The devil howled as its chain missed and instead Kass's sword bit back, biting deep although the devil-flesh seemed not to burn. The creature shook its head to the vibrations of the sword, spittle flying. Then its head whipping back painfully - far enough to show it that Aria had just jump-kicked the back of its neck. The tiefling landed with several punches into its vertebrae; several cracking sounds echoed from within the chain-laden devil and it fell.<br/><br/>Aria pivoted to toss more hammers; the mindflayer was cocking its expressionless head at at the vocal Kass when the missiles caught it between the pupil-less eyes. It fell, crystal egg shattering against the ground. Aria hoped it wasn't<em>too</em>valuable a bauble lost as she flung a shuriken at the stunned kyton, partially tearing open its thick muscle-corded throat.<br/><br/>As the crystal egg shattered with high tinny notes, though, something deeper and louder echoed: the mammoth scorpion snapped to life - literally snapped, the first evidence of animation being the siege-engine-weaponry size claws which snapped shut around the stunned mindflayer and kyton. Quite quick for so large a creature they closed, with slicing impact and then crushing, grinding, horrible noises as the creature lifted its two helpless prey several body lengths into the air. Kass's surmising had been correct, it seemed; the creature was either too primally dumb, or too angry about its captivity, to bear any love for those who seemed to keep it.<br/><br/>And it hardly seemed discriminating  - the body made a series of clacking and skittering sounds, tilting forward even as it made those first claw strikes, and the great barbed tail shot down from the chamber ceiling like a spear hurled down at Aria. It was too quick even for her, but she phased out ethereally even as she gasped in shock. The tail struck the stone, and recoiled.<br/><br/><br/>Oh, Blink induces a 20% miss chance for your own attacks (except for force effects like Magic Missile and the force bows); since we forgot to roll this for the Heaven's Trumpet and now this attack, why don't you just assume she cast Gr. Blink, which she also knows now. (That would be what, her 3rd 5th level spell, after Teleport and Cacophonic Burst.)<br/><br/>It's easy to forget, as is the 50% miss chance most incoming attacks have vs a blinker (I still forget the latter half the time with Aria, despite how often she uses it.) I suppose that's another way to deal with natural 1 saves (half the time, anyway).<br/><br/>I made another mistake last round - Aria's attacks should've passed the DR (which is /silver or good, and Sacred Strike specifically good-aligns sneak attacks vs DR). I don't think it made a difference though.<br/><br/>Kass hits for 24 (DR 5, and resistance to the fire); devil saves on the stunning<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Aria</span><br/>5' e into flanking, tw fa begin with unarmed attacks vs the devil<br/>attack mod 38 (inc. blink and flankng) w/ the usual iteratives/offhands<br/>unarmed dmg 1d3+10 (insightful strike dmg applies since unarmed attacks are finessable)<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2952471/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2952471/)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [[9, 4]] = (13)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [2,3,3,7,1,6,3,8,2,2,3,2,32] = (74)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [[16, 16]] = (32)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [1,2,2,5,3,1,3,4,8,4,7,1,32] = (73)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [[19, 9]] = (28)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [1,1,6,2,4,6,5,7,7,4,7,2,32] = (84)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [[6, 16]] = (22)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d3+11d8+32 → [3,4,3,5,2,7,2,3,7,4,4,4,32] = (80)<br/><br/>mh1 hit 74<br/>mh2 hit 73<br/>mh3 hit 84 slain<br/>throw hammer(s) at ne mindflayer, mh4 mod of 19 (no flanking) +16r above for 35<br/>base damage is 1d4+9 instead of 1d3+10, otherwise same, rolled a 3<br/>mh4 hit 79<br/>off hand mods of 34/29/24<br/>http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2952474/ (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2952474/)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d4+11d8+31 → [3] = (3)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d4+11d8+31 → [1,5,1,8,1,4,8,8,2,7,4,8,31] = (88)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d4+11d8+31 → [[8, 7]] = (15)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d4+11d8+31 → [2,4,4,3,1,2,4,4,2,2,8,4,31] = (71)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d4+11d8+31 → [[17, 8]] = (25)<br/>1d20.extra(5).extra(20);1d4+11d8+31 → [1,6,4,7,5,3,6,1,8,3,1,7,31] = (83)<br/><br/>(oops, -1 from that dmg since this is off hand)<br/>mh1 phase out<br/>out of hammers; now shuriken (mod is 7 lower for no proficiency, no mw, and 1 range increment; dmg is avg. 8 lower for 1d2 insead of 1d4 and no insightful strike)<br/>mh2 23+7r, hit 63 dying....and drops the crystal egg!<br/>shuriken at stunned (stunned AC = flat-footed -2 penalty) kyton,<br/>mh3 17+8r, hit 75<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Scorpion</span><br/>(40' facing, Colossal size)<br/><br/>claw attack at stunned mindflayer<br/>atk 59 dmg 22<br/>improved grab: grapple check 91 (!)<br/>(grappling a stunned char might be auto-success? not sure but it was fun to roll...)<br/>constricts for 23 more dmg<br/><br/>claw attack at stunned kyton<br/>atk 60 dmg 22-5<br/>improved grab: grapple check 73<br/>constricts for 22-5 more dmg<br/><br/>5' forward, tail attack at Aria<br/>atk 52...but 16r on the d100 blink roll<br/><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><br/>. . . . . . . .<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S<br/>S S S S S S S S <br/>. . D'. . . . . <br/>. . . D'. . M'. <br/>. . . . . . . . <br/>. . . . . . . .<br/>. . . . . . . . <br/>. . . . A D'K .<br/>. . . . . . . .</span>