Aria's eyes bulged when she realized Anya had been rendered helpless, effectively occupying Kass. She might've hoped for a celestial trumpet-blast to send the illithids plummeting to their own dooms....now she'd find out if she could accomplish it one-aberration-at-a-time with arrows before they did the same to her!<br/><br/>She figured there was a good chance she'd end up drawing her own staff out again to teleport to safety - but hopefully she could at least draw their attacks away from Kass and Anya before then.<br/><br/>She twisted to fire her bow straight up, shooting the sole mindflayer still above her threw the eyes. As its body fell past her, she was already twisting horizontally and firing at one of the illithids in the ring around her. She dropped it with a single through the tentacle-draped throat, and began turning her body around, shooting the next mindflayer in the circle. Hopefully she could make it all the way around before they did her in with spells...<br/><br/>...those spells soon included arcs of lightning hurled from two of the illithids, one of which she twisted around and the other which sailed by while she was ethereal. The other two still-living mindflayers cast spells with no immediate visible effect - but one she recognized well; telekinesis like from her new ring. She felt them attempting to telekinetically rip her precious bow from her fingers, but she phased ethereally before much sorcerous force could be exerted.<br/><br/>As she blinked in, she realized that the other group of enemies had also teleported right over her! One of those two illithids sprinkled her with a cloud of glitterdust, causing Aria's body to twinkle - but the glittering light blinded her for only the very briefest of moments, like a moment of faintness. The four howling kytons around the mindflayers howled and hissed and laughed evilly, dive-bombing her to a devil, and lashing out with chains. Aria dodged one and phased out while two others lashed, but the fourth caught her with a painful smack just as she phased back in.  Her head whipped back with a painful red welt from chin to temple, and Aria snarled.<br/><br/>All the same, she continued to drop and spin in the air, firing arrows around at the ring of mindflayers; only one survived to cast another spell, magic missiles. Aria found she couldn't dodge, she couldn't phase out; they simply smashed into her with pure force, while the tortuous kytons whipped down and around her - surrounding her and outflanking her aerially, she realized - her and struck her several more times with powerfully whipped chains. The two mindflayers above them took a cue from their surviving fellow, casting another ten magic missiles into Aria.<br/><br/>She knew she needed to get away from those chains<em>and</em>dispatch the mindlflayers quickly or teleport away: they'd found a sure way to hurt her, and it would only be a matter of time now. She launched herself straight up, dodging around the uppermost kyton and even pushing off its back with her foot to cleverly build up charge momentum against gravity.<br/><br/>She spun inverted in midair, and met a mindflayer kick first, right into the solar plexus of its emaciated midsection. Her other leg arced and hammered the small of its back. She gripped twisted with both legs, breaking the thing's back, even while throwing her arm out towards the adjacent mindflayer - with the precise motion to release the gnomish forearm-blade like a retractable cat's claw. She plunged it into one of the thing's eye, twisting her arm to stir about its brains, then withdrew her arm only to pluck a shuriken from a pocket. She sent it spinning at the last mindflayer, slicing open its throat.<br/><br/>The snarling kytons had began pursuing Aria upward almost as soon as she'd escaped from their midst. They dodged falling mindflayer bodies,  and came lashing at Aria, striking her again. Aria flitted up and finished the last mindflayer with an arrow, before turning missiles on the chain devils below. Several were struck and slowed by it, but still they climbed, chain-lashing and striking her powerfully again and again.<br/><br/>Aria knew she could bear little more, and that her blink magic would be running out about now. Groaning, and replying to the Infernal curses of the kytons with her own Infernal - to their strange surprise and delight - she withdrew the teleport staff. She triggered it, focusing on the sky above her, wanting to be<em>away</em>from this private little Hell in the sky.<br/><br/>She reappeared over a thousand feet higher in the air - now at an altitude of half a mile. She shouted down to the kytons with more Infernal, for the first time in her life going out of her way to proclaim that she was Erinyes-born and they were lesser devils all. It was enough to get them flying up towards her rather than down towards Kass - or perhaps, more pragmatically, they figured her the more immediate threat to themselves. The four devils began gaining altitude, cackling and catcalling up to her in the tongue of devils.<br/><br/>Aria slid the staff into its too-small extradimensional backpack, and reactivated her precious blink magic, as well as yet another burst of the far-sight divination she'd been using almost constantly during the battle to target at range. She rained down arrows upon the climbing devils, who laughed while they dodged some of the missiles, or caught others off their armor. Those arrows which hit slowed them, and one fell, then other, and then a moment later a third.<br/><br/>The last devil in the sky had halved the distance to Aria when an arrow caught him through the links of chain and his fiendish heart.<br/><br/>"So long - for your brief mortal life!" he called almost jovially in Infernal, "No matter how high you fly with those stage-costume angel-wings of yours, you'll never reach the Celestial planes, sister! Oh-so I shall be seeing you again - when your soul inevitably returns to the land of your blood - to whichever Hell of the Nine!"<br/><br/>Aria hurled down a shouting, crying "A Celestial plane is where I came to this godsforsaken wasteland from!"  She hung in the air for several moments on end, panting and sobbing heavily, grimly satisfied to see the devil's life give out and its body freefall.<br/><br/>She was relieved there were no more enemies visible in the sky, for her healing wands would work slowly, as would her tired descent from half a mile in the sky.<br/><br/>~~<br/><br/>On her descent, Kass would find the arrow-stuck corpses of illithids, and then a bit later kytons, free-falling past her intermittently.<br/><br/>As she caught up with the human man, who was still floating down at a leisurely pace, he threw his arms out to her and cried in a terrified voice with a local Mulhorandi accent, "Heeaaaalp! What's going<em>on</em>!?" alternately looking at Kass and at the crystalline tip of the pyramid below. As if to illustrate his fears for himself, a mindflayer landed back-first right on the crystal apex, causing its tip to rip upwards through the sallow chest.<br/><br/><br/><br/>(All three orbs of force missed Aria. One due to blink, the other two not making her touch AC.)<br/>Aria at altitude 1770', Kass runs down from 1770' to 1590'<br/><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 4</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: haste (no better time to use it!) and sniper's shot<br/>mods 38/38/33/28/23 (21 bab 13 dex 1 weapon 2 blink 1 haste), base dmg 1d8+3<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972240/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972240/) (crit dmg should have add'l +23, I often forget that Craven doubles)<br/>mindflayer above her<br/>1st dmg 85<br/>2nd phaseout<br/>3rd dmg 104 slain<br/>nw mindflayer<br/>4th crit 98+41+2str,con, dying<br/>sw mindflayer<br/>5th dmg 94, staggered<br/><br/>Mindflayers (counterclockwise from sw)<br/>2x Chain Lightning at Aria, DC 22<br/>2x Telekinesis, disarm attempts at Aria's bow<br/><br/>blink rolls Result: 13, 95, 6, 49,<br/>(so all but 1 chain lightning miss due to etherealness)<br/>Aria reflex roll 13, save<br/><br/><br/>'river group' (2 mindflayers and 4 kytons):<br/>One mindflayer Teleports group to 45' above Aria (same as where the last group arrived before spreading out)<br/>Other casts Glitterdust on Aria, Will DC 28<br/>four kytons all charge Aria<br/>two charge attacks phase out<br/>Will save vs Glitterdust, 17 + 19r, saved<br/>charge attacks<br/>atk 38 miss<br/>atk 54 hit dmg 15<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 5</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria 5' down (out of AoO range at Kytons), haste + sniper's shot and full attack at mindflayers<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972262/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972262/)<br/>sw mindflayer<br/>1st hit 99 slain<br/>s mindflayer<br/>2nd hit 92<br/>3rd hit 89 slain<br/>se mindflayer<br/>4th hit 79<br/>5th hit 94 slain<br/><br/>ne mindflayer and two 'new' mindflayers:<br/>each cast Magic Missile at Aria, 15 missiles, total 52 dmg<br/>(Force effects with no attack roll, so no miss chance due to blink)<br/><br/>four kytons:<br/>one 5' steps down to full attack Aria; two chains (with +1 atk bonus for higher ground)<br/>blink Result: 4, 84, 52, 50, 91,<br/>1st atk phaseout<br/>2nd atk 45 hit dmg 12<br/>the others move around her to form a vertical ring (they're all flanking her in pairs, and any 5' step she takes next will leave her adjacent to at least 2 of them, provoking AoOs if she uses the bow)<br/>1st atk 44 hit dmg 18<br/>2nd phaseout<br/>3rd atk 43 hit dmg 16<br/><br/>(Her AC in her sheet shouldn't include the +4 from Swashbuckler dodge, since that, like the Dodge feat, is only vs one designated opponent each round. I rolled a 1d4 to pick the designated kyton, and it was the one whose sole attack phased out anyway. So her AC is 43 and she just barely takes all three hits!)<br/><br/>Aria's total dmg is at 15+52+46 = 113 (out of 236 HP), eep!<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 6</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: haste again (last one!), charge at two mindflayers (the newer arrivals from the river) 50' above her. (Her fly speed with haste is 90', *3/8 with the blink and vertical ascent, rounds down to 30')<br/>Now at altitude 1815' (1770' - 5' + 50')<br/>begin TWF full attack with her unarmed (1d3+1) / gnomish quickrazor (1d4/19-20, -4 for nonprofociency)<br/>mh 38/38/33/28/23 (21 bab 13 dex 1 weapon 2 blink 2 charge -2 twf 1 haste) oh 34/29/24 (inc -4 nonproficiency)<br/><br/>mh http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972363/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972363/)<br/>oh http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972372/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972372/)<br/><br/>mh1 dmg 103<br/>mh2 dmg 87, slain<br/>at adjacent mindflayer<br/>oh1 dmg 94<br/>oh2 phaseout<br/>mh3 dmg 100 slain<br/>cast sniper's shot, use last two mh attacks to throw shuriken (range increment 20' with the gloves) at last mindflayer (45' away, for -4 from 2 range increments)<br/>dmg is 1d2+2  instead of 1d4+10, will just subtract the average differences of 9  from the already-rolled damages)<br/>mh 17/12 (21 bab 13 dex 2 blink -2 twf 1 haste -4 nonproficiency -4 range -10 or -15 from iteratives)<br/>mh4 roll 17 dmg 89, staggered<br/>mh5 phaseout<br/><br/>Designate nearest kyton as her dodge target<br/><br/>Mindflayer:<br/>cast Glitterdust at Aria<br/>blink Result: 4, miss<br/><br/>Kytons: 3 are able to charge her ('A B C'); 4th (D') is obstructed by others<br/>blink Result: 99, 12, 40,<br/>A atk 47 hit (despite her dodge!) dmg 19<br/>B phaseout<br/>C phaseout<br/>D: double moves vertically and around other kyton until also just below (diagonally) Aria<br/><br/>Aria at 132 dmg<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 7</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: move up 5', cast sniper's shot, bow full attack (37/32/27/12) at mindflayer<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972504/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972504/)<br/>1 atk 9 dmg 97, slain<br/>attack 'kyton A'<br/>2 phaseout<br/>3 atk 3 hit 91 staggered<br/>attack 'kyton B'<br/>4 atk 19 hit 87 staggered<br/><br/>designate kyton C as her dodge target<br/><br/>Kytons:<br/>each 5' up and single or full attack (as staggered/not)<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972522/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972522/)<br/><br/>none of the 6 attacks miss due to blink!<br/>A<br/>atk 50 hit 14<br/>B<br/>atk 40 miss<br/>C<br/>atk 47 hit 12<br/>atk 47 hit 16<br/>both hit on the nose, despite her dodge designation!<br/>D<br/>atk 40 miss<br/>atk 38 miss<br/><br/>Aria at 174 dmg<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 8</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria's blink ends; draw staff (move) and teleport up 1100' (standard) from 1820' to 2990' - she's now almost exactly half a mile in the sky<br/><br/>kytons: 'run' vertically 120'<br/>(luckily for us I totally neglected to give them any ranged weapon, as you may have noticed from the other kytons we looted! its very lucky actually; I almost always give npcs with hands some ranged weapon)<br/><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 9</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: sheath staff, reactivate blink<br/><br/>kytons: run vertically 120', now 860' below her<br/><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 10</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: sniper's shot and bow full attack<br/>23/18/13/8 (21 bab 13 dex 1 weapon 2 blink -14 range increments)<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972543/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972543/)<br/>at kyton A:<br/>1 atk 7 hit 83, staggered<br/>2 phaseout<br/>at kyton B:<br/>3 atk 14 hit 93, staggered<br/>4 atk 3 miss<br/><br/>kyton A and B move up 30', C and D run up 120'<br/>(830' and 740' below her)<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 11</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: sniper's shot and bow full attack<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972600/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972600/)<br/>('new' 1d20 at end of each roll is the target Fort saves for Staggering Strike)<br/>(A and B at seven range increments; C and D at six)<br/>at kyton C:<br/>1 phaseout<br/>2 atk 15 hit 94 staggered<br/>at kyton D:<br/>3 atk 11 hit 96 staggered<br/>at kyton A:<br/>4 atk 8 miss<br/><br/>Now C and D move up 30' and A and B run up 120'; all at 710' below her)<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 12</span></strong><br/><br/>Aria: sniper's shot and bow full attack<br/>mods 25/20/15/10 (all 6 range increments)<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972603/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972603/)<br/>at kyton A<br/>1 phaseout<br/>2 atk 16 hit 93 slain<br/>at kyton B:<br/>3 atk 11 hit 106 slain<br/>at kyton C:<br/>4 phaseout<br/><br/>kytons C and B run from 710' to 590'<br/><br/><br/>Also Anya's stun expires this round<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 13</span></strong><br/>same<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972610/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972610/)<br/>mods 27/22/17/12<br/>at C:<br/>1 atk 19 hit 93 staggered<br/>at D:<br/>2 atk 4 hit 86 staggered<br/>3 atk 9 hit 95 slain<br/>4 phaseout<br/><br/>C moves 590' to 560'<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Round 14</span></strong><br/>same<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972616/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2972616/)<br/>1 atk 10 hit 87 slain