Revision as of 23:12, 10 June 2015

Participants

• Cassidy
• Fenris
• Iorek
• Kazel
• Natska
• Rokarion
• Vestela

Date

10/6/478

Log

Above ground, Jet watches impassively as people chatter, argue or move along. "Not my business, Snowball," he grunts to Vestela, "Don't much care either way. But you probably better get goin' if you want any of the good loot."

Kazel is the first to step into the familiar room with the three closed doors. She first looks to the fire one, then to the water one. "I think we should try fire this time. Since we already explored air. Any objections?"

Natska makes her way into the room, ears perked as she looks around. "Huh! Well, then, this is interesting..." she considers the room for a few moments, then looks over at Cassidy. "I'm fine with the second door, unless you are feeling particularly called to open the first?"

Iorek looks to the polar bear as she talks, a small double take as he realises she's a bear with a slight surprised "Oh, it's not like hauling big things of stone... last time it was a little plate thing with symbols on it. That's what Fenris is looking for, helps him open this place up more se we get more treasure." he looks around the room and points at the air door "Kazel opened that with a big magic air blast and we encountered a spirit that even Fenris hadn't seen before in there... I wasn't expecting the door to be shut again... I wonder if something new is in there because the rooms seem to move..."

Vestela lumbers into the room, following the rest. The bear squints upwards in the chamber, trying to spot where the light is coming from. Her attention is quickly drawn to the doors however. "Not particularly fond of fire but sure. Why not. Blast it with fire and let's see what happens. Just out of curiocity, what DID you find in the ways of treasure last time?" she rumbles. After speaking, she takes a moment to weave some protective magic around her. Just in case...

Rokarion has been idly following the group as they walked into the temple once more. Rokarion shifted his focus towards the new room the group was in, inspecting it as he looked around, "Hmmm, I am assuming that each door is opened by its particular element then?" he says in his nonchalant voice to no one in particular.

Cassidy doesn't wait for group census, a bit of flame being conjured and applied to the firedoor, intent on seeing if it opened like the air one had. "Sounds fine to me, Natska. Let's do it." She starts towards the door, regardless of if it opens or not. But hopefully it does!

At the touch of the fire magic, the door marked with a flame swings open smoothly with a sound of stone grating against stone. There is a blast of heat and a lurid glow comes from beyond the portal. Behind the door is a great cavern. The area by the door is made up of cut, worked stone and extends in a narrow bridge, wide enough for two average beings to walk side by side, over an expanse of magma and flame. Despite the proximity to the molten rock, the heat is not so overwhelming as it should be. It is still uncomfortable hot, but not unbearable.

There are no walls along the sides of the bridge, but every few feet is a small plinth with a lit torch set in it. Across the bridge is another door, this one marked with a stylized hammer.

Kazel takes the lead and draws one of her swords. She makes her way onto the bridge, the heat not bothering her very much thanks to her second nature as a phoenix. The bat peers down over the side of the bridge for a moment and grimasses, but continues onwards anyway.

Natska keeps pace with Cassidy, glancing back and forth at the exposed magma. "Just like home..." she murmurs, slipping a short crystal haft into her hand. "Last time?" she asks, glancing back at the bear for a moment. "Oh, the usual. Dead people's gold, gems and treasures dedicated and sacred to the spirits. They'll probably want them back at some point but that's why you sell them instead of holding onto it."

Iorek looks nevously into the room as he flinches at a wave of hot air near the door and looks between the others in the group "We ended up fighting a huge wind snake thing in the air door so...um, be carful." seems to be a little apprehensive about fighting something made of fire, not crossing the threshold yet.

Vestela takes one brief look into the fiery chamber and shakes her head. "Fuck. That. How about we see what's behind the watery door instead. Can't be worse then the threat of falling to a fiery doom!" the polar bear grumbles.

Rokarion follows the group in, pulling his cloak behind his shoulders to help the plant handle the heat before looking around the room, "You have faced a wind snake you say? Was it another protector of the place or a stray elemental?" Rokarion asked as he looked around the room, the aromatic jasmine already obviously sweating...thought with the fact that it is simple just water, one could easily mistake that for some profuse transpiration.

"It was a spirit's... Hmm. Minion, perhaps? An elemental, I guess, but certainly not stray," Cassidy says, pressing on, unfettered by the heat. The perks of being a phoenix. "That door," she says, gesturing. "This is the forgekeeper's 'domain' I would reckon. The door of fire, the hammer on the door. The water one is most likely Ser'ther."

As the party makes their way across the bridge, all seems quiet until they reach about half way. There is a sudden, harsh blast of superheated air! It is not enough to knock anyone from the bridge, though it does buffet everyone harshly. It also blows out most of the torches along the length of the bridge!

The room's heat, only uncomfortable a moment before suddenly becomes overwhelmingly hot! Below the bridge, the far too close magma stirs and ripples.

Kazel flaps the large wings on her back and is quickly aloft in the air, soon she is quite high over the fiery spectacle. Even though she is very heat resistant, the bat does not want to risk anything.

Natska raises her arm to shield her face from the sudden massive blast of heat, and then the jaguar spontaneously combusts! Or, at least, that's what it looks like at first as the feline is wrapped in flames, but soon enough it becomes clear that Natska has instead become a creature -of- flame, a phoenix in full form. With her own respite seen to, she begins focusing her magic on helping the rest of the party, spinning a cool breeze around the group and trying to lower the temperature to a more tolerable level.

Iorek hops back at the sudden burst of heat and stares into the room in a panic. It doesn't look like he can cross the bridge anymore, so he hops around anxiously "You guys all okay?!"

Vestela growls. "I knew it!" and leaps backwards towards the nearest stone pillar. Atleast those weren't likely to burn. Right? Right... It was already dark in the cave and as she watches one of the fellow party members go up in literal flames, the polar bear doesn't hesitate, muttering a formula of dark magic to hide her from whatever guardian might appear.

Rokarion bites his lower lip, the apathetic expression on his face gaining a hint of annoyance as the plant began producing water on a rather rapid pace. With a long breath, he shook his head and continued on his path, mind already working some divine maths to cool down the plant and lowering his body temperature back to almost normal levels, "Apparently the Kind Flame is not in a kind mood today." he said before shaking his head, "An air elemental serving one of the spirits? Who was it? I do not recall any spirit having any affinity to air, was it a new spirit?" he commented as he kept on moving with the group across the bridge.

Cassidy keeps herself to Natska's side, undergoing her own transformation towards her phoenix form. She, unfortunately, must remove her tailcoat for this to allow for the wings to poke out of the back of her strategically tailored dress shirt, but such sacrificies must be made in times of need. She brings her gloved hands up to adjust her bowtie all the while, ensuring she is to remain a dapper bird. A dapper flapper, even.

Even with the torches extinguished, the cavern is still well lit by the glow of the now roiling and rippling magma. Thanks to Natska's considerate application of magic, the heat is just bearable on the bridge, even for poor Vestela without any water or air magic of her own, though a sort of dark haze forms around her, making her difficult to look at.

A rumble of harsh, masculine laughter fills the cavern. "The Kindly Flame?" a deep, male voice says, with tones of crackling flame lying below it, "You do not even know her title, mortal and you assume that this is HER realm!" There is more laughter in the echoing space. "I am FLAME UNBOUND! Face my guardian little mortals! Prove yourselves worthy!"

As the echoes of the voice die away, the magma at a far end of the cavern EXPLODES into the air as a huge form bursts from below! It appears to be some sort of beast! It has a huge, boxy head with wicked horns and black eyes and a hunched back, like a mix between a bear, a hyena and a volcano. With an air shattering roar, the monster charges toward the bridge, magma splashing around wildly!

Kazel does not thing long and steers towards the charging beast. Her sword is quickly sheated and she grabs the battle scythe on her back. Big monsters usually need big weapons after all. She does however not charge the thing yet, instead sending one of her thunderbolts at it while remaining airborne.

Natska grins, her flames flicking and flaring in the heat. She turns towards the charging magma-thing, eyes it for a moment, then spreads her flaming wings wide and throws a blast of raw entropy at the thing, looking like a burst of purple-black flames. "Hit me with your best shot, pal."

Iorek drops his swords to the ground to get them out the way and quickly strings his bow, uncovering his arrow quiver and adjusting it for easy access."Gimme a sec, I got this, I'll cover you!"

Nope. Nope nope nope. The polar bear decides that this is definetly not what she signed up for. Doing her best, trying to subdue the worst of the heat with some applied water mathemagics, she makes a run towards the door and non-fiery doom. "Don't worry! I'll cover the entrance!" she hollers. Ice, don't fail me now...

Rokarion stifled a yawn as the spirit started talking before opening his notebook again, writing back and repeating every word he wrote down loudly, "Note to self, spirits are incapable of understanding sarcasm. Which implies that they do not have any especially strong empathetic ability, but that could also a fault of the dry delivery." satisfied with calling out the spirit's blunder, Rokarion looked up in time to see the monster charging at the group. Seeing as how it was still away from the group, he decided to go for a more brutal spell. Quickly drawing an octagon with his finger, attempting to summon a hailstorm, even against the odds in this place.

Cassidy perks up at the going-ons. The firebeast was of no concern, but what WAS of concern was that this wasn't Hephestia. "Oh ho! Fantastic. You -are- a different spirit. This is wonderful news. Which means the other one probably isn't ser'ther either. Fantastic. I look forward to meeting you," she says before finally turning her attention towards the marauding creature. Her own magical force brought to fore in a flash of vivid blue lightning.

The monstrous magma beast roars with rage as it is struck squarely by Kazel's lightning bolt, though it seems to do little more than anger the monster, and Cassidy's blue bolt is met only with a renewed roar of rage as the monster thunders toward the bridge. Rokarion's conjured storm of ice seems to meet with rather more success as swaths of the beast's fiery flesh seems to sizzle and harden where it is struck by icy projectiles and Natska's magic confuses the monster. Its charge slows somewhat, meaning that when it strikes the bridge, it is only with earthshaking force. The bridge takes the hit solidly, surprisingly sturdy for such a narrow prominence, though the shaking knocks poor Vestela from her feet, sending her tumbling to the ground before reaching the safety of the door!

Kazel groans as her bolt does not do much good and decides to take a closer approach to things. She swoops down as fast as she can and slashes at the beast with her scythe as she reaches is, using her momentum to reinforce the blow and attempting to sink the blade of the weapon deep int to creature's flesh.

Natska flaps her wings once as the phoenix steadies herself, not wanting to lose her footing. She keeps her eyes on the magma beast, watching as her magic seeps into it, and when she lands from her short hop she kneels and begins quickly scrawling equations and formulae into the dust of the bridge.

Iorek thinks back to Cassidy's story about the water elemental with the gem and figures it may apply here too as he spends time assessing the creature for a weakness to share with his collegues as he readys his bow.

Vestela sighs heavily and scrambles to her feet, filling both hands with sharp blades as she gets to her feet. "Right. Enough!" she growls as her anger builds. She digs her claws into the surface she's on and prepares to charge the spirit at an opportune moment. If one presents itself that is. A lousy mage adept she might be, but she had atleast learned enough to somewhat protect her from elements while she waited.

Rokarion let out a sigh as the injured beast refused to back down. With a shake of his head, he eyes the beast again and begins drawing some more shapes into the air as he attempted to send wind scythes towards the magma beast, "Indeed, it does sound like another spirit. Apparently they all decided to use this place as a resting spot of some sort." Rokarion added.

Iorek smirks "Aim for the crack right between it's eyes, I'm sure that will do some damage!

Cassidy tilts her head to the side, humming softly. She waits for the thing to be distracted with the others before taking to the air, only briefly, trying to go over its head entirely, out of reach, and to the door with the hammer on it. Maybe if she knocks on it. Either way, the results should be beneficial, or at least not harmful.

The monstrous Bear/Hyena thing howls as Kazel's scythe rips into its hide, chopping hard into a spot weakened by Rokarion's ice magic. It twists itself about, grinding its stony hide against the bridge and leaving an opening on its huge flank. Rokarion's magic slices at the beast as well, sending little rivulets of burning blood dripping down its sides! It bucks and slams against the bridge, trying to dislodge its attackers even as Natska's spikes shoot up around the things legs, holding it in place!

Kazel holds on tightly to the shaft of her scythe with one hand, the thin, but athletic bat being glad for going with rather light armor. Her free hand draws one of her swords, an ornamented, richly decorated one that glimmers faintly in the light. Without further ado she stabs the poisoned blade into the monster.

Vestela concetrates on staying at her feet. The bear mutters under her breath that she'll come back and haunt every single one of them if she falls into the lava.

Natska starts to stand back up, but the crashing and thrashing of the beast causes her to lose her footing. She collapses flat on the bridge, shielding herself with her wings, and tries to sort out what needs to be done next.

Iorek yells at the boss "Hey Fissure Face! Over Here!" Iorek squints waiting for a shot, pacing slowly closer as he does then looses an arrow for the crack in it's head.

Rokarion lets out another sigh before working out yet another spell, well he was helpful and no one was close to him either, perfect opportunity to try something more dangerous, and with that an elemental burst was let out against the creature.

Cassidy touches down behind the creature, glancing back towards Natska. She contemplates dropping her task to go help, but figures she has it, and instead trots up to the door and lifts a gloved hand, reaching out to knock on it. It was a guardian. A tough one, certainly, but maybe it was like a game! If someone reached the door, it might be proved to be a poor 'guardian' and go away! At least, she could hope.

The monster roars in rage and pain, unable to move with its legs pierced by Natska's earth magic. The added pain from Kazel's stabbing stike on one side and Rokarion's blast of force on the other elicits a squealing shriek. Well, if earthquakes can be said to shriek, at least. Iorek's shot does not hit its mark, but manages to lodge itself beneath one of the monster's burning black eyes, driving it to desperate measures! The fiery beast starts to drop, hoping to evade its tormenters by splashing down into the lava!

Cassidy's knock is not answered and the door remains closed. But the sigils on the door swirl and change, becoming legible text!

Cassidy narrows her eyes at the text, then glances over at the beast. Then back at the text. Squint. "This is absurd," she mutters to herself before turning around. She hoped she was right about this. She waits. Her plan won't work til the beast resurfaces.

Kazel plants her feet firmly onto the skin of the beast as she realizes what it is attempting. She pushes herself off and draws her weapons out of the beast in the same motion. The bat assists her push with a gust of air magic and a few flaps of her wings to land on the bridge.

Natska pushes herself back up to her feet in a swirl of heat and flames. She gathers her will and her magic, but she holds her strike, waiting to see if the creature has had enough punishment yet.

Iorek surges forward drawing another arrow hoping to finish the wounded beast off with a shot to that crack. He looses another arrow.

Vestela isn't going to wait to be devoured from below. Beast temporarily gone, she lumbers as quick as you like over to the relative safety of the entrance. "Watch yourselves! It's not done yet!" she shouts.

Rokarion eyes the beast as it begin knocking itself into the laval, and with an idle shrug he continues crossing the bridge towards Cassidy, "What is it?" he asks as he eyes the door, "Does it require a literal hammer or something of the sort?" he asks as looks at the inscriptions.

Cassidy looks towards Rokarion and shakes her head. "It's.. Got something to do with fire, I think. Or kindness. Order. I'm going to pet it," she says, looking towards the lava. "So try to abstain from further agitation til... My attempt either fails or succeeds! And hope it doesn't take offense to me trying."

The monster splashes hard down into the magma, then lunges back up with a roar, jaws gaping and rivulets of burning magma dripping from its fangs! It tears itself free of Natska's restraining earth magic and flings itself onto the bridge! The beast's huge front paws with their sword length claws scrape along the stone as it starts to haul itself up!

Iorek's shot goes wide of his intended mark, but strikes the monster squarely in its obsidian eye, halting its advance, but not dislodging it.

Cassidy hunkers a little lower as the beast pops back up, waiting for its attention to be on the others. She approaches soundlessly from behind, trying to get close. She doesn't act in hostility, though, instead reaching out with a gentle hand to try to pet along its flank.

Kazel sprints to come to a stop next to Cassidy. The bat holds her scythe between beast and fennec with one hand, right above the outstretched arm of the latter. She puts on a grim face and tries to intimidate the beast with her stance and look. "What do you think you are doing?!"

Natska blinks at Cassidy's request, tilting her head a little. She gives Cass a small nod though and continues to hold her fire, ready to strike if the magyena attacks.

Iorek has readied another arrow, frustrated at himself for his inaccuracy. Just before he looses it, he lowers his bow, relaxing the string as he stares quizzically at Cassidy trying to figure out what she's doing

Not wanting to accidentally push anyone off the bridge, Vestela opts to try to blind the second eye instead with a dark hex.

Rokarion rubs his chin as he reads the inscription, giving Cassidy a nod, "Fascinating, I guess that might be the correct method." the plant being said as he opened his notebook again, "I am going to assume that this new spirit represents the more chaotic and destructive nature of fire, but what is more interesting is his challenge. I wonder if he is somehow an underlying or a vassal of some sort to Hephestia. Perhaps even in the Elemental Court there is greater and lesser spirits, but in a more political sense. Like supporters of a more influential politician."

As Cassidy reaches out and strokes the great head of the monster turns to snap at the pair standing beside it! Cassidy's fast action gets her out of the way, but Kazel is not quite so lucky. While she is not caught by the things huge teeth, she is sent sprawling to the ground! Vestela's well placed magic blinds the beast and sends it tumbling from the bridge, giving the party a moment of respite. It looks like kindness was not the answer this time!

Kazel groans as she falls, but the bat is quick to react to the fall and takes advantage of her position to stab at the beasts neck from bellow with her sword that she still had in her hand.

Kazel groans as she falls, but is quick to jump back to her feet and take a step back to the center of the bridge, where she sheaths her sword to once more wield her sizeable scythe with two hands. The bat rolls her eyes at herself for even stopping to attack for Cassidy's idea.

"Oh no you don't," Natska snarls at the magma creature. With b hostilities clearly in full swing, she puts the finishing steps in on the formula she had been preparing, and launches a strike of reality warping, debilitating magic, seeking to erode and decay the guardian as it flails.

Iorek looses an arrow after the beast as it falls, before he glares up at Cassidy, angry that her idea nearly got Kazel injured before he runs over to check on her "You okay Kazel?"

Vestela waits at the doorway. This time ready to pounce and give her two pieces of her razor sharp mind if the beast would appear again. "What does that writing say?" she calls out across the bridge.

Rokarion shakes his head as Cassidy's attempt fails, "Well then now for the other possible outcomes..." He says before looking at Vestela, "Hearth's kind flame by order bound repels chaos' blazing hand.'" He says before continuing to write on his book, "I guess if any of you have a candle or torch or any similar 'beneficial' flame. The implication here is that is supposed to repel the magma monster. I guess another thing to try to lighting a torch or a candle using the creature's body and thus symbolically 'binding' his flames."

"That is why you don't try to get in my way," Cassidy remarks to Kazel with a scoff, landing next to Natska. "I announced my intention, but still you tried. You've only yourself to blame," comes her chiding as she folds her hands behind her back. "I like that second idea," she says, glancing around. "What about those?" She suggests with a tilt of her head, trying to light one herself, with a bit of fire magic, just to see the result. If they don't have to light it with the beast, all the better.