Lothor watched as the suit of armor crumpled in upon itself with the same sense of satisfaction he had felt when the first one had been destroyed. "That's two of those blasted things down" he thought as he nodded his appreciation to the dwarf who had decapitated it. Who knew if both strokes were needed, but it didn't matter. Between them they had finished the thing.

But "finished" never really seemed to be the right word in this fight. Every time they killed something, or even many somethings, more showed up to join the fun. And he knew who was to blame for that. The queen. There was no doubt the queen was the most dangerous thing in the room. He glanced briefly at the butcher and ogre-orcs. As the fighter it was usually his task to deal with such beasts. But right now Ulthok's shadows seemed to have them at least blocked. Protecting Sirene was a priority, but he wasn't next to her and hurting the queen seemed to promise to be the fastest way to preserve the spellcaster.

So being momentarily without an enemy directly in front of him, Lothor did what he had been longing to do since this interminable battle had begun. He had two axes of hurling and he spun to towards the throne and hurled them with all his might at the queen. But this moment felt too important to leave to chance. He felt a little good luck was called for so he burned one of the charges in his rabbit's foot of luck. With luck on his side the axes were assured of finding their home in the body of the queen.

"Go get her little rabbit . . ." he whispered to himself as the axes flew across the room.

With the suit of armor down, Cor saw Lothor throw his axes at the queen. "Well lad, following yer lead worked once why nae agin?" Cor threw his split in two axe at the queen.

Alyia pushed power against the fire elemental.
Sweat beaded on her brow trickling into her eyes stinging as she concentrated on Drawing the earth elemental along with the fire elemental, in a staggered step edging dance towards the queen.

As quickly as she could, Rayne fired her arrows right into butcher. The very same arrows that that destroyed a Githyanki and threw her backwards merely slowed down the butcher. This butcher was definitely going to be a fight, and Rayne would not leave her vulnerable friend. Hopefully, this guy wasn't as impervious as the White Armours had been.

Before Rayne had time to load another arrow, the butcher was upon her with super human speed. Though she was barely able to dodge his wicked slashed, her bow was not so fortunate. Its string was cut easily by the large cleavers.

Anger would not help her here. As Rayne had done many times before, she let calmness guide her actions. Hoping the spirits and Corellon were on her side today, she drew her longsword of agility, and stowed her damaged bow. She was aware that the butcher would most likely be able to push her backwards, but if she could draw his attention off of Sirene, and get a couple of her own strikes in, she would at least be somewhat successful.

(Rayne sheathes her bow, and draws her sword. She'll try to attack the Butcher if possible)

Peri,,..
The Faerie Dragon had made her way to hall to follow her Halfling companion. She could sense his presents and reached her mind out to him, "My Ulthok..you've returned to us. The Queen may be weakened,if you can harm her then the rest may flee."
The familiar voice of friend came to her mind,"Peri,stay here in hall. Your magic will work here and you can hide. You are too brave, don't try to defeat the magic users." With that Ulthok appeared as he stepped, bow drawn, back through the doorway.

As the mage stepped around the door toward Queen, Peri could clearly see into the room and the hugh human attacking the Elven ranger Rayne. The big man towered over the ranger as it slashed at her with a big knife.

"He's not a magic user and he needs to be stopped."

Whispering the words of enchantment the little fay creature cast a spell of Hold Person on the butcher. Then remembering Ulthok's words of magic she vanished to hide from sight.

Ulthok......
Ulthok was relieved to find the Faerie Dragon as she made her way to the hall. As she entered he felt her reach her mind out to him, "My Ulthok..you've returned to us. The Queen may be weakened,if you can harm her then the rest may flee." What she said made sense, he had seen that the party was surviving and the Queen must be stopped. Feeling that Queen may still resist his magic he drew the bow of speed and prepared to join the battle.

Reaching out him mind,"Peri,stay here in hall. Your magic will work and you can hide. You are too brave, don't try to defeat the magic users." Ulthok stepped back through the doorway and stepped around the door toward Queen.

Ulthok took in the actions at the back of the room. There were a fire and an earth elementals clashing, the fire had its back to the room and Alyia was concentrating mightily toward it. The witch was collapsed in the corner on top of the battle dwarf's motionless body. Lothor and Cor were hurling weapons at the figure on the throne. The assistant of the Queen was a dried husk on the floor. The white suited guards had moved away to attack the party and Queen now moved slightly on her throne.

The mage knew multiple attacks on the Queen would be harder for her to defend so he would add his arrows, but first he knew the treachery of Dark Whisperer and sent the first two arrow into her. The second set of two arrows joined Lothor's and Cor's weapons to target on the Lich Queen.

Roan quickly focused his attention towards the newcomers as he redirected his Spiritual Hammer to be brought to bear against the nearest Ogre Orc, by leaping in the air and bringing the full force of his boots down upon the helmet of the motionless White Armor 1 that was unable to get up from the floor!

As his boots connected with the helmet of his helpless White Armor foe, the Human Ranger/Cleric ground his heels upon the helmet for good measure, as he directed his Spiritual Hammer to intercept the nearest Ogre Orc, in an effort to allow his comrades the freedom to launch an unhindered attack against the Lich Queen!

((OOC: Roan brings his Spiritual Weapon into play against the invading Ogre Orcs as he calls upon Odin to aid him in crushing the helmet of his White Armor 1 foe beneath the force of his boots!))

With the battle before the party moving fast it appeared, at least to them, that this fight was almost over. For once they were right.

With the Ogre-Orc's lacking any real weapon to combat the Shadows. The summoned creatures tore into them draining every last point of life to leave them unconscious on the ground. Seeing their path once more clear to the Butcher, the initial target, the four dark creatures moved at him. Their only desire to drain his human life force and make him one of them, a Shadow of great power uncontrolled by any in the room.

As the Butcher moved against Rayne he watched as the small Elf drew her sword. Grinning yet saying nothing he made to finish her off only to find he could not move. Peri having picked the right time had held the giant sized human quite nicely. Seeing this Rayne quickly moved forward her sword easily cutting the Butcher open, yet not killing him. Growling a scream of rage the once human creature tried to break the magical hold to no avail.

Alyia, pouring strength into her Fire Elemental as never before, was rewarded as her elemental quickly overpowered the Earth Elemental destroying it. Turning it towards the queen she moved it to attack.

Roan no longer facing the huge fist quickly moved to the fallen suit of White Armor and ended its struggle to rise. Slamming his full weight down upon the magical suits helmet crushing it. In seconds the next to last suit of spell absorbing armor was destroyed.

For the rest of the party the battle ended quickly as Cor, Lothor and Ulthok all fired at the Lich queen at once. For Ulthok with his bow of double shots his first two arrows he fired at the fallen bodies of Barreel and Dark Whisper. Hearing his arrows slam into a body he did not wait to confirm who as he quickly turned to fire his next two at the recovering Lich Queen. His arrows, Cor's and Lothor's axes, were too much for the Queen as all six missile weapons struck their mark. Screaming in despair one moment and then the next she was gone leaving nothing but an empty body behind. Her life force headed for it's hidden phylactery.

With her departure the last suit of White Armor collapsed at Weaver's feet it's magical power gone. Its clang upon hitting the floor the loudest sound in a now quiet room, the only enemies both held. One a bleeding human, the second an evil magic mouth.


(DM OOC: OK battle won it seems congrats! Well you still have 2 remaining enemies but both are held so take your time dealing with them if you want. Ok Good posting and next post next Sunday the 12th.

On a player note I talked to Kyle and we both thought it best due to his RL concerns that he would leave Trilogy once more. If you see him on the Inn let him know that we will miss his flair and prose and I hope RL turns out well for him.

I do have a few idea's for a new player with possibly a new character but I'll most likely wait till your current mission is completed. Soooo Good posts and I look forward to reading your new ones this week.)

Odin must have smiled. That was the only explanation Cor could come up with for what transpired. One moment the party was fighting for their lives and the next their enemies lay dead at their feet.

Cor took in the scene of carnage and realized how lucky he was to have survived the fight. After giving thanks to Odin, he moved to the bodies of the lich queen and dark whisperer. "Help me gather them together. I will say a blessing upon them to hopefully remove any taint of evil still on them. then the elemental can burn them to ash." Cor took a moment to search the body of dark whisperer before beginning his rite of blessing.

With the triple attack on the Lich Queen the battle appeared to conclude with her demise. Ulthok looked around to his friends, "I am a bit paranoid with these creatures so I tend to go a bit far. I say that the fire element should cremate the Lich's Queen's body. Don't leave a shell for her to easily come back to. I think she'd have to take a long time and a lot of magic to reform her body. Scatter the ashes too..... We should take off Dark Whisperer's head. These evil Valar are long lived and we've got to make it difficult for her to return too. Maybe that would flat out destroy her. Weaver would know better than me....That would be two, maybe three of the sword folks gone. Howler may be dead, but I'm not totally sure. He is in the iced room with the big gem, but I can't say as fact he's dead."

Turning back to the party he saw the severly wounded headsman, "That butch deserves to be beheaded too. It has some kind of magic that keeps it fighting and beheading is a common way to dead dead evil creatures. He showed no mercy and needs killed before the hold spell wears off."

Walking back through the room he saw his sword laying on the floor where he dropped it to attack Howler. Picking it up the yellow form on the floor caught his eye. "Smileys got to go too. I was thinking of turning the shadows on him and Dark Whisperer. We have to kill it before the hold spell wears off. ,,Oh, and we need to get the stuff off Barrel, he has healing stuff and loot Dark Whisperer. Her sword needs to come with us."

Seeing the shadow converge on the human butcher the mage realized that they may turn it to an even deadlier enemy if he were to become a shadow too. So with a flip of his hand he dismissed the shadows back to where they had come, "Be gone".

"I may seems bit savage but these things cannot be turned back to the good and need to be finished off...... Let's finish the job here before we move on."

Looking back to hall a dark expression crossed Ulthok's face. "My Valene and the Queen must have been wandering this castle since before we found the empty prison cell. The sound of our battle may draw them. I must find her......Anyone have a Finding spell?"

Lothor caught his two axes as they flew back to him after doing their duty in helping to dispatch the queen. That had worked far better than he had dared to hope. Of course, Ulthok and Cor probably had something to do with that. Still, as he wiped the blades and quickly put them away he couldn't help but be satisfied. It always felt good when a plan worked.

And it felt really good to have the battle completed. Or, at least, mostly completed. There was some clean-up left to go.

"That butch deserves to be beheaded too. It has some kind of magic that keeps it fighting and beheading is a common way to dead dead evil creatures. He showed no mercy and needs killed before the hold spell wears off." He heard Ulthok echo the thoughts that were already running through his head.

"I'll deal with Butch and Smiley" he said, drawing his blade and planting it firmly in the big frozen man. Once he fell, he would decapitate him and then move on to finish off Smiley as quickly as he could. "Decapitate everything" he thought to himself. Leave the enemy nothing to work with. But then as he approached Smiley a minor difficulty presented itself. How exactly does one decapitate a smiley face? By cutting it in half, he decided. Why not?

"I've got these," he added again. "Check on Bareel." So saying, and with a big butcher and formerly smiling face dealt with, he had one last pleasurable task ahead of him. He approached the fourth suit of undamaged armor. "Just in case" he said to himself and proceeded to tee off on the helm of the last suit with his great sword, attempting to launch it to the other side of the room.

As it flew across the room he looked up and added, "if anyone has an extra heal spell or two, I'm a bit less than 100% at the moment."

fFinding Valene had now become a priority again in Ulthok's mind. He recalls seeing nothing in the hallway to the gem that might lead him to her so he began a search of the throne room for secret doors and perhaps a passage that may lead him to his friend. There may be items of great magic hid here too for the Lich's use, so he searched for these too. The Queen's throne would be an ideal place to have them close at hand.

As the halfling searched the room the thought came to him that if the Lich Queen was gone then so might be her magic control. Testing this Ulthok willed spirit into his ring and willed himself to turn invisibile.

(O.O.C., Ulthok would also gather up his arrows before they were distroyed by getting rid of the Lich and Dark Whisperer's bodies.)

Rayne drew her sword, unknowingly stepping backwards from the Butcher's charge. Standing much taller than she did, he would definitely be more physically powerful than she was. Hopefully, her dexterity and faith to Corellon would be enough to match him.

The Butcher froze mid advance. Not waiting to see why, Rayne attacked her now vulnerable opponent. Without the ability to defend himself, she easily cut a large swash into him. Her sword stained red, she stepped back. The battle was over, with only the Butcher and the Smiley face left standing. Lother was already moving to finish them off.

Her ferrets, that were laying motionless near the wall, and still were not moving. Were they dead? Was the mind control still affecting their minds in some way? After the Butcher had been finished off, Rayne ran over to them, to see if she had any way to help them. She still had spells of cure light wounds from her bow, so maybe that would help.

Looking back to hall a dark expression crossed Ulthok's face. "My Valene and the Queen must have been wandering this castle since before we found the empty prison cell. The sound of our battle may draw them. I must find her......Anyone have a Finding spell?"
Rayne looked up from her attempts to heal/awaken the Ferrets. "I'm sorry Ulthok, I do not have a Finding spell," She said softly, yet loud enough to hear.

Sirene opened her eyes to find the once raging battle had come to an end. Broken bodies lay in piles on the floor and her companions quickly finished off the last of the enemy survivors. It was a brutal thing and the Faery began to wonder if the ends truly justified the means. There had been a time when her hands refused to dole out death.

Rising from the floor, the priestess reached out and let the life-giving power of the Great Goddess fill her. A soothing warmth rushed through her, closing cuts and restoring vitality. She was not alone in her need, the battle had taken its toll on all.

Lothor's voice called out for healing and Sirene turned her attentions to the bloodied warrior. Even now he did what must be done, cutting down the last of the queen's guard so that the rest would be spared such a brutal task. It was an honorable thing, Gliding across the room, she met the warrior with her cerulean gaze and took his head in her hands. Even with his head tilted down she had to stand on her toes to lay a kiss on his forehead. Like all witches, Sirene's healing magic was given through a kiss, and the moment her lips touched Lothor, the healing gift of the Great Goddess surged through him.

Leaning back, she nodded silently before gliding away to join Ulthok on the Queen's throne. Perhaps two sets of magic sensitive eyes would find something here, and she wanted to search the advisor for any magical trinkets that might aid them.

With the battle over it was easy for the surviving party members, primarily Lothor, to casually finish off both Smiley and the giant human Butcher. Ulthok and Aliya to un-summon their creatures and a search of the room for useful items to take place.

However as Cor moved to gather the bodies of Barreel and Dark Whisper his eyes opened in surprise. Only Barreel's arrowed body was found, the arrow's clearly Ulthok's. The Shadow-Wraith's body gone only her eye seemingly cut from her face left behind.

For Ulthok with the battle done and the last surviving enemies destroyed thinking to test if with the Queen's death he could once more become invisible, was dismayed to still be hampered in doing so. Turning to searching, with the help of a Detect Magic from Sirene, he found on the Queen, Advisor and the Butcher a number of magical items. Taking and wrapping them carefully, especially the cleaver, he stored them for later ID. With this all completed his thoughts once again turned to other matters then the party's mission. As clearly evidenced by his next words.

"My Valene and the Queen must have been wandering this castle since before we found the empty prison cell. The sound of our battle may draw them. I must find her......Anyone have a Finding spell?"

The reply from all was no, Ulthok would have to find another way............

Sirene having recovered from her battle within her mind with the Lich Queen, went quickly to Lothor upon his request of aid. Then helping Ulthok check the throne the Enchantress and Thief, found no hidden traps or hatches its surface. With Ulthok storing the found items till later she proceeded to heal herself.

As the rest of the party proceeded to heal and search Rayne immediately headed to her two wounded ferrets. Her heart cried out in dismay as she found one dead the other badly hurt. Quickly casting her bow granted two cure lights she was hearted to see the ferret wounds heal and the small creature move to rub up against her. Then moving to its twin it nuzzled him, waited for some response, and seeming to accept his passing returned to Rayne again.

With Ulthlok wanting to locate Valene and the Dragon Queen, yet the mission to destroy the flying castle possibly now only a dark hallway away. The party once more faced another set of choices.

(DM OOC: Ok here is this weeks post first up here are the items found and detected by Sirene as magical. I took one Detect Magic spell from her as such.
From Queen's body: a Ring, a Pin, 2 Dagger's, Queen's clothing is very nice and well made and carries a magical taint
From the Butcher: His meat cleaver, boots, and a ring.
From the Advisor: Robe, Dagger, Bone inside his left leg (Needs to be cut out and removed)
Dark Whisper: Her blood covered eye which is magical and is really her eye.
Magical Githyanki Swords: (6 Greatswords, 4 longswords, 2 short Zulu type spears and 1 Flail Barreel's items (see sheet)

Nimu I need to know what healing spells you used as you did not specify them in your post.
Ok next post next Sunday 19th and once again good posts all)