"Right!" Aria's thin red eyebrows narrowed, heeding Rose as Bikke slumped in a heavy heap. "Thanks; o happens my favorite weapon is too!"<br/><br/>She clicked her boots and whispered a command word which activated yet another item of Art; its purpose, much like the others, being a little burst of speed. Over her adventuring years and splitting of treasure with most compatriots, she'd tried to find, choose, purchase, or commission things to leap ambushes just like this one - by and large, she was much less adept at hitting foes where it counted once they got their act together to parry and dodge and defend.<br/><br/>She dashed the few steps to the aftcastle past, dropping her sap to grab the mast itself with one hand, spinning herself partway around it and right in between the two satyrs; an unusual approach intended to preclude them headbutting her even if they were canny enough to react so swiftly to her movement. Midspin, she slid a crysal-pommeled kukri into hand, slicing across the throat of the further cross-dressing satyr as she landed.<br/><br/>Part of its gown shore away and the creature brayed something awful, while the uninvited redheaded guest twisted her hips to jab the kukri point back across her own torso. It pierced into the left armpit of the other satyr, who howled. Aria swayed her upper body back and forth at the hips once again, using the momentum as she jabbed the kukri tip into the first satyr's throat, then the second's. The cloven-hooved cross-dressers fell back in succession, sprawling upon the deck in gowns bright with the faintly violet-hued blood of fey.<br/><br/>The mindflayer on the arfcastle seemed truly startled, and would certainly have been caught off guard by the slicing guisarme. Its tentacles trembled feverishly as its great alien eyes beheld the sweeping polearm and its wielder phase back in.<br/><br/>Then the tentacles all spread and vibrated, and the creature's eyes flashed in a baleful way. An unseen, soundless, but quite mentally tangible - and unpleasantly so - wave of psychic force rippled outward from the creature's evil mind, meant to mentally stun foes and prey. The craven creature let the book drop and backed away, drawing a gleaming and cruelly curving sickle. The inside edge of its curve suspiciously close in size and shape to the horizontal circumference of a human skull, and it was even finely saw-toothed, in the manner of a bone-surgeon's saw. It backed away until it found itself with its back to the forecastle rail, nearly at the ship's dragon-tipped prow with nowhere further to go.<br/><br/>The crow's nest satyr, not having expected the approaching ship to bring them any foes so soon, was shocked by the teleport and caught without his bow already drawn - he hadn't wished to do so too far ahead of time, what with the pretense of a Waukeenite religious and trade vessel to maintain. Growling and braying, it picked a bow up from the crow's nest, struck an arrow from a quiver it did wear, and fire almost straight down at the orange-and-black haired lady below.<br/><br/>Aria popped out from behind the aftcastle mast, growling and glancing between the two creatures attacking her new compatriot. She had some mind to shoot up at the archer, but she knew that from this range, she wouldn't have the anatomical accuracy she so relied upon. Instead she dashed along the deck, down the stairs to the galley, across and up to the forecastle. She was closing on the weird pirate-hatted illithid and hoping that, even if its strange powers subuded one of them, well, that's what allies (and, perhaps, her mind-warding holy symbol) were for.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Thanks for suggesting, I thought about having Aria go back to back (and am glad you know you don't mind); I waited in case you had a preference on Rose's arrival location that made a sufficient difference in Aria's actions, or for stuff like talking (like Rose conveying her intended target).<br/><br/>Aria: haste boots (6th use I think, out of 10) and belt of battle (swift; for extra move action).<br/>tumble-move in between satyrs, drop sap for kukri<br/>FA, east satyr first (since the 'previously nearer' one is still nearer Rose), will try to stagger each one and then drop<br/><br/>mods 29/29/24/19 (base 23, -2 twf, +1 haste, +2 blink, +5 main weapon if sneak attacks)<br/><br/>(mh1, east satyr)<br/>Result: 6, 18, 15,<br/>hit dmg 14 + 41<br/>(her 'subtlety' kurki is cold iron)<br/>fails Fort, staggered<br/>(mh2, west satyr)<br/>Result: 18, 3, 20,<br/>hit dmg 12 + 39<br/>fails Fort, staggered<br/>(mh3, east satyr)<br/>Result: 6, 5, 8,<br/>hit dmg 15 + 46<br/>KOed<br/>(mh4, west satyr)<br/>Result: 11, 5, 10,<br/>hit dmg 12 + 35<br/>KOed<br/><br/>Aria has a throwing weapon in her off hand, but she's directly behind the aftmast; the crow's-nest satyr and mindflayer have total cover (and can't 5' step because she already moved, despite it being an 'extra' action). So like last round, some attacks are 'wasted' (although she's be outside sneak attack range, so the hammer damage would be a joke anyway). At least it gives her total cover vs the enemies in turn.<br/><br/><br/>Mindflayer's first turn:<br/>Mind Blast: 60' cone, targets in cone must make a DC 19 Will save or be stunned for 3 rounds (=3d4, lucky roll for us)<br/>Aria has total cover vs the cone (both because of the mast, and even if it'd moved sideways enough, b/c of the aftcastle's 5' higher elevation + 3' rail) - and will have Mind Blank in any case<br/>I don't think Blink will help (since it's not individually targeted), but Rose's third eye clarity would certainly negate it (and I don't have the item text int eh moment, but possibly its 'charge' would only be used if she failed the Will save, since it negates the effect which ensues after a failure?)<br/><br/>Mindflayer then moves around the forecastle mast, drawing sickle, ends up 5' east and 30' north of original position<br/><br/>Crow's nest satyr's first turn:<br/>draw bow, fire one arrow down at Rose<br/>atk 30, dmg 7<br/>If you prefer, you can roll the miss chance roll for Rose's buffs - the SRD says the defender rolls for concealment miss (and so I'd guess the displacement and 'defensive' blink miss too), plus you're more likely to be correctly abreast of what her defensive miss chance is at a given time.  The satyr doesn't have Improved Precise Shot nor any similar abilities (like a Seeking weapon) to bypass concealment nor other miss chances. So if Rose's 3 effects are up, it's 64% miss, or you can roll the 50% and two 20%s all serially if you prefer. Or I can still roll these if you prefer - I can't think of any mechanical difference (except perhaps the meta-knowledge about the attacker's abilities, but if the defender rolls by default that's probably intentional).<br/><br/>You can keep doing 'attacker rolls' for the 20% 'offensive' miss chance with Blink, as that seems more intuitive, I don't know of any rules to the contrary, and it'll expedite your decision making when you make full attacks or have other post-attack actions.<br/><br/>Aria's second turn:<br/>double move, 15' to go 10' east and north (in column with east stairs), then 45' north<br/><br/>Also, Rose will get +1 attack and damage vs the mindflayer from its native Underground terrain habitat. It doesn't matter whether these bonuses are known/included in your post, I'll figure them even if you don't (and enemies may be disguised/unknown, and it's a waste of your time to look up everything's native terrains unless you feel like it to make decisions or 'remind' me etc.). They would figure in to her last attack if it weren't for the blink, for example. I'm just mentioning it in case it effects any decisions of yours, and just by way of saying that I'm remembering them.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>-<br/>- - M<br/>- - - - -<br/>- - - - -<br/>- - - - - - -<br/>- - - - - A -<br/>- - - - X - - - -<br/><span class="bbc_u">- - </span>-<span class="bbc_u"> - M -</span>-<span class="bbc_u"> - - </span><br/>- - ~ - - - ~ - -<br/>- - R - -  - - - -<br/>- - - - X  - - - -<br/>- - ~ - - - ~ - -<br/><span class="bbc_u">- -</span>~<span class="bbc_u"> - - -</span>~<span class="bbc_u"> - -</span><br/>- - - A H - -  - -<br/>- - - -  -  - - - -<br/>- - - -  X  - - - -<br/>- - - S  A  S - - -<br/><br/><br/>As I often do, giving both A's and M's old and new squares, the northward ones are current in this case. Picked Rose's destination square as the closest one (to her starting point) from which she threatened M (as per charge rules). She's now 30' of movement from threatening M again (and thanks to the boots, can charge despite having stairs to go up).