Cliff Notes Recap: Amber Temple Session #4

The Gang started the session in X22, where they had just fought seven specters.

Went back to X17 where they came upon the burnt remains of Jakarian, the former master of Vilnius. The apprentice claimed Jakarian’s Staff. It was obvious that his sadness was a veneer as he looted his former master’s body. He was disappointed that his master’s spellbook was ruined.

The Gang approached the double doors to X15. They listened at the doors, and they could hear people talking in hushed voices and some things being moved arounds.

Sleeps opened the door to X15 and was immediately hit by 2 arrows from some youths hiding behind cover. The Gang was able to calm them down.

These kids were the Kavani tribal folk that Vilnius mentioned. They were spending the night in the Amber Temple as some sort of rite of passage. The teenagers said they were being harassed by some unseen entity named Drizlash. One of them, named Frida, was sick with a fever.

They were amazed by the Blood Spear and claimed that it once belonged to their most revered ancestor, Kavan. The tribespeople traded the Blood Spear for a magic bow and 5 adamantine arrows.

The Gang decided to spend a Long Rest to recuperate. Their sleep was interrupted by Frida, the youth that was sick. She was crawling on the ceiling. With a horrendous scream, she dropped down on Mamol. While in midair, a large spider emerged from the center of Frida like a snake slipping off its skin.

While Frida’s outer carcass flopped to the floor, the spider with Frida’s face attacked Mamol. The Gang fought the spider and killed it.

Another interruption to their rest was Kasimir. The Mage woke up everyone when he cast a Magic Missile at Vilnius. Kasimir claimed that the other mage tried to use some sort of charm spell on him.

Vilnius confessed that he was trying to charm Kasimir because he wanted to leave the Amber Temple. He figured that the Gang would force him to stay. The Gang allowed him to exit down the side of the mountain.

The Gang was able to heal and recover their powers, but they didn’t recover their Hit Dice for Short Rest healing.

They explored X19. Not much there, but empty potion bottles.

They explored X20. Huge Success!

Dominating this room is a twelve-foot-tall model of a dark castle with high walls and tall spires. Behind it, tucked in a corner, are some ruined furnishings and a wooden chest.

They found the TOME OF STRAHD, which was the final artifact that Madame Eva prophesied that they would need. Sleeps also found another book hidden in the false bottom of a chest. 

They went back up north to X22 and opened the double doors to the east. This led to a crumbling platform.

Sleeps crossed the platform and he could feel it creak under his footsteps, but it held. He opened the double doors to the north.

X24.

This bare stone room consists of a foyer to the east and a shrine to the west. Candlesticks draped in cobwebs stand in the four corners of the foyer. In the shrine, a faceless obsidian statue stands in a raised alcove at the western end of the chamber. Slumped before the statue are two desiccated corpses in tattered garments. Two pairs of alcoves line the north and south walls of the shrine.

The statue called to the Monk as if he was under the effect of a Sympathy Spell, but Sleeps resisted the statue. He tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge.

They sent Donkar the barbarian across so he could move the statue. The platform crumbled away but they had tied a rope around him which saved the barbarian. Grant used his Robe of Useful Items to produce a 24-foot ladder to cross the gap between the two double doors. The Gang moved to X24. Anybody who failed their save vs the statue was smacked until they regained their senses.

They opened a door to the east which was a small room with an arrow slit in the south wall.

Elyrian used the Wand of Secret Doors to find a secret door in the north.

X26. Hundreds of skulls spilled of the 10 by 10-foot room. He climbed the 30-foot wall and tried to pry the chest open, but it was magically locked. That’s when the Flaming Skulls made an appearance.

The Gang closed the door and held it shut. What followed was a nasty fight with everyone firing arrows and spells back and forth through the arrow slits in X25. A couple of people were forced to make death saving throws, but the Gang eventually came out on top.