Meili nodded to Mica and moved deeper into the room while he was finishing the newb by the door. Her meager healing skill was not required right away, and (if the newt at the entrance fell to Ran's blade) rushed past the dead reptile to attack the one assaulting Hew.

Her standard combination of the sword&kick had worked well enough so far to keep it unchanged:

Shortsword Attack: 25 Damage: 8
Unarmed Strike Attack: 22 Damage: 7

...(if the newt at the entrance fell to Ran's blade)...

As it happens, Ran's attacks against the remaining newt in the upper room both ring off of its chain armor.

Meili's sword does as well - but with a kick she accomplishes what blades could not.  She feels the soft organs of the firenewt fail beneath her boot as she kicks the life out of it.

The upper room is now clear of foes.

1. Mica, Danica & Nalomanterys
2. Firenewts & Hew
3. Ran & Meili

As Mica’s handaxe finally brings down the newt to his front, he takes a quick look around the room, now clear of enemies.  He notices the tunnel or passageway entrance in the eastern wall and grins “There it is” he points it out to the others. “Knew there was a passage around here somewheres.”  Mica doesn’t waste time with the entrance, instead moving through the door to the south and attacking the firenewt to the west with two strikes of his handaxes.

Attack: 18 Damage: 7.

Attack: 25 Damage: 6.

(the idea is to use full movement of 30 feet and move through the doorway between the two newts, but leaving space for someone else to enter the room behind him.  I judge that he could see the newt to the west through the doorway from his current position and would attack him.)

The two newts surrounding Hew, already weakened by Danica's ice magic, succumb to Mica's axes.  Their hammers ceased, the forge is now quiet, but for the deep, nearly inaudible hum from the magma outside.

[Out of initiative]

Six more Firenewts, one of them a spellcaster of some kind, now lay dead on the floors of the two forge rooms.  

The middle room seems to been a place for finish-work on weapons and armor.  There are racks of complete or semi-complete scimitars, all in the small, slim fashion preferred by the firenewts.  As noted before, there is a gate of bars of silvery metal on the eastern wall.  Through this gate you can see a long hallway, which opens back out into the magma chamber on the other side.  The gate is down and there is no obvious way to open it from this side.  Just past the gate, in the hall, you can see a hand lever set into one of the walls.  It is 10' past the gate and out of reach.

The southern room has multiple forge and bellows setups.  There are billets of ore from the smelting room and anvils for working the raw materials into weapons and armor.  To the west, an open door leads into a dark hallway with more 4 more closed doors.  This hallway also opens out to the magma chamber at the other end.

[The west-leading passage in the Southern room is open, right?]

Meili exhaled, relaxed her posture and looked around. "There is a passage here as well." She came closer to the entrance and looked inside the hallway.

"They all worked in here, I would assume there should not be any more traps or monsters?" 

Meili carefully stepped inside the passage, looked over the left (north one, Perception: 22) door and tried to open it.

Before heading down into the southern room, Ran catches his breath and takes a look at the singed metal that nearly melted into his skin. That was close.

He looks at the doorway blocked by the silvery metal bars.

"Must be a way to open this," Ran muses. He looks around for a trigger panel or lever in the room. If he doesn't find that, he grabs hold of whatever long metal rods may be in here as part of the forge and uses it to try and lever the gate up or open.

Athletics? (12+6) = 18 (rolled in game log)

While Meili is exploring the lower rooms, Ran finds a hardened steel bar and attempts to lever up the gate.  There seems to be more than gravity holding it down, some mechanism pushing the gate down.  He feels like he almost has it... but he can't quite move it enough to force anything underneath it to hold it open.  Perhaps with help?

In the hall off the southern room, Meili finds four doors.  These appear to once have been storerooms for the forge.  They were long ago looted.  Now they are all filled with “nests” of ancient dwarven clothing, insulated gloves, and other padded material, all of it coated in a thin layer of warm slime. The smell in this area is horrid, like burning hair mixed with burning rubber.  They are empty, but for a single unconscious firenewt in the southwest room.  He has a bound and cauterized wound across his chest.  He does not stir at your approach, and may be dying already from his injuries.

At the end of the hall, it opens up onto a wide balcony overlooking the magma rift.  From here, she can see where the other hallway (the one blocked by the gate) leads to a bridge crossing the magma to the northeast.  The balcony she is standing on has another balcony directly across the magma from her.  A 10' gap of blistering lava separates them.  There is a heavy chain spanning the gap above her head.

The threat from the newt’s eliminated, Mica goes back to the middle room to check out the passageway.  He joins Ran at the metal gate. “The gauntlet should be in the treasury, down this tunnel.  Need to find a way through.”  He tests the bars to the gate with a quick shake and leans in to helpRan try to lever the gate open. Athletics: 6.

.

Nalomanterys sits down after the fight is over and lets the others explore - he expects that there are no more enemies, and even if there are, he expects he won't be of much use. "I am tapped." He says in a tired voice; with dilated pupils he watches his his arms twitch slightly. "I could not cast another spell of significance if I tried." After a few moments, the spasms stop and the wizard brings himself to his feet.

"If only I had prepared mage hand..." he says as he sees Ran and Mica working at the just-out-of-reach lever.

"We do need some rest. Especially, if there is another fight ahead."

Once it became crystal clear the next destination was on the northern passageway, Meili returned to the group with the report. But not before she tried to use the cloak. She still was not familiar enough with its magic to tell if the darkness was sufficiently dark to fly.

[Should it work, she will try to fly over to the path to open the gate.]

There was another matter too - the still alive newt. Meili was not very familiar with the physiology of the fiery "amphibian" (anatomy could be studied right next door) but hoped to be able to assert if the newt was about to survive with some help. (Medicine: 16)

Meili, the unconscious  firenewt is in rough shape.  He looks to have a deep axe wound to the chest/shoulder, which the other firenewts were apparently treating with cauterization and application of some natural mucus.  With his caregivers now dispatched, the newt's prognosis is grim.  You doubt very much he can survive on his own without further medical or magical aid.

Standing on the edge of the magma chamber, you grip the edges of your cloak in the dim, red glow.  You lift softly off the ground, and sail over toward the bridge.  The cloak falters, briefly as you fly over the glowing molten rock.   Your usually calm heart breaks into palpitations as you start to dip toward the lava.  The cloak holds, though, and a moment later you are able to land safely on the bridge.  You're left with the impression this was probably the bleeding edge of the amount of light level that will allow the cloak's magic to work.  

As Ran and Mica work together, putting all their muscle into leveraging the gate, they feel that they are so close.  As though if they could just squeeze a little more power out of their tired backs and limbs, they could force it up....

And then with a clank and a ting-ting-ting sound the gate begins to rise.  Through the bars, you see Meili standing on the other side, her hand on the lever.

Just as Ran gets ready to give the gate another heave with Mica's help, he bars lift up. He looks forward and sees Meili standing there.

"Good timing," Ran says. "I'm sure we loosened that up right nice for you."

He moves out and looks down at the magma.

"Not much of a spot to put our feet up, but if we lower the pretty gate, it limits where those fiery little lizards can sneak up on us from."

"Conventional method do have their advantage," nodded Meili shuddering from reliving that vivid picture of burning alive. It was way too close and, well, again, reckless. "Let's see how this thing works."

She pulled the lever hoping her strength would be enough to raise the gates.

"Before we go... There is one still alive newt in one of the rooms. Barely alive, unconscious and helpless. I... would rather heal him than leave behind to die." The action was truly hard to justify considering full-scale extermination but she tried. "He knows this place and can be useful. I doubt he will be grateful for saving him but one less soul denied to whoever collecting them is still good."

If the lever worked and others could get inside, and if no one was actively protesting, Meili intended to try and use her healing herbs on the fiery creature.

Mica grinned at Meili as the gate slid open “Thank you, but I am sure that we almost had it.”  He moves down the hallway and looks out over the magma chamber before returning to the group.  He nods at Ran and counts off the newts they had fought “If the old dwarf was right we should have cleared most of them out.  I am still okay to move on, but if others need a rest this would be a good place for a short break, easier to defend.” He looks over at Nalomanterys, knowing the wizard said he was spent.  He turns to Meili as she mentioned the wounded newt. “If you want to try to save them, I will help I can try to speak with them, they may share something on the path ahead.”

Ran heads to the start of the bridge to keep watch on the doorway on the other side while the others deal with the injured firenewt.

"Give us a holler if you need help," Ran says. "Or if you want me to put the bloody thing out of its misery."

Ran, the bridge spans at least 60' over the widest part of the magma chamber.  The hear here is intense.  Across the bridge you see a wide alcove with a massive set of metal doors at the far end.

Meili and Mica are able to apply some basic treatment to the firenewt.  You have to make some assumptions about their physiology but all in all you think you have it stabilized.  You guess the creature may be able to wake up on its own in about an hour, or you can try to wake it up now.

[At this time, the forge is quiet and you have not been harassed by any other foes.  Do you intend to take a short rest or to press on?]

Ran's all for the short rest.

Short rest for all of us! (including the newt)

Taking 2 HD: 11

Taking 1HD for the short rest: 6.

Mica takes a short rest with the others and waits for the wounded firenewt to wake.  He tries to communicate with the newt in primordial as it regains consciousness. “Peace.  We mean you no harm.  Your friends have left you and we are searching for something.  What lies behind the metal doors across the bridge?” 

1 HD: 5

Nalomanterys collapses (figuratively) into a chair when the group agrees that a short rest in everyone's best interest. The wizard has little interest in the near-dead newt, though he offers to help with anything, if anyone needs it.

Yawning, he cracks open his spellbook and reconstructs a few of the spells in his mind. After an hour of lazy perusal, Nalomanterys is prepared to cast a couple more spells if the need arises ((Arcane Recovery on short rest)).

As the group begins to stir and prepare to press on, Nalomanterys says "Well, we have a gauntlet to find and then we will have done everything that the Dwarves have asked for. It ought to be down the path that Meili opened up, no? I am feeling as well as I will be... shall we?"