The Screaming Pass

The party enter the temple of Solkath and find it completely ransacked, with bloody footprints everywhere and numerous priests on the inside ripped apart. They follow the trail of blood to the basement of the temple where they the sundered body of High Priest al-Taab, whom they had intended to meet with. Beihram casts speak with dead and the party interrogate the High Priest's corpse.
High Priest al-Taab says the gnolls were creations of the temple, made by combining religious rituals, death magic from the cursed sands, and lycanthropic energy from the moonshards of Elar. It was initially seen as a way to revere Solkath as a god of death, but al-Taab soon realized it was wrong and tried to put a stop to it. However, the radicals within the faith had grown to outnumber the orthodoxy that al-Taab represented and continued their rituals in secret. Meanwhile, Princess Rashida had become indoctrinated by these radicals and had come to see herself as the second coming of Solkath. She grew popular among the radicals and promised them dominion, moving to the holy site of El-Qima where she was attempting to become a full avatar of Solkath.
The party hears screaming from outside the temple, and exit to find the night sky had gone completely dark. On the horizon to the southwest a green light had begun to form over the city of El-Qima. Realizing that Rashida's ritual had begun, Beihram urges the party to go ahead as an advance force while he musters the army. There is a way through the nearby mountain range called the Screaming Pass that is too narrow to bring the army through, but that they can use to reach El-Qima quickly. On their way out of the city they are joined by Captain Khairiya Meral who wants to help guide them through the pass.
The party leaves the city and travels for three hours on foot through the mountains. While traversing the Screaming Pass they come across a massive horde of corpsewalkers who had been presumably unleashed by Rashida's followers. They are able to stand their ground for a time but the horde keeps coming. Grom clears a path through the horde for the rest of the party and stays behind to hold them off. His flashdust suit is heavily damaged, sending him flying into the side of a cliff face and exploding. As the life leaves his body he is once again visited by the visage of a massive golden dragon who calls himself Tamaril. The dragon says Grom has earned himself once again through sacrifice, and restores him to life in the form of a golden dragonborn replete with wings. Grom decimates the corpsewalkers standing between him and the party and rejoins them. As even more show up, Anton uses the Eye of the Drowned Mistress to flood the pass and prevent them being followed. The party hurries out of the pass to find the walls of El-Qima before them.

Chapter Thirty

"The Screaming Pass"

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Previous Chapter: Malice at the Palace

Next Chapter: The Final Battle

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Ingame Date: 1^st-2^nd of Summerdawn, 1855
Real-Life Date: August 18, 2021
Protagonists:

• Grom
• Ari
• Jameson Harper
• Ra'zon
• Anton von Rheintach

Featured NPCs:

• Beiram Torabi

Locations:

• El-Azahdron
• The Screaming Pass