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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Chef BBQ" data-source="post: 1185322" data-attributes="member: 1844">Strike while the iron is HOT!  (run of 09-30-03)With the battle over Kel wanders through the group healing where he can.  One of the guards is still alive, and much of Corean’s blessings are laid upon him.  Lucre lays out the other two bodies and begins gathering their personal affects, stacking them in two neat piles.“What are you doing?  They have families!” a weak, but determined voice chastises Lucre.  The dwarf prickles at the implication.  “I assumed they did,” he answers gruffly.  “I also assumed they’d want the personal affects, or was it your intention to bury them with the bodies.”“Ah, no.  My apologies.  Please proceed.”“Perhaps introductions are in order,” soothes Kel as he helps the man to his feet.  Captain Alik Sebastian is introduced all around.  He is pretty tight lipped about what he and his men were doing until he sees Kira Rush.  He knew Thomas, her husband, and she has heard of him.  They both seem to be after the same information.  Who is taking money to hide something, and what are they hiding.  Captain Sebastian relaxes a little, but doesn’t take well to Lucre’s using his first name.“Alik, shall we bury your dead, or would you mind if we created a small avalanche.  The rocks over here could be dislodged to do the trick.”“Captain Sebastian, if you don’t mind.  And I think your avalanche will be fine.”Marja senses the tensions rising and steps in.  “We seem to be searching for the same thing,” she says gently, placing her hand on his shoulder.  “Is such formality necessary?”  Alik turns to look at her.  There is something very familiar about this dark haired woman with green eyes.  He thinks she looks a great deal like his beloved Amira, his first true love who died tragically young.  The hair color is all wrong, of course, as are the eyes and skin, but otherwise she is the spitting image of her.“Excuse me, madam.  Do I know you?”  His hand lightly brushes her arm as he turns to face her.“I don’t think so,” Marja answers in that coy voice of hers.  She catches Lucre rolling his eyes.  “At least, not yet.”  Kalina’s voice calls from across the coulee, “Guys, I found a trail.”  There is very little in this gully that will burn, but Kalina managed to follow small scorch marks on the dry stone.  They follow behind her as she leads them over the next hill where they find two large stone pillars.  Between them a tall, vibrant fire is raging.  As they stare between the pillars, through the fire, they can just make out the interior of a stone room.“Perhaps there is an entrance around the back,” Caerwyn muses as he rides his horse down to investigate.“Not likely,” grunts Borin.  “If that’s what I think it is, the only way in is through the fire.”Caerwyn rides around the pillars, but Borin is right.  There is no room to be seen except through the flames.  Borin approaches the pillars head on, peering into the room.Suddenly, he is thrown backward as an enormous creature of flames strides out from between the pillars.  It is easily fifteen feet tall with small dark eyes like glowing coals.  It strides to Borin who is lying on his back and starts wailing on him with its flaming fists.Marja begins to cast, and as she finishes her movements become a blur.  Her next spell is spoken so quickly, it is hard to catch the words.  An ice knife flies from her right hand.  The creature shivers and brings its fists down again hitting Borin and Lucre.  Borin does not move.  His body goes limp.“Borin’s down,” shouts Lucre.  “Hey, you big ugly lug.  Come over here and I’ll…” Lucre tumbles backwards and away from Borin with a string of taunts pouring endlessly from his lips.  The creature takes the bait and steps toward him.  It looks hurt, more hurt than a single ice knife could deliver.Terri and Kira flank the creature, and Kira halls off with her signature kick to the privates, or where the privates ought to be.  Her foot tears a hole in the flames.  The substance of the creature seems to diminish.Kel rushes in and using his new sword, lays hands on Borin.  Borin regains consciousness, but just barely.  Fang grabs Borin’s collar in his teeth and drags him to safety.  Kel can hear Marja casting behind him, but can’t make out the words, then he feels her touch his back.  He feels a surge of energy rush through him as her haste spell takes effect.  Marja throws another ice knife, but this one misses and splashes Kel and Kira.Again the creature swings its fiery fists about wildly.  It hits Kira and Caerwyn, knocking Caerwyn unconscious.  The paladin slumps over, but stays in the saddle.  Lucre calls to the horse, but the well-trained battle stallion does not respond.Kel clutches his sword in both hands and swings up through the body of the creature and then back down again.  The creature disappears. Kel places his sword in front of him and again lays hands on Borin.  Lucre rushes to Caerwyn and gently eases him off of his horse.  Alik checks on Marja who is completely uninjured, although Alik still isn’t looking too well himself.  Borin reaches into his bag and pulls out what appears to be a blanket.  In the next instant he is gone and a sheep is bahing quietly.  Before Alik can turn to look at the noise Borin is back looking much better than before.“Great Idea,” says Marja.  She pulls another sheepskin out of her pack and tosses it to Alik.  Here wrap yourself in this.  Alik obliges and as a weird sensation.  He thinks he looks like a sheep.  He bristles at the feeling and pulls the blanket off. “What the heck was that?”“A transformation sheep skin,” answers Marja.“Well, I don’t like it.  It’s not a very funny joke.”  Alik sounds exasperated.“It’s not meant to be a joke.  It’s meant to make you feel better which I bet you do.”Begrudgingly Alik must admit this is true.“That’s not much of a joke,” chimes in Lucre, “but this is.  Two penguins are sitting on an ice flow…”  Several bad jokes and healing prayers later, the group is feeling much better although they keep a wary eye on the fiery pillars.  They decide to rest for the night before plunging in to investigate.In the morning Lucre spends some time sparring with his sword, The Citadel.  There is a new voice speaking to him, an old woman.  “The secret of strength is knowing when to bend,” she tells him.“Oh, yes,” he replies, “You mean timing.”“No, silly boy.”  Lucre suddenly finds himself facing the old hag on the psychic plane.  “I mean being underestimated.”  She engages Lucre in battle and proceeds to kick his butt from here to Sunday.  Every time he reaches for her she disappears.  “Use your mind, not your eyes, to tell where I’m going.”  Lucre concentrates, and suddenly it’s all so clear.  Of course he can anticipate her moves.Marja, too, takes this moment of quite to disappear for a while.  Her dreams have been particularly vivid of late, but not of scary winged creatures, or freakish deformed people.  Instead she’s been dreaming of lightening.  She’s cast several lightening bolt scrolls, and in her dreams she’s internalized the spell.  She’s sure with a little practice that she can pull that energy out of herself without the aid of a spell scroll.  She’s had a few other dreams as well.  Being unable to find Terri once she becomes invisible has been a problem a few times in the past.  Although she’s never seen it done, Marja is sure that she can create a spell that let’s her see someone even if they’re invisible.  She uses this down time to practice what her dreams have told her she can do.In the morning the group reassesses the fiery doorway.  Alik pokes a dry stick into the flames, and it ignites.  Ignoring caution Borin jumps through.  Lucre protects himself from fire before following, and Terri, not wanting to be outdone, follows him.  They find themselves in a corridor with walls of flame, but although it is hot, it is not as deadly as it appears.  They move into a room filled with burning crates and an altar at the top end.  Borin hears glass breaking and moving around to the back of the altar, finds a man crouching down holding a broken bottle.Left outside, Marja sighs.  “Oh well, no sense using caution now.  They’re either ok, or they need our help.  We might at well just jump through.”  The others agree, and they all follow after Borin, Lucre and Terri.“Damn,” exclaims the man holding the broken bottle.  “Did you see where it went?”“The big fiery thing?” asks Borin.  “Yah.  We killed it last night.  Was it your pet?”“Are you kidding?  They ravaged through this place.”Lucre approaches and senses his motives.  He is genuinely surprised to see them here.  He is nervous and twitchy.  The man scans the three of them, waves his hands and disappears.  Borin swings at him, but hits the wall.Terri is busy searching the area.  She’s sure that this stone slab was an altar, but she’s also sure it hasn’t been used in a long time.As the others arrive in the room, Borin moves into another corridor.  At the end of this hallway is a room with a platform like a dock extending into a sea of magma.  The platform is joined to another one by a 20-foot bridge.  A man in tattered robes is standing on the far platform casting flames at a dark winged figure flying overhead.  “That thing will destroy everything!” he cries.Suddenly the creature comes into view.  It is a huge winged snake with claws and a human face.  Its body is covered with an icy white gleam.  The heat causes it to steam.  It swoops down over the man and breaths a cone of icy air.  The poor spell caster falls to the ground.Marja pushes into the room and raising her arms sends a lightening bolt from her fingers shooting into the creature’s side.  Kalina is right on her heals and follows with a bolt of flame.  The beast screeches in a voice both hideous and melodic.Kel casts a spell and moves onto the platform.  He feels the strength of a bull surge through his muscles as he moves.  Caerwyn detects evil, although he doubts it’s necessary, and moves past Marja.  Alik shoots an arrow from the doorway.  It hits the creature where its heart should be, but the creature looks nonplussed.  Lucre activates an ability he calls reach.  His arms turn to rubber and stretch in front of him as he moves into place next to his cousin.The beast continues to sing.  The sound is harsh, but compelling.  Kalina and Alik run toward it, offering no resistance to its attacks.  Marja rushes forward also, but shrugs off the feeling.  She touches Borin as she chants, and he rises off of the ground flying.  He flies up behind the beast and rages in anger as he hits.  It wails in pain and plummets into the magma.  A cloud of steam hisses up momentarily obscuring everyone’s view as ice is consumed by fire.As the steam clears, the group looks around.  Across the molten lake is a platform with a large statue of Thulcas, Titan of Fire.  Kira notices something at the base of the statue.  Broin flies over and picks up four silver rings.  Two feel cool to the touch.  He puts one on and immediately feels relief from the intense heat.  Lucre detects magic on the two cool rings.  The others are ordinary jewelry.  Terri takes the other ring and sighs as she feels its cooling effect.Terri searches the body of the fallen mage.  He has a tail.  He also has a wand.  “Hey, question:” Terri pipes up.  “What looks like a man with a red lion’s tail?”  Marja takes the wand.  She’ll have to find someone to identify it later.  As others move in to look at the body, a female figure comes out of the dark running towards them, but looking over her shoulder.Kel moves to intercept her.  “What are you doing?  Get out!” the woman shouts.  “They’ve let loose the demons and betrayed us.  I’m getting out of here.”“Who?  Tell us?” Caerwyn moves next to Kel to impede her progress.She eyes up these two with their shining symbols of Corean blazoned across their chests.  “Why should I trust you, or tell you anything?” she sputters.  “He shot our lord into the sun.”  She points at the holy symbol to make her point.They all hear the scratching of slender feet and turn to see four creatures with the heads of wolves, the bodies of shrimp and spider-like legs scrambling up the pillars and onto their platform.</blockquote>

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