lostcompass | a dragon hunting someone else will go

Since you folks know the ropes, in the interest of keeping things expedient, please only ask questions about events/outcomes you're definitely pursuing in logs/tags!

So, I got the idea of, once the down below team makes it to the banquet with the undead, Lily offering to switch outfits with Vannozza via transfiguration and act as a decoy to draw fire and keep her ladyship a little safer (she knows she needs to score some points). Would that be something her ladyship is receptive to? and if so how much/what sort of danger (if anything beyond the already listed) would Lily be putting herself into?

So, Vannozza would agree to it just in case Macaluso gets any ideas, but in reality she wouldn't be exposed to much more danger than anyone else. The threat to her — the danger, generally — remains considerable: the dead, the dragon, and the panic-struck masses, confined in a small space, with the Bessis spewing fire everywhere.

That said, keeping Vannozza well and away from the trampling hordes, the flames and the dead would still win Lily considerable favour. She will find Vannozza slightly more agitated than usual, but still reliably collected — at least, enough to take decent direction.

Feel free to NPC her following around in some of your threads, if you'd like, or drop me a line if you need her to input.

For NPCing her purposes, what is she usually doing in a fight spell-wise, or would she just fall back and let others handle it?

Please grab this woman a pillow, she will be queening.

Oh. And, of course, she will want evidence retained that the Bessis held the stirred bodies of their once enemies.

It will work great as blackmail.

How successful is seduction as a sentry-distraction tactic? With living sentries, at any rate.

You'd have some luck with one or two, but probably nothing too widely spread!

By the time the newbies are sprung and we might, possibly, race upward, does Macaluso need. A hand. At all. Asking for me, absolutely, about what his situation is like as this nonsense continues on, and I'm plotting how Wei Wuxian goes from canal swimming with bae to the undead room of holding to trying to cut down on casualties and ensure both candidates for ruling are kept breathing (Lily helping with Vannozza, I see) once he's back in the tower proper, with all the chaos that's unfolding.

... so how resentful is the dragon--LALSKJD

Sighs and laughs, I always... feel so bad, so here! We have a guy who plays flute and can manipulate dead things and resentment with it, will his music at any point be able to help influence or contain the dragon from smashing into something aggressively--can we have a shadow dragon face off against an ice dragon. This would be later on, could dovetail with when we have the official "solution" for the dragon, and his lack of success is still a success from my POV.

Can we get a dead witch to help subdue a dragon with their suggestibility... mental... magic. It sounds like a terrible plan but imagine the witch escaping afterward because Wei Wuxian's wiped out and he was on the dragon only, now he's, you know. Falling off with less grace than Xie Lian's kiting.

Heya! Let me know if I've missed anything:

- Macaluso absolutely needs a hand, both with protecting himself anc others. He's hitched his ride to the Bessis, and they have the dead of their supposed allies in the basement. And that's his dragon out there, keeping everyone captive. He needs every limb he can get.

- the dragon has a lot of grudge-bearing right now ~~for now~~, but it's very much alive, not sure its resent would count for your purposes! If the vote steers towards killing the dragon, though, come back to me.

- you can absolutely take over some Attaryl witches and help them tame/sedate the dragon. But they are highly trained in control/mental magic, so they'd 'fight' necromantic control more than other dead (part of why the necromancers the Bessis called in struggled). Gratefully, they have a lot of resentment. Tl;dr: you can have three.

- Macaluso getting some aid from... Wei Wuxian stealing a mask from someone else and running around in wet underdress then, that'll be Grand, thank you! Part of this will then be him trying to get those three witches under control, but I'd figure with them fighting him, it'll be a whole staged production--not three at once, but three total by the time they've turned to dealing with the dragon.

- Hahaha sounds good, though I hope not to have that opportunity (and given current vote, likely won't)--but lovely to know! And this grudge-bearing creature is what some people want to keep as a pet. (Is Anurr lusting for the dragon yet.)

- Wonderful, I'll have that be a continuing thread of him working to get that control, then, so he gets up to three, not starting out able to grab three. He'll be extra "ffs" over this, because he's been wondering with the burned dead out in the private hunting forest if more of the witches weren't likewise undead and wandering around somewhere. Way to find out... thank you! Gives me what I wanted to know to write up a top level after sleeping, rubs hands together.

All sounds good! I could give you up to five witches, but I'd need two back at least by the end of it. You can keep three, though.

Careful as Macaluso might not be keen on the witches........

Maybe up to five within the tower, a loss of control over two when redirecting them toward dragon shenanigans outside the tower?

I laugh, Macaluso, these are what your allies have done, ah? And where, oh where, are the Bessis dead, oh where oh where might they beeeee. But noted, Wei Wuxian will not make himself a witch harem like certain novel counterparts. /fingerguns! He'll also do what he can to get them interfering with the other witches (and I see we have many ways they're getting handled, reading question threads) but whisk them away from Bessis trying to light way too late pyres. Shove an uncontrolled dead witch... to burn... man that's sad and horrific and actually he'd hate that, does decapitation work to prevent these undead witches from continuing to power on?

I'll probably have him do a sound off with Lily and/or Vannozza, but since it seems like Vannozza's hardcore pillowqueening, it's likely something I'll toss to the Lily-player to see what kind of in passing chaotic check-in they might be able to exchange.

Yes, that's one problem - the Bessis wouldn't really rush to avoid burning dead Attaryl, and the dead wouldn't think favourably of their killers and captors. In better news, the crowding is horrifying enough that you can plausibly get away with keeping them out of each other's reach.

And sure, re: witches, that all sounds good. Basically I just want to make sure enough stay alive for the second part of the vote/mission, or else I'd let you guys have/hack more!

It's a game of cat and mouse and frankly everyone sucks at this party, time to blow this joint--to outside, shedding the extra two witches in the process for mod purposes.

... Dear stars are these witches conscious enough to have opinions on what they want to do afterward?

Good question! They are certainly more mentally aware than some of the other undead (think: the ones in Vannozza's forest, the undead of Unhalad), so I'd say they retain personalities that will express themselves more the longer the witches are outside of the reach of the myrriad of wards they were put under.

It's very silly, but part of it is while he's their Master/controller, he'd probably want to ask what they want, if they hit a point of being able to verbalise that. It's dangerous just leaving them to their own unattached ends, especially when he knows Anurr is lurking around out there somewhere, but who wants to be Master to dead mind control witches forever.

... Actually, lots of people not him.

What they want is pretty straightforward: relief from their burns (which can't really be offered to the extent that they want) and vengeance (which they're taking). So there isn't much that Wei Wuxian can do for them, that they're not already doing for themselves.

a dragon hunting someone else will go

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