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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 656881" data-attributes="member: 1210">Beholders"We should get out of here!" shouts Zeebo the Mayor, but there's no time.The party tries to get it together- Grumpy's ready to attack and Angel seems to have disappeared, Horbin's healing people.  Alcar can see the approaching beholder, so he tosses a sound burst, and for an instant he dares to hope that it'll explode like the fungus the group fought earlier; but the thing winces for a second, then flies forward, charging at Alcar!  The angel feels his magical defenses all drop as the terrible central eye focuses on him, and then the beholder takes a bite of him.  Alcar cries out in pain, raising one arm to shield his face.  The sharp teeth of the orbular monster chomp down on his arm, rending and tearing.  A few of its eyestalks swing to glare at the Lester, to its side, and there's a sizzling sound as three rays shoot out at him.  The L eeks as the first ray misses.  The other two catch him, though- one shaking his soul to its foundations and threatening to slay him instantly, the other attempting to put him to sleep.  He throws off both, but the death ray deals terrible damage to him anyhow.Horbin starts to cast a summons, but then Angel appears from nowhere, striking the beholder twice.  Even using the Airsword he's a terrible foe.  He slashes the beholder's body hard, leaving a long, deep gash in it.  His next blow is a deadly accurate thrust to the central eye, and with that the thing dies.The party pauses for a moment.  They're all a little shaken by the encounter, even though several of them have fought a beholder before.  A quick search in the chamber uncovers a chest hidden in the rubble, but after a few frustrating attempts to open it the party realizes its shielded by some sort of force bubble- except for the keyhole.  Norman and Sheva both try to open it and they both fail.  "We'll have to find the key," says Horbin.The room has two exits, both openings leading to other rooms.  One of those continues as the passage the beholder came from.  The first room is large and long, full of broken jars of herbs, and several areas of the ceiling, walls and floor are strangely holed- as if areas had been disintigrated out of it.   The other room is smaller in size and shape, and it also has blasted and disintigrated areas, but there are no herbs.  Instead, there's a statue of a medusa."Turned her to stone," murmurs Zeebo.  "Ironic.""It's a good tactic," Lester remarks. "Let's move on, then," Alcar says, and without waiting for a response he flies out the passage the beholder came through.  The rest of the party pursues, Horbin grumbling.  His premonition's back; this is gonna get somebody killed.Alcar flies down a long hall.  It ends in a door, and he throws it wide.  He can hear the rest of the party not too far behind him.  He's looking into a vast chamber; he can only see a portion of it.  It seems to have many hollow tubes leading up and down from the floor and ceiling, as well as many partial walls and obstacles.  He doesn't know it, but Alcar's just stumbled onto a beholder duelling arena.  In fact, as he glances around and the rest of the party catches up to him, two beholders rise up from behind a partial wall and fire their eye rays at our heroes, advancing.Next Time: Horbin's premonition comes true at last!</blockquote>

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