Tahldar holds his breath as best he can and scurries for the hole to the north.  He hopes clean air can be had that way as his lungs begin to protest.

There is no clean air directly over the hole, but it looks clear down the hole. The glowing, flickering light from down there seems to indicate a fire of some sort.

But you will need to find a way down the 30 foot deep, 8 foot wide hole to get to the fresh air down there.

OOC: Is Borimer's fly spell still active? I don't recall the length or how long it has been on. Total time elapsed since leaving on the rafts is about 1 hour.

Tahldar points to Borimer, points to himself and then down the pit in an attempt to say something...

OOC: I don't think I rolled for the number of turns the fly spell lasts.  It's 10 + 1d6 turns at Tahldar's level.  I rolled 16 total, so 2 hours and 40 minutes.  I will try to non verbally signal to Borimer to fly me down below.

17:21, Today: Tahldar of Tyrannia rolled 6 using 1d6.  Fly on Borimer (+10).

Kahan shrugged, and followed after the others, taking a deep breath before heading into the cavern. Seeing the quicksand, he does his best to hold onto the niches in the wall to avoid falling in.

Borimer nods, flies to Tahldar and takes the mage down the hole. Going down 30 feet, they enter a brightly lit area. It is brightly lit because there is a ring of flames like some sort of magical flame wall. The flame wall is 20 feet in diameter. The heat, even 5-10 feet away where Borimer and Tahldar stand, is intense.

They see something start to move within the ring of fire. It is impossible to tell out its form through the thick forms, except that it is humanoid in size. It cries out something in a male voice, then something else--all in foreign tongues. Then it switches to Common and says, "Help!"

Meanwhile, Kahan starts across (at the point marked C), grabbing onto the handholds and inching. He finds himself slipping and falls into the quicksand but catches himself, losing about 12 seconds to get his bearings and pull his body back up. (OOC: With a dexterity of 8, this will be a hard one for Kahan to maneuver.)

Shae, meanwhile, successfully gets to the edge of the pit that Tahldar and Borimer went down.

About 10 feet east of her, the cackling laugh pops up again. She seems to see something glowing through the mists with an eerie green fiery glow.

Leo is still back in the safety of the ledge with Shapfren.

This message was last edited by the GM at 01:52, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

After almost slipping, Kahan reaches into his backpack and pulls out his grappling hook and attempts to use it to help him along.

Borimer slices at the fire wall with his sword to see if there anything besides fire, and to tell if it is magic or normal fire.

Seeing the party split up, Tahldar presses against a nearby wall to escape the worst of the heat and wait to take action.

"Get the others!" Tahldar implores Borimer.

Shapfren climbs in after the others, but instead of going on the west side by Kahan, she heads to the east side to explore other exits. She holds her breath and tries to make it quickly.

Leo follows Shapfren hoping she leads somewhere safe.

Borimer tests his sword and finds that the flames appear natural. They do not appear magical but instead come from some gaseous fuel flowing up from tiny holes in the ground that are lit.  The figure inside continues to call for help.

Listening to Tahldar, Borimer flies up, grabs Kahan, and takes him down the hole to the ring of fire. Kahan still holds the grappling hook.

Meanwhile, Shapfren and Leo start along the right side using the niches...both make it without any problems.

When she gets to the point marked "d", Shapfren sees that there appears to be another tunnel leading east.

Time holding breath: 30 seconds.



As Shapfren holds onto the handholds to avoid quicksand and looks east, and as Leo is not far behind him, they hear the cackling laugh, followed by another, just to the north of them. And that's when through the green sulfurous smoky mist, the two green-flamed skulls come into view.

You have heard the arcane stories of these flameskulls. They are evil, undead, and have at least two fire based spells they can cast. And casting a fire based spell in this highly flammable area would be potentially deadly.

But for now, the two flameskulls cast a spell that Shapfren identifies as the blur spell. The two skulls become blurry to look at, shifting and wavering.

"Stick close." Tahldar says to Kahan.  "I believe it is Haklara in the flames.  We should wait for the others." he whispers to Kahan.

Shae will look for a source of the flames or fuel for the fire, as well as whether it would be possible to fly over the flames to save the guy. "I'm not so convinced that is Haklara. I could be wrong, but this seems rather extravagant.

This was bad, real bad. Not only casting would be impossible under the current conditions of the terrain, her spells wouldn't be able to hurt these things much. Holding the bow close, Shapfren ran forward. Getting out of the dangerous place was of the upmost importance.

Leo follows along hoping to stay away from these things and rejoin the rest.

Down below, Shae is looking around. The flammable gas causing the ring wall of fire comes from what appears to be holes drilled in the ground. She finds that there are two stone levers on the far wall (northwest wall) set into an ancient iron casting that goes from about eye level deep into the ground.

The left lever is in the up position and the right lever is in the down position. There are markings near the levers but you need to get closer to see, which may require you getting singed a little by the fire since the ring of fire is not centered and is about only 5 feet from the levers.



Up above, Leo and Shapfren move quickly to the east, each easily holding the handholds, avoiding the quicksand and moving to an opening that immediately leaves them at a bridge spanning the lava river. It leads generally northeast toward a small ledge that then leads north into a cave system.

But they have two problems: first, because of the thick poisonous and flammable smoke leaking out of the caves, to breath normally, they have to move about 10 feet out onto the 5 foot wide ancient bridge, which is old, made of corroding iron, and narrow; and second, the two flameskull creatures are following them out and casting spells:

Shapfren is hit by magic missile: 13 hp dmg.
Leo is hit by magic missiles: 16 hp dmg.


This message was last edited by the GM at 04:21, Sat 24 Oct 2020.

Shae looks at Tahldar, Kahan, and Borimer. "I have a protection from fire spell. I can use it on myself or one of you. The effects are different for each. Casting on myself, I get immunity to fire until I take a certain amount of damage from the fire. If I cast it on you, you get protection from the fire until the spell ends in a couple hours. What do you think? I can go either way on this one, but we need to get close enough to pull levers and see what the writing says."

(Shae is level 12 druid, so it lasts for 2 hours. If she casts on someone else, it gives +4 to saving throws for fire attacks, 100% protection from normal fires, and 50% protection from magic fires. Casting it on herself is complete protection from all fires, including magical, up to 144 points of damage. With all the heat expected to come up, it might be a good time to use it.)

Not being aware of the skulls, and not being aware of the levers to the north, Tahldar stays put.  "Cast it on yourself!" Tahldar responds tersely to Shae.

Shae does so, then moves to the levers to read what is written there. If she takes damage, she will quickly move back to the others as soon as she gets the information.

Pain, it took a lot of concentration not to be overcome by the painful concussive concentrated light. She was running out of time, and needed to press on.

The abyss below was scary, but she needed to breath, and staying behind was suicidal anyway. Shapfren moved forward while holding on to the rail, with some luck she would make it to the center point

Down below, Shae moves in close. She takes 14 damage, but it is absorbed by the protection from fire spell.

She sees the writings, one above the left lever and one above the right lever. They look like this:



Shae steps back out from the intense heat to discuss with Kahan, Borimer and Tahldar.


Up above, Leo and Shapfren are getting entangled with flameskulls.

They both escape to the ancient iron bridge. It has no handrails but is just an iron crossing. Falling over and into the lava is a worry.

They both make it to the center without being harmed but the flameskulls are gearing up for another attack as Leo and Shapfren turn to face them from the center rock, which is about 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. At last, they can open their mouths to breathe clean air.


This message was last edited by the GM at 01:52, Thu 29 Oct 2020.

Shae says, "That doesn't look like a language, but I don't know what they mean. Any ideas? I guess we could experiment and put both levers to the up position. That's usually the off position, I think."

"Try the left one!" Talhdar suggests.  "Borimer, check on the others!  They've been gone too long." he adds with concern.

"Now it is my turn." Now able to breath and in a relatively safe spot, Shapfren moved to begin her song. She hoped to finish on time before being interrupted or worse, hit by these things.

Cast fireball.

10:38, Today: Shapfren Diditlew rolled 30 using 10d6.  Fireball.

OOC: Where is the center of the fireball going to be located? Shapfren and Leo are in the center island area by W7. Also, need a move from Leo.


Down below, Shae pulls the lever on the left to the down position, noting also that there is a center position as she moves it.

Once down, the flames begin to grow larger so that no place in the round room is safe. (You have essentially increased the fuel being pumped into the flames.) You hear cries of pain from the center of the fire circle and you each take the following fire damage:

Borimer: 10 dmg
Shae: 5 dmg (from fire protection)
Kahan: 3 dmg
Tahldar: 7 dmg

You realize that you will continue to take damage unless something changes (as will the individual in the center of the fire).

Borimer is prepared to leave to help the others but looks expectantly in case anyone wants a lift out of the fire.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:01, Fri 30 Oct 2020.