Gimble motioned quietly to Serna's group to follow him down the rocky path occasionally stopping to watch and time the guard patrol movement. When the coast was clear, he nodded and waved them onward into the area where his kinfolk were chained up and forced to mine the crystals jutting out of the rock face.

Serna crept forward quietly and whispered to the imprisoned Gnomes, "Hello, I'm Serna and this is Laz. We're friends. We're here to help you. Laz, can you cut them free?"

"I can do better than cut them free." Lazheros placed a hand on the manacles of one gnome and muttered something in draconic. Suddenly, all the chains that held the gnomes in their area unlocked and fell off.

"Nice!" Serna smiled at Laz, "Everyone follow Gimble he'll take you back the way we came."

Gimble motioned to his kin to follow him out and back up the path to safety.

The Shield Maiden turned to The Cleric, "We'll cover them as they leave. Once they are all gone, then we'll jump that mean, nasty overseer. Okay?"

Slowly but surely Alyson, Irzen and Nathosot crept around the farside of the mine and made their way almost to the entrance when the patrol on that was coming back.

"Crap!" Alyson muttered to herself. "What now? Irzen, any ideas?"

"Yeah!" Irzen seized Alyson and Nathosot by the arm and yanked them behind a nearby mine cart that was full of ore. The Swordsman held up a single finger against his lips to indicate that they should be quiet. All the while, he quietly slipped Evenflow from its sheath.

Alyson put a hand on the swordsman, "Wait for it."

Nathosot shook his head whispering, "Don't kill'em. The overseer will know."

Irzen nodded in agreement as he silently re-sheathed his weapon. Looking at the Elementalist, the Swordsman made a series of hand signals to indicate to her that they should jump the Bullywugs, put their hands over their mouths, yank them behind the cart and beat them senseless.

The Swordsman waited to see if The Elementalist understood his hand signals.

She gave him a funny look,"No."

Irzen did a face palm and shook his head.

From across the other side Gimble kept watch while Serna helped get his people out and free of the area. When the coast was clear, he spotted the patrol on the far side getting really close to others. He turned whispering, "Hey, your friends could use your help."

Lazheros looked over and used Mage hand to slap one of the bullywugs from behind. The one taking lead stopped not more than ten feet from Alyson and Irzen. He used Mage hand again shoving another bullywug flat on his face.

The Swordsman took note of the confusion among the Bullywugs.

The commotion was enough for Alyson, Irzen, and Nathosot to sneak away and out of sight pass the patrol on their side.

Nathosot grinned and motioned the elementalist and swordsman to follow.

Irzen motioned for Alyson to follow Nathosot while he brought up the rear.

Over on the other side Nathosot signaled his kin to stay quiet while Alyson went about picking the locks on the manacles. "Okay. Done. Now comes the fun part. I need all of you to hold hands so I can meld us out of here and over to the other side."

Nathosot shrugged, "I hope this trick of yours gets my kin out of here quietly."

"It will." She said as the whole group of gnomes merged with the stone and reemerged over on the side where Lazheros was waiting.

"Go and get the swordsman, Alyson." The bronze man said quietly as he showed them the way out.

The elementalist melded with the stone again popping up behind the swordsman, "Okay. Done...where's Nathosot?"

"Wait a minute!" Irzen scratched his head, "I thought he joined hands with the rest of his folk and melded out of here with you?"

Their gnome companion was no where to be found until his screams echoed throughout the mine.

"Oh, great! Just great!" The Swordsman hissed as he drew forth his sword and headed in the direction of the screams, "Go back to the others and make sure those Gnomes get out of here. I'll go after Nathosot and bring him back--dead or alive."

"Uh, you forgetting something, Irzen? We're not grownups at the moment, we're kids. Let's use that to our advantage." The tiara's red gem glowed on her head.

"What's going on?" Serna asked no one in particular.

From across the way near the glowing crystal, the overseer stepped forward holding Nathosot by his tunic. "Come out! Come out where ever you are! I know this sniveling gnome has friends here. Surrender, you are hopelessly outnumbered!"

Lazheros held up a finger to be quiet and pointed to the big bad boss over yander.