The Apocalypse Archive 7-12

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Soundtrack for areas 7-12

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Overview

Previous: Areas 1-6

7. Scripture of the Final Star

If anyone enters this room who does not bear the Shadow Glyph, magical sigils on the threshold – clearly visible – activate, and the shadow of everyone in the chamber not bearing the Glyph awakens to horrific unlife and attacks its owner. To receive the Glyph, one needs to input the correct program card (currently found in area 4) into the Fleshscribe (area 26).

Though far smaller than the adjoining hall, this chamber possesses a sense of sombre gravitas. Murals on the walls writhe with foreboding abstract shapes. At the very centre of the chamber upon a twisted lectern is a gigantic book with a golden cover, some four feet in height.

• Shadow: 2HD (11 Hit Points), Drain (Cha, 1d4 Strength), Speed 30 ft., Infravision 120 ft., Undead (immune to poison, disease, mind-influencing effects), Incorporeal (half damage from non-magical, non-anathemantine attacks), Str 6, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 12.
  • Strength Drain: Rather than dealing damage, Shadows drain the Strength of their victims. A creature reduced to 0 Strength is paralyzed. Strength replenishes with a successful rest.
  • Light Weakness: While in bright light, shadows have disadvantage on all ability checks and saves.

• Close inspection of the murals reveals that they depict a conflict of unfathomable scale involving what appear to be entire star systems, fleets of Librarian Voidcraft, interplanar portals, and inscrutable rituals.

• Those with a copy of the history of the Membrane Wars from the Voidskin Scroll Archive (area 6) will recognize the murals as a powerful artistic interpretation of that centuries-long struggle. Universes are filled with nothing but seething hyperintelligent plasma. The Librarians ruthlessly quarantine whole sectors of the galaxy and doom entire planets to endless night, bombing them with weaponized darkness to snuff out all trace of the Last Light, leaving them cold and lifeless husks that can be recolonized later. Light-devouring vortices cut off unthinkably large swathes of spacetime, prophylactic event horizons.

• The tome is the Scripture of the Final Star, a text which appears blank. To those with Radiation of at least 6, words in the Sidereal Speech are visible. The book takes the form of revelations given to various prophets on many worlds, delivered by the fiery Seraphim of the Final Star. Each revelation speaks of the glory of the Last Light – how, within its radiant bosom, all become one, souls mingling into the fiery infinitude of the deific sun in a blissful immolation. The Star charges its followers to spread its light – physical and spiritual – to every corner of their universe, promising eternal rewards and universal joy. Other gods, the Star maintains, are false idols, “Demiurges” of their respective universes who would seek to steal the souls of their adherents, depriving them of eternity in the atomic Heart Divine. To become one with the Final Star is to literally become God, to share in the dreams and raptures of every other soul that has been Illumined. The Scripture also contains a ritual for summoning a spark of the Final Star in the form of a tainted Sunlight spell. The Scripture is worth at least 500 gp to an academic library or private collector, but weighs 150 lbs.

8. Captured Beacon

A massive structure of grotesque glass like an immense lighthouse lens glistens in the middle of this room, set upon a low dais. It is the size of a small house. Its base is scorched and marred – it has obviously been transported from elsewhere. Close to its base, the blackened remains of two mutant goblins lie crumpled and empty. They appear to have burned from the inside out, with scorch-marks especially evident around their eye sockets.

• The star-spoor trail terminates at the goblin corpses.

• One goblin carries an anathemantine spear (1d8+1 damage, affects incorporeal creatures).

• An Intelligence check confirms that the Beacon is not of Librarian manufacture.

• Should a Cherub or Seraph enter the Beacon, the tainted light of the Final Star will completely flood the room as well as the Empty Darkness Bath (area 11).

• If this massive object could somehow be transported to the surface – it would have to be teleported or magically shrunk – it would be worth around 2,000 guineas to buyers like the Institute of Omens, the Museum of Magical Arts and Antiquities, or the Metamorphic Scholarium.

9. Night-Bomb Arsenal

The door to this arsenal is sealed. The Onyx Keystone (currently in area 16) is required, an octagonal stone placed into a depression to one side of the door. Picking the elaborate lock requires a Dexterity check with disadvantage; on a failure, the arcane mechanism deals 2d6 damage to the would-be intruder, jolting them with raw energy that can leave a thief’s hand a molten lump.

Like area 7, the arsenal is protected with wards requiring a Shadow Glyph to bypass without spawning shadows.

Within the chamber, numerous black orbs swirl with volatile eldritch energy in a series of carven niches.

• Should one be hurled with a range of up to 30 feet, it produces a 10-foot radius vortex of magical darkness. The area becomes difficult terrain, and any creature within must pass a Strength check simply to leave. The vortex deals 1d6 damage per round; Illumined also sustain an additional 2d6 damage. The vortex lasts for one minute.

• There are 30 night-bombs in total.

10. Shrine of the First Darkness

A gigantic idol of otherworldly stone looms at one end of this dim hall. Its exact anatomy is impossible to discern; its limbs are swathed in the folds of a vast stone cloak, including its head. There is something more to it than that – some perceptual slipperiness. The eye glances off the strange contours of the idol; it is impossible to take the whole thing in at once. Set at its base is a hexagonal altar stone with a smaller hexagonal depression at its centre.

• Upon entering this room, all light sources are extinguished. The Illumined cannot enter this space, and if forced here, they sustain 2d6 damage per round. Only those with Infravision can observe the contents of the chamber.

• A successful Intelligence check reveals that this idol represents the First Darkness, colloquially known in Hex as the “Shrouded Lord,” one of the Unspeakable Ones: primordial entities with whom the Librarians formed elaborate, quasi-religious pacts. The First Darkness rules over secrets and obscurity, a kind of elemental principle of anti-knowledge, absence, and lack. It reigned supreme before the universe existed in the primeval void, an eternity of limitless night and perfect nothingness which preceded time itself. As natives of Hex may know, the Shrouded Lord is worshipped in Hex above by certain hidden cults, and more generally by thieves, spies, and assassins.

• If someone offers a body part from someone they killed with their own hand in the hexagonal receptacle, they receive a blessing from the Shrouded Lord. Markings on the altar suggest the various body parts the First Darkness accepts. An Intelligence check with disadvantage reveals the details of one of the sacrifices. These are:

Body Part	Ritual Effect
Brain	The ritualist can ask the referee to reveal some secret of the setting. This could be the identity of a criminal, the location of a magical object, some element of setting history – whatever the player asks. The answer resounds inside the skull of the ritualist.
Looped Entrails	The Shrouded Lord reverses time to the point at which the ritualist entered the Archive. Memories are left intact but otherwise the characters are physically identical to the state they were in when they came in. This effectively gives them a chance to do everything over with all of the foreknowledge they possess. The players can agree to “fast forward” to some point at which they want to depart from the previous timeline.
Tongue	The ritualist learns a dead language, such as Aklo, the Sidereal Speech, Phobish, High Goblin, Old Draconic, Ur-Giant, and similar tongues.
Heart	Any object desired by the ritualist within the Old City that is not inside a Containment Chamber materializes in place of the heart.
Eyes	The ritualist can magically observe any creature on this plane of existence for up to 10 minutes.
Hand	Everyone in the chamber is teleported to a location within the Old City or Hex above demanded by the ritualist.

• Each character may perform precisely one sacrifice of each body part up to once a year. Attempting further sacrifices displeases the First Darkness, who confiscates a precious childhood memory, a name, a language, or a skill for one year as punishment for such avarice.

• A lectern stands empty here. It once held a copy of the The Rites of the First Darkness, but this has been plundered by the adventurer currently being digested by Bloodwood trees in area 21.

11. Empty Darkness Bath

An empty hexagonal depression is evident at the centre of this chamber. A hole lies at its centre, leading downwards. An enormous spout-like mechanism poised over the pit has been twisted and smashed. The entire chamber is bathed in the impossible colours of a shimmering, iridescent light emanating from two radiant whorls of unearthly plasma, crackling with electricity.

• Plasma Cherub: 3HD (12 Hit Points), Irradiate (Dex, 1d6 + 1d6 Radiation), Speed fly 30 ft., Incorporeal (half damage from non-magical, non-anathemantine attacks), Str 4, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 14.
  • Infected Light: A Plasma Cherub sheds light in a 60-foot radius sphere; anyone who can see who is exposed to the light must pass a Constitution save or gain Radiation equal to the amount by which they failed (see Radiation effects in area 4).
  • Snuff: All light sources brought within 10 feet of a Plasma Cherub are sucked into it eyes, fuelling the light within. Magical darkness damages the Cherub for 1d6 per round with no save.

• The Darkness Bath is emptied, but its passage can be followed down to area 60.

• The spout is non-functional, having been deliberately sabotaged by the Illumined – the Bath cannot be refilled unless the spout is repaired.

• Those with a Radiation of at least 16 can perceive the true form of the Plasma Cherubim: they appear as monstrous foetal things with wings of abwhite fire and the grotesque faces of those whose corpses nourished them. They speak the Sidereal Speech and will welcome those with Radiation of 26 or more as Brethren of the Illumined, urging them to bathe in their divine light, the better to nourish the spark of the Final Star nascent inside them, “to become as we are, discarding your fleshly bodies to experience the holy ecstasy of the Last Light.”

• The goals of the Cherubim are as follows:

1. Spread the light of the Final Star to other Vessels.
   
2. Feed on the light and life-force of those they encounter.
   
3. Free the captive Cherubim being kept throughout those parts of the Archive infested by the Bloodwood.
   
4. Merge with ten other Cherubim to form a Plasma Seraph. The Vessels currently incubating Cherubim of their own are nearly sufficient for this number. The process of forming a Seraph takes 24 hours, during which time the Cherubim combine together in a frenzied fusion of plasma and otherworldly light, shedding bright, tainted starlight for 120 feet. While in this form, they are otherwise vulnerable to attack, so ideally they will have further Vessels on hand to defend them. Those with Radiation of at least 16 can perceive a Seraph’s true form: a twisted amalgam of intertwined forms melting and fused together into a charnel mockery, writhing shapes twisted into the semblance of a grotesque, many-limbed angel with dozens of shimmering wings.
   
   Plasma Seraph: 8HD (32 Hit Points), Irradiate (Dex, 2d6 + 2d6 Radiation), Speed fly 60 ft., Incorporeal (half damage from non-magical, non-anathemantine attacks), Str 10, Dex 16, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 16.
   
   Blinding: Anyone looking directly at a Plasma Seraph without eye protection must pass a Constitution save or become blinded for one round (blinded creatures fail all checks and saves involving sight, and their defense rolls have disadvantage). Attacking a Plasma Seraph without looking directly at it imposes disadvantage.
   
   Infected Light: A Plasma Seraph sheds light in a 120-foot radius sphere; anyone who can see who is exposed to the light must pass a Constitution save or gain Radiation equal to the amount by which they failed (see Radiation effects in area 4).
   
   Snuff: All light sources brought within 30 feet of a Plasma Seraph are sucked into it eyes, fuelling the light within. Magical darkness damages the Seraph for 1d6 per round with no save.

5. Disable the miniature black hole containing the Ember of the Final Star.
   
6. Breach the surface; spread the Word of the Final Star far and wide and extend the holy mission of the Last Light to every corner of this world, using Vessels to construct Beacons to spread the Last Light.
   
7. Consume this world utterly.
   
8. Spread to other worlds in this universe, converting all matter and energy in this reality into a version of the Final Star, an eternal conflagration of sentient alien luminescence.
   
9. Breach the boundaries between dimensions so that the original Final Star itself may be joined with the one in this universe and the membranes between worlds can be burned away.
   
10. Repeat this process in new realities to keep the Final Star from burning out.

12. Ember of the Final Star (Containment Chamber)

Bizarre machines that seem to be equal parts ancient organism sputter and wheeze throughout a chamber the size of the Cathedral of Saint Monstrum far above. At the very centre of the room, contained within a transparent dome as big as a church dome, swirls a ferocious black vortex, a terrible void of darkness. The biomechanoid apparatus seems to be sustaining this vortex; a console covered in glyphic letters operates the machine. Four shambolic revenants – two mutant goblins, two human, in the rotting remnants of expeditionary garb – are chewing on the fleshly components of the machine. Light blazes from their eyes.

• Every 1d10 minutes, the vortex partially loses power as the machine overheats. For one round, the miniature black hole being generated inside of the dome collapses, and the entire room is bathed in the iridescent horror of the Ember of the Final Star within. This is the result of the four Illumined Vessels slowly destroying the machine.

• Apart from destroying the containment mechanism, the only way to disarm it is to feed in the correct Deactivation Code into the console of Aklo glyphs. Should the Ember be released, it can be treated as a Plasma Seraph (see area 11) with twice the Hit Points which regenerates 12 Hit Points per round.

• Those with Radiation of at least 31 find that the Ember can speak to them, even while contained. Its voice is magisterial and soothing, at once sublime in its dreadful power and curiously comforting, reminiscent of the voice of a parent or trusted friend or mentor, a voice which crackles and flares as if the words were being formed from livid flames. When it speaks, the mind glows and warms; after a moment of excruciating agony, all pain is, for a moment, banished. It speaks in what will be apprehended as an archaic fashion and refers to itself in the majestic first person: “Warmest welcome, child of flesh and bone, Illumined by Our most divine and holy light. What has brought ye to this oubliette wherein We are most unjustly imprisoned?”

• The Final Star makes its case to one of the Illumined, pleading that they assist in its release. It claims only to want to spread its beneficence in the wider world, and that those touched by its light become one with each other, united in love for one another and the world. It promises an end to all war, strife, conflict, poverty, and pain, to all want and deprivation. It will overturn all hierarchy, end all oppression, and bring everything and everyone together, to embrace the Godhead within them and join in a universal Hypostasis, a mystic union of souls.

• One of the goblins has an anathemantine dagger.

• The human Vessels are former adventurers. Between them they carry 42 guineas, 86 silver pennies, a wheellock pistol, 20 bullets and shot, a Bag of Holding stuffed with 20 scrolls from the Voidskin Archive (area 6), 2 Potions of Healing, a set of thieves’ tools, an incomplete map of this level of the Archive sketching out areas 1-36, and a copy of the Lamentation Glyph Program Card.