Amber Temple Will Kill You

The party awakes high in the mountains, feeling tenser than before. Marillion feels the presence of the Amber Temple, which is only a few hours away. During the night, his mysterious presence had again contacted him, urging Marillion to seek them out at the temple.

The party sets off and soon finds a suspiciously nonchalant monastery abandoned centuries ago. Inside, a lonely corpse holding a chisel had used its last moments to engrave the history of the amber temple onto the walls of the corridor leading down the stairs and into the mountain under the temple. The imagery of wizards capturing maleficient forces and sealing them into the mountain, just to have them escape and corrupt the minds of the temple’s inhabitants, fills the walls. Not deterred, the party presses on and, thanks to some good intel from Cinna, manages to avoid the initial barrage of fireballs reserved for anyone from the outside trying to enter the temple. Soon, a conflict with the resident aracanaloft of the temple breaks out. The fiend manages to land a banishment spell on Xuza, which transports them into another plane where he gets to have a heart-to-heart with his own “patron.”

After defeating most enemies and catching their breath, the party explores the temple. They find a group of teens from the nearby Kavani tribe. The teens are there for a coming-of-age ritual requiring them to stay in the temple for seven nights. The teens are very impressed with Darren’s possessing the spear of their first tribe leader, going as far as declaring Darren to be the king of the Kavani tribe and urging him to visit. Darren is not excited about yet again being considered a ruler of a foreign land, and the party decides to leave the youth to their own company.

Pressing into the temple, the party encounters a variety of traps, including an enchanting statue that magically captures the interest of both Xuza and Bart. Even further into the temple, the group meets Exehanter, a lich that has lost most of its memory and powers. While initially cordial toward the party, Exehanter soon notices that a certain opportunistic sorcerer steals their phylactery. Luckily, diplomacy prevails, after which Exehanter and the party part ways under–not so cordial–circumstances.

While studying the multitude of texts kept in the temple library, learning about the ritual used to capture dark powers and the powers themselves, the party is suddenly ambushed by the arcanaloft that had survived their initial encounter. In the ensuing conflict, the party finally manages to defeat it. Marillion uses the cover of the fight to sneak away and runs for the sarcophagi holding Zantras, the kingmaker, the mysterious entity who communicated with him during his trip to Barovia. Before getting Zantras tomb, Xuza, Darren, Bart, and Cinna manage to stop Marillion, drag him away for a discussion, and get attacked by a mysterious psionic entity.

After a moment’s rest, the party discusses what to do. Xuza was especially adamant about Marillion not contacting Zantras lest the party incur the wrath of Shami-Amourae, the dark power that had been in contact with Xuza during his time in Barovia. As a compromise, the party first seeks an audience with Shami. The discussion goes as well as Xuza could hope. Shami agrees to stand down and allow Marillion to speak with Zantras if no alliance between the two is formed. Unfortunately, Zantras proves too crafty for Marillion, and the rest of the party watches Zantra’s dark power flow into Marillion and empower him. As a consequence, a furious Shami gives Xuza an ultimatum: Xuza must either stop Marillion from leaving Barovia or be prevented from leaving himself. On their way out, the party realizes that the temple has gotten the best of the teens they had met earlier. One has turned into a spider and killed the others. The party puts the transformed teen out of their misery and gives the rest a proper burial.

Exiting the temple, the party realized they were exhausted, but it was still reasonably early in the day. With tensions running high, the party decides to delay the challenging conversations and hunt the Roc at the top of the mountain instead. The rest of the day is spent climbing as high up as possible, avoiding yeti attacks, and preparing for the next day.