User:Lhynard/Projects/Imago Deorum/Campaign outline/Summary 6

Dates
Kythorn 26 – Flamerule 24, 1372 DR

Summary
The Daisy arrives in Port Nyanzaru after a pleasant sea journey. Most of the PCs suffer from the constant mosquitoes that first night, and the next day they all buy insect nets. They hire a guide with no arms named Losi and set off across the savannah. (Hakam notices that they were followed while in the city, but he keeps this to himself.) They see a wide assortment of wildlife, including dinosaurs, and arrive at the edge of the jungle at the village Binkwan. Losi tells them the legend of Uluu Thalongh. While passing through a dried-up stream bed, they are attacked by an allip, which drains the wisdom from Hakam, Mythlos, Nargroth, and Oma, before Jayce uses a countersong to stop its insanity-inducing babbling so that the others can destroy it with spells and magic weapons. As a result of the encounter, Hakam can no longer cast his most powerful spells, and Oma is permanently in an unconscious state. Their guide, Mim, ran off in fear during the fight. They continue traveling, and the party begin to suffer heat stroke. They spot a deer eating berries, and Leokas tries to shoot it for food, but it is scared off. A giant tiger then leaps in front of them and growls. Belvin uses druid magic to speak with the beast, which then morphs and reveals itself to be a weretiger. He is angry that they scared off his meal, but eventually, he calms down and they ask about happenings in the jungle. He warns against tribes of Batiri and wild dwarves. As night falls, they arrive a a crater surrounded by statues of the same feathered lizards (deinonychi) Belvin and Kamil had seen in their dreams. While they wait for Belvin to return, Jayce explains his suspicions that this site originally belonged to the god Ubtao and not Thard Harr and proceeds to explain the mythology of Ubtao and how the other gods gave him free reign over Chult in exchange for his defending Toril from Dendar the Night Serpent. Belvin returns and discusses the cave painting with his companions. Then he takes time to pray. While he prays, Mythlos and Jayce request a gift for the Chosen One, and Roryn willingly hands over some gold ore, a diamond, and two green gems. Belvin is startled from his prayers by a commotion caused by his camel, Kamil, who has broken free. The camel runs over to the ancient altar in the center of the crater, and Belvin takes this as a sign from his god. The altar appears to be to Ubtao, not Thard Harr, as it is covered in grooves in a circular maze pattern. At the center of the maze is a hole. Belvin hops atop the altar and sliced his bicep, spilling his blood on the altar in large quantities, before having Mythlos use his sword to heal the wound. Belvin's blood flows around the maze and pours into the hole. Suddenly, darkness falls on the whole area, and Belvin is granted a vision that only he can see. A massive swarm of bats emerge from the cave and collectively take the shape of a giant dwarf with a crocodile head. This figure points to the west and shows Belvin a far-off island covered in snow. Then it points to the southwest, where a tyrannosaurus appeared. The giant dwarven form points into the open mouth of the dinosaur, and then all of the bats fly into its mouth, before Belvin is released from his waking vision. They also learn that Szordrin is a tiefling. He has been suspicious of Walker and has been following him since finding him on the outskirts of the Forest of Mir. Szordrin's old master was murdered by someone with an object bearing the same symbol of four interlocking rings found on the two crates.
 * Mick arrives in Teshburl, claiming his tattoo is causing pain again. Nargroth agrees to have the tattoo copied onto his own arm. Having done this, Mick's tattoo ceases hurting. They recognize that the tattoo is half a circular maze. Mick also delivers news of Mythlos' keep. He then departs for Calimport.
 * The next morning, they encounter a large band of lizardfolk, but they avoid conflict when they discover that they simply want assistance reading a map and journal they found. The lizardfolk also request some food, which the PCs share. Then they are allowed to continue. They reach the River Soshenstar and camp for the night.
 * The next morning, their guide Losi is killed when they are attacked by a giant constrictor snake. They learn that they must burn his body because of the zombie epidemic in Chult. Mythlos vows to return Losi's toe ring to his family.
 * They hire ferrymen to take them across the river to Nsibu, avoiding hippopotami and piranhas. They hire another guide named Mim, who will take them as far as TeeTee.
 * They place Oma's sleeping body over Cloud. Then they search for Mim and eventually find him.
 * That night, they are attacked by a pair of leopards, which they slay.
 * In the morning, Hakam finds that he has no magic with which to restore their weakened perception. Oma, having been asleep for a full day, wet herself, and they realize that she will die of thirst if they cannot wake her up to drink.
 * The day gets hotter, and they all grow weaker, excepting the camels, Mim, and Walker. As the weretiger had warned, they are ambushed by a band of wild dwarves and poisoned by blow gun darts. Belvin recognizes that they are wild dwarves and calls out to them the name of Thard Harr, his and their god. They stop their attack and seem in awe of Belvin. They wish to take the party to a sacred location blindfolded, and the PCs consent to this.
 * The next morning, the leader of this band of dwarves, Roryn, leads Belvin to a cave in the side of the crater. In the back of the cave, Roryn shows Belvin a large cave painting that inexplicably showed abstract images of three dwarves bowing down to an elf with a curved sword and a camel. The wild dwarves believe Belvin to be the Chosen One, because of this image which has been known to their tribe for centuries. Roryn does not understand why the Chosen One is an elf, nor does he know what Thard Harr intends Belvin to do, though he suggests it might be to "wipe [ the ] Batiri from face of Toril."
 * Hakam uses his magic to restore Oma's sanity and return her to consciousness but only for a few minutes. She is terrified from nightmares, but they manage to force her to eat and clean herself in the brief time she has before the spell wears off and she falls back into nightmares.
 * Belvin orders the wild dwarves to return their guide Mim to his home. He promises to return and asks them to build him an army in his absence. They set out again, making south for the River Soshenstar. They pass through an abandoned Tabaxi village and enter a region of forest covered in large spider webs, but they make no contact with spiders. They learn that Walker has traveled to many of the elemental Planes and then are shocked to learn that Samber is the name of the customer to whom they are delivering the two crates. Walker, refuses to provide any further information.
 * They reach the Soshenstar and follow it west. They come to an isolated hut guarded by miniature versions of dinosaurs. Noting they were tied like dogs on leashes, Jayce fascinates them with his music, and they carefully pass by and knocked on the hut door. Within they find a wild-looking woman with strangely long fingers. The hut was decorated in Calishite fashion. They soon learn that the woman, named Yasheira, is an oracle and druidess. They pay her the diamond they had received from the dwarves, and she gives a prophecy to each of them individually using a talis deck.
 * For Leokas:
 * "Before eleven months pass,
 * The Queen of the Moon
 * Will meet the sun."
 * For Szordrin:
 * "The ninth emperor
 * Of the seventh dynasty
 * Is in your past."
 * For Hakam:
 * "There will be conflict in your group.
 * Before the eighth bowl,
 * You will have to choose between the two."
 * For Mythlos:
 * "The sword of the fool
 * Will slay the baatezu."
 * For Belvin:
 * "Nine sisters of magic —
 * One of them will bear your child."
 * For Nargroth:
 * "The young warrior
 * Shall travel among the stars,
 * There to find death."
 * For Jayce:
 * "When the Seven Swords can go no further,
 * Remember the rods,
 * Remember the time;
 * It is five o'clock."
 * After, she gives a prophecy to the whole group:
 * "I see an ancient temple.
 * I see a door blocking your way.
 * I see a white island.
 * I see a flaming skull.
 * I see a blood-stained cave.
 * I see pools, or perhaps mirrors.
 * "The gods are watching,
 * But their eyes are blocked.
 * I see more than even they,
 * For they made promises out of fear,
 * Fear of the one who consumes nightmares.
 * Strange alliances are being made.
 * There is jealousy.
 * There is wonder.
 * There is fear of the unknown.
 * "As for you,
 * Follow the chosen one on his difficult path;
 * The sea you will gaze upon once again.
 * As for you,
 * Follow the rejected one on his wandering path;
 * The world you might not gaze upon again,
 * But then the two will meet."
 * Yasheira then requests a private discussion with Belvin. When he returns outside to the others, he shows that she has returned the diamond to him. They set off again.
 * But then the two will meet."
 * Yasheira then requests a private discussion with Belvin. When he returns outside to the others, he shows that she has returned the diamond to him. They set off again.

After this respite, they reach the village and tell ghost stories until the sun sets. After dark, the spectre appears and attacks them. They defeat it, but in the battle, it nearly slays Mythlos by draining most of his life force away, leaving him gravely weakened. Hakam realizes that he cannot cure Mythlos without more diamond dust, and they worry about this. Fipya had mentioned dwarves, but she only knew of dwarven mines on the west coast. They continue to follow the river and come to a camp and find a woman's footprints and the tracks of a large snake. In a private chest they find some money and items. One of the coins was covered with poison and sickens Jayce, but Belvin heals him. Under a pillow on a bedroll under a tarp, they find an amulet and a map. The map shows their current region and is written in Draconic script with several X marks and symbols. Oma can make out some of the words, but she doesn't believe the language is actually Draconic. The map appears to include a location labelled "secret" as well as the site of a dwarven cave, which encourages the adventurers. They hear a woman's scream, and Nargroth rushes off to the river bank. He reports that a woman is drowning and goes to rescue her, but then the region is filled with darkness, and the grasses become animate and begin to grab at them. After struggling to find their assailants, they defeat two yuan-ti, a pureblood female and a halfblood male. The bathing woman had simply been a trap. In the night, Mythlos is tormented in trance by memories of the spectre, and when he comes out of trance, he finds he has no memory of the last several months of events, including not recognizing anyone in the group except for Hakam. In the morning, Hakam sends out a helping hand to locate the others, since they had not returned. They have trouble finding the camp of their companions, but Hakam's helping hand eventually finds them. With the diamond dust, Hakam is able to restore some of Mythlos' memories, but not all of them. They all return back to the dwarven settlement of Rumnaheim Rift and spend the night at Belmara's Hearth, a fancy inn. The next day, they purchase more diamond dust. Then they set out with a dwarf named Thorik Oredrivver on a journey along a dwarven highway through the Upperdark toward Tenmar Deep. They interview the oldest and wisest of the villagers and learn of an old ziggurat to the north. It was an ancient place of testing for Ubtao's priests. They believe it to be the temple Walker seeks and set out after a day's rest. Szordrin wants to take advantage of Walker's unconscious state, but Hakam prevents him. They bring him back to consciousness with magic and continue on across the bridge. "I see an ancient temple.
 * The next day, they encounter a hunter's pit trap, and the three elves fall into it. Just when they manage to climb back out, a ceratosaur bursts from the jungle and takes Belvin in its jaws, nearly biting him in half. A bloody, vicious fight follows, but the adventurers slay the giant lizard and heal their severe and otherwise fatal wounds with magic.
 * That night, they feast on dinosaur steaks. After dark, they scare of some unknown jungle animal. When morning comes, they suspect it was a tiger.
 * The next day, they enter another web-infested region of jungle. This time, they encounter a giant spider, but they slay it with their collective attacks before it can harm any of them.
 * Hakam spends the next morning in prayer, requesting Anachtyr for greater power to restore Oma, who had been unconscious now for many days, save for the five minutes Hakam could give her each morning. This morning, he uses magic to crush Belvin's diamond into powder. Sprinkling it over her, he is able to restore her to her normal state.
 * They come to a village called Tunji and spend the night. In the morning, however, they are surrounded by the entire village and brought before the elders to stand trial. It is believed that Walker's packages bring a great evil into the jungle, and they learn that they have been followed by members of the Triceratops Society since Port Nyanzaru, who claim that two of their guides have either died or gone missing, which is taken as evidence against them by the village elders. The elders force Walker to open one of the crates, and he does so. The party catches a quick glimpse of stacks of arcs of a strange black metal. The village wise woman and priest each examine the pieces and find them neither evil nor magical. Even so, the elders decide to give the party a test to prove their innocence. They must destroy a spirit who has haunted the nearby abandoned village of Nyan. The village populace had been slaughtered by Ras Nsi after one man refused to pay taxes to his zombie servants. So violently were the villagers slaughtered, that one of their members became a spectre, and it had been impossible to rebuild the village since, because of its haunting.
 * With one of the Ytepka, a woman named Fipya, they set out for Nyan, a day's journey away, while Walker remains at Tunji. On the way, they stop at a high waterfall, and elves swim at its base.
 * The next day, as they prepare to head back to Tunji, Walker appears, riding the carpets with the two crates. He had been shot with arrows escaping from his confinement at Tunji, and they heal him magically. Since they had passed the trial, Fipya permits them to continue without returning to the village, so they do not lose more time. She promises the Triceratops Society will continue watching them, however, and departs.
 * The party bravely attempt to use the yuan-ti map to locate the dwarven cave and spend nearly the whole day doing do. They come upon a series of triceratops tracks but do not find the cave before evening. The magic of Oma's moun spell ends, so they split up, with Belvin, Leokas, and Jayce continuing on their natural mounts. They find a human village, which has traded with the dwarves, and they are directed toward the cave. They again find triceratops tracks and follow them to a clearing, where they also find signs of goblin tracks. The three camp for the night.
 * Belvin, Leokas, and Jayce follow the goblin tracks a short distance and find a cave entrance, but are surprised and taken prisoner by dwarven guards. They plead for mercy and request aid the to be able to purchase diamond dust to use in restoring Mythlos and are taken to the leader of the settlement while blindfolded. The leader's name is Storn Rumnaheim. He is not keen on helping them at first, but when they provide him details that the yuan-ti had a map with their location on it, he offers to assist them in return for their services. They are to serve as escort for a shipment of ore to another dwarven settlement near Mbala, by passing through a dwarven highway in the Underdark. This is welcome news to the three and they accept. Storn shows them to a gem-cutter, where they purchase a small portion of diamond dust. They find that the dwarves use dinosaurs as pack animals. Leokas is disgusted to see that Batiri goblins work for the dwarves and are not slaves. They then leave to retrieve their other companions and promise to return to fulfill their agreement.
 * The party faces a gauth on the second day of travel through the Upperdark and soundly defeats it before it can use its rays to full effect.
 * They finally arrive in Mbala on the third day, and Hakam is able to fully restore Mythlos.
 * As the elder from Mbala had described, they come to a rope bridge over a chasm, but they are assaulted by assassin vines. During the fight, Leokas and Jayce are nearly strangled to death and Walker is knocked out cold, but Oma summons a skeletal owlbear, which turns the tide of the fight.
 * They arrive at the totem, which the elder had also described. It was a giant human-like face. They soon ascertain that gems need to be placed in its eyes. Shockingly, the two green gems Belvin had received as gifts from the wild dwarves fit in the slots perfectly. A mechanism is triggered, and the whole totem rotates and moves upward like a corkscrew, revealing a door. It seems to be a kind of elevator. They enter in and find a switch, which lowers them down to an underground tunnel. This tunnel leads them to a hidden valley, overgrown with plant life, in which sits a medium-sized ziggurat. They climb the steps, and Walker tells them their task is complete. He gives them directions to Shilku, where they are to meet Ombert, and more magical writs of payment, which he promises will turn into platinum bars when the packages are successfully delivered. He is to enter the ziggurat alone. Szordrin protests, threatening Walker with a magic wand, but Hakam intervenes and Jayce tries to calm everyone down. Walker escapes into the temple by using a patch from his magical cloak to created an iron door to fill the entryway. Leokas remembers Zashiera's prophecy:

I see a door blocking your way.

I see a white island...."

After sitting and waiting for a few hours, the writs turn into platinum. Hakam takes this as a sign that the contracts are over and they decide to enter the ziggurat and go after Walker. They reach another room in the subterranean part of the temple where three large statues of dinosaurs surround and altar. Belvin recognizes the largest, a tyrannosaurus, as the creature from his vision with Thard Harr. Leokas determines that the statue is mechanical and that its mouth can open. When Belvin stands on the altar, his weight triggers a mechanism that lowers the dinosaur and opens its jaws. Belvin steps inside, and the statue "swallows" him, dropping him down a slide into a final back room of the temple. Here, he finds a large portal. A switch behind him allows him to activate stairs that allow him to return back up the dinosaur statue to the others. They decide to wait until morning to return and enter the portal, since they want to take their horse and camels with them and will need to reduce their sizes magically. Hakam casts a special version of dimensional anchor on Belvin along with status, and Belvin steps onto the portal and vanishes. Hakam can sense nothing at first, so they are concerned. The dimensional anchor would prevent Belvin from leaving the Prime Material Plane, but status should tell Hakam where Belvin is. After several minutes, Hakam can suddenly sense Belvin again. He is somewhere to the southwest and is paralyzed. Leokas rushes onto the portal to aid his friend and vanishes, leaving Hakam alone. Belvin finds himself on another portal in a windowless warehouse. He sees a red-haired man working at a desk. There is a grandfather clock against one wall. The man turns quickly, when he hears the portal activate. He raises a palm, and Belvin finds himself caught up and pinned against the back wall by magic. The man adjusts the minute hand on the clock from 5 to 12 and flees the room down a hallway. After several minutes stuck to the wall, the spell fades, and Belvin is free. He wildly rushes down the hall and exits the building, finding himself in a small Tabaxi trading town and port. At the docks, he hears a familiar voice. It is Loreene, from The Daisy. She tells him that he is at Shilku and The Daisy had just arrived there, a day early.
 * They break open the iron door and enter the old temple. There were maze designs all over the walls. They find a small entry room with a tribal statue, and they determine that its head and body can be turned. In the larger floor below, there are many sets of staircases. Mythlos and Leokas descend one, but the steps rotate into a ramp, and they slide to the floor below and fall through a trap door. Fortunately, they only have minor bruises, and they find themselves in a narrow tunnel that leads back outside. Returning to the others, they explain what happened, and they discover that the direction the statue's head is facing in the entry room controls whether the staircases stay locked or not. In this manner, they explore the lower chambers of the four quadrants of the temple, but find nothing but empty rooms until they try the final staircase and find a long tunnel that descends deeper.
 * The passage leads to a circular room with two strange stone objects in the center, which have purple, glowing domes on top. The domes are clearly magical, and they fear entering the room until learning what they do. Belvin summons Krynn, the Satyr he had first called in Yrevkethend's lair. They have him try to cross the room, and he is struck with violet missiles of energy from the domes, which sends him back to his home forest. Nargroth suddenly recognizes that the objects upon which the domes sit are shaped like part of his tattoo that he shares with Jayce. They return to get Jayce, who was with Oma watching the animals, and they copy the tattoos side by side, which makes a map of a maze around the circular room. Very carefully, they all proceed around the maze with invisible walls to avoid being shot at by the magical domes, and they reach the other side successfully with only a few painful missteps.