Chapter 418
The two groups materialized in the midst of a maelstrom of noise and violence.
The beholder was instantly visible above them, drifting over the town, rays of energy blasting from its eyestalks into structures and the screaming forms of fleeing townsfolk. Redgorge’s population had been greatly expanded by the flight of refugees from Cauldron, but the half of the town’s buildings had been empty to start with, so shelter had been found for everyone. Now the beholder was destroying building after building; as they watched, it disintegrated the entire front face of a two-story structure, causing it to collapse forward, the upper facing sagging to the street as though the edifice was tired and was lying down for a nap.
Vhalantru was distracted; the townsfolk were offering some resistance that thus far was proving ineffective. A robed man emerged from a large stone structure, surrounded by visible auras that bespoke magical wards, and as he emerged he hurled a fireball up at the beholder. The Heroes of Cauldron recognized Maavu Arlintal, one of the leaders of the organization known as the Chisel. The building was their headquarters, which the companions knew from their earlier visit to Redgorge, an inn named “The Redheaded Miner.” Arlintal’s fireball flew true toward its target, but Vhalantru quickly spun, focusing the gaze of its burning central eye toward the spellcaster. As soon as that gaze passed over the fireball, the projectile winked out of existence. Another armed man appeared in one of the upper-storey windows of the inn, firing a crossbow at the beholder. The bolt struck the bloated form of the eye tyrant, but it appeared to merely stick harmlessly in its thick hide. A third man, armed with a long spear and wearing a leather bartender’s apron, was ushering panicked people into the inn through its side entrance.
The members of the Chisel were offering what resistance they could.
The companions had appeared behind Vhalantru, separated by approximately sixty yards. Cal, Mole, Dannel, and Lok had appeared at street level, surrounded by the wake of destruction formed by the beholder’s passing. A man lay in a bloody heap a few paces away, half of his torso blasted away, while a petrified figure of a fleeing woman stood in the middle of the street a bit further on.
Dana and the others appeared atop the town’s outer wall, the massive bastion originally raised by Surabar Spellmason centuries ago. Morgan, the avoral, and Saureya all lifted into the air at once, while Dana began spellcasting. Beorna and Arun hefted their bows, drawing the arrows that had been magically enchanted and aligned to Good by Dana’s magic.
“I don’t remember it being that big last time,” Mole said, staring up at the monster. Indeed, Vhalantru was now a huge spheroid nearly sixteen feet in diameter, its ugly black hide even more garishly unwholesome in the flesh.
“It’s turned away… blast it, quickly!” Cal urged, putting his own words into action as he fired a disintegrate ray into the beholder’s body. Vhalantru resisted the spell, but it nevertheless took some damage from the destructive energy of the spell.
Vhalantru had detected the new threat as soon as the companions had appeared, its many small eyes making it almost impossible to surprise. Even as the companions fired their bows or closed the range, it started unleashing blasts from its eyestalks. A beam lashed across Saureya’s torso, drawing a black scar across his body as the fallen deva turned out of its path. Another struck Cal in the chest, attempting to return the gnome’s favor by disintegrating him, but the gnome, his fortitude augmented by magic, was able to resist the effect.
But even as it started unleashing attacks, the beholder came under heavy fire from the bows of the companions. Beorna and Arun, atop the wall surrounding the town, were at a decent range, almost a hundred yards from the beholder, but the huge orb still made for a fairly big target. Arun scored a hit with his first shot, the enhanced arrow stabbing deep into the beholder’s body, but Beorna’s smaller bow did not carry quite so far, and while she impacted it her first arrow failed to penetrate its tough outer hide.
Dannel, on the other hand, was both closer and better with the bow than either of the holy warriors. His weapon sang in his hand as he fired shot after shot up at the beholder. At a little over a hundred feet distant, his shots struck with perfect intensity exactly where he wanted them to, punching deep into Vhalantru’s unnatural form. Each shot flared with a discharge of magical energy as it struck home, releasing the power imparted to them by the elf’s magical bow.
But Vhalantru was not done, and it quickly targeted the elf with another eyebeam, blasting him with a violet ray that overcame Dannel’s will, filling him with a stark terror that drove all logical thought away. Dropping his bow, the elf ran screaming from the battle.
“You… will… all… pay…” the beholder hissed, its voice barely comprehensible as it drifted back toward them. As it moved the gaze of its central eye swept over them, the companions could feel their magical protections and the efficacy of their items fade. It kept the angle of its gaze down, allowing it to continue to use its eye-beams on foes located above ground level.
The barrage of missiles continued, with the members of the Chisel continuing to add their support from behind, while they escorted the panicked townsfolk to safety. Maavu Arlintal blasted it with a volley of magic missiles, but the glowing darts merely evaporated as they struck its body, defeated by the creature’s spell resistance. An eyestalk swiveled back to track the magic-user, blasting him with a ray that spread out over his body, turning him to stone. With that threat removed, the beholder continued its focus on the enemies that had already destroyed it once before.
Saureya dove at the beholder, prepared to strike. He carried no weapon, but looked no less dangerous for it, his raven wings folding close around his body as he slashed through the air. The beholder tracked him with one of its eyestalks, and even as the fallen deva lifted a fist to strike it blasted him with the full force of a ray at point-blank range. Saureya immediately went limp, his inertia carrying him straight down and through the slate roof of a nearby house in a clatter of dust and noise.
The avoral, seeing that the beholder’s central eye was directed downward, let out a screech and conjured a lightning bolt at the monster. The blast vanished as it struck the beholder, as did the ray of searing light that Morgan unleashed at it a moment later. The knight let out a cry in Celestial, echoed by the avian outsider as the two dove toward the beholder, claws and sword outstretched. Again, Vhalantru was ready, and beams lanced out to strike its attackers. The avoral was hit by the same ray that had injured Saureya earlier; this time, however, its target was not able to resist the grim power of the beholder’s finger of death. And as the winged celestial fluttered lifelessly to the street below, another beam struck Morgan, fixing him within a blue glow and hurling him bodily to the side, into the gaze of the beholder’s central eye. The telekinesis beam winked out as it entered the antimagic cone, but so too did the power of flight granted by Morgan’s armor immediately fade, and the knight plummeted hard to the muddy ground fifty feet below.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Mwahahaha! 
