1) Yes it is; corpsetaker is trying to flee, they aren't going to bother specifically targeting things that aren't impeding that because they need to focus on getting away. If they actually do use Lydia's earth magic then the wyrm contesting it immediately makes it a blocker to whatever they're trying to do to escape. It makes a retaliatory strike a lot more reasonable a concern.
2) The basis of getting Matthews involved would have been convincing him that the fight was winnable. In any case, we avoided going that because it was too risky, so it doesn't do anything to change the discussion we've been having. Sure it might be IC, but there are plenty of other IC options that are better ideas.
3) Quality matters sure, but my point was that the investment in so far as we can measure it is more of a long term want than an immediate need. Which changes the value judgement on how much he'll involve himself in our stuff.
4) Set a three second timer and then try to imagine the sequence of events we're talking about. Fudging the details doesn't matter that much when the talking can happen concurrently, or doesn't matter to the way the scene plays out.
This matters in the same way a somatic component does in dnd. We have to stay still and close enough to actually be clearly heard, then move. How exactly it plays out matters when victory or defeat is seconds away.
As to the ramming option, that would basically have been our surprise round.
1)I see where your error is. Thing is, Corpsetaker is not trying to flee.
I repeat:
Corpsetaker is not trying to flee.
By WoQM, the portal is one turn away from her position. After Michael flubbed our surprise round, we apparently rolled Initiative and she got to act first. But instead of bolting across the portal and slammimg the door, which would have her and her hostage in safety and the rest of us sucking dust, she spends her action making a necromancy attack with a fright of spectres to see who she can kill.
Which is very much in character for the canon Capriocorpus, who was always overly convinced of her own capability.
In Dead Beat, she died trying to solo melee a warparty of Wardens instead of just continuing to throw ghosts at them or to shoot them. And her Final Death in Ghost Story was due to underestimating an ectomancer in his place of power.
She isnt stupid, mind; the portal is right there, and if the fight starts going wrong, she could retreat through it and slam the door.
She's covered every conceivable angle and threat she's aware of.
But the lowrisk, guaranteed payoff move was to retreat.
And like a sucker at the casino table who won a great bet, instead of cashing out her winnings, she's letting her bet ride.
Lady should have listened to
Kenny Rogers.
2)The basis for getting Mathews involved would have been
convincing him that we could save his granddaughter.
The man made it clear that their collective safety was his priority, even over his own; a situation where he and Molly working together defeated or killed Kattrin Holt and Cindy died to a fail deadly contingency was not acceptable.
And we had no way of preventing a death curse, assuming Kattrin is human enough to have one(jury's out for a Valkyrie).
Or a remote-triggered entropy curse, like the one that killed the victims in Storm Front and Blood Rites.
Or even something as simple as a "if no phone call from this number with these words in thirty minutes, feed her to the ghouls".
3) Fair.
4) Counterpoint: Michael's failed exorcism Prayer.
"Most glorious Prince of the Heavenly Armies,
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in "our battle against principalities and
powers,
against the rulers of this world of darkness,
against the spirits of wickedness in the high places"
The Capriocorpus speech.
"Your God has not power over me, for I have slipped the chains of death and the demands of His Judgement. A hundred deaths I have faced and all of them I have cast onto those too weak to keep their lives from me."
Both of these happened this update. Note the length.
The narrative bends enough for multi-sentence speeches to fit inside combat turns, because narrative.
I have no anxiety about Molly not having enough time to speak if its necessary.
