Knights of Snowballia: Fallen Kingdom

Chapter III: Keshavra

The two groups arrive at the small city of Gulfheim and are greeted by a group of interim authority members who take them into the town hall, where the scene of the crime is located. As they are escorted to the room of the murder they become grossed out by the body left behind from last night.
"Gosh that is such a bad smell...", Allison whispered.
"What you see here is the decaying body of Mr Gary Firch, former mayor of Gulfheim. Last night he was murdered in this very room by a thief who appears to be seeking a powerful weapon somewhere in Snowballia. We believe it is located in Keshavra, just north of this little town. If you all choose to venture there, you need to be warned. The city of Keshavra sits many miles away from a supervolcano that is long overdue for an eruption pretty soon. I advise you be very careful over there.", one of the interim mayors stated as the other members were listening in on him.
"How bad is the threat of this eruption?", Dairrion asked,
"I believe if this volcano erupts, half of Snowballia will be blanketed in many inches of ash, plunging us into a volcanic winter.", the mayor continues, "I need the eight of you to travel to Keshavra, one group will go deep underground to find more clues, and the second will stay in the main city and ask people what they know about the murderer."
The two groups agree on which one will go where, Andrew's group will head underground, and Sarah's group will do the questioning. 5 minutes pass by and his group begins the descent down, where they will find whatever they can.
"So, we're taking a lift down to this place beneath the volcano, and yet you choose not to use your magic to instantly teleport us there?", Jordan asks,
"Kind of lazy if you ask me.", Dairrion added as they continued descending further. Once down at the bottom, Andrew uses his magic to create a light aura around the group to make the trip a bit easier.
"Gosh that light is pretty bright.", Dairrion stated.
"Patience my friend, this journey may be long and difficult, but we will make it through.", Andrew replied.
Meanwhile, back at the main city of Keshavra we see Sarah's group having the easy part of the job, as they are seen asking about the murderer of Mayor Firch, however they appear to have no lead on who it might be.
"Any luck Camryn?", she asked,
"No.", Camryn replied,
"What about you Max?", to which Max shakes his head miserably.
"I must assume you haven't found someone who knows the murderer either right DJ?", Sarah asks.
"Well, I found someone who might know somebody who can tell us.", he replies.
"Who is it?", she responds.
"Follow me this way guys, the individual is said to be in some part near the Keshavran Town Hall.", DJ says as the other 3 begin to follow. As they head down to the town hall, we see a hooded figure watching over Sarah's group as it walks away from the scene presumably to track the others. As they reach the town hall, they are allowed inside to speak to the mayor of Keshavra, who is supposedly the one aware of who the murderer is. "Greetings fellow knights, it is an honor to have you all in my city today. What brings you four here?", the mayor asks.
"We come seeking information about the murderer of Mayor Firch, it seems that you might be the one who knows something about that individual.", DJ replies.
The mayor seems to be curious about what they're talking about, as she says that she could know something about him.
"Hmmm, I think I might know who it is.", Mayor Adara states. "The intel I was given was that the murderer is an outsider from the province of Grenadyn, a place far east of Snowballia, presumably on a different continent too."
"So, we know he's Grenadynian, that's for sure. But who is he Madam Adara?", Sarah asked.
"Whoever your mentioning happens to pose a serious threat to rest of the kingdom.", DJ added.
"Alright, alright every chill. My officers have found out that the individual has a name. Us Keshavra citizens call him 'Lago the Treacherous'.", Adara responded.
"Lago? Hmm. Sounds like if you switch the 'a' for an 'e' you get Lego.", Max said as a joke.
"Think what you might about this individual, but we looked deep into his information thanks to the technological upgrades we received from Elkhart after recovering materials from Xenovus' invasion so many years back, and we found that this guy is a wealthy thief and poacher, capable of capturing cities and destroying them with the amount of people who follow his philosophies.", Adara added as the group begins to worry about this new threat.
"Gosh, this doesn't look good for us does it?", Camryn said.
"When Lago came to a western island called Valothal, he took out a group of soldiers attempting to find the Life Destroyer with extreme stealth and intelligence, fortunately although they were all slaughtered the weapon is presumed to be at the bottom of the Valothian Ocean. However Lago seems to set his course here, and he might be watching over us this very moment. I am taking you with finding this individual and surrendering him to me, and in return I will personally help you guys with whatever you need.", Adara said, the group agrees to her objective and they head out to find Lago. Meanwhile, Andrew's group makes a discovery that there appears to be small fissures coming from the ceiling, which spew small amounts of magma. They notice this and take precaution moving forward from that point onward. Seconds later, they find a dead underground dwelling animal boiling in front of them. "Gosh! That's so disgusting.", Allison stated as she was grossed out.
"This might be a sign that the temperatures inside the volcano are rising, which means the magma chamber will continue to heat up as well.", Andrew said as they hear noises coming from a distance.
They happen to figure out that the individual they were searching for has come to hunt them down, as Lago's sinister laugh echoes throughout the place. "Looking for something? It seems you four are gonna be out of luck once the whole place blows.", he says as the group prepares to defend themselves against this new threat. "Show yourself you coward. We know who you are and what you plan on doing.", Dairrion says. Unfortunately words don't convince him as it just so happens he is telepathically communicating with the group. The violent noise gets louder as they turn around, attempting to figure out where it's coming from. A magma dwelling species emerges from the shadows, it appears to be burnt red in color with scaly like skin and large sharp teeth. Some of the members begin to fear for their lives as Jordan and Andrew prepare to defend the rest of the group. A loud roar is heard, but not from the direction their facing which catches the four off guard, causing Dairrion to scream like a little girl at the horror that is the Magma Dwelling Dragon, a wingless beast that lives in extremely hot environments that not even a human could stand.
"Wh-wh-WHAT IS THAT THING?!", Allison shouted as the Magma Dweller moved closer to its prey.
"Whatever it is, this thing is going down!", Jordan stated as he charged toward it, only to be launched back, forcing Andrew to take action.
"Dairrion, quit squealing over there and help Jordan back up. Allison, do not panic, these monsters do have a weakness of some kind. Cryokinetic magic is usually the best way to combat these fiends."
He conjures an ice spell to see if it will counter the Magma Dweller's defensive flame skin. The spell manages to give an opening for the others to attack, but he couldn't hold the spell for long, so Jordan took Dairrions sword and went straight in for the kill, stopping the Magma Dweller in its tracks. What they dont know is that more of these beasts happen to be coming toward them by the dozens. They make a run back to the lift, but it is blocked by falling debris. Andrew decides to open a portal out of the area, sending the four out of the magma dweller nest.
Once outside, they report to Sarah's group and head over to the town hall, discussing the horror that went on beneath the surface. Mayor Adara tells them that Lago must've had some sort of telepathic power to communicate with Andrew's group, and because Allison is a telepath they agree that it was the reason why he managed to find them. Somehow, Lago can communicate with her, and they need to find out how. She begins to hear his voice again, screaming for him to get out of her head. They learn that she has some sort of connection to Lago and that it may help them find out what his motive is. Unfortunately their discovery is cut short as the volcano begins to rise up from the ground. The 9 individuals run as far as they can from Keshavra, ordering a mass evacuation. They manage to take every citizen onto a massive freightliner sized boat while the Knights watch in horror as the eruption shockwave blows away most of Keshavra's buildings to dust. They somehow survive, and are prompted by the guards of the town hall to run to the ship as well. Because Andrew drained some of his magic teleporting his group up to the surface, they had to get to the freightliner as fast as they could before the pyroclastic flows engulf them in poisonous gases. Volcanic debris begins falling from the ash cloud, wreaking extreme havoc upon Keshavra and leaving it in ruin. They manage to reach Gulfheim and warn the citizens to get to the boat for safety. The volcanic debris continues to fall, splitting the 9 in two again, Adara, Camryn, Max, Jordan, and Dairrion on one side, and Andrew, Sarah, Allison, and DJ on another. Adara's side quickly got to the freightliner as Andrew's group continued to have difficulty escaping. Sarah flew up above the ash cloud to find a safe route to the boat, as Andrew and the others continued to run toward it. A piece of volcanic rock hurls toward the three as the land below them breaks apart, causing them to fall into the water. Sarah sees this and attempts to rescue them, as just only 5 minutes could cause them to drown in this kind of predicament. Sarah had conjured a poison immunity spell to get her through the thick ash clouds, and quickly jumped into the water. Unfortunately the cloud shrouded the area in complete darkness, making it almost impossible to rescue them. The other three panic as they seem to have no hope of surviving. Luckily, Sarah created a waterproof shield around the group, pulling them out of the water and the ash cloud above it. They safely get to the freightliner as the pyroclastic flows continue to burn everything in their path. All 9 of them come out to the back of the boat and watch in horror as Gulfheim and Keshavra are engulfed in the fires.
"Now what do we do...", Allison said in a terrified mood.