We all gear up with rings of fire protection given to us by the Dunmeshi. With them we take no damage from background heat (the temperature in the Realms of Fire), 4 points of armor against direct heat attacks, we can walk through lava unharmed, and we have a +2 trait roll bonus against fire spells.

We open up the portal to the Realms of Fire and jump through. We immediately feel the heat and see fire all around us. We proceed across a bridge that goes over a river of flame. Ahead of us we see a huge statue that is “crying” lava and looks like it is screaming.

Suddenly there is a booming voice, which we assume to be the local Flame Lord, that tells us if we want to fight, we can, but it is ultimately fruitless. We may win, but in the end the spirit trapped in the staff will betray and kill us all. He suggests that we ditch her and team up with him to defeat one of the other flame lords.

We consider it briefly, but decline (since he is surely lying to us as well) and rush to attack. We go across a lava floe to an island of ash, where a dozen or so normal looking desert-garbed dervish warriors are around a camp fire.

Two hydras ascend out of the lava pool and we strike them down.

Eilenos, struggling to get across the lava, is suddenly blinked to the middle of the battle and strikes down one of the soldiers. This was probably Josephus helping out with a quick teleportation spell.