As Peri's body had been prepared Ulthok deside to keep her with him is pouch of holding. Opening the pouch to make special space he saw some of the content and he realized that both Lothor and Valene had lost their boots in the battle. Pulling the Wizard's Boots of Featherweight, Bareel's Boots of Striding & Springing and the boots for the butcher in the castle he looked them over.

The mage handed the Wizard's boot to Valene, "These may be helpful in travels through dangerous areas." Then he handed Lothor the Boots of Striding & Springing, the fighter had had his own pair and would be comfortable wearing these. The butchers boot still had bad memories attached so Ulthok left them for another time.

Ulthok then lovingly place his small companion gently into the pouch, "We will meet again my friend."

Attacking while invisible was not new to Ulthok but having the entire party veiled and gaining surprise was most unusual. The power the first Beholder had shown they would need this advantage.

Still linked to enable them to stay within the the veil the party took positions so as to see their targets and loose their attacks. They knew they had to hit quick and hard in order to minimize the response from now two of these powerful creatures.

Ulthok figure the distance to place a spell of "Fire Ball" between the Beholders; there by impacting both with one attack.

Quietly uttering the words of magic he cast the deadly attack.

Lothor new the group was preparing to fight, and felt a sense of frustration that he could not contribute more. Perhaps he would need to pick up a bow at some point. 60 feet? He could hurl an axe that far. But not well. Did it make sense to do so? Probably not.

Instead he moved quietly in his new boots to the back of the party. If he could not contribute a lot to the attack on the beholders, he could at least keep his eye on the rear of the party in case something tried to attack from that direction.

Talca saw two more of the beholders in front of them. How many of the beasts were there? He had assumed that the one they had destroyed had been the one that had killed him. But now he didn't know. How many were there? How long ago had it happened? Was the original killer even still alive? It didn't really matter, he supposed, but still, it was odd to see a whole colony of the things.

He knew the parties plan and had to hope that the spell casters could do enough to finish the creatures off themselves. But he could add to the mayhem a bit. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and prepared to fire at the one on the left. A nice solid shot at its central eye. And it just floated there like a huge, easy target. He could almost see the concentric rings of the bullseye close in on the eye. The pupil was like the central dot in the bullseye. The cold eye. The source of death . . . yet again. But this time going the other direction. As he saw spells from around hurl forwards he launched his arrow. It felt good to do something.

With the plan set, Cor stood back as the others cast their spells. Hopefully it would be enough but if not he stood ready to cast a spell of his own. A silent prayer flew into the heavens seeking divine favor from Odin.

Siréne

The abominable beasts floated before them, oblivious but wretched nonetheless. Faerie magic had been true, hiding them from all sight. It was much like walking between the worlds, a moving beyond the reach of mortal touch. Siréne yearned for that time again, to reclaim the joy that was her birthright. This war had taken that from her, had transformed the fey priestess into a deadly witch. This brought her rage. Flame coursed through her blood and the tempest raged within. She channeled that.

Gripping the dead wizard's staff, Siréne drew forth arcane fury spinning it with her own to power her spell of death. With arcane gestures and a terrible word of power the witch called the storm, releasing her wrath upon the beholders. Silence was filled by the roaring clap of thunder and joined by a brilliant flash of silvery blue light whose path could be seen long after it faded.

((OOC: Casts Chain Lightning targeting Beholders))

Rayne

Her sharp elven eyes narrowed at the sight of the floating beasts. They would not escape her reach. With fluid grace the archer drew back her bow releasing the first volley of arrows. The magic of Andurile's Blood transforming each missile into a bolts of pure green energy. Death would rain down upon the demons.

Having already faced one of these Beholder creatures before, the party had a good idea of how dangerous one was not to mention two. Having for the moment the element of surprise a quick discussion and a plan of action was agreed upon by all.

In a matter of seconds fire, energy, and lighting were streaking down the hallway to burst among the two beholders causing more explosions as the creatures themselves exploded. The party waited and slowly the smoke, ice, and steam slowly dissipated to reveal quickly freezing beholder parts and water once again quickly turning back to ice.

With the way forward the party, Ulthok again leading, headed to and down the winding flight steps easily a half mile in depth. Finally Ulthok saw ahead a large room, with a quick check he found it to be empty but missing its eastern wall, the area of the wall appearing to have been blasted away,. In the walls place was another opening beyond which Ulthok could see was a downward slopping tunnel, clearly unlike any hallway the party had traveled so far, being crudely dug not crafted by any hand.

Pausing to let the other's join him he they all saw as he had and after a brief discussion decided to continue forward in the tunnel and down. After what seemed like fifteen minutes the tunnel opened into a huge cavern cut from the stone and ice here for 100's of years beyond counting. The ceiling, far walls and the length or depth of the super sized cavern out of sight in all directions the party for the moment were at lose in which way to go. North East or West the party had a new choice before them.

((DM OOC: OK here is last weeks post tonight. Sorry for its delay. Ok huge, huge cavern like nothing you have ever seen before. It's even bigger then the cavern where the Pyramid of Ancients was hidden from where you recovered the evil sword. So choice is yours North, West, or East. Next post on the 4th of Nov barring any bad luck))

Talca watched as two more of the clown headed beholders exploded in front of him. It was good to be a part of a group again. Scandrik alone could not have done to those gas bags what these had done. Numbers and talent combined to turn this group into a formidable weapon.

Still, formidable or not, they were in the depths of a freezing cold tower surrounded by beasts powerful enough to take them all down in a few seconds if given the chance. Best not give them the chance. And so he kept his guard up even as the steam and smoke cleared.

Once the coast was clear it was time to move on. As they passed the exploded remains of the beholders Talca took a moment to more closely examine the remains of the creatures that had once killed him. (Even just thinking that sounded wrong and weird.) Did they appear to be normal beholders aside from their clown headed eye stalks? Were they as cold on the inside as on the out? He wondered if they had been standing guard to keep someone from going down the stairs, or from coming up.

Having learned as much as he could from his examination of the remains, Talca moved on with the others, making sure they left no obvious path through the frozen remains left behind. The long trip down the stairs made him wonder just how far they were going and where they might end up. How low could this tower go? Just as he was ready to give up on the idea of a beholder lair the group came to a room with an exploded wall. Was this the limit of the tower? Was the space beyond outside of the tower? Or just an extension of it? He took a little time to check. What could the rock tell him? Which way had the wall been blown - in or out? Did the rock look crafted or dug, as with claws? Was there a sense of time? How long ago had this opening been made? Were there any signs of anyone or anything passage? Belholders wouldn't leave much of a sign, but others might. Was there a breeze at all - did the cold air seem to emanate from within the tower or from the space beyond? Could he tell? Was there dust? How much? Was the exploded space covered in ice and if so, how much?

Moving beyond into the massive cave Talca felt a sense of wonder that such a massive underground space might exist. Had they climbed down steps far enough to match height of the cavern? He tried to calculate the distance. He looked around the cave for any sign of life or movement? Did the air move? Were their signs of movement anywhere? If he were to be of use to his new companions, he must try to gather whatever information he might.

As the others destroyed the beholders Lothor took up a position at the rear of the group to make that nothing would attack them from that direction. It proved an easy job as even the concussive boom of the beast's death did not bring anyone running. Or floating.

But that did not remain he relaxed his guard. Anything around would certainly be warned of their coming, veil spell or not. So he was cautious as he and the rest of the group moved past the remains, down the stairs, through the wall and out into the massive cavern. The place was huge!

Lothor had no idea where to go at this point, and so he asked if anyone had a way to get a better vantage point. "But be sure to stay within the veil spell. Attention is not something we need." If nobody had any good answers he would suggest they stick close to one of the walls. It offered the best chance to find their way back to this point if need be. Go left, perhaps?

The party entered the cavern, the size of this expanse was so large nothing could be distinguished. They move left or right along the wall or plunge forward in to the unknown. With no visible items to guide them all options seemed equally as risky.

"Great googaly moogaly not a clue to help us choose our next move. Well we need more information, I have a potion of Dragon sight that may give me a better view of lies beyond in the cavern." Searching through his pouch he pulled the potion and boots of spider climbing. "I'll scurry up the wall a bit too get a better view."

Ulthok slipped on the boots, putting striding boot away, and drink the potion. Then in a hurry he climbed a hundred feet or so and scanned the cavern from this height. Now with much better ranger to his sight he noted what could be seen to the left and right, out forward into the cavern and what he could see above. After several minutes of scanning as deeply as he could he climbed back down to report to the party what he saw to aid them in their choice of direction. The Dragon sight would stay with him for a while so once they chose he would lead with an even better than usual ability to spot danger.

Siréne

They walked unseen through the freezing remains of the beholders into a vast cavern. It was as terrible as it was beautiful. Through that vastness no path could be discerned, they might as go one way or any other. Was this the void? The moment before excitation stirred the inexcitable from it's sleep?

Siréne sighed. If there was not death there was the unknowable void. She was growing weary of this frozen hell. But to stop now would be to erase herself, to no longer exist, to never have been. There was never any option but to go on. Resolve had hardened her more than millennia ever could. She had lived so many lifetimes, and yet all those years had not prepared her for this war. Its terrible crucible had forged them all into something harder.

They would go on, and they would not walk blind. To that end, the witch called forth the fey magic that ran through her blood. Swaying as she chanted, Siréne directed that power into a single, ocular bead. It floated there before her, tiny and perfect, and utterly invisible. The faerie smiled at her work and sent it flying outward to see what the could not. Soon they would know.

((OOC: Casts Wizard Eye - btw, you're all very welcome for the Deleuzian referent))


Rayne

The ranger stood tall in the frozen hell, her sharp eyes piercing the distance, searching for any sign of movement. If anything came toward them she would know it.

With the party now for the most part out of the tower and into this huge underground cavern even with the benefit of meta human eyesight, the ceiling, walls, and center of the cavern were out of sight. Having no other choice both Sirene and Ulthok took steps to get a better idea of what lay ahead,

As Ulthok drank his potion of dragon sight and scampered up the wall, the Elf Enchantress cast Wizard Eye.

For Ulthok reaching the top of the ceiling, a good 200 yards up from the floor, he found that his potion gifted sight allowed him to see to the north a transparent bluish glow as if a light source of some type was reflecting off of iced walls. To the halfling it was as if the light was on the horizon similar to the view of the sun just raising up from the earth.

For Sirene her wizard eye was slightly better moving farther thanks to her high level in magic and she could tell the light reflected was indeed not natural as the flickering light could be fire from torches or lanterns. However even with the wizard added sight she was unable to see what lay within the lights area of effect.

As both Mages relayed their findings to the rest of the party it became clear that no matter which way they traveled they would end up at the area of light.

(Ok my post for this week. Good use of the potion and spell. Next post next Sunday the 12th))

Lothor watched as others climbed the walls and looked around. While he kept his own eyes open and focused on their surroundings, he knew his own vision was limited compared to what the others saw. He did not see any glowing light, but believed it was there.

He agreed with the others that with the new information it was time to keep moving. Onward and downward as this tower adventure seemed always to lead. He voted for sticking by the wall as they moved.

"Well lets get ta going and see what lurks ahead. Stay out o'the light for now and see if anything pops up or we find a clue as ta where ta look next."

Siréne

Her arcane sight revealed an unnatural light in the distance, but even with the aid of magic there was still no telling what was there. They would have to continue on. Siréne followed Ulthok, moving along the western wall, inexorably toward the unknown light. She sent the arcane eye out before them, to see whatever might lay beyond natural vision.

For now the magic of her veil still hid them, she hoped the powerful illusion would last long enough for them to reach their quarry.

Rayne

The ranger readied her bow as the group moved onward. Her keen elven senses were ever vigilant, seeking any sign of movement. She would catch even the subtlest warnings of danger and great them with the rain of arrows.