Temple of Fire -Kalvar (3/1/4): Fireshield Earrings (-35r) +5 rupees -Garvan (5/2/2): Weaponsmithing lvl 2 (-20r) + lvl 3 (-30r) -10 rupees. Dungeon Music The view was rather impressive, if yet frightening at the same time. The large volcano island lay before him, the Isle of Ember. Kalvar could almost feel the heat already. Though the boat he was on was still a distance away, just the sight of the volcano was enough to make him wonder in awe. Kalvar never thought he would be this close to a volcano, let alone be dead set on going inside one. The thought scared him rather terribly. After the boat had dropped him off at the dock, he turned around and waved to the captain of the ship as he started to move away. The man had been kind enough to give him rides to various islands around this area, and Kalvar was determined to pay him something after this dungeon run. The Temple of Fire had long been abandoned, and monsters had slowly invaded it. Kalvar had heard that there was a source of great power hidden within the dungeon, and he intended to find it. Suddenly, Kalvar could feel the earth starting to quake beneath his feet. It lasted for a few seconds, before immediately settling back down. That wasn't a good sign at all. If the volcano erupted, then he would be totally vulnerable out here in the open. He needed some form of shelter, but the only building in sight was the entrance to the temple, far up the volcano's side. Sighing, Kalvar started his trek upwards.
Fire and earth falling from the heavens. Oh, hold him back. Garvan felt almost as if he were back home at Death Mountain! He had always wanted to go back, but this was perhaps the closest he would get for quite some time. Still... it smelled of burning and ash. Wonderful. He had been traveling the lands in search of good places to peddle his wares, but he thought this was a good place for a detour. If nothing else maybe he could use the infamous Isle of Fire to scout out some potential ore veins. If there were indeed any here, he doubted they would have been claimed yet. It would take a hardy soul indeed to weather this heat and possibly terrible, gut-wrenching monsters. To Garvan, though, that was mostly a bonus. It was the environment he was raised in, and he got to do the things he cherished most in this world: hone his craft and kill monsters. He took a moment near the entrance, to find a few rocks to munch on. He leaned contentedly to the side as he did so until he caught sight of another traveler coming up the path. "Hoy!" he called out to the adventurer. "What brings you here, then?"
Kalvar was slightly shocked to see a goron at the entrance to the temple. There seemed to be no point to coming to this island except for the temple. He knew that Death Mountain, their homeland, was a volcano itself. Perhaps the gorons were just attracted to lava? Maybe volcano rocks tasted the best? He hadn't the slightest idea, but was determined to find out soon enough. "Hello there, Goron!" Kalvar walked up right next to the rock man, and smiled. "It's nice to see a friendly face on an island such as this." The goron did look friendly enough, at least to Kalvar anyways. He hadn't met many gorons, but the ones he has met were all surprisingly nice. "I suppose you could say I came looking for adventure. Rumors of a strange power within the temple have reached my ears, and I've come to see them true or not. Plus, any spare treasure along the way would also make the trip worthwhile, I'd say." Again, the ground started to shake and a loud rumbling started to come from the volcano itself. Large rocks started to shift, and start rolling down the mountain. With a loud crash, a large semi molten boulder landed not 20 feet from them. Large stone fractures exploded outwards in all directions. Kalvar quickly shielded his eyes as several small bits of rock struck him. "That doesn't seem safe." He said immensely concerned for his safety. Looking over at the goron, Kalvar asked "Suggestions?"
Garvan frowned as the mountain made its displeasure known and shards of rock showered down on them. This one had a bit of a temper, didn't it? Death Mountain used to have days like this, he remembered. Come to think of it, it seemed like it did so at roughly the same spot: right before the entrance to a sanctuary. "Well, unless you think you can sprint back to the docks, I'd say our best bet is going further into the mountain..." He gestured to the temple's entrance, then paused to look at the adventurer. He seemed well-equipped for general questing and the like, but... he didn't see anything readily identifiable as a Goron Tunic or other such thing. Well, no harm in asking... "Not to offend, but do you think you'll be okay in there? It's a bit hot for the taste of most Hylians."
Kalvar frowned, of course it was going to be hot inside a volcano. And of course Kalvar didn't have anything to protect from the heat. Kalvar quickly glanced down at his feet, which were sure to be burnt if he stepped on something to hot. Kalvar could put his boots on to protect his feet, but that was all he had. If he got too close to any lava or anything else remotely that temperature, he would fry. "I think it's preferable than to being crushed by a giant rock." Walking inside, Kalvar entered into a long rectangular room, with fire seemingly spilling from the walls onto the floor. All the walls were carved into the exact same pattern. A strange inverted drop, with spikes and circles. It certainly looked rather cool. Extra carefully, He avoided each large patch of fire, and walked down the hallway. The fire was intensely hot, and he could almost feel his flesh starting to cook right on his body. "Why did I think this was a good idea?" He quietly mumbled to himself, "It's like an oven in here." It took a long time for him to reach the other side, mostly because he was shielding his face from all the fire. Why didn't he go explore a water temple? At least those weren't gonna burn him to death. At the other end of the hallway, it opened up into a large square room, with a large slab that apparently was a door on the other edge. However, Kalvar couldn't enter too far into the room to see anything else, due to a rather large problem. In the absolute middle of the room, a large line of fire seemingly floating, rotated around the center of the room. Which meant that as soon as you entered the room, you couldn't stop moving, or you risk being horribly burnt. "Absolutely great." This time, Kalvar didn't even pretend to be mumble to himself this time.
"Hrrm." Garvan examined the room a bit. Aside from the wheel of fire, there were no immediately apparent traps in the room, assuming such a thing existed. As he had feared, his Hylian companion was having a bit of trouble weathering the volcanic heat. A rumble inside the temple let him know that, if anything, the outside had only grown more volatile in the time they had entered the chamber. "Here," he offered, taking the first step into the room. "I'll walk on the inside. I'm practically a rock, after all. If something goes south I think I can take it better than you can." Naturally, if they could avoid it altogether, that would be ideal... but that was something he couldn't really control. One way or another, though, they had to cross. He slowly began to follow the fiery line's course, controlling his pace to keep it largely at the same distance from him at all times.
Walking around in circles was almost like a nightmare. The goron stood closer to the flames to block some of the heat, but it still got to him. Kalvar could almost feel the flames starting to cook him alive. Kalvar's fear's were slightly unjustified, however. The flames were not so hot as to not withstand from a normal hylian. They were more akin to a really warm campfire. Recently however, he had an encounter with a one eyed monster with an affinity for burning things. To suffice, Kalvar did not come out of that encounter unscathed, both mentally, and physically. On either side of the room was hallways, leading to other sections of the temple. However, the spinning fire didn't seem to reach into the hallways. The first chance Kalvar got, he stepped into a hallway. However, the sight of the next room was enough to make Kalvar sigh audibly. The next room had some pillars, that could easily be jumped to. The problem however, was that the pillars were surrounded by boiling hot magma. Slumping against the wall, Kalvar slowly sat down on the ground. Obviously stumped. "Stupid fire, and stupid magma." He mumbled to himself quietly. However, a few seconds later, Kalvar noticed he was sitting next to a corpse of some sort. Standing back up, he realized it was obviously a skeleton. Kalvar didn't see anything obvious telling who, or what the skeleton was, but it appeared to be holding something in it's hand. Gently trying to remove what looked like a tiny chest from the skeletons hand, the bones in the hand collapsed and fell to the floor. Kalvar quickly jumped back in surprise, but then leaned back up against the wall again. The small chest appeared to be rather simply decorated, with metal casing. Carefully, he opened the box, and inside contained something Kalvar didn't quite expect. He had expected to see rupees, or a note or something. But instead, inside were these earrings. Shaped like a little ball of fire, they seemed strangely out of place. Why earrings? What purpose did they serve? Picking one up, Kalvar carefully examined one. They didn't seem to be magical in anyway, and if they were, Kalvar couldn't tell.
"Ah, wait a moment..." Garvan at first attempted to warn his smaller, less robust companion about sitting in the spot he did, but the latter found out about what the Goron was about to say soon enough on his own. At this, Garvan gave a rich laugh. "Ahh, friend. These places are dangerous, after all. Poor soul. I wonder what got you, poor fellow..." He sobered up a bit and turned to examine the room's obstacles again. "If we had a ramp of some kind, I could start rolling and use it to get over there..." He was a Goron, after all. Gorons were known for many things, but leaping prowess was not one of them. "You really have nothing to protect you from the heat?" He asked once more, just to confirm. But then his eyes caught the earrings the Hylian held. "...Hm? Hold on, let me see those..." He took one in his hand turned it round, turning a critical eye to it. He couldn't speak to its make, as he mostly dealt in more pragmatic crafts, and of those mostly weapons, but he knew this was not an ordinary material that comprised them. He knew that much as a smith. Something seemed oddly familiar about the texture, the essence of these earrings... What was it... A bolt of inspiration hit him then. "It's like... Dodongo hide! Quickly, friend, try them on."
Dodongo hide! Even Kalvar knew what that was! He had never got a hold of any. Too expensive, and he wasn't the type of person to steal it either. But these earrings! If they acted like Dodongo hide, then he never would have to get those Dodongo hide pants he always wanted to get. Kalvar was lucky he had his ears pierced a year ago when he was still living in the caves, or else he would have had to pierce his ears right here. Who knows what could have gone wrong? Especially since Kalvar didn't have the proper equipment, and he assumed the Goron didn't either. As quick as he could, Kalver put the Fireshield earrings into his ears, and immediately he could notice the difference. Everything seemed to cool down drastically. Kalvar sighed in relief. No longer would he ever have to suffer extremely hot temperatures. Or extremely hot temples for that matter. It wasn't long until the temple felt comfortable. Not too warm, and not too cold. Kalvar stood up and stretched his back. This felt so much better than before. "Thanks, umm, Garvan, right? These are amazing!" Looking over towards the pillars, Kalvar spoke. "It's probably best if I jump over there and find out what's over there. Not to offend, but I've never seen a Goron jump very far." Kalvar walked over to the edge, and carefully looked over the edge. The magma was boiling hot, and bubbled at the surface. Swallowing his fears, he took several steps back, and charged forwards, leaping at the last second. He landed safely in the middle of the next pillar. He kept running, and jumped to the next pillar. Landing with a thud, Kalvar looked back at Garvan. Waving to signal he was okay, he yelled to the Goron. "I'm gonna see what's down this hall! I'll be back!." With that said, he moved into hallway by the pillar he currently stood upon. The hallway lead to a rather empty room. In the square room, The floor was covered in lava, and the only place to stand was a large walkway in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, the walkway led to nowhere, and abruptly ended halfway into the room. Walking down it, Kalvar noticed something strange. Over on the wall, directly in front of him, there was a strange eye like thing. It stared endlessly, and looked very ominous. However, Kalvar knew exactly what it was. He had seen it in many other dungeons before this one. The eye was required to be struck with some form of projectile, and then it would act like a switch. Perhaps it would open a door somewhere else? No way to know except for to try it out. Pulling out his bow, he easily shot an arrow directly in the center of the eye. The eye glowed red, and the lids of said eye closed shut, snapping the arrow in half. When nothing obvious happened, Kalvar started heading back towards his Goron companion. In the main room with the spinning flames, a giant slab of stone sunk into the ground, revealing another passageway. However, as soon as the doorway opened, several fire keese flew out. They immediately headed for the closest target, which was Garvan.
Garvan scowled as the Fire Keese descended on him. He hated most monsters. He would wager he hated all monsters. But of them Keese were both horrible and annoying. Small, fast, and numerous. If it was possible for a small incarnation of evil to also be a right pest, these would be it. He swung once, twice, three times with his sword in wide arcs. But for his efforts he only felled one of the beasts, and two more hit him square in the chest. He grunted as they impacted, stinging as their fires went out, but thankfully doing little concrete damage against his stone skin. The Goron let the sword clatter to the ground and began swatting. As he did so, his hands glowed and were set aflame. A flurry of fiery swings filled the air. Two Keese dropped. Three. Garvan glowered up at the other Keese flying just out of his reach. "Come at me, beasts," he spat, his voice full of hatred.
Kalvar was originally just walking back to his friend, until he heard the goron shout in anger. He quickly picked up his pace, and ran back to the center room. Upon entering the room he had left Garvan in, he could see that he was being swarmed with fire keese. Cursing under his breath, Kalvar charged over to him, leaping over the pillars with no delay. His companions danger blinded him from his fear He unsheathed his sword as soon as he reached Garvan. The Goron had already taken care of a few of the beasts, but Kalvar could tell that he was having some trouble. The beasts always seemed to fly out of reach when Garvan's fists came near, and with his stone body, he wasn't the fastest swing. Almost immediately, the tough skinned goron was ignored in favor of the squishy hylian. Kalvar quickly swung his sword wildly as the remaining keese attacked. One of the keese rammed Kalvar in the back and a fire immediately sprung up on his back. Suddenly, his new earrings glowed brightly, and the fire slowly subsided on it's own. Kalvar groaned in pain as the keese impacted, but he quickly swung around and smacked the side of his sword into the keese.
Garvan was tiring quickly of this little game the Keese were playing with him. His hand went to the pouch at his side, and he dug into it. From it, he retrieved a ready-made bomb, the fuse already lit. He tried to to set up the best trajectory when the rabid little monsters abruptly shifted focus. His eyes followed them faster than his aim did. The cloud of leather-winged beasts had gone for the much less resilient target in this particular engagement: the Hylian who had just now leapt from one side of the room to the other in a manner too ostentatious to miss. The Goron growled with frustration and clumsily threw it upwards, just above the Keese swarm. "Kalvar, duck!" he called. Exploded heads did not a pretty picture make, and this scene was already shaping up to be an ugly one with the number of nasties around...
