Beholders 1

Mara spins and runs for the portal. "Come on! Luminor's in danger!" She has been conscious of his absence in her mind ever since she passed through the second portal, but now the severed empathic link seems like silent blame. Tao is fast on her heels, and most of the other Defenders follow. Only Velendo tarries for a few seconds, staring up at Silissa's implacable face, looking for something he doesn't find. With a quiet curse he turns and follows everyone out through the portal.

The next fifteen minutes are nervewracking. Many of the portal locks going back are different than the ones that Glibstone has already unlocked, and both Mara and Tao fidgit compulsively during the waiting periods, hoping that they won't be too late. "Don't worry," assures Glibstone as he pats Mara on the elbow. "the vault is impregnable. Even that dragon couldn't get in here! There's nothing to worry about."

She doesn't believe him, but she's polite enough not to say so out loud.

Finally the group bursts through into the non-magical armory, and Mara's empathic link with her warhorse snaps back into existence. "Luminor! Are you okay? What's happening to you?" She hears her warhorse snort into her mind, and an equine voice speaks in barely restrained panic.

"Something's been pounding through the entry door for a long time. Whatever it is, it'll soon be through." The voice in Mara's head seems to shiver. "From what I can sense through the wall, it seems... wrong. Bad. Can you come to me, so we face it together?"

Mara sends waves of encouragement through her mental link, even as Agar dimension doors her past the dancing death-trap. "Don't worry. We're almost there."

They pass into the first vault's lore-room, and the scraping and hammering which Luminor described is immediately obvious. It sounds slightly like claws on glass. Glibstone stares at the door in shock. "That shouldn't be possible!" he stutters, jester bells jingling in agitation. "That door can't be broken open; it's magically protected by Moradin's breath itself!"

"He's probably deserted us," sighs Priggle to himself. "Predictable, really. Probably happens all the time."

"Let's see what's going on," suggests Tao, and her eyes roll back as she activates her helm of vision. Her first clairvoyance on the other side of the door inexplicably fails. She moves the vantage point and tries once more, and this the spell succeeds.

"Oh, crap!" she swears. Her eyes refocus.

"What? What is it out there?"

"Two Beholders. I think they are, at least, but they're huge and swollen, easily ten feet across."

Nolin looks around. "They aren't usually that big, are they?"

Tao frowns. "No. And these are rotting, so they're probably ghouls. One of them is oozing pus out of its.. ick." She makes a face. "While the one in back keeps watch, the other one has its central eye focused on the door." She concentrates on the spell again. "There are these other three monsters, too. No, four. Really tall, double-length arms and legs, maybe some sort of undead golem. They're ripping out sections of the door while the beholder nullifies the door's magic. Nice. And... oh, great. One of the golem-things has yellow glowing eyes."

Nolin groans. "Kellharin? Or the Puppeteer? Whatever you want to call him. I don't want to call him anything. I just want him dead. Well, deader."

"Uh huh. Those creatures are also glowing strangely.. almost a purplish-black, every time that they aren't in the anti-magic beam. And there are sigils glowing on their skin. Is that bad?"

"Yes."

"They're... damn." Tao blinks. "One of the beholders rolled up to look at me, and the spell immediately failed. They know that we know they're out there."

Velendo looks around worriedly at all the papers, scrolls, and stone tablets. "Damn it! What should we do? I could seal this vault off with a sovereign wall, but that'll keep the dwarves out too."

"So?" Splinder shrugs. Glibstone gives him a betrayed look, and Splinder explains, "Better to have the treasure nice and safe than in ghoulish hands, I'm thinking." Glibstone can't help but reluctantly agree.

"But for crying out loud," continues Velendo in worried irritation, "if we don't kill these things they're just going to keep hounding us!"

"Not necessarily," comments Galthia quietly. "We leave out the back, and they'll probably just stay here, sitting around and waiting for us. They can't follow us, and they can't get any farther into the vault than this room. Thanks to the portals, the rooms aren't actually next to each other – and at this rate, they'll destroy the flowstone lock when they destroy the door. We can just go and leave them here."

"Then when we don't show back up, they're going to go and kill more innocent people! The point is, we can't let them survive." The rhythmic hammering and scraping on the door almost drowns out his voice.

Nolin frowns. "I'm not so sure we can take them. I don't know what those golem-thing are, but beholders are supposed to eat drow elves for breakfast. We might end up losing people. Should we put it to a quick vote?"

"Yes."

The result is a surprise to no one.

Since they choose to fight, the group decides to customize the battlefield to their own specifications. Even as the inside of the stone door begins to crack and flake, spells are prepared and plans discussed. Fire seeds are carefully laid down, and the Defenders arrange themselves carefully in a rough semi-circle around the door. "Remember," cautions Velendo, we probably can't take them all at once. I'll split them up into manageable groups. If things get too ugly, I'll try and seal us off."

The waiting is hard. Everyone stares at the door as cracks in the stone get larger and larger. The noise of the scraping is horrible.

"Any second now..." says Mara. And almost as if in response, a chunk of rock crashes out of the door onto the polished stone floor, a chilling purple radiance floods the chamber, and a rotting eye peers in to look at the people inside.

"Now!"