The giantess began to reach forth with a claw, but her face froze in bewilderment and the rest of her body with it. She struggled internally as Kass flew above the newly spiky ground and around her.<br/><br/>Aria, impressed from a distance, clicked her heels together and leaped from the ground, cape-wings spreading. Her bird-shaped shadow followed underneath her as she beelined for the giantess, who was moving again and starting to turn to face Kass again just as Aria drew a kukri and closed. The giantess hissed something quick as Kass's feather-fall magic, and her body seemed to leap out from itself in all directions -<em>six</em>blue-winged giantesses all stood under the sun.<br/><br/>Aria landed like an arrow in what she thought was the original,  stabbing between the huge ribs under the armpit, but the body simply popped out of existence. Aria hissed, spinning around amidst the images with her wings twisting gamily, slicing at the oversized ribs and throats of the dancing giantesses. Several more popped out before she found the right one, slicing deep between ribs just under a breast to earn a very real sheeting of static-crackling red blood down over the white cloth top. Like a clawed cat playing with string she kept slicing, and started kicking as well, winking out other images. Once only one giantess was left she flapped up a wingbeat and planted a bootheel square in the throat beneath that face as big as her chest. The giantess gagged, clutched her throat, and staggered on her feet, causing the ground underneath to vibrate slightly.<br/><br/><br/><br/>She can have the runestaff still out - I forget whether you typically write what Kass puts back or not, but going forward I would say use one or the other convention and let me know which (default = last thing used unless stated putting way or default = empty handed unless mentioned otherwise...more for verisimilitude than anything - NPCs who might react differently depending on what they are holding, etc.). But even then it's an easy thing to forget and I'm forgiving.<br/><br/>For Aria I've usually not been describing her putting stuff back, but she does (didn't really occur to me just now that I either should each time or say in general) - in general, assume Aria puts everything back whenever she's not in an initiative sequence (i.e. after an encounter, after healing the camels, etc.) even though I usually don't write it. (I've tended to forget about it b/c for her it's almost always preferable.) You can use either convention for Kass.<br/><br/>Also, my last post probably wasn't clear about initiative: The giantess's spell was a surprise round (like the impostor's concealed castings of dominate person) - it's just a coincidence that she beat Aria's initiative (in other words she she'll get another turn before Aria's first). (And as I've mentioned a few times, characters can't auto-go-first just by saying so / posting it first - you see people argue about this in PBP - it's specific to things which by nature are undetectable except through the effects which occur when the action completes).<br/><br/>Rolling initiative for Kass: 7 + 16r, 23, and she wins the tie vs the giantess, so she goes first anyway<br/><br/>(btw it's nice that Kass has the Concentration and Tumble to prevent most AoOs - they can be a bit slowing or confusing in PBP - I'm in another campaign where the DM never makes maps and doesn't describe turns as accurately, and it's a mess)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Giantess</span><br/>fails Will save, held! (very nice, keeps her from full attacking Kass)<br/>on her turn, takes a full round action to make a second save; success<br/><br/>What a time for Aria not to win initiative! very clever to set up the fly-flank as well. Worth noting that flanking requires the characters 'threaten' the flankee, which means they have a natural or held weapon and are in a position where they could hit the flankee with it - in other words, in a position to make AoOs if the flankee were to provoke them - but the runestaff I think counts (I think staves and runestaves can all be used like quarterstaffs?)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Aria</span><br/>activate haste (7/10) and lion's charge (2/5), flying charge (80' out of 120') to giantess at altitude 5' (center of her nine east-facing cubes), usual tumble to avoid AoOs from her greater reach, draw kukri<br/>full attack 37/37/32/27/23  (17 bab 10 dex 1+4 weapon 2 charge 4 flanking  - cool, first time I've seen charge + flank together? - 1 haste -2 twf)<br/>dmg 1d4+13 with the headband of Int (I think I'd been doing her damage 1 too low before; I wasn't stacking the +1 enhancement and +4 subtlety; so it should've been 1d4+11 instead of 1d4+10 before, for sneak attacks)<br/>Result: 10, 5, 13, 6, 16, (forgot threats)<br/>5 Giantess mirror images appear!<br/>(doing 1dX rolls at E for real target - I usually do roll of 1 = real, since even though 'higher' is usually 'better', it's easier to remember the '1' since the 'X' changes as MIs get popped)<br/>1st mi 2<br/>2nd mi 2<br/>3rd mi 1 atk 32+13 dmg 15+70<br/>4th mi 4<br/>5th mi 2<br/>(four popped, down to 1 MI)<br/><br/>off hand unarmed mods 32/27, dmg 1d3+7 nonlethal<br/>Result: 17, 12,<br/>1st mi 2<br/>(all MIs popped)<br/>2nd atk 27+12 dmg 10+56, tot 151<br/><br/>giantess is staggered (will keep her from full attacking again)<br/><br/>Kass recognizes the spell: Greater Mirror Image (as mirror image except L4, immediate action casting time, and it 'regenerates' one image per round after the first, up to a max of 8 at once. From PHBII. Will grab the full text if interested.)<br/><br/>Worth noting that swift/immediate action spellcasting (like both the Hold Monster and Gr. MI) doesn't provoke AoO (although at this level most chars put in for enough Concentration cast defensively 100% of the time for normal spells anyway)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><br/>  N    . . . . G G G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .<br/>W   E  . . . K G G G A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (&lt;- end of spike stones)<br/>  S    . . . . G G G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  <br/>    0         5         10        15        20        25        30</span>