Session 21: Chariots of Fire

49,350 XP

   

With Lenti absent on personal matters, the party’s brief respite at Nettle Peak was a period of focused preparation. Elyn, leveraging her formidable arcane knowledge, cast a powerful permanency spell, transforming the animated Gorynych skeleton into an eternal guardian and creating a tireless, permanent skeleton crew for their spelljammer, the Goat Float. This crucial enchantment ensured their vessel would be fully operational for the difficult journeys ahead. Their work was cut short by the urgent arrival of Marahaba Asante, who appeared dramatically via an enlarged messenger bat. He brought critical intelligence: their next target, the Phoenix Queen's castle, had been located on the Elemental Plane of Fire, but like the Clockwork Citadel, it was mobile and its position would not be stable for long.

Spurred to immediate action, the party wasted no time. They immediately boarded the Goat Float and flew to the Aviary, the flying citadel of the Aarokocra. There, their ally Lyra Arrow-Wing, understanding the time-sensitive nature of their quest, bypassed the need for a long journey through the Well of Worlds. The Aarokocra guardians opened a direct portal to the Inner Planes, a shimmering gateway into a realm of pure elemental chaos. Steeling themselves, the party piloted their ship through the portal, emerging into a breathtaking and hostile world defined by rivers of molten lava and a sky choked with black, swirling ash.

Following their compasses "due west," the party was intercepted by Efreeti enforcers on flying fire chariots. A swift and decisive battle ensued, with the party's superior coordination allowing them to quickly dispatch the patrol. As they neared the fortress—a colossal structure crested with a titanic phoenix sculpture; a shimmering hologram of the Phoenix Queen appeared. With burning anger, she declared them unwelcome, boasting of the complex trials she had designed and warning that they would "have to pay the exact price to even get in." Finding no safe landing area, Bao Bao remained at the helm of the Goat Float while the party descended to a courtyard. There they found a stone table with a hexagonal recess and a single, coin-sized circular slot. Deducing the Queen's cryptic message referred to a literal price, they piled 54 gold coins into the hexagon and one into the circle. Pulling a nearby chain unleashed a torrent of fire from the phoenix statue above, melting the 55 coins at once. The molten gold was drawn into a hidden mechanism, and the door to a smaller side-building creaked open.

The side building housed a massive, complex furnace, its purpose revealed by murals depicting nine distinct shapes needed to solve the hexagonal lock on the main fortress door. This contraption was a multi-stage puzzle requiring the party to become master forgemasters. Using a temperature wheel, they had to carefully heat five different metals; lead, gold, silver, iron, and copper, to their precise melting points, watching the vats for the tell-tale glow of molten metal. A separate selection wheel allowed them to choose one of nine specific molds. By cross-referencing the murals, they determined the correct metal and shape for each of the nine necessary components. Each successful forging produced a piece of the hexagonal key; failure resulted in a barrage of startling and devastating gunfire (to Cut-Cut’s chagrin). After successfully crafting all nine components, they assembled them into the hexagonal recess on the outer table, and the main fortress door ground open.

The next chamber was a test of logic and observation. Six magical flames (purple, orange, yellow, red, green, and blue) burned in braziers around a grid of colored floor tiles. At the far end of the room, a shimmering rainbow barrier blocked the exit. On pedestals near the entrance sat six snuffers. The party discovered that dragging a snuffer over a flame would extinguish it, which in turn caused all floor tiles of that same color to fade into nothingness, revealing a chasm below. By methodically extinguishing the flames, they cleared the floor and dispelled the rainbow barrier.

Behind the barrier was a heavy iron door adorned with a seven-branched candelabra holding seven red candles. The party quickly realized this was another logic puzzle when touching any single candle caused it and its immediate neighbors to either ignite or extinguish. The goal was to light all seven candles simultaneously. Through a process of careful, sequential touches, they worked through the puzzle's logic, a cascade of clicking sounds accompanying each change until the final candle was lit. With all seven flames burning brightly, the door swung open, revealing not a treasure chamber, but a surprisingly comfortable (albeit hot) tavern.

"The Inferno Club" was a cozy establishment with a friendly Efreeti bartender who offered the party fiery drinks and grilled meats. While Akemi and Korloth sampled the "Fireball Whisky," the party took note of their surroundings. Opposite the bar stood a statue of a hooded figure holding a mirror and a lantern, and at the far end of the room was a massive fireplace with the word "INFERNO" inscribed above the mantle. Heeding the statue's clue, reflection (mirror) and light (lantern), the party realized the solution lay with the fireplace. A pull-chain hanging nearby produced puffs of smoke from the coals: a short pull for a small puff, a long pull for a large one. Correctly interpreting this as a Morse code machine, they pulled the chain in the dot-and-dash sequence to spell "INFERNO." The back of the fireplace then slid open, revealing another door.

The next door was made of stone and set with nine metal panels, each bearing a different elemental or fiery symbol. The party searched for complex mechanisms or hidden switches, but the solution was far simpler. Elyn, while examining the panels, discovered that the lower-left panel was distinctly warm to the touch. Upon pushing it, the heavy door clicked and swung inward, revealing the final chamber.

This grand gallery was lined with five imposing, dragon-like statues: a gold dragon, a cerulean drake, a three-headed gorynych, a purple worm, and a red dragon. In the center of the room sat a locked chest, which Elyn skillfully opened to reveal a collection of uncommon, semi-precious gems. Combining their knowledge of nature, smithing, and engineering, the party identified which gems contained the specific mineral elements needed to produce a uniquely colored flame. They correctly deduced the puzzle's final step: placing the corresponding gem into the brazier held by each statue to create a specific colored fire. When the last gem was placed and the final brazier lit, the room instantly flash-froze. Korloth, recognizing that the now-frozen bronze door at the far end had become brittle, shattered it with a single blow from his hammer, revealing the throne room of the Phoenix Queen.

The Phoenix Queen, enraged, attacked the party alongside several lesser phoenixes. The GOATs quickly learned that fire-based attacks only healed and strengthened their foes, forcing Korloth to switch to his weaker, non-magical axe, the Tridax. The sight of this specific weapon seemed to shatter the Queen's composure. With a cry of anguish, she focused her attacks violently on Korloth before ripping out her own heart in a final, tragic act of self-destruction, leaving only a pure, blue Eternal Flame in her place. The remaining phoenixes, now free from her influence, explained that the Sigil of Tyranny had driven her to madness, a madness amplified by her grief over the loss of her dear friend Spike, the original owner of the Tridax.

As Korloth and Adrian investigated the intangible flame, it communicated to them, offering a path of transformation through consumption. While Korloth was repulsed, Adrian, intrigued by the offer of purification, willingly stepped into the fire and was reduced to ash. Moments later, he was reborn in a flash of divine light, the flame reappearing with him. He had been irrevocably transformed, his class levels remade into that of a Paladin of the Holy Gun archetype. His trials complete and the Sigil of Humility now claimed, the apologetic phoenixes guided the party out of the castle, their mission on the Plane of Fire concluded.

Note: The following writings are from the character's perspective and are often private to the character. They are not considered "in-game" knowledge to the other characters, and any in-character reference to this information would be considered meta-gaming.

Letter to Master Kagemitsu at Tengai-no-mori Monastery

 Dear Master,

No sooner had I stamped the previous letter than we were off on our next adventure. Marahaba Asante came to speak to us in person, flying to meet our ship on a modified messenger bat. He had located the Phoenix Queen’s castle on the Elemental Plane of Fire, but because the castle rarely stayed in one place for long, we would need to act quickly. After purchasing some additional magical fire protection, we sought out our contact among the Aarokocra, Lyra, who was able to provide a path to the inner planes. We were unfortunately down two members for this journey; Lenti needed to attend to an urgent matter and remained behind, and Bao Bao, perhaps having overextended herself while testing her abilities, had descended into an odd, semi-catatonic state. We couldn’t risk losing the Phoenix Queen while waiting to recover our full strength, so we prepared as well as we could and went in hoping for the best.

I would have preferred a diplomatic approach, but with the Phoenix Queen in possession of the Sigil of Tyranny, there was little chance of that. Indeed, we were soon set upon by a gang of Efreeti riding flying fire chariots. They declared that we were unwelcome and demanded that we leave, which was of course not an option. We asked for an audience with the Phoenix Queen and would have peacefully accepted an escort, but the Efreeti offered only death. Fortunately, their skill did not match their threats. Bao Bao, despite her situation, was still able to provide healing through her turtle stone, and Elyn had supplemented our forces with a permanent skeleton crew for our ship and her undead black dragon. Between the dragon, the ballistae, and several GOATs taking boats and meeting the Efreeti face to face in the air, we quickly brought down most of the chariots and their riders. Adrian, with his technical expertise, was even able to capture the final chariot after I dispatched its rider.

As we continued on our way, we were confronted by a colossal projected image of the Phoenix Queen herself, which repeated the declaration that we were unwelcome and warned of the trials that awaited us should we continue. She said that we would have to pay the “exact price” or be cast into the abyss, and then the image disappeared. Finally, through the fire and smoke the castle was sighted, but there was nowhere safe to land, so Bao Bao remained at the helm while the rest of us descended into the castle’s courtyard. Before the castle, under the severe gaze of an enormous phoenix statue, we found a stone table with a hexagonal depression and a smaller, round depression just large enough for a single gold coin. We discovered that placing a coin in the small slot and pulling a chain near the castle’s entrance caused the phoenix statue to spew fire, melting down the coin and re-forging it into a small gold triangle. Using some simple geometry, we calculated that it would take 54 triangles to fill the hexagonal depression. After some debate, we placed 54 coins in the hexagon and a 55th coin in the round slot, ensuring that all the space would be filled, thus paying the “exact price.” Fire from the phoenix statue melted down the offering, which caused the door of a smaller building at the side of the courtyard to open.

The small building housed a complicated machine for manufacturing metal objects. At the top, there were vessels containing lead, gold, silver, copper, and iron. A large wheel at the center of the machine could be used to raise or lower the interior temperature of the vessels, and a smaller wheel near the bottom right could be used to select different shapes of objects that could be produced. Finally, a large red button would prompt the machine to produce the selected object, provided the other settings had been input correctly. Failure can be an effective teacher; we learned that only one metal could be used at a time by triggering a trap. We were aware of the trap already, and I volunteered as I often do, thinking my quick reflexes would allow me to avoid harm, but we were not fully prepared for the sheer number of bullets expelled from the machine. I did manage to catch some of them, but I still suffered quite a bit of damage. Thankfully, that was the only mistake we needed to make before successfully solving the puzzle. Starting with the metal with the lowest melting point and working our way up, we produced objects to match artwork on the wall of the chamber, after which we returned to the stone table in the castle courtyard and arranged the pieces to fit inside the hexagonal depression. This time, pulling the chain and melting the metals caused the main gate to open.

Inside we were first confronted with a long hall adorned with multicolored floor tiles and six braziers along the walls, each with a flame matching one of the floor colors. We worked out that we needed to use large metal covers to extinguish the flames, but this had to be done in a particular order because covering each flame caused the corresponding floor tiles to disappear, revealing a deadly chasm. We managed to traverse that room without incident and moved into the next, which was significantly smaller. That room contained only a single candelabra with seven arms. When we entered the room, only two candles were lit. Korloth quickly realized that the goal was to have all seven candles lit at once, and this could be accomplished by touching candles in a logical sequence.

From there, we moved into a somewhat more inviting (though oppressively hot) space, a tavern called The Inferno Club. Inside, a bartender jovially offered hot drinks and grilled meats. The food was tempting, but I was wary of a trap, although Korloth and Akemi seemed to suffer no ill effects after sampling the fireball whiskey. Still, better to focus on the task at hand. A prominent feature of the room was an enormous fireplace at one end, with the word INFERNO inscribed above it. There was a pull chain next to the fireplace, reminiscent of the one at the castle’s main gate, but pulling it only caused smoke to emit from inside. Giving the chain a quick pull released a small puff of smoke, and holding the chain down for a longer period of time released a greater amount. Akemi, meanwhile, examined a statue elsewhere in the room and realized that it represented a figure using a mirror and lantern to send coded messages. She drew upon her experience from tracking Yakuza agents to identify the code, which translates letters into series of dots and dashes. We reasoned that INFERNO must be the password and used the pull chain to release smaller and larger puffs of smoke to correspond with dots and dashes. It took a few tries to perfect the timing, but as each letter was spelled out, a tiny flame lit on the mantlepiece, and when all seven letters were complete, the back of the fireplace itself opened, revealing a secret door.

This door was adorned with nine panels, each with a different symbol. We were expecting another logic puzzle or complicated mechanism, but upon closer inspection, Elyn realized that the solution was actually quite simple. One panel was noticeably warm to the touch, and when Elyn pushed on it, the door opened to yet another chamber. Inside this one were five statues, each holding a burning brazier, and a chest of semi-precious gems. We quickly identified four of the statues - a gorynych, gold dragon, red dragon, and a purple worm - but didn’t have as much knowledge of the last, some kind of drake. We also did our best to identify the stones and realized that there was a pattern to their mineral properties. Each of the creatures was associated with a particular color, and some of the minerals could be burned to produce flames in those colors. It took some trial and error and burning through a significant portion of the stones, but eventually we managed to have all five braziers burning with the appropriate colors at once. The instant we finished, every flame was extinguished and every surface in the room was rapidly frozen in a layer of ice. Knowing that the extreme cold would weaken the bronze door at the end of the chamber, Korloth easily broke through it with his hammer, and the Feinting GOATs finally reached the Phoenix Queen’s throne room.

Although we had successfully completed her challenges, we were still not welcomed for an audience or rewarded with the artifact we sought. Instead, the furious queen attacked, striking with magical fire and the assistance of several phoenixes. It was immediately apparent that fire attacks would be of no use, and ranged attacks were hampered by the sheer force of her fiery aura. I immediately moved into melee, at first with little success, but soon dealing enough damage to draw the queen’s ire once I hit my stride. Korloth, himself a being of elemental fire, had a bit of a dilemma, especially once we realized that beyond simply being ineffective, fire attacks actually healed the Phoenix Queen and her companions. With few options, Korloth switched to his old weapon, the Tridax, and the queen’s reaction was dramatic. She immediately shifted focus to Korloth, screaming that the weapon didn’t belong to him, before plunging a sword into her own chest and ripping out her heart. In a flash, all that remained was a small blue flame. We waited for a few tense moments, wondering if the queen would return, but that fight, at least, was truly over. The queen’s companions withdrew apologetically, explaining that she had been driven to madness by the Sigil of Tyranny as well as grief for a lost friend, the previous owner of Korloth’s Tridax. The phoenixes also helpfully offered to guide us out of the Plane of Fire, but there was one last matter to attend. The blue flame, drawn to something in their natures, communicated some kind of offer to Adrian and Korloth. Adrian, ever-impulsive, stepped into the flame without so much as a warning to his fellow GOATs and was immediately reduced to a pile of ash. But, before we could even truly react, he suddenly reappeared, remade by the Eternal Flame and the Sigil of Humility. I suppose we will soon find out what new abilities he has gained through this transformation.

We still need to tend to Bao Bao and retrieve Lenti, but I wanted to be diligent and send this letter quickly so I might find some time to rest and meditate before we move on to our next challenge. There’s never a dull moment with the Feinting GOATs!

Best,

Cut-Cut

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Adventure Log by Syd McVay

We knew we needed to travel to the Plane of Fire, but our team wasn’t protected from fire damage. Korloth would be fine, but the rest of us were vulnerable. We invested in rings of fire protection and enchanted amulets. It was a costly endeavor, but I believe it made a real difference for my teammates. Trust me—I covered a good portion of the bill.

The Goats flew off and entered the Plane of Fire, only to be greeted by Queen Kathana’s minions. They delivered a warning: we were not welcome. Unfortunately, they weren’t interested in negotiation. Combat was the only option. I was immediately grateful for the fire protection gear—it made the fight far more manageable. As expected, we defeated our enemies and moved forward. It seemed her minions weren’t prepared for the strength and tactics we brought to the battlefield.

During downtime, I cast Permanency on both my skeleton crew and my colossal dragon. This proved invaluable—without their assistance, our battles would’ve dragged on and drained the team. My teammates are now considering which spells they’d like to make permanent. I’ll support them however I can.

After defeating Kathana’s guards, we encountered a monstrous phoenix sculpture. A holographic message from the queen appeared, reiterating that we were not welcome and would need to pass several trials before reaching her throne room.

The first puzzle involved a door locked by a hexagonal key. We realized that forging knowledge was essential. Korloth, Adrian, and Akeme were key to solving it. By melting metals and minerals at precise temperatures, we shaped the components and assembled the key to unlock the fortress.

This led us to a chamber lit with colored flames—purple, yellow, blue, green, and more—with matching snuffers on the opposite wall. We quickly discovered we needed to snuff the flames in a specific sequence to cross the room safely. Thanks to Adrian and my ability to fly, we navigated it easily. A misstep would’ve caused the floor to vanish beneath us, stranding our teammates.

Next came another logic puzzle. The goal: light all seven candles attached to an iron door simultaneously. With careful timing and coordination, we succeeded. Beyond the door was a cozy yet sweltering room styled like a bar. We remained alert—this was clearly another puzzle.

Cut Cut and Korloth sampled the bartender’s spirits while the rest of us examined the room. A mirror with a statue holding a lanyard caught my eye. Nearby was a fireplace with a pulley system. Pulling the rope released bursts of steam. I recalled that mirrors and statues with lanyards often signaled a form of communication. Akeme recognized the language we needed: Morse code. We spelled out the name of the club in Morse, which unlocked the next passage.

We then encountered a door with nine ornate panels inscribed with symbols. After searching for clues, I noticed the bottom-left panel was hot to the touch. Pressing it opened the door, revealing a grand hall lined with statues—dragons, purple worms, suns, and more. I spotted a chest and checked it for traps. It wasn’t trapped, but it was expertly locked. Using my lockpicking skills, I opened it and found precious gems and stones.

Nearby was a cast-iron bowl. We deduced that each statue’s color corresponded to a specific gem. Burning the correct gem at the right time would light all the statues. Adrian found this especially stressful, as there were decoy gems mixed in. Only Korloth noticed that the door we needed had become brittle. He smashed through it with Ace—and we were face-to-face with Queen Kathana.

She was furious. A battle erupted immediately. We quickly realized that fire only made her stronger, so we had to get creative with our attacks. Korloth wielded his lesser weapon—the trident—which shocked and traumatized Kathana. Seeing the trident triggered her deeply. She went berserk, ultimately tearing out her own heart and leaving behind a flickering blue flame. In my opinion, she died of grief.

The phoenixes, now free from her control, explained her history and the trident’s connection. She truly died of a broken heart.

Adrian and Korloth examined the blue flame, which radiated divine magic. It called to Adrian most strongly. He accepted its power, vanished briefly, and returned transformed—now a paladin radiating humility, faith, and devotion. I smirked, knowing he’d have to be nice to me now.

This concludes our journey for the moment. We’ll need time to prepare for the Plane of Dread.