Vilus, looking at the insectoid creature now behind them and knowing that there are plenty more, wonders if this trip is going to be a one way journey. Perhaps if they all perish once the heart of flame is secured then at least they wouldn't have to battle through legions of gloazworms. He shudders at the damage just one could do to a person. The image of the body left behind by Andra/Jon flashes through vilus' mind too as he is on the topic of things that creep him out.

"Our next, most immediate problem will be stopping! This thing has no brakes!" Vilus calls out to the group.

Having seen an adult gloazworm up close at least one more time than the others, when he had chased a fleeing cultist back into the tunnels past the underground lake after the first battle with Andra, it almost brings Joren a strange calm to see one now and witness its utter deadliness once more.

And seeing the whole hive behind this one's translucent form.  Let us not be forgetting that.  Not taking more than a few of those to lay waste to a town.

"Whatever they are aiming for with this Heart of Fire, one effect, intentional or no, may be rousing and unleashing those monsters on all of Cambria.  I remember when we skirted around the nest last time, that they were seeming to become more active with the heat."

As Vilus points out the absence of brakes, Joren looks at Samir and then back at the goliath, summoning his echo 30' in front along the tracks again.

"So you are saying we may need to be leaping out and rolling when the time comes?"

(He tries to assess whether it might be at all realistic to climb halfway out the back and use his own boots as friction against the tracks.)

Vilus digs around in his pack and pulls out a crowbar. "Guys find something to stop the wheels or cause enough friction to slow this thing down!" With that he leans over the side of the speeding cart and carefully tries to feed the straight end between the track and the spinning wheel, hoping the crook of the crowbar will catch the wheel and lock up the back axel.

"If some of you could be edging to the front of the cart so we don't overbalance backwards, I will be trying to slow us down from behind."

Stowing his Dunamis Blade, and gripping the back edge of the mine cart firmly, Joren carefully swings one leg back behind the cart, then the other, still facing forward, working in tandem with Vilus' crowbar to apply friction against the wheels with his sturdy Khirian-issue boots in an attempt to slow down.

Joren Athletics with advantage from crowbar:  26 (or if no advantage, then 15).

Sparks fly from the crowbar being jammed against the wheels, and Joren's feet drag against the ground passing by underfoot. Joren strains, enduring the jolting pain that shoots straight up his shins with every ridge and bump. The soles of his boots get ground down further and further, leaving little flecks of themselves behind. He feels the heat of friction against the bottoms of his feet. 

But the cart slows considerably.

Ashley has time now to make out more details from the walls. She sees rudimentary but careful carvings of people with balls of flame where the head should be.

With the crowbar firmly wedged, Vilus watches Joren struggle to further slow the cart, "how much further!?" He growls at Ashley as he holds an arm out ready to haul Joren back into the cart, the moment his boots give out.

The screeching of the wheels, the jammed crowbar, and his own boots sparking with friction are too loud for any remonstration from his companions to reach Joren's ears.  He braces himself and bows his neck, gripping the back of the cart and wedging his feet into the angles between wheel and rail.

Joren (second) Athletics check to slow mine cart, at advantage due to crowbar:  27 (natural 20)

As the cart slows and quiets, the echo knight mutters almost inaudibly in his native tongue about the relative quality of boots in Cambria versus the Dalmodh Plains and his gloomy prospects for adequately replacing the solid Khirian-issue ones he is in the process of ruining on the rails.

Malachi’s head turns as he tries to make sense of the carvings flashing by along the walls as the minecart speeds past.  As Joren leaps out the back of the cart, Malachi follows directions and leans against the front of the cart, trying to balance out the weight to prevent it from tipping over.  He searches frantically in his pack for something to help slow the cart, but comes up empty.  Instead, he grips the front of the cart and peers ahead, watching to see what is waiting for them at the end of the tracks and hoping it is not gloazworms.

Perception: 22 (rolled in dice channel)

Seeing the crowbar doing it's work well, leaves Vilus' hands free. He looks to Joren, arm still outstretched ready to assist his friend back into the cart if it becomes necessary, but it seems Joren is staying put in spite of the damage being dealt to his footwear, "you're a stubborn bastard" Vilus chuckles and then hops over the side of the cart standing side by side with Joren and joining him in attempting to stop the cart with his foot, (lifting his wooden foot out of the way to avoid the thing being ripped completely off) 

Athletics nat 20, for a 23, (rolled with assistance from Joren but not needed as first roll crit)

Ashley stares at the murals and barely pays attention to the rest of the group.  She almost registers that they are trying to stop the cart and there is a part of her that wants to fight that, but she feels the heat and it is becoming so hot from where they are that it feels like a blanket of heat that suffuses the air and eases her aches and pains.  

She stays in the cart and doesn't really help, overwhelmed by her senses and everything going on.  But continues to try and understand the murals.

Malachi hears the acoustics change. The way the sound of the cart is echoing back makes it sound like the tunnel opens up just around the bend.

Then there is a clang and the cart lurches. With one wheel in the front spinning while the other was jammed, it seems the spinning wheel unthreaded from the axel and fell off. The cart tips on an angle, sending up more sparks from the front, and lifting one of the back wheels up. Joren and Vilus dig in their heels together, lifting up on the cart as they press down with their feet. With their strength combined, they rock the remaining wheel right off the track. The cart skids along the path, rounding the last few feet of the turn, and comes to a full stop right as the cart slides into a massive hall.

Humanoid statues 10 feet tall of shining black stone line the walls. But where the mural along the wall of the spiraling corridor had been rudimentary, the craftsmanship on the statues is of a level rarely seen above ground Each piece may have taken multiple master craftsmen years of their lives to complete. One statue is of a man holding an intricately sculpted flame in his hand. One of a woman holding a flaming broadsword with two hands. Hilt before her chest, point resting on the ground. One woman bears wings of flame on her back. the statues go on like this, 11 in total, each person sporting dignified composure and some mark of flame upon them. In the spot where the 12th would go, there is a pillar of that same stone, with part of it chipped away to reveal the beginnings of a head and torso. The work has been left unfinished.

At the far end of the hall, the rail ends, with 6 other carts sitting along its length. Beyond them sits a throne of glistening gold and silver. In the flickering of the torchlight, it almost looks like its surface is molten and flowing, though it is merely a trick of the light. On either side of the throne, stairs curve up behind it, meeting in the middle before a 20 foot, tall double door made of solid stone.

Except hole large enough to walk through has been blown through the center.

Samir clings to the cart in its last chaotic moments, white knuckled grip all that seems to keep him inside and not flopping out onto the hard stone. He lurches as it finally comes to a halt, almost tumbling over the edge in the grip of sudden inertia. Blinking owlishly for a moment, he shakes off the disorientation and scrambles out of the ill-fated vehicle, as if it might begin moving again at any moment. For a long moment, the half-orc simply stares around them, trying to collect his bearings. 

It is, really, quite overwhelming. 

Samir had never heard of anything like this place, the immaculate artistry of the statues, the strange materials. Surely if someone had found this place in the past, it would have made it into the texts and annals of the University. He was no archaeologist, surely, but the desire to study and record what was in front of him was a powerful draw regardless.

Hopping away from the cart as it clatters to a standstill and thumping Vilus on the shoulder for a job well done, Joren regards the majestic hall, The Hall of Fire he thinks of it, with an odd mix of reverence and laconic gallows humor.  He keeps his echo summoned 30' ahead and lets out a breath.

"I have been seeing worse places to die than this in my time.  Are we standing now in the entrance hall to the Heart of Fire?  Are you knowing Ashley or is this as new to you as it is to us?  Clearly not new to the nice folks deploying the Tensmith mining rigs to blast a hole through the final door, though..."

He stands another moment. grimacing.  "These Razmus-loving bastards are always laying traps, and this may be no exception.  Advancing carefully, we should.  But I am guessing we must be reaching the great door at the far end to stop whatever it is that they are doing with the Heart of Fire."

Joren strains his eyes to look for hazards or an ambush, but just then, there is a delayed shooting pain in his legs from his jarring efforts to stop the speeding cart, and he doubles over for a moment to rub the cramps out of his legs, unable to notice much.

Perception:  9

Vilus takes in the statues with confusion, not knowing who these figures are or what their importance is. He nudges Ashley "reckon that last one is gonna be you?" He chuckles, nodding toward the unfinished statue, but then the seriousness of the situation catches up with him and his tone reflects it, "do we know where the heart of flames is? That room from your vision ash... Is that where we'll find it?".

Grabbing his pack from the cart, Vilus prepares himself to get going, but gets stuck looking at the cart controls once more. "Uhh SAMIR! Come look at this!?" If Samir comes over Vilus will point out each of the carvings, "these make sense all of a sudden can you read this too? Full speed, halved speed, crawl. Like reading common... Right? Has something changed? Like some obfuscation magic making it harder to read that has worn off?" 

By some miracle Ashley was not thrown from the cart during all of this as she was not hanging on.  Her hands had remained holding her head as she endured the shock waves of pain that rang through during their travels.  As the others emerge from the cart, she stands there, taking it all in.  A tear rolls down her cheek as some sort of understanding reaches her heart.

"These people... they were born from the flame.  As the people emerged and grew, the flame diminished to a small mote and whoever held the flame.. well they ruled."  She starts climbing out of the cart, staring at the statues in wide-eyed wonder, drinking it all in.  She walks slowly towards the throne, staring at the statues as she talks in an almost dreamlike way, "These rulers were able to perform miracles, do good for their people.  I can't tell how long they lived, but it was for many generations and in harmony."  Her countenance then changes, a frown etches it's lines deep in her face, "Then... as always, things went sideways and some sort of dark force punished these people for their hubris.  And... there was a mass exodus."

Suddenly, she breaks out of her reverie and flicks her wrist in the familiar way they all are accustomed to, her beautiful flame now held in the palm of her hand and dashes for the double doors, going straight for the large hole.

In what he realizes is becoming a pattern, Joren listens closely to Ashley, understanding the literal meaning of her words, but sensing he is missing the big picture.  What is it among the relics of this buried civilization that the Razmus cultists want?  Is the Heart of Fire the source for this old culture's magic?

As he straightens from rubbing the feeling back into his legs and is on the verge of asking her what lies beyond the door, the fire genasi suddenly bolts.

"Sakra."  The expletive in Joren's native tongue sounds almost conversational as he sends his echo 30' further (60' out).  Too late to avoid traps now!

As the echo knight switches places with his echo, appearing next to Ashley and matching her dash, he almost asks her "Where's the fire?" before realizing what a poor choice of metaphor that would be.  Instead, he manages only:  "What are we seeking beyond that door, Ash?"

Recovering from his momentary bout of academic hyperfixation, Samir turns back to the cart, peering at the runes that Vilus was pointing out. He squints for a moment before glancing back to Vilus with a shrug. "They appear the same to me, I cannot see that anything is different. Perhaps, rather that it is you that- Ashley? Where are you going?" 

Interupted mid-sentence by the fire genasi's sudden dash, Samir gazes after her in confusion for a moment before taking off in pursuit himself. "I am afraid that Ashley's connection with this Heart of Fire might be pulling her along more forcefully now!"

Ashley darts around the throne and starts heading up the stairs, two at a time, with Joren right beside her. There before her stand the door. The stone is nearly two feet thick and must have been incredibly heavy to push open. But the scorch marks at regular intervals around the perimeter of the hole reveal how it had been made. It looks like the work of the mining rigs. Load chanting from many voices emanates from the opening

Ashley looks through the hole and then stops abruptly. Beyond the door is what must have some point been a massive circular room with a high domed ceiling. There may have once been alcoves along the walls, and a mosaic on the floor, but most of that has been covered over now with a waxy, glowing sludge. The inside of this room looks like the outside of the Gloazworm hive, and in the middle of the room is a thick pillar of that waxy substances that rises up and spreads out on the ceiling.

A different kind of glow is shining out from the bottom of the pillar. Warm and red, Ashley senses it with more than just her eyes. The heart of flame is trapped within. But in between her and the pillar is a ring of cultists. They surround it with arms raised, singing in loud voices, apparently not having noticed the sound of their new visitors. Behind each cultist is a kneeling captive, bleeding from a number of runes carved directly into their skin, with their hands bound together, and a collar on their necks that is hooked up to a chain being held by the cultist before them. 

Realization dawns on Ashley. The cultists are channeling magic from their captives to cast some big spell. Inside the ring, 3 more cultists pry away a few broken up chunks of the wax and start wheeling over a mining rig to line it up with a fresh dent in the pillar

Vilus reaches his mind out like a whip latching on to Ashley's consciousness as she runs, "SLOW! WE DO THIS AS A GROUP" He gives chase, but then slows himself when he catches a glimpse beyond the scorched doors.

Joren re-summons his echo, which had disappeared, having been over 30' from him after he swapped with it to catch up with Ashley.  He looks impassively at the ring of chanting cultists with their bound and collared captives conducting their bizarre ritual.  His whisper is laconic as usual.

"I am not one for kink-shaming, but this is getting out of hand."