"Trapped in the mysterious Castle Amber, you find yourselves cut off from the world you know. The castle is fraught with peril. Members of the strange Amber family, some insane, some merely deadly, lurk around every corner. Somewhere in the castle is the key to your escape, but can you survive long enough to find it?"
Castle Amber (Chateau d'Amberville), written by Tom Moldvay, is a classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure module, first released in 1981.
While resting during a trip through the wilderness, the Player Characters are magically transported into the titular castle and trapped inside by a deadly fog. In order to return to their home plane of existence they must explore the castle, finding clues about their predicament and dealing with the various members of the Amber family who call the castle home, before being transported to Averoigne (the setting of some of Clark Ashton Smith's books) and having to find various items in order to summon the tomb of Stephen Amber and break the curse he's placed the castle under.
Tropes
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Discouraged. The adventure requires a party who are willing to think and strategize as well as fight. Trying to bull rush through some of the castle's more powerful inhabitants is likely to end poorly.
- Attack Reflector: The gremlins that the party can encounter will reflect any spell cast at them back at the caster unless they make a saving throw.
- Awesome, but Temporary: The "Enchanted Sword of Sylaire" the party has to obtain to summon Stephen's tomb is essentially a minor artifact, a +3 sword, +5 vs. Undead with a special ability to instantly slay undead on a high attack roll and magical Detect Evil, Detect Invisible and Fly abilities is far beyond what 3rd to 6th level characters can expect to own (+1 or +2 items are typical at these levels). Unfortunately the sword shatters into thousands of shards when it's used in the ritual to summon Stephen's tomb.
- Ban on Magic: Magic is largely outlawed in Averoigne. The party must be careful in using magic to avoid attracting the attention of The Inquisition.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Ambers are a pretty good example. The curse on the castle went into effect when other members of the family assassinated Stephen, one member of the family buried his own sister alive by accident, the sister tries to kill him on breaking out of her grave and most of them will cheerfully ignore the party slaughtering other members (they often scry on each other with magic). Most of them are some combination of jaded, eccentric, mercurial, vapid, decadent, cruel and jealous and some are outright insane.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Amber family originate from Averoigne which is a fantasy version of medieval France. As such their actual name is the D’Amberville family and the name of the castle is Chateau d'Amberville. The adventure lists both English and French names for all major characters and the DM can use either at his option.
- Bloody Horror: One of the castle's features is the Blood-Stained Arch. A steady patter of blood flows from the underside of the arch, with no apparent source. The blood is in atonement for all of the bloody crimes committed by the Amber family. The blood is harmless - in fact it can give a bonus to hit and damage (though it only applies in a single other room in the castle).
- Buried Alive: Madeleine Amber has fallen into a cataleptic trance and was mistakenly buried alive by her brother Charles.
- Cards of Power: The party can encounter a Tarot reader with ten face down cards. Each card has a different magical effect if a character turns it over, some good, some bad.
- Comet of Doom: The appearance of a blazing red comet over Averoigne causes an NPC to become a deadly monster who the party must slay in order to obtain a required Plot Coupon.
- Cool Gate / Cool Keys: The Gate of the Silver Keys which leads to Averoigne and normally requires three ornate silver keys to activate it. (The DM can vary the number required if the players are struggling to locate three keys - there are four scattered around the castle but one is very easy to destroy by accident).
- Court Jester: The party can encounter the Amber's jester, Petit-Singe, along with his white ape servants. He's trapped within a single room due to a Geas spell.
- Deus ex Machina: Stephen Amber has a Ring of Wishes and will use it to restore up to four dead or otherwise lost characters on conclusion of the adventure if necessary.
- Did Not Think This Through: There is a 100 hit dice monster in the adventure (see Kaiju below). Defeating a 100 hit dice monster would normally give enough experience points to advance every character multiple levels. Unless the DM uses common sense or applies the rule that no encounter can give more XP than one less than required to reach the level above the one just gained, the characters could jump from 3rd to 10th or higher level in a single encounter.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The adventure is unbalanced by modern standards, with many ways for characters to gain extra points in multiple ability scores and permanent magical bonuses of various types as well as instant death possibilities. Also many of the NPCs encountered are a much higher level than the party (up to 14th level!) and in newer versions of the game they would easily trounce the party if hostilities break out. Treasure is often just piles of coins rather than what could reasonably be expected to be found in a luxurious chateau or owned by members of a decadent noble family.
- Everything Is an Instrument: The party can come across the Amber family organ. Instead of pipes, the organ uses eighty-eight magical statues of singers turned to stone, then animated by the Ambers. Each key controls one stone singer and makes them sing a single note.
- Fog of Doom: The fog surrounding the castle causes Hit Point damage if entered and forces a saving throw to avoid before forced to flee back into the castle. Even if a character repeatedly saves, there's no end to the fog and they'll eventually die if they do not return to the castle.
- Forced Transformation: The Amber's jester, Petit-Singe, after enduring years of abuse by various members of the Amber family, managed to learn the spells Polymorph Other and Charm Monster. He then used these spells to polymorph three of the most abusive members of the family into white apes and charmed them to make them his servants.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: There's no real in game logical reason why the Amber family are trapped. The information on how to break Stephen's curse is readily available in the castle and each individual member of the family is generally a high level NPC - a few of them should have no trouble getting to Averoigne, finding the Plot Coupons and breaking the curse. What might happen after that when they confront Stephen is uncertain of course. The only logical explanation is that the curse affects the inhabitants of the castle so they cannot leave, unlike the party who entered it after the curse took effect.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: One member of the Amber family will try to set up a boxing match between a character and one of his magen (magically created man) servants.
- Healing Checkpoint: At the end of every play session, an amber light surrounds the party, created by Stephen Amber. This heals and nourishes the party, prevents them from being disturbed by wandering monsters, allows spellcasters time to rest and regain their spells and even allows characters to level-up if they've gained enough experience (which normally only happens on the conclusion of an entire adventure).
- Interdimensional Travel Device: The Gate of the Silver Keys takes the PCs from Castle Amber to the dimension where the country of Averoigne exists.
- Kaiju / Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever / Body of Bodies: During their time in Averoigne, the party will have to face off against a giant undead colossus made of hundreds of bodies in order to obtain a plot coupon (as can be seen on the front cover). Normally this would be suicide (a 100 hit dice level monster against a party of 3rd to 6th level) but the party can use a couple of special items to do a One-Hit Kill on it.
- No-Sell: The ghostly diners and servants at the ghost banquet are completely insubstantial, cannot be affected by anything the party does and will not even react to their presence.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: The party can stumble across the Amber family organ. This uses the bodies of singers who've been turned to stone and magically animated to sing a single note instead of pipes.
- Only Sane Man: Claude Amber is one of the few members of the Amber family who follows the tenets of Law rather than Chaos.
- Plot Coupon: The party have to find various items scattered around Averoigne in order to summon a portal to Stephen's tomb. They also need a variable number of special silver keys found in various locations in the castle in order to open the portal to Averoigne in the first place.
- Random Number God: Many of the unusual encounters in the castle can be amazing or catastrophic for a character, entirely dependent on what the player rolls.
- Rapid Aging: Castle Amber has been trapped in time due to Stephen's curse. Assuming the party succeeds, the castle reappears in the real world and all the missing accumulated time strikes the castle at once, causing it and its inhabitants to age hundreds of years in minutes. The castle becomes a broken down ruin and all the remaining inhabitants rapidly age and die.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the Indoor Forest, the master of the Wild Hunt (Andrew David Amber) has glowing red eyes and he and the rest of the hunt are vicious and hostile towards intruders, which includes the party.
- Schmuck Bait: The party can encounter a maiden and unicorn sleeping in a clearing in the "Indoor Forest" area. If they are stupid enough to attack them, the maiden is revealed to be a shapeshifted gold dragon and a total Party Wipe is likely to follow.
- Schmuck Banquet / Food Chains: The party can join a ghostly feast. The food has various magical effects but one particular comestible can trap the character forever as an additional ghostly attendee if they fail a saving throw.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Stephen Amber, who is trapped inside a tapestry retains enough power to aid the party by surrounding them in healing and protective amber light when they choose to rest inside the castle. If they succeed in freeing him he will richly reward them all with treasure and magic and if necessary will use his Ring of Wishes to restore up to four of their fallen or lost comrades.
- Shout-Out:
- The party can encounter a humanoid billy goat crossing a bridge with a troll underneath it, much like the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff.
- There is also an encounter with a green warrior based off the "Green Knight" from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
- The famous undead colossus the party is expected to face off against is probably based on the titular monster from the Averoigne story "The Colossus of Ylourgne", which was also an artificial giant created from the flesh and bones of multiple corpses..
- Skeleton Crew: The throne room is populated with the skeletons of everyone attending the coronation of the usurper Henry Amber, their bones fused together in the poses they were in when the curse's devastation struck.
- Spoiler Cover: The cover shows a huge humanoid figure destroying a tower and walls of a castle or city. This is the giant undead colossus the party must deal with during the latter half of the adventure.
- This Was His True Form / Dying as Yourself: The Beast of Averoigne turns back into it's true form of an innocent clergyman when killed. Fortunately the locals believe the party's explanation and they are not arrested and hanged for murder. They do order the party to leave and never return to protect his posthumous reputation however.
- Updated Re Release: An updated and expanded version for the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is available.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The players might have this reaction to Stephen on conclusion of the adventure, depending on who they encountered in the castle. While there are many evil and hostile members of the Amber family and mindless monsters who might deserve their fate, there are also many neutral, innocent and even benevolent creatures and people living in the castle such as the gold dragon, the unicorn, Claude Amber, the eighty-eight people turned into singing stone statues, the Brotherhood of the Sun member etc. All of them regardless die from Rapid Aging when the curse is broken.
- The Wild Hunt: The characters can encounter a version of this in the "Indoor Forest" section of the adventure.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The characters can be drugged into a magical slumber by black lotus dust. Each of them will have a dream and a failed saving throw will make the dream real, for good or ill.
