You hit the ground hard. As the dust settles, you hear the groans of your companions. They're bruised, but otherwise unharmed. The griffon had taken flight but the rest of you had been sucked into where ever this place is. 

"Where are we?" Talik says, trying to orient herself. The room is filled with piles of sand, broken pillars, and moth-eaten tapestries. Alster observes, "This looks just like Zouken Monastery, maybe its connected somehow?"

You hear a long hiss. Sand skitters down the walls, lava is oozing through cracks in the stone. Haden is first to respond, "Our fall must have unsettled something. The whole place is collapsing! Look for a way out!"

"No time to waste," Drue says. He points ahead to a light further down the lava tube you had fallen into. You all scurry forward to the area and as you approach you see a carved stairway, a platform and a pedestal, where a memory shard glimmers. Talik says, "Gredevvon seems to have helped us find what we are looking for, I just bet that is the hidden crystal that Ky left for us" You ask, "Who was Gredevvon? They didn't mention her in any books I've read." 

Drue is concerned about the heaving ground and fires starting from oozing lava. "Maybe save the history lesson for latter, grab it and let's go, else we be buried here too!"

Maeka seizes the shard and you bolt through the collapsing lava tube. As you run down the round tunnel you see a crack in the roof and a large part of the ceiling is about it cave in, you cast a pillar to secure the way, "Well done mage," says Maeka who had actually instructed you how to create a pillar from sand several years ago, who knew it would one day save your instructor and friends. You move forward and come to a divide in the tube, with a turn left or right, with fire cast in her hand Talik peers into the two caverns. You make a split-second decision go a little further then reach another fork. Lava spills into the hallways, forcing you to course-correct.

"This is a maze," Alster says. "We'll never find our way out!"

"Quiet." Maeka touches her hand to the wall. She concentrates, and you get the feeling she's listening past the sound of the sands, past even your ragged breathing, to the earth itself. She is an accomplished earth mage and reading the ground around her was a task that seem made seem easy but you know as someone who has tried many times and failed that it was not so simple. 

"I sense a river," she says. "I think … I can lead us around the lava. Come on!"

You run after her. Each turn she takes circumvents the flooding lava and rocks collapsing under the wait of sinking sand, and soon you hear the gush of water.

"Quickly!" Maeka dives into the river. Sand pours from the ceiling. You have no choice but to hold your breath and jump! The river carries you towards the ocean and dries up as it flows through an old ruin. Lava pours in from the sides of the ruins and you are able to get to your feet and wander out of the ruins towards a beach. "I am guessing Ky didn't want anyone taking that crystal unless they really wanted it," Alster said as he struggled wet and exhausted. 

"Well, we really wanted it." Said Drue who was thinking he was lucky to be alive. 

Volcano Word Search- Use this link to go to a word search on volcanos and complete it. Send me a screen shot of the final completed word search and upload it in Thy Quests below.  

Next: E4Q2 All Washed Up