We leveled up to 6th.  On to the game.  The town elders show up with some guards.  They wanted to assess our power level to decide if the town guards would be able to help in the upcoming confrontation with the agents of the Kartos Consortium.  They had 6 guards and TerStegan said he could take them all on by himself.  He took them out in two rounds with multiple crits and they never touched him with multiple critical failures.  So, they will stay out of the way.  Then Carmine stepped into the ring and they fought to a critical laden draw.  We had 2-3 days of downtime.  TerStegan tried to get work at the upscale Crow’s Cache to earn some extra Income.  He missed his roll so they had nothing available.  He bought his full plate and transferred his current +1 rune for which he borrowed money from Clarisa.  The Rowdy Rockfish was eager to have him since we saved their son. He rolled great and got 5 silvers plus 5 more the next day.  And then he went back to Crow’s Cache the last day and earned 2 gold.  Oakwood picked up his +1 hand wraps from Amecia.  He planted some more trees in the surrounding area and searched for hidden armies.  And then guarded the ballot place on election day.  Clarisa translated some of the spells that we’ve gathered into her spell book. Xeelie built a booby-trapped ballot box.  Oakwood failed to Aid her but she rolled a 20.  She then built magic items for herself and TerStegan.  She worked with Amecia and told her about them being half-sisters.  They buried the hatchet and bonded over blaming their parents for not telling them.  Last was Briscoe. He searched the guard barracks, looking for breeches already in place.  He intimated the guards about being tree lovers or he’d sick TerStegan on them while he was at it.    

So, then we transitioned into planning for the night.  Xeelie would hide under the counter.  Her familiar would be up on the counter.  Brisco wanted to use his “turn into a shrubbery” power to guard the front door.  TerStegan would patrol around outside.  Oakwood would hide upstairs overlooking the lower level and the windows.  Clarisa would hide in a cabinet on the lower level.  At the end of the day, Xeelie switched the ballot box as planned.  She noticed the hinges were not quite right once they were besides each other.  (I.e. she missed that first hidden roll.)  And tossed her flour in the holding cell.  TerStegan was randomly at the south side of the building on his rounds when things started happening.  A tiny gold dragon-like familiar(?) flew in a window, past an alert Oakwood and landed on the railing above the holding cell.  Xeelie didn’t notice anything but she didn’t have any line of sight up that high.  Briscoe noticed a pane of glass hovering (invisible person) by the same window and some sort of gold creature climbing in.  He chose to raise the alarm.  He figured breaking and entering was a sufficient crime.

He saw a black figure drop down from the same area.  They hit the ground and ran into the bushes across the street.  Oakwood stepped over the railing, onto the cage and grabbed the familiar with a 30.  And then turned on his powers.  TerStegan came around the corner but couldn’t see anything.  Brisco ran across the street, after the figure. Unfortunately, that put him off the map which complicated things.  When he got close to it, it looked more blobish than man.  A roll identified it as an illusion.  He yelled that at TerStegan.  He looked around for the caster but didn’t see anyone.  Xeelie heard someone on the cell (Oakwood).  A hidden perception rolled revealed nothing.  Or nothing had happened.  Clarisa heard the yelling as well but inside the cabinet, her line of sight was limited to a sliver.  She could see Oakwood acting but chose to stay hidden.  Next, the GM did stuff that we were unable to perceive.  Briscoe’s illusion disappeared, likely no longer being sustained.  Xeelie and Oakwood took an Arc of Lightning, failing saves of DC 26.  But it was only 7 points.  It came from somewhere on the top level but we still couldn’t see them.  But the window was now open.  The dragon broke free but with only one action, it didn’t go anywhere. 

Oakwood failed on a Seek action and then used his Flying Flame since AOEs don’t need to be targeted.  Something was hit for some fire damage but not illuminated since that’s too useful to get for free.  TerStegan ran up and opened the front door.  He couldn’t see the foe but didn’t have any actions left anyway once he turned on his stance.  Briscoe ran up to the building, rolled a 1 and didn’t climb it.  Xeelie stood up, cast fast healing on herself and did a Seek on the lower level but found nothing.  Clarisa stood up, jumped on the counter and did a Seek of the south balcony.  We had to roll a great perception and guess right so our odds were poor bordering on hopeless.  “Thankfully”, Cryde became visible and cast a Fear.  Oakwood succeeded, Xeelie failed and Clarisa and TerStegan critically failed.  TerStegan used a hero point to avoid the fleeing condition and got a critical success.  Credence became visible, Devised a Stratagem and attacked Oakwood.  He crit for 32 plus 2d6 bleed.  Oakwood turned on the Thermal Nimbus and did Battlefield medicine on himself.  And then took 6 more bleed damage.

TerStegan wanted to superleap across the room and up to the balcony but he couldn’t do it with Jump or Leap.  After much discussion.  So, he used his helm to get an extra Stride, went through the door and most of the way up the stairs.  Briscoe managed to climb up through the window and up to the balcony level.  Xeelie crit failed her Lore roll, gave up on her attack and moved towards the stairs.  Clarisa had to flee out the door.  Cryde cast Dimension Door and ended up down below in the cell. She did reenter Oakwood’s fire aura so took more damage.  She examined the box and identified the defect. We stopped there at Credence’s turn.  Most players had spent their rounds moving and seeking so we’ve barely touched them.  However, only Oakwood has taken any serious damage.  So, after 2 rounds, it’s pretty much a draw.  The turning point will be if we can counter whatever spells they have left when they decide to flee again.  As we’ve seen, we can’t do much against Fly, Dimension Door and Invisibility.