Fane of the Heresiarch: Death Wyverns' Crucible

A painful demise awaits Palim in the Death Wyverns' Crucible.

Music: Atrium Carceri | Void | A Curved Blade

Palim casts the rope into the iron portal, and is instantly teleported to the Death Wyverns' Crucible! 

The iron portal becomes clear, and his allies can see all that transpires. They witness Palim appear, prone, in the center of nine slabs of black marble that jut from a pool of hissing dracolisk bile. Hundreds of humanoid shapes writhe in the bile, their limbs broken and flesh like peeling parchment. Many try to scream, but only maggots tumble from between their crooked and cracked teeth. The chamber is open to the air above, to swirling clouds of smoke and ash. 

Palim is surrounded by eight, caged, 15-by-15 foot square platforms. A short copper obelisk stands in the center of the four corner platforms; Ceramic skulls rest impaled at each obelisks' apex, mouths agape. A flame burns within each skull, of differing colors.

You also spy a glowing, magical stepping stone within each of the platforms. The aura is obvious to those trained the arcane arts - teleportation magic.

Your inspection of the new chamber is cut short as two dark winged shadows circle in the gloom high overhead. Strips of leathery flesh dangle from the yellowed bones of these winged undead beasts. You recognize them from myths and legends - Death Wyverns.

Palim's choices are obvious. Fight, flee, or die. But for the rest of you, you have a more interesting decision. You can rush in after your friend, stepping through the portal and joining him in combat. Or, you could watch the events unfold from the safety of the Ashen Ambulatory; watch and learn, perhaps, from Palim's fatal mistake. 

In the end, he is just one crusader, is he not?