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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1226790" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Barrier and the Bonetangle!Our heroes move onward after catching their breath.  Shortly, they find themselves at a 10’ wide door made of beaten copper, green with corrosion.  The air stinks horribly, a rank fishy musk hanging all around our heroes.  Ed starts crying.Dogfish, his face wrinkling in disgust at the stink, tries the door, but it seems to be barricaded from the far side.  He throws his shoulder against it with a bang, but it doesn’t move.  However, upon making said banging sound, Dogfish very effectively knocks on the door, and a voice hisses out from behind it.  At first our heroes cannot comprehend it; it’s not in a language any of them speak.  Then it switches to Strogassian, and the raving from the other side resolves into comprehensibility.  ”You hass comesss back to finishh the jobsss, eh?  To killsss uss?  Likesss you did the othersss?  Comesss and try, then!”“All right then, we will!” Dogfish yells back, and our heroes arrange themselves for battle.  Once they’re ready, the barbarian throws his shoulder at the door- and much to his surprise, he finds that it’s been unbarred!  He flies into the room, almost loses his balance, and charges as-What the hell is that?It looks like a tangle of bones of all sorts, knitted together by some foul necromancy; ribs bristle from it like knives, and it’s got large, leg-bone sized arms.  Dogfish smashes into it, his axe striking with terrific force, and he barely damages it.  Uh-oh, he thinks.The rest of our small party our pouring into the room.  Brother He’s got his harpoon out ; Trinia and Federico are casting spells.  The kobold dazes the troglodyte shaman behind the bonetangle, while Trinia summons a wolf that slavers at the sight of all those yummy bones and jumps to it.  Brother He seizes his chance, hurling his harpoon at the trog, and it sinks into the creature’s thigh.  Then the bonetangle swipes out at Dogfish with crushing force; and a mace-like skull slams into Dogfish’s chest.  Worse yet, it grabs him and pulls him into its jagged body, crushing him against it.  Dogfish shouts in pain and fear as he’s pierced and crushed.  He struggles for his very life.Sandy’s sling is a blur as he twirls it.  With a whack! a bullet flies from it into the bonetangle, cracking one of its bones.  He tries again, but this shot misses.  Cursing to himself, he reloads.  This looks bad.  Brother He, meanwhile, is tumbling in and attacking the bonetangle, but his fists bounce off of the tough bones.  Find your center, he thinks, concentrating and preparing to strike.Federico fires off another daze at the enemy shaman, and again the troglodyte succumbs to the magic, standing in place and hesitating.  But the bonetangle moves a little closer to him, so Federico decides to back off some, and the shaman finally comes out of his trance.  In agony from the harpoon, angry and in despair, he casts a spell on Brother He, who suddenly grows afraid, and then the shaman moves forward.  Trinia moves forward to engage the tangle of bone, hoping to rescue Dogfish, who is squealing in horrible pain.  She doesn’t think he can last much longer, and the wolf isn’t having much luck with the undead thing.  Spak!  A sling bullet hits the shaman in the head, and he hisses an incredible hiss, shaking his head to clear his eyes of spots.  That one came from a kobold!  What an insult!  Chanting, the priest rushes up and touches the group’s ‘dog’.  The kobold squeals as wounds open all over his body!  Blood gushes forth and he staggers back, yipping with his tail between his legs.  He looks around for help but everyone else is busy with the bonetangle!  He tumbles away and slings at the trog, but the shaman is relentlessly coming towards him.  Meanwhile, Dogfish screams again as the bonetangle pierces him in a dozen places, blood spraying all over the place.  Brother He pounds on it, snapping a few bones and dealing significant damage, but then Dogfish passes out, unable to bear the pain any longer, and the bonetangle’s wrath descends on the monk!  Brother He dodges as an arm of bone slaps at him, but he just isn’t fast enough!  In an instant, he’s down!Dismayed, Sandy cries, “We should’ve gone back for second breakfast!”  He fires another sling bullet at the undead monstrosity, but it just bounces off its tough bone body.  Dogfish gives one last agonized unconscious scream of pain as the bonetangle crucifies him on it.  Sharp ribs come out his belly, his arms, his thighs, his eye.  Horrified, Ed bursts into tears.  The troglodyte is still advancing on Federico, who keeps trying to retreat, whimpering, but can’t get far enough away!  Things are looking bad!Then Trinia is there, cutting the troglodyte’s advance off, slicing with her scimitar- and she slices at its right hand, removing three fingers!  It shrieks in dismay, staggering, and tries to bite the druid.  She cries out in fear as its slobbery teeth snap at her, but it comes up short as Federico’s sling bullet hits it in the eye.  It staggers back, shakes its head, grunts, and then falls.  Sandy, who’s kept up a steady stream of sling bullets all along, lands another on the bonetangle and it shatters.  Drawing a shaky breath, our heroes check out their casualties.“Brother He will live,” Trinia says.  The group looks mournfully on the body of their dead friend Dogfish.  “May Nature take him to her bosom,” breathes the druidess, and Ed bursts into tears.Next Time: The statue!</blockquote>

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