Synopsis: The Valley of Eyes

Good as their word, the kuo-toa conducted the heroes to the edge of the sea nearest their next step in the journey. The Valley of Eyes, they told the group, lay about a day's march down a wide tunnel ahead.

After a few hours' march the party met up with a duergar trading caravan coming the other way. This was an opportunity not to be missed. The heroes were able to divest themselves of a number of masterwork weapons taken from their enemies and obtain an armor upgrade for Tika and a belt of giant strength +4 for Loki. Equally importantly, they were able to ask the duergar what they knew of the Valley of Eyes.

The Valley, the merchants said, was a set of natural caverns a few miles back from the direction they'd come. Most people avoid the Valley because it is the home of the Flock of Orgheron, an aberration-worshipping cult. None of them knew for certain what form of aberration Orgheron was but it was generally presumed that it was a beholder of some type because members of the Flock decorate their foreheads by drawing a third eye on them and tend to carve eyes and eyeballs into the natural rock formations of the Valley.

Members of the Flock of Orgheron, the party learned, came from a number of races including duergar, grimlocks, svirfnebli, and underfolk (a sort of underground-adapted human variant). The leader of the Flock was Metar the Chosen, whom legend says was saved from the illithids and granted supernatural powers by Orgheron. Other than that, details about the Flock were lacking because they generally kept to themselves except for essential commerce.

The two groups shared a meal and parted friends, the encounter having been profitable for both.

An hour or two later the party sighted the entrance to the Valley: a wide, open passage leading to an opening that looked down over the land below. A series of wide, gradual steps led down into a ravine strewn with stalagmites and patches of moss and fungus.

About halfway down the stair the party spotted two figures waiting for them: mind flayers. They readied their weapons and continued but there was no threat here -- these were not living illithids but rather perfect stone statues. Or more likely, they surmised, real illithids petrified by a flesh to stone spell. Tika noted that the statues made a very effective 'NO SOLICITING' sign and they continued down.

A few steps down they spotted several round shapes floating their way. The creatures were roughly spherical and had multiple eyestalks jutting out from the tops of their bodies, but it seemed unlikely that four beholders would be roaming around in concert -- beholders, after all, notoriously hated even others of their own kind.

A creature swooped in and bumped Hyros, and a shower of noxious spores fell on him. The paladin shook off the attack and recognized the enemy now: gas spores, unintelligent but relentless. The group fell back a safe distance and Ash incinerated all four of them with a single fireball. That cleared the way for the party to finish their descent.

The Valley of Eyes lived up to its name. There were staring eyes carved into walls and formed from the tips of stalagmites all over the place. Even some particularly low-hanging stalactites had their tips fashioned into the image of a beholder's eyestalk. And among all the sculpted eyes, Loki spotted a couple of living ones as tiny spherical creatures, almost like embryonic beholders themselves, watched from a safe distance and skittered away when seen.

The heroes wound their way through the valley on a path that meandered constantly, making it difficult to maintain a sense of direction. Tika sought to lighten the mood with a little song:

We are here as friendly people,
We're just passing through.
If you don't attempt to kill us
We will not kill you...

Then, as the party approached a sharp bend in the path, a pair of gray-skinned humanoid figures stepped out to block their way. They wore hide armor and bore what at first seemed to be highly realistic drawings of a third eye on their foreheads. They brandished greataxes made of stone at the party, shouting at them in a language none of the heroes understood. Tika sought to fix that problem by casting tongues on Hyros, but as soon as the strangers saw her hands move the leader of the pair stepped forward. The extra eye on his forehead opened and the heroes found themselves suddenly stripped of all their magical protections and abilities. Even Loki's mind blade winked out.

Unable to see and with no magical language help, Hyros still tried to convey in Common that the party meant no harm. The disciples advanced, still shouting, and Loki's darkvision allowed him to see the body language that clearly indicated the party was not welcome. With no mind blade, he reached for his backup weapons, a pair of morningstars. In the back, Ash found and lit an oil lantern she luckly still carried with her, allowing the party to see dimly.

At the sight of Loki brandishing weapons, the lead warrior grunted something and Tika felt herself suddenly grabbed and wrapped up in a long, rope-like tentacle. By the light of Ash's lantern she saw that it came from what had looked like a rock formation but was actually a living thing. The strand held her and dragged her toward the roper's gaping maw as another lashed out and did the same to Ash.

Hyros lunged back and struck at the nearest roper strand with his sword, freeing Ash, and Vondran took the opportunity to charge at the leader and bear him down to the floor. As the warrior tumbled back the antimagic field projected from his extra eye aimed at the ceiling instead of the party and their magical protections and abilities returned. Loki wasted no time conjuring up a new mind blade and plunging it into the second warrior's gut. That warrior also had a real third eye, which then opened and emitted an antimagic field of its own. Loki focused and managed to keep his mind blade working despite the dampening affect.

The leader tried to stand but took a hit from Vondran and went back down, keeping that antimagic cone off his teammates. Ash grabbed Tika's hand and used greater teleport to take them both to the other side of the battle site, away from the roper and behind the antimagic-bearing barbarians. Tika used that position to launch three scorching rays at Loki's opponent and Ash added another set of her own. The leader rolled and stood, focusing his antimagic eye on Ash and Tika again.

Meanwhile Hyros was being targeted by the roper. Three separate strands grabbed and held him, dragging him toward the creature. Loki and Vondran combined their attacks and put the second warrior down, then turned to face the leader.

Just then reinforcements came in the form of three more grimlock warriors and, more disturbingly, a pair of genuine beholders. Blanketed now in antimagic fields and heavily overmatched, the heroes were at a severe disadvantage. Into this stepped one more figure, a pale human-like man in dark robes with a third eye in his forehead. This man spoke to the party in Common, demanding to know why they had attacked the Flock of Orgheron.

Tika, being unencumbered by roper strands, explained that they did not attack first -- the warriors had accosted them and responded to her attempt at casting a communication-enabling spell by attacking the party. The original warrior seemed to confirm this.

The pale man introduced himself as Metar the Chosen and asked the party's purpose in the Valley. Hyros, released by the roper, stepped forward and gave a short summary of the party's mission against the mind flayer sept. Metar paused, seemingly distracted, and then announced that the party had been invited to an audience with Orgheron.

Tika provided some healing to the fallen warrior as a sign of good faith and they followed Metar to the Flock's common area deep in the Valley. The beholders floated along, seemingly content to work together -- a most un-beholderlike demeanor.

The riddle was explained when the party came before Orgheron. The aberrant godhead of the Flock turned out to be an overseer -- a tentacled, almost tree-like being of similar blood to the beholder but with an innate ability to dominate beholderkin of almost any kind. With that power Orgheron could coerce an alarming number of beholders into peaceful coexistence.

Orgheron spoke Common in a deep, powerful voice. It expressed amazement that such a small party felt capable of taking on a mind flayer sept and downright astonishment that they had done so with so little apparent knowledge of their enemy. At Tika's assertion that they trusted in Pelor to provide, Orgheron chuckled wickedly. "Perhaps he has at that."

A good many of the Flock, Orgheron explained, were former slaves of the mind flayers -- escaped slaves, to be precise. The mind flayers did not easily let go of what they view as their property and had a habit of trying to take members of the Flock who left the Valley on business. As a result the illithids were also enemies of Orgheron's, and their increased activity in recent months had not gone unnoticed.

Before committing to an alliance with the party, however, Orgheron required some kind of proof that they were capable of holding up their end of the bargain. Would the party be willing to undergo a test?

Of course the heroes agreed. Metar bowed to Orgheron and conducted the party to a cave opening on the other side of the main village, where the sounds of inhuman screaming could be plainly heard. Inside, Metar informed the heroes, were two gougers -- creatures bred for the sole purpose of hunting and killing beholderkin. These two had been sent by the mind flayers to kill Orgheron or his followers and had been captured instead. If the party could dispatch the gougers capably Orgheron would be impressed enough to ally with them against the illithids. If they failed, or seemed overmatched, they would be welcome to leave the Valley in the direction they had come.

The heroes entered the cavern and hovered in the narrow opening long enough for Ash to cast know vulnerabilities. She gained no useful information from the spell but they did at least get a good look at the creatures. They resembled beholders but had a crazed, feral look to them. Their eyestalks twitched randomly and they shrieked constantly. Each also had a surprisingly long tongue that darted in and out of its mouth at impressive speed. But how could such creatures be a threat to a beholder?

They got their answer quickly when Loki charged into the low-ceilinged room. A gouger turned to face him and Loki's mind blade instantly winked out -- the large central eye of the gouger had the same antimagic properties as that of a beholder. Vondran heard Loki's shouted warning and went for the other target, throwing his harpoon and avoiding the antimagic cone for the moment. Hyros, in a rare moment of caution, fired an arrow at Loki's opponent instead of rushing into the antimagic field.

The gougers showed immediately how they got their name. Each lashed out with its vicious tongue, wounding Loki and Hyros. However, with their antimagic eyes trained on them Ash was able to find a clear spot to cast earth reaver and bring some of the cavern ceiling down on the gougers. Loki stepped underneath his enemy, out of range of the antimagic eye, and attacked with a fresh mind blade. Hyros used the same tactic to deliver a smite evil attack on the other. Ash followed suite to blast one with a fatal cone of cold and just seconds later Vondran landed a mortal harpoon throw against the other.

It had taken less than 20 seconds for the party to destroy the gougers. Metar, speaking for Orgheron, congratulated the party and agreed that yes, they did seem to be capable of at least challenging an illithid elder brain. All they had to do was arrange the circumstances in the most favorable way possible.