Sneaking into Avernus

[Corwin]

Before, the Miracles were SLAs and not really requiring concentration, so I'm hoping I was shown a path to Zariel. If the brute force attack hadn't worked, I'll pick the path that feels right and dash down it.

[Corwin]

As an addendum, if only one of the four paths leads down I'll take that one barring brute-forcing telling me otherwise.

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d100
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 43 > [d100=43]

You hurry downstairs, rushing. You get a few dozen steps down before you have to stop - a gush of white flames and then green incinerates the stairs ahead of you, a chasm down left behind after. A groan of stone, as a hunk of ceiling falls at you a split second later.

Ref save you can't fail, so no roll.

You sidestep that almost absently, a wail of infernal fury coming from below. Flashes of green and white light, the pulsing energies strobing one another.

[Corwin]

She had evaded electricity while fully submerged in water as a mortal. This is not enough to get Seira to break her stride! Her form twists and turns, wings changing direction seemingly at a whim, and it is as if Seira has eyes on the back of her head for nothing comes close to harming her. Yet the one thing she refuses to sacrifice is her speed in her rush to Zariel!

[Anastasia]

An easy leap, a dodge of more stone that has no chance of touching you. Here the stairs collapse again - completely gone.

Below is an inferno of green and white flames. In it half melted and collapsed rooms can be glimpsed - rooms of torture, rooms of treasure, room of magic, rooms of burning lore books. All of it you can only glimpse - for you see two. One is emaciated and humanoid, male. He wears pants of a fine, rich black and nothing else, clean-shaven face locked in a sneer. Green hellfire dances around him.

Opposite him is a torso, chest and head. The remnants of a once beautiful thing, scarred all over and with a single wing remaining. Blood drips from her body, her body bobbing in the air. She is nude for what little it matters, one eye gone and the other bloody. Her chest is torn open, her beating heart seen within her chipped rib cage. Divine magic and will flow, green fire against white. Amid the glow of that you note she has no hair left, only a head scarred and bleeding.

DieDIEDIEDIEDIE!

From the maimed angel torrents of white fire come, met, checked and slowly reversed by the emaciated man. Now that you have a moment, you can see he has small horns and his hands are closer to claws, twisted and bloodied things. He says not a word, his attention wholly on the remnant before him.

Chance to act.

[Corwin]

Seira throws herself into one swift, overwhelming attack before she could be noticed! True, it is a folly to consider getting away with it in a divine realm, but Lixer is rather occupied at present and her ability to hide is not inconsiderate. And act Seira does!

I'm blitzing him. Taking 10 for stealth 105 (two images aiding me). Does it go through or do I need to roll init?

[Anastasia]

Go for it.

[Corwin]

Dragon's Grace leads the way out of the shadows cast by the oppressive green hellfire and Zariel's fiery defiance! Lixer is a god with a god's senses, but so is Seira and the very plane looks away from her as she stalks towards its master. Harmful energies fill the air with a dangerous lattice of exotic death, but she is a leaf on the wind. Lixer is some manner of undead, but the spark charging up Seira's hand was made to deal with that. He cannot be surprised, surely -- but she's trained excessively to make such protections moot.

A small fire elemental forms out of the blasts of fire thrown about, no doubt as confused about its existence as Lixer for the briefest of moments it distracts the Prince of Hell during Seira's final lunge for his unprotected spine!

22:59 <Lucille> roll 1d20+57+13+5+2+4+30+12 impromptu sneak attack, many moments of prescience, holy warrior, divine might, dragonfire wrath, lvl12 arcane strike
22:59 <Serith> Lucille roll for Serith < 128 > [d20=5]
Attack bypasses Dex

23:01 <Lucille> roll 1d6+86+17d6+13+12d4+3d8+1d6
23:01 <Serith> Lucille roll for Serith < 217 > [d6=3,2,2,5,3,3,2,3,4,4,4,3,5,3,4,5,4,2][d4=3,3,4,3,4,2,4,4,4,4,1,3][d8=8,3,2][d6=5]

Also attempted to dispel him
23:00 <Lucille> roll 1d20+32 dispel
23:00 <Serith> Lucille roll for Serith < 35 > [d20=3]

Other swift action is assay spell resistance on Lixer.

[Corwin]

"Hi!" Seira announces her presence at last, unable to restrain her genuine cheer despite the place she finds herself in. "I've been waiting to meet you for two decades, now, Zariel! Let's beat this upstart till he runs crying to Asmodad and get you out of this hellhole~"

Her images nod their agreement eagerly, channeling Greater Restoration into the mutilated angel while one tries to consecrate this place -- it's bound to work eventually, Seira reasons -- and the last one imbues Seira herself with True Strike.

Images are hard at work to diss Lixer and romance diplo Zariel!

Maybe consecrate will work this time?

23:13 <Lucille> roll 1d20+1
23:13 <Serith> Lucille roll for Serith < 12 > [d20=11]

Sandalphon's Amazing Barrage was the spell sacrificed in arcane strike.

[Anastasia]

Your strike is true - your blade plunges into Lixer's back. It is utterly lifeless, skin resisting far more than it should. With a hissing grunt he utters, "Seira Aryn. For this you die." He bleeds lightly from the wound, flesh difficult to cut through, even with a weapon of your caliber. There's no visible reaction to the dispelling as...

Your images meanwhile channel healing energy into Zariel. It doesn't have any visible effect on her, but you swear the white flames around her grow a little brighter, and after a moment, you see you're wrong. The bleeding is slowing, becoming a trickle down her, the white flames rallying against Lixer's.

> roll 1d20+4 Lixer
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 6 > [d20=2]
> roll 1d20+1 Zariel
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 3 > [d20=2]

Perhaps for a moment things are consecrated for you - but it doesn't last, the two fires consuming it instantly.

But in this moment, Lixer wounded and Zariel surging that...

Init.

Trying to consecrate a Lord of the Nine's domain is a bit of a reach to begin with, to put it lightly, but one where unholy energies of this magnitude are flying? It's just not happening even if you get it through, it's like dropping an ice cube in a lava flow. But as they say, it was more than worth a shot with the images anyway.

[Corwin]

08:00 <Lucille> roll 1d20+11
08:00 <Serith> Lucille roll for Serith < 29 > [d20=18]

It's about bothering Lixer and using the moment to heal Zariel better. Also, forgot to add +7 to the damage of that attack on Lixer.

"None of what happened to you was right," Seira tells the angel she came here to save, dismissing Lixer's whining. "I'm hoping to put a small dent in that by getting you out of here and us taking things from there. Sounds like a plan, Zariel?"

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d20+9 Zariel
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 20 > [d20=11]

Init is Lixer (Supreme Init) > Seira (29) > Zariel (20)

Zariel's one bloodied eye focuses on you a moment as...

Lixer turn to you is slow, "Do you wish to die here, Seira?"

Go ahead and react to this, his action will depend on your reply or lack thereof.

[Corwin]

"Not in the slightest," Seira responds cheerfully. "Then again, I'm not the one to die for real if things go south here, am I? I'll let you leave and lick your wounds if you like, I never cared about you. I just want to help Zariel." She shrugs. "You're just not worth the effort to exterminate, Lixer."

[Anastasia]

A flare of malevolent power gathers around Lixer, enough to shake everything around you. The white flames rally even more at this moment, before....

Lixer is casting a spell that will tear your body apart and do horrid damage, as well as curse it to be unable to be healed. Going to try and counter?

[Corwin]

I cannot counterspell that! However! I have:

Spell Turning (please roll for the amount)
Spell Reflection (rogue ACF)
Aegis defense: The most powerful aspect of the shield is it's ability to reflect lines, cones and rays. Any such attack targeted at the user has a 50% chance of being harmlessly deflected away. As this is not an illusion or displacement effect, True Seeing has no effect on this miss chance. Normal ranged attacks like arrows are not affected.