Welcome to the boards, Pikey! May your journeys in the Gael Serran bring you more joy than you've a right to... [img]smile.gif[/img]
The easy question first: at your level, head to the temple for some rites. That's the only way to remove that curse. There may be a spell later on, but if you're in the crypt, you won't have it (whatever it is).
Now, the hard question... first off, I hate those fires too. You can find the answers to getting through them in the Best Tips thread at the top of the forum list.
You go through the fires differently, depending on whether you chose the wizard or warrior path.
For one, running through while carrying a chest will get you past (the portcullis hits the chest and bounces up).
For the other, you can't touch the central healing fire, so you have to run around it.
There are some levers which factor into it as well... when I get there, I save the game, run around 'til I've burned up a few times, and then look it up in best tips. Then I save again and try to get through until I succeed.
If you need more assistance, just post away. You'll find we're quite the friendly bunch around here... [img]smile.gif[/img]