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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1983463" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 313Confronted with the sudden and most unexpected appearance of a faratsu demodand from the ruin of the burning zombie, Mole decided that it would be a very good idea if she returned back up the shaft.  But as she tried to pull herself back up, her leg got tangled momentarily in the rope stretching up into the shaft behind her.  It only took her a second to shake free, but that second was all the demodand needed.  The creature leapt at her, its long arms extending to snag her body with its claws, the sticky black goo that clung to it adhering to her as she tried in vain to slip free.  For a moment the rope held, taut, but the combined weight of the two of them proved too much for her mooring in the wine cellar at the summit of the shaft. “Mole!” Dannel cried, as the gnome, still clutched tightly in the demodand’s embrace, fell hard to the floor of the room.  The fiend tore at her with her claws, and Mole screamed in pain as its sharp nails penetrated her armor and dug painful punctures into her body.  It lifted her up to its waiting mouth, trying to jam her feet-first into that jagged orifice, but she managed to spread her legs enough to land her feet on its forehead and chin, narrowly holding her out of reach of the gnashing teeth.  For the moment.  But the demodand was both bigger and stronger than she was, and the sticky coating that covered it made getting out of its grasp a tricky business. The two remaining zombies shambled forward, mindlessly seeking to add their strength to the fray.  They did not assault the faratsu, but moved slowly and awkwardly around it, their withered hands already reaching for the fiend’s captive.  An arrow slammed into the faratsu’s shoulder, a message from Dannel’s bow, but the hit appeared to do little damage, its otherworldly defenses insulating it from even Dannel’s potent magical arrows.“Damn it, we have to get down there!” Beorna said, looking at the illusory floor as if considering leaping down into the fifty-foot shaft.  “The gnome was carrying all of the extra rope,” Fario exclaimed. “Great,” Hodge said.  “Whose plan was this, again?”“I can get us down there, but you’ll have to trust me,” Zenna said.  The half-elves nodded, and after a moment’s hesitation, Arun did as well.  The dwarf was averse to heights, Zenna knew, but no one could doubt his courage, especially when a friend was in danger. Another scream drifted up from below.  “If you’re going to do something, do it now,” Beorna said, her blade shining in her fists. “Everyone, stand at the edge of the shaft, and take hold of the person next to you,” Zenna said.  “On my word, step forward, and let yourselves fall.”“I dunna like this plan,” Hodge said.  But he joined the others as they readied their weapons and moved beside the shaft.  “Now!” Zenna said.  As one, the companions stepped forward, and started falling.  Hodge let out a roar as they disappeared through the illusory floor into the shaft, the ground below rushing rapidly up to reach them.  For a moment it looked as though they would collide with Dannel, who was descending more slowly using his magical slippers, but then Zenna spoke a word of magic, triggering her feather fall spell.  A heartbeat later their precipitous descent had slowed to a gentle drift.  Dannel easily dodged their falling bodies, and a moment later the companions appeared at the base of the shaft, landing softly on the stone floor of the chamber below.  Fario and Fellian were quick to react, leaping to Mole’s aid.  Fario darted around the slower zombies and lunged at the faratsu from behind, slashing at its bony torso.  He seemed to connect, but again its resistance to mundane weapons protected it, and the half-elf’s blow barely pierced its thick hide.  But Fellian quickly came at it from the other side, flanking the creature, forcing it to divide its attention between them. Arun opted for a more direct approach, stepping straight at the fiend, and the zombie that blocked his path to it.  Even as he swung, the still-struggling Mole warned, “Don’t kill the zombies!”  But she was too late, for the undead monster was already falling, knocked on its back with its torso rent near in twain by a stroke from Arun’s sword.  But before Arun could move to help the gnome, a terrible figure exploded out from the body of the zombie, and a second faratsu appeared to face them. Hodge held his stroke as he was about to attack the last zombie, dodging back as the creature hit his shield with a powerful slam.  “What are we s’posed to do wit’ it then?” he yelled. “Just keep it busy!” Beorna said, rushing to attack the second faratsu.  The creature quickly got its bearings after appearing from the gory remnants of the zombie, but it had no time to mount an attack before the templar slammed her holy blade into its body.  Unlike the other attacks thus far, this one clearly was telling, and a great gout of putrid black ichor erupted from the deep gash in its body.  But Beorna’s sword was fouled on the adhesive slime that covered its body, and she had to fight just to keep her grip on the weapon as the demodand staggered back from the force of the impact. “Use the holy weapons and magic!” Zenna said, calling upon a current of divine power to turn the last zombie facing Hodge.  The zombie retreated before her, and Hodge turned to help the others, but Zenna forestalled him.  “Let me align your axe, so you can better hurt them.”“Well, get to it, then!” the dwarf replied, holding up his weapon. Fario and Fellian’s attacks had thus far done little to actually hurt the demodand, but their feints distracted it enough for Mole to finally tear herself free of its grasp.  The injured gnome darted back but didn’t go too far, pausing only to rip her rapier from its sheath before rushing back to join the attack.  The fiends, outnumbered now, unleashed waves of icy fear that swept through the room.  Both Hodge and Fario were overcome, dropping their weapons and drawing back in shivering terror.  But the rest of the companions, bolstered in part by the aura of courage that surrounded Arun, fought on, bringing the attack to the creatures.  Fellian missed with a swing of his sword that glanced off of the first faratsu’s oily hide.  But his attack created an opening for Mole, who darted into position behind the demodand and sank the entire length of her rapier into its back.  The weapon clung to the creature and was yanked out of her hand by the fiend’s sticky hide, but it was nonetheless hurt, and hurt bad.  More arrows from Dannel, who was now perched on the ceiling near the lip of the shaft, slammed down into it, and even though its resistances protected it from most of the damage, the electrical jolts that shot through its body with each hit were clearly having an effect.  Beorna, rather than fighting to recover her sword, simply unleashed a blast of searing light into the chest of the fiend.  The creature screamed and fell back, but not far enough to avoid Arun, who swung his holy blade in a glittering arc that intersected its body where its torso met its hips.  The sword sang a brilliant note of triumph as it hit, and the faratsu collapsed into two pieces, its ichor steaming as it poured out from both halves onto the stone floor.  Beorna reached down and recovered her weapon, her mouth twisting in disgust as she shook off the clinging corpse of the slain demodand from the holy sword. The second creature tried to escape, calling upon magical invisibility to hide it from the blessed blades of its foes.  But Fellian quickly countered with an invisibility purge, and the faratsu found no escape as the holy warriors surrounded it and hacked it to pieces. “Are you all right?” Zenna asked Mole, while Fellian and Arun tended to their terror-infused friends. Fortunately the fear effect was temporary, and Fario and Hodge were quickly able to recover their weapons and rejoin the group. “Yeah,” Mole said, a slight sheepish tone to her voice.  “Thanks to you guys dropping in.”“Next time something looks harmless, don’t just assume that it is,” Dannel chided her, as he moved to the wall to join them on the floor of the chamber. “What about that last zombie?” Fellian asked.  The creature, still under the effect of Zenna’s turning, cowered at the far side of the room, near the dark alcove that might be an exit. “Destroy it,” Beorna said.  “If there’s another fiend coming... well, then bring it on.”“No sense in inviting more unnecessary trouble,” Zenna said.  “We can incapacitate it, and leave it here securely bound.”“If you like leaving a potentially dangerous foe behind us,” Beorna returned.  “We can destroy it; let us do so.”“Yeah, I’d like a chance for a little revenge,” Fario said, still smarting at his failure to resist the mental assault of the faratsu.Overruled, Zenna frowned in disapproval as the companions gathered in a semicircle around the zombie.  Dannel slew it by firing a volley of arrows into its chest and head, and as the faratsu predictably began to burst out of its body, the companions rushed in and destroyed it.  “Now, that wasn’t so bad,” Fario offered, as he cleaned the remnants of slimy gunk off of his blades.  The faratsu hadn’t even been given a chance to call upon any of its infernal powers, this time. “And if a pit fiend had stepped out of that zombie’s corpse...” Zenna mumbled to herself. The circular chamber had nothing else of note evident to cursory examination, so they made their way to the dark alcove.  Mole’s light revealed it to in fact be another shaft, descending into the darkness yet deeper beneath the city. “Great.  Here we go again,” Hodge muttered.</blockquote>

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