When we last left our heroes they had just freed the Water Weird from her icy imprisonment. With two out of four Weirds down, Atu-Sinda, Paeael, Terra, and Sergei set out to free the Air Weird, who made her home on the wind-whipped peak of the mountain. It took the party quite a while to scale the mountain (1/2 movement for snow + 1/2 movement for the incline means that the party was moving at a rate of 10 feet per round).

The Air Weird’s pool was to be found on a plateau at the summit of the Mountain of Forbidden Knowledge, visible as a vortex of whirling winds and spiraling flakes of snow. As with the other pools, this nexus of elemental power had attracted the attentions of corrupted elementals, who emerged from the mountain itself as clouds of ink-black smoke adorned only with eyes that glowed red with hatred for all living things. While these creatures sucked the oxygen from the very air around them, and while their touch was sufficient to drain the breath from a man’s body, the Voidwraths proved to be no match for our heroes’ arsenal of martial strikes, “small” arms fire, and Paeael’s ability to attack targets with…wind. After the battle, Rhyken appeared out of nowhere, as heroes are wont to do.

The Air Weird turned out to be quite chipper, and was happy to share her prophecies with the party. She showed them the way down to restart the elevator (for a sacrifice of coin), and showed Paeael a vision of Rodion Labs where he might uncreate and recreate his physical form (for a sacrifice of some of Paeael’s motor skills). So the party slogged on back down the mountain to the power plant on the far side of the mount, where they fumbled and futzed around until they had filled a furnace full of burning coal and started up the power generators again. They also came across a Dwarven swimsuit calendar-an artifact of such fell power that to gaze upon it was sufficient to send one’s mind spinning into madness. But they managed to avoid that peril…for now. Wit the elevator and the lights and the lifts operational again, the heroes slogged back to the tunnel leading to the heart of the mountain, until finally they took the lift down to the chamber of the Fire Weird. There, deep below the surface of the Earth, the very air rippled and shimmered with the heat, and the rocks were cracked and sweating magma. However, for the convenience of tourists, the dwarves and gnomes had built an invisible platform of force around the rock walls of the chamber, and AS WE ALL KNOW, THERE IS NO HEAT CONVECTION IN THE D&D UNIVERSE, so as long as nobody touched the rocks directly there wasn’t a problem. The Fire Weird’s pool was a thing of snake-like flames writhing over a glowing caldera of molten metal. As the heroes approached, it belched forth a bevy of undead fire elementals-Cinderspawn. These Cinderspawn were beings covered in guttering blue flames, and though their touch burned with frost rather than with fire, they were no less dangerous for all that. They hungered after the very warmth and life of the party, but their portion was DEATH, with a little bit of ANNIHILATION for dessert.

The Fire Weird emerged after the last of the Cinderspawn were reduced to ashes, and she was able to give hope to the party by means of completing the prophecy. In total, it is:

The Blood of the Sun, the Tears of the Moon, and the Bones of the Earth Purified in the Six Essences Will Become a Weapon To Wound the Darkest Heart

She was also able to inform Rhyken as to where he might find powerful magics to aid him in his fight against the Mordent-in exchange for having three spells burned out of his spellbook. Paeael, too, wanted to know about Binder Lore, and he learned of an ancient convocation of Binders from the Fire Weird-in exchange for having a small fragment of his personality seared away.

And that was pretty much the size of it. Where the party goes next-back to Drogue, to Rodion Labs, or to a locus of ancient and eldritch power that would set arch-wizards, weak as they are these days, to gnashing their teeth and tearing their hair, I cannot say. Frankly, I’m hoping it’s to Rodion Labs, because that’s where I’ve been designing the encounters, but it ain’t up to me.

Oh yeah. And they got some more stupid action figures from Arronax.