The white-robed man blew out an exhausted pant of relief as Kass guided him to a gentle touch-down on the flat sounds near the cracked pyramid. "My, my, thank you!" he steadied himself, as if scarcely able to believe he stood on solid ground. "I didn't know if that creature's slow-float magic was going to last me all the way down..and even if it had, well, I'd've had a long steep slide down from the top of the pyramid, eh?" he scowled up at the imposing edifice. He bore an evenly tanned copper complexion, and was fine-featured save for the largish hawk-nose typical of Mulhorandi men. This silver beard and hair had the look of having been recently trimmed and kempt, but dirty and matted in the last few days. He appeared almost in shock, but physically uninjured.<br/><br/>Looking around nervously, and eyeing both Kass and Anya curiously, the silver-bearded man asked, "I don't suppose you ran across any of my fellows indoors before the thing fell from the sky? I am Karsus, royal surveyor, and most certainly no friend of the tentacle-faces. I came with a small detachment of royal soldiers from Skuld. When Horustep, long-live-he," Kass would recognize the name of the current pharaoh, "heard the tidings of such a strange event here in the east, that the land had been scoured by some sudden blast, He sent us to investigate. I fear we yet learned nothing of that event per se, but did note a fresh crack in Mount Goldflail's near spun." He gestured to what remained of that spur, where the pyramid had broken first when first levitating into the sky. "We glimpsed therein the smooth black of what I gather was<em>this</em>thing," he gestured to the landed pyramid, "But were set upon by the creatures! Scarcely sooner was it that we first saw their approach than I was unable to move...and since then, just yesterday I think it was, have been, ah...<em>within</em>. We were brought before a silvery shapeless creature and our judgments pronounced, as if it could stare into our souls! Our two men-at-arms it declared 'guilty', and sentenced to 'ceremorphosis'...our priest and I 'innocent', and he went somewhere else, while one illithid took me to a small room near the tip of the pyramid and tied me to a seat while it worked at utterly strange devices or controls."<br/><br/>As he spoke, intermittently the bodies of mindflayers and kytons struck the sides of the pyramid, crunching or splattering and then rolling or sliding upon their own ichor down the black inclines until they landed in heaps on the sand.<br/><br/>A bit after the last, Aria descended. She carried a healing wand in one hand, but her face and limbs bore several bruises or chain-lash-welts visible through her torn ash-black leather sleeves and leggings. Drying blood from one lashing clung in diagonal streaks across her face, and matted some of her hair. She was panting heavily - from her injuries, from the exertion of fighting and then dive-flying, and from one of the most potent adrenaline surges yet of her life.<br/><br/>She looked at the pyramid and then smiled at Kass, "I daresay you've saved whatever places that thing was headed for, it doesn't seem to be rising again!"<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>lol, yeah, since Feather Fall has no somatic component, Kass could've just cast it on Anya and let her go. And even if it did have a somatic component, she could let her go and then cast it on her (it's an immediate action and says you can 'catch' things in reaction to their falling, before they do descend). I had figured Kass would do that and then nuke the nearby mindflayers with Heaven's Trumpet. Crazy fight and it was close.<br/><br/>Bards are a (the?) great support and all-around class, and I hope you don't mind if Aria is doing most of the direct damage, but Kass is actually quite powerful (and far more versatile). Against things that can't detect invisible characters, Improved Invis is amazing (combined with her Move Silently, cretaures likely won't even know what square she's in if she moves after casting or attacking, and even if they do it totally blocks targeted spells). Similarly Ray of Light can blind with no save, and there are lots of spells there that might as well kill anything that fails save (heaven's trumpet, hideous laughter, hold, dominate, etc.) Then there's all the metacombat and utility like feather fall, teleporting, dispel, glibness etc.<br/><br/>Her physical attack/damage is actually quite good (1x or 2x cha to both attack and damage) better than many fighter-type's in other parties (and better than almost any other bard or other caster); Aria's just happens to be unusually optimized as well. And her buffing could easily double Aria's damage output (haste, then inspire courage) or more by letting her sneak attack in cases where she otherwise couldn't (Glitterdust, Blindness/Deafness or Ray of Light to blind foes; Grease from the wand so they're balancing and lose their Dex bonus; or using tumble skills or DDoor to efficiently flank as she's been very effective with lately). Obviously bards, as one of the best buffers/debuffers, work well in conjunction with something else that's a direct damage vehicle, but when they do, one shouldn't just 'credit' the vehicle.<br/><br/>Also with Use Magic Device, or Improved Spell Capacity and customizing the runestaff, she has access to 7th-9th level spells not on the bard list.<br/><br/>And the bardic knack ACF is amazing; it's like the party having an expert in every single skill.<br/><br/>Kass probably couldn't solo'ed the battle too, taking less damage and risk to herself (but maybe more rounds depending on the enemy saves), by leading with Improved Invis and then casting things on the foes (especially b/c stunning/holding effects would have the added bonus of making them take the 20d6 falling damage). Could use readied actions to Glitterdust the invisible mindflayes when she heard them casting, or use her blindfold to move within the blindsight range (30').<br/><br/><br/><br/>Aria at 174 dmg, will start wand-casting Lesser Vigor, first one in the sky, then run down (480'/round once blink expires, taking about half a minute to reach the ground). Healing herself totally will take 16 castings.<br/><br/>I noticed Lesser Vigor doesn't stack with itself, so she'll take 17.4 minutes to heal all the damage at 1/round! Good thing Kass stopped the pyramid from moving so time is much less important.<br/><br/>Uses 10/10 haste and 11/20 sniper's shot (huh, glad I went in for those extra charges)<br/><br/><br/>Also - I've been misusing Staggering Strike, I just realized it's melee-only. (So many things are!)