Warped

## Summary

Once the party finishes resting up, there is a knock at the door. They let the mage in who goes by the name Kasimir after getting their guard up. He's heard of the party's exploits against Strahd and their deeds in the Amber Temple. He wants to help them but the group don't exactly trust him. Krik figures out that he needs them but he's not malicious.

Kasimir gives confirmation that Strahd did get his vampiric powers from the temple. He also took his sister which Talice can relate to. Jade asks what's in it for the party and Kasimir replies that he wants to help take Strahd down. He also mentions that Rahadin, one of Strahd's attendants frequents the Amber Temple. The party is still slightly suspicious of him so Kasimir gets a little annoyed. Eventually the party stops being hostile and lets Kasimir lead the way.

He takes them to the western hallway where the group argues about how to deal with the flaming skulls now that the water had been used up. Eventually Jade volunteers Warwick to sneak in to deal with the skulls with Talice following behind him. They take out the flaming skulls with help from the others.

With the skulls taken care of, they enter the room that Warwick peered into earlier. Talice locates a secret staircase leading down while Jade finds a hidden compartment in a chest. Within it is a tome of understanding which can increase the wisdom of the reader once red. Salem hands the book over to Talice. Kvak has some fun with the model of the temple as Warwick reminisces.

The party heads the second room and look over it before going into the basement. They head to the northernmost room first where they see a couple of figures with glowing green eyes. The party prepares to fight as they see nothics in the room chanting in an unknown language. Salem and Jade go in first and talk to them. They learn about the other doors needing certain words to open. Jade offers to trade knowledge for knowledge with the nothics wanting magical knowledge, more specifically one of pleasure. Salem gives a deceptive performance with the others and they guide Salem to one of the two amber slabs in the room. They guide Jade to the other amber slab and voices echoed in their heads offering dark power.

Salem's slab offered to give him the power of frost while whispering the word 'Delbas.' Salem accepts the offer due to his desire to gain more knowledge. Jade's slab calls itself Khirad and offers her the power of divination. Jade is hesitant at first but decides to take it if it will help defeat Strahd. The rest of the party notices the effects right away from Jade's deeper voice. The nothics then mistake Jade for Ireena before mentioning that they need more names to open more doors.

The group heads out to look for more names to open more doors with the rest of the group telling Jade about her new voice. Naturally Jade freaks out so she explains her divination abilities and Talice helps elaborate some details. Jade notes the being that gave her the power as an elder evil so Warrick slaps her across the face saying that it was from Edmund.

After a request to move on from Talice, the party turns thier gaze to the first door. Krik throws some amber chunks at a door to check for traps and nothing happens. As Warwick hides he gets the attention of the nothics. He shows them a fleshy glue trick and bears through the pain to get them off his back. He then goes for the lock but it's hard to get into.

After several tries, he unlocks the door into a room with three amber statues and veins in the floor and ceiling. As Warwick walks in he's struck by a large greatsword and a bite knocking Warwick out cold. It comes from a Death Slaad and it attacks the party. Krik gets him out with Sorin's help and shuts the door on the Death Slaad.

The group notes their failure and begins to look for the names that were written down. Salem sends Kvak ahead to scout. He eventually gets shot with a fireball from the statue and disintegrates. Salem resummons him after getting the information to Krik and the others. They enter the looted treasury that Kvak explored before getting blasted and find some poltergeists. The group take them out easily. Jade figures out that something was here but left.

Warwick tries picking the next door but doesn't get anywhere. They continue to the eastern hallway where they find three witches that are trying to open the doors via various words. The group is conflicted on how to handle the hags until Kassimir steps up with Ezmeralda to try and kill them. They succeed with a cone of cold and thrown hand axe.

The group begins investigating the doors with the topmost one in the eastern hallway. Warwick opens the door into the room to find a sleeping guardian. Seeing as how they can't activate it, Talice suggests tipping over the large statue in the foyer. She transforms into an ape and gets Krik's help to tip it over but it doesn't budge. Jade then tries to shatter the head and releases an Arcanalolth or fox demon.

After a hard battle with many events including Krik passing Jade his crossbow so she could attack from afar, a cone of cold blast on Warwick and the fox demon, Sorin accidentally decapitates it. Krik pressures Warwick into not killing Salem. Talice finds a spellbook, a patchwork robe and golden spectacles on the dead Arcanalolth.

The party returns to the room with the nothics to rest up. The friendly creatures give them enough room as Krik collapses to take a nap.

## Notable Events

* The party meets Kasimir Velikov
* Joshscorcher implements the passive check rule which allows players to use the ten dice for rolls they use over and over again.
* Jade gains the power of divination and Salem gains the power to use the cone of cold.