A slight mist settled over the camp and Aradeia pulled her shawl tightly around herself. Somewhere near the campfire Fladno the wizard and Lamais the druid were arguing about something. Aradeia respected Fladno for he was good at his art though sometimes he came off as somewhat rude while she felt a slight aversion towards Lamais. Dea the elven cleric joined in the now heated argument. Fladno raised a fist at the elf and part werewolf so Aradeia felt she must intervene. She rose from her seat just as Norma the Halfling rogue bounded through the forest crying "Orcs are coming from the west!"
Namao the fighter rushed into the nearby tent to don his armor and was closely followed by Dea. Lamais readied his scimitar and Fladno followed suit with his quarterstaff. A blood-curdling war cry hailed the arrival of ten axe wielding orcs. Aradeia casually drew her crossbow, muttered an incantation as she passed her hand over the weapon then she fired a bolt enhanced with magic at an orc. The bolt flew true and hit the orc in the chest, killing it instantly. Around her, her friends waged a great battle. Fladno fired seemingly endless volleys of magic missiles while Norma and Namao fought off the orcs with their blades. Dea was healing Lamais when Aradeia found her. She casually laid her hand on the shoulder of an orc who was about to attack them and electricity surged through him.
"Thanks" said Dea as she finished healing a cut on Lamais' upper arm.
"Don't mention it" replied Aradeia.
An arrow implanted itself in a tree behind Aradeia. Aradeia turned to see three humans mounted on horses had joined the fray. The men quickly finished off the remaining orcs.
The men were wearing yellow tunics over their chain-mail. Aradeia, being the "Face" of the group approached the man who seemed like the leader.
"Where do you hail from?" asked Aradeia politely.
"I am the Duke of Berenthor" answered the man.
Aradeia bowed and gestured for the group to follow suit.
"And you?" asked the Duke.
"I am Lady Aradeia, granddaughter to the queen of Dandaria" answered Aradeia.
He and his companions de-mounted from their horses and bowed.
"It is an honor to have one of your status bow to one of mine" said the Duke.
Bored with the formalities Aradeia tried to advance the conversation.
"What brings you to this dank place?" asked Aradeia.
"We were searching for an artifact of great magical power" answered one of the other men.
"Oh?" asked Fladno sounding interested.
"The key of Nangoroth is a powerful magical item that allows its user to open a portal to anywhere" answered the Duke "And it would be catastrophic if it fell into the wrong hands"
The three then got onto their horses, waved good-bye and galloped off. The group exchanged glances and set to work. Fladno began looking up whatever he could about the key of Nangoroth in his small collection of books. Lamais transformed into various animals to learn what he could from the inhabitants of the forest. Namao, Norma and Dea searched the forest while Aradeia maintained a whispered conversation spell. After a while of searching the scouting party found a tower that didn't even reach higher than the tree–tops thanks to the information Aradeia was relaying to them from Fladno and Lamais. After meeting them at the tower thanks to the directions from Dea they searched for an entrance. The entrance took the form of a small door inset on the northern side.
"Ready yourselves" said Fladno.
"Aye" replied everyone in unison.
Norma searched the door for traps, finding none opened the door. A gust of warm air buffeted the group and nearly knocked Norma off her feet. The wind soon died down and the group trudged in.
"Hmm, I wonder…" began Dea.
"What?" asked Lamais.
"Oh nothing" replied Dea, turning away.
The passageway was dark and damp and it seemed to be going downwards. Finally the passage opened up. The room was very warm and was circular in shape. A worn out chandelier hung from the ceiling. Lit torches adorned the walls which indicated that someone, or something, still lived here. A door sat across the room and Aradeia walked over to it. It was cool to the touch despite the heat. She searched the door for traps using her heightened elven senses yet found none and, while her friends were examining other parts of the room, flung open the door. On the other side sat a magnificent yet horrible red dragon. Aradeia was so startled she tripped over her dress and slid into the room, the door slamming shut behind her. The room was shaped like a huge basin, with the dragon taking up most of the room. Thanks to the sloping sides, Aradeia slid down to the dragon. A glint of malevolence could have been seen in the dragon's eyes. He shook his magnificent glittering body and turned to the frightened sorceress.
"What brings you here?" asked the dragon, smirking.
Aradeia simply cocked her crossbow and fired a bolt at the dragon. The bolt simply shattered on the beast's magnificent hide. This time the dragon made the mistake, the dragon laughed and Aradeia used her wand of walls to create a wall of ice over the dragon's mouth. The dragon bit down and the shards of ice imbedded themselves in the dragon's mouth and throat and he received a sheet of pure cold in the face. Aradeia used this opportunity to flee through a crack in the wall. Furious, the dragon let loose a blast of flame which not only melted the ice imbedded in the dragon but also gave Aradeia a reason to run faster.
Aradeia edged out of the crack into a small square room with a stone water-filled basin in the middle of the room on a pedastel. A light in the water cast eerie shadows onto the walls. Aradeia walked over to the basin and gazed into its depths. A shining sapphire sat at the bottom of the basin, it was giving off a blue light which was what was lighting up the room. Aradeia slipped her hand into the basin but found that an invisible barrier stopped her. Looking around the room for something that would help she saw that a stone gargoyle sat in each of the corners. Upon further inspection she saw that each gargoyle held a small mirror. Upon further contemplation she decided to try her plan. She shot a scorching ray spell at one of the mirrors, the ray bounced off the mirror, hit the next mirror and continued rebounding off the mirrors until the ray ricocheted off the last mirror and hit the basin. The rim of the basin ignited in flames, the blaze continued onto the surface of the water, the light changed from blue to red. When the flames died down, Aradeia dipped her hand into the basin and pulled out the sapphire, which was now a beautiful shade of red.
Aradeia turned the jewel over in her hands. She noticed a dark shape in the center of the jewel. She looked up and saw that the water had become like liquid fire and was trickling over the edge of the basin. The red water seemed to be following invisible lines down the pedestal the water was forming carvings of some kind and continued onto the floor and up the walls and on the ceiling yet Aradeia felt no heat. The carvings formed a socket in the ceiling. Taking the hint Aradeia got up on the pedestal and placed the jewel in the socket. The red all turned blue and a glimmering blue circle appeared on one wall.
"This is getting weird" muttered Aradeia.
"Oh so I'm not the only one" said a familiar voice.
Startled, Aradeia span around to see that the blue circle had become like a window showing her friends. She saw that it was Fladno who spoke. Smiling Aradeia strode over to the circle and explained the situation to them.
"And then you guys appeared in the circle" finished Aradeia.
"Well the door locked itself and after a while a circle appeared" said Dea.
"Uh-oh" said Lamais.
"What?" asked Aradeia, genuinely worried.
"Oh nothing, we're just sealed in here" said Fladno.
"Hmm" said Aradeia, hit with inspiration "I might lose the connection"
She walked over to the pedestal, climbed up onto it and pulled the jewel out of the socket. The blue of the room turned red but the circle stayed there.
"What did you do?" asked the group panicking.
Aradeia turned to the circle and saw that the room her companions were in was filling up with lava. Aradeia gasped and quickly took out her spear and broke the jewel to reveal a small key inside. She picked it up and thought of the outside world and a portal opened in front of her. She stepped through the portal. Once through she opened a portal to where her friends were and they soon appeared through the portal that was opened. After exchanging glances they all burst into laughter.