I took a moment to cure the damage to my constitution, and heal myself up. We didn't see the mage nearby, so I took a moment to examine the different orb in the center of the main chamber.

The main chamber was south of the entrance. Side halls and chambers radiated out from the central room. They were roughly to the Northwest, Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast.

Unlike the silver orbs (2' across) in the other chambers and above ground, this was much larger and black. It was about 20' across, made out of some sort of stone. Examining it carefully, I couldn't pick up on everything, but it seemed to radiate energy into the other 4 chambers where there were cells. It reverbrated and amplified through the chambers. Likely this was what kept the prisoners shielded and suspended.

While I examined the orb, Shatain did her best to check out the chambers. Sound echoed very strongly in here; she was at a severe disadvantage. Brennen & I kept a somewhat loud nonsensical conversation to give her cover. She made it down to the end of the Northwest chamber, and was on her way back when we heard the voice of the mage - "It seems we are at an impasse."

Shatain pointed out that we wanted to speak to the mage, we didn't want to fight. I interjected with basic pleasantries - we gave our names, and he gave us his - Sapien. I explained that we had 2 goals - as the price of our entry, we had promised the elemental that we would turn over the means of control to the prison, and we needed to free the witch.

The mage told us that it was his job to maintain control over the elemental; he couldn't allow us to free it. The witch was not as large a concern, though freeing her would make us some very powerful enemies.

I spoke a bit more with the mage. He clarified that the witch was not part of his charge; he was only responsible for the facility we were in. The most he could do to assist us was to turn a blind eye. He was willing to do so if we left; it was completely possible for us to just walk away.

I could tell that the mage was probably within 50' of us. The corridors were about 80' long, with 15' arches. We kept up the conversation for a while, but didn't get much useful information out of him. For a while he played the game, but eventually he tired. We were pretty sure he was down the SW corridor.

The mage began invoking a magical item. I suspected the orb. I put a burst of holy energy down the corridor where we thought he was, but didn't catch him. We heard a large boom from the black orb; it developed a large crack. It wasn't enough to daze us, but we then heard the sound of hundreds of bodies hitting the floor. Whatever was keeping the prisoners just failed.

Shatain moved down the hallway. About half-way down, he stopped; we could all see firelight growing from all the chambers with silver orbs. Shatain could see that the bodies of the prisoners were catching with some sort of magical fire, without consuming them. The bodies were not animating. The fire grew quickly off of each body. The wizard told us that we would be privy to something no one else knew - the purpose of the facility.

The fires grew, and took on the semblance of fire elementals. The mage suggested that we flee. Shatain dropped caltrops into the room. Each of the fire elementals was a medium or small elemental, and there were different sizes.

The firelord came out of the black orb in the center, in his serpentine form. He charged down the Southwest corner, and we heard a scream from the mage. We charged down the corridor. Shatain increased his speed, Brennen & I increased our resistance to fire, and charged down the corridor.

The firelord was attacking. The mage was ill-equipped to fend off its attacks. Shatain moved up to within 30', and managed to avoid the attacks of any fire elementals in the room. She fired at the mage, hitting for 18. I manifested a warhammer of spiritual energy, and hit the mage for 9. Brennen fired a masterwork arrow, but missed with his shot.

Shatain fired again. She couldn't get flanked against the firelord, missed with the first shot, but hit with the 2nd for 7. My spritual warhammer hit him for 8. I then fired my bow, hitting critically for 14, then again for 6. The mage died.

The firelord wasn't eager to let go of the mage. The firelord spoke - "My brothers, you are free! Go forth and burn the world!" The elementals disappeared into the silver orb. He turned to us, told us we'd done well, and gave us the sword back. He warned us we were free of his wrath, but the others would not be so discriminating.

Shatain hoisted his sword and the mage's body. A slim rod of wood dropped and rolled across the floor. There was also an amulet with a small black orb, which was also cracked. I grabbed the rod with a glove. The entire area was clear of fire elementals and other magic; it was very dark. We took out our lanterns. The cloud of poisonous fog at the entrance was dissipating. I attempted to identify the wand while we waited, but failed.

Once we were out on top, we could tell that all the fire elementals were on the island, and beginning to light things on fire. It looked like we'd need to let things burn out before we could leave.

We inspected the mage's belongings. The amulet was no longer magical, but did have some gold and other precious items. There was a magical crystal ball, 3 rubies of decent size and magical, a small lantern about the size of a small breadbox also magical, and 2 potions which were also magical, in addition to the wand. His robes were somewhat magical, threaded with a form of sunforged metal. Shatain found a coin purse with 30 platinum, 90 gold, and a signet ring. She split it with us... by giving Brennen & I 5 platinum and 20 gold each. We estimated there was about 1.5 lbs. of gold in it.

The crystal ball was a standard crystal ball. I couldn't get anything off of the rubies. The lantern revealed invisible creatures as its light passed over them. One of the potions would protect the user from scrying. The other one was beyond my knowledge; it was black, oily, and sealed in a very difficult manner.

It would have to wait a day. I still needed to identify the wand, the 2nd potion, the rubies, and the mace.