Entry the Fifth

As we walked deeper into the caves, we came upon a nest of fire scorpions. The brutes were especially difficult, though their spiked carapace eventually yielded to my psionic crab-claw-cracker technique. Yet after that melee, we had to plow through an entire hive of enormous ants. I suspect the cult's allowance of the abyssal influence into the cave network has twisted and broken the local wildlife. Yet another crime for which they will be punished.

After accosting roughly a googleplex of aberrantly deformed arthropods, we emerged at the outer-most fortifications of the Fire Temple. Our team stepped into an enormous chamber lit up like Bahamut's birthday by an enormous sphere of combustion. Defining the edges of it's searing heat was a series of pillars. Some mysterious, inhuman faces peered at us from the cavern's distant and foreboding shadows.

At Neebo's suggestion, I walked in first and introduced myself and my reputation. Surely by this point in our exploits, they've heard of me. There's actually a cadre of wizards who beam pictures of me into the primordial realms - as a warning. The faces were suddenly very well illuminated when their flesh ignited, revealing they were made of living flame. I decided that if they hadn't heard of me by now, I was going to give them autographs signed in warhammer. They decided to set me on fire. I heard Deiter call them "mephits" before his arcane missiles flew over my head. I struggled to hold the front line from within the blaze, and my patent-pending Iron Fist technique held firm against the heat. Rog and Rikka tried to move through the flames as best they could to surround them, but the demons radiated heat in all directions; being surrounded simply played into their strategy. A steady barrage of Dieter's magic missiles finally doused the fire devils.

Deiter poked and prodded the source of the arcane fireball at the center of the cavern. He deployed an ethereal hand to push and guide the fire's power source, an orb at the center of the inferno. Moving the ball drew the flames with it around the cavern, which resulted in minor singing for the rest of us. Knowing that such a fire would be all but useless against the Fire Temple, the wizard put it to good use by pushing it back to the second biggest nuisance of the day.

Operation Insect Ignition was a rousing success.