Pressing on, making the best speed they can, they see a chamber which contains a pool of fire. Garrick believes it is probably the place where the fire weird allegedly dwells. They lack gifts or anything appropriate to offer, but call out in appeal. Eventually the fiery magma swirls and they get a single poetic sentence answer, which reinforces the central line of the earlier prophecy.
From the fire, a friend;
Woe betide those
Who stand as foes.
From the past, a power;
A force set in motion
Rests no more.
From the sea, a sleeper;
Whence comes the peace
That would threaten the world?
The temperature is getting much hotter, and shortly they can see a bright rosy glow illuminating the caverns ahead of them, and they can hear the crackle of fire.
Only fifteen minutes later they reach the huge cave entrance, and they see a vast underground cavern, a literal sea of fire which stretches off into the distance. Nearby the shelf of rock is in the slow process of breaking off and drifting over the sea of fire much like ice breaks off an ice pack. Garrick points out that they must jump across a whole series of floes to reach a tall pillar which rises out of the magma, and then move on from there across some more of the floating rocks to the point where the deeplings repairs have to be breached.
Each of them burst the magic puffballs which they were given by the toadstool men, providing themselves with protection from fire, and the heat becomes more bearable. They start taking running jumps across the floating rock plates. Each of them is moving slowly in the magma currents, and Tania tends to wait for moving rock floes to get very close before risking jumps.
The tower has a series of steps carved into its side, winding around to the summit. Cautiously they make their way up, and at the top Zherinda is astonished to find a simple stone altar – not dedicated to the One Kindly God or any fake god as far as she can tell. Leaving her there to puzzle over the purpose of it, the others return down the pillar and get ready to make their way across the floating rock platforms and towards the location where Garricks companions had sealed the fissure.
Suddenly a voice rings out across the cavern, above the crackling of the fires.
“You foolish, infantile weaklings! Do you think that you can stop the opening of the door, the rising of the forgotten one? Do you think that you have the power to oppose me, who have mastered you on so many occasions?
It is the Blessed, wreathed in green robes; beside her stands Lareth the beautiful, the evil cleric who murdered Syl over a year ago.
Anne-Marie, Trajan and Taran quickly fire some arrows at the Blessed and Lareth, but magic protects them and none of the arrows are able to strike home. Stowing their bows the company start running and leaping across the rock floes to join with their enemies. Anne-Marie takes an early lead with her magic boots and Lareth targets her with a confusion spell… nearly her mind succumbs, but it is foiled by the half-elven nature she now bears.
Trajan makes a mighty leap at the end of his charge in order to land on the rock floe with the Blessed – but to his shock smacks into a wall of force and reels back, sliding into magma! Meanwhile the Blessed finishes summoning glashnoglu on an adjacent floe – a huge mass of shining bubbles, featherlike feelers, clawed tentacles and slimy sucking needles DMnote: an alienist dire bear, 3e fashion
Anne-Marie finishes closing with Lareth and knocks him into the lava, and the AoO’s him as he crawls out, the lava dripping off his protective magic. He invokes magical rage and starts laying into her with his fearsomely powerful quarterstaff.
Tra uses a grappling hook to get over the wall of force (good move!) but is then hit by two out of three empowered flame bolts, which is bad news. The Blessed then retreats to glahsnoglu’s floe.
Taran moves up as Anne-Marie swaps full attacks with Lareth and comes off worst. Fully buffed, Lareth gets +21/+16 to hit, 1d6+18 damage. His AC drops to 17. If he is hitting easily, he power attacks for 5 points (or more).. Taran’s attacks are pitiful in comparison because he can’t get a flank. And Anne-Marie goes down.
Tania casts magic missiles, negative energy blasts and so forth, Causing some minor damage to the Blessed. Trajan presses his attack on the Blessed but is brought near to death by three fearsome blows from the huge gashnoglu. He retreats and then attempts to stabilize Anne-Marie. The Blessed turns the floe Tania is standing on into Evards black tentacles, causing a hasty retreat from the female wizard as she makes a panicked jump to another floe. “Wait” calls out Tania, “I’m actually on your side! We can work together! Let me join you!” The company are stunned at this volte-face, and the Blessed calls back “seal you pact – strike down the Sword Saint with magic missiles”.
Tania prevaricates and the Blessed realises that she has called the wizards bluff – so she disintegrates the rock floe Tania is standing on! While the magma starts burning through her protection 20d6 per round!, she manages to scramble back onto a small rock.
Taran finds himself facing a raging cleric with huge muscles and bulls strength swinging a hugely magicked staff. In desperation, despite his 8 Str, Taran attempts to bull-rush Lareth to push him off the floe. To everyones surprise his bold manoeuvre succeeds… and he follows the priest over into the magma to keep him down! For three rounds Lareth attempts to struggle free and the weak rogue masters him, and keeps him there. Tarans protection is burning off, but Lareths's is going faster!
Zherinda completes a divination spell and receives a cryptic message about singing and so she bursts into a hymn of praise to the One Kindly God.
Trajan joins Tania, and is just about to leap into range of the black tentacles before he realizes what they are and stops in time. The Blessed commands Tania once more to attack Trajan, and once more Tania shows her true colours and doesn’t – so the Blessed disintegrates the remainder of their current rock floe and both are plunged into the molten magma again – Trajan’s protection from fire is all gone at this point and the fire sears him terrible.
Suddenly Lareth screams and flames and dies as his protection from fire gives out, his bones disintegrating in the magma. The sound of singing and screaming and fire reach up in the chamber, and as if by some kind of strange echo the sounds build and merge and reinforce one another, growing greater and greater in the cavern. There is a swirling and upheaval of the magma as something colossal starts moving under the magma, and starts to break the surface...
