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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1114520" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 38The eyes of everyone in the room, friend and foe alike, were drawn upward as the distortion in the air solidified and took form, and a... thing appeared in the chamber. It hovered in the air above them all, floating in defiance of gravity, a sphere six feet in diameter, with a rough gray skin the color and texture of stone.  As it spun in the air, they could see that it possessed a single great eye just above a gaping maw full of long, pointed teeth, with ten more smaller eyes dangling at the end of writhing stalks atop its body.  Zenna felt her gut clench and her blood freeze as she realized what it was.  By the gods, a beholder, she thought.  She could feel her body shaking, frozen in terror.  She felt rather than saw Arun tense beside her, and for a moment she thought that her death was here, that the dwarf was going to attack regardless of the appearance of the eye tyrant.  But Arun, born of a race that knew well the aberrations of the Underdark, understood all too well the nature of the newcomer, and stood his ground. The creature spun in place, taking in the whole situation in a single broad sweep.  As its central eye passed over the companions, their magical disguises faded, revealing their true faces, and Zenna felt a tingle pass through her body.  What the creature was thinking as it looked at them was impossible to guess; the beholder was just too alien.  Kazmojen and his minions had been taken by surprise as well, but now it looked up at the beholder with what looked, at least outwardly, with calm control.  “What do you want?” he asked. The beholder shifted its attention upon the slaver, but Zenna saw that several of the eyestalks continued to monitor them.  No one else moved.  “I have come for Terrem Kharatys,” the creature said, its voice strong and dripping with power.  “That boy should not have been taken from Cauldron.  I intend to see that he is safely returned to his orphanage.  You can keep the others.  They are of no consequence.  Come, Terrem—you will be safe with me.”  A pouch appeared out of thin air a few paces above the beholder, falling to land with a clink of metal on the stone floor at Kazmojen’s feet.  The erstwhile buyer, Pyllrat, said nothing, having drawn back from the scene with the beholder’s appearance, watching the developing scene intently.  Kazmojen himself drew back a step as the beholder dropped toward him, its eyestalks twisting as the different eyes regarded him in turn.  The howler offered a growl of challenge, causing several of the eyestalks to snap toward it, but Kazmojen let out a harsh whistle, and the beast drew back.  Terrem, the boy captive, huddled miserably in his chains, unable to do anything to alter his fate.  A pale blue ray lanced out from one of the eyestalks, hitting the boy squarely, surrounding him with a soft glow.  Terrem lifted into the air, rising with the beholder as the two ascended toward the ceiling high above. Arun shook himself and stepped forward, pointing his warhammer at the beholder.  “Now wait just a minute here!” he shouted at it.  The beholder turned to regard the companions, but even as it did, the creature—along with the boy—shimmered again and vanished.  For a moment everyone just stood there, trying to grasp the implications of what they had just seen, or just reveling in the fact that they yet drew breath.  But Kazmojen shattered that momentary reverie, when he stepped forward, his urgosh raised.  “The deal is done!” he said, his voice cold.  “Now, you die.”</blockquote>

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