Reiterating votes:
[X] A crate of Stoneware Silk, 60 bolts
[X] A crate of varied precious and semi-precious gemstones
[X] With a growl as you meet him in battle
And tentative plan:
[X] Plan Unexpected Aggression
-[X] Tap Frami (+170 Orthstirr)
-[X] Activate Punching Up (-35 Orthstirr)
-[X] 70d6 Attack (70d6 tricks)
-[X] 35d6 Defense (0d6 tricks, 32d6 in practice)
-[X] 0d6 Intercept
-[X] Activate Heated Shroud (-5 Orthstirr) and Slipstream (-16 Orthstirr)
-[X] Activate Blink of the Mind's Eye immediately (-1 Orthstirr) and again if our senses become confused (-1 Orthstirr each time)
-[X] Put 2 Orthstirr into 4 layers of Reinforce Shield before the combat begins (-2 Orthstirr)
-[X] Make a 2Fold 40d6+5 Honedx3 Lightning-Charged Flashfire Cleave attack using the Pierce Twist and 9 Orthstirr for extra dice and 3 Odr for damage on the first of the two (-30 Orthstirr, -3 Odr), and three 21d6+5 (w/Hugareida) Lightning-Charged Firebomb-Strikes adding 6 Orthstirr to the attacks (-9 Orthstirr each)
-[X] In response to the first two melee-range Trick Attacks he uses respond with Contested Movement boosted by Fight of Your Life (13d6+5 each, -3 Orthstirr each) and use Lightning-Charged Firebomb Strikes with Pierce as our counterattacks (-12 Orthstirr each), and if targeted by ranged Tricks, non-trick melee attacks, melee Tricks after those two, or if anything gets through the Contested Movement we will use Halting Vortex (-4 Orthstirr), and if something gets through the Halting Vortex, or he seems to be using the Pierce Twist and we've already used Contested Movement, and we lack Reinforce Shield, or if he uses a Trick Attack while we use our 2Fold attack, we will use up to one 28d6+9 Honed x4 Reinforced x6 (-10 Orthstirr), two 18d6+9 Honed x4 Reinforcedx6 defenses (-10 Orthstirr each), and if he makes a non-Trick Attack while we are using our 2Fold Attack we will use one 9d6+9 Honed x3 Reinforced x5 defense (-8 Orthstirr).
-[X] Tactics – We jump him and hit him as hard and unavoidably as we can arrange with Flashfire Cleave, following up with Firebomb-Strikes as quickly as we can, with some particularly potent ones set up to respond to his own attacks on us. The idea here is to put the hurt on him before he realizes we're a serious threat.
Basically, if we're reading this guy right, he's better than us but not taking us seriously. The intent here is to really mess up his armor (this attack should do 13 damage to his armor and 10 to him, or 10 to the chain if it's redirected the way we suspect...that really should put a serious hurt on both...it'd likely kill him without the chain...he and the chain should also both take damage from Heated Shroud), then, if he uses Trick Attacks, Contested-Movement hits him hard with, in practice, two unavoidable 8-10 damage hits (him beating 13d6+5 with his raw Hamr is wildly unlikely, and Pierce handles Perfect defenses from there). If he doesn't use Trick Attacks he runs down our Orthstirr, but also definitely gets complacent with only Halting Vortexes stopping him, and will likely try Pierce next turn and run right into those jacked up Contested Movements.
This is highly expensive, but I don't have a better idea for how to take this guy down. If someone else does I'm all ears, though I do think we should open up with Flashfire Cleave and have the Contested Movement + Fight Of Your Life + Big Pierce Attacks combo online defensively.
EDIT: Edited to add Punching Up. Added 2Fold to the initial Flashfire Cleave and some more depth to our non-Trick defenses for while we're using it. Honestly, probably a little overly prepared there, but better safe than sorry.
