Eustoma manages to avoid most of the fire, and Sia avoids it all.
"Karla I can help with healing." She casts Cure Moderate Wounds on Karla. Then she pulls out her wand of Cure Light, and taps Karla then taps herself. "That should do us."
Wulfram regretted that they'd had to just kill the hobgoblin, without offering him quarter, but what other option had they had? He longed for this whole business to be over, so he could go back to a peaceful life. Not for a while longer though.
He searched the body, then said, "Let's go and find this Old Master."
Other than a mundane dagger and his bombs and extracts, Oktar has no equipment.
Passing through the next door, you find yourselves in a hall filled with mutated corpses. These include a human with six mouths, three tumor-riddled bugbears, and a hobgoblin with insectile legs sprouting from her head. All five corpses are fresh and wear the regalia of the Ironfang Legion.
A human-sized construct stands guard at the opposite door. Brass, bronze, and silver components adorn this angelic figure. Moving gears are visible within the gaps of its metallic body. The clockwork raises a greatsword, which erupts into flames!
"Ah can venture past tha construct ta see wha is in store, and see if tha Ol Master is willing ta talk?" Rogar offers.
Assuming the others agree, he activates the Greater Invisibility option of his ring and walks past the guard into the next room.
Wulfram huddled with the others and replied to Rogar, "The construct might use senses other than sight. Be careful!"
Eustoma looks with shock at the mutated corpses. After they back out of the room she turns wide eyes to the others. "Is the Master doing these things to those creatures? Do we WANT him as an ally? He's mutating beings, and that seems wrong."
"I'm fine with not breaking all his things. Let's not trust him. He may decide we'd make good experiments."
Rogar walks past the clockwork angel without being seen and moves through the door, down a rubble-choked hallway, and through another dor. Crystal statues line the walls of this rectangular room, ringing a large sandbox recessed in the chamber’s center. The only gap in this ring is at the chamber’s western edge, where a cracked glass cylinder rests atop a raised dais.
An insectoid creature waits in this room, resembling the carvings at the entrance to this complex. This must be Ziguch the Seventh Facet. Beside it floats a strange purple ooze in the same shape as Ziguch, thrumming with powerful energy and glowing with eerie light. As one, the two creatures turn to look in Rogar's general direction.
"I can sense you there," a telepathic voice sounds in Rogar's head. It seems to be coming from the ooze. "Have you come to serve me as well? Reveal yourself to me!"
Rogar drops his spell effect, "Ah have not some ta serve, but ta help, if ye wish it. Ah and mah allies seek ta vanquish tha invaders and rid their influence from this land. If ye woul' tell yer guard ta not attack us, ah can get them an' they can talk ta ye more." he tells the creature.
"If you will not serve me willingly, then I shall force you!" the voice declares.
Ziguch chitters and waves his arms, and suddenly Rogar becomes visible. The purple ooze focuses its will on him, attempting to ensnare his mind.
Rogar glares at the creature, "Ye shall die fer that." he responds, his voice steel, and he stops himself from immediately lashing out at the monster, instead sinking beneath the ground and returning to the others.
"He has no interest in talkin'. An' has mind magic." he tells the group. "Also tried ta attack me. Wha' do ye think we shoul' do?"
Wulfram considered Rogar's account. "We still need to locate and disable the geomantic nodes. It could be that we need to show deference to Ziguch. I would like at least to make contact and present our case. I don't think he is any friend of the Ironfang Legion."
"I don't like the idea of Rogar going alone. He's good in battle, but who knows what might happen. We'd never know if he doesn't return. Also who knows what agreeing to "serve" entails. It might tie him to the creature in some way."
Wulfram weighed the options, "We might have to fight the construct. Either that, or teleport past it."
After a few moments, Ziguch appears in the doorway behind the clockwork angel, the strange purple ooze floating in the air beside him. The sneering telepathic voice sounds in all of your heads. "Fools! Ziguch belongs to me now, as will all of you in short order!"
Wulfram commented, "It seems we may have to do something to free Ziguch!"
He recited a quick prayer and stabbed at the purple ooze.
Wulfram attacks the ooze, but his spear seems to have little effect on the amorphous creature. It is immune to damage from piercing weapons, as well as acid and electricity. The fire does scorch it slightly, though.
The ooze blankets the chamber with green mist that saps your will before trying to ensnare Eustoma's mind. Ziguch chitters and waves his forelegs, attempting to petrify Wulfram! The clockwork angel attacks the shaman.
Wulfram transforms into a statue of green crystal.
"Wulf...ram?" Rogar calls out in anger as his ally is turned to stone, but the distraction costs him focus. With anger in his eyes, he turns back to the ooze, and having seen how ineffectual Wulfram's spear was, sends his blasts in the form of spinning disks as he unleashes as much as he can at the ooze.
The profane energies around the ooze deflect Karla's disintegration ray away, causing it to reduce a portion of the wall behind the monster to ash. Nik'o pounces on the clockwork, ripping and tearing at it but failing to grab a hold. Eustoma shoots it twice, but Sia fails to get past its armor.
Rogar unleashes a flurry of razor-sharp metal discs at the ooze, and while one of them misses, the others slice the vile creature to ribbons! It lets out a telepathic shriek as its protoplasm splatters all over the room and it dies!
Ziguch blinks his insectile eyes and shakes his head as if to clear it. He speaks a command in Terran, and the badly damaged clockwork stands down. A different telepathic voice sounds in your minds, this one deeper and more measured.
"Peace! That terrible ichor had dominated me, and I was unable to resist its commands. Stand down, and I will restore your companion to flesh."
The Old Master waves its forearms over the crystallized Wulfram, and his body slowly returns to its normal flesh and blood.
"Come with me,"[/i] Ziguch instrucgts. He leads you back into the final room of the complex and approaches the sandbox in the room's ceneter. The sands begin to animate and swirl into shapes, forming a scale model of the entire Onyx Vault. As Ziguch speaks, several regions on the model highlight and zoom in to emphasize its points. "The Ironfang Legion has taken control of three geomantic nexuses--the Flow Nexus, the Molten Nexus, and the Shard Nexus. They have linked them to the Onyx Citadel, where they have made their base of operations.
"Unattuning a nexus is a simple matter. One must rotate the nexus itself to a different alignment or remove any of the crystals from the structure. The difficult part will be battling past the forces the Legion has mustered at each site to reach the nexuses. You must act swiftly. The geomantic alignment is nearly complete. Without interference, the results will be disastrous for both my home and yours."
The sandbox model changes to a horrifying scene, that of the Onyx Vault ripping itself apart. Afterward, the sands reform into a map of Nirmathas and Molthune, which detonates again, dropping a model of the Onyx Citadel and the vault’s terrain onto a 50-mile-radius expanse of the center of the map. The sand reforms itself into an hourglass, ticking down 24 hours.
"For each nexus unattuned, the time until transposition doubles. If you are able to unattune all three of the nexuses, you will have 8 days with which to assault the Onyx Citadel and undo the magic of the Ironfang Legion's ritual. But if you do not stop it, then destruction is inevitable."
Wulfram's senses slowly returned. Blinking at the sudden light, he stretched his incredibly stiff muscles and said, "What happened? One moment I was attacking the ooze thing, and then everything went dark."
As Zigurch talked to them about the geomantic nexuses, he studied the layout of the temporary model. "What's the best way to reach these areas? And what guards should we expect?", he asked.
"Wulfram thank goodness you are ok." Eustoma sighs.
"Do you know where in the Citadel we can find the ritual chamber?" Eustoma asks.
"None of the nexuses are warded against teleportation, nor is the Citadel itself. You could also travel by more mundane methods, but the nexuses are between twenty and fifty miles from this location, so you may not have enough time to do so. I am sure the Ironfang Legion has left guardians at each nexus, but of what sort, I cannot say.
"I am not certain where the ritual chamber is within the Citadel. No doubt the Legion has altered the building to suit their purposes. The safest bet would be to eliminate all of the hobgoblins and their allies to ensure there plans are stopped once and for all."
Wulfram knew what the vision shown to them meant: in twenty-four hours, the Onyx Citadel would destroy a large part of Nirmathas, and kill most of the people he knew, including Rhyna. They had to act fast!
He said to Karla, "Teleportation would be fastest. I could also meditate for a spell to let us travel in gaseous form, aided my a magical wind; it wouldn't be instantaneous, but we could reach the first nexus in less than an hour."
My armor will allow me to fly for a while, and I do have that Griffin statue too. I wish I could help with teleportation, but I can't."
Rogar looks to his allies, "Ah coul' make it there tha' fast, but ah wouldn't be able ta take any of ye with me."
"Let's go with the wind then." Eustoma agrees.
Wulfram replied, "Very well, I'll meditate and memorize Wind Walk."
He sat down with Pele in a quiet corner and meditated for fifteen minutes. After he had finished, he consulted with Zigurch, and made sure that he understood the directions to travel to the nodes. He made notes on all of their locations.
Wulfram's magic transforms you into cloudlike vapor, and you move swiftly through the air above the Onyx Vault. It only takes twenty minutes to cover twenty miles! You approach the Tempered Peaks, a range of volcanic mountains that stretches south from the vault's northern wall.
A series of natural stairs on the range’s southernmost mountain reaches a shelf of cooled magma that looms 400 feet above the vault’s floor. This entrance is part of an old lava tube that connects to the volcanic mountain’s magma chamber—a 500-foot-wide cavern with 100-foot ceilings.
You shift back into your normal forms before descending into the cavern. A circular dais topped with an arrangement of stones and crystals stands just above the smooth floor of this round cavern. A soft, orange light suffuses the cavern, emitted by rivulets of magma running down the walls. The heat is intense here, enough to make you sweat. Tidily stacked metal coffers surround the dais, overflowing with gold and gems.
A huge dragon dwells here. Between this dragon’s jet-black scales run glowing rivulets of lava, and veins aglow with heat shine in the membranes of her wings. Her belly is covered in glittering orange, red, and yellow crystalline scales. The dragon glares angrily at you.
"Obnoxious children! You come to annoy the great Irigibel in her hour of mourning? I am in no mood to entertain your wheedling!" the dragon roars.
As they traveled with a magical wind to the first node location, Wulfram thought that this would be a good way to travel, when he finally got a chance to go on vacation with Rhyna. The scenery was interesting, although he longed to be flying over the hills and valleys of Varisia.
When they reached their destination, the group solidified back to their normal forms. "Looks like this is the place!", he declared, eyeing the stairs descending into the mountain.
When they came upon the dragon, Wulfram stepped forward and bowed, "We do not come here with the intent to disturb you, Irigibel. The Ironfang Legion has aligned the geomantic node here to the Onyx Citadel. The Legion has invaded and devastated our homeland; to vanquish them, we must deactivate the protection they receive from this node."
"The Ironfang Legion! Do not speak that vile name here!" Irigibel roars angrily. "Villains! Thieves! They crept upon me as
I slept and stole the glorious crystals from my underbelly!" The dragon turns so that you can see several bare patches among the crystals there. "It took me centuries to grow those! Oh, how I loved to watch the patterns of light rippling across my body. But now my beauty is forever marred! Ruined!"
The wyrm eyes Wulfram with narrowed eyes. "Tell me truthfully, child. Am I still lovely to behold?"
Wulfram replied to Irigibel, "You are truly magnificent to behold!
"But for them to do that is outrageous! This is not the first time that they have stolen something of great value; they must pay for their crimes, and be thrown out of the Onyx Citadel! I cannot rest until they are vanquished."
Irigibel seems to puff up at Wulfram's praise. "I am glorious, am I not? Very well. You may investigate the geomantic nexus in my lair, but do not touch my hoard!"
As you move to examine the stones and crystals on the dais, the dragon looks over your shoulders. "You are newcomers to the Onyx Vault, are you not? Have you met with any of its other denizens? None of them can hold a candle to my dazzling beauty, right?"
"You overshadow them all!", Wulfram replied, stroking the dragon's ego.
He consulted with Karla, "What do you think would be the best way to deactivate the connection?"
Eustoma looks in awe at the dragon. "You are the most beautiful dragon I've ever seen. Mind you I've only seen two, but they can't touch your beauty." She stands careful not to touch anything just in case it's part of the dragon's horde.