Chapter 16 Requiem

Xander, Tasen, Bhass, Jack, Wrathale and Reed all run towards the black smoky mist. Suddenly Tasen stops and thinks in his mind. “If you can hear me meet me out by the castle area.”

Reed then asks Tasen “Why did you stop? We need to move.”

Tasen Replies “I think there is something coming to meet me so I’m going to go greet it. I’ll meets up with you later.”

Reed nods and continues to run off with the rest of the group.

Tasen runs off towards the castle door. After a few minutes, he makes it to the door and Runs down the stairs to the mess hall. He’s trying to find a door out side when he bumps into the Golden Draconian. He says “Ah, yes. I need to talk to you for a moment and we don’t have much time to spare.”

Tasen replies “Hold on. I think what ever is giving me the visions is coming to meet me over here.”

The Golden Draconian answers “Alright, but I must talk to you quickly afterwards, also I hope you know what your doing.”

Tasen nods and asks “Where’s a door to the outside?”

“Follow me” says the Golden Draconian. Tasen the follows the Golden Draconian and is shown the door to the field where he had seen some of the Draconian’s practice.

Tasen runs out into the field and thinks in his head. “I’m here, where are you?”

Tasen looks to the sky and sees nothing then he looks around a few more times when finally he sees a blue lizard looking creature with wings as it flies into view. He notices that it has a tail with a flat flame spike. On its neck, he notices that the base of it is red and as it goes up to its head the red slowly fades into white.

The creature lands and walks towards him and stop about three feet away. Tasen takes out a haunch of meat and hands to the lizard. The creature sniffs it, then grabs it from him and eats it. Tasen reaches out with his hand to try and pet it but the creature jerks back and flies away.

The Golden Draconian comes out and says “That was a Pseudo Dragon, they can be powerful allies. Generally you have to give them something that you value most like an item of some sort. You are lucky to have a chance to meet this creature.” Tasen nods and says in his head. “I would like to meet you outside the main entrance of the cave if I survive this battle; there is something I wish to give you.”

The Golden Lizard then says “Now we have a matter that we need to attend to.”

*********************************************

Reed catches up with the rest of the group and Sword takes them to a hidden door. They step through and see the entrance to the cave and hundreds of men marching in.

Sword says “Quickly everyone this way.” The Party runs off into one of the tunnels close by. Sword says as he points at Wrathale, “You fire at them to get their attention.” Warthale nods and fires randomly into the army of men coming down the cave entrance. As the army starts to push down the small passage, Sword, Xander and others all get ready. They cut down any men that try pushing past and they slowly retreat back down the small passage the hacking and slashing the army of man. Many men Fall as do some of the Draconians. The fighting continues into the darkness where the men are forced to light torches.

The Army continues to push down the small corridor when Sword says while smiling “Bring them to the fork and make sure they keep following. We don’t want them getting lost now do we?”

Xander nods and all of them push the army back a little causing a domino effect and they Retreat farther down the passage to the fork. “We stay here till they come I’m going to guess?” Xander says.

Sword nods and replies “we should be close to the destination, how do you plan on aggravating the Guardian?”

Jack then says “By throwing rocks perhaps.”

Wrathale replies “well it did seem to make it angry that time you threw a rock in the lake so maybe several more will make if furious.”

Sword nods and braces himself as he sees some of Tarix’s men charge at them from down the corridor.

Wrathale begins to fire arrows and he hits five before the army catches up and the melee starts up again. Xander and everyone else all slowly back down the hall fighting.

*********************************************

The Golden Draconian says “Now I have a theory.”

“And what is this theory” Tasen replies

The Golden Draconian says “Let me finish, I have a theory that if we can find Tarix’s corpse, the army will leave because their master is dead.”

Tasen says “Ok, I understand how that will work, sorta, anyway how do you plan for us to get there?”

The Golden Draconian says “Sword told me about the armor you were wearing a while ago and Xander said it was supposed to teleport you to Tarix. So if we go back to that spot and use the armor, then we can teleport to Tarix, pick up his corpse, and I will teleport us back into the cave and throw the body at the feet of the army.”

Tasen takes a moment to think and says “What if Tarix isn’t dead?”

The golden Draconian says “well then we just get back here and help our men fight against the army.”

Tasen replies “what if some of the men rebel against us or try to take revenge after they see the body?”

The Golden Draconian replies again “you wonder to much. We just need to wait and see what happens. You are too worried.”

Tasen nods and they both run off into the black smoky area and head towards the mountain door. After a few minutes of Constant running, they both make it to the door panting then Set about looking for the armor.

*********************************************

Sword, and everyone else, continue to slowly back down the corridor when Sword says “Ok we are far enough. Run for the end throw rocks in to the water and wait for one of the mages to make a door for us. It must be done by now.”

Xander nods and everyone pushes the army back again. The Extra Space allows for them all to run quickly down the hall and into the cavern.

Sword says “Quickly now. Throw the rocks!” Jack, Reed, Wrathale, Bhass and Xander all throw rock after rock as they hear the army charging down the hall.

The water starts to boil and glow a radiant red as the creature gets angrier. Everyone stops throwing rocks and run over to the wall away from the entrance to the room and wait for the magical door to appear. As the boiling gets more rapid, one of the mages appears through a glowing yellow door and calls to the party “Quickly, this door is working through at least one hundred feet of stone and wont hold long.”

Sword nods and everyone passes through the door where they see a few mages holding the door and two mages waiting for a signal. Sword says “You two wait for three more minutes then detonate the explosives.” The three minutes pass quickly and the mages let the explosion goes off. Everyone feels the vibration of the stone as some dust falls from the ceiling.

“The guardian should take care of any of Tarix’s men that passed through the cave in.” Sword says. “Now we must flank those that had the door shut on them.”

Everyone nods and Sword the mages and the party all enter halls to finish off the remainder of the army.

*********************************************

Tasen and the Golden Draconian make it to the armor and press the button on it. After activating the armor, they both appear in a large room with books and book cases everywhere. They both see a desk and what looks like a man who is flopped over on top of a book on the desk. The Golden Draconain lifts up the man’s head to reveal an old man with eyes and mouth pitch black like the orb of Annihilation. Tasen asks “Is that… Tarix?”

The Golden Draconian says “yes, yes it is. Now grab the body. We have to get back.” Tasen picks up Tarix’s corpse and quickly realizes that it is as light as a feather. The Golden Draconian then puts a hand on Tasen and they both are teleported to within a few yards of where the army and Sword’s group are fighting.

The Golden Draconian yells in common “We have slain your master. Leave now, unless you wish to share the same fate!” He then holds up the corpse and throws it a few feet in front of the army.

The men all stop fighting and look in the direction of the Golden Draconian and Tasen. Some of the men come over and look at the body, then leave the cave while others just stand around the corpse staring in awe. After a few tense minutes, all of Tarixs army has left.

All the party members and the Golden Draconian meet to congratulate each other. The Golden Draconian says “Sword, I wish for you to reconsider leaving.”

Sword replies “Seeing that you need me doesn’t really give me much of a choice now, does it.”

The Golden Draconian nods and walks through the hidden door into the black misty area.

Sword says “You guys have done enough to earn our trust and a reward. Behind this portal to the other plane is a cart of treasure. I do not know how to get through to it, that is something you will have to find out on your own. Farewell and good luck.” Sword then walks into the stone wall and disappears.

Reed and Tasen quickly look for something that might open the door behind the portal. All they find is the magical door that Sword had walked through. Bhass then heads a little to the right of the door and pushes on the stone.

The stone tablet pushes in and they hear wind rushing, a gust pushes past them and inside they see a broken cart with gold coins everywhere, along with weapons, armor, and miscellaneous items. Xander, Reed, Jack, Wrathale and Bhass all run in and begin pocketing gold and silver.

Tasen then says “I’ll be right back there is some one I promised I’d meet after the fight.”

Tasen runs off towards the entrance to the cave to see the Pseudo Dragon waiting patiently. Tasen takes his back pack and pulls out a small copper broach and on it is a wrench crossing with a sword and the outline of it is a shield with little stationary gears surrounding the wrench and sword.

Tasen places it on the ground and takes three steps back. The Pseudo Dragon walks up to the item, sniffs it, then looks at Tasen. The Dragon then looks behind Tasen to see Xander, Jack, Reed, Bhass and Wrathale all rummaging in the treasure they rightfully earned. The Dragon pushes the broach back to Tasen and walks towards him.

Tasen pats the Dragon on the head and gives it another haunch of meet and says, “Would it be okay if I named you Azure?”

The End

Chapter 15 Tarix...

Xander replies to Tasen, “What do you mean, what do you see?”

Tasen says “I see men on horses and a few chariots all with Tarix’s symbol on them. They are heading to the caved in path.

Xander looks around. “Alright we need to warn them.” Xander then looks to Jack. “Jack pick him up. We need to head back.”

Jack picks up Tasen, carries him through the door following Xander and everyone else. Tasen’s vision returns after entering the black smoky mist.

The party heads off through the black smoky mist towards the castle door. About half way there they see a small party of draconians heading towards them. Xander quickens his pace to close the distance with them. As they get closer, they see Sword in the small group of twenty or thirty draconians.

“Sword” Xander yells

Sword Replies “Xander? I thought you had already left.”

“We were about to but we came to warn you” Xander says

“Warn me, of what?” Sword asks

They finally meet face to face.

“Of Tarix he is advancing on your home.” Xander says

Sword Replies, “How do you know this?”

Xander Turns and looks at Tasen

“Because of him” Xander replies

Sword raises and eyebrow at Xander. “Explain”

“Every time well not every time but most of the time we’ve stepped out of here Tasens vision had started acting funny. He says they he has no control over his sight during that other than he can see the ground from the sky.”

“Ok… continue” Sword says

“Well when we stepped into that door” Xander points over to the Bedroom door. “Tasen had another vision; he saw Tarix’s troops coming up the chasm to the caved in door.”

Sword nods “here’s the Problem.”

“Problem?” Xander says

“Aye, these men and I are leaving our elders for the reason that they are stubborn fools they are trying to punish us for having you help us when we apparently could have done everything our selves. Rubbish, with out your plan we would never have defeated that giant. We probably would have kept getting our men slaughtered by that thing. However they are our brethren we cannot sit ideally by and watch our men become slaughtered by that monster Tarix.” Sword says.

Xander nods

Sword then says “We will return and you all shall wait over there for us to arrive.” He then points over to the bedroom door.

Xander nods and Walks off towards the Bedroom door as the rest of the group follows. Sword heads off with his men towards the castle door.

A few minutes later Sword returns with the Golden Lizard and the amulet, “What is this about?”

Xander says “Tarix, hes bringing an army to you.”

The golden lizard raises an eyebrow at Xander, “and you know this, how?”

Xander then explains to the golden lizard about Tasen and his visions.

The Golden Lizard takes a moment to think, “How do we know Tarix isn’t spying on him wondering what we are doing.”

Tasen then says “Because in one of the Visions I saw a Blue scaly wing off to…” Tasen then thinks a moment “my right side”

Jack starts in “Just a Quick question, What is that Black Hole thing in the Closet?” Tasen then translates what he said to the Draconians.

The Golden Lizard Replies “It is called the Orb of Destruction it sucks in anything and it never comes back some say that if you are pulled into it that it feels like an eternity before you die, many try to use it and they fail. When you fail at trying to use something that powerful if fights back.”

“Do you want to know why its right there?”

Xander nods

“one of our mages thought that he would be able to Control it he failed and it followed him where ever he went. It was faster than him and surprising enough he made it so far in just ten steps.”

Xander then says “how will we win the up coming battle?”

The golden Draconian says “Well there are only two entrances to us and one is protected by what we call the Guardian. The other way is through that mirror.” the golden draconian points at the giant mirror.

Xander then says “I suppose we could try to lure them to the Guardian and lock them in and let it take care of it for us. However we would still have to take on a few that didn’t quite make it in before we closed them in, however I don’t know how we will close them in so I guess this plan isn’t to good.”

The golden Draconian says “Actually we have these little balls that explode and if we can put them in the right spots we can activate them and then we can close them in.”

Xander replies “Perfect, however we might get trapped inside and still fight them off unless you guys have an idea.”

The golden wizard puts in “we can have mages set up to come in and open a door way to the Caves where we had kept animals for food and leather then we can Close them in and corner them.”

“Good now, there is only one problem, how shall we kill Tarix?” Xander says.

The Golden Draconian then says “Well we have no idea but I believe we can hinder him at least if we destroy the Soul of his Daughter.”

Xander says “well in the amulet isn’t the soul of a girl it’s a soul of a man, because I looked into it after we got if from the Giant and a girls face didn’t show instead it was a mans, do you suppose it is Tarix’s?”

The Golden lizard thinks for a moment. He ponders the question for a little bit then answers “did you know that Tarix has had six daughters all elven when there is no Wife that has been spoken of also This Daughter would be his Seventh.”

Xander says “yeah I’ve heard of him having a few daughters and what’s your point?”

“Tarix is Human and has been living for three hundred years and his appearance hasn’t changed and none the less the fact that every fifty years his daughter would die under the age of twenty and they appear to come out of thin air.”

Xander then says “do you think he creates his Daughters using powerful magic?” Xander says

“Its very much possible, but you cannot create a soul with magic because it must be taken but such a thing would harm the soul and how he would use it is beyond me.” Says the Golden Draconian

Xander then says “What if, the daughters are just Packages like something to store his soul in. and every fifty years he would store it in one of his daughters and after every fifty years he would kill her and takes his soul back. And afterwards he discards them like an empty case.”

“Well, if that is True then we have his soul and all we need to do if find a way to Destroy it and that’s the only problem.” The Golden Draconian says

“What do you mean?” Xander asks

“Well, we have tried many times already to destroy it but nothing is working. I if believe that if we can destroy his soul the Army would disperse, but we have nothing to destroy it with.”

Tasen the Raises his hand, “Yes Gnome?” The Golden Draconian says.

“Well, Why don’t we throw the Amulet inside the orb of Destruction?” Tasen says.

The Golden Draconian then looks at the Gnome and says, “Hmm, never thought of that, I guess we could give it a try.”

The Golden Draconian walks over to the orb of destruction as Sword his men and Xander along with the rest of the group. The Golden Draconian then tosses the Amulet at the Orb and the Amulet Jets into the center of it and Disappears, as the amulet disappears a Large Quake shifts the Ground and a Large Explosion is heard through the Mirror and the Golden Draconian then says “Sword Take your Twenty men the his Friends to their Station I will send the Engineers and Mages.

Chapter 14 The Amulet

The next day Xander, Reed, Tasen, Wrathale, Jack, Bhass and Sword begin to head back to the Mist area to talk to Swords elders about an alliance to kill the giant. They pack up and head out. After about a half an hour, they hear loud stomping off in the distance where they’re going.

Xander says, “I assume that’s the giant?”

Sword nods in reply. Sword and the party make it to the out lines of the woods where Xander, Tasen, Jack, Bhass, Wrathale and Reed had boulders and trees and tree stumps thrown at them. Then they all hear a loud roar and loud stomping as the ground begins to shake. They all look around and see, a giant covered almost from head to toe with different armors like chain, plate, cloth and leather. The giant is also carrying a giant club and a large bag coming from the woods.

Sword then yells, “Quickly, we must run for the door!”

Everyone then runs as fast as they can to the door. They all make it to the door just in time as the giant smashes his mace against the mountain wall. Xander, Sword, Tasen, Jack, Reed, Wrathale and Bhass all quickly jump inside of the dark mist area.

“Well,” Xander begins, “How are you going to go about telling them that we are on your side now?”

Sword replies, “I will need to bring one of you with me to do so, but not right now, I will go talk to them, and they will listen.”

Sword then takes out a special pair of glasses like the ones Xander had taken from the mirror bedroom door and heads off.

After a few minutes of waiting they see Sword coming back with handful of twenty men all armed and ready.

Sword then says, “Which one of you is coming with me?”

Xander then says, “Well none of them are really all that diplomatic, so I’ll be going.”

“Very well, follow me. The rest of you must stay here. You will be watched by fifteen of the twenty I brought. The other five will be following me and Xander.”

Everyone nods in acknowledgement at Sword’s orders. Xander then follows Sword and his five men over to the castle door.

Xander and Sword all make it to the castle door and about twenty more lizards come out and make a circle around Xander and Sword. On the inside of the door, Xander sees a golden lizard in a robe looking at him and gesturing for him to come in with a grim smile on his face.

Sword then says “Hold on a sec. The agreement was that he comes out here.”

Xander then says, “Why?”

Sword replies, “Magic does not work in this plane of existence.”

Sword then walks inside of the door and begins to talk to the golden lizard. Xander, who is outside, looks around at the lizard men surrounding him, nods, and then looks back into the door.

The golden lizard looks like he’s yelling at Sword while Sword remains calm. Finally, the golden lizard comes out with another lizard wearing a robe and carrying something in his hand.

The golden lizard then speaks, “We will accept that you will help us kill the giant. However, we will only hand you forty of our best men. You will also be taking him with you.” The golden lizard points to the other robed lizard. “You need to be at least within one hundred and sixty feet of him.”

Xander replies, “Why?”

The golden lizard then looks at the other robed lizard and nods. “This is why,” says the golden lizard as the robed lizard jabs a small orb-like thing into Xander’s chest.

“That is a tool we use to make sure people follow our every command,” says the golden lizard.

“What does it do?” Xander says shaking off the pain in his chest.

“You will find out if you go past the one hundred and sixty foot mark. He will set it off if either you betray us or if your out of the one hundred and sixty foot mark.”

“So it’s supposed to kill me?” Xander replies

“Precisely.”

“Well do you have another one of these things?” Xander says while pointing to the orb-like object in his chest.

“Yes, why?” replies the golden lizard.

“I wish to use it on the giant,” says Xander.

The golden lizard thinks a minute, then says, “How would you be able to put it on him?”

Xander replies, “I have abilities that are a little different than Magic. I will put it inside of the large sack of whatever he has.”

The golden lizard nods. “I see, very well then. We will get you one more.”

“Just a quick question,” Xander says. “do they both have to same activation code?”

“No,” says the golden lizard.

After a little while Xander gets another orb and says, “We’re gonna have to set up a trap and set out our plan.”

Wrathale, Tasen, Reed, Jack, and Bhass all sit around in the black mist waiting patiently when they see Sword, Xander and thirty-five more lizards behind them.

Xander walks up to his five party members and says, “Let’s go slay that giant.” Everyone nods and follows Xander through the door.

Once everyone is through the door Xander yells out so everyone can hear, “We will be fighting the giant that has killed your kind numerous amounts at a time. I understand if you all are scared, but we will not perish, for we are strong, and we will survive this battle, and we will emerge victorious!”

Tasen translates what Xander’s saying to the other four.

All of the Draconian’s roar in acknowledgement.

Xander then looks to Sword and the Draconian wizard.

“I have a plan,” Xander begins “from past experience it seems that the giant likes the forest quite a bit. I say we set trenches in the ground near the forest and cut some of the trees down. Have the trees not chopped completely but easily breakable by a whack of a sword.”

“What would be the point of doing that?” Sword asks.

“So that when I have the orb on him, we can have someone run through there getting the giant’s attention. Then the giant will chase him. Boom off it goes and down comes the giant.” Xander says.

“Who can we get to do that?” asks the Draconian wizard

“Reed can. He has the boots of speed. He should be able to outrun the Giant and meet us back up here.”

Sword thinks a minute, “Hmm, could work, and you would be risking your friend’s life as well. Very well, we will do so then.”

Sword then orders the soldiers to dig trenches and cut trees to the brink of falling.

Xander then walks up to the wizard and says, “I want you to remember this when the giant goes behind the trees, use it, okay?”

The wizard then nods and watches everyone prepare for the battle ahead.

Xander then walks over to Reed and says, “when I have the amulet, I’m gonna want you to run through the woods and knock down all of the trees that we are cutting and yell, ‘I’m breaking down the forest. Then laugh like a mad man and run very fast because once the giant disappears from the wizard’s sight you’re gonna need to go really fast .Okay?”

Reed nods and waits for the time to come.

After about an hour the Draconians all sit in the trenches along with Tasen, Reed, Wrathale, Bhass, Jack, and Xander. They all wait for the giant to show.

After about five minutes they hear a loud stomping noise coming from the woods. Xander then says “Everyone yell, we need to lure him here.”

All of the Draconians then yell, and they hear a loud stomping noise again. The ground begins to shake as they hear a loud roar and a large humanoid comes charging out of the woods it stops in the middle of the dirt trap and looks around.

All of the Draconian’s then jump out of the Trench and roar as they all swing at the giant. Xander then jumps up and makes himself ethereal and attempts to jump inside of the giant’s bag. He makes it and begins to look for the amulet.

Tasen, Reed, Jack, and Wrathale all attack the giant while Bhass sits in the trench looking around for anyone that may be getting hurt. The giant then swings his mace down on the Draconians and hits a few of them. They shrug off the attack and they continue to attack the giant. Xander looks through the bag some more finding bent swords dented armor and a few boulders. Tasen swings at the giant and hits. Wrathale tries an upward slash but his sword is stopped by the Giant's armor. Everyone swings once again at the Giant and they all hit as Xander keeps looking for the amulet.

After a few minutes of scrambling through all of the junk Xander finds the amulet. He holds it and gazes inside the gem. While staring deep at the gem he sees a Mans face. He then Takes the amulet and puts it in his pocket while he leaving the orb inside the bag.

Xander exits out of the bag then re-solidifies. He notices that one of the Draconians must have cut the bag because there is a hole in the bag.

Xander then yells “REED, NOW!”

Reed then stops attacking and runs off towards the woods yelling “Hey look Giant I’m harming the woods!” As Reed breaks some of the trees down the Giant turns his attention towards Reed and runs after him leaving the Draconians and the other party members behind.

The Giant roars and begins to throw boulders at Reed but Reed dodges them easily. After a little bit, the giant runs out of Boulders to throw and starts throwing swords and armor at Reed from the bag. As Reed makes it to a hill, as the Giant moves behind the tree line, The Giant then throws another handful of weapons and armor at Reed and one of the weapons gets caught between his legs. Reed trips and falls as he struggles to get the weapon untangled from his legs.

Meanwhile, Xander watches the Giant chase after Reed and sees it disappear behind the tree line.

Xander then says “Now”

The Wizard nods and says a strange word while pointing in the direction of the orb. It explodes and a puff of smoke is seen rising from the tree line. The trees begin to wither and die.

Reed finally gets the sword untangled and jumps quickly on top of the hill as the Giant Explodes in a black puff of smoke. He looks at the sword and in his head he hears

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that to you.”

Reed looks around, and back at the sword “Are you the Sword.” Reed replies

He hears in his head “Yes, I am the sword… I was once used for battle but now I am sick. I can be most useful in battle but I need repairing…”

Reed replies “I will find someone to help and perhaps you can help me at some point”

The sword replies, “I will most defiantly help you if you help me get better.”

A short time later Tasen looks around where the explosion took place with a sad expression. He sees a small figure running really fast towards them with an object in his hand. It is Reed coming back to the group and when he makes it to them Tasen picks him up in with a hug.

All of the Draconians cheer in accomplishment.

Sword then says “Good, about time that monster died.”

Everyone then steps back through the door into the black smoky mist and head off towards the castle door.

When they make it to the castle door, Sword says “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go notify him.”

“Wait,” Xander says. “Here, you’re going to need this.” Xander then throws Sword the amulet.

Sword catches it and smiles at Xander. Sword heads inside. The Wizard catches up to and talks to sword. Sword looks at the wizard, nods, and they head out of view. The golden Lizard comes up the stairs inside the castle and sees Xander.

The Golden Lizard starts to yell at the wizard pointing at Xander Through the door and the wizard just shakes his head. Sword comes back out the door and grabs the orb in Xander’s chest and pulls it out. Sword then walks back inside and Places it in the Golden Lizards Chest. The Golden Lizard stops and looks back at Sword. Sword comes back out of the door and says “All of you must leave. It’s not safe for any of you anymore.”

Xander nods, gathers everyone else, and they walk over to the bedroom door. As Tasen walks through the door, he falls back to the ground and his vision blanks and he sees right above where the destroyed caravan is. He also sees an army charging towards the giant gate and the caved in door. Tasen then says “Hey guys, we’ve got trouble.”

Chapter 13 Sword, and Tasen’s Visions

As everyone makes it to the door Tasen falls to the ground. Reed then says, “Hey, guys, something’s wrong with Tasen.”

Tasen’s head begins to turn in different directions, up and down, side to side, and in circles.

Tasen’s vision blanks out as he hits the floor. His sight then soars far away from where his party members are, and he tries to look around. He turns his head every way he can but only sees mountains and clouds.

Tasen begins to speak, “Hey, guys? Something weird is going on. I can’t see you guys, but what I do see is clouds, mountains, and patches of ground. It looks like I’m seeing where we are above us. I also see a few forests. I’m not sure I have any control over my vision.”

Xander replies, “Well your eyes seem to have rolled back into your head. I have no idea what’s happening to you but we have to get moving. Jack, I need you to pick up Tasen and we need to keep moving.”

Jack then picks up Tasen, and they head into the black smoky mist. As soon as Tasen enters the black mist, his vision reverts back to normal, and Tasen is set on the ground so he can walk.

After a little while they make it to the mirror bedroom door and turn right towards the other door. As they come into view of the other door, they see these lizards searching the ground as if there looking for them.

Xander then says “Everyone, get down.”

After a few minutes the party hears a loud horn coming from the door and all of the lizards stand and begin to head back towards the door. After about a minute they see more lizards coming outside of the door and seem to take their places.

Xander then says, “I think we better wait until we find out their shifts before we do anything.” Tasen, Reed, Jack, Wrathale and Bhass all nod, and they sit in the smoky fog, waiting.

Xander, Reed, Jack, Wrathale, Tasen and Bhass sit there for a little while until the lizards begin to get close to them. The party begins to move slowly and quietly away, making sure not to be detected.

The horn sounds again, and the lizards head back towards the door and switch positions. After a few hours of this, they are finally discovered and run off towards the mountain door as the lizards chase them. When they reach the Bedroom door the lizards stop and run back to their positions as the horn sounds.

As the lizards switch positions, they converse with each other, obviously telling them that Reed, Tasen, Jack, Xander, Wrathale and Bhass are near by. Keep an eye out.

“So what do we do now?” Tasen says “It’s not like we can just waltz right in there, besides what happens if we get caught it’s not like we can fend off an army of those things…”

“Perhaps there’s another way through the mountain door.” Xander Replies

“Worth a shot I guess,” says Reed

Jack, Reed, Tasen, Wrathale, Bhass and Xander then run off to the mountain door. They make it to the mountain door keeping a quick and steady pace. They make it to the mountain door and run through. As Tasen runs through, he instantly falls to the ground, and his eyes roll back into his head.

Tasens vision then bolts back up into the sky. Then it gets slower and slower; then it keeps at a constant speed. He looks around, but he sees that his vision is still limited, knowing that he can’t look around.

After a few minutes he sees a small blue scaly wing off the right side of his vision. Then it disappears out of view. After a few minutes his vision returns to normal.

Xander looks back to see Tasen fall to the ground again, “Jack you know what to do”, says Xander, Jack just nods and heads over to Tasen and picks him up. They walk away from the woods out into a larger landscape. After about a half an hour Tasen’s vision then returns, and he begins to walk on his own.

The party walks off into this unknown landscape until night sets in.

“I say we set up camp for the night,” Says Xander.

Everyone then sets up camp. They keep their gear near them just in case boulders and trees or tree stumps are thrown at them again.

Wrathale goes off to get firewood as Tasen and Reed start the fire. Xander helps Wrathale grab the firewood. Then he hears some metal clanking along with some Grumbling.

“I’ll be right back. I’m gonna go Check something”, says Xander.

“Alright” nods Wrathale.

Xander heads to the top of this small hill to see something or someone walking a little close to camp. With closer observation he sees that it has a tail.

“Hail, friend,” Xander says in the Draconic language.

The figure turns and looks round and says “Who’s there?”

“No one but me,” Xander replies.

“Where are you? I wish to see who and what you are” says the man

Xander then lights a torch and sees that it is one of the lizard men. The lizard man looks all beat up with one of his eyes hanging from its socket and the other eye looking like some one smashed it into his skull.

“Well now, you seem to be beat up quite a bit.” Xander says.

“How can you see me, but I can’t see you.” Says the Lizard

“I’ve lighted a torch and I can see that one of your eyes is hanging from its socket and the other one is… well, pushed in rather far back”

The lizard fumbles his hands. He reaches towards his eyes feeling that one eye is hanging from its socket and the other one is quite far back in his head.

“I’ve got a cleric that can heal you if you wish” Xander says.

“How do I know it’s not a trap?” says the lizard

“If it was a trap you would already be dead, my friend. Now do you want to be healed or not”

The lizard takes the eye hanging from its socket and tries to put it back and says, “That would be most appreciated, but you will have to bring him or her over here. I’m not moving from this spot. I have my reasons.”

“Very well” Xander replies.

Xander then heads over to camp and says, “Bhass I need you a sec”

“What fer” Bhass replies.

“I need you to do some healing,” Xander says.

“What ye hurt yerself. Ye don’t look hurt.” Bhass replies.

Xander then says, “No, I need you to heal someone perhaps he can help us.”

“Alright,” Bhass says.

Tasen and Reed, who were listening to the conversation, follow Xander and Bhass, dragging with them Wrathale and Jack.

“Alright I need you to heal his eyes.” Xander says as they make it back to the Lizard.

“Yeh want me to heal that thing, they’ve been chasin us for quite some time now. Have yeh gone crazy?”

“No. it’s like I said; perhaps he can help us. Heal him please.”

Bhass looks at Xander, “Fine!”

The lizard stands still as Bhass begins to heal the lizard’s eyes. After a few minutes Bhass finishes healing the lizards eyes.

“There, he should be able to see out of the eye that was sorta of hanging. The other one needs to be healed further.” Says Bhass

Bhass then removes his hand, and the lizard man looks around. “So which one of you was the one that found me and which one healed me?”

Xander then says “I was the one that was talking to you earlier, and this one here.” he points to Bhass, “was the one that healed you.”

“Thank you for helping me. However, you look like you have been running around for quite a while. Where were you heading?” Says the lizard man.

Xander looks at the lizard man and says, “we’ve been running from your kind for a little while. We have also killed some of your people. We were sent here to look for a Princess. We found her Body and we went back to get our reward. Then we were told by Tarix’s cousin that her soul’s missing.” Before he could go on the lizard man says “Tarix! You’re working for TARIX! How dare you work for that monster! He has betrayed us at every turn. You’re lucky he hasn’t betrayed you yet!”

Tasen then remembers to translate what they’re saying to everyone else and explains what’s going on.

Xander then says “What do you mean.”

The lizard man calms down a little “Our people were to give him an amulet which has the Princess’s soul in it. I haven’t seen it myself, but it was at that time very valuable to Tarix. No he wasn’t there himself, but anyway we were trading it for our own realm because Tarix had said that he can make us one so we could be alone. However, as we were there we handed them the amulet and they took it with glee. We told them that we want our realm now! They just laughed at us. Then we wanted the amulet back so one of our kin grabbed it and took it from them. After a few minutes there was some loud stomping, and the earth began to shake. We realized that it had to be something big. We looked around and coming out of the woods was a giant. He had destroyed Tarix’s men and all except one of our men. He ran back to our domain without the amulet and told our Elders what happened. They went back to grab the amulet, but it was gone along with the armor of our kin. Only the bodies were left. Tarix’s men’s bodies were there also and they were also striped of there armor. We then sent our men after this giant. None of them lived to tell the tale.”

The lizard man takes a deep breath and continues the story “We have tried many times to kill this giant but he has become stronger for he has fashioned himself armor out of everything that’s attempted to kill him; robes, clothes, chain, plate, leather. He has it all fashioned into armor for himself. He has become difficult to kill. I was in one of those raids. All forty men died except me so I guess that makes thirty nine men killed from the last raid. Back to Tarix. After what happened he never wanted to hear our side of the story we tried telling him that the giant had taken the amulet he called it just a story to cover up what we had done. Even though we had done nothing wrong. So, here we are fighting this nation’s higher power. All because of that stupid amulet.”

Xander then says “Hmm… very interesting… so he may very well turn on us too?”

“Most likely” the lizard man replies.

“Well, I guess we should take these off.” Xander says, revealing the Chain armor with the Symbol of Tarix on it.

“After all, they did say it was supposed to teleport us to Tarix once we got the amulet. If Tarix can activate it well we don’t want that now, do we?” says Xander while he takes off the armor.

Tasen, Reed, Jack, Wrathale and Bhass follow suit taking off the Armor and setting it on the ground.

The lizard man says, “Wise choice.”

Xander then says, “What is your name, by the way?”

“My name is Kasshhikoraka, but they all just call me Sword” says the lizard man

“Well, Sword, my name is Xander the gnomes name is Tasen the rest of their names are Reed, Wrathale, Jack, and Bhass.” Says Xander Hold out his hand for a hand shake

Sword takes his hand and grabs Xanders and they Shake hands.

“Well,” Xander begins, “Any idea how to get us out of trouble with your people?”

Sword thinks for a moment “Yeah, I believe so, but it will be difficult.”

“And what would that be?” says Xander

Sword begins to smile and replies “Killing the giant and retrieving the amulet…”

Chapter 12 Twig and Pebble

As Xander runs through the door, the lizard that he tapped on the shoulder runs in after him. Reed attacks the same lizard as Wrathale while Tasen and Bhass run in after Xander. Jack charges at the lizard attacking Wrathale and Reed. Wrathale swings and hits the lizard and it falls to the ground. Reed, Wrathale and Jack run in after everyone else.

Xander gets inside to see that there are two more lizards and takes his spear and jabs one in the ribs. Tasen runs in under Xander’s legs and swings at the second lizard next to Xander. Tasen misses as Bhass clears the path as he runs in.

“Move it, ya pansies!” Bhass shouts.

Xander and Tasen move out of the way so Bhass can get away from danger. Tasen and Xander then attack the two lizards as they begin to swing. They both hit the lizards, but after they swing one of them hit Xander with its sword.

Wrathale, Reed, and Jack then run in Through the door. Jack sees the one that Tasen is attacking and throws a fist and punches it to the wall. It gets up and stares at Jack angrily. The lizard that had followed Xander in begins to swing at Xander. Wrathale grabs one of his weapons and slashes at the lizard that Jack knocked down.

Reed then helps out Xander and parries the attack that was to hit Xander and slashes back. Xander takes his spear and jabs the other lizard again in the ribs with more force. The lizard that jack had punched grabs his sword and swings at Jack. It hits and sends Jack stumbling back as Tasen slashes at the same lizard.

Wrathale helps Jack up and takes another swing at the lizard. It hits cutting him in half. Meanwhile, Reed and Xander begin fighting the remaining two lizards. Reed parries another attack and counterstrikes the lizard in the ribs. Xander pulls the spear out of the other lizard’s ribs and jabs it into the lizards throat.

The lizard gasps for air while it tries to remove the spear from its neck. Jack, Wrathale and Tasen join them in the fight. Tasen makes a swing at Reeds attacker and hits. Jack walks up to the lizard gasping for air and Jack punches it in the face, knocking it out.

Reed makes another strike and misses as the lizard Hits him in the ribs and quickly parry’s an attack from Wrathale. Xander takes his spear and jabs it into the remaining lizard’s chest. Tasen then swings again hitting the lizard in the leg. Jack finally pulls out his two-handed sword and slashes at him. He hits, and it falls to the ground dead.

Bhass walks over to everyone and heals them the best he can.

“So it looks a little dark out. We wanna rest?” says Wrathale.

“What right here? Ya-no… I say we look around a bit before we plan on sleeping,” says Xander.

They look around outside and see what looks like a small forest along with a few rocks.

Xander then says, “I guess we could sleep there, next to the woods.”

Everyone nods and walks down to the woods. they set up camp and fall asleep.

The next day they are rudely awaken by a large thumping noise and find that there are a few boulders along with a few Tree stumps.

Everyone realizes that the tree stumps and boulders are coming in from the forest and before anyone can do anything Jack yells in ogre, “Stop throwing twig and pebble!”

The large boulders and tree stumps stop raining from the forest.

And jack hears a voice from the woods saying “Get off my land… You have no right to be here… now leave!”

“Ok. We will just pack up our stuff, and we will leave.” jack responds.

And jack hears again. “No! You get off my land now!” and begins to throw more Tree stumps and boulders.

Everyone begins to run off towards the door inside the mountain they came from.

“Well that was unexpected.” Xander says.

“So now what, we need our gear?” says Tasen “we will try later right now we need to wait.” Xander replies.

They go through entire day uneventfully and head to sleep with a watch. Each hour they would switch watch.

In the morning everyone wakes up and walks down to get their gear. They find that two wolves have begun to raid their equipment.

The Wolves begin to Growl and after a few Seconds the wolves begin to charge at the party.

Both of them head towards Bhass only to be stopped by Xander and Jack. As one leaps at Jack he punches it against one of the large boulders. Xander finds his spear and sticks it into the one wolfs mouth and kills the wolf.

The other wolf gets up and goes after Jack again. As Jack punches it again which knocks the wolf to the ground.

Everyone then grabs their gear and runs back over to the door they came in.

Chapter 11 Running around in Circles.

As Xander, Tasen, Reed, Bhass, Jack and Wrathale jump into the black smoky area Xander yells for Tasen and Reed to get behind the door. They nod and get into position.

Jack, Xander and Wrathale all stand outside the door looking in. Bhass stands behind them looking menacingly. The first lizard hops out of the door ready to attack and is surprised by Reed and Tasen stabbing him in the back. The lizard falls to the ground dead. Another jumps out and Tasen misses, hitting the lizard but Reed hits when the lizard begins to fall. Another jumps out after the other one.

Reed and Tasen continue to kill the lizards as they come out the door. After the First minute they start coming out in pairs, and the bodies start piling up. They move the bodies to make room for more as they continue to slaughter the lizards. They then reach the end of the line of lizards and Move the bodies and look inside.

Xander gestures through the door for the lizards to keep coming, but they see a lizard with a Robe on smile at him and shake its head.

They then put the bodies in the way of the door and begin to run back the way they came. After they start running more lizards start to come out the door pushing the corpses aside. They start to chase them through the smoky mist.

They make it to the bedroom door, and Xander says “This way!” The Party keeps running behind Xander, Depending on him to tell them where to go. As they run down a Straight line towards the other red dot, Xander then says “Duck down!”

Xander, Tasen, Reed, Wrathale, Jack and Bhass then dive into the misty clouds and wait. After a minute they hear barking pass them and run off into the distance. Xander then says quietly, “Everyone follow me back to the other door.”

Wrathale says “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“It’s worth a try it’s most likely where the Soul is.” Xander replies. Everyone then gets up and starts to run off back to the door they were at before. It takes them about ten minutes till they make it back to the door. They find the door open, and inside they see six lizards sitting inside the room as if waiting for something.

Jack then asks Reed if he still has the rock he found in the bed room and Reed says “Yeah… why?”

Jack then says “Can I see it for a moment?”

“Why?” Reed replies

“Just give it to me” jack says

Reed then says “Fine…” and hands Jack the rock

Jack then takes the rock and throws it into the room at one of the lizards. It misses and hits the wall behind it; it falls to the ground. Before it hits the ground, it disappears and Reed finds that something shifted inside of his pocket.

He grabs what’s inside he finds it’s the same stone. Then Jack grabs it and throws it at the same lizard and hits.

The rock then again falls and appears in Reeds pocket again. The lizard man looks around, wonders what it was and, then goes back to waiting.

Jack then reaches into Reeds pocket and grabs the rock. He throws it again at the same lizard and hits him again.

The lizard man gets up and barks. Then everyone in the room looks outside the door to see Jack, Xander, Reed, Tasen, Wrathale and Bhass, standing looking inside the room. One of the first ones to look at them was in a robe, and it begins to smile at them. A few more lizards jump out the door and Reed and Tasen head back behind the door to regain their positions. After a few minutes they look back inside after killing the ones by them. They see that the robed lizard was missing. They begin to run back to the bedroom area when Xander says “Let’s go check out that other door.” Everyone else nods and they run off to the other red dot they have yet to discover.

The party makes it about halfway to the other red spot. Off in the distance they see the robed lizard they had seen disappear being followed by the mob of lizard men they had evaded by jumping into the fog.

Xander quickly says “Get down!”

Everyone then drops to the floor and sits quietly as they wait for the lizards to pass them again.

After a few minutes the lizards pass and Xander, Reed, Bhass, Jack, Wrathale and Tasen, get up and run off to the next door. They make it to the door, and they see two lizards standing guard.

Jack then says “Hey Reed, Tasen can you guys run up behind them and get them from the back so we can make it through?”

Tasen replies “Sure but it might be a bit tricky.”

Xander then says “Good god…” he runs up to the door while Wrathale gains the attention of one of the lizards, somehow. At the same time Reed for some reason, threw a rock at the other one and the rock plops back into his pocket as Xander charges through the door, he taps one of the lizards on the shoulder right before he enters.

Chapter 10 Knock Knock...

Jack and Xander take the unconscious lizard over to the wall and shackle him up. They then head out the door and head up the stairs. A little while later they here foot steps and what sounds like a lizard barking something. Tasen and Xander hear from the sound someone calling “Master, everyone down in the mess hall is ready, we await your orders.”

Xander Tasen, Wrathale, Reed, Bhass and Jack quickly and quietly as they can up the stairs. But with no luck they hear another Bark.

“Who’s There?” They then hear more footsteps and more until its apparent that what is ever behind them is running. But the sound seams louder that just one person.

They make it to the top room and slide back in… they then try to close the door. They close the door but it makes a Loud Scraping noise on the ground.

They then Barricade the door with jack and Xander pushing back on the door.

They here a loud Cry behind the door as it gets louder. Then the door shifts bang the door nudges open a little bit but they then hear a loud Noise like something being driven into the ground.

Tasen sees a Metal spike holding the door open a crack he also sees swords and hands trying to get through the Crack.

They all hear loud sreaming and roaring and then it stops.

Then they here it get even louder and the door Shoves open a little more and the same noise of something being driven into the ground there are now two spikes into the floor keeping the door open. One lizard slips through the door and charges at jack and Xander. But reed gets in its way be starts attacking.

Tasen runs up to the crack and starts trying to cut off arms and legs that are trying to get through. Wrathale pulls out his battleaxe and attempts to help Tasen.

They here the noise stop and Xander yells, “Here they come again!”
They here more Roaring and Screaming in the background the and they Door Swings open Xander says “Run!”

Everyone then Hops out the door mirror door.

Chapter 9 Lunch time!

Everyone then gathered by the door and readied them selves for what ever was going to happen. Tasen, Reed, Jack, Wrathale, Bhass and Xander all walked into the smoky fog area, Tasen was almost undetectable in the smoky fog due to him being so small and all you could see of him was his head.

Xander looks around with the glasses on and sees two small red dots off in separate directions. He then looks at the door they walked through and it is still a bright red.

Xander then says, “ I see two possible doors or areas. One to our left a ways and one to our right a ways away, which way should we go?”

Everyone else sort of shrugs, Xander says “well let’s go to the left first then.”

Xander and every one else walk behind him. After two days of none stop walking they reached where the red dot was. The red dot had grown to Xander’s eyes and he reached out into the red wall.

“There’s nothing there Xander” says Tasen.

Xander grabs a hold of a small handle and pulls on it. Everyone sees a small circular room with nothing in it but a large door.
Xander walks in and looks around he still only sees the large door and the mirror door he just walked through. He then beckons for the rest of them to come on in. Tasen, Reed, Jack, Wrathale and Bhass all walk into the room.

Xander then walks over to the large door and says “jack want to give me a hand?” jack says “sure” and walks over to the door and Xander and him begin to pull. As they pull the door scratches the stone floor making a loud scraping sound. That echo’s through the room, jack and Xander then only pull the door open to the point where they can slip through instead of opening it all the way. They slip through the door and run down a spiral stare case with torches aligned on the walls.

They then find another door on the side of the spiral stare case. They open the door with no noise at all and close it behind them, they find them selves in a torture room with many contraptions that are meant for pain and suffering. Xander sees a man chained up to a wall on the other side of the room he walks over there and looks at the man.

Jack walks over by his side and looks at the chained up man as well. They see the man has cuts everywhere and is missing and eye and it also looks like his eyelids were torn off and bruises everywhere on his body. They see the mans eyes look at both of them and he starts to moan and tries too push him self away from them in fear.

Jack then panics incase of something hears them and Stabs the man in the heart with a dagger. The man goes limp and his heart starts to bleed out. Xander looks at jack angrily. Then Jack starts to feel him self burning and he begins to make a muffled Scream. The burning slowly begins to fade and jack looks at his arms and sees a rather large scar on his left arm.

“What did you do that for?” Jack says

Xander replies “We could have used some information from him you idiot.”

“Well its not my fault I was afraid he might alert something…” says Jack

Xander looks at him angrily again and walks away. Reed starts to look through a chest by one of the contraptions and find a cloth like that of the princess’s dress. He then hands it to Xander and he examines it. He then puts it in his pack.

“Well, we might as well get moving,” says Xander.

They then go back to the stairs and keep heading down and they find another door at the end of the hall and they open in a crack to see what’s in it they see what looks like a large Mess hall however no ones there. They walk in and they see a small Circular Room with red curtains at the back of the room and they see two windows to either side of them.

They see out side the left window strange creatures that look lizard like and they are what appears to be training and out side the right window humans doing the same thing. “So now what?” Asks Tasen. Right afterwards they heard an alarm go off and saw through both windows all of them walk towards two doors that where on either side of the room. Everyone then ran to the door they came through and ran through. They then closed the door behind them and ran to the torture room. They then sat there listening and waiting.

After a few minutes they heard the sound of the lower door opening and they listened closer and they heard footsteps coming up the stairs they hear the noise get closer to the door. They hear the door shuffle a bit and hide behind where the door would cover.

Tasen walked up the wall and on to the ceiling above the door and watched. The first thing in was a golden Lizard of a sort and it walked over to the human body and began to look at it. It then started to hit it with lighting but nothing happened but it still continued. The second one in stood behind the golden one watching. The third one into the room came in and closed the door as it saw Xander, Jack, Reed, Bhass and Wrathale it was about to yell to the other two when Tasen dropped from the ceiling stabbing his sword into its lungs making the oxygen make a slight hiss from the wound. The other two lizards still focused on the human’s body. The party then drew their weapons and snuck up on the other lizard and killed him.

The Golden lizard then turns around to see his Friends dead and six people looking at him with their weapons drawn. The lizard then turns invisible and runs around the room.

Everyone blinks and finds that the lizard had disappeared. Tasen then activates his Sword of the black Flame silencing anything with in a thirty-foot radius
Wrathale heads over to the door and makes sure nothing gets through. Jack, Bhass, Tasen, Reed and Xander start searching the room for the invisible lizard. After a few moments everyone notices that there are two Reeds in the room. Reed then attacks Reed with his weapons. Everyone stops and watches while the two fight it out but then after a while they find out that one of them was starting to look like a lizard. So Jack, Tasen, Xander, Bhass and Wrathale all join Reed fight him. They then over power him and the Lizard kneels down panting.

Tasen then turns of the power of the Black flame. Xander speaks in the language of Draconian “Do you recognize this symbol?” and points to the icon on his armor. The Lizard smiles, Xander then says again “Do you recognize this Symbol?” Tasen who understands what he is saying translates to the rest of the party.

Xander looks at the lizard then Turns on his Sword of the Black flame, at the same time the lizard pushes Xander backwards and Slashes at everyone else. Xander falls back and gets back up and attacks the Lizard. As Xander Stabs the lizard with the Javelin the Draconian Roars up in Green Fire and it melts Xander’s Javelin into a puddle of mush. Everyone then stands back and the Draconian gets up and Xander turns off his black flame. The Draconian starts to laugh. Then says, “you can hurt me all you want but I’m sure I’m not the one that’s going to die…”

“He’s not going to tell us anything,” says Xander and he runs up and punches the Draconian in the face hoping to knock it out but only knocks him down to his knee’s Tasen the Walks up to it and punches it to the Ground knocking it out.

Chapter 8, Through the Fire and Flames....

The party gets on their horses and rides out of town and onto the trail. They ride for three days until they reach the gate by the cave. They ride down the chasm to the end of the pass to find that the doors that had once stood open is now just a collapsed pile of rubble.

“Well now how are we supposed to get in…?” Tasen blurts out.

Everyone sits on their horses to ponder the thought.

Xander says, “We never did go all the way into that cave the Ettin came from.” “We could try to see if it leads into the cave where we found the princess.”

“Then lets go and stop sitting here before we have someone on our tails…” Bhass says.

Jack, Bhass, Xander, Tasen, Reed, and Wrathale ride back to the small cave they had passed on their way to the cave closer to the wrecked caravan. They jump off their horses and shoo their horses away after unpacking everything off them.

They walk into the cave for a total of five minutes then they reach the end of the cave. They see a small tunnel that looks like they can fit. “Well looks like we found our entrance…” Xander says.

“Aw hell no you ain’t making me try to fit in that small opening…” Bhass says.

“Actually, I think you can fit Bhass, and there should be some room left for you to move.” Reed says.

“Ah fine, but I’m not going first.” Bhass replies.

Tasen crouches into the hole followed by Reed then Jack, Xander and Wrathale and Bhass then slowly waddles in on his hands and knees then slowly crawls behind.

They pop out in a torch lit stone hallway and with caution they round the corner going right. They walk down the hall ready for anything. They round another corner taking a left, and keep following the halls they Find another hall with a Dead end.The dead end has rushing water and the party agrees to allow Tasen to swim into it there with a rope around his waist.

Tasen swims for about two minutes then reaches a pocket of air. He takes a breath and swims father into the water. After four minutes, he starts to feel light headed and swims back to the air pocket. He Makes it and lets out a gasp for breath, breathes for another minute, then tugs on the rope signaling them the pull him back. He makes it back soaked but ok.

Tasen picks up his stuff the dries him self with his blanket.
The group walks down the hall for another half an hour until they reach a spiral staircase heading up. They climb up the stairs to the next floor. They find a dead end and a hallway. The hallway fades into darkness. Tasen looks closer into the hall and says. “That hallway has a slope heading down oh id say about ten feet.”

They look at the dead end and Bhass asks, “Can any of ya tell if that wall is magical I can sense some magic but it might just be my imagination.”

“Yeah… I see a small blue box the same shape as one of the stones on the wall. It looks like a door.”
Says Tasen.

Tasen then walks up to the small blue box and presses it. It slides in and a part of the wall opens and slides up. The party looks outside the door and find themselves across a hall facing the large bedroom doors.

They walk out of the smaller hall and towards the doors. “Hey… Weren’t these doors open last time we where here?” Reed says

“Yeah… they were.” Says Xander.

Jack and Xander walk over to the doors and reopen them. They look inside and see the bed still close to the door and the Rotting remains of the Giant they had killed.

“How did the Giant enter the room again?” Xander asks.

“Through the fire place. Why?” Tasen replies.

“Lets try going through…” says Xander.

“Ok…” Tasen says, “Who goes first?”

Everyone just stops and turns to Jack who wasn’t paying attention. Jack looks at everyone else turns his head side-to-side looking at them…

“Why are you guys staring at me like that?” Jack says Confusingly.

A few moments later of Jack is convinced to run through, They get ready for the first test… Wrathale and Reed at the back of the fireplace Tasen at the Orb getting ready to touch it. Jack sits a little bit in front of the Burning fireplace. Xander and Bhass at the Front ready to watch.

“Test one… Check to see what the Orb does… Touch it and watch the fireplace.” Xander orders.

Tasen looks at him and nods then Puts both hands on the orb. The fireplace roars up in flame but nothing comes out. Tasen then lets go and says “ That’s what it looked like when the Giant came Through”

Xander says “Good”

“Jack are you ready?” Bhass asks.

“Yeah…” replies Jack.

Jack runs up to the fireplace and gets ready to charge.
Tasen puts his hands on the orb and the fires roar. Jack runs straight in for six seconds and stops, he feels the heat creep over his skin with pain. Jack roars with pain and runs out of the fire and finds himself back where he was… Back in the same room he just left. He turns around and instead of a fireplace he sees a mirror that fills that half of the room. He looks around the room and sees the Giants corpse and his friends missing. The doors to the room are wide open but sees nothing but darkness with smoky white fog.

A few moments later Xander, Wrathale, Bhass, Tasen and Reed walk through the large mirror he had emerged from. “So it looks like you made it through Jack… we were worried about you a second there.” Xander says

Jack says, “Yeah… yeah…”

Tasen says “We should probably look around and see if we can find that Gem or Jewel we are looking for.”

Xander says “Agreed”

Xander walks up to a large Desk and climbs on top of it and Tasen follows. Jack and Bhass walk over to the large closet in the room and Wrathale looks out side the doors wondering where they are… Reed walks over to the dresser and opens the bottom drawer and finds a bottle that has the words DO NOT DRINK on it in bold print. He also finds a stone and a familiar orb. Reed picks up the stone looks at it and puts it in his pocket. He picks up the bottle and puts it in his backpack and yells out loud “I found our way back… it’s the same orb from the other room ”

Jack and Bhass open the closet and reveal a black orb floating in the corner of the closet. What do you think this is? Says Bhass. “I… don’t know” Says jack.

“Well lets keep moving…” Bhass replies

Jack then takes out a gold piece and flicks it at the orb. The gold coin is instantly sucked straight into the Orbs center.

Jack then looks at it puzzled and walks away.

Xander and Tasen hop atop a small desk and find nothing but some rather large glasses. Tasen picks them up and tries to look through but nothing happens. He then hands them to Xander unimpressed. Xander grabs them and looks through and they shrink to his size and he puts them on.

He looks around the room and sees the Mirror and the space out side of the door glowing red. He takes them off and puts them in a pouch.

Wrathale looks outside of the door and walks forward but not out of the room. He bends down and takes his hand and puts his hand on the ground outside of the door. He feels a strange gooey feeling but doesn’t stick. He then takes out a gold piece and sets it on the ground and lets go. He then takes his hand and reaches for where he put the coin and he grabs the coin unharmed.

Tasen jumps off the desk and runs over to the bed and hops up on top of it. Instead of a body or a jewel or gem he sees a small plushy doll with soulless black eyes and a knitted mouth.

“Hey guys… You might want to come see this…” Tasen shouts.

Reed the runs and jumps on top of the bed and looks at the doll laying in the center of the bed. Xander shortly arrives after and Tasen looks into the dolls eyes but not directly in them.

“Do you think it’s the Princess’s soul?” Tasen asks

“I don’t know. It could be...” Xander replies

Reed then Asks aloud “Princess can you hear us?” at first no response but shortly after they hear a girls voice come from the other side of the room by the black orb in the closet and it says “Yes help me please I’m trapped somewhere… its dark so I don’t know exactly where.”

“Are we sure that’s the princess?” Xander says.

Jack says, “Wait… I think it’s a trick to somehow kill us… that thing sucks things in and they disappear.”

They then hear a loud sinister laughter coming from the doll. Everyone then looks at the doll with swords ready.

A monstrous Demon creature that looks like it has scythes for hands pops ups from the doll and slashes at them. They all get sent flying back to the edge of the bed. Xander gets up and pulls out his spear and melds his Spear to his hands. Reed gets up and takes the first swing at the creature. He hits but the monster swipes back. Tasen jumps to his feet and charges the monster with two scimitars. One attack misses but the other one hits.

Jack runs towards the fight pulling out his two handed long sword. Bhass follows jack but standing behind ready to heal those in need. Wrathale pulls out his battleaxe and swings at the creature. The creature roars in agony then swipes back sending Wrathale back to the ground. Mee starts flying around the room waiting. Xander charges the monstrous demon creature and stabs it with his spear. The creature roars and they plug there ears for five seconds.

Reed then slashes at the demon and it falls… As it falls they hear the creature yell the word “CAME ” and the creature falls dead.

They stand happy until they realize the doll had reappeared on the bed. Xander then unmelds his spear to his hands and picks the doll up. He quickly runs over to the closet and attempts to throw the doll in the black sphere. He Throws the doll and he hears the doll cry “NO ” and the Demon pops out of the doll and grabs Xander. The demon being sucked in by the sphere slashes at Xander attempting to kill him. Jack and Tasen run to his aid and start to hack and slash at the Demon’s arms. Tasen misses the Demon’s arms and hits Jack but keeps trying to chop the arms off.

Xander looks at the Demon creature and he kicks the Demon and it bites his foot. Jack slices through one of the Demon’s arms and goes to the next. Tasen makes another swing and misses but hits Jack instead. Jack roars and slices a second arm off. Xander then smiles at the Demon and turns him self into plasmatic goo. The rest of the Demon’s hands attempt to keep a hold on Xander but they slip and he slowly slides into the black orb.

The Demon yells once again “CAME ”

Reed then yells “The doll is back.”

Xander then resolidifies and runs over to the bed. He says “Enough of this…”

“Reed, I need you to pick up the doll and run as fast as you can over to the Orb when I say go, alright?” says Xander

“Kay” Reed replies.

Xander looks at the doll and attempts to take control of the creature. He succeeds in taking over and says “Now.”

Reed Picks up the doll, hops off the bed, and runs over to the closet. At mid distance the Doll yells “NO ” and the Demon pops out of the doll. It stops and reed avoids running into it. The Demon stands there not moving then Xander laughs… “I have control…” “Alright lets go for a walk shall we?” says Xander.

The Demon walks over to the orb and jumps head first into the orb. It struggles at first but then goes limp.

Jack then walks up to Tasen and taps him on the shoulder. “Yeah.” Tasen says Jack then Takes his fist and punches him across the room and Tasen lays unconscious.

“Now where do we go?” Asks Reed

“Out there” Xander says as he points to the door.

Reed then runs over to Tasen and wakes him up “We have to get moving Tasen”

Xander then puts his new glasses on and says “Lets move out.”

Chapter 7 Unsettling News

The Party of adventurers walk into the town of Here injured and humiliated. “Okay, I’m going to go tell Zid that we have what we believe is the princess.” Says Xander, “Also, Bhass and Jack you two take Wrathale to the priest’s temple to see what’s wrong with him.”

“What about the donkey?” asks Wrathale.

“We will take it to the stables for it to be taken care of. Alright?” Xander replies.

Everyone nods and does as they are told.

Tasen and Reed head towards the inn to put some food in their bellies. Jack, Bhass and Wrathale head towards the stables to drop the donkey off. The stable master accepts the money for its housing and the donkey is led into one of the stalls. Jack picks up Wrathale and carries him over his shoulder to the temple with Bhass.

The priests at the temple take Wrathale to one of their open rooms and set him down and tell him to rest. The monk that closed the door says, “His skin seems pale. Have you healed him at all?”

“Yeah I healed him, I mended him with some herbs I had on me, why?” Bhass replies

“I was just asking, but we will take care of him. He will have to stay the night, but you can come check on him tomorrow.” Says the monk

“Alright. See ya tomorrow.” Bhass replies and walks off with Jack next to him.

Xander walks up into the library with the Elvin girl in his arms, and up to the desk.

“Yes, may I help you?” says a familiar voice.

“Uh yes. I’ve got this question to ask.” Xander says.

“And what might that be?” says the person at the desk.

Xander takes the Elf and puts her on the desk and asks, “When can I get Tarix here Zid?”

Zid looks at the body with awe and says “Ah… Xander you made it back. However, I am not the person that can tell you if this is her or not. But I can get Tarix here… first thing tomorrow morning. I will keep her here until then. Sound good?”

Xander replies, “Sure.”

“Good” says Zid “See you tomorrow.”

Xander steps outside and looks at the sunset. Stores are closing so he heads over to the inn to eat.

Reed, Tasen, Jack and Bhass are already there happily full and well relaxed. Tasen is now reading the book he got from Zid the last time they were here. Reed is sitting next to Tasen reading over his shoulder. Around 10:30 they head to bed for tomorrow’s big day.

Wrathale finds himself in a smokey white mist with nothing around. Then suddenly hears an unfamiliar voice… saying “Don’t let them heal you…”

Wrathale looks around and sees a bear looking at him… and asks “Who are you?”

The voice repeats “Don’t let them heal you…”

Wrathale replies “Why…?, I don’t Understand.”

And it keeps repeating “Don’t let them heal you…” and the voice along with the Bear fade into the mist…

Wrathale wakes up sweaty and confused… he looks around and finds himself in a stone room with a small window by the ceiling with a root hanging from it. He sees his clothes neatly folded on a chair.

He gets up, walks over to the chair and puts his stuff on. He just finishes putting his armor on when one of the monks walks in and says “Oh you’re awake. Did you have a nice sleep?”

“Why, yes I did” Says Wrathale leaving out his strange dream.

The monk replies “Good… however you should stay here until your friends come to get you so that they know.”

“Alright, thank you” Wrathale replies

“You’re welcome” says the monk.

The monk then closes the door and leaves Wrathale alone.

A loud Banging echo’s through the room from the door. “By the order of Tarix open the door. We have orders to bring you to the library for briefing.” Says the man pounding on the door.

Xander gets up, walks to the door, and opens it up. “Good. You’re awake get ready and we will escort you to the Library.” Says the man.

The party sees six men heavily armed standing at attention waiting. Without another word they get up, pack their stuff, and walk with them down the hall. Xander then says, “Uh… excuse me but one of our men is at the priest’s temple being healed… should we go get him or?”

“We will get him after you are dropped off at the library. He will join you shortly.” Says the man in command.

They get dropped off at the library and the men head towards the Temple to grab Wrathale.

They walk up the steps to the library. They see a closed sign on the door but everyone ignores it and opens the door and walks in.

They find that the bookcases have been moved over to make room for a long table in the middle. They see many men at the table but no sign of Zid. The man at the end of the table says “Sit, sit we have much to talk about.”

Xander, Reed, Tasen, Bhass and Jack sit down at five of the six chairs set up. Wrathale walks in the door with the armed men and he sits down while the men guard the door. “Ah yes you’re all here. Good.” Says the man at the end of the table. “Now lets get down to the business at hand, shall we?”

“We have examined the princess.” Says the man at the table.

“And…?” Xander says.

“And… how shall I put this… her soul is missing…” Says the man at the end of the table.

Xander says “Missing…? How?”

“Well we don’t know who did it but we do know that her soul was removed and was either put in a crystal or a gem of some sort…” The man says. “We need you and your group of travelers to grab it for us…if you return you will be heavily rewarded by Tarix himself.”

Tasen and Reed look at each other then turn back to the conversation.

“You will leave for it today for we will give you items of use and horses and a small pony for the little one…” says the man

Tasen looks at the man as if insulted.

“You will each be given a weapon of the black flame allowing you to silence any enemy from casting any spell. You will also get armor with Tarix’s symbol on them allowing you to teleport back to Tarix. “As for the Elf and the Gnome, they will receive a special pair of boots. For the Elf he will receive the boots of speed and for the Gnome he will receive the boots of spider climb. Do you all accept the task?” says the man.

Reed, Tasen, Xander, Bhass, Jack, and Wrathale all say yes at the same time.

“Well I do believe we have a deal… Oh there’s just one more thing.”

“What?” Says Xander.

“You have two weeks to complete this task before her soul withers and dies” Says the man.