250

With trepidation you cast your eyes around the walls of this fiery nest to see a great shaking panoply of gold, orange, and crimson flames. They shoot fifteen paces into the air and, despite your protections, they scorch you with their terrible heat. The floor of the nest is paved with glowing black metal and is heaped with scores of wondrous artefacts that comprise Huan’zhor’s secret treasure hoard. Gems, jewellery, statuettes, armour, and weapons of fiendish design and purpose are piled knee-high all around you. Close by the trapdoor you notice a pool of shimmering blue light that you immediately recognize to be the apex of a transporter beam, similar to that which brought you here from the crater. By its location you judge that it must pass through the central column which supports the nest and the temple below. At first you assume it gives access to the underground levels of the temple, but when you stare into its mesmerizing light your Sixth Sense reveals otherwise. This transporter beam leads to another realm within the Plane of Darkness.

Mindful of your purpose here, hurriedly you search the treasure hoard for the Scarab that will enable you to escape safely from this hellish domain. As you are sifting through the hundreds of artefacts, you suddenly hear a distant screech that is distinctively different from the coarse cawing of the passing Lavas. Through the flickering wall of flames you glimpse the outline of a gigantic dragon as it emerges from a vent in the roof on the far side of the chasm. Immediately, a deathly silence fills the great cavern as the Lavas and reptilians cease their activities and bow in deference to their master. Your pulse races when you see this monstrous creature come gliding across the chasm towards the temple for you know that he is Huan’zhor the Dragonlord, the ruler of this realm of fire, and he is fast returning to his nest.

Pick a number from the Random Number Table. If you possess Telegnosis, add 3 to the number you have picked.

If your total score is 4 or less, turn to 77.

If it is 5 or more, turn to 327.