Glubyal 8

Out in the plaza, all of the dwarves who are still alive are back on their feet. They slowly close ranks to protect their injured as kuo-toa reinforcements begin to move in. "I'm not sure how much longer we can hold the damn gogglers back," warns Splinder. "More are coming in all the time. Crap, there's another bunch flanking us from... scratch that." Splinder sounds relieved. "Monitor Thoobel's caught up with us, and he's brought friends to help." Insane kuo-toa run forward and plunge into the combat on the side of the Defenders, ripping and tearing with their fins until they can steal a pincher staff from a fallen foe. Along with Stone Bear and the dwarves, a battleline is established and temporarily held.

Tao leaks seawater and blood from painful wounds as she vaults up the palace steps, and is shocked to feel herself run face-first into what feels like an invisible wall of pure hatred and disdain. It's as if Blel-Plibbit has focused every bit of scorn that he has for other creatures into a powerful mental barrier. Tao has seen things like this before, though, and knows what to do. She pits her own willpower against the repulsive spell, battering back the kuo-toa's hatred with her own faith in herself and her cause.

The divine agent's faith turns out to be the stronger, and just like that Tao's through. She closes the last of the distance and buries her long sword in the surprised Sea King's side. Blel-Plibbit's massive jaws part in a furious snarl, strands of saliva and blood flying as he screams in anger and pain. Tao looks past his mouthful of needle-sharp teeth into the protruding eyes above, and sees in them the fear of a cornered animal.

Malachite charges up the stairs as well, his focused will completely ignoring the repulsion. Karthos flashes and glows as it hammers into Blel-Plibbit's defenses. Mara pauses to shatter the repulsion effect with a dispel evil, and then she closes to attack as well.

Velendo eyes both parts of the conflict and shakes his head as he decides to help both. From his pocket he fishes out a talisman that will let him heal Tao from a distance. Then he uses his boots of flying to soar above Oolbubbl, casting dispel evil and dispersing the aura of protection from good that protected the badly injured whip from domination. The whip's bulging eyes glaze over as it bends to Velendo's indominatable will.

"Hold back those other kuo-toa!" commands Velendo, and Oolbubbl is forced to do so enthusiastically. A little corner of its mind screams in horror, but no one is able to hear it. Before the whip has a chance to even move, it is caught in the end of a lightning bolt cast from within the palace, and it drops into darkness.

"Darn it!" complains Velendo. He looks up at the palace, and sees that a line of clerical kuo-toa standing behind the Sea King were the ones who unleashed the lightning. It had crackled through a number of Defenders, but no one else had dropped.

"Now your souls are forfeit," burbles Blel-Plibbit as darkness crackles around the edges of his webbed fingers. He looms over the line of divine warriors and takes a step back to complete a powerful spell. Nolin thinks differently. The bard has just finished a catchy little tune, and Mara has already dispelled the repulsion, so he swoops in to tap the Sea King with the faerie-made bow of his fiddle Fairesong.

At first nothing happens, but then tiny golden fey spring into existence around the massive kuo-toa. They begin to sing irresistibly as they swoop back and forth, and Blel-Plibbit's leg begins to twitch. The kuo-toa stutters and loses his place as he tries to mouth the words to his dark prayer. His whole body jitters, and to the surprise of almost everyone present the mighty king of the kuo-toa begins to rhythmically leap up and down.

"Nolin, what did you just do?" asks Mara in consternation.

Nolin looks smug. "Otto's Irrestible Dance. An old gift from the Queen of Faerie. Shake it, fish-boy!"

Mara blinks. "I think he's capering."

Malachite nods. "And that's definitely a prance. Yup, capering AND prancing. Very nice. Remind me again why you don't do this more often?"

Nolin looks a little embarrassed, then smiles with relief as a mass heal from Velendo takes effect behind him. "Forgetfulness, and it can only be used a few times a year. But oh, it's so satisfying. Makes you want to throw him some coins."

"I can see why." Malachite studies the look of horror in the ineffably evil Sea King's eyes, admires the fast little jig that the creature is doing, then brings up his sunblade. "Let's finish this." While Agar and Nolin kill off the lesser whips with fireballs and chain lightning, the other Defenders surround Blel-Plibbit to strike again and again and again. Blel-Plibbit does his best to dance around their blows, but he hasn't got a chance. Malachite almost finishes him with an immensely powerful blow to the neck, and it's actually the diminuitive Priggle who finishes off Blel-Plibbit by burying his pick in the kuo-toa's black heart.

Even after death, Nolin's magic is strong enough to make the fish-king's limbs twitch and wiggle in time to some unheard tune. "Nice shot, Malachite!" someone compliments the radiant knight.

"Yes, that was beautiful!"

Dejectedly, Priggle pulls his pick from the dead body and sighs. Typical, really.

* * *

The group rushes from the palace with Blel-Plibbit's body, and the attacking kuo-toa draw away in horror and confusion. Agar tries to search several of the fallen bodies, but doesn't find anything of interest; annoyed, he casts fate's generous bargain to sharpen his mind, and immediately notices a half-dozen details that he had been too distracted to see before. Protection from evil spells are cast on everyone, and the badly injured Agar is healed by Velendo. Unfortunately, Priggle gets his hand stuck on Oobubbl's sticky shield, and Tao rips off a layer of skin when trying to free him. Of course, Priggle doesn't need his hands anyways, so there's no reason anyone should care.

Mara looks at Galthia's shrunken corpse and bows her head in sorrow. She slings what's left of his body over Luminor's back and goes over to cast circle of healing on the dwarves. A handful of them are fully dead, the rest still badly injured. As her magic takes effect, Stone Bear notices Galthia's corpse twitch slightly.

"Is it supposed to do that? His spirit is still within."

Velendo swings his head around, still conscious of the fact that they're standing horribly exposed in the kuo-toa plaza. "Do what?" He examines Galthia's body and sees that the corpse's sunken eyes are solid green stone.

"No," he says blinking in confusion. "I think it's fair to say that it isn't supposed to do that." And as he stares down at the corpse, Monitor Thoobel approaches, eyeing the royal crown and scepter that lie at Nolin's feet.