<strong>Location:</strong>Kiele Street. In the future<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>None.  The PCs don’t see this and shouldn’t respond to it.<br/><br/><em>Nana guided the children down the road by the beach as best she could.  Her knees weren’t what they were, and she never had children of her own, but it was always a joy to teach them, to see their faces light up.  “Have you all been good?” she asked.<br/><br/>“We’ve been good!” said Aori.<br/><br/>“Really good!” chimed in Denver, smiling his best smile.<br/><br/>“Good,” offered little Sam as best he could.  He still had trouble with words, but that would come in time.<br/><br/>“Well,” Nana said as she went to sit on some of the rocks overlooking the beach.  “Which story would you like?  Would you like the story of why the days are so long?”  Stories involving Maui were often fun.<br/><br/>Aori shook her head.  “You told us that one so many times now.”<br/><br/>“You know which one we want!” insisted Denver.<br/><br/>“Wozer,” said Sam.<br/><br/>Nana’s wry smile showed her dentures.  “How about why the skies sometimes turn red?”<br/><br/>Aori pointed to a very specific spot on the beach.  “We want the story of why Gilbert doesn’t have a house anymore.  With Namira.”<br/><br/>“And the Righteous Devil Sage!” said Denver with a grin.<br/><br/>“Goose lady!” piped in Sam.<br/><br/>“Oh, and don’t forget Clio,” Nana said, conveniently leaving out the succubus for the time being.  “Do you remember what she made at the end?”<br/><br/></em><hr/><br/>Somehow the owl was able to convey a look regarding Delphi to Clio, a look that explained that it was worth explaining later, but for now, there were more pressing matters.<br/><br/>Serafiel grinned as she pulled out her phone, pressing a button to activate the music while she was still connected via Bluetooth.  The speakers were usually used for warning or communication, but for now, they had a very important and necessary role to play:<br/><br/>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8<br/><br/>It took very little time to damage the house beyond repair, causing the entire thing to collapse.  The water hose in the back was damaged but not destroyed, spraying water everywhere.  The thick steel of a trapdoor to the basement briefly showed through all the moving debris, not long enough to get a good look, but with enough common sense saying that it was locked and fortified.  They could handle that problem later.<br/><br/>The more imminent problem was the crash of the window on the other side, followed by Gilbert rushing out from the side into view.  On top of his casualwear, he was wearing an exceptionally-crafted Tahitian shell necklace that didn’t usually show since he wasn’t usually wearing a wifebeater shirt and usually kept it tucked in.  Just as the other members of the Band now had their own scents and sounds, his was the salt of the sea, far amplified beyond simply being out near the ocean, with the faint sounds of many different seafoods cooking simultaneously.<br/><br/>“My house?  My fucking<em>house</em>?”  For a moment, rage blinded him, before his attention focused more on Namira.  “Oh, you’re Ishtar’s bitch, aren’t you?  Then I guess I really am Gilgamesh, the<em>hero</em>of this story,”<br/><br/>With that, he focused his mana, the connections and reputation he’d built up over the years, dedicating it to Pele.  As he covered himself with magma, the molten rock poured out from him and set the remains of the house ablaze, flooding the nearby area with lava out to a hundred feet away from him.  Only the area near the water hose provided much in the way of stone, and Gilbert had no interest in standing near it.<br/><br/>Four figures popped up, elemental humanoid shapes of the lava that cooled enough into red rock to take further shape and shamble towards the Band.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>OOC:</strong>Okay, for about half of you, this is your first combat.  I’m adding in a bunch of explanations on various things to help with that.<br/><br/><strong>Defense:</strong>The first thing you want to remember is that, for me, I’m asking everyone to roll your Defense Pool and add your Defense Rating to your post for each round of combat.  This will speed things up later if you get attacked.<br/><br/>Your Defense Pool is the highest of your Resilence attributes: Resolve, Stamina, or Composure.  JD and Clio have 5.  Luke and Namira have 3.  You can use the successes from this roll to Dive For Cover or to Roll Away from nearby enemies, but I suggest you use them to Defend, which means that your Defense Rating for the round will usually be 1+successes.<br/><br/>Next up, for this combat, on top of your usual turn, I’m giving everyone a free Simple Action that they could have taken before combat starts.  Gilbert did power-up stuff, so you get to also, and I want to let Namira change Maana into a more combat-ready shape without losing the first turn of combat.  Don’t use this for doing damage, but the obvious choices are either to use a Marvel or roll to deal with the lava (see below).<br/><br/>As far as all the lava, you’re looking at a level 3<strong>Complication</strong>.  Now, the way Complications work (assuming it affects you in the first place, but I’m using it as a teaching moment) is that you have to make some sort of roll and build up successes to overcome it.  A Dexterity+Athletics roll would work here, and other suggestions are certainly feasible.  Stamina+Survival because you used to walk on hot coals?  Yeah, okay.<br/><br/>You also have the choice of a<strong>Mixed Action</strong>.  A Mixed Action is when you want to make two different types of rolls at once; you roll the lower of the two dice pools, and you split the successes as you choose, though pertinent Enhancements go to their specific rolls.  For this, one success minimum is enough not to be burned per round, and when you’ve built up three, you’ve effectively handled it well enough that you no longer have to worry about it for the scene.  Maybe you’ve found all the safe spots and are sticking on those, for example.<br/><br/>Now, Complications aren’t going to affect you all the time:<br/><br/>If you have the Fire purview, you just ignore it and don’t have to roll anything.<em>Nothing</em>some punk kid throws at you will ever compare to the heat of Hephaestus’ forge.  That extends to your personal belongings as well, which presumably means while you have them on your person; I’m ruling that Gong’s protected as long as he’s on you, but he’s not going to be okay swimming in lava if he moves away from you.<br/><br/>If you have Epic Dexterity, you can choose to run over it and keep going for as long as you keep on moving; you may just have to clean your shoes afterwards because the soles are a little charred.  However, that won’t protect you if you stop moving or if these guys knock you down and into the lava, so you may want to choose to do that Mixed Action anyway.<br/><br/>Stay out to Medium range, over 100 feet/30 meters away, and you’re likewise fine.<br/><br/>Now, the elementals are<strong>trivial</strong>.  That means that they’re pathetic enough that you take them out in one hit, don’t cost Legend to use Marvels against so long as you only affect trivial targets, and exist more to let you show off than to pose any significant threat on their own.  I won’t be implementing the “I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass” rules yet so that people have some time to get used to combat, but eventually, you’ll be taking multiple trivial foes out in a single turn.<br/><br/>If you attack a trivial enemy and roll at least one success on the dice, feel free to just describe how you destroy it as part of your post.  The Hobbit has Bandobras Took who beheaded goblin king Golfimbul, sending the head flying a hundred years down into a rabbit hole and inventing the game of golf.  Go wild with it.  That’s what trivial enemies are for.<br/><br/>Another thing I want to make clear for my narrative combat style: I’m big on the Marvel Comics style of talking.  A combat round is supposed to only be four seconds, but feel free to spend paragraph after paragraph insulting the villain or telling him why he’s wrong.  It’s just more fun that way, and you see it in all kinds of storytelling, just like how it’s often part of the narrative for the villain to power up right in front of everyone and the heroes not to be able to beat on him before he does.<br/><br/>If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.  If you’re not done, we can wait if you want, but I’m good with going with what you have now.  After all, combat can take a while.<br/>