Strahd's Vault

## Summary

The Nothics keep watch throughout the night as the party rests up. Ezmeralda wakes Warwick up first. She explains she has her doubts on trusting the party and is contemplating on leaving. Warwick talks about his belief in the party but does note that Salem is acting a bit colder.

The party wakes up and notices their belongings are scattered throughout the floor. The rest of the party notices that Jade is pale. Talice makes some Limbus Berries for everyone. Ezmeralda mentions that she heard different people talking: A man's voice, a woman's voice and another man's voice.

After a test from Talice to make Goodberry wine, the party heads out to the foyer. Kvak checks out the rightmost balcony and peers into the rightmost hallway where the amber golem resides. The group remembers an opening at the base of the statue that they found and Talice finds a hidden door with the wand of secrets. Salem detects magic on the door and Talice dispels it to reveal a staircase going upward.

Sorin goes in first after getting enchanted with true strike. They follow the staircase and open up a hidden door to a preserved library where two barbarians are walking around. Warwick helps take them down by stabbing one of them in the back but they call on allies to help from the lower floor. It turned out they were vampires and Sorin takes them on to protect the others as Warwick leaves likely to get Gregarius. After they're killed, Ezmeralda begins staking them with Krik's help. She is impressed with Sorin's defenses as they laugh about Warwick missing the action.

Talice begins looking over the books and while she notices they're blank, she also finds a hidden door. Warwick returns with Gregarius dumbfounded that he missed the action. Sorin and Krik find more amber columns on the bottom floor. Salem is ready to touch it when Warwick goes against it. When Salem realizes the first column offers the power of the vampyr, he pulls his hand away. Ezmeralda takes note of what Salem noted and looks over the amber column. Salem touches it again and the voice inside talks about taking the life of someone who loves them, drink the lover's blood within one hour and being killed by those who hate him.

Krik begins to smash it but notes it'll take a while. Meanwhile Salem and Talice go over the other Amber columns. Talice's column offers the power to raise the dead while Salem's column calls him weak. An interested Salem makes Sorin and Talice touch it but they get the same response. They ask Krik to touch it but he gets the same response. Krik angrily begins smashing that amber column too.

As Talice relays the message about the first column she touched, Kasimir notes that it was the power he was looking for. He touches the statue as Talice mentions that taking a dark gift from Zhudun is a bad idea. However it's too late and his skin becomes pure white. Kasimir goes on about how he wants to save his sister, Patrina. Talice remembers what the Abbot told her but Kasimir mentions that a loss is a loss.

The group heads back upstairs and into the secret door that Talice found after a scouting mission from Kvak. Inside is another empty room but Krik finds a hidden latch. They pull it and come upon a lair of a lich. The lich itself seems to have amnesia but allows the party to make themselves comfortable. It turned out the amber pillar that called the party weak gave the secret to becoming a lich.

Salem becomes interested in learning about lich magic and finds the lich's spellbook. The lich makes sure he doesn't touch it but he apologizes. He feels like his name is Exethanter which on the cover of the spellbook. With his help, the group looks over the books in the library while Salem learns some lich magic.

After checking out the library and resting up, the party go to a room and get a guardian on their side. Talice names it Baymax. They enter the other room and get into a fight with a guardian of a massive hoard of treasure. They win thanks to their new ally and Krik using Kasimir's sword and get the loot.

Krik finds a child's sarcophagus lined with gold on the inside among his copper pile. Talice finds silvered rapier with a pink glass hilt and a tiny gilded chariot in her silver pile. Warwick finds tons of empty bottles in his gold pile along with a chest filled with gowns, jewelry and statues of saints. Talice jumps on the pile that no one went to to find that most of the coins in that pile were made of wood, a bunch of iron pots, an obsidian scepter and children's storybooks. Salem finds non-magical crystal orbs, a dragon crown made of bronze, a life sized wooden pony and six marble vases in his silver pile. Sorin finds iron ingots, thirty holy symbols, copper chalices, a gilded skull and warhammers and warpicks.

Sorin notices one of the holy symbols is different from the others and picks it up. A strange protection swirls around him while the name Sergei floats around in his head. Sorin remembers that it's the name of Strahd's brother. This symbol is revealed to be the holy symbol of Ravenloft.

## Notable Events

* Keyframe was unable to make it to this session
* The party takes on vampires
* The party finds the Amber Slab that gave Strahd his vampire powers
* Kasimir takes the dark power of resurrection in hopes of reviving his sister
* The party takes down an amber golem and finds a treasure hoard