The group milled into the new room through the once locked door. As soon as it opened the heat came on full blast. Klaus dropped to his knees. It was too much to bear. He lay on the ground panting. The others around him all did the same.

Raking grinned. "Toasty as hell!" He said smiling. Malarkey stared. That was probably about accurate.

Once they'd recovered from the heat the group checked out the surroundings. The first thing that struck them outside of the temperature was the size of the room. It was enormous. They were currently stood on a stone platform which was the same width and depth as the room they were just in.

Expanding out in front of them was an enormous lake of fire. It bubbled and sweltered away noisily. Every so often a jet of flame would shoot up from the lake and blast into holes that were spread across the ceiling. The lake extended deep below.

Overhead the tunnels turned into tracks and extended in all directions across the room. One passed right over their heads, moving Eastwards but there were at least two other tracks in here they could make out. Every so often blue wisps appeared in the lake and dived up and down from the surface. The wailed a sombre chorus which was audible even above the bubbling fire.

In the other three corners of the room, some distance away, were three other identical stone platforms. Each of them had two doors, one leading into each wall. This room was also ridiculously high. Everything about it screamed out its sheer magnitude.

In front of them on a small pedestal was a screen. It contained an eye. There was a button beneath which said "activate message". The group stared at the button curiously.

You each have 24 hours to move through an available exit.

Players (11):
Baby Pete
Bagshot
Happy
Helios Garabandia
Klaus
Korru
Malarkey
Mercator
Paco
Raking Czair
Randolph Carter

Exits:
North
West

Bagshot reached out to push the button. As he did the ground rumbled beneath and a stream of fire shot upwards at the ceiling. It stopped and the noise settled a little.

Then a voice boomed out.

"Hello there travellers. This is Willis. I am currently pre-occupied with more pressing matters so cannot be around to relay this in person. Moreover, I don't much care for repeating myself and I dare say you will be the only people to set foot in here with a series of questions. So I kindly prepared for you an introductory recording."

"I dubbed this room the chamber of souls. The reason for this is because the lava beneath is full of the souls of the recently deceased. That's correct. The sad wispy shapes are those who have fallen in life and made the plummet down to hell. However do not let this mislead you, you are not currently in hell."

"This lake is essentially the mouth of the Acheron. The souls plunge into the fire below and are consumed. Once the consumption begins their...humanity is purged. For a brief time after death a soul holds onto it's image of humanity. It tries to be human. These flames swill the humanity out and prepare it for an eternity of suffering and imprisonment. Nasty unpleasant business. I don't personally agree with it but I didn't design it. I merely found it on my travels."

"The souls once cleansed are washed into the Acheron and are sent downstream through the gates of hell where your key is waiting. It would be a little silly of me to suggest where the Acheron flows out of this room but it does flow out of here, I can assure you that."

"However the chamber of souls has a much more tantalising property that you may find most curious indeed. The souls within are still not purged of their humanity. Their jumping is an effort to escape. And given any possibility to do so, they will do so."

"If a perfectly healthy human is thrust into these fires, their humanity is also cleansed but whilst still alive. Humans are really not supposed to be down here. Cerberus is normally waiting on the river banks to tear any fallen mortals to shreds so that they can go through the correct process."

"However Cerberus is not down there at the moment as I already told you. There are guardians, but he is not one of them. But let's not worry about that, we are getting ahead of ourselves greatly."

"The point is a healthy body should not fall in and ultimately die in these fires. If they do this unbalances the stream of souls that passes down into the gates. In this temporary unbalance...a soul could very easily escape. Without Cerberus to stop this, it would be a great shame were this to occur."

"But lest you forget that your friends in here have souls too. And they will all sooner or later, be recently deceased. Take a moment to think about whether or not their souls deserve to swim downstream into an infernal prison."

"Cast a healthy body into these fires, call out the name of a deceased comrade and their soul will be able to rise back into their body. They will live, once more. Consider it an exchange program of sorts. You can switch souls around to suit your needs."

If anybody is successfully lynched in this room they will be thrown into the lake. Upon lynching, the first deceased player who is called out will be brought back to life. If no players have deceased yet, the lynch victim will still die. This must be done in the same phase as the lynching occurs.

There was a tremendous buzzing noise from up above. The group looked around nervously. Out of nowhere a beam of light appeared in one of the gaps that covered the ceiling. There was a murmur amongst the collective group as the light blasted down. Everybody jumped for cover, not that there was much on this platform.

Raking Czair was a little slow on the uptake. He looked up nervously as Malarkey hobbled to the side.

"Raking get down!" He yelled. Raking Czair panicked and ran to the side screaming as the light swerved around to catch him full on. He yelled out in dismay as it covered his entire body.

And a second later the light had completely disappeared.

So had Raking.

The doors open after much delay. Time to move on.
The thread is now in lockdown. Actions after this point will not go through and movement changes will not be submitted. You may still move if you haven't already done so. All actions that are awaiting results will have the results posted.