Vhalantru's Return
Seeing the metallic horror before them, Gunther decided that Grimm had the best chance of taking it down with sheer strength – he quickly rendered the planar champion invisible. At the same time, Kiko rushed forward and adeptly tumbled between the Marut’s legs sealing its escape route from the tent.
The Marut was oblivious to all targets save two, Rusty and Ike. It hastily disappeared from its current location and dimension doored across the room behind Rusty. Without fear, a naked Ike jumped off the altar and grabbed a nearby warhammer slamming it into the Inevitable with all his might. This blow was quickly followed by a series of spiked chain whips and hammer blows from Grimm and Rusty, but the creature shrugged off the brunt of these attacks.
It wordlessly turned to face Ike and, unbeknownst to the rest of the party, placed an invisible wall of force between Ike and the rest of the party. Magical attacks by Dalthon and Rusty and melee blows by Grimm were suddenly rendered ineffectual as the party was forced to watch the battle between the unclothed Goliath and the fully-armored construct.
Despite his handicap, Ike was able to hold his own – connecting with blow after blow the force of which caused the Inevitable to shudder with force. However, the Marut responded with its fists in kind amid the sound of thunder and lightning. Ike suddenly found the whole world went silent.
Recognizing the wall of force for what it was, Gunther disintegrated it, turning the fight into a general melee once again. The Marut was not potent enough to stand against the combined might of the party for long. In the end, a series of punches from Kiko finally caused it to crumble to dust.
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Days ago, he has miraculously returned to Cauldron. Despite his profound intellect, emotional detachment, and perspicacity he found that everything he knew was supplanted with one feeling – wild, unquenchable rage!
The town he had worked so hard to perfect, operating for years behind the scenes, had been turned into a charnel house. The volcano had left nothing behind and, undoubtedly, left the corpses of many citizens buried beneath its fiery, explosive power.
Though he was a tyrant by nature, he had come to love Cauldron over time. After all, it had been his adopted home and only he could have prepared its citizens for a planar invasion from Carceri.
Not only had the Bright Axes disrupted his plans, wrecked his magnificent mansion, and slain him but they had eradicated Cauldron! He had been brought back for a reason, he was sure, and that reason was to exterminate these amoral “adventurers” who had committed, in his eleven eyes, genocide on a massive scale. He had immediately left for Red Gorge then, consumed with exacting his revenge.
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“Oh my gods, it was terrible, even for a Goliath! That bitch left my body on a rack and these flesh . . . things tortured the hell out of me! The bastards never even asked me any questions . . .”
“Well, I got some good news for you laddie. We think ya may have been on Carceri and we’re gonna go back an’ get some payback. Adimarchus must be killed before his madness infects the Prime. Sorry we couldna’ bring yer equipment back with you but we pooled our resources and . . .” the dwarf indicated a pile of equipment the Bright Axes had donated for their comrade.
“And what was that thing?” Kiko was still shaking out the throbbing pain in his fists. Though he had been fortified with holy power, punching metal objects was never a pleasant experience.
“That, Kiko, was an Inevitable – specifically a Marut. They are generally sent only to kill those who resurrect on a tremendous scale or those, like liches, who try to cheat death. Based on its proclamation, I imagine that Ike was a sacrifice to Velsharoon and his soul was probably to stay in Carceri upon his death.”
“I understand Lady Nidrama. I guess that means . . .”
The remains of the Inevitable had not even been cleared from the tent when an acolyte burst in, gasping for breath.
“He's back!!! Orbius Vhalantru has returned! He’s coming from the south and killing everyone in his path . . .”
The Bright Axes looked at each other grimly but knowingly. The Deva’s prediction had come true after all.
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Everyone in the party had battled beholders before and knew that approaching their foe from multiple angles was a wise tactical maneuver. The beholder’s anti-magic cone could only affect a limited area after all.
Given the power of flight by Dalthon and Gunther the party flew close to the ground, with their Deva guide flying high above them.
They encountered Vhalantru in an open field and were filled with dread. Long gone was the beholder they had slain – before them was a sphere fully twenty feet in diameter! The chitinous carapace that surrounded him was replaced by a repulsive green slime that oozed through many deep fissures in his skin. The beholder’s mouth opened upon seeing his nemeses, letting forth a guttural, primal sound filled with loathing.
As expected, Vhalantru’s anti-magic cone was directed at the center of the party catching the bulk of them in it. Grimm slowly floated to the ground, as did Kiko and Dalthon. Quickly, they scattered with Grimm and Dalthon moving out of the null-magic effect in opposite directions and Kiko charging the Beholder at top speed.
Trying to end the fight before it started, Gunther cast forth a disintegrate ray which was shrugged off by the behemoth. In response, Vhalantru began firing his eye beams with abandon. Rusty immediately crumpled to the ground, Ike stopped his battle charge in mid-stride, and Gunther’s beam was matched by the Beholder’s own – leaving the theurge on the cusp of life.
“Subdue your friends, quickly!” Vhalantru was quick to take advantage of the Goliath’s charmed state.
Meanwhile, Grimm had managed to get underneath the Beholder and managed to expertly wedge his spiked chain in the fissures in Vhalantru’s carapace – releasing chunks of rotted flesh in the process. Though the damage would have been enough to easily kill Vhalantru in his former body it only angered him now.
Ike, meanwhile, was wrestling with his orders. Every fiber of his being screamed at him not to attack his friends, particularly not in such a precarious position – yet the power of Vhalantru’s magic compelled him. The Goliath thought about his orders carefully, “subdue your friends . . .” The Beholder too, was now his friend. Smiling, he threw himself at Vhalantru, smacking his hide with the side of his warhammer.
“Insect! Die!!!”
An eye beam sent Ike into a lifeless heap and another one dropped Grimm like a sack of potatoes.
Dalthon and Gunther stood together on the edge of the battlefield. Though they were currently out of range of Vhalantru’s offensive power they realized that the tide had unexpectedly turned and their options were vanishingly few.
Nidrama landed next to them.
“Leave my friends, trust me. I will defeat this beast but I cannot guarantee your safety. The beings I will summon will most assuredly lay waste to the battlefield. I promise to bring your comrades’ bodies back for resurrection.”
Trusting his celestial progenitor implicitly, Dalthon nodded his assent and immediately teleported away.
Gunther, however, was not so swayed, “I’ve just met you, Deva! And my mentor and best friend needs my help right now! I’ll be damned if I let you do it alone! I refuse to leave until Rusty’s safety – and everyone else’s – is secured. I’ll never abandon them.”
Nidrama stared at him in disbelief, “As you wish . . . mortal.”
Nidrama calmly walked towards Vhalantru. She had slain at least a half-dozen Beholders in her time, but none were as large (or powerful) as this one.
“Beholder! You have had your revenge – the Bright Axes are no more! I implore you to leave now before I am forced to destroy you. Know that there are powers in the multiverse even beyond your ken!”
In response, the Beholder directed his central eye towards the Deva and the dwarf behind her, suppressing all magic.
To Vhalantru’s mild surprise and Gunther’s profound shock, Nidrama was replaced by a human of approximately the same build with long, wild black hair with an eye at the center of her forehead. Gunther felt strangely unsettled simply by looking at her.
Entropy quickly sprinted out of the cone’s effect and everything froze as she invoked a time stop. Acting with haste, she opened a gate to Kiaransalee's realm directly over Vhalantru as well as a clenched fist underneath him.
As the time stream resumed, Vhalantru was pummeled from below by the magical fist and, from above . . .
“Tamion, destroy him! Quickly!!”
Nodding, the Balor casually tossed his whip aside and in a wide arc swept across the top of the orb with his vorpal longsword. Several eye stalks were severed and fell lifelessly to the ground. Proceeding to a more aggressive attack, the sword plunged deeply into Vhalantru’s hide.
Flying away as quickly as he could, Gunther found a secluded hiding spot. He could hardly believe what he was seeing!
The Beholder adroitly moved his eyes to focus on his new foe – connecting with one, then a second ray. The Balor fell to the ground as the second ray hit him.
Curious that he did not explode . . . Entropy continued to move towards Vhalantru who again intercepted her with his anti-magic cone. He then dropped to the ground and delivered a vicious bite, awakening the sleeping Balor.
“Subdue her quickly fool, before she comes any closer!”
Before he could rise however, Entropy was on them both. Putting up her own anti-magic field, she stood next to Tamion thereby negating his charm effect.
Carry me up to this idiot and let him grapple me. Then finish him – painfully.
The Balor grasped his mistress and dropped her on the Vhalantru’s huge body. The Beholder, who couldn’t believe his luck, grappled her with his jaws.
Strangely, the human’s crown seemed to function in anti-magic as a black beam of energy struck his central eye, greatly sapping his energy.
Meanwhile, the Balor was upon him again and, this time, could not be turned aside by any number of eye beams. Like a knife through butter, the vorpal weapon sliced through again and again littering the ground with viscera and gore. Finally, the great sphere began to spasm and collapsed to the ground in a stinking heap of goo.
Gunther, in the interim, had dimension doored around the battlefield collecting the bodies of Rusty and Ike. When he reached Grimm, he realized that the half-ogre was merely sleeping! Before he could awaken him, he found Entropy and the Balor next to him.
“We need to exchange a few words, little dwarf. You were having an elaborate delusion, I’m afraid. Here, let my friend help you out . . .”
The Balor seized him.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
