A surge of cold enveloped Rayne as the hydra blasted her, along with Weaver and Lothor. Somehow, each of them managed to shake it off, though they were still hurt from the cold. Rayne felt very weakened. The fight had gone on long. She had to heal, since her weapons seemed like they'd be next to useless. Drawing one of her potions of extra healing from her belt, she took a drink of it.

After she had finished the drink, she knew that others needed healing as well. It's not like she'd be overly helpful against the White Suit of armour Lothor was fighting anyway. Skirting around the hydra, she headed to Cor, with the intention of casting cure moderate wounds on him. She did her best to avoid drawing attention to herself. It wouldn't do Cor any good if she was killed.

Alyia hopping to play on the hydra's moment of confusion. Dogging an parried between the heads working her way to the side of the hydra. Lunging she buried her sword into the small creatures side until the blade pierced clean through the creature. Pulling her blade free Alyia quickly moved out of the creatures range.

Sirene felt the subtle caress of the charm wash over her and smirked, fully expecting it to slide right off of her. It did not. Instead the faery witch was held fast. Immobile, fury boiled through her. It was not possible! Her fey blood made her nigh immune to magics that beguile. To be felled by such a simple charm was the deepest of insults.

With blind fury, Sirene railed against the curse, pushing her will to break the bonds. It was all to no avail. She may as well have been a statue. It would be up to the others to end this fight now.

A gentle hand lay upon her shoulder, and she could feel a liquid warmth move through her, returning to her the control of her own body. Spelled powers fled this touch, and so her enchanted skin of stone fled with the paralysis. It was a sacrifice she gladly made.

Nodding to Weaver, she made an ancient elven gesture of thanks before turning her attention and her fury to the dead queen and her advisor. Keeping her distance from the hydra, the fey enchantress returned the charm with a curse of her own.

A haunting, wordless tone left her lips as she swayed with a hypnotic rhythm. Her siren song floated through the air to caress the advisor and hold them forever in its sway. This was a dark thing to fully sap the will of another but here and now it was a needed thing.

And so Sirene sang. Beneath her wordless call three words rang true. Destroy the Queen.
((OOC: Casts Domination, targeting the Advisor))

The rapid expansion of fire and heat in the enclosed room blew back with enough force to rip Ulthok's grip from Howler. The vortex of power rolling around the wall of room caught Ulthok from behind and flung him through the air. To his amazement and delight he was blown free of the room and landed in the enterance hall.
From the room came the howls of pain and the smell of death. The smoke bellowed but the mage could still see the pulsating reddish gem. Ulthok felt this may be the magic source they had been sent to destroy. He didn't know why Howler would have brought him to this place other than perhaps it was the last room he'd been in before going to the Lich Queen's chamber. This could his best chance to destroy the magic and take this floating castle out of the battle. But he knew his companions needed him to defeat the Lich..... and Valene was still somewhere. Ulthok could feel that Peri was in deep peril.

The choice was hard,,. friends or duty.

As he patted out the few embers on his clothes the mage made his choice.

Through the smoke Ulthok could see the reddish glow pulsating. The gem was enclosed in a crystal globe encased in a spider web type wired frame; he'd have to get through that first. To expose the red gem Ulthok brought up the spell that he had used to destroy the catapult. Uttering the words and pointing to the guide the force of the spell at the glowing gem the small mage cast Disintegrate.

After throwing himself at the suit of armor, Lothor found himself on top of the metal contraption on the ground. It seemed slashing and slicing were of no use against these things. But he had already seen the damage a massive rams head could do to them. They could be hurt.

Luckily, he had never gone in for little blades. His sword was no rapier. It was a huge hunk of metal that just happened to be sharp on the edges - truly worthy of the title of great sword. He would drive it into the beast like a battering ram. From his position atop the suit of armor he raised himself up, keeping his left foot firmly planted on the things sword arm, and plowed the great blade into the breast plate. There was no subtlety in this. No attempt to cut. He simply aimed to use the massive size of the metal blade to crush the things chest. And so he brought the blade crashing down with his full weight and all of his hill giant strength to bear on it.

Having shaken off the cold Maggot and the gift of sight given to him by the Lady Rayne, he smiled at her fuzzy outline as his eyes adjusted, ‘That is better than a warm cup of goblin coffee in the morning!' His vision came to full usefulness just in time to the Lady Sirene held fast. With his limited knowledge of the arcane he knew what it was and without thinking his old mind began to work his lips moved, a very old language sprang from him. (Dispel Magic, as stated above)

The Lady Sirene released, Maggot using bow and arrow knew only one person in this room who could have done such a thing. He spun around in time to see the Dwarven Berserker Lord Barreel fall to the floor in a great flash of light. As the She-Devil Dark Whisper turn and gazed at the party, two of Maggot's arrows would great her gaze. ‘Look upon these my lovely,' he whispered.
‘Cor! Stop dancing with that bastard spawn of the underworld and just kill it!'

With the loss of Barreel and the disappearance of Ulthok, the party within the room stood at seven. Would they be enough to win..............

The first of the group to act was once again Sirene with her magic. Having been released by Weaver's spell of Dispel Magic she wasted no time targeting the Lich Queens Advisor. Her spell of Domination cast she watched as it hit the advisor easily. For what seemed like minutes but was only seconds Sirene and the Advisors mind were at war. Then as if pushing through a door, Sirene gained control. With no outward sign in the advisors gaze, for the moment the Elf Enchantress was in control of the Advisors mind.............

The second of the seven to act was Roan, his Spiritual Hammer spell still quite active. Sending it slamming into the White Armor again he was awarded with yet another strike, this time hitting the front of the armor‘s helmet. Once again the White Armor was flung backwards to hit the ground hard. The hammer's strike causing the empty helmet to go flying off the suit as if beheaded to land behind it. For the first time this fight, though it still moved, it seemed unable to gather the strength to rise.

Suddenly Roan was hit in the back as if punched but with 3x times the force landing to the right side of the White Armor, hard. Quickly rolling onto his back he found himself facing a huge, disembodied hand balled into a fist. The fist hovering over him readied itself for another strike.........

Lothor, fully on top of the White Armor, found himself for the moment in a position of extreme advantage. However the ex-gladiator knew it would be a brief one and not to be wasted. His greatsword up, then slammed down, pierced the metal of the armor's chest plate, crashing through it and the hollow area inside. Continuing downward the force of the strike causing it to smash past the rear armor of the suit, the great swords blade embedding deep into the wooden floor underneath. Not yet dead or destroyed, the White Armor attempted to move and possibly rise, but found itself helpless and pinned to the floor...........

For Alyia her next move was simple, attack the miniaturized Hydra. As she and it for the moment were in a one on one battle, she moved fast to the creature's side, at the same time attempting to dodge its attacks. Her quick thinking rewarded her with a deep strike into the Hydra's side forcing a scream from its heads but not stopping its retaliation. With still eight heads left it decided on a two-fold attack as first four attacked in melee then the last four attack moments later with streams of frost. The melee attacks all misses she was still hit by two out of the four breath attacks thanks to her dodging movements. Her save's made on both, she took only minor damage..........

As Dark Whisper killed Barreel, she released her rage in a blood-curdling scream. In answer Weaver, having freed Sirene brought his bow up and sent two arrows towards the female Shadow-Wraith. Without shifting her gaze to even notice them, she flicked her forefinger and the arrows exploded. Her eyes tracking the source now fell on Weaver and a sharp smile flashed onto her face. Within seconds, the Ranger/Bard felt his mind contract as if squeezed by a big hand, the pain almost driving him unconscious. Falling to his knee's Dark Whispers eyes full of hate only for him, Weaver was in big trouble once more, her spell of Feeblemind successful...............

For Rayne free of any foe before her it was all about healing first herself the others of the party. Quickly grabbing a Pot of Extra-Healing from a pocket she took a single drink gaining back eight points of health. A quick look around showed her Cor to be in the most need and pocketing the potion she moved towards him. However, she had only taken a few steps towards him when she saw Weaver fall to his knees in pain. Her choice now help Cor, or help Weaver, she could not help both..............

Cor was hurt and in pain but he was still full of fight. His axes swinging he had removed a head the last round and this round was the same. His axes moving quickly he was excited to see first one axe, then the second, each removed a head. However as the mini Hydra had dealt with Alyia, so to did this one attempt to deal with Cor, turning four heads of its remaining seven heads vs. the Knight Cleric breathing out streams of frost breath. Though his save was easily made once more, the dwarf took half damage from each head once again..............

----------------------------------------------------

Ulthok having been blown out of the room he had found himself in after teleporting with Howler had a choice to make. Flee or try to destroy whatever this powered gem was. Without hesitation, he brought up the words to the spell of disintegrate but did not get the time to finish as Howler barreled out of the room and into him, throwing him further back into the hallway. The huge Shadow-Wraith almost naked, his clothes for the most part burnt tatters, continued with his charge toward the Halfling Thief/Mage.............

(OOC: OK here's this weeks post hope it gets us back up and going forward at a good pace once more. Check the character page for current hit points and I'll add a map sometime tomorrow.)

Even as his axe severed a head from the hydra, Cor knew he was in trouble. As if to prove him right, the hydra breathed on him once more and the old knight-cleric felt pain once more. His vision was beginning to narrow and darkness crept in from the edges, he knew he was close to falling. Taking a risk, he did not attack but cast a spell of curing on himself, the most powerful one he had left. If it worked he would fight on, if he was too slow the hydra would surly finish him.

Weaver felt the pain in his head subdue, he stood and looked down at the bow that was in his hand and he gave a childish grin as he looked in awe upon it, ‘This is neat.' He thought to himself.

He then saw the hilt of a sword protruding from a scabbard on his waist. ‘Oh man!' he said as he drew it. His eyes then found the chaos that filled the room. There were two dragons of some kind and armor. People fought with them. He blinked in amazement at all the movement and sound. He then began to swing the sword and pretended to fight like the others in the room. As he was doing this he notice the lady on the other side of the room watching him. He paused, smiled and waved at her as a child would wave to a neighbor, ‘Hello!' he shouted to her.

As the suit of armor beneath him squirmed like a stuck bug, Lothor quickly considered his options. He badly wanted to hurl his axe at Dark Whisper. Leaving the spell caster free was dangerous, as Weaver's current state showed. But the armor was his first priority. Its ability to steal magic to restore itself was doubly dangerous. Would a rejuvenated armor be able to free itself from his sword? And its ability to steal the power from spells was preventing the group's spellcasters from utilizing all of their firepower. The armor needed to be finished off completely. Eliminate the threat. Plus, he needed his sword.

So Lothor stayed in place atop the pinned armor. He grabbed his handaxe and, spinning it so that the flat backside of the axe head would make contact, swung it with all of his strength against the side of the armors helmet, hoping to separate the helmet from the body of the armor. Since the body couldn't move, the helmet should give easily.

If that didn't do the trick he would swing again with the axe, continuing with his quest to finish off the armor. If helmetless it continued to wriggle, like the other damaged tin can, perhaps a second swing would take off an arm. He needed to take it out quickly. There were too many other threats in the room that needed dealing with, and some of his friends could clearly use his aid.

Roan Fenstrider had no time to exult in his apparent victory over the White Armor, as its helmet went flying and his foe seemingly having no strength to arise and continue their conflict.

The Human Ranger/Cleric was suddenly knocked to the floor by an unseen punch of such force, that he found himself sprawled along the right side of his white armored foe!

Managing to roll over on his back the valiant Roan was greeted by the sight of a huge disembodied hand that was balled into a fist, hovering above him, readying itself to strike yet another massively painful blow!

Roan summoned as much energy as he possibly could on such short notice, focusing his Spiritual Hammer to collide with this new danger, expecting his Spiritual Weapon to be Victorious!

As he brought his Spiritual Hammer to bear against the Huge Fist, the voice of Roan Fenstrider was heard above the din of battle bellowing:

"OOOOO... DDDDD ... IIIII ...NNNNN!"
((OOC: Roan refocuses his Weapon against the Huge Fist to eliminate this new foe!))

There was resistance, but only at first. None could stand against the siren song. She felt the mind fight, and then finally yield to her. This creature, whoever it was, belonged to her now. Sirene felt a tiny pang of regret at this utter domination of another being. She preferred more subtle means of compulsion, but it was a necessary thing. They were besieged by enemies on all sides.

Her first instinct was to set the advisor upon their queen, but there were other more pressing threats to be dealt with first. The hydra was slowly chipping away at them, keeping all from the true enemy. It was high time for that creature to meet its end.

Oh my love you must come to my aid. You must destroy the hydra but you cannot bring harm to any other here. Do this for me, my love.
Her telepathic command sung sweetly into the mind of her thrall, and she could see that already it moved to obey her command. Leaving the advisor to their task, Sirene turned her attentions to the nearest threat.

Her cerulean gaze fell upon the dark maiden of the sword, and her lips curled in an involuntary smile. She remembered her last meeting with this creature and it was time for reparations to be paid. Yet, before she could act, Dark Whisper lay a curse of her own on Weaver. Sirene watched in horror as her friend fell to his knees broken.

There was no thought, only action. A witch's hellish fury rose within her and it called for blood. With a thousand voices, Sirene screamed. The air before her blurred as her banshee cry cracked stone into dust in its inexorable flight toward Dark Whisper.

((OOC: targets dark whisper with shout. As an attack spell it's double everything. Area of effect now is 20ft wide by 60ft long cone. It should only hit Dark Whisper, maybe the smiley at most. Should totally avoid the White Armor. Is stone a crystalline structure? Cause it might shatter...
Advisor is attacking the hydra))

Howler barreled out of the room and into Ulthok, throwing him further back into the hallway. The huge Shadow-Wraith was almost naked, his clothes for the most part burnt tatters, Then continued with his charge toward the Halfling. The mage tumbled backward and quickly regained his feet.

The fiery oil and fire ball had affected Howler but not as much as Ulthok would want. These sword wielding minions of the Lich Queen resisted common magic and their gifts of a last word sword made melee combat rather unfair. With that in mind Ulthok knew he needed to do something. To flee down the hall was very tempting, but all he saw was long open hall with just a faint pale light far away.

The force of Howler body Blow had put some distance between him and Ulthok. This, at least for a few moments, kept that sword of Howler's out of range. When Howler started to charge again Ulthok was forced to act. Melee wasn't working, magic hadn't gotten rid of this menace and there was nowhere to run and hide. As the figure bear down on him the mage pulled his Wand of Frost and pointed it at the charging enemy; he released a frigid Cone of Cold to engulf it. The cone would fill the hall and chamber behind Howler. If fire wasn't the answer maybe cold would slow this horror and perhaps even affect the gem hanging in the chamber. If the mage had guessed the distance correctly any blow bck from the room would hit Howler from behind but stop short of reaching him.

Alyia was glad of the hydra's small size as she felt the frost breath wick the cold through her armour. the hydra was still veracious even if she had managed to wound it several times. as she danced out of reach of the little hydra again slashing at the closest exposed necks as she did.

the memory of her grandfathers voice echoed through her mind, his gruff lecturing tone which always made her smile knowing the soft loving man behind it.
" never trust a wounded wolf, even with out its head one will still bite." Alyia looked at the hydra an its flailing heads.

As alyia moved to atack again xin's telepathic voice started her, even with the concious link between them the soft thrumming hum of their minds connection was easily ignored when she was deep in thought a habit xin had often chided her upon.

"Lady Alyia, the dragoness perri is awake. " xin's voice held a waver of uncertainty.

"even if she is still hurt, awake is good. at least she's still alive. keep her out of site an comfortable and help her heal as much as possible. keep her safe." Alyia chimed back.

"As you wish my Lady. We are well hidden but i shall cast invisibility upon us as a precaution." xin's link faded as he cast the spell.

Alyia's mind raced trying to think of ways to finish of the hydra's or use them against one another to some effect. the little one being frost.

Alyia sighed she hated the taste of licorice root, she cast haste on herself. an bolted towards the hydra a flurry of slashing dancing attacks trying to get between the two hydra's. it was a dangerous gamble but if she could get them close enough that their attacks might be used against one another. the frost to slow the bigger one an the fire to flay the other.

focussing on her movements an trying to keep track of the hydra's head the chiding voice in her mind criticized her. stupid child, never think things through what if....

their immune

they dont turn on one another

you DIE!

the sudden screams echoing in the room brought her back to mind an focused on the many heads which she now was dodging defensively attacking when an opening presented itself.

Feeling the cold sensation of relief flow through her veins, Rayne began to move towards Cor. He had definitely been taking his knocks. She began to take a couple of strides toward Cor when Weaver toppled to his knees.

Dark Whisper had just blocked the arrows Weaver had sent her way, and had killed Bareel. She smirked as Weaver fell to his knees. She must have been behind the spell. Feeling a pounding in her forehead, Rayne knew that Dark Whisper was definitely one of the key threats in this fight.

Left with the decision to help Cor, or help Weaver, she chose Weaver. Cor was still able to move and fight, whereas Weaver had no ability to defend himself physically. If it weren't for the White Armours, Rayne could have used Prayer in an attempt to help both of them.

Perhaps she could divert the attention of the Dark Whisper long enough for Weaver to recover? Drawing her bow, she lined up her bow towards Dark Whisper. Sure, the same thing would probably happen to her arrows as had happened to Weavers, but hopefully it would draw her attention off of him momentarily.

After firing her volley, Rayne shouted at Dark Whisper, "Lay off my friend!" Hopefully, this would be enough to give Weaver time to get on his feet.

(OOC: Rayne draws her bow, and fires upon Dark Whisper if possible.)