“Fire!” Balon yelled and fire surged out of his fingers. The omega stopped constricting and started to burn.
“You are going to burn Bard alive!” Johanna cried.
Balon stopped the fire. “See if you can pull him from the jelly.”
Johanna reached into the substance, grabbed Bard’s arm and pulled. Even though, she felt a slight tingling from the jelly, most of the acid was destroyed by Balon’s fire. “I cannot move him!” she yelled.
“Britt, stand by with you hammer! Johanna, let go of Bard! Freezia!” he yelled as ice now shot from his fingers. The omega was frozen into a giant chunk of ice.
“Break Bard free!” Britt, Massacharamar started hitting the ice around Bards head with their hammers. George grabbed his knife and started chipping.
Soon Bard was free from the ice. However, he was unconscious. His exposed skin was burned beyond recognition. George ran to his bag and pulled out his healing potion. “Here you go buddy. You gave me yours so you can have mine.”
“Do not expect me to kiss you,” Bard said weakly.
“Let him rest,” Britt said. “He nearly had a close one. Bard’s damaged skin was almost healed. While the acid could have dissolved the armor, the omeba was removed in enough time to save him.
“George, let me look at that burn on your face,” Johanna said, taking about the mark where the omeba had struck him.
“It is only a scratch,” George said. “Let’s save the healing potions for emergencies.”
Balon once again used his fire spell to melt the remains of the Ochre jelly. As the ice melted down he noticed several stones fall away from the ice. He picked them up and returned to the others.
“It appears that while the acid eats away metal and flesh, it does not harm rocks.”
“That is why it was able to lurk over our heads,” Massacharamar said. “It did not eat the rock away.”
“Nor did the acid eat these rocks,” he said handing Britt several Amethyst and Peridot gems. Nor this one,” he added, handing the dwarf a giant Garnet.”
“These are worth over 1,000 gold pieces,” Britt said. “What we found so far is worth the trip here. We can return our findings to the elders and just call this mission completed.”
“What about this place and their plans for it?” George asked.
“We will just say that it is too dangerous,” Britt said.
Bard, getting stronger by the minute said, “We should all agree whther to give up. If one person wants to leave, then we all leave. I have the first vote. Not me.”
“Not me,” said George.
“Not me,” said Johanna and Balon together.
“Not me,” said Massacharmar. “That leaves you Britt. If you want to leave, we will respect your decision.”
“Not me,” said Britt. He looked around, they were is what looked like a mining shaft. Even though there had been no work recently, the equipment was like it was just brand new. He picked up a pickaxe and handed it to Bard. “You are going to need this, since you lost your sword.”
“I can just hear Joe Smith when I tell him that a jelly monster ate my sword. He never let me forget about the rust monster.”


Chapter
CAVERN OF THE MYSTICAL STONE.

They were standing in an ante-chamber that was empty except for a large piece of green rock that was glowing.
“Be careful,” Balon warned, as Britt reached out to touch it.
“It is only mica,” the dwarf replied. “Still I wonder what is making it glow.”
“Let me see,” George said and picked up a piece that had peel off from the main foundation.
“From what you taught me, I think you are right, Britt. Yet, there is one way to find out.” He put the piece in his mouth and bit down.
“George! What do you think you are…”
Bard reached out and grabbed George’s arm.
The two disappeared into thin air.
“doing!” finished Britt.
“What happened?” Johanna asked.
“They teleported to another part of the Caverns,” Balon said.
“George is alone!” Britt yelled. “He will not be able to defend himself! We have to find him!”
“Bard went with him,” Massacharamar said. “He will protect him.”
George looked around. “This definitely mica,” he said. “Mica with magical properties.” He bit down on the stone again. However, nothing happened.
“Where are we,” George said drawing his sword.
Bard held his lantern up and looked around. “This look like a cave. What is this stuff?” Bard asked pulling sticky stuff from his hair.
“It looks like web.”
“How do we get out of here?”
“It looks like an entrance over there. It is all covered with web. We have to cut our way out…”
A scurrying noise cut off George’s sentence.
“Be quiet,” Bard whispered. “I think there might be sp…”
In the next instance Bard was covered with a web.
“I cannot move!” he yelled. “Get out of here, now!”
A large spider approached Bard, unaware of George standing a few feet awaw.
George, with his knife in his hand, sprung on its back and sank it into the spider’s back. The creature fell to the ground, dead.
He ran over to Bard and started cutting the robe like-web from the warrior. “At least he did not have a tail to grab me.” Finally, Bard was freed. George looked at him and shaked his head. “How do you get yourself into these situations.”
Bard did not say anything but drew his sword. “We have to cut through this web to get out of here. There may be more spiders, so be careful.”
“Bard, we may be expecting parents.” George pointed to a section of the cave. Ten giant eggs, laying in the web, looked like they were starting to crack.
“Help me over here. Then we will take care of those.”
They finally cleared an entrance to get them back into the corridor.
“Hold my lantern,” Bard said. He started to feel around in his backpack
“What are you doing?”
“I am looking for my tinderbox. If those eggs hatch, we are going to have problems.”
“No. Please do not do that,” George pleaded. “They will not hurt us. Once they are hatched, they will go outdoors. The one spider was just looking for food.”
“You call me just food?” Bard laughed.
“Probably bad tasting as it is.”
Bard pretended to punch him.
“Spiders are not evil and I do not think it would be right to kill them, especially since they are babies. Let’s save the killing for the evil ones.”
“Let’s go and find the others,” Bard said, putting his tinderbox back in his bag.



“Shouldn’t we try to find George?” Britt asked. “If we bite down on another piece of stone, we should be teleported to the same place.”
“I would not do that,” Balon warned. “This type of stone is unpredictable.”
“What do you mean?”
“This stone does things at random. You may bite down on it and nothing happens. Sometimes the stone will help you. For example, it may heal you or make you wiser. However, it can also curse you. One person, I remember, went into a deep sleep for several days until the curse wore off.”
“So it is better just to look for George?” Massacharamar asked.
“Yes.”
“What if he tries the stone to teleport back to us?”
“The stone is useless now. Once it is used, the magical properties are gone.”
“What do we do, wait for them or look for them?” Johanna asked.
“I say that we look for them,” Britt said. “Who knows what trouble George got himself into.”
The left the chamber and started walking south.
There is a cavern up ahead.
“Be careful,” Balon said. “There are only four of us.” When he saw Britt’s face became pale, he added, “that is until George and Britt join us again.”
He hoped that he was right.

George and Bard walked a short distance and came upon another cavern. However, there was nothing in it. “I wonder how far we are from the others,” the thief wondered.
“We are still in the lower level.” He knew this just by looking around the walls. They were irregual, rough and unfinished.
“I do not think Stephan and Joban ever got around to getting this fortress of theirs finished.”
“I see what you mean, said George. “The upper level, from what I can see is complete. Even though, all the rooms are full of dust, they can be lived in. However, on this level, only the museum and are finished. I wonder what their plans were for the rest of the lower level.”
“That may be a mystery to us, forever. Still, if the elders are planning to make this a tourist attraction, they may want to consider sealing off a majority of the lower level. It can be dangerous.” Just as he said this, Bard tripped on a piece of uneven floor and fell to the ground.
“Are you okay, Bard?” George asked him. For once, there was no laughter in his voice and even had a hint of fear.
“Yes,” he said getting up. “How about you?”
“To be honest, this is the first time I have been underground like this. When went on missions, when we were underground, we were always near the entrance. This is different; it feels like the walls are closing in on me.”
Bard understood. Even when he had ventured into the catacombs, he was not this far underground. If he did not get out of here soon, he could go mad.
“I wish Britt and the others were here.”
“Just keep going, George. Things will be fine.” He took one of his knives out and laid it on the floor of the cavern, with the blade pointing to the west.
“What are you doing?”
I am hoping to leave a sign for them to see. It shows the others which direction we went.
“Good thinking, Bard.”

Bard looked at the pile of stones in front of him. It looked like some had fallen away, leaving a hole. “I think there may be a cavern. Stand back and watch my back.”
Within minutes enough rocks were cleared away and they were able to crawl into a small cavern.
Bard shone his lantern and the light reflected off the sunken eye sockets of a corpse.
“George, be careful,” Bard warned as the thief approached the body. “You remember wheat had happened in the throne room with the ghouls.”
George found a pole laying near the body and prodded it with it. However, the body, sitting propped against the wall of the room, fell over to its side.
“No, it was somebody unlucky enough to not survive the caverns.”
Bard approached George and cast more light on the body.
“This happened a long time ago.” The body only contained bones and the tattered remains of leather armor. All the flesh had decayed away.
“A thief,” George said. “I wonder if he was belonged to the party that the beserkers killed?
“No this happened before that,” Bard answered. “It must have been at least a year.”
George suddenly wanted to get out of the the room, out of the caverns and as far away as possible. “I wondered what happened to him.”
Bard looked closely at the neck bones and saw two marks. “It looks like he was bitten by a giant spider. They are very poisonous and he probably did not have a healing potion with him. It appears that he just crawled in here to die.”
George caught a glitter on the remains of the thief’s cloak. He bent down and removed decorated silver stud that was used to fasten it.
“I wonder how many times the caverns have been explored.”
“I believe that he just came in by himself,” George was looking through a purse that was lying near the remains. Some thieves will go through extremes to get extra money. They do not have any regard for their own safety.” He removed eight gold and eight silver pieces and handed them and the silver stud to Bard. “I personally would rather leave these. It is one thing when you find treasures that monsters are guarding. However, when if comes to a fellow comrade, even one I do not personally know, it is different.”
“I understand,” Bard said. He looked at the skeletal hands of the body of the thief. It was still grasping a crossbow. “This is still in excellent shape,” he said picking it up and looking at it. “We may need this.”
“Here is a quiver of arrows,” George said.
Bard fitted an arrow into the crossbow and handed it to George.
“This will be better that your knife. Have you ever used one before?”
“Massacharmar taught me. But I have only used it while we hunted. It has been a while and I might be a little rusty.”
“Just make sure that I am not in the way.”