"Right. Thank you."

Something about this dwarf is more viscerally disturbing than the way he's in pieces and casually handing some of them off to strangers. She's not quite sure what's bothering her, but she's still nonetheless mildly unsettled. Time to go. Maybe she can find an asura to see about the project of putting Rhoban back together. That seems like it'd be a very thoughtful thing to do.

Off they go! They even know where the first one is, which might hopefully buy them time to find the others before the islands explode.

They return to the asura.

    "Oh, you're back. Did the dwarf shed any light on our predicament?"

"The skritt were right, the islands absolutely will explode if the devices aren't activated. Unfortunately, they specifically require a dwarven touch to activate. Fortunately, the dwarf, ah. Gave us his thumb."

    "His thumb? Huh. That's... disturbing. But logical I suppose. I figured there had to be some knack to it. Being that the dwarf entrusted you with... himself, I'll let you do the honours."

James does the honours. The machine makes a noise, then starts floating and rotating and emitting steam at the top.

    "That appears to have worked! And to think, all this time, all I needed was a discarded stone thumb..."

"The dwarf mentioned that there are four of these contraptions around the island. Do you know where the others are?"

    "Four of them, eh? Well, I believe one of the other researchers spotted a similar contraption on the western coast," the researcher says, pointing in its general direction. "There's another inside the caldera. As for the fourth, I'm not sure. One of the others might know. Good luck, Commander!"

"Thank you," says Vetareh, checking her compass for confirmation about which way west is. Yep, thataway. Off they go?

Probably better to take a waypoint to the asura gate, the west coast is pretty far from here.

That would be very clever and save them time in this impending crisis, yep. She's not used to waypoints being a thing. Thank you, James.

Onwards!

And back to the small peninsula sticking out of the cave where the asura gate is. James walks out towards the west and looks around for an easier way there. His gaze is drawn towards an orange glow on the ground a ways south. He walks in that direction and, seeing something he deems useful, walks towards it with purpose.

The orange glow turns out to be a hole in the ground. Filled with magma.

"Uh, James...?" she wonders nervously, trailing after him anyway.

He turns to her, beaming. "I believe I shall now teach you how to use thermal tubes for transportation."

"Does it perhaps involve jumping into the lava hole, James," she says, already internally resigned.

"It does!"

"How did I guess." Sigh. "Right, any special thing I need to do, or just. Jump in, get spat out, presumably don't burn to a crisp in the process?"

"There is a special thing, actually. You magically redirect the thermal energy into a boost to send you flying forward. That has the advantage of also preventing you from burning to a crisp!"

"Marvelous. So I just have to do a very specific magical action that I've never done before, under pressure, in order to not die." Pause. "Yes that sounds like something I'm capable of, explain the process?"

He laughs, and does. It's... not the simplest thing, but well within her abilities. It involves, as he explained, using nearby magic and channeling it around oneself to absorb the heat and use it as propulsion.

There is a fiddly bit in that these tubes usually run a ways underground before ending in an exit hole, so she has to pay attention to the magic to use a little bit of it to move forwards inside the tube while absorbing the remaining heat to produce the final boost.

"And we're sure that there is in fact an exit on the other side," she confirms, once she's gotten this process memorized. "This is constructed or surveyed so I don't propel myself and have a horrible fiery splat."

"Yep! There is a lava entrance but it's not wide enough for a person so you won't get confused."

"Oh, well, if the side entrance that would kill me if I accidentally went down it is obvious, then I suppose there's no problem. How many people use this insane transportation method, James, is it just you, or?"

He laughs. "It's very effective! It's adapted from a transportation method used by the hylek in the Maguuma Jungle. And I definitely learnt this from other people! I did not invent it."

"Uh huh. That didn't actually answer my question, you realize. The fact that you didn't invent it doesn't mean that it's been accepted as the best transportation method available by the general populace!"

"The general populace does not typically go to places that are best accessed using this," he admits. "We could glide through a leyline instead, I just expect it to take much longer."

"This is fine. We're in a rush, the mechanics seem sound and actionable, and I already dealt with a fate worse than death, so what's the threat of it to me now? Though if I die from it I'm haunting you. This is not a turn of phrase, I will be your personal poltergeist, and warn people away from jumping into holes with you."

"I would expect nothing less. But I will raid the Underworld for you if you die." His tone is light, as if it's a matter-of-fact, casual declaration.

"If I were haunting you I wouldn't be in the Underworld," she points out, because that's easier to reply to than the declaration of... that.

"... But you really would?" she then confirms softly, once she's ready to engage with the declaration itself.