Castle Amber (believe it or not): Part 1, the West Wing
I still have my original paper edition of this early and well known D&D module, although it is beginning to show signs of wear and tear in its old age. I have run it on at least one previous occasion a very long time ago, and it seemed to fit nicely into a Stormbringer style milieu. The combination of the weird family and its internal politics, interplanar shenanigans and Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne makes for some unusual gaming possibilities. Including some additional elements to link it to my current campaign, it took my three main players plus one other occasional character four sessions to get through it. They liked it a great deal...
Campaign narrative
Nadjana stays behind to guard the other side of the flickering gateway along with The Chantryman while Destiny, Sir Blanque, Marion and Alexia proceed. They now have seven of the eight parts of the Runestaff, and they know that the eighth piece is somewhere through the planar rift that has appeared in front of them.
They step out onto what is beginning to become a reasonably familiar sight: a relatively dark sky that seems somehow bounded, signifying a bubble plane. The main contents of this one is an enormous manor house comprising two wings separated by a large central octagonal section; there may be more of the building behind the central octagon, but it is difficult to make it all out properly from their limited perspective. The building is huge, and they are standing on a rather grand set of stairs leading to a colonnaded entrance. A set of double doors takes up the centre of a wall that is sixty feet wide - and this is just the way into the left-hand wing of the house. Outside is cold, grey and unpleasant, with an encroaching grey forest that moves disturbingly. Fleeting shapes of grey and black can be sensed floating around the outskirts of the building, shifting too quickly in the relative lack of wind. The characters try to move through this landscape to see if they can reach another part of the outside of the mansion, but they start to feel a strange, almost psychic tugging. Given their previous experiences of interplanar rifts, they decide not to risk their souls, and enter the relative safety of the house itself. They fully expect the place to be even more dangerous than its environs.
Checking behind them to make sure that the rift is stable, they enter a rather large foyer. The place is built on a grand scale; just this first room is sixty feet by seventy. The stonework is rather elaborate, tending towards the ostentatious, indeed somewhat vulgar. The various windows are set in large mullioned bays, with unnecessarily tall and pointed settings. The overall impression is unsettling, with the architectural features suggesting a mature style that has become degenerate. The players decide to proceed through another set of double doors to their front left in the far wall ahead of them; thee seems little point in either exiting they way they came or going through the windows back out into the posionous environment of the manor’s dead surroundings.
They now find themselves in a long hallway, twenty feet wide by eight feet long; it ends in another set of double doors, and there is a further door to their right, about half way along the internal wall. Presumably this leads to a room of some sort. The impression of decadence remains, with a ten feet wide plush red carpet running along the length of the hallway. The vaulted ceiling is at least 20 feet high. Destiny thinks these people are trying just a bit too hard; more elegant proportions would have produced a superior, harmonious effect. Typical Melnibonean.
Since the door to the right is closer, they proceed through that one. They are greeted by a rather strange sight. A grandiose salon has been rearranged, its elaborate furnishings pushed against the walls to make way for a boxing ring. Two guards in plate armour with halberds are flanking a throne-like chair in which sits a foppish individual wearing a great floppy hat that sports an enormous feather. At his side hangs a long, slender sword that seems much more delicate than anything the party is carrying. In the far corner of the ring is another man, this time holding the stance of a boxer, and dressed for the part. His skin and that of the guards has a strange milky sheen to it, suggesting thay they are constructs or automata of some kind.
The peculiar little man in the chair jumps up to greet the four players rather fulsomely. He claps his hands in glee and asks if they would care to take on his champion in a fair fight, each bout to last three rounds. He is rather over-excited, almost acting as though he hasn’t seen other people in a long time. Marion thinks he is on drugs. However, out of politeness, the group accepts, not to mention a hope that they can find out some more about this place and its inhabitants. The man introduces himself as “Jean-Louis Amber, at your service!” His accent seems peculiar, but the characters can understand him well enough, which leads to a theory that the Runestaff is translating these planar encounters.
Marion, Alexia and Destiny take turns in the ring, each of them winning their bout, or at least lasting the three rounds specified. Alexia and Destiny even have a go at each other, with Alexia landing the only decent blow. Jean-Louis jumps around the place in great excitement. Between bouts, various members of the party try to engage him in conversation, with limited success. He seems far too interested in the fighting, especially given the presence of so many lovely ladies - he really hasn't got out in years.
In fact, it turns out to be centuries, perhaps; stringing his excited utterances together, the players find out that he comes from an extended family of great wealth and sophistication from the county of Averoigne in the lands of France. The players start at that one; this is a place they have heard of before from an earlier excursion to the Shadow Plane. Destiny flirts a bit with Jean-Louis, trying to extract more information, and asks if he has heard of a certain "Hawkmoon", but he replies in the negative. It would seem that he comes from a plane similar to the Tragic Millennium of Hawkmoon, but from an earlier point in the timeline: related and parallel, then, but not the same one. The level of technology seems roughly comparable to that of the Young Kingdoms. The Amber family was originally called "D'Ambreville", and their seat was ripped from its home plane and cast adrift on the seas of fate when some of the family turned against the family patriarch, Prince Stephen, who served the Balance, in favour of magic and chaos; they tried to assassinate him, but Jean-Louis is rather unclear on the details. He doesn't even know if they were successful. Jean-Louis admits that he has no idea how much time has passed since then; all he and his relatives can do is pass their time here, finding an outlet for their boredom in the occasional appearance of travellers from other planes. He himself is too scared to try to leave - he has no idea what would happen if he did. Marion thinks that this Prince Stephen holds the final part of the Runestaff.
Jean-Louis is massively excited by the group and their willingness to fight for him, and showers them with gold that he takes quite openly from a large chest under his throne. He doesn't seem even to realise that there are some people who might like to take all that treasure away from him. Eventually they wave goodbye, and exit his room the way they came.
Returning to the hallway, they go through the double doors at the far end. This takes them into an enormous hall that seems to run the entire breadth of this wing of the house, from what was the party's left, straight through to the enormous central octagon to their right. This impression is reinforced by the red carpet that leads along the entirety of the hall to a grand set of double doors. In addition, there are four doors on the long wall to what is now their left, and a single door to their right, leading to a point that would be just on the other side of Jean-Louis' boxing ring. The door furthest away on the left leads to a room from which leads a gallery that crosses the hallway about ten feet above the ground level, linking two rooms on either side. Again, the place is huge: a hallway fifty feet wide by something like 350 feet in total. The walls are covered in mirrors, many of which seem to have been deliberately broken.
The group takes the single door to their right, emerging into a study that has been converted into a small barracks. There is a door leading to the left as they look at it. The place is occupied by a dozen men with the heads of cats, along with their belongings and bedrolls. One of them holds up a claw in a gesture of open-handed peace, and offers to talk with the players. Again, they are able to understand him, and he asks if they will "Help us against the accursed dog-breaths!" Having no idea what he is talking about, they say yes anyway, and he relaxes. He tells them that the dog-breaths are their sworn enemies, and that they roam the other wing of the mansion, on the far side of the central octagonal garden. As a gesture to seal the alliance, he roots around in a chest and comes up with an oversized ornate silver key; its value in silver alone would be something on the order of 50 Large Bronzes in Young Kingdoms money. Quite hefty, then. They take it, thinking it might come in handy later.
The characters go through the other door in the room, promising to explore the rest of the mansion to root out the dog-breaths. This is where things become even stranger, as they find themselves in an enormous dining room. Ghostly visitors are seated at a huge dining table and are about to be served by similarly ethereal servitors who are coming down some stairs from the same gallery they saw earlier in the hall of mirrors - that must lead to the kitchens, then. Despite the rather insubstantial servants and guests, the food seems real, and delicious. Marion and Sir Blanque are suspicious, but Alexia and Destiny sit down to eat.
The first course is onion soup, and the main course consists of excellent roast beef accompanied by a tossed salad, green beans, and mushrooms in a wine sauce. Amber wine is available throughout, as is a generous helping of fresh white bread; the wine makes Destiny rather excited, but it turns out just to be a nice Chardonnay, not the famous yellow wine of Melnibone. Alexia, though, is rather relieved by this. Red wine is also served throughout. The dessert is some some sort of apple dish, and the whole lot finishes with brandy.
As Marion and Sir Blanque surmised, the meal is magical. Various effects are resisted or indeed affect the two dining characters in strange ways. Destiny somehow is able to hone her sorcerous senses to the point of being able occasionally to read minds after a struggle, and also gains extra resistance to poison as a result of eating the mushrooms. The same dish, though, almost kills Alexia. Somehow they make it through the meal, and even manage to rise from the table without permanently joining the rest of the diners. Sir Blanque in particular thinks the two of them are insane, understandably, and the group heads over to the kitchen on the other side of hallway by crossing the bridge. The kitchen proves to be just that - a kitchen, albeit one full of zombiefied servitors, so they exit back into the main hallway.
Realising that they have now investigated all of the rooms to the front of this wing, they decide to check the rest of the doors leading from the hall of mirrors towards the rear of this part of the building. They retrace their steps to near the first entrance to this part of the mansion, and the first door turns out to lead to a narrow corridor with three doors of its own - a servants' wing, if you like. They begin with the entrance that is farthest from them; it turns out to be a storage room, full of mildewed bedding and towels, along with toiletries. Some of the latter smell rather exquisite, so Destiny grabs a bar of particularly luxurious soap.
The middle door leads to a room that is festooned with webbing, so they exit that one in haste. Destiny senses several large somethings moving around in there, and chucks in her bar of soap before Sir Blanque slams the door shut. From the room come crunching sounds, followed by "Blech! Ptooh! Yeuch! Ptooey! YEEEURRGH!!!" Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't like eating posh perfumed soap...
The final door leads into a room containing a large chest on a raised dais. The carpet seems to be made of some very deep green material, and the ceiling is purest black. Everything gleams wetly, so they take no chances. Destiny uses a fire elemental to burn a path to the dais; her earth elementals cover the ceiling; and a water elemental washes over the dais and chest. The group all have to help heave the lid off the chest, worrying about falling backwards into whatever that green stuff really is, but they manage, and are rewarded with a superior quality longsword (Marion appropriates this one); a lot of cash; and a small staff inscribed with a rune that Destiny identifies as healing. They back out of the room warily, and it is at this point that Destiny realises her elementals are not regenerating properly; she will only have a limited number of uses without them dissipating entirely, so she is going to have to be careful. This is probably something to do with the peculiar planar dynamics of the place.
Returning to the hall of mirrors, they go through the next door, and find themselves in an enormous, well-appointed bedchamber. Sleeping in the four-poster is a large, misshapen humanoid wearing the torn remnants of a once-delicate lacy nightdress; its occupant looks like one of the Chaos pack the party encountered earlier. There is a smell of decay emanating from the fireplace, and the rotted arm of a woman can be seen sticking out from it. The rather obviously male ogre or whatever it is wakes up, and in a falsetto beseeches the party to help her family; it introduces itself as "Janette D'Ambreville." The characters begin to get the rather nasty feeling that anyone who kills a member of the Amber family ends up taking their place...
Given the relative size of this room compared with the main corridor, Sir Blanque realises that there could be concealed doors leading to either side of "Janette's" bedroom, and after politely agreeing to help her, they open the one to their left. This leads to another bedroom, albeit laid out in a much more military fashion. Sitting in a throne by a roaring fire is a large, well-muscled man in full plate armour. He has a lion's head, and introduces himself as "Richard Coeur de Lion Amber", head of the cat people and sworn enemy of the dog-breaths. He is utterly charming and chivalrous, and compliments the 'lassies' on their great beauty. He challenges Sir Blanque to a duel, offering to gift him a bottle of exquisite poison should he last three bounds against his greatsword. Sir Blanque agrees, and manages to best the abilities of his opponent. Lord Richard is a serious contender, though, and Sir Blanque is only saved from a strike by his Displacer Cloak. Richard graciously hands over the prize, and the characters leave. "Janette" has been mooning and swooning in the background, and has obviously taken a shine to the handsome Filkharian noble.
Promising gallantly to fight on her behalf, the party enters the other concealed room. This is yet another rich bedroom, but this time it is occupied by two spirits; presumably this is one other possible fate awaiting anyone who dies here. They are easily dispelled, and now that the players have reconnoitred this entire wing, they are ready to enter the central octagon.
Campaign narrative
Nadjana stays behind to guard the other side of the flickering gateway along with The Chantryman while Destiny, Sir Blanque, Marion and Alexia proceed. They now have seven of the eight parts of the Runestaff, and they know that the eighth piece is somewhere through the planar rift that has appeared in front of them.
They step out onto what is beginning to become a reasonably familiar sight: a relatively dark sky that seems somehow bounded, signifying a bubble plane. The main contents of this one is an enormous manor house comprising two wings separated by a large central octagonal section; there may be more of the building behind the central octagon, but it is difficult to make it all out properly from their limited perspective. The building is huge, and they are standing on a rather grand set of stairs leading to a colonnaded entrance. A set of double doors takes up the centre of a wall that is sixty feet wide - and this is just the way into the left-hand wing of the house. Outside is cold, grey and unpleasant, with an encroaching grey forest that moves disturbingly. Fleeting shapes of grey and black can be sensed floating around the outskirts of the building, shifting too quickly in the relative lack of wind. The characters try to move through this landscape to see if they can reach another part of the outside of the mansion, but they start to feel a strange, almost psychic tugging. Given their previous experiences of interplanar rifts, they decide not to risk their souls, and enter the relative safety of the house itself. They fully expect the place to be even more dangerous than its environs.
Checking behind them to make sure that the rift is stable, they enter a rather large foyer. The place is built on a grand scale; just this first room is sixty feet by seventy. The stonework is rather elaborate, tending towards the ostentatious, indeed somewhat vulgar. The various windows are set in large mullioned bays, with unnecessarily tall and pointed settings. The overall impression is unsettling, with the architectural features suggesting a mature style that has become degenerate. The players decide to proceed through another set of double doors to their front left in the far wall ahead of them; thee seems little point in either exiting they way they came or going through the windows back out into the posionous environment of the manor’s dead surroundings.
They now find themselves in a long hallway, twenty feet wide by eight feet long; it ends in another set of double doors, and there is a further door to their right, about half way along the internal wall. Presumably this leads to a room of some sort. The impression of decadence remains, with a ten feet wide plush red carpet running along the length of the hallway. The vaulted ceiling is at least 20 feet high. Destiny thinks these people are trying just a bit too hard; more elegant proportions would have produced a superior, harmonious effect. Typical Melnibonean.
Since the door to the right is closer, they proceed through that one. They are greeted by a rather strange sight. A grandiose salon has been rearranged, its elaborate furnishings pushed against the walls to make way for a boxing ring. Two guards in plate armour with halberds are flanking a throne-like chair in which sits a foppish individual wearing a great floppy hat that sports an enormous feather. At his side hangs a long, slender sword that seems much more delicate than anything the party is carrying. In the far corner of the ring is another man, this time holding the stance of a boxer, and dressed for the part. His skin and that of the guards has a strange milky sheen to it, suggesting thay they are constructs or automata of some kind.
The peculiar little man in the chair jumps up to greet the four players rather fulsomely. He claps his hands in glee and asks if they would care to take on his champion in a fair fight, each bout to last three rounds. He is rather over-excited, almost acting as though he hasn’t seen other people in a long time. Marion thinks he is on drugs. However, out of politeness, the group accepts, not to mention a hope that they can find out some more about this place and its inhabitants. The man introduces himself as “Jean-Louis Amber, at your service!” His accent seems peculiar, but the characters can understand him well enough, which leads to a theory that the Runestaff is translating these planar encounters.
Marion, Alexia and Destiny take turns in the ring, each of them winning their bout, or at least lasting the three rounds specified. Alexia and Destiny even have a go at each other, with Alexia landing the only decent blow. Jean-Louis jumps around the place in great excitement. Between bouts, various members of the party try to engage him in conversation, with limited success. He seems far too interested in the fighting, especially given the presence of so many lovely ladies - he really hasn't got out in years.
In fact, it turns out to be centuries, perhaps; stringing his excited utterances together, the players find out that he comes from an extended family of great wealth and sophistication from the county of Averoigne in the lands of France. The players start at that one; this is a place they have heard of before from an earlier excursion to the Shadow Plane. Destiny flirts a bit with Jean-Louis, trying to extract more information, and asks if he has heard of a certain "Hawkmoon", but he replies in the negative. It would seem that he comes from a plane similar to the Tragic Millennium of Hawkmoon, but from an earlier point in the timeline: related and parallel, then, but not the same one. The level of technology seems roughly comparable to that of the Young Kingdoms. The Amber family was originally called "D'Ambreville", and their seat was ripped from its home plane and cast adrift on the seas of fate when some of the family turned against the family patriarch, Prince Stephen, who served the Balance, in favour of magic and chaos; they tried to assassinate him, but Jean-Louis is rather unclear on the details. He doesn't even know if they were successful. Jean-Louis admits that he has no idea how much time has passed since then; all he and his relatives can do is pass their time here, finding an outlet for their boredom in the occasional appearance of travellers from other planes. He himself is too scared to try to leave - he has no idea what would happen if he did. Marion thinks that this Prince Stephen holds the final part of the Runestaff.
Jean-Louis is massively excited by the group and their willingness to fight for him, and showers them with gold that he takes quite openly from a large chest under his throne. He doesn't seem even to realise that there are some people who might like to take all that treasure away from him. Eventually they wave goodbye, and exit his room the way they came.
Returning to the hallway, they go through the double doors at the far end. This takes them into an enormous hall that seems to run the entire breadth of this wing of the house, from what was the party's left, straight through to the enormous central octagon to their right. This impression is reinforced by the red carpet that leads along the entirety of the hall to a grand set of double doors. In addition, there are four doors on the long wall to what is now their left, and a single door to their right, leading to a point that would be just on the other side of Jean-Louis' boxing ring. The door furthest away on the left leads to a room from which leads a gallery that crosses the hallway about ten feet above the ground level, linking two rooms on either side. Again, the place is huge: a hallway fifty feet wide by something like 350 feet in total. The walls are covered in mirrors, many of which seem to have been deliberately broken.
The group takes the single door to their right, emerging into a study that has been converted into a small barracks. There is a door leading to the left as they look at it. The place is occupied by a dozen men with the heads of cats, along with their belongings and bedrolls. One of them holds up a claw in a gesture of open-handed peace, and offers to talk with the players. Again, they are able to understand him, and he asks if they will "Help us against the accursed dog-breaths!" Having no idea what he is talking about, they say yes anyway, and he relaxes. He tells them that the dog-breaths are their sworn enemies, and that they roam the other wing of the mansion, on the far side of the central octagonal garden. As a gesture to seal the alliance, he roots around in a chest and comes up with an oversized ornate silver key; its value in silver alone would be something on the order of 50 Large Bronzes in Young Kingdoms money. Quite hefty, then. They take it, thinking it might come in handy later.
The characters go through the other door in the room, promising to explore the rest of the mansion to root out the dog-breaths. This is where things become even stranger, as they find themselves in an enormous dining room. Ghostly visitors are seated at a huge dining table and are about to be served by similarly ethereal servitors who are coming down some stairs from the same gallery they saw earlier in the hall of mirrors - that must lead to the kitchens, then. Despite the rather insubstantial servants and guests, the food seems real, and delicious. Marion and Sir Blanque are suspicious, but Alexia and Destiny sit down to eat.
Welcome to dinner...
The first course is onion soup, and the main course consists of excellent roast beef accompanied by a tossed salad, green beans, and mushrooms in a wine sauce. Amber wine is available throughout, as is a generous helping of fresh white bread; the wine makes Destiny rather excited, but it turns out just to be a nice Chardonnay, not the famous yellow wine of Melnibone. Alexia, though, is rather relieved by this. Red wine is also served throughout. The dessert is some some sort of apple dish, and the whole lot finishes with brandy.
As Marion and Sir Blanque surmised, the meal is magical. Various effects are resisted or indeed affect the two dining characters in strange ways. Destiny somehow is able to hone her sorcerous senses to the point of being able occasionally to read minds after a struggle, and also gains extra resistance to poison as a result of eating the mushrooms. The same dish, though, almost kills Alexia. Somehow they make it through the meal, and even manage to rise from the table without permanently joining the rest of the diners. Sir Blanque in particular thinks the two of them are insane, understandably, and the group heads over to the kitchen on the other side of hallway by crossing the bridge. The kitchen proves to be just that - a kitchen, albeit one full of zombiefied servitors, so they exit back into the main hallway.
Realising that they have now investigated all of the rooms to the front of this wing, they decide to check the rest of the doors leading from the hall of mirrors towards the rear of this part of the building. They retrace their steps to near the first entrance to this part of the mansion, and the first door turns out to lead to a narrow corridor with three doors of its own - a servants' wing, if you like. They begin with the entrance that is farthest from them; it turns out to be a storage room, full of mildewed bedding and towels, along with toiletries. Some of the latter smell rather exquisite, so Destiny grabs a bar of particularly luxurious soap.
The middle door leads to a room that is festooned with webbing, so they exit that one in haste. Destiny senses several large somethings moving around in there, and chucks in her bar of soap before Sir Blanque slams the door shut. From the room come crunching sounds, followed by "Blech! Ptooh! Yeuch! Ptooey! YEEEURRGH!!!" Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't like eating posh perfumed soap...
The final door leads into a room containing a large chest on a raised dais. The carpet seems to be made of some very deep green material, and the ceiling is purest black. Everything gleams wetly, so they take no chances. Destiny uses a fire elemental to burn a path to the dais; her earth elementals cover the ceiling; and a water elemental washes over the dais and chest. The group all have to help heave the lid off the chest, worrying about falling backwards into whatever that green stuff really is, but they manage, and are rewarded with a superior quality longsword (Marion appropriates this one); a lot of cash; and a small staff inscribed with a rune that Destiny identifies as healing. They back out of the room warily, and it is at this point that Destiny realises her elementals are not regenerating properly; she will only have a limited number of uses without them dissipating entirely, so she is going to have to be careful. This is probably something to do with the peculiar planar dynamics of the place.
Returning to the hall of mirrors, they go through the next door, and find themselves in an enormous, well-appointed bedchamber. Sleeping in the four-poster is a large, misshapen humanoid wearing the torn remnants of a once-delicate lacy nightdress; its occupant looks like one of the Chaos pack the party encountered earlier. There is a smell of decay emanating from the fireplace, and the rotted arm of a woman can be seen sticking out from it. The rather obviously male ogre or whatever it is wakes up, and in a falsetto beseeches the party to help her family; it introduces itself as "Janette D'Ambreville." The characters begin to get the rather nasty feeling that anyone who kills a member of the Amber family ends up taking their place...
Given the relative size of this room compared with the main corridor, Sir Blanque realises that there could be concealed doors leading to either side of "Janette's" bedroom, and after politely agreeing to help her, they open the one to their left. This leads to another bedroom, albeit laid out in a much more military fashion. Sitting in a throne by a roaring fire is a large, well-muscled man in full plate armour. He has a lion's head, and introduces himself as "Richard Coeur de Lion Amber", head of the cat people and sworn enemy of the dog-breaths. He is utterly charming and chivalrous, and compliments the 'lassies' on their great beauty. He challenges Sir Blanque to a duel, offering to gift him a bottle of exquisite poison should he last three bounds against his greatsword. Sir Blanque agrees, and manages to best the abilities of his opponent. Lord Richard is a serious contender, though, and Sir Blanque is only saved from a strike by his Displacer Cloak. Richard graciously hands over the prize, and the characters leave. "Janette" has been mooning and swooning in the background, and has obviously taken a shine to the handsome Filkharian noble.
Promising gallantly to fight on her behalf, the party enters the other concealed room. This is yet another rich bedroom, but this time it is occupied by two spirits; presumably this is one other possible fate awaiting anyone who dies here. They are easily dispelled, and now that the players have reconnoitred this entire wing, they are ready to enter the central octagon.
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