The Amber Debt

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

Once the lowest-level hero in your party is level 10, Exethanter's menu in The Amber Temple: the Library has There's an older note pinned under the others. It is in his own hand, brown with age: DO NOT GO BELOW THE VAULT. YOU SEALED IT. YOU DO NOT REMEMBER WHY. THAT IS WHY. He mentions that the vault floor has been warm lately (Rumored).

You can also skip him: from level 10 a crack weeping amber appears in the vault floor, and opening it starts the quest at Found.

Step by step

1. Go down to The Amber Temple: the Vaults. At the far east end of the hall of vestiges, near the cracked, silent sarcophagus, is a crack weeping warm amber. Something deep in it blinks.
2. Athletics DC 15: (Lever the slab up.) A failure still gets it open; it just takes half an hour. The quest moves to Found, and a stair goes down through soft amber.
3. Go down to Under the Vaults. Stepping into the hall of sleepers wakes the Eye's dreams: a sleeper in amber (an Amber Golem at 130 Hit Points) and four Dream-Gazers.
   
4. In the wardens' archive, read the wardens' book on the lectern (Read). Choose all three entries:
   • (Read about the mirrors.) The Eye's small dreams hate their own kind; the wardens turned great mirrors to face its chamber.
   • (Read about the singing.) The lullaby that puts it back to sleep, if you sing it to the end. This unlocks the song.
   • (Read the last entry.) Exethanter gave the Eye his memory to keep it asleep. Every time anyone helps him remember, it wakes a little more.
5. In the hall of sleepers, use A tall mirror, turned to the wall and (Turn the mirrors round to face the chamber.) No roll, ten minutes. With the mirrors turned, no dream-gazer joins the Eye's fight, and the Eye loses its lair.
6. Walk into the Eye's chamber at the north end. The Eye Below, a beholder as wide as a cart, floats out of its broken block and speaks as you come near.
   
7. Performance DC 15: (Sing the wardens' lullaby, all the way to the end.) (only if you read about the singing; one try). On a success it sinks into the amber to its middle, and the fight starts with it at 135 Hit Points instead of 180, and surprised. On a failure, or if you choose (Draw your weapons.), it fights at full strength.
8. Fight The Eye Below (CR 13, 10,000 XP). Its great central eye is still clouded, but its ten small eyes fire rays out to 120 feet, all against DC 16 saves: paralysis, fear, amber that holds you fast, 6d8 necrotic and 7d8 force among them. It also takes three legendary actions a round and can turn three failed saves a day into successes. The paralysis ray is the worst of them. A paralyzed hero repeats the save at the end of each of their turns, so keep them healed until it wears off. Winning moves the quest to Slain.
9. Use A heap of things behind the broken block. Among a thousand years of the wardens' rings, crooks and travellers' purses are 700 gp and a Spellguard Shield the wardens made to stand against the Eye. The quest is Done.

Choices and endings

• Done (success). 700 gp and the Spellguard Shield. Godrick +2, Liriel +2, Thistle +2, Ratatouille +2, Wren +1.
• Afterwards, tell Exethanter The thing under the vault is dead. He burns the old note, and for a moment almost remembers a spell (Ratatouille +1, Liriel +1).

If you're stuck

• No crack in the vault floor. It only appears once the lowest-level hero is level 10, or once Exethanter has shown you his old note.
• No lullaby option. You have to read about the singing in the wardens' book in the archive first.
• The fight ended but the quest is at Slain. Search the heap behind the broken block to finish it.

Rewards

• Spellguard Shield
• 700 gp

What your companions think

• Ratatouille: +1 you told Exethanter the thing he sealed is dead; +2 you put out the Eye Below
• Liriel Dawnsong: +1 you told Exethanter the thing he sealed is dead; +2 you put out the Eye Below
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you put out the Eye Below
• Thistle: +2 you put out the Eye Below
• Wren Featherfoot: +1 you put out the Eye Below

Fights

• The Eye Below sinks back into the amber to its middle as the last note of the lullaby goes, and wakes too…, in Under the Vaults: The Eye Below, Dream-Gazer. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: Exethanter, The Eye Below
• Places: The Amber Temple: the Library, The Amber Temple: the Vaults, Under the Vaults
• More in The Amber Temple: Something with a Lid, The Amber Temple, The Guide to the Temple, The Wailing Hall