Session 138: In the Eye of the Beholder

 Day 24 of Harvester:

The usual group of Feno, Kyro, Lhoss, Armatzi, Niki, and Arnd head quickly head back to town in order to try to get back to the Foaming Mug for a late dinner. With a hurried pace through the creepy maze, marsh and forest, the group makes it just in time for dinner. Following dinner and the evening rest, the group gets up and heads back towards the Barrow Maze. When they arrive at the Barrow Marsh, the smells, and the general atmosphere makes the groups' stomach churn. With their collective nausea, they enter the Barrow Maze early afternoon. Entering in and heading towards the area they were last in; the group hears the unmistakable sounds of scratching nearby. It is coming from the pit the group had discovered in a previous adventure. Not feeling the bit curious, Feno trudges onward and forward, avoiding whatever is making the noise. Arnd and Niki following him into the next room. Lhoss, decides to look into the pit, and in that instant realizes the folly of that decision. The moment she peered down into it to look into it, the smell of rotten flesh hits her nostrils. This rotten flesh smell causes her to expel her partially digested breakfast along the floor of the Barrow Maze, and the edge of the pit. At nearly the same moment, Armatzi decides to investigate the noises coming from the pit as well. The sights and sounds from the pit overcome his stomach, and he lurches out his breakfast as well. While they are vomiting near the pit, the rest of the party are blissfully unaware and enjoying their ration lunch in the next room. Lhoss and Armatzi make their way slowly towards the next room and eventually rejoin the party, with Lhoss slowly sipping water in respite for the recent actions. After some time, both Armatzi and Lhoss are able to eventually eat lunch and the party moves forward to the area with the steel porta coulis. 

When they arrive in that area, they discover that the porta coulis is down, and in a locked position. This surprises the group, as they had left it open when they passed through it last. After some discussion on what to do, they decided to back track and head towards an area Feno remembered they forgot about in a previous visit. As they were traveling in that direction, Lhoss noticed a hidden latch along the wall, and upon lifting it, found a secret passage to the hallway that connected to area near the porta coulis. This hallway was just past the room that had the lever that controlled the metallic gate, thereby circumventing the obstruction. The group follows this hallway and Lhoss discovers more hidden doors along the way, thanks to more discoveries of hidden latches and switches. Feno, in a moment of clarity, grabs a few fist-sized rocks and places them strategically in front of the hidden doors. He does this in order to see if there is any movement, one way or the other, from them. The group then continues to follow the passageway, which opens up to an area that goes up to the north, and down to the south. The Fount is glowing very brightly now. The group opt to try going south, and immediately notice the Fount slight dim its light, and lessen its intensity. Armatzi immediately says they should proceed north instead. The group then turn about face, and marches northward. As they do so they notice large piles of refuse and rubble from the collapsed ceilings nearby. The group leaves the piles alone and proceeds north ward, entering the northern door. 

Upon entering this new room, the group's eyes are greeted to a large antechamber filled with four large demonic statures. The stench of death emanates throughout this new antechamber. As they march forward, they view each statue, and upon closer inspection, the statues eerily glow and leer with unholy light. With each step forward, the stench of death becomes more and more pronounced, almost overpowering. The Fount of Law glows brightly and pulsates. As the group nears two open double doors, a large army of undead creatures comes into view. The familiar skeletons, zombies, are among the creatures, as well as a new formidable creature lurking in the shadows. This large creature, full of eye stalks, often causes terror to those that behold it. As the group attempts to quickly formulate a battle plan, the monsters move forward. Feno moves forward in order to throw oil, but Armatzi quickly gives him holy oil to throw instead. When Feno moves forward, the large Beholder states:

“Foolish mortals! You dare to trespass upon my domain, wielding your feeble holy relic as if it were a weapon against me! Know this: I am Ibixibildo, master of this realm. Your presence fills me with nothing but disgust and contempt. You come seeking to vanquish me to rid the world of my glorious presence? You are nothing more than insignificant insects compared to my might. Your precious holy object may cause me pain, and may fill me with fear, but know that I am not so easily defeated. I am a creature of darkness and power and shall not be cowed by the likes of you.”

And with that, Feno throws the vial of holy water at few skeletons that were bunched together. The vial shatters, destroying one skeleton in the process, and damaging several others with the holy water spray. Lhoss steps up and fires her ever reliable magic missile at the Beholder. The magical creature swats it away effortlessly. Her jaw drops, as she had never seen that happen before. Kyro notches an arrow in his bow and fires at the Beholder. It finds its mark and the Beholder screams in anger, "You will pay for that treachery!" Kyro fires again but fails to connect on the second arrow. The skeletons, zombies, and the Beholder advance to attack the party. The Beholder focuses its magical eye stalks and makes magical attacks on Arnd and Kyro. It first tries to attack Arnd, but the spell fails, as the stout little dwarf's blood gives him immunity to that particular attack. Kyro is next to be targeted, but thanks to being favored by the gods, is able to shrug off the spell. The Beholder once again focuses on Arnd, and this time is successful in its attack, causing Arnd to fall asleep. The creature launches once more spell at Kyro, but Kyro is able to resist once more. The skeletons come charging in and attack Kyro. While most miss in their attacks, one particular skeleton is able to get a grazing wound on the ranger. Some skeletons attack Feno, but naturally they all miss. Some skeletons attack Lhoss, causing some minor damage. Feno opts to try to clear a path, attacks and destroys a skeleton first, then a zombie shortly afterwards. The Beholder, sensing that Feno is currently the biggest threat, focuses its magical attacks on him. The first spell, a charm spell has no effect thanks to his elven blood. Unfortunately, the second spell, hits Feno full force. The second spell, a fear spell, causes him to look at the creature, quake in terror, and turn to flee from battle. Lhoss readies another magic missile spell, but a skeleton disrupts it with a successful strike on her. When Armatzi moves into the room to take action, the skeletons quake as if in pain and the Beholder speaks:

“You speak of righteousness and virtue, of light and purity. Your words are hollow and meaningless in my wrath. Your so-called holy relic may be a thorn in my side, but it is nothing compared to the fury that burns within me. I shall crush you beneath my gaze and tear you limb from limb with my disintegrating rays! I revel in the agony of your demise. Know this: you’ve invoked the wrath of Ibixibildo, and you shall pay dearly for your decisions. Your holy relic may give you strength, but it is nothing to the power that I wield. Prepare yourselves for annihilation! For your end is nigh, and there is no escape from the wrath of the beholder!”

Armatzi attempts to turn some of the undead army, but they resist due to the power of the beholder. Niki attempts to strike a nearby skeleton, but unfortunately misses on her attack. The beholder attacks Armatzi, causing him to writhe in pain. It then lifts him into the air and drops him to the ground causing him further damage. At this moment some forgotten knowledge is jogged back into his brain, forgotten after given from Sir Guy:

“Sir Guy urged Armatzi to do what he could not do and finish his task. And what was his task? Long ago, before he was usurped by his children, this temple was used by evil cultists to worship Narule, the god of the dead. The temple was built on a spacial weakening in the layers between other planes of this realm. Evil rites took place here and the bodies of sacrifices were thrown into the pit. Through these sacrifices the cultists called forth all manner of demons and unsavory creatures through the gate. The lawful order saw this temple as a great threat, and a small group of knights, and priests led by Sir Guy entered and battled the cultists and their undead minions. Sir Guy carried a powerful, gleaming white orb called the Fount of Law, created specifically to close the gate. Sadly, Sir Guy and his henchmen were betrayed, captured, and killed. The Fount of Law was hidden. The Fount of Law must be found and thrown into the pit to seal the gate!”

As Feno runs away into the next room full of demon statues terrified of the beholder, the group attempts the to attack and destroy some of the horde of skeletons, but instead causes minimal damage to them. Meanwhile, the portal in the back opens up, and three more undead appear...