Session 33: The Dark Pacts Report

General Summary

As the team continues its way into the Amber temple, they can sense the dark forces that dwell deep within. After collecting the magical ewer the party proceeds through the upper level of the Amber temple in search of the red gem. They make their way back over to the east side of the temple to explore the upper level, knowing that there are archer slits all around the main temple. As they make their way into the eastern corridor they find a whole in the floor and quickly investigate. The party, being the astute explorers that they are, find three flames skulls when one of them launches a fireball at them. Olaf, being Olaf, dives down the hole in a rage and starts to bash the skulls. The party quickly follows him down and make quick work of their foes.

In this room however, the party finds 3 glowing slabs of amber that resonate a strange aura. As the players investigated them they could feel the mental draw of the powers within. Accept my dark gift and you will have power beyond your imagination. Cormack, being the only person in the party to grow a pair, accepts the dark gift from SYKANE, THE SOUL HUNGERER. This grants him the ability create undead and physically turns his eyes and teeth white, making him appear undead to the untrained eye. In addition to this, he has an insatiable urge to eat dead or rotting flesh.
The party makes their way out of the hole and quickly explores the adjacent hall where they find an old lecture hall with a human wizard named Vilnius. Vilnius explains that he was part of a group that came here and was attacked by the flame skulls. He claims he wants nothing more than to just leave. Cormack, having detect magic, sees that the wizard possess a wand and a magical amulet. He tells him that he will let him go if he gives him both of the magical items. Vilnius happily offers the wand but proclaims the amulet is a family heirloom that has been in his family for generations. Vilnius offers to let the party see the amulet in order to prove his point, but upon casting identify, the party learns that this is a control amulet for a shield guardian. With this new information the party tells him he is free to leave but he is not getting the items back. Vilnius, happy to be alive, sprints for the exit.
Almost immediately after he exits the room, the party hears a loud thundering sound coming from the hallway. The patiently wait until the sound goes away, but after leaving the room they soon discover it was a massive stone golem. Upon entering the room with the golem the party is attacked and brutal battle ensues. The golem, immune to most forms of physical attack, is finally whittled down and the party is able to walk past.
The party make its way down stairs once again and finds another room with glowing amber, but this time no one accepts the dark pacts offered to them by the creature inside. The party makes its way back upstairs and circles back to the other side of the temple to finish clearing the upper level.
As they make their way onto a balcony outside the room several of the party members fall to the temple floor below as the balcony crumbles below them. They hear a loud voice boom from the statue head in the temple chamber "Leave now or be destroyed!". When the party stops to try to talk to the statue an immense bolt of lighting shoots our and hits the party forking from player to player. They immediately run upstairs to escape the threat and regroup on the balcony.
They quickly find themselves in a room with strange statue that somehow hypnotizes Sylas. The party is able to break the statue which frees Sylas. Near the base of the statue the party sees two corpses and as they investigate them they find a secret passage to the north. Upon opening the door they see the floor is covered in skulls. As Cormack enters the door slams shut behind him and he sinks through the floor and falls into a room on the bottom level of the temple. The rest of the party, not knowing Cormack's fate, follow him in.
The party finds themselves in the lower level of the temple on the main floor in an old abandoned and plundered treasury. The find however that the only way out is through the temple where they were just blasted by lighting.