Certain now that the means of transporting will be safe, you remind yourself that you’re making progress – the mystery of The Archmage’s Comet is slowly revealing itself…
The swirling magic hums above the quieted sound of bubbling lava – the sound is almost soothing… and familiar. You see in the magic threads of golden light… faint and mixed with the dark magic of the portal itself, but your confidence grows as you watch it circle round and round.
Looking at each other’s faces, the heroes decide it’s now or never and bravely leap into the swirling portal.
You arrive with a pop and your surroundings quickly come into focus. The cold, damp air is a stark contrast to the dry heat from the lava cavern and the rhythm of trickling water echoes around you.
The heroes’ senses are on full alert, but they are immediately aware that the persistent and heated feeling… the spontaneous anger… has faded… and you are reminded for a second how quickly tempers were lost.
The high ceiling above is shrouded in darkness and the cave walls are dull charcoal in colour – a stark difference from the reflective and mottled rock walls before, and again so different from the carved rock hallways where you discovered the yellow crystals of energy. Where ARE you now!?
Your eyes now fully adjusted to the comparative darkness, you realize you are not alone in the cavern – and your long-suspected guess of what you would find during your assault of the comet is realized…
Movement now catches your attention – slow, small movement. Just on the edge of the darkness, you see the small, jellyfish-like Star Masks crawling along the floor… away from you. Sensing no immediate danger, your eyes naturally try to pierce the darkness and you see far ahead of you the silhouette of a large creature, its skin dull and grey like the cave walls, labouring against one of the huge boulders shaped and hollowed in the fiery chambers you’ve just left.
Unaware of your presence, the procession of dozens of the Star Masks continues into the tunnel towards the grey brute, their slimy abominations’ origin hidden behind the darkness of the other tunnel.
- The Voice whispers softly to each of the heroes: “Do you remember these lovely creatures?”
Fight!
- 30x Mutant Star-Mask Eggs
- 10x Star-Mask Floating Brain
- 2x Star-Mask Brain Brute
- 3x Brain Keeper
Once the Star Masks have been destroyed, the heroes can inspect their surroundings. It is clear this is a loading bay for the meteors that the comet has been raining down on The Dragon Empire.
- The Voice whispers to Minoru: “Well done my dear… of all your friends, surely you will understand me.”
Three large boulders sit 20 feet apart, each in front of what is a smoothed-out section of rock that must be the portal through which they are ejected. Silently, the procession of Star-Masks begins again, slowly creeping towards the boulders.
They see the Star-Masks wiggle into the cracks of the boulders to wait to be unleashed. It is a sickening sight.
You hear something faint in the distance from back the way you came. Like a ‘pop’ or small burst, you instinctively turn in that direction in just enough time to see a visible wave of energy filling the distant cavern and crashing towards you. You have a split second to react before the cavern is overwhelmed by the flood.
Images flood your brain faster than you can block them out. Horrible, terrifying, agonizing images that make your nightmares pale by comparison. Your past, your present, your future – madness, horror, insanity – an assault no shield can block, and no sword can parry.
The waves of mental anguish having passed, you know full well where your quarry now lies – the source of the blast lies ahead, up the tunnel.
The cavern ahead is black as deep shadow, and if it weren’t for this strange gift of seeing halos around the alien star-mask creatures, the only indication something is in front of you might be the slow, slimy, squelching sound of the tar-mask creatures still oblivious to you and crawling down the tunnel behind.
In the distance, the unmistakable glow of two huge creatures seems clear, and another humanoid figure is further in the distance. Whatever they are… they don’t seem to be aware of you, yet…
The cavern remains dark until one of the players decides to illuminate it with their torch or by some other means.