NPF Avatars IV, Chapter XII: Volcanic Boogaloo
 

OOC: That sort of title had to happen eventually.

With Mammoth's gender issues resolved for now and Nikose wearing a skirt, it was time to move on. A little nap and a light lunch later, the NPFers headed for the Fire Temple.

Arhra filled them in with handy insider information on the way. The Fire Temple was, essentially, built inside an artificial volcano. Vast machines inside the regulated its energies, circulating lava through it. Any technology they had with them would be unreliable - because of the slow corruption of Chaos, it was full of glitches. And by that, Arhra meant tiny, invisible demons. Also, as they'd already destroyed two of the seals, the Temple should be even more unstable than the preivous two.

Essentially, they'd be running through the innards of a man-made volcano that had all of its complex control systems malfunctioning and the taint of Chaos doing interestingly weird things to the place too. It was made worse by how upbeat Arhra seemed to be talking about all this.

From the outside, the Fire Temple was much your typical mental image of a volcano - roughly conical, rising up with dark clouds above the summit, like a mountain of death. Climing up the slope along a disused path, they eventually found a tunnel and through there was the summit crater of the volcano.

It was like looking into hell. The rock was blackened, the ledge they stood on falling away into a steep cliff, a sea of molten rock before them. The air shimmered from the heat coming up from the turbulent sea of lava below, the crimson glow form below staining everything a lurid red and casting deep shadows. Periodically, geysers of magma shot up from the fiery expanse; spinning vortexes of liquid flame that slowed and fell apart a few seconds later.

There was a bridge in front of them; two blackened and ancient chains for handrails, planks of charred wood strung together for a walking surface. It terminated on a large island rising steeply out of the lava, jagged pinacles about it.

"So..." Arhra said, peering over the edge before turning to face the others, "Anything you need to get cleared up before we go on?"

"Anything you need to get cleared up before we go on?"

"Nope, let's just all wander blindly into the massively dangerous and corrupted deathtrap and have done already."

And with that, Hawk flew across the fiery deathpit with ease, heading for the island in the centre. Hopefully the others would do the same and be quick about it, without too much hassle.

"Nope. I'm good." I said, before looking back and saying "Anyone want a ride over?"

Phil came foward. "I'll take a lamia ride! Or, whatever gets me out of walking, since the tree dude isn't here to carry me anymore. Oh, but first, Henshin!" Phil was once again in his heat-resistant (but, obviously not lava-proof) spacesuit. "To protect me from cooties, you understand."

"Sorry, Lamia, while lava-resistant, can't carry someone over...just let take a minute to form-change..." I said, focusing on my dragongirl form. Within moments, wings appeared on my back, the armor protecting the slots where they formed from now on the tops of the wings, and a tail appeared, again from a hatch in my lower back. "Ok. Only one at a time though.." I said, grabbing Phil, then making sure I had a grip on him, I lept off of the cliff, losing a bit of altitude while gaining airspeed. Flapping my wings for all that I was worth, I managed to get Phil across in about a couple of minutes. Taking a breather, I check back to see if anyone else wanted a lift across.

Phil spread his arms and shouted, "Whee!" Sure, he looked rediculous, but who cares? "It sure is nice to be flying through the air in controlled conditions and without an imminent headache approaching. I don't think this has happened since I got caught up in this mess."

Then Phil looked down and became much more quiet. When Flare finally deposited him on the island, Phil crawled away from the edge and whimpered, "I hate hights."

Lumaes smouldered sulkly; streamers of vapour steaming away from him where it had settled seeking sanctuary from the heat, on his supposedly grave-cool bones - stupid water.
His eyes fumed and sparked unhappily, somehow he gave the impression that if he had a fringe it would have clung assymettrically over one eye. He approached the thief, eyes set at some middlepoint that most people avoid snatched the staff back from Mammoth with a sullen look that could have sent a school chaplain into the whorls of depression.
He shot a look of utter disdain across the pit to where Flare had been carrying passengers; it was quite a distance, but Lumaes had a good aim - striking the group with skin-crawling disgust at every fibre of their being.
"...sissies..." he hissed, tramping past onto the bridge and beginning to cross.

"I have a question!" Nikose said, raising his hand. "What's the temperature of the temple? Are these invisible little demons Made of Lava too that are like, super hot?" Nikose scratched his chin. "An answer in the form of a specific number in Degrees, either Fareinheit or Celsius, will do nicely, thanks."

After catching my breath for a bit, I flew back to the other side, this one was a bit easior due to not having to deal with the weight. "Who's next?" I said. "I'll go..." Gina said, the nymph looking a bit weary. "Well..you're lighter, so I won't have to go as low, if that's what you're worried about." She looked down and gulped, now having second thoughts, but not really wanting to try the bridge. "Come on you..." I said, grabbing her and making sure I had a grip on her, then taking flight again across the lava lake.

Mauve was planning on taking the bridge, like a normal person, but now that Lumaes was on said bridge she wasn't so certain. He might push her off the edge, just because he's Death and he can do that sort of thing.

There was only one thing to do.

Mauve reached into her pocket and pulled out a small black bottle.

"What are the expiration dates on these things, anyway?" she asked suspiciously, turning the bottle upside down to look for a date marking. "Oh well."

She raised the recall potion over her head and then with a swift jerk of her arm dashed it against the ground.

"Recall!" she commanded, and twin swirls of white light danced around her for a moment before she disappeared completely.



Here there is a house. The dreaded House of the Mauve Mage. Dreaded because.... well... Mauve lives in it. And Mauve had the reputation of turning door-to-door salesmen/girl scouts/unwanted guests into garden gnomes with her awesome magical powers. (Well, with the Guest-B-Gone Gnomifier gun she bought from POS INDUSTRIES (tm), anyway.)

Mauve reappered on the doorstep of this house. She calmly dug her keys out of her pocket and entered, as though this was entirely commonplace. Several moments later she emerged from the house with a strange orange-and-white helmet in her hands.

The mage struck a pose which she figured must have looked "cool," but in all likelihood made her look like an even bigger freak than she already was.

"Let's roll, baby," she stated, putting the helmet on and flipping down the tinted visor over her eyes. Freak.

She entered her garage, where a large shadow fell over her. She grinned.





Back at the fire temple, a white-and-orange streak could be seen shooting through the sky.

Three seconds later, the X-wing slammed into the ground on the other side of the ravine. The hatch opened, and Mauve gracefully leapt from the cockpit.

"This isn't godmodding," she pointed out to anyone who might have been paying attention. "Phil gave the X-wing for Christmas. I've had it all this time."

She stared back at everyone who was... well... staring at her.

"Whhaaaaaaat?" she demanded. "Is there something wrong with getting a vehicle designed for space travel to carry me a grand total of twenty-five feet across a ravine filled with lava? I don't think so!"

She pushed a button on her key ring, and the lights on X-wing flashed and let out an electronic chirp as the vehicle's doors were locked.