Scaling Mount Ghakis
After dealing with the Roc of Mount Ghakis at the end of the last session, the party continued on Tsolenka Pass searching for the Amber Temple. After walking for around an hour, the most perceptive party members picked up the scent of blood, and noticed a patch of nearby bushes had been recently disturbed. Moving to investigate, the party discovered the corpse of Elvir Martikov, a wereraven who had been helping them scout ahead and search for the Amber Temple. Assessing his wounds, it appeared that he had died to some primitive arrows while in raven form. Given the area was filled with freshly fallen snow, the party was able to spot several pairs of footprints nearby, which headed away from the path up into the mountains.
As the party did not know the exact location of the Amber Temple, they instead tried to follow the footprints. The journey off the path and up the mountain was quite difficult, but the party managed to avoid suffering a point of exhaustion. Unfortunately, after following the footprints for some time, they became too difficult for the tracker to read and the trail was lost. Not wanting to waste any more time, the party gave up their pursuit and made their way back to the main path.
On their walk back, an arrow struck the ground near one of the player’s feet, an obvious warning shot from someone behind them. Turning to face the archer, the party spotted several figures clad in tattered clothes hiding in a patch of trees uphill. Without any time to process this, the voice of a woman shouted out to the party in broken common:
“Drop your food, leave with your lives.”
Not wanting to start a fight, a few players moved forward with their rations as an offering to the strange hunters. As my barbarian player stepped forward, the hunters lowered their weapons, and pointed to the blood spear my player was carrying. With this, the party remembered that the spear had once belonged to a mountain barbarian chieftain, these hunters appeared to be part of this tribe.
Since my barbarian player had been chosen to wield the blood spear, these hunters trusted the party, and their leader Helwa approached to introduce herself. After some back and forth communicating, made slightly difficult by the language barriers, the party learned that the mountain tribe knew of a place that fit the Amber Temple’s description. Members of the mountain tribe feared this place of great evil, and force their greatest warriors to spend a week living there as a trial of strength. After some hesitating, Helwa agreed to lead the party to the temple, but she refused to set foot in the temple herself. As they journeyed to the temple, the player who kept the sunsword felt a growing sense of dread with every step.
The Amber Temple
After traveling with the mountain folk for a few hours, the party arrived at the Amber Temple. From the outside, the place felt cold, even when compared to the frigid mountain winds. The six massive and faceless statues out front filled the party with unease. After a quick glance outside, a perceptive player noticed a crack in the stone wall, wide enough to fit through, and lit from the inside. While the side route was tempting, the party instead decided to use the main entrance of the temple.
The inside of the temple was impossibly dark, as if light itself was afraid to enter. Finding themselves at the top of a stone balcony overlooking a dark chamber, the party heard a booming voice speak out to them:
“Agents of the dark powers, turn back, or perish!”
Stopping in their tracks, the party called back to the booming voice, who introduced themselves as Heinrich, the last guardian of the Amber Temple. The voice explained that although the powers trapped inside the temple were great, no pure individual would ever desire to use them, and therefore anyone who tried to force their way into the temple was an enemy. Already weary from a day of fighting, the party decided to leave the Amber Temple to get some rest, and return more stealthily in the morning.
Heinrich’s Last Stand
After an uneventful night, the party returned to the Amber Temple, where all but one player decided to sneak through the side passage they had found earlier. This single player planned to enter the main chamber again and try to reason with Heinrich, or at the very least distract them. While they were talking, the rest of the party explored the first chamber, a well lit room with some uncomfortable looking beds, which most likely belonged to the mountain tribe. Once the party had left this chamber, Heinrich caught on to their plan, and initiative was rolled.
As combat began, several flaming skulls sprung into life, and illuminated the source of the booming voice, a giant humanoid statue with magical darkness covering its entire face. A few of the sneaking players rushed back to help the solo player fight off Heinrich and the skulls, while the others decided instead to ransack the west wing of the Amber Temple looking for anything valuable. In their first few turns they had discovered a mostly dried up potion vault, a miniature model of Strahd’s Castle Ravenloft, and an illusory dining hall.
Back at the real action, the flameskulls had protected themselves using their blur spells, and Heinrich was busy throwing lightning bolts at the party. The amount of dexterity saves that this fight called for really gave my rogue, who had not gotten to use their evasion, a cool moment. While the players were able to pick off a few of the flameskulls, nobody was able to hit whoever was hiding in the statue’s shadowy face.
At this point, many of the players who had been hightailing through the Amber Temple had joined in the fighting, and my barbarian player made a bold move. They used their magical climb speed to run up the front of the statue, and into the shadowy face, where they felt two holes where the eyes would be. From inside the statue, they heard Heinrich’s voice:
“I tried to give you an easy way out.”
Just then, their blood went cold, as they were hit by a finger of death, which knocked them unconscious and sent them tumbling down to the floor with a failed death save. The party scattered to help stabilize the barbarian, while another one of my players had a great idea. They decided to cast shatter, targeting the head of the statue, in an effort to blow Heinrich’s cover apart. After some on the fly rulings and dice rolling, the spell was a success, and sent Heinrich flying in a burst of rubble.
Landing on the ground nearby, Heinrich realized with his flameskull minions all destroyed, his odds were not great. After throwing another lightning bolt at the party, Heinrich reverted to his arcanaloth form. Before he was beaten too badly, the arcanaloth Neferon teleported safely away. With one final use of his booming voice, Neferon taunted the party:
“If that’s the best you’ve got, this place is going to chew you up, and spit you out!”
With Neferon dealt with, the party was free to continue their exploration of the Amber Temple next session. 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!