The beholder flew out of sight. There was a moment of silence.
Ian crouched by the door. “I’m going in.” Myntilly nodded. “Left or right?” Ian jerked his head left. “I’ll go right.”
Sadi smiled. “I’m going straight!” And she ran into the room and half way up the far wall. Myntilly ran right and jumped behind a table, pulling it over as a shield. Ian crouched by a half wall. Orbius’ eye stalks tried to take all the movement in.

I closed my eyes. “Pelor. Pelor shine your light upon us. It is our darkest hour.” Acgar hefted her bow. “Amen.”

As Sadi bounded up the wall, Orbius turned and looked at her, causing her magic boots to fail. She tumbled to the ground.

Ian yelled so that the beholder turned around. He seemed to consider the scene for a moment and then he flung slime at Ian.

“The slime has a paralyzing effect. Ian will be stunned for about a minute. Maybe longer.”

Myntilly, from the relative safety of her bunker, flung another sonic lance at Orbius. Slime flew off and more of it landed on Ian. “That is physics.” Acgar had a satisfied sound in her voice. I shook my head. “Slime. It’s just so — Sunbeam!” Acgar looked at me. “What?” I smiled. “Sunbeam. It kills slime on contact. Ha ha!” I closed my eyes, gathered my thoughts and flung my hand at the beholder. Rays of bright sunlight shot from my fingers.

Gobs of slime dropped from the beholder. I tried to hold my hand steady, burning one eye stalk and taking a good third of the slime off.

Ian was soon able to move again and he tossed a fire seed high into the air, hoping I think, that it would stick to some slimy places. The explosion rocked the beholder and he lost some altitude. Sadi had regained her feet and her magic boots, since the beholder’s main eye was suddenly pointing my way. She began to climb the wall again. With a lazy flick, Orbius spattered her with slime and she froze in place. Acgar aimed an arrow right for the center eye. She just missed and for her effort, Orbius put her to sleep. He turned and pointed an eye at Ian. Suddenly Ian was a stone statue. I felt the beholder’s eyes turn to me. I was overcome with fear. I am ashamed, but I dropped my axe and covered my face. I shook with sobs.

Brus, I found out later, nudged Acgar awake. And then he lumbered past and came over to me. I felt a warm, wet snout pressing against my covered face. My breathing slowed. Brus snorted and I laughed. That snort seemed to say “You have got to be kidding me. Big dwarf like you, afraid of a sack of eyes?” I patted his strong back and stood up. He’s almost as tall as me, but I could see over him. I saw arrows go from Acgar and Sadi. They hit home.

Myntilly zapped another spell at Orbius as he swooped down and Terrem climbed on his back. His eye stalks started aiming at the ceiling and bits of rock fell away. “He’s trying to blast his way out!”
“Nooooooo!” Myntilly stood up as the table in front of her shattered into tiny pieces.

I felt wind blow my beard and the wall cracked behind me. I raised my hand to attempt my sunbeams again when time suddenly slowed. I felt a force come up against me like the tide and it fell away and Brus turned to stone. Sadi was practically point blank and she shot arrow after arrow, hitting two more eye stalks.

One of Orbius’ far eyes turned to look at Sadi and timed slowed again. I knew somehow that it was a disintegrate spell. I saw it hit Sadi and glow green for a brief moment. She and Myntilly screamed at the same moment. I was torn as to who to run to first. I could reach Myntilly, so I started that way. Myntilly strode towards me and I had a moment to think “She seems fine. She doesn’t need my help.” Then she was directly below Orbius and she flicked her hand up and he exploded into a million little pieces.

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……

Myntilly stared at the three doors in the round room. “Which one? Where do we go?” Acgar peered at the drawing on the doors. “This one looks innocuous. It’s got to be a sleep spell.”
Ian stood beside her to look. “What’s that noise? Behind the door — there’s a noise. Water, maybe?” I walked over and put my ear to the door. “Yes, I think you’re right. It’s a hissing sound.”
Terrem came over and laid his head against the door. “That’s fire.”
I shook my head. “It can’t be fire.”
“It is.”
“No,” I said firmly. “It isn’t.” He folded his arms. “How do you know. How can you know for really?” I rolled my eyes. “Terrem…. OK, the door. The door isn’t hot. If there were fire in that room, the door would be hot.”
“Maybe it’s cold fire. Did you think of that?”
Before I could answer, I felt a hand on my arm. Softly Acgar said, “He’s seven. And we don’t have a lot of time. Let’s open the door.”

Myntilly read out a sleep spell and the door opened to reveal….. flames. It was a room full of flames. I heard Terrem say “Yes! I was right!”

“Um, there are people in there.” Sadi was at my elbow. “I can’t see anything! Are you sure.”
“Oh yeah. At least two.”

OK. I thought. Ice shield. And suddenly I was wreathed in a ring of cold. I remotely heard Ian say: “I’ve got quench prepared. Maybe I can put out a few of these flames.” And I walked into the room. The cold shield kept me feeling just fine. I advanced another two steps and suddenly a gush of water poured over me and the flames around me. When the water made contact with my armor, the ice shield froze it solid. I suddenly weighed an extra 50 pounds.

The others followed me at least as far as the water had put out the flames.
I heard a voice say “You have come to pay tribute? What is your name, cold one?” I saw a female figure that was flame and flesh combined. Beside her was a dwarf, a fiery dwarf. He and I exchanged curt nods (it’s a dwarf thing) and I bowed low to the female.
“My name is Indira Burningwood.”
She nodded. “That is a good name. You bring tribute to my beauty?”
I fumbled with my pouch. I had diamonds left from the resurrection spell. It was probably less than 10,000gp.
“Indeed.” And I opened the bag and poured a few diamonds on to my hand. “These baubles are nothing compared to your beauty. Will they suffice?” My hands were wet from the melting ice and the diamonds looked even prettier.

The dwarf came forward to take the pouch from my hand. “Burningwood?  What mountain are you from? I don’t know of any Burningwood dwarves.” Before I could answer, the female demon coughed and the dwarf bowed and backed away to her side.

“They are sufficient. You may go.”
I heard my fellows bristle at that. “May I ask your beauty a question before we go?”
I could hear the flames crackle in the ensuing silence.
“Very well.”
“Why are you here. In this place?”
“I am a flame warden.” I nodded. “So this is a sacred space.”
“No. I was hired to guard this place.” I heard a rustling behind me. Myntilly piped up: “We’re lost. How do we get out?”  The flame warden cocked her head. “The way you came in should work.”
“How did you get in?” Myntilly persisted.
“You would not survive the way I travel.” She paused. “I am done conversing. Be thankful that I was bored and that you were charming, otherwise I would have killed you.”
An anger I didn’t know existed reared up inside me. I bowed low. “I feel exactly the same way, madame.” And then, realizing what I’d just said, I backed up quickly, pushing the others out the door.

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