Play@YSDC

Check the coals, whenever I read spy novels, always, but always someone his something in the fireplace.
Mike says, chuckling to himself.
Let's try to burn the stones on the table with some hot coal.
Mike suggest as he inspects the stone closely. he takes one and check the weight before smashing it on the floor.
Maybe there is something inside.

"No, wait!" says Clive. "If you break it, it might not work any more. Let me try this." He picks up the tongs by the part that's not in the fire, then uses them to take hold of one of the stones, first watching to see if the stone will cool them off.

The tongs are metal unfortunately after sitting in the fire for so long and the heat has travelled up their entire length even though only the tip is red hot. It looks like they'd need some heavy duty gloves to do it that way.

Clive pulls his hand back. "It's too hot to touch," he says. "If we had some heavy gloves or a blanket or something, maybe I could grab the tongs. Or I could try touching them with one of the stones, see if it cools them off."

Clive nods and picks up one of the stones. He touches the end of the stone to the handle of the tongs to see if it will cool them.

"Pussy foots!" Jack exclaims, "They're just rocks." He grabs three and starts to juggle them, up and up and..."Here Clive, catch!" And he throws one towards the smaller boy.

Clive instinctively reaches out to catch the other stone.

OOC,There are only three stones, and I already took one of them, so you can only juggle two. It's the fire that has us wary, not the stones.

The tongs cool substantially, becoming covered with a fine layer of frosted patterning, but it doesn't take long before they warm back up once the stone has removed, quickly glowing red hot again even though it's only been a few seconds.

Clive holds his stone against the tongs to cool them off again, then removes them from the fire before they can get hot once more.

Clive holds a set of tongs in his hand.

OOC: I didn't see Mike's actions earlier, but that's all right. Attempts to smash the stones by throwing them on the floor don't so much as leave a scratch.

Clive uses the tongs to pick up the stone, then grips them by the handles and extends the stone into the fire. "This ought to cool things off in here," he says. "Hey, maybe there's a secret passage in the fireplace or something!"

The fire seems to dance away from the stone, revealing that, indeed, there seems to be a hole at the other end of the hot coals that even a grown up could squeeze through. Unfortunately cooling off the flames doesn't cool off the coals so it's still too hot to move through there.

Still gripping the stone with the tongs, Clive touches it to the hot coals to cool them off.

The stones will buy us a safe passage into the other side of the fireplace ... let's cool down the tongs and use them to shift the coals to the side, then put them as a wall between us and the coals.
Mike suggests

"The tongs are already cool, thanks to this stone," says Clive. "It should cool off the hot coals too. These stones are really useful!"

The stone melts into the coals immediately, cooling all of the coals as though they hadn't been red hot a moment before. Even the air within that passageway now feels cool against their skin.

"Now we can go down the tunnel!" cheers Clive. "We'd better bring the other stones with us. They sure are great!"

OOC,Was the stone I used completely dissolved?

Good idea Clive
let's take one last look around the room before entering into the hidden passage.

The stones seem to be a one-use item. This place sure is magical. The overall temperature in the area has also gone down, making it more uncomfortable than damnable hellish. It's still enough to bring out a stinky sweat in the adolescents though. The children sweat clean.