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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 6117712" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 65 - THE MAGMA MAGE</strong></p><p></p><p>PC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Telgrane, human conjurer/archmage</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> Thunderwolf, human fighter</p><p></p><p>NPC Roster: <p style="margin-left: 20px">Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter</p><p></p><p>The heroes walked out of the castle in the capitol city of Kordovia, having briefed Lord Hammershard on the results of their expedition to the Lockpick Dungeons. (They left out the part where they had traveled there accidentally.) Now that Lord Vandergrotten, his doppelganger assassin, and his hired band of cutthroats and mercenaries had been dealt with, it was hoped that Galrich's eventual ascension to the throne of Kordovia would go smoothly, when the time came.</p><p></p><p>The group discussed among themselves whether they wanted to head back to Greyhawk City - Delphyne had a <em>greater teleport</em> spell ready - or spend the rest of the day in Kordovia as long as they were there. Infernia was out of her tinder box, enjoying the sunshine and a conversation with her master about his new <em>robe of the archmagi</em>, upon which he had splurged recently after having finally attained the title of "Archmage" after years of arcane study. It had cost him nearly every piece of gold he had - and that only after having eventually found a buyer for his portion of the <em>wand of infinity</em> (which Telgrane disparaging referred to as his "sparkly wand," for its powers were severely diminished in sunlight). The group now knew that Daestas the baelnorn was actively trying to prevent them from combining all three pieces of the <em>wand of infinity</em>, and Telgrane figured selling his piece would not only bring him a fair bit of coin, but also hopefully get the good-intentioned undead off of the group's collective backs.</p><p></p><p>"You look very handsome in your new robes, Master."</p><p></p><p>"Well, thank you, Infernia. I just hope the combat benefits prove to be worth the expenditure."</p><p></p><p>"Just how poor are you, now, Telgrane?" asked Thunderwolf.</p><p></p><p>"Well, let's just say if I converted all of my spare cash into gold coins, I could carry all of it inside a single glove. I wouldn't be against delving into some treasure-laden dungeon right about now."</p><p></p><p>"Whoa!" yelped Infernia in sudden surprise. Telgrane looked down at his familiar, who had been walking next to him. "What's the matter?" he asked, concern in his voice.</p><p></p><p>"I don't know, Master, I just-- There! It happened again! Did you see?"</p><p></p><p>Telgrane had indeed. His fire elemental familiar, in an effort to fit in, habitually assumed the form of what she considered to be an attractive humanoid female shape; while only about three feet tall, she generally conformed to a female human build, although the curving horns were probably inspired by the efreet who lived on her home plane. And while she had been in this standard form, for one brief moment the flames of her body had elongated and stretched out to the northeast, as if a sudden, hurricane gust of wind had blown her flames in that direction. It had only lasted for a second or so, and then she had resumed her normal form. But it happened again a few seconds again, and then again a few seconds after that, each time with even more force than the previous times.</p><p></p><p>"What is happening, Master?" asked Infernia, more than a trace of fear in her voice.</p><p></p><p>"I'm not sure," admitted Telgrane. "Maybe it would be best if you jumped back into your tinder box for now." He opened up the tinder box, and Infernia condensed her body into a thin pillar of fire, arcing it into her travel case as she had done many times in the past, ready to assume her ember form once she had landed properly - but then her arc of flame unwillingly veered away from the tinder box at the last moment, angling over to the northeast, to land several feet away from her intended target. She resumed her humanoid form and looked desperate. "Help me, Master!" she cried. "I am being tugged away!"</p><p></p><p>Sure enough, she was: every few heartbeats or so, an invisible gust of wind seemed to blow her flames to the northeast, now strong enough to drag her a few feet away in that direction. She tired herself out running in place for awhile, getting dragged away and then running back to where she had been before getting dragged back again. But whatever was causing the effect was definitely growing stronger, and she started losing ground.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne looked in the direction Infernia was being tugged, and saw only a volcanic mountain range in the distance. "What's causing this?" she wondered aloud.</p><p></p><p>"Who knows?" replied Telgrane, a bit of desperation apparent in his voice now. "But we need to find out, and put a stop to it!"</p><p></p><p>By this time, the group was jogging alongside the road leading out of the city and to the mountains, trying to keep up with the poor fire elemental who was being dragged further and further away with each handful of heartbeats. "We're going to lose her at this rate!" warned Delphyne. "We need to be able to keep up!" Coming to a snap decision, she pulled out her <em>broom of flying</em> and ordered Thunderwolf to hop on behind her. "We'll be right back!" she called to the others, before heading back to the city at full speed.</p><p></p><p>Ten minutes later, the rest of the group was much further down the road, running almost at a sprint to keep up with an increasingly-frantic Infernia, when Thunderwolf and Delphyne rode up on a pair of horses, each pulling another pair behind them on long leads. There were certain perks to be had by being an adventuring companion to the future king of Kordovia, and the instant, no-questions-asked loan of a half dozen horses was just one of them. The others mounted up, and now on horseback had a much easier time keeping up with the errant fire elemental.</p><p></p><p>"I do not like this, Master!" Infernia cried.</p><p></p><p>"Hang in there, Infernia!" called Telgrane. "We'll see what's causing this and put a stop to it!"</p><p></p><p>Infernia's unwilling path took the group straight to the mountains; a cave opening blocked by a massive boulder seemed to be the intended destination. Sure enough, Infernia's small, fiery body was whisked through a narrow gap between the cave wall and the boulder, an opening much too small to permit the passage of any of the heroes. "Hang on, Infernia, we're coming!" called Telgrane, as he leapt off his horse and appraised the situation. "Any ideas?" he asked the group at large.</p><p></p><p>"Stand aside," commanded Cal, as he dismounted his horse and walked up to the boulder, cracking his knuckles in preparation for a mighty feat of strength. Calling upon the power of Kord, Lord of Strength, he lifted the massive boulder, easily half again as high as a man, and pulled it away from the cave opening. The light from Infernia's flames was just disappearing down a high ledge in the back of the cave, and her plaintive cries for help chilled Telgrane's blood. He raced into the cave, eager to come to the aid of his faithful familiar.</p><p></p><p>He did not expect to see a dire bear to his right, angry at being awakened from his nap. Nor did he expect to see an enormous cyclops, easily four times the height of a man, rise up from his sleeping furs over to the left and grab up a massive stone hammer, equally angered at the sudden intrusion. But then a thought crossed the giant's simple mind, and a single word from the guttural Giant language spilled from his lips.</p><p></p><p>Delphyne was the only one familiar with the word, thanks to the unwanted partial memories of Hagatha taking up residence in her brain; it meant "Breakfast!"</p><p></p><p>Galrich and Aerik leaped forward, weapons drawn, and attacked the dire bear, the closest of the two opponents. Cal and Thunderwolf followed, heading for the cyclops. Delphyne mounted her broom and flew up out of the range of the dire bear, trying to see if she could see where Infernia had been dragged. And Telgrane, eager to get this time-wasting battle over with as soon as possible, summoned one of the most powerful allies he could: a greater fire elemental. Perhaps sensing his preferences, it took on a distinctively feminine form as it manifested.</p><p></p><p>"How may I serve y--" it started to ask, before its fiery form was sucked across the cave, up to the ledge, and down a curving passageway all in the blink of an eye. It was an interesting data point - whatever was pulling Infernia in hadn't targeted just her, but was apparently affecting all fire elementals in the general vicinity - but it came at a rather high cost, for Telgrane had just burned one of his highest-level spells with no combat effect.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, the cyclops and his pet dire bear weren't sure what was going on with all of these fire-people flitting around in their cave, but they were more interested in grabbing and eating some of the fleshy ones in any case. The cyclops swung its massive hammer in a wide arc and clobbered Delphyne off of her broom; she was thrown across the cave and landed in a heap, her broom crashing down at the giant's feet. The world teetered in darkness for a moment as she nearly blacked out, but being thrown so far away from the combat actually worked in her favor, giving her the time to swig down a healing potion and cast a <em>stoneskin</em> upon herself. Then, holding out her hand, she called her broom to her, and it flew across the cave to reach her. She mounted up and was ready to resume the battle - but by that time it was nearly over. Galrich and Aerik had just finished off the powerful dire bear, and were moving over to give Cal and Thunderwolf a hand with the mighty cyclops. Thunderwolf seemed especially appreciative, perhaps realizing he was a bit out of his league against such a powerful foe.</p><p></p><p>Telgrane, in the meantime, had cast a <em>levitate</em> spell upon himself and was hand-walking across the ceiling over to the ledge. He opened his mind to the mental link he had with Infernia, and was almost immediately sorry he had; the images he was receiving were of a large cavern spinning around and around on a wobbly axis. It was almost as if he were running around in circles in the center of a cavernous subterranean room. He closed down the link for now and continued hand-walking himself over to the ledge, trying to clear his head of the dizziness his brief vision had given him.</p><p></p><p>The heroes finished off the cyclops shortly, and Delphyne offered to bring the horses into the relative safety of the cave while the guys started climbing up to the ledge, confident that she could easily catch up to them with her broom. It wasn't an easy climb, but they managed okay, and Delphyne caught up with them without fail shortly after they'd all gotten up to the higher level.</p><p></p><p>There was a passageway at the rear of the ledge that angled downwards, deeper into the mountain. Telgrane had sprinted ahead against all reason, too eager to try to catch up to his kidnapped familiar to wait for the protection of the rest of the group. But he wasn't so far ahead that they weren't able to catch up to him before they all got to the large cavern just beyond.</p><p></p><p>There was plenty of light in this cavern, provided by a ring of orange flames in the center of the open space. A deep-voiced chanting emanated from the unseen center of the ring of flames. Standing just outside the ring, in defensive postures, were two magma brutes - some of the heroes had encountered one of this strange breed during their combat with the Cult of the Far Realm. Upon seeing the heroes enter the cavern, the two magma brutes turned in their direction and charged. Another pair of magma brutes rushed in from either side of the ring, making four in all, and from inside the ring came nine fire bats, flapping toward the heroes.</p><p></p><p>Before the charging fire monsters reached the group, Telgrane pinpointed Infernia's voice, calling out "Help me, Master!" It was coming from various points around the ring of fire - indeed, it was as if Infernia were being rotated at great speed along the flame-wall's outer circumference. Telgrane deduced that the circular wall of flames was made up of fire elementals like the one he had just summoned and his own familiar; this supposition was reinforced by the sudden appearance of a Medium fire elemental from another passageway down the left side of the cavern, practically flying through the air to be absorbed into the ring of flames.</p><p></p><p>Frantically, the spellcasters cast various spells protecting their number from fire, seeing as that was likely to be a deciding factor in the battle to come. Galrich stood where he was and wielded his greatsword, ready to strike the first magma brute to get close enough, but his preparations were ruined by Aerik stepping in front of him to shield his liege from harm. Galrich snorted and stepped off to the side, ready to strike. Unfortunately, the fire bats got there first, and they dived at the heroes, trying futilely to set them ablaze while they clamped on with their sharp, coal-colored teeth. Galrich was swarmed by three of the flying fiends, while Aerik dealt with another two and the rest of the swarm headed for the other heroes.</p><p></p><p>Before Cal jumped into combat, he took a quick moment to assess the situation. Someone was chanting inside the ring of flames, which was where the fire bats had come from; it was likely that the chanting was calling forth these creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire, and preventing more of them from being summoned seemed like a pretty good first priority. With that in mind, Cal cast a <em>silence</em> spell on the space at the center of the wall of flames, which rose up 25 feet from the cavern's floor. Then he had to devote his attention to the magma brute that was almost upon him. He readied his <em>hammer of frost</em> for the beast's attack.</p><p></p><p>Unseen by Cal - or any of the other heroes - the ring of flames hid a crude pentagram carved into the stone floor. Standing inside this pentagram was a fire giant spellcaster by the name of <strong>Ignus Bloodstone</strong>, whose ritual chanting had suddenly been silenced by the cleric's spell. Just outside the pentagram but inside the wall of flames were Ignus's two bodyguards, stone giants he had infused with magma powers, and whose black skin cracked with the veins of liquid fire contained within their powerful bodies. Ignus had been performing a complicated ritual which called forth all fire elementals from a great distance away to create his protective wall of flames; opened a simultaneous gate to both the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth; and had just summoned five thoqquas to his side. Had he been allowed to continue, the gate would have become permanent; as it was, this cavern in the Material Plane was attuned to the Elemental Planes of Earth and Fire, and the creatures within it were as comfortable - and as powerful - as if they were on their home planes. It wasn't a permanent effect, thanks to Cal's timely spellcasting, but it would last long enough for Ignus and his allies to deal with these interlopers. At the fire giant's silent hand gestures, the thoqquas each positioned themselves at the five points of the pentagram and started burrowing downward, while the magma stone giants strode unharmed through the wall of flames and headed into battle beside the magma brutes and the fire bats.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, the fire bats proved to be fairly weak opponents, and a <em>cone of cold</em> from Delphyne had taken care of most of their number; sadly, this was the only such spell she had prepared, and Telgrane, whose spell preferences tended to lean towards the fire-based effects, found himself with most of his prepared spells likely to be completely useless against creatures who hailed from the Elemental Plane of Fire. Thus, the newly-titled archmage found himself ignoring most of his prepared spells and falling back on a <em>wand of magic missiles</em>.</p><p></p><p>Still unsure of what might be lurking behind the wall of flames, Cal decided to summon something powerful to go deal with whatever might be there. He stepped back from his current battle with a magma brute and summoned an elder earth elemental in the center of the ring, commanding it to destroy any creatures it found there. As it manifested within the shielded wall of leaping flames, Cal didn't see it appear, and definitely didn't see it shake off the compulsion to obey the edicts of the human cleric who had summoned it to this plane. He was unaware that it had sunk into the stone floor of the cavern and traveled underground in his direction until it suddenly popped up behind him and pounded him with its boulderlike fists.</p><p></p><p>This caused a shift in the balance of power in the wild, free-for-all melee that was massing over at the side of the cavern. Ignus was left alone inside the circular wall of flames he had constructed, as the adventurers had all they could handle dealing with the magma stone giants and magma brutes, the few remaining fire bats, and now an enraged elder earth elemental. Furthermore, both Cal and Telgrane had been successfully conditioned not to summon anything to their aid, each having seen their powerful allies either whisked away out of the fight or actively used against them. They didn't see the results of the thoqquas' vertical burrowing, as the jagged furrows forming the crude pentagram on the stone cavern floor filled up with magma from deeper below, giving greater power to Ignus and his ritual.</p><p></p><p>However, despite all of these frustrations and limitations, the adventurers were far from helpless. Cal stepped back out of reach of his latest combatant and cast a <em>blade barrier</em> spell that ran the length of the entire cavern, cutting through two of the magma brutes when it first manifested. This had the effect of keeping the majority of the enemies on the other side of the barrier, allowing the heroes to focus on a smaller number of foes at one time, although the elder earth elemental was able to sink below the spell's effect and reappear on the other side of the whirling blades without harm. It suddenly shifted its attention from Cal to Telgrane, pounding him mercilessly with his stony fists, and more than once the young archmage had to receive healing from Cal to remain in the fight. He also took the opportunity to try out one of the new spells he had recently learned, casting <em>polymorph</em> on himself to assume the form of a Large gold dragon.</p><p></p><p>And then, in the midst of the chaos of the battle, the wall of flames shifted and started coalescing into a different shape. The sheet of flames lowered, exposing the grinning - if silent - form of Ignus Bloodstone to the group for the first time, while the ring shortened itself into a shorter arc and eventually became a greater flame snake. At the fire giant's beckoning hand, the flame snake hissed and writhed into place over by the <em>blade barrier</em>. Rising up, it shot a cone-shaped blast of dark fire from its mouth, catching both Telgrane - in gold dragon form - and Thunderwolf in its area of effect. The fire was laced with negative energy, which sapped at the very life force of the two heroes. And as the serpent of flames attacked the archmage and the young fighter, a small voice from somewhere in its midsection - a voice recognizable to Telgrane as that of his kidnapped familiar - cried out in horror at this turn of events.</p><p></p><p>Ignus did his best to join in the fray, but the <em>blade barrier</em> was a formidable impediment, and the fire giant's sorcerer spell selection was somewhat limited. As the heroes were now all shielded from fire-based magic, Ignus found himself in the same boat as Telgrane: by focusing on fire spells, all of his more powerful spells were of limited use against his present foes. One by one, the adventurers were cutting down his allies; even the massive elder earth elemental had eventually been slain. Once the enemies on their side of the <em>blade barrier</em> had been dealt with, the heroes all gathered around Delphyne (Telgrane having resumed his human form by this point), who used her <em>greater teleport</em> spell to move to the far side of the cavern, where they could more effectively deal with their remaining foes.</p><p></p><p>Ignus saw his dreams of creating a permanent beachhead onto the Material Plane, a place where creatures from the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth could access this world at will, going up in smoke. But he fought on to the end, and was the next-to-last enemy to be slain, the final foe being the greater flame snake that had been called into being.</p><p></p><p>But Ignus wasn't the only ones with dreams. In the midst of the battle with the snake-formed living fire, Telgrane experienced what could only be described as a waking dream. He suddenly saw himself falling in battle, his lifeless form collapsing to the unyielding stone of the cavern. He then saw Infernia, by sheer force of will, rip herself from the greater flame snake's body, and rush over to collapse upon her fallen master. Finally, Telgrane saw the unnerving vision of his own body being immolated into a great sheet of flames, which eventually burned away to expose his fully restored body, which then sat up to reveal that it hadn't actually been restored as much as transformed - for his eyeballs had been burned away, leaving twin gouts of flame to leak out of his open sockets. Of Infernia there was no sight; her elemental body had been burned away to merge with that of her master, creating a gestalt being, part of each. And that's when Pinwhistle's divination struck Telgrane: "The burning desire in your heart will keep you alive when all seems lost."</p><p></p><p>And just as soon as it had happened, the waking dream vanished, and Telgrane was snapped back to reality. He blasted the greater flame snake with his <em>wand of magic missiles</em>, and it seemed only fitting that his was the final stroke which caused the serpentine creature to dissipate into harmless flame. The purloined fire elementals which had been used to comprise its body all disappeared as a candle flame being snuffed; all, that is, but for Infernia, who slowly stood up, stretched, and then - seeing her master unharmed - rushed over to him. "Master!" she cried. "You are unhurt!"</p><p></p><p>"As are you!" replied Telgrane with a smile, embracing his loyal familiar.</p><p></p><p>"Come on, let's get out of here," suggested Cal, dismissing the <em>blade barrier</em> which blocked their way.</p><p></p><p>"Hmmph!" snorted Galrich, looking around at the piles of slain enemies. "Not much in the way of treasure this time, was there?"</p><p></p><p>"Not so much," agreed Telgrane. "But I'm not complaining."</p><p></p><p> - - - </p><p></p><p>I don't mind admitting that this adventure was a deliberate attempt on my part to kill Telgrane. Not because I wanted him dead, but because I thought the sudden application of the half-fire elemental template (which would have been the result of his death and phoenixlike rebirth after Infernia's sacrifice) would be a pleasant surprise. To that end, I had prepared a new initiative card for him had this come to pass; it was the standard Telgrane initiative image with flames pouring out of his eyes. After the greater flame snake failed to kill Telgrane with his breath weapon, and I rolled a "4" when determining how long it would be before he could use it again, I confessed that I was actively trying to kill Telgrane, but I just didn't see as I had the firepower anymore to do so. When Logan wanted to know why I was trying to kill off his archmage, I explained the whole deal (including the true meaning of Pinwhistle's divination), and said I just didn't have the means at my disposal to kill him with the few enemies I had left.</p><p></p><p>Logan's response: "Try harder!" (At that point, he <em>wanted</em> Telgrane to get killed and come back as a half-fire elemental.) But I pointed out that even though I had actually had a desired end state for this adventure, I wasn't willing to get to my goal by simple DM fiat; events (and my dice) had conspired to prevent that outcome, so we'd press on with the current state of affairs. However, I did tell him that having had that "waking dream," there was nothing preventing Telgrane from researching the ways he might infuse himself with elemental fire energy, and in fact I had a sudden inspiration for an adventure based on just that. (The first thing to leap out at me was the name: "Baptism by Fire.") But that would be several adventures in the future.</p><p></p><p>But that's the tricky thing with divinations: things don't always play out as you expect, so it's always best to have a "Plan B" on hand.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 6117712, member: 508"] [b]ADVENTURE 65 - THE MAGMA MAGE[/b] PC Roster: [INDENT]Cal Trop, human cleric of Kord Delphyne Babelberi, human witch (wizard) Galrich Slayer, half-orc barbarian Telgrane, human conjurer/archmage Thunderwolf, human fighter[/INDENT] NPC Roster: [INDENT]Aerik Battershield, dwarven fighter[/INDENT] The heroes walked out of the castle in the capitol city of Kordovia, having briefed Lord Hammershard on the results of their expedition to the Lockpick Dungeons. (They left out the part where they had traveled there accidentally.) Now that Lord Vandergrotten, his doppelganger assassin, and his hired band of cutthroats and mercenaries had been dealt with, it was hoped that Galrich's eventual ascension to the throne of Kordovia would go smoothly, when the time came. The group discussed among themselves whether they wanted to head back to Greyhawk City - Delphyne had a [i]greater teleport[/i] spell ready - or spend the rest of the day in Kordovia as long as they were there. Infernia was out of her tinder box, enjoying the sunshine and a conversation with her master about his new [i]robe of the archmagi[/i], upon which he had splurged recently after having finally attained the title of "Archmage" after years of arcane study. It had cost him nearly every piece of gold he had - and that only after having eventually found a buyer for his portion of the [i]wand of infinity[/i] (which Telgrane disparaging referred to as his "sparkly wand," for its powers were severely diminished in sunlight). The group now knew that Daestas the baelnorn was actively trying to prevent them from combining all three pieces of the [i]wand of infinity[/i], and Telgrane figured selling his piece would not only bring him a fair bit of coin, but also hopefully get the good-intentioned undead off of the group's collective backs. "You look very handsome in your new robes, Master." "Well, thank you, Infernia. I just hope the combat benefits prove to be worth the expenditure." "Just how poor are you, now, Telgrane?" asked Thunderwolf. "Well, let's just say if I converted all of my spare cash into gold coins, I could carry all of it inside a single glove. I wouldn't be against delving into some treasure-laden dungeon right about now." "Whoa!" yelped Infernia in sudden surprise. Telgrane looked down at his familiar, who had been walking next to him. "What's the matter?" he asked, concern in his voice. "I don't know, Master, I just-- There! It happened again! Did you see?" Telgrane had indeed. His fire elemental familiar, in an effort to fit in, habitually assumed the form of what she considered to be an attractive humanoid female shape; while only about three feet tall, she generally conformed to a female human build, although the curving horns were probably inspired by the efreet who lived on her home plane. And while she had been in this standard form, for one brief moment the flames of her body had elongated and stretched out to the northeast, as if a sudden, hurricane gust of wind had blown her flames in that direction. It had only lasted for a second or so, and then she had resumed her normal form. But it happened again a few seconds again, and then again a few seconds after that, each time with even more force than the previous times. "What is happening, Master?" asked Infernia, more than a trace of fear in her voice. "I'm not sure," admitted Telgrane. "Maybe it would be best if you jumped back into your tinder box for now." He opened up the tinder box, and Infernia condensed her body into a thin pillar of fire, arcing it into her travel case as she had done many times in the past, ready to assume her ember form once she had landed properly - but then her arc of flame unwillingly veered away from the tinder box at the last moment, angling over to the northeast, to land several feet away from her intended target. She resumed her humanoid form and looked desperate. "Help me, Master!" she cried. "I am being tugged away!" Sure enough, she was: every few heartbeats or so, an invisible gust of wind seemed to blow her flames to the northeast, now strong enough to drag her a few feet away in that direction. She tired herself out running in place for awhile, getting dragged away and then running back to where she had been before getting dragged back again. But whatever was causing the effect was definitely growing stronger, and she started losing ground. Delphyne looked in the direction Infernia was being tugged, and saw only a volcanic mountain range in the distance. "What's causing this?" she wondered aloud. "Who knows?" replied Telgrane, a bit of desperation apparent in his voice now. "But we need to find out, and put a stop to it!" By this time, the group was jogging alongside the road leading out of the city and to the mountains, trying to keep up with the poor fire elemental who was being dragged further and further away with each handful of heartbeats. "We're going to lose her at this rate!" warned Delphyne. "We need to be able to keep up!" Coming to a snap decision, she pulled out her [i]broom of flying[/i] and ordered Thunderwolf to hop on behind her. "We'll be right back!" she called to the others, before heading back to the city at full speed. Ten minutes later, the rest of the group was much further down the road, running almost at a sprint to keep up with an increasingly-frantic Infernia, when Thunderwolf and Delphyne rode up on a pair of horses, each pulling another pair behind them on long leads. There were certain perks to be had by being an adventuring companion to the future king of Kordovia, and the instant, no-questions-asked loan of a half dozen horses was just one of them. The others mounted up, and now on horseback had a much easier time keeping up with the errant fire elemental. "I do not like this, Master!" Infernia cried. "Hang in there, Infernia!" called Telgrane. "We'll see what's causing this and put a stop to it!" Infernia's unwilling path took the group straight to the mountains; a cave opening blocked by a massive boulder seemed to be the intended destination. Sure enough, Infernia's small, fiery body was whisked through a narrow gap between the cave wall and the boulder, an opening much too small to permit the passage of any of the heroes. "Hang on, Infernia, we're coming!" called Telgrane, as he leapt off his horse and appraised the situation. "Any ideas?" he asked the group at large. "Stand aside," commanded Cal, as he dismounted his horse and walked up to the boulder, cracking his knuckles in preparation for a mighty feat of strength. Calling upon the power of Kord, Lord of Strength, he lifted the massive boulder, easily half again as high as a man, and pulled it away from the cave opening. The light from Infernia's flames was just disappearing down a high ledge in the back of the cave, and her plaintive cries for help chilled Telgrane's blood. He raced into the cave, eager to come to the aid of his faithful familiar. He did not expect to see a dire bear to his right, angry at being awakened from his nap. Nor did he expect to see an enormous cyclops, easily four times the height of a man, rise up from his sleeping furs over to the left and grab up a massive stone hammer, equally angered at the sudden intrusion. But then a thought crossed the giant's simple mind, and a single word from the guttural Giant language spilled from his lips. Delphyne was the only one familiar with the word, thanks to the unwanted partial memories of Hagatha taking up residence in her brain; it meant "Breakfast!" Galrich and Aerik leaped forward, weapons drawn, and attacked the dire bear, the closest of the two opponents. Cal and Thunderwolf followed, heading for the cyclops. Delphyne mounted her broom and flew up out of the range of the dire bear, trying to see if she could see where Infernia had been dragged. And Telgrane, eager to get this time-wasting battle over with as soon as possible, summoned one of the most powerful allies he could: a greater fire elemental. Perhaps sensing his preferences, it took on a distinctively feminine form as it manifested. "How may I serve y--" it started to ask, before its fiery form was sucked across the cave, up to the ledge, and down a curving passageway all in the blink of an eye. It was an interesting data point - whatever was pulling Infernia in hadn't targeted just her, but was apparently affecting all fire elementals in the general vicinity - but it came at a rather high cost, for Telgrane had just burned one of his highest-level spells with no combat effect. In the meantime, the cyclops and his pet dire bear weren't sure what was going on with all of these fire-people flitting around in their cave, but they were more interested in grabbing and eating some of the fleshy ones in any case. The cyclops swung its massive hammer in a wide arc and clobbered Delphyne off of her broom; she was thrown across the cave and landed in a heap, her broom crashing down at the giant's feet. The world teetered in darkness for a moment as she nearly blacked out, but being thrown so far away from the combat actually worked in her favor, giving her the time to swig down a healing potion and cast a [i]stoneskin[/i] upon herself. Then, holding out her hand, she called her broom to her, and it flew across the cave to reach her. She mounted up and was ready to resume the battle - but by that time it was nearly over. Galrich and Aerik had just finished off the powerful dire bear, and were moving over to give Cal and Thunderwolf a hand with the mighty cyclops. Thunderwolf seemed especially appreciative, perhaps realizing he was a bit out of his league against such a powerful foe. Telgrane, in the meantime, had cast a [i]levitate[/i] spell upon himself and was hand-walking across the ceiling over to the ledge. He opened his mind to the mental link he had with Infernia, and was almost immediately sorry he had; the images he was receiving were of a large cavern spinning around and around on a wobbly axis. It was almost as if he were running around in circles in the center of a cavernous subterranean room. He closed down the link for now and continued hand-walking himself over to the ledge, trying to clear his head of the dizziness his brief vision had given him. The heroes finished off the cyclops shortly, and Delphyne offered to bring the horses into the relative safety of the cave while the guys started climbing up to the ledge, confident that she could easily catch up to them with her broom. It wasn't an easy climb, but they managed okay, and Delphyne caught up with them without fail shortly after they'd all gotten up to the higher level. There was a passageway at the rear of the ledge that angled downwards, deeper into the mountain. Telgrane had sprinted ahead against all reason, too eager to try to catch up to his kidnapped familiar to wait for the protection of the rest of the group. But he wasn't so far ahead that they weren't able to catch up to him before they all got to the large cavern just beyond. There was plenty of light in this cavern, provided by a ring of orange flames in the center of the open space. A deep-voiced chanting emanated from the unseen center of the ring of flames. Standing just outside the ring, in defensive postures, were two magma brutes - some of the heroes had encountered one of this strange breed during their combat with the Cult of the Far Realm. Upon seeing the heroes enter the cavern, the two magma brutes turned in their direction and charged. Another pair of magma brutes rushed in from either side of the ring, making four in all, and from inside the ring came nine fire bats, flapping toward the heroes. Before the charging fire monsters reached the group, Telgrane pinpointed Infernia's voice, calling out "Help me, Master!" It was coming from various points around the ring of fire - indeed, it was as if Infernia were being rotated at great speed along the flame-wall's outer circumference. Telgrane deduced that the circular wall of flames was made up of fire elementals like the one he had just summoned and his own familiar; this supposition was reinforced by the sudden appearance of a Medium fire elemental from another passageway down the left side of the cavern, practically flying through the air to be absorbed into the ring of flames. Frantically, the spellcasters cast various spells protecting their number from fire, seeing as that was likely to be a deciding factor in the battle to come. Galrich stood where he was and wielded his greatsword, ready to strike the first magma brute to get close enough, but his preparations were ruined by Aerik stepping in front of him to shield his liege from harm. Galrich snorted and stepped off to the side, ready to strike. Unfortunately, the fire bats got there first, and they dived at the heroes, trying futilely to set them ablaze while they clamped on with their sharp, coal-colored teeth. Galrich was swarmed by three of the flying fiends, while Aerik dealt with another two and the rest of the swarm headed for the other heroes. Before Cal jumped into combat, he took a quick moment to assess the situation. Someone was chanting inside the ring of flames, which was where the fire bats had come from; it was likely that the chanting was calling forth these creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire, and preventing more of them from being summoned seemed like a pretty good first priority. With that in mind, Cal cast a [i]silence[/i] spell on the space at the center of the wall of flames, which rose up 25 feet from the cavern's floor. Then he had to devote his attention to the magma brute that was almost upon him. He readied his [i]hammer of frost[/i] for the beast's attack. Unseen by Cal - or any of the other heroes - the ring of flames hid a crude pentagram carved into the stone floor. Standing inside this pentagram was a fire giant spellcaster by the name of [b]Ignus Bloodstone[/b], whose ritual chanting had suddenly been silenced by the cleric's spell. Just outside the pentagram but inside the wall of flames were Ignus's two bodyguards, stone giants he had infused with magma powers, and whose black skin cracked with the veins of liquid fire contained within their powerful bodies. Ignus had been performing a complicated ritual which called forth all fire elementals from a great distance away to create his protective wall of flames; opened a simultaneous gate to both the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth; and had just summoned five thoqquas to his side. Had he been allowed to continue, the gate would have become permanent; as it was, this cavern in the Material Plane was attuned to the Elemental Planes of Earth and Fire, and the creatures within it were as comfortable - and as powerful - as if they were on their home planes. It wasn't a permanent effect, thanks to Cal's timely spellcasting, but it would last long enough for Ignus and his allies to deal with these interlopers. At the fire giant's silent hand gestures, the thoqquas each positioned themselves at the five points of the pentagram and started burrowing downward, while the magma stone giants strode unharmed through the wall of flames and headed into battle beside the magma brutes and the fire bats. Fortunately, the fire bats proved to be fairly weak opponents, and a [i]cone of cold[/i] from Delphyne had taken care of most of their number; sadly, this was the only such spell she had prepared, and Telgrane, whose spell preferences tended to lean towards the fire-based effects, found himself with most of his prepared spells likely to be completely useless against creatures who hailed from the Elemental Plane of Fire. Thus, the newly-titled archmage found himself ignoring most of his prepared spells and falling back on a [i]wand of magic missiles[/i]. Still unsure of what might be lurking behind the wall of flames, Cal decided to summon something powerful to go deal with whatever might be there. He stepped back from his current battle with a magma brute and summoned an elder earth elemental in the center of the ring, commanding it to destroy any creatures it found there. As it manifested within the shielded wall of leaping flames, Cal didn't see it appear, and definitely didn't see it shake off the compulsion to obey the edicts of the human cleric who had summoned it to this plane. He was unaware that it had sunk into the stone floor of the cavern and traveled underground in his direction until it suddenly popped up behind him and pounded him with its boulderlike fists. This caused a shift in the balance of power in the wild, free-for-all melee that was massing over at the side of the cavern. Ignus was left alone inside the circular wall of flames he had constructed, as the adventurers had all they could handle dealing with the magma stone giants and magma brutes, the few remaining fire bats, and now an enraged elder earth elemental. Furthermore, both Cal and Telgrane had been successfully conditioned not to summon anything to their aid, each having seen their powerful allies either whisked away out of the fight or actively used against them. They didn't see the results of the thoqquas' vertical burrowing, as the jagged furrows forming the crude pentagram on the stone cavern floor filled up with magma from deeper below, giving greater power to Ignus and his ritual. However, despite all of these frustrations and limitations, the adventurers were far from helpless. Cal stepped back out of reach of his latest combatant and cast a [i]blade barrier[/i] spell that ran the length of the entire cavern, cutting through two of the magma brutes when it first manifested. This had the effect of keeping the majority of the enemies on the other side of the barrier, allowing the heroes to focus on a smaller number of foes at one time, although the elder earth elemental was able to sink below the spell's effect and reappear on the other side of the whirling blades without harm. It suddenly shifted its attention from Cal to Telgrane, pounding him mercilessly with his stony fists, and more than once the young archmage had to receive healing from Cal to remain in the fight. He also took the opportunity to try out one of the new spells he had recently learned, casting [i]polymorph[/i] on himself to assume the form of a Large gold dragon. And then, in the midst of the chaos of the battle, the wall of flames shifted and started coalescing into a different shape. The sheet of flames lowered, exposing the grinning - if silent - form of Ignus Bloodstone to the group for the first time, while the ring shortened itself into a shorter arc and eventually became a greater flame snake. At the fire giant's beckoning hand, the flame snake hissed and writhed into place over by the [i]blade barrier[/i]. Rising up, it shot a cone-shaped blast of dark fire from its mouth, catching both Telgrane - in gold dragon form - and Thunderwolf in its area of effect. The fire was laced with negative energy, which sapped at the very life force of the two heroes. And as the serpent of flames attacked the archmage and the young fighter, a small voice from somewhere in its midsection - a voice recognizable to Telgrane as that of his kidnapped familiar - cried out in horror at this turn of events. Ignus did his best to join in the fray, but the [i]blade barrier[/i] was a formidable impediment, and the fire giant's sorcerer spell selection was somewhat limited. As the heroes were now all shielded from fire-based magic, Ignus found himself in the same boat as Telgrane: by focusing on fire spells, all of his more powerful spells were of limited use against his present foes. One by one, the adventurers were cutting down his allies; even the massive elder earth elemental had eventually been slain. Once the enemies on their side of the [i]blade barrier[/i] had been dealt with, the heroes all gathered around Delphyne (Telgrane having resumed his human form by this point), who used her [i]greater teleport[/i] spell to move to the far side of the cavern, where they could more effectively deal with their remaining foes. Ignus saw his dreams of creating a permanent beachhead onto the Material Plane, a place where creatures from the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth could access this world at will, going up in smoke. But he fought on to the end, and was the next-to-last enemy to be slain, the final foe being the greater flame snake that had been called into being. But Ignus wasn't the only ones with dreams. In the midst of the battle with the snake-formed living fire, Telgrane experienced what could only be described as a waking dream. He suddenly saw himself falling in battle, his lifeless form collapsing to the unyielding stone of the cavern. He then saw Infernia, by sheer force of will, rip herself from the greater flame snake's body, and rush over to collapse upon her fallen master. Finally, Telgrane saw the unnerving vision of his own body being immolated into a great sheet of flames, which eventually burned away to expose his fully restored body, which then sat up to reveal that it hadn't actually been restored as much as transformed - for his eyeballs had been burned away, leaving twin gouts of flame to leak out of his open sockets. Of Infernia there was no sight; her elemental body had been burned away to merge with that of her master, creating a gestalt being, part of each. And that's when Pinwhistle's divination struck Telgrane: "The burning desire in your heart will keep you alive when all seems lost." And just as soon as it had happened, the waking dream vanished, and Telgrane was snapped back to reality. He blasted the greater flame snake with his [i]wand of magic missiles[/i], and it seemed only fitting that his was the final stroke which caused the serpentine creature to dissipate into harmless flame. The purloined fire elementals which had been used to comprise its body all disappeared as a candle flame being snuffed; all, that is, but for Infernia, who slowly stood up, stretched, and then - seeing her master unharmed - rushed over to him. "Master!" she cried. "You are unhurt!" "As are you!" replied Telgrane with a smile, embracing his loyal familiar. "Come on, let's get out of here," suggested Cal, dismissing the [i]blade barrier[/i] which blocked their way. "Hmmph!" snorted Galrich, looking around at the piles of slain enemies. "Not much in the way of treasure this time, was there?" "Not so much," agreed Telgrane. "But I'm not complaining." - - - I don't mind admitting that this adventure was a deliberate attempt on my part to kill Telgrane. Not because I wanted him dead, but because I thought the sudden application of the half-fire elemental template (which would have been the result of his death and phoenixlike rebirth after Infernia's sacrifice) would be a pleasant surprise. To that end, I had prepared a new initiative card for him had this come to pass; it was the standard Telgrane initiative image with flames pouring out of his eyes. After the greater flame snake failed to kill Telgrane with his breath weapon, and I rolled a "4" when determining how long it would be before he could use it again, I confessed that I was actively trying to kill Telgrane, but I just didn't see as I had the firepower anymore to do so. When Logan wanted to know why I was trying to kill off his archmage, I explained the whole deal (including the true meaning of Pinwhistle's divination), and said I just didn't have the means at my disposal to kill him with the few enemies I had left. Logan's response: "Try harder!" (At that point, he [i]wanted[/i] Telgrane to get killed and come back as a half-fire elemental.) But I pointed out that even though I had actually had a desired end state for this adventure, I wasn't willing to get to my goal by simple DM fiat; events (and my dice) had conspired to prevent that outcome, so we'd press on with the current state of affairs. However, I did tell him that having had that "waking dream," there was nothing preventing Telgrane from researching the ways he might infuse himself with elemental fire energy, and in fact I had a sudden inspiration for an adventure based on just that. (The first thing to leap out at me was the name: "Baptism by Fire.") But that would be several adventures in the future. But that's the tricky thing with divinations: things don't always play out as you expect, so it's always best to have a "Plan B" on hand. [/QUOTE]
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