The heroes are determined to find their former companion Gydean before he becomes a new dark lord. But first, they must embark on a journey to the Amber Temple to enlist the help of the dusk elf Kasimir. They brave a dangerous mountain pass and face deadly perils in the depths of the dungeon, following the path taken by Gydean many years ago as he sought out the dark powers and their forbidden wisdom.
Player characters: Casaba, Gorgonzola, Kane, Nyr, Takarov
Part 9. Into the Amber Temple
1.
From the Vistani camp outside the town of Vallaki, the party traveled south to the Tsolenka Pass, the gateway to the Amber Temple.
High upon the cold mountain road, the heroes marched in single file. The icy wind bit at their cheeks as they clung to the side of the mountain. Over the sheer side of the cliff, all they could see was a blanket of fog, a reminder of the dizzying height of the mountain and the perils of falling.
The heroes saw an old gateway flanked on either side by two stone towers. Behind the portcullis of the gate, there was a wall of green flame. Atop each tower, there stood a large statue of a hideous winged figure with the head of a vulture. Gorgonzola the goblin paladin felt that something was amiss. He reached out with his divine senses and realized that these statues were fiendish guardians that had been petrified and sealed in stone. The heroes guess that the statues must be a trap lying in wait for unwary adventurers.
Gorgonzola was about to warn his companions, but he was startled to hear Kasimir shouting a warning himself. He looked to the gate, but Kane was already at the portcullis, reaching out with his hand to touch the green flames.
The fire burned him! Kane let out a cry of pain and jumped back. Above him, the stone statues began to come to life as flakes of stone fell from their limbs, revealing black, fiendish feathers.
The heroes were ready to defend themselves. Nyr, who was already pointing her crossbow, loosed a volley of bolts. Gorgonzola and Takarov leaped forward and met the vulture-like fiends as they swooped down. Gorgonzola wielded his holy sword, and Kasimir cast an enchantment on the longsword held by the old mercenary Takarov.
But the heroes were taken aback by the terrible shrieks that came from the fiends’ hideous beaks. Some of the heroes stumbled back, covering their ears. Casaba tried to viciously mock the fiends in the hopes of distracting them, but the icy wind froze his lungs. Fortunately, the weapons of his allies struck true. Gorgonzola’s mighty blade, shining with the light of the Morninglord, and Kane’s vengeful fists smote their enemies’ ruin. The demons tumbled and fell down the side of the mountain until they were swallowed up by the fog below.
When the demons were defeated, Kane used his own fiendish magic to dispel the green flames, allowing the heroes to pass through safely.
“Why didn’t he do that to begin with?” Kasimir wondered, shaking his head. “I will never understand the logic of mortal men who have such brief lives.”
Up ahead, they saw a gorge bridged by a stone walkway. Two watch towers stood on either side of the gorge like silent guardians. The party warily explored each tower and found them to be empty except for the ancient skeleton of a long-dead guard. The heroes took the tattered remnants of the clothes from the corpse and used them to light a bonfire. Then they took refuge in the tower for a short rest before continuing onward.
But Kane did not rest well. He had seen a vision upon the bridge, a specter of Gydean riding across the gorge toward the Amber Temple. He did not know whether he was hallucinating or if it was a vision that was sent to him by unknown entities. Was this a message left by Gydean himself, or a waking dream conjured by the dark powers that had lured Gydean into darkness?
2.
After a brief rest, the heroes set out once more. Soon after, they arrived at a sheer rock wall. Six alcoves were carved into the side of the mountain. Each one contained a tall statue made entirely of solid amber, depicting a robed and faceless figure. In between the two alcoves in the middle, there was a large gateway with a staircase leading down. To the right of the alcoves, there was a small fissure that seemed to also lead downward.
Kane sensed that Gydean had passed through the central gateway and led the party down the stairs. They saw arrow slits on either side of the stairway as they descended. In one of the arrow slits, they found the skeleton of a dead wizard, still clutching a slender wand in its bony fingers. The wizard looked like one of the dead adventurers that they had fought in their vision upon Yester Hill. The memory of their grim voices crying out to Gydean made the party uneasy.
Inside the temple, the stone floor and walls were lit by a strange amber glow, just like in their vision. But the halls within the temple, and their memory of the paths that they took, were veiled by shadows, so that none could remember completely the ways by which they had passed through the dungeon.
Along the way, they discovered a man in tattered robes hiding in what appeared to be a large lecture hall. At first, he was frightened of the party, particularly the two goblins whom he suspected might try to eat him. But he was also famished and hungry. When Casaba kindly offered him a piece of his rations, he tore at it ravenously and began to tell his tale.
The man’s name was Vilnius. He was an apprentice wizard and a survivor from a previous expedition. Vilnius was badly scarred with burns on his face. He received his injuries while escaping from the flaming skulls of dead wizards that were animated by dark magic to guard the halls of the temple. His mentor, whose charred corpse lied elsewhere, was not as lucky. Vilnius had been surviving by hunting for rats, and the only company he had until now was his quasit familiar.
In the course of his conversation with the party, Vilnius mistakenly revealed that he had found something in the temple before fleeing from the flaming skulls. Suddenly, a shadow fell over the heroes’ hearts, and they demanded that he hand over the item, believing it might be something of use to them in their battles ahead. The terrified apprentice drew back in fright, dropping an amulet that clattered on the floor. Vilnius relinquished his treasure, being unaware of its properties, and cursed the adventurers for their greed.
The party left Vilnius to his own fate and continued their descent, facing many perils along the way. They evaded the flaming skulls that guarded the halls. They were confronted by a powerful construct, an ancient golem made entirely of amber, but managed to defeat it before they succumbed to its fell magic. By following a series of opened doors and Kane’s visions of the path taken by Gydean, they made their way to the deepest part of the dungeon.
In the furthest reaches of the temple, the amber sarcaphogi that held the vestiges of dark gods, who had granted Gydean his chance to escape from the valley, were brooding in their eternal sleep.
Session #5 Rewards
4 Advancement Checkpoints
4 Treasure Checkpoints
10 Downtime Days
Treasure
† A wand of secrets
† Unlocked item