[h3]Jaelnec, Freagon, Irah, Lhirin, Nabi, Yanin, Jordan and Madara, Bor Manor, Borstown[/h3]
Rather than worrying about the clumsy, stumbling swipe of the headless ghoul, Yanin smashed his truncheon into the divine-possessed corpse's back and knocked it even more off-balance than it had already been. It also rewarded him with the sound of yielding flesh, snapping bone and a loud, gurgling exhalation from the severed and exposed windpipe of the creature, though it did also ensure that what would have been a couple of seconds worth of recovery turned into several as it was sent scrambling on its hands and knees.
Where its head had previously been, the greenish mist that flowed from the brutalized flesh of its open neck assumed a vaguely oval, ephemeral and shifting shape as two orange-yellow motes alighted within the smoky material, instantly aligning to stare at Yanin behind it. Ignoring the damage it had taken – even its presumably broken spine – the ghoul would quickly get back to its feet and turn back to its opponent, silver-sword still in hand. It moved with a limp only until the moment when Lhirin recalled his needles, which also removed the offending iron splinter from this ghoul and restored the full use of its leg.

While that ghoul struggled to cope with the consequences of its actions, the one that had been descending the stairs chopped down with its sword, only to find its blade blocked by Yanin's truncheon and its right arm severed by Yanin's sword. Even as Yanin retreated – placing himself now between the literally disarmed ghoul and the headless but still armed one behind him – the ghoul on the stair incredulously followed its arm and sword made through the air. The silver blade clattered noisily on the stone floor as it landed only several steps from where Lhirin was standing, prompting a groan of frustration and disappointment from the creature. Looking much less enthused than before – in fact its expression almost seemed downright sullen – the ghoul halfheartedly started moving to the bottom of the stairs.

Right behind the ghoul on the stairs the blanket wraith came to a halt as Yanin entered its range, raising up like a cobra preparing to strike, revealing another pair of orange-yellow lights on the underside of its central bit of cloth. To its right, the wraith raised a separate blanket that had been pulled into and included in the construct of its vessel. But whereas most of its vessel was made up of loose and flowing pieces of fabric, this arm-blanket was rolled up tightly, turning soft cloth into a hard, long and hefty improvised club.

But just as the blanket wraith and the one-armed ghoul finished their descent to the floor of the hall, Nabi finished her incantation. A relatively narrow cone of flame spilled from the palm of her hand, shooting forth rapidly across the short distance that remained between her and them. The ghoul seemed to spot her tracing patterns, muttering words of spellcasting and thrusting her hand toward them in the last second and, with the table she had targeted last time still crackling as flames rose off it in plain view, dodged to his left.
Even so Nabi's flame still managed to catch a little bit of the ghoul's already diminished right side. Though part of his clothes were moist with blood from his arm having just been cut off, he still came away singed and with some small flames clinging to his right shoulder, left fist raised in a rather pathetic combat-ready stance.
The blanket wraith was not as fortunate and received a direct hit from the fiery blast, causing the entire thing to recoil and sprawl onto the steps. Several towels and blankets quickly detached as the cohesion of the vessel almost instantly seemed to fail, seemingly greatly weakened by Nabi's magic, until the remains of the wraith went still. All that was left was several scattered bits of blankets, sheets and towels on and around the western staircase, as well as a blackened wooden banister that had been caught in the jet of flame.

Behind her, the ceramic wraith finished migrating shards to reform its right arm – though now cleaverless – and seemed to only hesitate for a moment, uncertain how to respond to its improvised ranged attack being so effortlessly foiled, until it spotted Nabi turning her attention away from it. Its eye-lights flared brighter as it abruptly sent into something like a feral leap through the air, ignoring Jordan and moving instead to deliver a flying thrust of its carving-fork-adorned left arm.