Surprisingly, it was Drizzt whom started the fight, growling in his rage against all evil drow priestesses and calling forth Guenhwyvar as he leapt at Briza with both scimitars looking to cut dark elf flesh. The priestess laughed maniacally and was suddenly not there, appearing to Zak's left, away from Drizzt, who quickly recovered from a tumble into the dust. The black panther growled menacingly as Briza cackled.

"You think you can defeat a drow priestess?" she asked "I have the favor of Lloth behind me, and I doubt your precious Mielikki would miss your worship." she said, lashing out with her snake-headed whip. A blast of force suddenly knocked her off of her feet, and she looked around in surprise to see Ryllinn smiling from where she stood with her father. Ryllinn, whom had just reverted back to her half-drow appearance.

"All who worship Lloth must be destroyed." she said simply, as way of explanation as Briza roared in indignation and leapt back up to continue the battle. Zaknafein, momentarily forgotten, watched silently.

In his mind, he could do one of two things. Stay and fight against Briza for the pure satisfaction of killing another evil drow or leave and go to see the priestess of Eilistraee, which is why he had come here in the first place. Sighing, he realized that he could not turn away from the battle and drew his swords, debating on the proper cause of action of which to take. He finally decided upon complementing Drizzt's actions and striking at the other side of Briza.

She was now being attacked by two drow warriors at either side, a half-drow priestess from the front and a panther from the back. Her spells were wearing down as she fought to strike down her four skilled opponents. She finally got rid of the panther and took the moment to hide briefly behind a spell shield and pray to Lloth for assistance.

Briza closed her eyes, prayed to the dark goddess, and felt. . . nothing. There was no response save a scimitar flashing towards her, breaking through her shield easily as if it were not strong magic, but rather simply air. Confused, she summoned her greatest magic, levitating suddenly towards the ceiling of the cavern to cast it upon both warriors and the priestess of Eilistraee in a great surge of fire that would surely decimate all of them. She pointed her hands and a small spark floated down to land on the white hair of Drizzt. As she stared stupidly down at what was supposed to have been a huge fireball, Ryllinn cast a great white arc of lightning at the drow.

What happened next could only be described as the work of a god. The arc of lightning missed Briza completely, only to carve a huge hunk of rock off of the top of the cavern, which hit Briza, causing her to lose concentration and plummet to the ground. The huge rock, as large and dense as three dwarven soldiers in a horse cart, meanwhile, fell freely to the ground, accelerating until it fell hard on top of the courageous drow ranger. Ryllinn, surprised at her spell misfiring, had stepped back away from Drizzt, thus out of the range of the rock, but had managed to get in the path of the falling drow priestess, and Briza crashed into her as she completed her fall. Zaknafein watched this all transpire, as when he had seen Briza levitate upward, he had gotten out of the range of a possible fireball with all haste. As the dust cleared, three unmoving figures and a huge rock lay in the area in which the battle had been taking place.

******
Go Back