Tirana's Lair, Part 9 (Desnus (V) 2nd, 4709 AR)

The heroes continued their exploration.

Gallery of Stone. This corridor is lined with alcoves containing statues of different breeds of humanoids, their faces contorted with horror. Many of the statues are missing limbs and other protuberances, and the floor is littered with cracked and shattered bits of stonework, as well as entire statues pulled down from their pedestals or seemingly deposited on the floor without ever having an intentional placement.

This room was a den for a pair of cockatrices and their caretakers. Every square in this section of the hall is considered rough terrain.

A pair of pet cockatrices has built a nest among the crumbling remains of statues. Two naunet proteans served as bodyguards.

The cockatrices were quick to attack the heroes when they entered the long hallway, attempting to hide behind broken statues and darting out to use their petrifying bites to add to their collection. Once battle was joined, the cockatrices stayed out of the way and let the naunets handle things, occasionally attempting to nip heroes already occupied fighting the proteans. The cockatrices were pugnacious and fought to the death to defend their den.

Both naunets were on either side of the hallway’s terminus, mostly hidden by the alcoves. The naunets could ignore the effects of the room’s rough terrain. They remained out of melee range of the heroes until the cockatrices were directly threatened, springing arrows of acid from their tentacles that sped to the heroes or unleashing multicolored explosions of leaping, ricocheting energy when they could avoid the cockatrices. The naunets guarded the cockatrices at the cost of their lives.

The Wishing Well. This massive, thirty-foot-tall cavern appears completely natural, save for the ornate circular cistern in its center. The stone lip surrounding this pool is several feet high and made entirely from jade carved in intricate and fanciful swirls, and appears to be the head of a well shaft drilled down into the cavern rock. Inside it, glowing lava bubbles and froths sluggishly, casting a bloodred light on the stone walls and occasionally spattering over the sides with a hiss.

Upon arriving in this room, the heroes confront two identical red dragons basking in the pool’s heat. Only one of them is real: a young or juvenile red dragon. A muscular giant named Surnom, with crimson skin, smoldering eyes, and small black horns was lurking below the surface of the lava pool. Smoke rose in curls from its flesh. The other dragon in the room is an illusion.

The red dragon was hard pressed, and he asked Surnom for a scintillating pattern. Meanwhile, he was unloading all his natural attacks on the heroes next to him.

Surnom was buried deep in the well of lava. He emerged from the pool when combat started and hovered near the ceiling, granting the red dragon a twisting pattern of coruscating colors weaving through the air, affecting Gryxxa.