Exethanter Reborn
Curse of Strahd = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Session 61 – 2022-06-04
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Session Summary
Session 61 – Exethanter Reborn
We searched the library some more, trying to find the illusive lab. We had no luck. We eventually ended up in the room where Haldar had to cover the statue that enthralled Rinn and Misty earlier. At one of the sections of wall in there, Rinn found a secret door. He opened the door and skulls, possibly hundreds of them started pouring out of it. The secret room appears to have been full of them. We waded through them. As we look up, we found a chest hanging upside down, about 30 feet up. Rinn used a mage hand spell to try and open the chest. The latch or the lock flipped open, but the chest didn’t open. It was suggested that it might have been magically sealed. Rinn searched the back wall finding another secret door.
He opened this and found a 15-foot-high room with the trappings of royalty. Ornate furniture, exquisite rugs and tapestries, a decorative statuary, lit candelabras on the tables. The room was covered in thick dust and cobwebs. We checked the room well and searching several desks and tables. Snoggly sat in a chair and read a newspaper. Misty found a book with the title, “The Incants of Exethanter”. Rinn checked the book for traps and finding none, tested it by lifting it with his mage hand and then opening it to the first page. Again, nothing happened. Snoggly then took a look and read what was on the first page. Again, it said, “The Incants of Exethanter”, and many statements of obscenities and warnings in various languages. Rinn pulled a book of the bookshelf and checked, it was blank like all the other books. He watched as Snoggly read through the first page on the off chance that something he read would make the writing appear. It didn’t. Snoggly moved to the second page of the book of incants and it was also blank. We guessed that only Exethanter knows the correct phrase to make the writing appear and he basically knows nothing anymore.
Snoggly had a flash of (Harry Potter) inspiration and reached for the ink and quill. The ink had long since dried up, so he added a few drops of Snoggly’s brand of Holy water (whiskey) to the bottle. He stirred it up bringing the ink back to life and the dripped a little on the page. The ink was green, but nothing came of it. He grabbed a scroll laying on the desk, but it was very old and fragile, and kind of wanted to fall apart. Zanfyr opened anther scroll, carefully and it revealed a map of the region. Rinn searched another table with a bunch of papers on it that were either blank or crumbling and falling apart. Snoggly picked up the book of incants and put it in his belt pouch. We did a thorough search of the furniture and secret compartments and found nothing of interest.
Rinn picked a likely spot in the wall for a secret door and found it immediately. Snoggly ran off to pee before we opened the door. When he returned, the door was opened and, at last, the lab was before us. There was a cabinet with about 2 dozen unmarked, chemical and magical ingredients, a thick and weighty book titled, “The Alchemist Almanac”, a potion brewing set that includes a small cauldron, a balancing scale, and other appropriate tools. There was another book, on a desk with papers spread out on it and a magnifying glass. The desk was supported by giant stony fingers. There were some notes scrawled in the book. Rinn searched the desk for any secret compartments, nothing. Kyanna looked at the desk and found liquids, powders, bottles, little leaves, herbs and all sorts of weird things, some marked and some not. She looked at the book and it was opened to potions of healings and curings and things of that nature. She checked the recipes and they seemed to be the same as others she’s eyed before. There was a recipe scribbled on a piece of paper on the desk. It was written with very poor penmanship. It was as follows.
Potion of Greater Restoration 1. Brew a one-quart base of third-degree reagents (1 activator : 2 declinator). 2. Add a pinch of nightfern leaves (NOT blackwort leaves - highly toxic!). 3. Mix in ounce of rimesap for potency (check the hidden compartment) 4. Simmer for five minutes; add wyvern mucus (extra samples in cabinet if needed; taste first to confirm it’s not pale tincture). 5. Add holy water and stir.
Kyanna pointed out to Rinn that the recipe said something about a hidden compartment. Rinn searched the desk and table again, finding nothing. He then searched all of the walls and found a brick sized section that can come out. He slid the stone out, as he did, spring loaded darts fired down from the ceiling striking him for quite a bit of poison damage. After that, he felt pretty bad. Zanfyr casts Neutralize Poison on him and removed its effects. He checked the traps again to make sure they hadn’t reset, and they had not. He finished removing the stone and the pulled a bottle out of the hidden compartment. The bottle was the Rimesap. Snoggly and Kyanna began assembling the ingredients to complete the potion.
There were some bottles with leaves in them but no labels. Zanfyr was unable to identify them, but Snoggly looked and identified one of them as curly leaves are Blackwort, and the needly leaves are the Nightfern. We found a vial of Wyvern Mucus in a bottle. There is very little of it. In the cabinet there were more bottles of substances that looked like it. Kyanna tasted the mucus in the labeled bottle and found a matching taste in the cabinet. She pulled out some holy water and all the ingredients were assembled. She and Snoggly worked to complete the bottle. Rinn, once again, questioned this action reasoning that a Lich is typically a very powerful creature, this one is nearly useless. Do we want to make him powerful again? Everyone else fell on the side of, if we help the Lich known as Joe Biden then he would have the power to give us the sword. Seeing no other course, Rinn agreed. We took the potion and book to him. Kyanna does some more healing of the group and especially Rinn.
Snoggly offers Exethanter the potion and the book. He was a little suspicious at first, but Snoggly convinced him that we needed him to be able to give us the sword. He drank the potion and things started happening. He slowly started to move, bones creaked and ground against each other and his movements became more fluid. Eyes that once were piercing but distant now looked like Dark Red stars with an awareness beyond things that are only visible. His dry gasping voice was suddenly replaced by a resonate voice that was beautiful yet sort of sinister. “Yes, I believe that has worked as I intended.”. He took a few steps gracefully, almost as if floating. Now he regards us again. We no longer saw a skeletal ragged being but now a terrifyingly powerful being, virtually immortal, his boney fingers ripple with a visible energy. For a moment, we realized the enormity of what we had done. This is a Lich, in his lair. Se said, “I am restored! My name is Exethanter! I am the master and keeper of this Amber Temple! You have my thanks and my good will!”. Snoggly introduces himself and offers the book. He takes the book and utters something and looks in the book.
He said, “I assume you came here seeking knowledge, for the guardians doom those seeking to plunder the treasures here.”. Snoggly told him we only wanted the Sun Sword so we could kill the “Bastard on the Hill.”. He told him that Strahd had invited us to his wedding, and we wanted to present him with this present. Rinn told him the Sun Sword lay in the treasure piles below, that we had already seen it. Exethanter responded, “Long have I neglected my duties here, walk with me!”. Took a few steps and headed to and down the back stairs, saying, “I can tell you many secrets.”. He brings us downstairs and asks as he does, what we know of the temple. Rinn speaks up and mentions that we believe there is a Drider hiding in the top of the main statue, giving that whoever is up there casted a Darkness spell and the Drider we had chased into the building had also casted one. He said, “A Drider, in the statue…Oh. You must mean Nefron.”.
He said, “More than 2,000 years ago, they needed a vault to contain evil vestiges, which were remnants of dead or malevolent entities, that had been captured. ‘They’, being a secret society of good-aligned wizards. They dedicated the temple to a God of secrets whom they trusted to keep it a secret from the rest of the world until the end of time. That is whom the statue you see, represents, in the room coming up. Unfortunately for the wizards, even the will of a god couldn’t prevent other evil creatures from learning the temple’s location. The wizards were forced to guard the temple itself, to keep its secrets from falling into villainous hands. The evil forces that were imprisoned within the temple, eventually corrupted the wizards, eventually turning them against one another. In some time, the wizards were dead and gone. I discovered this place and took it upon myself to watch over the temple. Not to hoard its evil secrets per say, buy to share them openly. Meanwhile, the evils within the temple fed on each other growing in power. When Strahd came to the temple, seeking immortality, the evil power within the temple felt something stronger. A darkness that eclipsed even their own. Strahd communed with these evil vestiges and forged a pact with them. When Strahd later murdered his brother Sergei, that pact was sealed with blood. Strahd transformed into a Vampire and the power turned his land into a prison. Strahd returned to the temple many times, to learn new magic, to find a means of escaping his fate, but the dark powers had no intentions of giving him up.”.
As we stood in the room where the boxes of Vampires had burst open on us earlier, Exethanter continued, “This room contains three such sarcophagi. These are prisons where dark vestiges, there power, is stored.” He named each vestige imprisoned in this chamber. Fogolar, the Prince of Tears, Tenneberus, Tennudan, the Corps Star. Dain asks, can they not just be destroyed, one at a time? Exthanter answered, “No, they can not be destroyed, only contained. And even that is tenuous.”. Dain explains that Villnious helped one escape. We told him where this happened and described the woman that escaped. He said, “Sykane, The Queen of Poxes!”. He asked if anyone else had communed with any of the Sarcophagi and Snogly told him that Kassamir had, and suppose3dly been given the power to resurrect his sister. He tells Kassamir that he knows of him and knows his sister Patrina. He knew she tried to have a relationship with Strahd and his family was cursed because of it. He asked if he wished to right that wrong? Kassamir thought for a bit and answered, “Yes!, I sought the gift of Fekre!”. Exthanter asked if he had communed with Fekre to which he answered, “Yes!”. He hasked Kassamir what Fekre had promised. Kassamir said, “That my sister would be restored!”. Kassamir asked then, “What of you?”. To which Kassamir replied, “What of me?”. Exthanter told him that there would be a price to pay, “Did Fekre not tell you?”. Kassamir replied, “Whatever the price is, I am willing to pay it, to restore my sister.”. He nods, accepting his answer and begins moving again.
We headed towards the opening in the wall to the treasure room. It was then that Snoggly mentioned the couple of amulets that Rinn had acquired along the way. The one for Sykane, which is useless now as she is escaped, and the other amulet for Yrrga. He suggested that Rinn might still be able to make a deal with Yrrga, much as Kassamir had done with Fekre. Rinn stated, that he would just as soon be done with these. As we enter the treasure room, Rinn points out the sword that we need to collect. Exthanter ponders a little on it and says, “That is the sword of Sergei Von Zarovich. It has been some time. My young student, Kazan, sought it also. He had said he sought it to destroy it, but like many things Kazan said, he’s a liar. He wanted the sword for himself.”. Snoggly pointed out that Madam Eva of the Vistani had told us that we needed this item, beyond the Amber doors, in order to end Strahd. Rinn added that is seemed a Sun Sword, especially one that once belonged to Strahd’s brother, whom Strahd killed, would seem to be the perfect weapon to end a Vampires existence. Rinn asked if this weapon would be capable of undoing Strahd. Exethanter asked if that was what we sought to do. Rinn said that he thought what we ultimately wanted to do was free this land of this curse. “We assumed that the curse revolved around Strahd”. Snoggly said, “We would like to get back to our lives from before. We didn’t ask to be brought here.”.
Exthanter told us that Strahd brought us here. Snoggly asked why? Rinn wondered aloud, “Did he want us to end his curse?”. Snoggly interjected that perhaps he just wanted us at his wedding. Exethanter wanted to know about the wedding indicating that Strahd had only one true love. We told him that he was getting married this week and that we were going and wanted that sword so if needed, we could defend ourselves and possibly end him then. Rinn asked if slaying Strahd would end the curse on this land. Exethanter launched into a history of Strahd and the beginnings of the curse on Barovia.
He told us, “In life, Strahd was human, a powerful, cruel, psychopath, warlord, prince, soldier, or noble, depending on whom you ask. Following the death of his father, Barov, Strahd waged a tireless, vengeful war against his family’s enemies, finally crushing them once and for all in a remote valley. Looking around him, Strahd was taken by the stark beauty of the valley. He decided to settle there, renaming it Barovia after his father, King Barov. Strahd brutally subjugated the people of Barovia and brought unflinching order to his new domain. Strahd’s mother, Queen Ravenovia, was afraid of her eldest son, fearful that years of war had made him cruel and arrogant. Just as much as she rejected Strahd, she lavished her affections doubly on her younger son, Sergei. They stayed away from Barovia and their murderous relative, and so it may have remained had Strahd not begun to feel the weight of his years upon his shoulders. Weary from war and bored by peace, Strahd gathered all the wizards and artisans from his conquered realms, forcing them to begin the construction of a great castle overlooking the valley of Barovia. In what was perhaps the ultimate, over-the-top gothic expression of mommy issues, he named it Ravenloft. With Castle Ravenloft complete, Strahd sent for his remaining family members to come live with him. His mother died en route to the castle and is now buried beneath the castle, but Sergei (Strahd’s much younger brother whom he barely knew) made it safely to the castle and, for a while, lived with Strahd in Barovia. Strahd — now with a glaring mother-shaped hole in his life and shall we say unrefined emotional capabilities — turned his attention no longer to a warrior king but to a woman from Barovia called Tatyana. He simply fell head-over-heels in love with her, lavishing her with gifts and offering to make her his bride. But love is cruel and it was not to be, Tatyana fell in love with Sergei. Rather than accept Tatyana’s choice and find joy in his brother’s happiness, Strahd saw his beloved’s decision as an incontestable metaphor that his best years had been squandered and death would soon take him. On the day of Tatyana and Sergei’s wedding, Strahd murdered Sergei, forging a pact in blood with the dark powers in exchange for immortality. With his brother’s blood caked around his lips, Strahd chased Tatyana through the gardens of Castle Ravenloft until she, wracked with terror and despair, threw herself from the battlements to her death over a thousand feet below. Seeing what their master had done, Strahd’s own guards turned on him, riddling his body with arrows, but the Count did not die. The dark powers were true to their word. Strahd was granted immortality — transformed into the first vampire. He slaughtered his guards and everyone else in the castle. Whether it was a part of their pact or simply a reflection of the evil Strahd wrought on that day, the dark powers drew him and the entire land of Barovia away into a demiplane of mists. Isolated from in a prison of his own making and Strahd has remained there since — both tyrant and prisoner, and the vampire Lord of Ravenloft.”.
Exethanter continued, “To answer your question, No, I do not believe that Strahd can be killed in the conventional sense.”. Snoggly asked if there was some way we could set him back some. He said, “Perhaps….Continue with me for a moment and we shall learn!”. He led us to the main chamber. He looked at the main statue and called out to Nefron to show himself. When nothing happened, he called out again. Finally, an odd looking figure that looked somewhat like a fox, in a robe. He seemed pleased that Exethanter had returned. Exethanter told him that we had restored him. Nefron called us thieves and we explained that we were trying to acquire the sword but that when the temple challenged us, calling us thieves, we returned it to the pile. He told Nefron to look upon us as allies now. He told us that Nefron is a creature known as an Arcanaloth, a creature that is driven by a thirst for knowledge, and there is an infinite amount of knowledge contained within the library. We learned that to read the books in the library, you had to know the secret word, and that it is different for each book. He told us that this big statue was of the god of secrets. The statues in the corners represented the guardians of the temple.
He turned to the eastern archway, He walked us around and told us who is in each of the sarcophagi. Along the way, Rinn gave him the amulets for Sykane and Yrrga that he had been carrying. He continued on and took us to the southern vault in the main room and said, “These are the remains of the wizards that once defended the Amber Temple.”. He told us that once they were sealed in Amber but later wizards removed the amber to get to the items buried with the wizards and left them there to rot. He headed to the western archway and again, went from room to room naming the occupants. He entered one chamber and said, “Stand down!”. A massive grey, almost lizard man like creature suddenly become visible. He was about 10 ft tall, long tail, huge ax, big scales down his back, with a face that is lizardly or frog like. Zanfyr recognized it as a creature called a Grey Slaad. The creature went from a battle stance to a relaxed stance. Yrrga is in this room. He tossed his amulet on the ground near the sarcophagus. He took us to a place upstairs, to a secret door on the eastern side, to as set of hidden steps and then to another room with three more sarcophagi. In this room, several spiders came clambering down with the walls, a Drider following behind them. They ere not expecting Exethanter. The Lich makes a simple motion and within an instant, everything in the room is dead. He looked at Frieda, the Drider, “Must be here because of Drizlash, the nine eyed spider.”. pointing to one of the sarcophagi.
This is when Debbie had to stop and check Chris for ticks. Exethanter finshed naming the last of the occupants and turned to Snoggly saying, “You had asked for more than just the sword. What else did you wish to take from this place?”. He pointed out the book in the castle room to boost your intelligence. He also explained the window in the side of the mountain that he tells us, opens to the tombs beneath the castle. He said it’s a big chamber. He doesn’t know who is buried there but is does know that King Barov and Queen Ravenovia are there. We went over the items we wanted, the Tome of Understanding, a White Staff, the Sun Sword. He said we can take the staff but that we should identify it before using it. We didn’t mention the Wand of Secrets we got off of the body upstairs. As we took the sword, he reiterates that Kazan wanted the weapon, he had told Exethanter, to use against Strahd, but Exethanter said he was deluded as he could not attune to it. So he brought it here as an offering of sorts, at first to Zantras, the King Maker. When Zantras refused it, he turned it to the dark powers themselves, but he was refused entrance to the temple. His transgressions prior had amused the powers. In anger, he casted the sword hilt into the icy chasm where it would stay lost to the world until he could find a champion. He deceived Strahd into believing the sword had been destroyed. Exethanter recovered the weapon to study it. Most powerful indeed, infused with vengeful sentience. When he had learned all he could of it, Exethanter stored it in the temple treasury. Strahd killed Kazan for reasons he does not know. Kazan is not gone though. He was seduced long before even Strahd. Kazan is not a human anymore but not undead either, something in between. Exethanter said he has sensed him many times over the centuries. He has been here but cannot enter. He seeks a champion to wield the sword. Someone who can enter and claim the weapon. If that person is found, the sword bearer will be on a perilous journey.
He asked if we’d had dealings with Kazan. We remembered that Rahadin had indicated that Mordenkanin was also known as Kazan. So yes, we had met Kazan(Mordenkanin). He asked how long we had known each other. We told hm we met when we were drawn into Barovia. He said, we should be aware that Kazan can take on any form he desires, that he is quite powerful. He will bend his champion to his will. If you are the sword barer, you can trust no one.
Exethanter is all about knowing everything. He is not an enemy of Strahd but he is also not a friend of Strahd.