooks around you), or just wait until it goes out. It's just cloth, after all

DM:	the first place conjuration does do constrict damage, while second place is far weaker, but does not

DM:	the first place might not kill constance in one turn, but the second place won't pin everyone for sure...

Keenan:

yeah. that would be the probalem, but if we kill you with constriction yuor dead anyway, and oh, nvm, that'll realease 2 angels

Keenan:

so shouldnt it have a +13, sicen isnt a grapple check your chance to hit, and as its strenthg is 22, and its bab is 7, it owuld have a +13 modifier

Keenan:

i had accidnelty rolled witht eh wrong number, so i rerolled with the right one and it hit, however it owuldnt have with the wrong number one, so i was wondeirng if you would count the fixed roll, or the intiial one

Keenan:

i suggest weride out for an hour away form ehre, then quickly cam and get the neccesary rest, then ride for as long as we can

Christopher:

If I'm right about the nature of his tricks, we may not even need to worry about immediate survival.

Keenan:

not really,he can likel only hold it for around 15 rounds or so, with around 4 per round, for aroud 120 guys

Keenan:

also, i dont remember the last time ive een so happy that a dm was wrong about some calculations

Keenan:

still, i really should ahve been more subtle, ekkhard mght not ahve died, and we mgiht not be in as muhc risk, though there would still be a chance of you 2 being tricked

DM:

As I said before there are more campaigns down this track (although not with these characters unless you want to follow the map), that culminate in what I think is a nice conclusion of this stage of the Macharian empire. We can also do something in a totally different setting, or just a throw-away game.

DM:	well after that I have no more homework for life (in theory), so if our scheduales line up I'm good for life.

DM:	Alright. I have an idea that jumps over to the rythins for a bit, then returns to Macharia, or you can follow the map (should you survive). Both options have you run into God once more.

Keenan:

yeah, i had a action packed prologue and fights against the party that i won that leveld me more

Keenan:

really wish i hadnt taken manyshot, its penalty is so high i havent once had a good tim to use it

DM:	went to 1 health, took exactly 10 damage, stabilized, I was nice and let her fall out of the AoE, then Keenan killed everything

Keenan:

i assume we stop after an hour to rest, so that we can rest around when he does so we can move the whole of the next day

DM:	I will meta here and say that he's not going to immediately follow that attack up. Also, are we continuing tonight?

Keenan:

also, out of curiosity, what si the normal sodier to daemon death ratio against guys of this power in fights?

DM:	in an open field, Macharian infantry can level even number without casualty, but they get swarmed easily, and dinos soak up lots of hits.

DM:	the daemons at the end of the last campaign fell like flies, but with every battle the daemons refine their tactics

DM:	I thought I was gonna have a great scene where Ignatious goes back home alone and has to tell the kids what happend to mommy

Christopher:

I love that, though: in an encounter without any actual enemies, Constance STILL manages to get sniped in turn one.

Christopher:

Sorcerers spontaneously cast. I just take what energies I have and pull them out of my ass as needed.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

Until we can work out a more constant solution, tossing a wrench into God's plans is the best we can do.

DM:	I think you are not suffering real issues with 3 gallons a day, but suffer a -2 penalty. 7 gallons is needed for all the men

Keenan:

can you see whre tis less foggy, or is there a way to get rid of the fog, like using a torch or fire magic

Keenan:

though i dont cast it yet since it only lasts a few min and therefore i dont want to wast it on ntohing

DM:	See, normally readying outside of combat isn't allowed, because it's a loophole to get around suprise rounds...

Christopher:

we're kind of expecting combat, though, it makes logical sense that we'd keep at the ready

DM:	Thaumaturgy 4th place. Cast a spell on an item, and it goes off when a certain contingency goes off...

Christopher:

I have three different kinds of hammer. I'm trying to find something loosely resembling a nail.

DM:	I am using this campaign to test the waters for what mage-on-mage combat of the future is going to look like

Officer castalot:

perhaps, seeing as how we don't have any magical enhancements on us, it would be wise to just have a dispel rock?

DM:	good, well roll that dispell immediately, because an invisible caster managed to sneak up on yall.

Keenan:

by the way, while we do head mostly stragiht, we do take slight angles on the course, this way, if they try to ambush, we'll lieky be a mile to the side, while still not wasting time

DM:

Swarms are extremely difficult to fight with physical attacks. However, they have a few special vulnerabilities, as follows: A lit torch swung as an improvised weapon deals 1d3 points of fire damage per hit. A weapon with a special ability such as flaming or frost deals its full energy damage with each hit, even if the weapon’s normal damage can’t affect the swarm. A lit lantern can be used as a thrown weapon, dealing 1d4 points of fire damage to all creatures in squares adjacent to where it breaks.

Keenan:

im guessing since were on a horse, we can all back off 60 ft and wait for the mgaes to do mroe

Keenan:

and yeah, i guess we would rest with a watch, since it would be a bad idea to be fatigued and still damged, what do yo guys say?

Keenan:

with me for first 2 hours, soider and adam rotation for remaining, untill mages while preparing spells for last 2 hours

Keenan:

with watch person in center, so that there throat cant jsut be quietly slit with no one noticing

Keenan:

and mages in mid wy from cnt, since that way they arent right in the middle where attacks will be, and they arent on the edge where vulnerable

Keenan:

this si because i likely have the best sences, so since we need 1 person to watch alone, it shoudl probably be me

Keenan:

please say small enough to attach to a bow with glue or a mage hand or something that can attach it to a bow

Keenan:

i say to get on your horses and get ready to run, cause werenot going to clsoe the protal fast enough without mages

Keenan:

since he can only scry on people, and nto an area, if its solders who wer in the tent the whole battle, he wont be able to scry on them, and therfore notice there getting food, ro that were near an inn

Christopher:

Can I eat the energy from the dispel rock to fuel my dispel or otherwise combine its powers with my spell?

Christopher:

don't even try to tell me a giant phallic piece of adamantium flying through the air isn't magic

Christopher:

that said, with a flying organ like the other one, the most a temporary dispel would do is give it a hiccup

Keenan:

i guess soldiers keep shooting till its long gone, since any bit of damage helps, im kinda useless so ill jsut start checking on the rooms to see if theres anyhting in storage

Officer Constance Stendatem:

I've killed your kind before. This time won't be as spectacular, but I'm sure we'll manage.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

The same tripe as always. Presumably you serve this "God" that's set himself against us.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

You have one last chance to convince me to spare you. If you can't appeal to my good will, appeal to my practicality.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

Anything to convince me you're not a being of nothing but malice and contempt for mortals. Why did you assist the beast that was trying to kill us?

Officer Constance Stendatem:

Ah. Of course. The one that wants us dead. It seems our goals cannot be reconciled, but that information is very helpful. Thank you, and I will leave you in peace for now. Do not cross the path of Macharia again.

DM:	alright, well for the rest of the week are are actually let be. The food you find here is enough to last the journey.

DM:	When you return to the city, you find out that all of the liquid men save for Ignatious have wandered off (or tried to), then mysteriously collapsed.

Keenan:

I tell ordos about everyhting that happened, and i assume you to them about everyhting that happened to you, which ill just read on the transcripts unless your not planning on showing them jsut yet brian

Officer Septum:

So not only were you held captive for almost a month, during this time you gave Ordos training to unknown individuals, and disclosed our means of operation?

Officer Constance Stendatem:

That would be about it, sir. That, and I now seem to have an anchor for God's gates attached to me.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

It's not all a loss, though. There are more of those flying buildings. An entire city of God's creation. And I can get us there.

Officer Septum:

Your personal effects are still in this alternate plane. If we use them to link a portal, we have a way in.

Officer Septum:

But it doesn't end there. Hunter, you said that you were teleported directly from your village to this cavern?

Officer Septum:

It seems that even God's portals are two way. Perhaps that is our link back to your home, and the seat of this daemon's power. Unless, of course, we deam it too much of a risk.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

And with what I told them about our defences against the buildings, we'd need two full-scale assaults at once to do it right.

Officer Septum:

Given our resources now, this is not a feasible attack. We will simply need to scry the area and make sure we don't lose our lock for now, then strike when troops are assembled.

Officer Septum:

That said, God now has gained the upper hand. That was more than enough information to infiltrate the Ordos with.

Officer Constance Stendatem:

We'd need to do some rapid restructuring to avoid that being used against us, and we both know how well that proposition will go over.

Officer Septum:

Not to mention that we seem to have some clear lacks in our military technology. We simply don't have a way to fight that level of portal warfare. Expect to be consulted on this in the future. Both of you.