The dreadful gaze of Shamath falls upon you and your blood runs cold. She points a black-gloved finger at your hiding place and speaks a thunderous phrase in the Dark Tongue that rings like metallic thunder throughout the vaulted cavern. Then, slowly, she raises her other hand and levels it beside the first. A crackling mass of electrical energy explodes into being, arcing between her outstretched palms. She flicks her massive wrists and the sparking coils of power come writhing towards you. Before you can dodge them, they swirl around and encircle your body, imprisoning you in a cage of living energy.
Shamath throws back her head and the floor shudders rhythmically beneath the weight of her laughter. You peer through the gaps in the swirling force field and see that her attendants are now rushing towards you.
Shamath’s laughter becomes a hideous screech. She mouths a word of power and a flood of psychic energy comes washing across the cavern towards you. Fortunately, it hits the force field and breaks like a wave against it, sparing you from its full effect. Even so, the residue which penetrates the wall is enough to leave you stunned and gasping for breath: lose 3 ENDURANCE points.
The Demoness flicks her fingers and instantly the wall is gone. But now you see that you are surrounded by a ring of her sinister, robed attendants.
(Yes I have the Sommerswerd)
You unsheathe the Sommerswerd and a halo of golden light engulfs its god-crafted blade. The dim, shadowy cavern is flooded with its goodly glow and the attendants of the Demoness Shamath waver before it. The hilt is warm in your hands and a strange feeling of miraculous ecstasy floods up your arms and courses through your body. You no longer feel as if you are wielding the sword; you are acting in concert with it. Restore 5 ENDURANCE points.
At Shamath’s command, the attendants draw slivers of steel and come rushing to hack you down. You essay a wide sweep of the sword and scythe the front rank down as easily as if they were ripened corn. Your sword strokes feel effortless; it is as if you are merely holding the Sommerswerd and the blade itself is fighting of its own accord. Within the space of a few minutes you have slain every last one of Shamath’s attendants, over a hundred in number.
Slowly the cavern begins to darken and the towering body of the Demoness shimmers and changes into a new and totally repugnant form: she has taken on the guise of a huge crawling worm. Her slimy flanks are studded with a multitude of tiny tendrils, and her head is equipped with a sphincter-like maw which drips loathsome green saliva. She slithers closer and, in the half-light, you catch sight of her ghastly face. It is like that of an infant, wholly black, save for the eyes which are aglow with a hellish red fire.
The worm-thing rears up and, as the head sweeps past your eyes a second time, you suddenly recognize the facial features and a paralysing blast of psychic shock rips through your mind. It has the face of your long-dead brother Jen.
(Yes I have Kai-Screen)
The unexpected sight of your dead brother’s face leaves you dry-mouthed and shaking, but fortunately your Kai Mastery of psychic defence protects your mind from the full effects of this psychic shock: lose 2 ENDURANCE points.
The face of the worm is changing. It no longer resembles your brother Jen; it has taken on the haughty visage of the Demoness Shamath.
‘Ha!’ she snorts. ‘How puny and insignificant you mortals are. There can be no sport for me in the easy slaying of your kind, for it is too easy. There is no challenge. Therefore I, Shamath, Mistress of the Gates of Darkness, shall devise one. I challenge you to a duel … a duel of intellect!’
The great worm-thing retreats towards the dais and the darkened walls of the cavern are suddenly illuminated by a thousand jets of flame, which roar from jets set into the smooth, glassy floor.
‘Very well,’ she says, fixing you with her supernatural eyes. ‘Let the combat begin.’
‘Attend with care to what I say, mortal,’ says the face of Shamath. ‘When I have finished, I shall ask you this question: “While I am here to do Naar’s bidding, how many loyal servants guard my throne of power?” ’
Shamath notes the look of concentration on your face and she allows herself a sneering laugh at your expense before she continues. She is confident that you will not defeat her in this intellectual contest. She begins:
‘I possess two Dwellers of the Abyss. My loyal servants are equal in number to the months in a Magnamund year, less the number of my Dwellers of the Abyss.’
‘When the loyal servants and the Dwellers of the Abyss were counted together, their total number was doubled when my Lieutenants of Night arrived.’
‘But when my Lieutenants of Night arrived, the Dwellers of the Abyss had to leave.’
‘Exactly half of the remaining number also departed, for they were beholden to the Dwellers.’
‘From the remainder I picked the loyal servants to guard my throne of power. I chose them all, except for one who was known to me as a traitor. I executed the traitor before I set my loyal servants to guard my throne.’
‘So, mortal, answer my question: while I am here to do Naar’s bidding, how many loyal servants guard my throne of power?’
Study the words of Shamath’s riddle carefully. When you think you have the answer, turn to the entry which bears the same number as your answer
(2: 12-2 is 10 loyal servants total 12x2 are 24. -2 is 22. ½ of that is 11. -1 is 10 that’s the answer)
Upon hearing you utter the correct solution to her riddle, Shamath recoils in horror.5 You have beaten her challenge and the humiliation she feels cuts her as sharply as any sword.
She begins to whimper. Then, quite suddenly, a geyser of flame shoots from the floor and engulfs her wormlike body. You watch with disbelief as the tendrilled flesh blackens and flakes away in a matter of seconds, to leave nothing but a coiled heap of glowing cinders.
The blazing cavern walls grow dim, and shimmering waves of the crimson light begin to sweep across the floor towards the crystal dais. Suddenly Shamath reappears in her female form at the base of the dais. In front of her booted legs there stand a dozen powerful warriors, armoured and helmeted as if for war, but their stern faces have no eyes and their mouths have no lips. Behind her, a score of new attendants emerge from the shadows carrying large pieces of shiny black armour. She begins to strap this armour to her limbs and, by the sluggishness of her movements, you can tell that she must have been weakened by your earlier conflict.
With a single word she commands the warriors to attack you. They raise their short swords and come marching slowly forwards, their movements stiff and machine-like. Beyond their advancing line you catch sight of the Deathstaff still lying near the base of the dais, and a bold plan springs to mind. If you could evade the oncoming line of automatons, you could reach the dais. Then you would be able to take the Deathstaff and enter the Shadow Gate before Shamath recovers her strength.
Inspired by your plan, you run towards the advancing line of automatons, taking care to keep a watchful eye on Demoness Shamath, and your goal—the distant Deathstaff.
Pick a number from the Random Number Table.
If you possess Assimilance, add 2 to the number you have picked. If you possess Grand Pathsmanship, add 1. If you possess Telegnosis, add 1. Also, for every level of Kai Mastery you have attained above the rank of Kai Grand Defender, add 1.
(I get +4. I toss a 4 for a 8 total. Yay me!
Swiftly you sidestep the oncoming wave of automatons and leave them hacking uselessly at the air with their swords. The Demoness is putting on an armoured breastplate of varnished black steel, and she is kneeling to allow her attendants to fasten the straps. They are clumsy, and she is distracted and does not see you approaching dangerously close to the dais and the Deathstaff until it is too late. You grab the staff’s cold, metallic haft and instantly you feel the terrible power that is locked within its core.
(I do have, but I didn’t bring with me, Helshezag. So I can’t turn to that place)
You wrench the Deathstaff from the dais and sag beneath its unnatural weight. The moment you raise it into the air, the Demoness spins around to stare at you, sending her attendants flying in all directions. She screams with unholy anger and the noise of her wrath lifts you bodily and sends you skidding across the floor.
Desperately you fight to maintain your grip on the Deathstaff as the furious Shamath gets to her feet. She comes striding towards you, bolts of energy darting from her fingertips to rip open the ground as you stumble away towards the yawning black tunnel. The deafening shriek of Shamath’s voice rings in your ears as you clutch the Deathstaff to your chest and leap head-first into the oblivion of the Shadow Gate.
The screaming winds of the abyss rip and tear at you unmercifully as you are sucked through the heart of this whirling black vortex. All the while you cling to the Deathstaff, although its chill touch is far colder than even the frigid gales of the void and it drains you of warmth like some evil vampire (lose 5 ENDURANCE points).