The creator of the Crystal Eye had clearly been inspired by the form of a beholder, for the massive chunk of crystal that formed the core orb of the construct was hewn into a spherical shape, a great eye etched into its front and a jagged-toothed maw of sparkling, multi-hued mineral splitting a crack across it. The eyestalks jutted out, wrought of glittering angles, but the entire thing seemed to move and shift as if the crystal was alive and flesh.
Yet it had suffered from the tests of time - or perhaps it had never been finished, the craftwork never perfected. Jagged chunks had broken off, splits and fracturelines lacing the construct. Some of the eyestalks had snapped off entirely, or were merely half-stumps sticking pitifully out of the sphere; many of the teeth had fractured or shattered. It was not whole, and it was easy to see where at least some of the crystal debris on the floor had come from.
It rose into the air, five feet wide, and was for the merest moment still, as if it were a marvelous sculpture hewed from crystal and suspended up for the admiration of viewers. But then it twisted quickly, sinisterly, sending more little pieces of crystal shuddering off to clink on the floor. Its movement was precise, measured, and the eyestalks moved to locate their targets with terrible purpose. It stared down at Melisande.
With a pulse of glaring light, energy beamed forth from the eyes, lashing out to scourge and burn. The searing light caught two of the sages, burning through their robes, and another lash from a crystal eyestalk caught Kale, igniting cloth and broiling skin. Melisande experienced a moment of great fortune; two burning rays cut down towards her but perhaps by some internal miscalculation of the construct, maybe wrought by its damage, it missed her closely.
"Guardian Orders Initiated" the great crystal beholder grated out of its jagged mouth, shifting its bulk forwards towards the sorceress, fangs almost beautiful in the dim, flickering light.
* * *
oh no.
It was a familiar smell, by then. The stench of singed hair, punctuated by a waft of baked flesh, it drifted up in a flash of searing heat. Standing braced and burning in the beam of the guardian's attack, Kale grunted and grit his teeth: the pain, it was never possible to get used to the pain.
All too quickly, the entire party had burst into a trap. The sages stood wide-eyed, his own party a bit shocked as well, though these sorts of things were becoming more and more expected by the mercenary party. And that wasn't a good thing.
Turning about in the iron-sided room, the crystal orb made its bid for Melisande. Kale responded in painful motion. "Forward! Forward! To the staircase!" Urging the party on to the passage the beholder-construct could not clear, Kale hoped there weren't further surprises waiting for them upstairs. Or a dead end.
Weal, my ass. Somehow, his mind found time to cast aspersions at the gods of poor insight.
Springing a few steps, Kale slid and crouched behind one of the many lab workbenches. Grabbing hold and making a heave, he upended the bench with a noisy glass-metal clatter as many unknown odds and ends toppled from their places. A few steps toward the beholder, and he braced himself, his shoulder protesting in pain against the bench surface.
* * *
Wyshira took a split second to wonder how it was that Kale always seemed to be the one to catch fire ........
...then she whirled around to give her full attention to the Crystal Eye.
She had at first been in awe of the glittering orb, exclaiming softly - "A-ah!" - and staring wide-eyed at its crystalline beauty. But then she had noticed the jagged line of its sharp teeth, and the deadly focus of its all-too-beholder-like eyes. Moments before the thing had attacked she had realized that Melisande was not going to be able to make friends with this guardian. But realization had come too late.
Now her thoughts turned to finding the best way to disable the thing. She decided that, for the time being, Kale and the sages would have to take care of their own injuries. She was going to use the power of Ishrak to enhance the aim of her allies.
She cast her spell, whispering softly; then shouted in a surprisingly resonant voice, "
Shoot at it!"
* * *
Mel stood rooted in dumb wonder, her brain filled with the sharp cascade of crystal ringing as it gathered itself together and rose up, choosing a form that awoke the most unpleasant memories as it did. She wasn't able to move, even when it started shooting. This may have been a boon, however, as it seemed to have expected her to dodge, and shot wide at least twice before she snapped her jaw shut and sprang to action.
She may have been miffed at Kale for nearly yanking her cloak off a moment before, but he was right when he shouted to everyone to clear out, and for the briefest instant self-preservation had Mel prepared to follow. But something new was in her heart now. She would not give in to the urge to fly mindlessly from the least threat, not while her friends remained within the guardian's radius. She was closest to it, and more its target than anyone.
In fact, it was bearing straight down on her.
Terror went through Mel like a bolt, but she brought her hands up and faced off against the waving, glittering eyestalks, gathering the threads of magic in her mind and twining them into a destructive spell.
* * * * * * *
Like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, Pierre trundled at surprising speed out of her pocket and made adrenaline-powered bounds to take cover among the upturned tables. With any luck, one of the other bloody insane mammals (but less bloody insane than
She) would scoop him up on the way out. He hoped fervently she would live, but having a toad in her pocket wasn't going to make a difference against
that, and he reasoned that at least something of her would survive if he could escape. An abject excuse, perhaps, but the wise one of a toad who had been through an awful lot.
* * *
With a rush of wind flurrying outwards from Wyshira, her prayer for
blessed aim manifested, reaching far enough to affect all of the gathered allies present. Even as she was maintaining her concentration on channeling the divine energy, Kale was causing more mess as he heaved over a nearby table to protect himself behind.
From the doorway, Meg'anna began a summoning spell, seeking a magical connection to the living earth so far below, while Cazamir rushed forwards to assault the massive crystalline construct with a flurry of fists. As he surged forwards, it seemed his hands were shimmering with ephemeral flame, and twice his strikes hit true, crushing into vulnerable fractured areas of the Crystal Eye and sending a spray of pulverised shards sprinkling away from its glimmering facets. Larger cracks wormed their way through its structure from the point where the Huronese man was attacking it. Then the noise of a howling wolf echoed through the chamber as Meg'anna's ritual finished and a great wolf materialised close to the Eye, leaping towards the floating orb with fangs bared, growling and slavering as it tried to get a purchase on the thing with its teeth. Unfortunately its bites did little more than scratching the surface of the thing.
Then Sebastion reached the Eye, blades arcing through the air in a series of attacks. The blades kept on turning against the hard, mineral facets of the huge crystal orb, but one stab caught in a crack and jarred, breaking off a chunk and further damaging it. Melisande, standing right before it, sent two sapphire bolts pulsing out of her hands; the energy crossed the short distance between her and the guardian in a fraction of time, but to her shock they didn't smash off any crystal. They just seemed to be
absorbed into the facets, their direction distorted within the crystal body, and another faction of a moment later...
... they were flung back out of the Crystal Eye, smashing right into her.
It followed up the assault by blasting out another broadside towards the assailants all around it. Melisande proved lucky again as the searing beam of light widely missed her, scorching a blackened line across a laboratory bench instead. Two eyes turned to focus on Cazamir, assessing him as a significant threat to the Guardian's structural integrity. Though he managed to avoid one arcane bolt of light, the other caught him squarely, horrendously scorching his chest and cooking skin and flesh. Sebastion too had earned the construct's attentions and though he avoided one searing light, the other lashed down his arm with the smell of burning flesh. Of the rest of the beast's armament, a single beam lashed out towards one of the already injured sages, who crumpled as his robes caught fire.
Jarvis moved to stand with the others going toe-to-toe with the construct, yelling "At least the room's too low for it to float up!" as he struck out with his blades. Both were turned aside by its crystal facets. Ansas'Turi watched from near the door with shock, seemingly not sure what she could do to help against such a foe. The remaining sages had been ready to unleash a flurry of magical missiles, but seeing Melisande's attempt to do the same had literally backfired, they faltered, not sure what to do. One lashed out with a conjured bolt of acid, which hit the Eye with a splash and began to dissolve into the mineral, but another attempted a shimmering beam of frosty chill, and as with Melisande's sorcery, he found it reflected straight back at him, cursing and swearing as rime gathered across his robes. Another ran to the aid of their fallen companion, doing his best to beat out the fire.
Seeing the chaos, Johanne searched his repertoire for a useful spell and decided to chance on one of his more potent incantations, thrusting out one hand to let loose a fierce gout of sonic energy. It struck with a thunderclap of noise, shimmering air the only mark of its passage as the sonic bolt passed over the heads of the ground-bound combatants and blasted a large crater into the side of the Eye, showering the struggling warriors with little pieces of crystal. The Eye lurched sideways through the air from the impact, but even this powerful hit was not yet enough to bring it down, though now hairline fractures were pervading most of its structure.
* * *
Cazamir let loose with a angered cry as the beam struck him in the chest. He had been fluid enough to avoid one, but two blasts made it very difficult.
This is what you wanted, he thought as the smell of his own burning flesh choked his breathing.
To provide a distraction, to protect the others...
He had given ample distraction, but he knew he could not withstand much more from the Eye.
Insistent urgings from the crystal in his vest pocket kept telling him to stay and lash out at the guardian, yet he looked for an opportunity that might be less suicidal. One of the warriors was arming his short bow while keeping a bench in between him and the Eye. Maybe that would do. Cazamir leapt back from the side of the Eye and swiftly moved over to Kale’s position. He spared a withering glance at his employers who were engaging in the battle instead of moving steadily through the room.
“Here, I’ll hold it for you,” Cazamir offered, hoping the mercenary would realize his intentions.
* * *
Sebastion hissed in pain as the heat seared through the metal links of his armour, fusing some of the small chain pieces together. His hand snatched back from the handle of his weapon, though he did manage to turn the reflex into a clumsy spin of the blade, and took up his grip again as he sidled about the creature, moving to interpose himself between it and Mel.
"Move!!" he snapped at her, not able to take his eyes away from the target. "Everyone,
get moving!"
* * *
Mel let out an involuntary scream as her reflected bolts struck her, the bruising impact beginning to burn painfully. Small satisfaction to discover just how much her own magic hurt.
So magic was not going to work. The sages were quickly discovering the same thing, even as their bodyguard--more dedicated than Mel might have expected--took a hit with a blast to the chest. It made her mad to see someone so loyal suffer for it. She was sure there were others behind her, judging from the haze of cooking leather and cloth that was quickly gathering in the old lab.
Secretly, it was with some grim pleasure that she realized she was going to have to draw steel. A chance to put her training to the test! She unsheathed her sword and drew up into a water stance.
"Move!" Sebastion, her instructor in the martial arts, was shouting over the din of crashing and shrieking crystal.
She moved, flowing with the blade as she struck out at the Eye.
"You move," she shouted back peevishly.
* * *
"It's
not going to let us pass," Wyshira muttered, more to herself than to anyone else. She feared that while they might finally make it all the way across the room to the staircase and beyond, the Guardian Eye would probably kill at least one of them in the process. What they had to do was disable the trap first - take the Eye out of the picture. It was already damaged, so Wyshira thought they had a good chance to finish it off.
Nonetheless, Kale was leading the party, not her. She could only do as he ordered.
"Forward to the staircase!" he shouted.
Wyshira moved slowly along the edge of the room while trying to maintain her spell. She wished that she could wield a weapon herself, but the spell required all of her attention.
"My javelin!" she called out to anyone nearby. She held one in her outstretched hand - a prismatic spear, it's multi-facets glittering in the mage-lit room. It was useless to her at the moment, but not forgotten. "Here! Take it, one of you!"
While Wyshira kept her concentration on the flow of divine energy coursing through her, Ansas'Turi's attention was drawn from shocked observation of the suddenly animated crystal monster to the crystal javelin the priestess was waving for someone to take. The Ironjack nodded and began to move towards the Ishrakite. Meanwhile Kale had drawn his bowstring tightly back, finding his aim seemingly clearer and easier with the magic that Wyshira was weaving, and let loose an arrow that struck the Crystal Eye to chip off a chunk of its constituent mineral.
Ebri had by now stepped up to the construct and lashed out with a fist, but though she could see good places to strike at weakened cracks and fractures, her knowledge of anatomy simply didn't apply to this thing, and she wouldn't be able to stun it. She could at least try to break it though, but her fist missed the weak point she was aiming for and instead hit a flat facet straight on, achieving nothing more than bruising her hand. Meanwhile Cazamir had withdrawn to Kale's position, helping the mercenary with the table. Again, Meg'anna's massive dire wolf tore at the Eye, the hulking, feral animal snarling and growling, but once more the slavering jaws failed to get a purchase on the orb to tear away at its crystalline form. Its mistress quickly stepped up to Sebastion, who now was the nearest of those wounded, and with a surge of natural energy and the noise of wind rustling through leaves, she channeled healing magic into him.
Bolstered by the druidic renewal, Sebastion swept his blades into the construct again, one slice deflected off its impressive natural armour but the other sending a fresh wave of fractures spilling away from its impact point. He found, however, that Melisande was resisting being pushed away, and indeed she had drawn her own sword and lashed out at the Crystal Eye, though it glanced off the hard surface of the thing.
The Eye itself retaliated once more, a fresh barrage of burning light spilling forth. One bolt scorched into the table kale and Cazamir were shielded behind, sending tendrils of smoke wisping upwards from its impact. Sebastion managed to avoid the eyestalk that was tryin to focus on him this time, but Melisande was less lucky, and for the first time the construct managed to score a hit on her, fiercely burning at her skin. Beside her, Ebri avoided the beam that seared towards her, but Meg'ana's summoned wolf found an eye igniting the fur down its flank, cooking the skin beneath.
* * *
Melisande found herself suddenly flat on her back. She could not breathe. An intensity of pain was spreading unbearably from her midsection to every edge of her consciousness. So much for bravery and sword training. Her mind reverted to animal survival instinct.
Scrambling, half-crawling, she dashed for cover. Her breath came back gradually in gasps but pain and oxygen deprivation threatened to knock her out. Another blast like that and it would all be over, she was all too aware.
Flexing her bruised hand, Ebri dove in the direction of Melisande, interposing herself directly between her ward and the crystal thing. Widening her stance and her wrap to present a broader target, she reached down to the injured woman, and a thought occurred to her--
"Do not move-- the thing may sense motion--" It was possible, at least-- Mel's entry into the room and movement near it seemed to have activated the thing without any other action on their part. And although it might be the work of some remote intelligence, the thing that the Arcanofex Guardian had reported to, she could not know. She did know that many animals hunted by tracking motion;
That is why instinct tells animals to freeze when threatened-- It was a guess, but a logical one: if she were to design such systems, she would base them upon systems which already existed and had been studied...
This abstract thought passed in less than a quarter breath. She murmured the words of healing, and let the Great Prophet work through her...
* * *
Ansas'Turi grabbed the prismatic javelin from Wyshira and hurled it with all her strength at the great orb. As it arced through the air, the javelin shimemred with bright energy playing around it, suddenly energising into a bolt of incandescent flame that impacted into the Crystal Eye with a flash, sending chunks of hot crystal skittering away and leaving a smoking crater in the construct. Fractures within the beast began to fully meet up, more chunks dropping off of it to smash on the floor. It began to list dangerously to one side. Wyshira had to shield her eyes when it smashed into the crystal Guardian with a brilliant flash of orange light. But she noted with satisfaction the tinkling of shattered glass which indicated the weapon had done some damage.
"Here Ansas'Turi!" she called out with a note of triumph in her voice. "Take another one!"
Jarvis managed to send another piece spinning off with his short blades, but the sages held back with their spells, unwilling to chance any more incantations beign launched straight back at them, though the acid bolt one had previusly launched continued to hiss and melt into the mineral construct. Two of the men grabbed their fallen comrade under the arms and hurriedly dragged him over behind the lab table that Kale had upended, the rest also moving with cautious haste towards the stairway.
* * *
Kale ducked as searing flame gouted the tabletop, just on the other side. Popping back out quickly, he returned to a scene of showering crystal, fur-burned wolves, and Ebri, of all people, thrusting herself between Melisande and the crystal guardian. Unbelievable.
* * *
Cazamir watched as a sizzling hole opened in the table he was holding. This guardian was very effective, and had not fallen yet. Were the blows he and the others dealt doing any significant damage to the construct? Feelings of shame and disdain emanated from his crystal, directed towards his cowardly moves.
The sages dragged over their fallen friend behind the table. Cazamir lent some assistance, seeing if he could provide more cover to them while not sacrificing any for the archer. He glanced over at Kale, who fired off arrow after arrow at the construct. The plan seemed to be working fine for now, but if the Eye did not fall soon, he would prepare for one final assault.
* * *
Another of Kale's arrows whistled through the air towards the looming shape of the Crystal Eye, hitting the construct with a crack as its shaft splintered without any appreciable effect on its target. As Ebri moved to cover the thing's line of sight to Melisande, and Cazamir moved to aid the sages, Wyshira continued to focus on maintaining her spell.
Meg'anna joined the fray beside her summoned wolf, the massive beast finally getting its jaws into the cracks of the Crystal Eye and tearing away a chunk of mineral with a triumphant snarl, more fragments cascading off the orb to clamour on the floor - the sound of the crystal chips landing was the only sound the Eye made when not releasing scorching beams, for it moved and turned in the air completely silently. A fearsome strike from Meg'anna's spear shattered off another crystal shard that crashed down to break apart on the floor, though the flash of fierce flame that the enchanted weapon smote the construct with on its impact didn't seem to do much. Nonetheless, the construct was now critically damaged, wrought with internal fractures; its rapidly diminishing capabilities were evident as its searing beams were less and less accurate and it began to drift with little control over its own movement. Finally, another of Sebastion's flurry of sword-strikes hit a vulnerable point, and the new crack send jarring through the construct's structure was all that was needed to permanently shut it down.
The great orb simply dropped from the air, crashing to the ground and rolling a couple of feet before it stopped, inactive and bizarrely angled with the rest of the world.
Next Time: The aftermath, healing and heading on up...
