Instinctively, Gerald attempted to push Mina behind him, to shield her from the troop of goblins and bugbears that had marched into the room. The small woman however proved much harder to move than he anticipated. She just stood there, legs in an open stance, and her arms akimbo, ready to fight.

Seeing how the sorceress wouldn't move, Gerald simply slipped in front of her, using his taller and more bulky armoured body to block the goblins from seeing her. It wasn't a perfect shield, but that didn't matter since the goblins and bugbears seemed to focus their attention on something at the bottom of the stairs instead.

Four of the goblins stood shoulder to shoulder at the door, firing their bows downwards, while another eight stood ready , shields locked and crooked spears hefted over the archers before them in a deadly ring. Two bugbears stood at either side of the door, and kind of melded into the darkness. While Gerald had seen them 'hop' out of the shadows before, it was surprising for him to see that the bug bears weren't using a magical ability when they 'hopped' into the shadows. They were just really good at hiding, and their fur's markings seem to help break up the shadows they were trying to blend into. Finally some strange rock creature, hopped onto the roof and immediately froze into position, becoming more like stone than it was before. It was man sized with rocky skin, had horns, claws, a tail, and even wings, and kind of looked like those statues that they place atop fancy buildings to impress people.

The goblins and bugbears chattered in a series of Brees and Yarks and seemed nervously waiting for something.

Gerald wasn't sure what they were doing, but he knew what he needed to do. He glanced at Mina and motioned towards the open window with his chin. Mina nodded and the pair of them slowly edged towards the remaining exit. Before they could escape however, a red pinecone sailed over the goblins' heads and landed in the middle of the room.

Gerald's eyes grew big as he immediately tackled Mina and knocked her behind the bed. His sudden action caught the unusually heavy Sorceress by surprise and he was able to shove her off her feet, and the both of them tumbled to the ground.

"What are you do…." Began Mina. Before she could finish, the room exploded in a fiery burst, slamming both of them to the ground.

Gerald coughed up smoke as he rose from the wreckage. The bed and his armor had shielded him from most of the blast, but he was still woozy from the explosion. He glanced and saw Mina scowling below him, and several bits and pieces of goblins on the floor. About three of the remaining spear goblins as well as one of the bug bears attempted to reform their wall at the door, but before they could shuffle into position, death incarnate had smashed into their ranks.

A glowing hammer smashed the bugbear in the head, crumpling its skull and half its chest in a mighty blow. Before the bugbear could fall, the hammer's arc brought it slamming into the goblin to its right, the force of the blow was so mighty that the goblin and hammer continued onwards crushing the goblin next to it. The last goblin was able to duck under the blow and attempted to scramble out of the room on all fours. Briefly it disappeared, but a second later if flew screaming back in as a great boot connected with its face and sent it tumbling in a cartwheel into the smashed table.

A big half orc strode into the room as it wrenched its hammer from the mass of corpses. Gerald gave a cheer when he saw it was Ceto, somehow the half orc seemed even more savage than before as it waded into the goblins. Ceto bellowed a feral challenge just as the stone creature that had waited above as a statue seemed to animate again and dropped onto him. While the stone creature was covered in spikes and claws, which cut and stabbed its foe multiple times, the big half orc seemed to ignore these wounds as it locked its mighty arms around the creature's head and began to squeeze and twist it mercilessly.

Gerald watched the epic struggle, and then noticed another bugbear stepping out of the shadows. He wasn't sure if this was a new opponent, or if he simply lost track of it during the explosion, but saw it was going to attack Ceto with a club while he was preoccupied.

Gerald scrambled towards the bugbear, grabbing the closest weapon he could find, a silver spoon he was attempting to loot. He bounded the distance between himself and the bugbear, catching it by surprise, before he jabbed the bugbear in the rib and stopped the monster in its tracks.

Gerald was surprised, but not as surprised as the bugbear. The creature simply looked at Gerald in shock at his pathetic weapon, snarled and revealed its sharp teeth, before raining his club down on Gerald's head.

"Ow…Ouch…stop!" pleaded Gerald. "I'm the Prince remember, you're not supposed to hurt me."

The bugbear ignored him as he pressed his attack. Gerald was sure he would have been dead by now, but the armor did an amazing job of cushioning the blows of the club. Strikes to his shoulder, chest, and even the arms he used to shield his face, staggered him but did not fell him. He was still in a bad position as the blows forced him to his knees, and he desperately needed to counter attack.

Before he could jab him with a spoon again, the attacks had stopped. Gerald looked and saw Mina standing where the bugbear had been. The small woman was dusting off her hands, as the bugbear that had attacked him appeared to have been thrown face first into a wall. She stared at hands, horrified at what she had done. Gerald then noticed Ceto with his foot on the stone creature's back, savagely pulling its limbs out of his now crumbling body. It was fascinating to note that the one flexible creature appeared to be made of stone again, and powdered at the half orc's brutal attentions. Ceto was covered in bloody wounds, and seemed to be taking out his frustration on the shattered creature below him.

"Hi Gerald. Nice armor," said the half orc.

"You know this…gentleman," asked Mina as she watched the half orc resume his bloody task. She still seemed shaken by the bugbear she killed, but seemed to have recover some of her wits at least. While Gerald couldn't get her to move before, Mina slipped behind Gerald and instinctively grabbed his hand.

"Aye, he's one of the guys that saved me from the wargs and giants."

"Acht….you're all cut up again," said Tig as she finally hopped up the stairs. "Gerald! You're okay. I was hoping we would find you here. And…wait…that isn't Tessa."

"Oh, this is Mina. Mina this is Ceto and Tig, " said Gerald as he gave out introductions. Ceto nodded as Tig saluted. Mina on the other hand seemed suspicious of the pair and only offered a nervous bow from behind Gerald. "Armondo should be here somewhere. He's alright isn't he?"

Tig smiled. "He's securing the basement, but it seems we were over cautious. There seems to be no dragon here."

"Yeah, he took off to destroy my town," said Gerald. "Wait, why are you here? I thought you were headed to warn the town."

Tig sighed. "We were, but then we discovered you and Tess missing. I assumed that the bugbears kidnapped you two, and well…we weren't going to leave you behind. We tracked you to this tower and …well you can see the fruits of our daring rescue plan. This place is well guarded, but nothing a couple of alchemy bombs can't fix."

"Boom!" said Ceto as his eyes bulged and his hands made a small explosive show to accentuate his point.

"Thanks guys. I didn't expect this, but you know, if you wanted to rescue me, maybe don't lead with explosives in the room," laughed Gerald.

"It was only a stun bomb. Well maybe it had a little much polish in it," smiled Tig." Besides, you saved me from the shaman, and Ceto from the giants. So it's the least we owe you."

Mina looked at Gerald and seemed to be impressed at the praise showered on him.

"Basement is clear and I found something interesting to show you guys," said Armondo as he ran up the stairs. He waved a strange looking blue and white banner with what looked like a cross between a bird of prey and a turkey in the middle. Tig examined the banner in detail and seemed fascinated by it. "Oh hey Gerald. Nice armor. Hey, who's your new girl?"

"Err…new girl?" asked Mina as her eyes narrowed at Gerald/ Her small flickering ball grew an angry shade of orange and red. "Who's your old girl?"

"Tess, the tall attractive warrior woman that couldn't get her hands off of…." Began Armondo but was silenced by Tig, who had now abandoned the banner, and glared at him with equally narrow eyes.

"This is Mina. Gerald's fiancé , remember?" interrupted Tig.

"You have a fiancé Gerald? Congratulations!" said Armondo.

"Fiance?" asked Mina.

Gerald rolled his eyes and sighed. " Okay, okay. She's not my fiancé, she's just a girl I met earlier today, err I mean yesterday. I admit it I lied. I led her to the mines for some quick gold, but we were split up by those wargs you met earlier. I didn't want to leave her behind, and just made up that story to convince you to help me," Admitted the bard.

Tig looked at Mina and then Gerald, and then saw how close they were to each other and that somehow they managed to be holding each other's hands. Both the bard and sorceress suddenly seemed aware of this and released their grip on each other. "Ja, that's okay. All is forgiven. It might be a lie, but it doesn't seem that far from the truth. "

Gerald and Mina both blushed at the gnome's observation, while her flickering ball bobbed up and down above her.

"I haven't found Lady Tessa, but we should leave, before they send reinforcements from the mine, "said Armondo. "We got lucky finding Gerald and his…err…friend, but we can't rescue everyone."

"Don't worry about Tess," sighed Gerald. "She's safe…with the Prince." He wanted to tell them the Prince's secret, and how Tess betrayed him, but he decided now was not the time. They had enough to worry about.

"Really? " said Tig surprised. "Tess and Prince Aaron are safe?"

"Sir Ridley is with them too. I'm not sure if they are safe, but they did ….escape," said Gerald choosing his words carefully. "Let's worry about them later, we should leave now."

"Aye," said Tig. She was staring at her small box with the glowing dragonstone inside. "The dragon might not be in the tower, but it's nearby and its mind seemed to have settled a bit as well. That makes it a bit less erratic but a bit more dangerous in my opinion. We should make haste to avoid fighting it here, on its own territory, pick a battleground of our own choosing."

"There is no dragon, it's only a wizard that's transformed into a dragon," said Mina eyeing the stone carefully. "I've seen it."

Tig considered her statement then shook her head. "It might be his alternate form you saw, but regardless, I trust the stone."

Ceto sniffed around the room and shook his head. "Dragon, near."

"Dragon, wizard, lemming juggling clown. I don't care what this thing is," said Armondo. "I just know we have to leave…now. Some army is headed to Daggerhall, and I think we should at least warn them before they get wiped out. "

"Tess and the Prince might have already done so," suggested Gerald.

"You want to take that chance?" asked Armondo.

While Gerald wasn't particularly fond of his village, it was still HIS village. Squat old Inga, shrewd Sanngror, pretty Ilsa, girl stealing Rolf. They weren't his favorite people, but they were HIS people and he didn't want them to come to harm.

The group nodded, and decided to push towards the town. Even if the army had a head start, it was getting to be daybreak and goblins were notoriously bad seeing in the day as humans were at night. It would be close, but Armondo thought that they can reach Daggerhall in time if they marched double time.

As the group filed out of the tower towards the town, Armondo waved Gerald aside."Hey sorry that you lost Tess to the Prince, but hey you know. The guy got his looks, power, and money going for him. It's hard to keep girls when someone like him is around."

Gerald wanted to correct him, but he remained silent once again. The 'Prince' might have those things, and he even had the girl but at least Gerald had his manhood.

"If it's any consolation, " smiled Armondo." I think your new girl is better than the old one."

Gerald wanted to point out that Mina wasn't his girl, but a part of him wanted her to be.

" She might not have smooth creamy skin, or fill out her armor as nicely as Lady Tessa, but at least she's not moody or crazy either. Which is a plus."

"She's not really my girl. She's just a girl I met yesterday," sighed Gerald.

Armondo looked at Mina and then at Gerald, and shook his head. "That's a shame."