Pello inspects his newly found small pot. He pays close attention to the scripting found traced along the bottom. He starts to sound out the words under his breath, a harsh language it would seem, some sort of elemental tongue that Pello somehow knows.

As Pello finishes deciphering and whispering out the script, the large pot that the demon was playing with begins to boil, the odd green substance inside it bubbling lightly for a few seconds when suddenly it erupts into a high paced vicious boil. As the large pot boils the small one in Pello’s hands starts to shake violently, so much so that Pello drops it to the ground. The small pot tumbles to the floor when an eruption of magma shoots upward in a column. The column of magma starts to thin out into a fiery haze, the room shakes as dust falls from the ceiling. The fiery haze grows larger, like a bon fire, taking up much of the east part of the room. The haze forms into a hominoid like shape as two black spots blink, as if they were eyes. Silence fills the air when you would think it would be crackling like a fire, or bubbling from the pot behind, but no it is silent.

The silence erupts as the two black spots focus down upon Pello. ”Why for have you awoken me from my elemental sleep? You will pay for you disobedience!” The fiery creature steps closer to Pello, his 15’ tall stance towers over the gnome. ”Answer me, NOW!!!” crackling fire can be heard through its voice.

Pello hurriedly steps backwards as the magma spills, upwards, ending with his back to the wall. However, as the magma things out to form the creature, his expression of apprehension, changes to wonder, and then a dreamy look.

Then, as the creature demands his answer, he steps forward, kneels and abases himself. With his face firmly pressed to the ground, the gnome intones

"To learn, oh master. To learn the secret of the living flame, and become like it. To take the fire within me, and let it intermingle with the mother flame."

It almost sounds like he is reciting something he has read somewhere.

The crackling gets louder as the black spots narrow, the head of the creature moves down closer to Pello's face. The creature is immensely hot when it starts to speak again, through crackling fire. ”Master? I like that. My servant you will be.” Its eyes narrow even further as it looks up and around to the others for the first time, what looks to be a smile forms under the black eyes. ”I see you have with you a small army of servants of your own. They look as if they serve your cause well.” He looks around to everyone and then back again to Pello, ”But will they die for your…..MY CAUSE?” The creature snickers sinisterly.  ”You my new servant, will set me free from this cell. No longer will I be beckoned by any and everyone. For too long I have been incased in this pot, too long have I served the Mage King, too long have I been away from my true home. You, yes YOU will now set me free, Servant!” The creature stands to its tallest as it looks around the room, with fiery strips of flames flowing around it endlessly.

Pello raises his face to look up at the creature, a grin evident on his face, the dancing fire reflected in his eyes "Of course. How can I release you? Say it, and it will be done."

Quindil says nothing and watches the exchange with some sort of combination of worry, fear, irritation, and amusement.

"Great, something with an ego bigger than the runt's." Erdthar scowls. THis could not be good, not by any definition.

Falk seems unconcerned about this fiery being, and instead is admiring his axe. It's very nice. The gold pommel gives it a very nice balance that lets it be swung with ease and yet maintain a powerful punch.

The fiery creature seems to smile before responding. "Good! Now destoy the Mage Lord so that I may be set free. I cannot hurt him for he has a spell upon me that keeps me from doing so. Find him and kill him, then bring his head to me. I will take enjoyment as I burn out his eyes." The fiery creature flutters for a second and then starts to return back into his holding pot.

"Oh great.  Now we have to find some friggin' lost helm AND kill a mage lord?  How the hell are we going to do that?  How're we going to find him?  Is there more than one Mage Lord?  How're we going to know if we're killing the right one?  What the hell have you gotten us into this time?"

Quindil's ranting gets a little out of hand...

OOC: fixed spelling
This message was last edited by the player at 00:27, Fri 21 Mar 2008.

Upon hearing that they've been tasked to kill, Falk suddenly takes notice

I could go for adding a mage lord on my list

Warring feeling flit across Pello's face, as he stands up. But then he picks up the pot and places it on the desk.

With a black expression, quite unusual for the usually quite emotional little guy, he looks around the other.

"So, what you say we head out of here, and finish our mission?"

"I say we rest up here and recover first."  Erdthar sits heavily, fondling his axe in a vaguely obscene way.

"Whenever you've finished recovering your strength, I say we finish up here and get the hell out.  I'm sick of this place."

Pello glances towards the pot, and then makes two urgent jerks of his head towards the stairs

"Well then, why don't we then get out of here first, and then rest once we've handled business."

He makes another jerk of his head towards the stairs.

"sure, upstairs is fine"  Erdthar pushes his way up the staircase.

"Weren't we following footprints before we got distracted by all manner of unholy beasts?  Maybe we could pick the tracks up again and keep going."

After looting up, the adventurers take some time to rest as they kick around ideas on which way to travel. Should they go up and explore what’s left of the level above or should they go down into the depths and see what comes of that? Where will they find this Mage Lord more importantly where will they find the Helm of Brattor?

This way or that, the choice is theirs.

"Let's head for the top of this blasted mountain.  Should take the stairs, near the entrance to this floor.  If anything, they can lead us up and out."

"Right, let's go." Pello says and heads up the stairs.

The group makes their way back up the stairs from which they came, to the room when the recently fought the flying skulls.

Return to the room, it seems that the once opened caskets are now once again sealed shut, there are no remains of the skulls upon the floor, like there was before.

it has only been a few hours since you were in this room, but your presence from before is not evident.

"damn!  we shoulda rested when it was safe."

"We did that." Pello points out, "Though if you mean proper sleep, that would be good too."

He looks around "Shouldn't be much more of a danger than sleeping near the pot of a released fire elemental. Which is why I got us out of there. Killing a wizard could be all well and good, assuming that he isn't dead already, but there is professional courtesy to be worried about."

He looks back through the door to the top of the stairs "I wouldn't mind sleep in the room back there."

"Well, that's pretty friggen weird."
Quindil goes over to one of the coffins, and tries to move its lid.
"Wonder if anything's left in here?"

The adventurers check out the coffins for a moment before heading to the staircase.

Once they get to the stair case they quickly remember the riddling doorway. The riddle is slightly different from the first one, but before long the group is able to figure out the password, without meeting up with any un-for seen dangers, such as a 5 headed dragon.

They travel up the stairs for a brief moment when they come to another level. The stairway opens up into a wide hallway, nicely crafted stone walls and ceilings all around, the stairs continue upward. The hallway is dark, but as below there are un-lit torches on the wall. Those that can see in the dark see that the hallway continues on in both directions for a while. The hallway looks to turn north on both ends.

I will get a map of this level when I get home from work, hopefully

"Anybody have a light?"