====== 3/15/2026: Gate of Amtar 1 ====== **Location(s):** [[gateamtar|Gate of Amtar]] \\ **NPCs:** [[bahadur|Bahadur]] \\ **Loot:** \\ **Summary:** We know this location has to do with 39 [[jathomites|Jathomite]] religious figures - they forged a mighty weapon to slay something of enormous power. Has something to do with the Lake of Steam, etc., but we don’t know all the details. We recall 40 people in the story, but somehow 1 escaped or something. We see some signs that say (in common, Sword Coast dialect): “Welcome, come one, come all, to the temple of the great earth lord [[borem|Borem]].” We remember that Borem was the name of the creature that was killed by the Jathiman Dagger. Inside, a mud creature was nearly up in Ta’an’s business. He recognized that Ta’an had the sight and that he was his ancient foe. There’s a door with arcane symbols - to the side, there’s another sign welcoming people inside. 5 symbols of different states of earth: sun and rain on the edges - in the center, a circle with mud, sand, dirt, stone/hardened earth, and soil. They look like levers that you can push. Ta’an tried: stone, sand, dirt, soil, mud - he hears a voice in his mind that says “You may be a friend, but you have erred in your judgement. You have one more try.” Ta’an then tries sand, stone, dirt, soil, mud. Ta’an hears: “you have received Borem’s blessing” (resistant to bludgeoning damage for 1 hour) and he was healed a bit. However, he warns us that errors can be fatal in here. In the first room, we see a dead man holding a guest book at a table. There’s a goblet next to him with a brownish dried substance in it. The guest book has names of the [[brothersbalshadi|Brothers of Bal Shadi]]; our names appear as we walk into the door. The dead man’s hand wrote our names. There seemed to have been a party - and then new names are added. We’re not sure what’s going on. Ta’an uses soul sight on the man. It looks as if he doesn’t have a soul, but there are strings of soul energy attaching him to this place. Phaedra peeks at previous pages and sees more names in the same cursive writing. There appear to be lots of ladies and lords, during the time of troubles (3rd century D.R.) at the start of the book. We recognize some of the names as people who went missing. Every so often, and not very often (about 50-100 years apart) we see groups of names throughout the span from the start to the present. Most groups appear to be wood elven. Farther back, there are a few human and high elven names. More recently, we see dark crusty splatter (dried blood). It appeared next to the names of a group of wood elves - they are the group just before the Brothers of Bal Shadi - the second most recent group than us. The wood elves were here about 300 years ago. We have the names of the 4 wood elves written down. The cup has earthen dust or dirt in it. The artwork has a lot of pictures of earthen formations - mud slides, canyons, etc. Imogen summons [[bahadur|Bahadur]] - he looks around at the room, makes a religious symbol, and drops to his knee. He asks if we are in the castle of Borem. He’s an earth elemental of terrible power. They thought he was dead long ago. He tells us that Borem (elemental lord) is dangerous and that we need to be careful after he notices the blessing on Ta’an. Borem had obtained divinity but had not yet developed a pantheon, and was vulnerable. Borem was slain by human adventurers who were wielding great and terrible power, created by the Jathomites. The weapon was stolen by 3 human adventurers who lived on in infamy, as they became evil gods: [[bane-bhaal-myrkul|Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul]] (their names are not in the guest book). (Now, the spirits have found it, and they want to protect it once more.) If we take the blade from Borem’s heart, he will awaken - he may be grateful to us. We may unleash something. Bahadur does not know what the consequences will be for us. It has been done once before, but they had the blade. If he returns to Bahadur’s realm, he cannot guarantee assisting Imogen. We will need to draw the blade and then kill him again. Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul left the blade in him (leaving him in stasis) to use as a bargaining chip later; however, they became gods and did not need to use it. ---- [[03012026|Previous Session]] | [[03222026|Next Session]]