- - - - -

Race: Saurian

Bloodline Powers: Strength, Rending, Emberbreath

Greater Mysteries: Fire (Noble) 3, Wind (Noble) 1

Lesser Mysteries: Heat 4, Oxygen 4, Embers 4, Pressure 4, Current/Flow 4

- - - - -

Heat shimmered off of volcanic rock, creating wavy mirages above the seemingly endless plains of basalt. Dotting the black rock were indentations where lava glowed an ominous red-orange. Periodically a bubble would surface in the small ponds, popping and spraying the nearby stone with molten shrapnel.

Behind Sam, Redfern Vale looked more inviting than ever even though the foliage was stunted and sickly yellow this near the constant heat and toxic fumes of the volcanic flatlands. The hilly terrain that the vale wove through transformed into dark mountains that formed a foreboding ring around their destination. Other than a couple of passes like Redfern, it was all but impossible for creatures to enter or escape the rocky lowlands.

Samazzar took a deep breath, and almost immediately broke into a coughing fit, his eyes watering as the fumes attacked him. Each sharp breath brought in more of the noxious mix, exacerbating the problem, leaving him with no choice but to touch on the mystery of oxygen to create a bubble of pure air around his muzzle. Even still, It took him almost a minute to calm the hacking wheezes.

“There.” Takkla tapped him on the shoulder, pointing with a claw toward a dim red smear deep in the dark landscape. “I believe that’s one of the main magma vents.”

She paused for a second, only to shrug as she continued.

“At least I hope that’s one of the primary vents, it’s gigantic. If there are magma sources larger than that, I doubt we’ll be able to get anywhere near them.”

Dussok took a step forward, out of the yellowish brown rock of Redfern Vale and into the dark black volcanic stone only for Sam to raise a hand to stop him.

“Wait,” Samazzar said, his voice serious as he wiped the tears from his face. “I think the environment here is going to be as much of a danger as any monster we’re likely to find anywhere near the magma vent.”

“I don’t know,” Dussok replied uncertainly. “I’ve had a chance to look through some of the bestiaries in the Academy library. There isn’t much on this specific region, but the travelogs I could find from similar volcanic areas described more than a couple primordial monsters that were adapted to the heat. If we aren’t careful, we could come upon creatures capable of giving a dragon a good fight.”

“Easy answer,” Sam quipped back. “We avoid all of the Magma Titans, Ancient Flame Wyrms, and Obsidian Shelled Tortoises until we become dragons. In the meantime, I’m more worried that we will cook alive or choke on the bad air coming off of the vents.”

“It’s no wonder that there weren’t many other students willing to take this job,” he continued, “Without some way to regulate heat and to filter out poisonous gasses, I doubt anyone could make it within three thousand paces of the magma vents, let alone actually spend enough time there to find and gather flame garnets.”

He closed his eyes, willing more oxygen to appear around his face and muzzle. His scales tingled as the magic did its work, cool air replacing the hot, rancid stench of the basalt wastes.

Samazzar stepped out onto the dark volcanic rock, wincing as the heat almost immediately attacked the tough scales on the bottoms of his feet. It took him a second to shift his focus wrapping a second layer of willpower around his legs in order to divert and diminish the scalding temperatures.

Behind him, Takkla stepped out of the vale, hissing and hopping from one foot to another as she struggled with the burning rocks. Sam touched her with his magical senses, taking note of the oxygen bubble around her face and the cocoon of cool air that was rapidly forming around her feet and shins.

Then Dussok followed her onto the basalt, and chaos broke out. He took a deep breath, and almost immediately collapsed in a fit wracked by choking coughs. Worse, he fell to his hands and knees on the baking rock, and Sam could swear that he heard the sizzle of cooking scales and flesh the second Dussok’s hands touched the ground.

Sam grimaced as he pushed his willpower to encompass Dussok. It felt like was trying to push an entire dune of sand with just his claws. Magic flowed around him, slipping from Sam’s grasp as he wrapped his sibling in a bubble of cool, pure Oxygen.

His control wavered. Samazzar’s eyes were open, but he could barely process any images. Instead the entirety of his being was focused on redirecting the steady but unbearable heat radiating off of the rocks in tandem with the biting gasses coming from the open vents.

He couldn’t stop anything. There was something about trying to use magic on another being that made it harder the closer it got to their body. He’d noticed it in the Greentoe encampment, and Rose had confirmed it during his studies. It was why most combat practitioners would enact their mysteries near, but not too close to an opponent. Once the mystery was altered and magic was enacted, it became part of the real world. Whatever the interference was, it only impacted willpower actively trying to change the world, not the results of those changes.

Here, that difficulty reared its head. Sam wasn’t trying to perform an insurmountable task like changing the oxygen content in Dussok’s lungs, but maintaining two magical fields around his sibling while protecting himself was a struggle.

Takkla grabbed the big saurian by the arm, draping it over her shoulder.

“Easy now,” Takkla said, grunting with effort as she stood, dragging Dussok with her. “Normal steady breaths. This is just like when you inhaled too much work while studying with Crone Tazzaera. You’ll be fine once you let it clear your lungs.”

“And make your own air bubble,” Samazzar choked out, his voice strained. “I don’t want to hurry you but-”

“Ssshhh little dragon,” Takkla replied, a hint of irritation marring her soothing tone. “Dussok. I don’t want to hurry you, but you’re going to have to help Sam out. As soon as you can focus, you need to take over for him. Remember to protect both your feet and your face.”

The big saurian nodded shakily, coughing one last time. He closed his eyes, and Sam felt Dussok’s will intrude on his own. He backed off, watching closely as his sibling clumsily gathered a sphere of oxygen, pulling it tighter around his muzzle.

Once Dussok could breath on his own, Samazzar dropped the air bubble entirely. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to redirect the heat from the volcanic rock indefinitely, but the change eased his load significantly.

A half minute later, it became a moot issue. It took a couple of tries for Dussok to weave a magical barrier around his legs to protect them from being baked by the cracked black stone, but eventually Sam was able to release the mysteries around him entirely.

Samazzar glared at Dussok. The big saurian had a rare, sheepish expression on his muzzle, but it didn’t do much to mollify Sam.

“I warned you,” he hissed. “Seriously Dussok, you need to be more careful. I told you about the hazards, and even if I didn’t, you know magic. Use it. Observe your surroundings and keep yourself safe.”

“He did you know,” Takkla chided. “Think about that. The little dragon put more foreplanning into something than you and had to pull your scales out of the fire.”

“Plus,” she continued, poking a claw into Dussok’s chest. “You know what happened when you breathed in too much soot. Fire gives off bad air. Literally two weeks ago we were working with Crone Tazzaera to try and help her categorize and sort bad air. You should have known better.”

Dussok opened his mouth to respond, glancing from Samazzar’s glare to Takkla’s crossed arms and impatiently tapping foot. Finally, rather than defending himself, he simply sighed in defeat.

“Yes dear,” he mumbled, not meeting either of their eyes.

Samazzar perked up, smile alighting on his muzzle as he practically skipped forward, slapping Dussok on the bicep.

“That’s all you needed to say Dussok!” Sam said cheerfully. “I just worry about Takkla and you. We’ve already been through so much, and we’re all going to become dragons together. I can’t have either of you getting hurt or falling behind. This is a journey we’re taking together, and I expect to have both of you flying beside me at the other end.”

“That’s it?” Dussok asked incredulously. “I honestly thought you were going to yell at me, especially with how many times I have given you guff for charging into a dangerous situation without any preparation.”

“That’s it,” he replied with a smile, turning on his heel to walk further into the dark rocky flatlands. “We’re going somewhere dangerous and I want the two of you to be careful and safe.”

“I might have more to say about things later,” Takkla said crossly, “but I’ll defer to Samazzar for now. We don’t know enough about the magma vents to be truly safe, so it's best that we keep our wits about us. As you said, there might be monsters that far outclass us here. I would prefer it if we could find the garnets and get out before one of them tries to introduce us to its stomach.”

“Why did things get so bad so suddenly?” Dussok questioned, motioned toward the edge of Redfern Vale behind them. “The air was a bit stale back there, but it’s not like I couldn’t breathe. Then, a dozen steps into the waste and I’m on my hands and knees suffering.”

Samazzar picked up his right foot, tapping his claw on the rocks beneath the three of them. He winked at Dussok before replying.

“Stretch your senses through the ground.”

Dussok’s eyes lost their focus, and he stared blankly off into space for a long moment. Then he snapped back to reality, a look of wonder on his face.

“There’s magma everywhere,” he said, awe in his voice. “Barely ten to fifteen paces under the rock, and I can’t see its bottom. There’s still some stone here or there but it’s like there’s a honeycomb full of the stuff.”

“If you look a little closer,” Sam replied, “you’ll see that there are tiny cracks in the rock. Poisonous gasses carry the heat up through them. That’s why the entire plain is both toxic and roasting hot. It’s also why we have a high likelihood of finding reagents steeped in the mystery of fire. This much magma close to the surface is almost certain to spawn all sorts of rare goodies.”

Dussok glanced at the ground under his feet one last time. He broke into a jog to catch up with Takkla and Sam. At first the three of them chatted off and on, but before too long, by mutual agreement they lapsed into an uneasy silence. Minutes turned into hours as they scoured the landscape.

Not much changed. The black rock wasn’t entirely uniform, but it may as well have been. There were occasional bumps and ledges as well as patches of eerily smooth, shining obsidian, but other than that the landscape was little more than unending flat basalt speckled with lava ponds bubbling up from the ever-present magma tunnels beneath their feet.

When they reached the first of the vents, they came to a silent stop. Sam nodded to Takkla and Dussok, and the three of them began their pre-arranged tasks. He closed his eyes, wrapping his magic around Takkla’s and redirecting most of the heat from the pool of lava past the smaller saurian.

Takkla had some control over the mystery of heat, but not quite enough to handle the stifling oven that was the air in front of the lava. It wasn’t quite hot enough to melt iron, but Samazzar suspected that a sword left out on the banks of the glowing pond would soften enough to be reforged.

Then Takkla took a step forward, walking to the edge of the lava and scanning the crevices with her keen eyes. To Sam’s right, Dussok gripped his axe nervously, searching the empty landscape for any sign of a threat while the rest of the group was distracted.

Takkla scampered around the rim of the lake, a scant pace from the bubbling lava. Stopping every five to ten seconds to get another look. Heat vision was less than useless in the basalt desert, and even if Samazzar had enough focus leftover to search with the mystery of wind, it wouldn’t help in the search for flame garnets.

The blood red gemstones were notorious for forming underground, in enclosed caves and cracks next to areas of extreme heat. In all likelihood, what they were looking for would be partially submerged in the lava itself, and Sam would just need to hope that Takkla’s bloodline enhanced vision would be enough to spot the opening to any such deposits.

Finally, after about ten minutes, Takka returned to where Dussok and Samazzar were standing, and shook her head. Sam sighed, releasing his hold on the air around her, and Takkla staggered visibly as a wave of heat hit her.

Then, they continued on. They had a base camp near the edge of Redfern Vale, a rock face that had been hollowed out enough by the wind that they could start a fire and have some protection from the rain, but there was no real way to spend the night on the magma vents. Samazzar could only exercise control over the mysteries when he was conscious, and if he were to be knocked out, the only question was whether he would die from the heat or poisonous air first.

As they walked on to the next lake, Sam’s mind raced. Day trips would limit their exploration of the magma vents because realistically the three of them could only travel about eight hours in before they would have to head back and camp for the night. The solution was obviously alchemy.

There were a number of potions that had the potential to alleviate the environmental hazards of the basalt wastes, but he would need more information before he could ensure his siblings’ safety. He could think of a handful of powerful items that could solve his problems entirely, but all of them were far beyond his skill level and involved ingredients that would likely strain Pothas’ reagent budget, let alone Samazzar’s abilities.

Instead, at the next vent, he took careful samples from the leaves and stems of a strange breed of red fern he found growing near the lava. On the way to the third pool, he found lightly glowing violet lichen clinging to the underside of a waist high rocky outcropping. At the vent itself, he collected a series of small dark brown crystals, each barely bigger than his pinky talon, from a seam that ran parallel to the bubbling liquid rock.

All of these new materials sent Samazzar’s head spinning. He had progressed far enough as a magus that he could practically sense the alchemical potential in each of them, but in all of his studies he had never come across any reference to the new items he was finding.

Finally, after exploring five magma vents in a rough crescent around their starting point, and hours of searching, the three saurians returned to Redfern Vale, exhausted but with satchels packed with materials. Sam wasn’t sure if any of their collection would be valuable or even useful, but so long as they were in the alien environment of the volcanic wasteland, it only made sense for them to gather what they could for further study.

The second day, they traveled in a straight line, heading directly toward the massive lake, practically a small sea, of lava that Takkla had spotted on their first day. By the time they reached their third smaller vent, Samazzar noticed the change.

There were trees. Not often, and they certainly didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before, but fifty or so paces from the vent was a cluster of ten or twelve short palm trees, their bark replaced with shiny obsidian that sheltered them from the heat. More importantly, each tree had a number of small lizards clinging to their glassy bark.

Life. Despite everything, it had found a way.

Each of the lizards was barely the size of Samazzar’s hand, and they had membranes stretching from their wrists to their ankles that let them cool themselves, and as Takkla discovered when she sought to catch one, glide from tree to tree. Finally after a half hour or so of frustration, she managed to snag one of the tiny creatures from the air before snapping its neck and adding it to their growing collection of plants and minerals.

The fourth vent was where everything changed. There was another copse trees, and this time they grew an easy 10 to 15 paces up from the volcanic rock. Sam didn’t bother to count them, but there were at least fifty, almost enough to call it a small forest. Once again, he approached, chipping some more of the obsidian bark off with his claw while Takkla shimmied up the side to break off a leaf and a couple of the stony black rocks clustered near the top of the tree that appeared to be some sort of nut or fruit.

“Sam,” she called out, her voice cracking. The three of them made sure to drink plenty of water, but none of them possessed a mystery that could add moisture to the bone dry air.

Takkla coughed, one hand to her muzzle while the other gripped the strange glass of the tree her knees were locked around.

“There are turtles in the lava,” she continued, pointing toward the glowing lake. “They’re actually swimming around in the lava.”

He set down his pack and jogged to the edge of the pond only to shake his head in wonder. Takkla was right. At least a dozen of the creatures, just shy of a pace wide and long, were happily splashing around in the molten rock.

Even as he watched, one of them swam to the edge of the pool, extending its head up from its shell to look curiously at the befuddled saurian.

It blinked slowly at him, and Sam had to fight the temptation to wave at the creature. There was no question in his mind that it would have some sort of bloodline that would be useful in his alchemy, and he didn’t want to establish an emotional connection with it just before killing it and experimenting on its remains.

He took a single step toward the edge of the lava, doubling the heat protection around himself as he moved, but that was as far as he got.

A maw, almost as wide across as Samazzar himself, erupted from the lava, swallowing the placid turtle whole and spraying him with droplets of molten rock.

Sam bit his lower lip as he backpedaled frantically, his mind almost entirely focused on stealing the heat from the lava as it arced toward him.

It hardened in the air, cooling into rock and then shattering from the sudden change in temperature as Samazzar assaulted it with his magic. Shards of rock peppered him, knocking him to the ground under a torrent of gravel and bouncing painfully off of his scales.

He looked up, and Sam’s heart leapt into his throat. Standing above him, noiselly chewing on the turtle was an elder salamander. He vividly remembered the creature from his time alone in the deep caves beneath the kobold tunnels, but if the one he fought before had been large, this one was titanic.

Easily the size of a small house, it stared at him with impassive eyes that were easily bigger than Samazzar’s head. Carefully, he planted a hand in the stone and edged backward, freezing when the monster abruptly stopped chewing.

The creature sniffed the toxic air, cocking its head to the side slightly as it kept its eyes locked on Sam. It took a single step forward, lava still dripping from its head and neck, hardening into tiny stalagmites of rock as they dripped to the ground.

Then, with a flash of magic, Dussok’s axe slammed into the side of its neck.

It reared back, letting out a thunderous roar of pain and rage even as an arrow embedded itself in the flesh just below the monster’s right eye.

Samazzar scrambled to his feet as the salamander twisted its boy to face Dussok. The look of pain and determination on his sibling’s face drove a spike of adrenaline into Sam’s heart.

There was no way the other saurian had enough control over the mystery of heat to protect himself completely this close to the elder salamander. The air itself was rippling around the creature. Despite the risk and the pain, Dussok had seen that Samazzar was in danger and sprung into action without any concern for himself.

Sam threw himself at the creature, his claws gleaming with magic as he activated his bloodline. They slashed through the salamander’s flesh, scoring the bones of its ribs as Samazzar swarmed his way up the monster’s side.

It snapped once at Dussok before jerking backward, its primitive brain struggling to comprehend the source of its pain as Sam raked his claws through its flesh. Undoubtedly, it was not used to pain, usually relying on its tough, heat resistant skin to absorb most attacks.

Another arrow sprouted from its nose. Takka was too far away to do much damage, especially with a wholly mundane short bow, but her attacks helped confuse and distract the massive creature.

Then the salamander pushed off with its right legs, tipping its body to the left, and Sam had to jump free a scant fraction of a second before the monster flipped over, slamming its bloodied back onto the basalt.

He landed on the ground in a tumble of limbs, bouncing off the rock with bruising force. Samazzar jumped to his feet a moment later, head still swimming from the impact.

Dussok grunted, axe in a double handed grip as he brought it down with all of his strength on the creature’s soft, undefended underbelly. The blade hit with a hollow ‘thwack,’ and he was drenched in a fountain of hissing gore.

The salamander spasmed, and Dussok ripped downward, using the magic of his axe to part its tough flesh as he ripped a two pace long furrow deep into its torso.

It rolled back toward its feet, blood and viscera pouring from the open wound and evaporating almost as soon as it hit. Another arrow struck the salamander, this time puncturing one of its vulnerable eyes.

The monster turned, its gait slow and unsteady, and like a drunkard ambling home after a night at the bar, it took its first step back toward the lava pond.

Samazzar rushed past its tail, pressing his hands back to back before shoving both of them up to his forearm in the salamander’s hamstring. With a grunt, he pulled them apart, shredding the vast expanses of the muscle and crippling the gravely injured monster.

From its front, he heard another meaty ‘thuck’ as Dussok struck another blow. It shuddered one last time before collapsing to the baking volcanic rock. The salamander’s sides were still moving, but it was clearly only a matter of time. The three of them had done enough damage to the creature that there was no way that it would survive more than another five or ten minutes.

Sam staggered away from it, noticing for the first time a slight limp in his right leg from his hasty fall. He could feel the stiffening ache of a growing bruise on his right hip, but that was hardly his primary concern.

Dussok was on his hands and knees, axe abandoned in the salamander’s neck as he tried to crawl back toward the trees with Takkla. Samazzar bit his lip against the pain as he ran to his sibling’s side.

He dropped to one knee, closing his eyes as he wrapped his struggling friend in a layer of cool air. Dussok grunted in appreciation, and barely a second or two later, Takkla arrived.

Samazzar opened his eyes, nodding wordlessly at her even as he bit his tongue, using the pain to help him maintain his focus. With quick still hands she pulled a potion out of her satchel and put it to Dussok’s lips. He drank the foul liquid like a man dying of thirst even as Takkla began removing a number of salves and poultices from their medicine kit.

None of them were as strong as the potion of burn recovery that she had just fed him, but the potion’s weakness was that it only worked internally. The lesser treatments were slower and itched worse than a bedbug infestation at the height of summer, but they could be used to treat the low grade burns covering almost the entirety of the big saurian’s body.

Shakily, Sam took his feet, coughing to clear his dry throat.

“Let me know once you have him stabilized,” he said, voice cracking slightly. “I’ll help you get him back to the trees.”

Takkla shook her head, looking up with a quick, grim smile as she replied.

“I’ve got the big oaf, but more importantly when the salamander surfaced, it splashed the lava everywhere and I got a good look at the shoreline. There’s a crevice about ten paces to the right from where it burst out of the water, and I swear I saw a flash of something red in there. Dussok is going to need a day or two in Redfern Vale to recover. We might as well grab the flame garnets we came here for before we turn tail and escape.”