Rayne, in a flash directs Shara, her pegasus, down to where the groups she sought was now engaging a greater number of unknown foes. She had been told to just deliver the sealed message to them by the king but their needs at this moment require more of her. "Down my friends and quickly." she calls out using her ring of amimal communication.

Shara's great golden wings furl against her body as she dives down at Rayne's directions. Rayne call her eagle owl and hopes her wolves Shadow and Storm were near. SHe never knew about the great Cath Sidhe who was so independent and frequiently off about her own pursuits. She casts "Prayer" asking for Corellon's blessings on the group and herself and dconfusion for their enemies. When finished Rayne takes three arrows from her quiver and nocks the first into her bow and shots at the swirling forces about the beleaguered group. IF the arrow so not seem to effect the creatures whatever they were then she would sling her bow and take out her sword.

Arfaren her eagle owl swooped out of the sky and kept pace with Shara. "Be careful my friends we do not know what these foes are."

Cynil is shocked by the terror and pain she feels from the newly released souls. She is appauled by the nature of the gem. She stands her ground amid the streaming, screaming souls. Tears are running down her cheeks as she feels the pain of their suffering. She could not believe all the souls released were evil, if she could get the Good souls to move off and let them only deal with the Evil souls, the party might have a chance. She grabs her holy symbol and holds it up.

“By the Good Gods and Goddesses, I will see the good souls reincarnated, if possible, or released to their deities. I, Cynil Shadowdancer, make this promise.”

Cynil then entones the spell for Sanctuary, and she quickly follows with Protection from Evil.

“Af’til she calls out to the newly caught soul, “help us save the good souls that were trapped with you. Rally them and keep them from attacking us.”

Cor cringed a bit as the spirits were freed from the gem and, briefly, wondered which among the rapidly multiplying ghost-horde was that of their recently departed Af’til. Aye, there be consequences for actions such as these, sure enough, he grumbled inwardly, hoping that Odin was in a listening mood, as he assured his grip on the Rod of Lordly Might and let his gaze take in the scene as it unfolded, but this be a wee bit ridiculous! Almost in unison with Cynil, the cleric-knight cast a Sanctuary spell of his own and following that, sent up a prayer to Odin, calling for the god’s aide in dispelling these poor, miserable souls.

((OOC: What the heck, let’s try Turn Undead and see what happens…))

Even as the words of the prayer spilled like a battlecry from his lips, Cor’s eyes continued to search the spirit-throng for the ghost of their recently departed companion… should his attempt to turn these tormented souls towards their rest effect the souls of the good as well as the evil, Cor wanted the ranger to know his sorrow for him.

((OOC: Sorry so late with this, Tann... don't know if you rec'd my e-mail but explanations are there... Anyhoo, Sanctuary, Turn Undead, and, if all else fails, charge to battle "Tally-HO!!!"))

Halia runs at the gem prepared to attack when she hears a warning to stop. But it’s to late she is in mid-swing and has no choice but to follow threw. She closes her eyes and looks away hoping she will miss. To her dismay she hits right on, the gem cracks and crumbles into dust onto the ground. She breaths a sigh of relief as the gem crumbles. She soon realizes that everything has gone completely silent. She sighs again straining to her it. She looks around startled and from the look of the others she isn’t alone in this feeling. Then the voices of the souls can be heard as their released. First one then many, the sound almost unbearable. Niamedris can be heard hissing loudly somewhere in the distance. She calls to her friend and he comes quickly to her side. He hisses more clawing at any who come close enough. Not really knowing what to do Halia swings at the nearest soul, doubting it will do much but has nothing better to do. Trying to keep them away from her..

The party facing many foes were but 8 in number, but no fear did they appear to express. Would they survive to face yet another day?....

The first to act this round was the Cavalier Alasdair and without realizing it he moved to stand next to Althena as if to protect her only. With his sword drawn and no thought but for her he stood ready as the first of many tormented souls did attack.

Yet what happened next could not really be called an attack but as if the soul was reaching out, as if seeking help, and so did the Cavalier hold his attack. But with the tormented souls touch did Alasdair feel freezing cold and the loss of life that came with it. Hesitating no more the Cavalier did strike twice, his sword true, and watched as the soul did at once crumble to dust as if never had been....

Althena standing at her beloved’s side saw this loss of life as if a mist did rise from Alasdairs body and did not allow the touching of the next soul upon her. Her crossbow to hand she loosed both bolts into the body of the soul before her and as had the one before Alasdair so did this one crumble to dust. Yet many more still pressed in attempting to touch but not attack....

Conall, he of the might and goodness of a Paladin in the service of Odin, did stand his ground as not one but three souls did approach him. Having two attacks this round Conall threw his axe of Hurling at one and turned to strike at another with his sword. His arm and axe on target another soul was turned to dust and one less enemy was there. The sword in his other hand plunging into the heart of the next and more dust was there in the air. Two enemies down and destroyed Conall's faith in Odin shining bright.

But it was the third soul who without being stopped did touch the Paladin full, its arms wrapping him as if in a hug, that turned the Paladin cold his life as if in a mist leaving his body freezing and in pain. With more souls seemingly headed towards him then most of the others, the Paladin was found himself dire straits....

The new comer Rayne, who most in the party had as yet to see, did start her descent from the sky above. With the party below her surrounded on all sides and clearly in need of aid she thought not of herself and so did cast Prayer upon them. Her action for this round over she called out to those of her animal friends around her to prepare for battle.

Her next move it appeared as she readied her bow was to provide covering fire from the air....

Magma having tried to pass along the Axe's warning saw that it was not in time to do any good so speaking to the axe as if a long time friend he waded into the attack. The axe feeling as if a part of him had no trouble striking true on the soul before him and yet another explosion of dust layered the ground around the Dwarf fighter. With his next action undecided he was ready for anything....

Ulthok, having watched Haila’s sword destroy the gem, was at first happy but with the coming of the howls and the appearance of the Tormented souls his mood did once again change.

The numbers of the foes almost 7 to 1 he spoke the words to a spell and did cast the Spell of Summon Monster III. Hoping with the coming of this aid the next round the Halfling hoped the numbers between friend and foe would not be so one sided....

Haila seeing her stroke had destroyed the Gem was dismayed to learn all she had done was put the party in a yet more dangerous postion. Knowing there was no use in blaming herself for an action already done the Fighter/Mage turned to her sword and lashed out at the soul before her and like the rest watched as it erupted into a shower of dust before its hands could reach her. But with the numbers against the rest of the party and her it was surely only a matter of time till she too was touched....

Cynil seeing the mass of dead, yet not undead, headed towards her and the rest did pledge to see these Tormented souls reincarnated. With a spell ready, she did cast Santuary upon herself and hoped she would be protected, but to her horror at the castings completion 8 more souls did turn her way, the cry of mourning louder and more needy. With the spell cast and her action for this round over she prepared herself for the next....

The last to act this round was the Cleric Knight Cor and seemingly in unison with Cynil, Cor himself did also cast a Sanctuary spell of his own and sent up a prayer to Odin, calling for the god’s aide in dispelling these poor, Tormented souls.

His Rod of Lordly Might at the ready he awaited the Souls attack upon him, he did not have long to wait. Where there had only been one soul before him before his casting of Sanctuary there now seemed to be 6, yet only the first close enough to touch him but with a stumble the soul’s touch Cor did not feel. Safe it seemed for yet 1 more round....

It was here safe for the moment up above did Rayne see a seemingly pattern to the souls attack. The souls surrounding the party had shifted in such a way that 3 out of the 8 did seem to have the attention of most if not all of the souls. A large human male in plate, facing the souls before him as if protected by the gods, a female Elf in leathers clearly with a woodland look about her and a male dwarf also in plate with the look of one holy.

Why or how they had gathered the attention of the foe below she had no clue but they had and nothing good could surely come of it....

Round one over yet 54 Tormented souls before the party, the odds far from good. Would round 2 bring more pain or would they find a way out and a question to be answered....

(OOC: Ok much better posting from you Guys and Ladies I was overjoyed to find that 6 out of 8 had posted. Well that was round one and I hope it was a good one. It seems you, the players, have a question to be answered now doesn’t it . Next post next Wednesday be there or be squared.)

Cynil entones her Circle of Protection from Evil spell and moves to where she covers as many of her comrades as possible, Connal for sure and if Athena and Alasdair were close enough, they too. She has noticed the the majority of the souls have gravitated to Connal, Cor and herself, but it did not mean that the others were not in danger.

"I have Circle of Protection from Evil up, step over to me and into the circle."

Boosted by his initial success, Magma turns his attention and axe to the dead-undead creatures that are attacking his friends. "Come! Fight me you gossamer demons or the gem! You may outnumber us by 10, but I'll slay the lot of you before I fall!"

ooc: What else is there? Attack!

Halia looks around and knows they are greatly outnumbered. She can barely see her companions as they become engulfed in the crowd of souls. She takes one of her Oils of Fiery burning and throws it to the ground hard enough to break it open. Making sure its far enough away from her or any of her companions as not to get hurt. With all the commotion she can't think straight, she doesn’t know if what she just did will help or not but she didn’t have much say in the matter. Her body did it before she could think about what she was doing. Hoping in comes out all right she waits to se what happens. Her small friend by her side still hissing and clawing at the souls near them.

Rayne takes aim at a soul and lets her arrow fly and her second shor cam as soon as she could reload, sight and fire. Shara swept downward and level off above the seirling masses of souls whirling about. Those mostly were gather around three member of the party. Rayne wondered why but did not have enough information to give her a clue.

If Rayne notices that her arrows are not causing damage to the sould or taking them down, she will switch to her sword. and move in closer to them. Arfarel extends his sharply curved talons to attack one of the whirling masses. His powerful hooked beak ready to tear at what he grabs. Shara will use her hooves and kick at any of those things that get near her.

Once his spell is cast Ulthok at first waits to see what kind of creatures he gets to help
in their battle.Once they are attacking he will again assess the situation.He at once
notices that the souls from the gem are congregating around mainly three of the party.
The next thing he sees is that they are getting help from someone riding in on a Pegasus
and assumes this person is there at their kings request.

Trying to figure why the souls are grouped he checks who they are around, Conall
the Paladin, Cor their cleric, and Cynil a druid.Not sure if this had anything to do with
it or if it has anything to do with spells they may have cast, for he knows both Cor
and Cynil cast some type of protection spell.However not really sure at the moment
what good this information may do him, he does does what he can to lessen the
number of attackers.

With the souls grouped as they are he is trying to find a way to take out as many at
once as possible without harming his friends,he did notice that those who had
already attacked some of the souls pressing them,that each one of them who struck a soul
the soul at once turned to dust, hoping that maybe all it took was a good hit to dispel
one away Ulthok decides to unleash 5 magic missiles each aimed at a different
target.Trying as best as he can to pick out his targets as those who look to be
closest to attacking his friends.Choosing his targets he points out and watches as
5 little missiles reach their targets.

Finally as he is doing all this he is trying to keep a watch on the souls just to see if
he can spot Af'Tills somewhere in the bunch.

DM Edit: Ok Dragonmist I had to edit your post regarding who the souls were concentrating on as you had Alasdair as one of the three, when in reality it is Conall. I hope you don't mind Thanks Of course I don't mind I must have lost mine. Thanxs for the correction though. and GAME ON!!

The crying of the Tormented Souls loud in the ears of all, a cry of pain, a cry of desperation, a cry for release. Forward they came towards the party not so much in attack but supplication to the holy three....

Conall having been hit by the coldness of the Tormented’s touch knew to be on his guard, but with only one attack this turn he knew that touch he would surely feel again. His sword once again hitting true and as before a cloud of dust was seen but more souls did press in on him and though he did evade most, 2 did in the end touch him.
The coldness freezing as before a portion of Paladins life did once again leave his body, if not destroyed quickly the souls in their mindless need to touch him would surely kill him soon....

Ulthok waited and watched his next spell ready to be cast and before him, thanks to his first spell, did appear 2 huge spiders.
At once the spiders moved to the attack their mandibles flashing out to easily destroy two more souls and as they became covered in the dust of the souls they moved to attack two more.

Ulthok having seen what he had waited for did cast his next spell, Magic Missile, and was not surprised to see that the 5 missiles did indeed destroy 5 more souls. But the halfling did with a sudden burst of insight realize that the amount of dust from destroyed souls combined with the wind was creating a sort of dust storm and was beginning to hamper the sight of all. If it continued, and with the raising wind, the party members could lose sight of themselves and each other and be left each on his own....

Magma with no time to learn more of the axe or listen to its words if any were spoken did what he did best, yelled a cry of battle and attacked. With the souls having little regard in defending themselves a hit was easily scored and one more soul did not only bite the dust, but became dust. The dwarf readied his next action....

Haila, a flask of fiery oil to hand did throw it into the tormented souls before and watched as the resulting explosion destroyed 5 more enemies. But with their destruction came a bigger worry as the dust now very thick and swirling, thanks to the prevailing wind, caused her to lose sight of the rest of the party and of the tormented souls that did seek to touch the three....

With this the second round of combat in full swing things did quickly change as the dust so heavy did hamper the sight of all, so much so as to cause each member to lose sight of the others even if standing beside them. Yet the souls somehow still homed in on the Three....

The next to be hit was the druid Cynil, having cast her Circle of Protection Evil she had moved closer to the rest of the party only to find she did not know where or how close she was due to the swirling dust. Suddenly as if out of nowhere she felt the bite of freezing cold as 3 hands did touch her, her Protection Evil seemingly having no effect. With her body cold and parts of it feeling as if frozen, the Elvin druid did find herself in pushed to the ground by the weight of the 3 pressing hands....

The Elvin Ranger/Cleric Rayne upon her Pegasus fired two more shots from her bow and watched as 2 more souls joined the dust now so thick it covered everything below as if as a blanket. With a growing sense of unease as each person, and the souls below her disappeared from her sight Rayne knew things were only going to get worse as any arrow fire or spell from her could now hit friend and foe alike....

Alasdair his actions delayed was horrified to have lost Althena in the thickness of the dust swirling around him. In desperation he reached out to find her by touch but instead touched something freezing cold and dead. His sword in his other hand moving forward to the attack, hitting clearly a solid form, but withier friend or foe he could not tell in the almost darkness of the dust....

Cor too had found his sight to be gone as the dust congealed around him as if almost a spell of darkness had been cast. His spell of Turn Undead cast but the results unknown due to the dust storm, he readied his Rod of Smiting in hand and waited till he sensed something close and attacked it. His attack clearly a hit he like the Cavalier knew not if it was friend or foe and could only hope a soul had been destroyed....

Althena looked to where her love had stood beside giving her strength in his presence only to find him along with the rest of the party gone.
Quickly using her Psionic mind link with Alasdair she attempted to find him and rejoin him, only to lose her concentration as she was touched by the feeling of freezing cold as a soul did brush by her clearly headed towards another of the party. Though not as cold as an actually touch she could feel life no longer within her and having no link to Alasdair she for the moment knew not what to do....


(OOC: Ok everyone here’s my post for tonight just a quick thing to correct.
With the dust and your attention on the battle none of you have seen Rayne above; as she has done nothing to really cause anyone in the party to look up. So for the moment she is still undiscovered.
As for the dust storm your visibility is only arms length distance out from your body so please be aware of this in your posts.

Also to Dark Autumn, Derynilord and Eol as I talked to 2 of you and was asked a number of questions by you two I was very surprised to see no posts from you. Please try to do better this next week. As for the third person, in your request for help I sent you everything you needed to help catch you up. I am sorry I was unavailable in IM to help you directly but you have my number and please call me or post this upcoming week.
To everyone else good posts and I hope to see more posts from you this week and next. Next post Next Wednesday)

The dust was making it difficult for Magma to see and the wailing wasn't helpoing his concentration. Against mortal enemies, Magma was skilled at fighting blind, but against these creatures, there was no aid.

He want to cry out to someone, one of the magic users, to generate some wind to help blow this away, but he couldn't risk opening his mouth to speak the words and he hadn't brunk enough ale today to aid him in generating his own wind.

By Odin! I breathe dead people
Magma forced himself to soldier on, breathing though his nose, trusting in the vastly superior dwarven respiratorty system, and fighting onwards.

She saw five more souls turn to dust, and that was the last she saw before she was overcome by the dust from all the dead souls. Trying not to breath them in she knew exactly what to do. She figured if she couldn’t see neither could her companions, and who knows what danger their in without their sight.

She quickly cast her control weather spell, calling for a strong wind to blow the dust away from the party, without blowing anyone away. She was afraid to see what has happened after the dust clears. She hopes her companions remain safe.

She can feel her small friend clinging to her leg out of fear. She hopes she has made the right decision and hasn’t somehow put the group in more danger again. She concentrates and waits for the winds to pick up and the dust to drift away...

Her heart sank in her chest as Althena watched Af’til fall victim to the gem’s deadly rays of light. She scarcely had time to think about what had happened before the gem was destroyed, and the group was suddenly surrounded by so many ghostly souls that she was stunned momentarily. That is until lord Alasdair moved closer to her and readied to fight. She drew strength from having him so close. Alasdair quickly disposed of a couple of the apparitions. Then, seeing how to kill them off, Althena drew her daggers, one in each hand, and began slashing at anything with a deathly cold presence.

Suddenly she realized that lord Alasdair was no longer fighting next to her. She had no idea where he was, nor could she feel his presence. She desperately tried to connect mentally with him, only to be interrupted in her attempt by an icy cold touch. The touch startled her enough to give her pause, but only for a moment as it moved on and she again attempted to connect with her love.

A fear took hold, as she fought, that they would not succeed this time. But she refused to allow herself to believe that. She would be reunited with her love, and the rest of her friends, when they got through this fog of death, for surely they would emerge victorious as they had so many times before. They had to. The fate of all of Trilogy depended on their victory.

Rayne continues to close in while watching for the result of her shots. Those below had attacked the swirling motes and seemingly struck some down, but they were still seriouly out numbered by a strange foe.

If her arrows so prove effective then she will continue shooting moving into optomine range about 30 feet.

If her arrows do not work then she will have to join those on the grond to aid them, However with the rising clouds of dust her view was being obscured. Frowing she watches them disappear. What do I see from above?