Factotum/Swordsage

[linklord231]

I'm looking to make a backup character for a campaign currently in-progress, and am leaning towards the skillmonkey role.  I figure Factotum 8/Swordsage 2 would be a good starting point, but I'm not quite sure where to go from there.  Increasing Factotum to 11 would be useful, but so would more Swordsage.  Master of Nine would help my offense a lot, but requires a crapton of feats to enter and Factota are already rather feat starved. 
So my questions are this:
1)  Where should I go after level 10?
2)  I assume I should prioritize stats Int > Dex > Con > Wis >> Str > Cha.  Is this correct?
3)  feats?  Darkstalker is tasty and essential for sneaking.  Font of Inspiration is of course desired.  Adaptive Style is essential in any Swordsage build.  Shadow Blade.  Any others that stand out?  If there are a lot, I'll probably go human.  If not, I'm leaning towards Whisper Gnome.
4)  Finally, what suggestions do you have for maneuvers and stances (This is probably the biggest question)? 

Thanks in advance :-)

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Maybe a bit of an obvious question, but...
... Why not take levels of Warblade over Swordsage?

[symisin]

you could toss in 3 lvls of swashbuckler

[sirpercival]

Factotum 8/Master of Masks 1/Warblade 2/Cloistered Cleric 1 is a good starting point.  MoM gets you the Gladiator Mask for proficiency with all exotic weapons which allows Gnomish Quickrazor and Boomerang Daze.  Warblade gets you IHS and WRT and Sapphire Nightmare Blade for use with Iaijutsu Focus.  CC gets you Knowledge Devotion, Travel Devotion, and either a domain ability or another devotion feat if you want it (Law Devotion, Trickery Devotion, whatev).  Two levels of Chameleon is nice for the floating feat but not essential.

[linklord231]

I thought hard about Warblade vs Swordsage, but figured SS would probably be better because it has more skill points (I still intend to be a skillmonkey), Shadow Hand maneuvers, and Dex to damage with Shadow Blade.  But I suppose Warblade would save a feat by prioritizing Str over Wis, even though my AC would drop a bit.  It would also mean I could drop Adaptive Style... hmm...

Going for Boomerang Daze would make the power of this build absolutely skyrocket, but I doubt it will be allowed.  Our group doesn't have any of the Eberron books.  Or Races of Stone, for that matter - I'd have to get Whisper Gnome specifically OK'd (I should have mentioned, material from any books we have in physical form is allowed, anything else is on a case-by-case basis).  Still, if I were to do that I'd probably skip the Master of Masks level and go Whisper Gnome, swapping hook hammer proficiency for quickrazor, and buy an Aptitude Quickrazor.  2 levels of Bloodstorm Blade might be in order if you can Power Attack with Quickrazors, but I doubt you can. 

All other things being equal though, I'd like to use as little material from books we don't own as possible.  As I mentioned, material from other books is allowed on a case-by-case basis, but if I start asking for too much the DM might just say no on principle.  So, for the moment, can we assume Iajutsu Focus, Boomerang Daze, and Gnomish Quickrazors are off the table?

So now it's looking like Factotum 8/Warblade 2/Cloistered Cleric 1/Factotum +3/Warblade +6.  Unless it would be better to cut out CC and the extra Factotum and just go more Warblade.  The only things I'd gain from 3 more Factotum levels are Cunning Breach and an extra Inspiration Point.  Knowledge Domain is super handy, but I could pick it up just as easily from a feat, and I don't think I'd have enough Turn Undead uses to power Travel Devotion as often as I'd like.  Besides, our group plays with the houserule that you can "trade down" a standard for a move action, so I could Cunning Surge to the same effect.  I'd probably grab Tickery for the third domain for more skillmonkeying.  Compared to 4 more Warblade levels, I'd lose out on 8th level maneuvers, one each maneuver known and readied, and a stance.  And Int to Trip/Disarm/etc, again. 
Stats are looking like Int > Con > Str > Dex >> Wis >> Cha.

Anyway, as for maneuvers at 10th level, I have 4 known and 3 readied.  Can Iron Heart Surge count itself as the "one Iron Heart" maneuver known for prerequisites?  If so, then maneuvers known would probably be IHS, WRT, either Sapphire Nightmare Blade or Insightful Strike (depending on if Iajutsu is allowed), and probably one of the Diamond Mind Save boosts (most likely Will).  If not, well... I don't know. 
Any other ideas?  Thanks for the help!