Part 43: Mini-update - if I hadn't been an idiot and forgotten about how to peacefully resolve things with the Spectator Beholder

Mini-update - if I hadn't been an idiot and forgotten about how to peacefully resolve things with the Spectator Beholder

Visitors! It has been some time since I have had anyone but the mad little Sahuagin come to this place... and that one is not full of riveting conversation. Ah --- but I see you hesitate. No doubt you have heard of my kind before, or even met some. You call us Beholders... yes, I think that is the term you use. I am but a Spectator Beholder, however, and not quite like others you may have met. I am set in this place to guard one thing and one thing only. I will not attack you... unless you try to touch what I guard. Touch anything else you'd like! Provided you weren't driven insane by the imps back there.
What is it, exactly, that you guard?
Just the one chest behind me. You are welcome to open the others with the imps, or do whatever else... I'm not here to do anything about them in the slightest. I think the Sahuagin looted the other chests long ago. They might have put some stuff of theirs around here, though, thinking I would scare off thieves. ... oh, that reminds me. I promised that mad little Sahuagin that I would make an effort to scare off intruders... So... boo! And that's about as much effort as I'm willing to put into that. (sigh) It's been a pretty lonely experience so far, you know.
Do you know what's in that chest you're guarding?
Not a clue. I wouldn't recommend touching it, though. I haven't had any real excitement in a long long time, but I've no compulsion towards killing, you know.
Are you *sure* I can't see what's inside the chest?
What? Are you in desperate need, or something? You have a dying relative that desperately needs what's in this chest? OH, I get it! You just HAVE to have what's in this chest, right? Because if a Beholder's guarding it, it HAS to be cool! Keep in mind that the drow who summoned me was mad. But, hey, who am I to judge, I suppose. I've been playing tic-tac-toe with a pair of imps for sixty years. ... sigh... Oh... in case you didn't hear an answer in that: no, you CAN'T look at what's in the chest. The drow specifically summoned me to guard *this* chest.
Did the drow summon you to guard just the chest or what's inside the chest?
Hmmmn. Well, he screamed 'my chest', as I recall. A spear was being thrust through his own chest at the time, though, so he could have been referring to that. I assume he was talking about *this* chest, though. And that means I can't let you open it... or do anything to it... even if I'm not guarding what's inside.
But that doesn't mean *you* can't open it, right? Then I could get what's inside without touching anything.
Hey, you're probably right. Hmmn. Actually, I've been wondering what was inside. Tell you what... I won't turn around and you just go take a look, ok?

[Protagonist loots the chest.]

Hmph. Is that it? Shoot, you'd have thought the whole future of the drow race depended on it or something, the way that mad drow was screaming. (sigh) I suppose I have to resign myself, now, to guarding a completely empty chest for the next forty years. Yay.
Why? What would be the point?
Huh. You know... you're absolutely right. Not even that drow mage would want me to guard an empty chest. It's not even a *nice* chest. There's no way that the Beholder Council, bloated bladder-bags that they are, would hold me responsible for this contract! I... I'm free! Free!! Yippee! What to do now? Hmmn. The Underdark is near here, isn't it? That means a female beholder can't be far. And *that* means... well, never you mind.