The crab seemed scarcely yet aware of Kass, but as her sword swept close to the force-like 'shell' of the creature, some force seemed to deflect her blow; likely an effect similar to the magics of her and Aria's rings, the 'rings of protection' of many other well-heeled adventurer, or well-loved spells such as Shield of Faith and Protection from Evil.<br/><br/>Aria flew in, activating her item-magic to sense what she only knew how to describe as the ley lines of such a magical creature. As she reached the creature she seemed almost to continue flying past, but hooking and then sliding the kukri along the carapace and rending it open. Blue-gray energy shone forth from within, and the creature seemed to quaver and flicker. In a burst of light it discorporated, but then the shining light seemed to unshine - to race back towards a source as if time were reversed, but not quite the same source as it'd left.<br/><br/>As Kass suspected, like the earth-lion, either the creature had a second body or life, or some second creature had been released from within the crab. A bright flash throughout the chamber left behind a floating giant of a character, even large than the stag-horned dwarf creature. 'Standing' 'horizontally' against the far wall, to huge its legs bestrode a pair of door-blocked like a harbor colossus, this one also wore adamantine armor, a spike jutting from the center of each plate, and the breast glowing faintly with an abstract symbol which might've been two comets or tadpoles chasing one another's tails. A close-faced helm occluded its face, and its right hand was likewise hidden within a claw-like weapon. The left was free; meaty fingers, sheathed like sausages in a glove, twisted in spellcastings somatics. The accompanying verbal components echoes from within the impersonal helm.<br/><br/>A second claw, constructed of pure force, materialized around that hand - and shot out, snapping around Aria. It crushed around her waist, pinning her kurki arm to her side. As soon as Aria blinked out next, she flinched her body in an expectant bid to slide away ethereally like she had from the earth lion  - and found the hand of force extending onto the ethereal plane, maintaining its squeeze.<br/><br/><strong>I am the condemner.</strong><br/><br/>The spellcaster's voice echoed the moment its incantation had completed. It slung its free hand towards Kass, a magic missile manifesting from each fingertip to strike her with pulses of pure force.<br/><br/><strong>For the flagrance of this challenge, know your sentence - the wrath of Zeromus.</strong><br/><br/>"I've got this!" Aria grunted to Kass, remembering the teleport-hop magic of her boots, and so choosing not to cry out to request a saving dispel or dimension door from the bardess, at least not just yet.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Kass miss<br/><br/>Aria: activate haste and deathstrike bracers, draw kukri of subtlety and sunblade for charge<br/>mh 45/45/40/35/30, oh 44/39/34 (22 bab 13 dex 5 or 4 weapons 2 sacred 2 blink 2 charge -2 twf  1 haste)<br/>mh attacks<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2963652/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2963652/)<br/>(Note: I'd been forgetting the 'reroll 1s on sneak attack damage die' attribute of her Bracers of Murder 'til now. This is hard to 'program' directly in a diceroller, but since it's distributionally identical to doing a 1d5+1 instead of a 1d6, or (with Sacred Strike vs evil) 1d7+1 instead of 1d8, I've done that.)<br/>mh1 crit 101+42+2str+2con - 15 DR<br/>mh2 crit 104+41+2str+2con - 15 DR<br/>slain<br/><br/>Zeromus casts Crushing Hand (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/crushingHand.htm) to grapple Aria<br/>touch atk 48 hit<br/>grapple check 50 (her mod is 24 so no chance)<br/>deals 14 crushing dmg<br/>(...and as it's a force effect, her Blink won't let her out!)<br/><br/>spell-like ability: quickened empowered Magic Missile (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicMissile.htm) at Kass<br/>dmg 26<br/><br/>EDIT: heh heh, I forgot about Aria's 'anklet of translocation' (part of her MDA boots); lets her swift action 10' teleport 2/day. She can't use it until her own turn (so she still takes grapple damage) but I added her call-out to Kass (to reduce the chance that Kass uses her turn dispelling or damaging the hand or DDing Aria out when Aria can warp out using an item charge. But incidentally it's another example of a situation where the bard spells could be really useful if needed!).<br/><br/>Aria at altitude 10', Kass at 30', Zeromus at 20' (Huge with 15' facing, so Kass is level with his 'top third')<br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><br/><br/><br/>                                       X X X X X X X X X X X X<br/>                                       d . . . . . . . . . . d<br/>                                       d . . . . . . . . . . d<br/>                                       d . . . . K . . . . . d<br/>                                       d . . . . . . . Z Z Z d<br/>   1         6          12          18 X . . . . . . . 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X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . d<br/>   X X X X . . . X X . . . . X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . d<br/>   X X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . d<br/>   X X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . d<br/> 6 X X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X . . . . . . . . X<br/>   X X X X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . X X . . . . . . . . X<br/>   X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X . . . . . . . . X<br/>   X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X . . . . . . . . X<br/>   X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X d d d d X X X<br/> 1 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X d d d d X X X</span>