Aria became giddy as she felt the surge of Kass's music - which, paradoxically, she realized she couldn't rightly<em>hear</em>, yet somehow<em>feel</em>. The tiefling triggered her blur and blink magic, and then climbed a few feet up a tree - still in reach for Kass to to her for touch spells like dimension door, but also so that it would be a short flight for herself to get above the arrow-blocking foliage if she decided to<br/><br/>As soon as Kass cast, she saw the horrid writhing tentacles vanish. The two dragon-top winged women shrieked and looked around, seeming to guess the abrupt end of the effect must've come from elsewhere; their own 'captive' was still flailing about on the ground in bewilderment. One shrieked and pointed east - to where the light glinted off Volera's back.<br/><br/>Before they could do anything coherent, though, Kass has altered reality with a second, different type of spell - and Aria found herself now hovering almost face-to-face with one of the dragonback women. Their bodies were shapely and beautiful, in a way, yet monstrous and terrifyingly so - viciously clawed fingers, draconic wings whose scales glinted like rainbows, piercing fangs, and a thin cresting on their hands. Their long, thick and primitively braided hair hung in every color of the rainbow, and their skin was almost as iridescent as their wings, and vaguely reptilian; leathery but still supple.<br/><br/>Whatever its characteristic, Aria had little intent of leaving it umblemished: she flew nearly between the two women, arms spinning up from her hip swat a kukri suddenly at the end of each. One kukri sliced between two bulging vertebrae in the dragon's back - although she was nominally planning to attack the maybe-spellcaster women first, Aria hoped a burst of nerve pain would keep the dragon off-balance a moment more into their blitz attack - before arcing up and stabbing into the underside of the chin of the nearer dragon-woman. Aria sliced open the woman's breath as she pulled the blade out, simultaneously sweeping her other arm across that one's throat to rend it open horizontally.<br/><br/>The bareback-riding draco-women slumped upon the great iridescent back of the dragon and began to slide down opposite haunches, leaving bloody trails - and Aria, now standing right on that back herself, threw herself down into an almost knightly kneel and slashed several more times at the dragon - but every time, her kukris seem to sink into scale-flesh so thick that the creature seemed totally uninjured; she might as well have been gouging into blocks of wood tied to its back.<br/><br/>Even now roaring in pain from the first stab, the dragon twisted its shoulders and threw Aria into the air. The beast spun, quickly for its size, its eyes twinkling with predatory intelligence in every color of the rainbow. The crest atop its head vibrated rapidly, and the beast's jaws flew open almost impossibly wide, like a serpent's.<br/><br/>What came forth seemed far more impossible to Aria - not clouds of flame of lightning, nor gouts of acid or frost - but pure light, of every visible color. The dragon spewed a shimmering rainbow, the light bewilderingly bright and seeming to comprise every hue Aria had seen throughout her entire life. She had a particular sensation of being bathed in an indigo band of the rainbow...<br/><br/>....at then she realized, the jungle, and the dragon, and Kass, were gone! She was falling through a blood-red sky bereft of cloud or sun or stars. A mile below her lay a rocky wasteland, spewing sulfur-smoke...totally barren and featureless and devoid of life save for colliding armies; wild hordes of screaming gorilla-featured demons were leaping against a rigid phalanx of bearded devils with their glaived set against the charge.<br/><br/>Was this the Blood War!? Was this what the horny Alskandermakedon had been trying to recruit her for? Wait....the indigo light....<br/><br/>....the dragon threw its jaws wide and breathed. What came forth seemed far more impossible to Aria - not clouds of flame of lightning, nor gouts of acid or frost - but pure light, of every visible color. The dragon spewed a shimmering rainbow, the light bewilderingly bright and seeming to comprise every hue Aria had seen throughout her entire life. She had a particular sensation of being bathed in an indigo band of the rainbow...<br/><br/>...Aria found herself falling through sweet-scented air, as if she were in a forest of honeysuckle and fir, yet she was in open sky - she could see no ground below; nothing below but sky the same as above...twisting, she saw that to the 'side', such as it was, loomed a great tree - so long it extended as far as she could see in both directions. Its limbs must've reached for miles. Yet out of reach...<br/><br/>...a celestial creature was flying towards her; a golden-armored woman with wings and a fanning helm. A valkyrie guarding Ysdrassil, the World Tree!<br/><br/>...this might not be such a bad place to dwell, she reflected; if she could convince the inhabitants of her well-meaning, at least; her blood might be a liability here, if it was evidenced...<br/><br/>...wait, she had been amidst a dire battle! She couldn't just lollygag in the branches of some gigantic plant, like a thousand-year-old elf with nary a care!<br/><br/>....the dragon threw its jaws wide and breathed. What came forth seemed far more impossible to Aria - not clouds of flame of lightning, nor gouts of acid or frost - but pure light, of every visible color. The dragon spewed a shimmering rainbow, the light bewilderingly bright and seeming to comprise every hue Aria had seen throughout her entire life. She had a particular sensation of being bathed in an indigo band of the rainbow...<br/><br/>...no, she was seeing it flow through her, but she was ethereal! Suddenly she realized she'd just had a few thoughts she couldn't<em>quite</em>recall; that tantalizing feeling like when you wake up from a dream you cannot remember. She had a vague premonition that seeing the light had somehow affected her psychologically or psychically with a glimpse of what might have been, and how terrifying the roar of the dragon as it breathed, had her body been truly bathed in the light.<br/><br/><br/><br/>(I'll iterate once more that, differences in results of an action between one campaign or another don't always reflect systematic differences about 'how things work', as it can just be the particulars of each situation, and in many cases (but not this one) the luck of rolls....of course, there probably *are* differences, for example I've noticed that most male DMs will almost always meet female PCs 'on their terms' when it comes down to it rather than having a male NPC walk away.)<br/><br/>Oh, you wanted to rest? Okay, assume they did that. Kass's spells refreshed while they were waiting for the items to craft - IIRC you said you wanted that to be a rest period, like the previous crafting session was - but it would take more than 8 hours to reach the next dawn; if you wished to've waited for taht you can assume they spent longer in Tsurlagol a/o the Den to reach that point. I guess that refreshes a few of Kass's spells/BMs too (the Teleport and IDance and 1 BM.)<br/><br/>Initiative<br/>Aria 23<br/>Kass 21<br/>(Since Kass is DDing them, Aria'll delay 'til after that and before the NPCs)<br/>Volera? 11 (not sure if you were planning on having her participate)<br/>NPCs 8<br/><br/><br/>Aria:<br/>haste, charge full attack (will deliberately arrive from DD 10' away for charging bonuses...Kass can arrive 5'-95' away from the dragon and still have Aria in charge range, and if Kass wants to be adjacent to it, she can 5' step on her turn)<br/><br/>w/ kukris (note: vs armored or construct foes, will use adamantine kukri as the main hand one and cold iron offhand; vice versa for other foes)<br/>will try to hit and stagger the dragon (so it can't full attack!) then attack women<br/>attack mods 47/... (22 bab 13 dex 5 weapon 4 inspire courge 2 blink 2 charge 1 haste -2 twf)<br/>offhand dmg 1d4+92 (2 str 5 weapon 9 insightful strike 4 inspire courage 26 craven, doubled on a charge via valorous weapon property) + SA, mh dmg 4 higher (from Str)http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3024611/<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3024611/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3024611/)<br/>(mistake: valorous and crit doublings combine for 3x, not 4x as rolled...no threats in this case anyway. Also forgot to double the 1d4 base kukri damage.)<br/><br/>mhhaste atk 52 miss<br/>mh1 atk 60 dmg 156 + 1 Con (wounding weapon property) + staggered<br/>at woman:<br/>oh1 atk 56 dmg 145-10 (DR)<br/>mh2 atk 49 dmg 166, slain (no DR...so her DR must be /cold iron; the only difference between the two kukris is material)<br/>at other woman:<br/>oh2 atk 52 dmg 164-10, dying<br/>at dragon:<br/>mh3 atk 48 miss<br/>oh3 nat1<br/>mh4 37 miss<br/>oh3 34 miss<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Volera?</span><br/>(Since you said Kass would DD herself and Aria I inferred you didn't want to DD Volera, but if you do want to use Volera and have her move in, you can take 2 turns with her on your next post - this one and her round 2 turn; she wouldn't reach the dragon in 1 turn anyway due to the brush)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Dragon</span><br/>Prismatic Spray breath weapon at Aria and Kass<br/>Aria: violet - Will DC 42 or warped to another plane<br/>Kass: blue - Fort DC 42 or turned to stone<br/>(huh, both of their 'weak' saves =P)<br/>Aria: c25m+5r, failed, use Fortunestone, 25m+13r, fails, use Ring of Nine Lives charge (6 to 5)<br/>(don't forget Kass has these too if she fails!)<br/><br/>Frightful Presence Will DC 42 or shaken<br/>Aria: 27m(yay inspire courage)+2 fails, shaken<br/><br/>EDIT: I forgot the miss chances for Aria's blink (for the dragon's attacks, not her own, none of which phased out)! Rolled and she made both...(i.e. no need to use fortunestone / RoNL)...keeping the IC post b/c I like it though