The Amber Temple started calmly and escalated quickly. We had a party member leave, two alignment changes and an interlude into a pocket dimension.
How to handle the real world social stress of the Amber Temple?
We didn’t, I leaned later. Hopefully this helps you better manage the stress at your table.
Have a conversation about risks before the party enters the Amber Temple. Talk about key risks associated with the temple. Touch on possibility of characters being removed from play and changes being placed on their character sheets. Alternatively establish the risks of the module at the start of campaign as part of a Session Zero. Maintain the mystery of the temple by keeping the warning disassociated. A refresh of the risks closer to the party entering the temple will help maintain the expectations and suspense.
In our party a confluence of factors raised the danger of the As a rough summery, one player touched the wizard’s staff causing them to lust for power. Two others had a similar personality flaw. As soon as the sarcophagus rooms were found everything went to directly down hill. The Rogue, and Druid began to accept dark deals rapidly while the connection to Baal kept the Sorcerer ‘safe’. The Ranger acted in strong protest throughout, attempting to save their companions from each bad choice… with little success.
The Rogue ended up corrupted with an alignment change to Chaotic Evil. The lust of gold and alignment change should have trapped the character in the piles of gold near the lich’s library. They spent two sessions tied up to the Barbarian as a backpack. Thinking about what they had done. The bond of their friendship had the Barbarian working to help the Rogue overcome the curse. In part we relented due to out of character interactions. It created a mild arc of redemption as the Barbarian assisted their redemption from Evil to Neutral. It also created heavy stress at the table as we debated what alignment meant for our game moving forward.
The Sorcerer had one interaction with a sarcophagus and the dark force within was turned aside by their connection to Baal. “No gift can supplant our deal” whispered the god of murder. Their bond was akin to clerical and served as a protection from the ancient forces sealed in the temple.
The Druid planned to leave the game part way through the Amber Temple. They had accumulated a great number of evil gifts from the Sarcophagi after touching the Wizard’s staff. They reached out before the session they planned to depart. We coordinated to leverage the gifts for a dramatic effort. They fell through a false floor, died on impact. Reincarnated in a cocoon of their own flesh, bursting forth to gather power. They ended up sealed in a sarcophagus, their body gone and spirit along side accursed others. It was a point of trauma for the Barbarian who witnessed their final moments being pulled in to the sarcophagus.
How the Sorcerer checking on the Rogue went from the Cleric’s perspective, shonnen-ai –
