>Move the stack of Marble Slabs toward the incomplete bridge with the Diamond Dog’s help
>–Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle enthusiastically jump under the slab with you to help push–
>**Warn your friends that the top slab could crush them when the bottom slab falls into place**
>Fetch a third slab to help safely push the first one into place; Room is filled with thunderous crash (3/4)
>Climb atop the third slab to kick the topmost slab down into place; Room is filled with thunderous crash (4/4)
>xXx Repeated crashes has alerted a Boulder Snake xXx
>Scramble for a hiding place behind the last Marble Slab in the Slab pile
>** Bring the torch, bury it in an attempt to snuff it out. Use Golem Strength to push it deeper into the ground until the flame dies out completely **
>–Slowly poke head above slab, noticing the snake doesn’t seem to detect you–
>–Throw a Box of Nails into the red crystal chasm for a distraction–
>**Have the Dig Dogs burrow a little ways under the Marble Slab to hide your team**
>–Stay out of the hole so that it can be buried properly–
>**Remain perfectly still while the Boulder Snake silently lurks about the room**
>**Boulder Snake begins eating the Marble Slab; you remain perfectly still**
>Boulder Snake is bopped out of the room by a co-worker
>–Bridge has been haphazardly completed by the curious Snake–
>Applebloom ties a rope around herself and around you to shimmy across a partially fallen slab
>Sweetie Belle ties the rope around herself and tries to shimmy across…
>–The slab gives and crashes into the crystals below, causing a thunderous sound to echo about the room…–
>Scootaloo is launched across, sliding to a stop on the other side. The Diamond Dogs are able to jump across and scale the rocky wall.
As Raisin affixes the rope about her midsection and prepares to be lifted to the other side of this horrible, crystal filled bridge room, she hears the distinctive hiss of a pair of Boulder Snakes heading toward her team. Meeting them eye to eye as she’s hoisted up, the little stone golem pulls herself onto the rocky ledge and stands in front of a set of towering crystal doors. Gurgling magma pops and hisses far down the magnificent hallway as the distant, glowing eyes across the room track the group’s movement.
Inventory check:
As you look back to the entrance at the far end of the room, you see two pairs of glowing eyes staring back. They simply blink, unwavering and stationary. It fills your stony gut with a horrid feeling.
"S-s-snakes!" Scootaloo pops up as she notices what you've been staring at. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom gasp as they catch sight of the snakes for themselves.
One of the snakes hiss in retort. "Dare you not enter that hallway…"
You tap Applebloom, then motion back toward the doors. "We're going through there. Make sure nopony gets left behind…"
"Roger, Raisin…" Applebloom follows your lead, directing the team back toward the doors.
As your brave team all slowly move toward the hallway, the Snakes instantly spring into action. As one races toward the last marble slab, the other starts climbing up the wall and into the stalactites overhead.
"Run!" Scootaloo bolts into the hallway with the Diamond Dogs close behind her. In a matter of moments, your team has made it through the doors, though the Boulder Snakes are quickly closing the distance.
"Wait! Don't run ahead! We've gotta shut this thing!"
Scootaloo cranks her head back, then slides to a stop. Her hooves shuffle in place as she and the Diamond Dogs look for a place to hide. "Hurry!"
Thinking in a panic, you look over the gears again, noticing a giant metal pick on a spring jamming into the base of the gear. It looks like a stopping pin of some sort.
"Applebloom! Help me lasso that thing! We've gotta pull it out!" You hoof her over one end of the rope, tying the other around your waist. She quickly ties a lasso and tries to get it to spin, but struggles.
"Ah wish Applejack were here…" She panics to get the rope into a steady circle.
The snake slithering through the stalactites nears the door. He lets out a chilling hiss as he looks for a way to climb down. You can almost hear him chuckling to himself.
Finally, Applebloom throws the lasso end toward the stopping pin. It loops around the arm and cinches up as she gives it a steady pull. "Whoa! Ah did it!" She shouts. "Look! Ah actually managed ta…"
The Boulder Snake lands on the stony platform outside the door. His head smacks down hard, leaving him dizzy for a second.
"Pull! Pull it!" Applebloom hits your flank a few times out of sheer panic. You lean forward just a bit, giving the rope a steady pull. You can hear it flaying apart under the stress.
As the snake just outside the doors shakes off his daze, you can hear Sweetie Belle mumbling something in fear. Listening as the frail rope seems to be tearing itself apart, you bolt toward the mechanism.
"R-Raisin!?" Applebloom looks back to you, towards the door, then bolts to Scootaloo. You gallop as fast as you can to the gears, spin around, then give the pin a sturdy kick. Instantly, you hear the twang of steel and a creaking inside of the wall. You're hit by something as you go flying down the hallway a good distance. You hear Scootaloo shriek "incoming Raisin!" before you slam into the crystalline floor of the grand hallway.
A cacophonous roar churns out near the mechanism. You can see the stopping pin laying out on the floor, bent at a sharp angle where you kicked it. The gears spin uncontrollably as the doors begin to close. The last thing you see on the other side is the panicked expression of the Boulder Snake that nearly made his way into the room.
You see your friends blown back a little as the door slams shut. The gears on the wall promptly become dislodged, getting pulled up into the wall a ways before stopping.
"Raisin! Ya did it!" Applebloom jumps up. "Are you okay?"
"I think so…?"
"…no going back now, huh?" Scootaloo shakes her mane.
You check your leg, seeing a little chunk of rock missing. The pin must have clipped you as the mechanism was failing. "Probably not, no."
You take a few moments to let the team recuperate. Faintly, you think you can hear the Boulder Snakes pounding on the other side of the door. Behind you is a massive hallway leading toward a glowing orange light… further in, you swear you can see another light hovering in the distance.
"What is that?" Sweetie Belle asks from the safety of one of the Diamond Dogs' arms.
Looking up in this massive corridor gives you a sense of vertigo. The ceiling is incredibly high up.
"Hey… just in case we have to do something quick… do you dogs know how deep we are?"
Surprisingly, you see the dogs nearly drooling as they look forward at the distant light. One points toward it and starts chuckling. Another is slowly shaking his head back and forth in disbelief.
"Uh… boys?"
They seem to be marveling at the distant light, already starting to lead the way. They look back, motioning you to follow them.
"…alright… I have a terrible feeling about this, but alright."
"I think they know what it is…?" Sweetie Belle looks over the Diamond Dog's shoulder and back to you, Scootaloo, and Applebloom.
"Wait! Stop a second, guys."
The Diamond Dogs slowly move forward, but have their heads turned to listen.
"Call me paranoid, but this really doesn't look like something we want to just wander toward with our jaws hanging open. What if that thing's cursed?"
One of them stops. He taps the others.
"But Raisin… where else is there to go?" Applebloom looks about. "We're kinda locked in here, what with the door opener all busted up…"
"I-I don't know… what if Raisin's right, though?" Sweetie Belle looks ahead. "It looks too… pretty to be safe." She squints at the bright light at the end of the hallway.
You bravely step around the Diamond Dogs, taking the lead. The light is certainly alluring amidst the orange glow. Bright and almost blinding, it almost feels reassuring, like the nearly forgotten feeling of warm sunshine on a Summer's day.
"You're right, Sweetie. Let's be cautious about how we approach this thing…"
You lead your brave team down the crimson crystal path, looking up toward each archway as you pass underneath. Besides the patter of hooves and claws against the vitreous path, the only other sounds you hear are the increasingly frequent bursts of magma boiling up ahead.
"What do you think they keep down here?" Scootaloo wonders.
"Nothing good, judgin' by them big doors back there…" Applebloom figures.
As you approach the last few arches, you see that the room opens up magnificently. The entire chamber is made of a gorgeous ruby colored crystal. The dogs tremble excitedly as the begin taking up small handfuls of loose gems along the path.
The source of the blinding light finally becomes clear. A humongous, pulsating gem sits loosely secured by some stone supports in the center of the massive chamber. It precariously hangs above a gigantic pool of lava, probably the biggest collection you've seen since you entered the caves. Magma seems to be pooling in from a few spots down below.
"Wh-what is this place? What is that?" Sweetie Belle scrunches up her face in confusion.
Across the room, you spot a doorway. Through it, you can see something moving, though the distance makes it unclear as to what it could be.
You straight up, seeing the cavern roof far, far off into the distance. The entire way up is lined with crystals, but judging by how the Diamond Dogs seem to be chipping them off of the walls, they look rather frail.
"Hey, Dogs… how far beneath the surface do you think this room is?"
The Dogs all look up, noticing that the ceiling seems to ascend up forever. Instead of taking the usual measurement, he just nods. He looks over at you, then holds his paws apart. It looks like he could fit two ponies between them.
"That's how thick the ceiling is here?!"
He shrugs half-heartedly.
"So, you're just guessing then?"
He nods.
Looking at the pulsating gem and the gigantic collection of magma below, you figure that this must be it. This is volcano chamber the Red Snake mentioned way back when she was reviving one of her subjects during the midnight storm. You carefully reach into your saddlebags to find your quarter sticks…
"Oop.. wrong pocket…" Your hoof gently brushes up against Hayseed's mane. You know it's her by how she moves in the pocket. You wish you could feel her soft little mane brush up against your hoof again. Carefully, you close the pocket back up, then tap the others until you hear the hollow sound of the wooden Quarter Sticks box.
"Hey.." You hoof the box over to one of the Diamond Dogs. He opens it up, looking at the sticks. "Bring the roof down, would you?"
He nods, then points to one of his comrades with the torch and shrugs.
"Oh, right… only one of you has a way to light them up…"
Scootaloo looks over and sees you handing the Diamond Dogs the quarter sticks. "Whoa… things are about to get really serious…"
Inventory check:
"Wait, hold on… Scootaloo, you've still got a Stompstarter on you, right?"
"I think so…" She reaches into her saddlebags. "Something has been digging into my side for the past couple hours…" She withdraws a shiny red Stompstarter from one of her pockets and hoofs it over to you.
You give it to one of the Diamond Dogs. "Here… Applebloom? You have one too, right?"
"Yeah, hold on…" She reaches into her Saddlebag to pull out a slightly used one. She carries it in her mouth over to the last dog. He holds it in his paw and cleverly uses his thumb to strike it.
The main dog hands each one a stick, then turns toward you. He holds out a paw, giving you a serious look.
"What?"
He shakes his arm up and down, then rests it in front of your face again.
You rest your stony hoof on his paw. He wraps his fingers around it and gives it a firm shake, though strains to move it without your help.
"Somehow I think that you don't entirely have faith in me, but thanks, I guess."
He grins and shakes his head, then lets go of your hoof. He points at you with a smirk, then backs up toward his team. They immediately start climbing up the walls, fanning out across the dome like chamber ceiling. You notice them moving a bit more carefully as they ascend, taking care not to slip on their way up.
"I hope this works…"
"What? Ya mean you're not sure?" Applebloom looks slightly worried.
"Don't worry Applebloom. Have I ever got us into something we couldn't get out of?"
She pauses for a few moments, then nods. "Well, we've been in some close scrapes, but you always figured us a way out. Ah trust ya…"
"I'm not sure I do… but you haven't failed us yet." Scootaloo bumps your chest with her bandaged hoof. "I really don't know how we're going to get out of here, though."
Sweetie Belle stares up at the giant, pulsating gem, slightly mesmerized. "Why did the snakes hide this thing so deep underground? What is it?"
You see magma start to trickle in from a doorway on the side of the room, pouring into the cauldron below. It gurgles and broils as it helps fill the pool.
You watch as the Diamond Dogs climb toward the ceiling. It looks like they're climbing into a sky covered in crimson glass. Though they move slowly, you can tell they'll make it to the top soon.
Oddly, you think you can hear humming resonating in the chamber. Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle can all hear it too.
"Hey! Snake lady!"
"Raisin!? What are yo-" Scootaloo's wings flutter as she's interrupted.
"Hmm?" You see the distant snake spin around gracefully. Her brilliant ruby coat glistens in the beaming light. Your friends cover their eyes. "It would appear my unnannounced guests have finally…" She slithers into the room. "My, what a strange assortment we have before us… we were expecting more of those foolish mutts to have wandered in passed the guards."
She slithers out onto one of the pathways leading to the beautiful, pulsating gem in the center of the chamber. She opens her hood up, casting the blinding light toward you and your friends.
"Welcome." Her soft voice echoes throughout the chamber, quickly diminished by the churning lava below.
"Hello, shiny, red… snake… My name is Raisin Merlot." You have to keep a hoof raised over your eyes to keep from being blinded by the snake's light.
"I'm Scootaloo…"
"I'm Sweetie Belle…"
"And Ah'm Applebloom…"
Your friends are wincing at the light, unable to look up.
"It appears that you have some manners beneath that puerile disrespect of yours." The calm in her voice is alluring, but doesn't bring you any peace. "We are Queen Keszeem, ruler of the mighty Boulder Snake race. What brings you… ponies… to our Grand Chambers?"
You can hear her moving, but cannot see her. She doesn't sound as though she's moving toward you, but instead to the right.
"Would you mind killing the lights? I'm starting to get a headache!" Scootaloo shouts.
"We'll get to the killing of things in but a moment… how did you four brave adventurers get in here through the main gate?" She keeps a disturbingly calm demeanor to her voice.
Before you answer, you tap the ground. You bow your head low, then whisper to your friends, "She's moving. We should do the same… back this way, to the left…"
As you begin to back away, you hear a very sudden crackling ripple up the walls. In what seems an instant, Keszeem seems to have moved behind you. "We see your lack of confidence in the hallways… you four actually ventured in here by yourselves?"
She opens her hood again, casting a blinding light down on your team. The walls seem to be just as reflective as her scales.
"Hey, you might want to keep your distance."
"We shall. It's such a curiosity imagining how you four sleuths not only evaded my children, but managed to cross the Gardens without a bridge." She forces your team to start backing up down the path she was just on.
"Obviously, you must know how by now." You make sure your friends stay behind you, then put your hooves down. Keszeem moves a little closer, then stops. "I am a descendent of Queen Adanemzurai, the cursed… golem queen. Of the east. And I'm incredibly gifted with magic."
Your friends shake in place.
"Praise be!" Scootaloo squeaks, raising a hoof half-heartedly, trying to give more credit to your witty story.
"It's not oft we have a golem for company… the daughter of Queen Adanemzurai, no less? We're honored to make your acquaintance." She keeps the light shining brightly upon your team. "Those three are your escorts, are they not? One of them must be holding your magical crown for you, then?"
She begins slithering toward you again.
"Pff, we don't need the crown anymore. Our top magicians have created a magical link to it that's always active. We actually dumped it in a ditch. You'd be amazed how often people tend to look for important things in the most heavily guarded chambers."
"We're certain you have. We are fortunate to have asked, seeing as we cannot risk challenging a magical foe."
"Oh?" Sweetie Belle squeaks.
"It is the only weakness of the Boulder Snakes. Surely, you can find justification to our hesitation in attacking an unknown foe?"
"Queen Keszeem… I must be honest with you. We've come looking for a treasure called the True Soul Amulet. My mother's spies reported that you have it?"
"You mean this?" She closes her hood. For a moment, you can actually see. A very sinister smile greets you. Underneath, around where her neck would be, you see a familiar amulet."
"Yes… it poses a great danger to my kingdom. We would like to secure it and… take it back to the Queen."
"Perhaps we can make an arrangement…" She opens her hood back up, continuing her advance. From behind, you hear one of the doorways gurgle. Magma begins to drain out into the main chamber pool. Applebloom shrieks as her tail nearly catches fire.
"Mind the doors. We're currently preparing the Grand Chambers for renovation." Keszeem doesn't stop moving toward you.
"What do you have in mind? If it is within my power I can accommodate it…"
"It's well within your power, Princess Raisin." You hear her hiss. "You see, we've always had a lingering curiosity."
"Oh yeah? Why don't we just stop moving and talk about it for a moment?" She doesn't stop.
"Raisin! Raisin stop!" Applebloom sounds panicked. You can see the magma behind you with a small turn of your head.
"But you see, the answer is only a few moments away." She lunges forward, snapping her jaws near your head. Your friends all shriek in terror. "We've been ever so curious as to how stone ponies would taste on our refined palette."
"W-wait…"
She snaps again, though this time Sweetie Belle shouts. "My mane! "
You watch Keszeem rear up tall. "Clearly, you lack any magical powers whatsoever. Queen Adanemzurai was barren, so you are not her of her lineage. Your friends are but normal children… and judging by your interest in my amulet, you must have been cursed with your delectable form." She hisses. "Please, do stop us if we're wrong."
You hear some distant barking echo from the ceiling. Keszeem simply looks up for a moment, then arches back for another strike.
Knowing the dogs are already taking down the ceiling, you know that a split second distraction will be just enough delay to save yourselves. Keszeem coils into an 'S', ready to lunge.
"Sweetie! Light! Eyes! Now!"
Fumbling, Sweetie reaches for the Large Blue Crystal. Quickly, she slaps it into her horn. In an explosive burst of brilliant light, you can feel Keszeem miss her lunge and slide up against the wall.
"Magic?!" She hisses. "…Malecite?!" Her calm voice has turned furious.
Your team runs away from the side of Keszeem's tail. She lunged herself into the magma flow, throwing up some globs of molten rock. A moment later, you hear an explosion roar through the cavern. Large slabs of rock come falling down into the room, crashing all about the pulsating gem in the center.
"NO!!" Keszeem bolts towards the center of the room down one of the pathways. She covers the gem with her hood, blinking furiously. A few rocks pummel her as you and your team move away from the little magma flow.
After the smoke clears, you see the natural morning sunlight flood into the room. The crystals in the upper chamber reflect light all the way down, filling the room with a welcoming glow. It feels good to see the blue skies again….
Keszeem appears to be fine. A blue aura surrounds her as she continues blinking her eyes.
"You will not leave this room alive! We will find you!" She scans the walls with a malevolent, angry sneer. She cocks her head back, then spits magma toward where she last was.
Searching about the room in a fit of rage, Keszeem still seems to be slightly blind from the light spell. You just noticed that Sweetie's eyes are spinning around in her head; she looks like she's about to collapse.
"Woo… wooo…. are… are we dead?" Sweetie blinks hard, then shakes her mane.
"You will be soon!" Keszeem shouts from the center of the room. She fires another stream of magma in your general direction.
Inventory check: