With the rest of the party in a sort of guard mode the first to act was once again Sirene. Concentrating for only a moment she attempted to cast the spell of Wizard Sight but found for some reason it would not come to her. Looking at the rest of the party she could only shrug.

For Lothor, Sirene's failure with her spell, was catalyst enough as he quickly moved forward towards the throne. Grabbing a bench from one of the tables he brought it up then down to smash the serpentine looking skull........

However as all awaited some symbol of doom or evil magic, the tapestry to unleash monsters and battle, or the skull to set off bad events, all they received was a small cloud of dust and bone fragments and two intact unharmed valuable looking gems. The tapestry did not move or come to life, the room remained the same, and no lizard like creature did they now face. As anti-climatic as a room could ever have been or had been for them before then this was such a room.

For Ulthok who had thought to pick up the skull and attempt to identify it's or the gems possibly magical nature, his plan was that fast taken out of his hands leaving him only able to mutter "Oh...never mind."

The party found themselves standing in the same quiet room as before.

((Ok my post again a short one but did not have a lot of player actions to resolve.
Nimu the reason your Wizard Sight spell did not work was it was not listed on your character sheet as having been memorized, or had already been used at some point earlier. Also if you could, next time you cast a spell from the Tome of Magic, give me a head's up so I know where to find it

Ok next post next Sunday enjoy your week everyone))

Ulthok stood guard as the dust settle from Lothor's mighty blow to the skull. But nothing had happened.

"Well that was interesting." Ulthok stepped to the throne and examined the remains of the skull. "These stones contain some sort of power as evident by the glow. They may be of help later." With that Ulthok used the cloth to pick up the stones, wrapping them separately.

As he placed them away,"Now let's try another room." Ulthok then headed back out of he room and back toward the main room.

Lothor looked down at the dust and fragments of skull and shrugged. "Well, that was exciting. I expected that something would happen. Who leaves a skull with glowing eyes just laying around a dungeon if it doesn't do anything? That breaks every rule of adventuring." He watched as Ulthok picked up the gems/eyes and added, "They have to do something Ulthok. It is in the adventuring rulebook. So be careful."

As the group headed out the door the conversation turned to where to go next. Lothor, always warry of what was behind them, kept an eye on the room and the tapestry until they were out. He added to the conversation with, "So it seems the tomb room wins. Anyone want to be a copper on how long the path to get there will take?"

The round thing in the center of the skeletal throne was a lizard skull, with 2 faintly glowing mismatched gems in its eyes. It couldn't have been that pleasant to have sat on. Of course, the entire thing was made of bones, so comfort probably wasn't the primary intent of said throne.

Whatever spell counter the dungeon had in place kept Sirene's arcane powers from being any use, and Lothor stepped up. Perhaps bored or trying to cause something to happen, as they had been in this dungeon for a while now, he smashed the skull on the throne. Rayne, and they rest of the party, braced themselves for a response. Rayne looked around the room, bow fully drawn and notched.

However, despite the seemingly magical nature of the gems in the skull, nothing came. After the sound of the blow faded, once again the room settled into unnerving silence. The party briefly conversed amongst themselves, then headed off to where the sarcophagi once were.

As they did so, while keeping watch on the desolate hallways, Rayne wondered if there was someway to control which rooms would appear. Though time seemed to be a factor, the creator of this place probably would have wanted a way to manually control which rooms he had access to.

Cor was a bit surprised that the skull crushing did not trigger some form of trap. But, he thought the crypts held the key to what they sought. "Wherever the rest of ye wish ta try next is fine with me. I'd lay a wager that the burial room is the key."

Siréne nodded to the dwarf, "You may well be right. We should return and seek our answers there."

With those words, she joined the others to glide down the passageway to the tomb. Magic had led them there before, so to it they would return.

Aliya moves to the throne to take a closer look at the strange skull and gems within. Just as she is about to lean in, a bench comes crashing down upon the skull, turning it to little more than dust. Coughing a bit from inhaling said dust, she casts a sideways glance at Lothor, sighs, rolls her eyes, and stands back up.
"Well Lothor, I'm glad that wasn't MY head", Aliya says with some bit of amusement in her voice, brushing a bit of skull dust off her face. "At least we know it wasn't enchanted to explode upon impact."
As the others moved to leave after Ulthok picked up the stones, Aliya stared for a moment at the tapestry now that she was closer and could see it more clearly. She moved to the side of the dias careful not to get too close, and used her sword to move the tapestry from the wall a bit to be able to see if there was a hidden door behind.
(OOC - if there is, she will tell the party immediately, if not, she will follow her companions out the door, agreeing the tomb may be their best course of further action)

Lothor's action of the skull's destruction having no effect the party disgruntled decided once again to return to the main room. Here they had hopes of finding their way back to the room of the caskets and possibly more answers to this strange tower. As the rest of the party moved towards the door Ulthok palmed the two gems wrapping them separate from the other. Moving to rejoin the party he placed them within separate pouches. With only Aliya pausing a moment to gaze and look at the tapestry and area around it more closely.

At once a wall shaking roar was heard from the parties rear, the sound as if a creature in both anger and pain. Turning quickly the party witnessed a gruesome sight, the tapestry was alive! Emerging the creature once pictured was now very much alive and ripping itself free of the cloth and bindings. Again it screamed as it finally was free to land crouched upon the bone throne facing the party its eye sockets bare yet looking straight at you, With a third scream, mouth open and full of teeth it leaped, to the attack.

Aliya though caught by surprise was still fast enough to gain an attack. With her sword already drawn she slashed quickly as it leaped to attack opening a wound on its side. A brackish spray of black blood hitting her in the face the creature did not stop moving past the half-elf Fighter/Mage as if she was not there.

Its target was clear from the start as it landed upon Ulthok, its teeth ripping into his flesh, piercing his armor as if only paper. Caught in the creatures mouth the Halfing was lifted and hurled bleeding into the west wall to land hard on the throne rooms floor. Hurt, bleeding, and dazed but still very much alive.


((OOC: Ok rd one of combat has begin with the creature getting a surprise attack on Ulthok as no one was watching behind you. By the time the creature was leaping the only character to gain a free attack was Aliya as she had sword ready and was right there. The creature is clearly focused on Ulthok but knows your there though not caring about the rest of you or the wound in its side. The wound is a nice straight one bleeding freely.

Ok all party members can act this turn with normal actions except Ulthok who is dazed for 1 round and can only do 1 action though no spell casting.

A good post from Miss Aletheia if not for her free attack the creature's leap would have been at full strength. If it had been Ulthok would have taken a lot more damage, his legs and 1 shoulder broken and been out cold and helpless for possibly the whole fight. How do I know this you ask hmm? I had the post written up and was getting ready to post it when I saw her post and had to REROLL everything. A very, very, wasted critical attack roll

Ok next post, next Sunday and I'll have a map up sometime hopefully tomorrow. ))

Cor was moving to the exit when everything changed in an instant. The tapestry seemed to come alive and a creature stepped forth from its design. A clear target located, it attacked the halfling with a fury.

"It wants the gems. Must be they are its eyes. I dunna think letting it get them will be good for us." Caught between wanting to attack but knowing Ulthok may need his healing, Cor took one brief moment to cast a spell. Calling upon the might of Odin he cast blade barrier centered on the creature. "Stand clear of the beast lest ye get hit in the spell. Distance or magic attacks for the moment."

As the party departed, Rayne scuffed the dusty floor a little bit. Yet another room in the dungeon. The lack of any imminent danger was calming, but unnerving. How long until something really bad happened. Sure, they had fought the golumns, but Rayne doubted they'd be the worst thing in the Cyclop's tower. It didn't make sense if the creator of this tower just left the inside practically unguarded when compared to the outside.

Rayne only had a few moments to ponder, as she had made the misassumption that smashing the skull demonstrated the lack of danger of the throne room. Startled by a loud roar, Rayne turned to witness the creature coming out of the tapestry. Though she had nocked, but not drawn, an arrow, she had been anticipating an assault from the front. By the time Rayne had re-positioned to be able to fire past all of her comrades, it had already made it to Ulthok and flung him back into the room. As Cor began to cast barrier, Rayne aimed and fired her bow at the creature. She had already seen it penetrate Ulthok's armour with ease, and had no desire to close the distance, especially when there were far more capable melee fighters. Ulthok seemed to be still moving, so, for now, the elimination and containment of the threat was the top priority.

Something landed upon Ulthok, its teeth ripping into his flesh, piercing his armor as if only paper. Caught in the creatures mouth he was lifted and hurled bleeding into the west wall to land hard on the throne rooms floor. Hurt, bleeding, and dazed but still very much alive the mage needed to defend himself.

Unable to concentrate enough to cast a spell he reached into his cloak for a weapon. He sent his thoughts to Peri, "What was it and where is it now?" Peri's thoughts returned in an instant, "The thing of the tapestry and it is right in front of you. We are all still off to the side and trying to get to you."

With that he pulled his wand of frost; the mage released a surge of power as a cone of cold shot forth to engulf the creature that just mauled him.

Aliya thinks aloud, "You need to go back whence you came, beastie!"

She puts her hand towards the dragon-demon and casts Dismissal, hoping she's strong enough to send it away.

(OOC - if nothing happens, she'll run to the right of the creature and attack with her sword)

Sírene took flight and began her incantation. Ancient words of power flowed from her lips drawing raw magical force to her and through her. The witch spun the primal magic giving form to the formless void, invisible, but there nonetheless.

Stretching a hand out before her, Sírene gave her spell life; an invisible hand of pure magic came into being from the nothingness. It would serve her will and keep the beast at bay.

((OOC: Casts Bigby's Forceful Hand, targeting the creature. Sírene will be keeping herself in line with Ulthok so that the spell pushed the creature away from him too.))

For the members of the party the sudden attack by the tapestry creature had taken them all but Aliya by surprise. However their surprise did not last long as the six remaining members watching the Halfling thief/mage fight back jumped into action.

None more so then Ulthok who gourd, bleeding, and dazed attempted to fight back as best he could. As the creature readied itself to attack once more, Ulthok quickly drew his Wand of Frost from a pouch and let lose a cone of cold engulfing the creature as it started to attack. Hit by the solid cone of freezing air the creature was forced back crying out at in both anger and pain.

From behind it came the words of another spell this time mouthed by Aliya. Her words fast and clear the spell of Dismissal was sent forth only to have no effect.

From the party, two more spells lashed out the words of magic loud and proud. As Sirene, not one to let others fight alone, quickly mouthed the spell of Bigby's Forceful Hand, beside her Cor created a Blade Barrier. Both aiming the spells at the creature they were surprised as the creature suddenly disappeared! only to appear among the party. It's 2 claws and teeth lashing out it struck both the Elvin Enchantress and the Dwarf Knight Cleric from behind and the side. While it's teeth ripped a huge gash into Sirene's back, it's right front claw slashed through Cor's armor to ravage the side of his chest.

Rayne with her bow up and ready was just about to fire when the creature vanished. Within only a second she was face down on the throne rooms floor Sirene struggling above her, back ripped open and bloody.

Roan seeing his lady love go down drew both his Khopesh swords and charged forward swinging. Causing the creature to roar once again when the one of Giant Slaying slammed into the same side and wound created earlier by Aliya.

Lother, blocked by the stout body of Cor, the Dwarf though bloody, his clothing ripped, yet still standing firm, could only move to gain a better position to attack next turn. Though various members of the party were now hurt and covered in their own blood, none were dead and the battle continued.

((OOC: OK my post is up. The creature is clearly bleeding heavily from the wound in it's side but does not seemed slowed. Ody, Nimu, Keeper, check the character thread for damage. Next post in 2 weeks on Sunday Oct 2.))

Lothor didn't even have time to curse as the creature in the tapestry made its attack. Dang it was fast! He grabbed his sword and prepared to charge when it . . . blinked. Suddenly it was on the spell casters. Crap! And Bloodied Cor was between him and the beast.

At least he knew that blades could hurt it, his better placed companions had already proven that. He maneuvered to get a shot. But he had a tactical guess. The creature could teleport, that was clear. Lothor doubted that it would stay in place for long. It was possible that it would stay to try and deal with two spell casters. But if it didn't, where would it go? Probably back to Ulthok. The little one was clearly its preferred target, and he had wounded it badly with the cold. So in a flash Lothor calculated that the beast would either stay and attack these spell casters, or flash back to Ulthok.

So he moved. He worked his way around Cor - but in the direction that would move him more towards Ulthok than away from him. He wanted to swing with his huge sword, but thought that speed and flexibility might be his best friend in this fight. He grabbed his two hand axes of throwing and prepared to throw. With the axes he could easily spin and throw if the thing blinked again. He couldn't afford to stand back and do nothing again. And the axes would return to him, allowing him to continue hurling the axes, even if the creature blinked out of the way of his sword. It wasn't how he liked fighting, but flexibility . . .