Ekujae Territory, Mwangi Exapnse; Lamashan 28, 4719 AR

The rain never ended. Viggo grumbled about the rainwater interfering with his explosives while downing another of his antiplagues along with his magically conjured breakfast. Inagra continually swept mud from her white robes with a whispered prestidigitation spell. Even the already taciturn Wrin seemed more moody.

"It's been almost a month," Uhn's mouth was filled with magical gruel as he wiped yet more rain from his brow. "One more pillar to...," he searched for the word, "Exacerbate."

Wrin snatched up his cloak, his hood obscuring his half-orc features. "Close enough. Come on, we're wasting daylight."

"I'm surprised you can even see the sun in this damn jungle," Viggo muttered under his breath.

Their journey through the jungle continued in agony. Insects, rain, and boots slowly filling with mud and blood. Finally they arrived at the ruins of an old temple. Along the facade were carved images of dragons striking down humans and seemed to have stood for several centuries. Steps echoed on the ancient pathway. As they approached, a warm red glow could be seen within; the final pillar. The sound of coils scraping on stone caught their attention, and the Guardians turned to find a massive snake-like dragon appraising them. It stared coolly while the warriors drew forth their weapons.

More heads than a hydra, more tales than a storybook. What am I?

The silence of the temple was broken only by the patter of rainfall around them. Uhn started quickly, his mouth opened wide to open. "Uhn, wait-!" Inagra shouted, but she was too late.

"It's... a bag of coins. Right?" the goblin wore a big smile on his face.

"Well done," the bida hissed, seeming almost pleased to have his riddle solved. "The next will not be so simple..."

A man places a coin into a bottle and places a cork into the neck. Without breaking the bottle or pulling out the cork, how do you retrieve the coin?

The silence stretched on longer this time. Viggo whispered to Inagra, "What if we break the bottle?" The dwarf glared back at him before rolling her eyes.

"Words are always important in riddles," said Wrin. His next words came slowly. "We can't... pull out the cork. But what if we push the cork in?"

The eyes of the creature showed shock for a moment before he collected himself. "Correct. One more riddle and then you may pass free. However, I have begun to grow quite hungry. You will find this riddle to be... much more difficult."

There is a small inn where a man and his unscrupulous son work. One day, three Caydenites chance upon it in hopes of staying the night. The son, greedy pig that he is, tells them that it costs 30 silver for the night. The Caydenites each pay 10 silver and go to their rooms. Unfortunately, the son was lying, and the price was merely 25 silver. When the father finds out, he scolds his son and sends him to the Caydenites with 5 silver to return to them. However, the son, being the crook he is, takes two of the silver pieces and returns 1 silver to each of the men. This means that each man paid only 9 silver pieces. Three men paid 9 silver, totalling 27 silver, and the son took 2, equalling only 29 silver all told. Where did the last silver go?

Uhn sat down and began drawing diagrams on the stone. Wrin closed his eyes and tried to shut everyone out. "This isn't right," Inagra muttered. "Something is wrong here." Viggo shifted a handful of bombs out from his bandolier.

After nearly 15 minutes passed, the bida grew impatient. "You don't have an answer, mortals." His face edged closer to the gathered party, teeth on prominent display.

"We do, we... uh, we do!" Uhn stood up and displayed a strange number of carved markings on the ground. "Your math is all wrong! You see...," he searched for the right word again, "-perspicacity would say-"

"There is no 'last silver'!" Inagra shouted suddenly. "You told the riddle in such a way just to confuse us! There's no last silver because it was all handed out evenly, even if the son stole two silver! You didn't tell a riddle at all, but tried to peddle a lie as one!"

The bida's eyes narrowed. "Correct. You may... pass." The massive dragon shifted his bulk aside and let the Guardians pass into the temple beyond. "But take care," he cautioned, "for within are my personal treasures. Take even a single coin and I shall consider our agreement null and void." There was a note in his voice that seemed to hint that he hope someone would be so daring.

Within the temple, the red glow grew more intense around each corner and Wrin readied the words to cancel the pillar's magic. Coins lay carefully gathered into neat piles and magic treasure poked out behind crumbling stonework. Viggo couldn't help but stare and mentally count up the value in his head. "Not. A. Single. Coin," Inagra intoned, eyes held fixed ahead. When they sighted the pillar, Wrin finished his incantation before the magic could charge, cutting off the Cinderclaws from its power. The barrier was doubtlessly shattered now.

As they prepared to leave, Inagra guided Viggo over to Uhn. "Alright, Uhn," she said exasperated. "Check his pockets."

With the pillars finally destroyed, the Guardians returned to the mud lake where the Cinderclaws were presumably lairing. Inagra reminded them of the beast she had spotted a week prior, some sort of massive dinosaur with razor sharp teeth that swam in and out of the mud. Everyone readied their weapons, knowing that while the Cinderclaws were alert, they weren't nearly ready for what was to come. After some coaxing, Renali created the image of an elephant resting near the side of the lake. As the Guardians predicted, the dinosaur guard took the bait immediately, charging through the mud for an easy meal. That's when the party struck.

Uhn called upon his inner rage (and some sort of strange power flowing from his golden scale) and grew to the size of a giant, lashing out at the beast with Choppy. A wall of flame, conjured by Wrin, cut off line of sight and exposed the beast to the fires. Viggo's explosions shook the dinosaur as it reeled on the muddy shores.

A chorus of croaking voices could be faintly heard over the din of battle. "What the hell is goin' on over there?!" shouted the boggard guards in Mwangi. Their mud skimmers began noisily sloshing through the mud.

"Inagra!" Wrin called out, having understood the cultists thanks to his magical torque. "I need you over here!" He called up another wall of fire to protect them, but it was nearly too late: the boggards were upon them. The dwarf broke away from the battle with the dinosaur just in time to dodge several darts of acid that zoomed past her head. She retaliated with negative energy sent straight into the chest of one, nearly caving in the boggard's chest.

Meanwhile, Uhn managed to hack clean the dinosaur's head and turned to regard the newcomers with a rage-fueled laugh. One of the swampseers had enough time to conjure a thick mist before the goblin charge in, Choppy held high. Wrin followed suit, his claws out and scales growing over his flesh. Viggo and Inagra watched as shadows darted around within the growing fog bank. In moments, a severed boggard head rolled out to their feet, claw marks covering its face. They turned their gazes skyward to see the massive form of Uhn bring Choppy down onto the fleeing form of one of the cultists.

As Wrin emerged from the obscuring mist, he wiped he gore-stained hands absently on his ragged cloak. "The other guards are missing. I think we might have announced our arrival quite loudly." The sound of alarms rang out across the lake.

"We pull back. Set up an ambush," Viggo instructed. He laid out plans quickly and the group darted once more into the jungle and took up positions.

Sure enough, after an hour of waiting, a patrol of cultists wandered close enough for the Guardians to swarm out. Viggo's explosives sent the boggards tumbling to the ground while Inagra cast their priest captain down with her righteous might. With Wrin and Uhn wading into the melee, the Cinderclaws stood no chance.

"Now's our chance." Inagra pushed through the jungle once more, eyes locked on the now exposed fortress in the center of the mud lake. It had massive rising walls of thick, red clay and a set of palisade doors that stretched up more than 15 feet tall. The group boarded a small mud skiff and poled themselves to the entrance, weapons held ready. As Uhn pulled the gate open, the Guardians weren't ready for what they saw within.

Once more outside the fortress, the Guardians tended to wounds and checked their equipment. Inagra remembered what Renali had told them, "A spider does not kill with one bite, but rather the cumulation of strikes over time." It was time to bite again. When everyone was rested and ready to assault the fortress again, they plied across the mud to the gate once more. As Uhn pulled it open, they saw a squadron of guards waiting for them, weapons raised. Angry charau-ka barbarians launched themselves at the party, shrieking and stabbing with deadly tridents. Boggards wove spells to cast down the interlopers while draconic horrors waded into battle, belching flame and rending flesh with razor-sharp claws.

The Guardians were pushed back nearly immediately under the onslaught. Eight of the Cinderclaws finest warriors were ready to lay down their lives in their zealous devotion to their cult. Inagra acted quickly and broke their ranks with a successful fear spell. Wrin was quick to follow up with one of his signature fireball spells. Uhn held the line against the manic monkeys, but he was starting to buckle under their fervor. When the draconic champions issued streams of flames from their mouths, the Guardians scattered for cover in the mud, trying to stay far away from the warriors. Yet they would not be stopped. Despite Uhn's best efforts, one of the creatures slipped away from his reach and chased after Wrin, who was still smoking from the previous assault. Thankfully, the champion was not out of tricks, magically hurling himself out of the mud and giving blessings to Sarenrae as he bounded around.

Inagra and Viggo combined their efforts and picked off the straggling spellcasters while Uhn wrestled with the remaining charau-ka. The dark aura that pulsated within Choppy seemed to lend him strength even past the point of most mortal creatures. He became a dervish of battle, halberd slicing in and out, leaving crimson trails wherever it went. After what felt like hours, the creatures fell around them, blood and mud caking the entry hall.

Wrin stared into the fortress and tried to muster up a spark of power. "We can't keep going like this."

"How many more do you think are in there?" Viggo asked as he stripped the cultists of their valuables.

"A lot more, I hope." Uhn smiled and tried not to droop from all of the blood loss.

"We're retreating." Inagra was firm. "Wrin's right, we can't keep going. Let's make camp and handle this later."

As was becoming a familiar trip for them, the party left through the mud lake once more, this time without a skiff to take them across. On the other side, the group set up camp while Viggo worked on fashioning another. Guard duty was assigned and Uhn dragged himself under a tree to get some rest, his muscles still taut and rigid with exertion. Wrin clutched the holy symbol beneath his cloak and stared through the trees to the red walls of the compound.

"Parley."

Everyone started at once, hands going to weapons and cantrips coming to lips.

"Parley," came the voice again. Inagra spied up in the tree branches a small bird that appeared to be the source. The bird flitted down to stand before the dwarf. "I wish to parley with you... interlopers," it spoke, though it's voice was rough and cruel.

"Then speak." Inagra seemed to have no desire to have this conversation, but she wasn't about to let the opportunity to learn more about their foe slip past her. The bird flitted up to Inagra's shoulder and she felt a connection for between her and some distant entity.

"So after spending the last month disrupting my magicks, you colonizers come to our home to sow yet more destruction. I would almost respect that were it not directed at me and my men."

"What do you have to say? Make it quick." Inagra furrowed her brow, working hard to maintain the magical connection.

"I am Belmazog, ruler of the Cinderclaw. I know not what you want here, but my people will not make it easy for you to get. But I am having a problem and cannot sort things out peaceably so long as this hangs over my head. If you take care of this problem, then we can talk in person."

Inagra's mind worked fast, making sure she wasn't about to agree to anything that would put them in danger.

"There is a dragon here who has turned against me. Tomorrow I shall release it into the jungles, for it has grown too unruly. If you deal with this... problem for me, then I will be much more inclined towards an open negotiation of terms."

The dwarf rolled the words over in her mind, checking for any hint of a trap. "We accept. We shall slay your dragon and then will be ready to accept your words." The connection cut.

The Guardians slept fitfully that night, still keeping a guard in case this was all a ruse to get them to lower their defenses. There was no need, however. The midnight assassins never came. Instead they had a brief breakfast, strapped on their gear, and waited for the dragon to be let loose. Time passed. Noon came and went and still the minutes ticked by. Inagra stared hard at the clay fort, hoping to crush it with her frustration alone.

Suddenly, the ground began to buckle and shake. They watched as rents began to form across the mud lake with lava bubbling to the surface. "We've been tricked!" shouted Wrin, dashing towards the shoreline. "Everyone to the raft! They're going to seal us outside!"

The earthquakes continued with the backdrop of rain sizzling against the boiling lava while Viggo steered the raft shakily through the ever-shifting lake. As they reached the still open gates, everyone leapt to the clay floor just in time to watch their boat, their only passage back to camp, be consumed by the lava. They stared across the former lake, now a sea of flame. The Guardians were trapped in the Cinderclaw fortress.

Finally, the confrontation with Belmazog, leader of the Cinderclaws. Will the Guardians of Golarion get answers or will they meet their end? What cataclysmic event was triggered and what does that mean for the heroes? Stay tuned... for the conclusion of Cult of Cinders!

-Dungeon Master