Stage 6 - Darkness to Light

There are several ways that the characters may reach Inferno. If at any time, the entire party is lost or killed, everyone will appear together in the panelled room. The other way is to pass through the door at the end of Stage 5. In a tournament, any door that the party opens in the last 15 minutes of the game will lead here.

The darkness that surrounds you is very disorienting. Those of you who have survived this far cling to one another as you cling to your sanity, hoping not to lose either. The ground beneath your boots feels like concrete, but it seems unstable, as if it is shifting while you walk, changing shape, changing texture. In the distance, you hear faint screams, long echoing moans of pain and weeping, sobs of agony and cries for mercy.

As you stumble onward, unsure of where you are or where you are going, the air around you grows stuffy and humid, and gradually lightens. Your eyes adjust to the new light and you find yourselves standing on a damp and sticky hardwood floor.

Around you is a huge, dark-panelled chamber. The walls and floors are spattered with blood. There are no doors in this room, save one, a very large portal, the doorknob barely within reach. The ceilings are also very high, maybe thirty feet or more. Electric candelabra with dim flickering bulbs shed a vague light around the room.

Once the team has had a moment to orient itself, the door will open, and the dead members of the party will drift in. They will be in whatever physical condition they were in when they died: half-eaten, torn apart, flayed, whatever. They will not be in physical pain, but they will be extremely subdued, in mental pain. They have had to face their deaths and have full memory of it. Terror throws are recommended for those who are still living.

Accompanying the dead is an immensely tall man who seems to domineer over the dead. He will send his companions to stand with the live members of the group. This is an incarnation of Chagidiel, the Bloodstained Patriarch, in the form of an extremely tall man dressed in black judicial robes, powdered wig, and cape.

The tall gaunt figure of a man, maybe fifteen feet tall, stands before you. With a high forehead and hollow cheeks, a firm angular jaw and stern eyes, he looks down upon you as a British schoolmaster looks upon his erring charges. The corners of his thin-lipped mouth turn upward slightly as he sees your distress. His long arms and elongated fingers brush back the corners of his cape, and that's when you see it. The source of the nagging sound at the back of your brain, barely perceptible, the whine and cry of young children in torment and tantrum.

Projected into the lining of his cape is a swirl of young mutated faces, children's faces, twisted in pain and horror, washing like waves over each other, clawing like rats in a flood who climb over one another to steal another breath as the water rises. Illusion surely, their shadowy visages bend and fold as the warp and woof of the fabric is pushed aside by the giant's skeletal hands. His palms are held out like a mockery of the Christ, but the blood that flows from his hands is the blood of others, not his own.

Terror throws are recommended for the living; the dead are not affected. From under his cape, Chagidiel reveals the empty flesh of Joseph McBane.

In a resonating voice as deep as the Abyss, this devil or demigod speaks: "You have returned my slave to me. He thought that he would escape my service but your pursuit lured him to my domain where I was ready to receive him. For this I am grateful, and as such, I will offer you the opportunity to obtain your lives and your freedom. You must answer a question, that I shall pose to you.

Any one of you may answer. If the answer is wrong, that soul will join me in Inferno. Those remaining may try again. If the answer is correct, the answerer and his companions will be returned to your dream world, alive and whole to live out the rest of what you call lives.

"Here is the question: In the north, I travel as a beetle lest Typhon devour me. In the east, I am a winged disk so that all will know my strength. In the south, I am a heifer so that all will see my beauty. In the west, I become a hawk, preparing for the battle ahead. I am named as a child, yet I have no parents. Who am I?"

Ironically, the answer is the sun. The first four phrases refer to Egyptian symbolism and the four gods who represent the four times of the day. The last clue is a play on the homonyms "sun" and "son".

If the answer is incorrect, Chagidiel's empty hand will transform into an enormous blade which he will plunge through the respondent's body, lift the unfortunate one into the air, and fling the screaming wretch into a flaming pit that will appear in the floor. Chagidiel will then repeat the question and await another answer.

Anyone who attacks Chagidiel will be tossed against the nearest wall as the insignificant threat that they are. Persistent attackers will be killed and thrown into the flaming pit. The Blood Stained Patriarch assumes physical form only to terrorize his audience. He has no need of this form and cannot be harmed by weapons.

If the answer is correct, the Angel of Death will laugh and the entire scene will fade from view. The remaining guards will reappear in the execution chamber where the scenario began. Those who had died in Stages 1 thru 5 will be restored to 2d20 points of endurance, but will suffer a penalty of -10 to their mental balance, gaining one disadvantage of the Gamemaster's choice. Those who died in Stage 6 are lost.

Prison Break

Introduction
Stage 1: Steel Corridor
Stage 2: Abattoir
Stage 3: Above the City
Stage 4: The Slum
Stage 5: Skid Row
Stage 6: Darkness to Light
Ready Made Characters

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