Lyric’s heart stopped in her chest as the giant wormlike creature latched on to Deuxdahl and began dragging the unfortunate man down underneath the undulating, loamy ground. She was suddenly struck by the memory of an unconscious DD slipping almost serenely into the soft, sandy soil as she had clutched frantically at him, trying in vain to pull him to safety. And now, what was it…three days since DD’s death?...the same thing was about to happen to Deuxdahl? No! Not again!
With a flick of her fingers, Lyric formed the symbol of the evil eye and placed a magical hex over the tentacled beast in an effort to sap its strength as she began running towards her trapped friend. She hissed a word of power in the strange, secret language of the Davidians and hoarfrost quickly formed on her outstretched hand followed by a blast of freezing ice that burst out from her fingers, flying forth and striking the creature with the sound of shattering glass. Despite these efforts though, it was abundantly clear that this was not enough to stop the monster, nor would she be able to reach Deuxdahl in time. Not again!
Then, the glorious clamor of the gonging of an ominous bell rang out from behind her and the creature writhed in pain as Eros’ celestial magic reverberated into the creature, causing its grip on Deuxdahl to relax ever so slightly. Two razor-tipped ebony bolts then birthed themselves in the creatures head, heralding the arrival of Aparret on the scene, the beardless dwarf never seeming to miss with his deadly twin crossbows. Arnie then raced past Lyric, a sword as big as she was held over her head and belting out a battle cry that seemed way too loud to come from such a tiny frame, as the diminutive warrior tore into the armored worm with deadly flourishes of razored steel.
The creature was distracted by the sudden onslaught and loosened its tentacled grip upon Deuxdahl, who promptly seized upon the opportunity to twist around and cut deeply into the creature’s exposed underbelly, wielding his twin daggers with the skillful precision of a surgeon. The beast let out a roar that quickly turned to a whimper, then to a gurgle, and then to silence, as it released its grip upon the deadly warrior and slipped slowly back beneath the soft sand.
Arnie reached down and pulled Deuxdahl to his feet and the man stood and began brushing dirt from himself while making a pithy joke about the confluence of beach sand and his crack, as Eros came over and ministered to his injuries with his healing light. Aparret began busying himself by digging in the dirt, either hoping to retrieve his arrows or to see what other treasures might be buried therein.
Lyric saw none of this, though. As soon as it was evident that Deuxdahl was free, she sank to the ground and began to cry. She cried in relief that her friend was safe; she cried in pain that DD had not been so fortunate; she cried aching tears for her parents and in the uncertainty that she would ever see them again; she cried tears of remorse for the loss of the innocent girl she used to be and for her former simple, idyllic life; and she cried in helpless frustration for the deadly importance of the task that lay before them and the fear that she did not feel equipped for the enormity of it.
But she also cried tears of happiness that she somehow found herself friends with this ragtag group of heroes: a beekeeping dwarf; a lonely, damaged Silvanesti; a vainglorious town guard; a - surprisingly strong – kender tribeswoman; and a naïve farmgirl. Somehow they had all found one another, all forged in the crucible of fate and honed into a weapon to be cast by some unseen divine hand at the manifestation of the Dragon Queen herself. And, despite the sheer absurdity in the face of it all, seeing today how they all worked together as a team to protect one another and overcome seemingly impossible odds, for the first time it seemed that they just might somehow succeed in their all important quest. And for this, she cried tears of hope.