In which the Amber Temple is entered, two members of the lost team are saved from Flameskulls and a bedraggled wizard is found running from an Amber Golem…

Who are Jusko, Bugwump, Trundle, Kuru, Helewynn and Failed Soldier?

• The vaulted chamber of the temple had a statue of a wizard whose face was shrouded in darkness and (inspired by DragnaCarta’s Curse of Strahd Reloaded) it asked those who entered to leave a secret or something holy at the feet of the statue. That prompted cool shit from the players.

  Jusko whispered, “I belong here,” while pressing his family signet ring into some wax on the statue. EEK.

  Failed Soldier wrote a sealed note about the sailor he killed in a previous adventure in a shrine to a storm goddess.

  Kuru tried to get by leaving a cheap coin and pretending it was holy to him but the statue was on to his bullshit.

  Trundle left one of his carvings of the world they saw born in a previous adventure.

  Helewynn left her holy symbol since the moon here seemed to be godless.

  Bugwump left a mask of himself from back when he was an arch-mage that he wore during a 1000 Faces Festival in Sigil.

• They found the two lost members of the other team surrounded by 3 Flameskulls…

  One of the Flameskulls unleashed its fireball, doing some healthy damage but all in all, the 3 were dispatched without too much trouble. The other team missed in a terrible first round of to-hit rolls, prompting Jusko to fuck with them later…

• Trundle engaged Crum, a Dwarven cleric of Portals, who wears a key holy symbol. I rolled to see how informed he was on getting in and out of Ravenloft and rolled a 20. He knows shit.

• Bugwump’s Arcana checks are off the chain since he has a magic staff from Tomb of Annihilation. They know all about Sergei’s Sunsword, the other team believes the sword is here somewhere.

• There was some talk about just heading back to Ravenwatch and getting to the portal. I reminded folks that Kuru had cut up the portal with his magic-cutting knife and it wasn’t a sure thing that it was working.

• Helewynn hasn’t seen moonlight since being bitten by the werewolf. When she does, we’ll make some rolls and see what happens.

  Chekov’s werewolf bite…

• Failed Soldier gave Lem the Nine Gods Orchid he picked for her from the previous adventure. I said that it felt like a lifetime ago that she asked him for that but thing is, it actually does kinda feel like a lifetime ago. It was cool that we got to see that completed.

  What does Nine Gods Orchid do? I’m thinking some kind of cool tea that inspires prophetic dreams.

• After a short rest, the team heard someone screaming for help and found a wizard with a quazit familiar running from an Amber Golem. Kuru and Trundle stealthed over and engaged; we’ll start there with everyone else rolling initiative next week.

  “Thank Vecna you folks showed up to save me,” the burned, half-starved wizard said.