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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carnifex" data-source="post: 774809" data-attributes="member: 227">The bright sun looked down on the puzzled band of adventurers below as they paused in the broad ravine. First thoughts were of course of potential rockfalls and suchlike, but a few moments more to assess the situation revealed the sound did not appear to be getting closer or further away. Just a constant... rumbling, almost crunching, the direction of the sound hard to place in the ravine. Cord looked confused, even the elderly dwarf apparently unsure as to what was causing the sound. Wolf squinted to peer at the rocks further down the ravine, stepping forwards a few paces more with Kale to get a better look at one of the large chunks of black rock. But then they realised it wasn't a rock at all, but the charred, blackened form of a person; perhaps a man or elf or orc but to be honest the huddled, scorched remnants were beyond any stage of being recognisable as a particular species. They looked at the other black rocks too, and with the new knowledeg they had it was terribly clear; the place was littered with burned bodies. Wolf gave a quick outtake of breath in shock, but not at the bodies. "Look at the boulder in the middle of the ravine; it's moving. Get yourselves ready..." And indeed the central boulder of sandstone was moving, shivering slightly in time to the rhythmic rumbling of rock; and now, suddenly it was moving far more, sprouting rocky tentacles from its surface that snaked out and blossomed into eyes upon their tips, even as the entire boulder shifted and began to lift off of the ground. The myriad small eyestalks, each gleaming with fiery orange pupils, snaked round to fix on the band before it. The rocky-hided bulk of the creature, now that they knew it as such, suddenly seemed to gain more definition; a wide gash that opened up into a mouth full of blunt, large teeth gnashed away onrocky sandstone debris from the ravine, trails of ground dust spilling out onto the ground as it chewed, the sheer strength of its jaws pulverising the stone and causing the faint rumbling which now tailed off. Another gash further up - a central eye, though held tightly closed. All in all, the massive sandstone orb must have been some ten feet wide. "Beholder," Wolf whispered, in genuine fear, "but not like any I've ever seen..." But now for Cord it all seemed much clearer. "Solar beholderkin. A mountain species... I have heard of them beore but never encountered one myself. They are not as vile as the others of beholderkind but are lazy and prefer to just bask in the sun. But I fear we may have intruded on its territory like these others before us," and he sniffed in the direction of one of the charred bodies to indicate who he was talking about. That toothed mouth stopped chewing now, instead spitting out some chunks of rock, and then the beholder spoke in deep, growled common tongue, it's dry voice almost as low as the rumbling of an avalanche. Some more pathetic bipeds come to disturb me, eh?" It hovered up to some ten feet in the air, shifting its bulk a little closer to the band. "Let me take a closer look... no, don't even think of running or trying to attack me, idiots, or I'll burn you to cinders." The eyestalks writhed so that as many as possible of the ten appendages could view the party. "Hmm, ah, eh. What do you have to say for yourselves, little things? I should just reduce you to ash now for disturbing me." "We should prefer not to be cinders, rather..." Ebri replied smoothly, standing up from her crouch and clasping her hands before her. She smiled in a pleasant, composed, cheerful manner. "Ebri Zol, priestess of Immar. What a vista! Such clarity... We hoped to enjoy the mountain sunshine ourselves, actually, but if we're disturbing you we'll simply move on..." Pausing, she took a moment to look amazed and impressed at the sheer size and strength of the beholderkin."If we're disturbing you, of course we'll leave, but might I ask first, what manner of excellent beholderkin are you? I have an obligation to record my observations of extraordinary and powerful creatures that I come across in my travels, and you do seem... exactly that."Dm's Note: Ebri kicks in with those Bluff and Sense Motive checks <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Hooking his thumbs into his belt, Sebastion assumed what he hoped was a relaxed pose, resting his palms on the barrels of the pistols Kale had so carefully shown him how to load properly. "Presumably you were expecting company?" he added to Ebri's commentary. "You, surely, were aware that we are limited to the bottom of the gully, unlike you." Beholders Burl had heard of but, thankfully, never seen. Great evil creatures that inhabited the underworld he had been told. What would one of these be doing out here, thought Burl as he tried to inch his way to a position to see it. When he did see it, he stepped back, loosing his footing a bit. As he reached out to catch himself, he found his hand on a black charred rock, but not a rock, a charcoaled skull. Quickly his hand went to his mouth stifling a cry. Burl looked for a boulder to hide behind. Finding none, he could just stand there, waiting to see what would transpire. As he listened to the others bluffing their way, he was so very envious that they would have the personal courage to stand up to such a very dangerous creature. Slowly his hand reached inside his pouch feeling for the wand that he knew was inside.</blockquote>

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