Star Stone of Mnar (aka Star Stone) - protection against Mythos creatures.

 Sacrifice Binding magic - spells that bind a creature's soul to an item in order to gain it's properties (ie, attack attached to a sword).   Drives the user mad over time.

-Deep Ones create land-staging area for raids and attempts to free imprisoned Spawn of Cthulhu (sealed aeons ago with Star Stone inscriptions in the Manacles reef)

-Staging-area developed into Temple as human accomplices are recruited.

-Raid by locals seals Temple and Spawn with Star Stones.

-Deep Ones continue to use sea-level areas to breed shoggoths

-Temple discovered by Old Man Silas and his brother Enoch, and they investigate hidden secrets.

-Enoch finds secret to Sacrifice Binding and hides it from Silas.

-Enoch contacted by the Deep Ones' Ka'nach'Tur and offered support for building the Cult.  He doesn't realize that he's to be used to remove the seal from the Spawn of Cthulhu and set them free at his own expense.

-The two begin to recruit cult members.  Enoch tells Silas that he is the Cult focus, in order to Silas to build resources for Enoch to use.    Ka'nach'Tur tells Enoch that the magic he is studying will give him power over his brother and the Cult.  Deep Ones are trying to get Enoch trained enough to remove the Star Stone seal at the heart of the Manacles.

-Silas finds out Enoch has been hiding secrets and confronts him only to be cast out of the Cult.  His knowledge of their magic and activities keep the Cult from killing him outright, but they look to the ghouls living beneath the Olde Stone Church cemetary to do it for them.

-Silas sends letter to "old family friend" asking for protection from what sounds like paranoid scheme.  Silas intends to send party after the Cult as revenge.

-Party arrives just after ghouls have killed Silas.

-Party finds evidence Silas left showing Cult as source of recent murders.

-Enoch is driven insane by his continued research into the fragments of the Necronomicon and other occult information shown to him by Ka'nach'Tur.

-Party arrives at the Temple to investigate.

-Enoch is instructed by Ka'nach'Tur to seal the Temple shut and begin final preparations .  This will supposedly enable Enoch to complete an all-powerful weapon, the Sceptre of R'Lyeh.  This weapon is in-fact to be used to open the seal imprisoning the Spawn of Cthulhu.  The Cultists are to be sealed in the Temple in order to serve as fodder for the shoggoths now that they are no longer needed.

-Enoch completes a Sceptre with Star Stone destroying power.

-Shoggoths are released into the Temple from below.  Deep Ones intend to take the Sceptre and free the Spawn themselves.

-At this point there are several possible paths for the plot to follow, depending on the actions of the party:

• If the party is in the upper levels of the Temple, they will find the entrance to the mid-levels locked from the outside (the side the party is on).  Opening the door will allow Cultists and Shoggoths to enter.

• If the party is in the mid-levels, they will have to contend with crazed mobs of Cultists and roaming Shoggoths absorbing all in their path.

• If the party is in Enoch's private level they will be confronted with a mad mage on one side and a band of Deep Ones led by Ka'nach'Tur bent on destroying all humans and retrieving the Sceptre.

• On the lower levels, the party will encounter Deep Ones' rituals and find the Shoggoths being led up into the human-inhabited levels of the Temple.

-Resolutions:  The tome will have several possible endings based on the actions the party takes:

• The Sceptre is taken by the Deep Ones to the Manacles.  In this case, the party is left with a bunch of dead people and ravaging Shoggoths.  Bummer.

• The Sceptre is taken by the party.  In this case they will be hunted by the Deep Ones for as long as they possess it.

• The Deep Ones are driven out of the Temple.  If the party is able to clear the lower levels before the Shoggoths are led up into the Temple, then that situation is avoided.

• Enoch is killed.  If Enoch is killed, either by the party or by the Deep Ones, then the Cult will dissolve and it's members will return to their previous lives.  The Deep Ones will no longer have a group to control, and will abandon the Temple's areas.  They will continue to inhabit the lowest level, though, and will continue efforts to free the Spawn of Cthulhu trapped in the Manacles.

• Ka'nach'Tur is killled.  The Deep Ones will abandon the area and return to R'Lyeh (for now).  They will leave the Shoggoths to their underground lake, though, as a deterent to anyone following them and to lead any future investigations of the Temple into a wrong conclusion.