The azer file out of the opening, taking positions on the stairs. Two of them sniff the air and listen, then mutter back to the others. Coldtooth translates "River below."
River of what? Khayal asks somewhat skeptically.
"Magma. How we arrived, on other side. Used up magic to protect us." Coldtooth answered.
No, we cannot. Hajar says, looking around and up the stairs.
"Efreeti Sammadar had many scrolls. Our wizard used most. I got ones left behind when wizard..." he paused, and another azer added "could not finish in time and melted." The fire-dwarves all shuddered grimly.
"Efreeti Sammadar wanted to find the Jewel of the Padishah. He went up the other staircase. What is it you adventurers want to find?" Coldtooth asks craftily.
|
"I have a knack for convincing magic to work the way it should." Nasir says as she contemplates their options.
Yazi silently nods in agreement while wearing a happy smirk on her face.
"Efreeti Sammadar wanted to find the Jewel of the Padishah. He went up the other staircase. What is it you adventurers want to find?" Coldtooth asks craftily.
"... were we looking for that or something else?" Yazi asks.
"We just want to find our way out and back to our own plane. That said, this Jewel sounds intriguing... perhaps it could aid us in our endeavors to get home? What do you know of it?"
"Only that Efreeti Sammadar valued it above all the gold in the vaults here." Coldtooth answered, the other azer nodding.
"Scrolls used up. You have last." Coldtooth said, pointing at Rayhan.
"Go back to first staircase?" Coldtooth asked. "Efreeti Sammadar did not know about this secret way; would have used first staircase."
"Secret staircase seems like the best option, at the moment. Lead on, my fiery friends."
Khayal takes the lead once more as the group head up the secret staircase. This place is seemingly out of stories. Stories he would never have believed.
Up the staircase the adventurers go...
The roaring sound from below fades, but then grows again from above. You emerge onto a long, wide platform. To the northwest, a ledge at one hundred and forty feet from the staircase looks out over a sheer drop into a pit, which plunges a hundred feet to a lake of bubbling magma. To the north, a river of magma flows into the room, cascading over the edge and down into the pit.
The light from the magma waterfall is red and orange and bright over the empty ledge.
Beads of sweat trickle down Khayal’s face as he stares in awe of the violent beauty. Brothers and sisters, I don’t suppose any one has an idea of where to go from here?
"Go back?" Coldtooth asked for the azer.
"Not this way. Efreeti went up first staircase and has not returned." Coldtooth responded. "Still, good redoubt. Defensible. Bottom must be at edge of magma river."
Hajar agrees with Yazi Indeed Most Esteemed friend. I am quite ready to be rid of this place.
Hajar will head up the staircase
The adventurers head back into the spiral staircase, and through the marginally cooler secret tunnel back to the original staircase they were ascending.
At the top of the stairs, they find...an open door. Beyond, a passage with a vaulted ceiling leads westward. Three domed alcoves extend from either side, each holding pedestals that display open and empty treasure coffers. A large, red-skinned, obviously dead humanoid with obsidian horns and jutting tusks lies naked face-down in the center of the final dome.
You can just see an open archway past the body.
"This... doesn't look ominous at all, does it?" Bartan charges up his cards with cold energy in preparation for an attack.
One of the fire-dwarves, not Coldtooth, goes forward and turns over the body. When the face is revealed, all the azer grimace. The efreeti was not just burned over two-thirds of his body, but large chunks of his torso and extremities appeared bitten or chewed off. The lead azer nods at Coldtooth, who proclaimed "Former master Sammadar. His quest ended." The other fire-dwarves tighten hands on their weapons, looking around.
The body appears as if it has been attacked by several small to large-sized predators. Like wolves, or flesh-eating primates. Sammadar's flesh has been both hit by multiple things, and burned, as well as chewed or bitten.
At least one of those damaged areas was made by a very large clawed creature. Very large, by the size of the blow.
Efreeti are immune to fire, so what could harm a genie like this? A hotter fire, or blunt force. Looking at the body, you see what what look like very, very large claws in the worst-burned areas.
A being whose very body was flame could theoretically combine with blunt force to harm those immune to fire - such as fire elementals.
A very large fire elemental, with several smaller ones, by the results of the fallen efreeti.
One of the azer points to the far archway, muttering. Coldtooth speaks up, saying "Body dragged from further in passageway."
A faint trail of blood and gore leads from the West, past the archway. Something dragged Sammadar from there. After he was dead, in small spurts and stops.
"Could be a trap, yes... we should proceed cautiously, no?"
Khayal feels the grips of his kukris well fit in his hands. But the sting of fire remains in his mind. It’s hard to imagine what could burn fire.
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Coldtooth blinked, and turned to his fellow azer.
"Our home has many predators." Coldtooth says, turning back to face Yazi. "Salamanders, half-humanoid, half-serpent, dwell in the hotter places here in Plane of Fire. They can burn others. Or fire elemental. But corpse has one very large hole - there." the azer says, pointing. "That made by very large creature - like dragon. Dragons and elementals never stop growing."