Aria chirped back in the fey tongue, "More than fine with me! Few dark goddesses are more notorious, from what I know, and I can regrettably say that many a sneak-thief-by-training like myself falls into their fold. Hers or Mask's, anyway. I suppose those sirines are the sort of persn I could've been had I darker heart or different life beginning, and would happily stomp out this dark compound or temple or whatever - and<em>wherever</em>- it is." With the bardess mentioning flame, Aria reflected that<br/><br/>As soon as the blindfold clothed her eyes, Kass would get a sudden bat-like sense of where everything within about six paces of her was - the three-dimension contours of Aria's form, the walls and floor and door, the catwalks overhead, and the backside of the stage wall. For fighting and many other tasks it would seem as effective as sight, but conveyed no sense of color and little sense of texture, and nothing at all beyond its range. In some ways it felt more like the sense of touch or hearing, but with the definition and spatial accuracy of sight. Kass would also sense that the magic item apparently attuned to the same bodily chakra as her veil, precluding the use of one with the other, requiring physical readjustment to switch.<br/><br/>Intrigued and impressed, Aria tried on the other blindfold, and remarked, "Neat, maybe they used it for sensing out each other when they were shadow-hidden. I notice the guy in the middle was the old blindfolded: putting all three doors within the range, while the other man, and the invisible dandy, were probably using regular sight to see up both wings."<br/><br/>She pulled the blindfold up a little, tucking it under the Rana-impostor's headband, so that if she wished to use it later it'd be relatively expedient to do so.<br/><br/>As soon as they crossed into the black-and-white world of the room, the air grew markedly chillier, and somehow more stale. The room was just as high-ceilinged as the theater, and trapezoidal, with two more sets of double doors on the slanted left and right walls. The long wall behnd them had four other doors, two to either side, with the othermore of each radiating magic, and of a positions and style seeming to match the other two magic doors at the back of the theater. The wall itself curved in the same manner - or rather, a mirroring manner;<em>both</em>walls seemed to be the inside of large circles. The flanking doors on both sides thus 'bowed' away from their theater-side counterparts, a rather disturbing optical effect to Aria's mind, as if she'd suddenly reversed direction and were facing the middle of the theater building again, or rather this mirror or shadow of it.<br/><br/>Abruptly her focus shifted: there was a rush of air just to her left and the sound of jaws chomping down but just barely falling short of her, followed by a canine snarl and a skidding sound against the floor as if some creature's paw had caught on a loose plank or stone, mercifully fouling the attack. "More shadowhiding foes!" Aria gasped, unable to see her panting assailant despite her darkvision.<br/><br/>A similar canine charge had already come from Kass's right, the shape of a great horse-sized hound creature rushing into range of her blindsight and snapping large, slobbery fangs (each one sharply contoured by the blindsight) at the bardess. Kass's broad secondhand knowledge would suggest these were so-called 'shadow mastiffs', to the Plane of Shadow what hellhounds were to Baator, creatures which like the martial artist doormen could become nigh-invisible except in sun-like light,  and which used lupine sneak-up-and-pounce and bite-and-trip tactics. Indeed, the beast jerked its head at the moment its jaws snapped down, in a wolf-like attempt to jerk its prey off balance.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Huh, can't believe I missed that you did that one post earlier...I had been on the lookout for it, even. Thanks a lor for reiterating it. (Esp. b/c as you can see it matters w/ these new foes!)<br/><br/>Blindfolds grant blindsight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#blindsightAndBlindsense) 30', but the character is otherwise blind while using it (and no, you can't put it over one eye for both); face chakra<br/><br/>Putting it on from a relatively convenient position is probably a move action (closed category in Actions in Combat (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsincombat.htm) seems to be 'manipulate an item'). Let me know if you have other thoughts.<br/><br/>Some 'epic goals' and in-character development related to that milestone is a nice thought, I agree, particularly depending on the nature of whatever feat you take at 21.<br/><br/>I don't think burning down a building itself would be evil, but even if it's empty, it'd be hard to keep it from spreading to the adjacent blocks and would probably kill random people or at least destroy their homes.<br/><br/>Surprise round (mastiffs only get one despite Kass's blindsight b/c they charged from beyond its range)<br/><br/>Left mastiff: charge Aria<br/>nat1<br/>Right mastiff: charge Kass<br/>atk 46 dmg 29 + trip attack roll 25<br/>(Kass makes a Strength check - Str mod + d20 - and unless it's 25 or higher she's tripped. With most trippers the defender gets a chance to countertrip if the trip fails, as you likely recall from Keela, but not against these attackers.)<br/><br/>First regular round<br/>Initiative<br/>Kass 19<br/>Aria 18<br/>Enemies 17<br/><br/>Aria will probably use her first turn to draw down the blindfold (move) and activate her blink ring (and hover up 5' b/c of the tripping)<br/><br/><br/>/ \ X  diagonal walls<br/>d magic radiating doors<br/>= doors on diagonal walls<br/>- - - other doors<br/>A Aria<br/>K Kass<br/>M Mastiffs<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><br/>                           ___ _ _ _________ _ _ ___<br/>                          /. . . . . . . . . . . . .\<br/>                        =. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .=<br/>                      =. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .=<br/>                    /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\<br/>                  X. . . . . . . . M M . . M M . . . . . . .X<br/>                    \. . . . . . . M M A K M M . . . . . ./<br/>                      ---- d --- - --- d --- - --- d -----<br/><br/></span><br/><br/><br/>I probably won't be on again 'til Tuesday. Have a nice weekend!