Deekin drops Enserric and pulls an ivory harp off his belt, strumming it furiously as he hums. Belmarniss feels the burns from the ball lightning fading slowly. (Possibly too slowly.)

Garrus looses three arrows at the caster, who finally falls, then turns his attention to the rakshasa charging Belmarniss. He fires off another three shots, one of which explodes with electricity in the creature's breast.

It doesn't stop. It swipes twice at Belmarniss with a wickedly curved kukri, following up with a swipe of its claws.

Its compatriot savages Garrus. He ignores the bleeding cuts it leaves, still focusing on the one attacking his friend.

"Burning disarm."

The rakshasa drops its kukri like it's on fire, which it very nearly is. It hisses at Belmarniss and readies its claws.

Jojo finishes off his current opponent and runs to Belmarniss's aid. Belmarniss's rakshasa attacker falls to the ground after a series of lightning-fast punches.

Garrus turns his attention back to the rakshasa in the process of savaging him, draws an arrow back, and sends it into the outsider's eye socket. It topples slowly to the floor.

Deekin pants.

"We okay?"

"I've been better. I'm not dying."

"Greater Path of Glory," Deekin incants.

The floor starts glowing, and everyone's wounds start melting away. It takes a minute for everyone to be back to pristine health, but they've got a minute.

"Thanks, that hits the spot."

Deekin bows. "Deekin always happy to help."

He picks Enserric up off the floor. "Sorry, Enserric. Battle pretty hectic, Deekin didn't have time for sheathing before take out Dove harp."

"Don't make it a habit, please," Enserric says drily.

"Thingy better be behind that door without so much as a guard dog on it."

"Heartily agreed," Garrus says, searching the bodies. "Are we taking their eyes? They're worth money but it seems a little ghoulish."

"At what price do you value your non-ghoulishness? We can deduct it from your cut."

"Point taken," Garrus says. "Deekin, can you come over here and help with this?"

Deekin cooperatively Mage Hands the eyes into a jar he had in his backpack for "not just such an occasion, Deekin not predict this eventuality, but similar occasion".

The rakshasa are, other than their valuable eyes, remarkably ill-equipped. Soon there's nothing left to do but open the door, behind which is a chamber containing an altar and three shabbily dressed humans. One of them, their apparent leader, moves forward, then stops himself.

"Are you... are you here to save us?"

"Uh... well, we didn't know you were here, but now we do, so."

"My name is Shareesh. I suppose you could call me the leader of our little band, or at least, as much a leader as any. You see, we three are slaves, bound and forced to serve the mad wizard Halaster."

"What need could one as powerful as Halaster possibly have for common human slaves?" Jojo asks disgustedly. "This is nothing but an abuse of power; he keeps slaves simply because he can."

"That's actually very weird. Are you included by the thing the ogre mentioned where you don't have to eat? He said it covered 'the monsters'."

"Yes, we are," Shareesh says. "Perhaps he only knows of the monsters, but it applies to any who dwell permanently within these halls - including myself and my brethren, though only three of us remain. Halaster used us for sacrifices and experiments, and occasionally threw us to his monsters for entertainment."

Garrus shakes his head wonderingly. "Guy's a real piece of work, huh."

"We didn't fully clear out the level up from here so I'm not sure where you can go that'll be safe. Maybe we can just grab you on the way up once we're done, since you're not gonna starve or anything."

"I have a suggestion, actually," Shareesh says cautiously. "This altar which you see beside me is in fact an inactive portal to Waterdeep above us. I believe it amused the mad mage to lock us in with the means of our salvation and no way to use it. But if you can retrieve the portal keystone from the southern section of this level, you can activate the portal and send us back to civilization."

"...why hasn't anyone been using it in the latest spillover?"

"I cannot claim to know the mind of this Valsharess's minions," Shareesh says apologetically. "Perhaps they do not think one more level of the dungeon a significant obstacle? Perhaps they simply could not bypass the rakshasa outside."

"Wow. I guess I'm glad of it when people aren't efficient about being evil but it does make them slightly harder to predict. We wanna do a sidequest, gang?"