"Probably due to all the lewd remarks he was making while trying to get us to step out into his sights."  Was Rose's response, as she teleported them back onto the deck.  She could speak Sylvan, of course she'd understood his double entendres and the various threats and curses he'd hurled their way.  Indeed watching him his the deck like that had definitely been emotionally satisfying, though she imagined some of the fainter of heart wouldn't have enjoyed the sight as much.  She didn't doubt that the satyr would do the same to them, given half a chance, however.<br/><br/>During their search of the fallen, the shifter pocketed the earrings for later presentation to those two sailors, glad to have found one of the items they'd requested that she keep an eye out for.  Now to find the rum...  Which, it turned out, was in the large storeroom belowdecks.  One of those barrels was stuffed into the Bag of Holding while Aria searched the hold, and when nothing valuable was turned up, the shifter found herself giving the matter some thought.<br/><br/>"Hey, Aria,"  She questioned, after a few seconds.  She was voicing her thoughts, getting a second opinion on a few things.  "Boats like this one tend to be rather expensive, right?  What with taking a lot of time and effort to make?  It seems to me like it'd be a bit of a shame to just leave it drifting out on the harbor like this.  All this dried food and rum seems like it'd be almost a shame to waste, too.  Once we've cleared out the ship, do you think we should try getting Luneth and Ingus aboard?  If we can help them sail it into port, we could probably throw a pretty nice party with all the booze and snacks here, and then we might try finding a buyer for this ship, as well.  Maybe have it put to use as an actual merchant ship, instead of just masquerading as one."<br/><br/>Whatever discussion that line of thought might have spawned, once it was over and done with, Rose would head over to the door on the port side and, after making sure Aria knew what she was up to, phased in through the wall next to the door, checking to see what was beyond in a manner fairly likely to surprise anyone waiting on the other side of the door.<br/><br/>Well, or perhaps not, since if they were waiting, they undoubtedly knew that the two women had phased in through the floors, as well...<br/><br/><br/><br/>Having had experience with Tome of Battle in play, I can say that in that general experience, I've found that it isn't so much that Tome of Battle outdoes other non-spellcasting classes at what they're best at as that it tends to rival their performance in-combat while still maintaining versatility out of it.  Essentially, rather than providing pure power, what they provide is more options.  Admittedly, some of those options can be overpowered if misused, (the maneuver Iron Heart Surge has a number of jokes associated with it involving characters with Light Sensitivity using it to put out the sun, for example,) but the same can be said for many spells and feats, as well.<br/><br/>That said, at lower levels of optimization it is, generally, far easier to wind up with a powerful character using Tome of Battle than without it, but with the optimization going on in this game, I think you'd find it about even in terms of combat performance.  As for trying it in another game, I specifically recommend the Swordsage class, since that's the one that actually has access to the Shadow Hand school.  Tiger Claw and Diamond Mind should cover most of the rest of what you mentioned, while the swift action mini-summon is a first-level Desert Wind maneuver.  Essentially, the idea would be to start out in some other class that gets sneak attack, like Rogue, and then pick up a single level of Swordsage at a ninth level, when your initiator level would be high enough to qualify for Assassin's Stance.  After that you take Shadow Blade, (the feat I mentioned,) and then you're free to take the rest of your build whichever way you want. ^^<br/><br/><br/>Heh.  'Bejeweled Sextant'. :P