Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 7

"We should remember that Kaz isn't an average Nifelheim farmer who only ever saw one side of the story. She's been in the minds of Machine Folk, yours and Kashiwagi's and who knows how many others." Zoy began, pulling her hair back and tying it in a ponytail:

"Coupled with her being over 4 million years old, she must understand there's all kinds of people on the other side of the border.

I just can't see her buying a story where desperate parents risked a suicidal expedition into an alien world, who risked their lives and frankly took insane assignments just to save their children, would so suddenly flip on a dime and flush it all down the toilet, the pieces of the puzzle don't fit."


Zoy shrugged with a grin: "Sorry guys, you spent so much time earning everyone's trust, that I think you finally succeeded. A little too late to play the bad guy card now... heck, I wouldn't buy it and I was the one who wanted you to turn out to be evil the most."


"Perhaps we should focus on shock and awe tactics.." Johan asked from afar "Go in hard, cause devastation and chaos, and extract before anyone realizes what happened."



"That brings us to the subject of Kaznachey.." Viki gloomily called "How do we fight this cat? What are her strengths, her weaknesses? How do we exploit them, and what will her trap for us look like?"

"I played my Villain card with carvos so..." Rain pauses before her gaze falls on Adam, "I think your mother would be the one whos spiteful enough to try activating the dark machine early" She shrugs before looking to victoria, "Kaz likes big spells for her very start, and then if that fails, persue and eliminate with prejudice. Incredibly fast she'll pick you off one at a time if you aren't ready. Shes mainly a mage however, so we should take what larsons taught us and put intense pressure on her while we're up close. We'll need to watch for Mitosis, kill whatever help she summons immediately, and if we pull this off, she'll likely go berzerk. When that happens well... its three berzerkers vs one assuming we dont use it early."

"I see the flaws in my plan, but we do have to ask." Twilight argues.

"Can she risk it being a bluff? If all she cares about is escaping this planet, she sort of have to be alive for that. Thus, dieing to this random detonation is not something she would want."

She cocked her head to the side. "But I think we have to ask something else as well."

She corrected her pose. "Does she know that we know what we know?"

"A few minutes ago, everything changed about the situation, ever since we discovered this bit of information. And when you plan something, or anticipate someone's movements, you do this based on your knowledge on the target. If they prove to be smarter or dumber then you thought they were, your strategy might not work."

She stopped folding her arms. "We know far more then she thinks we know. If we play dumb, we can, for example, say that we plan the activation of the dark machine as a test run to see how well it kills Glysteria. This falls within the parameters of expectations she would have based on previous knowledge, and thus the ruse would fly."

She gave a smile. "This is especially true if we encounter "Lucretia" instead, as we say that to ease her mind. That's the danger of a false identity, especially if you impersonate your enemy."

Rain wrote:Kaz likes big spells for her very start

"Yeah, like a Level 5 that fucks us out of 320 HP in one hit." Lightning grimaced.

"I'm glad you brought that up," Zoy smirked "because it so happens we have five mages with us, that can nullify that attack with a Level 5 Shield. Raise your hands please," she gestured.

Kaylee, Ursula, Viki and Lightning very awkwardly raised a hand, then Lightning pointed at Zoy as the last one.



"We should decide how many Level 5 Shields we should cook, before we begin our operation." Viki proposed:

"We should also remember the utility difference between the Shield and Spectral Armor.

A Shield is the most powerful protective spell available, it can block 320 points of damage, but its also very short lived. Once activated, the Shield only lasts for 30 seconds, that's two rounds of combat, no matter how high level it is.
Its main purpose is to stop a projectile attack in real time. Weather the Shield absorbs damage or not, it will vanish after 30 seconds.


Spectral Armor, on the other hand, is weaker, it can grant you a bonus of up to 150% of your maximum health.
For example, Rain's Health is 200, so if someone casts Level 5 Spectral Armor on her, she will receive an additional 100 Armor points.
She will have a total of 200 Health and 100 Armor, 300 total.

It provides less protection than a Shield, but the Spectral Armor at Level 5 can hold on for 24 hours.



In other words, if you're heading into a prolonged engagement, and you don't know when you'll be attacked, or how long the fight will last, its better to use Spectral Armor.

But if you're in the middle of a fight right now, and you're about to get blasted with 320 damage, its better to use a level 5 Shield in that instant."




"So we need to figure out which mages will cook which spells.." Ursula thought aloud.

"There's only one issue," Lightning grimaced "Some of us barely have 320 Mana. Once we use a Level 5 spell, that's that for us. We'll have 0 Mana, or 10 Mana left. We'll be done as mages for that fight. So if we decide to cook a Level 5, we better be sure we REALLY need that spell." She grumbled, crossing her arms:
"Meanwhile Kaz over there had 10,000 Mana there, last time we Scanned her. She can spam Level 5 spells all day-"

"31 times," Viki interjected.

"Yes thank you Viki," Lighting stuck her tongue out "31 times, or at least until she runs out of pentagrams. How do we stop her from just overpowering us with sheer force?"

Rain wrote:Shes mainly a mage however, so we should take what larsons taught us and put intense pressure on her while we're up close.

"Master Larsen, of course!" Viki said, rapidly thinking "If we disable Kaznachey's magic, it won't matter how much Mana she has! She and her pentagrams, will be completely useless!"


"A well placed Level 5 Silence should take care of that," Kaylee cracked her knuckles "Kaz won't be able to cast anything for 20 minutes, or 80 rounds of combat. That should give us enough time to get the hell out of there."

"Do we really need to waste Level 5 for that?" Viki asked "A Level 4 will disable her for 5 minutes, 20 rounds of combat. Seems reasonable."

"Should we really take a chance with Kaz?" Zoy asked, uncomfortably shrugging "Lets just dump a Level 5 on her, fire and forget, won't have to worry about her magic for the rest of the fight, even if it drags on."



"We should also remember our weapons special properties "Kaylee added "Twilight's and Rogue's Godkillers disable magic just by making a scratch. For 1 round maybe, but still."



"What about Confuse?" Viki asked "Should we cook it?"

"Unless Kaznachey has friends, it won't be much help." Zoy scratched her cheek. "It would be nice to see Kaz massacring other parasites and fighting for us though."

Twilight wrote:We know far more then she thinks we know. If we play dumb, we can, for example, say that we plan the activation of the dark machine as a test run to see how well it kills Glysteria.

"OF COURSE!" Zoy epically turned over her shoulder "Even the magic tree called us 'Akin to children playing with a grenade!'

If we play the part of stupid children, she might just buy it!

We can totally say we found the real Dark Machine and plan to use it right now as a test run! She'll flip her shit man!"


"Doesn't the Dark Machine require vast amounts of Shimmer nearby?" Ursula uneasily shifted "She won't get scared of it, if it doesn't have a power source."


"The Masquerading Mage will have to play quite a heavy spectacle.." Kaylee winced "If there's no natural Shimmer sources nearby, we'll have to hope that Kaznachey doesn't know the underground Shimmer layout, then cast a fake meteor to create a fake crater, that will flood with fake Shimmer, which we can then use as a fake power source, to fakely power up the Dark Machine and scare Kaz."


"...we might be stretching our bluff thin, a little bit.." Lightning grimaced.


"Kaz might not even know we need Shimmer to use the Dark Machine." Kaylee proposed "Lets play it by the ear, and if she starts asking pointed questions, we'll start creating fake illusions."




"Okay," Zoy nodded "If our bluff is set, lets think about battle tactics. Who should cook which spells, and at what level?

We should also remember one crucial thing." Her gaze grew heavy:



"...The effective firing range of a Level 5 spell is 4 kilometers, measured horizontally...... that means, if we get within 4 kilometers of Kaznachey, she will be able to screw us out of 320 HP in an instant, at any, moment.

And for our bluff to work... we will need to be within earshot of her, as in, around 15 meters away, for her to notice and recognize the Dark Machine... and hear our bluff.

That is a risk."

"I mean... we cant bluff AND fight at the same time?" She looks at the passing wasteland below, "After she smashes the shield and realizes her usual plan didn't work she might try rushing us and thats also a loss, we outnumber her and we have the blades to off her in one lucky swipe. So we pin her in combat, snatch the orb, shatter it and escape. she'll finally use her limit break to try and Alder us. Squiggles, and guillotine get to hopefully partake in some feirce berzerker combat together, and we make Nifelhime right." She shrugs.

"We couldn't just call her over with a flare spell and promise trade of the fake Dark Machine for Circi and the others could we?" Thena offers up as she starts to sound a mixture of scared and just a touch annoyed "also if I remeber correctly from recent accounts before joining this...mission, Kaznachey had some sort of twisted code of honor. Is there any way we can exploit that?"

Some Sinner wrote:"I mean... we cant bluff AND fight at the same time?" She looks at the passing wasteland below, "After she smashes the shield and realizes her usual plan didn't work she might try rushing us and thats also a loss, we outnumber her and we have the blades to off her in one lucky swipe. So we pin her in combat, snatch the orb, shatter it and escape. she'll finally use her limit break to try and Alder us. Squiggles, and guillotine get to hopefully partake in some feirce berzerker combat together, and we make Nifelhime right." She shrugs.

"I don't think even the Godkillers can one-hit KO her" Rogue says, "Plus, she has no end of lackeys she could bring with her, we don't know for sure that it's just her waiting for us."

Rogue Fire wrote:

Some Sinner wrote:"I mean... we cant bluff AND fight at the same time?" She looks at the passing wasteland below, "After she smashes the shield and realizes her usual plan didn't work she might try rushing us and thats also a loss, we outnumber her and we have the blades to off her in one lucky swipe. So we pin her in combat, snatch the orb, shatter it and escape. she'll finally use her limit break to try and Alder us. Squiggles, and guillotine get to hopefully partake in some feirce berzerker combat together, and we make Nifelhime right." She shrugs.

"I don't think even the Godkillers can one-hit KO her" Rogue says, "Plus, she has no end of lackeys she could bring with her, we don't know for sure that it's just her waiting for us."

"From all the fights we've been in... I can see where you're coming from. If we beheaded her and her head landed back on her neck I could see it not working. Separating the two however? I've had my spine separated and I'm still kicking but If I were seperated entirely into two pieces? I dont think so."

"Bluff and fight at the same time, yeah I guess we'll have to." Ursula scratcher her ear, making her fur stand on end.

"Go in fast and strong. Once the initial barrages are over, we'll have an opening to start negotiations.

If negotiations fail, we'll continue on with Rain's plan. Just need to figure out which spells to cook and who cooks what."




"An epic cook off.. hehe" Lightning rubbed her palms together.





"We could try attracting Kaznachey's attention with a flare, but whether she'll rise to the bait is a different question." Zoy looked back:

"And even if she approaches us, we'll still end up inside her 4 km firing range. I doub't we'll be able to lead any negotiations from over 4 km away. We'll have to get close.

She does have a code of honor, but she only seems to use it in terms of keeping her promises. Coaxing her into making some sort of promise will be difficult. She'll need incentive."


"A trade of Circi and her team, for the Dark Machine, could work." Kaylee said, adjusting her eyepatch.



"The Godkillers won't one-hit KO her, but they may just apply a status effect in one hit. That's a big game changer." Zoy said "Not to mention the damage they do.

I don't know if we'll be able to behead her, with her freakish regenerative powers, for all we know her body may just grow a new head... or her head grow a new body... or her neck is just too thick."


"I wonder if Circi's Manticore blade can cut Kaz's head off." Adam wondered "It stops regeneration.." he looked to Lightning:

"Say... if you had a level 5 shield cooked, but not activated... and you saw Kaz discharging a level 5 spell at us, would you be able to stop it in time?"


"It would be a close shave, but yeah.. I guess." Lightning scratched her cheek.




"Okay" Adam nodded "We just need to decide who cooks which spells"

Kaylee Brown wrote:"A trade of Circi and her team, for the Dark Machine, could work." Kaylee said, adjusting her eyepatch.

"I'm not sure, we don't really have a substitute for it." Twilight says.

"Keep in mind, Masquerade is just a visual spectacle that creates images that aren't there, kind of like CGI. Without something as a real object to be cast over, it won't hold up on close inspection."

She the rubs her chin. "It's also wise to know as WHO we might meet her as. She could appear as the "Kaznachey persona", the old man, or if she appears as Lucretia for this final bluff. Both options require a different approach. What is key is that we let her create an opening for us to strike, then go from there."

Her brow shows more thought. "Hrmmm, what if a strike damages or destroys the brain? I think that would be the center of regeneration, or at least thoughts."

"We could use some sort of object that's roughly the same weight, or size as the Dark Machine." Kaylee pondered "And by the time Kaz takes it into her palms and examines it closer, it'll be too late and we either blast her with magic, or fly away as fast as possible.


If Kaznachey appears an old man, its clear she's up for a hostile confrontation and we should attack immediately.

But if she appears as Lucretia, it means she's trying to lull us into a false sense of security, to manipulate us into doing something. That is very good for us, because it will allow us to play along, get very close and catch her off guard, blasting her with a dozen different spells at once, when she doesn't expect it.

Then we grab the wounded, destroy the Orb and get the hell out of there, before she gets her bearings. This would be the ideal scenario for us. As for the spells.." Kaylee tapped her lip in thought.



"How about this." Zoy proposed:


Kaylee - lvl 5 Shield - to protect us from Kaznachey's first strike capability.

Zoy - lvl 4 Silence - to disable Kaznachey's magic for 20 rounds.

Adam - lvl 3 Tendons Grasp - to glue Kaz's legs into place for 10 rounds.

Lightning - lvl 3 Blind - to make Kaz blind for 10 rounds.

Johan - lvl 3 Thunderclap - to make Kaz deaf for 10 rounds.

Ursula - lvl 4 Heal - to revive all wounded or unconscious members of Fox Team with +80 HP

Viki - lvl 4 Spectral Armor - to grand everyone +40 Armor.



Aaaaaaaaaaand, I think this pretty much covers Kaz." Zoy fell into deep thought:

"I'm not sure, what do you guys want to cook?

More Shields, in case of attack? Or Dispels?

Maybe one or two highly lethal spells like lvl 4 Fireball for crowd control, in case Kaz uses Mitosis and spawns like 20 low level Parasites in an instant."



"How about.. Kaylee bit her lower lip:


Twilight - lvl 3 Dispel

Thena - lvl 3 Fireball

Rain - lvl 3 Lightning

Rogue - lvl 3 Confuse



What do you guys think? Oh and we should all probably cast Heightened Senses before the battle starts, we'll be able to sense hidden pentagrams, even if they're covered by snow or objects and we'll be able to sense any life forms, all inside a 150 meter radius."



"Feel free to swap the spells you wish to equip and cook as you see fit." Zoy nodded "And if you want us to cook something different."

Twilight wrote:"Hrmmm, what if a strike damages or destroys the brain? I think that would be the center of regeneration, or at least thoughts."

"Damaging the brain will definitely make the opponent lose consciousness for a while, or at least stun them." Zoy nodded "Even the brain will regenerate in the end though. Think back, how many times have we been directly stabbed or shot in the head? We didn't even sustain permanent damage.

And we're just simple Witchers. You can imagine how much more powerful this regenerative effect is for Kaznachey."

"I'll charge Ice Spike instead," Thena states "my ring enhances my frost attacks so I'll get more efficiency out of that spell. Do you want single target or area of effect?"

"Rose, do you have any thoughts or ideas? I'll share them with the team verbatim." Thena asks her soul partner

Thena wrote:"I'll charge Ice Spike instead," Thena states "my ring enhances my frost attacks so I'll get more efficiency out of that spell. Do you want single target or area of effect?"

"Rose, do you have any thoughts or ideas? I'll share them with the team verbatim." Thena asks her soul partner

"Now that you mention it, I have the Lightning Ring, so it makes more sense for me to charge Level 3 Lightning instead of Rain."

// Posting in the middle of a 16 hour shift =') halp me, somebody post moar so I'll have something to do rofl.


"If you're already cooking a high powered spell, might as well make it Area of Effect." Rose pondered:

"Not really sure what else to add, except maybe... if you're cooking a damage spell, its better reserved for crowd control.

Kaznachey has too much Health, so she won't feel it. If you're going after her, its more productive to use status effects.


Although, I guess Ice Spike has an increased chance of applying a Frozen status effect at high levels, plus your ring enhances the effect. So you can use it on Kaz... it will chip at her Health too, if you're serious about killing her."





"That's right!" Zoy snapped her fingers, smiling "If prepare spells that are complimented by our artifacts, we can maximize our effectiveness."


"Yeah, we can do more damage this way." Light cracked her knuckles."





"Alrighty, is everyone ready?" Zoy asked:

Remember, we are now strong enough to use Limit Breaks twice a day now.


If you need to swap any spells, we're carrying a Calibration Stone in one of the saddle bags.

Prepare any equipment and artifacts you need. This might just be the toughest fight of our lives. And the ones prepared better, will win." She smirked.

Rain gives a slight frown, "We bought the same ring Rogue." she looks down to the growing spell in her palm, "We'll hit her with two stunning Lightning spells then. We can change our utility spells when we get eyes on the battlefield."

"Out of curiosity with everyone who has a God Killer how fast could we deplete Kaznachey's health to zero if we fully stun her? I know it's 100 health per hit landed but I can land multiple with my weapon between the design and my training per second. We're setting up a plan to stun, immobilize, and neuter Kaznachey's strength and we're not going to just kill her?" Thena asks "History says we can't win, but history also said that everyone from Kepler was out to kill us and that's been proven wong. Plus I don't think Circi will be open to idea of retreating from the fight and if she faces Kaznachey on her own she will die."

Squiggles cringed slightly within the depths of your soul:

"Psst... Raaain... I don't think we actually bought the ring... its not in our inventory... we only bought the Azure Crystal used for illuminating our surroundings.."



"Lets take a stock of our artifacts," Zoy tapped her lip in thought:


"Twilight has the Silence Pendant, which protects her from Silence, the Status Effect that disables magic. If someone ever casts it on her, the Status Effects duration will be reduced by 2 turns.

Rain has the Azure Crystal used for illumination of the surroundings.

Rogue has the Azure Crystal and the Lightning Ring which near guarantees a Stun Status Effect with every lightning strike.

Thena has the Ice Ring which near guarantees a Chilled Status Effect with every Ice Spike, and Fire Bracelet, which, if she's ever set on fire, the duration of that Status Effect will be reduced by 2 turns.



Circi also has the Fire Bracelet, but also the Sinner Ring - which near guarantees Sinner Poisoning with every strike of her bony appendage.



Aaaand apparently Viki has 3 Potions of Wicked Regeneration, a scarlet red looking potion that suspiciously smells of iron and restores 40 HP immediately, but temporarily reduces Sanity by 20."



"I do?" Viki looked over her shoulder, down at her belt, where the potions glowed a wicked red. "Whoops.. ehehe... I forgot they were there." She sheepishly smiled, her cheeks burning red:
"Umm... anybody want one?"



"We should have bought more bling at Lieselotte." Lightning over-dramatically sighed.


"Its fine," Zoy waved her hand "That's what we have, and that's what we'll win with."

Thena wrote:"Out of curiosity with everyone who has a God Killer how fast could we deplete Kaznachey's health to zero if we fully stun her?

"Well," Zoy scratched her blond hair "Theoretically speaking, if Kaznachey still has 10,000 Health, and she's fully stunned and unprotected by Spectral Armor or Shield, and if all five party members who possess the Godkillers strike at her at the same time, as fast as they can, each one doing an average damage of, lets say -250 HP per turn,"

She trailed off, her eyes zig-zagging back and forth:

"We will kill her in 8 turns."




"That's if she just stands there for 8 turns and let's us hack at her." Viki cringed "We must remember she was a 5th Dan in Martial Arts the last time we scanned her. The higher Dan you are, the more chance there is to dodge attacks and magic.
Unless the magic is in Area of Effect of course... can't really dodge that unless you run out of the firing range.


"You should know... the children of Alstreim tried to assassinate Kaznachey, two years ago... we had 20 elite Witchers with us." Zoy looked away, her prosthetic wooden hand clenching on the leather straps that guided the Griffon "It didn't go as planned."



"...what went wrong?... do you think.." Kaylee asked awkwardly, her voice growing quiet. "...maybe... if we can analyze how that fight went, we can learn something that will help us this time."



Zoy remained silent for several moments, until the pause became awkward. Then she looked back over her shoulder at you and sighed:

"...she was ready for us. Its like... she knew.


We tracked her for weeks and believed we discerned her intended destination, so we set up an ambush in the forest, right in the middle of her predicted path. Highest level pentagrams, status effects, damage spells... basically... everything we're doing now.

It was supposed to be perfect. We catch her off guard, disable her with a dozen different Status Effects, rush her and hack away as fast as possible, before she even realizes what happened.

She was alone, she had no traveling companions. She had no chance of escape." Zoy went silent again, and looked back at the horizon.




"...so... what happened in reality?" Lightning asked in a deflated voice.



"You know the saying - no plan survives contact with the enemy?" Zoy bitterly asked "She was wearing Spectral Armor, but it was dimmed, somehow, transparent, you couldn't even see it, until spells started deflecting right off it.

But that came later. She dodged half the spells from the initial barrage.

Perhaps it was our fault for packing so closely together. We sat in ambush inside a 10 meter radius around her path, so our Area of Effect spells had to be small in radius, otherwise they'd hit our comrades.

She used it to her advantage. She dodged half of our initial barrage, the other half destroyed her Spectral Armor. The result of it was, instead of her suffering every Status Effect under the sun, we only managed to blind her and silence her magic. It didn't save us.


She rushed toward the edge of the perimeter we established around her and used our own men as human shields. She grabbed one, crippled his limbs, and while he was still alive, used him as a human shield, as she rushed toward us, one by one and obliterated our men with one or two strikes. She used hand to hand combat. Didn't even summon her sword.

She was faster, stronger, we couldn't keep up with her. She dodged most of our spells after that, and we couldn't fight at full force, because we were scared of killing our comrade that she took hostage. She exploited it. Exploited our emotions, our attachments to each other.


She toyed with us, as if we were blind kittens." Zoy gritted her teeth, her fists clenching so hard her nails bit into her palm.


"She killed or crippled us, one by one, and when everyone was dead or wounded, she took her time, walking slowly among our mutilated bodies and..." Zoy bit her lip.

"Zoy stop," Viki tried to reach out to her shoulder but Zoy snapped:


"...she dismembered us... while we were still alive... and forced our parasites to consume our own limbs... giving her 'Word', that she'll give us another chance to escape, if we did..." her expression became so distorted in bitter rage, it turned into a horrible grimace.

In the silence that followed, Zoy bitterly wiped away her eyes and anxiously sighed:


"...Kaznachey is a vial monster, cruel and disgusting... she will exploit every weakness we show, and she won't stop... until we're all dead... or until she completes her objectives."



"...so, what the hell do we do?" Johan lifted his grim gaze at her.

"Show her no weakness, and do not relent in your assault." Zoy scowled at the horizon, bearing her teeth "Most of all... don't lose your head..." her expression softened just slightly "Do not repeat our mistakes... don't panic... don't freeze up, no matter what you see down there... think. Plan. Adapt.

Do what you have to, to cripple her, extract the survivors and get the hell out."

Kaylee Brown wrote:"You should know... the children of Alstreim tried to assassinate Kaznachey, two years ago... we had 20 elite Witchers with us." Zoy looked away, her prosthetic wooden hand clenching on the leather straps that guided the Griffon "It didn't go as planned."

"...what went wrong?... do you think.." Kaylee asked awkwardly, her voice growing quiet. "...maybe... if we can analyze how that fight went, we can learn something that will help us this time."

Zoy remained silent for several moments, until the pause became awkward. Then she looked back over her shoulder at you and sighed:

"...she was ready for us. Its like... she knew.

"Do you think the Red Witchers may have had something to do with that?" Rogue asks.

"That or she just figured them out right away. Other one is bad and the past can't be changed, so let's not dwell on it. We need all of our attention on the fight coming up. Any mental distractions will reduce combat efficiency and increase the probability of death and or failure." Thena answers

"Wha- What?!" Rain exclaims to squiggles, "Then what did I buy! I couldn't have just walked away, that would be ridiculous! I remember buying SOMETHING from that store." Rain squints in thought trying to remember, "Wait... no... I stayed back while they went shopping." She blinks before sitting up and speaking aloud, "Imagine the treasurer dies to sasha." She suddenly giggles, "She has the Hoe of Destruction." She shakes her head, "What kind of spell or enchantment is Destruction anyways?"

Rains ears perk and she looks back to Zoy, "I dont know if you've noticed, we intend to do the exact same thing to him. No rules. No honor. I'll fucking throw sand in his eyes if it benifits us." She stares firmly back ahead, "We'll break him. Even if we have to do it limb by limb." She scowls, "Go for the hands if you can. Destroy them, cut them off, anything you can do to keep those fingers from moving and that blade from swinging."

Twilight listened to the story, trying to filter out the emotion and focus on the facts.

"... I know our opening move now."

Twilight looks at the group. "If you're Kaznachey, with practically unlimited mana, why wouldn't you start the day with a few casts of defenses and heightened senses? And if you're invading her territory, she has home advantage. Thus, the first act is obvious."

She folds her arms. "With the idea of dark machine activating, and some visuals, we lure Kaznachey out of the most advantageous position. When she's in a more manageable position, we use the same Masquerade spell to make it seem we nuke the area, tearing into her armor. Sure, she'll soon realize it was a bogus trick, but not before an actual dispel or two tears off her buffs. Form there, we tear off the other senses, and slowly work our way to cripple her."

She holds up a finger. "Most importantly, we're not fighting solo. Each of us picks a person we tag-team with, preferably a combination of a caster and a melee fighter. With this, we cover each other's weaknesses, and with the right number of groups, limit her mobility."

She gave a glance to Rain. "As for no rules... How far do we take that? Since one of the weaknesses of the larger group was unwillingness to hurt eachother... Will you cut any of us down if it means Kaznachey goes down too?"

Rain remains silent for a long moment, before taking on a firm glare. "If thats what you think we need."

Rain wrote:"Imagine the treasurer dies to sasha." She suddenly giggles, "She has the Hoe of Destruction." She shakes her head, "What kind of spell or enchantment is Destruction anyways?"

"Something destruction-y" Lightning released a small smirk "Hey, didn't the store owner say the Hoe holds a hidden power that shall be released when someone worthy tries wielding the weapon? What if it summons a lightning bolt that smites whatever it strikes in one hit?"


"One can only dream." Kaylee whistfully said.

Rogue wrote:Do you think the Red Witchers may have had something to do with that?"

Thena wrote:"That or she just figured them out right away.

"Who knows." Zoy shrugged emotionlessly "It would explain a few things about that fight. But I just never could shake off Kaznachey's expression, throughout that whole ordeal." Her fists clutched the Griffons reins harder:

"Its like... she was amused... pleasantly surprised, like a mother watching her 3 year old child present her with a drawing..."


Zoy bitterly scowled "All our effort, all our hopes, and it was like we were children to her, playing at war. Like she was never in danger... like she was just amused at our pathetic attempt to take her out... and she just... had to teach us a lesson."


She bitterly gritted her teeth and turned away, hiding the tears that welled in her eyes:
"...we're nothing to her... less than nothing... and she will never stop toying with us, until she gets what she wants."



Zoy hastily wiped her face with her sleeve and looked back at you over her shoulder:
"This is a rescue operation. Not an assassination attempt. Hurting our comrades for any reason will defeat the purpose.
Lets focus on disabling Kaz and extracting our allies. Fight her if you must, but don't get bogged down in combat.

Above all else, never fight her solo." Zoy looked at you, her eyes were heavy, pained "You will die.

Only engage Kaznachey with a minimum of 3 people at once, any less than that and you will suffer horrible injury and eventually, death."

Twilight wrote:"With the idea of dark machine activating, and some visuals, we lure Kaznachey out of the most advantageous position. When she's in a more manageable position, we use the same Masquerade spell to make it seem we nuke the area, tearing into her armor. Sure, she'll soon realize it was a bogus trick, but not before an actual dispel or two tears off her buffs. Form there, we tear off the other senses, and slowly work our way to cripple her."

She holds up a finger. "Most importantly, we're not fighting solo. Each of us picks a person we tag-team with, preferably a combination of a caster and a melee fighter. With this, we cover each other's weaknesses, and with the right number of groups, limit her mobility."

"So the key to our operation is luring her out of her camp, away from her pentagrams." Kaylee nodded, thinking aloud:

"Alright, I think we have a solid plan forming."


"Lets look over our inventory one last time," Zoy quietly said "maybe there's something useful there we forgot. This might be our last chance to prepare so lets make it count."

Thena updates her spell selection to the following.

Offensive
Ice Spike
Lightning Strike

Status Effects and Defense
Heal
Blind

Utility
Heightened Senses
Wall Run
Light

"I think we've established that Rose is trusworthy and I no longer need Dance of the Swallow. It's a wasted spell slot and inefficient" Thena comments on one of choices then goes back to the topic at hand "Twilight, Rain, once we've set off the intial strike the three of us should focus on Kaznachey. Keep her distracted while the rest focus on evacuation."