Experiences in Castle Amber
by Stefan BeateX 2, the OAR version (with some modifications, for example, I use the GAZ3 family tree. I don´t like the changes the OAR made here. I even made a family tree including the dates, as far as could be reconstructed from the GAZ, G:KoM and MoA, and will include this as a handout somewhere in the library), for 5e. Five PCs, all level 4, a human and a wood elf ranger, a wood elf druid, a human cleric/sorcerer (divine soul or something like that), and a dwarf berserker (the players made their characters without knowing anything about the adventure that would await them). We play short session on weekday evenings via roll20, and I´m using Jon Pintars beautiful maps for the original parts of the castle.
First session: The group was somewhere in the wilderness and had their night camp established, including someone on guard. This did not help them any, as the fog closed in rapidly and brought them into the castle. Inside the Foyer, they looked around and tried to gain any information about their surroundings, with limited success. At least they did not walk into the fog. After a while, they opened the door into the unnamed hallway (I added a portrait gallery of the family to this). As soon as they walked into it, they were attacked by five shadows, a random encounter from the table. The fight was much harder than I expected, owed to the fact that I did not give the party any magical weapons..... They found out the hard way that radiant damage helped. It was interesting to see the PCs imagination run wild - exactly as many shadows as party members, coming out of the portraits. That has to be important, are these guards of some sort? (Looking at the table given in OAR #5 p.56 would seem to indicate this to be a easy to medium encounter, but the lack of magical weapons obviously was a big problem.)
After musing on that for a bit, they entered the salon. After some discussion, the barbarian (luckily being unharmed by the previous fight) entered the boxing match. They went the full set, 5 boxing rounds at 5 combat rounds each, and the barbarian managed to score a narrow victory, but only because he had his rage activated for half damage. The boxer, with two attacks, +5 to hit and 1d3+3 damage each, is quite a strong opponent. (might be better if the PCs were level 5 as well, for two attacks.)
I decided to play Jean Louis as jaded gentleman, and he told the PCs the broad story of the curse, not without stressing that he had seen his share of adventuring groups come here and obviously fail. He knows no details, of course, and has no idea how to break it. After talking, the party decided that they had enough, being strength drained and battled down, and rested in the salon, with Jean-Louis leaving. That was it already for the first session.
Yesterday, second session. The group talked to the Rakasta (neutral reaction), was blinded by the hallway (and simply waited it out), talked to Richard, who was slightly pissed to see another group of scoundrel and ne´er-do-wells invading his privacy, looking ready to plunder. He had some choice things to say of his late brother and his wife and his other late brother, and sent them out of his room again. I played him as frustrated and easily enraged. They then encountered the wights in the other bedroom, the fight was no real threat for the party, although the druid missed his CON save twice and had his max. hp reduced roughly by half. (Roll20 rolled an inordinate number of 1s for this player, like five in a row. Sometimes, the random generator is really off)
Much to my regret, they did not partake of the feast, assuming that it would be a trap (well, sort of). After a look into the kitchen, they decided to venture into the forest.
They noticed the killer trees prior to the attack (two rangers in the party), and one of the rangers decided to dash past the trees. Well, the first attack hit and hauled him off his feet. He did not manage to escape the tree, so the thing bit him and then flung him back. (I noticed that the 5e version did do some hefty damage, at 3d10+2 for the bite, and did not want to kill the PC). Afterwards, the party cleared the way from the distance with fire - little do they know that they are just setting themselves up for retaliation. The Illusions did make them nervous, and they tried to interact, but of course to no avail.
Afterwards, they met the Maiden and the Unicorn, and had a lenghty talk to the unicorn. I used the write-up in the OAR, having the dragon act as a very scared child, holding the gold chest tight. Naturally, the party wanted to have a look inside, as they assumed a clue to the curse (I like that idea!). They really managed to talk to her, and the talker did offer another gold coin to have a chance looking inside the chest, but to no avail. But he noticed pure greed in her eyes, when doing so. I told them the story that Isabelle cursed them, so they can´t leave the forest. Luckily, the PCs did not try anything that might enrage the Maiden... (I think that the weakening breath weapon of the gold dragon in 5e is somewhat - well, weak. Disadvantage on strength rolls? That´s it? Besides, I was always wondering what would be more harmful to a forest in the original adventure - fire or chlorine?)
I guess next time will be quite bad for the PCs - I like the idea that Isabelle sees herself as a protector of the forest, and she will not be pleased that the PCs had burned down a part of it. Neither will Andre-David be pleased. Maybe I will have them encounter Isabelle on the way to the bridge, and she will in turn inform her brother...
My PCs encountered Isabelle right after the unicorn. She asked them if they were the ones burning down the forest, and they boldly lied into her face (supplemented by a few good rolls) that they weren´t. She flew off for the time being to survey the damage, but will keep an eye on them. I guess the wild hunt will be after them soon...
Next, the Troll. The fight was entertaining, especially as some crocs attacked the archers that had stayed off the bridge, but the creatures scurried off after being blasted by burning hands. Meanwhile, the Troll stood up again two times, until one player remembered an old PC RPG (Baldurs Gate or something) that you need fire to kill them permanently.
They tried to see what was dangerous with the fountain, of which the unicorn had warned them. In the end, one PC stepped into the fountain, and the amobea attacked. According to the GMG rewrite, the creature does not attack, but flows into a creatures place and forces a DEX save or be immobilized and take acid damage. Most of the players had a few lucky rolls, and hacked the creature apart in the end. They commented afterwards that the fight was a nice challenge, something quite different. The chest was forced open, and they found 500 GM and the first silver key.
That was all for the two-hour game session.
So, last week, we played again. The party continued down the forest path, noticing the midas squirrels. Of course, one of the rangers climbed up the tree, and tried to get some acorns, only to be pestered by the squirrel in question. And the wild hunt attacked with a vengeance. They managed to kill off several riders, but the animals and André-David were too much. The whole party fell.
Instead of declaring it a TPK, I let them wake up in the dungeon cells, needing to find a way out, and their equipment as well (I did leave out the invisible stalker and the minotaur illusion, though). After trying to get any useful reaction (or any reaction at all, really) from Gaston, they went into the letter square room, trying to make some sense of it, but giving up for now.
Afterwards, they went into the laboratory, with one character gaining wings from the dream (which always happens, each time I play or DM the adventure - some PC gets wings). After that, they cautiously started to explore the rooms beyond the laboratory. They found the room with the acid pool, and rightly deduced that the fluid might be dangerous. After some thoughts how to retrieve the glass sphere with the key, they gave up for the moment.
I haven´t yet decided where their equipment is, and neither, where the dungeon exits will lead to. I´m toying with the idea to have the exit come out in the servants room in the west wing, and their equipment in the foyer - basically, back to square one.
Today´s session was in the first part exploration of the various rooms in the western half of the dungeon, but I gave them a chance to avoid the fights, as they had no equipment and no clue where it was. (It would have been another TPK, but what would have been the point of that?) They found the scroll with the instructions, and saw the mirror gate. They managed to get the silver key out of the acid pool by a cleverly used wind spell, and a reckless dwarven barbarian who took some acid damage to get the glass sphere out.
After that, they went back to the eastern half of the dungeon, where they wisely avoided the fight with the magens in the laboratory. They investigated the morgue, and I had their equipment deposited there. They gave me a brilliant idea a second too late: the morgue might have been filled with _their_ corpses after they lost the fight against the wild hunt. But I did not catch this idea in that moment...
They fought the Brain Collector, which was less of a problem than I thought it would be, with a druids moonbeam spell, a ranger with the colossus slayer feat, a dualwielding ranger, a dwarven barbarian and a fire priest. The Brain Collector has a good AC, but no resistances, and it was a typical case of action economy: five against one is a quick downhill fight for the single opponent, unless he causes so much damage as to take out one enemy every round.
Finally, they went to the letter square, and one player, who is always pushing the limits, walked across one line of letters - nothing happened. He walked back and went blind. Then, he stated, Oh, I will just walk across the next line... Being blinded, he missed the line and became moonstruck. Currently, he is sitting beside Gaston, staring at the painted moon. (His sight was restored by a restoration spell). If he did not miss the line, he might have become a blind werewolf.
For the next session, I´ll see how that can be made entertaining for all.
So, my players forced the druid who became moonstruck away from the moon painting by overpowering him (and he failing his strength check miserably), put him into a cell, and started to destroy the moon painting - Gaston tried to intervene, but was overpowered as well, and put into another cell. The druid acted normal afterwards. Gaston painted a new moon into his cell, which the druid saw, but made his save this time and could act normally. This took about an hour real time and kept them entertained.
The party entered the magen lab next door and fought the four magens, which were not too much of a threat. They forced open the iron strong box they found, and Guilliaume d´Ambreville came upon the scene. He talked to them, but gave no real information - I played him as being somewhat crazy and forgetful and rambling. He tried to talk to Gaston at their insistence, but to no avail, of course.
Afterwards, they decided to take on the remaining monster rooms, in the (vain) hope to find some of the artifacts mentioned on the instructions how to get free again. As they opened the door to the hell hounds kennel, I called it a night. I guess I will have to prepare the empire of the ghouls now...
So, yesterday started with the Hell Hound kennel. Four hell hounds with a breath weapon of 6d6 each is a bit much to swallow for a party of fourth level, especially if the DM has some lucky rolls (30 damage on 6d6?). In the end, the party won, but it was a close call. The party cleric was downed in the first round of combat. After a long rest, the group tackled the ghouls. It was again a hard fight, and three of the five PCs descended the shaft. I added a small crypt with more ghouls, and after they fought another three ghouls, I called it a day. If they insist on clearing that crypt, which has some caved-in exits, and still press onward, they will end up in the "Kingdom of the Ghouls" from Dungeon Magazine #70 or something like this.
Several game sessions later... The game sessions included a lot of fights against ghouls, ghasts and spellcasting ghouls. When the party was finally convinced that the ghoul crypts held neither treasure nor the third key, they went back up to the dungeon, and fought the treasure worm, the death demon (close call) and the amber golem, and tried to make sense of the gate, but with only two keys, they had no success. Next step will be going back up to the castle. I think that I will have the stairs back up end in the linen closet (area 6, both original and GG version), only to have those stairs disappear when they leave it. Maybe the stairs end in a small closet inside the closet room. The original stairs will be there to be found in the right places.
I am quite eager to see how the deal with the aranea and the famous slime room.
The party went up the stairs after some discussion. I had them arrive in a small cabinet in the linen closet, describing a lavender smell before they saw anything. The trigger-happy druid opened the aranea room, and a battle ensued. The party was not in any real danger from it, as the save DCs were quite low with a 12. At one time, I had the dwarf barbarian fall victim to "hideous laughter", and a bit later the druid, but that was about it. The damage sustained was minor. Two rangers in the party with a good grasp at missile combat tactics in tight quarters saw to that.
The druid shapechanged into a giant toad in that combat and kept that shape when opening the door to the slime room and entering without me even giving a full description. Well, he took a decent amount of acid damage from the green slime before getting rid of that. Does green slime stick even if changing shape? I ruled yes. Next thing, the druid shapechanged into a wolf and jumped across the room onto the grey stone box - getting a solid hit from the black pudding on the way. The grey ooze attacked as well, but missed. He jumped back, getting another hit by the black pudding. The party started fighting the pudding from outside the room, and discovered that a moonbeam spell did wonders getting rid of the green slime. The black pudding was destroyed after damaging one armor, and the moonbeam made short work of the slime and ooze left in the room. After several attempts, they managed to lift the lid of the stone box, and had their reward, although I cut the monetary treasures down 90%. With a long rest coming up, we ended the game session.
I´m looking forward to seeing their faces once they reenter the great hall...
Entering the hall, they were "weren´t we here before?" and checked on the room of Jean-Louis, which was deserted at the time. The rakasta in the study couldn´t further their knowledge, their current idea being asking everyone they meet for the information about the names and places. So, they went into Richards room, who told them about Averoigne and that the names in front of the items listed on the "to those who would be free" handout were place names there (which might have been a bit much, but then, it does not matter when they get this information). Killing the other wraith in the other bedroom was no challenge. They found the safe, which I placed in the wall beside the bed, but failed to open it. When they came back out there, a random encounter of 12 skeletons waited for them, which again proved to be not much of a challenge. They went into the kitchen, and started hacking a hole in the wall to get at the safe from the backside, and the noise led to the appearance of Marie-Helene. She challenged a champion to a fight, and the dwarven barbarian took the challenge. It ended with him having one hp left, and she down to 35 from her 105. So, she had a worthy opponent, and told the PCs a bit about the whole story: the flight from Averoigne, the mages whose fault this is in her eyes, her disappointing sons and just everything about the bad situation she is in now - all Etiennes fault, of course. After sorting the family tree anew, the party rested and will next look into the upper floor.
By now, we are several sessions into the upper floor in the West Wing (OAR version, 5e game). The northern half was searched, enemies destroyed and looted thoroughly. They rescued a thoul servant from a ghoul dinner, and the creature follows them for now. Today, they found Isabelle d´Ambreville in her bedroom. They also noticed some magic item in her jewelry box. Intent on getting every magic item to see if it helps them in their quest, they tried to just take it, whereupon Isabelle attacked them. They killed her, and afterwards, their conscience hit them hard, so they revivified her. Well, I guess they have a 12th level Wizard as an enemy now, who happens to have some divination spells going, so she can wait and hit them when they are down low...