User:Lhynard/Projects/Imago Deorum/Campaign outline/Summary 2

Dates
Alturiak 20 – Alturiak 23, 1372 DR

Summary
Joined by the cleric Hakam, who has been sent to the Altar of the Air to investigate the skeleton sightings, the PCs decide to pursue the hobgoblins to the Altar of the Air. They leave the second bottle with Sseth, who departs. After executing the prisoner, they set off. They investigated the shrine and determined that a lightning spell was required to open the shrine. Vashti floated up to the top and used her magic to open it. They pass inside the entrance but are hindered by the brown mold present there. They decide to rest and try again in the morning. In a central chamber, they find a prayer to Akadi carved in the wall. Afterward, they encounter another foul undead creature but are no closer to learning about the source of the skeletons or of El Sadhara. She tells them that she is an air genasi and the escaped jhasina of a druzir in Manshaka. The next morning, they enter the shrine again and descend. They leave the shrine itself and enter the crypts of the ruins of Dashadjen. Here they face a dozen skeleton warriors. In the tombs here, they find a mixture of human and minotaur remains from the time of the Era of Skyfire. They leave the crypt and come into a covered couryard in the center of four buildings, all now covered in the sands of the desert. Before the largest building, they face two animated minotaur skeletons. Next, they find one of the rumored treasure rooms of El Sadhara. One chest has been recently opened and left unlocked. The rest are magically trapped, and the PCs do not risk trying to open them. They load the treasure they do find onto Vashti's carpet and send it back with one of the adepts who had come with them. Lastly, they return to the largest building off the courtyard. Jayce boldly enters and sees the mummy priestess carving away at a massive statue of what appears to be a genie. He tries pretending to be a priest of Akadi sent to warn her of her heresy of claiming Akadi and Calim are one. The conversation starts to go poorly, but then there is an explosion, which destroys the statue and sends Jayce flying back. Mythlos charges in and swings at El Saddhara. His blade cuts through her wrappings but doesn't seem to harm her. She summons a large air elemental to deal with them and teleports over to cut off the fleeing rogue who caused the explosion&mdash;the last of the four hobgoblins sent from Allu. She curses the hobgoblin, turning him into a pile of ash. Another of Allu's bottles tumbles to the floor. Vashti telekinetically pulls it to herself and summons Allu. The PCs flee from the air elemental as the furious mummy and efreeti fight each other in a dual of divine and arcane magic. The air elemental nearly kills tow of the PCs, but they manage to survive long enough for it to be called back to his home plane. Hakam makes plans to return to his temple in Memnon to report on his findings. Leokas decides to travel back to Darromar to return the gem to Malick and learn why the wizard had lied about the gem. Jayce decides to go with him. Belvin and Mythlos simply want to go to their homes, but since all of their destinations begin with passing through Memnon, that is where they go next.
 * The PCs return to the Friary of St. Amahl, where they find that the brass dragon Sseth has left them a hobgoblin as a prisoner, buried in the sand. The prisoner claims that he serves a "new god of hobgoblins" named "Allu", who has freed them from slavery to the humans and chosen them to be his servants. Allu rules from a "holy palace" somewhere in the desert. Sseth arrives, and he tells them how he found a band of hobgoblins heading north. The PCs learn that the hobgoblins were being sent by Allu to investigate the Altar of the Air to see if their was truth in the rumor that El Sadhara was actually his lover. The hobgoblin prisoner recognizes one of their efreeti bottles as one of "Allu's bottles". With Sseth there to defend them, they remove the stopper from one of the bottles, and Allu appears, a giant efreeti. Sseth defeats him in battle with a burst of his breath, putting the genie to sleep, but Allu teleports back from whence he was summoned.
 * The PCs arrive at the Altar of the Air. While camped around the shrine, they are attacked by a giant desert scorpion, larger than the previous one they had faced.
 * The next day, they explore the first basement of the Altar of the Air. There they encounter a troglodyte zombie and an unknown teleporting monster.
 * On the second basement floor, there are many sarcophagi. They also find hobgoblin footprints. They encounter and slay three of the four hobgoblins Sseth had seen heading north. They also encounter a creature of air and a few dire rats.
 * They come across a locked chest with the body of a fallen adventurer by it. They determine that it is trapped with a poisonous gas. Vashti tells them that she can hold her breath indefinitely. They leave the room, while she picks the lock. The trap is set off, but they return after the gas has cleared. They enjoy the treasure they have found and convince Vashti to explain her story.
 * They continue exploring the second basement floor below the shrine and next encounter a giant centipede and a gargoyle, after which point they return to the surface to rest.
 * That night, from their camp, they observe a feminine figure walk on air to the top of the shrine and let herself in with a lightning bolt and suppose it is one of El Saddhara's servants.
 * They explore the two side buildings and find El Sadhara's bedroom, where they find two journals, one written by El Saddhara and the other written by a man named Samber. El Saddhara's prayer journal describes how she is trying to carve a new body for Calim, her supposed lover, and intends to use a magic she has learned about from Samber's journal&mdash;which she discovered on a trip to the Elemental Plane of Air&mdash;to restore Calim to power. Samber's journal seems to describe a trip by a spellcaster of some sort to the Plane of Air to visit the djinn and learn more about them. The journal describes experiments Samber performed, which involved trying to animate a body of flesh with the essence of a djinni. They recognize that there are Dethek runes on the cover of Samber's journal, that these spell out his name (even though the name "Samber" is a common Lantanna name, and that these are the same runes on the omlar gem they bear!
 * They flee from ruins of Dashadjen and the Altar of the Air and pray that El Saddhara does not follow.