### 317

A strong hand on your shoulder shakes you roughly from your sleep. ‘The Beholder requests your company,’ says the Yoacor leader stepping back and motioning you to rise. ‘You must come with me.’

Together with six attendant guards, the leader escorts you from the watchtower, across an open courtyard paved with polished steel, and into the entrance hall of the crystal citadel. There a superb spiral staircase forms the central core of this stronghold, carved from a solid mountainous chunk of a sky-blue mineral unfamiliar to you. The stairs soar upwards towards the turreted roof where the chamber of the Beholder is situated.

With ease the Yoacor ascend and you struggle to keep pace. You count over 300 steps before the staircase opens on to a silent hallway where a massive door of solid ebony inlaid with gold fills an entire wall. A bell is rung and while you catch your breath and wait for the massive door to open you speculate on who the Beholder could be. You imagine him as a Yoacor warrior-king, tall and strong, with wisdom and intelligence beyond mortal reckoning. With this image in mind you feel optimistic that he will aid your quest. However, when the black door finally swings open your hopes are dashed—the sight of him shocks you to the core.

Turn to 93.