Alea’s bow sings as she launches arrow after arrow at the Shelnak before her; At this point blank range it is hard to miss and with the sudden unexplained power of her arrows, allowing them to penetrate the shields of her opponent, she embeds several arrows in the breast of the Shelnak before it slumps and then falls forward snapping the shafts and driving home the points further.

Without and opponent for the moment, she has a clear line of sight to Siliwen and can see how calm and reserved she seems as she hangs in the manacles holding her to the wall. She looks to the grotesque leader crouching before Sil and the sight of it almost makes her want to retch. She knows her arrows seem unable to penetrate the power of the red glowing stone around it’s neck so a shot at it would be a waste of her precious few remaining shafts.

One of the Shelnak’s facing Billy drops to it’s knees as it tries to staunch the flow of blood from the stump of it’s missing arm. The other two recoiled in shock at the ease with which the human is able to damage them, their defenses so easily overcome. They recover however when their opponent suddenly looks to flee, with a cry of glee they both leap forward to strike at his back when suddenly he turns back to them and ducks and rolls between them. They try to compense but only one manages to brush Billy’s leg with it’s stave sending a fiery white hot lance of pain up his thigh to his hip.

Coming out of his roll, Billy comes to his feet and moves towards Siliwen finding the pain in his leg causing him to limp slightly. But as he struggles onward he feels strength seem to flow from the sword in his hands and urging him onward; the pain easing with each step until he is almost running again. He quickly closes the gap to Siliwen and the leader of these things; the leader whirls and snarls at him menacingly as he approaches. Holding out his hand in a grasping gesture, Billy is engulfed in a eerie red glow and he is stopped cold as if grabbed by a giant invisible hand. It squeezes and Billy cant help but cry out in pain as it feels like his ribs are about to be crushed.

“Puny Human!” Billy barely hears the leader snarl at him.

As Alea drew another arrow she saw all of this happening before her, heard Billy cry out in pain as he was engulfed in a blood red glow the same as the stone around the thing’s neck. As she nocked her arrow it began to glow brightly, even more than so than before.

Thor and Thon held their own, just barely, as they battle to keep the Rock Dwellers out of the cave; thus far they were successful as they kept them bottled up in the narrow entrance and with several bodies blocking the way. But who knew how long it would be before their damn might be breached; already they both suffered from wounds that would down a lesser man. How long before one of them fell and the room would be flooded with enemy reinforcements.

Siliwen watched as her friends battled to save her; she saw Billy rush forward limping from injury to only be halted by the power of the Beast’s stone he wore. They must find a way to stop it; she felt that she could, that this was her purpose to destroy that stone, but if only she could get free. They had to free her somehow. She looked up at the manacles that held her, simple and small but made of iron which defied her meager strength easily. She doubted ones like this would hold Billy as they looked old and rusty but pull as she might she couldn’t loosen them.

Billy felt fire wash over his skin as his ribs resisted the pressure that threatened to crush him; still he felt strength flowing up his arms and into his chest aiding him in his struggles.

”The Girl.. “ the voice came again in his head, urging him to resist, “…you must free her. She is the only one that can stop the beast.”

Riddle fires more arrows at the Rock Dwellers as he retreats backwards down the passage in an attempt to lure some away and take them out, but as he fires the two pursuing him he finds are not entirely defenseless against his arrows.

The uninjured one reaches down to the floor with both hands and pulls out two chunks of the rock beneath him; each handful a least two feet across and uses them as shields against the arrows. It stands partially to the front of the injured one as it pulls chucks of rock with it’s good arm and launches them at him over the other’s shoulder.

Riddle is so surprised at this new unbelievable assault that he barely jumps out of the way and is grazed on the shoulder by the first chunk which sends him reeling about and causes his left shoulder to bleed. Though the injury is minor, if he hadn’t ducked away his head would have been pulped. Cautious now, Riddle backed away and dodged more of the rock missiles as he tried to formulate another attack.

Billy's fake retreat worked almost as he planned it; he hadn't planned on getting hit at all but it worked pretty well overall. Moving with a limp he closed in on the leader and felt stronger with each step. Then an invisible force seemed to squeeze the breath from him. Gathering all his hatred of just this kind of magical attack by one he knew to be feeble he let his rage build and felt it augmented by power form the sword. When his rage built to the point it could build no more he gave a loud, fierce war cry and put all his might and that of the sword into breaking free. He would either break the bond that held him or die from over-exertion trying. He had to get to his friend and rescue her.

Alea moves toward Siliwen, but keeps firing her bow as long as it is affective. She will fire on the next closest Shelnak. Figuring that they are not used to being hurt. Alea decides to shot one arrow at as many as she can hoping to disrupt them it using their type of mind magics.

She will free her friend one way of the other, her life was pledged to that.

Siliwen wept when she saw Billy's charge towards her halted but some fell magic the creature cast on him. Billy hated magic he was so forthright and upfront.

Siliwen had to try something. she refused to simply hang her without doing everything she could to do what she had to do. Her wrists many be in shackles but her hands were relatively free to move. She carefully made the gestures to cast magic missiles at the creature. Perhaps, it would be enough to break the thing's concentration. As quietly as possible she whispers the words of the spell that would hurl the arcane missile, angling her fingers down at her chosen target.

Be distracted, curse you, she thought furiously and once again lashing out with her foot screaming at the creature she struggled to distract him as well as to get free., not content to do nothing.

If that doesn't work she tried focusing on the ring The ring and the Share. They had some sort of connection. It was what had brought her here and the only thing that could possible be what was needed to destroy the shard.

Siliwen will focus and try to push magic into the ring to see if it will do what must be done. Siliwen was grasping at straws but it was better than nothing. it kept her mind off of failure.

Billy struggled mightily against the invisible hand that seemed to trying to crush him, but even his valiant strength bolstered by power from the sword was enough to free him from the powerful grip and he felt that he was slowly losing to the crushing power of the stone.

Seeing the way clear to Siliwen, Alea fired off arrows from her bow as she ran and though she didn’t hit anything she managed to cause the nearby Shelnaks to dodge as they now knew their magical barriers were no good against the shafts.

Siliwen raised herself up on tiptoes and gave her shackles enough slack so that she could move her hands more freely; she began to gesture and incant the words for her magical Missiles and aimed them at the Beast.

Several things then happened in a relatively short period of time; The Beast holding out his hands towards Billy as he squeezed them in the air and cackled at the helpless human, saw movement to his right and turned his head to see Alea almost to Siliwen. One of the gore dripped hands moved and pointed at her and his fingers gave a flicking gesture.

“GET AWAY FROM HER! SHE'S MINE!” it screamed.

Alea stopped near Siliwen and looked for a quick way to free her when something ‘slapped’ her hard and sent her flying through the air to crash into the wall near Siliwen. The force of the blow and the impact almost rendered her unconscious and she felt a couple of her ribs crack at the impact and the pain and near unconsciousness made her slump down to the floor leaning against the wall.

Billy felt the power holding him lessen as part of the Beast’s power was diverted to deal with Alea, he struggled and felt the pressure on him had slackened a little. He was no longer being crushed but he still could not break free.

Then missiles of pure energy darted from Siliwen’s hands just as Alea slammed into the wall a few feet to her right; those light daggers struck the shoulder and head of the Beast as it was partially turned to glance at Alea. The Beast yelled at the unexpected attack and glared at her as bits of it’s flesh were blasted free to drip to the floor exposing more of it’s skeleton beneath.

As Billy struggled he saw the Magic Missiles hit the Beast and the power holding him lessened considerably; with a supreme feat of strength that felt like it was going to rip the muscles from his skin, he yelled and flung the invisible restraints from him and he dropped back to his feet only six feet from the Beast. The creature’s attention was turned away from Billy for the moment, he was glaring at Siliwen and still had it’s left arm extended towards Billy as it was when he was holding him suspended in power.


(OOC: Ok I hope to be able to have net access next week so that I can post and update.. but who knows.. going to be out in the CA desert again.. love working in 120°+ but get your posts in when you can... hopefully I can post sometime next week. )

Billy struggled but could not break free of the invisible bonds that squeezed him. Once more he cursed the use of magic. Then for a moment the bonds released a bit and he drew several deep breaths into his starved lungs. He could not break free but he at last was able to breath. Moments later the unthinkable happened; the bonds weakened even more and Billy managed to break free.

Looking up he found himself near the vile creature that had bound him and by some miracle the creature was facing away from him. Gathering his sword, Billy charged the creature and aimed a sing at the spot where head and neck met. 'Lets see how you like the taste of steel.' he thought as he swung. Once more Billy was focused on saving his friend.

Alea approached from the side still shooting but as she nears she switches her attention to Siliwen and the manacles that held her. Unfortunately the Creature became enraged and Struck her with an arcane force that toss her into the wall.

Billy was still struggling against the invisible bonds Hope faded until suddenly he was released. PErhaps the because the creature had stuck out at Slea,, perhaps because it was easkening. She did not really care and sdismiss the thought rapidly. She calls out to Billy not wanting him to run off and attack more Shelnak.

"Billy! Here to me. Set me free. Hurry." Siliwen calls out.

"Corellon." Alea whispers afriad to breath deeply. She stays down and hopes the Beast has his attention turned from her as she literally crawls along the floor, her aid to free Siliwen.

“NO!” Billy heard a voice in his head as he aimed at the Beast’s neck with is blade, “your blow will not harm him. Free your friend, it is your only hope.”

Billy was already charging at the Beast and could no stop his momentum, but he was able to turn aside his blade and he crashed into the Beast with his shoulder giving it his all.

The Beast staggered from the blow and hit into the wall next to Siliwen on the opposite side from where Alea had hit. Billy’s shoulder felt like he had charged hard into the rock wall himself; the Beast’s flesh yielded like a granite block.

Alea saw Billy crash into the Beast and send it into the wall as he began to crawl to Siliwen; she reached her friend and began to climb up to her slowly as her head was spinning any time she moved. She knew she had taken a serious head injury but there was no time for that now as they had to free their friend.

Siliwen simply hung there waiting for her freedom; seeing Billy knock the Beast against the wall to her left, she cried out a cheer. Suddenly she felt something warm on her hand; looking up she saw the ring was glowing brightly almost too bright for her to look at directly. Now was the time.

Billy staggered from the impact with the Beast and realized that he was within reach of Siliwen; without realizing it he was swinging his sword, or it was swinging itself, at the chain manacles holding Siliwen up to the wall. With a mighty blow, the Giant sword rang off the stone and the manacles parted like warm butter.

Alea had made it to her knees at Siliwen’s feet when there was a loud ringing of steel on stone and suddenly Siliwen fell into her arms and they were both kneeling together holding each other up.

Billy’s heroic effort of strength seemed to run out of him as Siliwen was freed and suddenly he found he couldn’t stand anymore; he collapsed to his knees in front of Siliwen and Alea where they clung to each other seemingly to hold one another upright. The warrior felt drained and realized that he didn’t have the strength to stand or fight anymore. He silently hoped the ‘voice’ in his head was right and that by freeing Siliwen they would be saved.

Suddenly a loud cry came up from the back of the cave and unknown to the others, Thor and Thon, the last two remaining dwarves, went down under a wave of rock dwellers as they managed to breach the dwarves’ defenses. They had fought valiantly but in the end they were sorely outnumbered.

Behind the party, some of the rock dwellers finished off the dwarves and some charged at the three remaining members as they knelt near the wall. The remaining Shelnaks Leaders were closing group as well, their iron staves dripping with raw power.

The Beast shook himself and leaned away from the wall where he had struck and seemed only partially shaken by the blow. He turned to the huddle party and glared at them and then laughed, leaning down to leer at them in their faces.

“You see!” He yelled, bloody spittle flying from his shapeless lips, “you are nothing! Puny humans! You have no power over me!” He threw his head back laughing maniacally and the large stone hanging from the heavy chain around his neck hung down glowing it’s blood red color.

As the three remaining members huddled together, the Beast leering over them, it’s minions bearing down upon them, Siliwen could see the stone nearly within reach and the ring she wore was glowing a bright white light glaring against the red of the Beast’s stone. Siliwen felt that if she lunged and stretched herself out from where she knelt, she could touch the foul stone of the Beast with her hand.

Then they all heard a voice, inside their heads, "Now is the time," it said in a familiar male voice of someone they met not long after starting upon this journey, "you must all join your strength together to persevere."

Billy heard the sword in mid charge. So far it had given only good advice so he dipped his sword attack and bull rushed the creature. The impact would certainly have killed lesser men for it was like hitting a solid stone wall; something Billy had done before so he knew exactly what that felt like. As with the wall, the creature gave under Billy's charge and it was knocked aside. Billy was surprised when teh sword almost seemed to swing itself at the manacles and free his friend. It was then that the debt his body owed for using nothing but adrenaline came due. He sunk to his kness knowing that he was spent. If so much as a schoolgirl came at him now he was not sure who would win.

He heard the creature taunt the group and his heart sunk. Then the voice they had heard upon arrival in this world rang in his head urging them to band together. With the last of his strength Billy crawled to where Alea and Siliwen stood and collapsed at their feet; a hand on each of them. He knew that steel would not win this fight. "I hope I bought you enough time; it is up to magic now." He looked at his recently freed friend and prayed that she was strong enough to finish what they had all begun.

"Billy," gasped Alea, We must help Siliwen." Alea then crawls toward the Beast hopping to distract it enough that Siliwen can get the stone.

"Go, Sil."

Alea digs down deep into herself and trusting in Corellon moves on the Beast.

Billy staggered from the impact with the Beast and realized that he was within reach of Siliwen; without realizing it he was swinging his sword, or it was swinging itself, at the chain manacles holding Siliwen up to the wall. With a mighty blow, the Giant sword rang off the stone and the manacles parted like warm butter.

Alea had made it to her knees at Siliwen’s feet when there was a loud ringing of steel on stone and suddenly Siliwen fell into her arms and they were both kneeling together holding each other up.

Billy’s heroic effort of strength seemed to run out of him as Siliwen was freed and suddenly he found he couldn’t stand anymore; he collapsed to his knees in front of Siliwen and Alea where they clung to each other seemingly to hold one another upright. The warrior felt drained and realized that he didn’t have the strength to stand or fight anymore. He silently hoped the ‘voice’ in his head was right and that by freeing Siliwen they would be saved.


Siliwen could only watch her friends struggling against the overwhelming odds they face, Billy finally broke free and was coming her way but it looked like he was aiming at the Beast. She was surprised when Billy rammed the hideously deformed creature and knocked it into the wall. He swung her sword and cut the chains holing her up. She fell ingloriously being releaseed from where she had hung. Her arms were limp her legs wobbly. Billy fell to one side and Alea crawled over to her other side. She had to get up

Siliwen heard a loud cry errupt up from the back of the cave. And then she saw some rock dwellers charging towards the downed trio of friends. The remaining Shelnak Leaders were closing on the group as well, their iron staves dripping with raw power.


The Beast recovered and shook himself, as if the charge by Billy was nothing. The filthy creature glared at them and then laughed, leaning down to leer at them in their faces.


“You see!” He yelled, bloody spittle flying from his shapeless lips, “you are nothing! Puny humans! You have no power over me!” He threw his head back laughing maniacally and the large stone hanging from the heavy chain around his neck hung down glowing it’s blood red color.

That was it. That is what she needed to get to. The ring to the Stone. She prayed that was it. So close, so tantalizingly close and she lay like a rag doll. Only she wasn’t.

Siliwen could see the stone nearly within reach and the ring she wore was glowing a bright white light glaring against the red of the Beast’s stone. Siliwen felt that if she lunged and stretched herself out from where she knelt, she could touch the foul stone of the Beast with her hand.

Then they all heard a voice, inside their heads, "Now is the time," it said in a familiar male voice of someone they met not long after starting upon this journey, "you must all join your strength together to persevere."

“Help me! All together NOW. We are not done yet, Billy, push me,” Siliwen called out exhorting her friends for this final effort, even as she makes every effort to stand and move herself. This will take all of them doing their best, this one time when it meant everything.

Siliwen will uses Alea, who was trying to crawl forward as her impetus and Billy as her steady rock she threw her left hand up high aiming above the creature’s head to distract him while her right hand darts out like a striking snake to grabbed at the heavy chain and hold on grimly with all her might. Strength beyond bone, tendons, ligaments, muscle and blood, strength from the core of her, strength in the face of extremity, strength drawn from her race and their heritage, and from the heart and soul of her friends and those who had died to make this happen, for her companions that started out together, the Dwarves, the Shona, Siliwen gave all she had.

Corellon I will give my life without reservation, to free this world of this foulness, both creature and stone,” Siliwen spoke this clearly in her mind there was no need for spoken words.

Siliwen, if necessary will drag herself up by that chain and then strike out with her left hand to jam the ring against the lurid glowing stone. There was no holding back now, worrying about what might happen next. This foul beast and that shard needed to be destroyed.

"I hope I bought you enough time; it is up to magic now." Billy looked at his recently freed friend and prayed that she was strong enough to finish what they had all begun.

"Billy," gasped Alea, We must help Siliwen." Alea then crawls toward the Beast hopping to distract it enough that Siliwen can get the stone. "Go, Sil."

“Help me! All together NOW. We are not done yet, Billy, push me,” Siliwen called out exhorting her friends for this final effort, even as she makes every effort to stand and move herself. This will take all of them doing their best, this one time when it meant everything.
Siliwen felt the warm comforting glow of the ring upon her finger and though it was bright she knew it was a good light. As she struggled upright on her knees, Billy did the same as Alea crawled on all fours towards the Beast.

Siliwen felt a surge of strength, as did Billy, as the warrior laid hands on her and pushed her towards the beast. Siliwen and Billy fell atop Alea as Sil reached up and grasped the blood red stone in her hands, hanging on for dear life.

The glow from her ring struggled briefly against the red light but then engulfed it completely. The Beast stopped his laughing and looking down seen what was transpiring. He tried to pull away and screeched in terror but though Siliwen was smaller than him, her strength seemed to be bolstered by some unknown force. She hung from the heavy chain about the Beast’s neck, Billy and Alea grasping weakly to her legs sending what miniscule amounts of strength still remained to them.

It felt like forever, but actually it was only a few seconds and then the white light of the ring engulfed all of them, the Beast included, and with a sudden influx of white the red of the stone was driven deep into the crystal to be replaced with the softer white light.

With a thunderous boom, the stone exploded and all were plunged into utter darkness…

(OOC: Ok.. I have to stop here.. you can post if you like but it isn’t necessary.. it is up to you. I will be flying out tomorrow to CA on business.. Death Valley again… and will have limited internet access… if I have any at all. So I will conclude the events when I return… thank you!)

Faith, it was all the Alea had left to give in the end, and this she poured out to Siliwen without hesitation, whatever she could give to Siliwen, she gave. Siliwen had to succeed, the endeavor must succeed, so much depended on it.

With the tenacity of a bulldog Siliwen clung to the chain of the glowing red stone about the neck of the Beast. THen Siliwen reached to bring the ring in contact with the stone and another battle began. The powers of Light within the ring flared to life and grew in intensity to combat the dark powers of the red stone. The room flared with lights fronm both until There was a flare of pure white light.

Exaltation. "Thank you Corellon," escaped her lips as she slipped into the darkness with the profound sense of fulfillment. Alea felt a smile on her lips as her eyes closed knowing that the Light.