As the triad of adventurers reached the bottom of the stairwell, they came to a pair of large marble doors. They were encrusted with gold and jewels any one of which was worth a comely, young princess's ransom. Above the door was scrawled the wording “Qui volunt pacem propter incendium oportet avaritia.”
Finally looking up, after realizing that there was no way he could pry any of the precious gems free from the door, the thief said “Well, here we go again.” Looking at the magus, he inquired “What does this one mean?”
The magus translated “It reads 'Those who wish for peace must first avoid the flames of avarice.'” After the last word was spoken, the glow of flames materialized in the crevice adjoining the two doors, and they shunted open. They revealed a room full of enough riches to make all of the collective gems that lined the doors look like a pauper's paycheck. It was a massive, cavernous hallway filled with piles of riches on either side. They lined the walkway in distinct mountains of wealth: a pyramid of priceless platinum coins to the right; a reservoir of radiant ruby-encrusted gold bricks to the left. There were azure pendants with platinum inlay, silver necklaces with emerald gems, diamond-crowned tiaras made of gold; the bandit felt as though he must be hallucinating, but he did not let that stop himself from finding the nearest pile of obscene wealth and stuffing everything that he could into his pockets, bags, shoes, and any place he could fit it!
The barbarian and magus had no real interest in piles of wealth as they each had their own concerns. While the barbarian was mostly concerned with combat and the glory which he could attain with his battle prowess, the magus was well-versed with the temptations of this cave through his study. Since he had lost more than enough loved ones to the brutality of the war that had ravaged his homeland, his most immediate concern lay in securing the Bullas Pacis and bringing peace to his country. As such, they both walked on and tried to find the exit of this part of the cave. As they both continued on the path, they proceeded to a relic that appeared interesting not because of it's supreme wealth but because of its clearly defined altar. It was upon a pedestal about three feet highand the magus thought that it seemed familiar somehow. As he examined it on the pedestal, the barbarian came up behind him and asked “What have you found, my friend?”
“I do not know, but it seems reminiscent of something that I studied before.” As he picked it up off its altar in order to study it more closely, a large cage suddenly dropped around the two of them and into a large square fitting in the floor. As the magus gazed at the relic, he remembered where he had learned about it. It was in an obscure tome discussing replicas of famous relics. What he had thought it to be was the Bullas Pacis, but it was actually a knock-off designed to fool would-be thieves who were not as knowledgeable as he. On the back of the artifact he saw the words “Per veram caritatem pacem veram esse poterit” emblazon in fiery letters and then disappear.
Starting to feeling the urgency of their current dilemma, the barbarian asked “What was that?” The magus replied “It was an inscription.”
“What did it say?”
“It translates to 'True peace can be secured only through true charity.'” After he read the last word, the floor segments outside of their cage fell away to leave them dangling in their cage about three feet above a pit of molten lava. The rope at the top of their cage was tethered to a central pillar about five feet on the other side of the altar, and five feet beyond that, the two cage occupants could just make out another cage-sized bowl attached to the central apparatus. The bandit, far too involved in his work, took no notice of his cohorts or their new situation as he continued greedily to squirrel away his new found wealth near the far cage-sized bowl. Since the two openings in the floor were only about six inches past the confines of their cage and bowl respectively, the bandit's segment of floor was entirely unaffected in his mad rush for riches. He was too busy tallying all of the things that he was going to buy in his head as he deftly grasped at each new pile of obscene wealth. The magus, seeing his distracted grapple for baubles, decided that they were on their own. He raised his staff and declared “Patefacio!” Though he was a very powerful magus from decades of study, the cage was too powerful for his spell to breach or affect, and it ricocheted as a bolt of magical energy that dissipated after six randomly trajected rebounds.
