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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 4189273" data-attributes="member: 16069">Dungeon Crawl Classic #3 The Mysterious Tower Level 3-5Turn 99: Rust in pieces.Newt takes his sweet time at the chest, eventually a dull click signals his success.“See- not a problem…” The far door slams open and barrelling from the chamber beyond come three strange looking creatures, the size and shape of very bid dogs, although armour plated- like armadillos, except with strange feathery antennas- Rust Monsters.YELPNewt yelpsTwo of the creatures make a bee-line for him, get to within five or so feet then dodge left and right respectively, away from the fairly metal free Gnome.“Ha ha.” Newt turns to see what he has wrought.Behind him panic ensues.“Rust Monsters.” Jim screams and then stares hard at the metal head of his magical battleaxe, “<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />”, the Ranger back-peddles furiously, hooking his weapon on his belt and manoeuvring his wooden shield to block any attacks.Cas slices at the first creature with wooden sword- he’s high wide and handsome, the creatures feathery antenna search out his armour, the Paladin is too quick, dodges back and away to circle the creature.“Ackatt Swish.” Her animated wooden broom is unleashed, as usual to no great affect.“SMIDGIN.” The Mage casts, two lightning fast balls of energy speed out and slam into the side of one of the Rust Monsters, leaving smoking holes in the creatures carapace.Cas retreats some more attacking with his wooden sword, ineffectual blows that do little except keep the creature at bay, he tries to remove shield as he’s doing so, fumbles it- it hits the deck. Two Rust Monsters are immediately on the spot, their feathery antenna caress and stroke the metal, proboscis unfurl from their mouthparts- the shield is soon covered in red rust- destroyed.Newt giggles a little as he lets fly with a shell shuriken, several of which he located on the body of the dead Undine they left in the desert, he misses and the potent magical weapon smashes into the far wall- spent. Ala is back out of the chamber entirely, struggling to get her sword away and her bow out.The third Rust Monster charges headlong at Jim, licking its lips, metaphorically speaking, at the thought of Jim’s beautiful, and magical, breastplate. The Ranger scrambles back using his wooden shield to block the creature’s attacks, he swigs from a potion bottle, gets half of the contents down before thumping into a wall, and spilling the rest.Bec meanwhile takes his time, it helps that he’s not in the thick of the action, his greatclub is soon in his hands, he strides forward and delivers a thunderous swing at one of the creatures engaged in devouring Cas’ shield, and misses by a mile.Anya casts again, babbles arcane words, a dark cloud forms around the two creatures at the shield, instantly one of them squeals like a stuck pig and hares off, back out of the chamber, through the far door, Cas slices open the side of the thing in its passing.Newt looses another of his shell shuriken, it slams into the side of the remaining shield-eater.BOOMA sonic wave explodes from the shell, wracking the Rust Monsters body, almost turning it turtle.FWUNGAla’s bow sings, the arrow slams into the skull of the same foul creature which flops to the floor- deceased.Jim slithers around the wall, trying it seems to get a step up, fending off the Rust Monster still with his wooden shield, he eventually gets a grip on the smooth wall and races up the vertical surface to crouch in the angle between the ceiling and wall, his Spider Climb potion is working.Bec rushes over to the Rust Monster, now yelping and pawing at the smooth wall far beneath the cowering Ranger, the Barbarian swings with all his might, and misses again.Swish shuffles over to help the Barbarian out, or else get in the way. Cas too heads over, delivering a raking attack to the Rust Monsters right rear leg, the creature is hobbling badly.SLAMAnya kicks the far door shut, trapping the third Rust Monster back in the unexplored chamber.Ala can no longer see the remaining creature, Bec, Swish and Cas are in the way, she mutters a short prayer, head down momentarily, a glowing longsword appears in the air before her- instantly it sets off to slay the remaining monster.Bec at last connects, smashes the club into the side of the armoured creature, crushing ribs.And yet the creature fights on, surrounded and almost broken, an animal cornered, its feathery antenna dance and wave, it even attempts to bite Cas- it proves futile.Swish connects with a devastating, who am I kidding, a slight tap- it’s enough to put the creature off its guard for Cas’ follow up blow- the Paladin runs the second Rust Monster through. “All metal off- out the room, and guard the exit- Anya when I say go… Open the door, ‘kay.” Cas orders, and is instantly obeyed. “Go.”Anya slams the door open. The third Rust Monster spills out, angrier than ever, cas and Bec are on it- Bec’s club makes a huge dent in its armour, Cas skewers it briefly and the Barbarian’s second over-head swing leaves the thing mashed on the floor.“Good work.” Cas simply states and heads back to recover his armour.Minutes later Newt leads the Gang out through the north door and into a short corridor, which ends in a blank wall.“Back in a minute.” Newt shrugs and plods forward.A good twenty minutes later.“Got it.”Stone grinds against stone, the wall recedes, there’s a doorway, well I never.Newt heads on again, down a fifty-foot stretch of hallway which dead-ends at a single ornate iron door set in a curved white marble wall- the Tower. A shimmering blue force field floats six inches in front of the door. Less than three inches outside of the force field is yet another lever set in the up position.“Do you mean to say he built this entire thing a put the lever to turn the force field off on the outside of the tower…” Newt bends double, he can’t hold it in.“Ha ha ha, Oooooooh, the idiot, the absolute arse… I mean what sort of moron spends all that time, money and magic and then forgets to put the lever somewhere in reach. He’s a bloody loonie this…”Anya pulls the lever.PlkThe force field is gone, and standing next to Newt is the ghost of the tower, he doesn’t look as happy as he should, not for someone finally having been released after centuries of waiting- I wonder what it can be.“Balthazhar.” Says Balthazhar, finishing off Newt’s sentence.“OOpsy.” The Gnome squeaks and cowers.Next Turn: Balthazhar.</blockquote>

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