OOC

Cool.
Not to be murder Hobo (B.C I total am not)
Can we attack these dudes?
I don't want to kill them but KO them for info....

They are Oni, you can kill them with zero karmic burden. The possessed guy, him you might want to think about the KO option. Oh . . . and deal with the demons before the rest of us get there so we don't have to work up a sweat.

KO to possibly get some info from them.

Interrogation! !!

Look I am starting a fight!

Please roll initiative all

Did my Steel Wind Strike go off or are we waiting for combat to start for it?

RAW (at least in my reading) no more "surprise rounds" in 2024. I believe that means wait until your initiative counter and that is how i would like to run it here.

It is one of my gripes for this scenario though and something I must adjudicate here on how that unsurprised enforcer acts before your turn.

That is fine with me.
Just to check I did not waste the 5th level spell slot than.

If I choose to do something different on my turn it is fine.

Nope nothing lost other than the initiative on the vigilant one.

My instinct is that given the opportunity I will give out surprise more with this rules set but it feels less impactful.

Going to work on a battle map but should have enough info to complete turns now

@valdattaMadun
Do you want me to reroll everything?

nope rolls are good. just need Bonus action if any added or movement (which I think for you would essentially asking "do you want to Bladesong"). Based on my reading of your initial post. 1 was an enforcer, 2 was the speaker, 3 was an enforcer. So will narrate that once done

Akari also has access to temporary hps using Tireless, but not sure how to use a magic action in this version to do that.