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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Caliber" data-source="post: 1354691" data-attributes="member: 1310">Focusing his will, Syd releases the magical energies holding Milo in Umber Hulk form. Examining the opening Milo discovered, the party soon ascertains that it is locked but untrapped.  Some quick lock work from Alahandra opened the entrance to the party, revealing a dark shaft stretching far out of sight. The light from the outside did not penetrate far down, however, and there seemed to be no ladder or stairs that the party could climb. Shrugging, Syd floats downward, seeing perfectly in the darkness of the tunnel. The shaft goes down roughly one hundred feet and is quite wide, at the bottom forming a room nearly forty feet across. Flying up, Syd tells everyone the way is clear and soon Orendil has secured a rope to the tunnel’s hatch. Orendil quickly shimmies down the rope, followed by Super Commie, Gordon, a flying Gorath and Milo.  At the bottom of the shaft the four find nothing of interest. The sound of water can clearly be heard from the walls, suggesting the chamber is sitting at the bottom of the lake, but there are no doors or further hatches to lead deeper in. Syd floats down again and confirms that there is another room below the chamber but without any way to access it, the party decides to leave. “We may as well blow it up,” Super Commie mutters as he begins climbing the rope back towards the surface. Gorath, taking Super Commie’s advice to heart, turns and Disintegrates a large section of the wall before quickly shooting up the tunnel. An instant later water burst into the chamber, threatening to knock Super Commie off of the rope. His four arms grip tightly, however, and he quickly begins treading the water as it slowly begins to fill the tube. Meanwhile, Gordon, Milo, and Orendil are battered about the chamber from the force of the water but are otherwise unharmed. Not needing to breathe, all three begin to swim upwards once the water stabilizes enough.Up top, Syd, G’Banrak, and Alahandra are somewhat surprised to see the water of the lake beginning to go down, as if some large drain had been pulled from the bottom. When a sodden Super Commie pulls himself up from the hatch, their surprise only deepens. Gorath and Milo crawl out soon after and before anyone can say anything, Milo pulls out his blaster rifle and begins to fire.The barrage of energy bolts rip through the air catching Gorath full on in the chest. A burned and broken Uthek spirals out of the air and crashes into the water, quickly sinking beneath the waves. Orendil climbs out of the hatch in time to witness everything, and stands stupefied, aghast at what Milo had done. “What did you just do!” simultaneously shout Orendil and G’Banrak. “Dead, he is no longer bound!” G’Banrak yells. “He just tried to kill all of us!” Milo fires back.“Milo … you’re already dead.”Gordon finally manages to climb out of the hatch, having had problems with the slippery rope. After having the situation explained to him, the party braces themselves for Gorath’s return. With the Wish no longer effecting him, no one in the party believes Gorath will have as much control as Gordon, Orendil, and Milo have shown towards Alahandra. Syd begins to gird himself in protective magics while everyone else prepares for the coming fight. Time passing slowly, and Syd’s protective spells slowly fall away. Finally, everyone agrees that, for whatever reason, Gorath isn’t coming back any time soon. “Where do we go now? What do we do now?” G’Banrak mutters, still upset at Milo. “You we’re supposed to know where we were going!”Milo begins looking through his maps, but still cannot figure out why the Beholders weren’t found here. Gordon complains desperately about how long everything is taking before Syd finally shrugs and mentions that he could find the party some Beholders if that is what they wanted. Being the only plan of action available, Syd quickly mutters a few arcane phrases and instantly senses a Beholder nearby to the south. Walking from the island, the party soon finds a trail running in the direction they wish to go. Walking through the overgrown jungle, the party soon finds the Beholder Syd detected and comes to a halt. The Beholder floats calmly in a small clearing, seemingly guarding an entrance into the ship proper. It remains unaware, however, of their presence as Milo, Super Commie, and G’Banrak prepare to launch a surprise attack at it. Alahandra, sensing violence, quickly flies to a nearby tree where she turns invisible and hides. G’Banrak’s Disintegrate ray goes wide but many of Milo and Super Commie’s shots find their mark. This Beholder is wearing more armor, though, and like the last ones does not fall easily. But even as the Beholder quickly begins to turn towards the party, Orendil steps forward and unleashes with his PGMP-12, a torrent of electrical energy vaporizing the Beholder and leaving little behind except scorched and smoking ground. Amazed, Super Commie pulls out his PGMP-12, putting away two of his pistols in favor of the massive gun. Relaying that the Beholder was dead, Syd casually points to the north, indicating the next closest lay in that direction. Meanwhile, the Wild Magic coursing about Alahandra tore Gorath’s soul, kicking and screaming, back into the Prime Material Plane. Unable (or perhaps unwilling) to control his need to kill Alahandra, Gorath instinctively shifted into the Ethereal and began to hunt, tracking Alahandra down.After his last display of power, Orendil quickly replaces G’Banrak in the lead of the party as they creep towards the next Beholder. It isn’t long before the next Beholder is found, floating in a clearing and guarding an entrance like the last one encountered by the party. Again, it is taken by surprise as Orendil, Milo, and Super Commie all open fire upon its position. Orendil, however, feeling the pressure of everyone watching him, stumbles and drops his gun almost immediately. Luckily, Gordon was waiting behind him with his own PGMP-12 and quickly eliminated the second Beholder, leaving another smoking portion of ground where it once was. The party, already building a rhythm, turns expectantly to Syd to see where the next one was. A confused look passes over Syd’s spectral face and slowly he turns about before explaining that two Beholders are currently approaching the party, from opposite directions. Deciding to lay an ambush, the party scatters; Orendil and G’Banrak hiding at either side of the opening while Milo and Alahandra take to the trees. Gordon and Syd remain mostly in the open, occupying the clearing where the last Beholder had been. Super Commie, having misheard the warning about two Beholders coming, wanders into the ship and begins trying to open the door leading inside. Slowly, the Beholders approach, and Gordon’s sharp eyes easily pick them out. The one approaching from the west in just like the others the party has faced so far, clad in the strange armor the Beholder’s seem to continue finding. The one approaching from the east, however, is much, much different. Large and white, it appears to be rotting, and open wounds cover it. The forest withers at its passing and it nearly screams death and destruction to anyone who sees it. Unfortunately, the Beholders likewise spot Gordon and Syd, and they each barely have time to shout a warning before deadly eye beams lance into the clearing. The living one quickly dissipates Syd’s spectral form and turns Gordon into stone, trapping his Wight form in solid rock. The approaching undead Beholder paralyzes Milo with its gaze before ripping his gun from his hands. Two other beams strike the tree Milo is hiding by, turning it to stone before disintegrating a large portion of it, causing the stone branches to fall on top of Milo, blocking him from view. Walking out of the ship in order to get a pass card from Milo, Super Commie was surprised to see the Beholders. Opening fire, he left several wounds on the live one as G’Banrak began to throw arcane lightning towards both of floating Eye Tyrants. Manifesting inside the opening behind G’Banrak and Orendil, Gorath appeared and quickly dropped a Fireball into their midst. Super Commie and Orendil were slightly burned, but G’Banrak and Alahandra both miraculously managed to escape any damage. The living Beholder fired another barrage of eye rays, striking both Super Commie and G’Banrak, convincing both of them of the friendship and love the Beholder held for them. The rest of his beams glance off of the corner protecting Orendil, blasting small bits of the wall away. “Don’t hurt them! They’re nice!” shouted G’Banrak, but she was ignored by most.The first undead Beholder floated forward, firing its eyes wilding about as well. One striking Orendil disintegrated him on the spot as another caused G’Banrak to slump to the ground, asleep.Suddenly, with a scream, another undead Beholder appeared at the spot where Gordon had earlier killed its living form. Turning an eye to Super Commie, his heart instantly stopped and he slumped over, dead. Several more eye rays shot into the ship’s opening, but disoriented at coming back, the new undead Beholder missed Gorath with its attacks. From behind him, Gorath heard the elevator come down and open, and footsteps slowly walk out. “God damned magical crap!” cried Zoltan as he leveled his blaster and let loose a barrage of fire at the Beholder. Directly through Gorath. Gorath’s form wavered and dissipated, Zoltan’s energy pulses ripping his form to shreds. Sensing his hostile intent, the new undead Beholder ripped Zoltan’s gun from his hands before likewise stopping his heart, causing him to fall over, dead. Again. Realizing that with G’Banrak charmed and everyone else dead, the two undead Beholders would soon be coming for her, Alahandra jumped into her Bag of Holding. As it slowly floated to the ground, Alahandra found herself inside a featureless ten by ten room. Looking about she realized there were no obvious exits. The battle over, the three Beholders began to talk amongst one another. Unable to sense Alahandra, the undead Beholders circled about, confused. Slowly, the dead began to rise back from the afterlife. Syd found himself stuck within his Headband of Intellect, unable to take any form. He sensed that the setting of the sun might set him free, but knew he would not likely exist for it to happen. Super Commie and Zoltan found themselves in similar situations, haunting an aquatic breathing mask and a blaster rifle, respectively. Gorath reformed, this time taking corporeal shape as an animated set of dancing bones. Feeling his grasp on his faculties slipping Gorath fired one last, desperate Disintegrate at G’Banrak, his hatred of her maintaining his mind just long enough. Even asleep, however, she resisted his magic and woke to see Gorath’s skeleton begin to shuffle about in a macabre dance. Orendil returned, insane, little more than a formless presence, hungering for fear. When his presence failed to inspire any fear in anyone present, however, he began to babble with insanity, creating a melody that Gorath danced to. Finally, taking his slave and the statue of Gordon with him, the first undead Beholder floated away, returning to his post, and the living one soon followed suit. The second undead Beholder remained exactly where he had been originally posted, much to Milo’s dismay. Freeing himself, Milo began to walk away, knowing the end was soon. He could no longer sense Alahandra, and while he did not know what that meant, it couldn’t be good. He contemplated calling the Dragon Empire in order to give a last warning, but he knew his communication would not get through. Idly, he wondered if the computer could have warned everyone of this, considering its future knowledge. He just didn’t ask the right questions.Suddenly, sharp pains began to stab him up and down his arms. Realizing it was Alahandra’s pain he was feeling, he wondered if perhaps the pain could help lead him to her.Inside the Bag of Holding, Alahandra was beginning to run out of air. Knowing it was a long shot, she began to prick herself with a dagger, letting Milo know she still lived, and hoping he could save her in time. Slowly the pricks decreased in frequency as the room became blurry and dark. The small Fairy slowly slumped to the floor, passed out, and quietly died in her Bag of Holding. Across the planet, thousands of undead gave a breath of relief as their souls were finally released back to the afterlife they had earned. And the Beholders, unchecked and unstoppable, went on to conquer three parsecs of the Dragon Empire before finally being driven back. Just as the Computer had known would happen all along.</blockquote>

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