The vampire spawn rush down the hallway at Hinagiku. Without weapons, all they can do is try to grab ahold of her, but the monk is too fast for them.
Xanderghul is up!
With little to do but to follow his teammates, Xanderghul carefully steps away from the marauding vampire spawn and runs down the hallway towards Ary.
Another vampire crowds around Hinagiku and swipes at her with her bare hands, but the more there are, the more focused the kitsune becomes.
Round 10!
Hinagiku, Isilme, Ary, Anevia, Valaria and Ayavah are up!
Isilme continues leading the way down the hall, staying alert for any further vampire spawn.
Hinagiku stands he ground as the livid vampire spawns all charge at her, her mind focused solely on the ley. She could feel her mother calling to her, whispering to her that the he spirit was hers to wield. Just like she had been able to walk on water when Valaria had been in danger back at the river, she now felt like she could use the ley to her advantage. With one gliding step forward, Hinagiku wraps her foot with the ley lines surrounding her, and with a pull subtly shifts the ground underneath her foes feet. Now reasonably safe, the monk breaks into a run to join back her companions.
The fallen vampires reach out at Hinagiku as she heads back down the hallway, but she is simply too fast for them.
Faint creases in the stone wall up ahead betray a secret door...
Ary, Anevia, Valaria and Ayavah are up!
With Daisy handling the foes behind them quite effectively, Val elects to leave the spawn to her and hurries toward the front of the group, keeping her eyes open for anything that might come from ahead of them instead. Ayavah moves to keep up, but she lingers back just a bit, not willing to get too close to the front or away from the more martially inclined members of the team.
Ehren, Ary, and Anevia are up!
The shimmer moves fluidly through the group, shifting past each in turn, only seen by Xanderghul for what it really is. It's an Anevia!
Ary continues following the others, moving into their midst, but slows. "There are likely other prisoners who are still alive down here... are we really going to leave them with the spawn? I understand... they all die if we lose, but... is there no other way?" Like Valaria, she keeps an eye on who's in the back and makes sure that everyone can move as freely as she can. Leaving the vampires on the ground had ensured that Hinagiku would likely not only get out safely, but that the vampires could never catch them unless they held their ground.
Ehren is up!
"If we can save them then we will, Ary. But they aren't the only ones counting on us right now," Ehren replies calmly, while tossing a glance over his shoulder. Seeing Hinagiku catch up with them, unscathed by the vampire spawn, he smiles ever so slightly. "Besides, I think they are preoccupied with trying to eat us."
Picking up the pace a little, he reaches Isilme and glances around, looking slightly puzzled. Now that he thought about it, Xanderghul had reached a dead end himself during his initial venture. "Is this the way?"
Joran Vhane plods along, moving as fast as a dwarf can possibly go, which compared to the magically enhanced heroes, seems downright leisurely. He nods. "Aye. Door's in tha' room. Ye gotta have a dwarf's eye for stonework t' find it."
Meanwhile, down the hall, the vampires pick themselves up and rush down the hallway at Hinagiku.
Xanderghul is up!
As much as he'd wish to burn these horrible monsters to a crisp and see it done with, Xanderghul knows that his illusion-evocation would be better spent annihilating the cultists creating the portal that leads into the Abyss. So, with a small look, he leaves Hinagiku to the tender mercies of the vampire spawn and goes to join Isilme and Joran by what he supposes is the door to the next room.
The last of the fallen vampires pulls herself to her feet and charges ahead of the others, but they are still slower than the heroes.
Round 11!
Hinagiku, Isilme, Ehren, Ary, Anevia, Valaria and Ayavah are up!
Isilme has no trouble spotting the secret door, and moves up quickly to open it for the others. Worrying about the other prisoners would have to wait. If Nul and the spawn hadn't yet gotten around to them yet, they would likely be alright now as the spawn were unlikely to abandon their hunt for the group.
Hinagiku, Ehren, Ary, Anevia, Valaria and Ayavah are up!
Hinagiku rushes behind her allies, her mind too simple to even think of closing the doors to bar their foes access to the room. She simply makes her way to Isilme's side where she turns around and enters back her defensive stance, ready to fight the vampire's once more.
Val and Ayavah continue to press forward, keeping up with the group. "Well, they're rather persistent, aren't they," Val deadpans. "You'd think seeing their boss get cut to ribbons would have given them second thoughts."
Joran makes a low harrumph sound as Isilme simply strides past him and feels for the edges of the secret door with her long, slender elven fingers. She pushes it open, revealing a short, narrow passage that leads to a small terrace. At the center of the terrace is a ten-foot-wide cage that encloses an elevated lift. A line of chains and an array of pulleys allow the cage to be moved across the ceiling of the room and then lowered down into the larger chamber, 20 feet down from the balcony. This large chamber has walls that seem to glow red hot... just looking into it the air seems to blur and waver from the extreme heat.
Looking down into the room, a queer sort of creature is slithering across the floor. It appears humanoid, but its face and lower body are red and serpentine, and in its hands is a spear.
Joran explains in a low voice, into message : "Can only fit up to four of ye at a time in the elevator... I'll help lower it down into th' forgeroom. Takes a bit to lower someone down, though. The double doors past th'forge is where ye wanna go. Tha' will take ye t' the Temple of Deskari."
The snake-bodied creature is a salamander. Salamanders are chaotic evil (alignment, not subtype) outsiders native to the plane of fire.
Salamanders can see in the dark and typically speak Common and Ignan.
A salamander generates so much heat that its mere touch deals an additional 1d6 points of fire damage. A salamander’s metallic weapons also conduct this heat. As such, salamanders are skilled with a variety of weapons, though they prefer weapons with reach.
Like most creatures from the plane of fire, salamanders are immune to fire but vulnerable to cold. Salamanders can only be harmed by magical or attuned weapons.
Salamanders also fight with their tails, which they use to constrict their prey.
Salamanders typically have poor reflexes, but are of a hearty constitution.
Salamanders hate efreet, as they are often enslaved by them. They otherwise wander in large numbers in the Plane of Fire. Though their lairs typically hover in temperatures of 500 degrees F or more, salamanders can tolerate lower temperatures. They generally do so only when forced, and are even surlier and more short-tempered than normal in such environments.
Salamanders are often conjured to the Material Plane to serve as guardians or, more commonly, to craft weapons, armor, and other metalwork, for their skill in these areas is legendary. Salamanders also infest areas of the Material Plane where the boundaries between this world and the Plane of Fire have worn thin, such as in and near volcanoes.
Salamander society is a cruel one based on power and the ability to subjugate those beneath oneself. Beings beneath a salamander that cause it discomfort are dealt a slow and painful death.
Though Salamanders are born in the Plane of Fire, many are recruited into demonic armies in the Abyss, so they are very common in the Abyss where they naturally flock to the service of fire-themed demons and demonic lords, such as balors.
Though most salamanders are non-magical, noble salamanders (usually evidenced by their intricate black tattoos and piercings) can cast a variety of fire-themed spells.
Ehren, Ary, and Anevia are up!
"Val, Hinagiku and I could possibly go down the ledge quickly to deal with the creature below while the rest of you take the cage. Ary could be levitated down as well by Ehren to save time," Isilme suggests to the others after taking stock of the situation. Clearly they did not have the time to ferry people in multiple trips to the other side. Better then to get those who can fight down quickly, while those who would better function at range took the cage and attacked from up above.
"Looks like a salamander working the forge," she says, looking down at the creature below that had not noticed them yet. [smaller]"Are there more, Joran?" she asks the dwarf. Assuming more were present, it would be ideal to bypass them entirely, but it seemed unlikely given the cage and long distance to the exit doors. Even if they did manage to sneak past, raising an alarm further in could result in the salamanders catching up and overwhelming them.
"Yea, 'bout 8 of 'em lizard kin. They're pretty good assistants, ye wouldn't think that tae look at them, would ye?" Joran responds through message.
"Do you believe they could be convinced to leave rather than fight to the death," she responds, wondering if Joran's presence might let them talk their way out of having to clear the room of the salamanders.
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"There's no way I can fit through there." Ary says quietly to Xanderghul as she catches sight of the tunnel while passing him. "I think it's time to shrink me back down... it'll let me use Radiance again, too."
"Commander, you have got to get out more." Anevia whispers through the spell, as she picks her way through the team, otherwise quietly. "You'll fit, it'll just take a little working."
Ary seems to ignore her, whispering to the others. "Salamanders are really common in abyssal armies. Be careful of their tails; they can grab you with them, and are skilled at doing so. They're prone to slow reactions, but are hardier than most. If any of them have a lot of tattoos and piercings, they're more dangerous than their brethren. They're really not going to be happy being stuck here, working in a cold cave. I should stay up here to guard Joran on the first trip, the vampires are coming... and I think I could do some real damage if they try to press in."
"So unappreciated..." Anevia mumbles from nearby.
"Hm. If I was tae be alone, perhaps, but with your lot, nah. They're loyal to Aponavicious first and only... they were here before I even got here, y'see?" Joran responds as he trundles to Isilme's side, slow and steady as ever. Behind them, the vampire spawn turn the corner, snarling and baring their fangs.
Xanderghul is up!
Ehren visualizes slimy lizards with detachable tails when "salamanders" are brought up, but it is readily apparent that Ary and Isilme are talking about something else entirely.
"I've used up my scale's power, unfortunately," he says as he steps into the hidden chamber and bristles from the intense heat. "But it doesn't look like a long drop. For someone used to that kind of thing, anyway."
As though to illustrate his point, Ehren heads straight for the cage.
"Críochnaigh na créatúir neamhní sin," he instructs his badger, leaving it behind to slow down the vampire spawn.
Xanderghul follows the crowd, pushing to the front and taking a peek down the passageway. "I don't think most of us will need to use the elevator," he says. He wrinkles his nose at the unpleasant heat within the forge. They were going to be awesome heroes, but they had to do it sweating in the sweltering heat? Not even Ary could activate her ring fast enough to keep herself clean. This was going to be disgusting.
"Well, as much as I'd like to see you struggle to squeeze down this passage," he says, looking back at Ary, "You're right." He concentrates for a moment on his spellcraft, and then makes a simple waving gesture at her before snapping his fingers. Ary begins to shrink back down to normal size.
Ary shrinks down to a normal size, just as the fourth vampire spawn turns the corner.
Round 12!
Hinagiku, Isilme, Ehren, Ary, Anevia, Valaria and Ayavah are up!
"If we're going to have to fight through them anyway, then someone who's good at handling close combat should head down first. I can handle heat at least a little better than normal. Anyone else want to head down with me?"
I will be right behind you, Val," Isilme says without hesitating.
She follows the tiefling in, moving quickly to the edge and jumping down alongside her, she lands gracefully with a quick tumble and comes up with her rapier at the ready.
Hinagiku nods to Valaria. "Ms. Valaria, let's stay together," she whispers into the message, and then quickly takes the lead. Moving quickly through the narrow tunnel, she tumbles off of the balcony's edge and lands on her feet on the ground below, easily dodging the clumsy swipe of one of the creature she lands beside. Another of the creatures slithers closer to her, spear at the ready.
Ehren, Ary, Anevia, Valaria, and Ayavah are up!
Ehren looks down into the sweltering forgeroom and frowns, already having second thoughts about taking the elevator. At the same time, it was not as though he could replicate Hinagiku's acrobatic feat. Not without planting his face into the ground, at least. Changing his form was another option, but it would do nothing to get the others down any faster.
Left wanting for other ways to attack numerous salamanders, Ehren points at the one attacking Hinagiku and fires a bolt of acid.
Valaria and Isilme jump down into the sweltering hot room shortly after Hinagiku does. The salamander in front of her snarls and hisses as it receives a face full of acid courtesy of the druid above. After they land, they are quickly surrounded by salamanders, who start to jab their polearms inwards against the heroes. and from behind the black-metal forge in the northeastern part of the room, a particularly large salamander emerges. He is covered in tattoos and metallic piercings, and in his hand is not a polearm, but a glaive. He flicks one clawed hand in the direction of the heroes, and an enormous, fiery explosion engulfs them. The flames simply flicker over Joran, who seems to barely notice them - clearly he had some sort of sorcery to protect himself from the heat of his own forgeroom - but the others are forced to move as far away from the epicenter of the blast as they can get.
Meanwhile, Joran trundles over to the controls and pops the knuckles on his fingers. "Right. Well, if ye want down the normal way, then git a move on, I'm not waitin'."
Further down the hall, the vampires rush at Ary, fangs bared.
Xanderghul is up!
As the vampires press inwards, Ary once more summons her motes, hoping to slam the vampires away as they close in, buying those in the front a bit more time.
"Go ahead, Joran. I'm going to make sure that none of these things can bear down on us... and hopefully just outright destroy them. We'll be down in a moment, assuming nothing awful happens." Ary says as she slams Faith into the nearest vampire, "I made a promise, after all." she says with a small smile.
"There was the earth shattering kaboom." Anevia whispers from nearby as she threads a bit of silver into a bit of nothing and launches a bolt of force from it. She didn't seem to be noticing the heat at all, thanks to Ehren's twiddly fingers. She pwiffs into existence just out of reach of the vampires.
As the vampires attempt to surround Ary, the crusader commander swats them away like annoying flies. Two she sends flying into prison bars, the other skids across the room.
Xanderghul is up!
As the vampire closest to her tries to stand up, Ary once again vanishes into her golden motes, reappearing next to him. She slams him back into the bars with a nasty crack!, but he stays on his feet. She again vanishes, reappearing at Anevia's side.
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul squeezes down the hallway, coming out into the sweltering forge-room alongside Ehren. He squints down into the mirage-ridden floor below where the group's faster members had already engaged in battle with a horde of salamanders. Hmm. He goes through his options. A burst of magical cold would likely catch his allies in the crossfire and he was fresh out of personal protection spells. So, he does what he does best - he conjures a pit which could drop several of the creatures down into a fake hole, clearing the way for his allies.
Three of the salamanders fall into Xanderghul's spiked pit, though their outsider bodies manage to recover from most of the injuries incurred by the spiked pit. The fastest of the three rears up and attempts to climb its way out of the pit, though its arms are not strong enough to hoist itself up easily. Regardless, the creatures try, knowing that their bodies can recover from the wounds inflicted by the spikes with ease.
The lone salamander who was fast enough to avoid falling in hisses angrily and slithers away in a large arc to avoid falling back into the pit, not moving fast enough to avoid one of Hinagiku's blows.
While most of the salamanders had fallen into the pit, there are still another three still menacing Hinagiku and Valaria. They start stabbing inwards, one managing to gore the kitsune monk in her side, leaving a dripping wound. Worse, the overwhelming heat from the forge threatens to burn them alive as if they were in a giant oven. The three women drip with sweat which does little to keep them cool from the terrible heat.
Undaunted by neither her wound nor the abyssal furnace, Hinagiku steps forwards. Knowing it would be futile to try and keep the serpent-like creatures on the ground, she focuses her might into offense, relying on Isilme's magic to inspire her despite the evil influence of the Abyss encroaching upon her mind. She tears into the salamander in front of her with a flurry of blows to the head, then to the chest, before the creature finally manages to fend her off with its polearm.
Meanwhile, back in the hall, another vampire makes the mistake of trying to reach Ary past her sphere of golden motes.
Round 13!
Ehren, Ary, Anevia, Valaria, Isilme and Ayavah are up!
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Ary's motes converge into her form for a brief moment as she brings her shield around in a heavy slam. Even as her motes begin to fade, she wills them into her shield. "You should get to some sort of cover, or at least behind us, Ayavah. Anevia... I think they have a noble. Try to interrupt them if you can."
Anevia nods imperceptibly (because she's invisible!) and heads for the crevace of fewer questionable life choices. Ooh, a balcony.
Ary takes the silence as a good thing, and takes a few steps back, moving to guard the entrance as she draws Radiance.
Val watches as another one of Xanderghul's shadowy illusions sends a number of the salamanders toppling to the ground, but she can't afford to stand around watching magic tricks. She steps in to the group of Salamanders and goes to work, hacking with her knives at the one right in the middle.
Ayavah certainly doesn't complain at Ary's suggestion. She backs down the hall quickly, getting well out of reach of the undead creatures' fangs. She hurries onto the elevator with the other magic users, looking down at the battle taking place below them. As the heat rises through the air, she shifts uncomfortably. She mutters a few words, covering herself in a magical barrier to ward off the heat.
Ehren pushes himself against the edge of the cage and manages to raise his buckler just high enough to avoid taking a faceful of flame. Even so, the fireball leaves him sizzling, his life bubble unable to protect him from the heat of the forge, let alone an explosion. He looks over at the one responsible, very much wishing that he had kept a cold spell in reserve.
"All right. Whenever you're ready, Joran," Ehren says, now that Ayavah and Xanderghul are on the lift. It occurs to him that the dwarf would not have any way of getting down himself, but then, this was as far as he had agreed to take them. The druid fires an acid dart at the so-called "noble" salamander, hoping to keep his attention off the others.
Meanwhile, the dire badger follows its orders to the letter, for better or for worse. It bears down on the approaching vampire spawn with its teeth, doing its best to rip through its undead flesh. But while its natural weapons were anathema to demonkind, they lacked the magical power necessary to bypass the spawn's defenses. The badger either doesn't know this or just doesn't care.
Outside, Ary slams the incoming vampire spawn headlong into another of its kin, then moves back to guard the passage.
Inside the forge room, Ehren fires at the very large salamander lurking near the forge-bellows, scalding it somewhat, while his badger, now out of sight, charges into the incoming vampires recklessly. Below him, Valaria ruthlessly slices and dices into the center of the salamanders, bringing it down in a flurry of blades. The serpent-man vanishes in mid-stroke, leaving only smoke and a small, whimper of flame that suddenly goes out, its substance returning to the elemental plane from whence it came.
Joran waits patiently for Ayavah to board the elevator, then with a grateful nod to the Commander who stayed behind to protect him, he begins to manipulate the controls. The small cage moves along the ceiling, slowly, until it crosses the entirety of the room. It is uncomfortably hot inside of that cage, but not as hot as it is down below, near the burning flame of the forge itself. There is a creaking noise as Joran begins to switch gears, beginning to manipulate the pulley system to pull the elevator down to the floor.
Isilme is up!
Isilme tumbles between the two salamanders preoccupied with Val and Hinagiku, leaving one of them flanked between her and the monk. With its attention split between the two of them, she has no trouble finding a weakness in its defenses.
"Intrudersssss," hisses the large salamander as it slowly slithers towards the elevator. "Intruderssss ssssshall not interrupt the ritual..." After moving some small distance, it slams the butt of its glaive upon the stone floor, and an enormous ring of flame erupts from the ground, engulfing many of the heroes.
"Magairlean," spits Joran into message, his hands still on the controls. "Try tae back up against the walls... goan lower it as quickly as I can...but it's goan hurt..."
You know what Wall of Fire does!
Inside the pit, inside the ring of flames, one of the salamanders starts to climb out of the pit...
Meanwhile, out in the halls, the vampires rush and surround Ehren's summoned badger. They start to hit the creature with their bare fists, a few of them digging their fingernails into its hide and draining it of its precious life force... but somehow this just manages to enrage the badger further, and it bites and claws at those who try to surround it, snarling all the while.
Xanderghul is up!
Xanderghul purses his lips. While he had intended to ward himself against the room, he knew that protecting his allies from a crunchy death by incineration was much more important, so he summons up a burst of abjurative antimagic. Focusing on the wall of fire that the noble salamander had conjured, Xanderghul attempts to overwhelm the enemy's spellcraft.
Xanderghul attempts to unmake the magic below them... but he finds his concentration wanting and is unable to undo the spell at all. Down on the ground, one of the salamanders lashes its tail out at Valaria and wraps it around her, constricting her and pulling her closer to him. The other, more wounded salamander, tries to take advantage of this by thrusting at her with his own weapon, but even entangled in the serpent-man's coils, Valaria is able to dodge the salamander's attacks.
Another moves closer to Isilme and lunges at her with its spear, but the aasimar, even though she is injured, is too quick for him to land a single blow.
Another vampire moves into the hall to attack the badger, but its clumsy, stilted movements are too slow to land.
Round 14!
Hinagiku is up!
Despite sweat dripping down her fur, and the burning sensation of her skin, Hinagiku keeps her focus on the fight, pressing the attack against the closest salamander. With a series of punches and kicks, Hinagiku violently pummels the creature's chest, tail, and head.
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"Free yourself, Valaria!" Ehren calls out, his voice resonating with power. "That is not the kind of embrace you want to be in."