Options and hopes (full party)

[Anastasia]

At Ithea's message, Aurora's leading staff assembles. Afina returns from her forges, while Ithea and Sylvie sit within. Morniel is there, as is Adrian and Gisfal. Jaela has also returned from sudden business, everyone quickly settling in.

"Ahem," Morniel says, "Ithea, could you explain the situation to all of us?"

Thisis just an opening to let Ithea do the needed exposition. The rest of you are welcome to set yourselves up and say anything you like in the meantime.

[Merc]

Ithea gives a curt nod and with a deep breath begins sharing the information, "Alright, well, some of you may have been aware that Sylvie, Muirfinn, Lief and myself went into the Astral recently on a spying-slash-sabotage mission. Morniel shared some of the intel on a devil station located there and we went to get more information, or in the best case scenario, destroy it outright. Things went badly."

Pausing here, she waves her hands to gesture at the illusion of the station that is formed by the War Room's morphic capabilities. "The facility appeared lightly guarded, though with relatively capable guards (if they weren't facing Aurora anyway), and we entered it without much issue as a result. We were still discovered, and triggered some sort of trap involving heat. I...made the mistake of encouraging the rest of the group to deal with the trap first, instead of pushing ahead and dealing with the station now that we were discovered. We gave them too much time to prepare."

As she spoke, the illusion showed the path they traveled as they invaded the station, and the forked path, first a trail leading in the direction of the trap's source, then one following the other path, before the illusion morphed into a sight of the spire. "Lixer seems to have gotten personally involved as soon as it was realized that it was people from Aurora that comprised the strike team. Worse, so did Taelfagn and some nasty pair of Nessians that I couldn't even touch. The battle was pretty short and almost one-sided, outside of Lief doing some nasty damage to a creation of Lixer's, or maybe an avatar of some sort since he spoke through it."

Next to the spire appears an images of the foes they fought formed. "I tried to summon a gate to get us out, and Taelfagn (I think) did something involving chains that would block it or at the very least misdirect its destination. Sylvie managed to destroy whatever magic he used with 21, and she and I both dove through."

Grimacing, the illusions all vanish. "The gate shattered immediately behind me, without our last two members making it through. Meaning that Muirfinn and Lief are either dead or captured. I suspect the second obviously, but with what they kept throwing at us, the first could have occured too."

[Corwin]

"How long has it been?" Jaela asks, leaning forward on her elbows. "We could have Priest check for the former while we prepare to deal with the latter."

[Anastasia]

"The first," Sylvie speaks up, "It isn't the first. I saw Taelfagn's sins with 21 and he rarely takes lives directly. What he does is worse." She shakes her head, looking down. "It's the worst of Baator, the need to enslave, drag down and corrupt. What is destiny but another thing to put in chains?"

[Ebiris]

Afina listens to all this with grave silence. That such a battle could have occurred while she was having fun bullying giants with an entertaining tournament... well, it's not nice. "In this case we should hope they are dead," she says once Ithea concludes her tale, her cutesy voice pitched low. As much as she can make it anyway. "We should attempt divinations to find out if they're dead, and sendings to at least find out their situation if they live." Before anything else, information is key.

[Anastasia]

"An hour or so to gather everyone," Morniel smoothly interjects, "The battle there is now won or lost. Balyss and our other seers are attempting divinations as we speak. Priest is among them, Jaela."

[Anastasia]

"I hope so," Adrian sighs, closing his eyes. "We always knew this could happen to any of us, but I hoped it never would. Not like this. If they're dead, we can attempt to revive Lief and wait for Muirfinn to reform on Water. If not...what can we do? Can we storm where they're held and save them?"

[Corwin]

"We can storm the facility, and even take it," Jaela muses. "But I wouldn't keep my important prisoners on such an outpost, so what we should discuss is other options. Morniel, since your information gave us the outpost in the first place, do you have anyone in place to fill us in?"

[Merc]

"It hasn't been long as Morniel stated. We returned just a short while ago and called this meeting to figure out how Aurora should deal with the situation. All of you were pretty prompt at joining us. Thank you Elena for getting them so quickly by the way and Morniel for getting started with divinations."

Ithea tosses a grateful nod to both Elena and Morniel, and continues. "Anyway, I want to rescue them both, but...I'm not exactly sure -how-, let alone finding them. If we can divine their location, that'll be a start. Sylvie and I can also share the details of what spells we faced and hopefully we can develop countermeasures of our own. Other than that, any ideas of what to do if they are indeed captured?"

[Ebiris]

"We've done so before," Afina says to Adrian, though it took them a long time to prepare for Ilsenine's rescue. "We can do so again. If the divinations don't turn up anything we can put Tannin on the case?"

[Anastasia]

"I can look into it," he says, "But if Lixer or The Duke of Destiny took them, it's probably outside of anything they'd hear about." The archon frowns and shakes his head, "I'm more hopeful for divinations in the short term, especially since gathering information will take longer. I'm also worried that considering the devils involved, wards against divination are in play."

Clearing his throat at that, "Elena, how are Balyss and the others proceeding?"

[Anastasia]

"We will. It's just more devils," Adrian agrees with a grim smile, "What's more of them to go through?"

Meanwhile Elena promptly appears, "They're working on them. The quicker ones are already finished," she reports, "Um, the result they get is darkness."

An K:A and/or K:P check can be attempted here if anyone wishes.

[Ebiris]

[21:03] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+35 arcana
[21:03] <Serith> Ebiris roll for Serith < 49 > [d20=14]

[Corwin]

"Between Tannin and Morniel we should make a rescue work," Jaela agrees, nodding at Afina. "We can't negotiate. It's not just some nasty power we could bargain with, but our very enemies. Once preparations are done, we should reinforce Aurora's defenses and then take a force to destroy the Astral outpost. Aside from being a good target, it might give us a chance at hitting one of their officers and supplementing our information."

[Merc]

[15:04] <Merc> roll d20+42 K:P
[15:04] <Serith> Merc roll for Serith < 50 > [d20=8]