You probably missed #911

(Yes I did. Thanks for pointing that out. :-) )

Action Summary Updated

3 turns left to escape.

** TURN 17 **

Southern main tunnel:

*rolls dice* The Beholder moves back and rises a little in the air. It is now hovering 6 feet from the ground.

59 - Cicatrix - Drow Ranger the mirror you pilfered is worrying you with its vibrating. You drop it on the ground hoping that it will distract those pursuing you and sprint for the portal, your wolf by your side.
*rolls dice* As you approach the portal one of the Beholders eye stalks swivels round to target you. *rolls dice* You are struck by its Enervation Ray. You drop to your hands and knees, your energy gone. Your armour feels like you are carrying the weight of the world on your back. The portal is just 5 feet ahead of you.

80 - Eranear - Elf Paladin you cast Protection Against Evil on yourself. You tell the group to buff up and use ranged attacks where possible.
You move to the left of the room where the previous group of adventurers were and the first pillar there.

52 - Roark - Elven Druid realising your mistake, you throw your diary to the ground an instant before being disintegrated. Dead.

15 - Says Beldarion - Human Warrior you continue up the left side of the chamber, moving from pillar to pillar. A portal is now clearly visible at the end of the room. The Drow makes a run for the portal ahead of you, dropping the mirror first. *rolls dice* As you move you see the Beholder shoot one of its rays in the direction of the portal, you assume at the Drow.

35 - Dunward - Human Mage you hide behind the pillar and cast Detect Secrets *rolls dice* nothing is highlighted. You make a suggestion for dealing with the Beholder and wait keenly for a reply.

13 - Roosevelt - Human Paladin you race to the nearest pillar on your left, shield raised.

43 - Svartalf - Dwarven Battlemage you move to the nearest pillar and cast Reflect Spells on yourself, Eranear and Roosevelt. You lean out from behind the pillar *rolls dice* and fire your wand of electricity *rolls dice* electricity dances over the Beholders body and it spins around in your direction *rolls dice* you duck back behind the pillar.

70 - Thras - Dwarven Mage *rolls dice* Taz is no longer unconscious. You cast Magic Shield on yourself. From the archway you cast Lightning bolt towards the Beholder *rolls dice* blasting chitinous plate from its body.
*rolls dice* Taz uses your left arm to tear the gag from his mouth, "MY TURN!" he says with a wide grin.
*rolls dice* Taz wildly casts Lightening bolt which slams into the first pillar on the left, causing it to collapse.
You curse, activate your ring of invisibility and move towards the right of the room.

The pillar that Svartalf, Eranear and Roosevelt are behind is blasted apart, large chunks of masonry falling down on them. *rolls dice*
80 - Eranear - Elf Paladin pulls the others close and raises his magic shield. *rolls dice* Both your shield and hammer glow a bright orange as their magics combine, the masonry crashes of your shield to tumble away from your position.
You and your companions survive the incident but are now exposed.

80 - Eranear - Elf Paladin earns the achievement *Human Shield*

22 - Kip - Halfling Brigand you move forward to catch up with Aslain *rolls dice* as you move you are targeted by an eye stalk. *rolls dice* You are overwhelmed with fear and lose control of your senses. With panic you start running at full pelt towards the end of the room.

35 - Aslain Melemir - Elven Thief you throw your chicken bones *rolls dice* which tempts nothing. You see the Drow and wolf making a dash for what is a portal at the end of the room. You take aim *rolls dice* but lower your bow as you notice her drop the mirror.
*rolls dice* You run and pick up the mirror, it is intact, and retreat back behind a pillar just as the Drow is hit by a ray from the Beholder.

5 - Dunward - Human Mage *rolls dice* with no-one responding to your suggestion you take matters into your own hands.
You cast Fire Ball aiming between the Beholder and yourself *rolls dice* the Beholder backs away from the roaring flames and turns it attention towards you.
*rolls dice* You cast Ice Storm at the same area, large chunks of ice fall into the flames causing clouds of steam to rise as the flames are doused.
*rolls dice* Several chunks of ice crash into the Beholder forcing it lower to the ground.

29 - Og'rialt - Dwarf Brigand waiting until you notice the Beholders attention elsewhere (the collapsing pillar behind you) You sprint to catch up with Aslain and Beldarion. Your finger bone necklace is pointing towards the back of the chamber, near the centre. *rolls dice*
Aslain moves back and hands you the mirror, you are pleased to see that it is undamaged. You open your book and it flicks to the same page as before.
You look to the Beholder but it is not easy to see through the steam.

*rolls dice*
15 - Says Beldarion - Human Warrior you see Kip get zapped by an eye stalk and start running in panic towards the back of the room. *rolls dice* You wrestle him to the ground as he runs past and restrain him.

69 - Rudy - Human Ranger you move to hide behind the pillar on the left only for it to explode into rubble. *rolls dice* With the Beholders attention elsewhere you open fire. *rolls dice* Your arrows fail to penetrate its armour.

9 - Max, son of Fulvus - Dwarven Thief as you are on the left side of the room you are not near to where Roark died and cannot pick up his journal. *rolls dice* You consider throwing your axes at the Beholders central eye but the steam clouds on this side of the room dissuade you from the idea. The pillar just behind the one you are at has just exploded, although the companions there look to be ok.

41 - Zayd ibn Yasin - Human Ranger you move towards Eranear and others are surrounded by rubble. You worry about the lack of cover *rolls dice* but from this angle the Beholder isn't totally obscured from sight by the steam clouds. *rolls dice* You open fire and one of your arrows finds a gap in its armour, piercing the creature.

*rolls dice*
The Beholder spins round and targets *rolls dice* Rudy. An eye stalk zaps the Ranger with a *rolls dice* Death Ray. Rudy's eyes roll up into his head, and he drops dead to the ground.

69 - Rudy - Human Ranger is dead.

2 - SmartyFartBlart - Human Paladin you cast Protection Bubble and move forward towards the group on the left. You pick up the diary on your way and skim through it, wow this guy really hated Drow.
Rudy is struck dead in front of you and you wonder if you should close to melee the Beholder which has been forced to near ground level by an ice storm.

28 - Triock Ulagolor - Elven Paladin you move ahead on the left side of the room with one thought on your mind, kill the Drow.
Shadows are moving ahead so you open fire with your bow *rolls dice* you narrowly miss Aslain *rolls dice* but also miss the Drow as she runs for a portal. You see her zapped by the Beholder instead.

72 - Darrim - Dwarf Warrior you pay your respects to the fallen Kyp and race up the stairs onto a narrow landing. The scene ahead of you is pure carnage. Stepping in ash you can see a Beholder, steam clouds to its left, ahead of you in the centre of a large room. In the light of a powerful spell you see many spikes rising out of the ground in the centre of the room, along with a dead Ogre. Either side of the room are pillars and along the left side many of your companions are around the rubble of a destroyed pillar. One seems to not be moving.

In the case Kip is still panicked under the effects of the fear spell, Beldarion will lift the halfling and carry him on his left shoulder, trying to calm him down meanwhile (let's hope fear didn't provoke any embarrasing bodily reaction on Kip)

Beldarion will continue advancing behind the cover of the pillars. Once he reaches Cicatrix, he will draw his sword and end the drow's misery (or the wolf if it attacks before he can reach Cicatrix). He might find her already killed by Triock. In that case, he will just mumble some curse and proceed to loot her corpse.

Once the drow is dead, Beldarion will loot her in search of valuables. If he is not carrying Kip, he'll first drag her body to a safer place behind a pillar.

After dealing with Cicatrix, or if she managed to escape through the portal, Beldarion will turn to look one last time at the room behind him, and rush to the portal.

Well, here goes Taz again...

So we 3 are now exposed and probably the most likely people to be attacked by the beholder. We have Reflect Spells on us and are under the effect of Protection from Evil, so hopefully it does something to prevent us from getting insta-gibbed by the first ray coming our way.

We should decide if we want to hold our position or try to advance to the next pillar for cover. I am not sure about the distance between the pillars. If it is possible to reach the next pillar quickly, we could try it. But if it would take a while, we would be easy targets.

Need to think about this more.

EDIT:
The distance between the pillars is not that big. Considering that we also have to escape in 3 turns, I suggest that we move forward before the dust from the crashing pillar settles, using it as a makeshift smokescreen and hopefully preventing the Beholder from easily locking on us.

10 feet between pillars.

Thanks.

Seeing as his "brother" Eranear is in immediate danger, Triock Ulagolor, Elven Paladin, stops his Drow hunt for now. He then uses flamesword Riarwirn to make fire arrows and shoots several of them at Beholder for distraction, while trying to stay hidden behind nearest pillar. Then he tries to finally kill the Drow, using bow with normal arrows, but making sure to not hit any of his companions.

If I can see the Beholder from my position, I shoot as many +2 arrows as possible and hide again. That way, Og'rialt can try to get closer and use the mirror on the Beholder. I assume he has to reflect a ray or something, I don't believe just showing it's hideous face to the monster would do anything.

"Og'rialt, I believe we're the ones closer to the portal, and also we have the mirror here with us. We can stay and fight or we can flee. Knowing you from this adventure I believe you'll want to deal with the Beholder, and I'll help as much as I can. So I propose I shoot some arrows at it and you get in close with the mirror. After that... if your book is right, the monster should die and we can all run like hell towards that damn portal and pray it really is an exit".

Actual actions coming tomorrow, as Og'rialt's motivations and thoughts need to settle a bit still before I can write them down. You're right however that I'll conclude that I'm going to play hero rather than make my escape.

My first idea was to move back along the hall to usher everyone else onward, but the steam cloud is going to prevent the beholder from seeing me if I do so, and it should take too long to run all the way back to the entrance from where I could see it. I also don't want to move straight into the central hall due to all its spike traps. So I'm thinking move toward the portal (as you'll have informed me of the lay of the land there) and try to get the Beholder's attention from around there, in plain view (but a safe distance away from Cicatrix, so as to not be bothered by her drow aura). Maybe you could stand behind me and shoot the Beholder from there (rather than hiding behind a pillar) until it deigns to notice us and gazes at my mirror? If for any reason it doesn't attack us, maybe we could even slowly move into the central hall until it'll have no choice but to notice us, with you finding a path between the traps, assuming that such a thing exists?
I do hope that the beholder will death ray itself to death, but if it'll end up fleeing due to a fear ray or somesuch, that'll do for me.
Taz is an annoying wildcard here, but as Og'rialt isn't aware of him being back, that won't influence my decision.

@Thras: Any idea how many spell slots you still have? Surely you must be running out by now? Or does Taz have its own supply?

@Dunward: With you safely (hopefully!) hidden from view behind your steam cloud, will you join us here at the front of the hall? Og'rialt would really like to see you get out of this alive, and if it wasn't for that steam cloud, he'd be rushing back for you now.

59 - Cicatrix - Drow Ranger - Turn 17

Although magically robbed of strength, Cicatrix still possesses the will to escape from all who might do her harm.

If levitation will help her move faster and she has the strength to activate it, she will. If she can crawl to the portal she will crawl. Worst case scenario she'll tell her wolf to drag her towards it, but she'd rather it guard her from harm. She's defenceless in her current state.

If movement proves impossible Cicatrix will drop her sword and bow and relieve herself of her heaviest armour, but no more. She'd kill herself before she lets these monsters have her.

[Edited action posted below]

(I know your character is supposed to be evil aligned but I'm strangely rooting for you to make it to that portal. Just a few more feet, you can do it. You are filled with DETERMINATION! :D )

(note: Listening to too much Undertale music when reading these posts.)

So close, yet so far...

I don't think Cicatrix is really evil, seems more of a survivor and a victim of racial prejudice. Somehow, I feel some simpathy for her and secretly want her to escape, but Says Beldarion is moved by greed, paranoia and bloodlust (although burdened with a screaming halfling). We'll see how this chase ends. :)