Curse of Strahd Reloaded Update - History of the Amber Temple

With the holidays (finally) behind us, I've thus far added 1.5k words of a planned 20k to Arc S: A Sword of Sunlight, as well as fleshed out/outlined my notes for most scenes through X21.

My current schedule is to write five nights a week, adding at least 1k words (or equivalent) each time (but up to 1.5k or 2k if I can manage it), with a planned pattern of: (1) pre-outlining every scene in detail; (2) writing each scene with minimal edits upfront; then (3) returning to edit each scene to read nicely. By doing so, I hope to expedite this arc (and subsequent arcs) as quickly as possible, siloing my work into a properly efficient "assembly-line" format. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Thus far, I've completed two sections of the arc's introduction: Operations of the Amber Temple (regarding how the temple was established and operated in its early days) and Downfall of the Temple (detailing the temple's in-depth history from its corruption to the present day). Once the rest of the arc is fully outlined (which should be done early next week), I'll start hammering out all of the actual scenes; hopefully, that should be a lot easier with me (1) front-loading all brainstorming/research/problem-solving, and (2) backloading all editing.

You can read some excerpts of what I've written thus far below:

Residents of the Temple
While residing at the temple, the society’s archmage stayed in [[#T7. Archmage’s Quarters]], while its senior mages owned separate chambers in the [[#West Quarters]] and [[#East Quarters]]. One senior mage was always present to supervise the society’s apprentice wizards, who slept in bunk beds in the [[#West Barracks]] and [[#East Barracks]]. Senior mages and the archmage took meals in their own rooms.

Members of the society guarded the temple from the [[#West Guard Post]] and [[#East Guard Post]] in eight-hour shifts, with four apprentice wizards and one mage assigned to each shift. Apprentices shared bunk beds, ate in the [[#Dining Hall]], and took guard duty on alternating days. When not guarding the temple, apprentices either gathered in the [[#Lecture Hall]] to learn from a senior mage, practiced spellcasting in the [[#Training Hall]], or helped with cleaning, cooking in the [[#Architect’s Room]] (then a kitchen), scribing scrolls in the [[#West Scroll Repository]] and [[#East Scroll Repository]], brewing potions in the [[#Brewing Room]], and otherwise assisting senior mages with their work.

The Murder
As the third generation of temple wizards came into power, a number of rising members secretly rejected the second generation’s zealotry. Instead, their curiosity drove them to seek out knowledge of the beings they had long imprisoned, yet rarely seen. Study of the vestiges resumed sparingly, and in secret, with only a few members daring to take advantage of growing lapses in security.

One day, however, one of the senior mages of the temple—convinced that no harm could come from doing so, and driven mad by long-standing curiosity—disarmed the arcane lock protecting X33a. Vault of Shalx (p. 191) in the [[#East Vaults]] and accepted the dark gift of Zrin-Hala, the Howling Storm. Zrin-Hala’s power, however, corrupted the mage, and he used the vestige’s dark gift to kill a rival mage soon thereafter.

Although the perpetrator was caught and executed, the murder left the wizards of the Amber Temple insular and fearful. As the security wards continued to weaken, the vestiges reached out from their dreamless sleep within their sarcophagi and whispered to their captors in their sleep, driving them further into delusion and paranoia.

As always, you can get full access to my in-progress drafts by joining the Patreon as a paid member. All working drafts and outlines for future arcs can be found on the Patreon Bronze Masterpost.

That's all I've got for this update! I hope you've all had a good holiday season and New Year, and I look forward to bringing you more :)

Cheers,
Dragna

PS: Stay tuned for an important announcement from me later today!