"That sounds like a good idea. I'll need fifteen minutes to get the spell ready," says Jeevika, wincing as she recalls how easily the zombie cyclops was destroyed.
With that said, she goes to find a relatively peaceful environment in the tunnels to meditate and pray. Elthariel and Fenrir follow to serve as bodyguards. Unless something happens, Jeevika and her entourage return fifteen minutes or so later with the spell.
"Communal Resist Energy: Fire should take the edge off the magma's heat; it is not absolute protection, but it is the best I can manage," explains Jeevika as she briefly borrows the Orange Prism Ioun Stone and casts her new spell on everyone who does not already have it (Ryli and Olympus) or is not outright immune already (Lorthan). She Extends the spell with her final charge from her magical rod.
With her preparations made, Jeevika leads the group deeper into the volcano.
Ryli returns to her centaur form and paces about during Jeevika's prayer.
"Zoli, by any chance did the mysterious voice in your head ask to congratulate me for the way I dispatched the undead creatures? I distinctly heard something say, 'well done,' in my head. But it hasn't said anything else."
Zoli gets a perplexed expression.
Furrowing her brow she sends, ::O Blade of Wrath, did you speak to Ryli? And are you getting any flashes that could help us out here? Beyond giving me the ability to see really far in darkness, which I'll admit is very cool.::
::Simply got caught up in the moment. But clearly you must go deeper into the mountain!::
::Huh, so can you talk to all of us then? Why mostly just me so far? And yeah, we'll be heading down as soon as Jeeves updates her spells a bit. I'm excited too!::
After a moment of concentration, Zoli's eyes refocus and she says to Ryli. "I just asked Ol' Blade of Wrath and they say did. Seems they got excited by you!"
::No, I should only speak to you. The proximity to the mountain though has bolstered my connection, though. That must be it.::
Ryli forces a smile. "All right. Mystery solved, then."
Her tail swishes back and forth and her hind legs stomp the ground nervously. She moves over to the opening and studies the next chamber from the entrance, using her echolocation and broadened senses.
"Mr. Silva, before we depart, could you renew your Light cantrip for Elthariel and Fenrir?" Jeevika asks. "Since Zoli appears to have obtained some way to navigate in the dark, it appears that they are the only ones among us who need, well, Light to see."
"Olympus, too," Ryli adds.
As you descend the stairs about a hundred and fifty feet or so, you see at the bottom a large stone double door flanked by two torches flickering with green continual flame spells. The doors are emblazoned with large obsidian Thassilonian runes of Wrath, marching the mark on Zoli’s brow.
The door does not appear trapped in any way, nor is it locked. Opening it reveals a spacious chamber of polished marble. The walls are carved and painted in murals of glorious battle between the forces of Wrath and the other runelords, always with the armies of Alaznist emerging victorious, no matter the cost in lives to either side. The artwork is of a level of such exquisite detail that it is honestly breathtaking despite the violent nature of the scenes.
Ahead is another set of double doors, again emblazoned with the symbol of Wrath.
Ryli stares in open awe at the chamber and its artwork for a moment. She tears her attention away to study her companions' expressions, then again focuses on being alert for hidden and unseen dangers.
She stays in centaur form for the moment.
Getting a gut feeling that now would be a good time to make any final preparations, Jeevika casts her second and final Good Hope on all the Rangers; Elthariel takes the chance to renew her Abundant Ammo spell. Both elves then study the door for any hints of danger.
Lorthan also makes some preparations, casting false life, protection from evil, and shield.
"Exercise caution here, this entire chamber is awash in powerful magics," Eugeni warns.
Zoli nods--clearly more excited than nervous--and begins forward, slowly, taking the time to look for traps...or other interesting discoveries.
Both Zoli and Jeevika are able to tell the door is trapped by both mechanical and arcane means. The specifics of the trap elude them, however, as it would appear these were very elaborate and expertly designed.
"Uh oh! There are both arcane and magical traps here. I bet I can disable the latter, but one of you should probably try to dispel the former first."
Zoli points them out and then takes a step back.
"Arcane and magical? Isn't that the same thing?" Ryli asks.
Zoli feels a surge of anger flare up briefly. I'm the HIGHLADY OF WRATH. Who is she to mock--
Realizing how ridiculous it sounds, Zoli exhales and manages a sheepish shrug. "Whoops, I meant arcane and mechanical. I've never learned much about disabling purely magical traps."
And yeesh. Where's that anger coming from?
Jeevika sighs in frustration.
"Well, this is disappointing; there's most likely nothing we can do then," she grumbles wearily. "Disabling magical traps is essentially a form of art in of itself; only truly Roguish types like Setsuna's father have a prayer of succeeding. If Dispel Magic even works, it will simply suppress the trap for a few seconds before it promptly activates."
Jeevika ponders the situation.
"Zoli, ask your friend if there's an alternative way of disabling it or if we can just bypass the door with Eugeni's Dimension Door. Going by your comments, this Blade of Wrath is almost certainly inside this room. They must know something."
::Blade, whadaya say? Any info for us here?::
::Traps are not my area of expertise.::
"What do you want to do, then?" Ryli asks.
Zoli rolls her eyes. "Sadly, the Blade of Wrath has no idea.
"Who wants to summon something to open the doors for us, while we hide a safe distance back? I strongly suspect opening the doors will trigger whatever it is."
"Before we do that, let me study what we will be setting off; the last thing we want to do is bring down the mountain on our heads."
Before Jeevika studies the trap with Detect Magic, she produces her Arcane Family Workbook to act as a reference; surely past Kailanis have seen something similar in the family's long history.
She manages to find a highly useful section very quickly; from there, the Holy Vindicator attempts to study the magical trap...
"Ok. That seems advisable."
Ryli steps back and lets Jeevika work.
Upon realizing what the magical portion of the trap is, Jeevika utters a sigh of relief.
"It's just a variant Wooden Phalanx spell. All it will do is summon some stone golems! Remember those mooks Zoli and I clobbered without a scratch in the Vaults of Greed?! That's it!"
After she tucks away her arcane family workbook, Jeevika turns to Zoli and smiles reassuringly.
"I would just focus on disabling the mechanical trap, Your High Ladyship," the Holy Vindicator recommends, "Grandmother, when Zoli is finished, how about summoning a fire giant to help me, Zoli, and Lorthan turn these unstoppable 'Champions of Wrath' into rocky cold cuts?"
Eugeni nods, retreating a safe distance and readying to cast vanish on himself when any golems appear. Best I just stay out of this one.
Zoli grins. "Ah, setting off magical traps intentionally kind of seems unsporting...but I can't argue with your logic. Let's just hope I can disarm the mechanical one before the golems show up.
"Yall should stand back just in case."
Doing her best to avoid the magic trap, Zoli brushes her lucky Thassilonian button, and then gets to work.
Zoli sets to work on the trap mechanism, though it will take some time and focus. If she stops or is interrupted, it is highly likely she will set it off!
But the moment she starts working at it, six of the champion figures seem to come to life and turn to face the group. But then, their gaze turns to the ceiling. Save for the one nearest Zoli, who focuses intently on the halfling disabling the device...
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Seeing how quickly this could all go south, Eugeni casts a spell to protect Zoli.
A floor-to-ceiling wall of force springs up around the halfling, closing her off from the rest of the room, and more importantly, distracting golems.
Seeing the golems appear, Zoli gasps, realizing she'll set off the other trap if she lets go now.
She shouts a relieved "Thanks, Eugeni!" when he wraps a wall around her...and then starts to look up at the ceiling herself when she sees the golems look up there.
"Hey, anyone know why the golems are looking UP?
"Eugeni, you said there's powerful magic at work here, didn't you? Did that include illusion?"
"Yes!"
Lorthan bellows an impressive draconic roar as he lets his battle fury take hold of him. He twirls his double-bladed sword to present the adamantine blade, then begins stabbing at the one on Ryli's left.
Ryli gestures and speaks ancient words of Ignan to conjure forth a wall of molten rock to separate the stone golems on their right. The heat the wall radiates is nothing compared to their powerful wards against the high temperatures of the dormant volcano, so she does not worry about bringing up the wall in such close proximity to everyone. And if the golems try to push through, well, that's on them.
Jeevika initiates a full attack against the red stone golem.
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Elthariel initiates a full attack against the red stone golem.
The two golems nearest Zoli both begin battering their fists futilely into the wall of force surrounding her, which keeps her completely protected from their fury as she does her delicate work.
The remaining four, however, begin punching into the central section of ceiling, even if it means punching through the lava wall. As their fists batter the roof, chunks of stone fall, though the ceiling appears undamaged. Then, as the room finishes shaking from their barrage, large chunks of stone come crashing down...immediately followed by surging lava falling down like a water right into the center of the room onto those beneath it! It washes over Ryli, Jeevika, and Lorthan, causing the two women to cry out in pain despite their warding, though Lorthan seems more concerned for Ryli and Jeevika than harmed!
__________
Ryli shudders as the lava pours down on her and the intense heat pushes through her wards. Desperately, she remembers the staff in her hand and the magics within.
She summons control over the stones around her feet and they flow upwards, creating a sort of tent to divert the cascading lava from her and Jeevika and onto the golems!
Unable to attack the golems, Jeevika heals herself and Ryli with a burst of positive energy.
Elthariel initiates another full attack against the red stone golem; her Abundant Ammo spell keeps her quiver nice and full.
Lorthan begins to panic as he sees Ryli and Jeevika in danger of being drowned/burned in the lava. But then the centaur manages to use the broken stone ceiling against the golems. He continues his assault on them, hoping that he can destroy them before they can cause further harm.
Eugeni weaves another spell and hastens the party.
The golems are bathed in lava from Ryli’s clever trick, though they seem to not care about the damage. When the new ceiling goes up, their attention turns from the heroes to the ceiling, driven by some unknown command. They again pummel it with fury, causing the thing to collapse and more lava to wash over those in the center of the room. Now, however, it is starting to fill the floor out to the base of the stairs!
__________
Having nothing else to lose, Jeevika utters a fierce roar of defiance and starts hacking the red golem to pieces like a woman possessed.
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Seeing Jeevika being slowly roasted alive, Elthariel finds herself tearing up. Not sure what else she can do, she starts firing arrows like there's no tomorrow into the purple golem. The Kyoni Ranger also has Fenrir attack the construct, though the dire wolf seems too distracted by the approaching lava to really help.
Eugeni slices his palm and then casts his blood money cantrip, turning the blood into the ingredient for a powerful spell. A moment later a four inch thick wall of stone appears over the rent in the ceiling, merging with the stone around it.
Energy Attacks
Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object’s hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.
As the lava cools beneath their feet, the stone golems remaining melt away into pools of magma of their own. Jeevika and Ryli have sustained some painful looking burns, though their warding against fire has protected them from the brunt of the trap, likely saving their lives.
Zoli concludes her work, and with a few clicks and grinding of clockworks, she is certain the trap has been deactivated. The door opens to reveal another passageway of immaculately polished marble, leading up to another set of double doors emblazoned with they rune of wrath.