After defeating the Sargavan guardsmen (including holding one under a lava waterfall of sorts), the party found themselves in a large, oddly shaped room with doors to the north and south, a strange central area with heat resistant tiles, and several large vats with greenish liquid.
NORTH DOOR. some sort of quarters, bed, chest, desk. On the desk is a large, basketball-sized crystal sphere that shows a storm inside, like a crystal ball. Titus took the sphere and secured it in a backpack. It is heavy (20 pounds) and fragile. Also: some papers in Cheliaxian, Scourge orders. Some of them reference Sidoneth, “the Hydromancer” who “has been made amenable to our aims” (hints at financial, rather than political, influence). The oldest docs are several weeks old, meaning the Sargavans have been planting people in position well before the Gate Pass attack.
Titus believes that this could be part of the magic item causing the hurricane to hit Seaquen, but also says that there is a second power element that is required to control the storm within.
SOUTH DOOR. Lock is double-trapped and very different from North Door. Wraith heard someone cast a spell, a door slam, and the door itself is hot to the touch. Smells like sulfur, lava inside. Inside is a whirling elemental, plus a small humanoid girl made out of lava, who seems to be in command.
While fighting is taken place, Titus witnesses a creature emerge from one of the tanks of green fluid. It’s skin is somewhat translucent, but it has some sort of magic encapsulated in it’s abdomen, which Titus interprets as a sort of magical trap.
Inside are fire creatures, coming out of the lava, as well as a small lava-based fey. After a brief battle, the fire elementals continue attacking but the lava creature drops back into the lava (and safety). She returns to grab Po’s leg and drag him into the lava, but PO in turn crits her, driving her into the lava. Wraith finishes her off, but breaks his bowstring on the next attack.
Titus turns Ono invisible to protect him from attack, and the party advises him to guard the door.
EAST DOOR: Ono hears furniture being upended and likely turned into defensive barriers, and opening the door provokes crossbow fire. The room is a torture chamber, with a cruelly treated elvish woman on one of the tables. One sneaks behind and stuns him, then breaks his nose. One determines the woman is dead, due to a slashed throat, recently delivered. She wears the uniform of Shalosha’s blockade sailors, and was alive until about ten minutes previously. Wraith kills the unconscious man before Arandar can ask any questions.
PRISON CELLS: South of the torture room are a series of cells, carved into the rock.
First Cell: Contains a large pillar made of white stone, that radiates magic.
Second Cell: Empty but with scorch marks n the floor, perhaps from an alchemical bomb.
Third Cell: a man chained to wall with manacles, tortured, tattered clothing, very skinny from lack of food. Tattoos indicated that he might be a sailor. He cringes away from the party, begging to not be tortured. Wraith releases him from manacles, and Arandar gives him food and water, which he eats gleefully, then vomits back onto to the floor. He mentions the name “Damius” who is in charge here. The man says he tried to use fire resistance to avoid the “burning sky” effect of teleportation, and tried to reach Seaquen. He describes a magical capture system that took his teleport from his path and brought him here. He mentions a “white pillar” that controls the trap. He doesn’t know where the pillar is.
Fourth Cell: the “squeak door’, in which there is an immense cluster of rats, that look to be starving. Arandar shuts them in before they can escape.
Fifth Cell: Lying on the floor is a body covered in burns and ash. It is skeletal, with no sign of life.
The prisoner confirms that the pillar in first cell is the pillar that dragged him her when he teleported.
A door opens, audible to all, and a calm but clear voice says “Go now. Eat them.”
