There’s nothing quite like seeing the Amulet for the first time.
After spending hours trudging through the burnt wastes of Gehennom, suffering loss of the magic items that were to help you on your quest to the seemingly endless fire traps, weary from cutting through hordes of demons & dragons with sword and spell, cut off from the reassuring love of your deity, single-handedly assaulting the twin fortresses of Vlad the Impaler and the immortal Wizard of Yendor, you stand at the entrance to Moloch’s Sanctum, Invocation Artifacts in hand. The ground shaking beneath you signals that you may begin the ritual. You light the Candelabrum of Invocation, and it casts its eerie light down the maze-like hallways. The Bell of Opening is next, and its sound, unusually shrill, seems to cry out against what you are about to do. Nevertheless, you open the Book of the Dead and begin to read aloud, hesitantly at first, but then louder, and faster, until you are nearly screaming to be heard above the collapsing dungeon as the ritual draws to its conclusion.
Stairs appear at your feet, with the Holy Name burnt deep into the stone. As the dust settles, you see that you now stand on an island, the maze around you having sunken and filled with water. You descend the steps into the Sanctum of Moloch, where the power of that dark god has slept since time immemorial. After dispatching the guards, you approach the altar, where the High Priest and his servants stand in wait.
As you stand amid their broken bodies, you lift the Amulet from where it fell during the melee. As you wipe it clean of blood and dirt, you find yourself stunned, unable to do anything but admire the thing, and try to grok the source of the power that you feel emanating from it.
Hopefully, you come to your senses before Rodney shows up and wants you to return that book you borrowed.
