Shattertooth, try bending the metal with your fire powers. You can heal her. She probably needs food and water as well. The bat turns to look at the minotaur, its bat nose flap twitching slightly.
Wek has an affinity for the fey creatures, as they are tied, like he is, to the natural world.
My magic of healing is spent for the day, but I will try to get her out at least.
Shattertooth puts his fine to the lock and trigger to soften the mechanism with a sudden butter of heat, then yank the door open wedgie the metal is still soft.
Vorgo steps away from the tattered tapestry in a huff.
I can heal her. Whoever locked her in the cage did...did...THIS to my blessed mother. Enemy of our enemy, etc. etc. blah blah.
Vorgo reaches into the white hot cage, uncaring about the heat or flame.
He gently lifts the fairy, slowly removes her from the cage, cups her in his hands and hocks a loogie of divine healing upon her.
Wek crouches on little bat feet and knurled bat knuckles, waiting for the fairy to awaken.
Fairy, who did this?
He also emits a squeak to make sure nothing is sneaking up on him and his far larger companions.
"Hey, if you can't save her, she won't be entirely useless," Princess says. "Fairies make good eating." She licks her lips hungrily.
The fairy stirs with the successful blessing of Tiamat, through her mortal vessel's loogie. Dazedly, she looks up, and starts in fright at the sight of Shattertooth's large minotaur visage.
At Uek's thought-speak in Sylvan, she begins chattering quickly, relief plain on her face. "You speak...then you aren't going to hurt me? Quickly, we must get away from this place before the hag returns!"
I invite her back. She will not walk away again. Why is she keeping you here, little one?
Can you help us find the way out? And tell us what the hag's weaknesses are?
"I don't know..." she says, in a small voice. "She kept us sleeping with her potions...and every time I would wake up, another of my friends would be missing from their cage, until I was the only one left..." she stares at her hands as they lie folded in her lap, her wings subdued.
Ingredients for something, most likely, projects Wek, sounding grim. As with the trolls, this hag shows little respect for other forms of life.
We had better move. Can you fly?
The fairy climbs unsteadily to her feet on Shattertooth's palm, and you see that her natural light glows a little brighter. She takes a deep breath, and her wings begin to hum as they move faster than the eye can track, slowly lifting her off Shattertooth's hands into a hovering position. She looks around at the assembled group, fear plain on her features, but your every action so far has been benign towards her, so she seems to trust you for now. She hovers close to the minotaur at horn level. Her light, which had been flickering and faint before, has grown steadier since Vorgo applied his healing spell.
Lur grunts disapprovingly.
"I agree, Lur. Nothing good ever comes from fairies." Princess scowls, but lets the others play with their new pet. Perhaps she'll be able to snack on it later.
The ogre gathers the alchemical equipment for further study later on. "Shall we move out?"
”I am highly motivated to meet this Hag again. We’ll have words.
The fairy will follow along and keep her light subdued, to about candlelight level.
Wek isn't able to hover like a hummingbird or fairy, but he flaps along, usually up front. I am Wek, a druid. Where were you taken from? he asks, making sure the fairy doesn't accidentally fly near Princess' grabby hands.
Wek flaps in the cavernous silence.
The group descends back down the stairway, and look to Princess for leadership, since she left the room first. Are you heading further down this hallway, or going back to the warm-cold hallways you explored earlier, Princess?
Meanwhile, Uek tries to speak with the faerie, but is rebuffed...the small creature shies away and flits around in the air like an agitated firefly in response to your initial questions. She won't meet your bat-eyed gaze.
"Might as well go down this way as far it leads before we double back," Princess says. She leads the group further down the hallway.
Double back it does not do. The first thing you note about this corridor is that in contrast to the smooth stone walls of the entryway to this labyrinth, the stone walls as you progress begin to be covered with strange, deceptively simple and brutish looking runes, that none of you recognize in the slightest. The temperature is gradually rising as you continue on deeper into the heart of the labyrinth.
You come to another intersection after walking for a short time. There were originally three options built here, but the left-turn appears to have suffered a collapse. The rocks here look different than the perfect stone slabs that make up the hallway before, cruder...
You can also go straight or take a right.
"Shall we continue this direction?" Assuming no objections, the ogre heads straight.
Lur follows behind Princess looking a bit disappointed.
You find a pit yawning in the middle of the corridor a short way from the intersection. The pit looks to be about 9-10 feet across, and it stretches from one end of the hallway to the other.
"Wek, would you be a dear and fly over to see what's on the other side?"
Wek gives a bat nod, and flies over the pit, scanning it with sonar, then circles the area past it.
What is about to happen? Nothing that you know of. This labyrinth is very old, and this section appears to be unoccupied.
What should I be on the lookout for? Not falling into the pit. It appears to be more than a simple hole...your sonar comes back with strange, fluctuating movement down at the bottom, but you can't make out a singular shape. Sight fails you when you try to peer down into its depths.
What here is not what it appears to be? Nothing really, it's just a hallway with a pit.
The hallway continues past the yawning hole in the floor for a short distance, before beginning to spiral to the right.
The pit is...deceiving me, Princess. We should be on our guard as we cross it. Can you conjure a bridge or ferry people across quickly?
I can't for anything that large. Not with the materials at hand.
Decieving, you say? What are you doing...lie-pit?
With senses that can pierce lies, Vorgo looks into the pit.
Princess shakes her head. "Anything I could do wouldn't be quick or inexpensive. If there's no easy way across, we should head back and try a different path."
Lur smiles and sets down his large sword with a light Clang. With a running start, he lunges himself over the pit.,,
You just see a dark pit, Vorgo. By the light of the torch, you can see down it a short ways, but not all the way to the bottom. Uek the bat is flying around the outer edge, trying to discern if it would be possible to inch around it. It would be possible for some of the smaller members, but risky.
Lur prefers the direct approach, and hurls his body over the yawning hole. His chest impacts on the edge on the far side, knocking the wind out of him - take -1 to your next Constitution roll for the next hour or so, Lur - but the barbarian reaches the other side without any other problem.
Wek flits around the barbarian. As long as you're over here, let's go take a look around the curve. Everyone else wait for a moment.
Wek blankets the next curve with sonar.
After a moment, the lizardfolk shaman is back in his red-scaled form, the dim shapes of fishes swimming across his leg, tail, and side.
Lur grunts and continues down the hall, following Uek
Uek, your sonar detects something down the curve with your echolocation. You get back flashes of something long and pointed in the darkness below, before transforming back into a lizard.
Lur is standing right beside you, trying to peer into the darkness with only his eyes. You didn't bring a torch with you when you jumped the pit, did you Lur? If not, we're standing at the very edge of the light, barely penetrating the gloom at all.
"There's something in the pit. Let me take a page from Shattertooth..."
'Uek holds the knobs of mangrove wood from his chains of Fallen Soor. "Fire Spirit. Hear me, deep in the earth. Bring your flame to us."
He summons a small, roiling ball of fire from the elements--it radiates great heat and warmth, but is controlled. He nods and speaks to it.
"O Primal Fire Spirit, I, 'Uek-Soahh of the Marshes, summon you for a task. Stay with us a while as we go down this pathway. Look carefully in the pit, but do not come close to what lurks there. If there is something harmful, attack it with us with your spears of fire. So I ask by my tribe and that of Shattertooth, wielder of the Flame."
The combined authority of Uek's masterful spellcasting and Shattertooth's supporting presence creates a dutiful flame spirit. It springs to life out of the nearest flame present, which happens to be the torch that Vorgo has. It sheds light into the pit below, revealing a nest of vipers that coil and hiss over each other in the pit's depths, snapping at each other at the sudden light.
"Well, then. I doubt there's any treasure down there, and I don't feel like turning into a cube again. Lur, let's look around the corner. Spirit, join us for a moment."
Wek leads the fireball back near him and walks a little further down the hallway.
Lur follows hungrily.
Shattertooth considers burning the snakes to cinders, but doesn't see how that would help them in this moment. So he waits for the scouts to return.
As your light-blessed vision follows the hallway down the slowly spiraling path, you notice rough carvings on the walls. Rounding a corner reveals a barricade of sharpened wooden stakes aimed at chest level. Navigating this barricade quickly requires a Defy Danger roll.
"Why don't I fly around it, Lur, and you can also break this," says Wek, not really caring what scouts are supposed to do.
Lur grins and goes about hacking the barricade.
shattertooth hears someone (probably the bear) breaking something and sighs. Sounds like they found something...