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After resting for another night, on September 9th, Bigby and Roderick prepare to cast Vargnin's ritual to bring down Berronar's Pyre. They choose to bring it down temporarily, knowing that this will give them less than an hour to get in and they may not be able to get out before it springs back to life.

The ritual requires around an hour to perform, and their first attempt fails. After resetting the circle and trying again, though, they bring it down.

Once the flames are gone, a breeze kicks up as air is pulled into the chasm and down the tunnel. Roderick tells the earth elemental he summoned the day before to go home - and he is able to do so. This proves that the pyre is, indeed, down.

Their first surprise is that the rocks in the chasm and the tunnel beyond are nearly red hot and will require magical protection to get past. The second surprise is that the floor of the tunnel has no walkable surface. The jagged rocks will slow the party to a crawl. It takes nearly ten minutes of discussion and spell preparation before the party is ready to proceed.

Ursa casts Gaseous Form on himself. Roderick casts Resist Energy on Kesi, and then a Status spell on Kesi, Ursa, Bigby, Dru, and Aramil. Then, he casts Find The Path to determine the location of Einerk's tomb, and Wind Walk on himself, Bigby, Pavo, Dru, and Aramil and his dog.

With this combination of energy protection and gaseous form, the party sails down the tunnel. About two hundred yards in, they cross the magical barrier that shields The Long Deep without incident. After another five hundred yards, the tunnel narrows to the point where they would have to crawl, if they were not in gaseous form. Since Kesi is still in physical form, however, Pavo proceeds into the narrow portion of the tunnel and Roderick casts a Create Water to infuse the area with steam. As it is turned to frost by the crystal, it effectively cools most of the rest of the tunnel dramatically.

The narrow portion of the tunnel goes only 50 yards or so before intersecting with one of the Long Deep's tunnel arms. Thus, the party finds themselves standing in an ancient dwarven tunnel a mere 20 minutes after bringing the pyre down.

Scattered around the dwarven hallway, they see a number of man-sized holes burned into the wall. Several of these holes are plugged with some kind of dark stone that is warm to the touch. While the party is puzzling this out, Kesi arrives from the natural tunnel. Less than a minute later, they hear a roar from where they came and the fire leaps back to life - much earlier than expected.

To add insult, the stone plugs in the walls and floors begin to quiver and flow out, forming into Magma Elementals. Even though Pavo is caught on the other side of the fire from the rest of the party, Roderick decides they cannot afford the time (or risk) of combat. As most of the party is still in gaseous form from his Wind Walk spell, Roderick summons up a wind and carried Pavo through the Wall of Fire so the party can flee. The Magma Elementals cannot keep up and the party makes a relatively easy escape.

Up the hallway a safe distance, Roderick drops the group out of gaseous form so that he can heal those damaged by the elementals. Around this time, they realize that the air here is stale and that the only breathable air had come in while the pyre was shut off. In minutes, the new air will have diffused to the point where they will not be able to breathe!

Since no other options come to mind, Roderick casts a Water Breathing spell on the party. Luckily, it works and a two-to-three hour reprieve is granted. They then push on down the hall at top speed, following the magical path.

After about a half-mile, they come across some kind of defensive structure. The hall narrows and brings them into a small region where dwarven soldiers in the past would have been able to bring a wide array of attacks to bear. Now, however, it is a ghostly reminder of what was lost here four centuries before. Not even bones of the combatants remain.

On the other end of the defense area, though, a Cinder Swarm blocks their path. It remains motionless until Kesi runs through it to scout the other side. It then makes an attempt to chase Kesi, but quickly returns to its original location. When the rest of the party approaches, it drifts forward to engulf the first two.

A brief, but dangerous combat ensues, which leaves Bigby briefly unconscious. However, in the end, the swarm is disrupted and the party heads on.

After another two hundred yards or so, the dwarven hall spills into an open area so vast that it seems to be open to the sky. Based on their knowledge of The Long Deep, this is where the lake should be. However, all the party sees is the red glow of magma.

With only two full hours of air left and no certain way of surviving beyond that, the party turns to the left to follow the magical path to Einerk's tomb…

XP awarded: 2,000 each. Bigby and Aramil make 12th level.