It had taken our party nearly a week to make the journey back to Qadira and the morning after they had returned from events of Lopul, our adventurers found themselves in Katheer, the capital of Qadira. They were summoned to the Main Temple of the Church of Serenrae. There they were greeted by 4 of the head Monks of the temple and led to a secret magical elevator which descended deep beneath the city where they found themselves being led into a temple exactly like the one they’d seen beneath Lopul. There they were surprised to meet, along with the 4 Serenrae Monks, 4 High Clerics of The Midnight Temple. The whole meeting was mediated by Rae’s father. It was revealed that both churches had worked together thousands of years ago to seal away “The Beast” and that the Key and Lock were the first seal locking it away. With it’s destruction, the Beast would be able to free itself, so they were needed to go and pick up several ancient items that were used in the original spell to seal him away.
They were informed that a freak storm had happened in Absalom (minutes after the Lock had been destroyed) and there were reports of food shortages. Rae was named as the emissary of Serenrae and Balthazar (still disguised as Mahdi) was asked to represent Asmodius under the concept that Mahdi had worked for them before and he could be trusted. The party was joined by an Aasimar named Arda who would function as their means of communication between them and the members of the two religions. With that, the Asmodean priests hired a pirate ship to take the party to Absalom.
After some disagreements between Balthazar and the captain of the ship, they arrived at Absalom where the party left the ship and went to shore. After explaining their purpose to the Guards at the watchtower, they were transported by carriage towards the Temple over the pit in the center of the city. On their way, however, they heard an explosion and discovered two grotesque creatures devouring food from one of the storehouses. They destroyed them and Balthazar’s research led him to identify them as Ancient Thassilonian constructs known as Gluttonyspawn. They met with the newly appointed leader of Absalom (his father just having died) and discovered after talking to religious representatives who stayed in the temple that the lightening from the storm had struck the base of the pit where the starstone once laid. While exploring the bottom floor, they discovered another elevator like the one in Katheer. They were then ambushed by the Captain of the Guard, seemingly possessed. They were able to tie him up and use an incantation they’d witnessed at Katheer to use the elevator.
The elevator descended into the pit and they discovered that the lightening had destroyed the floor of the pit and revealed another temple like the two they’d seen previously. Inside they encountered what Balthazar believed from his research into ancient religion to be a Meladaemon, servents of Trelmarixian the Black (The Horseman of Famine), something he had thought to be pure myth. Along with the Meladaemon, there were two more Gluttonyspawn and after listening in, Balthazar determined that Trelmarixian was possessing the meladaemon in order to enter the plane. After a battle, the daemon died with the words that “Golarian will burn.” and the team recovered an ancient, 12-sided wooden box that was magically sealed.
Arda took care of passing the box along to the priests of Asmodius and the party learned that Cheliax was having troubles in Bloodport in the Mwangi Expanse, so they would need to head there next. Balthazar as Mahdi, determined to seek restitution for the wrongs he felt he had suffered at the hands of the pirate captain, challenged him to a fight. After defeating him, the pirates of the ship swore loyalty to Mahdi and named him the new captain. The party was allowed to stay the night in the temple in Absalom before setting out for Mwangi.
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