The new lizardmen immediately attacked the strangers in front of them. One of the lizardmen had to move around the others to get to Nasir.
5-ft step
20 ft around Yazi
Gilbans the Fire Giant helped Khayal down the Western barricade, and looked ready to help Bartan do the same. "Come one, come all - no waiting!" the Fire Giant said.
Between the two female attackers, the lizardman loses an arm, a leg, and lots of copious blood from its' neck as it falls, dead.
ROUND SEVEN
Gilbans holds his action until he can pass down another adventurer.
Bartan will take the giant up on his offer and hop down with his aid.
Hajar double-moves to the end of the corridor, Tempest at the ready.
Bartan gets to the Western side of the corridor.
Rayhan shifts his robe, trying to "walk off" his slight injury.
Noticing the wizard's pain, Hajar shouts "Once we're in the clear, I'll heal us before we come across another door!"
Nasir's blade at first hit armored hide, but with persistence, Shiver finally dropped the lizardman.
The last lizardman , seeing its' fellow compatriots fall, goes into a desperate attack.
However, the fates are not on the side of the lizardman.
"C'mon, lassies, my arm's getting tired!" Gilbans called out from the corridor.
One azer took off South at the intersection, waving at another azer standing guard at the door to the Palace's trash heap. The new azer took off at a run towards the first fire-dwarf. Meanwhile, Broadbead followed Rayhan and Hajar.
Rayhan, his Rod of Flame Extinguishing head ready, peeked around the door. "Hm. One door to the North." he announced to Hajar behind him.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yazi cut the last lizardman into pieces.
OUT OF MELEE
"Holding my arms up to help you down here to this corridor!" Gilbans the Fire Giant reminds you.
Khayal pauses for a moment and thinks about whether it’s a good idea to accept the lift down. Seeing Yazi accept the help, he accepts as well. Whats the worst that could happen?
The adventurers plus allies got to the Western corridor, where they were joined by two more azer. "Don't worry, these are the fire dwarves who got us past the lava bridge." Rayhan assured everyone. Broadbeard looked the other azer up and down, harrumphing in disapproval.
Hajar said "It looks like you three vanquished the lizardmen.", indicating Khayal, Nasir, and Yazi. "Do you need me for healing? We have time."
As they rounded the corner, the party came to see...a door. A Medium-sized door. "Ah. A 'small' door." Gilbans muttered, his feet still floating above the floor. "I'll have to squeeze in last. Unless one of you has shrinking magic?" he asked.
Rayhan shook his head negatively.
Broadbeard the azer opened the brass door, showing...a room that opened to the East, or right, but had a set of stairs going up at the far end of the area.
"Stairs. Stairs!" Hajar's matter-of-fact voice and Gilban's deeper voice say simultaneously. The two glance at each other, grinning at the decision.
"Up is the surface level. We're done with the basements..." Hajar began.
"And away from the Cult of the Fire Lizards." Gilbans offered. He scratched his beard. "Although my brothers, the, uh, Guardians of the Forbidden Gate, still have to be dealt with on that level."
Hajar closed his eyes and prayed silently, his hands wavering around the air to his sides.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Bartan is also excited to see stairs leading up. "I look forward to getting out of this place. It feels as if we've been here for years..."
The adventurers' party made it up the Large stairs without incident, coming out to the East of a chamber they had recently been in.
This dark chamber is of cavernous proportions, its vaulted ceiling held aloft by huge supporting columns. The stench of beasts remains strong, though whatever was once stabled here is long gone. The gutted remains of a few battered war chariots are pushed against the walls. Campfires of burning coals can be seen toward the rear of the chamber.
"The Makhzen Stables." Gilbans wheezed from below on the stairs. "Directly South is the ziggurat of the Sacret Apis - that's a bull -" the Fire Giant explained.
"I believe we have been here before." Hajar said, looking around. "How do get out of here, friend Giant?" he called.
"Right, then right again to stairs going up." Gilbans offered. "Unless you want to go visit the crazed dwarf in the Palace Courtroom?
Khayal is happy to follow the giant’s directions behind Yazi. He squinches his brow which has been covered in sweat since he got here. Hard to think how he would have survived here if he had not grown up in the deserts of Kelmerane.
The fire giant showed you another pair of Medium-sized stairs, waiting until everyone had passed by him before going up the stairs.
You emerge into another closed room. The floor of the western half of this guard chamber is lined with well over a dozen murder holes. Piled near the murder holes are a number of rocks.
A large, empty jail-like crate rests at the north side.
The room curves to the NorthEast to a door.
"Hm." Gilbans muttered, coming up the stairs. "Could've sworn there was a guard here. Maybe he got called out by the commander?"
The door is unlocked, and you see...more of those Large-sized garderobes on what must be the outer wall of the palace. But what blocks your view is a one-hundred-foot-tall pyramid of ancient tarnished bronze immediately in front of you to the East. The pyramid is smooth on this side. On the apex of the pyramid is a double-peaked roof. Statues of draconic, four-armed female centaurs rise from the corners of the building.
You catch a glimmer of light in the reflection of the sky off of the brass door as you hold it open. The image of the strange man you saw earlier, in the basement of the palace, stares back at you. The dark-skinned, white-haired man's head turns to face the pyramid, and you hear the following in your mind:
“A fiery orb from days of old lies suspended betwixt bronze and sky, yet hidden from mortal eye, in Elemental Queen Ymeri's temple. It is the key to your quest. In ancient adoration did this fiery heart lie, and only by heart’s blood of the true believer can the way be opened. Take the orb, and free me!”
The glimmer vanishes from the brass door, leaving only the brass.
"Quite the display," Bartan says.
Gilbans the Fire Giant, squeezing in from the rear, grunted upon hearing the name. "Female demigod, worshipped here before the Grand Sultan of the City of Brass became more...favorable." he replied.
"Queen of the Inferno." Rayhan confirmed. Hajar scrunched up his face, trying to remember, but could only say "A neutral evil demigod."
Broadbeard spoke up. "Rumor had it Lord Jhavhul was obsessed with her. It was the reason he left the palace - to make himself more powerful to gain her favor, become her consort." The other fire-dwarves stared at him, dumbstruck. Broadbeard stubbornly set his face, adding "I heard several of the efreeti here talking about it after they were drunk one night. They did not favor his odds."
Gilbans sighed in admonishment. "Her temple is that building at the top." he told Yazi.
Khayal moves forward to climb the smooth side of the pyramid. . Khayal’s feet are we’ll practiced at climbing sandblasted rocks in the desert, though the steep pyramid offers an unusual challenge.
"There's stairs on the other side..." Gilbans pointed out to the climbing human, then shrugged. The giant started to take off, his feet still above the ground, but unexpectedly the Fire Giant landed on the floor. Bewildered, Gilbans looked at his feet, then back at the bulk of the adventurers.
"It's not that long of a spell. The battle, plus the stairs, was its' duration." Rayhan explained to everyone.
The Fire Giant laughed, saying "I guess it's back to climbing, then. The old-fashioned way." He turned back to face the pyramid. "Come, little invaders. To the other side, then the top!"
"First time I've been this high in the Palace..." muttered Broadbeard, looking around, his eyes going up to the clouded fiery cacophony of the Plane of Fire. "And in the open."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"See you at the top!" Nasir says with a wink at Yazi, before effortlessly racing up the sheer side of the pyramid as if on level ground.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Khayal, showing his mountainous training only a few fighters even dream of, easily climbed the sheer side of the pyramid, his hands and feet finding sure holds.
Halfway up the side of the 100-foot pyramid, a russet-colored blur passed the burly man, the Keleshite making her climb look more like a ballet dance across a stage. Feet clad in slippers never stopped, with her body making the occasional twirl as Nasir went around Khayal, continuing up the obstacle.
The other adventurers and natives continued around the West and South side of the pyramid, until the stairs came into view. Yazi's head for some reason kept turning more and more to the side, watching the climbers, rather than what was in front of them. Bartan was leaning backwards, head to the side, as he also watched the Dervish Dancer show her expertise.
"Ah, the power of youth." Rayhan sighed as he followed the Fire Giant. The three azer puffed vigorously, their flames flickering, as they ran to keep up with the taller people.
Khayal scampers up the side of the pyramid as Nasir dances past him. He tries to make it look as easy for him as it is for her. At least he manages to climb without too much difficulty.
Finally the adventurers led by the Fire Giant got to the stairs that started in the south-by-southeast side.
"Like I said, this pyramid is abandoned. It isn't even on the patrol list, it's so ancient." Gilbans told everyone.
He started up the stairs, the others following.
--------------------------
Meanwhile, Nasir and Khayal reached the top of their climb. Now closer to the draconic, four-armed female centaurs at the corners, it was possible to notice smaller details, such as the statues each pointed outwards, as if to protect the temple therein.
The temple itself is constructed of cracked, tarnished bronze. A set of Large-sized doors are closed, opposite the main stairs.