Libra's Lament, a Magical Girl Quest [Complete]

[kelllogo]

I get the desire to talk, but from their perspective it looks like we're losing the fight. That's not a position from which you try to negotiate.

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We are losing >_>

Brave can smack us with Affinity Kill and would have already done so if she wasn't trying to talk us down. Paladin can cut us in half and wants to, she held back because Brave wants us to surrender.

I am a bit salty trying to set up favourable circumstances to handle expected unexpected problems led to being held at swordpoint.

Maybe boost eclipse to knock out Paladin? Chitin Dancer might have enough silk to trap them again.

 

[justinkal]

We are losing >_>

Brave can smack us with Affinity Kill and would have already done so if she wasn't trying to talk us down. Paladin can cut us in half and wants to, she held back because Brave wants us to surrender.

I am a bit salty trying to set up favourable circumstances to handle expected unexpected problems led to being held at swordpoint.

Maybe boost eclipse to knock out Paladin? Chitin Dancer might have enough silk to trap them again.

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The real thing that went FUBAR was that using a strong attack on Brave Heart at the start was a mistake. Soul could easily have defeated Brave Heart 1v1 if nobody else (from either side) interfered.

The thing with talking though is that she is incredibly unlikely to accept anything except complete surrender, which is just a different type of Bad End. There's probably nothing we could say right now to convince her to let us leave or to convince her to give up.

 

[Dragonloli123]

[] Plan In the Blink of an Eye
-[] Sun casts Scorching Sunlight at Brave Heart to use up Heroes Never Die.
--[] Immediately afterwards (in the same action) both bodies cast Baleful Eclipse to KO Brave Heart.
-[] Get up into the sky when you can.

[] EXP Plan More Overall Power
-[] Purchase Sunlight Scepter: Spellslinger (350 EXP)
-[] Level Baleful Eclipse 10->12 (210 EXP)

I don't like Baleful Eclipse I'd prefer just getting Scorching sunlight to 15 and killing her since I like tragedy but fat chance of that winning so let's do this instead. Hopefully spellslinger will unlock new stuff in the shop as well.

snip

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Also you forgot to mention World Eater's health going to 0 due to Harmonious Fragment in the update.

 

[kelllogo]

The thing with talking though is that she is incredibly unlikely to accept anything except complete surrender, which is just a different type of Bad End. There's probably nothing we could say right now to convince her to let us leave or to convince her to give up.

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NoIWon'tDealWithIt.jpg

I don't care if it's pointless, I still want to do it! Agonized screams about how to make the world better or to declare your intentions are a treasured part of Magical Girl culture. In this case I want to confront Brave Heart to justify herself somehow while making it clear that we consider her offer a death sentence.

[] As Moon: Drop your weapon, look Brave Heart in the eye, and ask: "What do you think would happen to us if we surrendered?"
-[] "We can escape from you, we survived your attacks earlier and got away. We'll be killed if we surrender or become captured. Just like some of those girls you're chasing, who begged us to help them."
-[] Watch for Soul Queller to remember that she can fly over Unyielding Paladin and start flying upwards once she gets Brave Heart's attention.

 

[Naron]

Baleful Eclipse is a spell. Unless you have an ability that says otherwise, you can only cast one spell per turn, regardless of how many attacks per turn you have. This is standard for every character.

And unlike our other spells, Baleful Eclipse is a Synchronize Spell, which means that casting it once counts as one spell for each body.

So right now, each turn can contain 1 Baleful Eclipse OR one each of two different spells that aren't Baleful Eclipse OR two of the same spell that isn't Baleful Eclipse.

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Oh look, Omni-Casters!

@Naron, is Baleful Eclipse compatible with Radiance? If yes, we can knock off a level off of it in the plan.
@Naron, according to Dragou hitting Brave Heart in the face will delay her casting a spell momentarily even if damage is absorbed. Is it true, and is Soul in position to do it to cover for the twins?

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No, Radiance does not empower Baleful Eclipse.
Dragou misunderstood me there. Hitting her in the face followed by casting Baleful Eclipse is fast enough to go off before Brave can finish casting Avatar of Retribution.

I am a bit salty trying to set up favourable circumstances to handle expected unexpected problems led to being held at swordpoint.

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The thing with that is... you did that. Supreme Tech was an incredible power amplifier due to her great capability for ambushes and being a direct counter for Sun. Plus, she has a remote Grand Dispel that would have ruined your day somewhat fierce.

All of this did not come to bear because your plan managed to take her down, making the situation far less bad than it is.
The main mistake you made was tipping your hand in regards to Chi's presence; had you not specified for her to tie Brave Heart once she can, she would not have done so and stayed hidden. Without them knowing she is there, the duo would not have minded splitting up to hunt you.

Overall, your situation is not good, but better than it might be. Still solvable without spending anything, though that is difficult. In the end, it comes down to your EXP being allocated rather badly. Which people are continuing to do, cutting off the exponential growth right before it can really shine.

The real thing that went FUBAR was that using a strong attack on Brave Heart at the start was a mistake. Soul could easily have defeated Brave Heart 1v1 if nobody else (from either side) interfered.

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Also, that. You tipped your hand in regards to how strong the twins got as well, making her stop underestimating you before it was really useful.

Also you forgot to mention World Eater's health going to 0 due to Harmonious Fragment in the update.

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That was implied by everyone getting "First Death"-EXP. Good someone noticed.

 

[kelllogo]

The main mistake you made was tipping your hand in regards to Chi's presence; had you not specified for her to tie Brave Heart once she can, she would not have done so and stayed hidden. Without them knowing she is there, the duo would not have minded splitting up to hunt you.

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I thought Chi was planning to trap Brave if Brave was alone. Her jumping the gun and letting Paladin block the effect really screwed that bit up.

Edit: As did staying on the ground while they were getting free. I was counting on actually being in the air.

 

[Naron]

I thought Chi was planning to trap Brave if Brave was alone. Her jumping the gun and letting Paladin block the effect really screwed that bit up.

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That might have been my mistake in misreading the plan, but it fit the flow better than just having the standoff without this scene.

As for an IC-explanation, Chi is unused to people being able to get out of her Total Lockdown; she was so busy preparing everything else that she forgot to only bind Brave if alone.

 

[justinkal]

Also, that. You tipped your hand in regards to how strong the twins got as well, making her stop underestimating you before it was really useful.

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I meant in the sense that it cause Absorbing Aegis to massively increase her Base Resilience, to the point that Soul can't really do anything to her.

 

[kelllogo]

[-] Plan Meh
-[-] [Moon] Drop your weapon and cross your arms. "Meanie! Even if I can't hurt you you can't keep me from getting away!"
-[-] [Sun] Fly up and try to get a corner between you and everyone else.
-[-] [Soul Queller] Remember that you can fly, get above Unyielding Paladin and dive down to collect Moon.
--[-] Fly away for a bit and focus on dodging. If Brave Heart makes a large jump Soul Queller will try to mess up her landing and the twins will make a unified stave attack followed by Baleful Eclipse. Same goes for Unyielding Paladin.

 

[Naron]

Edit: As did staying on the ground while they were getting free. I was counting on actually being in the air.

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The twins just came under heavy AA-fire that would have killed them if not for All is Equal. No way they are staying in the air after that.

I meant in the sense that it cause Absorbing Aegis to massively increase her Base Resilience, to the point that Soul can't really do anything to her.

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That is another point, but anything meaningful Soul could have done to her before would have been intercepted by Unyielding Paladin.

 

[kelllogo]

The twins just came under heavy AA-fire that would have killed them if not for All is Equal. No way they are staying in the air after that.


That is another point, but anything meaningful Soul could have done to her before would have been intercepted by Unyielding Paladin.

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Oh fer God's sake, why didn't you just start off with the twins getting smacked with Affinity Kill instead of it being 2 seconds away?

And past EXP expenditure would actually be a detriment here since it would mean Absorbing Aegis would be cranked up even further due to prior suppression attacks. And cranking Moon's health to the Moon doesn't actually mean anything against the current attack.

 

[Naron]

Oh fer God's sake, why didn't you just start off with the twins getting smacked with Affinity Kill instead of it being 2 seconds away?

And past EXP expenditure would actually be a detriment here since it would mean Absorbing Aegis would be cranked up even further due to prior suppression attacks. And cranking Moon's health to the Moon doesn't actually mean anything against the current attack.

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Being condescending is not going to give you any points with me.

That aside, better spending would probably have allowed you to take Paladin down by now, making the capture of Brave Heart trivially easy. Furthermore, you advocated shooting a strong attack at someone who you know is not hurt by it (Heroes Never Die was known for a long time).

 

[Faraway-R]

Since nobody is willing to accept talking to them, how about a regrouping?

@Naron, is Chi in danger if we manage to get our fliers away? Can Soul pull one of our twins along to get away faster?

[] Plan Disengage
-[] The twin closer to Brave Heart, preferrably Sun, tells "sorry but no" and starts to move away at an angle while the other twin flies straight up. Separate enough you can't be both hit at once, and dodge Brave Heart's retaliation.
-[] Soul rushes to the twin still closest to opponents and pulls her upwards. Once on a safer height, spread out and engage in talking.
--[] Ask them to surrender themselves, tell them about deactivated detonators and that you'd rather not harm them and have them stand down peacefully.

 

[justinkal]

Which people are continuing to do, cutting off the exponential growth right before it can really shine.

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Ehh, a lot of stuff is already at the point of "more than big enough unless facing something that counters it", and in most of the situations in which you face an actual counter "make the countered big thing even bigger" doesn't actually accomplish anything.

Going down the list of things that are exponential and how the current situation would change if we pumped a lot of EXP into them:

• Sunlight Scepter: One level could let the weapon hurt Brave Heart. Many levels would lose the ability to be non-lethal until we train some more. Five levels (or 4 with a decent dice roll) could let Sun tank Paladin's attack, but would almost certainly fall into "lethal now" territory. Leveling it up to try to no sell attacks is also trying to make Sun do Moon's job, which feels wrong.
• Moonlight Scepter: Moon's MM is technically exponential, but main benefit from this would be more APT.
• Veil of the Lunar Goddess: One level to survive one hit from Paladin regardless of who is targeted. Four levels to let Moon no sell Paladin's attack. Both only apply if Affinity Kill is avoided.
• Scorching Sunlight: Leveling this up right now will just kill things.
• Supernova: Leveling it right now is a pure gamble. Surely does something cool at high levels, but that chance has come and gone.
• Baleful Eclipse: Two levels lets it oneshot Brave Heart after Heroes Never Die has already been used up. Lots of levels is inefficient in terms of long term overall combat potential.
• Healing Spells: Doesn't change anything about the current situation.

Leveling up Sunlight Scepter could get us out of this using the previous plan as long as Paladin doesn't attack Moon and Sun still manages to dodge Avatar of Retribution. KOing Brave Heart without killing her becomes harder.

Leveling up Veil of the Lunar Goddess could let us survive a few attacks from Paladin if Moon avoids Avatar of Retribution, but runs into problems with her high APT.

The issue though is that one of those is dependent on "the enemy attacks the target we want them to attack" and the other is dependent on avoiding Brave Hearts spell without KOing her and without both bodies using Dodge. That's leaving things to chance and figuring out how to pull off a miracle.

 

[kelllogo]

Unyielding Paladin appears to want to kill us pretty badly at the moment.

Problems:
-Enemies are hard to hurt.
Brave Heart gets stronger with every attack and ignores the first damage she would take. She also has Inhuman Skill to avoid cute tricks like Sun cherry tapping away damage before Eclipse'ing. On top of this she gets 90% damage reduction from anything useful.

Unyielding Paladin is a little easier. She'll intercept attacks but won't ignore spells and only has a 50% damage reduction right now.

Brave has 14164 Resilience currently and 4211 damage reduction from buffs. Paladin has 9000 Resilience and 4430 damage reduction from buffs.

Assuming max rolls on their MM it would take

• 18596 Damage to harm Brave Heart
• 15930 Damage to harm Unyielding Paladin
• 7972 Juggernaut Damage to harm Brave Heart
• 11181 Juggernaut Damage to harm Unyielding Paladin
• 30472 Juggernaut Damage to drop Brave Heart
• 58680 Juggernaut Damage to drop Unyielding Paladin

Level 13 Baleful Eclipse would knock Paladin Or Brave out of the fight. Level 12 Scorching Sunlight or Baleful Eclipse would knock Brave Heart (or Pally) out of the fight.

-Priscilla doesn't want to hurt them and they're going to murder us before the hivemind can decide otherwise.
Check the bad end. Unyielding Paladin has an urge to cut little girls in twain. Level 13-14 Sun Staff would let her survive that...

As said before we're about 2 seconds away from getting hit with the worst "bad touch" effect the system has if we don't disable Brave Heart. We're about 4 seconds away from Unyielding Paladin deciding to cut us to pieces if Brave Heart looks like she's having the least bit of trouble with us. And we're going to have to handle it with sweetness and light because Pris abhors the thought of crippling enemies to buy time and won't feel pressured enough to go for it until the turn after she gets killed.

I've considered running away, but we're going nowhere fast unless someone's kept about 1600 EXP to level Flight up to something useful in the present circumstances.

-This needs to be handled on the first action taken.
As seen in the bad end our chance to get the drop on Brave amounts to one action each from the twins. We might get another to handle Unyielding Paladin if the first volley stops Brave Heart.

Action disparity is pretty brutal for this. If both twins dodge Unyielding Paladin gets several swings while they're burdened with severe penalties to defense. Which is probably going to break out weapons even if there's enough other defenses to withstand her.

-Possible scenarios (feel free to suggest others).

--Tag and blackout
Hit Brave Heart with something then use Baleful Eclipse to knock her out. (Requires level 13 Baleful Eclipse)
(Multicaster) Sun uses Sunlight then a synch spell with Moon.
-Pretty bad odds of Sun having enough time for the second spell. Paladin can still ruin us.
Sun and Moon try a synch'd attack then use a synch'd spell.
-Possible, depending on if Knockback still works and if Brave doesn't Skill her way out of one of the attacks. Paladin can still ruin us.
(Level 12 Sun Staff) Sun thumps Brave than uses a synch spell.
-This is almost begging for Brave to use Skill to negate. If she doesn't the knockback (if it works) may buy enough time to use the spell. Paladin can still ruin us...

--Unyielding Paladin has to go. (Requires level 13 Baleful Eclipse for non-lethal)
Hit Unyielding Paladin and hope for the best with Brave Heart.
Sun and Moon do a unified attack with Scorching Sunlight
-I think that would do 81920 Damage (20480+20480)*2 from connection. Which is enough to burn Paladin into the negatives in a presumably grisly manner. Which Pris isn't going to want to do until a little bit after she tries cutting us in half . There might be a possibility that Brave will jump into the ray and muck this up even more... actually that sounds like a near certainty now that I think about it.
Hit her with the eclipse
-Clean and straightforward as far as this section goes. Except for the part where Brave might jump in the way... sigh.

--Run away
:-\ Using Dodges to escape Brave Heart makes us easy pickings for Unyielding Paladin. Letting Brave's spell land disables our everything.

 

[Faraway-R]

--Tag and blackout
Hit Brave Heart with something then use Baleful Eclipse to knock her out. (Requires level 14 Baleful Eclipse)

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No we don't. Eclipse 11 has 29956 damage to it, with Smite and Juggernaut. Brave Heart defense at this point reduces damage by 18500/4=4625, or 8800 after Paladin's shield. Resulting in 21k damage, or 2100-ish after reduction. This leaves her BARELY active at 100-ish health.

Option 1:
Sunlight Scepter 11, Baleful Eclipse 12 - Radiance strike Brave Heart, Baleful Eclipse her - guaranteed to drop her before she hits us with her attack, but also guarantees disproportionate retribution from Paladin.

Option 2 - Baleful Eclipse 13 - guaranteed to drop Paladin, same problem with Brave Heart.

Option 3 - As Option 2, but raise Moonlight Scepter to 10 - we get one clean dodge. Oh, we'll survive her first strike, but we're getting one affinity sealed and are at her mercy afterwards.

Her spell is 60k damage, her weapon is 39k damage. Moon hit first will make us dead. Sun hit first will lose our offense, and Moon cannot survive absorbing the second hit.

@Naron, can Chi bind Brave Heart before she gets off both her spell AND her attacks off?

 

[kelllogo]

No we don't. Eclipse 11 has 29956 damage to it, with Smite and Juggernaut. Brave Heart defense at this point reduces damage by 18500/4=4625, or 8800 after Paladin's shield. Resulting in 21k damage, or 2100-ish after reduction. This leaves her BARELY active at 100-ish health.

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*squints*

Ah, I multiplied the wrong value. Will fix.

 

[Faraway-R]

Total EXP - 841
Baleful Eclipse 13 - 330 (330 total)
Moonlight Scepter 10 - 350 (680 total, 161 remaining)
Sunlight Scepter 11 - 100 (780 total, 61 remaining)
OR
Veil of the Lunar Goddess 14 - 130 (810 total, 31 remaining)

Results:
Paladin dropped Non-lethally. Moon dodged the Avatar of Retribution. Sun has Affinity Kill on her, is at swordpoint. Moon has 100-ish thousands hp and one Shining Protector still. I hope Chi bails us out.

Or if Naron permits, we get the same but without needing to up the Scepter of Moon.

...we're running in circles at this point.

EDIT:

Other non-obvious options.
Veil of the Lunar Goddess 15 allows Moon to tank anything short of Arcane Surge with impunity - and even that takes THREE attacks redirected. Affinity Kill still remains a concern though... On the other hand, it is a Super vs Super interaction... On the other other hand, Red Rose showed us how it's done with Solar Radiance, so the most obvious argument of "highest level wins" favors Brave Heart.

 

[Naron]

@Naron, is Chi in danger if we manage to get our fliers away? Can Soul pull one of our twins along to get away faster?

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Chi is not in danger and yes, Soul can do that.

Ehh, a lot of stuff is already at the point of "more than big enough unless facing something that counters it", and in most of the situations in which you face an actual counter "make the countered big thing even bigger" doesn't actually accomplish anything.

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Look, I am done with this.
If you insist on refusing a QM-signal that could not be any more blatant, I can not help you. It was not for a lack of trying.

Unyielding Paladin appears to want to kill us pretty badly at the moment.

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Not really; she is going along with Brave Heart's order to bag the twins and take them alive, at least for as long as their opposition does not escalate.

She also has Inhuman Skill to avoid cute tricks like Sun cherry tapping away damage before Eclipse'ing.

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Sun has three ApT; one attack negated just means the next one will hit, then she still has one action for Eclipse.

@Naron, can Chi bind Brave Heart before she gets off both her spell AND her attacks off?

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Yes.

 

[Faraway-R]

@Naron, can Chi bind Brave Heart before she gets off both her spell AND her attacks off?

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Yes.

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And there you have it.

We CAN Baleful Eclipse the Paladin, tank Brave Heart's spell, AND neutralise her before dying.

Like I said, a simple plan of Baleful Eclipse 13 and shooting Paladin first will solve most issues. We can even engage in speech if we want to. Probably.

[X] Plan Baleful Diplomacy v2
-[X] "We're sorry, but we must refuse. The remote detonators on your teammates have been disabled already, and we don't want to harm you to stop you, but we will, if we have to. Please, detransform and let us take you in instead."
--[X] In case hostilities break out, drop Paladin with Baleful Eclipse and dodge Brave Soul's attack the best you can, to disengage. Chi binds Brave Heart the moment Paladin is no longer an issue. Reassure Brave Heart her teammates will be fine.
--[X] If the opposition isn't attacking and is willing to talk, explain your point of view - their pursuit has gone long enough you were asked to intervene. You hope for a peaceful resolution, but will not back down. Supreme Tech is alive, and if they surrender there will be no harm to them.
-[X] If Brave Heart refuses to detransform after being caught, use Scorching Sunlight to drop her defense and then hit her with synchronized scepter strikes to knock her out. Soul may also contribute. And if one of the girls is afflicted by Affinity Kill, try dropping and reapplying the transformation once Brave Heart is down. Secure everyone and go to Clockwork Queen and Judge to share the news.
--[X] EXP Purchase: Baleful Eclipse 13 (330 exp)

 

[justinkal]

dodge Brave Soul's attack

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Brave Heart

Also, two minor issues with the plan.

First, Total Lockdown might prevent Brave Heart from manually dropping her transformation. Do not offer to drop that in order to allow her untransform.

Second, should probably add in an some kind of "oh yeah, the soldiers exist".

Look, I am done with this.
If you insist on refusing a QM-signal that could not be any more blatant, I can not help you. It was not for a lack of trying.

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I understand the signal perfectly fine. Was just showing that none of it adequately deals with the current situation.

The only thing that actually helps this specific situation, within the bounds of our strategy ideas, is the thing I want to put as little additional EXP into as possible.

 

[kelllogo]

Sun has three ApT; one attack negated just means the next one will hit, then she still has one action for Eclipse.

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That's not quite how I modeled that. I'll try to explain.

Brave Heart cedes initiative to demand a response. Before this she was enjoying the benefit of crashing through a wall into the party, so initiative is hers to give.
Pris goes. In this instance Sun charges in with her staff.
Since Brave was waiting and watching she gets to respond in about the same priority.
She uses a fancy trick to send Sun stumbling instead of getting hit. This uses up more effort and planning than the attack so she's down a move to get back into alignment.
Sun catches herself with her staff and swings again using Moon's eyes to get a good shot.
Brave knows the attack is coming but elects to ignore it to use her spell.
Sun lands a solid hit and moves to align herself with Moon for Baleful Eclipse.
At pretty much the same time Brave Heart starts casting Avatar. Since she's higher skill and doesn't need to manage two bodies she gets to act faster in this 'tick' and uses her spell before getting hit with Eclipse.

Sun having better skill, High Speed Combat, or more Attacks per turn would give better results for her.

The mental picture of Sun repeatedly swinging her staff into Brave Heart and using Knockback+Batter to stunlock her is amusing. Anyone want to raise Sunlight Scepter to level 15 for Plan Boink, Boink, Boink?

 

[justinkal]

Anyone want to raise Sunlight Scepter to level 15 for Plan Boink, Boink, Boink?

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Only if there's a confirmation that 5 levels at once somehow isn't enough of a sudden damage increase to go lethal. 5 levels also lets Sun no sell Energy Surge (even though tanking is supposed to be Moon's job).

 

[Naron]

Only if there's a confirmation that 5 levels at once somehow isn't enough of a sudden damage increase to go lethal.

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It would, though only barely.
With the previous attempt to control damage giving some help, there is also Skilled and Discipline helping you in the matter. Not to mention the fact you are not 'overkilling' her by too much after damage reduction.

 

[justinkal]

It would, though only barely.
With the previous attempt to control damage giving some help, there is also Skilled and Discipline helping you in the matter. Not to mention the fact you are not 'overkilling' her by too much after damage reduction.

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That counts as only barely overkill? It makes Veil of the Solar Goddess's offensive bonus be larger than 100k, which when reduced by 90% is still multiple times higher than her her max HP.

Sounds more like massive overkill to me.........