Fei watched the flaming arrows with interest from her position in a large tree at the center of the small village. Despite her besotted state from drinking too much wine an hour before, she managed to keep her seat in the tree. "That's interesting," she slurred, watching as the roof of the inn caught fire. "Maybe I should do something. A little later. Probably."
Meanwhile, at ground level, the rest of the group sprang into action. "I saw monsters behind the inn!" Sy shouted, charging around the side of the inn towards the woods.
"My sister is in there!" Arnick shouted at the same time, rushing for the door to the inn. Sadun and Cassian followed Arnick, and began dragging drunk kobolds out of the burning building while Arnick ran up to the second floor. Sadun carried out two kobolds while Cassian threw Tella out the door. The kobold warlock landed square on her head and passed out with a muffled curse and a grunt. Without looking Cassian turned around and grabbed the last kobold and heaved it out as well. He and Sadun began double checking that no more kobolds were unconscious around the first floor.
Outside, Whisper cast a cantrip that doused one of the fire arrows, but the others continued burning. The flames began spreading over the inn's lightweight wooden roof.
From her perch in the tree, Fei watched Sy run around the inn and hesitate before plunging into the treeline. In her moment of hesitation, Sy was grabbed by a hooklike arm and pulled forcefully into the trees. "Well that doesn't seem right," Fei thought. The druid took a moment to prepare a spell, then shifted into the form of a giant eagle and swooped down, unleashing the magical blight upon the Hook Horror that had grabbed Sy. The horror released the elf and turned to swing at Fei with a guttural scream.
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| Picture of a Hook Horror from the D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual |
Hearing the monstrous scream, Whistle jogged to the corner of the inn to lend her support to Sy. Seeing the monster, the genasi bard evoked a bolt of fire and hurled it into the hook horror. The smell of burnt monster accompanied an even louder scream of pain from the beast. Behind her, the kobolds Sadun and Cassian rescued came to their senses and rushed to the doors of the village houses, drawing their daggers and preparing to defend the buildings and their sleeping friends inside.
In the forefront of the fight, Sy drew her rapier and began waving the blade in an arcane pattern in front of her. The sword began emitting a loud wailing sound, and Whisper could make out the pattern of song in the blade's sound. Sy suddenly lunged forward, stabbing with her rapier. A crashing boom sounded when the blade found its mark, causing the hook horror to scream in pain again and stagger backwards. Sy took advantage of the opening and landed another swift cut across the horror's torso, leaving a trail of blood in the wake of her blade. The horror screamed in pain and glared at the bladesinger.
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As he walked along the road through the forest, a robed tiefling looked up at the smell of smoke and the sound of clashing steal. "Hmm, it looks like burning buildings ahead. I wonder if I can use that as a distraction to steal whatever valuables there might be there," he wondered to himself.
Reaching the edge of the village, Ekemon the assassin observed a group of heavily armed or magic wielding adventurers rushing about, apparently working to stave off a monstrous assault on the village. "Should I help them?" Ekemon asked himself. "Well, maybe I'll just take it all in and see if my help is even needed. And if it looks like they could pay for my services." Taking up position behind one house, the tiefling unslung his short bow just in case, and settled in to wait, unseen by anyone.
------------------------
Arnick rushed to the inn room where he had left Rock and threw open the door. The kobold lay on the cot along one wall, slumbering under the blankets Arnick had thrown over it. Arnick ran over and shook the kobold. "Elle! I mean, Rock! We need to get out of here!" The smell of smoke filled the air, and looking up Arnick saw flames beginning to lap down through the ceiling. Rock remained stubbornly asleep. "I guess I'll have to carry you then. I'm sorry Rock, I know you're not a fan of this," Arnick muttered, lifting the sleeping kobold and turning to run out of the room.
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As Fei prepared to cast another spell at the Hook Horror assaulting Sy, she heard movement from her right side. Turning, she was met with the horrific green eyed glare of a strange one-eyed monster. The monster's gaze seemed to bore into her, and the druid felt her flesh starting to rot. At the same time she felt the monster's gaze boring into her mind, as though it were searching something. In her drunk state, she did the only thing she could think to to fight back against the psychic intrusion; she sang a song about a few of a druid's favorite things.
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| The one-eyed creature was a Nothic, though none of our characters recognized it. Picture from the 5th Edition D&D Monster Manual. |
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Whistle turned away from the battle in the trees Fei and Sy were waging when she heard movement from the opposite side of the inn. Four robed figures appeared, moving quietly towards the inn's front door.As they got closer, Whistle noticed that two of the robed figures had a writhing tentacle instead of a right arm, though they were otherwise humanoid. One of the figures with two arms ran to the door, breaking their stealthy approach, and hurled a bolt of fire into the dry grass just outside the door, lighting it on fire. The second two armed figure drew a bow and took aim at the doorway, while the tentacle armed cultists held their tentacles at the ready.
A moment later, Whistle heard a roar of rage, and Sadun crashed through the window next to the doorway. The dragonborn looked around, spotted the robed figure by the door, and hurled a handle directly into its chest. At the same moment, the tentacle armed cultists unleashed beams of energy from what Whistle now saw was an eye at the end of their tentacles. Sadun ducked around the first beam which flew high, then jumped over the second beam. Whistle found herself quickly dancing out of the way of the second beam as it continued on past the dragonborn barbarian.
Deciding to follow Sadun's example, Whistle sang a song about brittle glass and a rock in the midst of the cultists exploded, peppering all of them with needle sharp shards. The cultists by the door, still staring dumbstruck at the axe in their chest, took a large shard to the back of the head and slowly slumped lifeless to the ground.
Turning back to the battle in the forest, Whistle called out to Sy. "You can do it?" Despite the question in her voice, her magic caused the words to stir great inspiration in the bladesinger.
Cassian soon followed Sadun out the window, having satisfied himself there were no more kobolds to rescue other than Rock. He rolled as he hit the ground and came to his feet on the far side of Sadun. Without looking at the cultists, the half-orc rushed to the closest kobold guarding a house and handed it the dragon's egg that was still tied to his chest. "Keep this safe!" Cassian said to the kobold, who grabbed the egg and retreated into the house, slamming the door behind it.
Meanwhile, Fei had recovered from the Nothic's mental attack and resumed her human form, shaking her arms to get rid of the rotted flesh feeling. Casting a quick glance about she saw a second hook horror emerge from the trees to join the first, and a multi-legged lizard approaching from further back. The druid grunted in dismay, recognizing the hulking form of a basilisk.
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| Picture of a Basilisk from the 5th Edition D&D Monster Manual. |
Knowing the basilisk would be a threat with its petrifying gaze, Fei raised her arms and called out to the elemental waters in the air around her. A 10 foot wall of water rose in front of the druid and then crashed over the basilisk and both hook horrors. One of the hook horrors took the full brunt of the water and collapsed to the ground, but the other hooked a claw into the ground and stood fast. The basilisk rooted itself through all eight legs and also weathered the impact of the water well. The corner of the inn that the water hit did less well, knocking loose several of the boards and crashing in one of the windows on the second floor.
The hook horror that had managed to stay put through Fei's tidal wave stood to its full height and swing its claws at Sy, but was unable to find an opening through the elf's whirling rapier. The other hook horror climbed back to its feet and began striding towards the fray.
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"Those two are holding their own," Ekemon thought, watching Sy and Fei work, "but I'm not sure they can hold out against all those monsters if their friends are distracted fighting those robed people. Maybe I'll help them after all. And give them my bill when this is all said and done."
The tiefling raised his bow and fired a well aimed shot into the hook horror just standing up from the tidal wave. The creature, not expecting an attack from Ekemon's direction, had left a vital weak point that the assassin's arrow unerringly struck. The horror reared away from the strike, shrieking in pain and looking for its unseen assailant, but Ekemon had already moved behind a different house, and the horror could find no target for its ire.
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Sy, inspired by Fez's tidal wave, leapt backwards onto the low roof of the nearby one story house and wove her singing sword in a circular pattern. A large ball of fire erupted from the circle and exploded on the ground just behind the approaching monsters. The hook horror with a mysterious arrow protruding from its gut was immolated completely, and the second hook horror collapsed from the flames. The Nothic and the basilisk were singed but continued onwards. The trees around the monsters were now burning merrily, and the flames of the fireball had ignited the wood of the far wall of the inn on both floors. The corner of the inn damaged by the tidal wave collapsed entirely.
"I am the god of hellfire!" Sy cried in delight at the fiery explosion.
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Arnick cast a worried look at the wall of the middle inn room where he stood with Rock. Looking back he saw that Rock had woken from the explosions and hammering noises that had issued from without. "Oh good, Rock we need to go."
"Go where?" the confused kobold asked.
Ignoring this, Arnick picked the kobold up and rushed to the window in the hallway outside. Rock, panicking at the sudden kobold handling, let out a yell of alarm and put its hands in front of it. The window exploded outwards, and the force of Rock's instinctual gesture hurled Arnick back into the room he had just emerged from. Rock landed on the floor next to Arnick, and pushed again, knocking Arnick backwards again, this time through the wall behind him into a burning room. Rock collapsed to the floor, unconscious from its exertions.
"Great," Arnick muttered, picking himself up and walking back into Rock's room. "Back where I started. You could go easier on me Elle." The gnome picked the unconscious Rock up again and began walking towards a window in the back of the inn room.
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As Sy danced on the rooftop, the Nothic turned towards her and glared severely. Sy felt the power of the creature's eye and marshaled her mental defenses. The ceiling around the elf began to rot and buckle, but she herself remained unharmed. Frustrated, the Nothic turned and clawed at Fei. Fei attempted to dodge, her body distending and morphing in strange ways, but the Nothic's claws found purchase anyway, leaving bloody streaks across the druid.
From the roof, Sy observed the strange motions Fei's body took in her dodge attempt. "Oh no," the elf said, aghast, "my fireball broke Fei!"
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Sadun drew her greatsword and set herself in a ready stance, but before she was able to charge the cultists, one of the tentacle armed foes walked up to Tella's still form and leveled its tentacle at her. "Resist us further and this one dies!" the cultist declared.
As soon as it spoke, Sy's invisible watchdog, which she had been setting up when she noticed the enemy approach, leapt onto the cultist and bit down hard on its tentacle arm. "By the Eye!" the cultist swore, instinctively firing a beam from the eye-stalk into the unconscious kobold. Tella's body shuddered as it was wracked by a powerful impact, and Sadun saw the magical energy from the blast swirl above Tella before being absorbed by the tentacle again. "I mean it," the cultist said, regaining its composure from the unseen attack. "Anything more and I will fire this eye two more times into your helpless friend here." The other two cultists trained their tentacle arm and bow at Tella as well, backing up and spreading out.
"Ok," Sadun said, biting back the raging roar she felt in the bottom of her throat. "Ok, we can be calm." In one swift movement, the barbarian plunged her blade into the ground, staring at the tentacle armed cultist. A bolt of lightning flew from the cloudless skies, striking the cultist full on the head. The electrical shock knocked the cultist to the ground, its body twitching and quite dead. Behind Sadun, Whisper grinned and pulled a bottle from her belt. Shadows swirled and moaned from similar bottles strung up there. Opening the bottle, Whisper sang a short chant, and a shadowy form rose from the dead cultist and was sucked into the bottle.
The other two cultists cursed and fired on Tella, both arrow and beam hitting the poor kobold. The small form of Sorzens orb rolled from Tella's tattered robes from the impacts, and her breathing became ragged and shallow.
Sadun released her rage again, drawing Briarblade and charging the remaining cultists. With a roar of vengeance, she plunged Briarblade into the ground. Beautiful pink and orange flowers immediately began springing up around the cultists' legs, and both robed figures began hacking and coughing.
"It's going to be ok," Whistle called out to Tella's unconscious form, imbuing healing energy that brought the kobold's breathing back to a steady level. The genasi ran past Tella and hurled a dagger at the cultist with the bow, but the throw went wide and the dagger embedded itself in the wall of the burning inn.
Cassian, observing the scene from his position by the kobold house, ran up to Tella and dropped his shield over her body before dashing to the remaining tentacle cultist and swinging his own greatsword. The blade found a home in the middle of the cultist's torso and the figure dropped to the ground. "Sadun, duck!" Cassian shouted, turning and hurling the greatsword over Sadun's suddenly crouching figure. The massive blade flew end over end and cleaved the final cultist from head to groin.
"Well thrown," Sadun said, calming from her rage. "But we still have more company." The dragonborn gestured to the edge of the village where two floating eyeball monsters were observing the scene.
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| Picture of a Gazer from D&D 5th Edition Volo's Guide to Monsters. Note this monster is only about 8 inches across. |
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The basilisk approached Fei and Sy over the corpse of the downed hook horror. Throwing caution to the wind Fei drew the wood and metal wand she had found in Sorzens tower, pointed it at the basilisk and pressed the metal insert. Energy flickered from the wand and slammed into the basilisk. With a pop, the basilisk disappeared in a flash of holy radiance.
"Where did you learn a Banish spell?" Sy called out.
"It was the wand," Fei replied, watching as the energy in the wand dissipated and the stone clicked out into her palm. "Amazing," Fei muttered, pocketing both parts of the wand. She turned to the Nothic that had clawed her a moment before and gestured. A large stone rose nearby and hurled itself into the Nothic, causing the one-eyed creature to issue a guttural growl of pain.
The Nothic recovered quickly from the blow and rushed to claw Fei in retaliation. Fei's oddly weaving form avoided one of the claws, but the other found purchase. Fei hissed in pain as another line of blood appeared across her forearm. Apparently satisfied, the Nothic walked away from the druid and turned to gaze at the burning inn.
Sy, seeing the Nothic retreat, hopped off the roof and dashed at it, swinging her humming rapier in a wide arc. With an explosive impact she lopped off both of its arms, and the Nothic died with a startled expression on its face.
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Ekemon skulked back to the edge of the building and took in the carnage in the village square. Spotting the gazers on the far side of the houses, he readied his bow. "No charge," he muttered, "this one's for fun." The tiefling fired, and the gazer was pierced by the arrow and seemed to slowly deflate. It's lifeless form sagged to the ground. The second gazer immediately flew into the cover of the trees and disappeared from sight.
Satisfied with himself, Ekemon returned to the shadows and began looking for a way into the small houses in hopes of valuables he could steal.
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Inside the burning inn, Arnick coughed at the encroaching smoke. Summoning his remaining stamina, he lifted Rock once more and jumped backwards out the nearby window. In a feat of acrobatic skill, the gnome used his feet against the outside of the inn to slow his fall, landing softly on his back with Rock cradles in his arms.
Sy's voice sounded nearby. "Oh, you were still in there?"
"Yeah, I was," Arnick said, standing up. "Excuse me." The gnome dashed to the building Cassian had entrusted his egg to, and placed Rock gently onto the floor inside.
"Oh, that's my cloak wrapping the egg, can I have that back?" Arnick asked one of the startled kobolds in the room. The kobold gingerly handed the cloak to Arnick, who used it to cover Rock's sleeping form.
Outside, Sy turned to Fei. "Well, I think we did a good job," the elf remarked. Fei nodded, and walked into the woods, already chanting spells to extinguish what flames she could to save the forest.
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Cassian and Whistle began looting the cultists bodies. Whisper found a pamphlet on what seemed to have been the lead cultist, which said "Check on Kobolds. Make sure tunnel remains secret." She pocketed the sheet. The cultist's robed were burned away from the lightning bolt, so she moved on. Cassian had already taken what coins and valuables the other cultists had, but Whistle inspected the rest for decent clothing. Only the first cultist, dead by Sadun's handaxe, had a largely intact robe. "I can mend the axe hole," Whistle thought, removing the robe and cleaning off some of the blood.
Sadun recovered her magical greatswords and retrieved her axe head from the now naked cultist body. Looking at the cultist's exposed face, the barbarian was surprised to see a line of banadages over its eyes. She removed the bandages, and saw that the cultist had no eyes. "How do they see?" she wondered. "Are they guided by those tiny beholder things?"
Turning around, Sadun noticed Cassian picking his shield up, exposing Tella in her tattered robes. "Oh, I can help," Sadun thought, pulling her recovery potion from her pack. She knelt next to Tella and coaxed the potion down the kobold's throat. Tella's breathing further stabilized, and the impact wounds she had suffered from the cultist's tentacle beams faded to severe bruises.
Across the village center, Arnick emerged from one of the houses and walked over to inspect Tella. He saw a kobold nearby holding a rock that looked suspiciously like Sorzen's. The kobold offered a tentative smile. "Good job?" it said, apparently unsure what had just happened.
"Can I look at that stone?" Arnick asked, intrigued.
"No," the kobold said hesitantly. "It belongs to the wizard."
"Oh, alright then," Arnick said, turning to look at the inn, still ablaze.
Sadun followed the gnomes gaze. "I'm going to have to leave so much money to make up for this," she sighed.
"They overcharged you anyway," Cassian said. "And you did buy the whole building for the night."
"Hmm," Sadun said. "I still feel like these villagers will deserve compensation for this. I'll consider it overnight. I'm going to take Tella inside one of the houses." She picked up the kobold and walked to the same house Arnick had emerged from. A kobold answered the door at Sadun's knock. "Would you please take care of her?" she asked. The kobold nodded, and Sadun walked inside, placing Tella gingerly on the floor next to the sleeping Rock.
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Near the woods, Sy knelt next to the Nothic's corpse. She drew a knife and sliced the eye in twain, scooping out the gooey insides. "Hey Fei!" Sy called. "Want to look at this?"
Fei emerged from the trees. "The fires are mostly out," she reported, "but I'm having trouble getting the last few under control. What do you have?"
"Neat isn't it?" Sy said, spreading the Nothic's eyeball on the ground. "Say, I saw you move in a weird way when this thing tried to hit you. Was that a druid thing or just because you were drunk?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Fei said cooly.
"Your body, it sort of distended and seemed to try to move around the claws. Not that it helped much," Sy explained.
"I really don't know what you're talking about, maybe your eyes were deceiving you. How much wine did you drink?" Fei asked, deflecting.
"Hey Fei!" Whistle shouted from the front corner of the inn. "Do you want to help us put the fire out on the inn here?"
"No!" Fei called back.
"Come on, I think your powers could really save the building!" Whistle called.
"Earth take the building," Fei cursed.
At that moment, the flames consuming the inn erupted, having found their way to the wine stash. With a shudder, the building sagged down and collapsed into flaming rubble. Whistle jumped out of the way as it did so.
"You know, the fire here threatens the woods," Whistle said.
"No, it will burn itself out before it reaches the trees," Fei observed. "I'm going to finish saving the forest now."
"You know forest fires are natural sometimes!" Whistle shouted at Fei's retreating back. "They can help the plant and animal life! I read a story about that once!"
Fei ignored the bard's taunts and proceeded to the last patch of burning forest. With a sigh, she raised her arms again, and a tidal wave of water washed over the area, extinguishing the last of the flames. The druid thought a moment, then climbed a nearby tree. "I wonder if any of the fighting affected the villagers," she thought. "Sadun said they'd retreated to the woods..."
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Arnick sat in front of the kobold, sketching the stone it held. "So how are you holding up?" the gnome asked, finishing his sketch.
"Head hurts," the kobold said sadly. "Very confusing, you fight big-eye servants, but not fight us."
"I'm sorry," Arnick said, patting the kobold on its head. "I'm a little confused myself.
"And lots of fire," the kobold said.
"Tell me about it," Arnick muttered.
"Whoo!" came Sy's exuberant voice from the other side of the burning wreckage of the inn. "That's why we're the champions!"
Arnick sighed. Behind him, Cassian walked to the kobold house where he had stashed the egg.
"Hey, I'll take my egg back," the half-orc said when he reached the open door. The kobolds turned and drew their daggers.
"No," one of the kobolds said. "This is wizard's egg. You keep putting it in danger!"
"He entrusted it to me, it's my egg now," Cassian protested.
"He told dragon lord to keep it safe," one of the kobolds said, glancing at Sadun in the corner.
Cassian reached over the kobolds' heads and picked up the egg. As one, the kobolds responded by stabbing him in the thighs. "You ingrates," Cassian muttered, smacking all three kobolds with his gauntlets. The kobolds collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Arnick walked into the house at that moment. "Tella looks cold," he said, noting the shredded wizard robes on her body. "Is there any clothing in here?"
"Whatever you can find," Sadun said, her eyes closed.
Arnick rummaged around in the crowded hut and soon came back with a shirt and breeches. He dressed Tella in the shirt, but realized the breeches were sized for a human. With a shrug, the gnome chopped off the legs until they were short enough not to trip a kobold, and put them on Tella as well. "There," he said happily. "A little dignity." Satisfied, the gnome walked out of the house and began sketching the blazing ruins of the inn.
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Cassian walked over to where Sy was still doing a victory dance after securing the egg to his chest again. "Did we lose anyone?" he asked.
"Not while I'm here!" Sy shouts exuberantly, pointing one hand towards the sky and firing a celebratory lightning bolt. A fried bird landed on the ground in front of her. "Look, dinner!" Sy said excitedly.
Drawn by the noise, Arnick walked over and sat down again, sketching the image of Sy with a smoking bird carcass in her hand.
"Excellent!" Cassian said. "It is so nice not to lose someone to the beholders minions for a change."
"I know right! I haven't even done this before, I've just been traveling around, training and looking for other champions!" Sy exclaimed. "I'm so glad I found you guys! This is the best!"
"I'm glad you're here!" Cassian said, "you seem capable and you helped us greatly!"
"Whoo!" Sy shouted again, and she and Cassian bumped chests.
"Fascinating," Arnick muttered, sketching the moment.
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"Sadun?" Whistle asked, piking her head into the house.
"I'm over here, Whistle," Sadun replied. "Just closing my eyes. It was a long day, and then the inn burned down at the end of it."
"If you have a moment, I think I can get some information from the cultists," Whistle said.
"How? They're dead," Sadun pointed out.
"Well," Whistle said. "Just remember this is still me."
Sadun joined Whistle in the doorway as the genasi took out the bottle that contained the shadowy form of the cultist's soul. She put the bottle to her mouth and drank deeply. Her features twisted and changed until Sadun was looking at the face of the cultist. One of Whistle's arms seemed to disappear.
"I have access to his memories," Whistle explained. "Although not to his secrets. Ask me anything, and I'll try to find it."
"Alright," Sadun said, bemused. "Why were they sent here?"
"They were sent here to check in on the kobolds," Whistle said. "The beholder was expecting the kobolds to make their weekly trip and sent the cultists to mark their progress. They were also instructed to ensure the secret passage was sill a secret." Whistle passed a moment. "I can't get information on the secret passage, it was too much a secret for me to access that."
"Any information on who this cultist was?"
"His name was Terry, he was a farmer. He was a normal person once, until one of those... gazers? The small beholders, one of them approached him. Instead of killing him, like he expected, the gazer lead him... somewhere." Whistle sighed. "It's all secret from there, but presumably to whatever secret ritual makes someone a beholder cultist."
Sadun pondered a moment. "Can you get any information on the forces at the beholder's disposal?"
"There are a variety of species, several different monsters. I can see a troll. Beyond that, I just get the feeling that the forces of the beholder are many and varied, I'm afraid I can't get a sense of numbers. We will encounter more of these cultists the closer we get to the beholder's lair though."
Arnick joined them, but kept silent and merely took notes on Whistle's words.
"Can you tell us anything about the cultists themselves? How are they organized, how do they get those tentacles?" Sadun inquired.
"Terry doesn't seem to know how they recruit the cultists. For him it must have been that gazer. They seem to have some kind of hierarchy, but if Terry knew what that was it's a secret. He does know that at the third rank the cultist's eyes are removed. The tentacles... apparently the cult bestows these... upgrades based on an individual cultist's loyalty and devotion to the beholder."
"Arnick, any questions?" Sadun asked. The gnome shook his head. "Well, thank you Whisper. That was less than I suspect you'd hoped, but still more than we knew before."
Whistle began to release her hold on the soul of Terry. "Well, maybe we can still talk the kobolds into leading us to the tunnel." The genasi sighed. "I wish I'd been able to get more, but it seems like the cult keeps a lot of secrets."
"Let's get some sleep at least," Sadun said. "We can face our troubles fresh again in the morning."
TO BE CONTINUED
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