The adventure

The friends returned over the bridges to the stone ledge in front of the initiates' quarters and climbed down a gently sloping section to the rocky floor below. They had a fight with three rapax veterans and two beserkers, but nothing could stand up to Karen, Shu Ting, RFS and Quentin in close combat. They wandered down a little corridor, past a lava pit that led to another corridor, ambushing two initiates and two veterans in a carefully-carved cave of hot baths and steam. While Salva was watching for trouble they had a quick wash, the heat of the lava outside and the fighting having been unpleasant.
When they were done he showed that he had occupied himself carefully, and explained that pushing out a support could bring the ceiling down over the lava pit, allowing them to cross safely. There was some doubt, but Karen proved the point by knocking it through. When the dust settled Karen needed another wash, but the lava pit was indeed bridged by fallen rock.
"See! I said so." Salva continued to press his point, "It is simple; the pit opening had made the support already weak."
"Are you saying I couldn't break a proper support?" Karen interjected
"Yes," Salva began, before realising where this might lead, "No, no. It is not needed." He saved himself, as Karen manically approached another one.
This adjoining corridor twisted and turned, and using Salva's scanner they ambushed a band who were just coming up to a corner. This group of rapax consisted of 9 initiates and a priestess. They killed three immediately and slaughtered the others in rapid progression, advancing along the corridor. The initiates' spells were noticeable, but not worrying. One managed to cast a spell of silence on Salva (which no-one noticed) and Margreet, but she didn't need to cast spells anyway; the rapax died too quickly under their weapons. The priestess was last.
Further up the twisting corridor they found a votive chamber of some sort, with rapax inside. They enticed the creatures out of the chamber by peering unsubtly round the entrance arch, and caught them as they approached. Shu Ting killed the priestess with one blow as they leapt around the corner, followed by RFS, but an initiate managed to catch them in magical webbing. Karen killed two initiates with Bloodlust (and blood-lust), outdoing Shu Ting's impressive start, and the remaining three were no challenge.
At the end of the corridor they came to two door-sized frames, of finely moulded silver, each of which rested against a silver stand. They could have been full-length mirrors, except that in place of the actual mirror there was a shimmering film of magic. Margreet and Quentin recognised the portals, but in case anyone was in doubt, Vi piped up
"Which teleportal should we take? We've no idea whether they'll take us further in or out of this forsaken place!"
Margreet had a long stare at one and Quentin the other, and they decided, after some examination, that one took them to a balcony and another to a stone door, so the whole party stepped onto the balcony, where they were immediately set apon by 2 priestesses. Apart from the surprise, it wasn't a problem for Karen, Shu Ting and RFS, who were first through.The priestesses, for some reason, perhaps foolishly underestimating the little balls of fury, tried to cast their magic on Quentin as he came through. It failed to take hold of the rapidly maturing wizard, and the priestesses were diced to ribbons with barely an attempt to fight.
The door to the balcony was locked, but thankfully the rift key that they had found earlier fitted the lock. Ahead of them was some sort of entrance chamber with two giant pots of lava on each side, enclosed by two small entrances; the one in front of them and the one at the other end.