The party quickly begins picking its way through the rocks. Joseph keenly remembers twisting his ankle on them last time. Now they are wet and slippery. However, you find that wading through the water actually makes it a little easier than trying to walk on the rocks, even though your feet get soaked. You walk on and on, all the while looking back expecting to see lava flowing toward you. You still hear rumblings and the explosion is imminent, but you don't know if it will be minutes, hours, or days before the volcano finally explodes. When it does, you know you must be miles away to avoid the ash, heat, and other effects.
The thirty minute walk seems to take an eternity. As you walk, the stream of water grows smaller and smaller until it is only a trickle, and then you are just navigating around puddles.
Finally you break out onto the main cavern. The differences are shocking. Previously, there was a narrow slide of ice that you had to squeeze down. The ice has now almost completely melted, accounting for the stream of water. The cavern is about 200 feet from the cave entrance to the far side. You see things now that were completely hidden under the ice before. The bodies of the wolves and the goblin (and, apparently, any remains of the strange ooze) have been washed away. The cavern is shaped like half of an upside down funnel, with the funnel opening on the far side of the cavern from where you stand.
The room is scattered with potholes carved from the lava tubes eons ago, some of them a few inches wide and a few inches deep, others large enough and deep enough for a person to fall down and never be seen again.
To your left, lava has broken through many of the holes from below (as per the diagram). You would have to navigate around the flowing lava to get to the far side.
Straight in front of you is a strange sight. A ledge runs across two deep chasms that lead into darkness below. You see the glow of lava from down there but that is all. Either side of the ledge is filled with rocks and rubble. You could try to cross the ledge, which at its flattest point is about two to three feet wide. If you fell, you might catch yourself in the rocks and rubble, but if you failed that, you would surely perish.
To your right, the floor is marked with many more potholes, the shallowest of them filled with water. Nearly every step would land you in one. However, the lava has not yet broken through. On the far side to your right, you would have to cross the last of the melting ice and its puddles of water. A hill of ice is to the far right, the last vestige of the giant ice slide.
Far ahead of you, natural light illuminates a small hill. It is, at last, the entry point to the volcano. You see your two entry ropes hanging down, but realize with horror the problem. Previously, they came down to a point just above over the ice. Now, the ice is melted, and the bottoms of the ropes hang at a point sixty feet above the hill.
However, that is something you may have to solve later, for the rumbling of the awakening volcano rolls through the cave like deafening thunder. You do not have much time.