Session 21: Fort Karouk

43rd day of Autumn, 185th Year of Vecna
As you step through the portal, you see Gorgyr standing there, focused and with fire in his eyes. It is clear that he finally sees a way to solve a problem he has been wrestling with for hundreds of years.

On the other side, The Guardians of Hope find themselves in a small storage room, surrounded by the sounds of battle. As they exit the storage room, they find themselves in the courtyard of a middle-sized fort. Orcs and soldiers wearing the black and gold uniforms of the Empire fight it out everywhere. The Guardians quickly join the fight, and help dispatch the orcs that have breached the walls of the fort.

After the fight, they are presented before Lord Commander Edward Manson, the noble in command of the fort. The Lord Commander thanks the Guardians for their assistance but bemoans the loss of Sir Alvaro Gomez, one of the soldiers who died to the orcs. The Lord Commander demands that the Guardians stay and help out.

After being done talking, a hill giant slams open the gates to the fort, and more orcs, this time led by an orc chieftain, surge into the fort. The fight is hard, but the Guardians manage to kill off their foes and close and repair the gate.

No sooner have they barred the gate and taken a breather, before the orcs launch another offensive, with several orcs getting over the walls, while an orc shaman flies in on the back of a large white dragon and attacks the Guardians.

The battle is long and hard, but in the end, they manage to best the vile beast.

With the orcs beaten back and without leadership, the Lord Commander calls on the Guardians....

NPC's of the session:
Gorgyr: Enigmatic lich who has a mystical connection to the Athas where the Guardians grew up. Gorgyr has given the Guardians of Hope a quest: One of them must become emperor of Khiran in order to gain access to the emperor's secret library. There Gorgyr expects they will find the secret of what happened thousands of years ago, when their Athas disappeared from Original Athas.

Lord Commander Edward Manson: Leader of Fort Karouk. An elderly man with short grey hair, cut military style. The Manson family is a small noble family out of New Tyr. Will soon give the Guardians a quest...

Sir Alvaro Gomez: Young member of the Gomez family, one of Ran's more influential noble families. Was sort of undercover at Fort Karouk, because he wanted no favors done to him. Killed by an orc, when left wounded alone by Jelastra.

Khiran: Places, people and other info about the world

Updated Dragonshome 27/11/11

Added Presidio 27/11/11

The Empire of Khiran is composed of 3 areas - Khiran, My’zzyr and Pojx. To the north is Dragonhome. To the south is Libertas, a country who has segregated from the Khiran Empire. Housing more than 55 million souls, the Empire is huge, covering more than 1,4 million square miles. Still, with so many souls, the Empire can be seen as quite full. Most open swats of land are either private estate, villages, towns, cities - or fields used to feed all the people. Roads are well maintained more or less throughout the Empire, and fairly well patrolled. Despite the trees having died by the millions, there are still a lot of them left. 9 of the forests are still so great that virtually no one could tell you what or who lives inside them. Likewise, the mountains are extremely sparsely populated.

Khiran [Ki:ran] is the original area which gave birth to the Empire. Started it's expansion about 3000 years ago and has stood since. It's capital is Ran, with close to 1.000.000 inhabitants. Emperor rules from here, controlling the the 3 territories, at least in name, if not in reality. Has about 10 million inhabitants in total.

Pojx [Påks] is the western territory, overseen and ruled by the Warlord. By far the largest territory of the Empire, with close to 35 million inhabitants.

My’zzyr [Mysyr] is the eastern territory, overseen and ruled by the Warwizard. Has about 10 million inhabitants.

Dragonhome is a huge swat of land filled with primitive barbarian tribes, orcs, goblins, trolls, giants etc. Most of what is now Dragonshome was part of the Empire, but about 1000 years ago, millions of orcs, ogres and giants arrived from the east, fleeing the destruction of their native lands by some unknown entities. For years, they tried to carve out a place for themselves, but inevitably came to clash with the Empire. Uruk the Dragon-King, a dragonborn of immense power unified the evil races and many of the barbarian tribes, and swept over the lands of Dragonshome. He pushed the Empire back, sacking most towns and cities, before being stopped at Presidio, then just a big fort. An epic battle involving dozens of dragons and 100.000’s of soldiers took place here, and in the end, Uruk conceded defeat and withdrew from the offensive. Some sort of relative peace was achieved, and the Empire breathed a sign of relief.   

Libertas is a country which segregated from the Khiran Empire about 30 years ago.

Ran, the capital of Khiran, is the city of cities, peerless in size with close to 1.000.000 inhabitants.


Presidio, with it's 75.000 inhabitants is certainly not the biggest city of the Empire, but being run by Lord General Raul Sarazin, having huge 150’ walls and housing over 20.000 soldiers, it is certainly one of the most impregnable. It started as a fort, expanded over the years, hosts about 20-odd noble families. Lots of expeditions are founded and leave here to enter Dragonshome to search the ancient ruins or to trade with barbarian tribes who have access to mana crystals, magical rocks from the north which can empower rituals or magic in general. The city is built to protect, with straight streets and flat roofs. Only exceptions are the castle and the churches. All 14 major churches are represented in town.

The more than 20.000 soldiers on active duty divide their time between patrolling the city, the pass, the forts within a 300 mile radius and making incursions into Dragonshome.

The Emperor is currently Alexis Zezar.

The Warlord is the leader of the collective armies of the west. The position is for life, and when a new Warlord is needed, the 1.000 noble families of Khiran meet and vote for a noble to become the new Warlord. That person is absolved of family ties and spends the rest of his life serving the Empire. He runs Pojx for the Emperor from Rajandria.

The Warwizard is the leader of the collective armies of the east. The position is at the whim and chosen by the Magicum Incarnum. As the other members of the MI, the Warwizard has no name. He runs My'zzyr for the Emperor from Eastwatch.

The Magicum Incarnum is a semi-secret, yet official cabal of very powerful magic-users who dictate magic laws and such in Khiran. Not much is known about them, other than they have been there for thousands of years and always stood by the emperor.

Gods and religion
Aside from the 11 good and neutral gods, worship of Asmodeus, Bane and Tiamat is both accepted and widespread.

The Calendar

Each year is divided into 4 periods of 90 days: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. So for example, a date could be the 43rd day of Winter.

The years are all named after the gods and rotate every 20 years:
Avandra
Kord
Pelor
Bahamut
Moradin
Corellon
Sehanine
Erathis
Ioun
Melora
Raven Queen
Asmodeus
Bane
Gruumsh
Lolth
Tiamat
Torog
Vecna
Zehir
He Who Shall Not Be Named

It has been done like that for 3698 years. So this year is the 185th Year of Vecna. Next year is the 185th Year of Zehir and etc. 

Intermezzo in Sigil

185th Year of Vecna, 33rd day of Autumn
It has been about 60 days since you arrived from Athas to Gorgyr's tower in Sigil. You have spent the time walking the streets of the fantastic city, gawking at the multitude of races, while familiarizing yourselves with the Empire of Khiran, largest empire on the original world of Athas, located just north of where your Athas used to be.

Meanwhile, Gorgyr has been busy studying, casting rituals and generally being very preoccupied with solving how you can get your Athas back to it's original place.

As you sit in one of his many libraries, studying some books and scrolls, Gorgyr enters, looking particularly cheery.

I think that I have found the solution to our problem. Or rather, I have found the next step. You see, the Emperor of Khiran has a private extra-dimensional place. Hidden from all but him, it is said to be where he meets up with the Warlord, the Warwizard, the High-priests of the 14 churches and the Triad, leaders of the Magicum Incarnum.  Supposedly, all the secrets of the Empire are hidden there, so that they can pass from leaders to leaders, without fear of falling into the wrong hands. Now, this is obviously not as easy as it sounds. Not only is the place hidden by all but those men, but while only the men holding the titles can enter the secret sanctum, only the Emperor himself can access the library of secrets. 

Now, I know this sounds daunting. Becoming Emperor of an Empire that has stood for more than 3000 years. But it's not as bad. The Empire is crumbling and has for many years. Emperor Cyrus and his late father has alienated a good deal of the churches. The Warlord is ambitious beyond his current position, the Warwizard is a mystery as always, and a lot of the nobles are not satisfied. Needless wars far away from home and the loss of Libertas has drained the Empire's patience over the last 30 years. It is possible. It has to be. It is the only way. Now it is up to you, Guardians. I have faith in you. One of you must become Emperor.

But first things first. No one knows you. In fact, no one but me has even heard of you on this Athas. So I am thinking. No matter what plan you come up with, we need you guys to be famous. And I do not mean like in rural saved-a-villager-from-a-troll-way. I mean in a world-famous-way. Of course, this won't happen overnight, but while we formulate a plan, I think this is what you should work on. Getting known. By the populace, by the nobles and by the Emperor.

Gorgyr waves his fingers and a portal starts to form.

Go to your rooms and get your stuff. A small but fairly strategically important fort belonging to the Empire is being attacked by orcs at this very moment. Stop the attacks, and see where it leads you.

As you return with your gear, Gorgyr finishes his ritual and the portal opens.

Go now, and be heroes. And remember, I am never far away if you need to talk. Just find a discreet place at breakfast time, and call out my name 3 times.

You all step through the portal, ending up in what looks like a storage room with stone walls. Outside you can hear the noise of battle.

Original Athas

Temple of Air loot

Ring of Freedom of MovementLevel 15 Rare

This sky blue band seems to shimmer and move around your finger.

Ring Slot        25,000 gp

Property

Gain a +2 item bonus to Acrobatics checks.

Power  Daily (Minor Action)

Until the end of the encounter, you gain a +5 power bonus to checks made to escape a grab and a +5 power bonus to saving throws to end the immobilized, restrained, or slowed conditions.

If you've reached at least one milestone today, you can also move across difficult terrain as if it were normal until the end of the encounter.

Premonition RingLevel 15 Uncommon

With this dark obsidian ring on your finger, you act quickly when faced with danger.

Ring Slot        25,000 gp

Property

Gain a +2 item bonus to initiative and passive Perception checks.

Power  Daily (No Action)

Use this power when you are surprised. You are not surprised.

If you've reached at least one milestone today, you also move 3 squares and take a minor action.

2x Ring of SympathyLevel 15 Uncommon

These copper rings are shared by those who work well together.

Ring Slot        25,000 gp

Property

Once per round, when you save, one ally within 5 squares of you who is also wearing a ring of sympathy can make a saving throw.

Power  Daily (Minor Action)

One ally within 10 squares of you can make a saving throw. If that ally is wearing a ring of sympathy, he or she gains a +2 power bonus to the saving throw.

If you've reached at least one milestone today, you can instead use this power to grant an ally within 10 squares who is wearing a ring of sympathy a saving throw (including the +2 power bonus) against each effect on him or her that a save can end.

Alliance BandLevel 15 Uncommon

This silver ring is inset with complex interlocking decorations and provides healing to your allies.

Ring Slot        25,000 gp

Property

When you use your second wind, one ally adjacent to you regains 10 hit points.

Power (Healing)  Daily (Minor Action)

You spend a healing surge but regain no hit points. Instead, one ally adjacent to you regains hit points equal to your healing surge value.

If you've reached at least one milestone today, the ally regains additional hit points equal to your level.

Session 20: Water and Air

13th day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance
14 days later, the Guardians were still making their way through the jungle. Coming to a wide ravine, they found a way across, over an old broken tree. As they balanced their way over, they were suddenly ambushed by a living tree and some halflings, who took advance of the Guardians being spread out. But, alas for the halflings, their divide and conquer tactics were not enough in order to get the upper hand against the Guardians, and soon the fight was over, and the Guardians made away with some very powerful poison.

15th day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance
A couple of days later, the Guardians stumbled upon a clearing with a big lake. There they ran into Sunflower, an elven druid. After proving to him that they were not defilers or wielders of magic, the Guardians learned that the lake was his protectorate. He also told them about the place where they knew the Temple of Water to be. That "snakemen" lived in the area, and venerated the temple, and that the temple was underwater and protected by a magical whirlpool.

16th day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance
The very next day, soon after leaving the area under the protection of Sunflower, the Guardians were attacked by a group of big phase spiders. Their poison which knocked people unconscious gave the Guardians some trouble, but nothing they couldn't handle.

20th day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance
4 days later, the Guardians once again entered the territory of a halfling village. They were stopped by a lone halfling shaman, who demanded they pay the toll to pass. Any one of their own, except Tweeks or Tic-Tac. Obviously, that sort of demands didn't go over well, and soon the Guardians were fighting the shaman and the 4 other halflings that had been hiding. Different tribe that the other halflings, but same result. The Guardians moved on, some powerful poisons richer.

21st day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The day after, they finally arrived at the lake with the Temple of Water. There was also a temple on the border of the lake, guarded by Yuan-ti. Being slightly worn after the month-long trek through the jungle, the Guardians decided to stay hidden for the night, and explore the next morning. 

22nd day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

At first light, the Guardians moved in on the temple. Using Henry as bait, they lured the Yuan-ti guards away from the temple and fought them out in the fields of grass. With the snakemen dead, the Guardians moved inside the temple, where they found the leader, a Yuan-ti necromancer and his cohorts. It was a short but pitched battle, where the Guardians managed to deal quickly with the necromancer.

After dealing with the snakemen, and after finding a very nice axe for Jelastra the Guardians headed down to the Temple of Water, which proved much harder than expected. The whirlpool was hard to navigate, and especially Jelastra came very close to drowning. 

After getting out of the whirlpool, the Guardians swam up and inside the temple, which had some sort of magical barrier keeping the water out of some parts of it. They decided to stay in the first room and get some rest.

23rd day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

After getting some rest, the Guardians proceeded deeper into the temple, and were soon victims of a trap. The floor disappeared, and some fell into water caused them to enter an enchanted sleep. It was a sorts of battle of wills, but in the end, they managed to get past the trap.

Continuing, they arrived at the last room, holding the key and the portal, where they faced 3 water guardians spread out over the multiple leveled room. The battle was long and fierce, with several Guardians coming very close to a final end, but they won, although barely. After dealing with the guardians, they picked up the elemental keys, and deciphered the "coded map" showing where the Temple of Air was. Apparently, it was just south of Tyr, in the middle of gnoll-land. After finishing their business in the temple, they managed to activate the portal, which sent them up into the temple of the Yuan-ti. 

Then they turned east, and made their way towards the Temple of Air.

28th day of Haze In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

5 days later, and still in the jungle, the Guardians were ambushed by 3 bulettes. After an initial shock that put them on their heels, the Guardians quickly turned around the fight and dealt with the 3 burrowers. 

5th day of Hoard In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

Another 12 days later, the Guardians found themselves back in the Ringing Mountains. As usual, Tweeks pet bird was scouting, and it spotted about 15 Tareks further down the pass they were travelling. The Guardians made an ambush and waited for the Tareks. As they ambushed them, part of the platform where some of the Guardians had been hidden gave away and sent them crashing to the ground. The fight proved somewhat hard, but in the end, they managed to capture the leader of the Tareks, and questioned him. He was here to avenge the Guardians' defiling of their holy temple (Temple of Earth), but with everything else dead, he proved realistic and a deal was struck. He was to be set free, against promising to leave them alone.

14th day of Hoard In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

Having traversed the jungle and the mountains, the Guardians finally arrived at their destination, the location of the Temple of Air. It appeared to be a fort in a deep pass, guarded by templars and soldiers of Tyr. The fort had a huge pile of rubble in the courtyard, and the Guardians surmised that the entrance to the temple would probably be beneath the pile.

As they were watching, they saw about 20 soldiers led by a dray (dragonborn) leave on erdlus, leaving the fort in a weakened position. Be careful, they sent the bird after the soldiers, and to their surprise, they found out that they were hiding not far away, ready to return to the fort quickly. It was a trap to lure them in. 

They decided to wait, and hide in a cave not too far from the fort. During the night, the dray came back with the soldiers, and tried to catch the Guardians sleeping. The fight was sorta like a stand-off with the Guardians in the cave and the soldiers outside, which Jelastra broke when he got bored, teleporting outside and attacking 20 soldiers on his own. Making good use of poor lightning conditions, the Guardians managed to deal with the soldiers, and capture the leader, the dray (dragonborn). He confirmed that they had been sent there by Amanada and the templars, as well as he told them the number of templars and soldiers in the fort. 

15th day of Hoard In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

Realizing they needed help with all the stones, the Guardians took a detour, and headed down to Fangren, the gnoll leader they had met months earlier, and who owed them a favor. After a little talk and negotiating, he agree to find as many gnolls as he could, and send them to the fort.

When the Guardians came back to the fort, with the gnolls some hours behind them, they found an empty fort. Cautiously, they entered the fort, and just as they were about to enter the main building, they were jumped by 4 templars and a lot of soldiers. Surprised by the number of templars (they were only expecting half of that), it seemed as if the Guardians had finally met their match. And then, with a few luckily hits, the tide turned and soon the Guardians had control of the fort. 

The gnolls arrived late at night, and the work was postponed for the next day.

16th day of Hoard In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The gnolls worked all day, moving stones. The Guardians mostly tried to keep the peace and help out with logistics. When a small revolt threatened, the Guardians gave the gnolls the fort, or rather all the inventory, in order to sweeten the deal. 

As the sun was setting, the gnolls were done, both with the moving of stones and looting of the fort, and they departed. They had uncovered a magical circle of some sort, a portal to elsewhere. The Guardians used the 3 collected elements to activate it. As they were waiting for the magic to complete, a huge lizard burst through the gate, carrying the Beast of Tyr and 4 more templars. For the second time in a day, the Guardians found themselves caught up in a fight for life and death. The Beast, first gladiator of Tyr was just that, a beast, and the 4 templars did not make things easier. But eventually, the Guardians prevailed, beat the master of the arena and his templars, and managed to catch the magical gate, which ported them 3 miles up in the air, in a magical area of stone platforms in the clouds. 

There, after a short break, they moved up, eager to find out the secret, going from platform to platform, via a huge amount of stairs. They ran into some air elementals, not that dangerous in themselves, but both Henry and Jelastra were almost pushed off the platforms, almost suffering a 3-mile drop.

Going up and up, they finally arrived at their goal. A pyramid-like structure of platform and stairs, with a portal on top. Unfortunately, it proved to be protected by 3 guardians, each more terrible than the other. The fight was long and excruciating hard. Never had the Guardians been so challenged, never had they needed so much luck and skill to overcome their foes. For what almost seemed like hours, they battled the air guardians on the "pyramid". Almost everyone was down and out of the count at some point, with both Jelastra and Heian being pushed off and falling 100 feet down on another platform. Had it not been for the collective effort, some amazing luck and Henry's ability to stay on his feet, there would no longer be any Guardians. 

With the fight over, and the Guardians completely depleted of energy, they decided to rest before entering the portal. At the portal, they found 5 rings. 

17th day of Hoard in Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The Guardians entered the portal, and found themselves in a room, a map-room, a library, a laboratory of some sorts. Before they could even wrap their brains around the huge oak-table in the middle of the room, a huge iron-golem stepped forward and told them to wait for the master. And the master came.

In came the master, obviously undead, clad in robes and garments. He bade them sit, and told them a story:

Magic works in mysterious ways. Many years ago in Sigil, far away from the gods, and driven by inexplicable dreams, Gorgyr, a young fledging mage haunted by dreams of a world, drew a map of an unknown world. The map clearly became infused with magic, and soon he found that by focusing his mind on certain locations on said map, he could see the world, that he thought he had created in his mind. He could even see the imaginary people inhabiting it.

For years, Gorgyr studied this miniature world of his. Of course, it was something of a shock for him to realize that they had a long history and thought they were part of a real world. It took some more years, but eventually Gorgyr found out where the original Athas came from, and thus realized that this was not merely something from his imagination.

To say that Gorgyr was obsessed about the miniature world, would be an understatement. He wanted desperately to liberate it, but he had no idea how, nor the magical skills to even begin to contemplate how to.

He did manage one thing though. He learned how to communicate in a rudimentary way with some people in the map-world. He told and showed them to build elemental temples that together would fuel a gateway out of the map-world and into Gorgyr’s workroom.

Years passed, and the temples were not completed, and Gorgyr was getting old. But he was determined to liberate the map-world or at least the people of the map-world, and he was not about to let death stop him. Luckily he had finally achieved enough power to transcend to lichdom, so he had found a way to pursue his quest.

With the temples completed, Gogyr (now a lich) started to impart knowledge of the real world into those he could contact. He also told them of the temples, and how it was a way out. Unfortunately, quite a few went mad, while others were killed. In fact, a statistically unexpected high number of those he told the truth died violent and sudden death. But Gorgyr could not figure out how the templars knew. No one ever came through the elemental temple-portals, and eventually, Gorgyr gave up hope, shoved the map in a corner of his tower in Sigil, and went on to study other things.

Session 19: Mountain Fun

14th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

After leaving the Tarek village, the four Guardians of Hope run into a lone warrior in a steel plate-mail, called Henry. He calls himself a mercenary from everywhere and nowhere, and claims to be looking for the Temple of Earth and five adventurers. He wants to team up with them. Deciding they could use a man in plate, they reluctantly agree to let him join them. 

They head west, towards the 20.000+ feet peaks and soon find out why so few take the trip across the mountains. The trek is punishing and dangerous. Climbing is at worst hard, and as they get to a higher altitude, the cold is beginning to wear them down as well. 

21st day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

While still climbing up the Ringing Mountains, the Guardians of Hope and Henry are assaulted by a Kirre, a 6-legged mountain-lion bit a spiked tail. As they engage, a Roc swings by and joins the fun. But the two animals, although very big, are no match for the well-oiled machine that are the Guardians. 

24th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

Getting closer to the top of the mountains, the Guardians run into Kebe of the Flowing Waters, who lives in the mountains. Tic-Tac tries to bargain for easy passage, but fails. Tweeks tries to change the monks mind, but fails even more. As they move on, Kebe does mention that they should take the right valley. The Guardians choose the left and are faced with an extremely harsh climb, draining a lot of their resources. As they reach the top, they run into 3 Braxat's, giants with animal heads. Especially Tic-Tac is exhausted from the climb, so the fight is somewhat more difficult than it should have been, but eventually our heroes dispatch the three giants.

25th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The next morning, they realize that they are at the top of the mountains, and that the climb down is much, much easier than the climb up. More so, they can see that the jungle is situated at about 10.000 feet altitude, and thus not far away.

26th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The Guardians enter the jungle, and head down south, towards the Temple of Water.

30th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

After wandering the jungle for days, without seeing anything dangerous, the Guardians are attacked by two plant-creatures which swallows them. Jelastra comes within a sliver of death, but eventually, the Guardians win yet another fight.

Temple of Water - Loot

Vorpal Battle Axe
There is nothing as sharp as the bite of a vorpal axe.
Critical: +1d12 damage per inherent plus
Property: Whenever you roll the maximum result on any damage die for this weapon, roll that die again and add the additional result to the damage total. If a reroll results in another maximum damage result, roll it again and keep adding.
Power Daily (Free Action)
You use this power when you hit with the weapon. The attack deals 2d12 extra damage.

Session 18: Po's Second Dying

13th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The Guardians pressed on, and quickly ran into a handful of gargoyle-golems. After a quick fight, they decided to rest in the dungeon, because all were pretty exhausted.

14th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

Luckily for them, nothing happened during the night, and as soon as they were ready, the Guardians pressed on, and moved deeper into the Temple of Earth. As it turned out, they soon found themselves in the last room, a big room full of statues, a magic circle with rubble, and some coffins. As soon as they entered the room, they were stopped by a Grim-Reaper-looking wraith, who demanded that they stop in the name of King Kalak, or die. Guardians weren't too impressed with the wraith, so they attacked. Soon is was a big battle, involving the wraith, his ghost-mul friend, and 12 nasty gargoyles. It was a hard battle. Po died, and several others almost joined (or preceded him). 

After getting some rubble for keys, they quickly left the temple (maybe Po was put into a coffin/sarcophagus?), snuck out of the Tarek town, and headed west, towards the jungle. Soon after leaving the temple, they received a message from Argul, who told them that they should do just that (head directly west) as the Templars were on to them, and had the books. Tyr was definitely no longer safe (was it ever) and that the priority should be to get to the last temple(s) and find out about the supposed secret.

Location of 3 temples

Here are the location of the 3 temples, according to the drawings found in the Fire Temple, and other information gathered.

Session 17: The Temple of Earth

14th day of Mist In Sun Descending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

After some sleep and rest and realizing that the everburning coals were the key and that the magical circle was part of a defunct teleportation magic, after copying the "map" and grabbing some of the coals, the Guardians of Hope headed out of the Temple of Fire, only to find their Erdlus dead.

19th day of Mist In Sun Descending, Year of the Priest's Defiance 

5 days later, a very tired group of heroes entered the city of Altarur. There they immediately hooked up with Master Coruff, a trader headed for Tyr some days later. Somehow Tweeks managed to negotiate the Guardians working as guards for the caravan, without alienating anyone.

1st day of Lowsun (midpoint of year, 5-day festival)

After an uneventful trip across the desert, the Guardians arrived back at Tyr, just as the big festival was beginning. As they entered the city, Jelastra spotted that one of the guards were eyeing them suspiciously. He broke off from the others, who continued towards one of the markets. He tailed the guard, and found out he was headed to the palace. Meanwhile Heian disappeared as well, and after a while, Tweeks and Po headed over to Argul. There they were joined by Jelastra, while Heian took some time before joining up with them.

Argul was happy, although slightly surprised to see them. With their information, he could show them on a map where the two last temples were. He also told them that times were harsh in Tyr, with executions and taxes on a steady rise ever since Amanda had become sorcerer-queen.

With said news, and everyone together again, it was quickly decided to head to the Ringing Mountains and find the Earth Temple. Like immediately. Heian seemed exceptionally pleased about heading out.

5th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

9 days later, the Guardians arrived at Freedom, a small semi-anarchic community made by ex-slaves from Tyr, after walking along the Ringing Mountains. They bought some food, and immediately headed into the mountains.

10th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

After 5 hard days of climbing and walking in the mountains, the Guardians rested on a small platform about 3000 feet above ground level. During the night, Jelastra was surprised during meditating by a young Behir. The fight was brutal and definitely touch and go, with Po getting badly beaten up by the constant surges of lightning, but in the end, the monster died, and they found a magical rod with some intriguing abilities inside it, when they gutted it. Tweeks took the horns as a souvenir. 

13th day of Bloom In Sun Ascending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The Guardians finally arrived at the 4 peaks, and found two stone villages, one up on the mountain-side, one down at the bottom, between the 4 mountains. They decided to check out the one at the bottom first. They climbed down and snuck up to the village stone walls. There they found out that the village was inhabited by Tareks, aggressive grey-skinned humanoids that live by raiding and pillaging, although they are usually not without honor. Laying low during the day, avoiding a couple of patrols, they decided that the best way would be to sneak in during the night. Po summoned his otherworldly friend, who told him that there was a temple in the middle of the village.

Once it was dark, they stealthed up to the walls, and climbed over. As they were getting down, they were almost spotted as Jelastra's foot got stuck in a hole in the wall, but a quick tumble avoided the disaster. Once the guards gone, the Guardians hurried stealthily towards the temple, but just as they got there, they ran into a patrol. It was quickly dispatched, but not before the alarm was sounded. The Guardians hurried to the temple, and by miracle, Po managed to open what seemed like an impossible lock and they were inside the Earth Temple.

Going down and down, the Guardians were soon victims of a trap, where they were caught between a huge rolling boulder and a deep pit filled with nasty-looking spikes. Fortunately, they could all jump or teleport over, although Po had to have some help from the boulder to get over.

Going further down the corridor, the Guardians were assaulted by a Gelatinous Cube and a Black Pudding. And found themselves fighting for their lives with these unnatural creatures. It was touch and go, especially for Po, who came within a hair's breath of dying. The Guardians won, but are now left exhausted, in a hostile dungeon surrounded by aggressive Tareks looking for them...

Behir Loot (correct one)

Rod of DeathLevel 8+ Uncommon

Wielding this rod lets you cheat death to harm your foes more quickly.

Lvl 13	+3	17,000 gp

Implement: Rod

Enhancement Bonus: Attack rolls and damage rolls

Critical: +1d8 damage per plus

Property

Whenever you make a damage roll for an attack with this rod and don’t like the result, you can reroll the damage roll and must use the new result. If you make the reroll, you are considered to have failed a death saving throw. If this is your third failure since your last rest, the failure does not cause you to die until you are dying, and you cannot use this property again until you have fewer than three failures.

The Air Temple

Session 16: Temple of Fire

12th day of Mist In Sun Descending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

Going further into the pyramid that is the Temple of Fire, the Guardians soon found their way to a big room with some columns and some huge, empty 11 foot tall braziers. As they entered the room to explore, it turned out to be a huge trap. Oil started to pour in from the ceiling, and doors all closed and locked. Some of the Guardians started to climb towards the ceiling, while others searched for a way out. When a magical spark of fire lit the whole room like a furnace, the Guardians began to feel like the proverbial snowball in hell. The fire was raging, and they had no way out. Heian finally found the mechanism they needed to disable, but couldn't handle it with just Tweeks. Tic-Tac left his brazier in order to help, while Po and Jelastra had to hide in a brazier in order to just burn slowly, instead of quickly. At the last possible second, Tic-Tac managed to fix the mistakes Tweeks and Heian had made, and they all got out of the room before being consumed by the inferno.

Further down, behind many stairs and locked doors, they ran into some ghosts. That proved a very unpleasant experience, and the Guardians dropped like flies. Po appeared truly dead, and in the end, it was Heian and Tweek's lizard against 3 ghosts and somehow, they managed to deal with them.

13th day of Mist In Sun Descending, Year of the Priest's Defiance

The next morning, the Guardians of Hope awoke after being out for the most of a day. Heian was sitting in a lotus position with the sword laying next to him, glowing brightly.

Po especially felt pretty beat up, still suffering from the wounds he sustained the last night. It must have been close. Very close. 

Further down they went, only to find some more ghosts protecting an area with tombs, a pool of water, a statue and a magical circle of some sort. 

Yet again, the Guardians had their hands full. But maybe due to the fact that they had fought the undead monsters before, things did go a bit more smoothly. That is, no one died permanently.

After the fight, Tic-Tac found a magical dagger and a magic symbol (gift of rain, usable by anyone) inside the statue, as well as what appears to be a brazier containing some sort of ever-burning coals. 

The room with the magical circle (in which is the brazier with the ever-burning coals) also has some drawings of what appear to be 3 different yet similar temples.

One drawing shows a temple on top of a flame, located in the desert close to another temple with an unknown symbol. 

One drawing shows a temple on top of a pile of rubble, located in between 4 mountain peaks, one of which has a broken top.

One drawing shows a temple on top of a river, located in a forest, next to a big gnarled tree and a lake.

Fire Temple loot

Gift of RainLevel 12 Uncommon

You drink your fill from a tranquil oasis, and healing pours from you.

Elemental Gift        13,000 gp

Power (Healing)  Daily (Standard Action)

You and each of your allies within a close burst 5 can make a saving throw or spend a healing surge as a free action.

Jagged DaggerLevel 12+ Uncommon

This dagger is pitted, scarred, and unadorned, but it deals grievous wounds.

Lvl 12	+3	13,000 gp

Enhancement Bonus: attack rolls and damage rolls

Critical: Ongoing 20 damage (save ends)

Property

This weapon scores critical hits on a 19 or 20.