<br/>Aria asked the drow a few more questions about what this 'Westkeep' (an old keep nestled i the inside of a crescent-shaped lake), and 'Astos' (a fair elf like themselves, though the drow admitted under duress than Astos too was in truth a drow) looked like, then bopped the elf out cold again and stripped them both naked for good measure; she figured even if they made it back to Astos, it wouldn't be until after they were done with him and 'Westkeep', and hopefully they'd be too afraid of their own master to go back after such abject failure anyway. She figured eventually they'd run in to the 'real' denizens of Arvandor, and unable to mask their drow nature, be dealt with however "Tel'Quessir", or "The People" as the elves called themselves (haughtily so, in Aria's mind - but perhaps that was her own teenage dejection at learning she was<em>not</em>elf-blooded speaking), saw fit.<br/><br/>She fumbled with the chosen wand a moment, a small straight piece of bone-white ashwood, taking the magic items in her other hand in turns. "From what I<em>can</em>see myself of the magic auras of the items, the two drow have a matched set, so I'll just try one of each...might take me a few tries with the wand; mess-ups won't expend charges, but, there's a small chance I'll, uh, fail to coax the wand so spectacularly that it won't heed me for the rest of the day...that's the nearest way I know to explain it in words..."<br/><br/>As it happened, she worked the wand as intended. There was no visible effect, but she explained the meaning of each item to Rose and offered them to her.<br/><br/>Thereafter, she appreciated both Rose's knack for following the footfall imprints leading to and from the stones in the direction the drow had reluctantly indicated, as well as the progress-quickening dimensional 'hops'. They trail sloped up and down under an emerald forest canopy and lancing shafts of light; they often dimension-jumped from the crest of one ridge of land toi the next visible.<br/><br/>Aria beamed as Rose referred to her as lover, and trilled happily under her breath. "In battles past, one of my chief annoyances with wizards has been their illusions, which may make it harder for anyone to hit their real self. Some make it nigh-impossible to so with anatomical precision; there were one or two past battles which I as of little help to my allies; 'twas my motivation for magic I commissioned onto my bow - which also, I gathered, would help with dense foliage such as I thought might be common in a Plane such as elves call home," she gestured to the canopy above, "As well as one of the magics  upon myself, for wizards who like to go invisible outright. I've gotten to notice you've keen senses, my lovely tigress, but I've found invisible foes quite troublesome in the past, to hit at all, or with precision certainly."<br/><br/>"There are those who transmute themselves to sprint about more swiftly than I might, climb right up walls, or fly through the air, or teleport as yo do..another use for the bow, and a magic I commissioned to aim more accurately at range...hmm, you might consider keeping one of the elves' bows handy, just in case, although I suspect they wont' make use of nearly your full strength, they were only about the same draw-weight as mine."<br/><br/>"Fireballs and other bursts of energy they like to hurl I've learned to dodge sometimes, and I've noticed you have some defenses against that of your own. Spells of the mind have been my bane in the past; I like to think of myself as headstrong, but...there again I rely on an item of magic. And as the casters who summon other monsters to get bloody in their stead, those I expect we can handle, or just go for their master before they can properly go for us."<br/><br/>The terrain had been getting denser, and the ground flatter, and even damp. The terrain almost threatened to become marshy, but then the forest broke abruptly. They were looking out over a reed- and rush- choked band of a lillypad-tiles lake. It was crescent in shape; they stood halfway along its outer edge. The stared across the thickest part of its thin dimension, over some six hundred feet of water towards the land which bulged out on the far, inner side of the crescent. A ruined, vine-choked amphitheater was built right against the far lake bank. From the water's-edge stage, the old stone stands rose away (perhaps the Circus of Chance Eternal might've looked similar if half of it fell away and the other half left to ruin for millenia).<br/><br/>Behind and above them, the land flattened into terraced gardens and fountains and vine-trellises which looked better kept, like the grounds of some noble manor. These stretched around the sides of a narrow, three-store structure of whimsical arches racing up to gingerbread eaves, and marble-railed balconies, but all this delicate elven architecture frosted rather plain, smooth and thick gray stone walls.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Ah yes, that's right; few Types of Racial HD have the 'good' Reflex track and the most have high Fort (same for core classes: 4/11 for Reflex, 6/11 for Will, 7/11 for Fort), and Dex tends to hover in normal ranges, whereas Con goes up and up.  Also nice about direct damage is that it contributes/stacks with the warriors' damage, whereas status effects contribute nothing if they fail.<br/><br/>Aria UMD rolls with wand of Identity; other ring, disguise ring, vest, armor (just doing one of each, guessing the two elves are identically outfitted)<br/>DC 20, mod 15; 5+ = success, 2-4 = harmless fail, try again next round, natural 1 = Aria can't use wand for 24 hours<br/>Will roll one batch of ten (in case there are many 17-19s) and scroll along it<br/>Result: 35, 34, 28, 29, 29, 17, 31, 22, 19, 29,<br/><br/>ring of prot +2<br/>ring of disguise ('disguise self' at will, like hat of disguise)<br/>vest of resistance +2<br/>+1 mithral twilight chainshirt (Twilight reduces arcane spell failure by 10%, to 0% for a mithral chainshirt - the "armor for anyone except monks" armor - a mithral chainshirt's armor check penalty is 0 so nonproficiency doesn't even matter for most characters)<br/>the 'other' set of items looks the same (both physically and under Arcane Sight)<br/>2x comp longbow str +2<br/>2x short sword