Ghalwin teleported into the ranks of the vampire spawn, smiting before they could even climb from their crates, and Ajuni ran behind him. Lifting the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, her radiance held the undead in place while Tobias followed with his own divine strikes and Ezmerelda weaved through the battle with swordplay and bolts of lightning. One of the spawn climbed atop Izek’s enlarged shoulders and dined on him as the barbarian swung around wildly, but Ghalwin easily was there to knock it down with a shield bash. The vampires barely knew what hit them before they were entirely eradicated.
Afterward, they explored the large amber vault, which held sarcophagi belonging to Khirad, the Star of Secrets, and Delban, the Star of Ice and Hate. The two respectively held little dark power and none at all, confirming that Neferon's musings about the sarcophagi were accurate. Ghalwin suspected that the shattered tomb was tied to Strahd's patron, and successfully used magical location to find the shards that contained their true name. Tobias mended them together, and confirmed that it belonged to Vampyr, Lord of Blood and Death.
Through a crack in the vault wall, the group spotted the temple's treasury, piled high with riches. Tobias detected an invisible Amber Golem guarding the hoard and advised against engaging it, but did plan to re-rob the temple after dealing with Strahd. Instead, the group ascended back to the library's secret door to speak with Khazan. Ghalwin offered him a book to show peace, and the mindless lich accepted it wordlessly, removing its text with magic before going off to shelve it.
Tobias and Ajuni used the distraction to search Khazan’s chamber and located his phylactery, a small box of bone clutched in a massive scaled hand. Before Khazan returned, they hid in the other room; and as Ajuni listened to Ghalwin unsuccessfully plead for answers, she realized that she could restore the lich’s mind using her new divine gifts. Ghalwin introduced her as a "friend", and she called on her healing magic. The lich's mind returned, and he immediately expressed confusion over how long he had been gone.
Now lucid, Khazan thanked the party and apologized to Tobias, showing surprising gratitude for an undead necromancer. He explained his previous relationship with Strahd, and shared with them his knowledge of both Castle Ravenloft and the names of the sealed Dark Powers. When they explained their deal with Neferon, he agreed to help the group explore the temple, but warned that his mind would soon begin to fade again (Ajuni rolled 8 hours on a d10). During their tour, he pointed out an enchanted statue that had ensnared two wizards, whose spellbooks Ghalwin collected; they also found a malfunctioning Shield Guardian in a bedroom, stripped of its control amulet in a past robbery.
Khazan expelled a group of Nothics from an amber vault, explaining they were once wizards driven mad by in search of knowledge. Before leaving, they rifled through the minds of Tobias, Izek, and Ezmerelda and gleaned embarrassing secrets from the three. The Heralds requested to see Ten-Zras' sarcophagus, but on the way passed a hidden archer’s outpost, where Tobias found a Wand of Secrets on the corpse of an adventurer. Khazan destroyed three flameskulls in a pit that lead to another vault, and the party moved to an amber hallway where fissures marked the floor and walls.
At the far end of the hallway, fissures marked the floor and walls. Ghalwin raised the matter of the loose amber golem, which caused Khazan to panic. He flew off invisible, instructing the party to remain silent, which Ez and Izek did not do. Ghalwin and Tobias spotted an invisible Quasit opening a door behind the barbarian, and it just barely slipped away from Geronimo. Tobias ran after it into a lecture hall, and inside, Izek spotted a creature attempting to hide behind a lectern. The gold Dragonborn Oxoryn Ipniani revealed herself, claiming to be a paladin of the Morninglord. She told a scattered tale of her arrival in Barovia at Arrigal's hands: after clearing the Death House and encountering Strahd, her friend Jassarian Sala-zan had contacted a Dark Power, and it ended with her surviving alone in the temple.
Alongside inconsistencies in Ipniani's story, Ajuni realized that the dragonborn's blackened scales were caused by disease, an impossibility for a paladin of her power. She told Tobias, who had a brain blast and linked it to the lingering influence of Fekre, the Queen of Poxes. Ghalwin pressed her on this, and after dodging questions, Ipniani eventually confessed. She had invoked the Dark Power to keep her companions alive, and had done so at repeated cost, further than any of the Heralds had.
Ajuni wanted to contact Neferon as Ipniani began struggled to control her body, but failed to calm the paladin. Sensing weakness, Fekre took over, and the room erupted into combat!
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