"I wonder what we'll encounter down here. The powers of nature told me that undead lurk in the mountain's summit. Strange that the tunnels have led us down. But if there's magma below, then perhaps we'll find some vents leading back up."
As the group descends further into the tunnels, Zoli makes a sudden realization, she can see in the dark!
::A small gift for you. It isn’t permanent, but it should last long enough for you to explore this network.::
The stairs end in a dark hallway. As the team files down the stairs and into the passage, those in front can see an undead humanoid in significant decay. Even so, it lets out a loud shriek and moves with much faster speed than others of its kind! It rushes forward maniacally and slams its fists ineffectually against Jeevika’s armor. A moment later, a cacophony of similar sounding roars echoes forth from further in! Footsteps can be heard in the northern side passage as well as further down this main tunnel!
Jeevika reflexively starts carving away at the zombie that attacked her.
Sensing that she will have several targets shortly, Elthariel steadies Fenrir and casts Abundant Ammo on her quiver to avoid running out of arrows.
Ryli moves into the left corridor and blocks it with her bulk. She brings an airy appendage down on one of the zombies.
Eugeni casts a spell on himself, and turns into a small blue beetle stands upright on its hindmost legs.
After a few rounds of combat that would terrify less seasoned adventurers, the Rangers manage to easily smash or cleave through multiple waves of fast moving zombies. Now surrounded by broken and decayed corpses, they are free to decide on what path they wish to advance.
"It appears that we can go west, north, or east," Jeevika observes as she cleans off her sword. "Since we have no real clue where to start, I propose going west and gradually working our way east."
Eugeni nods his assent.
Moving around to the west, the passage ends in rubble and ruin. The ledge remaining overlooks a large central chamber with an elevated central platform surrounded by bubbling lava. At the far end of the room is a throne made of bone and antlers, with two dark alcoves on either side. This throne platform is connected to the front of a room by a lone stone walk bridge.
On the middle of this bridge is a statue of a stylized scorpion, seemingly lording over this fiery domain. At the end of the walk bridge are two more zombies standing vigil, and kneeling before the scorpion is a giant sized figure cloaked in a flowing hooded cloak. This figure either seems to not care for your presence, or doesn’t notice. A massive weapon rests at its side.
Even with her magically stony skin, Zoli feels the heat radiating up from the bubbling lava. Looking across the chasm, she realizes that the darkvision the voice in her head has given her extends beyond that ever magically granted to her before.
Zoli whispers to her companions, "Let me see if my mantle helps us here." She then steps forward, the rune on her forehead pulsing in concert with the lava. "Hark! I, Zoli Tileani, the Highlady of Righteous Anger have returned. Introduce yourself."
The hooded figure tilts its head ever so slightly, not even enough to reveal its face or features, but says nothing in reply.
"Huh," Zoli shrugs. "What good is it to be the Highlady, anyway?"
Then she focuses her eyes a bit and thinks, ::Say, Cryptic Voice, you got any idea what's going on down here?::
::No. I do not...but we are close! I can feel it! Wait! Look there!::
When you look again, you can see the hood of the person’s cloak fluttering ever so slightly.
::They are speaking. But for some reason we cannot hear it...::
"Huh," the Lil Highlady says again. "The Voice In My Head points out that the cloak is fluttering as though they're speaking...but I can't hear a thing.
"Any of you have any idea what's going on? Some Cone of Silence? Shall we stroll over there to learn some more? VIMH says it thinks we're close to what we're looking for..."
Eugeni’s arcane sight can see an overwhelmingly powerful field of evocation magic sealing off the side passages.
"Don't look at me," Ryli whistles. "I can speak with the living, not the dead."
Jeevika performs a mock bow to Zoli.
"Perhaps we should try the direct route, High Lady of Righteous Indignation?" suggests Jeevika. "It looks like that eastern path would take us straight to this gentleman."
When safely out of sight, Jeevika also bestows Good Hope on the entire group and Communal Air Walk on herself and Zoli.
"There is an overwhelmingly powerful field of magic sealing off these passages, from the evocation school. Let me think for a moment..." Eugeni studies the lines of arcane convergence, trying to determine the effect of the magic.
"We could try summoning creatures to see if they arrive on the other side of the magic field. Magma elementals could probably slide through the rock and bypass the barrier altogether."
Having lived nearly 150 years, Jeevika is readily able to help Eugeni review what this magic might be. If necessary, she scoots backwards into the tunnel to hide the casting from the stranger and then uses Detect Magic to study the mysterious effect.
"The walls of force seem to be in place to prevent the tunnels from eroding. We could bypass them magically one way or another, or we could try going around as Jeevika suggests. I would prefer to at least give that giant fellow a chance to talk before we decide to attack him."
"That sounds good to me," Jeevika agrees. "As far as I can tell, he is showing some measure of willingness to speak; unlike 99% of the enemies the Rangers have encountered, he is not dropping everything to attack us. As for our approach, I suggest the direct route first."
"Well, if the barriers are just there to protect against the magma, then would they also necessarily keep us out? Should we test them?"
She reaches out with a wispy tendril to see if the barrier holds her back.
You weave through the tunnels back to the original location, then on around to the west. You pass through a larger open cavern before turning back north and towards the magma, the full heat of it now bearing down upon you. The zombies at the end of the walk path eye you warily and snarl, but make no advance. The giant hooded figure kneeling before the scorpion statue continues to do so.
While going back through the tunnels, Ryli casts resist energy (fire) on herself, then restores the spell with her pearl, then casts it again upon Olympus.
Zoli confidently leads the way past the two zombies. In Thassilonian, she calls out, "Greetings. Do you understand Thassilonian?"
She keeps Wrathblade drawn but pointed down in an attempt to show she isn't looking for trouble.
Zoli indeed does step just past the two zombies, with them snarling at her the whole time. As she passes them and speaks, however, the hooded figure begins to rise and speak in return as it turns around to face you, hood still down over it's head.
"এটি একবার স্কর্পিয়ান দেবতা, কুণাচেকের জন্য একটি মন্দিরকে উৎসর্গ করা হয়েছিল। আমি তাদের মহাযাজক ছিলাম। বছরের পর বছর ধরে আমরা ক্লো ঈশ্বরকে বলিদান করেছি, যারা তাদের দ্বীপে প্রবেশ করতে সাহস করতো ... তারপর ধ্বংসাত্মক কুল্লেককে হত্যা করে তার পবিত্র স্থানটি ধ্বংস করে দিল। এই জায়গাটি একটি বিদ্রুপের মধ্যে এটির প্রথমবারের মতো গৌরবজনক স্থান। এখন ... এখানকার সব কিছু ... এখানে মৃত্যু।"
As he says the last few words of his speech, he folds back the hood of his cloak, revealing a single protruding horn from his forehead, as well as his single eye in the center of his cranium. The flesh of his face is withered and taught, clearly in an advanced state of decay. It's tongue dangles from it's mouth and seems to move unnaturally, and is also way larger than seems reasonable for a creature even of this size.
"আমাদের দেবতা যে সব অবশেষ তার সন্তান," he says as he gestures to behind him. As he says this, a pair of scorpions the size of elephants skitter out from darkened alcoves on the far ledge to either side of the throne. "এবং এটি একটি যথাযথ উত্সর্গীকৃত আছে তাই এটি দীর্ঘ হয়েছে হয়েছে চাবুকের ঈশ্বর আপনাকে তাদের পরিশ্রমের জন্য নিজেদেরকে যে-উৎসর্গের প্রস্তাব দিচ্ছে তার জন্য আপনাকে ধন্যবাদ।"
With that, it quickly raises it's axe, which flares with dark purple negative energy, and brings it down at Zoli! The creatures solitary eye flashes red for a moment, and it snarls a sadistic grin as the axe comes cleaving down into the halfling Highlady! A massive wound is opened up in Zoli's torso, and the sound of bones snapping can be heard through the cavern!
"High priest of a dead god intending to sacrifice us..." Eugeni informs the others. He quickly casts a spell, dramatically speeding up his allies.
As the blade cuts into her, the stylish new feathered cap that Dunner Butterhill had made for Zoli gives a brief, flash of glittery red and green, and she finds that the cut has done more to exhaust her than to deeply wound her...though the wound still hurts well enough, and it's clear that even a much smaller blow would likely knock her out, or worse.
"Yoiks! Thank Chaldira, that could have really smarted!
"And gals and guys, I guess the peaceful negotiations have ended."
____________
Ryli spins her air elemental form into a violent whirlwind. She then moves along the stone path, trying to scoop up the zombies and the undead giant in her vortex.
Once she has picked up one or more of the undead foes, she hovers over the lava and dumps them all into the molten stone.
The undead are all bodily plucked from the walkway and dropped into the lava, disappearing beneath the surface with a sizzling splash!
Without even thinking, Jeevika dashes over to Zoli and blasts the Highlady of Righteous Indignation with a mighty Heal spell.
"You are made of some tough stuff, Lil' Highlady," Jeevika remarks as the massive damage fades.
"Indeed!" Lorthan fires several arrows at the closest scorpion, the thick projectiles crackling with arcane energy.
::Why, thank you-- Wait. Who's this?"
Elthariel steers Fenrir to a vintage point and starts firing a volley of arrows.
[dice=+1 adaptive holy composite longbow (RS, DA, FE, GH, Haste, "It's over, Cyclops! I have the high ground!")]1d20+20-2-4+2+2+1+1[/dice]
[dice=Haste +1 adaptive holy composite longbow (RS, DA, FE, GH, Haste, "It's over, Cyclops! I have the high ground!")]1d20+20-2-4+2+2+1+1[/dice]
[dice=+1 adaptive holy composite longbow (RS, DA, FE, GH, Haste, "It's over, Cyclops! I have the high ground!")]1d20+20-2-4+2+2+1+1[/dice]
[dice=+1 adaptive holy composite longbow (RS, DA, FE, GH, Haste, "It's over, Cyclops! I have the high ground!")]1d20+15-2-4+2+2+1+1[/dice]
[dice=+1 adaptive holy composite longbow (RS, DA, FE, GH, Haste, "It's over, Cyclops! I have the high ground!")]1d20+10-2-4+2+2+1+1[/dice]
It appears that she is still rather rusty after all those years as a goldfish.
Lorthan and Elthariel both manage to drop the scorpions with arrows, and the cyclops does not resurface...an eerie quiet settles over the chamber.
Ryli flits and flies around the chamber, looking for threats and anything else of interest.
Come look at this!" she whistles. An airy appendage points out a strange marking covered by years of grime and dust beneath the throne. Further examination reveals a ring of Thassilonian runes that have likely gone ignored for centuries.
Jeevika studies the ring of runes intently.
"It appears to be a ritualized form of Arcane Lock. We will require a powerful type of magic to dispel it or someone to properly disable it."
Ryli thinks hard as she studies the runes.
::Mysterious voice? Do you know what will unlock this circle?::
Zoli gasps with relief as Jeevika's magic restores her health. "Thanks, Jeeves! You're a life saver."
When Ryli points out the runes, Zoli approaches it with curiosity. She brushes her lucky button (which she's now sewn onto her feathered cap) and begins to tinker with her old thieve's tools.
"Alright Chaldira, help a sister solve a puzzle, will ya?"
"Well, that was expeditious," Eugeni remarks as the combat is over almost before it begins.
He floats over to watch Zoli work on the puzzle.
Zoli begins working at the runic ring, carefully studying them and trying to determine the proper order in which to activate them. She quickly deduces that tracing one with her finger will cause it to glow red until another is traced, leading to a series of glowing runes. However, if she were to activate them in the improper order, the entire volcano would be awakened in fiery wrath.
However, with a bit of Halfling Luck, she is able to activate them in proper succession! The throne of chitin and claws creaks and groans, as the base it rests upon lifts up and begins to rotate to the side. It is readily apparent that this throne was built unwittingly upon the lid to a vault, which once opened reveals a stairwell down further into the mountain!
Zoli bounces up and down with excitement. "Chaldira, you rock! I knew you wouldn't let me get that puzzle wrong and unwittingly cause the volcano to erupt.
So, whaddaya folks say? Journey into the heart of the volcano? How awesome is that?"
Eugeni claps as Zoli successfully disarms the ancient puzzle. "Bravo!"
Eugeni nods. "Perhaps protection against magma would be prudent before we go any further. I would hate for us to meet our demise as cinders encased in molten stone for all eternity."