A DnD Tale: Curse of Stradh - The Amber Temple

It looks a bit cold.

April Fool's Everybody! But here on Niklas2.0 we value truth more than anything so we gonna go on with the long awaited continuation of the Curse of Strahd story line my sister is embroiled in. Finally prepared to travel across the mountains they set out once more from Valakia. Reaching the Tsalenka Pass without trouble they use the ring they acquired from Madam Eva and uses its one charge to suppress the green flames blocking their path. Reading the info I awoke the gargoyle statues above the gate to attack them. In truth I actually believe that they would only awake if you bypass the gate by climbing above or around it. They needed the EXP anyway so attack them I did. And the first strike actually throws 3 out of 5 people on the ground and would probably ended the game here and now, but one of the them threw a 20 on their saving throw so I could undo that attack. So the gargoyles are hacked to pieces. A paladin is really useful in this world so good on me for picking them.

They then turn their attention to the tower, which Toby opens up by breaking up the door. Inside they walk around finding nothing of important other than a residual power like from a teleportation circle that seems inactive. Although they discuss the fact that it might be setting up way to transport enemies toward them, they still sleep through the night in that room before continuing. As they leave and goes across the bridge the gate was guarding they see a man on a horse, the same horse they saw running across the sky toward them while on Yester Hill. Walking toward them and trying to talk the wind starts blowing and the figure turns to ash and flies away. Rattled they still continue over the bridge and following the mountain road. And they are suddenly attacked by a giant goat that ram Katrina into the ravine, Imiral and Hope jumps away causing both Toby and Cygnus to follow Katrina into the abyss, only surviving by hanging by tooth and nail by the rock. Imiral and Hope kills the goat and throws a rope toward Katrina and then Toby before turning their attention toward the armour clad Cygnus, who now falls even further down the mountain side. They still are able to get him up, but they needed everyone to drag him up. Before leaving Toby skins the corpse of the goat to make some warmer protection against the cold. 

Now with that ordeal behind them they continue and finally reaches the Amber Temple. Being in a bit of creative mode I actually drew the map on some overhead paper and used that so that they could explore the temple in real time. So they entered, slowly looking through every inch of the temple... that they could find. For example in the first hall they discovered holes for guards and arrows that one of them could enter via the shadows. Not wanting to separate the group they didn't leave the rooms alone. They sneaked up on some barbarians using the temple as a shelter, but realising that they probably didn't want to fight an unknown number of barbarians, wolfs and other creatures, they went the other way... running past the fireballs fired from the statue in the middle of the temple. Walking along the western upper floor they find a man hiding in some sort of auditorium, healing his burn wounds  from an attack caused by some flame skulls. They promised to find his master that was killed in the attack and bring back his spell-book. After finishing every room in the upper floor they where forced to return to the barbarians, but since they didn't want to fight more than necessary. Trying to talk to them, they where quickly surrounded and the atmosphere was tense... until Toby showed up in the skin of the goat they fought in the pass. Silence, and the barbarians let them pass. They enter a corridor where the corpse of the dead master lays, surrounded by flame skulls. They dispatch them and picks up the spell-book. Katrina also find his staff which she takes... and unknown to the rest of the party is cursed with lust for power. Which will be fun to play out later in the temple, hehe.

Mostly fighting flame skulls, finding a room with a banquet that turns out to be an illusion caused by a pitcher that taken unleashed an attack from ghosts. The only problem was walking out on a balcony above the great hall of the temple... and they all fell down behind the fire shooting statue. They found a hidden entrance at its back that lead to the statues head, where Hope found an old man standing looking out as he was guarding the temple. Talking to him made her believe that it's just a senile old man that was put on guard and have been here since then. Had they only done a detect good/evil they might have found out that it is actually a fiend called an arcanaloth in disguise. Leaving they fought of some more ghosts, but as they been going for a long time, almost all magic and abilities spent they needed to take some time to rest. Not able to travel back to the top floor since the "old man" would probably blast them with fire they decided to instead crawl up in the statues head and sleep behind him. I can't stop thinking that the arcanaloth standing there and wondering how he ended up with five people sleeping behind him. They ended that session so let's see what happens next time.