Mission File 008: Fire Over Khartoum

July 24th, 1990: With the exception of Anastasia, the heroes stay in the Nile Empire after leaving the Land Below. Saka Att decided to stay with the team and a strange mushroom creature named Yarrick joined them. A young girl who wants the heroes to discover the source of a decaying smell near her father’s bakery approaches them. Apparently the authorities refuse to get involved. The heroes decide to help and discover a dead body. They find a knife implicating the Director of Waste Management for the city of Khartoum. They try to question him and have to track him down at a masquerade ball. During the event, while pumping the director (Alak-Begam) about the death of the Lesser Dean Salim Hassan, the power goes out. Yarrick, who is dancing with the director at the time notices something get stolen from him in the dark. Shocktroopers are called, and the thief is identified as the Shadowman. The jewel thief gets away scott free. The next day, the storm knight’s meet Alak-Begam at his office where he seems sullen and depressed. After some persuasion and intimidation, he finally frees the information. He admits to killing Salim, but not with the knife. He had taken an Eternity Shard called the Fire Opal Of Khartoum after hitting Salim in the head with a flashlight. The Fire Opal endows its holder with the ability to control minds. Alak-Begam receives a phone call. The conversation doesn’t last long. He hangs up the phone and walks out the door. The heroes follow him to a Horus House where the patrons begin pelting the man with dishes and cans of food in an attempt to kill the director. They are all controlled, including the director. During the fight, the CEO of Emco Industries is implicated. The heroes rush there and work their way through the gates and guards to meet up with Solomon Beguin, the CEO of the company. He is a mathematician who is trying to complete a ritual that will allow him to unlock the full capabilities of the Fire Opal. The thief, Shadowman, is also there to aide the villain. For a while, Solomon is able to control the mind of Tor-o, causing him to unleash bolts of lightning on his companions. The tide is turned, however, when Thorin throws his hammer in a last ditch effort to knock the Opal from Solomon’s hands. The Opal is scattered and Tor-o uses his last lightning bolt to take down Solomon. Saka Att moves forward and brings down the dexterous Shadowman. Thorin takes the Fire Opal only to discover that it can only be wielded by a person of evil inclination.