"Do the Drow emerge victorious?"

"Do the demons overrun Nyternia?"

"What of the Emtutian prophecy?"

These questions meant little to the party, and they weren't sure how they would go about answering even if they knew the answers.

Time seemed to totally stop, and the party felt their essences pulling back, as if the dream were about to end. Suddenly, however, they were yanked back into the bodies of their alter-egos, but it seemed they had lost control.

"I don't believe you grabbed that rod," said Kestrel's alter-ego to Errol's alter-ego.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time, especially since we lost so much equipment," he replied.

"Yeah those rust monsters were... annoying. That was good tracking, finding the lair," replied Kestrel* sarcastically.

"Let's get moving," said Malice. "We don't have that much lead over them; they'll be here pretty soon."

Malice led the way, sure of the path. Soon the party* reached a large cavern. The passage they came from with behind them to the south. Facing west, and leading in a steep incline, was the path leading to above. To the east, another cave led to darkness.

"This looks suspicious. This is the way out, but you would think they would guard it more," Malice said.

"If only we had a rogue," sighed Blink*.

"Well, yes, that would have been nice, but they you all wouldn't have had the pleasure of my company," Errol* said.

"I'll go check it out. You guys stay back," said Malice.

Malice snuck towards the incline, trying to hear or spot any enemies. Eventually he shrugged and indicated it didn't seem like anyone was there. Then he heard a noise, which quickly grew louder. As he looked up the exit path, he saw a gigantic rock rolling down it. Luckily he managed to jump down and out of the way. The rock came to a rest with a tremendous crash at the east side of the room.

Soon they heard the noise again, and saw another rock come crashing down.

"This seems unfortunate," Kestrel* said. "What are we going to do now?"

As another rock came rolling down, Malif* replied, "Well whatever we do, we can't stay here; the giants are going to be here soon.

The sound of falling rocks stopped, and Malice went back to the incline to investigate.

"Run!" he shouted and he ran towards the east exit. The rest of the party quickly followed Malice. A large flaming boulder crashed into the room. Upon impact, it burst forth in a fiery explosion, which singed Malif*. Eroll* was also caught in the blast but managed to evade the flames.

The explosion shuddered through the cavern and knocked some ice and rock loose. Another flaming boulder followed, also exploding in the room. This one caused part of the cavern to collapse, including the paths which led back to the treasure room as well as to the exit.

The party, which had retreated down the darkened corridor, was momentarily safe.

"What do you think, use magic to get through the rubble or go through the maze?" Vaugner* asked.

"I think even if we got through the rubble there would be giants waiting for us on the other side. We knew this might be a possibility and still have 4 scrolls of Find the Path. I say we should go through the maze," Malice said.

"We're running low on our potions of endurance though. If we can't get out in the next two days, we're going to freeze to death here," Vaugner said.

"Damn these rocks," Malif* said. "At least with the Star hopefully we can get all of our spells back when we rest. I think we should go through the maze too. If we are lucky we can get past the rocks in about 7 hours, and then we can just teleport away."

"OK, let's get going then," said Blink*.

Malice again led the way. The passageway continued forward for a few hundred feet and then split. Malice took the left fork and continued on. After a few more turns, the rock walls went from carved to natural.

A lightning bolt sparked out of the darkness aimed at Malice and Errol*. Malice was unable to avoid it, but Errol jumped out of its path. As the party* looked around, they spotted 2 frost giants, both of which looked like casters.

As the fight broke out, the giants switched from spells to melee. The two barbarians raged and charged forward. Malice also went forward to melee with his two weapons, and the rest of the party cast spells at the giants.

Eventually the party* was victorious, though it wasn't an easy fight.

* represents an action made by the alter-ego