### 331

Before you lies a smoke-filled hall that reeks of death and decay. Only the floor appears to be solid, and yet when you stare down at its glassy surface, you see that it is honeycombed with thousands of cells, each one occupied by a tortured soul writhing in perpetual torment. The walls of this evil chamber are wreathed with sulphurous smoke, lit intermittently by shafts of crimson lightning. The foul substances which pass for air seethe with the tension of ferocious, evil energies.

From the centre of the floor there arises a slender domed plinth. Moments later, a wide dais rises beside it, upon which you see a visage of the Dark God, one that he favours whilst occupying his unholy throne hall. Nothing could have prepared you for the sight that now meets your gaze—it is the foulest you have ever seen.

Naar’s favoured form is a great globular body, like that of a bloated spider, borne by a score of stunted limbs which emerge chaotically from the underside of a sac-like abdomen. His face hangs like a parody of a wrinkled old sow’s yet with an evil-smelling black hole where one could expect a snout. The upper surface of his body is covered with pouches of vile fluids that trail wisps of black smoke, and his maw is studded with hundreds of blue-stained fangs. But it is the eyes that shock you most. The Dark God has the eyes of a man.

Naar shifts his bloated body from the dais and slither-shuffles towards the plinth. A misshapen limb extends to the plinth and its domed cover retracts to reveal a wondrous and mysterious artefact. A second shock stuns your senses when you recognize the nature of this artefact. It is one of the most legendary items in all the long history of Magnamund. It is the fabled Moonstone of the Shianti!

Turn to 112.