Wulfram slowed his flight, uttered a quick prayer, and stabbed at the Duergar.
Wulfram stabs Rovalda twice, his spear driving deep into her chest. She coughs up blood as her eyes roll up in her head and she slowly drifts to the ground.
"Probably better than drow," Wulfam replied to Karla. He went over to heal Nik'o, patting her on the flank, and took out a healing wand.
Rogar punches himself in the face, much to his surprise as he comes around with Wulfram's spell. "Well, i's their loss, an ah won' complain about removing a few slavers from tha world." he comments, "Ah can' say why they might try, bu' they probably jus' can't imagine they'd lose. If ye want me ta teach ye Undercommon, jus' ask an we can go over some o' tha basic words while we walk."
"That I might do, Rogar," Wulfram replied. "I really should have put more effort into learning it earlier."
Eustoma manages to avoid hurting herself in confusion. "Drow definitely didn't work. Let's try dauger. I'll learn a few words of undercommon just to try and avoid this." She gives Sia pets. "Is Nikko all right?"
"Nik'o is doing better now," Wulfram said, as he finished up healing the lynx.
"Let's gather up this equipment and move on."
The underground lake here is filled with blind fish and aggressive insects. Crossing the lake presents little challenge, and you continue into the side tunnels from the main path of the Long Walk.
Nearly 30 miles of untamed caverns and tunnels connect the lower levels of Kraggodan to the Long Walk, and along this route your journey requires more spelunking than walking. Narrow ledges, sheer climbs, sudden drop-offs, switchbacks, and tight passageways mark most of this journey. Closer to Kraggodan, more and more of the tunnels transition into lava tubes, gas vents, and other features of the volcano network that helped to shape the Mindspin Mountain range (and created the cave systems that helped guide the dwarves to the surface thousands of years earlier).
You rest once along the way, and the next afternoon, you enter a spacious chamber. Highly reflective crystals protrude from the cavernous walls. The interiors of some of the crystal formations glow with a white light that illuminates the entire area. A connecting tunnel in the stone continues to the north, while a smaller passage slopes down to the northeast.
Wulfram helped the others navigate the difficult caverns, scouting out the route with the aid of his overland Flight spell, and helping his comrades climb difficult sections.
When they reached the large chamber with the glowing walls, he looked for hostile creatures, and then flew forward to have a closer look at the crystal formations.
While his allies admire the crystals themselves, Rogar closes his eyes and makes sure that there's nothing hiding in the room unseen, using his tremorsense. Should he not notice anything, he steps into the floor and checks the passageways a little ways down, ensuring the area is safe.
Both Wulfram and Rogar notice the presence of creatures nearby. As Karla's lights dance throughout the chamber, two of the crystalline formations shift and vibrate, as if in anticipation.
Karla's tentacles reach for the slithering crystal oozes, but they are unable to grab a hold.
Eustoma fires a barrage of arrows at the nearest one, the clustered shots punching through its resistance.
The crystals move slowly through the tentacles, trying to get to you. As they do, they emit a subsonic hum that leaves you reeling!
Wulfram reeled from the sonic assault, trying in vain to block out the overwhelming hum.
Eustoma is unable to act. She's stunned by the humming.
Sia is also unable to act because of the humming.
Rogar barely notices the hum, and does his best to exert his influence over the crystal within the oozes to tear them apart from the inside.
While the humming overwhelms most of you, Rogar resists its effects and hurls a powerful blast at one of the crystal oozes. It shatters into fragments!
Karla conjures a wall of fire in front of the other ooze, but the flames don't seem to do much to harm the creature. However, the tentacles manage to grab a hold of it this time, keeping it from moving closer.
The ooze struggles to free itself, but it is unable to escape the tentacles!
Another blast from Rogar annihilates the grappled creature, removing the dangers from the cavern.
Wulfram took a moment to recover from the hum. He replied to Karla, "Sure, I'll recharge it tomorrow morning."
He looked around the chamber and asked the dwarf, "Rogar, do you think these crystals are valuable?" While they discussed the matter, he cast a spell and scanned for magic auras.
Eustoma and Sia both shake as the humming stops. "Those were interesting. This place isn't like the woods. I know about things in the woods. Down here is just so strange." She'll help gather crystals if they are valuable.
Though the crystals lining the wall are relatively worthless quartz, something has carved several into grotesque works of art. Eight 3-foot lengths of quartz have been cut into elegant, unsettling columns of mouths, eyes, and tendrils (worth 300 gp each).
Wulfram's spell uncovers a magical aura coming from a set of large needles that has also been shaped from the crystals and enchanted into needles of fleshgraving.
Rogar slips into the wall, and investigates down each passage from inside the stone.
Dozens of tiny cracks mar the otherwise glassy-smooth walls of the small alcove at the end of the east passage. Dozens of stone boulders bar passage east from this chamber.
The north passage opens up onto a large chamber. Small white crystals coat every surface in this grand chamber, lending it the appearance of a winter landscape. The entire chamber is like a wide kaleidoscope of shifting white and gray patterns, reflecting along the jutting rocks of the cavern.
A pair of serpentine nagas are here, apparently bickering back and forth. Each has a humanoid head and a snakelike body adorned with black and red scales. One of the nagas is coiled around a massive, four-armed insectile creature that docilely tolerates her presence.
Hearing Rogar's scouting report, Wulfram went to examine the eastern passage.
He went back to consult with his team-mates, "There's a highly flammable gas down that way. Any spark or open flame could set off a huge explosion. Cold would render the gas temporarily inert. I could meditate and memorize a cold spell if we wanted to try to get through that way."
Pele shivered at the thought of cold.
Wulfram replied, "Yes, but that might collapse the passageway and make it impossible to get through that way."
"Once tha gas is inert, ah can probably move tha boulders out o' tha way so we can continue." Rogar adds, "Do we want ta jus' leave tha nagas be?"
Wulfram replied, "I think we just want to get to Kraggodan as fast as we can. I don't see any reason to fight the Nagas if we don't have to."
He found a safe place and sat down with Pele to meditate, preparing a spell of her feared element. He assured her, *It will allow us to get through the blocked passage, without collapsing it with an explosion.*
"Let's leave the Naga's be. There's no reason to bother them if we can avoid them. They are probably evil, but I'm sure they are just living their lives."
She moves up next to Karla. "I don't like this place either, but we can't let it get to us. We must stay strong for our friends and family." she gives the sorceress a hug.
Wulfram uses his spell to neutralize the carbauxine gas, then Rogar effortlessly moves the boulders aside to open up the side psssage. It bypasses the nagas' cavern and opens onto a chamber on the far side.
This chamber is swelteringly hot, and a warm orange light shines from a northeastern passage. Crude paintings of a three-eyed circle with bat wings line the walls.
With his natural stonecunning, Rogar immediately notices several structural inconsistencies in the floor and walls of this chamber. The floor appears to be exceptionally weak--just a thin crust of stone over molten lava. Treading across it might prove hazardous.
Rogar warns his allies about the hazardous floor, then turns to Wulfram "Do ye have a spell ta get us across? Ah can try ta build a bridge, bu' ah don' know how well tha' woul' work."
Wulfram cast a spell and studied the unfamiliar symbols on the walls, but he didn't know what they meant.
He replied to Rogar, "I could fly across and carry each of you across, but Nik'o and Sia are too heavy for me. Perhaps Karla could teleport them. I"ll have a look and see if I can see a suitable landing spot on the other side."
He flew forward and tried to make out a suitable spot for Karla to teleport to on the other side.
*Now this is more like it!*, Pele enthused, enjoying the heat.
The passage out of the room seems safe enough to teleport to.
Wulfram reported his observations and asked, "How many can you take at one time, Karla? I can ferry everyone else across."