If you can't stand the heat, get out of the furnace

The monk braced himself in front of the large stone chest and strained to lift the heavy lid. Painful twinges shot through his frame and he switched position. As he tried again, the lift rose a few inches but so did the floor, dropping the monk down a shaft that opened out into sunshine and a long fall to Escona far below. Luckily the rest of the party were holding tightly onto the rope attached to him and he quickly climbed back to safety.

Inside the chest was a censor and a box of incense, no doubt for magically summoning air elementals.

[[Pit trap - 400 xp for the monk, 200 xp for the rest]]

A faint rhythmic vibration could be felt through the ground as far away an alarm hammer went into action...

The adventurers moved on to the area under the entrance to the furnace room. Heat blasted down into the tunnel, evidence of hot environment the fire giants thrived in.

Adriana, invisible and flying, rose up into the room above. The hundred degree heat had no effect, being nullified by the dragon shaman's aura which stretched up high enough to provide protection.

The flying wizard was surprised, though, to realise that there were four armed and armoured fire giants clustered around the hole in wait. The creatures realised that something was amiss and blindly swung their greatswords through the air as a shape disturbed the already turbulent heat haze.

Retreating to the tunnel, Adriana recruited Parry to bring down icy destruction on their opponents. Although the heat was intense and turned the hail to steam, enough ice and cold got through to batter the giants. Strangely not a sound issued from the room as if all noise was magically suppressed.

Benedict, the half-dragon paladin magically grew in size and flew up the hole into the room above, carrying the monk and dragon shaman into the frontline. At the same time, Adriana carried Cherry aloft.

The giants jostled for position and quickly started hacking away at the little people in front of them.

Adriana began tying a rope to the top of the crane and dropped the free end to the party below. Unfortunately, within moments the rope started to smoulder and smoke due to the intense heat.

The paladin cut wickedly into the giants and soon one hit the ground but it was not enough and he soon joined his victim. Desperately other members of the party poured magical healing into him in an effort to keep him alive.

Banaar jumped down to safety and one of the fire giants followed him into the tunnel below to start hacking away at Princess who responded with seering light. The giant shrugged off psionic attacks from Squick and stunning attempts from the monk but eventually succumbed.

Back in the furnace room, the dragon shaman fell to the ground dead and the protective aura faded with her life energy. The full fury of the boiling air blasted the remaining combatant, Cherry, who Featherfalled to the cooler tunnel below. The paladin, left behind on the furnace room floor, could no longer hold out against the heat and died.

Adriana grabbed Parry and teleported far away to safety in Snowcastle, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves.

The monk had to be physically dragged away towards the shaft leading to the balloon, so intent was he on not being on the losing side. The remaining giants peered down from the furnace room as the remaining adventurers retreated.

[[Fire Giants combat - Paladin/Adriana/Monk/Dragon Shaman/Hobbit - 1,400 xp each; 1,000 xp each for the rest]]