Siliwen was a bit shocked when her Magic missle spell went awrary. Never had this spell failed her. Whtever she aimed at struck.

She was quite sure this force shield was some sort of magical effect byt the making of it and the breaking ot were beyond her ability. Siliwen watched and waited preparing to run id need be.

Billy, suddenly races forward sword upraised and charged for the front of the wedge formation of the Shelnak.. Siliwen did not even bother to cry out for him to stop. her voice had not carried any distance before and Billy was much too far in front of her.

Siliwen did hte only thing left to her at this moment she prayed to Corellon that they would win through this and move on.

Location: Under the Grey Mountains
Date/Time: Day Nine – Afternoon
Thon still stood next to the leader of the Shelnak wedge and after watching two of his men dispatched so easily, he was still not discouraged by the apparent lack of their weapons to damage the wedge. The dwarf’s mouth was wide in a silent battle cry as he swung his great dwarven axe at the leader. Shock registered on his face as the steel rang off of the invisible shield causing a great red flash on impact.

The rebound of his weapon caused him to stumble back a couple steps; this little stagger saved Thon’s life as the leader of the wedge stabbed his iron stave down at the dwarf but missed because of the dwarf’s sudden misstep. The leader’s stave struck the rock ledge and a flash of red force thundered throughout the cavern overpowering even the roar for the nearby waterfall.

Their previous attack thwarted, the rest of the group stood defensively waiting as the large warrior, Billy, charged up to the Shelnak leader and swung his great sword with all his mighty strength. Billy’s stroke seemed to be guided as he swung and the sword passed through the invisible shield as if it were not even there. He felt his sword bite hard into the leader’s abdomen and the entire wedge seemed to shiver and buckle as it took a step back in surprise.

The Shelnak leader recoiled and looked down at the gash in it’s side in what could only be described as shock and fear. The entire wedge moved backwards a couple of steps as the leader turned it’s attention fully upon the warrior who had injured it.

Alea, seeing Billy’s attack succeed, looses a single arrow at the leader but her attack meets with the same result as before, striking against the shield which turns the arrow to ash.

Thor was about to step forth and take a swing himself since Billy was successful but when an arrow from behind him failed to penetrate the shield he held his attack figuring it would be useless since the shield was still in place and only Billy’s sword appeared to be able to penetrate it.

(Ok.. See map below for positions. Next update, next Saturday)

Billy closed the gap between himself and the enemy leader in a few strides. The shelnak had a look of amusement on its face as once more a warrior approached the formation, it was confident its protection would hold. Moments later than look turned to shock and a touch of fear as Billy's sword passed thru the magic barrier and opened a gash in its side.

'I always knew that those with honor would triumph over magic.' he thought to himself as he prepared yet another attack on the leader.

Alea moves up to Siliwen's left, into a protective position, to stand as her shield. Her sword was ready, not that a sword was capable of stopping the Shelnak's form of magics.

If she had to risk her life so that Siliwen could carry on the mission, then so be it, for it seemed that Siliwen was the key to their success.

Alea could only wish she was a better cleric, then maybe she could be more helpful.

Thor watched as the Dwarf leader tried to attack the front Shelank without success and was staggered in the attempt, but his mouth dropped when Billy in a wild charge somehow mansged to get his sword to penatrate the force shield and deliver a brutal blow to the front Shelank cutting it deep in the abdomen the entire Shelank wedge took a couple of steps back and Thor was at once ready to charge in himself for it seemed the shield had been breeched.

However before he could move he watched as a arrow fired from behind him meet with the same results as all the other attacks and hit the shield and disinagrates so it seems that for a reason unknown only Billy's sword could get through. This ment that for now Billy was their only hope, odds Thor did not like, he has a quick idea and wonders if maybe the shield could be breeched while Billy's sword was passing through it so with no other options at the moment Thor loads his cross bow and positions himself at a spot where he could get a clean shot at the front Shelank as soon as Billy made his next attack Thor planned on firing as soon as he could tell that Billy's sword itself had breeched the invisable force shield, it was worth a try.

Siliwen was about to withdraw to a safe distance when Billy moved up to attack. She changed her plans and readied another Magic Missile just in case Billy got in trouble.

Billy Swung mack his great sword and hit the leader full on.

She didn't know who was most surprised; Billy, the lead Shelnak or the rest of them whose every attempt to hit the Shelnak had been bounced off that shield--but not Billy's attack.

Billy's sword had somehow penetrated the shield and struck the lead Shelnak a hard blow.

Location: Under the Grey Mountains
Date/Time: Day Nine – Afternoon
As Siliwen prepared another spell just in case it was needed, she felt something strange; a tingling sensation on her chest. Looking down she sees the small golden dragonette amulet, given to her by Alacran, is glowing softly and intensifying. Where it touches her skin it tingles, but there is no pain even as it grows in brightness.

The Shelnak Leader turns his attention to the new threat, Billy and raises it’s iron stave to deal a powerful blow then suddenly pauses. It’s head turns and its gaze falls upon Siliwen and the glowing amulet; it is as if it can sense it’s power.

Suddenly the leader darts forward, rushing past Thon and Billy as it heads directly towards Siliwen. Billy pauses for a second at the unexpected move and then starts to turn to take a swing at the back of the Leader when suddenly the wedge of Shelnak shift. The Leader missing, another Shelnak steps forth and takes the Leader’s place at the apex of the wedge. It wields it’s own smaller stave and stabs at Billy causing him to go on the defensive and block the stave with his own sword.

Billy returns the attack with his sword and once again his blade bites into a Shelnak’s flesh and the new leader goes down; another steps forth to takes it’s place.

Just out of range of the Leader, Thon strikes out with his axe at one of the Shelnaks on the side and is rewarded with a solid hit that takes down another Shelnak. It seems that the shield that was protecting the wedge is no longer present; perhaps the desertion of their leader has weakened the power of the wedge.

Meanwhile, the Leader rushes towards Siliwen; Thor manages to load his crossbow and just looks up to take aim when he sees the Leader rushing at him; no not at him, past him. He fires his crossbow at point blank range as he dodges to the side to avoid the Shelnak’s charge. The powerful bolt slams into the Leader as it runs past; the hit staggers the beast but it continues onward.

Riddle sees the creature coming and heading right for Siliwen; he reacts on instinct and throws himself in between the Leader and Siliwen brandishing his two swords. The Leader doesn’t pause at it strikes out with it’s iron stave at the Ranger who attempts to block the lightning fast blow. Riddle however is unsuccessful with his parry attempt and the iron bar slams into him and flings him to the side. The blow is like a hammer, throwing him up against the wall and suddenly dark liquid from the gleaming rod splashes on Riddle as he hit’s the wall and slumps to the ground stunned.

Suddenly Riddle feels intense burning all over his body where the acid like liquid touches skin. Smoke starts to rise from his body as it starts to eat at his armor and flesh and his mouth to open in a silent scream of intense pain.

Siliwen watches all of this in stunned silence and when she sees Riddle slapped aside like a rag doll, she snaps out of it and with a gesture and a word sends her magic missiles streaking to slam into the growing visage of the Shelnak Leader. The twin bolts of energy slam into the creature and it staggers, appearing to grow weaker but still it comes on towards her.

Alea also watched as the Leader unrepentantly left the group and charge among them; when Riddle hit the wall her gaze was locked on him. She could see that he was hurt bad, and she watched as his body became covered with the strange dark liquid and then begin to smoke. She couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the falls, but she could see his mouth open wide in a scream and she knew that he was hurt bad. Instinctively she ran towards Riddle, she had to help him otherwise he would die.

The two dwarves in the rear of the group saw all that transpired before them, one ran towards where Riddle fell against the wall apparently intending to help him as well. The other, hefting his axe ran towards Siliwen and the Leader that was bearing down upon her.

(OOC: Ok new map below. Riddle is badly hurt and will surely die unless someone helps him soon. The Leader is badly hurt but is still pressing on towards Siliwen. Consider your actions carefully here. Next post next Saturday.)

For some reason unknown to Thor the Shelank who seemed to be the leader and was the front of the Shelank wedge suddenly breaks rank with the rest and at first looks like he is charging right at Thor, but he quickly finds out he is rushing past him and trying to reach Siliwen. Thor does manage to get his crossbow up and at point blank range fires a bolt directly into the Shelank leader, but it is obvious he is on some kind of single minded mission.

Thor watches as his bolt hits hard the Shelank at point blank but it does no more than stagger the beast slightly and it continues is frantic rush forward.Riddle being next between Siliwen and the charging beast so he steps into the path and is quickly hit hard with the creatures iron rod and he finds himself slamed up against the cliff face but worse yet is the Shelanks iron rod spurts out some kind of fluid that from the looks of what starts to happen is some kind of acid because Riddles armor as well as his fleash starts to dissolve and smoke starts to rise from his body.

Thor realizes that Riddle is hurt and badly but has no way to be of any real help and Alea is right there at his side almost at once to try ro help the injured Riddle.

Next Siliwen who seemed at first to be in a daze at what was happening rouses herself and with the spell she already had prepared hits the onrushing Shelank and he sees the bolts of energy hit the beast full on and once again he is staggered but once again it continues it's charge.

So as the one dwarf that is behind all starts to move forward to try to place himself infront of Siliwen Thor seeing that the beast is to far infront of him to strike with his ax and it would take to long to try and reload his crossbow for another shoot simply tosses the bow slightly to one side and in a well praticed fluid motion pulls the throwing ax he wears on his hip and with an eye on his target attempts to plant the blade of his ax right between the Shelanks Shoulder blades

"even these strange magic users have no honor and flee from a fight." Billy thought as he watched the wounded leader disappear. Where he went made no differance as there was another to take his place. What did matter is that suddenly Billy's companions were able to attack as well. With his back towards the party and teh sound of water drowning out all other noises, Billy was unaware of anythign behind him. For now he focused on the task at hand and pressed his attack; attempting to break the wedge.

With the words of heal pouring from her lips, though unheard over the roar of the falls, she bends over Riddle and reaches out a hand to touch him with the healing grace of Corellon.

She then reaches for her waterskin to wash away the viscous liquid that seems to be burning him.

OOC unles my P< get replies that changes her actions this is what Siliwen is doing.

IC:

Siliwen watched as the leader of the Shelnak suddenly broke form the wedge formation leaving Billy standing there. Perhaps since Billy had hurt him he was breaking for Thondrek and the other Dwarf thinking them easier targets. When she saw him by pass Thondrek and the Grey Mountain dwarf, she became worried. Riddle stood bravely before her ready to take the blunt of the creatures charge. Only that was not to be The Shelnak hit riddle with his Iron bar and sent him flying against the stony wall of the Tunnel. Riddle collapse in a heap. Something liquid splashed on him and Riddle started to smoke--it flashed into her mind that it was most likely acid. but that is all the time she had to spare and the leader was almost upon her.

The leader had been hurt but she didn't know how badly. She didn't know if she could get off another spell in time or not, she had one more Magic Missile to use but if he was still protected that would be a futile waste of a spell and she would be left totally unable to defend her self against his skills. strength, and his determination to kill her.

Siliwen was left with only two possible choices that might let her live. The first was to abort all actions to a full out run but that would leave her alone and at the mercy of the more powerful creature, or two, risk running behind Alea, and the Gray Mountain dwarf over towards the wall and taking refuge beyond them hoping they could now hit the creature. Giving them a change to hit the creature (possible and AoO as well) and Siliwen a chance to get a spell off.

Siliwen went for the all out abort and zooms over behind Alea, and the Gray Mountain Dwarf. Against the tunnel wall.

The glow on her chest was ignored since she had no idea what it meant. Hopwfully her actions might give ehr group time to down the huge Shelnak

Location: Under the Grey Mountains
Date/Time: Day Nine – Afternoon
Billy and Thon attacked the Shelnak wedge from two different sides, their attacks were devastating to the weakened wedge and all coherence among the creatures broke down. Three of their number went down in the attack and the others broke their formation and while the back half of the creatures fled back the way they had come, the rest scattered and tried a fighting retreat using only their small iron dirks.

Alea said a quick prayer to Corellon and reached out and touched Riddle and felt two things: one the healing power of her god pass through her and into the severely injured man, the second was an intense burning sensation in her hand. She quickly withdrew her hand and saw the viscous liquid starting to burn her flesh.

She drew out her water to try and wash it off of her and Riddle, but the dwarf next to her stopped her hand and shook his head. He reached down and taking dirt from the floor next to the wall he dropped a double handful on her injured hand and began to rub off the liquid and the burning subsided. While she brushed at the dirt on her hands, the dwarf began to douse handfuls of dirt on Riddle to stop the acid like film on his body. As he did she could see the healing power start to do it’s work and though he remained unconscious she could see he wasn’t getting any worse, but he still needed further attention.

Next several things happened almost simultaneously; Thor had turned and grabbing his throwing axe, hurled it at the back of the Shelnak Leader as he loomed over Siliwen. Seeing the leader bearing down upon her with little time to cast a spell, Siliwen turned to retreat. As she turned she saw the dwarf from behind her step up and place himself directly in the path of the Shelnak, his axe swinging.

The dwarves axe met the iron stave of the Leader and both weapons went flying, the leader continued on and tripped slightly on the dwarf as he almost fell down from the force of the blow. Stumbling, the leader reached out and grabbed Siliwen as she started to run. Sweeping her up in one arm he reached out for her necklace with the other as he continued to stumble.

Siliwen got a close look at the Shelnak then as it’s face loomed over her shoulder; it had no eyes really that she could see, it’s lipless V shaped mouth was salivating over her, and it had two slits for a nose; it seemed to be sniffing at her as if trying to locate something by smell. Suddenly she felt the creature jerk and begin to lose his balance even further as he stumbled on; what she couldn’t see is the throwing axe which suddenly sprouted from the creatures back.

Thor shouted in triumph as he saw his axe bury itself deep in the leader’s back, but then he watched in horror as he watched the creature stumble on weakly towards the edge of the cliff. He tried to yell a warning but no one heard it as he saw the creature, carrying Siliwen disappear over the edge of the cliff towards the waterfall. He ran over towards the edge and peered over and saw nothing beyond; her and the creature had disappeared into the darkness. Looking about he suddenly noticed that the dwarf he had seen attempt to come to Siliwen’s rescue was also missing. He thought the he must have been clinging to the creature in a vain attempt to stop it as it continued on it’s quest to get at the mage.

With the disappearance of their leader, the remaining Shelnaks all turn and flee on all fours back up the cavern in the direction from which they came. Thon and Billy each bring down a couple more as they flee then Thon restrains the large warrior with a arm and shakes his head, meaning they should let them go then he turns back to the rest of the group behind them to access the damage.

Situation: Riddle is still unconscious but no longer burning. Alea and one dwarf are aiding him. Thor stands by the edge of the ledge looking down into the darkness. Siliwen, the other dwarf from the rear guard, and the Shelnak leader are nowhere to be seen.

((OK N.P.N.S. Any questions let me know. Brianna, check PM for message.))

Alea will use another heal spell to get Riddle up if she thinks he needs it, yet she does not want to use up all her healing and not have some for Siliwen, and the missing Dwarf. (How much healing do I have left?) She leaves Riddle and goes to look for Siliwen, hoping tha she might have grabbed a rock and not fallen all the way down (How far to the bottom?) She grabs for her rope and then goes to the dwarf closest to her and points to her rope and over the side. She knows others carry rope that could be added to hers, she was light and she could heal so she had to be the one that went down there. She begins to tyr the rope around her waist and her upper legs for greated safety.

Billy stops his attack when he feels Thors hand on his arm. He wanted to follow those that ran but knew that the dwarf was right. Turning around he made his way back to the others.

Right away Billy noticed Riddle was hurt badly. Some of the others were tending to him and Billy hoped he would be OK. It took a moment more for him to notice Siliwen was missing. Thru much shouting into each others ears to be heard over the rush of water, Billy learned that Siliwen and the Shelnak leader had both fallen over the cliff. "We have to find her" Billy said as he too unpacked his rope. "I will anchor the end."

Thor stands at the edge of the cliff looking over in horror
the Shelank leader had taken himself, Siliwan, and the dwarf over the edge with him.Then with a lot of diffuculty and yelling into each others ears it seems a plan to lower Alea over the edge to see if she can find Siliwan had come together.

Thor adds his rope to any others that the group has and then he adds himself to the ones who will anchor Alea's decent.