Other Appearances: "Avalon" Part II, "Shadows Of The Past," "The Dying Of The Light" (flashback)
The Archmage's Lair was a cave a distance from Castle Wyvern in Scotland. Its walls were covered in strange hieroglyph-like markings, including images of humans slaying gargoyles. Most notable but less known of the contents of the cave was a strange monolithic structure situated beneath the deepest part of the cave. The monolith's composition, origins, and purpose were unknown, but it was a source of great mystical power.
The Archmage made this his home after his exile from Castle Wyvern in AD 984, perhaps sensing the innate sorcery of the place. He confronted Goliath, and the gargoyles who would become known as Hudson and Demona there when they came to retrieve the Grimorum Arcanorum, and it was also here that he fell to his then apparent demise.
10 years later, Hakon's band of Vikings made their camp in and around the mouth of the cave. When Hakon and the Captain of the Guard fell to their death, their spirits were bound to the monolith beneath the Lair. They were thus able to haunt the cave (and probably Castle Wyvern, too) for the next 1001 years.
In 1995, the Avalon travellers came to Wyvern, and the ghosts of Hakon and the Captain used the power granted them by the monolith to give Goliath nightmarish hallucinations. They used these to lure him (and the rest of the group) into entering the Lair. As they went deeper and deeper, their power over the gargoyle leader increased, until he was finally at the monolith, where they began to drain away his very life force. However, the Captain had a change of heart, and confronted Hakon to save Goliath. With its energies turned upon itself, the monolith shattered. Having atoned for the crimes- the guilt he felt for them being what had really held him there- the Captain of the Guard could pass on. Hakon, however, was still trapped, powerless.
Hakon managed to call his descendant, Wolf, to him through their familial connection. Wolf took the ghost from the cave, with a Viking battle-axe as his new vessel.
The Archmage's Lair now stands empty and seemingly powerless, but only time will tell if its tale has truly ended.