We were still arguing about books, their merits and flaws, hen we entered a chamber filled with statues. The figures depicted were demons of the Underdark. Ian peered up at what looked like a Farastu demon. “Hmmm, incredibly life-like. Indira, don’t cast any stray restoration spells, eh?” I walked over. They were very life-like. “You think these are just petrified creatures?”

On the opposite side of the room Myntilly was studying a painting. It showed Cauldron under a fiery sky. “It’s hard to say but I think this is a Betelle. It has his distinctive brush strokes. This is not his usual color palette, of course or his usual subject matter but –”
Acgar interrupted her. “It’s scrying.”
“Wha?”
“It looks like a painting but it’s actually scrying. I believe this is what it looks like up there.” She jabbed her finger upwards.

Sadi pointed at the double doors. “This is where we go next.”

We flung open the doors and saw a giant hazy object surrounded by three figures. The figures were swaying back and forth and chanting. Acgar, with her keen eyesight, said “That’s Orbius. I don’t know what he’s doing, but we should stop it.”

Before any of us could move, the chanting reached a pitch and the figures glowed white and crumbled to dust. The haze lifted and there was Orbius.

He looked better than when we’d last seen him. Then of course, we had almost killed him. He was now covered in some sort of gloop, some sort of slime.

I heard Myntilly beside me, “That’s just….. gross.”
“Part of the ritual, you think? A by product, perhaps?” Acgar sounded intrigued. “We can ask him later, OK?” Sadi smiled. “First, we kill him.”

Terrem saw Orbius, yelled with excitement and ran into the chamber. “Aw crap. Well there goes any chance of using a fireball.” Sadi cocked her head. “Why’s that?” I pointed. “Terrem’s in there! And –” She winked at me.

Myntilly stopped beside me. “Let’s get this party started.” She raised her hands and cast sound lance. You could see some slime fly off and his eyestalks vibrate from the spell.
“Nice.” Sadi reached inside her tunic and I saw her flick a fireball bead into the chamber. It rolled just past where Orbius was floating and exploded.

I whirled around to face her. “I can’t believe that you just did that! Terrem could have been hurt.” A spell whizzed past her head. Orbius had begun his attack. “We’ll talk later! OK?”
Acgar muttered to herself, “Slime and acid… eh probably neutralize the… Holy Storm. Yes!” And she began chanting as rain drop fell on Orbius.

He flew above the rain cloud and just out of sight. Unless we entered the chamber, we couldn’t see to hit him. Smart beholder.

To be continued……

We stood outside the fire warden’s door for a minute, weapons raised. And nothing happened. “Well, that turned out OK.”
“You mean the way we didn’t die? Yes, that was quite clever.” Acgar patted my shoulder. “How much did you give her?” Sadi was rummaging through one of the bags of holding.
“Um, it was…. I dunno. Whatever I had left after the Myntilly thing.” I gestured vaguely, not wanting to bring up the resurrection.
“Ladies? Shall we move on?” Iam and Brus stood at the next doorway. Myntilly looked at the sigil on the door and read out a charm person spell. The door opened to reveal a bathtub. A spa really.

The bathtub was huge and looked deep. At the far side, you could see soap, a loofa, a rubber ducky and some shampoo. Across the tub and to the right, I could see a doorway.

(more…)

Acgar walked over and reached a hand down to help me up. “Darkmantles. Kinda squishy but stubborn.” I pointed to her chest. “Is that one of them. What you’re wearing?”
She laughed. “Yeah. One of them dropped on me and I thought ‘Hmm, bite.’ And it kinda draped over me like a poncho. Too bad the camouflage properties don’t continue after death. Otherwise these hides would be valuable.”
“One bite? That’s all it took for you to beat…..” My voice trailed off.

(more…)

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