Tales from the White Box, Session 4

In which the party...

• Is made of a small town thief in Malisha named Thumb, with a poor track record in the local Thieves Guild (being "all thumbs") - but with ambitions to start his own guild where he won't be mocked and ridiculed.
• Hears about the death of 2 adventurers to the southwest with a fire elemental from a bounty hunter who had carted over a mage who had caused the debacle for a reward.
• Decides dealing with the fire elemental itself might net a hefty profit, and hatches a plan to break the mage who created the elemental itself out of prison.
• Learns that a Mob of Peasants has taken the mage to the local lake- if the mage floats, he's a user of black magic and deserves to die; but if he sinks, he is innocent, and still dies but by drowning instead of stabbing of pitchforks.
• Joins into the crowd and tries to stealthily dive into the lake before the mage is tossed in - but utterly fails and creates a massive splash as onlookers notice him diving in...
• Gets lucky as the Mob is riled up enough that many peasants join into the fun and dive into the lake after him - making the task of retrieving the mage infinitely harder. 
• Manages to dive in and pull down the mage long enough that the Mob thinks he had drowned and disperses.
• Swims downstream before pulling himself and the still bound mage out from the lake muck. 
• Learns the mage's name is Wexley, and he is a strange fellow who is quite spiritual about fire magics, to the point of eccentricity.
• Learns the mage wanted to bring down the fire god Lavos to the earth, and to do this was trying to create a fire elemental with his "ball of fire" spell - which unfortunately went haywire.
• He is initially reluctant but agrees to help Thumb clean up his mess for a reward, as this could help his further his research on fire god summoning.
• Wexley notes that he was using a set of runes with read magic and he could likely reverse the summoning and send the elemental back to a plane of fire - but he would require it to be distracted so he could read it uninterrupted.
• The duo make it to the camp without incident, and start their plan by first sending a flare to lure the elemental away as Wexley read the runes and Thumb kept watch.
• The plan immediately goes awry as the elemental is wise to their trap and attacks Wexley, who luckily is only singed.
• Wexley creates a night sphere to momentarily trap the elemental, as well as blind it - and Thumb, taking advantage of the blinded monster jumps into the sphere with his daggers to distract it.
• With Thumb's distractions - despite getting burned - and Wexley's reading of the runes, the elemental is banished back to the fire plane as both adventures collapse, exhausted but triumphant. 
• The duo return to town - only to receive a paltry sum of 10 gold as a reward - just enough to relieve their rations - and a pardon as both had gone against the leadership of the town with Wexley's escape from capture. 
• Frustrated with the minimal reward, the duo decide to travel north to explore the lands there further.

Current level: Thumb 1, Wexley 1