Xavilon brings down his elven curve blade in a mighty slash that catche the devil off guard and Lara leaps up with her longspear and shoves it through the devil's throat, causing it to gargle its caustic blood. As the creature lands on the bridge, the body begins to immolate, leaving only ash and its masterwork spear.
As you move to aid the fallen members of the Society, you find that the doors to the Inferno Heart are warm to the touch, though not hot enough to deal any damage.
It also appears that the devil spent much of his time here scavenging through the Citadel. He has hidden his collected loot (mostly shiny baubles and worthless bits of smooth stone) inside a bag wedged into the northwestern window, which is concealed by a masterwork heavy steel shield decorated as a bull’s head. Inside the bag is the aforementioned junk and a tattered book. The book, written in Common, is the journal of one of the ancient cult’s slaves and describes her recruitment, enslavement, and the initial assault of Sarenrae’s crusaders on the Citadel, including a graphic description of the battle-crazed dervishes slaughter of many of the Citadel’s slaves.
Status:
Kazamir-Unconscious @ -4/12 HP
Raman-Unconscious @ -1/11 HP
Yalandlara @ 7/10 HP
Erasmus-Unconscious @ -5/10 HP
Melody @ 4/10 HP
Xavilon @ 1/11 HP
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Raman's eyes pop open and she scrambles for a weapon for a few seconds before she realizes the fight is over. Once the realization sets in, she calms, frowns at her healed skin, then nods to Xavilon and the team.
"A win well-earned, I would say," is all she says as she goes about helping revive the team, then aids with the search of the next room.
As she thumbs through the journal, she shakes her head, "This should be taken back. The Venture-Captains will know what to do." She looks around the room, "Is there more we need to explore, do you think?"
There is a set of doors on the other side of the bridge where Raman, Kazamir and Erasmus fell unconscious.
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When open his eyes, Erasmus holds strongly Xavilon's arm with one hand and prepares to hit with his starknife in the other hand. As long as he recognize his comrade, he says to him: "Sorry, Xavilon. And thank you for heal me", then he gives him a handshake.
The medium stands up and turn to the others, "so... let's open this?", he points to the door in front of them.
The red glow of lava dimly lights this vast room. Rivulets of molten rock thread the hall’s floor, fed by streams of lava flowing down the walls. Four enormous forges are spaced evenly around the room, with large hammers, bellows, anvils, and tanks of water dripping on the lava below. A circular ramp rises gently near the center of the room, looping above the lava channels before disappearing into the gloom above.
You think that the accumulated pressure must open a vent above (and out of sight) every few seconds to keep this room from getting overwhelmed with steam.
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Raman steps forward to peer curiously at the tanks. "I have heard of something similar. A Decanter of Endless Water." She points down a the water level, "It never lowers. Each tank constantly makes massive amounts of steam from this room's heat."
She looks up at the ceiling, "There must be a vent above that is opened regularly to keep this room from overheating." She then looks to the ramp, "Should we follow it up?"
Raman does not see anything else in the room.
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"We don't know if there's someone upstairs plottin' and schemin' or just enjoyin' afternoon tea. Either way, let's find out about them before they find out about us."
"Please, do the honors", Erasmus gestures indicating to Kazamir lead the party to up the stairs. The medium follows him since everyone is ready.
This long, winding ramp ascends gently in loops through the Citadel. This was the final passage for pilgrims seeking service—or death—with Moloch, and was of enormous ceremonial importance to the cult. Although the map shows the entirety of the Pilgrim Passage as if it were a single level, in reality it ascends gradually through the Inferno Heart, so the outer loops have higher elevation than the inner ones (with a total ascent of 60 feet). The ramp begins 5 feet wide in the forge and then grows to 10 feet wide by the time it reaches the top.
The corridor’s walls are decorated with mosaics of a female pilgrim’s journey. Throughout these scenes, a small golden idol of Moloch perches on her shoulder. The locations A, B, and C on the map mark where the pilgrims performed rituals to symbolize the stages of their larger journey. Hafshi rebuilt these to continue the traditions of the once-mighty cult of Moloch.
The innermost loop is covered in a large mural that shows a devotee of Moloch abandoning her family to begin a pilgrimage to the Citadel, as well as her journey through the Qadiran desert, with sandstorms, steadfast refusal of water, and a heat-induced vision of Moloch. At the point marked A, a super-heated vent of air from the forge blows upward across the outer wall of the loop. Next to it lays a pile of black sand. Pilgrims place a handful of sand above the vent and allow it to scour their bare faces as illustrated by the nearby mural.
The middle loop illustrates the passage through the hoodoo maze. You recognize several of the hoodoos. The pilgrim encounters increasingly large fire creatures, but in each case she prostrates herself to them and is allowed to pass.
At the center of the hall marked B, an obsidian statue of a towering bull-headed man looms over mosaics of pilgrims kneeling before it.
The outermost loop shows the final judgment of the pilgrim. The golden idol looms over the entire Lava Temple, reflected in every torch, lava pool, and smoke plume. Nevertheless, the murals depict the temple clearly enough that you see a rough sketch of the layout of the Lava Temple. At the point marked C, the pilgrim immolates herself by placing her hand in a bonfire of blue flame. A much smaller brazier of blue flame stands on an ornate sconce in the passage.
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"Before anybody asks, I'm not goin' to volunteer to set myself on fire up there to see what happens."
Erasmus laughed out loud at the Kazamir's comment.
"I don't believe that we need to reproduce this heresy. We can just walk and inspect those chambers behind the doors, right?"
The medium will walk up, after makes sure that the path is safe.
"Let's go, guys", he says while walks.
Four doors along the outermost loop of the Pilgrim Passage lead to the residence halls of the old cult, which were spread through the many spires and minarets of the Inferno Heart. Each of these chambers constitutes the central hall of a tower with several more rooms, both above and below the entry points, along with bed chambers, guardrooms, a rude kitchen and dining hall, latrines, and storage closets. Nearly all are long abandoned, with the floors covered in a thick layer of desert sand, the simple furniture broken, food long since desiccated or rotten, and no signs of life. It takes 10 minutes for one person to search each of the 20 sand-filled rooms.
Only one of the many chambers contains anything interesting. The cultists have cleared this room of sand and set up three rough bunk beds and a simple shrine to Moloch.
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Raman looks at the one 'lived in' area. She keeps her voice low, "Do you think there are more cultists about?" She looks over at Yandlara, "Are you able to pick out any recent tracks on these floors? In the dust, maybe?"
Lara nods.
"I can surely try... this is not the best ground to find footprints though..."
You don't find anything of interest in the rooms.
At the top of the Pilgrim Passage sits an ornate spiral stair leading up. The murals here depict Malebolge, where the pilgrim has been reborn as a f iery warrior clad in black armor and standing in a paradise of water and palm trees (though hints of darker skies and fiery storms can be seen in the distance, reflecting the true nature of Malebolge).
Along the walls, choirs of fire creatures sing in celebration, and a frieze on the ceiling shows the golden idol of Moloch smiling over his hordes.
The staircase opens onto a grand hall of polished obsidian and red marble. The walls are decorated with reliefs of a gleaming brass city, a massive sandstorm scouring a desert, and a horde of fire elementals descending on a city full of terrified humans. Rivers of slowly bubbling lava crisscross the floor, all streaming out of an elaborate altar at the far side of the room.
Atop the altar sits a squat golden idol, 3 feet tall, of a bull-headed man, its arms raised and its hands holding a large thorned sword and a huge battleaxe. The idol’s eyes glow a deep crimson. Lava flows impossibly fast out of the bull-headed idol’s open mouth and down its torso, fanning out from there into rivers on the floor.
Behind the altar, an obsidian relief of geometric forms stretches from floor to ceiling. Smoky forms flit across the relief ’s surface, their fiery eyes staring out at the room. The idol appears to be the key to the ritual to open the portal to Malebolge.
The room has normal illumination throughout, thanks to bright torches spaced every 10 feet.
You see a female human in clerical robes worshipping at the idol.