Aria nodded, grateful once again for the swifter alternative to her swimming. As it turned out, Kass's guess as to their assailants' distance was so apt that, after teleporting, they found a harmless momentary<em>pushing</em>feeling as their bodies were shunted back - far preferable to appearing<em>inside</em>the acidic stomach of a dragon, to be sure.<br/><br/>For that was what now filled their gaze: half as wide as the tunnel, with a wingspan that would've exceed it had it tried to stretch its wings, a great body stretched out sinuously, armored all around with dull black (or at least, seeing by darkvision, Aria supposed from the hue) scales. Its forelimbs stretched forth with the claws fist into fists, and the creature's head was crocodile-skull-like; the skin had sunken and stretched with age, pulled tightly across the skull. The face also seemed almost demonic, for it sported horns like the balor's, jutting sideways from the head and curving around to point forth.<br/><br/>Several chains of gold webbed its torso, and two more of the human-shaped half-dragonesses stretched their own bodies across its chest. Each had her back to the beast, much like the pair 'riding' the worm, with similar jewelry looping her against the chains on the dragon, and her feet tucked in the dragon's chains.<br/><br/>They set baleful eyes upon Kass and Aria, trying like those before to stun with a single supernatural stare. The dragon, when it saw Kass toting the unconscious brethren, released a bubbling roar and set upon her with a fierce chomp of its long crocodile-like jaw. As its head shot forth on a lengthening neck, it jerked its wings forward over its shoulders, trying to buffet Kass with the ridges of bone running up the forward edges.<br/><br/>Coordinated with its many limbs, the dragon also hooked inward with its foreclaws, trying to grasp Aria between the sets of cruel claws, and its impossibly long tail whipped up from underneath to smash against her.<br/><br/>Aria phased and desperately floated aside while on the ethereal plane, only to find the canny dragon, as soon as she reappeared, following through with one of the sweeping claws. The palm crashed int her and several talons speared into an arm and leg. Aria shrieked as her body was batted aside, and called to Kass, "Its body is glowing with a dozen auras! It magicked up for this fight!"<br/><br/>She spun her body around, and her uninjured leg swept in a crescent up between the heads of the stretched-across-the-underbelly half-dragonesses; the ball of her foot struck one in the temple, then Aria whipped the leg back to strike the other in her temple as well. Aria folded her legs in, drawing her body yet closer, and smashed an elbow and the butt of a drawn kukri into the noses of the women, whose heads sagged, eyes no longer lucid, as Aria dragged the blade itself along the stretch of underbelly of the creature between its riders' heads. The dragon flinched reflexively at the first piercing of the blade, but Aria still managed to get one deep slice before a twist of the wyrm sent her blade sliding further over hard outer scales.<br/><br/><br/><br/>HDs:<br/>One each stunning glance at Kass, Aria, Fort DC 31 negates<br/>Aria: %miss due to blink<br/><br/>Dragon<br/>at  Kass:<br/>bite atk 73 dmg 33<br/>wing nat1<br/>wing atk 79 dmg 24<br/>at Aria:<br/>claw atk 76 dmg 23<br/>claw %miss due to blink/blur/minor displacement<br/>tail %miss ''''<br/><br/>Aria<br/>haste, twf with unarmed/kukris at HDs/dragon<br/>mods 45/.... (23 bab 14 dex -2 twf 1 weapon 1 haste 2 blink 6 inspire courage) unarmed damage 1d3+20 (4 str 9 int 1 weapon 6 inspire courage) kukri 1d4+18 (2 str 9 int 1 weapon 6 inspire courage)<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3087871/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3087871/)<br/>mh0 atk 54 dmg 113-10<br/>mh1 atk 55 dmg 106-10 unconscious<br/>@ 2nd HD:<br/>mh2 atk 42 dmg 129-10<br/>mh3 atk 42 dmg 115-10 unconscious<br/>@ dragon:<br/>mh4 atk 46 miss<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3087879/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3087879/)<br/>oh1 atk 53 dmg 20 (not a sneak attack; dragon not dex-denied by blink)<br/>oh2 atk 56 threat 60 crit 176 staggered<br/>(staggered means it won't be able to full attack next round! 1 move or standard action only, as opposed to both or one full-round action; similar to  Slow)<br/>oh3 atk 49 miss<br/>oh4 atk 49 threat but miss!<br/>dragon at 196+2str+4con dmg