After another corridor, the party and mercenaries found themselves in front of a huge door carved out of stone and crusted with opals and obsidian gems. "There's a strong magic energy coming from behind this door", Edwin said, frowning, "It's not another Lich, but whoever is on the other side is powerful. And there's something else…Let me check", he summoned a Wizard Eye and sent it through the door to scout ahead, then turned to Daniel and Aerie without opening his eyes, "Take my hands and focus, I will let you see what I'm seeing".
Both obliged and closed their eyes too, but Daniel's eyes soon snapped open as his face twisted in a grimace. "Ah, shit! That's not good, pal", he cursed, "There are three earth elementals in the room on the right and one of them is none other than Ogremoch himself. Just so you know, he's the Prince of Earth elementals and he's also strong as f-udge", he quickly amended, fearing Jaheira's wrath. "In the room on the left there are also some undead", the Avariel added, "They look like vampire knights. And in front of the door there is a Drow female, could be a mage or a priestess".
Meg sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Sendai is going all out, eh? I wonder how on Toril she managed to get so many different creatures to become her allies. Whatever: we'll split in three teams, each one of them will take on a share of enemies", she decided. She and Lothar brainstormed for a few minutes and when the teams were ready to go, Minsc kicked the door open, revealing a Drow woman standing on a platform: she was of average height, with platinum blond hair tied in a bun, her eyes were a pale red and her skinny body was wrapped in a long black and purple mage robe.
"So you made it this far. Impressive, but your journey ends here: I am Diaytha, high priestess of Llolth and you will fall today! My allies will take care of you!", she snarled, then teleported away leaving them to stare at a sealed door at the end of the platform. "Dirty coward", Sarevok spat, "It seems we will only need to split our forces in two groups for now". "Okay then, new plan: the druids and mages will take on the elementals, along with half of our fighters and thieves. The clerics, rangers and the rest of the fighters and thieves will face the vampire knights", the Ilmatari decided, "Let's go kick some evil butts!". Minsc beamed and readied his halberd, "Yes! Minsc and Boo will show those evil vampires what happens when you side with evil people who want to hurt good people!".
The first group went to the right and as soon as they entered the room, two of the three elementals rushed to meet them, but were met with several elementals summoned by the druids: fire, water, wind, acid, poison, storms and lightning, every force of Nature was called to aid in the battle against earth, weakening the enemies, but not enough, though the strikes of lightning did much damage as it was the element which was stronger against earth. The two towering monsters were powerful, their blows not so fast yet whenever they hit home they smashed bones and sent someone down, alive but in critical conditions and to make matters worse, Ogremoch caused earthquakes at random intervals, sometimes causing the fighters to lose balance at the worst moments.
It felt like a blessing when one of the two earth elementals fell, the other soon following now that all the forces in the room were focused on it, yet the Prince of earth remained and they knew it would be hell to take him down. But in the end, he fell too: his legs were chipped away piece by piece by the wood creatures and water elementals, his chest was burned by the fire elementals, his back pierced by the spells of the mages and the weapons of the fighters and thieves and its entire body hit again and again by shots of lightning. What finally sealed his fate was the moment when his head was literally sent flying by an explosion, Daichi having climbed his huge body to bury a small but powerful bomb inside his neck before jumping down and activating it.
When the group rejoined the other half of their army, the clerics were quick to rush to their aid, but since they already had to heal the grave wounds received in the fight against the vampire knights, they could only patch them up as best as possible. "We must go back to the Pocket Plane", Meg decided, "I have exhausted my healing spells and I'm not the only one. Plus, we need to rest: these fights took a toll on all of us, it would be too dangerous to press on". "I say we face that Drow bitch now and rest later", Daniel spoke up, "She's alone, how difficult can it be to take her down?". "What if she has backup behind that door?", she shot back, "We're tired, sore and hungry, not to mention some of us need immediate healing, or they will not survive to see another day. We have no choice".
He mulled over it and nodded, "You have a point, little sis. But you're gonna be tired as hell after bringing all of our asses there". "No, I'm getting used to it actually", she said in all honesty, "The more I do this, the better I understand how it works and t-I also found a way to save some energy during the transfer", she corrected herself, not wanting to tell them that it was the Slayer that came up with the idea. "Even better, then! Let's go!".
oxoxoxoxoxo
As it turned out, Daniel was right and Diaytha was alone behind the door, something that he didn't hesitate to point out with an adorably cute smug smile. After her death, they moved on and in the next room, they found a Drow captain surrounded by soldiers and there was also a Beholder floating beside him. "So you are the one who caused all that commotion…I admit, I didn't expect you to come with an army of your own", he said, staring at Meg with a mixture of hostility and admiration. "We're here for Sendai, we have no reason to kill you. Move aside and you'll be free to go", she offered, but he snorted. "If I kill you, my mistress Sendai will reward me with everything I desire. You will fight me and you will die".
"Oh captain, my captain!", the Beholder cried randomly, leaving everyone to stare at it in confusion. The captain's left eye twitched, "What is it now?", he barked, exasperation clear in his voice, "Why are you talking like that? You're acting weirder than usual and I'm tired of it! Maybe I should report it back to my mistress!". "Oh, come on, it was just a quick comment", the Beholder replied, seemingly offended, "I've always wanted to say that and here you go, yelling at me and being all grumpy. I was just having a bit of fun before you get annihilated by this Bhaalspawn chick and her gang". "How dare you…!".
"You know, I've been thinking: if you and your men fight against this army, well, who will know at whose hand the Bhaalspawn died? Buuuut, if you fight this Margaret Dawn here one on one, well, then you'll be able to boast that you were the one to kill her, with your own hands. Not even the Matron Mothers could deny that. And then you'd have honors, riches, every new torture device you can think of, all of it would be yours!". The captain's frown disappeared and he was suddenly very interested in the Beholder's words, "Uhm…You may have a point. But how will I accomplish that?".
"Oh, it's easy: it just so happens that I have a Geas spell…". "NO!", Yoshimo shouted in terror, his handsome face pale as a sheet and Meg smiled at him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Easy, I won't let anyone use that spell on you, I swear", she reassured him, then turned to the Beholder, her eyes glowing golden, "Try to cast it on one of my companions and I will tear you apart with my bare hands". It rotated left and right in what was the equivalent of a head shake, "Oh, no, no, I won't cast it on them, but on you and the captain here!", it explained, "So the defeated one dies along with all of their allies".
She bit her lower lip, "One on one? Without any outside intervention?", she asked to be sure and Anomen started. "My love, you can't really consider such an arrangement! They are evil, they will find a way to cheat!", he protested, but the beholder rotated again. "Nope, nope, nope, they won't be able to cheat: once the Geas is in place, everyone else will be kept away from the fight by my magic. A fair fight, one on one. No tricks, no cheats, no fish and chips". "Fish and chips?". "Hey, it rhymed". "…I see". "So! Answer, Bhaalchick?". The Painbearer chuckled at the nickname, then sobered, "Well, if there's no other way, I accept your conditions".
"Awesome! Gimme a second to cast it…Aaaaaand done!", the Beholder announced and a force-field pushed everyone but her and the captain against the wall, while pushing the two contestants in the middle of the room, "So, no cheating, just good ol' asskicking Cordell Walker-style, got it?". Meg blinked, puzzled, "Who is Cordell Walker?", she asked the Drow, but he was just as lost as her. "Ah, don't look at me: most of the time I have no idea of what that thing is saying", he replied with a shrug.
The Beholder grinned, showing off its razor sharp teeth, "Okey-dokey you two! Rules are simple: you can use your weapons, your fists and your kicks, but no magic, I don't care if it's divine or arcane. I want you to go at it the old fashioned way, like in the fight Yusuke vs Chu in the Dark Tournament, okay?". "It would help if we knew who they are and what that tournament is!", the Ilmatari protested, frustrated and the Drow captain chuckled. "Now you know what I've had to deal with on a daily basis for the last five months". She shot him a pitying look, "I'm sorry for you, it must have been so hard". "It was, but either way, today will be the last day I have to endure his meaningless babbling".
"I would rather not have to kill you and your men, you know". "Well, I really want to kill you and your men, so don't you hope to turn me into your friend", he replied and the Beholder agreed. "Yep, no befriending the enemy either, missy! You're not Goku!". "Who the hell is this Goku anyway?!", she yelled, throwing her hands up. "A nice lad, but he eats so much he'll leave you broke if you make the mistake of inviting him for lunch, dinner, breakfast or any other meal". "The sooner we get this fight started, the sooner he will shut up…Hopefully", the captain told her and she sighed. "Fine then. I pray that Ilmater will protect you and your men from the Spider Pits".
"Spare me your pity…". "Yeah, spare the sympathy, like the Imagine Dragons sing", the creature added and both Meg and the Drow captain threw their weapons at it with a joined yell of 'shut up already!', "Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Okay, okay, I'll be silent, but you two go ahead and fight". "About time", she grumbled, then went to get her mace back and attacked the captain. They fought for nearly half an hour, neither of the two could get in a good blow, only causing minor bruises and small cuts, but then she saw her opening and even if she really didn't want to, she smashed her mace on his skull with all of her strength and secretly added to it some of the Slayer's, so that the blow would cause an instant and painless death to her opponent.
As soon as he died, all the other Drow in the room died as well of heart attack and the Beholder chuckled. "Yeah, see, I can cause a heart attack too! Suck on that, Yagami!", it cheered. "…You really are the strangest Beholder I've ever met in my whole life", she commented, shaking her head as a pang of regret hit her at all those wasted lives. "Why, thank you, missy!", it beamed, taking it as a compliment, "Well, my job here is done I guess. Good thing too, I'm sick and tired of being summoned by Drow at the drop of a hat. I mean, seriously, can't they find another Beholder, or an Imp, or whatever?".
"Eh…I suppose it can get annoying after a while", she said and it moved up and down in a nod. "Damn right it does! Still, now I'm free, so thank you, Bhaalchick. I owe you one". "You're welcome. What will you do now?". "Oh, you know, I've seen a hive nearby, so I guess I'll go check on the ladies there and maybe I'll be lucky and get myself a nice Beholder lass who'll be up to binge watch Saiyuki and CSI Las Vegas with me on my extraplanar screen!", it said with a dreamy smile. "Well, good luck then. We, uh, we'll just go now". "Uh? Oh, yeah, bye everyone!", it grinned and floated away, leaving behind a very very baffled army.
oxoxoxoxoxo
Author note: for those of you who don't know it, Cordell Walker is none other than Walker Texas Ranger. Yes, his given name is Cordell. No wonder everyone always calls him by his last name. Also, the song referenced by the Beholder is "Enemy" by Imagine Dragons feat J.I.D.