“I can bring up an Archway to breach the Shoreward with about an hour. Illusions concealing it should be a minor matter. If you think you can arrange an army, it’s our best bet for breaking the forces of T’Thuun, and getting ALL of its remaining forces in one place to die. The forces called in aren’t reinforcements, they are additional meals for the Deep’s forces,” I proposed to Commander Briggs.

  “Once the forces are annihilated, we can bring down the temples, and the Deep’s forces might even help with it,” Briggs agreed slowly. “Is there a convenient way to speak with the Deep?”

  “Aye,” the Mick piped up again. “Two, actually, but one be much easier to get to.” He flicked up his own map of Dereth and the surrounding islands with a Holo, and then zoomed in to the northeast. A point of light lit up between two of the islands up there, both very well-explored in the past, and both of them were very, very dangerous places to go wandering about on back then, too. “This be a shrine o’ sorts to the Deep, set up t’ encourage Isparians t’ go hacking about an’ kill everything on the Dark Island there. The other were located on Vissidal hereabouts, an’ were a mite more dangerous t’ get ta, being surrounded by dozens o’ Summons enslaved t’ the System an’ all.” The second light in the middle of the once-sunken island wasn’t encouraging, probably an undersea shrine caught in the rise and lifted up to the surface.

  “That should not be that hard to get to, and the only ones who’ve been anywhere near Vissidal post-Fall that I know of are Master Oswald and Ulgrim. We can check out his merwarts on the way to the shrine, if it still stands,” Princess Kristie commented.

  “Oh, good. I thought we were going to go on an impotent rampage across Moarsman Island in mad frustration that we couldn’t take them out,” I breathed out.

  Briggs cocked an eyebrow at me. “Who says we aren’t? It would make a fine diversion, wouldn’t it? Especially if we did it at speed?”

  I clamped my mouth shut, looking wounded. “You’d just alert them that we’re going to attack!” I said.

  “Yesssss… and they’ll have all their priests ready to promptly open Portals and bring in lots and lots of help quickly afterwards, right?” he grinned shamelessly.

  “Rampaging slash-and-hack, and just as quickly retreating.” I considered the tactic. “It’ll definitely spook them and put them on high alert, particularly if word of your extermination campaign reaches them. As you say, the more the merrier once the Deep moves.”

  “Then that’s our next move.” We all paused to watch the third stone fall away, and another Minor Stone was revealed under Kris’ fingers. “Figure the morning after next. I’d like you to do that exploration of Mount Ingot if you can, tomorrow.”

  “Oh, sure. Got nothing better to do on my plate than that,” I grumped, but it was true, I really didn’t.

  If I could find the design to condense Blackfire Stones like those in the proper environment, that was a hellaciously good resource to have.

  ------

  Our Blackfire Stone haul turned out to be all Minor Blackfire Stones, which was a bit disappointing after the Caulcano, but also somewhat expected.

  All in all, it meant that the next morning, I was standing on the slopes of Mount Ingot near the main tunnel entry to Scold’s old lair, which was totally eaten away and filled with still-hot magma that had flowed out from it in quite a mass, spilling down the mountainside. The top of the mountain was still hot enough that no snow or ice was condensing, despite the proximity to Frosthaven and the adorable little Snowmen and their colorful cottages in the distance.

  It turned out the Snowmen were good at raising the various plants that grew in icy terrain, like snow lilies. Who knew? They didn’t know the value of the stuff, but King Borelean had stepped in and was giving them a fair value for their goods, which to the Snowmen meant colorful banners, more statues, flag, pennants, ornamental ribbons, frescoes, murals, ice-carving contests, and all sorts of silly little fun stuff to do that made the place a travel destination for those who could move about the land easily and knew of it.

  Good for them. They were simple little things that just wanted to be happy and have fun, after all.

  I was also pretty sure that there were at least a dozen more than there used to be, as I didn’t remember so many snow cottages. I think they started increasing after the families started bringing their children there.

  “Everyone ready?” I asked Kris and Master Harlune, who had renewed another of their intermittent discussions on the more sophisticated Rune structures on armaments while standing there.

  How could I NOT have the foremost expert on Item magic and Empyrean Artifice we knew coming along? He was rather excited himself, as he’d never been able to get a good look at the buried Yalain Artifice that worked in Tenkarrdun, so this would be a good thing to learn.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I brought the air temperature down to -50 F, which instantly frosted even the hot magma, at least on the surface. Double layers of Cold Protection/Resist joined the Fire versions of same, and I began to Shape the stone ahead of me.

  We were starting at the entryway so I could exactly duplicate the position of the arcane mechanisms we’d seen down in Scold’s lab. If they were buried in lava, it didn’t actually matter as long as their positions hadn’t changed much, and they were designed to draw on the power of the fire in the magical magma, they weren’t going to be harmed by it.

  The black magma cooled off ahead of me as I Shaped it out of the way, although it rapidly heated back up behind us.

  Kris was actually in front, reading the stone with her Tremblesense, and thus able to sense any fractures which could turn into a gas chamber or lava vent and really make things uncomfortable for us. Like, blown out of the tunnel on a jet of super-heated steam uncomfortable.

  That, naturally enough, was exactly what we ran into as we came down to the level of the original mines.

  “Big space, lots of superheated air behind here,” Kris judged, patting the smooth wall between us and it. “There’s actually a lot of pressure here, don’t get any thinner than ten feet. Do you have a way to vent it?” she asked me.

  I looked up to the ceiling, and a circular pipe a foot across formed itself from the stone at the touch of Crown, and then zipped up back and behind us nearly three hundred feet to the opening above and beyond. I made the walls of it six inches thick, then extended it through in a narrow hole only a centimeter wide into the gas chamber beyond.

  We all heard the squeal and felt the stone tremble as the superheated air found the hole and began to vent in that direction with speed. I smoothly Shaped it wider even as erosion from air moving VERY fast did the same thing, and the squeal became a trembling roar as a whole lot of very hot air rocketed up and past us.

  Up at the entry, a blowtorch hundreds of feet long vented up into the air, doubtless visible for miles.

  Harlune bent down to my ear, his voice carrying easily over the howl. “The magicks that kept the air of the mine breathable should still be in effect, so this should be safe once the built-up pressure is vented,” he told me, and I nodded understanding.

  Obviously this place had been more than a mine, if that level of magic was invested in it, and when the Dungeon-makers had unlimited funding, was that a surprise at all?

  ---

  In a surprisingly short period of time a whole lot of high-pressure air was vented out, and the pressure dropped enough that Kris indicated I could slowly slide the stone out of the way.

  We all stood to one side as the wall opened, and a hurricane-force wind of incredibly hot air exploded up and past us, heading for the exit above and equalization, courtesy of Queen Physics. That wind, died down too, as there wasn’t much incoming to keep the process going, and I pulled the rest of the stone out of the way, increasing the airflow and reducing the wind as I did so, until we could walk in against what was basically a very hot, stiff breeze.

  Harlune was actually the one most at risk here, as he relied totally on magical protection to endure what was surely lead-melting temperatures. Kris and I were completely immune to Fire, even this level of heat. My Control Temperature 20’r dealt with some of it, but that was enough to like reduce the stones under our feet to not-red, which promptly heated back up as soon as we moved.

  Five hundred degrees of temperature control wasn’t what it used to be, I guess.

  I vaguely recognized the walls of where we’d come out before, although the stone was soft and running, and the whole side to the left of us was now occupied by seething magma whose crust was barely solid.

  Harlune was wisely sitting on a Disk, with a Flight spell as backup, and neither Kris nor I were touching the ground.

  The Holo of the layout popped up, and Kris led the way as we moved slowly through the former mine.

  ---

  I had to Shape a path through four obstructions of lava that had filled in the rooms and hallways ahead of us, some sort of magic from the Dungeon actually managing to keep a few chambers and passages totally clear of anything. We made it without further incidence to the chamber with the first columns and Crafted pillars with great anticipation, when Kris ground to a halt.

  Her hand had been on Quaver’s hilt, and now she drew him. Icy motes glittered in the scarlet light of the heat around us, fighting it back.

  “There’s something inside the lava ahead of us,” she pointed ahead of us.

  I held out my left hand, and Primus gleamed. “Come forth, don’t force me to come in after you,” I stated calmly at the lava, reaching out to the Elemental presence there, and finding it.

  An amorphous blob heaved itself out of the crusted magma like a bubble rising on water, pouring itself out in crimson and black, pseudopods working the air about itself absently, maintaining contact with the wall of red-hot magma behind it as it formed up.

  “True Magma Para-Elemental, not the false things that wander around on Dereth,” I informed Master Harlune before he could ask, Primus glowing and Elemental Command very active as Kris made sure not to get between us.

  It probed the edge of my Control Temperature, and immediately flinched back as the red-veined tip of the tentacle went completely black. Its rumblings and writhing motions translated angrily as, “What do cold things here?”

  “This is not your home, and you ask us what we are doing here?!” I immediately retorted to it, my skin going red and wings extending to the full celeste glory behind me. “We are here to investigate some of the magical creations in the chambers beyond you, and then we will depart! If you think you are going to impede us, then I will show you how we deal with invaders and trespassers on our territory!”

  The Magma Elemental actually withdrew partly into the red-hot stone behind itself in the face of my anger. “Meant no harm, no disrespect!” it bubbled and flailed quickly, as I definitely became a Hot One, Elemental Command giving it a very clear idea of just how quickly I could overwhelm the thing.

  “Inform your brethren that we will be passing through, but we will not harm them if they do not make nuisances of themselves,” I said loftily. “Away, and do not bother us!” I ordered it.

  ============================

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