The Amber Temple was founded by a society of good-aligned wizards to keep evil forces from getting to the evil lore. The Dark vestiges inside the sarcophagi corrupted the wizards, who turned against each other. Then the Archmage Exethanter came and used one of the dark gifts the vestiges offered to become a Lich. Rather than hoard the wealth of dark lore, he offered to share it with other evil.. Yes, it makes sense in the narrative of the world - Mount Ghakis (where the Amber Temple is located) is freezing cold. I get it. But, why make this so much more difficult than it already is? Allow me to elaborate a little further on this with the next thing that characters encounter within the Amber Temple.
The Amber Temple was a temple in the Balinok Mountains of Barovia containing dark and forbidden lore[1] and amber sarcophagi containing evil vestiges.[2] The Amber Temple was founded by a society of good-aligned wizards to keep evil forces from getting to the evil lore. The dark vestiges inside the sarcophagi corrupted the wizards, who turned against each other. Then the Archmage Exethanter.. The Amber Sarcophagi It should be made clear to the players that accepting gifts can permanently alter their characters (i.e. becoming evil). The gifts themselves have a strange range of negative side-effects, while having very nice positive effects. Here are some suggestions for handling these effects, contrary to how they are originally written: