Braving Tsolenka Pass
After defending Argynvostholt from the dark forces of Strahd in the last session, the party decided to take a much-needed rest and research the amber temple they heard about from Ireena. The party headed to the Wizard of Wines, seeking whatever help they could get from the Keepers of the Feather. While Davian was hesitant to send any ravens to scout out the dangerous Mount Ghakis, he was easily convinced to send a wereraven back to Vallaki, to search through the ruins of the Burgomaster’s Mansion for any books that might have survived.
After briefly waiting for the wereraven to fly to Vallaki and back, the party received three books, and I finally got a chance to use the random book table in chapter four. The three books were: a heretical text, a poetry anthology, and a theological text. Of the three books, the heretical text was the most useful for the parties current needs. The book spoke of several dark powers, including the dark power Vampyr that granted Strahd his strength. While the book did not have the exact location of the amber temple, it did mention that the temple was built to imprison these dark entities.
Armed with the knowledge they were able to gather, the party decided to follow Tsolenka Pass, searching for the amber temple. As the party headed south on the winding trail through the mountains, they noticed the weather was getting increasingly cold. While passing through a narrow portion of the trail with a steep drop to the side, the party heard the bleating of a large goat.
Without any other warning, a member of the party is rammed and nearly thrown off the side of the pass by the goat legend Sangzor. Following the surprise round, it was the party’s turn to retaliate, and after taking a few attacks, Sangzor knew he was quite outmatched. On his next turn, Sangzor was able to disengage, and effortlessly scaled the nearby cliff to safety. With the party now a bit more alert, they continued on the Tsolenka Pass until they reached the gatehouse.
The Black Gates
The icy black stone walls of the gatehouse blocked the party from continuing further on the path, as wicked stone gargoyles stood at the top of the walls peering down at them. Inside the gatehouse, a magical green wall of flame loudly crackled and gave off an intense heat. As the party approached the walls of the gatehouse, the iron gates slowly began to creak open on their own, leaving only the fire to stop them from walking through the gatehouse. Cautious of passing through the fire, a member of the party used their magical climbing speed to scale the side of the slick walls. As they began to ascend, the party heard the cracking of stone, as the gargoyles began to revert to their demonic forms.
With a horrific screech, the two vrocks descended from the gatehouse roof and attacked the party. The players were able to resist the effect of the vrock’s cries, and started swinging and shooting arrows at the flying demons. With their screeches used, the vrocks swooped down to claw and peck at the party. With their relatively small pool of hit points, the vrocks posed little challenge to the players, as the party cut down both the demons. Having now dealt with the gatehouse guards, the party was able to quickly scale the walls with some rope and magical climbers.
Before continuing on Tsolenka Pass, the party decided to investigate the guard tower near the gatehouse. The party was able to easily enter the guard tower using their magical climbing, and began their search. While the tower was mostly empty, two of the players made their way to the top of the tower, where they discovered ten golden statues of female knights with intricate armor and lances.
As a player reached to touch one, the statue moved and grabbed their arm, looking down at them with a stern glance. Suddenly, each of the statues turned inwards and readied their weapons. The players quickly jumped back downstairs through the trapdoor, narrowly avoiding the statue’s lances, before the trapdoor was slammed shut. Not wanting to anger the statues further, the party decided to leave the guard tower alone, and headed back on the Tsolenka Pass until they reached a stone bridge that crossed a deep chasm.
The Roc of Mount Ghakis
The party decided to take a cautious approach when crossing the stone bridge, as the weathered appearance gave the impression that the bridge could collapse if they were not careful. Armed with the lightest gear, the party rogue went first across the bridge, when they heard the screech of a terrifyingly large bird, as the silhouette of a roc emerged from the fog to the north. Thinking fast, the rogue was able to dash across the remainder of the bridge to safety, and the barbarian began their dash across as well, but did not quite make it to the other side.
As the players began to shoot at the roc, it swooped down onto the bridge, and grabbed the barbarian with its massive claws. The roc then started to flap its gargantuan wings, in a clear effort of taking back to the skies with the barbarian as its next meal. As the barbarian was raging, they were able to easily break the grapple, and decided to stay next to the Roc, so they could attack on their next turn. Having already taken a fair amount of damage from the ranged attacks, on its next turn the Roc grappled the barbarian again with its talons, and flew off back to the north.
The players on the ground scrambled, and continued to shoot at the roc in an effort to bring it down, but after a turn or two it was out of range for most attacks. Still in its claws, the barbarian lashed out against the roc, hoping they could force it to land. The roc retaliated by pecking at the barbarian with its beak. As both parties were looking rather injured, it was a race to see who would come out on top, with the added pressure of the victor potentially plummeting to their death.
With the fight now far from the rest of the party, it was a duel in the sky between the barbarian and the roc. The barbarian’s rage made this a much closer fight than I had originally anticipated, and after a few more turns, the barbarian was able to finish off the roc. Thankfully, level eight characters are pretty hard to kill, as the raging barbarian survived the rocs attacks and the 20d6 of fall damage. Picking themselves up, they made the slightly lengthy journey back to the party waiting on the stone bridge.
With the party back together again, they dusted themselves off and continued south on the Tsolenka Pass. That’s all for now, I hope you found this write-up interesting, if you want to read more feel free to check out my other resources for Curse of Strahd!