6.3 RUNNING AWAY, ARE WE? (Milestone - 7th Level!)

It's time to revisit Castle Drakenhoff once more in hopes of ridding the prisons of all that which inhabits it.
 
As we enter the now familiar prison halls deep within the castle, I call forth another fuzzy creature. This time it's my good buddy Rafiki joining us today. Unfortunately he won't be of much real use, but we can use him as an alarm to any unseen threats, or fodder for the traps. I make sure to inform the two newcomers about the various traps around before venturing forth. As we failed to disarm the Magic Missile trap from our previous visit, I stop the group just before triggering it. Leia has the idea to step into the trap and use her Shield spell to prevent her from being hit by the missiles and thus allowing us a brief amount of time to skirt past the trap ourselves. That turned out to be a fruitful thought as we all made it past unscathed. I should mention that Leia looks uncannily like Freya. She says they're cousins. They look more like twins to me, but what do I know? Hopefully she knows her way around a Fireball better than her so-called cousin.
 
We decide to go door-to-door and see what lurks behind each one, starting with the first door on the right just before the giant falling spike trap ahead. Renaldine puts her ear up to it and doesn't hear anything. Sounds and looks safe, so we open it up. Doing so reveals a short hallway leading to another stone door. Renaldine checks this door for traps and finds none. I check the door, and it's locked. I tell Leia, and she attempts to unlock it using her skills, but is unsuccessful. I give Zorak my crowbar to allow him to pry the door open, but that isn't working either. He hands my crowbar back to me and we press on to the next door.
 
As we approach the northernmost door on the right, I let the group know to stick to the left of the hallway so as not to trigger the falling spike trap. The door isn't trapped. Renaldine listens intently beyond the door and hears what sounds like bones on stone clanking about. Zorak takes point at the door, readies himself, then opens the door. Inside is a large chamber filled with bones of long-gone creatures. The room is not completely vacant, however, as two large Lupilisks reside, presumably hungry as those dry bones won't provide much nutrition. They spot us, and the fight ensues. I take a couple shots at the closest one on my way into the room. The other one charges at me, taking a bite out of me. I quickly realize that there is more to these creatures than it seems as I begin feeling poisoned, and my muscles and bones began to stiffen. Leia casts an effective Faerie Fire to make them easier to hit while Renaldine casts a Spiritual Weapon to give her some offensive capabilities. Zorak rushes in with a pulse of radiance which seems to take hold. I take an opportunity to go all out now as I might not be able to help much more soon. I'm able to take out one of the Lupilisks and start on the other. After my surge of adrenaline, I was actually able to shake off the effects of the Lupilisk's poison and petrification! Much longer and I'd have been done for. The second one bites me as well, but as I didn't want to go through that again, I steel myself and shake off its effects immediately. Renaldine gets the final blow on the remaining Lupilisk, putting an end to that threat.
 
I explain what happened to me during the fight to the party, and they agree that resting for a short time is necessary. They oblige me, with Zorak guarding the door as we rest, and then we continue forward to the last remaining door across the hallway.
 
We previously disarmed and unlocked this door, so Renaldine proceeds to listen before opening the door. Doing so reveals another short hallway. I send Rafiki down it just to see if any traps are triggered. He does not trigger anything. I call him back before Renaldine heads in and checks the door for traps. She finds that it is indeed trapped. She calls Leia in to attempt to disarm it. Renaldine casts Guidance on her before retreating outside of the hallway just across from myself. Zorak stays in the hallway to keep an eye on Leia. That will prove unwise as Leia fails to disarm the trap, instead triggering it, leading to them both getting caught in a blast of fire. Renaldine and I are unaffected as we are not in the corridor. Once again unable to make it past a door, we decide its best to move on to the red glowing hole.
 
Upon reaching the red glowing hole in the main chamber where we previously reunited Seraphina's soul with her body, we inspect it to find a large, deep opening. We can just about see the bottom roughly 80 feet below us. There's a bit of heat emanating from the opening. The walls do no descend straight downward like a well, but rather they open up to a cavernous space about 30 feet down or so. We ruminate about how to make our way down and ultimately settle on using some pitons and rope to make our climb easier. I hammer in the first piton as an anchor point and begin descending, hammering in more pitons as I go. The others soon follow.
 
As we descend past the 30 foot mark, we can now see clearly into the cavernous space. There are pools of what looks to be molten rock lining the sides of the cave, and a large chest at the opposite end. Guarding the chest is a gargantuan fire or lava elemental creature pacing agitatedly back and forth. As it doesn't seem to notice us at this time, we hang out and discuss our options for how to approach it. After a thorough discussing, we ultimately decide we are not adequately prepared to encounter this gigantic monstrous thing. Leia has nothing but fire-based spells, which surely won't be effective against it, and its aura appears dangers for me to enter. While I am naturally resistant to fire and heat, I don't know how long I could last near it while also taking the brunt of its hits. The two others could provide healing to keep me going, but we feel our offensive capabilities are just not enough. So we choose to retreat for now and come back with a more appropriate set of skills another time.
 
While our time at Castle Drakenhoff was cut short, we discussed what other sorts of trouble we might find to fill our time. I make mention of Skadriel and how the fairy at Old Man Willow told us "the Well of Ascension's time is nigh" there. Renaldine perks up also apparently having heard of this Skadriel place. We decide not to head in that direction, but instead to take the road less travelled back to Urithiru in case we find someone needing help. We don't find that exactly, but we do find a couple members of a druid cult along with their wood woad friend. They attempt an ambush as we pass by. The druids start out by entangling us in thick roots while the wood woad surprises us by magically transporting itself through nearby trees to get closer to us in the blink of an eye. After a slight struggle, we're all able to free ourselves of the entangling roots and begin engaging the cultists. It's at this point that I start believing that Leia and Freya are one and the same, or at least studied at the same magic school. I should've known what was coming when Leia yells out "Did I hear you mention you were naturally resistant to fire?" during the battle. Sure enough, a familiar bead of the tiniest flame whizzes past me and lands nearby, exploding into a scorching ball of fire, catching both the druid cultist and myself in its blast. Yes, Frey... I mean Leia, I am resistant to fire, but that doesn't mean I like it! Anyway, it does its job as I see the druid fighting to cling to life after being engulfed in the flames. Renaldine gets the final blow on all three of our enemies. She's proving quite useful. Perhaps we should've stayed and attempted to defeat the giant elemental after all. Who am I kidding? I think that would've gone far differently.
 
We clean up the area and make our way back to Urithiru, untouched the rest of the way.