Curse of Strahd: Reloaded's guide to the Amber Temple is now available!
Added 2025-03-22 16:19:35 +0000 UTCI’m excited to share the eleventh public installment of my revised Curse of Strahd guide, Curse of Strahd: Reloaded. This new release contains Arc S: A Sword of Sunlight, which includes:
History of the Temple. A comprehensive history of the Amber Temple, including its founding, operations, and downfall.
The Arcanaloth, Flameskulls & the Slaad. A new storyline featuring the arcanaloth, flameskulls, and death slaad of the Amber Temple.
Dark Gifts. Updated, fleshed-out dark gifts and scenes for every vestige.
Hunt for the Sunsword. A puzzle-like quest to deduce where the dusk elf Patrina Velikovna hid the Sunsword’s broken hilt.
Patrina’s Ascension. A climactic battle with Patrina’s half-formed lich, and a challenge to reignite the Sunsword.
Thank you to all of the readers and playtesters who provided suggestions and feedback following the previous public release!
As always, I want your feedback and comments to help make this guide the best it can be. Is the adventure fun? Is the content accessible? Is there anything missing, or anything I can do better? Please let me know any and everything I can do to improve!
Thank you always to everyone who has supported this project, as well as to my incredible patrons for their support.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Comments
Thank you! 1. Just the first part of the door; you need the amber shard to get all the way inside. 2. If they look down the wall, they can see what happened.
DragnaCarta
2025-04-21 12:25:48 +0000 UTCi also just came across all your mountains of work while deciding to start a cos campaign; this is all phenomenal, especially for a dm with a group that loves well-written descriptive flavor text and puzzling out the lore. i've haven't been this excited to start a new campaign in a while! couple of questions i had about Arc A: 1. does playing the waltz in the conservatory open one or both parts of the secret door in the library? Ac2 Conservatory says "Playing Waltz for Klara also causes the bookshelf in the Library to swing open, exposing the locked secret door beyond. " but Ac2 Library's description of the panel behind the bookshelf says it opens when the amber shard is inserted or a player plays Waltz for Klara on the harpsichord in the Conservatory." 2. can you clarify what the intentions are with the well? "If the players toss an object down the well and then turn away, they hear loud splashing and tearing sounds coming from below. When they turn back, the object has been torn to pieces, with large parts missing." Does the object reappear, or is this assuming they retrieve it somehow?
amon
2025-04-20 19:06:06 +0000 UTCThank you! And thank you for the edits; I definitely need to go back and fix those!
DragnaCarta
2025-04-19 12:33:33 +0000 UTCHi, I just recently found your content, and i LOVE it. I wish all the official modules had this much DM help and actual tactics guides and explanations! One thing I found, since it seems like the changes to the Amber temple are new: There were several references in older sections to Exethanter being a lich and other references to him that no longer apply to his new backstory and role. The 2 I found were referencing Strahd's relatonship with him in chapter 2, and the summary of act 4 in chapter 3. Hope this helps!
Atreties
2025-04-17 21:11:21 +0000 UTCGood catch; thank you!
DragnaCarta
2025-04-06 13:19:57 +0000 UTCHi Dragna, teeny tiny little editing catch: In Chapter 3: Running the Game -> Running the Adventure -> Adventure Hooks, you say "If you choose to run Barovian Relics for one or more of your players, have each of those players choose a motivation from the Motivations section in Chapter 1: Into the Mists before beginning the campaign." I'm guessing this is meant to say the Motivations section in 'Chapter 1: Beginning the Campaign' in the 'Character Creation' section?
David Martinez
2025-04-05 20:06:36 +0000 UTCThank you! I'm very glad to hear. Hope you all enjoy Act III!
DragnaCarta
2025-03-29 03:07:25 +0000 UTCAlways great to check your amazing work! Shout out to Rahadin's trial. Players just finished Vallaki and that session was a blast.
seedn
2025-03-28 10:41:47 +0000 UTCAwesome work as always Dragna. Really excited for this one! With the changes to the Sunsword described in "Igniting the Sunsword", does this mean the idea of containing Sergei's spirit within the sword is gone - or should this be thought of as a temporary solution until that can be done? I'm wondering because the summary still states that "...the players must empower the broken sword by conjuring the spirit of Sergei von Zarovich from the mists."
Kristian
2025-03-25 09:53:53 +0000 UTCHi Dragna, small unrelated catch as I'm going through Arc D - St. Andral's Feast. At the end (D6b. The Trial) when you've reposted Rahadin's stat blocks, his Castle Chamberlain phase Hit Points somehow says 180 (34d8 + 72) unlike all the previous Arc B and also the Kinslayer stat block. I'm guessing this is a mistake and should say 24d8 instead of 34d8 like the others?
David Martinez
2025-03-24 21:52:50 +0000 UTCI will soon play CoS and I have to say, you updating and creating the guide is a livesaver. I sincerely thank you for that!
.TheFear
2025-03-24 15:29:52 +0000 UTCMoving Patrina fight to here is pretty smart. I always thought fighting her in Castle Ravenloft wasn't great because 1 - good chance Kasimir won't be there (and the one time I DMed CoS I skipped the Patrina stuff because Kasimir decided to 1v1 Rahadin to clear the path for the party to fight Strahd) 2 - The Patrina stuff is kinda cheapened because I feel the party would be like "ugh whatever, can we kill her to get to the final Strahd fight already?"
Rafael Morandini
2025-03-24 12:54:03 +0000 UTCWonderful - as always! We're very much looking forward to the next one chapter =)
bleskbati
2025-03-24 08:41:02 +0000 UTCAwesome! Hope you enjoy <3
DragnaCarta
2025-03-23 19:14:41 +0000 UTCOoo, especially excited to see the scenes for the vestiges! I've been custom making some of my own tailored to be slightly more tempting for specific party members, so seeing some examples is super helpful!
Canadian Blitz
2025-03-23 16:59:20 +0000 UTCRad! Hope you all enjoy it.
DragnaCarta
2025-03-23 02:27:14 +0000 UTCWoohoo! Congrats on making it to the Heist. Hope you and your players enjoy Arc Q and everything that follows :)
DragnaCarta
2025-03-23 02:27:06 +0000 UTCThank you! And haha; one arc at a time. Congrats on the 1-year anniversary!
DragnaCarta
2025-03-23 02:26:32 +0000 UTCAwesome! Hope you enjoy.
DragnaCarta
2025-03-23 02:26:19 +0000 UTCGood, I think my group is about the head there.
Christopher Boillot
2025-03-22 22:07:04 +0000 UTCExcited to read into this, my party is currently raiding the Castle (started using this version around Krezk, so everything a lot of the stuff referenced beforehand I'm improving/just doing what I can think of that fits), so I'm not too far off from taking part in this. Love everything I'm seeing so far!
Seth
2025-03-22 20:42:37 +0000 UTCThis is Fire. My Party is reaching our 1st anniversary next week. Right now they're mid-fight within the werewolf den, With the average of each Arc taking 9 hours. I'm pretty sure they'll reach Amber Temple by July :D
CaptiveCreepa
2025-03-22 19:13:05 +0000 UTCJust the summary of it sounds phenomenally exciting. Can't wait to get to it!
David Martinez
2025-03-22 16:51:07 +0000 UTCHey, and thank you! Arc N is (or will be) an optional downtime arc, so it's not a priority right now; that heading is just a placeholder for now.
DragnaCarta
2025-03-22 16:39:53 +0000 UTCThank you! Excited to hear it.
DragnaCarta
2025-03-22 16:39:33 +0000 UTCHi, love your work! My group next step is the dragon manor (just before goind to the dîner). I dont see arc N in act 3, is this not out yet or skiped ?
Yann Laborderie
2025-03-22 16:37:11 +0000 UTCCongrats on the new arc publish! Looking forward to reading through and giving any feedback I can
Nathan
2025-03-22 16:31:11 +0000 UTCAwesome! Hope you all enjoy, and that Vallaki is going well!
DragnaCarta
2025-03-22 16:31:06 +0000 UTCExcited to play! My group is currently in Vallaki so might be a year more but I’ll update you! :)
Bhadran Rajesh
2025-03-22 16:20:53 +0000 UTC
