With a deep breath, an assortment of buffs, and a party huddle, you enter the Node of Fire.
Zoink!
The rooms and corridors of these dreaded pits are humid and hot - so hot that, had it not been for Sahrim's superior control over the local weather, you would be sure to suffer damage after even a relatively short amount of exposure. The lighting varies from dim embers to great pits of leaping flame.
The eight doors from the room that you find yourself in initially are large stone constructions with brass fittings. The rooms and corridors appear to be hewn from the surrounding rock, and as your dwarven companions tell you, are very well made, perhaps with elemental or magical assistance.
Your first encounter is with 3 Dun Puddings. They were easily baked, with a the help of a couple of magic missiles and some well placed blows. A potion was found.
You quickly moved through the node, knowing that your protection from the environment could end at any moment. The Fire Snakes you found next were dispatched quickly, but not before biting Lysander, causing him to become paralysed.
Shortly after this however, you stumbled upon a room with large circle enscription on the floor, and a familiar simple, perfect square symbol on the walls. You also found a simlar circle in another room after this, which had a smaller cirlce inside it. Almost the same, but slightly different.
Arnie and Taran made short work of the Salamanders that were next to get in the way. Two serious looking Fire Elementals also managed to get themselves extinguished by the deadly frontline duo.
Still feeling strong, and with a serious amount of momentum, a young Red Dragon was found and reduced to smoked meat before it could pose any threat to the party. The NEXT Red however, managed to get off a breath weapon, and luckily the fire buffs offered extensive damage reduction for those that got in the way. Taran racked himself up 2 dragon kills this time out.
The spoils along the way included a protection ring, which the Guru took, swapping another one with Lysander (not that he could argue about it in his state). A magic dagger and another potion was also uncovered.
You also managed to run into a somewhat out-of-place denizen of the nodes, a weaver by the name of Jaer. He joined a group of bandits, and regretted his choice of friends almost immediately. After the bandits had turned out to be recruiters for the Temple, he tried to quit, and was thrown into the nodes for his betrayal.
He stood with you, and took some blows, when eight "pillars of flame" turned nasty, taking on a vaguely humanoid form, and lashing out with fiery arms.
The spoils of your victory was a smoky quartz gem. The Guru, experimenting with its use, found that when he touched it he was sent immediately to...well that's what you'll have to find out for yourselves somehow!
Comments