The party returns to Rokin with the texts from the ancient prophecy. Meanwhile, the situation is getting worse in Rokin. The humanoid army is camped outside the city, and everyone expects a battle will soon occur. Dreth has calmed fears of the council about the humanoids turning on them after the battle. "With their ancient hatred, the humanoids and elves will attack one another first leaving our forces nearly untouched."
With the impending battle, Agral urges the party to go to the ancient eastern land to look for help. He is able to convince Dreth to spare some of his winged mounts for transport.
The party reaches the desert and soon finds ruins amidst the sand. In one of the buildings is a detailed map showing the once lush land. There is a great pyramid shown in the map that has a star-like symbol. A nomad will emerge from the sands as the party finds this map. He will not speak, but will drop a number of wooden staves and clubs along with suits of plant- based armor in front of the party (one for each member). He will turn and leave, vanishing as the sands pick up in the desert. (This is once again the grizzled woodsman & druid from parts 1 & 2.) The party will be pretty perplexed about where these came from - certainly not from this desert! The plant-based armor may not be worn with other armor.
With some searching, the party locates the pyramid indicated on the map. Within the pyramid, the party encounters strange skeleton-like creatures that have the abilities of mid-range fighters and mid-range mages. Inside each ones skull is a glowing gem. Anyone that touches this gem is charmed into placing it against their head. The gem burrows into their head and the creature is turned into another of these skeleton-like creatures within 1 turn. Before that time expires various magical methods may be used to stop the process.
When a gem-skeleton is hurt and about to die, if there are none of its kind nearby, the gem explodes sending out tiny fragments (equivalent to a 6-dice fireball). Bystanders killed this way rise up as similar skeleton- like creatures within 1 turn due to the shards that are embedded in them. The gems appear to be alive and growing, and each skeleton is able to produce basically unlimited number of shards from their skulls to create more from fallen or captured enemies. The gems do not affect plants or plant-based creatures, and weapons made from plants (wood or otherwise) such as staves or clubs do extra damage against the skeletons. Plants are also immune to the gem-detonation. In fact, any plant material nearby seems to make the gems cringe. If the party is wearing the plant-based armor that the nomad dropped, they are immune to gem-detonation, and they will notice that the shards bounce off of it. The gems and shards can easily be crushed by the staves and clubs, turning to dust.
The pyramid is filled with various traps, both magical and mechanical, plus a few other creatures besides the skeletons. There are also odd piles of treasure, metal bands and locks, but no wood. In fact, there isn't any wood in the entire pyramid, and any that once was here is completely gone! The gem-skeletons have destroyed all of it over the years.
Along the way, the party will find more ancient texts. These are a warning, but the party won't be able to translate them. The party will encounter a small "harmless" creature that can speak to them. It claims to be an agent of their deity sent to witness this blessed event. It will lead them to a room where an object glows brightly (like a star) and beautiful singing is heard. The glowing object is a sword (sunblade), hanging in the air above a magical circle. The creature will urge the party to take the sword to complete their destiny. It is arranged as part of an ancient magic circle, and unfortunately disturbing it will have nasty effects (but that won't be revealed until later). As the sword is grasped, the little creature will vanish (teleport away). The creature is actually a powerful demon that was trapped here. It uses various magical means to conceal its identity. The sword is lawful good and will be in telepathic communication with anyone grasping it. The sword will reveal that the demon has just been freed, and be very upset. This type of spell will never work against this demon again and so the sword will feel that its purpose has ended.
Returning to Rokin by air at night, the party sees the battle fires raging below. If the character with the sword explains the situation to it, and then hurls it down, it will blaze brightly and sing a loud chorus in elvish, destroying itself in the process. From the ground it appears as a falling star.
Clerics among the warring elves will call back their forces upon seeing this sign. It fulfills an ancient prophecy handed down for generations. For now they must join this enemy to defeat an even greater one...