Tempering Flames

Life, Achievement/ Win

Myska's Menagerie delve into Mount Fohkala. The god of the volcano makes its presence known and a cluster of Temperence Shards are put on the line. Myska's light shines upon the fate of the Menagerie.

Landing on the South Eastern side of the volcano in a clearing, Myska's Menageir mounted up for a ride around the circumference of the volcano. They had not seen any caves of entrances on the flight down to a safe landing zone so they began their journey clockwise. Astrid and Chupta summoned their horses and the magic carpet was produced as a side taxi. Millie had built a second bodyguard via spare parts and necromancy on the flight down and now lashed both of them into his cart which was tugged behind Rachit.
  Traveling around the mountain and looking up, the companions found a trail that wrapped counterclockwise upwards through the trees and above to barren rock. Aside from the trail, the only sign of civilization that was spotted was obscur woodland marks. Crush identified them as druidic markings of danger warding away any wilderness travelers with notices of death and doom up the mountain. The signs were likely left by the shamans or hunters of the primal orc or gnoll tribes that lived west of the Orods.
  Myska's Menagerie ascended upwards. Astrid used here magic to search for Temperance Shards and did get a confirmation of a direction far below them inside the center of the mountain. As they party went up, Astrid's divination became out of range. Meanwhile, Millie sent an arcane eye ahead to the top of the smoking mountain. Amid the brown, yellow, and grey vapors at the top of the mountain was a small, narrow landing at the end of the trail, only about 15 feet deep and 30 feet long. The landing was slanted down towards the inside of the volcano. The rest of the upper rim of the volcano was jagged and broken, uneven undulating rock of a perimeter separating outside and in. Upon the landing was a handful of coin as well as a sapphire centered necklace. All of them were with a few feet of the inside edge with the sapphire necklace pointing radially outward with it's chain. As the companions got to the top to see the multitude of mints on the coinage, Millie sent his secondary eye down through layered gases beneath.
  Dropping down through the mountain, the blurred out eye saw no paths down the rock walls except for climbing. After a handful or more of elevation, the eye found a huge ledge surrounding the final drop off to the lava below. Inside this ring was another helical path that wrapped down a single rotation for another hundred feet of depth to the bottom where an island sat amid the lava lake. The island had a massive horde of treasure upon it and a bridge extending from the curved path to it. Millie Dropped the eye after informing his companions.
  Millie proposed the idea that the treasure beneath had dropped from the offering platform they stood on. Despite the implication of the Legend Lore, no dragon was seen below and this could possibly be a dragonless horde. As the companions spoke about the possibilities, the fumes atop the volcano searing lungs and sickened bodies. For whatever preparations they may or may not have made for the heat, the toxic vapors had not been accounted for. Seeking to make this quick, the companions made their descent magically to circumvent climbing in the gas. Chupta took to the air and lower Astrid with him upon a chain had had about his waist. Millie joined his guards in his cart and levitated the vehicle in the air and dropped it down the center of the shaft after a tug towards the center from Chupta. Slowest of the lot, Crush turned into gaseous vapor for a steady descent.
  Millie lowered himself to the up ledge about 100ft up from the lava's bottom. Chupta and Astrid were more direct, lowering right on top of the treasure horde. As the descended, Astrid's divination pulled off of the horde and out into the lava beneath. She dropped off Chupta's chain and onto the treasure horde looking up coins, gems, jewelry, art , weapons, and armor all dazzling with the allure of wealth and power. With this though, a hill of magma began to form in the direction of the divination's pull and the surface tension broke to reveal a gargantuan red dragon head dripping with molten rock. The beast bellowed out a guttural inquisition of who dare enter its lair and stand upon its horde.
  Astrid attempted to dive for a rod with the intention of have Chupta teleport the pair of them away but her surge downward met an equivalent surge upward from the dragon (Initiative was called at the moment of aggravated action). lava surged and splattered as the dragon's anger rose. Astrid managed to grab the rod she desired and tried to play off her intent in deceit about this not being the thing she was looking for. The dragon did not believe her. As Millie attempted to call on the name of the Drakenbrood, the dragon swiped Astrid up in one hand and slam her onto the rock next to the islands edge, dangerously close to the lava lake.
  Both Millie and Chupta submitted to the dragons temper and tried to talk it down. When Astrid spoke, she was bellowed over as a liar and a deceiver. She felt the weight of the dragon over her mithril armor. In despair of her own doom, she brought out the Shade Crystal in an attempt to pass it to Chupta, to prevent it it from going to the lava with her. Crush's winged descent as a bird to join his companions led him into a similar state of reverence and pacifism. When Chupta would not take the Shade Crystal, Astrid sent it to Crush with her Mage Hand
  As the Shade Crystal came out, it blazed with amethyst light to change the hue of the entire chamber. The appeals of the companions of Myskathema and Xanicksaroon's renewed battle began to be met by non sequitur responses from the dragon. It bellowed down towards Astrid, and later towards Crush, that he would not be letting anyone leave if there was less in his treasure trove than when they entered. Chupta, who already had his gem of seeing out for the initial approach on the horde, looked through it again to see a spectral, polygonal image of a dragon flaring from the Shade Crystal at the position the red dragon's partial conversation was being directed.
  Picking up on a facet of the conversation, Myska's Menagerie figured out that they would not be leaving with the resident Temperance Shards if they could not add to the dragon's horde in excess of what they were taking. Chupta Started the offering with by Smuggler's Gambiting out his traps but this was unnoticed in value at all. The floating man then continued to offer more: a holywater flask, his untranscribed spell scroll of Skyrwrite, and the Ring of Warmth all came out onto the pile. The dragon wanted more. Millie, in desparation, conjured and presented a magnificent ebony chest bound in Adamantine which the dragon heartily accepted in terms of precious treasure. Despite all of the previous magic items that Chupta had give, the dragon still desire more, or rather a greater, item of magic to equal the chest. It demanded the magic lense the man was activily using. Recognizing the shakedown for what it was, Chupta gave it over as Astrid was released on the upper lair ledge near Millie.
  The dragon then agreed to fetch the Temperance Shards but assured the party that if even a single coin was taken while he was gone, Hrathlnax the Molten Tide would bring destruction and ruin to not only them but the civilization in general. The dragon dove back into the lava. While it was gone, Astrid jostled out any possible coins lodged in her armor from her hordecapture. When the dragon partially arose from the lava to present the Shard cluster to Crush (the bearer of the Shade Crystal currently), Millie scampered down the ledge to offer the treasure gathered above as a final act of good will and attempting to have no loose ends on the dragon's wrath. As the companions rose out of the volcano, the lava rose with them to submerge the horde beneath.
  Over the afternoon, Myska's Menagerie made their wayback to their airship in shocked and relieved retreat from Mount Fohkala and the lair of Hrathlnax, the Molten Tide. On the trip, Astrid made sure to thank Chupta for standing his ground and refusing to leave Astrid in the clutches of the dragon. He played it off as flight not really being a choice and playing into the dragons desires as the only path forward. Despite this, Astrid still shared her thanks as well as the regret of Chupta having to leave behind his Gem of Seeing. In response, the man simply stated, “We did leave behind some things but not each other.” In greater reflection, the companions forced a smile through the whole operation as “No one went unconscious” and “This went better than most times.”
  Upon getting back to the airship, many discussions of the path forward led to the ultimate direction of South East. There were many factors clumping together from the Hall of Memory's research rescources to Astrid's homesickness and need for comfort. In addition to these base needs, more information pushed in that direction after the companions decided where to commit more Temperance Shards for use. The companions broke down the power source of the Throne of Peace to allow Crush to begin crafting a new shard-powered gem of seeing for Chupta but would need a final few material pieces from the city. More importantly, the companions decided to take the cluster of 16 shards from Mount Fohkala and merge them into the Shade Crystal itself. The infusion of such a grand amount sparked a long and enlightening conversation with Myska that revealed much.
  Myska's Menagerie learned that the shards within Mount Fohkala had be put there long ago to calm the most violent of the volcanos. While it did allow for the woodlands around it to grow and flourish, it also dealt with another problem. The ancestors of the Ta Xha Fan saw the mountain as an angry god and would sacrifice people to it when it's wrath grew to great. The Temperance Shards allowed both an ecosystem to grow and for lives to be saved. Their presence then allowed for the Drakenbrood to place the red wyrmling of Hrathlnax in the mountain without fear of his tyranny. It was the shard's influence that had kept the red dragon from immediately destroying the party for their intrusion in his lair. Now that the temperance was gone, though, the dragon's true nature would begin to show.
  Following the line of the dragons, conversation also touched on the spectral form Chupta had seen of Myska in the lair. While Myska denied doing anything aside from trying to speak out and help, there was more too it. It seemed that around creatures of enough power, they too could hear and even see the sentience of the Shade Crystal. Supposedly Myska had tried to help in the past but was unable to due to being stored safely in the extradimensional haversack. It was decided that the Menagerie should take actions to allow Myska to be out and present more.
  A final note on dragons, Astrid pulled on a thread of history. Myskathema was supposedly once an amethyst dragon of the Immreth Mountains that called the world and those in it her horde. Astrid pressed the topic of the fell death that had taken her under Scizzord's power. The woman wanted to know if there was anything Myska could do to help. Follow her responses to Fozz's death, the Shade Crystal first said that death was good and allowable. After what she had witnessed in the Pyrewood Mounds, death was acceptable. Despite this, Astrid beseeched Myskathema's purpose, not the Shade Crystals, about being a part of the horde that should be protected. This broke through to the core personality within the idol's essence. With that, Myskathema extended the blessings available to the warrior-servant to allow her magic to be used to ward off death even if only for a moment.
  Continuing on threads of the Pyrewood, conversations were also had of gods and elder evils. Millie introduced himself to the Myska who coldly responded with the gnome being secondary, a tool of her tools. Millie inquired about the name Xanicksaroon which brought vehemence, wrath, and cyclical confusion to the Shade Crystal. In time, this name was applied to the elder evil that Myskathema had lost herself to hold back from this world. Myska claimed it as her Caged Morbidity. If needed to be spoken of, it should only be spoken of thusly. Millie inquired about information from his legend lore, of the Caged Morbidity having partnered with other gods to get into the world. The god that had allowed this to happen was Talona, the Mistress of Poisons. It had gained purchase in the Pyrewood and that is why Myska had sent Temperance Shards there to attempt to fix the corruption. The party's found document on Adossag's throne supported this information.
  The party spoke for future destinations, of other Temperance Shards. Myska no longer felt the presence of a great white dragon that she new once was. This did not answer if Scizzord has removed those shards from the horde or had killed the dragon. Either way, the tundra was no longer a destination. Asking about an immaculate badlands, it would come to be known that Temperance Shards had been sent to what is now the Heartseive Wastes to prevent to the ravaging of that land for it's resources. It seemed that Astrid's past was now slowly making connections back to her quest.
  Further discourse led the party to a few theories or noted inferences throughout the conversation. Myskathema spoke about the race to now gather Temperance Shards before Scizzord was not an arithmetic ends of gaining incremental powerto simply have a majority. Astrid noted that based on how Myska spoke, the Caged Morbidity was stronger than her. Millie hypothesized that Scizzord may not be collected Temperance Shards for his own “dark shade crystal” but may actually be destroying them, nullifying them as parts Myska could no longer have.
    Sights were redoubled southeast though the exact destination of New Derth or the Heartseive Wastes would be dependent on other information. The party new not how fast or accurate Scizzord could travel.