Netherwars Part 1 – Based on the adventure “Master of Earth” by Crystal Fraser
Peter wandered around the BASEment trying to make sense out of everything that Akira, Banshee (no, she preferred to be called Mary when in her ‘elderly bag lady’ personae apparently) and Jeeves, their manager (?) or was that organiser (?), told him about this converted World War One underground ammunitions factory. A weird teenager called Mikey, who was also in on their secret, apparently ran the scrapyard above them. That weird sculpture over the entrance to the yard of a car transformed into a spider was apparently her work and incorporated some sort of base security in it, which she’d also helped design.
He turned to Mary and Akira intending to ask them a question about their training facilities when a burst of light enveloped the three of them (though it failed to snatch Jeeves despite him standing right beside him). A second later, the three of them were standing outside a large building that vaguely resembled the grounded stern of a cruise ship, looking at a shocked girl in a dark blue bodysuit and cloak (now the idea of a cloak he liked, though preferably in red). Peter glanced up and saw a dozen three-metre plus tall, humanoid ‘monsters’ surrounding a handsome human dressed in a kilt (he was inhumanly tall at two and a half metres himself and only seemed small compared to his escorts). He heard Banshee mutter to the girl, “Formorians! I’ve encountered them before. Seven, what’s going on?”
Ten minutes before, at the Artefact Research Centre, London.
Adrian Eldrich was still missing off world somewhere, so when his manservant Sallah had been approached by the Artefact Research Centre to ask if Eldrich could examine an object with possible mystical attributes, he’d asked Seven if she could go instead. See if she could make some sense out of a football-sized black pearl discovered near the shore of Loch Arbhach in County Sligo, Éire that was believed to be related in some way to a legendary race known as the Fomorians.
Seven landed in the car park and began to walk casually towards the main entrance to the building. Now that the rain has stopped and the clouds have parted, it was shaping up to be a beautiful day, only for her thoughts to be interrupted as a booming impact made the entire area shudder. Alarms blared to life as a variety of hulking humanoid creatures—at least three metres tall and clad in rough metal armour – gathered in the car park, with more arriving in flashes of lightning. They bowed as a final arrival—a devastatingly beautiful man in a kilt—shouted unheard orders to them and then pointed directly at the Centre.
She was outnumbered, easily a dozen to one, but she had been designing a ritual that would summon her friends from the NeXt at Claremont Academy to her side for just such an emergency, at least in theory. She immediately started casting the ritual to summon forth her teammates.
The initial impact came from the first Fomorian to arrive, picking up and hurling a car into the side of the building in her enthusiasm to begin the assault. The warriors who followed had regrouped to await their ruler’s arrival. Now he’d arrived the assault began. The front doors exploded into splinters as a second thrown car tumbled down and smashed, blocking the entrance. The giants have already begun striding towards the entrance.
As Seven completed the invocation, streamers of magic energy intertwined and reached through the cosmos to retrieve her friends. There was a burst of smoke, which parted to reveal three very surprised members of The Balance instead. Seven realised that she hadn’t actually specified the NeXt in the summoning, only calling her teammates to her and technically she was supposedly now interning with The Balance, under Mace, despite not actually having worked with them yet due to her recent disappearance. Regardless, she was still officially their intern.
She turned and tried to explain what had happened and that she’d messed up the spell and summoned them instead of her Claremont classmates.
Akira and Banshee had a newcomer with them, a very handsome man she’d not meet before. He smiled at her even as he floated off the ground and turning to her said, “No problem, you’ve summoned more powerful heroes to assist. That’s no accident.” Akira smiled and exclaimed, “She did indeed.”
Another car was sent flying towards the entrance, only for Peter to fly up and grab it in the air, intending to throw it back at the man in the kilt. He managed to stop it mid-flight but failed to get a good grip on it and it fell to the ground only a few feet in front of him.
Mary immediately turned into Banshee as Akira raised his shields in readiness.
The tall, handsome man standing behind the monsters laughed. “Seems our partner was right. Not a thing guarding our enemies’ halls, but a slip of a mage and a handful of heroes. Oi then! We’ve come for m’ Eye of Balor, and if’n ye give it an’ the key over swiftly, I swear ta leave yer intact. Just!”
That was when Banshee realised she knew him. A few months before, Banshee, aided by the Aontacht Éire (Irish Unity), had met Bres the Beautiful and his Fomorians in Ireland. They’d ultimately exiled the invaders back to their prison dimension of Annwn, but not before finding and removing the Eye of Balor. Bres and his warriors must want to recover the powerful magical artefact. She immediately responded with a powerful wail that seemed to strike at an unprepared Seven and Peter more than it did the Fomorians.
Seven responded with a mystical blast aimed at the two Fomori rushing towards her. They both paused, one was clearly staggered but the other seemed to shrug it off, though neither continued with their charge. “That’s how you do it. Hope you were watching and learning Akira!” she muttered, though only Peter with his enhanced hearing actually heard her.
He responded by flying towards Bres intending to end this quickly, only for two of his hulking bodyguards to interpose themselves between him and his target. He smashed into them both and unleashed a flurry of blows that left one of the monstrous giants dazed and the other unconscious, though he was forced to fly back up as several of the other Fomorians responded and he was momentarily overwhelmed.
It did leave Bres temporarily undefended and from behind his shield, Akira unleashed a powerful mystical blast at their leader, leaving him dazed and confused.
Before Peter or Banshee could follow it up though, one of the Fomorian giants stepped up and let out a roar intended to intimidate them. It worked on Peter at least, given his level of inexperience he was caught unawares by the unexpected challenge.
Banshee knew she had to give him time to recover and unleashed another Banshee’s wail, given Bres’ existing state it caused him to stagger back but not before he completed a complicated gesture that caused the earth to erupt up and grab hold of Peter then hardened around him. A few seconds later, Peter broke free and flew up, leaving the remnants of shattered stone ‘fingers’ scattered across the now broken surface of the car park.
Seven followed up Banshee’s attack on Bres by manifesting mystical shackles round his wrists, even as his guards surged forward to block any further attacks. Peter flew down and grappled with one of the Fomorians, punching him to the ground, only to have to fly back up as two more tried to club at him.
Seven suddenly felt overwhelmed at their chances of winning and hesitated even as one of the giants reached her and Akira and hammered down on his force shield with his club, almost shattering it and forcing Akira to dodge the blow which cracked and shattered the tarmac where he’d been standing seconds before. He responded with a mystical blast, which caused his attacker to fly back into the other attackers.
He glanced over and realised that that Bres had apparently disappeared, but a human had arrived in the rear of the car park at the same moment. Akira reached out with his mystical senses and confirmed that someone or thing had recently cast a familiar spell, one he’d studied but never actually cast; a variant on the Scarlet Shades of Sirrion whereby a vermillion darkness should have cloaked him whilst he had shape-changed into another… The tall, blonde female perhaps? She was known to Seven at least as she explained that the woman they saw was the ARC’s CEO, Tanya Weyland who was due to meet her this morning and discuss the artefact.
Unwilling to take a chance that this was just a coincidence, Akira summoned forth the ‘Eight Eyes of Ios’. He felt a glowing ring of unblinking golden orbs materialise floating around his head and granted him the ability to see in all directions and through any concealment or illusion. He immediately realised that Ms Weyland was really herself and Bres’ had actually shape-changed into the image of one of his bodyguards – making them the only two giants that were identical. That was a mistake, given how different each Fomorian was from each other.
Akira allowed the ‘eyes’ to fade and focused all of his effort into a mystical blast at the doppelgänger. It hit and the remaining Fomorians began to retreat as an unconscious Bres was surrounded by his remaining guards and a spiral of light behind them suddenly materialised. Were they fleeing back to Annwn or to whoever his ‘partner’ was?
Akira shouted to Banshee to see if she could prevent Bres from leaving, pointing out which one to target. Banshee immediately flew into the middle of the fleeing giants and grabbed at Bres even as Seven swotted the guards away and she was able to turn both him and her prisoner insubstantial as he flew them both back. His guards tried to snatch him back, but it was too late, their hands passed straight through them.
Peter flew in and punched the guards’ unconscious, even as Bres began to shape-change back into himself. Peter then began throwing the remaining and unconscious Fomorians through the breach even as it began to fade and disappear. He continued to do this until the last Fomorian except Bres was thrown through and the breach had collapsed. Then they pulled Bres away from the ARC and tried to find out more about his partner.
It took half an hour of ‘persuasion’ from Peter and Banshee while Akira cast the Light of Lamal, also known as the “Light of Law,” a pure, streaming ray of white light that compelled those illuminated by it to speak the truth.
Bres was surprisingly amiable, bordering on charming under the light. He freely admitted that war was largely a game for him, one he would prefer to play repeatedly, rather than risk his immortal hide. He surrendered under the circumstances, seemingly trusting that his guile and magic will help him escape eventually.
In the end they knew that the Fomorians absolutely intend to keep using the Eye as a weapon and that Bres had struck a deal with a dark sorceress known as Una the undying from the Netherworlds to help them escape their dimensional prison, Annwn. That same sorceress told them to attack now, because the “palace” should have been mostly undefended.
Seven was able to confirm what he said, that Una was a Dark Lord, an evil Master Mage whose wicked heart has corrupted her entire dimension before she had gone on to conquer hundreds of worlds to add to her empire.
When he’d been Earth’s Master Mage decades ago, Doctor Avery had fought Una and tricked her into never returning to Earth while he lived. With Avery no longer present, Una was apparently no longer barred from Earth and she’d wanted Bres to find a ‘key’ for her that was stored in the ARC’s archives though he claimed that he didn’t know what it was only that once he had found his way into the vaults he was to ‘call’ on her.
With that he whispered, “Una, m’lady…”
Discordant notes echoed throughout and the air seemed to ripple and squirm before the image of a face—a stern woman with black hair and immaculate makeup, her head circled by three mystical flames — appeared, ten times larger than life floating in the air. She spoke, and they all heard the voice reverberating in their skull.
“It seems my vanguard were not the peerless soldiers they claimed to be. It is little matter. Bres is a coward, and his Fomorians were little more than a bee to prick at your ears and warn of my approach.
We have not been formally introduced. I am Una, Dark Empress of the Nether Realms and conqueror of the nine-hundred ninety-nine worlds! Your Doctor Avery may have temporarily barred my ownership of your paltry realm through his ‘wizard’s duel’ and cowardly tricks, but he is dead. And even now, here on my throne world — so far beyond your childish grasp—my armies prepare to march across your world.
“Only a Master Mage could hope to stop me, and your Adrian Eldrich so palely filled that role. He is now trapped inside my palace and you,” pointing at Seven, “oh swaddled infant, are no Adrian.” With that, she vanished, leaving them to mull over what to do next.
As a group, they quickly agreed that they had to try to rescue this Master Mage Adrian, as quickly as possible, but how to do so? It was Akira that remembered at the start of their time travel adventures to capture the vampire Boire that he’d managed to combine a series of abilities together to dimension travel – using the same spells and with assistance from Seven, he was positive he could navigate their way to this Netherworld.
He muttered the words and expressed the gesturing that created the right mental attitude in his mind to manifest the Airts of Ahgrazul. He then opened a teleportation portal but without a destination while holding his blade pendant. Then everyone, including Bres stepped through into the brilliant light that separated the realities as time slowed and they found themselves drifting in a sea of red fluid that somehow allowed them to breathe. Akira watched as several dimensional breaches appeared in front of him, illustrated by dimensional ‘vapour trails’ from previous passages through the Bleed. He dived through a recent tear and they felt the non-liquid mana they were emerged in revitalise and repower them. Then the Airts pulled them in a particular direction and they collapsed out into a world unlike their own.
The world twisted and deformed around them into strange new shapes. No sun hung in the sky above them; instead, the entire sky churned with a dull fire of orange and purple. Ashen grey and blood-red plants sprouted from the rocky ground, and they found that they had arrived on a bluff overlooking some sort of riverside factory town below. In the distance, impossibly tall and slender mountains stretch up disturbingly high, while a floating city rode the winds high above the peaks.
The town below them resembled a medieval settlement or the set from a fantasy television show, with cobblestone streets and stone-and-timber buildings capped with slate roofs. A few anachronistic elements set the Netherworld apart from a historical setting, including what looked like radio aerials on most buildings, the majority of which were two stories tall.
Most of the walls were made from wood, but the town hall, the granary, and other large buildings had stone walls. The nearby mill was itself as large as the town, with concrete walls and filled with a variety of ore-crushing rollers, automated forging hammers, large spinning centrifuges, and crucibles.
Below they could see chalk-white figures rounding up villagers, dragging them into a rough circle, overlooked by two figures in black robes and a third in bright red. At her feet was an older woman in chains. The woman in the red cloak kicked out at her prisoner and they saw that she was wearing skeletal makeup from head to foot, “like a Kiss fan” muttered Peter. His extraordinary senses revealed that the chalk figures appeared to be animated skeletons, and he overheard the woman in red’s words as she spoke to the villagers even as another group of skeletons searched the properties, occasionally dragging baskets of food out into the street.
Peter relayed what the sneering young woman in a red cloak and skull makeup said as she stood before the cowering villagers, flanked by two hulking figures obscured by their own black cloaks. “Stockpiles of food? If one didn’t have unwavering faith in our Dark Queen, one would almost think you rodents were concerned for your survival under her rule, or perhaps even contemplating treason! How fortunate for you that Queen Una saw fit to dispatch me, Lady Kada’vrus to assume control of your little town from this snivelling governor of yours. I have come to save you from yourselves. And all my grace will cost you is one from every ten adults to join my army of undying glory!” She punctuated her lecture by kicking the older woman in chains beside her, “Starting with this one, shall we?”
This in particular annoyed Banshee, which made Peter smile despite the dilemma before them. It just confirmed his desire to knock her block off. He did wonder how he was able to understand her words for he was pretty sure she wasn’t speaking English yet that’s what her heard. Seven realised what was concerning him, “it’s a side effect of travelling through the mana-rich fluid of the Convergence, universal translation lasting for about a week before it fades… Adrian said he thought it was the residue of an ancient spell, but no one knows for sure.”
It was Akira however that responded first; by firing off a mystical blast from where he stood. The blast connected against the speaker, ripping her cloak off but apparently doing no real damage though it identified the cloaked figures names. The woman Kada’vrus called out to the two hulking brutes, “Cayrne and Slymme!”
No time to waste, a decision had been made. Banshee turned insubstantial as she flew off the bluff and unleashed a terrorising shriek to clear the streets; it affected the town’s people who ran for cover, but it unfortunately had no effect on the skeletons. Meanwhile, Peter set off to punch Kada’vrus’ face in while screaming, “I’ll give you rock and roll!” However, before he reached her one of the brutes threw off his cloak and stepped in front of her. Kada’vrus mystically erected a series of shields that circled her, even as her guardian suddenly changed from a hulking reptile-like brute with a triangular heard into some sort of green ectoplasmic slime and try and splash him with his essence. Instinctively he knew that if he succeeded, it could drain him of his strength and stamina. He managed to dodge only to hit Kada’vrus’ shields and bounce off, landing dazed on the ground.
He immediately grabbed hold of a nearby cart and flung it at her, only for it to bounce off and shatter as well.
Before he could fly away, the other brute Cayrne revealed himself as some sort of large golem made out of natural stone. He gestured and the earth at Peter’s feet swallowed him whole, as he was dragged deep underground. Akira flew towards where Peter had been swallowed and used his theurgical-kinesis when he was about a 100 metres out to try and pull Peter out of the ground, but was unable to sense him. He saw Slymme restore himself back into his reptilian form. There was something undead about the two of them, only Kada’vrus appeared to be fully alive.
On the bluff Seven was shattering skeletons with her mystical blast even as they tried to pull the citizens out of their homes to use as hostages. It’s hard to move when reduced to a pile of bone shards.
Banshee flew in close and unleashed a wail on Kada’vrus, Slymme and Cayrne but only Kada’vrus was apparently affected, backing up the theory that the two brutes were amongst the animated dead. Kada’vrus staggered back under the onslaught and her shields faded.
A few seconds later the ground erupted beneath Cayrne’s feet as Peter broke free and he emerged covered in dirt as he grabbed him and flew as fast as he could into the sky, a mile high before he punched him down towards the ground. In under 20 seconds, Cayrne hit the ground like a meteorite – and shattered into a hundred fragments.
For a few seconds Peter felt shame and anger at himself for murdering a sentient being, then as he got closer to the ground he saw that the fragments were moving, trying to reform.
Below, Seven animated a cart to run over and shatter two more of the skeleton guard, even as they reached out to drag an elderly woman out of her house. Akira, gave out a sigh of relief that Peter hadn’t suffocated when he’d been dragged below ground and unleashed another mystical blast at Kada’vrus, which seemingly missed. Her attention was distracted when she saw Slymme divide into two duplicates of himself, one of whom was trying to run towards the floating city in the distance. He heard the chained woman, their Governor, shout, “Don’t let any of them escape or we’re all dead!”
A blast from seven caused the runaway to turn into a pool of slime even as Banshee tried to blast Kada’vrus again and fail, though she did manage to hit the other Slymme and slow her down. Then things got chaotic as the remaining attackers were rendered powerless. Peter grabbed two of the remaining animated skeletons and rendered them into powder by banging them together. Akira unleashed mystical blasts at both of the reformed Slymme’s rendering them both back into a single pool of goo.
Realising that Cayrne was some sort of earth elemental, Seven advised Peter to gather the shards before they reformed and place them somewhere that they had no contact with the earth so they wouldn’t reconstitute themselves in time. He gathered the fragments and placed them on the roof of the nearby factory, where they lay completely inert.
Slymme was eventually placed in several bottles and buried apart underground in an old cave. This is where they had originally stored their extra food, but they couldn’t risk using such an obvious hiding place again.
Over the next few hours, Banshee and the Governor, a middle-aged human woman called Radi, with long unkempt brown hair and a sun-kissed complexion. She possessed a “demon eye”—a brilliant yellow eye with a slit pupil—a relatively common birthmark in the Netherworld tey were quietly informed that apparently conveyed no special abilities but the locals considered it lucky.
They realised that the people of the Netherworld were generally a miserable, cowed lot. They were fundamentally human, but centuries of exposure to their realm’s corrupted magic marked most with physical abnormalities, such as horns, fangs, skin discolourations, or other monstrous traits.
Radi filled in the blanks for them. The town governor wasn’t an especially good or an especially bad person, but she was a very practical person who wants to keep her town functioning and healthy. Rada was what she considered to be “non-confrontational,” by her own estimation with no interest in rebellion, but she also had no interest in upsetting these heroes or turning the town of Tarabahva into a war zone. She was simply a long-suffering administrator who wanted to be left to run her town in peace and keep her people alive if possible.
Unfortunately she’d agreed to hide some of this year’s crop to prevent winter shortages but this inspection had been unexpected and Kada’vrus had arrived with her squadron of undead and found not just the extra crops in the houses but had managed to get the frightened citizenry to reveal the food cache in the cave.
Their ‘reward’ for hording was to have been a cull of the living with her taking one from each group of ten adults to join her army even though Rada complained that they weren’t due to be ‘tithed’ for another three years—these would have been transformed into new undead forces in the soul forge.
Now awake again, it was time to decide on what they should do about Kada’vrus. Radi suggested that they take her into the desert and kill her; otherwise she might lead Queen Una to punish them and destroy the entire settlement. They were likely dead anyway, unless they could repair the factory machinery that Kada’vrus has damaged previously as part of their punishment. Never mind that unless they could hide the extra crops somewhere, that most of them would likely die this winter from starvation.
Execution was not a solution, but what were they to do? It was then they realised that during their battle, Bres had used his disguise spell to slip away. It was too late to search for him and anyway he was unlikely to seek out Una so perhaps his escape was for the best?
Mystically revitalised by their travel through the rivers of mana, Akira wandered off to look at the damage done by Kada’vrus. He called forth the first wheel of Weyan, or the Wheel of Workings as it was sometimes known, and set it loose in the mills to animate and repair the damage inflicted upon the equipment by Kada’vrus’ forces. Once activated the spell weaved through reality to repair and clean up the collateral damage done to it, It would take time to complete but would continue to function unattended until all the damage was repaired. He wasn’t happy to find out one of the major end products was weapons for Una’s armies, but he had to accept it. He then joined Peter and Seven as they combined their abilities to create a secret food warehouse on the edge of the town, even though Peter was jokingly asking if this was paid or pro bono work. The design was simple – a large hole in the ground with a stone roof and support pillars, which the villagers could potentially extend themselves over time if needed, though looking at their meagre food cache, that wasn’t going to become urgent anytime soon.
Meanwhile, Banshee has interrogating Kada’vrus to see if they could find a solution about what to do with her. She was sure that Kada’vrus was only loyal to Una out of fear. She had begun to panic that she would have to face Una or her executioner for her failures. Banshee assured the necromancer that they were there to destroy Una.
She would not join the heroes in a direct attack on the citadel or Una but Banshee was able to convince her to guide them to Una’s Citadel of Sorrows provided they let her go when they reached the undercity where she could hopefully portal away to another of Una’s many realms and hide. She didn’t know if Eldrich was amongst Una’s prisoners, but if he was he would either be in the dungeon’s or possibly imprisoned in the mirror dimension.
They had one last task that Banshee wanted to try before heading to Una’s palace – they asked Radi to bury the ground-up skeleton fragments in the fields after they had mystically converted them into fertiliser. Between Seven, Akira and herself they could have possibly have mystically grown the town folk additional crops, but it would have taken them time and mystical energy to achieve and they didn’t have enough to spare. This ritual, based around a variant of the Fourth Wheel of Weyan ritual, would hopefully and selectively speed up growing times. If successful and performed correctly by the town folk, it would have longer-term benefits than growing an additional crop; allowing for two seasons of crops each year even with their stony soil, for a number of years but it was a risk so they only told Radi what they hoped the ritual might be able to achieve.
With that completed and as they were about to leave to head for the Citadel of Sorrows Radi gave them a warning that it was possible that one of the residents might be a spy for Una and while they wouldn’t risk the wrath of their neighbours by informing on them, the team had no such protection. Banshee nodded as they started to travel towards the distant mountains and Una’s flying citadel.
The blood-red landscape in front of them appeared to consist of a single, continuous continent without a horizon, pockmarked by rivers, mountains, oceans, and lava fields. This made judging distances difficult, if not near impossible. Akira decided to make an estimate anyway, and subsequently announced that it should take them about half a day before they would reach the mountain below the floating citadel. Kada’vrus said nothing, but did allow herself a little smile at his calculation.
The road they were travelling on seemed to have little connection to the terrain around them and at times rose high above it on precariously thin stone struts, providing a dangerous view of the rolling hills and swamps of the Netherworld. Strange silhouettes flapped through the permanent twilight sky on four wings, while odours of rotting vegetation and brimstone wafted up from the streams and springs they passed. Even the plant life had adapted to the hostile climate, with everything covered in either vicious barbs or thorns, or snapping shut at the slightest touch. Here and there, shadows moved near the roadside, only to dart away whenever they drew near.
They’d initially considered flying to the outskirts of the Citadel, but someone would have to carry Kada’vrus and the idea was dismissed completely when they saw the level of war-preparedness occurring in the settlements they passed on the plain below. When they then saw the massive ships, they were convinced that the last thing they needed was to draw any attention to themselves by flying.
Thousands of troops, in a mix mash of armour and weaponry could be seen entering the enormous troop carriers, a seemingly infinite variety of soldiers readying themselves for war. Outfitted in an eclectic mix of armour and carrying a variety of weaponry; from swords and spears to blasters and power staffs, they were arriving in hordes seemingly from the direction of the Undercity on the tabletop surface of the severed mountain in the middle of the mountain range.
The team did their best to ignore what was happening on the plains and try to carry on, though Peter did request Seven try to “communicate” with her “master” Adrian Eldrich and see if he was on-board any of the massive steampunkish-looking interstellar warships they were passing. Seven took a deep breath and explained that Adrian had been her teacher, not master and no she had no telepathic bond but as far as her mystical senses were concerned, she felt sure that he was still in the Citadel and not on-board any of the ships they passed.
It took another three hours in the constant, near insufferable heat before they reached the shadowy outskirts of the Under City. Eventually, a sprawling medieval metropolis replaced the harsh countryside. Dark, mystical clouds loomed over the grey city, dropping an ashy rain on every street and surface. Above it all towered the severed mountain tip and on its surface a wicked, writhing citadel built of black and organic-looking stone and surrounded by iron spires.
Una’s citadel towered high above the surrounding landscape, with her capital city built on the mystically created plateau below, stretching outward for a dozen kilometres in every direction. A huge variety of strange beings—mutated and magical humans, elves, dwarves, demons, lizard-kin, and even stranger—wandered the streets, all representatives of and traders from the 999 worlds the Queen of the Netherworld has conquered. This amazing diversity meant that even they could blend into the crowd without drawing any undue attention.
Akira immediately felt nauseated by the constant stench. The city itself stank worse even than London in 1666. Most of the buildings were of wooden construction and in poor or rotting condition. Precarious buildings had been built haphazardly on top of the others, often connected only by unsafe ladders or walkways criss-crossing the streets below. Only one building really stood out in the Under City; a tall, majestic castle-like structure in the centre of the city that Kada’vrus referred to as the Temple of Portals, apparently her intended destination if she was to try and flee Una’s wrath.
After a very unfruitful session of interrogation, in which Peter and Akira asked Kada’vrus how they could covertly gain access to the Citadel above them, she took her leave and immediately headed into the labyrinth of narrow streets. The team decided to follow and make sure she was not going to betray them… Peter made sure to remind her, “As promised, we’ve kept to the bargain, we just hope you keep to yours.”
As soon as she had left, the team debated following her, possibly in disguise, though Akira drew the line at “smearing myself in mud in order to fit in”. Instead, it was decided that Banshee and Akira would turn invisible after touching Seven and Peter so they would also no longer be visible then they followed her keeping to the underpasses as much as possible.
After a series of seemingly random turns, obviously intended to reveal anyone visibly following her, she dived into a nearby inn and started talking to several people before approaching an elderly man sat at one of the tables. The Balance considered following her in but in the end decided that being invisible would not prevent someone banging into them and betraying their location, so they stayed outside and tried to see what she did through the windows.
“Could do with some food, but I suspect roasted rat’s on the menu,” muttered a hungry Akira.
They saw Kada’vrus exchange something for what looked like a letter then she strode away quickly making no effort to disguise her destination; the Temple of Portals.
As they attempted to follow her through the crowded streets, Seven couldn’t help notice that although magic was clearly common here, it was all for the most part fairly low-key, underpowered magic.
They watched as Kada’vrus approached the Temple, bribing or paying a fee to enter to a tall priestly looking native with grey skin and blind-looking eyes. The Balance, lacking gold but still invisible, covertly entered behind her. Inside the massive cathedral, the centre of the building was empty except for crowds of people; the temple itself seemed to stretch up for thousands of metres. The ramps were filled with pilgrims and merchants, travellers and entire brigades of soldiers, each stepping into or out of the thousands of mirror portals that completely surrounded the outer temple walls, from floor to roof. Wide ramps and walkways encircled the walls, allowing access up to the highest levels and to each and every single mirror.
Without stopping, Kada’vrus barged through the milling crowd and ran up towards the seventh level where she spoke to one of the grey-skinned priests who she gave the letter she had received from the man in the inn. He proceeded to read it before nodding, then he reached through one of the nearby mirrors and yanked the glass apart like chewy toffee. Having done so, Kada’vrus stepped through and vanished, but not before handing what looked like a large disc of gold to the priest.
Where had she gone to though, Una’s sky palace or an attempt to flee? Akira reached out with his mystical senses but it was too late, the portal had resumed its form and her destination a mystery. Akira felt sure she had just purchased safe passage to somewhere she must have felt would be safe.
They could always try to find out from the priest where she had gone, but they lacked any gold to pay him. No, better to find a way to enter the citadel and they were sure one of these mirrors must lead to the palace above, but which?
The priest would likely know and Akira felt sure that he could ‘encourage’ an answer by unleashing the Bidding of Bal’Hemoth to compel the priest to talk. However, it meant dropping his (and Peter’s) invisibility to cast it. He dropped his concealment, and he and Peter appeared behind the priest. Akira stepped in close behind the unsuspecting priest and whispered the words of power as he made the gestures and focused on enslaving the other’s mind. The sinister Bal’Hemoth had been worshipped in ancient Lemuria as the iron-fisted master of order and enslavement. He taught dominance and the power of the strong over the weak. Akira’s use of the dark spell came with a price, but it was one he was willing to pay.
The priest’s blind eyes went dull as his will was subjugated. Acting like the other supplicants nearby, Akira whispered that he was to take them to a mirror that would transport them near to the throne room of his mistress Una or the inner sanctum and then forget everything about this meeting. The priest immediately set off for the upper levels of the Temple, with Akira grabbing Peter and again turning them both invisible again. The four of them tried to avoid bumping anyone as they followed their glazed eyed guide up to the 13th level until he stopped in front of a polished obsidian mirror and Akira again whispered instructions that he was to activate the portal then go and forget he ever heard from them. The priest nodded in acknowledgement even though he couldn’t see anyone nearby and proceeded to activate the shiny black mirror before stepping back and allowing the team to step up and through.
A second later, the four of them stood in a highly ornate corridor. People and other sentients’ scurried back and forth and as they opened the dozens of doors to enter or leave; it was clear that this area was mainly administrative. Banshee whispered to Seven and asked if she could use the mirror portal on this side to scry for Adrian. She looked at the glyphs on the wall and recognised them for what they were; mystical alarms placed throughout the entire complex, warded to silently alert Una or her guards when magic was used. It didn’t work on spells already in use thankfully but would if she was to cast a different spell, however she had never relinquished her earlier spell to locate Eldrich and she whispered back that he was somewhere to the North of them, just not sure how far and warned her about the mystical alarms embedded in the walls.
The problem was that Una’s citadel, with its organic-looking walls of magically reinforced stone, contained hundreds of rooms that housed her servants and soldiers, apparently with amenities for all, as well as vaults, libraries, and laboratories for Una and her dark magician servitors. Most of the offices and courts for administering her empire were spread throughout the city below; the citadel itself was more palace and fortress than government building, but that still meant hundreds of rooms, each apparently with similar-looking gold doors. All they had to go on was Seven’s link to Adrian. The followed the corridor until they reached yet another series of golden doors set into the wall in front of them, each looking similar yet having a completely different inlaid panel.
They could proceed no further just relying on stealth; they had to risk opening one of the doors in front of them.
Peter stepped forward and opened the central door slightly. Invisible still, he peered and looked into the eye of a large blue dragon looking back. He proceeded to gently close the door and whispered to the others, “Don’t think that was the one. How about it Seven, any idea which door we go through?” To his and the others dismay, she whispered back, “that way!”
Seems the dragon was in there for a reason after all. Hopefully, it got regular meals and bathroom breaks..?
Taking a deep breath and hoping for the best, the team invisible pairs opened the door again and stepped into the lit corridor beyond. The Dragon, seeing the door open and close again and once again no one stepped through, rushed forward and sniffed the air.
Thankfully, Banshee and his ‘passenger’ were shielded against all the mystical creature’s seven senses, but Akira and Peter still smelt wrong to its sensitive nostrils. As it moved towards them and Banshee and Seven invisibly clambered passed. Peter pulled a small pebble from his pocket and sent it flying behind them so that it clattered against the metal door causing the creature in front of them to pounce, its wings as outstretched as the corridor would allow, at the entrance allowing Peter and Akira to start running to the other end of the corridor. They dodged the darting head and wings and caught up with the other two standing in front of a very ornate locked door. Still determined to not alert anyone by using magic, Akira brushed the door beside the handle, using his transformation ability to change that area of the door into sand and pushed. The door flew open and all four of them rushed through, closing it behind them as Akira again used his meta-ability to weld the door shut.
As he was busy doing this, the others took in the room they had just fled into; a glass corridor with no other door than the one they had just come through. On the other side of the glass was some sort of throne room or reception room perhaps, given its surroundings looked more personal? Four housekeepers, all of different races, were currently busy tidying up the room.
Titanic pillars of black marble supported the roof and a giant picturesque window stood beside the throne, though overlooking what they couldn’t tell, while black-flamed candles shed a gloomy ambiance around the room. Sparse décor in gold and red provided some colour, drawing their attention to a large golden throne decorated with bone-ivory and twisted faces. A large, ornate mirror behind the throne reflected the room and the dancing flames of the candles… but not any of the housekeepers or them. The latter was good, but they needed to get from this side of the corridor into that room (or beyond?) and there was no obvious means of exit. It was only a matter of time before the dragon’s roars from the other side of the door brought someone to investigate.
Banshee contemplated turning each of them insubstantial and ghosting them through the glass, but she’d then have to leave them in the room on view of the housekeepers when she returned for the others, no. Akira also couldn’t teleport them without risking setting off the mystical alarms that Seven assured them were embedded in the walls.
Instead, they agreed to let Akira transform one of the glass panels, the one furthest from the four servants, into a type of transparent rubbery material that they could tear through without the material falling away and reforming as glass. Akira reached out his hand and began the transformation, allowing Banshee and Seven to cross first. As they crossed through the transformed glass, Akira couldn’t help quip to Peter, “Don’t leave me, this is a scary place and I’ve seen too many movies.” Then he and Peter stepped through and allowed the now warped material to return to its original if now shredded material.
It looked as though they had managed to cross unobserved but just then one of the housekeepers, a tall male, reptilian with six fingers suddenly ran towards the corridor they had just vacated and tapped on one of the glass panels which folded into itself leaving a doorway. He stepped through and disappeared, as though he’d portalled away.
Ignoring her, the other three housekeepers walked over to the picture window, pulled a curtain aside to reveal a very plain looking door and chatting to each other walked out of the room leaving the Balance alone.
Realising they had very little time, Seven immediately approached the mirror behind the throne as Peter jokingly asked Akira if he could transform Una’s seat of power into blancmange.
They quickly looked around, but it was clear that the throne room was currently abandoned. It was Seven that reminded them that Kada’vrus had mentioned that the Queen of the Netherworld was known to retire to a protected pocket dimension in her palace, to a sanctum within the enchanted mirror known as the Adytum to prepare herself for invasions and other grand events.
They approached the mirror as Seven reached out to touch the surface and her hand went right through; yet another mirror portal, or had Una carved out a secret spot in the mirror-verse as a sanctuary?
Seven stepped through the frame first, then signalled for the others to join her.
The world beyond the mirror looked—at first glance at least—to be the same as the one they just left, just swapped left-for-right. However, the candles here shed a soothing golden light rather than a chill gloom of the room beyond and in this room behind the great columns of the throne room instead of a large picture window lay walls lined with shelves. Ancient books, scrolls, and instruments of wood and brass and crystal lined the displays.
At the chamber’s far end, behind the throne, lay a pillow-lined chapel. A raven-haired woman in green robes – Una – sat among the pillows, her eyes shut, apparently in deep meditation. Sprawled under his cloak at her feet lay a body, apparently that of the unconscious Adrian Eldrich.
Surprisingly, the Adytum radiated a peaceful, calm aura, revealing it to be a sacred sanctuary created by Una as a repository for her greatest knowledge and treasures. Here she had peace from the stresses of running an empire and apparently safety from would-be spies and assassins. So how had they been able to enter so easily was the unhappy thought in all of their minds?
In this location, her presence should have been protected by her strongest spells and wards to prevent any outsiders from entering the mirror. Had she deliberately removed these protections to allow anyone to enter in preparation for a confrontation? That was when they realised that there was no mirror on this side of the portal, no doors or windows, implying no way out.
Peter immediately elected to step forward and approach the sleeping figure. As soon as he stepped forward, the figure was on its feet. That was when they realised that the figure was another trap, the Una at the far end of the hall was a simulacrum – a seemingly mindless puppet made from clay and given the appearance of life via magic.
Peter turned back towards the others to ask, “what the..?” when it spoke. The clay simulacrum’s face twisted and rippled, its eyes twinkled with malicious glee. “So, the minions of Earth’s Master Mage skulk into my bedchambers to slay me like a thief in the night. Truly, you are heroes.”
Though the figure’s mouth moved, Una’s voice boomed from every corner of the room.
“You’re too late, you know. While you played in my garden of delights, I have dispatched my troops to conquer and soon I too will stroll onto the Earth. Without a Master Mage there to protect it, it will be mine from the moment my feet grace her soil. You failed. Everything Adrian spent his lifetime protecting… you betrayed in… how many days?
Oh, but since you left such a thoughtfully prepared gift for me, how could I not return the favour? My Adytum—my sacred place—only respects courage and power.” The clay began to melt like snow, revealing a simple iron dagger. “The only way to leave is through sacrifice. If you want to come take your little world back, well… I fear not all of you will be able to make the trip!”
With that, the figure at her feet stood up and they could see it was an animated double of Adrian, though up close it was clearly formed of cursed brambles and thorn bushes. Seven called it a ‘Fetch’ and prepared for battle by manifesting a mystical shield. It was Peter who reacted first. He flew into the air and hurdled down as fast as he could, intending to shatter it into a million splinters, but to his and everyone else’s surprise it moved quickly out of the way and Peter’s punch collided with the floor created a large crater. Before it could counter-attack, the others responded; Akira unleashed a mystical blast, which hit it squarely in the chest, but apart from some surface damage to its composition it seemed to shrug off the attack. Banshee turned substantial and tried to reach out and touch it with her corrupting touch, but it twisted out of her reach before sending several thorny tendrils at her. They almost reached her when Seven animated Una’s ‘gift’ of an iron blade and sent it flying straight at its chest. That caused it to pause and it appeared dazed by the attack. Banshee again reached out and grabbed at the thorny tendrils, unleashing a second corrupting touch, only for the branches to break free and fall to the ground without affecting the fetch itself. It was a slippery little beast to say the least.
Akira unloaded another mystical blast at it but, despite its appearance, it twisted its body in an inhuman way and the blast missed, hitting and partially melting the throne instead.
Seven floated into the air and mentally pulled the iron blade back to her hand, ripping a substantial hole through its body.
Peter, seeing its reaction to Akira’s blast, again floated into the air and shouted out, “We need to end this. I have an idea, but it will probably hurt me as well…” His eyes glowed red, like cinders as he spoke and suddenly twin beams flared from his eyes and hit the fetch in the body causing it to fall to its knees even as it burst into flames. Peter closed his eyes and the beams stopped, but his eyes still glowed bright red under his eyelids. When he opened them again, the eyes themselves seemed to be on fire.
“Always results in a migraine after,” he muttered as his eyes slowly cooled. Again, Banshee reached over and tried to administer a corrupting touch and succeeding, this time as it fell to the ground as its thorny body began to decay. Taking no chances, Akira turned it into a pile of ashes with a final mystical blast. He then waked over and examined the iron blade, hoping it might turn out to be mystical in some way or even some form of key, but no such luck.
As the others debated Una’s final message, he wandered over and examined Una’s bookshelves. Within was a wealth of spell books, histories of magical beings, arcane secrets, biographies, and catalogues of magical dimensions; and each as soon as he put it down on the table returning to its anointed spot of the shelves. Seemed they didn’t like borrowers here.
They kept going over the simulacrum’s final words, “The only way to leave is through sacrifice. If you want to come take your little world back, well… I fear not all of you will be able to make the trip!”
Seven took back the blade and then looked at Peter and his now cooling eyes. “You seem good at healing, you remind of a group of people Adrian occasionally spoke of, known as the Atlan. Does that name mean anything to you?”
Peter shook his head, “My memories are limited and I’m not sure the actual extent of my abilities…?”
Seven tossed the blade into the air as she contemplated what to do next, but her words when she spoke really shook him, “Would you be willing to risk, to give your life for everyone here?”
The others stopped and turned even as Peter admitted that “truthfully, I want to, but I’m actually afraid.”
Seven smiled, snatched the falling blade out of the air and suddenly and deliberately thrust the blade into her own chest. As she collapsed she shouted to Akira “take me through to the other side, then … wheel of Weyan..” and died.
Banshee and Akira both felt a pocket of time around her freeze temporarily. A spell holding her temporarily at the precise moment of death, but allowing no damage or decay to begin. A spell with Adrian’s mystical scent on it, woven into her costume by her tutor when he’d first agreed to teach her the mystical arts.
Even as they realised what was going on, they also realised that the Adytum had vanished at the second of her death, returning them to Una’s throne room in the Netherworld. Through the large window behind the throne, they could see Una and a mystically shackled and bound Adrian Eldrich leaving through a large mirror portal, presumably to head to Earth.
They laid Seven down carefully on the ground and between Banshee and Akira started to manifest the First Wheel of Weyan, pouring all of their mystical energy into the spell, even as Peter continued to berate himself unfairly for not being brave enough to sacrifice himself to get the group out.
Meanwhile, the preparatory work finished, Akira began the casting. It was a spell intended to repair damage inflicted upon the world by various unnatural forces. It was not a resurrection spell but, at the moment, it was the mechanism of Seven’s body caught in a mystical stasis that needed repairing, not healing.
Weyan the Wheelwright, was supposedly the brother of Lamal the Lawgiver, but he was even more orderly than his divine twin. Known as an artisan, master of a vast and intricate clockwork universe of interlocking wheels and gears, he was always working to expand and maintain it. It was said that the purpose of his vast mechanism was to perfect creation in some way.
If they succeeded, they needed to persuade Weyan to see Seven not as a living, imperfect being but as a mechanism that needed repairing. Between them, they continued to cast the spell, even as a distraught Peter pulled the blade out of the wound. The gears of life clicked back into place as the skin and muscles healed, even the cut in her outfit began to knit itself together. Then the stasis spell dissipated and Seven returned to normal time, blood pumping again, now through a repaired heart, the skin pale perfectly knitted together as air once more entered her lungs and Seven sat up. “Damn, that hurt, a lot more than I expected.”
Pete was so relieved, he shouted at her in frustration, “Don’t ever do that again.”
She smiled, “It worked, didn’t it? I should have taken the time to explain about the protective spell, but I knew if I had told you that you would never have allowed me to go through with it. However, next time…” She pointed at Peter and smiled… “You can do it!”
With that, she pointed at the picture window and it shattered, “but for now we need to follow her ‘highness’ back to Earth.”
Down below, none of the gathered Nether-Realmians tried to stop them as they flowed through the portal and found themselves back on a now war-torn Earth.
The city looked as though it had collided with the Netherworld they had just left. Windows were all shattered and dead bodies lay everywhere. There were signs that Una’s troops had tortured many of the victims. A storm cloud of orange and violet light churned, streets and houses smashed and the bodies of humans and demons alike lay scattered where they had fallen. Everything seemed distorted, stretched, or twisted—for some reason the shards of signs with their writing reversed failed to register with any of them. Everything, the horrors surrounding them all, seemed sharper than they ever remembered seeing them. A low rumble, like distant thunder, drowned out everything.
“Oh, you’ve decided to join us, have you?” Una’s voice echoed across the skyline. “Finally here for our duel, child?” They could feel Una’s presence like an ache in their guts—the magic of this world churning as two separate entities tried to claim responsibility for this world.
Despite the death and destruction all around, the battle for supremacy was not yet over.
Una was perched atop the city’s tallest skyscraper – Pyramid Plaza, her prisoner still bound at her feet on the viewing platform, her troops told to stand aside for the moment. She gestured and an elemental blast hit the ground in front of them. Peter immediately flew straight up as fast he could while maintaining a constant monologue about what he would do to her. Then at the last minute he changed direction and flew in fast and furious and hit her hard. It should have knocked her out or at least out of Pyramid Plaza, but instead she wiped the blood from her lips and gestured as a familiar Stoney-blue dragon flew out of nowhere and tried to grab him in her claws.
Eldrich used the distraction to throw himself over the edge of the platform towards the ground below. His magic rendered useless due to the mystical shackles binding his abilities, but as the ground hurled towards him, he found himself slowing as Akira caught him and slowed down his descent using his theurgical-kinesis.
Up top, the dragon unleashed its fiery breath on Peter who managed to dodge but not before his clothes were singed by the encounter. Banshee unleashed an unholy wail at Una while Akira having set Eldrich down beside Seven who was trying to remove the shackles unleashed a series of mystical blasts at Una as well. The attacks hit, but unfortunately, they didn’t appear to be doing a lot of damage.
Una responded not with an attack against either her escaped prisoner or her primary attackers, but against Seven, almost as though she was deliberately trying to enrage the others. The blast missed but fully disintegrated the building just behind her.
Seven had however managed to reverse-engineer the mystical shackle spell that had prevented her tutor from casting any spells. Now he was able to join in the fight, and it was fair to say he was pissed.
Up in the sky, despite a full on game of cat and mouse between the dragon and Peter, neither side had yet managed to score more than a minor hit on each other. Meanwhile, Una was blasting entire buildings to smithereens with uncontrolled abandon. Peter stopped playing. He flew straight at his attacker’s face and punched it square between the eyes before it could manage to let off another fiery blast. Unconscious, the creature fell to Earth in an uncontrolled descent. The successful attack took Una by surprise and she momentarily lowered her shields, allowing Akira to get a mystical blast in that, although it only bruised her, did give the team a boost. Akira shouted up, “I’ve softened her up, now take her out!” Banshee unleashed another of her wails at her, causing her to stagger back even as Seven followed it up with an elemental blast, only for her to respond in kind with a blast that knocked Seven off her feet.
Peter made sure he had her attention by screaming, “It’s time you and your army went home!” even as he unleashed another of his eye blasts at her. Caught unprepared, she was knocked unconscious, only for a now freed Eldrich to unleash a deadly blast in anger at her. Her attack on Seven had pushed Adrian over the edge and the attack he unleashed was deadly, especially following on from Peter’s.
Her body disintegrated, leaving nothing but grey dust.
Another death, even one of an ancient and powerful sorceress on the verge of godhood was too much for Peter, He screamed out “No! Let it go, let it go… Why did you have to kill her?”
Eldrich nodded, willing to own the outcome, even if it was completely unexpected. Before he’d been ‘chosen’ to be Master Mage, he had been an archaeologist of the same school as Dr Jones or Howard Carter. He’d been forced by fate to become the Master Mage of an ungrateful Earth. A historical plunderer, more adventurer than scholar, he knew the danger Una posed if allowed to live. He’d fought in both World Wars and had killed as necessary to preserve other soldiers’ lives. Despite their animosity, he had no regrets at her death, as he knew a demise, a sacrifice, would have been necessary if the city was to be freed.
The world shuddered as Una dissolved into grey dust and the strange mutations her presence had caused began to leech away even as ‘reality’ around them shattered like mirrored glass, leaving only a pleasant early evening in a busy city. In death, it became clear that Una had invaded the mirror-verse version of Wessex rather than their reality, though none of them knew why. The mirror that had encased the city shattered and dissipated to reveal the real world beneath, unaffected and undamaged. Her death forced her troops to flee back to the Nether Realms, least they too died. With her death, this ‘reality’ was shattered.
The thing that bothered Eldrich most was not the screams of the members of the Balance or the puzzlement on Seven’s face at his actions, no, it was that she should have been able to block his attack, why didn’t she?
He turned to his accusers starting to gather and quietly explained, “It takes the death of a Master Mage to break so powerful a spell. Better her than me!”
After a few moments’ the air parted and a door between worlds opened. Beyond it, they could see the twisted landscape of the Netherworld. A hulking demon from Una’s palace emerged and bowed to Adrian. “My queen is dead,” he intoned with reverence. “By magic law, all that was hers is yours now. The worlds she took. The legacies she left. Without the will of a Dark Lord, our Netherworld and hundreds like it, she has claimed dominion over will crumble into dust as she has.”
The demon opened his massive fist to reveal a silver diadem. “Our worlds need a Mage.”
Before Adrian could say anything, the demon emissary stated that he was Shanmai, chief of Una’s palace guard and that the Netherworlds were too damaged by their Dark Lords’ corruption to survive for long without a powerful, magical will holding them together. With Una’s defeat, her destroyer, Adrian, must take her place as without his being physically present in the Nether Realms and lacking any means of selecting a new Master Mage itself, its reality would begin to unravel over time.
Unsure but once more feeling he had no choice in the matter, Adrian knew there was a silver lining, however: Netherworlds reflected their Dark Lords’ will and so a good soul ruling over one could slowly purge the evil from the realm and return it to normal… provided the world and its dark magic don’t corrupt them first.
Adrian turned to Seven and the balance and said, “Seems my fate is once more no longer mine to choose. Until I figure out what to do next, please keep this planet safe until I can find a way to return or a successor arises.” and with that he left with the priest, stepping through the portal.
Eldrich knew that this meant that Earth was once again without a Master Mage to protect it… but surely, with Una defeated, Earth will be safe from mystical threats with Seven and her friends protecting it?
Back on Earth, Peter was helping Seven back to her feet and making sure she was ok. He really wanted to know more about these Atlan she’d mentioned, but knew he’d have to wait until she was ready. He did offer aid where and when ever she needs it. Provided he could get there. Meanwhile, he showered her with praise for her courage.
Later that night –
The news had dubbed the whole situation a ‘collective nightmare’ or mass hallucination, though there were talks that it had been some sort of psychic invasion. The whole invasion experience had only occurred in the City of Wessex and had been instantaneous in the real world; thankfully, no one in the real world had been killed or seriously injured, though a number of Road Traffic accidents had occurred.
Several doomsday cults were claiming that it had been a sign that the end of the world was coming and that an archangel called Una would arise and oversee the final judgement.
Una the Undying of the Komagata Maru
Una the Undying, the Unrelenting—called the Uncaring, the Invincible, the Magnificent, the Mighty—ruled as Queen an empire of Netherworlds for untold centuries, expanding her control out into an interdimensional empire of 999 worlds. Born to humble origins as a slave, she was taken as a concubine by one of the wizard-kings of her magical realm. Her rapist had vastly underestimated her intellect and her thirst for revenge. She spent night after night in his library, learning the secrets of magic for herself. Power proved to her liking, and the more she learned, the more she hungered for even greater power. Slowly, subtly, she seized control of her “master’s” mind, traded their roles, and eventually placed herself on the throne beside him as queen. His tragic death, immediately after, left Una alone as Wizard-Queen of the realm.
Power was never enough for Una. She used her magic and her armies to conquer first her neighbouring kingdoms, then the world, seizing their magical knowledge for herself. She won the title of Master Mage of her realm, and soon her power-hungry heart twisted that esteemed legacy and transformed her into an immortal Dark Lord. Her realm likewise twisted to reflect her drives, transforming into a dimension of harsh extremes where the strong would flourish and the weak must serve. Her studies opened the secrets of dimensional travel to her, and soon she encountered and battled other Dark Lords and Master Mages.
Her conquests endless, her knowledge without equal, Una was a god in all but title. Her most serious setback came from Doctor Avery, defender of a miserable realm called the Earth. Una had prepared to seize this world, as she had so many others, and Avery challenged the more powerful sorceress to a duel arcane. If she won, he would surrender his title of Master Mage, granting her control of Earth; but if he won, she would depart and never return while he lived. Una agreed, knowing she could easily crush the mortal wizard but unaware that Avery had emboldened and supplied rebels in her dimension, giving them the perfect moment to strike. Avery won the duel, and Una found herself barred from returning to the Earth realm after being forced to withdraw from the duel to put down the insurrection. This humiliation began her decades-long fixation on the Earth and her resolution to use it as the final instrument of her ascension.
Una was ancient and powerful, a woman of cold rage and long memories. She relied as much on spies and trickery as brute magic and armies in her campaigns of conquest; but her fixation on her defeat had left her increasingly erratic—literally spread too thin across multiple worlds. She grew increasingly impatient and violent.
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 