Session 36

The Furry turns to Elora and asks why they have come to the Amber Temple. He continues to try to snuff out the flames. Elora questions him, and he tells her that his duty is to protect the evil locked away in this temple from those who wish to free it.

Pelanil burst through the open trap door. The Furry agrees to call off the flameskulls and have a conversation with the party over tea.

The Furry introduces himself as Neferon, a dimension-wandering Arcanaloth. Through conversation, he tells the party the following:

• He worked with good-aligned wizards centuries ago to lock away all the Dark Powers in the Amber Temple
  • They also gathered the world's dark knowledge and stored it away so that they could protect it
    • Elora points out the oversight in gathering it all in one place
• After successfully trapping the Dark Powers, Neferon continued dimension traveling
  • When he returned, all his wizard friends had been corrupted
  • Two of the Dark Powers had been released
• When Elora asks him to transport them out of Barovia, he says he is duty-bound to guard the temple and cannot leave again

He tells the group to venture further into The Amber Temple to find "his friend". He would be able to share more information with the party. He warns the crew that he must kill them if they try to interact with the Dark Powers locked away in the amber sarcophagi.

The party takes a quick rest over tea and makes their way back out of the statue and to the secret door that Bardolf found earlier.

The group tries to open the door with force, but is unable to budge it. Bardolf pulls out a hammer and chisel. They also seem to have no effect until he plays "Shave and a Haircut", to which the door creaks open revealing a dark stone staircase leading upwards.

Another secret door at the top swings open allowing the party access to a vast library. The knowledge held in the room seems unfathomable with bookshelves ascending out of sight and high into the mountain.

As the party investigates the books, Anakir feels breath on his shoulder and hears a raspy voice say "I see you've found our library".

The Lich tells the party that this library contains endless knowledge and that they can find the answers to any question they've ever had.

Upon questioning, he also reveals the following:

• He was also once a wizard that helped seal away all the Dark Powers
• He was friends with Strahd, who he remembers as a "strapping young lad" finding his way in the Barovian Valley
  • Strahd has not been back to visit for a long time
• There are two rituals needed to seal away a dark power
  • Ritual one (summon the Dark Power:
    • As a ritual, three casters must proceed with the spell for 10 uninterrupted minutes
  • Ritual two (trap it in amber):
    • as a ritual, one caster must succeed on 3 consecutive magic checks in their spell casting ability, DC 16.
    • the caster must be able to see the Dark Power for each roll. They can't be in a different room or casting blindly in darkness. They've got to see the beast to imprison it.
    • And lastly, the ritual requires a chip of amber as a component
• He's obviously very forgetful, and doesn't even know his own name

Pelanil made his way down the spiral staircase in the library. At the bottom, he found 3 amber sarcophagi from which he sensed great evil emanating. Pelanil used Locate Object to try to find the Sunsword. It led him through the cracks in the southern wall of the room. There, he found 6 piles of treasure. Elora scampered past him to claim the pile with the wooden pony.

Pile 1 Escher

• 17,500 cp (loose)
• Thirty 50 gp gemstones
• Three rusted suits of plate armor (worthless)
• Nine rusted shields (worthless)
• A child-sized sarcophagus made of black wood inlaid with gold (worth 250 gp)

Pile 2 Pelanil

• 12,000 sp (loose)
• Five rusted suits of ring mail and six rusted breastplates (worthless)
• A silvered rapier with a pink glass hilt
• Four rusted greatswords (worthless)
• A gilded chariot (worth 750 gp)

Pile 3 Anakir

• 6,600 ep (loose), each coin stamped with the profiled visage of Strahd
• Seventy-five empty bottles
• A trunk filled with six fine dresses and gowns (worth 25 gp each)
• Ten pieces of jewelry (worth 250 gp each) and 500 gp in a rotted wooden chest
• Eight painted ceramic statues of saints (worth 250 gp each and weighing 50 pounds each)

Pile 4 Shalooti

• A pile of iron ingots (worth 250 gp total and weighing 2,500 pounds)
• Thirty holy symbols (worth 5 gp each) of gods from various worlds
• A set of twelve copper chalices with silver filigree (worth 25 gp each)
• A gilded skull with red garnets in its eye sockets (worth 250 gp)
• Eight warhammers and six war picks

Pile 5 Elora

• 9,000 sp (loose)
• Six nonmagical crystal balls (worth 20 gp each)
• A bronze crown with tiny gem-eyed dragons for spires (worth 750 gp)
• A life-sized wooden pony (worth 25 gp)
• Six marble vases (worth 100 gp each and weighing 100 pounds apiece)
• The Sunsword

Pile 6 Bardolf

• 7,000 wooden coins painted gold (worthless)
• 15,000 cp in fifteen iron pots
• An obsidian scepter with gold filigree (worth 2,500 gp)
• Eleven rusted helms (worthless)
• Fifteen thin, leather-bound tomes, all of them signed copies of a storybook called Snow Dwarf and the Seven Wights, by Nitch Rackmay.

Elora gave the Sunsword to Pelanil since she was only interested in the live-size wooden pony. The party continued to ponder how they would remove all this treasure from the temple. Pelanil admired his new sentient companion.

Quests