D&D is For Nerds - Vampire Infested Barovia III #14 Steel and Amber

Episode Date: May 11, 2024

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Ahem. You're listening to the Sandspants Network. Please, for you these mists are as voles and the vampire Strahd Von Zarovich, your warden. But fear not, for Strahd's heart may no longer beat, but it is still a good place to stab him. I would like to, Adam, get my formian eye, my last formian eye. I'm basically going to try and deform the magic on the enchantment that makes you eat flesh. To try and make something effectively on the enchantment that makes you eat flesh. Okay. To try and make something like effectively like a magic skeleton key. You, yeah, I'd say you make kind of basically a potion of dispel magic.

Yeah. And I'll on the door. The words consume flesh, fade and change instead into that script that is completely indecipherable to you. Hardcastle's note changes as well to be readable. It says, don't consume flesh. The doors swing slowly open. How long would it have taken you to do that concoction and then throw it on the door?

Maybe like a minute, minute and a half. In that time, could I have gone to the other three doors in this bottom section? So, there's a lot of... Probably while I was looking over and figuring out how to do it. All I'm looking for is numbers. I'm just looking for Durac's numbering system. That's it. So, there are two archways that lead to a west wing and an east wing of this lower floor.

There is the double doors that say consume flesh that Pip is at trying to get into. There is that armory that Esmeralda is mourning in. Directly behind the statue here, you see there is, if you're doing a loop of the area, you spot this. There's a hidden door, a secret door, set into the wall between the broken open armory and then you can see there's another set of double doors on the other side underneath the intact balcony.

The intact balcony as opposed to the broken one which is over where the statue is. There's another set of double doors. Those ones also read consume flesh and you can see there is i think 17 tally marked into that and then the same little cipher matching that the hidden door you spot has a little plaque and you're able to read on it from your vein a gift bestowed unlock the path the secret showed offer willingly a sacrifice true to reveal what lies beyond the view what am i in mystery veiled in veins of

courage the answer trailed it's a riddle of some sort you imagine perhaps to open the door there is as well an idea especially when the text changes on the the consumed flesh store that pip is using there is an impression you get where you're like when you were looking at consumed flesh it feels like some trick of this place some evil is trying to trick you into doing this but this poem does not feel like it's a trick. It feels too elegant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no marking there or whatever like that? It's just the poem? No tally mark, no.

Just the poem, which you think is maybe some trick to opening the door. In addition to my deforming magic, I'd like to make two healing potions too. Out of codal eggshells, some stuff for seeking, and some stuff for accuracy. You get two healing potions.. Okay. Out of codal eggshells, some stuff for seeking and some stuff for accuracy. You get,

yeah, you get two healing potions. Okay. I'll hand one to Hek when he's done. Oh, thank you. You seem pretty fucked up.

Thank you. I consume that quick. Okay. I'm going to save the other one for Esme. I found a thing. Show me. I'm like,

as I walk over glancing back at the door that I've been told by a ghoul, so I don't know how much I trusted, but that Durak is through. You recover 16 hit points. So you're on 20. There's, um, so 17, same thing.

Eat flesh. Probably says the same thing. Don't eat flesh. Oh, okay. Does it look like... It looks identical, yeah. So there's, he came with this before that one. I gestured to the... Oh, you opened the door. Okay. I haven't gone in yet. What's this?

This is, it looks like there's a secret door here. Maybe tell it a secret, bleed it, sacrifice. Bit of blood. Do you want to hear it again? Yeah. From your vein, a gift bestowed. Unlock the path the secret showed. Offer willingly a sacrifice

true to reveal what lies beyond the view. What am I in mystery veiled? In veins of courage, the answer trailed. I imagine they want you to spill a little blood. It would be very thematically appropriate for a place like this. I've already needed blood once today. to spill a little blood. It would be very thematically appropriate for a place like this.

I've already needed blood once today. I, um, yeah, prick my finger with... What do I have? With my mace! It's got little spikes on it. You can prick it with that. You don't need to cause yourself damage. You do a little bit of blood, the door takes that as enough.

It slowly shifts aside, revealing a staircase going upwards. Any notches? No notches here, no. Okay. I'd like to go back to the door. The double doors? Yeah. Are they the only double doors, or do they seem identical to all the other eat flesh doors? There's only one other set

of eat flesh doors, so there's a lot in this room, I understand. So, as you came down the stairs from the balcony above, on the opposite side of this vaulted room is a big statue. Yep.

But behind the statue are like two more balconies. No, no stairs. Okay. Two more balconies. One's fallen away. And underneath the balconies were once two more sets

of double doors. Yeah. One set of double doors broken. Esmeralda's in that one. Yeah. The other one says consume flesh. Secret door directly behind the statue. That's the one you just opened with blood.

And then to your left and right as you're traversing to the east and west. I like wings. Wings, yeah. Open, giant open vaulted, not vaulted, giant open archways that you can walk in through to get to more rooms. Could a ghoul, ghouls and ghasts as well. They're not like magical enough to cast. Like the eat flesh thing couldn't be a trick for a ghoul. No, it's not a ghoul trick.

No, you think it's something of this place. As soon as you dispelled the magic on the other one, you felt like the air here became a little lighter. Okay. You definitely feel like this place is trying to make you do bad things. And then the two wings, is there notches near the wings? Like those entrance ways?

Yes, actually. The western wing would have, if you do the loop, you see, maybe not directly in the wing, but just past it on a wall, you can see that there is a 13 notch. And then the other, anything in the wing, but just past it on a wall, you can see that there is a 13 notch. And then the other, anything in the other one?

No, not anything through the other one. But you can see the other one, so that was the western way. The eastern way is partially collapsed. You can see some structural damage there. Now when the ghoul said, or the ghast said that I lean is to the right, he mean my right?

He meant the east. He meant this partially clasped one. Sorry, anything there would be me not being accurate enough for you. He would have given you good advice. Wow. As far as I am giving you the correct advice here. Okay, so I know you really want to head down those doors. Hardcastle, I guess. I guess to the west.

Went down there first, and then he came back here, went through those ones next to where Van Richten is. Yeah, we've not found any more. And then he went down to 18. And down here is perhaps a meeting. I look to the east. It's just, heck, the,

you know, he saved me once, and if he's in danger should we wait for Esme or are we running ahead can we still hear her crying yeah she's still crying you know this isn't the kind of thing that you get over easily

certainly not like this you lost a mentor once yeah I was afraid of this what helped you get over it Certainly not like this. You lost a mentor once. Yeah. I was afraid of this. What helped you get over it, if you ever did? I didn't. But I can... I'll go talk to her.

I'll, uh... I'll be, uh... Is that the best move? I'll be here for you. Okay. Thank you. I'll be here for you. Okay, thank you. I'll step back in. Esmeralda has moved so that she is now cradling what is left of the corpse in her arms. She's rocking backwards and forwards, sobbing to herself.

In between sobs, you hear her say, I was too late. I was too late. If I had made it the first time I could have saved you oh gosh I was too late Esme

Esme Esme Esme I know you don't like me very much but I've been through a version of what you're going through and the thing is oh fuck Pip's going through. And the thing is... Oh, fuck, Pip's so bad at this. The thing is, you're never...

Sorry, it's just such bad advice. You're never going to get over it. It's going to stay with you, something like this. But, unfortunately, it's going to stay with you, something like this. But unfortunately, you have no choice. Is that the best you've got, is it? Really shouldn't have been Pip, man.

Esmeralda looks up at you. Her eyes are red and bleary. She's disgusting. She's a mess she's got her blood his blood gore all down her pants now and she is yeah

she's just a mess destroyed broken emotionally you have no choice but to say goodbye. He's left you no choice. Shut up. Shut the fuck up.

All right. I'm going. I'm going. I'm going. I'm sorry. I fucked that up. I'm going. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'll step back outside. I don't think I did a good job. The crying has stopped, but there's a whimpering that remains. Maybe you give it a crack. You're a people person. I'm decidedly not. The monks called me generally unlikable.

I'll leave that hanging. He's beat himself up. You don't need to do it. I want to be like, that's untrue. And then I'm just reminded of an oath I once took of like, always be honest, don't lie, never lie. Oh, man. If you can't say anything nice. Esmeralda, covered in her blood, in Van Richten's blood,

and more than a little of Van Richten's gore, steps out. As I said before before she's a mess she's filthy but you can see she has her rapier in one hand her hand axe in the other a thousand yard stare on her face but she turns to you hector and just gives you a she doesn't look you straight in the eyes she's staring rather at your feet like she doesn't want to look you straight in the eyes. She's staring rather at your feet, like she doesn't want to look you directly in the face. She just gives you a little nod. You see there's no... Even when she's standing still, she's always

moving up until this moment. Esmeralda has never been this still. Oh, fuck, dude. Um... I'm about to put almost like a grass pip's mouth to grab my muzzle. Okay, um... You're monster hunters. This is I'm about to put almost like a grass pip's mouth. Grab my muzzle. Okay.

You're monster hunters. This is unfortunately the risk we all take when we make a vow. Shut up. We will collect his body on the way out. Did he have his journal or anything on him? Do you need me to look into it? No, he will have a camp here somewhere. Okay.

Well, we know that we found a secret hidden entrance leads up. Hardcastle went, well, first adjusted to the west. First he went that way. He came back and went to those doors there, and then he went behind us. Peepers opened those doors, but they looked like they were not. Van Richten did not venture there and i just see two where uh the east and uh there is no mark there of where um hard castle went there so do you know uh van richten what did he i mean with the

three a's that hard castle has did he have a system of where he would camp? Van Richten studied. He liked to learn as much as he could before he did anything. He will have somewhere there will be a safe space. It will not be hard to find. It will be hard to find. It will have one entrance and one exit. That is all that we can look for it will be

obvious there will be a fireplace there will be equipment notes okay there's the um the secret entrance it looks once that's open that stays open right it doesn't like yeah it doesn't close okay so i guess he didn't uh go there would he have see, like knowledge seeking, yes? No, not knowledge seeking, more knowledge, more learning. He would stay, learn. He brought what he needed with him, and then he would study, not seek for a library. Okay. I look towards the east. Would he ever try to learn from a god of death?

Probably not. All right. So he probably would not be there. I looked a bit. West first? Is west the direction of where Durak went? No. Okay.

Well, the 13. Yeah. The mark of 18. The score of 18. It is the highest number we have found. Yes. Perhaps we should go straight to the end. I agree with Esme.

Yes. Perhaps we should go straight to the end. I agree with Esme. Durak, perhaps, is not quite the monster hunter that Van Richten was, but perhaps maybe in a pinch. And if you want to find his camp, it's probably in 13, but we can rush to the end. We can either seek Eileen out or we can seek Hardcastle. I do not care.

We just pick one for now. I'd rather face Eileen with Hardcastle. Yeah. I put my hand on your shoulder as I'm just walking towards A-Team. All right, we'll go. You push open the doors to Marker A-Team. Saved your life. Let's save his.

You smell the horrid perfume of ancient dead. Stone niches along the walls of these catacombs hold human-shaped amber husks, bones, and tattered shrouds. It's a mausoleum of some kind. You can see there's one central space where there are little indents for bodies, and then there are all around the walls, there are more of these indents. It looks, like I said, it looks like a corpse encased in amber, or the remains of a corpse encased in amber. You can see that there are passageways to the left and right of this room, possibly more catacombs.

Okay. I'll start looking for notches. You enter? Yeah. I do, Adam. Tall iron candlesticks stand in alcoves. The candles ignite as you enter, casting flickering light upon the walls

and causing the shattered amber or any amber here, sorry, to glitter. You see the many corpses. Do you touch any of these amber in case? Oh, buddy. I'm not dumb.

Come on now. I'm not fucked in the head, dude. Asking maybe the monster hunters in the room to be. Do you do any of the significance of amber? I didn't realize it was so literal. No, not me. Esmeralda shakes her head. I am uncertain on this.

There's nothing in this immediate room, but in the two small alcoves to the left and right, not alcoves, there's extra rooms. The alcoves are set into the walls. In the two small rooms to the left and right, you can see there are standing, they look like adventurers, or they once were adventurers, but they're entirely amber.

Okay. They look like they just laid down and died. That's concerning. So they're just the bodies of former adventurers laid down at their final resting place, and they're encased in amber. They're not encased in amber. They're made of amber. It looks like they just not necessarily laid down,

like hands over chest. Not very well-dressed. They just got so tired they fell asleep on the floor. Some of them are just sitting cross-legged. Some of them are lying down. Maybe one or two of them are in that classic funeral pose. Some of them maybe were once elves or looked like they were maybe once elves,

and are in a state of obvious trance. Yeah, but it looks like they just sat down, stopped moving, and turned to Amber. Can I wedge the door open? With? Huh? With?

What have I got? Literally anything at this point. Whatever I have on me. Ideally, you'd want a piton, but if you don't have that, anything big and heavy might do. You're not sure. I'm assuming, by the way,

you haven't entered these rooms and you're not... You are looking, but you haven't closely inspected because you need to go into those rooms to look at them. Could we grab any of the... They're what rusted

aren't they? Like the swords or the things and just kind of like hammer them into the ground. No, they'd crack in a moment. Yeah, they're mostly

rust at this point. Can I use bolts? You could try but a bolt I mean a rusted sword is probably sturdier than a bolt unfortunately.

I just don't have any pittance at all. Does Esmeralda? I don't have anything appropriate. Oh, Esmeralda has pittance. Yeah. You can use a hammer have any pittance at all. Does Esmeralda? I don't have anything appropriate. Oh, Esmeralda has pittance, yeah. Okay. You can use a hammer and some pittance to...

I just don't want the door to close behind us, and then we decide, well, we're trapped here, let's have a sleep, and then we never wake up again. Yes, okay. I'll help you with that. Thank you. And then once that's done, do you want to go into either of these rooms?

Yeah. Cool. Well, we will start in here. I'd like to look at every amber corpse to see if any of them are Durak. In one of the alcoves, you see a bunch of just, they don't look consistent. You can tell that some of their clothes and some of the styles that they're wearing in one of the alcoves, it's all mismatched. It doesn't look like these people knew each other.

It looks like they came here in various ways and whatnot. But in the other alcove, in the second one that you check, you see that there are a group of eight that look like they might have known each other, laid down in roughly a defensive position. An elven wizard, two human knights of Karsari, a dragonborn cleric of the dragon pantheon, a gnome in light leathers, and trying to drag that gnome back to his feet,

you spot, even made of amber, you recognize him immediately. Get your head on straight, you damn fool! It feels like his voice is echoing through these dark amber holes it's durak hard castle i walk over to him how'd you end up here you old fool you can see tucked under one arm his is it's not made of amber yeah it's his copy of Emmanuel the Monster. And then on a sling, also not made of amber, is you recognize it immediately. Every knot of this wood, every inch of that drawstring, it's his crossbow. I looked down at the crossbow and, like, under my breath, always keep it on a sling, you idiot.

That's what he said. I just want to be like just next to you i just i hand about the like you you okay uh pip i sort of thought i'd find him well not encased in amber but like this right i already lost him once you know still hurts yeah well but i suppose this time it's the death of hope, you know, rather than the death of the man. Sometimes that's worse. Yeah. But I'd like to reach out to the crossbow.

If I touch it, I just want to very lightly tap it at first. Nothing happens. I'm so ready for the amber people to wake up and come and eat me. I'd like to then, after I think it's safe, I'd like to just slowly dislodge it off his belt or wherever it's hooked on. As soon as you start shifting the crossbow, it's one after the

other. The group of six, they crumble and fall apart. You hear a sigh of relief. You're holding the crossbow in your hands. You have Hardcastle's crossbow. I scoop up a manual, too, while I'm here.

It's an Emmanuel copy identical to yours, but with his notations on the side and whatnot. In the same manner that he taught you, there's crazy notes, extra little fucking post-its stuck on every page. Yeah, you get Durak's Crossbow of the Elements. Hell yeah. Ooh!

It's a plus three weapon, so it's got plus three to attack and damage. That's awesome. It's considered a magical weapon. Oh, finally. Finally. As a bonus action, you can set any of the bolts that it fires to have one of the following effects it's got this weird mechanical thing where there's like a fucking selector lever and then it loads different

shit into it and this is as a bonus action don't forget that that you need to activate this ability so fire add 1d6 fire damage on hit and it will ignite non-magical combustible items. Oh, cool. And then creatures who are not resistant to fire take a d4 fire damage at the beginning of their turns until they use a bonus action to put it out. Hell yeah. Cold. You deal

a d6 cold damage on a hit and reduce the creature's movement by 10 feet until the end of your next turn. Acid. Deal 2d6 acid of your next turn. Acid. Deal 2d6 acid damage. Nothing special. Still good. Lightning.

Add a d6 lightning damage, and the creature may not take reactions until the end of your next turn. Oh. It takes a bonus action to change the type as well. And if the crossbow is not used for one minute, the enchantment automatically deactivates. Cool. Awesome. So you can just, like, touch it at the start, be like, bonus fire,

then it'll be fire for the whole fight. It's fire. That's pretty good. That's awesome. As they collapse as well, one of the knights, one of the two knights of Karsari, their corpses don't really,

they just shatter almost coming down entirely, except one of the two knights, who it feels, it must just be, i don't know hector you can determine this you either think this happens or you either think the head turns to you or just coincidentally the way it falls it turns towards you but you hear within your mind my sword in. Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong. In addition to Emmanuel the monster and the crossbow, a sword falls out. It was obscured partially because the two knights were so close together that the sword had kind of wedged between them. But you see there is also a sword that comes out. I go to pick it up.

As soon as you're holding it in your hands you feel it humming with energy you it's a plus one weapon so plus one attack and damage and when attuned to the weapon it gives you plus one to your ac you see inscribed on the handle is the word justice it's a short sword hell yeah right it um a sword justice this sword you know Hector you know

as soon as you pick up the sword you know the last wishes of this night this sword is not meant for you but you may carry it for a while

use it well this is not mine to keep but it is mine to borrow I'm not really listening. Sure.

I'll sheath that. Sure. The amber, I guess the amber's kind of evil. I was like, it'd be nice to keep some for Durak, but maybe I kneel down and put my hand in the amber and pick up a bit, and I'm about to put it

in my pack, and then I say, keep put it in my pack and then I say, keep your head on straight and then I drop it back. The doors try to close but then stop on the pit. Yeah. I get up. I rub my eyes as though maybe I was crying but you can't see any of it. Jurek should have been cleverer than that.

I'm like you he was getting old put your put your head on straight yeah oh yeah so this was his um do you did you recognize any of the others uh no no you don't recognize any of these people they look like no actually the one durak was picking up, you maybe recognize them as an employee of the Sharpshot Companions. Oh, one of them. Well, he's gone now, but... An assistant, not a full-fledged member. But he helped out the Sharpshot Companions with this and that? So Durak, he came to help with the Sharpshot Companion, and I guess formed, probably got his own bunch of rocket deck.

Yeah. When I, you know, he said my training was done, he sort of in his old age took to just wandering. He started the hard castle and then he'd just head off. And he would come back most of the time, but one time he didn't. And we assumed that, well, what happens to all monster hunters in the end had happened to him.

He'd been eaten by something. Poor choice of words. It happens. It happens to... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was good. Watching the penny drop, that was good.

Pip doesn't realize. Pip's got no idea. Eyes just... Look behind myself like maybe you've seen something. Or killed in other ways. Esmeralda seems to either have not noticed or is pointedly ignoring. But I suppose he found his way here. So the trap here is you come in, door shuts,

you sit down and turn into Amber. Eventually you'll fall asleep. And then whatever turns you into Amber turns you into Amber. Yeah. Look around. Is it gas? Is it a magical effect? Whatever it is, it's either not happening

or it happens a bit after the doors close. Either way, you think maybe leave. Yeah, it's time to get out of here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything else in this? Look at the other... Was there any other alcoves or was that the alcoves we... There are other adventurers to touch.

But apart from that, no, there's nothing obvious unless you start picking things up and moving them. Do we need to... No, let's get out of here. I make like the, let's move. All right, well, we have 13. We're at Van Richten's camp. Yeah, that's the next stop.

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Friday. The secret door. That was basically the idea there is maybe that's the exit. Yeah, could be. You have no idea. Well, the exit, you know where that is. We came from. Unless it's a secret exit. Yeah.

As we're walking, I'm flicking through the different options on the crossbow. Sure. If you look at Emmanuel de Monster, his copy of Emmanuel de Monster at all, the first entry reads, if you're reading this, it's because I didn't have my head on straight, or maybe time got me the way it gets everyone eventually. Either way, may this serve you well in your travels. That's nice.

I guess I just tuck it next to mine. It's funny to have two crossbows now. Because mine has lasted me a long time, but it's kind of not as good. Well, there's your problem. Something useful to the player's brakes. Your old crossbow shatters. Falls apart in your hands, buddy.

I like look up. Like maybe that's Durak playing a prank on me. As you go and put your monster man into your sack satchel, you slip, slam it into the butt of your crossbow. It just breaks. Get your head on straight, boy. You got a better tool available to you. Use the better tool, you fool.

He's right. Come into your damn backside. Use the better tool, fool! Just like... Just a stopping with a loud clank of shattered crossbow. Throw my old crossbow away. What? Did you just

break it? Use the better tool, fool. Use the better tool, fool. Yeah. No time for sentimentality. I'll remember both of those. You can do what you like. You enter the West Hall. Glistening amber coats the walls and ceilings of the enormous hall like sculpted honey, and dust covers the black marble floor.

The vaulted ceiling here is only 25 feet high, slightly smaller, but not in any way claustrophobic. Set into the walls at a height of five feet are amber ledges lined with life-sized alabaster statues of cats, frogs, hawks, owls, rats, ravens, snakes, toads, and weasels, all animal companions. Many of the statues have fallen off their perches and lie shattered on the floor. An amber door to the north wall stands open.

Four other amber doors to the west and south stand closed. As you step in, you look to the north, which would be to your right. You can see there is an amber door slightly open. which would be to your right, you can see there is an amber door slightly open. Then further along on the west wall, there is one amber door, two amber doors, three amber doors closed. And then on the far left, the south, there is another amber door also closed. You can spot that there is some sort of passageway near that far door as well,

but you don't know where it leads. It's much smaller. It's not like this big archway. Let's check for notches. I ended perhaps a camp. Do you go north or south first, towards where the open door is or towards where that little open space is?

I reckon the open space, because I'm assuming that's like one entrance in. Oh, yeah. That might be kind of where Van Richten. You head south then. As you approach, you can see that not all of these doors are the same. Some of them have things inscribed on them, and two of them do not.

Two of the west wall doors do not have anything inscribed upon them. That south door, as you approach it, does have something inscribed upon it. And when you get to that passageway, you can see it's a set of stairs going up. It's a curved one, so it leads away into darkness. Might connect to the balconies from the previous room. Possibly, yeah. So it curves up. The things that were marked on the wall, as in, were they just like durak marks or that

was... No, do you mean the door? Yeah. The writing on the door? No, they just like durak marks or that was no do you mean the door yeah writing on the door no that's not durak marks but as you approach this south door you can see that there is there's a 14 mark here and a little cipher that says just like a general caution i don't i these doors have some power but i don't know what. Okay. And the inscription on the door, as you approach, Pip, you don't know what this language is. Hector, you understand all languages,

but you don't know what language this is either. You just know what it says. I have no idea, but... Now, first off as well, it looks like the car... Whoever carved this, it looks like it was done hurriedly at spearpoint. Like, there's some aura of pressure to it, like theyriedly at spear point. Like there's some aura of pressure to it.

Like they were forced to do this. It says Helios, the red shard. You know Helios is an evil god of dragons. Kind of the evil god of dragons. The draconic pantheons equivalent of like the devil or Satan. Helios, harbinger of the world's twilight. And you stop there. It's a prayer.

You don't want to even read it. Not even allowed. It's like Helios. What does it say? It's a prayer to the new Helios. Are you aware of it? Some draconic god or something? You know enough to know.

You grew up in a religious institution. Well, not in a religious institution. Oh, no, actually, that's weird. Sorry, I was about to say you grew up uh religious institution well not in a religious institute oh no actually that's wait sorry i was about to say you drew up uh you are from dragon's peak you know i'm very aggressively not well yeah you might not really know this what is your religion then and your church of gregory bones yeah you know i mean you vaguely know helios as like devil or the Satan, but you kind of know that. That's like it. The bad dragon god? Yeah. The main evil god. It's a prayer to...

Let's not do that then. But it has been carved at spear point, it looks like. She's very hurried. This door waits expectantly for you, like it assumes you know what to do next. So the first people to come here built a monastery around a statue,

and then they dug deep and they found sarcophagi. Right. But probably they weren't the only people to come here. Well, definitely they weren't the only people to come here. Correct. Maybe at some point the dragon worshippers, you know, there's been a couple of them in Barovia, came here and sort of

co-opted the temple for their own ill deeds. You can tell two of the other doors here, the one slightly ajar and another closed one up at the north end of this little area. You can tell that they are of the same ilk as this door, so there's maybe more text to read there.

They're encased in amber, right? Yeah, these doors, yeah. All the doors here unless read there. They're encased in amber, right? Yeah, these doors. All the doors here, unless I state otherwise, are encased in amber. I have a theory. Right. The one that's open, the jar, that's like broken away amber? No, no, no. It's just open.

It's just slightly open. What's the theory? Perhaps it couldn't possibly be, but maybe. So the Amber Temple keeps things in, right? It's like a prison? I suppose. I mean, we don't know much. So we knew that the thing that we were trying to stop was

encased here, imprisoned here. Right. Trapped here. True. And it got freed. So, perhaps I point to well, I can read it as hideous, but you can't, but I just point to well I can read it as Hilius but

you can't but I just point to where would be Hilius. Perhaps that the actual aspect of

or a avatar of or maybe something connected to him is behind that door. I take a

step back. And I guess if we were to say the bones above Hector. But if someone already said wrote the prayer they would have said the prayer so that... Berlin's above, Hector. But if someone already wrote the prayer,

they would have said the prayer, so that would not... I guess it didn't work. Maybe they never said it. Only carved it into the wall. Written down, it doesn't have as much power. I'd like to whirl around and look at the other doors. So you walk along.

Like I said, there are two amber doors here which don't seem to be cast from the same mold, shall we say. These look more mundane um but then as you get to the other end and as you're going north as well you start hearing do we both hear it yeah you both hear it it's a whispering it seems to be coming from that slightly open door something is whispering some some words are being spoken are drifting out from that you get to the other closed one which is on the western wall yeah slightly ajar one is the northern one and you well pip you can't read this but there's text on it it's the it's not the exact same but it's in the same

style like someone has done it against their will and hector you read cassis the obsidian nexus oh shadowed muse and then you stop reading it's another fucking prayer cassis this is the cassis god of vengeance vengeance right now the evil god evil god these are all just who imprisoned them here. I mean, well, I don't know if it's, or it's again an avatar of some element. Now, Father Limmick. Yes. He is a powerful entity,

but not necessarily a god. So is Father Limmick attached to any sort of deity or pantheon or anything like that? No, he's his own entity. I mean, he is a devil, and there's like a whole, if you will, you could describe it as a pantheon of powerful devils that, like Father Lemmick, have followers, have cults and worshippers and stuff like that.

What constitutes a pantheon, what constitutes a religion is kind of up to the interpreter on that one. Okay. So, yeah, you to, to be honest, some people might not consider Cassisus a god in her own right. Some people might see her as either an aspect of another god

or as an entirely separate pantheon to be worshipped aside from the human one. This is just broadly what the general community sees in us. I guess what's going through my head right now is like, okay, so the prayer here, it's like, okay, a prayer to Cassius, a prayer to Helios, maybe not necessarily trapping, say, Helios or Cassius in there

or the aspect of or an avatar of, but something attached to them, like an entity of, and like, I guess, something that would like, whatever the apocalypse is, whatever the end of the world is, or whatever, like something that's like a really big bed would be attached to them. Although, if you're carving it, ideally, if you're at that knife point, they want them trapped in there. Yeah. So they're protecting it.

Ah! All right, this one is to Cassis. Okay, the next one. The one with slightly open ajar door? Is there any other ones? No, there are two more doors, but neither of them have writing on them. Like I said, they seem cut from a different cloth.

You think maybe not a mundane room lies beyond, and what is a mundane room? But you don't think... There's no evil god beyond those doors. You don't think you're going to open this door and find a portal to fucking hell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. The only other door cut from the same cloth is that slightly ajar one. Right, so I think there's whatever it was.

There's nothing good beyond that whispering door. No, but... No, there is not. There's no writing above it, so we don't know what it is. I say we make a rope, put a loop in it, hook it around the doorknob, pull the door shut. There's no writing on that jar door? If you approach it, you can check for writing. In fact, you can see it, you just can't make it out properly.

I mean, there is some writing. Okay. So you want to get a rope? Well, just any door full of whispers. Oh, I know that. I want to read the book. Okay. I want to go in.

I just have a sinking suspicion. Right. I want to try and remember Father Limmick in the sense that, okay, Father Limmick was in that place. That then room would be probably corrupted with whatever father Limmick would be, which would be ice and cold and death. And maybe he would leave something behind. I don't know what.

But right. Well, she'd probably close the door then. Yes. Do you have a rope? Yeah. I'd like to pull a rope out of my pack, make a little loop in one end. You do it. You loop it around the door handle.

You pull the door shut. As soon as the rope is off, as soon as there's no pressure keeping the door shut anymore, it just creaks back open. Okay, well. You think this is going to happen. You don't think you can keep this door shut. I think what is already out is out.

What does it say? Let's read it. You approach the door descriptions of awful things that humans can do to each other like a list just like a awful list of things that can be done you see that there is an emphasis on harming through causing uh through temperature through cold temperature okay the ways that you can be awful to another human being, and then through blood, how

you can do awful things. You can make someone's blood boil. You can drain them of blood. You can put blood in the places the body is not meant to have blood. Maybe sometimes a mixture of. You can make someone's blood frozen in their veins to cause them great pain before their death.

You can get some blood and freeze it, chop it with a knife, stab them. Even things maybe almost as silly as that, yeah. Descriptions on how to trick the law into getting away with murder. Okay, all right. What does it say? It's a long one. A lot of descriptions of murder and torture and mayhem using blood and temperature. Cold, mostly cold. This one feels more frantic.

It's not an aura of like someone was done, it was done at spear point. It feels like it was someone excited and quickly trying to get in as fast as they could. This is not, this is a deliberately, this is not a spear point. This is frantic. The second one, that was a spear point as well. So the first two were at spear point.

This one, less so. And there's no, this isn't like a prayer. This is like more of a, well, it could be a prayer actually. Is this a prayer?

Do I read this as being like, this is a prayer to the God of, or a God of murder, sort of thing. Could be a form of worship. Yeah. Like, all right, all right, all right, all right. And it's, okay, weirdly it doesn't follow the same suit as the other two.

I think this is, yes, what is now inhabiting the Valakai. Right. Came out of here. Would, and I hate to suggest this, and let's not dive into anything, but would you learn anything from going in? Perhaps that is what Eleniel said. If we were to learn anything about how they escaped or anything that might help with the ritual, it might be in there. But let's not forget that if you do go in there, you might die, or it be a trap or you might become corrupted or any number of things however you are fairly full at the moment so it's not

wrong i don't know how much more um can fit well you can tie a rope around me and yank me out if need be do i think that there's value in that suggestion? Or is it more likely I'm going to tie a rope to him and then yank out just a frayed rope? This is well beyond your game, right? Yeah. I look up at you and, I mean, there's no reason for your destiny to end the moment we step into the temple.

So I'll start tying the rope. I tie a rope around your waist. Is Asmay just chilling? She's bringing up the temple. So I'll start tying the rope. I tie a rope around your waist. Is Esme just chilling? She's bringing up the rear. You can see she's got her head on a swivel. She's checking for hostiles. In no way is she interested in this conversation.

Well, Esme, I mean, you know, I can do my best, but if I could have you on the rope as well, I'd appreciate it Esme nods, she holsters her axe And sheaths her rapier And then grabs the rope I let my crossbow drop on its sling

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