The Giant Eyeball

They all get back in formation once again, with Booker leading the way 50' ahead of Aithne and the rest of the party and then start moving once more.

The corridor here is wide enough for two people to walk and fight abreast and so they bunch up a little in case anything were to attack them and start to make up for lost time as they continue walking. After half an hour, the situation is as before, with the passageway continuing to head in a northeasterly direction while heading down at a slight angle:

"We must be over 800' down now," Timex says, looking at the markings on the rock, "and at least a couple of miles northeast of the village."

After another ten minutes, they enter a cavern from which there are four different exits. Aithne checks them all carefully until she finds one that it marked with the same lichen markings as identified the other passageways leading to the ratmen's lair.

Another five minutes later, the passageway leads into another cavern, larger than the previous one, although there is just the one exit that continues in a northeasterly direction. For the next 20 minutes, during which time the party makes good progress as the going is much easier here, they pass through another three of the natural caverns. Upon heading towards another in the series of caverns, Booker suddenly stands still. As soon as they see him do so, the party also stops, waiting to see what information the dog brings them. Booker continues to stare into the cavern for another couple of minutes before he very quietly pads back in order to report:

"Whoa, ma friends," he starts. "That shit we seen so far ain't nuthin' compared to the weird critter what's in that cavern, man."

"It looks like a big eyeball, or some other shit. It looks like a ball 'bout six foot wide an' has this big, evil eye and a big mouth plus lots of little eyes on stalks all about it."

"The good news is that the sucka's sleepin' at the moment. The bad news is that it's gone and put itself in the junction with the corridor, so it's gonna be risky to get past it. There were some o' them dead ratcats lying around it too, looking kinda skinny an' shit."

"The cavern in front of it's a pretty big one. It must be 150' long and about 40' wide in the center. The entrance to the passageway that the big evil eye thang's lyin' in is about 12' wide, so there's just 3' either side of it."

Very carefully, they all walk towards the mouth of the cavern in order to see the sight for themselves. It is exactly as Booker described it. Once they have seen all there is to see, they head back down the passageway in order to discuss their strategy out of earshot of the thing.

Winnacer's face blanches after seeing the creature:

"This is not good news. We cannot even approach it without possibly waking the beast up. That will make it difficult to circumvent, even with Yaz's rock shaping abilities. Anyone have some ideas?"

"Our other options are not much better. Perhaps we can take it by surprise in its sleep from all angles, perhaps using Brother Timex' earthen ally and as much magick as we can muster. But the way Thrisk talked about this beast makes me wonder if it would be possible to take it out quick enough to avoid having it kill us all off. Our victories so far have been far from overwhelming, and I would think this option perhaps is our worst."

"We can always try to parlay with it, however. Maybe it would respond to the payment of a toll or perhaps an alliance to clear out the ratmen from its domain."

Winnacer frowns:

"I could feel its evil," Winnacer continues. "We could be sure that any deal we made with this creature would be broken at the first opportune moment. Perhaps we can manipulate the creature's machinations to the cause of good, but that is probably equally as risky as our other options."

Porter shakes his head disbelievingly:

"This is screwed, man. Don't you guys run into anything remotely human? I'd rather go back to killing Nyemetz myself, 'cause this freakin' sucks."

Joy nods in agreement. She adds:

"A giant eyeball? This has got to be the strangest thing I've ever heard of."

"I wonder what color eye it has," Aithne adds, deeply curious.

Rowan shakes his head:

"What manner of creature IS this...?"

Joy's face looks thoughtful as she ask Rowan:

"Do you think it gets around by rolling?"

Aithne grins:

"Wouldn't that hurt it though? Or at least make it dizzy?"

"Do you even think a giant eyeball is intelligent?" Joy asks skeptically.

"My father seemed to believe that they were quite intelligent," Winnacer replies. "At least smart enough to say 'Prepare to Die' to the heroes in his stories."

"Obviously someone lived to tell the tale... it seems likely that we, being fairly heroic ourselves, will likely do the same," Rowan ventures, eyeing the thing curiously.

"Bah," Rowan mutters to Joy. "Who knows what speculative old soldiers' stories he could've heard...? I heard all manner of nonsense in the Pannon army, but I don't buy this any more than those ludicrous tales of the so-called 'Sphere of Death.'"

"Even more, does it have a mouth? Or other way of communication? Does it speak eyeballese?" asks Aithne.

Joy replies with a straight face:

"Maybe it just winks. We'd have to wink back, since no one saw any ears, either."

"I didn't even think of ears," Aithne's face falls, chagrinned. "Maybe it knows some sort of sign language?"

"No hands," Joy replies. "Don't worry, maybe it can wink in code. You know, once for yes, twice for no."

Joy pats her on the back with sympathy.

Winnacer watches the others talk and even start joking, turning to give them a serious eye:

"Keep it down. You want to wake it up before we have a chance to do anything?"

Aithne rolls her eyes:

"Joking?" she thinks to herself. "We're just trying to figure out what the heck it is and how we can communicate with it?"

She listens.

Looking at Winnacer, Porter says:

"If that thing is really that bad, then I'd suggest Timex pull his bad-ass buddy out of his pocket. We hit it with what we can while it's asleep, and then let Timex's buddy beat it up for a while. I sure as hell don't want to get near that thing."

"This might be the time to pull out the big stuff," Aithne agrees, "if it's that harmful."

"Ya," adds Yaz, "well, I don't wanna get near it either, but I don't see what it can do to us. I mean, even if it gives us a real nasty look, it can't be worse than Winnacer's."

"But if the ratfob was right," the druid continues, "then I guess we should do something smart, huh? I can change into a rat and sneak past the thing. Then I either stab it from behind with my scimitar, or stand waaaaaayyyy back and distract it while you guys come in with whatever you got. I can maybe try talking to it if you want... I have a spell for that."

Yaz manages, while he's talking, to remove something apparently curious from his nose, which he examines with some satisfaction before flicking it away and wiping his hand on his pants.

Hearing Yaz' plan, Joy adds:

"Well, I can do something that might possibly help. I can create illusionary creatures out of air, but they look real. It's hit or miss on whether a person, or in this case, an eyeball believes that they're real."

She looks inquisitively to see what people think of her suggestion.

Winnacer nods respectfully:

"Normally, I'd say let's go with your idea. But we have it asleep and may as well put it to our best advantage, if we look to press the attack. It may be of great use later when we try to break into the rat's lair."

"However, if we try to parley with the creature, it may be keen to use illusion rather than have us standing right there subject to its attacks. Or perhaps we can have the beast chase the illusions down another tunnel, clearing it from our path. But those require waking it, which I am loath to do."

Porter scours the rough walls of the cavern, and then says:

"Well, I shouldn't have any more trouble climbing these walls than I did back with the piercers. I think I can get up and around that thing, so I can either get behind it, and maybe even directly above it. Perhaps Yaz can sneak around it as well in one of his animal forms. I could perhaps scout ahead a little and see what's there. If nothing else, I think we need to hit this thing from more than one side if we are going to go after it."

Aithne nods:

"Hard to tell if it has a back, really. I guess that's the side of it away from the eye? I can provide missile fire if you like, or I can run in quickly and attack at some signal."

She then turns to the LawBringer:

"Winnacer, you seem to know all about these creatures. I've never heard of them. Can you give us some more information on which we can base our hypotheses?" Aithne asks.

Winnacer turns to Aithne:

"Well, my father mentioned something about these creatures. Bee...Bee...Besmirchers...no that's not right. I can't remember what he called them. All I remember is that he never saw one and was quite happy about it. And that they were mean."

Winnacer contemplates for a second.

"Father said the be-whatevers were like the kings of the underground. And like all kings they had offspring that were never quite up to par with their parents. Unless you've had dealings with them before, it is hard to tell the strong ones from the weak ones."

Aithne starts to smile.

"He said they carved up the underworld between them," the young Lord continues, "staging wars upon each other and other creatures using their slaves. He said the gaze of one of its eyes can command you to pledge fealty to it. He never said which one."

Aithne's smile grows larger.

"He said the center eye could shoot out a ray of destruction, causing the flesh to melt off the bone where it was housed," Winnacer goes on to say. "But that doesn't make a whole lot of sense according to what we saw. They looked more withered than melted."

"I'm not sure what kind of help that was, but I think that we don't want it looking at us in any case. It would be bad."

Aithne has to walk back down the corridor a ways and cover her mouth so she can laugh really, really hard.

"However, if we want to attack it, we should try to stay away from its sight," the LawBringer adds. "I was thinking that perhaps Yaz could get close enough to the beast in animal form and get under it, then change into something belligerent and gnaw it to death. As long as he can grasp on to it, it won't be able to turn its eyes upon him. I just worry it may smash him into the walls a bit."

"The rest of us can spread out and hit it from all different angles. Porter could climb over and hit it in the back, while Aithne and Rowan may be able to get close enough to stab it in the big eye before it wakes."

"You know, its not like this thing is going to swing a sword at me. I can strip off my armor and get close as well without alerting it, hopefully."

"As for Joy and Timex, hitting them with some well selected spells right off may also help. Or if you can perhaps provide protection from ...uh...withering, that would be nice too."

"As for using Timex's earthen friend, I think it may be best to hold off. We don't know how it really attacks, and if it can hurt Timex with just a glance, we may be fighting more than this besmircher."

Aithne comes back with tears running out of her eyes. She cannot look at Winnacer because she does not want to laugh anymore right now, as it is a very serious moment.

Yaz looks at Winnacer doubtfully:

"Whatever."

He flails his arms around briefly.

"We sneak up on it and kill it. I take the form of something orange and nasty, Porter and Aithne sneak up nice and quiet, and when we start tuning, the rest of you join in. Sound good?"

"Just make sure you get under it, Yaz," Winnacer replies. "If you can latch on to its bottom, it can't bite you or look at you. Then you can chomp away."

"I like the sound of this plan," Rowan says, nodding. "I shall stab it in the eye. Nothing can survive being stabbed in the eye... especially an eye."

"We shall give it a black eye," agrees Aithne.

Winnacer nods:

"Hopefully we'll do more than just that. On your toes everybody, let's do this by the numbers."

Timex looks a little nervous:

"I'm not so sure that I join you in the initial attack upon the eyeball," he coughs. "I'm afraid that, with my affliction, I'm not really the quietest of types. If it's no problem, then I think it might be better if I stay in reserve. If things start looking really bad for you, then I will have to summon the servant of Zemnye to assist you. If I do, then please just try and get away from it as fast as you can."

Everyone then makes their preparations to take on the eyeball. Winnacer starts to remove his platemail, a task that is going to take him a while. As he does so, Yaz starts to morph once again. This time, instead of a crocodile, he starts to morph into his favorite form of a tiger, his body lengthening and turning orange while his jaw extends and starts to grow whiskers. After a minute, the transformation is complete. They wait for several minutes until Winnacer has finished taking off his platemail and then they are all ready to go.

Aithne, Porter, Tiger-Yaz and Booker all head off in the first wave. They start to head over across the cavern, treading as carefully as possible so as to avoid waking the eyeball. All of them manage to move incredibly quietly and get close to the eyeball without much of a problem. Aithne takes her assigned space as she gets ready to play pinata with the floating eyeball and both of her swords. Booker stands alongside her and Yaz gets ready to make his move.

Porter then very carefully starts to inch his way up to the wall alongside the eyeball. He grabs onto the rough side of the wall and then takes a grip and starts to lift himself up. As he moves across the rocky wall, Porter takes another handhold and suddenly feels the rock crumbling away from him. He frantically tries to grab hold of something else, but doesn't manage to grab anything in time. To everyone's horror, especially Porter's, the others see him tumbling backwards straight onto the eyeball. The fall was only from a few feet and the eyeball beneath him cushions him from much of the damage as he slides off the top of the eyeball onto the ground. However, the eyeball is now starting to move.

Immediately, Aithne, Tiger-Yaz and Booker realize that everything has gone pear-shaped straight from the get-go and immediately start to attack the eyeball. Winnacer, hardly believing that things could have started to go wrong so quickly, grabs his shield and, together with Joy and Rowan, immediately charges towards the ball.

Aithne is the first off the mark and slashes the creature in its body with her longsword, causing it some decent damage. She tries to follow up with her shortsword, but the creature's skin is too tough for her to penetrate.

Next to her, Tiger-Yaz is also onto the beast. He sees the creature's eye opening on the floor next to him and lashes out at it with his claws. He tears into the eye badly and it is all but destroyed. It then closes its eyelid as fast as it opened it. Tiger-Yaz tries to get the eye again, but can only manage to rake the creature's body. With both of his paws finding their marks, Tiger-Yaz rakes the thing with his back paws as well, doing a considerable amount of damage to it. He tries for a full house by trying to bite the ball-thing as well, but is unable to penetrate its scaly skin.

Booker also tries his luck after seeing Tiger-Yaz's success, but his jaws are not sufficient to penetrate the thing's scales. It is all that Porter can do to get up off the floor and call forth his bastard sword.

The eyeball is definitely awake now, and after its severe mauling by Tiger-Yaz it is not a happy eyeball at all. The ball tries to smash into Aithne as it takes to the air, but once more her light-refracting cloak masks her true position and it misses her. Once it is a few feet off the ground, suddenly its 'eye-stalks' suddenly start to grow at an alarming rate. Those around it realize that they are not eye-stalks at all, but rather tentacles that the Eye of Terror is trying to lash out at those around it with.

The first one flails out at Booker, but the black dog sees it coming and bounds out of the way just in time. The second tentacle lashes out at Aithne and it seems as if her cloak is no guarantee of protection as the tentacle pierces her leg, causing her terrible pain. A third tentacle comes for Booker, and this time he is unable to dodge it and gets pierced in the flank too. Porter is the target of the fourth tentacle and easily manages to get pierced, injuring him quite severely. The fifth tentacle goes for Tiger-Yaz, but the giant cat dodges it. The sixth tries for Porter, but he is ready for it now and manages to avoid a second piercing. The seventh goes for Aithne, but her cloak manages to save her. The eighth tentacle manages to get her once more, however, although the damage is not so severe. As she grits her teeth and tries to fight off the pain, she is pierced yet again by the ninth tentacle, although mercifully the damage is not so severe. With its last tentacle, the beholder-kin lashes out at Booker once more, but the swift dog manages to avoid it.

Rowan, Winnacer and Joy dash up to the creature just as its tentacles have finished striking. Rowan wants desperately to cut Aithne free from the tentacles, but realizes that his rapier is going to be of little use against it. He tries to hack at one of the tentacles that has pierced Aithne with his main-gauche, but the tentacles are flicking around and he is not able to get at it. He aims for the Death Kiss with the rapier and manages to wound it quite badly in the body.

Winnacer strikes out at it, but 'Old Bohavia' is unable to cut through the creature's scaly skin. Joy manages to smash the creature with her flail, doing an excruciating amount of damage to it. The hardness of the creature came as a bit of a surprise to her though, and her arm feels numb from the force.

Porter finally manages to get his wits about him and lashes out at the tentacle that is latched on to him. The tentacle is well-protected, however, and he is unable to cut through it. He can feel that the tentacle is starting to slowly suck the blood from his veins.

Winnacer's face is grim as yet again another plan falls apart before it begins, except this time it left him without any sort of protection. He brings 'Old Bohavia around tries to attack the creature, but he is still unable to cleave through the beholder-kin's heavy scales protecting its body.

Aithne worked to stifle a scream of pain as one, then two, then three tentacles latched on to her and began sucking the blood out of her body.

Beads of sweat break out on her forehead as she struggles to cut the tentacles off her body. She tries to give Rowan a grateful look for trying to help her, but finds that she must concentrate on trying to free herself from Death's Kiss instead. Concentrate she does, however, as she brings down her longsword hard upon one of the tentacles piercing her leg. The blow is a mighty one indeed, which cleaves one of the beast's tentacles right off. As it does so, the tentacle detaches itself and falls to the ground.

Joy tries once again to cause another massive blow to the creature as she did before. The numbing pain shooting up her arm from her last strike put her off her stroke, however, and she misses the torso by a wide margin.

Yaz also tries to repeat his success and rakes the body of the Death Kiss once again, causing another bad wound to it. Booker tries to bite at the tentacle latched onto the dog, but his jaws are not strong enough to bite through it.

Rowan tries to give the beholder a taste of its own medicine by trying to pierce it with Chanticleer. The thin blade is unable to find a way through its scales, however. The beholder-kin responds by trying to pierce the swashbuckler, but Rowan is too nimble for the tentacle to catch him.

Another tentacle tries to strike at Tiger-Yaz and manages to catch him, although the piercing damage is not too severe. A second tentacle lashes out at the tiger, which also catches him, the damage more severe this time. Yaz is starting to get a little pissed now and lashes out at the Death Kiss once again. Tiger-Yaz can hardly put a paw wrong at the moment, hitting it and causing it some major damage, then following through with his rear paws, which damages it very badly indeed. The beholder-kin is now starting to live up to its nickname of 'bleeder' as it is starting to bleed all over now.

Not wanting to have the blood sucked out of him, Tiger-Yaz uses his bite to try and free himself of one of the tentacles. He locks his jaws around it and bites into it. Although he manages to bite into it, his bite does not cut all of the way through and Yaz is alarmed to see what damage he did upon the tentacle immediately healed. From the stab of pain coming from his arm, it appears as if it is Yaz' blood that the bleeder is using to do it with.

Porter tries once again to free himself of the tentacles piercing him, but yet again, luck is not with him and he cannot cut through the tentacle. Rowan tries to slash at the creature with his main-gauche. He manages to find a weak spot between the creature's scaly hide and plunges the dagger into it up to its hilt.

The Death Kiss didn't like that one little bit and its body immediately starts to rise quickly up towards the ceiling, so that the tentacles are coming straight down. Winnacer and Rowan both lash out at it as its body starts to escape. Winnacer manages to catch it with a good blow that causes it even more damage as it tries to depart. As it gets almost out of reach, Rowan leaps up with Chanticleer in hand and plunges it into the Death Kiss' underbelly. His thrust is right on target and the beholder-kin lurches as Chanticleer's blade pierces deeply into it. It then tumbles back to earth, smashing to the ground.

The body of the Death Kiss seems to have kissed death itself and the three tentacles that are not connected also fall limp. Those attached to Aithne, Yaz, Porter and Booker, however, still seem to be sucking blood as a reflex action.

Aithne tries to cut away another of the tentacles with her shortsword. She cuts into it, but is unable to sever it. The tentacle immediately regenerates, replacing its own lost blood from that of Aithne.

With the central body of the Eye of Terror now dead, all put their attention towards trying to hack away the tentacles that have pierced party members. Joy realizes that her flail is useless for the task and so stands back, getting ready to cast healing spells should anyone look close to falling from their wounds.

Yaz realizes that his claws are going to be useless against the tentacles also and so concentrates on using his bite to try and sever one of the tentacles. It is not to be, however, as he is unable to get a grip on the writhing tentacle.

Aithne tries to take out another of the tentacles with her longsword. Once again, the magick longsword proves its worth, as she hacks off one of the two remaining tentacles upon her. As the tentacle is severed, she feels a minor shock pulse through her system as the tentacle's electrical energy drains.

Winnacer sees Porter in trouble and heads over to help him free himself of the tentacle. As Porter sees him coming, however, he shouts out at the young Lord:

"I'm OK, but Booker's in trouble."

The LawBringer changes direction and instead brings his longsword to bear upon the tentacle attached to the black dog. His blow is right on target and the tentacle is hacked off. Booker yelps in pain as the electrical charge pulses through its body and looks a little weak, but he's going to pull through. Winnacer too feels a jolt of electricity running through his body as the electricity is carried through his sword.

Aithne tries to rid herself of the remaining tentacle upon her. She manages to hit it well with the short sword and almost severs it but, unfortunately, not quite. She grimaces as the injured tentacle sucks more blood from her body in order to regenerate itself. Rowan tries to assist her, using just his main-gauche as he knows that Chanticleer is not the tool for the job. He is unable to damage the tentacle with the short blade, however.

Porter tries again to clear the tentacle off him. Finally, his luck returns and he brings the bastard sword crashing down upon the tentacle. It cleaves the tentacle in two and he feels a buzz as the electrical current flows through him.

There are just three tentacles remaining now - two on Tiger-Yaz and one on Aithne.

Rowan tries once again to cut Aithne free with his main-gauche, but again the blade is not ideal for the task and he is unable to strike the writhing tentacle. Yaz tries to bite off one of the tentacles upon him, but he is unable to bring his jaws to bear. Porter sees the tiger in trouble and tries to cleave off one of the tentacles with his bastard sword but, once again, he is unable to hit it. Winnacer is the next to have a go at one of the tentacles upon Yaz. His aim is true, and another of the tentacles drops, shocking Yaz quite badly in the process and Winnacer also as the charge runs up his sword. Porter has another try at clearing the last of the tentacles from Yaz, but again, he cannot hit it.

Aithne feels the last of the tentacles sucking blood from her and tries to get rid of it using her longsword. It appears as if Aithne cannot miss with the sword as, once again, she manages to cleave the tentacle right off. However, as she is released from it, the shock from the discharging tentacle is almost enough to throw her to the ground.

Winnacer tries to get rid of the last tentacle remaining upon Yaz. He manages to hit it, but not enough to finish it and Tiger-Yaz roars out with pain as the tentacle sucks out a good amount of blood.

Just one tentacle upon Tiger-Yaz remains now, but the cat-druid is looking rather the worse for wear now. Everyone tries to finish the tentacle off as quickly as possible. Rowan tries to assist with his main-gauche but, once again, the short blade is not up to the job. Porter has another try, but his efforts are also in vain. Winnacer is the next to try his luck on the bucking tentacle. He manages to hit it, but not with sufficient force to cut it and Tiger-Yaz roars again as the tentacle uses his blood to regenerate itself. Desperate to free himself from the leech-like tentacle, Yaz tries to bite it off. However, he is only able to nip it and so, once again, it causes more damage to the cat-druid as it sucks more of Yaz' blood.

Joy sees that Tiger-Yaz is in desperate need of a blood-transfusion now and so starts to cast a healing ensorcellment upon him. The effects are only average, but Yaz is thankful for all he can get at the moment.

Aithne once again tries to bring her longsword to bear. Yet again, she manages to hit with the sword, but not enough to finish it off, although the tentacle is dangling by a thread now. It appears as if the regenerating ability of the tentacle is not unlimited, as Yaz feels no more pain and the tentacle does not grow back. Seeing her chance, Aithne tries to finish it with her shortsword. She manages to catch it with this and the tentacle is sent flying. As she does so, however, both she and Yaz are zapped as the electricity stored in the tentacle is released upon them both, which sends them both falling to the floor.

The Death Kiss and all of its tentacles are now dead, but it was a close run thing, as Tiger-Yaz, Aithne and Booker are all rolling on the ground in agony from the many wounds, conscious but barely able to stand.

Aithne lies on the ground, barely conscious:

"C c cold," she mutters. "Don't feel so good."

Yaz immediately returns to druid form after he is sure that the combat with the beholder-kin is over. He lies still waiting for someone to see to his wounds.

Winnacer grabs some of the collective bandages that the party has come to know well and sits down next to Yaz, helping clean his wounds:

"How you holding up, Yaz? That has to be the meanest thing you and I've come across since this whole business started."

Yaz just gorans in response, not looking too good at all.

Timex rushes over to see to the injured, coughing and spluttering as he goes. He immediately starts to see to Aithne, Yaz and Booker, heading from one to another in turn to try and get them as well as he can. He casts one major healing spell upon Aithne, which has an excellent effect, bring her to her feet again, although she is still far from fully healed. He casts another major healing spell upon Yaz, but the effects are weak. He follows up with a couple more minor spells, the first of which is nothing special, but the second is good, and Yaz finishes up in a slightly better state than Aithne. The dwarf also casts one minor spell upon Booker, the results of which are sufficient to bring the dog almost to full health.

"You fought nobly, m'lady," Rowan says to Aithne while Timex tends to her wounds. "Fortunately, that creature was not as dangerous as Winnacer's tales would have us believe... but dangerous enough, apparently," he adds, surveying her, Porter, and Yaz.

Aithne gets shakily to her feet:

"My thanks, Timex, Rowan. Is everyone else all right?"

She cleans her swords and looks around.

By the time he has finished, Timex is looking even less healthy than he usually does, looking very tired:

"I'm afraid that this is all of the healing powers that Zemnye has blessed me with this day," the dwarf says a little sadly.

Joy studies the rest of the group. She then heals Aithne with a prayer to her god. The results are very good indeed, but Aithne still has a long way to go before she is back to full health. Joy then shrugs and says:

"Well, Zlodey isn't going to listen to any more of my prayers for these wounds. I apologize, but I really wasn't prepared for such excessive fighting with such frightening creatures."

After a look at her cousin to make sure he didn't get hurt, Joy says to Rowan quietly:

"My god seems to be pleased with you and given you some of his luck today."

With a quick glance around, she adds:

"Either that or he's just trying to balance our luck as a group."

"Dear cousin," Rowan replies glibly, sheathing his weapons, "half of everything is luck."

Porter grumbles:

"Well, I'm freakin' screwed then."

Yaz looks a lot better after Timex saw to his wounds but, like Aithne, he still has a long way to go before he is back to full health. He casts a healing spell upon himself and the results are not bad at all. He looks around at the others and sees that Porter and Aithne are both worse off than himself, so casts one of his remaining two healing ensorcellments on both of them. The results are fair upon Porter and very good upon Aithne. Although the three of them still have quite a way to go to get back to full health, they are able to move out now without too much of a problem.

"That's all of the healing that I've got for today," Yaz says. "If we need any more, then we'll have to use the rod."

"The more we do now, the better off we'll be," Winnacer says. "I think we should use the rod on the injured now."

Yaz nods in agreement and takes the rod. He goes over to Aithne, points it to one of her wounds and then presses the rune. Her body is instantly covered in a pale green light and the majority of her wounds miraculously heal over. She is still not quite back to full health, but not too far off either.

The druid then repeats the operation upon himself. As was the case with Aithne, the pale green light manages to heal the majority of his wounds, leaving him close to full recovery.

Booker barks out:

"Hey, dudes, we better be movin' on out o' here. I'm outta here in a bit more than an hour an' we don't know how much more o' this sheeet we gotta go through."

Not wanting to lose the services of their scout after proving so useful during the journey, they immediately agree and so get back into the regular marching order before proceeding down the tunnel opposite after treading over the dead body of the Death Kiss.

The tunnel here is wide enough for three of them walk abreast and the ceiling is high above the ground. They continue to follow the tunnel as it continues in a generally northeastern direction, sloping downwards as they go. As they continue, they pass through wider caverns quite often, all of them thankfully empty of any foes. Several of these cavern have other tunnels branching from them, but in each case Aithne is able to find the telltale lichen signs that keep them heading in the right direction.

They carry on for half an hour or so and Timex gives them another status report:

"I could never have believed that the tunnels went on so far," he says, shaking his head. "We must be halfway to Opava by now and we are around 1200' underground by the look of the strata."

They continue onwards for another 15 minutes, with Porter getting increasingly worried that Booker's time is nearly up.

Just then, the black dog stops dead in its tracks just before the entrance to another cavern. They immediately stop and wait to see what the dog has spied this time. It's obviously something serious, as he immediately sinks to the ground and tries his best to slink into the shadows.