[Distracted] The Monster has lost interest in attacking the other Adventurers!

Let’s get this off to a good start with a little scam!

[Action] Already alert to the possibility of Transformation, TyGuy6’s inner trigger finger lights up the room… with cleansing Fire! (15)

And Kevan steps up as Vanguard, next, cold resolve once again in his too-sunken eyes.

I dispute the legality of these actions, of course. (And I ask you all, my fellow Adventurers: from a moral standpoint, who is the real monster here?)

[Action] Knowing the fastest route to a full recovery from this affliction, I take the rifle from my shoulder and unfold a dry packet of gunpowder into the muzzle.

15 damage to the Monster from my Shoot action, +10 HP to me for Persistence.

[Action] Ah, forgot to specify the Vanguard. I take a Shoot action as described above, and Card is the next Vanguard.

[Action] Fire!

TyGuy6 is the next vanguard

[Action] I show my Terrifying Visage to Kevan, and it doesn’t take more to send him running. He will be Retreating for the foreseeable future…

This is the stuff of nightmares! Is Fear incarnate immune to the flames? And where is Duke’s head? WHERE’S HIS HEAD?!?

I use Fire (2). Kevan, with no other option, you’re up as Vanguard.

Afraid you need to precede that with the Action tag for it to be valid.

[Action] Right, sorry. Where’s his head, and so forth!

I use Fire (2). Kevan = Vanguard.

[Action] Rattled by what I have seen, I Retreat through the smoke. Card becomes the new Vanguard.

[Action]
I fire again!

TyGuy6 becomes the next vanguard

[Action] I attack TyGuy6 with my powerful Claw, tearing deep into his flesh.

I rip my shoulder out of Duke’s rending grasp, and stumble away into the shadows. If I thought I would be hiding, it’s immediately foiled as I direct my soul Fire (2) back toward the beast. But instead of a flamethrower-type bonfire of virtue, a whimpering lighter-type puff of a spark flies, barely singeing Duke’s flesh. Duke’s body points in my direction, and I sense that if he had a face, he might have a cruel smirk creeping across it.

card is the Vanguard. (All humans besides me were Recovering.)

Alternative roleplay line:
“He’s definitely fireproof! Guys, we need a new strategy!”

[Action] Fire (2), card is Vanguard.

Hmm, is that choice made under the interpretation that I’m still Recovering and can’t be chosen? (If I’m not Recovering, you have to choose me over Card.)

I wasn’t expecting that, but I can see how the attack being an atomic action would mean that until the AA is complete (“the time of an Atomic Action shall be the time that it is completed”), its first step hasn’t happened yet, so for the purposes of step two my Battle Action is still within the three most recent ones.

I’d expect the “Choose a Human Battle Action and its target, if applicable, and apply its effect” part to not include the turns of other Adventurers, on which the timing of your next Battle Action (i.e. turn) relies.

That’s how I see it, yes.

[Action] So it’s come to this? Well I’ll immolate myself then, feel the fire of my soul evil spirit haunting The Duke of Waltham! My death won’t be in vain!

Kevan is the next vanguard

My last reply was to Kevan, btw. I hadn’t seen Duke’s comment, yet.

[Duke] I don’t fully understand your comment. But assuming it’s about what Kevan’s saying, I didn’t expect to be challenged by Kevan/anyone. I thought we’d worked out that your atomic action steps don’t happen until the last one is complete.

I see you had considered writing a response in “Monstrous Cleanup”, but maybe scrapped it?

AA sequence is a bit of a paradoxical ordering scheme, ain’t it? Don’t happen until they all have happened? Room for interpretation, probably.

Three little devils
Hide from sight, unlike the fourth.
The Duke is headless.

I initially interpreted Kevan’s comment to mean that Kevan’s own action was considered not to have been completed because it was to Retreat, but I then realised this was not the case. I think your reasoning is correct, TyGuy.

[Action] Recovering my senses, I reload and Shoot at the Duke again, with a steely Persistence. TyGuy6 is the next Vanguard.

[Action] I display my headless neck to Kevan once more, taking advantage of his recent traumatising experience to break his resolve and force him to Retreat…

[Action] Fire for 46. He dead! Kevan is Vanguard.