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Roc-ing the Amber Temple

Curse of Strahd
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Session 54 – 2022-04-9

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Session Summary

The Roc is perched on the top of the cliff. Those on the far side of the cliff attempted to become unseen. Rinn knocked down Dain, landing on top of him and casting invisibility on him. He told him to lay still as he rolled off of him and attempted to get someplace to hide. It was then that the Roc launched himself from his perch and headed for Rinn. Snoggly attempted to cast a Hypnotic Pattern spell on him, but it failed. He landed on Rinn, grabbing him up in his talons and doing quite a bit of damage. Ezmerelda is in the chasm, working her way out but she hid instead. The attack broke Rinn’s concentration revealing Dain. Haldar put a hunter’s mark on the Roc and then fired at him hitting him 3 times for 78 points of damage. Nice start. Zanfyr was in Winter Wolf form, to make it easier to cross the bridge, but now works well as he can use his cold breath on him which does 18 points of damage. Misty moves to attack him. She punches him and uses her stunning strike on him and wow, it worked. He also took 14 points of damage. Her second attack did another 14 damage. Then she attempted to help get Rinn released. Kassamir casts Magic Missile on the Roc. Snoggly uses all 7 charges on his wand of Magic Missile to hit him for 79 points of damage. Rinn breaks free of the Roc and begins climbing him. Dain gets up and moves to attack him for a total of 29 piercing and 21 radiant damage from his divine smite. Kyanna hits it with a scotching ray spell for 28 points of damage. 

The Roc’s turn comes and goes, stunned. Haldar attacks again, 51 points of damage. Rinn forgot to attack so we went back to his turn and attacked for 39 damage. Zanfyr bites him for 12 damage. Misty hits him for 41 more points of damage. He is no longer stunned. Kassamir hits him with another Magic Missile, for 8 damage. Snoggly casts a magic missile spell at third level for 17 damage. Rinn gets down behind him and attacks for 38 points of damage. Dain attacks using his divine smite for 49 points of damage. Total damage was 536 plus Kassamir’s first magic missile of which I never heard the damage it dealt. We left the bird in the freezer so to speak. The rest of the group made their way across the chasm. Zanfyr in wolf form made it. Rinn had a tough time but managed to make it across. Dain then tried and failed, falling. Snoggly saved him with a feather fall. Misty used her claws and walked right across. Ezmerelda climbs back down and Dain and she combine their efforts to get out of the chasm safely. 

As we’re looking for a way in, we see some writing over the main entrance. The letters are frozen and Rinn uses prestidigitation to melt the ice and clear the letters. It reads, 

“If you seek honor or power, turn back, for these walls hold not but timeless evil. Leave now before our damnation becomes yours!”

We start moving to the west, following the tracks. As we move around the end of the building, we do see a path leading towards a fissure in the wall. We can hear human voices from within. Rinn sneaks closer to see if he can make out the voices. He does a really poor job of sneaking. The voices keep talking for a moment afterward, then a deep voice says, hush! The rest begin moving up to the corner. Rinn moves closer, as he starts to peer in, the lights inside go out. Rinn finally says “Hello” and attempts to open communications with the occupants but all he gets is silence. We attempt to use the name of the leader of the mountain folk so they would know we are friends. We also used Ormir’s name as well. We still can’t see anything. As we are looking in, we see a rather large Winter Wolf peaking out. In a rough voice it speaks, “Who are you!”. Rinn attempts to calm him telling him that we are here to spend the evening in the room to prove ourselves to the hill people. Snoggly, seeing the one wolf, decided that it might be a group of the wolves and tells it that they must “get there ass’s out!” of the room, as we are coming in. The wolf tells the other inside to prepare to defend themselves.

Rinn announces that we are not here to attack, our weapons are put away, and that he is coming in. As Rinn inches forward, he can start to see into the room. There is a bed turned up on its side and there is something or someone behind it. The wolf stands in front of the bed preparing to breath its “Cold Breath” weapon at us. I tell it again, that we are not here to harm them. The wolf spoke, “Your friend said you were here to vacate us.”. Rinn responded telling him to ignore the man, he is a drunk. We are not here to attack or harm anyone. The person behind the bed stands up and is a woman. She’s a mountain person. Rinn again used Ormir’s name and told them we were here to visit the room. That we wanted to come in, out of the cold, to which she replied, “It’s damn cold in here too! That’s not going to help you much!”. Rinn told her that we can warm up this room though. She asked why we were here again. Rinn decided to tell her the truth, we are seeking entry to the main temple. We intend to go further in. He tells them that he doesn’t think they want to go in with us. She asked how many of us were here, to which Rinn replied, “9”. Again, Rinn asked if we may enter. She tells Rinn to come in, he tips his hat to her and says, “My name is Rinn!”. 

As he enters, the others in their group, begin to surround him. She orders them to kill Rinn if the others in the party try anything. Rinn keeps them from getting behind him, still no weapon drawn. She has her people herd Rinn to a particular spot. She asks the rest to enter. Haldar and Snoggly enter and introduce themselves, Misty next, then Dain, Kyanna stayed back in the doorway. The rest entered as well. She tells us her name is Helwa. Rinn says, nice to meet you. Snoggly said something about a giant chicken out there to eat. To which Rinn said, “Sorry we had to kill the Roc!”. The wolf is named “Skald”. Helwa tells us that they are here to spend 6 days and 6 nights in the temple, as a right of passage. They’ve been here 3 days so far. Snoggly sees that the person that appeared to be sleeping is not sleeping. He sees blood on the blanket covering him and injuries on his skin. He offers to get Kyanna over to se if she can help him. Helwa tells that that he is Bjorn, and he is already dead. He died last night, killed on his watch. As we inspect him we see massive slashes down the length of his back, chunks of flesh missing. He had been just outside the door and that’s where he was found. Skald tried to pick up a scent but couldn’t find any. We determined that the Roc didn’t do it. 

Zanfyr and Kyanna check his body over and she saw that large chunks of flesh were torn from his stomach. There were puncture wounds on his shoulder and a grey/yellow tent to his skin. It’s possible that the puncture wounds were from a vampire. The yellow tent to the skin tells her that there was poison involved. Helwa also tells us that her prized spear, given to her by the Chief of the tribe disappeared two nights ago. Except for watches, they haven’t left this room. She tells us that there is a ghost or some sort of evil entity haunting this area. Then she points out that now we’ve shown up. Snoggly told her it wasn’t us, that we were too busy killing the bird. She nods to one of her people, as she says, “The bird, right outside you say?”. Rinn says, well, it’s on the other side of the chasm. Snoggly says, “You can see it, it’s big!”. Astrid goes outside to check, and Dain follows along with her to point it out. She moves much faster than Dain so he’s having to hoof it to keep up. Freda breaks out some food they brought, which isn’t a whole lot. Offers it, saying, you must be hungry. Snoggly offers them some whiskey. She takes it and sniffs it. Then she reaches out and touches Snoggly, then touches his face, tweaks his cheek. She was checking to see if he was an illusion. She tries a little of the whiskey, and drinks it like it’s no big deal. Snoggly, curious as to what she normally drinks that has hardened her to something as strong as whiskey. She mentions a drink that Ormir produces and asked if we tased it. Snoggly said, he didn’t offer us any. 

Rinn moves to each of the doors leading out of the room, listens and checks them for traps. Helwa tells us there is nothing but death beyond those doors. Rinn said, unfortunately, that is our destination. She asks about that. We tell her there is something in the temple we need to acquire. Snoggly says, “There is a wedding present in the temple that we intend to give to the Bastard on the Hill.”. Kyanna says, “That is our test!”. The door that Rinn is standing by has nothing but living fire behind it. She tells us that we will burn to death the minute we open that door. Rinn checks the door to see if it’s hot. He notices that the doors are Amber. They are not translucent, but they are definitely Amber. When Rinn touches the door, it's not hot. She tells us that through the other door is the overlook to the temple. Rinn asks if they’ve been beyond this door. She simply says that, ”To go beyond this is to die!”. Rinn asks, how do you know there is living fire beyond the one door. Has she opened it?”. She says, she has not. She knows from stories handed down, from predecessors that have been here. When asked about the other door, she adds that there is a Guardian there. She can’t tell us anything about what the guardian is, only that is speaks to you, in your mind. She says, “The only ones that lived were those that didn’t challenge it!”. We decided that we should rest tonight before we go any further. She invited us to stay the night here. Snoggly asks if Kassamir knows anything about what is beyond the doors. He only knows the legends. He only knows that there are evil powers that are entombed here. Dain and Astrid return. Helwa asks her to report and Astrid tells her that it is true, the Roc lies dead across the bridge. She says, that is impressive. Rinn says, “Wait until you see what we do to the temple!”. Snoggly reminds him that we need to rest.

We relax here for a while and chat some. We let them know that Zanfyr is not a Winter wolf but a Druid. Helwa asks Kyanna about what she thought of the wounds on the dead member. She says that the wounds are consistent with the fangs of a giant spider. Kyanna asks where he was found again, to which Helwa said, “Right outside!”. Helwa said that no spider could live outside. Dain suggested that there may be another fissure where it could be hiding. Helwa didn’t know of any other openings. Kyanna checks the ceiling and it looks solid and unbroken. Kyanna asked if this has happened before. She said, yes, others have died here. Some have challenged the fiery spirits beyond the door and died. Others have gone mad. She said there are voices in your head, constantly, especially then you rest. We spend the day, talking and preparing. We can’t fit all of us inside the hut, so we didn’t conjure it. Astrid takes the first watch and Freda the second watch. Misty takes the first watch for our group. And Rinn takes the second watch. Astrid makes her way to the door. Misty joins her. All is quiet. Freda and Rinn take the second watch. 

The first 30 minutes to an hour, nothing happens. She seems to be eyeballing Rinn. Rinn flirts a little. She asks about Elves and if we make cookies, Rinn says some might, but not he. She asks if we live in trees to which he replied, some branches of elves live in forest areas in trees, but he lived in the city of Waterdeep. She asks about Waterdeep and if it is a city underwater. He replied that no, it’s just a port city, beyond the mists. She asks about his skills as an elf. To which Rinn replied, I’m sneaky and have done a bit of spying over the years. He has some magical skill as well. She moves out a little bit, like she might be hearing something. Rinn keeps up with her. Rinn messages her, in her mind, asking her what she hears, letting her know she can reply to the message in like fashion. She asks, does the cold bother you? He tells her that yes, he would freeze to death if he weren’t dressed as he was. Rinn asks, “What do you hear? Why are we going all the way out here?”. She replies, “So your friends wouldn’t hear!”. 

She turns and transforms into a creature he has only heard of in Drow culture but never seen, a Drider. She is not a Drow, she’s not even an elf. She attacks with a bite first and follows that with two swipes from swords. One of those misses. She whacks Rinn pretty well, and then wins the initiative and attacks again. Rinn starts yelling “Drider out here!”. She says to be quiet as I might bring about an avalanche which makes me only yell louder, figuring that I have just as much chance of surviving that as she does. She hits with the two blades this time. Kyanna moves to the doorway. Whispers, “Rinn, where are you?”. Rinn replies back, “In this darkness!“, noting the direction of her voice. The darkness prevents her from seeing anything. Misty moves outside and sees the darkness area. 

Rinn disengages and attempts to back away from the Drider and begins to make a run for it. Lucky for him, he doesn’t run off the cliff but turns and runs the other way. After several steps, bumps the corner of the wall and continues around the wall. He exits the darkness and casts invisibilty on myself and moves away. Announcing that the woman guarding with him was a Drider. Haldar casts Zepher strike and moves outside listening and watching for a target. Dain moves outside and plants himself with his sword ready to attack. Snoggly comes out and throws a fireball into the darkness. Skald comes out and prepares to attack. Zanfyr moves up behind Ezmerelda and sees the darkness ahead of him. Kassamir turns to face the rest of the people, watching them. It’s back to Kyanna’s turn and we stopped.