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AABN:  48339
Title: the Quest for the Silver Halberd, part 9

The Quest for the Silver Halberd, part 9

by Sparity Ket, Captain of the Order of the White Knights

They had little time to think, as the wall of gloom spell would not last
much longer.  While the ratlings were fearful of the illusionary walls and
did not challenge them, they did have time to dig in and fetch
reinforcements.  The party could hear them shouting commands to each other
as the kitchen tables were turned over and crossbows were loaded and
readied.

There were now four ratlings to face when Zorat's wall of gloom wore off. 
Silliriun threw in a smokestick to blind their foes, and Zorat killed two
immediately with his hail of stone spell.  Then Jamarkas entered and fired
wildly, hoping to intimidate the others into surrendering.  They instead
fled from their fortified position into the dining room to the south.  This
cowardly action most upset Jamarkas, who managed to seize one of the
fleeing ratlings by the tail and then fling it at the other fleeing 
ratman.  Although he missed, the ordeal knocked the impromptu projectile
rat out cold.  The party gave chase to their remaining opponent.

The dining room was dominated by a large oak table.  As the fleeing ratling
took up a firing position on the far side of the table, five more rat-like
beings entered the dining room from the west-facing portal.  Four looked
like the other ratlings, but the one leading them had grayish-black colored
fur.  A furious battle ensued.

Jamarkas took aim at the lead ratman.  While the blows from his bullets
rattled the creature's body, most of the bullets ricocheted off of him, and
he appeared to be unharmed by his minigun's attack.  This displeased Jeff. 
The paladin didn't have much better luck, and when he charged in and struck
the lead ratman with his halberd, it felt like the enemy's skin was like
metal, severely resisting his attacks.

Kenwick summoned a vesperine wolf to attack the ratlings from behind and
then took cover using the kitchen doorway.  With no prepared spells left,
all he could do with make the occasional crossbow shot-carefully, too, so
as not to hurt his allies.  Silliriun took cover opposite of Kenwick,
casting magic missile spells to take out ratlings until he too was out of
spells for the day.  Jamarkas was gunning down any ratling that got close
to him, but he was also taking a lot of damage sitting out in the open 
surrounded.

Justice continued to duel the lead ratman while the latter was held in
place by Zorat's conjured earthern arm.  Since his halberd had little
effect, on a hunch, he grabbed some cutlery form the table and stabbed the
enemy.  The silvered forks and knives pierced the creature's flesh more
easily than his steel weapon, confirming his suspicions that he was
fighting a wererat.  Although the wererat's sword blows dealt serious
damage to the paladin, Justice beat him down with repeated and violent
application of silverware.