11/30/21 Session 39: This Place Sucks

Our heroes continue exploring the temple after defeating the barbarians. They find a room full of floating skulls surrounded in green flame. Adrid immediately closes the door. Grinfiddeus Nobbles sends in his mouse familiar, but much to his dismay, the rodent is fire-balled to death within moments of entering the room. The party decides to leave that door shut and barricaded and heads to the other side of the hall to continue exploring.
Inside this next room they find a hole in the center of the floor and several doorways. Adrid lights a torch and drops it down the hole to discern how deep it is. A few seconds after dropping the torch, more green flaming skulls appear and attack the party. After dealing with the skulls, the party is in dire need of a rest. They head back across the hall and find refuge in one of the secret rooms where scrolls had been stored.
That night, a few of the party members are vested in their dreams by a number of the evil spirits residing in the temple. They shake off the encounter and head back out to continue exploring. Eventually they stumble into what appears to be a lecture hall with rows of seating and a lectern at the front of the room. At the front of the room Grinfiddeus Nobbles encounters a man and his demon familiar under a table. Vilnius looks burnt and seems scared out of his mind. He had traveled to the temple with his master Jakarion but won’t say why. He also seems to have a V shaped necklace or pendant that he said he found in the room. After acquiring the pendant, the party discusses what they should do. They learn that Jakarion has died somewhere else in the temple, there is a golem wandering the halls and that the green flameskulls are the remains of wizards who used to guard this place. The flameskulls will regenerate after some time and come back to attack.
The party takes the knowledge but feels it is safer for Vilnius to stay put. Lilithus seals the door shut as they continue to explore. Adrid steps out into the lower level of the hall and is hit with a bolt of lightning. In the distance they see a large statue where the bolt originated. They decided not to go that way...
The only other way through is to venture into the room with the remaining flameskulls. They power though and find themselves left near the charred corpse of what they can only assume is Jakarion. Marc Alt picks up the book and staff near the body and seems to go blank for a moment, the party can’t tell what happened to him. Next, they find themselves in a series of rooms and secret doors. One of the rooms contains a scale model of Castle Ravenloft. The adventurers take note of as much detail as possible to learn of the castle’s secrets. They also find a book to improve wisdom and a pendant bearing the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, both likely very useful. Marc Alt wants to destroy the model, but the rest of the party sees no reason.
They continue exploring and find a room full of fresh cooked food. An obvious trick, they ignore the food and continue through to a room with a statue. The statue bewitches Om Wolfash and Lilithus in some way as they can’t stay away from it. They party now must figure out a way to cure them of this odd affliction before carrying on.