Game night Jan 7 – Dropped into a volcano full of tepid lava

Evil Temple or Day Spa?

One moment you are in a lifeless void, the next moment you are thrust into a place of stunning vibrant sensation…

The air is thick with the mixed smells of jungle, sea, and sulfur. Your vision is obscured by the limbs, leaves, and vines of the overhanging vegetation, and their swishing is loud in your ears, along with the buzzing of insects and the more distant shrieks and calls of the local fauna. You stand on the crumbling ruins of a platform built into the inside wall of a volcano. A circle, still faintly glowing blue, inscribes the stone at your feet and a winding stair built into the wall leads to other small platforms above and below. Far below the caldera of the volcano casts a sinister glow, the glow of lava. Broken columns on the edges of the platform is all that is left of the monastery that once straddled the crater.

Poppy, Thokk, Hex, and Ria were the first to cross through the portal and leave the eternal city of D Argent for the fecund tropical Isle of Dread. Through a crack in the volcano wall, they could see the entirety of the island spread before them, stretching towards the southeast as far as the eye could see. No sooner had they got their bearings than they heard a much more immediate sound. A deep thudding boom came from the rim above. Between the trunks of overhanging trees appeared a huge white ape, at least 10 feet tall. He stood on two legs and beat his chest with two pairs of clawed fists. It was a girallon, the infamous Six Armed White Ape of the Isle of Dread. Behind him came his subjects, a pair of hooting and hollering silver backed apes who held chunks of stone above their heads. They threw their stones at the cleric, but both sailed harmlessly into the magma below. Ria retreated to try the lower route.

Before she or anyone else had time to react a second feral scream assaulted their ears from below. Another large girallon seemed to appear out of nowhere, to threaten from the platform below. He differed slightly from his cousin above. His six arms ended in blood red claws, and his eyes glowed menacing red. It was the even more infamous Su-Girallon, corrupted by an evil intelligence. Without pause for reflexion, Hex charged down the stone steps toward the su-girallon, cursing it as he went. From the platform he could see a break in the wall and a cave entrance partially concealed by an outcropping. From inside the cavern came the echoing howls of more monsters, and even as he discovered it, another beast came rushing through to throw its arms about the swordlock and drag him past the Su Alpha towards the platforms edge. The red claws of the beast raked him savagely as he was pulled past, but stopped short of toppling over the edge.

Above Poppy and hex withstood the charging rush of the girallon the barbarian named Big Top. Claws raked and fists pummeled. The silver backed apes tumbled down the stairs to whale into the barbarian, slamming into him with their massive arms. The apes encircled the barbarian and attacked from boh sides while the Girallon pushed past him to engage the little elf with the big sword. They sparred and he tried to grapple her, but she twisted out of the things grasp. Finally he over-reached and tumbled to the ground as they fought along the very edge of the platform. With a downward sweep of her heavy blade, the girallons head dropped to sizzle into the magma below.

Hex used his magic to strike the su alpha and slide him over the edge of the platform. The creature dropped 20 feet to land on his back in the cooling magma. It was scorched by the lava and wasted no time to scramble over the areas of lava that had formed a slightly cooler blackened crust, and thus it was not instantly incinerated by the extreme heat of molten rock. So there.

A second minion of the su alpha tumbled out of the crack in the wall to push Hex over the edge and he too went tumbling down into the lava. Having some resistance to fire, due to diabolical pacts, meant Hex took a minimum of burn damage as he too rushed for stable footing. By this time the su alpha had rushed from the caldera back to his platform and was trying to attack Ria who was cut off an alone on the platform. With the help of another su minion, which continued to spew forth from their lair, they managed to throw the cleric down into the lava. She suffered mightily from the attack and was forced to expend her divine healing magic on herself to prevent her from succumbing to the heat and the slashing claws of the su alpha who followed her down.

The back and forth of the battle went on for some time as the party was split, with Ria and Hex fighting off the Su alpha and the minions which continued to spill forth from the crack one by one to come rushing down the stairs. After Ria was knocked into the caldera of the volcano, she looked up and watched with surprise as minion who knocked her over the edge turned its attention to one of the silver back apes, to its own destruction. Then the ape turned to charge Poppy from behind, hurling her off the platform to come splashing down into the very very warm lava below. At the same time Thokk fell under the beating of the other silver-back.

Hex slashed at the Su Alpha from behind while it stood on the edge of solid ground and knocked Ria back into the magma with a back-hand slam every time she tried to escape the burning lava. She had to keep up a steady prayer of healing for herself such was the suffering caused by the big six armed brute. When Poppy fell from above, she bounced up lightly from the crusted lava and without pause charged the su alpha. Between Ria and Poppy, they were able to subdue the alpha male under their constant attacks until it lay down dead at the ladies feet.

Up above two apes beat on the unconscious form of the half orc barbarian. Whenever he apes tried to land a killing blow, somehow the oblivious barbarian would twitch and roll to the side, avoiding the apes. From below Ria tried to rush up the stairs to save the barbarian before he succumbed to death. She ran past the su monster cave and heard the hissing and howling of the creatures from within, but the cowardly creatures refused to engage now that their master was slain.

She blasted the last ape into oblivion and reached the half orcs side before he died.

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