"Well, Nale tries. See, he and Thog and Yikyik all grew up in that part of the western continent, so interpersonal stability is really important to them, y'know?"

"To them, huh?"

"Don't look at me! Dwarven society's got too much 'interpersonal stability,' in my opinion."

Sabine laughs.

"And Zz'dtri's got his own history. If you're asking about me, well. I'm not about to spill everything just yet. But I am from somewhere kind of like that, that's got a lot of the same problems."

She lapses into thoughtful silence. That should be enough for Greenhilt's brain to chew on, enough for him to recontextualize any roughness around the edges he encounters from her teammates. Before the silence can get too awkward, she speaks up again:

"Wow, I've totally been monologuing at you for like ten minutes! And I got, like, heavy. C'mon, tell me about you guys! Something fun!"

"Well,"

Things Belkar might consider a funny story:

• That time he bullied that random monk and threatened to kill someone to get a place in Roy's party.
• That time Durkon almost gave Elan a colon tumor.
• That time he and Haley trapped a ninja in a cardboard box (actually pretty funny).
• That time Elan thought that taking off all his clothes would turn him invisible.
• That time Roy almost got his brain eaten.
• That time Roy got poisoned seventeen times.

Roy makes the executive decision to go first.

"Well, the other day Elan ran out of food, so Belkar here let him have some of his. Which are kickass, by the way. Just for one meal he had roast duck and risotto. With chocolate cake for dessert!"

"What an odd thing for me to do. Are you sure that strip was canon?"

"It was a bonus strip, same as the ninja trap that we made a bunch of stupid Copenhagen interpretation jokes about. I'm sure if Haley was here right now she'd promote the book or something."

"Huh. Anyway, Roy here recently got poisoned seventeen times, and I can do a great impression of his girly screaming while it happened."

Sabine's obvious delight ensures that Roy's protests are insufficient to keep Belkar from performing this impression!

Soon enough they get to a section that merits those Protection from Fire spells Hilgya cast earlier. A couple of fire monsters come into view; Hilgya practically skips ahead.

"Allow me, boys!"

She deals with the monsters in a suitably hammy fashion.

"Okay, all done!"

Huh, she's a cleric of Loki. Makes sense to send her into the fire dungeon, then.

And then:

"Welcome, righteous warriors! You have defeated the sacred tests necessary to access the Fire Sigil. One of you of pure heart may now activate it."

Seems straightforward enough. Roy touches his hand to the sigil and waits.