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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 201563" data-attributes="member: 99">This post continues the battle begun in the previous one.  This was without question the largest single battle of the campaign so far and will be continued in the next post as well.  Enjoy.The Chamber of BoneAs the party watched on in horror, the bones drew together to form a cluster of skeletons who immediately started up the staircases.  These undead were unarmed but their clawed hands and undying tenacity were not to be underestimated.Speaks immediately moved to the top of one of the staircases while Raven and Scar moved to the other.  As the skeletons clawed their way up the stairs they unleashed a flurry of attacks at them.  The skeletons shattered easily enough, but there were more horrors waiting for the group.In the far corner of the room, Raven and Scar peered through the darkness to see a whirlwind of bone coalesce into a towering figure.  The thing was comprised not of a single skeleton but was simply a collection of random bones assembled into a twelve foot high creation of nightmare.  The mass of bones shifted as the thing drew back both arms and shot forth a pair of "bone javelins" at Speaks.  He was pierced by one and felt the power behind the bolt as it shredded his robe and cut open his side.Scar saw that the skeletons were little more than a distraction from the real threat.  He demolished another skeleton and dashed down the staircase into the pit below.  Bones crunched underfoot as he approached the "Bone Golem" before him.Speaks continued to smash away at the skeletons coming up the staircase he guarded.  His human eyes could not penetrate the darkness to see what it was that had shot him but he had felt the might behind the attack and was afraid for Scar as he ran to face it.Raven prepared to follow Scar's lead but before he could react the air around him shimmered and he was suddenly surrounded by creatures almost too hideous to describe.  They were nearly shapeless blobs topped with almost humanoid faces contracted in grimaces of pain and hopelessness.  Their pathetic claws scratched at his armor and they cried out in a soul piercing wail.  Raven struck out with his hammer, laying one of the tormented souls to rest with nearly every swing.Scar continued to make his way across the pit of bones, awkwardly moving toward the Bone Golem.  Now that he was down in the pit, he could see an arched passageway leading out of the pit through the opposite wall.  But there was no time to contemplate that now.  He was halfway to the Bone Golem when it fired another pair of bone javelins, this time at him.  Both struck him but the second was absorbed by the protection afforded him by the Barklike enchantment that Speaks had cast on his skin.  The first struck him in the shoulder and the force of the blow caused him to pivot, sending a wrenching pain down his back.As if to add insult to injury, another cluster of skeletons rose from the floor and began to crowd in on Scar from every side.  He felt their claws scraping ineffectually at his armor and recoiled in horror.Speaks had finally managed to destroy all the skeletons trying to ascend to the balcony via the staircase he guarded.  He was considering trying to aid Raven whom he could barely see through the hideous, slug-like creatures whom he fought.  But before he could go to the aid of the dwarf, yet another batch of skeletons rose up from the bones piled below and moved toward the stairs.Tired of fighting them piecemeal, Speaks called on one of his most powerful enchantments and a pillar of Flame Struck the group of skeletons, burning them to bits with fire and the power of nature.Scar battered his way through the skeleton in front of him and moved to attack the Bone Golem, heedless of the skeletal claws that tried to scratch at him as he left them behind.The Bone Golem launched another pair of bone javelins at Speaks and again one found its mark.  It then moved away from Scar, staying tantalizingly out of reach.Raven continued to batter at the horrid creatures of the Abyss that continued to press in on him.  His enchanted hammer flew about him in a blur, but it seemed that every time he destroyed one of the creatures, another stepped in to take its place.Speaks moved over to aid the dwarf and began attacking the mass of tormented souls from the other side.  At the rate they were falling, the creatures would be gone in a few more seconds and then they could go help Scar.Except for the fact that yet another cluster of Skeletons sprang from the pit of bone (they were popping up in batches of 7, roughly every other round).  These quickly moved up the stairway and Speaks found himself with even more adversaries.Those down in the pit were no less tenacious.  They moved to attack Scar, unwilling to let him disengage with them.  The half-orc ignored their assault and moved in to attack the Bone Golem.  He bashed away at it with his hammer and chips of bone sailed across the room to join the others on the floor.The Bone Golem responded by moving back away from Scar's hammer.  It used its superior reach to attack while letting the other skeletons in between to serve as a distraction and a buffer.Raven and Speaks continued to fight a virtual army of foes atop the balcony.  Raven had banished nearly all of the slug creatures but some of the skeletons ascending the staircase had pushed their way past Speaks and were now appearing on the dwarf's flank.Speaks too was in danger of getting surrounded and backed away from the staircase somewhat.  A new group of skeletons were now scaling the opposite staircase and threatening to completely overwhelm the balcony area.Things below were not much better.  Scar continued to smash the lesser skeletons out of the way in an attempt to reach the Bone Golem.  His blows were telling when they landed, but he was having a tough time getting close enough to swing.  And when he did get a clear line on the Golem, he found himself getting clouted by a stout bony club, studded with a ring of vertebrae.  He still had some fight left in him, but he was starting to wear down.Raven could see that they were never going to get a handle on the skeletons by destroying them one at a time.  He raised high his hammer and golden light poured from the symbol of Moradin inscribed thereupon.  A half dozen skeletons nearest him turned to dust and the way was clear now for him to move to aid Speaks.And not a moment too soon.  Speaks had retreated to the rear of the balcony area and was being hard pressed by the mass of skeletons around him.  A couple of them had managed to slip their claws through the hides he wore and raked at his flesh beneath.  When he saw the Dwarf free of the crowd he had been fighting, Speaks felt a sense of relief.Then, without warning, the space between them grew hazy and a Wall of Ice bisected the balcony area, cutting Raven off from aiding the Druid.Below in the pit, Scar had destroyed most of the skeletal harriers and had backed the Bone Golem into one corner of the Chamber of Bone.  He launched himself at the creature and withstood another blow from its jagged and bony appendage.  But he ignored the pain and met the creature with a two-handed, overhand swing of his warhammer that landed squarely on the creature's lower body.  It collapsed in on itself (and Scar) and lay in an inert heap of bones indistinguishable from the rest of the floor.Scar turned and breathed a sigh of relief as he prepared to ascend to the balcony where his friends still fought.  As he watched, another Wall of Ice came into being, cutting the pit in half and separating him from his companions.The group was now split and none of them could aid each other.NEXT:  The Overlord</blockquote>

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