Still in bad shape Linah straightens herself and closes her eyes once she's made it to the top. The precence of Sarenrae fills the room and even though it does not heal all wounds, it does stop all bleeding.
Linah has a look of disgust in her eyes as she faces the salamanders. "We have fullfilled our part. It is time that you do the same."
The instant she feels the heat rush against her skin, Nuveril tightens her hand around the shaft of her hammer and hefts her madu into readiness. "You were warned," she tells Lesaar. "I am walking out of here now, whether you stand in my way or not. I don't have your damned spear." She walks past Sajan up to the flamebrothers and waits to see if they will let her pass or if she has to fight her way out.
The instant she feels the heat rush against her skin, Nuveril tightens her hand around the shaft of her hammer and hefts her madu into readiness. "You were warned," she tells Lesaar. "I am walking out of here now, whether you stand in my way or not. I don't have your damned spear." She walks past Sajan up to the flamebrothers and waits to see if they will let her pass or if she has to fight her way out.
Grall appears little affected by the heat, he places himself next to Sajan, Be warrrned, I am a child of Sarrrenrrrae, this heat means nothing to me. Lead the way to the otherrr chamberrr and we will speak morrre of this! he says supporting the others assertions...
"More hospitable conditions is an excellent start."
Zeladiel makes his way out of the chamber.
Sajan has barely cleared the rope when Nuveril is striding across the room, hammer up while others follow.
Palm out, Linah channels, and while it is to heal, the positive energy certainly seems unpleasant to the salamanders who flinch openly as the soft light passes over them.
The three flamebrothers shift their spears as the halfling gets close but a last second command from Lesaar has them stand down and you file past.
Four more of the flamebrothers hold position in the snake room but they move aside and allow you to pass.
Half a minute or so later and with the flamebrothers following behind in silence you reach the cooler tempatures of the entry room.
I trusst thiss is more to your liking? Lesaar says with another smile.
When the flamebrothers don't offer a fight, Nuveril's heartrate drops back down to normal. When they have reached relatively more hospitable climes, she waits impatiently for the others to finish their business, eager to be gone before the heat renders her unfit for battle.
You eye each other from across the room...
Does the spear really matter Khalid? Our fate lies elsewhere with more important matters than this spear. You should give them it, but only after they allow us to rest safely and the show us the way up. It is a strong weapon, but it is only a tool...
Lesaar inclines his head slightly as you whisper to each other. Its unclear whether he heard you but Zeladiel and Khalid at the least can recall that salamanders are a perceptive race...
Thiss mountain is riddled with passagess. He inclines his head to the southern tunnel. One leadss to the older ssections of the Temple, long abandoned. Recently they have been reclaimed by the gnollss who ussed their sslaves to dig them out. Why they bothered iss beyond me, the gnollss are lazy ass a rule but their Carrion King commandss and they obey.
Their excavationss re-connected the passage here. Thratniass did not wissh gnollss in the tunnels and I blocked the way with my magic. The blockage can be removed with the proper knowledge and sspellss.
The later I will need to prepare but it would sseem that you would wissh to resst regardless.
I will keep our bargain. You have defeated Thratniass and me and mine have no sstake in your conflict with the gnollss.
However.
I will not keep a passage open that the gnollss might usse to attack uss. Their actionss recently have been ... erratic. Know that I will closse the way after you pass... unless you give me incentive not too...
Afterrr we arrre done with the Gnolls they will no longerrr botherrr you and you can be back to yourrr lives.
There are many hundredss of gnollss although not all sseem to dwell in the Temple. Do you intend to wipe every one of them out? Even sso I would expect otherss to come in time. It iss their profane place, a link to their mighty Rovagug. The salamander seems almost to smirk at the last. Thratniass only thought to her own dessires and my brotherss ssuffered for it. I musst think to the longer term.
I will place a watcher on the other sside if you wissh. You may signal them. Using the passage a ssecond time will cosst you the sspear though. Are we in agreement?
As you like.
Linah watches the conversation from the background. Her eyes moves from Lesaar to the flamebrothers and then back again, looking for telltale signs of deceit. )
"Do you trust them?" she asks Khalid once the salamanders are out of hearshot.
As you leave the caverns, the cool air is a blessed relief at least for a time. The sun has moved only very slightly in the sky and you realise that its been less than an hour since you broke camp this morning.
Without a better option you make your way back through the rocks spending the remainder of the day much like the one before it, resting, eating from your diminishing stock of rations and doing your best not to attract any unwanted attention.
Zeladiel examines your looted items. The elf manages to identify the shield and hand but not the spear (although at least one of its functions is obvious and like the other salamander's weapons it is clearly resistant to extreme heat) or the glass marbles (these radiate moderate evocation magic).
He also establishes that the inscription on the bronze disk is written in Ignan, a harsh and imperative tongue. Translated into common he ends up with (more or less).
To the most worthy Thratnias of the Greater,
Champion of Irrutz,
Slayer of Urmensh,
I send you greetings on behalf of his most Dread Majesty, Chieftain of the Northern Tribes, the Carrion King, chosen of Rovagug, Lord of the Unchosen, Man-bane, Forger of Chains, Father of Monsters .... [this goes on for several more lines].
Long have you dwelt in your caves, remnants of a long forgotten army. Long too have our races co-operated to our mutual benefit.
His Majesty feels that it is time to formalise that relationship. You live in lands now claimed by Him and His Majesty requires that all such grant him the homage that his power deserves.
Included is a small gift. Trifles beside the riches that may be earnt at His Majesty's side.
As you will have heard, His Magnificence is generous beyond measure to those that serve him. You should also know that the priests that serve him are both numerous and powerful. Powerful enough to grant what we both know is your most fervent wish: a route back to your fiery home.
Serve well and you will earn treasure, slaves and freedom.
I will not insult you by spelling out the consequences of any other option.
Rokova, Lord Chamberlain to the Carrion King
There is no date.
The coffers are filled solid with coin. Silver and gold from a dozen nations.
As the day begins to fade into night, Zeladiel recasts his magical hut and you crowd inside, perhaps wishing for just a little bit of the previous heat (perhaps not the lava).
Again you have the good fortune of an uninterrupted rest. You wake to a grey and overcast sky. It looks like it will rain soon. Assuming Lesaar keeps to his end of the bargain it seems as if you will shortly be in close proximity to as many gnolls as even the most eager gnoll killer could ever wish for.
Your dreams are many and confusing. You dream again of the lava pool, this time filled with scores of salamanders. You swing your falchion time and time again but cannot seem to connect and they mock you.
You dream of Haleen and the woman's final words of warning to you.
You dream of your Aunt (or at least the gnoll that claims that relationship). She laughs cruelly as she flings down balls of fire and acid on you and your companions.
You made your choice nephew! I told you not to come as my enemy!
The morning comes as a relief.
Grall rises early and prays as the sun rises. He feels refreshed and ready for combat, although he looks a little haggerd...most likely from a poor nights sleep....
Nuveril is more sullen and unpleasant than usual after leaving the cavern system, although she doesn't say much. One of the first thing she does is to rub herself down with what dirt and grit she can find so high in the rocky area, as if to scrub any vestiges of magic from her flesh. She doesn't offer any opinion on the matter of the spear. Part of her would really like to go back in and slaughter Lesaar and his followers just to wipe out all witnesses to the whole sordid affair and then go down into the valley openly like true warriors rather than skulking thieves, but that would require her to accept Linah's protection from the heat again, an experience she is clearly unenthusiastic to repeat. Overall, the situation leaves her in a vicious mood.
After a bit more examination Zeladiel gleefully identifies the two remaining items as potent (albeit consumable) weapons . You get the feeling the salamanders weren't aware of the trove so nearby.
After breaking camp and a basic fast of travel rations, you make your way back to the salamanders' cave for the third time.
A single flamebrother waits where you first encountered the mephit and it waves at you to halt while it goes to fetch Lesaar. The newly promoted salamander leader joins you very shortly thereafter with his retinue who watch you as grimly and warily as before.
Lesaar either recognises your desire for urgency or shares it himself and the salamander wastes no time getting you all moving up the southern passage way, the flamebrothers in a tight group at the front and you following.
The passage runs straight and level, more or less, for about sixty feet and you note gladly that the temperature seems to drop as you go. This comes at the cost of your vision and the spellcasters cast their light enchantments.
At this point the passage becomes more uneven, and narrower, the way slowly sloping upward, growing gradually steeper into a rugged natural ladder.
Which seems to dead end in a rough alcove about twenty feet square.
Which makes things rather uncomfortable given the sheer number of you. You end up with Lesaar and a trio of his flamebrothers on one side of the alcove and the rest crowded into the tunnel beyond.
Lesaar faces a section of wall where the stone seems unnaturally smooth and retrieves a handful of clay from a small pouch. He begins to cast, waving one hand rythmically in front of the stone, and it peels away like an orange, revealing more stone beyond.
He repeats the spell, directing it this time further toward the floor and more stone moves, revealing an opening that stretches away into the darkness.
Thiss iss the path, about half a mile long. The path turnss but there is only one way. It leadss ass I ssaid to a lower level of the temple.
So. What do you ssay? Doess our acquaintance end here?
"Would that it had never begun," Nuveril mutters under her breath.
"Lesaar. It may take many years but when I find a way to return you and your followers to your home, I shall do so. My aid will not be free or cheap, but neither shall I keep it from you with false words and false promises. For now, farewell."
Zeladiel turns and makes his way down the tunnel then stops.
"One more thing Lesaar. Which god grants your divine magic?"
Lesaar nods to Khalid. As you like.
Zeladiel's words seem to surprise the flamebrother leader. He seems honestly pleased.
We have been waiting here for centuriess. What is a few more decadess?
Although I think maybe you will have difficulty enough living out thiss day. We keep to our cavess but thiss Carrion King, he wass a normal gnoll once but no longer. Do not expect his ssoldiers to flee at leasst while he lives and perhapss not even then.
At the elf's final comment.
I have the pleasure of serving Ymeri, Queen of the Inferno. I will not assk for her to watch over you elf. What sshe ssets her gaze on iss burnt to asshes. But I have the feeling you will come to know of her before your quesst is done.
With that cryptic close the salamander casts his spell a third time, sealing the passage with stone and leaving you with no way to go but forward.
So you do, perhaps aware that a single collapse in the tunnel is all that it would take to seal you in here (at least until you could bring to bear magic of your own).
The going is difficult for most, the width of the passage uncomfortably tight for Grall and Sajan who need to stoop and take their packs off in places to pass and both take minor grazes and scrapes from sharp outcroppings of rock. Nuveril on the other hand moves easily through.
Its hard to judge distance but after what seems like Lesaar's half a mile or so the passage turns downward into a near vertical shaft. A crude ladder of lashed sticks provides a way down and after careful testing of the upper section you use this to descend.
The ladder in turn takes you down through a large hole in the ceiling of a rougly shaped chamber which looks like an excavation site. The upper corner of another, older structure protrudes from a layer of surrounding earth about a yard above the floor.
The walls and ceiling are butressed with crude wooden supports. The later looks fairly recent, the workmanship crude.
Filth, rubble and small spiderwebs fill the chamber and vermin droppings clutter the floor.
The air is dank, stale and foul.
A single exit from the chamber leads off to the south into darkness.
From somewhere in that direction a bestial roaring cuts through the near silence, one creature from the sound and then another. The sources sound a fair way off but they are enough perhaps to raise a chill along ones spine.
MAP .
Going as quietly as he can Grall moves 40' ahead of the group and starts moving forward.
He stops periodically to listen ahead for trouble.
The passage way runs about forty feet before reaching a four way intersection and Grall moves down as silently as his large form can to take a look.
The crudely excavated passage you are on continues to the south while a more sturdy, but much older, corridor runs east-west.
To the east, the passage seems to end in a room. Grall can see a great stone sarcophagus displayed upon a tiered dais. This looks smashed open, the top of the sarcophagus lying broken in several pieces
on the floor.
To the south, the passage continues around a corner and out of sight. An opening in its western side leads to a room. Only a small part is visible from here although the gnoll can see what looks like a large and elaborate mosaic covering the floor.
To the west, the passage bends around toward the north as far as you can see. The roaring noises sound like they are coming from here and make your attempts to hear what maybe going on in other directions slightly more difficult. Part way along a corridor slopes slightly upward to the north. Further along, there is another opening to the mosaic room although the gnoll can see even less of it from this angle.
You can hear several gnolls talking in the mosaic room. You'd need to get a bit closer to hear everything they are saying but they seem to be laughing amongst themselves.
!
Zeladiel casts message on everyone.
"Actually, leaving the roaring thing till last may help us not be heard while we check out the other places."
Grall whispers
Gnolls to the south of me in a room, probably guards. Waiting for orders.
|
"Grall, come back here for a moment..."
"Your ability to see without light is an advantage that I don't have. I am going to cast a spell on you that should last long enough for you to get a closer look and give us information about numbers of enemies and the area in general. Do not use an aggressive action or the magic will end and you will be able to be seen. Let us know via Zeladiel's spell what it is we face and we'll go from there."
You've whispered Khalid and just got his reply when a single gnoll in black studded leather armour walks out into the southern passage from the mosaic room. Theres no cover where your standing and it sees you almost straight away.
It seems surprised rather than alarmed though, taking in your size and fancy armour. It starts to walk toward you, not making any particular move to equip the large shield on its shoulder or draw the scimitar at its belt.
My weapon would be out...which would probably make him wary.
In Gnoll, Mistress Shiz says there might be an intruder in the temple, come with me.
If he doesn't seem to buy it I would attack him right away before he can react going into rage....
Potential crit...confirm chance
sm
The gnoll takes a few more steps forward. He seems to recognises the name but is clearly not buying your story and stops in place, right hand moving down to his weapon.
Initiative
Gnoll
You
Which is the last thing he gets a chance to do. Dashing across the floor you sweep your falchion hard across the gnoll's neck, decapitating him in a single viscious swipe. Head and body hit the ground in two seperate thunks.
The laughter in the mosaic room ceases.
Grall has not yet had an opportunity to return when you see the gnoll (his back just visible in your light), beckon and speak to something out of your line of sight. A few seconds later and the gnoll dashes off into the darkness. A moment after that and you hear two soft thunks.
Sajan sighs, as always sceptical that any plan involving fooling the inhabitants with Grall posing as a fellow would work.
Lets move up- I doubt Grall handled this quietly.