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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2934484" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #347] The Bound Guardian[/PLAIN]"Did that sound like a scream to you?" Lela asked, and even as the words were leaving her mouth she was fluttering toward the door. Before she could reach it, however, Huzair flickered back through the door."Holy *! There * a *-mon * some-* ov-* there * hid-*-ous * I * ev-* seen!" he stuttered, flicking back and forth between this reality and the ethereal plane. "I * I * a *-ner.""Eh?" Karak asked, screwing up his face in puzzlement."A *-mon! * de-*!" he shouted, pointing frantically at the door with one hand even as he pressed the other against the bloody rents in his torso. No one could understand what he was saying, but the gist of the message was clear: there was something bad on the other side of the door."Umba, and all the dieties that oppose the rise of Aphyx, come to our aid now!" Ayremac prayed, invoking the gods to Protect himself from Evil while Karak entreated on his own goddess to let his axe Strike True. Shamalin cast Bull's Strength and bestowed the power on Ayremac with a light tough to his back.And then it was there. It teleported right beside Huzair and raked its claws savagely across the back of his head. The mage screamed a strange stuttering scream as he continued to Blink and everyone turned to see this horror that had appeared suddenly in their midst.Ayremac was first to react and he whirled on the thing, stepping up beside Huzair and striking his attacker's head solidly. It was a good hit, and with his newly augmented strength behind the blow it should have resulted in an explosion of teeth and blood. As it was the morningstar merely made the creature grunt and fix the holy warrior with its own unholy gaze.Karak aimed to do better and he stepped to Huzair's other side with his waraxe gripped in two fists. The frost-covered blade cut a glittering arc through the hellishly-lit air connecting mightily with the creature's torso just beneath its left arm. The blade bit deeply - though not so deep as the dwarf thought it should have. He'd put everything he had behind that blow and had fully expected the foul-smelling creature to drop like a stuck gobbo. Instead it simply staggered a bit, cursing in some dark language that he didn't understand.Lela wheeled in from the side and tossed a pinch of Pixie Dust at the thing - her friends were packed too tightly for her to risk using more - and managed to strike it full in the face. The creature seemed to shake off the effect, however as if its very nature had somehow resisted the magic.Huzair reactivated the Ring of Invisibility (for the magical effect had been disrupted by creature's initial attacks) and stepped back from the front rank. That left an opening for Morier to insinuate himself and he did just that, leading his advance with Ravager's jagged blade. The sword eagerly sought the creature's gut, but despite the full force of Morier's steely thews, the blade did little more than leave a scratch on the thing's belly.Shamalin lent Huzair some healing, bringing him quickly back to a semblance of his former self.The creature, however, had a new target on which to vent its wrath and it laid into Ayremac for all it was worth. Its claws found gaps in his fearsome spiked plate, digging painfully into the man's flesh. The Holy Warrior managed to interpose his morningstar between the thing's jaws and his face, deflecting that blow at least. To his horror, however, he saw that his weapon had been reduced to a misshapen and pitted lump of smoking metal on the end of a stick. Contact with the protective slime covering the creature's body had corroded it severely, but it still glowed like a torch in his hand. He swung the weapon but it seemed to have no effect on the thing whatsoever.Given the precious nature of Karak's axe, if the dwarf had seen what the acidic slime had done to Ayremac's morningstar he might have taken measures to protect the weapon. But as it was Karak stepped onto the monster's flank and swung his waraxe at it oblivious to the danger. The weapon carved two bloody gashes into the monster's back, marking its frame with a ghastly red "X" that crossed it from shoulder to hip. The thing reared up howling in pain at this attack and turned, unmindful as Lela dropped a Flaming Sphere at its feet.Huzair had readied his Wand of Scorch, but his allies were crowded too closely around the thing for him to make use of it. "Get out of the way!" he shouted. What his companions heard was a stuttering: "* out * the *!" He cast Magic Missile, sending two bolts of force into the creature's neck.Morier struck with his sword, and Ravager's teeth bit hungrily into the flesh along the thing's left arm, but seemed to leave no visible wound on the limb as the blade withdrew.Shamalin reached out her hand and sent divine magic into Ayremac, healing most of the wounds he'd just received.For its part, the creature glared fiercely at Karak... and vanished, leaving the hallway suddenly silent apart from the creak of leather and the the panting breaths of The Order.</blockquote>

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