The Realms of Enlightenment: The Grey Companions

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #287] Descent into the Depths of the Earth

"As in: "When the Bishop again on high crag stands/And clasps his Rod with bloody hands/Then Darkness seeks the sunlit lands'?" Ledare recited one of the poetic fragments that they had been trying to suss out for the past several moonsdances. "That First Bishop of Aphyx?"

Of course none of the others had that answer, but it further intensified the dread that had begun to creep into their faces. Except for Grisham, that is; he had no idea what the Janissary was going on about since the VQS had taken great pains to exclude him from any knowledge of their greater mission.

"Oi! I reckon that explains why The Hound did wha' he did," Karak grunted and Grisham scowled. He shouldered his way passed the others and ducked inside the stone building.

"So where'd 'e go?" the barbarian growled, his keen eyes assessing the building's interior at a glance.

"Good question," Ledare admitted. "The treant said that an evil device was hidden hereabouts. Was it in this place? Let's have a look around."

"Dibs on the chest!" Vade called as he tumbled between the Janissary's legs, rolling himself into a crouch in front of the chest.

"I think we have a very serious choice to make here," Feln said as the others spread out to search the small dwelling. He stood in the doorway with a purposeful look in his eyes. "If Aphyx is gathering items of power then maybe one of us should get Flor to rally together as well."

"One o' us?" Karak asked, casting a suspicious eye on the half-orc.

"I will volunteer to find the followers of Flor and return to you as quickly as I can," the martial artist said, nodding. "I think at my best run I should be able to make it to civilization in-"

"NO!" yelled Morier with as much forcefulness as he could muster. His voice boomed like thunder in the close confines. He threaded himself through the cramped building until he was standing directly in front of Feln. "To divide now is to risk being conquered. What we do from here on in we do together, as one. If our numbers dwindle so does our might - and as things have gone since we left Hillville Junction, that could well be a deadly choice. Fighting at our full capacity, several of us have barely escaped death a handful of times already."

"Feln, you're right about rallying Flor and her followers. We need someone with fire and conviction to bring the people together in this," Ledare added, speaking over Morier's shoulder. "But we cannot spare you." The half-orc's face clouded over and he let out a measured sigh.

"It was merely a suggestion," he told them. "I fear that we do not have the power within us to fight this evil."

"I understand your concern for the gravity of the situation, Feln, but this is not the time for individual heroics," Morier explained. "If we are to act, we are to act as a collective." The martial-artist crossed his heavy arms over his massive chest and stared down at the elf.

"I saw a powerful priest exorcise a demon when I was in a city far to the north. It seemed to require a great deal of power and focus," Feln said gravely. He looked up at Ixin and Karak then back to Morier. "Not to belittle you, magic casters, but I do not see that power or focus in you at this time."

"I can see Feln's point," Ixin admitted after a moment's pause. "I have no magic to compel a possessing spirit out of a host body."

"Well do nae look a' me," Karak growled, waving off the others' questioning eyes. "I be nae exorcist!"

"I think we should at least attempt a prayer to Flor," Ixin suggested and when nobody objected, she closed her eyes and held her hands out at her side. "Flor, I know we are not your followers and in truth, we do not know your rituals. But we fight earnestly on the side of truth and we beseech you for assistance. We were to gather your followers according to the wishes of the Great Oak, but now we are faced very directly with Aphyx and can not risk losing a chance to win in battle against her. Our forces are meager, but we fight with truth and righteousness in our hearts."

Whatever the drakeling was expecting, she was disappointed. Nothing seemed to happen and an uncomfortable silence settled briefly over the small room.

"Well, now," Grisham spoke up. "If we're through contacting the spirit world, maybe we can get back to the business at hand!" He turned and continued to rummage through the jars near the fireplace.

"Is this neat-o or what?" Vade exclaimed, drawing attention to himself. He stood beside the open chest, draped in what at first glance looked like a pile of leaves. After a moment more of him wriggling about and tugging at straps it became obvious that he was putting on a suit of armor cunningly crafted from overlapping leather plates - each one expertly cut into the shape of a leaf. It was clearly of elven design, and judging by the way it conformed to Vade's small frame, possessed of some magic as well.

"Where did you get that?" Ledare demanded as she knelt beside the open chest. Inside she saw an assortment of clothing, a sheathed scimitar, a silver-handled sickle, an open pouch in which glittered a handful of gems, and a smaller wooden box holding parchment, ink and quills.

"It was right here in this chest," the halfling said innocently. He squirmed inside the armor and the leather contracted to fit him like a second skin. It was fascinating to watch, but Ledare had other things on her mind.

"Vade, was there anything else in this chest that we should know about?" she asked and the rogue got a nervous look on his face. "You can still keep it, just tell me." Reluctantly, Vade produced a trio of gems that he had palmed - a sapphire and two moss agates. Ledare gave him a look of mock sternness and turned to Ixin.

"Anything in here magical?" she asked and the sorcerer did her thing.

"Just the stuff we're carrying," Ixin announced after concentrating for half a minute.

"This is a dead end," Feln said quickly. "I would suggest that if we are not turning back to gather the followers of Flor that we move at our greatest speed after this ghost who possesses others. Grisham and I can take the lead and you others follow as best you can... Ixin, you will need to move at a slightly slower pace to stay with Karak and Vade. Does that offend anyone's ideas of our next move?"

"Didn't the treant say that Tarawyn never came out?" Vade asked as he put the chest back together. "There either has to be a secret door or he is still hiding in here. One time Duece, Trey and I hid from Grumblebutt up in a tree for... oh, must have been six hours. I didn't ever move! Boy did I have an itch, too! Poison ivy... ooooo! But we held on for dear life I tell ya. Oh, did I hear something?"

"Yep," Grisham said as he tapped again on a section of wall near the fireplace. It sounded hollow. "Though I'm surprised you could hear anything over your constant yammering." Vade opened his mouth to argue and Grisham held up a hand to forestall him. "Look, there's a secret panel right here. You're a halfling, aren't you? Let's see you get it open."

"Oh, I'll get it open!" Vade said indignantly as he stalked over to the the section of wall that the barbarian had indicated. In all, it took him about fifteen seconds to locate the hidden catch, and once it was released, a slight push on the hidden door caused it to swing open away from him revealing a narrow shaft with rusty iron rungs affixed to the wall. Warm, moist air flowed up the shaft and out into the room, condensing as it met the cooler air above to form a wispy trail of fog in the upper room.

"Um, that looks kind of... scary," the halfling said and backed away from the secret panel.

Grisham, however, removed a hand axe from his belt and, still-chewing his troll flower, stuck his head inside and looked down. "There's firelight down below. About forty feet deep," he announced. "Rungs are sturdy enough. Bit of rust, though. Somebody went this way not too long ago."

"What's that smell?" Vade asked, twisting his face into a grimace. "I don't think those mushrooms you had for breakfast are agreeing with you."

Grisham ducked his head back into the room. "It's brimstone," the man said and Vade waved his hand in front of his face.

"Sure it is," he said. "Sure it is." Grisham gave him a disapproving look and then stepped into the shaft.

"I'll go check it out," he said even as he was disappearing down the ladder.

"He's going to get himself killed," Ledare said and there wasn't any real regret in her voice at the thought.




"Shaft comes out at the end of a short hallway. Our man's footprints run along the hall away from the ladder. The other end opens onto a large chamber lit by the reddish glow of fire," Grisham told them after he'd returned from his brief sortie. "It's a lot hotter down there than it is up here. Not so bad as'll kill you, but you'll be sweating before long."

"Sounds like a forge," Karak observed.

"Sound like Hell," Vade countered.

"Well, I didn't get too close, either way," Grisham admitted. "A statue stood between the hallway and a well in the center of the room where that red light was coming from. Bigger than a man and rough hewn. And as a child I heard the same adventurers' tales as you all did. I'll bet my blade that statue's going to come to life and lay into us as soon as we walk into that room."

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #288] It Takes a Thief

Staring down into the fiery pit, Vade wondered again how he had allowed himself to be coerced into this scouting mission. At the time, it had made sense...



"I say we go down the tunnel two by two," Karak had advised as he leaned on his axe haft and pointed to people as he spoke. "Me and Grisham in the fore. Ixin and Vade in the middle. Ledare and Feln in the rear."

"What about me?" Morier asked from the back of the group. The dwarf harrumphed.

"Oi! I forgot ye, did I?" he said, waving his hand indifferently. "Jus' fit yerself into the marchin' order wherever ye can. Let us either find Tarawyn or his tracks, search the cavern, and then look to the evil device which we may find down the hole."

"What about this golem that Grisham saw?" Ixin asked, reminding Karak of the rather obvious obstacle that lay in the way of his proposed plan.

"Yes," Feln nodded. "I know little about these things. A statue that comes to life? How powerful could this be?"

"It depends on the nature of the thing," Ixin told him. "If it's a true golem, we could be in real trouble. It'll be immune to most spells and we'll need magic weapons to harm it. If it's a simple animated object, it won't be like swatting kobolds, but it'll be easier to damage. I can't know which it is without carefully examining it."

"An' if'n it be what we're thinkin' it be, it'll be swingin' at us 'fore ye can do any examinin'!" the dwarf grumbled, appraising his companions' battle prowess with a glance. He paused on Feln and scowled. "Where be your explodin' fist of late, orcblood? All I be seeing of ye is jumpin in an' out o' the shadows."

"You worry about your axe, dwarf and I'll worry about my fists," Feln replied defensively. "I think our best bet is to try and sneak by this statue but be ready to react. Do we have any thing to blind it to our presence?"

Everyone turned to look at Vade and the halfling almost activated the Ring of Invisibility right there and then. "I don't know... I like Karak's idea: go in swords swinging!"

"I think we should at least attempt to sneak by it," Feln countered. "Vade, if we are all on the ready you could attempt it and we could follow. If it awakens then we could react quickly"

"Maybe it won't wake up if it can't see me," the rogue speculated, his voice full of hope. He took a cleansing breath to bolster his courage and added, "If I can see, I will scout it out."

"Tha' be the spirit, wee one!" Karak roared, clasping a heavy hand on Vade's shoulder.

"It's dim down there," Grisham told them. "But there's light enough to see by."

"Great," Vade whispered without much enthusiasm. "Alright. I'll go. But you had better have my back, orcblood... or I will tell everyone you let a halfing beat you into battle... and we are even." the halfling shook a mock-accusatory finger at Feln.

"I thought the spider made us even," the half-orc grinned.

"Nae! Nae!" Karak protested. "Winging a wee pebble at a large spider does nae count as killing it."

"That's not fair!" Vade argued and Karak held up a silencing hand.

"The last grain of sand will be the one to tip o'er the hourglass, though.," the dwarf conceded. "I will count you in for the assist."

Vade planted his tiny fists on his slim hips and scowled at the dwarf. "You just don't want me to play in your and Feln's little game!" he groused. "Back in Thumble, there was this girl named-"

"By the by, that elf dress look good on ya!" Karak said loudly, cutting off the story before it could gain too much momentum. "Let's see if it can handle an axe blade." Karak pulled a throwing axe from his belt, and drew back as if to toss it at Vade. A loud bark of laughter followed as the halfling tumbled nimbly aside to avoid the feigned attack.

"You big... meanie!" Vade cursed Karak which brought further laughter from the dwarf. Feln just shook his head disapprovingly and turned to the Janissary.

"Ledare, I think it may be best to ask the Treant if he knows of this tunnel and where it leads," the half-orc suggested. "We could possibly bypass all of the traps and meet this ghostly form possessing Tarawyn at the butt hole... sorry, bolt hole!"

The half-elf nodded, a smirk on her lips. "You sound like Windstryder," she mused. "But it's a good idea. Ixin? Would you care to add your voice to this discussion?"

"I'm way ahead of you," the mage replied, arranging her cloak so that it revealed her bikini to good effect.

"Grisham, while they're doing that, why don't you gather some of that foul weed you're chewing and bring it with us?" Feln suggested and the barbarian nodded. He ducked outside after the two women, leaving the men inside.

"I don't like the idea of being alone with a golem,"Vade admitted once Grisham was out of earshot.

"You'll have the Ring, Vade," Feln reminded. "The golem will never even know that you're there."

And that was true as far as it went.



"Finding Tarawyn, you are?" the treant asked, its branches rustling with nervous energy as Ledare and Ixin approached.

"Not quite," the drakeling told him. "We did find where he might have gone, though."

"Where?" the plant man asked, and the single word was a drawn out breathy sigh that lasted until the pair of women had reached the base of his trunk.

"We have found a hidden tunnel; what do you know of it?" Ledare asked and the treant shook its crown.

"Nothing," it said, it's voice guarded.

"Is it possible that this tunnel leads to another location in your wood?" she pressed.

"Possible, it is," the plant man replied. "Many secrets are being held by the valley. But the answer is unknown to me."

"Would you know of any information that could help us find it's emergence?" the Janissary asked and saw the tree's woody face scrunch up in confusion. She quickly offered clarification: "For example, is there another place where you remember seeing Tarawyn frequently?"

"One with the Green, Tarawyn is being," the treant answered. "Many places, he is. No place, he is not." Now it was Ixin and Ledare's turn to look confused.

"Do you have a name?" the mage asked and the treant nodded.

"I am called Great Root," it answered, offering them a woody smile.

"Well, Great Root, when you say that Tarawyn is 'one with the Green' do you mean that he is attuned to nature or literally that he is everywhere around here?" Ixin tried and the treant responded with a rustling sound that might have passed as laughter.

"Where the Green is, there is Tarawyn," Great Root told her earnestly, offering absolutely no clarification. Ledare switched tactics.

"Is there any other location that attracts the interest of outsiders?" she asked.

"No!" the treant stated adamantly. "None allowed be here!"

"Right," the Janissary sighed. Talking to Great Root was slightly less frustrating than talking to a rock.

"We met recently with another representative of nature," Ixin said after a pause. "The Great Oak."

Great Root let out an impressed gasp. "Known is the Great Oak to me," the treant told her. "A great power of the Green it is. Fortunate are you being to meet such a power. Fortunate indeed."

"Is there any way that you can send a message to him?" the sorcerer asked. "To let him know what's happened here?"

Great Root assumed a thoughtful pose and then nodded its canopy. "I can," it said.



Using the Ring of Invisibility Vade'd been able to easily bypass the statue, but there was little other than conjecture to suggest that it was anything more than a simple statue in the first place. Without Ixin's magical knowledge, there was little he could discern about its true nature without the risk of triggering it.

Invisibly, he'd snuck up close and personal with the thing, and was impressed with its massive size, but the workmanship left much to be desired. It looked like whoever had made the statue had gotten tired of the project about three-quarters of the way through and abandoned it. The statue was generally humanoid, but what features it possessed were very rough-hewn, lacking anything but the broadest strokes to suggest that it was the sculpture of a man. There didn't even appear to be any seams between its feet and the floor.

Its purpose was puzzling, but not so much so that Vade was tempted to remove his ring and test Grisham's guardian golem theory. Instead, he stole quietly away from the statue to check out the only other noteworthy feature in the vaulted room: the raised well. It rose from the floor behind the statue, in the exact center of the room standing a good foot taller than the halfling. The air above the opening wavered with the heat rising from below and a scent like a forest fire hung in the air.

Vade gripped the hot lip of the well and hauled himself up so that he could peer over the edge. He looked down as if through a window into hell. A circular shaft like the one he'd come down to reach the statue room descended another forty feet into the earth. At the opposite end a circular plane of fire glowed like a hearth, and the heat rising up from below made Vade squint his eyes. It was difficult to breathe the hot, sooty air; his lungs protested with each inhalation. He had the strangely disorienting sensation of looking down from a vast height, thought he could see towers of shimmering brass at the heart of the fire, and almost toppled over the side.

As he was hauling himself away from the edge, his head swimming, he spotted the rusty hand prints trailing down the inside of the shaft. Evidently, the man they'd been trailing (who, Ixin's spell had revealed, was really two men) had climbed down the sheer surface of the shaft like a bug. Vade crouched beside the well, mentally adding Spider Climbing to the growing list of their opponent's abilities as he swallowed down the acrid taste of smoke. He unconsciously cleared his throat and the statue in front of him thundered to life.

It moved as swift as an avalanche, whirling toward the sound. It took a step, its foot coming free of the floor with a tremendous crunch before slamming down again so hard that it sent shockwaves through the floor. A fist of stone the size of an anvil parted the air a foot or two above Vade's head, trailing a dusting of pebbles and debris in its wake.

"Eeep," Vade squeaked.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

ooh, splittin' up the party.

 

[Jon Potter]

ooh, splittin' up the party.

Wel... Not as badly as it might seem. I used a little misdirection here to heighten the threat to Vade. He's not totally dead. Only mostly dead.

The rest of the party is waiting in the hallway outside the room.

And in Vade's defense, the whole throat clearing thing that alerted the elemental to his presence was my way of say, "He rolled really poorly on his Move Silently check."

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #288a] Talking to Trees

I went back into the last post and editted in Ledare's and Ixin's verbal exchange with the treant.

One gold piece to the reader who can identify where I shamelessly stole the name of the treant.

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I went back into the last post and editted in Ledare's and Ixin's verbal exchange with the treant.

One gold piece to the reader who can identify where I shamelessly stole the name of the treant.

Ygdrassil?

 

[Jon Potter]

Ygdrassil?

Nope.

Any other guesses?

Here's a hint: It's from another Story Hour on these boards.

 

[Jon Potter]

The answer

Great Root is the name of a treant that figures prominently in Rel's Faded Glory story hours. That and the 'second battle of Aquae Sulis' that Grisham mentions participating in are direct tips of the hat to Rel and his story hours.

Also, much of Ixin's backstory is lifted in large part from events and locations orginially mentioned in Dr. Nuncheon's various Freeport storyhours.

I enjoy dropping little 'easter eggs' like those into my story hour. I imagine that it's only a matter of time before the group meets a half orc wearing spiked gauntlets.

 

[Jon Potter]

[Realms #289] The Guardian of Earth

The halfling's brain was filled with the overpowering desire to... RUN!!! And he almost did just that before he remembered that he was still invisible. All he had to do was avoid being accidentally squished by this thing when he moved quietly to the exit and left the room never to ret-

A shrill whistle pierced the air and the stone creature turned its misshapen head toward the sound as Feln stepped easily into the room, spinning his staff from one hand to the other. He had caught the thing's attention and he meant to hold it long enough for the halfling to make his escape. He underestimated the monolithic figure's enormous reach, however and was forced to back flip away to avoid being slammed full on by a great stone fist. If he'd been concentrating on anything but defense at that point, he'd have found himself smeared against the chamber wall.

Vade grimaced at his friend's near miss and then he was in motion, rolling and scrambling away from the golem as fast as his little limbs would carry him.

Standing in the hallway Ledare raised her repeating hand crossbow, sighted down the barrel and squeezed off two easy shots. The first bolt struck true, but seemed to do no damage whatsoever; the second shot skittered off the thing's stoney hide. Seeing the trouble the Janissary was having penetrating the thing's natural armor, Morier cast True Strike in preparation for his own attempt to do just that.

"We should not have divided the party," the albino grumbled and no one argued with him.

Whether the rocky creature didn't notice Ledare's attack, didn't consider her a threat, or simply favored an enemy within easy reach, it focused its attention on Feln. A single ponderous step was enough to bring it within reach of the half-orc, and it brought its huge fist down like the hammer of the gods! The blow shattered the stone tiles on the floor and caused dust to rain down from seams in the domed ceiling. It landed nowhere near the martial artist, however.

Grisham was next to react and he used the tactics that the group had seen him favor in the past; howling a primal battle cry, he hurled himself at the huge creature's flank, clutching Winnower in a double-handed grip. The blade rang against the figure's hip like a struck bell and sent rock chips flying. The stoney creature responded with a cry of pain that sounded like boulders clashing against one another.

"Tha' be the way, tracker! Lay 'im low!" Karak cheered, his voice rising into inspirational tones as he unconsciously gripped his brother's holy symbol. "I want ya all to know that I believe in all of you and know that now that push has come ta shovin' you'll put up the good fight!"

Ixin, certainly intended to. She plucked The Weave's strands and called upon etheric energies to damage her foe. She pointed her finger and sent two Magic Missiles arcing into the elemental's featureless lump of a head. She's spent the time during which Vade had invisibly scouted the room to study the "statue" and she'd come to the conclusion that it wasn't a golem or a construct of any kind, in fact. It was an Outsider, an elemental, the living embodiment of earth brought to the Prime from the Elemental Plane that was its rightful home. It was a powerful and dangerous opponent, but it was as vulnerable to Ixin's spells as any other creature.

The Sorcerer allowed herself a grim smile; she could hurl Magic Missiles for a very long time.

Feln moved instinctively to a flanking position opposite Grisham and did his best to make himself an attractive target while at the same time not opening himself up at all to attack. It was a delicate dance, but one in which the martial artist was trained well enough to perform flawlessly. He rapped his quarterstaff against the elemental's left leg in an effort to distract it from crushing the barbarian into paste. It was a minor blow, but enough to remind the outsider that Feln was still a threat.

Vade darted around the edge of the doorway and pressed himself against the wall in the corridor just as Ledare holstered her six-shooter and drew Ravager from its sheathe in one lightning quick motion. She came at the thing from an oblique angle, drawing herself into a position equidistant between Feln and Grisham. An opportunistic attack from the elemental glanced harmlessly off her enchanted shield and then she was slashing at its midsection with the saw-toothed blade. Raw mud "bled" from the massive gash she opened in its torso.

Now she had its attention! It swung one ungainly fist at her, but again she turned it aside through clever placement of her shield. Its other fist sought Grisham, but the barbarian was in the grip of his frenzy and he dodged the attack with almost superhuman agility. An instant later, he responded by slashing viciously with his longsword, taking a chunk out of the elemental's right arm as it swung passed him.

Morier came in on the barbarian's left, his huge silver greatsword flickering with electricity. He brought it down like a cleaver, slashing away a great piece of the thing's back that tumbled to the floor and shattered. It bellowed again in pain, its voice like an earthquake.

"Shaharizod, guide my blade!" Karak said simply, filling himself with Divine Favor before he stumped in close.

Ixin took a step closer as well (although she was still well back in the hallway outside the room and out of immediate danger) moving forward until she was standing beside Vade and then sent another pair of Magic Missiles stabbing into the elemental's head.

Both Feln and Ledare took swings at the obviously wounded thing, but neither could penetrate its incredibly tough skin. It, however, had no such trouble pummeling both of them. Its fist came around - one! two! - and slammed into them with bone-crushing force, knocking the pair backward. Feln staggered against the stone well in the center of the room and had to catch the edge to prevent himself from being hurled over the lip and down into the fiery chamber below. Ledare nearly ended up on her back, but just managed to retain her feet with the coppery taste of her own blood filling her mouth.

At the elemental's back, Morier brought his greatsword around again, putting every bit of the unexpected strength bottled up in his small frame behind the blow. It wasn't guided by the power of True Striking this time, but Morier was a skilled swordsman even without the benefit of his magics. The sword severed the thing's right leg at the hip and its animating force was snuffed out at once. The stone body collapsed into an avalanche of rubble between the eldritch warrior and Grisham.

"Oi!" Karak bellowed, waving his war axe at the albino. "Ye could nae save me a swing or two!?"

Morier lowered his blade and let out a weary sigh. "I don't think that Feln and Ledare were eager for me to sit back and wait for you to join the battle," he countered. "Another blow like that last one and I think we'd be carrying them out of here."

"Burying us here is more likely," the half-orc said and he was right; neither of them looked in too good a shape. Feln was clutching his ribs and Ledare was spitting mouthfuls of blood onto the floor.

"It's usually a good idea to buff before combat begins, Karak," Ixin suggested as she walked from the hallway to join the others in the hemispherical room. The dwarf shot her a look of mild disgust.

"Buff?" he growled. "What are ye talkin' about?"

"Sorry. That's what Drake Ulric called spells cast before battle," the mage told him. "Magic that makes you temporarily stronger or faster or more difficult to injure."

"Ye be a strange one," Karak grumbled, shaking his head dismissively.

"So where'd our man go?" Grisham asked, peering down into the ruddy depths of the well.

"There's handprints leading down the sides of the well," Vade explained as he stepped up to the barbarian's side.

"I see 'em," the man acknowledged and held his hand out over the hole. "Toasty. We won't last long in that heat," he said, his willingness to proceed after the fleeing Tarawyn a foregone conclusion.

"Maybe there's a secret panel in the side of the shaft," Vade suggested, boosting himself up to peer over the edge again. "I can't see in this light, but maybe we don't have to worry about the heat." Ixin looked over the side and smiled.

"Reminds me of grandmother's sleeping chamber," the drakeling said wistfully before turning back to Vade. "The prints go all the way down, about 35 or 40 feet before the shaft opens onto a chamber of some sort. That bed of flames is another 30 feet below that."

 

[Hairy Minotaur]

I enjoy dropping little 'easter eggs' like those into my story hour. I imagine that it's only a matter of time before the group meets a half orc wearing spiked gauntlets.

Sweet!