Unfortunately for the Beholders, it wasn't destined to be a long one. Unleashing her fury, Sabriel annihilated tge purple Beholder. Adah-kah slashed at the blue Beholder, beginning a torrent of attacks that left the eyebeast bleeding on the floor. It was time for the last drop to the Forge Room.
The room seemed calm, but quickly an array of Beholders appeared!
The fight begun with Vallo pushing his teammates deeper into the room. Maggido capitalized on this by drawing a big chunk of the Beholders to himself, keeping them from free movement. Sardis immobilized another large chubk of the Beholders, meaning the No Pants Brigade had far more range of motion than their foes.
Adah-kah used that fact to dart in and launch a psychic assault on several of the Beholders, staggering them. Sardis teleported the few Beholders not already pinned further away as Meggido pushed towards the largest Beholder, their apparent leader.
Sabriel used her wings and strength to smash into the blue and white Beholders. At nearly the same moment, Meggido reacher the leader and engaged him. The leader tried to fire back at Sabriel, but missed badly.
Vallo, having been preparing for this fight, laid out several bursts of fire from his crossbow, killing several of the lesser Beholders and gravely wounding the blue, white, and brown Beholders.
But now it was the Beholders' turn to strike. They blasted the party, causing some damage, but nothing debilitating. One of the lesser Beholders attacked and missed Adah-kah, who charged him in return and then flung another nearby Beholder into the Forge Fire.
Sardis, sensing the end of the long quest nearing, summoned her ensorceled succubus and commanded it to dominate the brown Beholder. It successfully did so, temporarily eliminating a threat. Then the succubus directed the brown Beholder closer to the leader. Once there, it bit at its leader, scoring superficial damage.
Sabriel used the distraction to send a blast into both Beholders. Unfortunately turnabout was fairplay and Meggido was forced to hit Sabriel, bloodying her, while she felt compelled to defend the Beholders.
Vallo took charge and sent a devestating blow into the lead Beholder and Adah-kah landed his own massive blow on the brown Beholder, finishing it off. Temporarily at her own direction, the succubus killed one of the lesser Beholders. Sardis damaged the leader further as Sabriel shook off the mind control.
The lead Beholder shifted Adah-kah slightly, then sent eye-rays into Meggido and the Nekhanj. Adah-kah responded in kind, slashing at the Beholder. Free to choose her own path again, the Succubus lashed out at another lesser Beholder... And Sardis, who went down in a heap.
Perhaps sensing an opportunity, the leader tried to shove everyone away, but only managed to move Meggido and temporarily weaken Sabriel. He followed up by trying to freeze Sabriel and Sardis. Unfortunately for him, this didn't phase Sabriel, who shoved him at Meggido. He countered, though bu shoving Meggido into the Forge Fire!
Being Warforged, Meggido passed through mostly unharmed, but it gave the party a brief scare. Adah-kah teleported into range, stabbing at the unprepared Beholder. Vallo launched a psychic assault to follow up and enraged the Beholder. Moments later, Adah-kah, Meggido, and Sabriel teamed to bring the beast down, leaving the party alone with the Forge Fire.
The whine and shift in the Forge Fire's size the party had previously deduced was the sign of something coming through the rift. Adah-kah, near the Fire had to dodge away as something immense crossed over.
Meggido, undaunted, siezed the momentary lull to place the linkage device onto the Forge Fire. It immediately began to glow, seeming to steal a bit of vitality from Meggido. Instinctively, the Warforged knew his life force had been bound to the device. And in that moment it clamped into place, first charging off the interdimensional energies of the Forge Fire and then sealing them away.
Meanwhile, Adah-kah worked to stabilize Sardis while Sabriel covered them, and Vallo, against a few straggling Beholders. Vallo completed a healing spell and Sardis regained his feet, quickly looking to gather all the information he could about the situation. In that moment the device finished its task, flying free of the former location of the Forge Fire, which had fallen silent.
And through the damaged Forge, the heroes could finally see the thing that had come through the Fire at the very end. It was a Beholder the size of a city, which had yet to notice them as it crashed through the damaged home of the Warforged. The No Pants Brigade fled the building lest it be dropped atop them.
As they regained their eagle mounts, they saw that the Beholder had become fixated on an approaching object, which appeared to be a cloudbank around a solid mass. The heroes had saved the world from the threat of invasion but the mysteries in it had not all been solved...
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