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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3002860" data-attributes="member: 198">The Rescue of Nameless, Pt. 2The huge chamber the Angels look into is roughly circular, stretching more than 500 ft across and standing over a hundred feet deep. Giant crystals are set into the ceiling and walls of the cavern, bathing it in a pale blue light. There are multiple entrances, most at the bottom but some entering on balconies thirty or sixty feet above the ground, with stairs leading down. They are looking in from one of the latter. The chamber is dominated by what seems to be a giant mound of pale flesh in the center, a hundred feet across. Grown in the shape of a four-sided ziggurat, it rises in multiple levels to a height of sixty feet, with a steep ramp on two opposing sides making the ascent easier. Each corner has a pillar-like structure that extends all the way to the ceiling. Set into the top of the mound is a circular structure marked with crystals and sigils of various kinds, which the Angels instantly recognize as a dimensional seal.More than the seal, their attention is drawn by the occupants of the chamber. Approximately a hundred dolgrims are in the cavern, divided into three clear groups, which stand equidistantly from each other near the chamber’s walls. Each group also contains four dolgaunts, standing closer to the central mound and fully focused on the very distinctive group that stands beside it.The group includes two mind flayers, one with the amputated tentacles and the single eye that the Angels recognize from the battle with Naxaliyen’s “messengers”, and another with tentacles intact but also with a single eye, which Trillia whispers is the one she saw while scrying, probably Naxaliyen. He seems to be animatedly discussing or arguing with the large bulbous creature floating before him, its large staring eye and writhing eye-topped stalks instantly identifying it as a beholder. What looks like a large black cloak with a protruding, bony tail, floats lazily back and forth beside them, and two large muscular ogres (each with a head topped with a fringe of tentacles) in spiky plate-mail stand nearby. Also nearby is a ten foot high and long structure, roughly cubical in size. It constantly shifts and emits a buzzing sound, and it takes a few seconds before the Angels realize that it seems to be completely made of flies, clustered together into a solid, yet malleable mass. A somewhat louder buzzing sound emerges from within it, and when Naxaliyen turns to address it, they realize that the structure, or something within it, is actually joining in the conversation.Despite all of these singular individuals, the two who most draw the invisible watchers’ eyes are the two who stand closest to the ziggurat. A couple of steps behind Naxaliyen stands the dolgaunt who originally accompanied the mimic-wagon, with the floating eye buzzing around his head. One of his tentacles sways back and forth idly, but the other is wrapped securely around the throat of Nameless, who stands quietly beside him. Nameless gives no sign of any interest in the ongoing discussion but simply stands there placidly.Seeing him, the Angels pull back for a quick discussion. “Okay - what do we do?” asks Trillia. “I’d have suggested me dimension dooring all of us right next to him and grabbing him, but I don’t want to risk ending up back in that chamber we appeared in.”“And there’s that damn beholder,” says Korm. “One look from that eye and we aren’t teleporting anywhere.”  Luna, having shifted back to her normal form, asks, “What about if just I or a couple of us, fly out there, grab Nameless and fly back in here? And then we can leave whatever way works best. If we’re invisible we can surprise them.”Korm shakes his head. “As soon as we get out there, the bloody dolgaunts will know we’re there.”“There’s also the issue of the Shard,” reminds Gareth. “We have to get that too. It‘s definitely here, since we all started feeling better once we reappeared here, but what if Naxaliyen doesn’t have it?”As the discussion is proceeding, Six, who has been keeping an eye on events outside, says, “Hey! The beholder’s leaving!”The others hurry to see that he is correct, with the large creature flying straight up to the ceiling, where an unseen doorway opens and lets it through, revealing sunlight beyond for a few seconds before it shuts. Naxaliyen watches it go and then makes a gesture that even in a mind flayer is obviously irritated dismissal. He then turns and says something to Nameless, who promptly produces the Shard from within his clothes and heads towards the nearby ramp, the dolgaunt walking beside him.“Crap!” says Trillia, “He’s going for the seal. Must be mind-controlled or something. We’ve got to go now!”The Angels quickly swig a last couple of potions, Trillia hastes the group and they all fly out, heading for the ziggurat as fast as they can. With the combination of spells, within seconds they are most of the way to it.But, as Korm mentioned, they do not approach undetected. As soon as they leave the safety of the tunnel, all eight dolgaunts in the two closest groups snap their heads around and stare in their direction, and the one accompanying Nameless up the ramp does so as well. A second later, it yells a warning in daelkyr. Naxaliyen throws a surprised glance in the direction it points and then shouts instructions in various directions. He ends by hurrying up the ramp after the dolgaunt, which continues with Nameless, who shows no signs of noticing the commotion. One ogre follows him, while the other takes up a position near the other mind flayer, who raises a hand and prepares a spell against the first enemy who reveals himself. The cloaker rises cautiously to intercept the flying attackers, unsure where they are. Strangest of all, the structure made of flies slowly slouches its way towards the ziggurat, their buzzing rising in timbre.The Angels have over two hundred feet to cover, and as they zoom down on the ziggurat, over fifty crossbows send a hail of bolts to meet them. Despite the invisibility and layers of magical protections, a couple of the Angels take minor wounds along the way. Amusingly, some of the dolgrims firing are not as lucky, being nailed by falling bolts fired by another group.Six, in the lead, starts off things by dropping a smokestick, enveloping the waiting spell caster (and ruining his opportunity to cast a spell) and the ogre beside it. The warforged doesn’t pause, flying down to land on the top of the ziggurat, snapping out his spiked chain to await the dolgaunt and Nameless. A little distance behind him, Luna drops a flame strike around Naxaliyen and the ogre following him. Naxaliyen bursts through the flames without a pause, untouched by them, but the ogre growls in pain. The dolgaunt shouts a warning to him, pointing at the invisible Six, and Naxaliyen pushes by Nameless and him. He stares in the direction of Six and the warforged feels a blast of mental energy assault his mind, which he barely resists. Now close enough to detect some of the others, the cloaker emits a strange moan, that slightly nauseates both Korm and Gareth, but both of them shake it off. Gareth dives at it and slashes it powerfully. Korm, deciding that stopping Nameless by any method is worth it, swoops away and replicates Luna’s flame strike, this one around Naxaliyen, the dolgaunt and Nameless. The former again ignores the magic, but both of the others are scorched, though they remain upright. Naxaliyen looks around at all the enemies appearing and then shouts. Though it is unclear who he is calling to, Trillia translates worriedly, “He’s asking for someone to send him the beholders! Plural!” She follows up by conjuring three pseudonatural wolves, two on the ramp and one next to the others on the ground.The battle devolves into a chaotic melee. And not just at the ziggurat. Six, in the best position to see the dolgaunts and dolgrims swarming towards the battle, sees one group stop as screams of pain and fear erupt among them. Those in the lead stop and turn to see what’s going on, while the next group also stops in confusion. Six catches a glimpse of something red moving through and among them, but the numbers make it impossible to catch details, and he flies into the melee.The crowded ramp becomes even more so as the two druids fly down to join the fight. Korm cuts the dolgaunt in half, dropping it twitching to the ground. As its tentacle falls off Nameless, they reveal a large red mark on the back of his neck, and he continues to try to head up the ramp with the Key in hand. Luna reaches down with a large paw to grab him, but a strange spell from the mind flayer wizard, who has finally wandered out of the smoke, simultaneously dispels and hurts her, sending her crashing down. The bear barely grabs onto the ramp and avoids falling. Nameless falls to his knees and then staggers up again. A large wolf falls past her, knocked flying off the ramp by an ogre’s sword. Korm only avoids the same fate due to his fly spell, being knocked backwards but landing in mid-air.Gareth, meanwhile, cuts down his enemy, but only has a moment of relief. As the cloaker falls in a heap, a huge hole appears in the structure of flies and a ten-foot long creature comes flying out. It looks like a ten-foot long fly, except for the single multifaceted eye that crowns its bulbous head. As it nears Gareth, it breathes a stream of acid that sizzles painfully on his skin. He catches it with a powerful blow and then it rips into him with its clawed forelimbs and clutching him with its others.Six, having landed a blow on Naxaliyen, discovers that the aberration leader is almost unhittable as soon as he can see the attacker, dodging his blows with ease. “Luna - try to grab him!” he shouts, but even as the growling bear clambers onto the ramp and prepares to attack, the wizard hurls an orb of fire burning her and dazing her, so that she stumbles and almost falls again. Looking down at the wizard, Six now sees past him what the distraction for the dolgrims is. Dozens of them lie dead, along with a few dolgaunts, and most are fleeing in terror. Rising from among the dead is a wraithlike red figure that he recognizes immediately. Six shouts gleefully, waving his chain, “Snookums is here!” Even as he speaks, the strange creature charges into one of the small groups of dolgrims that remain. Urged on by shouting dolgaunts, the dolgrims unleash a volley of bolts that shoot right through the creature. Seemingly unaffected, it simply flies into and through the group. As if passes through a series of dolgrims and a dolgaunt, all of them fall screaming and writhing to the ground. Seconds later, only one of them remains alive, painfully crawling away.As the other Angels glance at their unexpected ally, they catch sight of a possibly even more unexpected enemy. A few seconds earlier, a gaping hole had appeared in the far side of the ziggurat, with a loud buzzing sound emerging from it, but nobody has been at leisure to investigate. The buzzing grows louder, and the Angels see a beholder emerge. Along with approximately three hundred more. It is a swarm of beholders, each about six inches wide.Trillia stares at the swarm and sums up the Angels’s collective opinion. “What the crap?!”*Korm, giving the swarm a wary look and flying down to cut at Naxaliyen, sees the mind flayer sway away and then strike back, his tentacles slamming into the big orc’s face. Korm tries to pull back, but Naxaliyen skillfully wraps the tentacles around him. Six, seeing that Naxaliyen cannot as easily dodge his attacks, strikes deep into the mind flayer’s back, but he holds on. Gareth has similar problems, the fly creature’s grasp making it impossible for him to strike it. Trying to buy time, the paladin calls on Kizmet’s healing ability. As some of his wounds close, Gareth calls down to the others, “Some help here?”“I’m on it,” says Trillia, sending an orb of cold arcing up to strike the huge fly. Already wounded, it shudders and falls, Gareth barely managing to extricate himself from its weakening grasp. Even before it hits the ground, Trillia turns to encase Korm with a layer of quickened grease.Korm feels Nayaliyen’s tentacles begin to lose their grip on his suddenly slippery skull, but before he can escape, the swarm of beholders envelops them. None of the creatures have any eye stalks as larger beholders do, but apparently the antimagic properties of their large central eye remains, though the range is severely limited. Not only does the grease on Korm disappear, but so do the magical protections on him and the others. A surprised Luna suddenly finds herself back in shifter form, while Six drops and barely catches himself on the edge of the ramp. The one wolf remaining on the ramp promptly disappears as well.Naxaliyen’s tentacles take a tighter grip and then begin to burrow into Korm’s skull. Now with none of his magical protections, Korm falls back on the berserker blood of his ancestors. With a bestial roar, he hurls himself forward, lifting a startled Naxaliyen off his feet and taking both of them over the ramp’s edge. As they fall, the pair falls outside the effect of the mini-beholders’ gaze, and Korm feels his strength and health magically augmented again. Naxaliyen’s tentacles dig deeper and deeper, but through the pain Korm concentrates on keeping the mind flayer on the bottom as they fall, smashing him against the ledges of the ziggurat.The battle pauses temporarily, the others watching in a combination of horror and hope as the two entwined enemies come to a stop on the bottom level. For a moment Korm thinks the bruised and bloody mind flayer is done, but then Naxaliyen stirs. His one eye glares balefully into Korm’s and the mind flayer sinks all of his tentacles into the druid’s brain**. Korm stiffens and goes limp.*** Naxaliyen, too weak to rip out his enemy’s brain, rises painfully to his feet. Flinging Korm away disdainfully, he prepares to command the mind flayer wizard, already into the motions of a new spell, but another spellcaster is outside the area of the beholder swarm.“You’re dead,” says Trillia in daelkyr, and completes a spell. Instantly, a pair of pseudonatural bison appear on either side of Naxaliyen. As the mind flayer leader opens his mouth to scream, the two creatures hurl forward, smashing him between them into a crumpled, lifeless mass.The mind flayer wizard shouts, “Get out!” and immediately dimension doors away. The surviving ogre turns and runs (unfortunately for him, right into Snookums), and even the beholder swarm floats away, heading back towards the orifice they emerged from.With no enemies immediately attacking them, the Angels grab Nameless (whom Luna has knocked out in the interim) and the near-lifeless Korm. The mangled body of Naxaliyen is quickly secured as well.“Do we risk teleporting?” asks Trillia.“Do it,” nods Six. “That mind flayer did a dimension door, you said, so either it works on the way out. Or it’s in that garbage room and we can surprise the hell out of it!”“Okay.” Trillia quickly shrinks everyone and prepares to cast a teleport.As she is casting, the opening at the top of the chamber opens and this time three beholders appear, all normal size. “Too late,” says Trillia, as she completes her spell. As the Angels fade away, their last sight is the spectral wraith charging the beholders, eyebeams ripping away parts of its incorporeal form as it speeds towards them. A second later, they reappear in Trillia’s laboratory. As soon as they do, the red splotch on Nameless’s neck, which they can now see is a scarab-like creature, crumbles to dust and falls off. Nameless shakes his head confusedly and his eyes focus. “What happened?” Six, kneeling beside the recumbent Korm, looks up and says, “Korm’s brain came out his ears, that’s what happened.”* The player expressions when I said, “You see beholders. Three hundred of them.” was just beautiful. I wish I’d had a camera.   ** Korm’s player, in keeping with his regular form, rolled a natural 1 on his grapple check.*** Action pt keeps someone alive again.</blockquote>

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