Glubyal 7

Thwop-thwop-thwop-thwop! Moved by magic, the blade barrier almost severs one of Tao's legs. Nolin only escapes damage by dropping flat to the ground and crawling for his life. Velendo himself doesn't have a prayer of ducking out of the spell effect, but the spell resistance he prayed for at the beginning of combat saves his life when it barely manages to hold against his own spell. Next to him, Cruciel's wings lift her above the spinning and flashing blades.

Standing in the middle of the spinning blades, Velendo tries not to panic. "That was a freaking miracle!" he spits. Somewhat pettily he casts miracle right back, using the spell to spoof a dominate on Oobubbl, the kuo-toa whip fighting Malachite. Feeling the bodyguard's mental reserves tumbling under the onslaught of the powerful spell, Velendo activates his boots of flying and rises above the blade barrier. He's surprised when Oobubbl doesn't immediately respond to mental commands, and arcane sight immediately shows the reason: a protection from good inhibiting the domination. Velendo curses, and Cruciel throws him a surprised look.

Oobubbl has already fastened his pincher staff around Malachite's neck, and is busily trying to rip the paladin's head off. In response, Malachite forces himself closer to the kuo-toa. The polearm slides through Oobubbl's slippery grasp as Malachite extends a hand. "Karthos, to me!" The intelligent sword does its best, but is still stuck to the shield. Malachite manages to get close enough to grasp the hilt, though, and he plants one foot on Oobubbl's belly as he wrenches his weapon free.

The monitor Klububble uses Galthia's corpse as a stepping stone and leaps up towards Mara. He smacks her with a quivering fin and tries to kill her instantly by stopping her heart, but she resists the attack. He can't stun her, either, but manages to badly hurt her with powerful hit after hit. Behind him, Priggle slips into place, but the kuo-toa discounts the deep gnome as a lesser threat.

That's a bad mistake. Priggle flanks and attacks, his gnomish pick biting deeply into the kuo-toa's flesh. Mara also raises her own weapon to smite the monitor, pure sunlight flashing as Lightbinder snaps bone and sears flesh. Klububble has nowhere easy to escape to, and Mara hits him a full four times. Her last swing catches his slime-coated head with a powerful blow, and and the kuo-toa wheezes a final breath before collapsing to the ground at Priggle's feet. Spasms indicate that he isn't fully dead.

"I'll finish him off," Priggle tells Mara. "Are you okay?" He eyes her many injuries.

"I'll live," Mara says grimly, and wheels her white steed around to face the rest of the battle.

Meanwhile, Agar tries to get a line of sight on the Sea King. "Darn it!" he yells. "Tao, I want to maze him, but I can't see him with all those thorns in the way!" Inspiration strikes. "Proty, teleport us over to that corner." Agar points, and his familiar spasms with tentacular glee. Using one of the spells that the alienist has previously imbued, Proty teleports them both - only to fall prey to the disconcerting energies that permeate the underdark. They end up thirty feet off-target, and still unable to see the Sea King. Agar instead targets the only visible enemy, and hurls acid orbs at Oobubbl. Drops of acid spatter Malachite, but the kuo-toa takes the brunt of the impact and the acid begins consuming his flesh.

"Agar, no!" shouts Velendo over the mind link. "He's dominated!"

The halfling snorts. "Err... oh. Doesn't look it, but okay. Next time tell me?" Oobubbl is nauseated from the acid, and Malachite pulls back as the kuo-toa throws up on his boots.

"Thanks, Agar. Where's Blel-Plibbit?"

"I can't see him either," thinks Nolin as he rolls free of the spinning blade barrier. The bard flies over to Priggle, trying to get line of sight behind the thorns. "I have no idea what he's doing back there. Tao, can you drop the wall of thorns?" Nolin pulls out a delicate instrument that he hasn't used in some time and begins to play a jaunty little tune. From behind him comes the crack of a chain lightning and many crossbows as Splinder and the conscious dwarves, along with Stone Bear and Burr-Lipp, hold off arriving reinforcements.

Tao shrugs off the horrible pain in her legs and nods yes to Nolin's question. "Ready?" She reaches into the divine magic and untangles it from reality. The thorns vanish, and up on the palace steps Blel-Plibbit once again faces the Defenders. "Crap. Does he look healthier than he did a minute ago, or is it just me?" Tao charges him with her sword out, but she isn't fast enough; the kuo-toa king has been waiting. He calls, Blibdoolpoolp answers, and the outer skin of most of the Defenders pops and bursts as everyone suddenly become hyper-saturated with seawater. The pain is horrible.