The four fiends screeched like harpies as spherical soundwaves burst from between them. The two succubi were flattened against the back wall of the crosshall, writhing and clutching at bleeding ears and noses and bruised feminine flesh.<br/><br/>The two crossdressing babaus reacted more cannily, throwing themselves forward into tight tucked rolls over the carpet, clawed hands fast over ears, and being pushed along nigh-harmlessly by the soundweaves. as they sprang up, one hissed at an arrow shot by Aria, who'd reacted much as she had to the marilith. The fiend seemed to flinch and twit about it even before realizing what he was doing, and it caught him shallowly along one arm.<br/><br/>The babau grinned evilly at Aria, and to her surprise, he seemed to vanish amidst the romantic lightning and bead curtains swaying before him in her sight. She was aiming her arrows now at the succubi, as they had already been injured by Kass and, to judge from the staff, one or both might be spellcasters (and she still remembered a fight upon a certain remote Brightwater beach). An arrow clean through the throat dropped the badly-bruished and staff-carrying succubus; she dropped to her knees in what woudl otherwise have been a suggestive position, clutching at her thraot before slumping to the carpet. The other succubus Aria caught twice under the armpit as she turned, causing the she-fiend to flop down dead over her sister.<br/><br/>A babau appeared right in front of Aria, clawing out nastily. The tiefling reacted much as the babau had to her arrow, her body flinching with animalistic instinct before her forebrain even realized she was doing so, but the claw still left several hard-slapping slashes along her left cheek.<br/><br/>Saturnia grunted as the other babau, after having hidden in the open like its fellow, reappeared just before her and slashed across her throat; it would've been a deadly accurate blow, but her flesh seemed to resist the strike somewhat. The ghaele drew her sword and indicated the two babaus as she stepped back and declared, "Their skin can be acidic, I know all too well; I shall protect us now;" her voice fell into an abjurative spellcast which washed over the two invited adventurers as well as hersef.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Yes, I thought of and meant to but forgot to mention, her song is still in effect, say 7 rounds (this round + 6 more).<br/><br/>I agree, looks like a great time to try some spellcasting - four tightly packed enemies just beg to be area-spelled, don't they.<br/><br/>Aria has a number of those crystals; she has a set of masterwork throwing hammers with the crystals; she can let Kass borrow some.<br/><br/>Permanency does have an XP cost, but you can - in fact when you cast the spell from an item, it's the only way you can - essentially "buy" it. When an item crafter creates a scroll/wand/staff/etc, they have to put the XP into the item (per charge) (in additional to the regular item crafting XP costs). I don't think the user of the wand/staff can pay the XP cost even if they wanted to (say to save money on the item cost). Naturally this raises the price of the item (1 XP = 5 GP). The Scrolls SRD has some permanency scrolls as an example; it's why they're much more expensive than the other L5 spell scrolls. These costs are reflected in Aria's loot value (both the 5 GP per XP cost plus the 'normal' wand/staff charge costs). Sure, Kass could do the same thing: go to the place Aria went and pay to 'rent/use' the relevant wand/staff charges. (In Aria's backstory I figured it wasn't absurdly convenient for her to've found such a place - since the fact that it's a convenient set of things to find means there would be a 'market' for exactly those spell combinations, for wealthy people with Use Magic Device skills to go augment themselves).<br/><br/>------<br/><br/>Aria will delay to go after Kass (usually nice to do physical and other single-targe attacks after area attacks, to avoid attacking things the area effect would drop or neutralize a/o so that the area effect catchs more foes if the physical attacks would've dropped some)<br/><br/>reflex saves:<br/>Left babau: save (w/ Evasion)<br/>Right babau: save (w/ Evasion)<br/>Left succubus: fail, 59 sonic dmg<br/>Right succubus: save, 29 sonic dmg<br/>[they were pretty lucky]<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Aria</span><br/>5' se (to avoid 'soft cover' penalty of firing 'through' Saturnia)<br/>activate haste and sniper's shot; drow bow and full attack<br/>mods 32/32/27/23/17 (includes inspire courage)<br/>left babau first:<br/>1st atk 32+5 dmg 9 (no sneak attack - it has Uncanny Dodge!)<br/>left succubus:<br/>2nd atk 32+12-4 (soft cover from babau in front of her), dmg 6+57, total 112 with the sonic, KOed<br/>right succubus:<br/>3rd atk 27+4-4, dmg 9+55<br/>4th atk 23+19-4, dmg 10+53, total 156 with the sonic, KOed<br/>right babau:<br/>5th atk 17+4 miss<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Left babau</span><br/>moves toward Aria; Hide (in Plain Sight) check 40 [not rolling Spot for Aria, higher than her mod by >20)<br/>atk natural 20, threat roll 37 ('miss'), non-crit dmg 12 [Aria's uncanny dodge saves her from its sneak attack dmg - another tit for tat! - and the threat roll would've confirmed without it]<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Right babau</span><br/>moves toward Saturnia; Hide (in Plain Sight) check 28; Saturnia spot check 17<br/>atk 26, hit, dmg 12+8-10(DR)=10<br/><br/>(the babaus will 'reappaer' after attacking, so I didn't bother rolling Spot checks for Kass, but you could if you like. Their Hide results already include the non-slow-movement penalty.)<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Saturnia</span><br/>draw sword again, 5' nw, casts Mass Resist Energy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resistenergy.htm) (CL 14th, 140 minutes, acid 30)<br/><br/>Back to Kass (since Aria delayed)<br/><br/>Left (south) babau: 9 dmg<br/>Aria: 12 dmg<br/>Saturnia: 10 dmg<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;"><br/>  A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P <br/>1         . .     . .<br/>2         . .     . . <br/>3         . .     . .<br/>4         . .     . .         . .<br/>5         . . . . . .         . . <br/>6         . . Sa . . .         . .<br/>7 . . . . . . . . B . . . . . . . <br/>8 . . . . . . K A B . . . . . . .      <br/>9         . . . . . .         . .<br/>10        . . . . . .         . . <br/>11            . .<br/>12            . .<br/>13            . . <br/>          (to street)</span>