Page 182 - Curse of Strahd_Neat

CHAPTER 13: THE AMBER TEMPLE

SECRET SOClETY OF GOOD-ALIGNED Strahd has returned to the temple several times to
wizards built the Amber Temple in the learn new magic and to find a means of escaping his
Balinok Mountains more than two thou­ fate, but the Dark Powers have no intention of giving
sand years ago. They needed a vault in him up. These recent years have been difficult for
which to contain the evil vestiges (rem­ Exethanter, whose body and mind have been falling
nants of dead, malevolent entities) they apart. The lich has grown weak and forgetful. He no lon­
had captured and the hoard of forbidden ger remembers his name or his spells. He knows only
knowledge they had amassed. They dedi­ that the Dark Powers that created Strahd's domain were
cated the temple to a god of secrets, whom they trusted born in the temple, and that these entities feed on the
to keep it hidden from the rest of the world until the end evil that Strahd represents. Strahd is the darkness that
of time. Unfortunately for the wizards, even the will of sustains them.
a god couldn't prevent other evil creatures from learn­ Characters who visit the temple can sense the pres­
ing the temple's location. The wizards were forced to ence of great evil. The dark vestiges imprisoned within
guard the temple themselves, to keep its secrets from the temple will try to corrupt them, offering them se­
falling into villainous hands. The evil forces that were crets and gifts in exchange for a taste of the evil that
imprisoned within the temple eventually corrupted the lurks within their true hearts.
wizards, turning them against one another.
The wizards were dead and gone by the time an evil EXTREME (OLD
archmage named Exethanter arrived at the temple. He The Amber Temple is a cold, dark place carved out of the
breached the temple's wards, spoke to a vestige trapped snowy slope of Mount Ghakis. The temperature through­
in amber, and discovered the secret to becoming a lich. out the complex is -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees
After his transformation, the lich Exethanter took over Celsius). Characters who don't have heat sources, cold
the temple and turned the skulls of it previous defenders weather gear, or magic to protect them are subject to the
into flameskulls under his command. Exethanter then effects of extreme cold, as described in the "Weather"
took it upon himself to watch over the temple, not to section in chapter 5, "Adventure Environments," of the
Dungeon Master's Guide. If Kasimir Velikov (see chapter 5,
hoard its evil secrets but to share them openly. Mean­ area N9a) is with the party, his ring of warmth protects him
while, the evils within the temple fed on each other, from the effects of the extreme cold.
growing in power.
When Strahd came to the temple seeking immortality,
Exethanter sensed that he was a man of destiny. The
evil powers in the temple felt something much stron­
ger: a darkness that eclipsed their own. Strahd com­
muned with these evil vestiges and forged a pact with
them. When Strahd later murdered his brother Sergei,
that pact was sealed with blood. Strahd transformed
into a vampire, and the Dark Powers turned his land
into a prison.

I WOULD NOT BE CALLED 'DEATH'
so soon. I made a pact with death,
a pact of blood.
-Tome of Strahd