While Izek departed the annex to join Helwa’s hunt, Ajuni grew visibly unsettled and anxious, as she felt Delban’s presence below her feet. Over a breakfast of cold mushroom stew, she and Ghalwin quietly discussed their respective allegiances to the Dark Powers, and what to expect if they encountered Mormeros. They noticed Lancelot sniffing around a loose stone, and found a hidden door to a chamber that once stored a trove of magical scrolls, reduced to dust long ago. Though nothing of use remained, its discovery confirmed that the temple had once been a stronghold of arcane study.
The Heralds of Dawn cracked open the northern amber door, which lead to a hallway patrolled by three floating heads engulfed in green fire. Ghalwin surged forward and smote the flameskull, but the others retaliated with bursts of fire; the undead retained the ability to cast some of the spells they had learned in life. Fireballs exploded through the confined corridor, felling both Kasimir and Lancelot, but amidst the chaos, Tobias launched vials of holy water from his enhanced sling. He discovered the water consecrated the flameskulls, giving the party time to recover without fear of their regeneration. This weakened them enough to allow Ajuni and Ezmerelda to blast them apart, and to heal their downed party members.
They searched the body by the door, and among the wizard's scorched remains were a destroyed spellbook and a Staff of Frost that remained curiously intact. Ghalwin retrieved the staff and offered it to Ajuni, but in doing so, he unknowingly was taken by a curse. The staff carried its former master’s unspent hunger for power and took hold of the paladin, who abruptly re-negged on his offer. Ajuni sensed something was wrong with Ghalwin's demeanor, and told the others, who managed to wrestle Ghalwin to the ground. As Geronimo seized the staff, Ezmerelda pinned him down at swordpoint, and lifted his curse with Kasimir's assistance. Ghalwin apologized, they rested, and moved on, leaving the cursed weapon in the scroll archive alongside a note of warning.
Further exploration revealed slits in the hallway’s eastern wall, granting a view of the amber-laden temple below. A massive granite statue dominated the space, its face obscured by unnatural darkness. The Heralds passed by a stairwell leading downward, rummaged through a defunct potionary, and entered a long-abandoned architect’s study. There, they found a detailed stone model of Castle Ravenloft, clearly carved through magic. In a false bottom beneath a chest, Kasimir discovered a book that radiated intense transmutative energy, but the Heralds lacked the means to identify it on the spot, so packed it away for later study.
Their path led them to a large dining hall replete with cutlery, furniture, and fresh food. Everything but the table was illusory, save for a copper ewer that also emanated transmutation magic. Tobias approached to claim it, but the ewer began to scream and shudder violently. He and Ezmerelda scrambled to stop it, knocking it around the room until Ghalwin opened the balcony door and hurled it outside. The vessel survived the thirty-foot fall, but from its mouth poured seven specters that flew up and began draining the paladin's life force. As combat broke out, a fireball surged in, exploding the room from the darkness beyond the balcony. Ghalwin closed the door as quickly as he opened it, and the Heralds dispatched the specters that pursued them.
They tried to probe the granite statue, but nothing triggered when Ezmerelda extended a Mage Hand through the annex's doors, so Tobias decided to be brave. He doffed his draconic scale then cast invisibility, and the others could only look on through the arrow slits as he crept cautiously through the temple chamber. He crossed the overlook undisturbed and reached a southeastern annex, where he discovered roughly-hewn pit and further doors before returning.
They went down the stairway to a lower hall, lined with alabaster statues of familiars that perched on ledges of amber. The Heralds worried about making too much noise as a group, so sent Tobias and Ezmerelda invisibly towards a northern vault. Its door had already been mysteriously left open, and inside, three large amber sarcophagi loomed. Tobias peered into each, reading names written in archaic language and sensing the presence of the Dark Powers sealed within. Ravnok the Inscrutable's existence seemed barely visible at all; Tarakmedes the Grave Wyrm's spirit flickered like a dark candle; but Shami-Amourae, the Lady of Delights glowed like a stoked black hearth, and seemed to respond to Tobias' presence. The gnome recoiled when she tapped on the amber from within, and ran back out to Ez in fear.
He then attempted to crack an adjacent amber door, but his latchpick broke in its arcane lock. The small snap of metal resounded through the silent temple, and the invisible thieves fled. Tobias felt unseen magic attempt to seize him, but slipped the spell with gnomish cunning, and the duo made it back to the Heralds. Shaken, they retreated upstairs, seeking refuge in Helwa's annex before attempting the dungeon again.
