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Shilsen's Eberron SH (Finished - The Last Word : 9/20/15)
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<blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3030831" data-attributes="member: 198"><p>A beam slams into Nameless and he feels a coldness draining his vitality, but he fights it off, emerging with only a pained expression. Trillia, near him, barely dodges another beam, which burns a hole in her sleeve and neatly removes a thin slice of flesh from her right arm. “Son of a bitch!” she yells, “<em>Disintegrate</em>!”</p><p></p><p>The third beam hits Six in the side, with no obvious manifestation. Except for the fact that he looks up at the beholder, waves in a friendly manner and says, sounding slightly puzzled, “It’s okay, guys. He’s a friend.”</p><p></p><p>“What?!” chorus his allies, before Nameless says, “Damn - it <em>charm</em>ed him.”</p><p></p><p>“I can do something about that,” mutters Gareth, “But I’m not running towards a beholder. Six - get over here!”</p><p></p><p>The beholder growls a command - “Come here!” Luckily, it’s in daelkyr, and since Six has not sat in on the lessons Nameless and Trillia have given Luna and Korm in the language over the last two weeks, he has no idea what it says.</p><p></p><p>The beholder continues to advance, right into a <em>flame strike</em> from Korm. It growls angrily and emerges somewhat charred, and then opens its central eye. Immediately, most of Nameless’s wolves disappear, and everyone feels the strange weakness that comes from having the magical items they wear constantly, as well as the current plethora of enhancements on them, disappear.</p><p></p><p>The Angels split up as best they can, seeking cover behind pillars and yelling panicky, and mostly contradictory, directions to each other. Six shakes his head as the effect of the ray disappears and goes, “Huh? What was I thinking?”</p><p></p><p>As the beholder moves closer, it calls a command to the remaining bugbear, who moves forward to engage Six and Korm, its ranseur biting painfully through their now significantly less armored defenses.</p><p></p><p>“Surrender!” calls the beholder again. “Quickly! This is your only chance!”</p><p></p><p>“Is it just me,” says Trillia, standing behind a pillar, “Or does it sound a little worried for some reason?”</p><p></p><p>“I know,” replies Gareth. “Not that I’m an expert on beholder psychology. But aren’t you two supposed t…”</p><p></p><p>“Speaking of worried,” breaks in Luna, “I hear something else coming from thataway.” She points in the opposite direction to the beholder. “Something big.”</p><p></p><p>“Maybe its Snookums?” says Six, as he and Korm flank the bugbear. </p><p></p><p>“Too loud,” replies Korm, even as he slashes back at the bugbear and wounds it deeply. </p><p></p><p>“Doesn’t matter,” says Trillia. “Everybody get back here. It’s got to drop the <em>antimagic</em> to use the eyebeams, and as soon as it does, Nameless grab half of them and I’ll take the rest. Right back to Sharn.”</p><p></p><p>“Err,” reminds Nameless, “I’ve got no <em>teleport</em>s left, remember?”</p><p></p><p>“Crap!”</p><p></p><p>The sentiment is quickly underlined as the beholder flies closer, shutting its eye and firing more beams. Luna and Gareth ignore two, though each is wounded. Korm, however, is not as lucky. As he finally cuts down the bugbear, a beam strikes him in the back. As the others watch in horror, a gray pallor runs swiftly up his limbs and face, and seconds later a stone statue stands in his place.*</p><p></p><p>The beholder laughs triumphantly and then, switching to broken Common, orders Six to come join him. The warforged moves over to do so.</p><p></p><p>“That does it!” says Nameless, “We’re killing this thing!”</p><p></p><p>“Already on it,” says Luna, as she races through the motions of a spell. Seconds later, a pillar of fire engulfs the beholder, and Six, who is standing beneath and looking up at it. The warforged quickly dives aside, but the floating orb is caught right in the center of the blast.</p><p></p><p>Even as it screams in agony and rage, Trillia hurls an <em>orb of fire</em> that strikes it cleanly, seconds before Nameless’s <em>fireball</em> explodes around it. </p><p></p><p>The beholder’s screams die out as it hits the ground in a charred heap. Six, still considering it a friend, reaches up to catch it, but the bulk knocks him off his feet and to the ground. </p><p></p><p>“Wow - that was quick!” says Gareth**. </p><p></p><p>“Not quick enough,” says Luna, a <em>produce flame</em> already ready to hurl at the dark mass that emerges through the pillars on the other side.</p><p></p><p>This one is also a beholder, but at least twice as wide as the first one, over fifteen feet across. It seems extremely old, the flesh hanging off it in folds. A thick network of scar tissue covers its body and three of its eyestalks have been cut short. The large central eye looks around at the scene and it says in a tone which can be best described as crotchety, “What in the Great Eye is going on here, Xaelij?” </p><p></p><p>Luna, already into the motion of hurling a bolt of magical flame, barely stops herself, unsure that offense is the best move.</p><p></p><p>“Well?” asks the huge beholder, its gaze moving to encompass all of the adventurers, and promptly removing their enchantments again. “What is going on here?” The eye focuses on the dead, still smoking figure of the other beholder. “Is that Xaelij? What did you do to him? Why is there a metal guy under him? Who are you people? Eh? Eh?”</p><p></p><p>There is silence for a moment, with only the sound of Six hurriedly rolling off Xaelij’s corpse and standing up, as a few glances are exchanged, and then Nameless finally tries a bluff. “Xaelij and Messal’rok,” he points at the mind flayer’s corpse, “Were fighting and we got involved. We were just leaving.” The last statement sounds more like a question.</p><p></p><p>The beholder grunts, sounding slightly less irritated, “Don’t tell me stories, human. What really happened?”</p><p></p><p>After another pause, Luna says, “We needed to get back some things the mind flayer had taken from us, and we got into a fight. This .. er, Xaelij attacked us afterwards and we had to kill him.”</p><p></p><p>Nameless rolls his eyes at the concluding comment, but the old beholder doesn’t seem upset. “Hmm,” it says meditatively, “That sounds more truthful. Xaelij was always impetuous, sticking his eyestalks where they did not need to be.”</p><p></p><p>He looks around the group, floating a little closer. “I am Ek’aankh. You could call me his father.” </p><p></p><p>The name reminds Nameless of something, and then he remembers where he read it. Ek’aankh was a great beholder that plagued the Eldeen Reaches over two thousand years ago, before falling out of the pages of history.</p><p></p><p>Ek’aankh continues, “I was in the middle of a nap, when all this commotion woke me.” Its large eye droops slightly, as do the eyestalks, and then it continues, “I have not seen your kind for many years. You must be from behind the city. Where are you from?”</p><p></p><p>“From the Mournland,” says Nameless quickly. “Very far away.”</p><p></p><p>“Mournland? Yes, I have heard of it. Never been there. Haven’t been out in a long time.” The drooping eye focuses again, this time on Korm. “Was this statue here? I don’t recall it.”</p><p></p><p>“No,” says Luna worriedly, “He’s a friend. Xaelij did that.”</p><p></p><p>“Pity. Orc, right? Was he a Gatekeeper?”</p><p></p><p>“Gatekeeper?” says Luna, as innocently as she can, “What’s a Gatekeeper?”</p><p></p><p>“Aaah,” says the old beholder, in a tone of nostalgic pleasure, “I remember them. Gatekeepers were a group of druids who fought us, many years ago. I’d like to have met one again. Do you know Havarien Banehammer?”</p><p></p><p>“No,” says Luna. Nameless, recalling that it was the name of a Gatekeeper famous for having slain a lesser daelkyr single-handed in the time of Karrn the Conqueror, doesn’t vouchsafe the information. </p><p></p><p>“He cut off two of these,” says Ek’aankh, still in a tone that better fits an old sportsman talking about his glory days than a giant beholder in the bowels of a city of aberrations. “Hmm - I wonder what happened to him?” Then it pauses and mutters something inaudible for a moment, before perking up. “Oh yes - I ate him. But he gave me a glorious battle before it. Almost killed me. Ah yes, those were the days. Good times, good times. Not that I’d do that nowadays. I haven’t killed anyone in a while. I’m … well, you can call me a philosopher now. The meaning of existence, now that is something to…”</p><p></p><p>As the old beholder continues to speak, its large eye gradually closes and its eyestalks begin to go limp. Eventually, its voice is down to soft muttering and it has leaned forward in mid-air until its large eye faces the ground.</p><p></p><p>“I think its aslee..,” begins Luna.</p><p></p><p>“Huh?! Wha-?!” grunts Ek’aankh, as his eye pops open and the eyestalks jerk up, sending beams shooting in various directions. One strikes Nameless in the leg, but luckily the only effect is to lift him a few feet off the ground, before he drops back.</p><p></p><p>“Oh! Yes, I was talking to you” says Ek’aankh as he rights himself. “Anyway, I need to get back to my nap. It was interesting seeing you. Are you leaving now?”</p><p></p><p>“Yes,” says Nameless emphatically. Near him, Gareth quietly whisper, “Interesting. He’s not actually evil.”</p><p></p><p>Nameless turns to fix the paladin with a baleful glare. “If you even <em>try</em> to <em>detect thoughts</em> on him, you’re staying here.” Behind him, Trillia adds emphatically, “What he said.”</p><p></p><p>Near them, Luna begins, “So are you actually working for these dael-,” but is interrupted by Nameless slapping a hand over her mouth.</p><p></p><p>“What’s wrong?” asks Ek’aankh curiously. </p><p></p><p>“Nothing,” says Nameless, “She sometimes gets her tongue stuck in her mouth and needs help. Now, as you said, we’ll be leaving.”</p><p></p><p>Six points to the mind flayer and adds, “Would you mind if we took some of our things off him?”</p><p></p><p>“Not at all. I don’t care what happens with him. Xaelij, on the other tentacle…”</p><p></p><p>A beam from one of Ek’aankh’s eyestalks hits the dead beholder and it promptly turns to stone, just as Korm has. Another beam follows and then it rises slowly off the ground. “Where to put it? Where to put it?” mutters Ek’aankh to himself, before adding, “Do you need the stone orc too?”</p><p></p><p>“Umm, yes.”</p><p></p><p>Sotto voce, Gareth adds, “Mainly because he has a Shard stuck somewhere inside him,” reminding the others that Korm was now the one carrying it.</p><p></p><p>“Want me to break him down into smaller pieces so he’s easier to carry?” asks Ek’aankh.</p><p></p><p>“No, no - we’re fine!”</p><p></p><p>“All right then,” nods the old beholder. “It was interesting meeting you. But try not to disturb me again.”</p><p></p><p>“I think we can safely say,” replies Six, “That it will <em>never</em> happen again.”</p><p></p><p>The old beholder bobs and nods and then turns away. The last the Angels see of him is his bulk fading into the darkness, Xaelij’s corpse floating beside him like a strange stone satellite. </p><p></p><p>Seconds later, the group reappears in Trillia’s home. “Okay,” she says, “That’s official - I’m never going back there again!”</p><p></p><p>* I asked Korm’s player to roll a 2 on the save and he did. Ultimate DM Power, baby!</p><p>** It got hit by four spells, each doing 9d6 dmg, one with no save, and blew two of the others. C’est la vie!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="shilsen, post: 3030831, member: 198"] A beam slams into Nameless and he feels a coldness draining his vitality, but he fights it off, emerging with only a pained expression. Trillia, near him, barely dodges another beam, which burns a hole in her sleeve and neatly removes a thin slice of flesh from her right arm. “Son of a bitch!” she yells, “[I]Disintegrate[/I]!” The third beam hits Six in the side, with no obvious manifestation. Except for the fact that he looks up at the beholder, waves in a friendly manner and says, sounding slightly puzzled, “It’s okay, guys. He’s a friend.” “What?!” chorus his allies, before Nameless says, “Damn - it [I]charm[/I]ed him.” “I can do something about that,” mutters Gareth, “But I’m not running towards a beholder. Six - get over here!” The beholder growls a command - “Come here!” Luckily, it’s in daelkyr, and since Six has not sat in on the lessons Nameless and Trillia have given Luna and Korm in the language over the last two weeks, he has no idea what it says. The beholder continues to advance, right into a [I]flame strike[/I] from Korm. It growls angrily and emerges somewhat charred, and then opens its central eye. Immediately, most of Nameless’s wolves disappear, and everyone feels the strange weakness that comes from having the magical items they wear constantly, as well as the current plethora of enhancements on them, disappear. The Angels split up as best they can, seeking cover behind pillars and yelling panicky, and mostly contradictory, directions to each other. Six shakes his head as the effect of the ray disappears and goes, “Huh? What was I thinking?” As the beholder moves closer, it calls a command to the remaining bugbear, who moves forward to engage Six and Korm, its ranseur biting painfully through their now significantly less armored defenses. “Surrender!” calls the beholder again. “Quickly! This is your only chance!” “Is it just me,” says Trillia, standing behind a pillar, “Or does it sound a little worried for some reason?” “I know,” replies Gareth. “Not that I’m an expert on beholder psychology. But aren’t you two supposed t…” “Speaking of worried,” breaks in Luna, “I hear something else coming from thataway.” She points in the opposite direction to the beholder. “Something big.” “Maybe its Snookums?” says Six, as he and Korm flank the bugbear. “Too loud,” replies Korm, even as he slashes back at the bugbear and wounds it deeply. “Doesn’t matter,” says Trillia. “Everybody get back here. It’s got to drop the [I]antimagic[/I] to use the eyebeams, and as soon as it does, Nameless grab half of them and I’ll take the rest. Right back to Sharn.” “Err,” reminds Nameless, “I’ve got no [I]teleport[/I]s left, remember?” “Crap!” The sentiment is quickly underlined as the beholder flies closer, shutting its eye and firing more beams. Luna and Gareth ignore two, though each is wounded. Korm, however, is not as lucky. As he finally cuts down the bugbear, a beam strikes him in the back. As the others watch in horror, a gray pallor runs swiftly up his limbs and face, and seconds later a stone statue stands in his place.* The beholder laughs triumphantly and then, switching to broken Common, orders Six to come join him. The warforged moves over to do so. “That does it!” says Nameless, “We’re killing this thing!” “Already on it,” says Luna, as she races through the motions of a spell. Seconds later, a pillar of fire engulfs the beholder, and Six, who is standing beneath and looking up at it. The warforged quickly dives aside, but the floating orb is caught right in the center of the blast. Even as it screams in agony and rage, Trillia hurls an [I]orb of fire[/I] that strikes it cleanly, seconds before Nameless’s [I]fireball[/I] explodes around it. The beholder’s screams die out as it hits the ground in a charred heap. Six, still considering it a friend, reaches up to catch it, but the bulk knocks him off his feet and to the ground. “Wow - that was quick!” says Gareth**. “Not quick enough,” says Luna, a [I]produce flame[/I] already ready to hurl at the dark mass that emerges through the pillars on the other side. This one is also a beholder, but at least twice as wide as the first one, over fifteen feet across. It seems extremely old, the flesh hanging off it in folds. A thick network of scar tissue covers its body and three of its eyestalks have been cut short. The large central eye looks around at the scene and it says in a tone which can be best described as crotchety, “What in the Great Eye is going on here, Xaelij?” Luna, already into the motion of hurling a bolt of magical flame, barely stops herself, unsure that offense is the best move. “Well?” asks the huge beholder, its gaze moving to encompass all of the adventurers, and promptly removing their enchantments again. “What is going on here?” The eye focuses on the dead, still smoking figure of the other beholder. “Is that Xaelij? What did you do to him? Why is there a metal guy under him? Who are you people? Eh? Eh?” There is silence for a moment, with only the sound of Six hurriedly rolling off Xaelij’s corpse and standing up, as a few glances are exchanged, and then Nameless finally tries a bluff. “Xaelij and Messal’rok,” he points at the mind flayer’s corpse, “Were fighting and we got involved. We were just leaving.” The last statement sounds more like a question. The beholder grunts, sounding slightly less irritated, “Don’t tell me stories, human. What really happened?” After another pause, Luna says, “We needed to get back some things the mind flayer had taken from us, and we got into a fight. This .. er, Xaelij attacked us afterwards and we had to kill him.” Nameless rolls his eyes at the concluding comment, but the old beholder doesn’t seem upset. “Hmm,” it says meditatively, “That sounds more truthful. Xaelij was always impetuous, sticking his eyestalks where they did not need to be.” He looks around the group, floating a little closer. “I am Ek’aankh. You could call me his father.” The name reminds Nameless of something, and then he remembers where he read it. Ek’aankh was a great beholder that plagued the Eldeen Reaches over two thousand years ago, before falling out of the pages of history. Ek’aankh continues, “I was in the middle of a nap, when all this commotion woke me.” Its large eye droops slightly, as do the eyestalks, and then it continues, “I have not seen your kind for many years. You must be from behind the city. Where are you from?” “From the Mournland,” says Nameless quickly. “Very far away.” “Mournland? Yes, I have heard of it. Never been there. Haven’t been out in a long time.” The drooping eye focuses again, this time on Korm. “Was this statue here? I don’t recall it.” “No,” says Luna worriedly, “He’s a friend. Xaelij did that.” “Pity. Orc, right? Was he a Gatekeeper?” “Gatekeeper?” says Luna, as innocently as she can, “What’s a Gatekeeper?” “Aaah,” says the old beholder, in a tone of nostalgic pleasure, “I remember them. Gatekeepers were a group of druids who fought us, many years ago. I’d like to have met one again. Do you know Havarien Banehammer?” “No,” says Luna. Nameless, recalling that it was the name of a Gatekeeper famous for having slain a lesser daelkyr single-handed in the time of Karrn the Conqueror, doesn’t vouchsafe the information. “He cut off two of these,” says Ek’aankh, still in a tone that better fits an old sportsman talking about his glory days than a giant beholder in the bowels of a city of aberrations. “Hmm - I wonder what happened to him?” Then it pauses and mutters something inaudible for a moment, before perking up. “Oh yes - I ate him. But he gave me a glorious battle before it. Almost killed me. Ah yes, those were the days. Good times, good times. Not that I’d do that nowadays. I haven’t killed anyone in a while. I’m … well, you can call me a philosopher now. The meaning of existence, now that is something to…” As the old beholder continues to speak, its large eye gradually closes and its eyestalks begin to go limp. Eventually, its voice is down to soft muttering and it has leaned forward in mid-air until its large eye faces the ground. “I think its aslee..,” begins Luna. “Huh?! Wha-?!” grunts Ek’aankh, as his eye pops open and the eyestalks jerk up, sending beams shooting in various directions. One strikes Nameless in the leg, but luckily the only effect is to lift him a few feet off the ground, before he drops back. “Oh! Yes, I was talking to you” says Ek’aankh as he rights himself. “Anyway, I need to get back to my nap. It was interesting seeing you. Are you leaving now?” “Yes,” says Nameless emphatically. Near him, Gareth quietly whisper, “Interesting. He’s not actually evil.” Nameless turns to fix the paladin with a baleful glare. “If you even [I]try[/I] to [I]detect thoughts[/I] on him, you’re staying here.” Behind him, Trillia adds emphatically, “What he said.” Near them, Luna begins, “So are you actually working for these dael-,” but is interrupted by Nameless slapping a hand over her mouth. “What’s wrong?” asks Ek’aankh curiously. “Nothing,” says Nameless, “She sometimes gets her tongue stuck in her mouth and needs help. Now, as you said, we’ll be leaving.” Six points to the mind flayer and adds, “Would you mind if we took some of our things off him?” “Not at all. I don’t care what happens with him. Xaelij, on the other tentacle…” A beam from one of Ek’aankh’s eyestalks hits the dead beholder and it promptly turns to stone, just as Korm has. Another beam follows and then it rises slowly off the ground. “Where to put it? Where to put it?” mutters Ek’aankh to himself, before adding, “Do you need the stone orc too?” “Umm, yes.” Sotto voce, Gareth adds, “Mainly because he has a Shard stuck somewhere inside him,” reminding the others that Korm was now the one carrying it. “Want me to break him down into smaller pieces so he’s easier to carry?” asks Ek’aankh. “No, no - we’re fine!” “All right then,” nods the old beholder. “It was interesting meeting you. But try not to disturb me again.” “I think we can safely say,” replies Six, “That it will [I]never[/I] happen again.” The old beholder bobs and nods and then turns away. The last the Angels see of him is his bulk fading into the darkness, Xaelij’s corpse floating beside him like a strange stone satellite. Seconds later, the group reappears in Trillia’s home. “Okay,” she says, “That’s official - I’m never going back there again!” * I asked Korm’s player to roll a 2 on the save and he did. Ultimate DM Power, baby! ** It got hit by four spells, each doing 9d6 dmg, one with no save, and blew two of the others. C’est la vie! [/QUOTE]
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