Ingolf channels his energy into the room, the haunted presence reeling in pain for the bright power. But it is not enough to appease it.
The doors of the room close and jam as the furnace doors burst open, releasing vents of super-heated gasses.
Three sets of masterwork glassglowing tools sit on the shelves as well as 36 high-quality glass decanters (worth 15 gp each). Each decanter contains enough potion for two people to imbibe but you do not know what might be their effects.
Ingolf battled with the furnace doors, channeling the power of his god. It was obvious that there were unnatural forces at work here! "Begone, foul spirit!"
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Tonny looks helplessly as the others bring divine magic to bear against the flames - then ducks when they shoot out!
"Oh, this must have been a place for blowing and shaping glass! Look at all those lovely pitchers and cups and stuff..." The scholar's voice trails off as he notices that some of them contain liquid. "What do you suppose...
Channeling magical energy, the druid unleashes it on the haunt.
"Back!"
Recoiling away from the haunt as the super-heated air feels like its singing her hair, Adriana stumbles up to her feet and through bleary eyes sees Splits and Ingolf both pushing the haunt back with positive energy, and remembers what Splits said of the bodies, moving towards them and pulling out her waterskin.
"Quench their thirst, quench their thirst... Jonah! Tonny! Over here!" She calls out as she empties her waterskin into the mouth of one corpse, refilling it with magic and hoping that she's understood Splits correctly.
Tonny and Adriana suffer particularly under the furnace flames, but Ingolf and Splits, staggered by the many spams, manage to pump just enough positive energy to temporarily dismiss the haunt.
While this happens Adriana and Tonny are already gathering waterskins. Splits, Ingolf and Adriana perform orisons to create just more water, and calming the thirst of the dead corpses just makes the tricks.
The haunt is finally appeased permanently, the furnace latches close and the doors open wide.
The party animal companions were luckily outside and are unscathed by the haunt.
The decanters pointed out by Tonny irradiate magic.
Each contains two doses of resist energy (fire).
Jonah is so thrown off by the haunt that he doesn't have much help to offer as the others appease the haunted corpses. Jonah calls Rosemary back inside and she lands on his shoulder to stay close.
"grab those decanters and let's keep moving. no orb in this room, so probably going to find the power source for this section behind that next door. is everyone ready?
After the threat of the haunt was over, Ingolf recited a prayer and examined the orbs, but was unable to determine their properties.
After giving the others a chance to examine them, he stowed them in his haversack and moved to the door at the eastern end of the room. "Ready!"
Lead by Ingolf and Jonah, the group moves into the warmer room to the east.
Charred stone walkways cross over a shallow pool of boiling water in this room's center. A sturdy treasure chest is bolted to the floor in the northeast corner. A red, fist-sized orb floats three feet above the room's center.
The air here is blistering, and you feel your lungs burn with each new breath.
The water in the pools below are 2 feet deep.
To your surprise a construct made of ice protects the orb here. A rime of frost coats it, and razor-sharp shards of ice adorn its limbs.
The guardian is slow to react, giving you the opportunity to act first.
Jonah moves up to just in the doorway. he warns the others
some sort of ice monster! in a fire room... weird.
Jonah takes aim at the orb instead of the monster, trying to shatter it like the previous ones
Ingolf declared, "Let's make this fast!" He recited a prayer to Gozreh and moved forward to the edge of the nearest pool.
The druid sees the creature but doesn't know what it could be. "What is that thing?" Seeing that it is slow, he throws an aggressive thundercloud at it.
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"Wait! It's an ice golem!" Tonny frantically starts waving his arms before Splits can channel his magic. "It's immune to magic - wait, are you calling your stormcloud? Oh, that's wonderful! Professor Sissilb couldn't explain why, but it's an observed phenomenon that electric damage slows down an ice golem even if it doesn't actually hurt it. Normally I'd recommend fire, but, um, it might have something warding it against the heat since it should really be puddle right now. Oh, and tell Ebba to be careful when attacking because it's very cold and she could get frostbite. And whatever you do, don't try to freeze it!" The scholar has to stop to catch his breath at this point.
Adriana isn't sure if it's deliberate irony or a bad joke, but an ice golem holding its own in the humid room didn't amuse her, but she did heed Tonny's advice as she carefully approached the hulking ice sculpture with Ingolf.
"Tonny, is it immune to all magic? Is there nothing we could try?"
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“So, like, magic that creates heat or flames should affect it as it would anything else. Well, maybe affect it even more. But given how it’s still existing in this hot room, I’m suspicious that there’s some sort of ward or protection against fire. And don’t freeze it because that just repairs any damage it might have suffered. And electric magic slows it down, like I said before. Outside of those specific elements, it’s effectively immune to spells and magical effects. Well, except for those that don’t affect it directly - like conjuring a slippery puddle or a pit underneath it. Can any of us do that?”
Jonah is the first to react, he attempts to break the orb before anything else. His arrow flies through the air and strikes true at the fire orb that breaks the hard surface. The orb bursts into a explosion of fire taking everyone 10 feet around!
The burst takes the golem totally unprepared. The flames crack its icy surface in many places!
Recovering from the initial shock, the group reposition while Tonny gives opportune advice and Ingolf blesses everyone.
Splits' thunder cloud blasts the golem with electricity. The golem staggers and starts moving slower.
The ice golem steps forward, but staggered by Splits' magic, it can only manage a single slam.
That Adriana dodges with a timely jump to the side.
Ingolf requests, "Adriana, can you step around the guardian so I can attack it?"
The druid keeps the cloud going, "It seems that helped!"
He was excited to see the spell do... something.
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The explosion of fire takes Adriana by surprise for a moment, but she's bought back as both Ingolf asks her to move and the golem recoils from the unexpected explosion, and she nods once to Ingolf before rushing forward in an attempt to pull the golems attention from the others.
"All right then, come and get me!" She shouts and rushes into the small gap as its unwieldy fist crashes down nearby, prepared to take a blow as she turns suddenly and strikes the creature from behind.
Ingolf unleashed his pent-up anger on the elemental, urging Ebba forward and striking at the guardian.
Ebba tried to gore the strange creature.
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Jonah yells in delight as the orb explodes into fire Whooo! take that snowflake! guess it's not fully warded against fire!
he then collects himself and fires off two more arrows at the ice monster.
Splits keeps the thundercloud going, the icy golem sparkles in shock, expanding the slowing duration as it is hit by the electricity.
The ice golem takes his opportunity to slam his cold hand on Adriana's back as she moves around him and despite Tonny's best efforts.
The inquisitor's attack strikes true, thanks to Split's slowness and Ingolf's flank but her scimitar is not fully effective.
Ingolf and Ebba manage to flank the humanoid shaped construct, and acting faster than him, they strike all their attacks, but the gnome's magical kukri barely manages a scratch .
If that was not enough, Jonah rounds off the kill with a couple of well placed arrows that are only partially resisted by the icy surface.
With the orb destroyed the heat in the room slowly starts to drop.
In the middle of the chamber remains a well locked chest.
two matching wands (wand of flame sphere and wand of cure moderate wounds, both with 10 charges)
Resting between the two wands is a set of ceremonial robes (500 gp) which conceal a magical headband.
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"Ah!!... Oh, phew! I was certain it was going to explode when it was destroyed." Tonny wipes his brow before turning his attention to the chest. "That's... Um, that's a really thick lock. I'll, uh... I'll see what I can do." Slowly the scholar gets to work.
"You know, this is kinda like when we had to jury-rig the lock on the classroom door in Professor Gindle's second year course on astronomy and astrology and how the two fields were related, but not at all the same thing. Not that the door got locked on purpose - the room had just gotten so cold that the metal shrank and the little lever holding the latch open fell out of place and so the latch fell and the lock engaged, but the classroom is supposed to be locked from the outside so there wasn't a keyhole on the inside and it took almost every hat pin in the classroom to wriggle the latch back up and onto the lever..."
Tonny tries and tries for a couple of minutes of recalling previous lessons and class experiences until, finally, the lock is triggered and he opens the chest.
Within, he finds two matching wands and resting between the two is a set of ceremonial robes which conceal a magical headband.
wand of flame sphere with 10 charges
wand of cure moderate wounds with 10 charges
Headband of alluring charisma +2
Ingolf examined the magic items to determine their properties, but was unsuccessful, "Sorry, I make out what they do. I'll have to try again after a night's rest"
"Excellent work. That only leaves one left."
He takes some time eying the magical items that Tonny finds, "It seems we have a couple of magic wands here. One that can control an orb of flame and another that cures wounds... More powerful that my currently enchanted one."
He holds the headband in his hand, "Ceremonial robes concealing this?" Moving toward Ingolf, he holds the item aloft, "It should inspire more leadership." His hands move across the symbols, "Perhaps you could use it."
Joonah eyes the magical items with a skeptical look as none of them look particularly dangerous. Splits seems excited about them though, and he trusts the others to make good use of magical enhancements.
Well, that went better than I expected when i saw the beast! so that's three orbs down. probably one more to go? back to the platform?
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Ingolf had a final look around the chamber to make sure they hadn't missed anything.
He chimed in, "Yup, let's go. One more passage off the platform, I think."
Ebba touches her snout as she freeze a bit when attacking the golem, but she is otherwise ok.
After identifying some of the items, the party traces back their steps and floats in the platform to the remaining opening in the center of the temple.
Double doors etched with geometric swirls and curves representing wind stand at the top of the short flight of stairs to the north of this landing. The left door has a small keyhole.
You do remember the family brass key Zaahku of the Song'o village of Cahshil gave you. It has a shape that fits nicely in the keyhole here.
You find the doors are trapped. The trap is magical, but using the proper key in the door would not trigger the trap.
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Tonny starts to dig frantically in his pockets. “The key! Where did it go? The one from Zaahku of the Song’o - she said it calmed the fury of the winds, and here’s a wind door with a keyhole. Did I drop it? Oh no, we don’t have to retrace our steps. Did I even have it in the first place? Oh no oh no…”
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Ingolf said, "Hold on, I'm sure I have that here somewhere." He spent a few minutes searching, cursing under his breath at the malevolent spirits , who loved to rearrange important items like this. Finally he produced the brass key, "Aha!"
He examined the double doors of the gate exclaiming, "The doors are trapped — good thing we have the proper key, which bypasses that!" He inserted the key and turned it, unlocking the Wind Gate.
Tonny starts bringing plant samples out of his pouch going crazy on not finding such important item. Ingolf as well starts bringing stuff out of his backpack, the spirits around them make fall a few items before the gnome is able to locate the brass key.
With brisk enthusiasm he places it in the lock and... a sudden breeze fills the hall and the doors open letting you access deep inside the temple!
Dull, waxy hives line the walls of this chamber, spilling honey into filthy, insect-laden pools on the floor. Cobwebs fill the space between hives, and a stairway to the west leads up toward the howl of intense winds somewhere beyond.
Inside the webs you spot three giant spiders carefully watching you. They are in the ceiling 10 feet over the ground.
You spot a niche hidden behind one leaky, waxen wall, which contains three sealed jars of giant royal jelly (100 gp each) and a magical pearl of power.
Peering cautiously into the room after Ingolf opens the doors without triggering the traps, the insect and cobweb paraphernalia putting her on edge, and she peers upwards and almost recoils as she points with her scimitar. "Up there! Spiders!" she warns, keeping the three arachnids within her field of vision.
Something glints in the corner of her eye, but Adriana is unwilling to take her eyes of the three spiders just yet.
"They might be guarding treasure, there's something past the wall."
Unable to take his eyes off of the spiders, the druid wonders if he could end this peacefully, but recognizes quickly that animals and arachnids were very different.
Adriana quickly identifies the danger posed by the spiders and let the group know about them.
The group can surprise the spiders if you wish so, as they were unprepared for your arrival.
Jonah follows Adriana's pointing and spots the spiders.
he shots at the one he has a cleaner line to (blue)
he quickly pulls out two more arrows and just keeps shooting!
With a swift succession of arrows, Jonah gets rid of two of the spiders, demonstrating why he is an expert hunter.
The remaining spider would look in horror the slaughter, if not for her being immune to fear.
The druid takes the wand from earlier and channels its magic at the spiders.
"Stay back!"
Ingolf put away his morningstar, since the spiders were too high got him to reach with it. "I see them!"
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Tonny fumbles with his whip and tries to remember what kind of spiders these are. “So it’s been a while since I took Professor Cardile’s course on arachnids, but I think from those green splotches they might be… Or wait, maybe that’s just their insides on the outside of their skeletons now. Exoskeletons are fascinating - you know, there was this one student who always said that giant spiders were physically impossible because they can’t move enough air into their bodies and by all accounts should have suffocated the moment they got larger than a dinner plate…”
Eyes locked onto the remaining spider, Adriana simply keeps her scimitar pointed and waits; should the spider advance on them, she'll be ready to strike.
Splits draws a wand while Ingolf prepares for his lucern hammer.
Tonny advises about how to better face the spider and Adriana readies her scimitar for the case the spider comes down to attack.
The spider sees the human by the door and spits a web net at her.
The web coils around Adriana's head.
Ingolf moved up and stabbed at one of the spiders with his polearm, "Now I can reach you!"
Tonny looks through his alchemicals and finds a product he thinks might help Adriana out of the webbing.
Equipped now with his reach weapon, Ingolf gives a good whack to the spider in the ceiling.
Split uses the wand to create a burning ball of fire in the ceiling, just over the spider.
The flames ignite the webbing around and an instant later the spider is squeaking with horrible screams as it is scorched on the druid's magics.
Coming from the west, you can hear the howling of extreme winds.