Somethign About Kellharin

On the other side of the hall, Malachite rounds the corner with several people behind him, all bunched up as they try to stay in range of the sunlight produced by Malachite's holy sword. Agar pokes his head around the corner as well, and blinks in surprise. "Oh my . . . be careful, everyone! I still have arcane sight up, and there are . . . ." He hastily counts magical auras coming from the dark room in front of him, "almost THIRTY spells active on whatever is in there! Something has been really heavily enchanted for a fight!"

"Noted," growls Malachite, and he swings Karthos over his head as they advance into the large room. Sunlight streams out from the sword and is immediately swallowed by the pervasive darkness. They cancel each other out, though, and the torches on the wall suddenly flutter back into life.

In the flickering torchlight, the group sees something horrible. Galthia hangs suspended in mid-air, turning and struggling as his skin is eaten away by powerful acid. The thing holding him is invisible, but Galthia seems unable to break free from its overpowering grasp. He's completely silent. Beneath him, drops of smoking acid fall like rain onto the stone floor.

Malachite steps forward one more pace and swings, taking his best guess at where the invisible monster is. His sword misses. Splinder is luckier, his axe chopping into the unseen assailant and passing through cleanly. The blade begins to pit even as he watches, and Splinder mutters an oath in dwarvish. "Acid!" he explains. "Watch yer weapons! One more hit 'n this'll be gone!"

Velendo silently calculates how much trouble they're in, and with a frown pulls out the wand that he hurriedly grabbed on his way out of his room. "Not many more of these," he complains to no one in particular, and levels the wand at the invisible monster as he triggers one of the few remaining charges. A maximized dispel magic emerges from it.

The effect on the creature is remarkable. Enchantments peel away from it like wet tissue, one spell after another sparking and crackling as it is dispelled. There is a horrible burbling, slurping, wet noise as the silence and fly spells fail, and the massive creature drops four feet to the ground with Galthia still firmly encased inside of it. The air is filled with a horrible hissing noise that sounds like an alchemical experiment gone awry.

The creature is hideous . . . and gargantuan. Fully 35 ft. long and 20 ft. wide, the pulsing ooze smells of brimstone and acid, and it glows the blackish red color of cooling coals. Unseen skeletal hands and faces push out from the inside, pressing against the bulging surface as if trying to reach fresh meat, and dozens of humanoid mouths open and close along its surface. The monk is literally encased inside of the creature, being eaten alive by the hungry mouths.

"Oh my God," someone says.

"How did that get in here?" shouts Velendo.

"Who cares!" yells Tao from the other side of the room. "Just kill it!" She catches something out of the corner of her eye; a second monster, some sort of skeletal soldier, stands unmovingly next to the only door to the outside. She groans to herself, shouts a warning to the group, and focuses her attention on the ooze-like thing in front of her.

Something interesting is happening where Splinder slashed it, however. A throbbing sore has traveled across the creature's body, a wound that looks like a thickened scab. With a wet sucking sound, the monster separates into two huge monsters, each easily 20 ft. square.

Galthia decides to take advantage of the situation. The split down the monster's middle occurs right over the place where his struggling body is trapped, and the monk desperately wrenches himself up and out of the acidic ooze. Teeth and claws do their best to hold him back, but he manages to pull free, tumbling away and staggering to his feet.

"That's better," Galthia manages to gasp. He focuses his mind and pounds his fists against his own body, healing his wounds by force of will alone. Then he takes one more step, and the hideous creature surges hungrily after him. A vast pseudopod slams down against the back of Galthia's head. He tries to escape, but the pulsing monster is too strong, and once again he's sucked back into its midst. A large piece of his loose clothing is sheared off by the acid, and lies disintegrating on the pitted stone floor where his feet stood just seconds before.

Across the room, the other portion of the monster that isn't busy digesting Galthia bulges forward to engulf Mara. The paladin crouches behind her magical shield as the acidic pseudopod slams into her, and she barely manages to avoid being drawn into its bulk. Behind her, Tao quickly reaches out with a healing prayer, reducing some of the brutal acid damage that Mara has suffered.

As the pseudopod is reabsorbed into the monster, Mara moves forward to attack its bulk. "Think blunt weapons will split it?" she calls out urgently, but no one has a good answer for her. She doesn't have a chance to find out. As she advances, a second tentacle bursts out, and Mara is knocked backwards before being involuntarily engulfed. Tao watches helplessly as Mara disappears into the monster, her recently healed wounds reopening under the flow of fresh acid.

Mara can hear Luminor screaming inside of her head, but the sound of the horse hammering at the stone door is muffled by the acidic ooze that surrounds her head. I'm okay, Luminor! she reassures her mount, but the pain that surges through her body belies the calm statement. Mara can feel teeth gnawing at her dissolving flesh, and realizes that she's simply not strong enough to break free. She can also feel the acid dissolving her prim cotton nightdress. Well, that's going to be interesting, she thinks with a wave of shyness, but she has more pressing worries.

Across the room, the Defenders attack en masse. Splinder changes weapons, takes a defensive stance, and slashes with an old weapon. His old axe dissolves completely, and the large portion of the monster shudders as it begins to split a second time. Malachite swings Karthos, and the sword emerges screaming in pain from the acid. Magic missiles from Agar pummel the writhing ooze, and a searing light from Velendo burns into its interior. Standing at the doorway, Nolin holds his blast harp up to his lips, and sends a crushing wave of ultrasonic energy into the quivering monster. It doesn't drop Galthia, but huge rents are being blasted in its undulating surface.

Splinder quickly realizes that this is no place for his dwarven troops. "Get back, all of you!" he commands, and the dwarves who were waiting to enter and attack instead back away to give the more experienced heroes room to maneuver.

Galthia feels his magical staff of disruption disintegrate from between his fingers, just as the last of his clothing rots away from the acid. His fingers pierce the surface of the creature, and he wrenches open a gap large enough to pull himself out of. He twists his burned body out of the narrow opening, and tumbles away from the splitting creature. Naked and acid-seared, Galthia finishes his escape across the room next to Nolin.

Unable to reach the half-dissolved and still juicy githzerai, the battered portion of the ooze surges forward and attacks Malachite instead. Meanwhile, the second portion of the monster works busily on digesting Mara, even as the third portion does its best to engulf Tao. She grips the doorway with her gauntlet of adamant grasp instead, and the tentacle recedes back into the monster without taking her with it. Tao's eyes narrow, and she casts plane shift as she slaps her open palm down on the ooze that has Mara trapped. "Let's let someone on the Beastlands deal with you," she says, and the monster shimmers and vanishes across the planes. Naked except for her shield, Mara drops to the floor, her skin sizzling. Tao shakes the acid from her open hand.

"Wow!" admires Agar. Whether he's referring to the plane shift or the naked paladin is unclear. Mara quickly repositions her shield in front of her and staggers to her feet. "Nice ass," comments Tao, and Mara flashes her a dirty look. Behind her shield, the paladin discreetly lays on hands to heal her own wounds.

"Don't you think Galanna is going to object to you sending a horrible acidic monster to her home plane?" Velendo asks concernedly from across the room, shouting over the sounds of combat. Tao look slightly embarrassed as she replies.

"Err . . . I didn't have any other choice. I'm sure she'll let me know if it's a problem." Her green eyes glance around, as if expecting Galanna to object immediately, but the well-known celestial voice stays quiet.

Three pieces of ooze remain. Instead of attacking, Malachite holds up Karthos. "Can you lay hilt on yourself?" he asks. The sword answers by flashing with sunlight, and before Malachite's eyes the acid-worn holes in the blade refill with new metal. "Nice," comments Malachite, and he turns back to the oozes just as spells from Agar, Velendo and Nolin go off almost simultaneously. One of the oozes quivers and deliquesces in burning slime, and the other two shudder from the damage. Ghoulish faces thrust up from the creatures' backs, howling in pain from multiple mouths, and the Defenders grimace.

It quickly becomes apparent that the smaller the pieces of the creature, the more difficulty it has engulfing people. As a result, the sections are chopped up into smaller bits that are attacked by the Defenders' few remaining area effect spells. The monster seems to have a natural resistance to spells and fire, but within half a minute the creature is completely destroyed. So is Galthia's staff, however, and Mara's holy mace is badly damaged. Malachite's sword Karthos would be destroyed as well if Mara hadn't stepped in and healed it, her holy power repairing its acid damage.

Still clad in bed clothes -- for those who weren't engulfed, at least -- the group turns to the umber hulk-like bone creature that stands unmovingly before the exit door. "It isn't undead," confirms Malachite. "I don't know what it is."

"Construct, maybe," says Velendo. As they approach it warily, a mouth opens up on its skull-like face. "This didn't have to happen," begins Kellharin's wheedling voice from the magic mouth.

"I've heard enough," says Velendo flatly, interrupting the voice. He casts one of his few remaining Wall spells to hedge the construct into a narrow area. Flying up to the narrow gap at the top of the wall, he casts blade barrier down into the tight space. Metal shards and bone chips fly everywhere, bouncing off of the wall of force. Within a handful of seconds, the magical blades whir above nothing more than a low pile of shattered bone and scrap metal.

"That bastard." Velendo looks around the acid-scarred sanctuary, taking in his battered and angry friends with his gaze. "One thing is for sure," he begins wearily. He gets cut off as the rest of the Defenders finish his sentence for him.

"We're going to have to do something about Kellharin."