Sunshine

[Anastasia]

The battlefield is quiet.

The screams of the dying have become the eternal regrets of the dead. You strive forward amid this. There's no time to waste now. The broken hills cannot slow you, you race towards the abode. There's still time to stop the summoning. To call on the image of an Archduke of Hell can bring centuries of calamity to a world. This fragment will not succeed.

Not after you fought so hard for peace.

Your soldiers stay back as you alone go. Were Trist here or Meladole, or even brave Yurik....but you are alone. There was no time and you did not have the resources to reach them.

The hut ahead is plain, a freestanding place amid these hilly land - !

Fire. Fire consumes the hut in a moment. From the burning shell it emerges, tearing it apart. A great blue dragon, aloft on flames as if a cloak to be worn. You know it - it is not the Archduke you feared, for you know if such an event came to pass and he stepped onto this world, all would be torn apart. Yet you know this foe the dragon Rathguul. His personal companion. To be sent indicates a matter of great importance to Gargauth.

The dragon does not introduce itself. It does not care to, or perhaps it is beneath it to speak to a mere mortal. Let him break his pride against the strength of Tempus Foehammer!

The battle is joined without a word. Fire comes, hellfire that threatens to immolate all. Your blood sings with the power of the quicksilver and you blur ahead. A gambit that works, the scorching ray of hellfire missing you by inches. You leap and fly through the air. A lash of its tail, but your shield holds.

You do not allow it to fling death at you unopposed. Claw and scale meet blade and shield. Inconclusive. Once the Wind Wyrm resisted Jetta, once the Northern Emperor's shield checked it. You are far stronger now and Jetta is as well. This will be no easy battle.

Another exchange in the air, two dancers, one of steel and one of scale. Despite being a dragon, it is as nimble as any air elemental. Inconclusive. Another strike, you rear back and charge, a flawless sidestep of the claw that threatens to disembowel you for the attempt.

Then, before you strike, the entire wyrm erupts in hellfire. You reel back, pained. Again. You tumble from the air.

You can't take a third.

You only have one chance now, you know. With a prayer to the Foehammer you rally yourself and charge dead on. The hellfire comes as you know it would - but at the last moment you hurl Jetta, your blade arcing through the air. Your prayer is answered, for it slips in between two scales. As you burn and fall, your vision dims as the blade's magic activates. A powerful banishment that will send him back whence he came. A temporary victory as your vision fades and...

The spell ends.

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa takes a deep breath, "Very impressive, all of you. I will learn much from you. I invite you to take respite here in my Academy. I will work to learn the lessons you have presented me with. Once I have done my work, I intend to share it with you. Your experience may glean things in my strategies I miss.

As I said, I intend your names to be part of the songs of Rathguul's defeat."

[Anastasia]

The first bows his head and declares, "Avenge me."

The second bows his head and intones, "Avenge my grandfather, who even now suffers in Baator."

The third says, "Avenge my defeat." He does not look down, but simply regards you instead.

[Iron Dragoon]

"I will what I can."

Alyssa turns to go to her rooms to study the memories in detail.

[Anastasia]

Going to do anything with them?

[Iron Dragoon]

With the soldiers?

[Anastasia]

The memories.

[Iron Dragoon]

Yes, I'll project them using whatever illusion I need to and study them, looking for weaknesses, examining the spells and abilities he uses, and tactics, in order to formulate either counter spells or figure out how the abilities work.

Like, will Ability Hamstring work on him.

[Anastasia]

Okay, well lemme ask you something. Do you have any leads on that from what you saw earlier? If you do I can use that to direct your work.

[Iron Dragoon]

I do:
1) I can examine the first one for anything that's a tip off that he's going to use the hellfire with his claws. I can also examine the memory to figure out how he's doing it; I.E. via something like a Hexblade ability, altar reality, or a different spell or ability.

2) I can try to identify what the gale of lightning was similarly; if it's a spell, I can figure out what the counter spell is.

3) If the sword the warrior used was a Dragonslaying blade (assuming that means Bane), I can watch the moment of contact and how the spell on the sword reacts to try and figure out what the defense was to block the Bane effect.

4) I can examine how the Hellfire is killing each warrior to figure out what the actual energy interaction is and maybe figure out a defense of some sort. The second and third warriors survived more than one hit of it, which means there *should* be a way to, at the very least, reduce the damage from it.

5) I can examine the second memory to see if Rathguul really did use a telepathic ability to command the devil. If so, I should be able to identify what that is and figure out a way to block or counter it.

6) The hellfire that the third warrior dodged gives me a framework of what the attack speed is. If I can figure out the limits of its speed, I can investigate a way to push my own speed (or that of others) fast enough to give some sort of possible dodge? bonus against it.

7) I can watch all of its physical attacks and learn the body language and tells for them, which will help me predict what attacks might be coming.

8) I can look into this Jetta weapon, examine the enchantments on it and figure out what about it allowed it to wound Rathguul. Then I can work to either find it and strengthen it, or recreate it in either smithing a new version of it or a spell that mimics it, and possibly strengthen it with the Words of Creation.

[Anastasia]

Gimme 3 K:A checks.

[Iron Dragoon]

Man, there go my Cunning Knowledges for the day. Also, I don't know if this skill trick applies, but maybe. If so, add it to the totals:
Tale Keeper:
You receive a +5 competence bonus to trained Knowledge checks to identify monsters and their powers.

K:A/Cunning Knowledge/Library:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+110 : 14 + 110, total 124[/blockquote]

K:A/Cunning Knowledge/Library:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+110 : 10 + 110, total 120[/blockquote]

K:A/Cunning Knowledge/Library:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+110 : 2 + 110, total 112[/blockquote]

[Anastasia]

1. You're about 100% sure it's the eldritch blast of a warlock augmented with the power of a hellfire warlock and more. There's not enough to root out a tip off - and from the last battle, it looks like any inch of his body can emit the eldritch blast.

2. The lightning looks to be the dragon's breath weapon.

3. The simple truth is, on examination, is that the dragon's defenses were too strong. You're pretty sure it wasn't a fault in the blade or a defense. Simply put, Rathguul's protections are far stronger than that of a typical dragon. After all, a bane or even dread weapon doesn't guarantee a hit.

4. The hellfire burns them to death - you remember the pain of that all too well. Research suggests that the latter two were simply stronger, in the same way a seasoned warrior can survive a 200ft fall in decent condition while a commoner will die instantly. The same problem comes - it's ultimately fire and evil bound together, something horrid that you lack any sort of key insight. At least from this data, but perhaps if you got more?

5. There's simply no way to tell from the image, but it's the most likely reasoning. A telepathic command isn't that hard to manage if you have innate telepathy, it's as much effort as speaking. You'd assume so though you can't rule out a plan or simply a devil making a play and getting lucky. If it is telepathy, anything that blocks telepathy should suffice.

6. It is quite fast and Rathguul's aim is impeccable. Armor is pointless against it so it's hard to defend against, too. Something like blur, displacement or concealment would be best. That's close to what the third warrior did.

7. That's doable - he's extremely good but direct, and a dragon's body is big enough to have tells. The problem is that he's a giant dragon of massive power, really.

8. There's not much known about Jetta - it's an old weapon - but you do confirm it's able to banish creatures from planes that aren't their own. As far as you can tell? A prayer and a lucky shot worked out. He was good enough to have a chance and managed to succeed when he needed to.

[Iron Dragoon]

1) Okay, if that's the case, I'll read up on defenses against Warlocks. Maybe one is floating around that I can call in to help test counterspells and defenses against?

2) Alright, that should be easy enough to work with. I recall there being some breath defense spells already, so I'll look those up.

3) Is there anyway I can judge what the level of defense is? Epic skill usage to try and figure out AC? I also have Spot the Weakness skill trick, could that be used?

4) Alright, how do I go about finding more data points?

5) Alright. I'll look into a general telepathic block style thing, just to cover bases.

6) Cool. I'll look into bumping up Blur or the like with Words of Creation.

7) Great, let's do that.

8) Alright, if he's vulnerable to banish, I'll have one of those in pocket as a backup.

[Anastasia]

1. You could look into that, sure. Are you familiar with the warlock class at all first of all?

3. It's a fairly high AC. I'd allow it on those memories, sure. REfresh me on what it does.

4. See more hellfire in use.