<br/><br/>Semmon helped himself to more than a few eyefuls o the limbs as Anya displayed them to good effect, nodding and "hmm"ing. "All very well, but the gods know what may've stuck uninvited to your fair flesh in such a place, and if it yet clings where we can not presently see. You are most fortunate to've been brought to a temple - ensuring the well-being of the human body is what we practitioners of the divine are probably best known for among secular townsfolk. That and divination..." his own eyes fairly scryed Anya as he spoke.<br/><br/>The priest tented his fingers respectfully when Kass informed him of the slain. " 'A', yes, but not 'two'; among us, only Rana..."<br/><br/>The priestess had already begun approaching as she overhead. She spoke thoughtfully, "I could, potentially, raise the dead, taking several days to raise several souls. Of course, not all souls wish to return, and our resources to do so are limited..."<br/><br/>Aria hopped down and explained, "Apparently a small expedition was sent out by the pharaoh, in fact the other day I remember hearing about one passing through town..." the others nodded, remembering, "These were two of them. I'm none too familiar with the local customs and the nature of your government, but if the raisings were pursuant to royal business, do you suppose the pharaoh's court would..."<br/><br/>Rana was nodding her head, and Semmon's eyes positively lit up, as if suddenly flecked with the same diamond dust required for such serious magic. "Ahh..." he stroked his beard, "Such a thing would not likely leave our temple the poorer. Perhaps I'll be accompanying them when the time comes; I've not been to Skuld in too long, and..." he smiled at Rana, "It would be well to make sure the pharaoh's ear knows of the part played by our temple. At the very least, I expect I can...convince the court to see that I return not lacking the things to ensure we could reprise such services if we were so needed again." He rubbed his hands, most certainly thinking of pouches of diamond dust therein.<br/><br/>He looked at Aria, "You'll have noticed Siwa's a small village compared to the concerns of the empire; all this may seem mundane to planar quest-trekkers such as yourself, but it's the sort of thing townsfolk will be speaking of for a while to come, and in all likelihood our temple has had little reason to pass through the thoughts of the royal head for years."<br/><br/>Aria had seemed intrigued in in agreement with the things Kass had said to her, and nodded, "I am most eager to lighten our load, in a place with the liquidity to lighten it! I will presently of course be identifying via the monocle the gear we've glaned, as well as looking over the maps a bit more. And it will be nice to see Saturnia again...and I wonder if the foolish, poor Faebion ever recovered from his little encounter." She laughed and patted the snout of the dragon-construct, which a few of the more daring ,younger Sharessans were likewise inspecting up close. Most had likely never seen a construct<em>or</em>a dragon, certainly not such a magnificently shining creation as this.<br/><br/>Semmon hardly waited once the tiefling and Kass were conversing to put his hand around Anya's rear again and lead her about the courtyard, gesturing about with his other arm to describe the general layout of the place and talk it up. He led her down the arcade along one edge of the courtyard, and through an interior hallway whose other end spilled into the pebble-landscaped lawn where Kass had first found him meditation when she was asking around about where the wicker effigy in her scrying might've been. Beyond the lawn stretched a neat grove of olive trees, and beyond that, the open desert. It was not yet noon, and the olive trees cast shade over an arc of wooden benches where the female acolyte Semmon had gestured to several minutes before was just now placing out folded clothes, a two-piece white cotton wrap typical of the women here, towels, a decanter of water and a bowl.<br/><br/>"When you wash," Semmon explained, touching Anya's rear yet again, then brushing back her blonde hair, "You will dry more quickly here in the open air, such is the arid climate, than if we had remained indoors." He paid no heed to the dark-haired acolyte girl, who knelt silently upon the grass n the shade of an olive tree, as if awaiting any further biddings, as he spoke to Anya with his continued familiar hand gestures right upon her body. "Concern yourself not overmuch with privacy, for if you mean to linger here, one of the first tenets of Sharess you are likely to learn and revel in is the celebration of your own countenance. For you in particular, my girl, have much to celebrate. Let us discover just how much." He gestured to her outfit, and then gestured away.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Spells from a runestaff have a 3/day limit , and we've used 2 teleports (one to and one from pyramid) but I suppose Kass could always use the 3rd to go there and then rest while the orders are filled (which realistically takes awhile anyway), just like last time.<br/><br/>(Also, if there's a runestaff spell you may want more than 3 of, I suppose you could add it 'twice' to the runestaff. Sort of like if you found two nearly identical spells, say Orb of Fire and Orb, of Cold, and added both.)<br/><br/>Oh also - whenever Kass has unused spell slots at the end of the day, she might as well cast some spells into her ring of spell storing, so that she has them as 'extra spells' later.<br/><br/>Sure, put the effigy in her sheet, it'd be good to have it in one or the other for future reference of its stats.<br/><br/>Like your item choices, I can tabulate the gp values for those items/upgrades for you soon.<br/><br/>With what you have now for keeps and purchases (not including any stat manuals/tomes, see below) I believe it would be:<br/><br/>Kass keep value: 422,020 (includes half of split stuff)<br/>Kass liquid: 683,870 (gp from sold stuff + liquid treasure....equal to half total value - her keep value)<br/>plus per previous gp: 742,703<br/>cost of new purchases: 447,300 gp (BoB, BoV, Nimbleness, luck/sacred, Spellcraft)<br/>liquid after: 295,403<br/><br/><br/>Yes, the gems are slotless. Agree that Kass should use the True Seeing (since Aria's See Invis has partial overlap, as does Arcane Sight; it can indirectly hint that illusions are illusions, since they are spell effects and thus radiate magic auras, as with the 'plants'.) Am fine with keeping/splitting the other gems. Neither girl needs the energy res much (high reflex and Evasion), but I suppose Kass should keep them on her person (Aria's reflex is a bit higher, and she has a little fire resistance as a tielfing.)<br/><br/>Hmm, actually, having them on the dragon might be a good idea. Constructs have a lot of status immunities, and this one has DR 15/adamantine, but it has no energy resistance or spell resistance, and very bad touch AC and bad saving throws (as do almost all constructs; their racial HD have poor/poor/poor saves and they have no Con mod, and usually middling Dex and Wis). It'll be immune to most Fort and Will save effects, but a lot of Reflex save and ranged touch effects are energy damage, and vice versa (like Fireball and Scorching Ray). Plus, enemies might tend to go for Kass and Aria first with single target attacks (presuming they control it anyway), but area effects are one of the typical dangers for 'sidekicks'  (I noticed that familiars, animal companions, and paladin mounts tend to get Evasion abilities and I bet that's why). So given that Kass and Aria virtually always avoid energy damage thanks to Evasion (have they taken any so far in the campaign? Kass took a little from Belias's flaming axe) the gems might make sense on the dragon.<br/><br/>Aria will probably keep the ring of FoM (some redundancy with Blink but it's one of my favorite buffs), and maybe spell turning, and maybe the gloves of endless javelins (will help with her perpetual hammer shortage), and the archery bracers (too bad it's only bows, not thrown weapons).<br/><br/>One way to do the manuals/tomes for Kass's stat increases, I realized, is scrolls of Wish (or the staff or Wish we just got). The price is very similar (27.5K per point from a tome, 28,825 for the scroll of Wish, where 25K of that represents the 5000 XP included in the scroll - and is probably how the price of the tomes was calibrated) and Wish doesn't have the 48-hours-of-reading. Come to think of it maybe Aria will use some or all of 'her' half of the Wish staff to up some stats. She already did her most important one (Dex), but Con is important for anyone, and Str and Int are somewhat important to her too.<br/><br/>Badge of Valor is normally a necklace item, but it's only 1,400 gp, so you could make a slotless one for 2,800 gp.<br/><br/>I found two more IC boosting effects: an item which increases your effective bard level by 5 for IC (which I think always means +1 exactly), a bard spell which increases IC by 1.<br/><br/>I also found a bow with an effect very similar to Snowflake Wardance (Cha-to-attack by expending a use of BM; damage too). If you're going to a buy a new bow, it seems like a fitting base. Since its price (12K) doesn't correspond to that of a +2 or +3 weapon (8K or 18K), I'd infer that the 'song' ability is intended to be flat-price (i.e. doesn't increase the bow's base price bonus and thus the cost of adding any further abilities like making it +2.)<br/><br/>Of course, Kass's ranged debuff spells (including the low level ones) are very strong tactics against anything without really high Will saves / SR, but if she's gonna buy a new bow, that seems like 'the' bow for her.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Vest of Legends item (DMG II, pg. 272). +5 comp. bonus on Diplomacy and Perform checks, plus Bard level treated as five higher for purpose of determining the effects of inspire courage...Price: 16,000 gp<br/><br/>(If you don't care for the skill bonuses, you can 'strip them out' by reverse engineering the price. Skill bonuses are 100 x bonus squared, or 2500 gp for +5, and those are probably 1.5x'ed,  which would be 7,500 gp, aka 8,500 for just the IC thing. Sort of reminds me of a monk's belt, which raises monk AC and unarmed damage by 5 levels.)<br/><br/>Inspirational Boost Spell (Spell Compendium, pg. 124).<br/>Level: Bard 1<br/>Componants: V, S<br/>Casting Time: 1 swift action<br/>Range: Personal<br/>Target: You<br/>Duration: 1 round or special; see text<br/><br/>Text: While this spell is in effect, the morale bonus granted by your inspire courage bardic music increases by 1. The effect lasts until your inspire courage effect ends. If you don't begin to use your inspire courage ability before the beginning of your next turn, the spell's effect ends.<br/><br/><br/>Bow of Songs (Magic Item Compendium pg. 48)<br/>Price (Item Level): 12,330 gp (13th)<br/>Body Slot: - (held)<br/>Caster Level: 8th<br/>Aura Moderate: (DC 19) evocation<br/>Activation: Swift (command)<br/>Weight: 2 lb.<br/><br/>This +1 shortbow blends music with every shot to deadly effect. On your turn, you can expend one daily use of your bardic music ability to gain a bonus equal to your Charisma bonus on the next attack roll and (if your attack hits) on the corresponding damage roll that you make with the bow.<br/><br/>Cost to Create: 6,000 gp (plus 33 gp for masterwork shortbow), 480 XP, 12 days.