"Depending on who you are trying to reach, they might be dead. There was an old man who gave us some items. He's not dead. But the prison guards tried to eat us and Salastor's dad also bit me and so they were all self defence."

"My, my...It seems my servants have gotten out of hand. I apoligize for any inconvenience they might have caused" Crofdin says, concern lacing his voice. He seems sincere. "Now, to contact..." he trails off, beginning to speak rapidly once again into the stone, the words a foreign language that none of you understand.

"Um... yes, it seems they have," Beshlog says, still preoccupied patting out several smoldering patches of his clothing. "Just how long did you leave them to do whatever the hell they wanted?"

"Just to describe how deep this rabbit hole goes..." Ember starts.

"We encountered a cross between a rabbit & a squirrel.  Which later turned out to be running through the walls of the inn pulling trap doors to drop people into the furnace.  Because the inn of this town is set up to promote cannibalism. Run by his father.  Mesnwhile the townspeople have nothing to drink and roam the streets looking for spellcasters to kill.  

"Yeah and at one point I was chained to a wall!" Flax adds passionately, though perhaps slightly off topic.

"As was I," Kordia adds in waspishly.  "Your hospitality stinks, old man. And your town is full of hellspawn eating regular folk.  How could you NOT sense something was wrong!?"

The man simply looks aghast. Finally, he stutters out "This is a dreadful thing. I profusely apoligize, but there is something I must do, if you'll excuse me" his words are laced with panic as he moves towards the door.

"Goramit,  Crofdin !  We finally survived to find you; do NOT run off on us to leave us stuck in this madhouse.    Tell us WHY we needed to find you and what we can DO to HELP."  Kordia nearly screamed at the old fart.

"Find me? Whyever did you need to find me?" Crofdin asks, looking puzzled. Then, he looks over at Salastor and gasps slightly. When you look, nothing is wrong with Salastor, which is puzzling. The old man speaks after a moment of silence "Oh. I see. Very well. Now I know why you have come. Hurry, you must follow me! This is a matter of great urgency!" he says, motioning for you to follow him.

Beshlog feels a bit suspicious... but he has no idea what's going on anymore, but it seems that following Crofdin is the only way that they're going to get answers.

"Let's go find out what the hell is happening here," he tells the others with a sigh. "Hopefully it isn't another trap..."

"Of course it is another trap. The thing that matters is, who is the hunter, who is the prey, and is an innocent bystander going to get caught in the trap instead? I've seen enough cases in the woods where a hunter is trying to catch a wolf that has been killing the towns sheep, and snares a deer instead. Regardless, we have no choice." while talking, he is looking between Salastor and Crofdin. Either one could be setting a trap for the other, or for the party. Artan has spent his life trusting people. But he's dealt with enough people that he can spot a liar, and once his trust is broken, it's very hard to gain it back. Salastor is in his bad books already, and Crofdin by extension started off in his neutral ones, unlike most people in his good books. 

He follows Beshlog 

"Well, I am not certain about this 'Crofdin' just yet.   I mean, he was teaching a class when we burst in.  (teaching what?  I can not really say...)   and now this total confusion.   I thought this guy was supposed to be some mighty mage... not a mentally questionable, old fool.  " 

Kordia kicks at nothing on the floor, "And THIS was supposed to be the 'savior' against the spreading chaos?" 

She sighs and turns to Flax, "Ready for more madness, Big Guy?"

Ember sighs, rolls her eyes & follows.

You follow Crofdin into a cramped tunnel, which spirals downwards deeper into the earth. The air grows hot around you, though Crofdin and Salastor seem unbothered. The air never gets hot enough to burn or anything, but it does get a little uncomfortable. Flax is pretty hot in his metal armor and long fur.

The tunnel continues downward, until eventually it pans out onto into a large cavern deep below the earth. You stand on a small ledge, and a  bridge with no rails made of some sort of translucent glass or crystal crosses the cavern to the other side. Below you, maybe fifty feet down, is a lake of bubbling lava, its glow hot.

Dotted across this lake are various small platforms of cooled magma. As you watch, the lava bubbles, and a geyser of magma sends one of the platforms into the air, and it hovers atop spouting fire for maybe half a dozen seconds before crashing back down to the level, resting on top of the lake as another platform near it shoots into the air. 

Crofdin speaks "Wait here. And keep silent. Don't cross the bridge" then motions to Salastor and they both join hands, suddenly appearing on the ledge on the other side of the room, then disappearing into the tunnel on the other side.

With that, you are all alone. With nothing to do. What do you?

Kordia turns to her companions, "Why am I not surprised?"

Looking back at her sweltering partner she looks over her shoulder, "Anybody have Prestiwhoziewhatsit so they can cool off Flax?  My main man... er.. cat... is not made for this kind of heat."  She passes her waterskin to Flax so he can keep hydrated.

Artan has the opposite. He can cook Flax alive in his armour (heat metal). In an attempt to keep everyone (especially Flax) cool he will continually use Druidcraft to create a cool breeze, while also keeping an ear out for attackers on the way as this feels like another trap

*nods*    Be very quiet.   Do not cross the bridge.    

Oh, and btw, random lava geysers with solid (looking) micro platforms if you want to chance leaping ABOVE MOLTEN LAVA from geyser/basalt cap to basalt cap.

ya... perfectly normal.

Artan keeps waiting. He is fairly certain that this is a trap. But he also thinks the "don't cross the bridge" message is the trap. A bit of reverse psychology to get them to decide to cross it out of boredom, for the bridge to give way. The fact that Salastor and Crofdin didn't use it just reinforces that idea. While waiting he is still cooling everyone down.

Kordia is so bored.  And sweating in her leathers.  And bored.  She slumps down next to Flax while digging about in her pouches.  With a harump, she starts rolling ball bearings down the middle of the bridge -- since there are no stones about to skip over the lava bed.

And so the party waits. And waits. You sweat and moan, bored out of your literal minds. The stark contrast of the past excitement and adrenaline doesn't help either. Minutes tick by, and still nothing happens. Nothing at all. You begin to wonder if your two 'friends' are ever going to return. And its so unbearably hot in here. So, so hot. Ugh. 

If you guys would like, you can make a DC 14 CON save. If you succeed, then you can gain a short rest. Yes, that is how long you are sitting there.