Through Huntergate
Transcript
As you step through the shimmering portal of Huntergate, the gold-and-silver mist parts before you. The wall of magical energy seals shut behind you with an ominous hiss, cutting off any retreat to Citadel Altaerein.
You find yourselves in a twenty-foot-wide tunnel that stretches ahead for about a hundred feet. The walls appear to be composed of hardened lava, scorched and melted long ago. Tiny cracks line these obsidian surfaces, revealing an orange glow within that flickers like captive flame, providing the tunnel with an eerie, fiery illumination. The air itself hangs oppressively hot around you at a hundred degrees, and carries the acrid smell of smoke.
Near the far end of this strange passage, another portal glimmers - your destination and only way forward.
Renali steps cautiously beside you, her human form tense. "Something isn't right," she whispers, her eyes scanning the tunnel warily. "The heat... it shouldn't be like this."
As you advance, the cracks in the tunnel walls suddenly widen. Blinding light spills forth as the fissures split open like wounds. Lava pours from these openings, not following the laws of gravity but gathering, twisting and rising into a massive shape before you.
The lava coalesces into a colossal draconic figure that fills the height of the tunnel. Its body forms from molten stone and shadow, its wingspan nearly touching both sides of the passage. A crown of horns wreathed in dark flames adorns its terrible head, and its eyes burn with ancient malice.
The dragon's mouth opens, revealing teeth formed of white-hot stone. It speaks no words, but you feel its presence pressing against your minds - a crushing weight of pure draconic power, radiating hatred, destruction and hunger.
Renali falls back with a cry of terror. "Dahak! It's Dahak himself! The dragon god of destruction!" Her voice breaks with panic.
The way behind you is closed. The portal on the far side of Dahak is open, but only if you can reach it. The dragon-god locks its gaze upon you, cosmic fire building in its maw.
You are likely to die here.
Roll initiative.