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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 228909" data-attributes="member: 143">Book V, Part 4As the ghouls—and by the stench that accompanied them, a few ghasts were among them as well—charged up the steps of the dais, the companions keenly felt the absence of their sorcerer.  One fireball might have cleared the room, leaving just a few stragglers for the Lok’s axe and Benzan’s bow.  But the four friends did not hesitate or lament what was not, as they launched their own attacks upon the charging ranks of undead.  Cal unleashed a ready spell upon the dense knot of undead and those still pouring into the room, conjuring up a maze of magical webbing anchored on the walls, floor, and the overhanging ceiling of the gallery above.  The webs covered most of the back half of the room, obscuring the rear entrance and the one on the side wall to their left as well.  Within the webs ghouls struggled against the sticky bonds, letting out strangled cries of anger as their hunger for living flesh was temporarily frustrated.  Even though the web caught nearly twenty of the ghouls in its folds, though, more were already ascending the steps of the dais, either dodging the strands or pouring out of the unblocked passage to the right.  Dana stepped forward, holding up the icon of Selûne that she wore, a precious sliver of magical moon mote shaped as the sigil of the goddess.  Wisps of pale moonlight erupted from the device, shining with an intensity that the ghouls, by their reaction, found hateful and repulsive.  Dana’s power, however, barely affected the overall surge, turning away a handful of ghouls but driving the others to an even more violent rush as they sought to tear the offending cleric to pieces.  First, however, they had to go through Lok.  The genasi met the rush with a sweep of his axe that took a ghoul’s head from its shoulders.  The stroke clove into the next ghoul, tearing a deep gash in its chest that knocked it roughly back into its fellows.  Undeterred, the ghouls swarmed on the genasi, scraping at his shield and armored body with their claws and teeth.  One surged past and tried to leap at Cal, only to stagger as a long arrow from Benzan’s bow slammed into its chest.  The ghoul recovered and came on, only to meet the tiefling as he tossed his bow aside and drew his sword, his mouth twisted into a grimace to match the feral grin of the undead dwarf. Lok wielded his axe in a storm of fury, and with each stroke undead flesh was sundered by the frost-rimmed blade.  The creatures came on, however, and as yet more poured into the room through the unblocked entrance it seemed as though they would overcome the companions through sheer force of numbers.  The webs helped channel them up one side of the dais, helping the defenders, but those trapped continued to fight their way forward, heedless of the skin that was torn from their bodies by the sheer violence of their struggles.  But Lok’s defense had bought his companions precious moments, time that they used to good advantage.  Cal cast a powerful new spell that he had only recently mastered, and as the magic flowed through his body his actions grew significantly faster, even small motions taking on a slight blur through the influence of the magical haste.  Without pause he quickly cast another spell, and his small frame began to twist and distort, his true location blurred by the power another potent dweomer, a spell of displacement.  Dana, as well, called upon her own potent magic, channeling the power of her goddess.  As she called upon the pure energy of Selûne her body seemed to swell with divine power, and a radiant glow seemed to shine from her as she stepped forward, her longspear ready in her hands.  She lunged forward at one of the ghouls trying to move around Lok, transfixing the creature with a thrust from the enhanced steel head of her weapon.  The ghoul went down, thrashing as electrical energy tore into it.  Benzan finished the ghoul confronting him with a single thrust of his sword, and stepped forward to guard Lok’s flank.  He immediately faced a pair of ghasts, their stench twisting the tiefling’s stomach as they swarmed upon him.  Struggling through nausea, he stabbed the first one, but it shrugged off the blow and tore at him with its claws.  Fortunately his mithral armor repelled the attack, and Benzan held his ground.  The second ghast came low and tried to latch onto his leg, and as Benzan drew back he felt a chill sweep up the limb and into his body.  For a moment he felt a cold tendril of fear as his muscles stiffened, but he fought through the feeling and after a few tense moments the sensation faded.  The flow of ghouls and ghasts through the dark passageway had ended, and a good half-dozen of the creatures had already fallen in the opening moments of the battle, but a full dozen more were still coming on in addition to the nearly twenty slowly fighting their way out of the web.  A pair of ghouls swept around Lok and came up the far side of the dais toward Dana, belatedly joined by a third that managed to extricate itself from the near edge of the web.  At the same time, Lok was surrounded by a cluster of five ghouls led by a ghast, the six of them swarming over him from all directions.  For a moment, Lok seemed to falter, but then he erupted in a flurry of deadly strokes.  His axe formed a deadly arc that clove three ghouls in a single sweep, then he countered the ghast’s assault with a backswing that smashed powerfully into its leering face.  The ghast reared back but surged again, only to take another overhand chop that crushed down into its chest, driving it down to the floor in a flopping heap.  If the two surviving ghouls were troubled by the devastation of their comrades, they gave no sign, continuing their efforts to find a gap in the genasi’s defenses.  The three ghouls he’d cleaved had barely fallen when three more rushed forward to take their place, while to his right another pair moved to aid the two ghasts threatening Benzan.  Cal, still affected by his magical haste, continued to cast spells at a rapid pace.  Seeing that Lok had things well in hand, and that Benzan was in difficulty, he directed his second haste spell at the embattled tiefling.  The result was immediate, as the tiefling’s attacks speeded up, and he quickly finished the first ghast with a pair of potent thrusts from his magical sword.  Meanwhile, Cal enhanced his own defenses with a quick shield spell.Dana, threatened by three of the charging undead, stabbed the first with her spear.  The spearhead bit deep, but the creature tore itself off the point and lurched forward, claws outstretched.  It was revealed to be a ghast, not a ghoul, a moment later as the potent stench swept over her.  As it came inside the reach of her spear she dodged its first lunge and stepped back, summoning the power of her goddess once again.  At her call a gleaming blade of pure white moonlight erupted from her hand, a weapon of divine power. She found herself hard-pressed a moment later, however, as the other two ghouls swept at her, tearing at her with her claws and driving her yet farther back, away from her companions.  The wounded ghast, licking its lips in a feral grin, followed a step behind.  Lok felt an icy chill suffuse him as a ghoul locked its jaws on his leg, managing to bite through the leather protecting the joint at his knee.  Lok’s incredible fortitude allowed him to shrug off the paralysis of the creature’s touch, and he slammed his axe down into the ghoul’s skull, dislodging it and sending it to the floor in a heap.  Several of its fellows immediately followed as the genasi struck about him with deadly precision and almost mechanical efficiency.  The stone blocks of the dais around him were now piled high with ghoul bodies, and still more came on, heedless of their destruction, perhaps almost eager to embrace oblivion.  Benzan stood his ground a few feet away, although he too was finding himself hard pressed.  The magical haste laid upon him by Cal enhanced his defenses, and between that and his mithral armor and magical shield his opponents were having a tough time laying a claw or bite upon him.  He finished the second ghast with a series of rapid blows, smoothly dodging the frustrated claw sweeps of the two ghouls left facing him. Intent upon their battles, neither he nor Lok detected the movement in the galleries directly above them.  Cal saw the telltale flash of movement as a pair of ghasts leapt over the rail and dove at the two warriors, but his cry of warning came too late as the creatures slammed hard into Lok and Benzan from behind.  Lok staggered as the weight of the creature landed hard across his back, but Benzan, already half-turning at Cal’s cry, spun as one of the ghast’s claws caught him hard across the face.  He lurched back a step, off balance…And then suddenly stiffened, and collapsed to the ground.  The ghast and the two ghouls were on him in an instant.</blockquote>

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