Results, near end of Amber Temple, CoS, March 8-9th, 2025

Found semi-lich, Exethanter, friendly. Avoided the skull hallway, chest on ceiling, disappearing floor trap. (And I goofed up, and the Antipathy-Sympathy infinite starve to death trap was supposed to be nearby but I misread room number). 

• Oops, way later, one time instead of saying "friendly skeleton guy", i slipped and said "the room where the lich lives"... LOL. Kid was like... what?! Hehe. 

(yesterday he killed 1 Amber Golem, was intense, gaseous form (so cool usage, getting across dangerous balconies, one crumbly... mage hand to get some light on a rock closer) solo barb got surprised when he was on the balcony all alone and ran into the Golem. But eventually party beat golem, flew over or something and esp. Wall of Light was GREAT! Though SLOW was super powerful!). 

On March 9, 2025:

3 amber golems total included 

• dead one from (semi-solo barb on balcony) yesterday, March 8th. 
• The 2nd one he just shot it in a barrel (was behind the 3 ft crack in the wall, so could hit it for free a bit, it finally ran out angry, broken door down. Later was down a LONG corridor, he killed it before it could get to him, basically). 
• It did wander off, and he kept spying on it and witches from afar. It wandered around the main 40' statue room for a while then went top left for me (SE on map) near the upper big room with 10' hole (witches nearby underneath). 
• Dont forget the showdown when it grabbed 2 doors (+5 temp AC) to run at him. He hit something to destroy one door, and took out the Golem eventually. 

• 3rd amber golem was hiding in room with 3 ft crack in wall. Spotted it with bat. Kept swatting at bat/mage hand from afar. 
• Finally got mad b/c they fireballed past it to hit witches, (then spiked growth which stopped him for a while)... and it beat down the rocks by the crack to collapse and close the crack (which was grinding play to a halt). 
• 
  

3 Bovarian witches ran off. 6 vamp spawns did nothing vs. sunsword, kid at full health not hit all day.  

I NEEDED TO RATCHET IT UP:

• Kid was breaking into a amber sarcophagus room. 
• To get there, he avoided the 40' statue (Arcanaloth still hidden, that shoots finger of death/fireball so far, having killed Vilnius the day before).
• So he went behind it, knows that safe, up high. Using Energy bow for ladder/walkway along with Warlock fly, etc. 
• Used a rope to get down the hole in that bigger side room near SouthEast side of dungeon, which leads to the Amber Room that the witches were at. Witches were gone at this point.
• Opened it, bam, the necrotic went off (on the other side of the door), i tried to make it apparent it was dangerous. 
• Went to next Amber Sarc. room, from the dangerous side. Broken open the door... 
• Trap went off, hit Barb and Druid, they took 4d10 necrotic. (Almost hit them all). 
• 2 direguards, https://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/block/Direguard, popped out of a side room. 
• At the same time the 3rd golem came from behind (new Bat familiar warned him, so kid stayed far away). 
• Direguards: BLINK was cool, and powered up Magic Missile (4d4+4) did most of dmg throughout fight. 
• Right when Amber Golem#3 got to him, wam, ice wall to push it back. Barely got slow (as Bonus Action, my call) off on Fighter and Barbarian. Golem did get to hit party once, only the wall then died.
• 3 flameskulls pop out of side room as golem going down, 3 fireballs. The Elf wizard couldn't see to counter spell. Cast thru the one broken wall spot where golem broke wall. 
• But druid and warlock are so anti-fire, no biggie. Elf NPC went down here a couple times. 
• Can you ready an action to shoot, then run away? 
• NO, it uses up a Reaction, so cant AoO either: https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/80796/how-does-the-ready-action-work
• Almost made mistake with druid to humanoid back to wildshape to "heal up", but then realized needed to MAX MOONBEAM_UPCAST + EXTRA_vs_UNDEAD (due to Red Fungus Sickle) on them. WHAM, 52 dmg while they were stacked up, dead!
• The blinking in and out and hiding around corner Direguards did a ton of dmg tho over time. Eventually he got em with readied actions and then tported over (avoiding the watchful gaze of the 40' statue, aka Arcanaloth, tho he still doesn't konw about the Arcanaloth) with Cape of Montebank carrying fighter. Nice. 
• How is he gonna get back across without triggering Arcanaloth? 
• Energy Bow pull (acts like a tport). 
• The barb was the healer that fight, b/c elf went down so much and mostly ranged fight. Barb only used rage like once all day. 

What's left?

1. Death Slaad. I have him pumped up, see other recent post... he'll be half 3.5e version, which is pretty tough. I think. 
2. Lich Greater Restore. 
1. Kid wants that library of ALL spells (from PHB), I hinted was a ton. 
2. Kid kinda stumbled upon his Phylactery (detriment of having a map given to kid)...
1. Lich was like, oh that's super dangerous, please close that door. 
2. Kid was like, oh, that might be a self destruct for this whole place. Creepy looking. 
3. Arcanaloth
1. If they attack Statue, use https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/187zafe/can_the_players_attackdestroy_neferons_statue_in/

1.      A good rule of thumb for stone is to use the Wall of Stone spell, which gives AC 15 and 30 hit points per inch of thickness. (For a 10x10 panel.)

   I'd probably say the whole head is at least 6 inches thick, and has 360 hit points.

   Large thick objects tend to have damage reduction 10 as well, which means only hits that do 10+ damage do all.   

That's it really. I'm going to put more DireGuards in there, they are awesome with the Blink and 4d4+4 magic missiles. They do need a tank to help them out tho.