A Sooty Situation

     There had already been some traveling just to reach this point, a camp deeper in the caverns that was set up for those doing spelunking and exploring to rest before pushing on further. Luckily, as a general rule, this cave was considered 'safe', with relatively few monster spawns, a remnant of an old climbing and jumping puzzle that has fallen into disrepair following the apocalypse. Some more brave adventurers had delved in, making it a relatively safe, if exhausting journey to get to this point.

     Rumors that there were some green(non-aggressive) monsters deeper into the cave have drawn people into this cave often, though many of them have turned away without much luck in actually finding them, either because they're an incredibly rare spawn, or people perhaps just didn't meet requirements to do it. Or simply it was the fact said green monsters lived in a particularly hostile environment. Nobody has fully explored the deeper parts of the cave, as between extreme heat and lava, it's generally difficult to push in past a certain point due to slow health point drain from the sheer heat.

     Luckily, having knowledge of this fact means that the party can have prepared with elemental resist potions or preparing gear with heat resistance to mitigate it. Lava itself is a bit harder to resist, but there are ways around that as well. With preparations hopefully in place, all there was to do was to enter the deeper tunnel which occasionally blasted hot air out of it along with a strong scent of sulfur.

    Lunaris was certainly glad for her months away focusing on various kinds of training, as the trek down through the caverns was not the easiest, the terrain rough and rather uneven at best, and the same with a small fight at the worst. Plus she had her little fox companion to think of, and his poor paws as he padded alongside her with a spirited step. The Cait Sith wasn't exactly unused to adventuring, but not a professional either, in fact delving into this alone would probably be a terrible idea! Thankfully that wasn't the case, and she at least was prepared as she could manage to be.

    The camp, however, is still a very welcome site, a place she can just slump against one of the unwelcoming grey walls of the cavern for just a moment or three, taking a deep pull of her waterskin before letting it rest back against her side. "I swear, the guild would laugh at me if they knew I was diving all the way down here for a lil' soot. Can just imagine the look on their faces.." She let out a mumble, sorting through her gear and retrieving various potions to help her bear the heat and perhaps even the toxins that could linger in such a cave. "But I'm going to have the last laugh! Because Sir-Soot's going to melt everyone's heart. They can totally ride Pecan into battle, can't they?" That got a grin as she fussed the fox, it sounded like a very good plan to her, as she settled, waiting for her traveling companion to hopefully show up, though prepared enough for if she needed to move quick. It was always hard to tell what'd happen in places so unexplored, after all.

    Lauren has the suspiciously clean look of someone who did something filthy to get here and it's all a lie, or else she cleans up great in caverns. The imp is in her native element, small an dark and unseen in th light. "Is that what we're doing down here?" She asks of Lunaris by way of mostly vocaliing and gesturing.

     Rough, uneven, and while not necessarily challenging, definitely took a fair bit of endurance just to get there. If the player avatars sweat often, it would probably have been a sweaty journey. One luckily easily fixed with a use of the cleaning command, but still unpleasant nonetheless, especially as heat and humidity rose as they got deeper into the caves.
     Having a larger group would probably have made this a much more arduous journey, so it was probably for the best that it was Lauren, Lunaris, and possibly a guide that had already turned back and gone 'nope not going into the fiery cave of fiery death, this is where you go on your own'.
     The camp itself was very sparse. With a few barrels of occasionally refreshed water for the cave delvers before the turn and head back to the surface, or deeper into the next sections of the cave. There are some probably-clean-or-at-least-not-absolutely-filthy goblets next to the barrels, and some small tents with simple padding made of feathers for if someone needed to take a nap before going on.

     Regardless, all of the signs of soot sprites in the world had directed Lunaris to this cave, with Lauren as her strangely-clean partner. (Seriously does she just use the cleaning command religiously every time it comes off cooldown? How does someone stay that /clean/?)

     So really, all there was left to do was to enter the mouth of the lightly glowing caverns to the east once they'd caught their breath. Peeking down the mouth of the cave mostly showed it to be a fairly unremarkable, if hot, entrance. At least so far. Don't mind the slightly red, possibly-ominous glow.

    Lunaris was not regretting her choice of hunting grounds at all. Not in the slightest. She could have gone after a bun-bun in the green plains way above, but noooo, she had to dive down an awful cave and sweat a river. Thankfully one that cleaned easy, but the telltale signs of adventure adorned her like a particularly sticky aura, her clothes slightly worse for wear and covered in dirt. Probably dirt. She wasn't a cave-ologist. This did provide a nice contrast to the seemingly immaculate imp that appeared next to her and made the vulpine cait-sith almost jump out of her skin at the voice to what had been a partially internal monologue.

    Breath in. A drink to clear her throat, before shooting a smile over to Lauren and dipping her ears just a touch. "Yes, that's my main aim down here. Find the tiniest little critter called a Soot, which should be.. If I'm right, the weakest monster that exists. Catch it and take them home as a pet. Well, pet's a slightly wrong word for it. Monsters make bad pets, but near enough," She shrugged at that, perhaps she should feel bad about the whole mind control part, but they were very, very murdery were monsters. Recovered enough she stretched, grimacing at the heat before starting to stride forward and downing one of the potions, before offering a second to the Imp. "Will 'elp. With the heat. Ah, yeah. Main troubles gonna be the environment. How are you with heat and monsters?"

    Shock begets shock, as Lauren becomes equally as shocked by the response from Lunaris. "I'm a summoner and I can be a real bitch," Lauren reassures Lunaris, immediately resorting to a smile and a thumbs-up when confronted with the Cait-sith and her much greater sense of cool. "But heat does not bother me. Neither does dark." Lauren studies the passage ahead, and rubs her fingers together. And then, when offered the potion, she smiles with genuine gratitude before downing hers. "Maybe let us see if I can't send a shadow ahead?"

Lauren will motion, dragging her long fingers across the dark wall, raise them to her lips, and gently exhale. To send her shadow forward. Assuming this is a thing that occurs.

     Yeah, dirt. There weren't really many bats for it to be ... other ... things due to relative popularity of the first section of the area with spelunkers, miners, and explorers alike. Definitely just dirt. Maybe some mud and drips of water from stalagtites on the roof.
     Downing the potions will, at the very least, make the ambient temperature much more pleasant, at least for the first few sections of walking deeper into the cave. Sending the shadow ahead finds a fairly twisted cave, luckily with very few particularly precarious chasms or anything. There was, however, a sudden burst of steam at one point, which likely caused the shadow to reatreat, but at least let them be aware of the danger ahead.

    Lunaris let out a sigh as the burning warmth turned to something much more pleasant, that really did take the edge off at least. "We should try to keep this one as quick as we can, not too sure how long those potions will last down here, or really the maximum temperature they can deal with! I mean, the guy I bought them off sounded pretty convincing, but you never know with impulse buys," she tells the Imp, with a grin that says she's probably joking. Probably. She was a fox-type, after all! Stowing the empty bottle, before tracing her fingers along the cavern wall as she walked, following with each twist and turn into the depths of the earth.

    Lauren's response got a playful grin, a flick of her tail as she eyed over her companion, "That's a good choice, I'm a summoner too! Well, Medium to be exact, but close enough. And not affected by heat? Totally jealous." It felt like cheating here! Though she wasn't going to complain when Lauren sent ahead the scout and keeping her from dipping off the path and into a vent of steam. That was enough for her to reel back with an 'eep'. "Okay, steam vents. Noted. Good thinking there!" Eyes narrowing as she started to take things a bit slower, hoping to catch sight of her prey - and not have her eyebrows steamed off.

    "Darling, I just want you to know," Lauren begins in a tone as equally quiet as Lunaris' but as much a coping mechanism here as it is anywhere else. And right now, in the dark and the heat, things... are not so terribly bad for the imp. Facing little of the claustrophobia to hinder her, she adds quietly, "That you are doing a wonderful job," She tells Lunaris in the tone of a doting, if insincere, parental figure.
    "I have good control over fire, but... let us not rely on that."

     There was a bit of a popping sound leading up to the burst of steam that Lunaris manages to avoid, even if she generally recoils from it. Something that seemed a little out of place, and as they continued on, they'd hear it more often. A series of popping noises, likely the steam getting caught in twists and turns before they blew out a gout of extra hot air as the pair moved deeper.
     Generally relatively easy to avoid, thankfully, there was an issue they /were/ approaching though. Some less intermittent vents that were putting out a much more constant jet of steam that would need to be either covered or the two would need to protect themselves against to continue forward. Covering would probably be the most temporary option, but then again defending themselves with a shielding spell or something might not be that much better.

    Lunaris actually laughs at the comment, a soft chiming sound that bounces against the cavern, clearly not all that worried what might be out there to sneak up on her, or at least confident enough in her ability to flee should such an event occur. "Okay, okay, I'll actually try and focus on not ending up a meat-pop. But you better keep coming up with good ideas or maybe we'll get eaten! Ugh. What a way to go. Cave-snake. Or perhaps petrified. Do you think Medusa lives near lava? I mean Dragons do," she really was endlessly chatty, even at when allegedly focusing on the task at hand, trying to pick up a soot track leading deeper to the soot-den where soot's frollic around. Or murder things. She didn't really know herself.

    "You know, I honestly didn't think I could even pay anyone to come down this far with me, to try and catch such a silly little creature. So, do you want to know why I'm doing it? Other than them being utterly adorable?" She asked back, fiddling with an odd card holder on her belt as the threat of constant steam vents loomed closer. After a moment she pulled a card from her pouch, the back embossed with a beautiful quill iconography, flipped it once and grinned. "See? My turn!" From the card blossomed a little ember of fire, a small spirit that dropped to the floor, letting the steam bend around it, rather than strike the adventurers unsuspectingly.

    "No, the thing the about Medusa is that she always struck me as like, an actual bitch?" It's said apologetically, but there it is. Lauren's real opinion. The imp's shimmering eyes are unapologetic in the dim light. "Like take Circe. Now this woman, she's a demigodess, gets stuck on an island, turns men into pigs, and she calls it a day after feeding her goats. But Medusa's just with her sisters, in a cave? That's how you know they screwed up. Even Cinderella knew to divide and conquer. And OH MY GOSH!" If possible, the fear is gone from Lauren's gaze and replaced with delight... Even as she picks up her pace and runs alongside Lunaris.
    "That was so adorable!" She tells Lunaris

     The fiery elemental bends steam around it, directing it out of the way and creating a pocket of relative safety to allow the two to pass as they continue to chat, and in the distance the occasional sound of thick bubbling and hisses can be heard, the telltale sound of nearby lava, in addition to the increased scent of sulfur as they get in deeper. The bottom of the path is also seeming to gather steamy hot water in small pools, not hot enough to cause harm, but definitely a sign of the sheer humidity of the depths, and the heat that the potions was keeping at bay for the moment.

     The path continues like this for a few hundred heat, the temperature gradually rising as they continue deeper and deeper, those potions probably the only thing keeping them even remotely comfortable as they come upon the source of the bubbling and hissing sound, a rather large collection of molten rock that was about 50 feet below a natural land bridge that glowed a soft orange from the heat of being above the magma, though at least LOOKED reasonably stable. On a lower shelf below, there was a possibly strange sight: A group of ants covered in some sort of deep green... something... carrying what looks to be some sort of fiery gemstone? They don't seem to make any particular note of the pair, nor even seem interested in them as they start carrying said oval-shaped gemstone off into a side path.
     Now it was just a matter of crossing the searing-hot rock over a lake of magma. If not for the danger, the area would actually be rather beautiful, as the lava seems to be causing the rock itself to discolor in a particularly colorful pattern. A sign off to the side indicates the fact that this is the last relatively safe spot in the cave, and any further is largely unexplored due to the danger of the heat.

    The little fire sprite marched on with an utter sense of purpose, waving their tiny, stubby arms around like a choirmaster bringing unruly notes of steam into tune to form a great halo of burny-ness above their head. All the while Luna's pet fox Pecan was unwisely trying to investigate the little flame creature and almost getting themselves singed, if not for the attentions of his owner. Of course, never quite put off his task, as Foxes nary listen to the wise ideas of others. Luna just giggled at Lauren's rant on Medusa, it was pretty accurate after all, from what the Cait Sith remembered of the old legends, even if they were rather a rough memory at this point. "You're not wrong. If I were able to turn people to stone, I wouldn't be living in some cave! I mean, come on, my sculptures wouldn't even stand out there, you totally need a garden," she agreed with a playful flicker of a grin, safely assuming the little sprite could handle themselves, "Though, not going to lie, she was a total bitch, so maybe best not to be her. I suppose. Enough goes on in this place without adventurer-statues."

    The delight she spots in Lauren's eyes though, that shifts the foxes attitude, calming into something just a bit softer, and she gives a small nod at the compliment, "He really is! You know I could teach you some bits when we're out, if you can control fire, summoning a sprite like this shouldn't be too hard. And I have a little one of each element. Uhm, each common element anyway!" Though her eyes soon pull to the ants below, and her eye twitches ever so slightly, and strangely enough not at the magma. "Ants.. This feels familiar.." Muttering under her breath, then letting out a sigh as whatever familiarity she saw fades. Right, back on task! "So, any ideas on how to get further? Yep, throwing you in the magma-deep-end!" Besides, she could admire just how pretty this cave was while giving Lauren a time to think, win-win!

    When presented with the opportunity to think... Lauren is a thinker, who will think.
    It is a curious and oddly assuming manner in which to wholly check out of the very dangerous present, work one's way back to first principles, and then... But something catches Lauren's eye, because even she's wet with sweat this point. "I actually-- yes, I think I do," she ventures, tapping her lip while squinting into some distant future. "It's so freaking humid down here. So much water already in the air. We're sweating because the water on our skin can't use energy to turn into air.
    "But if the stank is already there, and you, I, and the fine Mister Fiddler are going down to Georgiatown tonight, I can use magic to turn ambient vapor back into liquid, which would 1)," She raises a finger, "Not convection-oven ourselves to death, but 2) Turn the air above us, the hottest, back into condensed liquid, thus creating at least a breezy updraft for us?
    "Plus now that I've thought of a gradient differential, I hope those ants are friendly," she finishes

     Probably the easiest option might be to reinforce the stone bridge to make it take a little longer for it to burn one's feet. Or some sort of defensive spell to allow for a slightly safer/faster path across. The ants, meanwhile, are continuing on their merry way, confident in their recovery. Luckily, not dangerous for the adventurers at least? Not from down there. So far, that was one of the only signs of monsters so far, which was... pretty good. Also, it's generally not recommended to throw other adventurers into magma. It's a good way to make them visit the church, and nobody wants to go visit the church.

     The ants aren't friendly. They just didn't notice or at least didn't care about the adventurers. Probably. Honestly they were a bit far away to examine, but it's generally safe to assume 'giant insects aren't friendly' since almost every instance of them has been unfriendly so far.

     As for if the magic works... there's only one way to find out!

Lunaris wasn't exactly the most experienced adventurer herself, but she knew a good idea when she saw one, and something to get rid of this awful humidity sounded like a lovely idea! As well as the whole not getting roasted alive thing, so she gave the imp a polite, but almost excitable clap on the shoulder and a cheery hum. "Love it! Good thinking! I'm sure even the ants will love it. Much as monster seem to love things anyway. Why must monsters look so cuddle-able and yet not know love? It's truly a great cruelty of this place," she mused playfully, then reached down to scoop up Pecan before his antics sent the fox flailing off the edge. He might have better balance than her, but better safe than sorry and all that.

    It was about this point that the more responsible side of the Cait Sith started to kick in, sure she was going to have her fun and all, but seeing anyone dead now that she knew what that did to people.. Well, she wasn't about that. So for now her focus started to sharpen to something much more befitting the adventurer she was, and gathered herself to cross the chasm, keeping a strong eye on those ants. Sure, they weren't bothered currently, but who knew how they'd react to the casting. There was something at least unnerving about them, carrying that gem away. It was far too purposeful. Best she could hope for was not being considered a threat here, else they were going to have to run for it. And she hadn't even found Sir Soot yet.

Lauren does have one other, semi-mild thing going for her: wings. Flightless wings, and... darkness... The artificer elects instead to follow in the wake of the woman running in front of her, at least propelled now by a far arid, comfortable wind. "What on earth do you think the ants were taking down? Like, holes in the wall?" She asks as she takes astride, her tone almost casual. "Better ants than spiders, better ants than spiders..."

     Turned from humid air to slightly less hot humid air, it's a much less unpleasant run across that hot bridge that only does a moderate amount of damage to their shoe gear as they move across. The ants, meanwhile, have long gone, for the moment at least. Allowing for the pair to continue on to the next area which... is... darker at first glance.

     No ominous glow of the magma, except from behind, and as they continue, it's almost as if the stone was replaced with a darker colored and somewhat slick obsidian that forces the two to watch their step, lest the slide down into an unknown darkness on the slope below, one that no doubt would be like sliding down a cheese grater as the entire tunnel isn't smooth.

     After relatively slow, careful movement that feels like it takes ages, they find themselves in a much larger room of pure obsidian, with occasional scuffling audible as they move around it. At least. They think it's a smaller room. It's hard to tell from all the darkness of the tunnel scorched black by an eruption long past that must have traveled through this chamber before receeding down to the lake below. Feeling around is hazardous due to most of the walls being questionably sharp, but luckily torches, fire spells, and light spells exist which make it a much less unpleasant experience. Something is skittering towards a pathway to the back, though at first glance it's impossible to actually spot anything.

     Should the two choose to chase it they would find themselves heading downward on a curve that leads them to another bright area, and intense heat begins to build up once more as they continue down. Illuminated at the bottom of the tunnel that disappears into magma...

     Are the soot sprites that they'd been hunting.

    Not one to take chances with this, as soon as they were in the cave beyond, Lunaris placed a hand on her wall and focused as a spiraling sigil marked itself into the floor, a moment later rock shifts, covering the entrance and plunging both adventurers into the darkness of uninterrupted earth. Only then does she let out the breath she had been holding for far too long. "Uh. Dark," The Cait Sith manages to start before a small flame flickers to life in the palm of her hand, barely enough to see by to keep the heat bearable, "You.. Don't happen to know light magic, do you..? As for the ants, not a clue. Last ones I saw were corrupted. Wasn't a nice time, and believe be, I'd take a solo hunting spider over a pack of heartless carving machines any day. You can totally take the ants if we ever need to!"

    With that she started to look around the cave, the oppressive darkness of an obsidian chamber, inhospitable as a draw of knives and equally sharp. That was enough to get a wince as she wisely ran a hand along the cave edge, before darting her arm back. "Pretty though--" The thought was gone as she spotted the skittering, nodding her head towards the direction it went and starting to pace after it. She wasn't about to let an unknown thing go, but she'd equally rather try to remain somewhat unspotted in case it was a spider. Sure she had said they were better to meet.. But her preference was far more on the side of 'neither, please!'

Lauren seems to watch with something like alarm as the earth moves to close the door. Nevertheless, her own spell does not stop, and water accumulates on the floor. Weary from being spent over it, she rises to her feet again and places her fingertips to her lips. She closes her eyes. When she opens her eyes again, she makes another soft exhalation, this time blowing a simple overhead display that reflects in the water below like fairylights above.

     Water slowly trickles down into a pool in the obsidian room, slowly spreading down, the soft sizzle of water boiling away before it touches the magma, not quite cool enough for it to harden, but the top of the magma was a splotchy stone and lava mix, and the soot sprites seem to be dipping in and out of the edges of the lava, the mixture of water and magma creating a layer of soot at the very edge, which seems to be where the little creatures might spawn from. That and extremely rarely from people's fireplaces but that's not as reliable. Probably somewhere above there is some sort of underground lake of some sort, considering the sheer humidity.

For all the magic and potions that keep the temperature at least somewhat bearable, it was still eating away at the Cait Sith as she wiped her brow, trying to keep herself cool as she stalked along the caverns, as it finally opened back into light. Dismissing her little fire, first wincing as she noticed the path now flooded by lava. Then she actually noticed the crowding of soot sprites and her eyes widened with an pure and utter happiness. It wasn't a dead end, and there were actually sprites around here! She might have doubted for a while, but this, this made her heart skip. Plans and ideas. Even getting to see potentially how they spawned was a massive help. Scared to panic the little monsters she leaned over to Lauren and dropped her voice to a whisper, "There they are! Feel free to catch one if you like, they might not look like much.. Or honestly be much, but.. Well, they're adorable at least!" Okay, perhaps that was a hard sell.

    Reaching into her card pouch again, Lunaris pulls free a card, this one begins to shine as her hand reaches into it and pulling free a quill with dripping black ink, something about it just looks unnatural. Yet this doesn't seem to perturb the fox as she begins to scrawl a circle of symbols into the cave-dirt, some perhaps recognisable form earth mythos, though most were simply something else. As she finished she tapped the center of the drawing that had somehow managed to not only resist the heat, but actually appeared to stain the rocks, and with that tap an energy began to radiate, drawing towards the sprites. Certainly magic, and to anyone with the skills, undoubtedly the binding kind. "C'mon Sir Sooty, time to knight yoooou~"

Lauren made an effort to draw in the ground-- always a bad idea-- a simple circle. She never got to finish it. The monsters run amok. "Okay," She says, raising her hands. "For that, maybe later? Is there anything else we can do, other than get out of here?"

     Tap! The binding spell stains the obsidian, slowly spreading its inky black ink to capture one of the soot sprites, drawing it in to turn it into a bound creature instead of a wild monster. Victory! Sir Sooty has been captured!
     Lauren's own efforts are... a bit slower, the obsidian seeming to resist her magic for a few moments, but after a few times of attempting it eventually will succeed, finally allowing her to capture her own soot sprite.
     On the way out, a glimmer of ... something ... refracts in the light, and at the bottom of the small pool of water in the larger obsidian room are a couple of nice fragments of shiny obsidian, which unlike much of the others, have been worn smooth by years of slow water trickling by.

    Lunaris, without a question, absolutely squeed as the binding finally took, and she barely managed to restrain herself from hugging and crushing her new best friend (tm). "Sir Sooty! Welcome to the crew!" Yep, caution was no longer a concern, apparently, after all the rest could flee if they really wanted to. "Oh! I prepared for this.." Pulling her small backpack around to her front she started to rummage through it with a cheery grin, only to pull out a thimble, the sewing kind. With a delicate hand she leaned forward to place it on Sir Soot's head like a knightly helmet for the likely very confused monster. But clearly, this was of definite importance.

    Victory taken and need for adorableness out of her system, the Cait Sith finally spotted the pretty looking shard of obsidian, and no longer quite on guard she didn't think twice before dipping down and picking up the lavaglass, intending to show it to her companion. After all, every adventure to the perilous depths needed some trinket or another as a reminder!