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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 230463" data-attributes="member: 143">Book V, Part 5With Benzan down, Dana threatened, and Lok struggling with the weight of a slashing and tearing ghast on his back, a battle that had been going all in favor of the companions had suddenly turned.  Only Cal was, for the moment, unthreatened, relatively safe behind several layers of magical protections.  “Lok!” Cal cried, drawing the genasi’s attention to Benzan’s plight.  Even as he yelled the warning, however, the gnome was already acting to help his helpless friend.  He raised his hand, the one bearing Delem’s ring, and for the first time called upon its power.  He could feel the energy of the ring responding to his summons, granting him the power to move objects at a mere thought.  He focused the power onto the ghast, even as it bullied aside its ghoul comrades to leap upon the helpless form of the tiefling.  Benzan’s eyes were wide with terror as the ghast opened its massive jaws and leaned toward his face.  Cal could feel the resistance from the creature’s will as he tried to grasp it with the power of the ring, but his own will was not inconsiderable, and after a brief moment he felt the grip of the ring’s telekinetic grasp lock onto the ghast’s form.  The ghast flew roughly back, its course sending it right into the ghouls directly behind it.  All three undead went down, rolling back down the steps of the dais to land in a rough tumble a short distance away.  They were up again quickly, snarling with hatred at being denied their kill.The ghouls swarming Lok seemed to draw energy from the ghast pushing him down, and their attacks intensified as they grappled him and threatened to bring him down.  For a moment the genasi crumpled, bent almost full over until his shield was pressed up against the ground at his feet.  His magical axe seemed to slip from his fingers, falling with a slight clatter on the stones of the floor, and at that sound the ghouls let out a feral cry of anticipation.  But then Lok reached up and grabbed the throat of the ghast with a gauntleted hand.  The ghast scratched at his arm and tried to tear free, but it may as well been scratching at stone.  With a mighty heave Lok hurled the ghast into the faces of the ghouls right in front of him, knocking several of them to the ground.  He felt slight slivers of pain as the ghouls behind him tore through the chinks in his armor with their foul claws, but he shrugged off the hurts and the unnatural chill of paralysis that came with them.  Reaching down, he took up the axe again and charged, knocking down a ghoul that didn’t get out of the way quickly enough.  His charge didn’t take him far, only a few steps, but when it ended Lok was standing astride the motionless form of Benzan.  “All right, come on then, you filthy bastards!” he shouted to the ghouls, brandishing his axe.  And they came, while the ones Cal had repulsed rushed at him from the other side, flanking the hard-pressed warrior.  Dana found herself hard-pressed as well, confronted a pair of ghouls with the ghast she’d injured just a step behind.  Her defenses were considerable, but between their tearing claws and slashing teeth there were just too many attacks for her to repel.  The ghouls sacrificed any semblance of defense in an all-out attack, and even as she spun out of the grasp of one she felt pain as the second bit down on her exposed bicep.  She tore free before it could lock its jaws on her, and resisted the icy paralysis of its touch.  She countered with a smooth swing of her conjured moon blade, sweeping it across the ghoul’s chest.  The blade seemed insubstantial, light as air as she slashed with it, but as it contacted the ghoul its flesh burned away in a wide, deadly swath.  The ghoul screamed and crumpled into a noisome heap of bubbling flesh, dead now for good.  She raised the weapon again as the ghast launched itself directly at her.  Lok continued to hold the charging ghouls off of Benzan’s helpless form, slashing great arcs with his axe that seemed to slay a ghoul with each stroke.  More continued to come at him, however, as the ghouls trapped in the web gradually tore themselves free and joined in the melee.  Flanked, Lok took several hits that tore through his heavy defenses, only his incredible constitution keeping him from succumbing to the effects of their paralyzing touch.  Still, he was only one unlucky moment away from disaster, and the ghouls pressed their attack, seeking that one moment of weakness.  Then a stirring, martial song filled chamber, the booming voice of the small gnome giving the companions an extra measure of confidence and courage.  With his illusions and enchantments of no use against these foes, Cal drew his shortsword and charged into battle, coming to the aid of Lok.  He ran through a ghoul tearing at the genasi’s back, the creature staggering as it turned to face the gnome, pure fury in its eyes.  But that fury died as the hasted gnome struck again, plunging the blade enhanced in the forges of Citadel Adbar into the ghoul’s chest.  Still shrieking, the ghoul collapsed, the undead life force that animated it fading as it fell.  A pair of ghouls drew off of their attack upon Lok to assail the gnome, leaping upon him with tearing claws and teeth.  The first bit at his face but found only air, foiled by the gnome’s displacement, while the second howled in frustration as its attacks beat uselessly against the magical protection of Cal’s shield.  The distraction gave Lok an opening that he quickly exploited, tearing into the few remaining ghouls with abandon.  The ghast fell with a pair of deep gouges in its torso, and without hesitation Lok tore into the row of ghouls before him, dropping a pair with a single swipe and cutting deeply into a third.  Two more, with strands of webbing still trailing from their bodies, rushed up and attacked him, but he smoothly deflected their charge with his new shield.  And when the shield came away, more ghouls died.  Dana took another gash from the tearing claws of the ghast, and once again she felt the icy chill that promised death, if she faltered.  She fought through the paralysis once more, and with a cry of defiance plunged the moon blade into the ghast’s face.  The face of the undead monstrosity seemed to melt away at the touch of the divine fire, and it crumpled.  Her last opponent, a ghoul, tried to take advantage of her distraction to bite her leg, but she turned smoothly out of its grasp and plunged the glowing sword into its chest.  The ghoul fell, dying.  Bleeding from a number of injuries, Dana took a deep breath, raised the moon blade, and rushed back into the battle raging around Lok and Cal.  She took down one of the ghouls attacking the gnome from behind, while the gnome’s sword made quick work of the other.  None of the undead retreated, but by the time the last ghoul tore itself free of the web, it found three ready opponents there to chop it to pieces.  When it was over, and they counted the bodies, they found that they had destroyed twenty-eight ghouls and five ghasts, transforming the theatre chamber into a gruesome slaughterhouse.  Dana crouched over Benzan, checking his injuries.  He was conscious, his jaw tight with the effort of fighting the paralysis that gripped him.  “He’ll be all right in a few minutes,” she told the others.  Cal nodded, while Lok checked to make certain that all of the undead dwarves were truly destroyed.  “Let’s get him out of here,” the gnome suggested, and after they’d confirmed that they were safe, Lok took up the prone form of the tiefling and they moved cautiously back to the unblocked exit of the chamber.  Dana took up her stick bearing the continual flame, and she moved to the front rank, probing the darkness ahead.  “We’re hurt, and we used up a lot of our spells in that little fracas,” Cal said.  “We’d better find someplace defensible to hole up and rest.”Although they were wary, probing each and every shadow with their light, no further creatures appeared to threaten them.  Soon Benzan could move well enough to walk, although it was a bit longer until he was able to keep up with them unassisted.   With Lok’s guidance they found one of the semi-hidden doors that led into a private dwelling, an empty suite of rooms that still showed signs of being hurriedly ransacked.  They retreated to a back room that had only one exit, spiked the door shut, and settled down to an uneasy rest, each appreciating how close they had come to utter disaster.</blockquote>

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