"Agreed on the wand-wielder; I noticed you have a nice way of dealing with fire,  but he seems like a dangerous one all the same!" Aria activated a magic ring, destined to soon find out to great amusement and delight that she and Rose shared items of that particular magic.<br/><br/>As they teleported, Aria was thinking to herself that, rather than opening with throwing weapons this time (assuming she got the drop on her enemies at all), she would try to slide in amongst the ones who looked like they might disfavor a foe right in their midst, like the bongo-beater and wand- and bow-wielders. If she got lucky, maybe they'd open themselves up while trying to spellcast or something. The gambit was that she'd be at risk of finding herself surrounded, but the reach of Rose's weapon might help in that regard - and it would mean<em>they</em>might surround some of the enemy in turn, something she quite enjoyed doing.<br/><br/>As soon as they dimension-hopped right down the block, Aria dashed; the weird way she seemed to drift forward more slowly doing those ethereal moments always annoyed her, but it would probably be worth it.<br/><br/>She ran between one pair of scallywags, briefly rolling low and up again without losing momentum, in a bid to avoid any attacks they might make as she went by. She hopped up between the bongo-beater and the maniacal tiefling with the red-dragon wand, sliding a kukri handle into each hand.<br/><br/>One she whipped upward in an uppercut-like motion; the concave curving blade flew briefly across the fellow's throat; for a second it didn't seem to've made much impact, and in the physical sense it hadn't; gliding through flesh rather than smashing against it. The wound stayed sealed a moment, from the clean swiftness of the strike, but then rippled open in an outpouring of jugular blood.<br/><br/>The tiefling spun and arced in one more step, slinging out with the same kukri and leaning to catch the crazy crossbow-wielder in a more horizontal slash over the stock of his weapon, and across his throat. The tiefling's eyes bulged and he fell back, a 'holy' symbol of Cyric flying up on its necklace chain as blood sprayed across it (somehow it seemed appropriate to the symbol of that particular god).<br/><br/>Aria spun a half-circle, whisking the blade across the nape of the backturned bongo-bard's spine. His salty chanting ceased at the moment the spinal cord was cut. He dropped quietly, until the bongos resounded at the collapse.<br/><br/>Aria reversed her spin into a similar, backhand slice at the nearest scallywag, flipping the kukri in her grip and likewise aiming to severe the spine. He must've heard her or caught her in his periphery, and reacted swiftly; he jerked away with only a shallow cut, and then his face became shocked, as if he'd dodged before really consciouslly thinking about it. Aria threw her other weapon up, but again only cut shallowly, finding his anatomy hard to pinpoint amids the flinching.<br/><br/>She made a backhand with that weapon, but phased out. Her body and blade spun through the ethereal plane a moment. She phased in again with the blade already beyond the target's body, a scowl on her face.<br/><br/>The ram-horned tiefling shouted a cry, drawing a rapier with well-learned speed. He made a back-and-forth veeing strike at Aria, who twisted left around the blows.<br/><br/>The other five pirates wasted little time; some seemed to've noticed Rose, but, craven fellows, they all swarmed and surrounded Aria with similarly practiced sword-draws. The longbowman dropped his former weapon to do so, and the tieflings seemed to make a concerted, practiced - probably in combat iwth one another before - to approach her from opposing sides.<br/><br/>Amidst it all Aria knocked the next incoming rapier aside with a kukri, twisted right around another, and then ducked still a few more. One seemed for a second like it was sure to impale her, but she phased out, scooted while ethereal, and phased in alongside it.<br/><br/><br/><br/>You can reposition Rose if I misinterpreted her desired arrival point (which was as 20' from the nearest pirates, not the want-wielder - so that after a short charge he's in her threatened squares and not inside them).<br/><br/>Aria surprise round action: move (30' with blink) from starting position in front of Rose to square between bongo-beater and wand-wielder, drawing kukris.<br/><br/>She can take 1 on accelerated tumbling to not provoke AoOs, and also the enemies she's moving between aren't holding melee weapons (and most chars can't do AoOs while flat-footed; they'd need both Combat Reflexes and Improved Unarmed Strike in this situation).<br/><br/>Initiative:<br/>Aria 27<br/>enemy group 20<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Aria first round: </span><br/>Haste boots, FA, target priorities wand-wielder, crossbow-Cyricst, bongo-beater, scallywag. As before, will attempt to stagger several foes even if previous aren't dropped. If stagger/drop wand-wielder, will 5' step to continue against crossbow-Cyricist.<br/><br/>(Not sure whether the attack rolls are suppoed to go before the miss% rolls for Blink attacks - I'm just doing all six rolls for both here, and won't bother writing the attack roll + modifier or bother checking vs AC  for the blink-missed attacks)<br/>blink miss d100s:<br/>Result: 43, 57, 64, 61, 36, 12,<br/>(so last oh roll will miss - fairly lucky)<br/>atk roll d20s:<br/>Result: 6, 13, 16, 19, 15, 19,<br/>(quite lucky; 3 threats among the non-ethereal attacks, and higher rolls among those with more iterative penalties)<br/><br/>(mods 29/29/24/19 and 25/20,  inc. blink's +2, haste's +1, and subtlety's +4 on main hand)<br/><br/>(mh1: wand wielder)<br/>35 hit dmg 14 + 45, KOed<br/>5' step further, now adjacent to crossbow pirate and another scallywag as well.<br/>(mh2: crossbow Cyricist)<br/>42 hit dmg 12 + 44, KOed<br/>(mh3: bongo bard)<br/>40 threat 47 crit 14 + 14 + 47, KOed<br/>(mh4: scallywag)<br/>38* threat 41* crit 14* + 13* + 54*<br/>(*sneak attack dmg negated - target has Uncanny Dodge!)<br/>((EDIT: uncanny dodge thus foils the +4/+4 'subtlety' weapon bonuses; it's still a crit, but the dmg is 10+9 not 14+13))<br/>(oh1: same scallywag)<br/>40 threat 26** dmg 10* + 38*<br/>(**natural 1 - hmmm, do natural 1s and 20s apply to threat rolls?)<br/>(*Uncanny Dodge again - dmg total just 29)<br/>(oh2 is a blink-miss)<br/><br/><br/>Map after Aria's turn:<br/>Changed 'A'rcher to 'L'ongbow b/c of 'A'ria<br/>Shows Rose's positoins before and after DD, and Aria's after DD and after movement<br/>B,W,C down<br/><br/>(Archway) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Archway)<br/><br/>S S S<br/><br/>S B S - - - - - -<br/>-A--- - - - A R R<br/>C-W-L - - - - R R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -RR<br/>RR<br/>(Avenue) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Avenue)<br/><br/><br/><br/>Enemies' turns:<br/><span class="bbc_u">"west" scallywag attacked by Aria:</span><br/>(quick) draw rapier, 5' step "south", FA at Aria<br/>atk 24 miss<br/>atk 20 miss<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">"east" scallywag"</span><br/>quick draw rapier, 5' step to east of Aria, flanking her with last guy<br/>atk 18 miss<br/>atk 18 miss<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">"southeast" longbow scallywag</span><br/>drop bow, quick draw rapier, charge 10' to southeast of Aria<br/>atk 23 miss<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">"northwest" scallywag</span><br/>quick draw rapier, charge 10' south to northwest of Aria, flanking with last guy<br/>atk 29 miss (by 1!)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">"north" scallywag</span><br/>charge 15' to north of Aria<br/>atk 16 miss<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">"northeast" scallywag</span><br/>charge 20' to northeast of Aria<br/>atk 31 hit (and threat),<br/>blink miss roll 37, miss<br/><br/><br/>Map after enemies' turn:<br/>(the damaged one is the one 'west' of Aria)<br/><br/>(Archway) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Archway)<br/><br/><br/><br/>SSS - - - - - - -<br/>SAS-- - - -  R R<br/>--  L-- - - - - R R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<br/><br/>(Avenue) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Avenue)