"Yeah," one of the scavengers says, point towards a stone wall surrounding a courtyard a few blocks away. "She comes and goes in that old place. Full of herself, she is. Doesn't share nothing."
Following the man's directions, you carefully approach what turns out to the be ruins of a martial monastery with a massive training yard littered with rusted and ruined athletic equipment. The walls are limestone and basalt. You pass what look like two shrines to Iori.
Over four reasonably intact walls, you note that there is a bamboo thatched roof that could not have survived the centuries of abandonment. The doors, however, are missing.
There are several chambers with musty bedrolls. The largest of the chambers, which has been recently roofed, has a door in the center of the floor. Opening it reveals a spiral staircase descending toward an arch with flickering light. You descend carefully, finding no traps or other troubles, until you emerge into a large antechamber.
Heavy, brass double doors stand across from the stairs, and there is an obvious keyhole. There are open doors to your left, your right, and on the same wall from which you are emerging. Torches in sconces flicker along the walls, and you can see torchlight through the open doors.
Tawny Deer hears the sound of someone talking beyond the doorway to the left .
"Channel your anger to unleash the flaming talons of vengeance!" a stern, feminine voice calls out as Nal listens. "No! Not like that! Stop fidgeting! That pain you feel is nothing compared to the pain of defeat! That's right! Get angry! Use it!"
Tawny can see a figure pacing in the other chamber as she shouts instructions and admonishments. She wears a single braid down the side of her head, the rest of her scalp shaved.
"Wait!" she shouts at whoever she is speaking to and then turns toward the antechamber. "We have guests. Welcome! Welcome to the Temple of Unforgiving Flame. Come and join my students and me."
She makes a friendly enough beckoning gesture.
"Come. Bring your half-elven friend," she says to Tawny Deer, ending any hope that Nal was unnoticed. "Tell me what you seek here? Do you come to enroll as students?"
Elariel moves close enough in the chamber to sense for magical energy near the woman. Wherever it emanates from, she does sense a new source of magic within thirty feet of herself.
Her bearing seems wary and on edge. She does not trust you, but she does not seem imminently hostile toward you.
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Lingering near the doorway, but making sure not to block it, Elariel scans the area for anything matching the description of the missing statue. She is not comfortable with this situation but doesn't want to do anything to alert the woman and put her more on edge either. She stays silent, waiting for one of her companions to take the lead in speaking for now.
There is no basalt statue within sight. There are several four foot tall platforms covered in burning coals.
Grex finds no large, basalt statue within sight of his position.
"There's more of you, I can hear," the woman says. "Please--"
"Master, can we get down?" a masculine voice asks.
"No! You will not show weakness in front of potential students!" she snaps back over her left shoulder. She continues more politely with you, "I am Master Sanvara. I once studied at the Monastery of Unblinking Flame. It was there that I discovered scrolls left behind by my ancestors that describe an ancient and forgotten technique. When I brought this to the Masters of Unblinking Flame, they instructed me to destroy them and forbade me from using the technique--my own ancestors' technique--so I left and took my heritage with me.
"I am currently teaching my students the Rain of Embers kata, a form developed by my ancestors to honor the great phoenix Pyralisia, who sacrificed herself during the Second Mendevian Crusade to prevent hordes of demons from escaping through the World Wound."
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Once "Master" Sanvara calls her out specifically, Nal slips just barely into the room, doing her best impression of a doorpost: ramrod straight and expressionless. Her solid black eyes flick about the room, cataloging its features and inhabitants. In response to Sanvara's little introduction, Nal's left eyebrow abandons its post, gliding toward her hairline. This one is telling parts of truths, but are we seeing a true picture?
"Master, can we get down?"
A man and a woman each stand atop one of the pedestals. They shift their position atop the burning coals as they attempt to hold a combat pose. Sweat soaks their tunics and beads on the foreheads as they train.
"You ask enough questions to be students. If you want to know more, you will need to prove yourselves worthy," Sanvara says. "Compete against my students in the Trial of Embers, and I will allow you to learn the secrets of the Unforgiving Flame."
"The trial of embers?" the man asks, swallowing hard.
"What's that?" the woman asks.
"Yute, Uskrani, be silent and wait! I will explain everything if our visitors agree to the challenge," she scolds them.
"Yes, Master," they say in unison.
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With Tawny bravely stepping forward, Pan decides that it is no longer feasible to keep hiding. 'sides, if they were crazed evil cultists, he is sure they would have done something ... exciting by now. Coming out casually from the corner as if he has simply be waiting outside, he joins those inside the room. "Yeah, tell us about this trial."
Sanvara turns to her two students and says, "Now you may step down. Drink. Rest."
"Yes, master," the two say in near unison. Each clambers down from their respective pedestal and hobbles over to the wall to drink from waterskins hung from the wall.
"The Trial of Embers is a simple test of speed and strength. Nothing so grueling as what my students have been practicing. So, you see, you will have the advantage. You will compete against my two students in a series of three challenges," she says, turning back to you. You note there is a key hanging from a chain around Sanvara's neck.
"The first test will be the beginning step in learning the Cinder Palm Strike. You may have noticed the cinderwisps--remnants of the ancient efreeti that once dwelt upon Vedeesha--floating past the coals."
Now that she mentions it, you do, occasionally, see what look from this distance to merely be floating embers. They blink in and out of existence at random.
"You will stand next to a braizer and strike out to catch a cinderwisp before it disappears," she says, and then begins to demonstrate the proper technique. "Choose no more than two of your group to go against my two students." She snaps her hand with remarkable speed as a glowing mote appears over the coals and snatches it out of existence. She opens her hand to reveal a tiny, glowing red crystal.
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Elariel frowns. This is ridiculous. Who does she think she is, asking us to play her games to get information?! We have better things to do that to learn some mundane fighting technique! I am certainly not engaging in her inane "trial" to - oh! She catches her breath as Sanvara catches the cinderwisp. Now that IS interesting!
Elariel steps up to Sanvara to peer more closely at the cinderwisp.
"Very good," Sanvara says. "Do you have a second challenger?"
"I am glad to see that you're eager," Sanvara says to Grex. "But I only have two students to challenge your six. You can certainly take part in the next challenge."
Round 1.
Tawny Deer
Nal
Yute
Uskrani
Tawny Deer distracts a wisp as it appears and then snatches it with his other hand. There is a puff of flame and smoke. When he opens his hand, he finds a tiny, flickering red crystal there.
Round 1.
Tawny Deer
Nal
Yute
Uskrani
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Nal lets Tawny go first, carefully watching the wisps to see how they react. A grin splits her face as he catches one, her white teeth gleaming starkly against her dark lips. Taking a steadying breath, she assumes her position, her expression narrowing to intense focus. She slowly raises her hands, then flashes them forward to catch her own little wisp in carefully cupped fingers.
"The first to catch three gets to keep theirs," Sanvara answers Elariel.
Nal manages to catch her own cinderwisp, snuffing it out and obtaining her own heartspark. "Good work for beginners," she says with a begrudging node.
The two disciples try to trick the cinderwisps, but their movements are too obvious and both come away empty handed. "Do better!" she admonishes her students.
Round 2.
Tawny Deer (1 success)
Nal (1 success)
Yute
Uskrani
Tawny and Nal demonstrate continued proficiency. They make it look easy. You can see than Sanvara is clenching her jaw as the two succeed at catching another heartspark each. The grinding of teeth is audible when Uskrani misses her cinderwisp. Yute, fortunately, manages to save face by catching one.
"With three, you have the necessary reagents to perform the cinderpalm strike," Sanvara answers flatly. "Go again."
Round 3
Tawny Deer (2 success)
Nal (2 success)
Yute (1 success)
Uskrani
Nal suddenly snaps her hand forward, quick as a snake. She opens her palm, tendrils of smoke still training from between her fingers, and reveals two heartsparks.
"Well done," Sanvara says with strained pleasantness. She glares at her two students who have the wisdom to look crestfallen and ashamed in front of their master. "Please wait here. I will get what is needed to practice the iron talon grip."
Sanvara leaves the training room and goes into the antechamber. There she unlocks the large, brass double doors and enters.
Once during this adventure, you can use an Interact action to crush the
heartsparks you captured in your hand, granting an extra 1d6 fire damage to your next melee Strike.
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Elariel wages an internal battle. On the one hand, she finds this silly trial beneath her. She also doesn't want to interrupt the process and show disrespect to her companions. On the other hand...these cinderwisps are fascinating and it would be so great to have one of those crystals.
Instead, she casts Detect Magic, making sure to include the crystals in the cone. Her plan is to face different parts of the room to see if she can determine where any magic is located, but she starts first with the crystal in Nal's hand. This is partly because she is fascinated by the crystals and partly because she wants to see if Sanvara notices, though this quickly becomes a moot point as Sanvara exits the room.
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Elariel wages an internal battle. On the one hand, she finds this silly trial beneath her. She also doesn't want to interrupt the process and show disrespect to her companions. On the other hand...these cinderwisps are fascinating and it would be so great to have one of those crystals.
Instead, she casts Detect Magic, making sure to include the crystals in the cone. Her plan is to face different parts of the room to see if she can determine where any magic is located, but she starts first with the crystal in Nal's hand. This is partly because she is fascinated by the crystals and partly because she wants to see if Sanvara notices or seems bothered by the casting.
Tawny Deer manages to catch another cinderwisp, adding injury to insult against the two students as they wait for their master to return. Sanvara returns shortly enough. You see her emerge from the brass doors carrying a hefty-sized basalt statue of a monk in meditation. She sets down the statue and closes the door, locking them behind herself. She picks the statue back up, muscles tense with the effort, and carries it into the training room, setting it down beside a large gong.
"The iron talon grip is the special grips and hand holds developed by my ancestors," she tells you. "It represents the strength in Pyralisia's talons. You must grab hold of the statue, and in one swift movement lift and swing it so the bottom strikes the gong and generates a clear sound."
She takes the time to demonstrate various holds on the statue and the technique for lifting and swinging, though she swings it through the air rather than striking the gong and demonstrates remarkable control of the weight.
"Who do you send to challenge my students in this trial?" she asks.