The last room on this level is a large landing between the flights of stairs going down. All around the party are portals to the Plane of Elemental Fire. Standing on the landing wielding a huge flaming sword is a fire giant.
The fire giant is named Heiðra. He is a former ally of the Vampire Queen. She cursed him to remain here and keep any who would seek her final resting place away. He will do all that he can to keep the party from moving forward.
Heiðra has the stats of a fire giant, save his sword does an additional 2d6 fire damage. He has an abode in the Elemental Plane of Fire and there is a portal nearby. He will not retreat, though, and will fight to the death. If he is dropped to half his HP he will summon 1d4+1 Hellhounds.
The alcove on the near right in Room 26 hides a secret door. This one is expected is not a bit obvious.
There is a corridor that goes on for some 100 feet. As the party moves on the corridor twists and turns as well as widens. It opens into a chamber. At the other end of the chamber there is a flight of stairs that goes down as far as the eye can see.
Inspecting these stairs show signs that they one had been grand but have suffered damage from the volcanic activity. Closer inspection reveals the source of this activity, many open portals to the Plane of Fire where lava and fire are coming through.
The alcove on the far right in Room 26 opens to a long hall. As the party moves down they hear growling.
In this part of the hall has the heads of various demons fixed to the walls like trophies, which is exactly what they are.
As the party approaches the demons growl and hiss. The party can read a plaque under each one, it has the demon's name and the date it was killed by the Vampire Queen. The characters need to be careful, getting too close and the demon head can bite for 2d6 hp of damage.
Each head is still "alive" but lock in a sort of perpetual death. They can't regenerate their bodies and they can't die.
The demons demand to be released, but they honestly have no idea how that can be accomplished.
A few times in my life are clearly defined as "Before" and "After."
Graduations. Marriage. Kids. But one that has left a significant mark on me (and my wife Natalie) was Before and After hearing "The Lion and the Cobra" by Sinéad O’Connor. Seeing her in concert remains one of the best shows I have ever been to in my life.
I do not believe in any sort of afterlife at all. But I hope she finally found some sort of peace.
The effect her music, especially her first few albums, had on me is quite frankly immeasurable. Not surprisingly, she also inspired some of my favorite RPG moments.
I am not going to say there would have been no "The Dragon and the Phoenix," my epic Buffy RPG campaign without Sinéad's "The Lion and the Cobra," but it and everything that came after it (my work on the Buffy RPG, Ghosts of Albion) would have looked very different.
Back in 1988, listening to "The Lion & the Cobra" (for like the 1000th time likely), I had an idea of a character that loved someone so much that they breached the walls of death and came back to that person. It was a powerful image and something I wanted to do ever since. Eventually, that image from so long ago became a central theme of "The Dragon & the Phoenix." The song was "Troy" (as in Trojans) and the final adventure was named "No Other Troy." Both for the Sinéad O'Connor song and the Yeats poem.
The build-up for this adventure, an interlude, was set to "Drink Before the War," also from "The Lion and the Cobra."
While "The Lion and the Cobra" had a HUGE impact on my life, it was not her only album. Another contributing factor to both my Ravenloft games of the 1990s and "The Dragon and the Phoenix" was "I am Stretched on Your Grave" from her wildly successful "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got."
Another element added to the soundtrack of my early 2000s games was her 1994 album "Universal Mother," with "Fire On Babylon" being the main choice.
Sinéad also appeared on many other albums. One song of hers really help me find the tone I was looking for for my The Dragon and the Phoenix game. It is "Empire" off of Bomb the Bass's album "Clear."
Other Games
Though back in the late 80s / early 90s the Buffy RPG was not even an idea yet. What was an idea were my ideas for a Star Trek TNG game after picking up some FASA Trek material for TNG. Back then the idea of a Ghost Ship and the song was "Jackie" also from "The Lion and the Cobra."
This was, no doubt, inspired by what I was doing back then. A lot of horror role-playing.
Another song, which while by itself did not lead to any RPG ideas, it lead me to Enya which more or less was my soundtrack for writing Ghosts of Albion. The song was "Never Get Old" also from "The Lion and the Cobra."
Other Videos
I can't have a proper tribute without mentioning "Nothing Compares 2 U." I was at a party one night back in college. People were drinking and generally doing what you do at an underage college keg party. The TV was on MTV as background noise. Sinéad came on with "Nothing Compares 2 U" and I swear the whole place ground to a halt so people could watch her. Ok, maybe not to a halt, but it was early enough in the release of the song that not many had seen the video yet. I already had heard the song many times, I bought the album on the day it was released, so I knew it. I think I may have even seen the video. But now everyone else was discovering something I already knew. Just how fantastic she was.
Her critics (and there are so many of them) are all quick to point out that Prince wrote this song. Yes. Yes he did and Prince is amazing. He has written so many songs for so many artists. But when Prince wrote this he was singing about a lover. Sinéad was singing about her abusive mother and how she really just wanted to be loved by her the same way she loved her.
Tell me that doesn't make it hit harder.
Speaking of critics.
At the concert to celebrate Bob Dylan's birthday right after the Pope thing, she came on stage and was booed by the crowd. Singer Kris Kristofferson came out, gave her a hug, and told her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." She did her song and fled the stage, where Kristofferson was there to give her a hug. My admiration of him went up several notches after that. In 2009 he recorded an acoustic song, "Sister Sinead."
I'm singing this song for my sister Sinead Concerning the god awful mess that she made She told them her truth just as hard as she could Her message profoundly was misunderstood
There's humans entrusted with guarding our gold And humans in charge of the saving of souls And humans responded all over the world Condemning that bald headed brave little girl
And maybe she's crazy and maybe she ain't But so was Picasso and so were the saints And she's never been partial to shackles or chains She's too old for breaking and too young to tame
It's askin' for trouble to stick out your neck In terms of a target a big silhouette But some candles flicker and some candles fade And some burn as true as my sister Sinead
Ok...maybe a little self-serving here. Ok. A lot. But I spent some time organizing my social media profiles and thought I'd share them all here for ease.
Here is my new Link in Bio from bit.ly.
Oddly, iframes are not working with this one.
As you can see, you can now find me on bsky (BlueSky), Mastodon, and Threads, in addition to all the other places I have been at forever.
Share yours below and connect with others. With social media a vast and unconnected set of sites, it is hard to find out what cool things people are doing now. Or at least keep track of them.
I guess this is one of the reasons why I continue to blog here, it is my corner of the Internet, and I can do what I like, as I like.
The closer alcove on the left back in room 26 appears to be a short alcove with another bas-relief of the Vampire Queen (similar to Level 2, Room 18) this time she is playing the violin.
It is fairly obvious that the violin is of different construction than the rest of the bas-relief.
A thief can use a find traps roll or an elf with a secret door roll to discover this secret door.
