Play Report: Castle Amber - into Averoigne

 Part one and part two.

  Spoiler heavy for the module and for Clark Ashton Smith stories!

  The party had woken up in Averoigne with their pack animals, riding and war horses, and soon learned that they had been sent back in time from 1250 to 1100.
  Since their characters were from the region (or had lived there) the hints they had from the chateau were enough for them to create a plan and begin executing it immediately. They first headed straight for a Potion of Time Travel and encountered the bishop's men. After some serious roleplaying and zero combat (a ton of fun with PC assassins having tense faceoffs with local cultists, and the like) they were able to trade a magic item for a potion and leave. They then encountered people looking for the Beast of Averoigne. The party had already found the aftermath of a slaughter by the fell creature, but they found nothing.

Play Report: Castle Amber Second Session

  Report on the first session is here. I have notes on how I changed the module to include creatures from Spelljammer, Star Wars, Traveller, the Elric series, and more in that entry.

  We left the heroes in the interior garden after a girl with golden skin had given them a silver key.
  The party continued down the path, careful to never leave it (especially after watching the trees tear a bear in twain. They ignored the squirrels with golden acorns and saw the goat-man tell the terrible troll that his big brothers were right behind him. At this point Son #3 used his 18 Charisma and leadership abilities to convince the troll that a richer, fatter adventuring group would be along any moment.

Play Report: Castle Amber

  Every Halloween we pick a classic module and run through it as a one-off, non-campaign adventure (usually - I fit the Hidden Shrine into the campaign). The players make holograms (i.e., 'above first level characters') and off we go.
  This year the selection was Castle Amber.
  Castle Amber is one odd module: the opening might as well have been made by CSX because it is railroad all the way. Then after a castle/dungeon crawl opening it turns into an overland sandbox where the party could spend months looking for items that allow them to return to a dungeon and finally escape the railroad open.
  You have really high level NPCs doing odd things for no clear motive and random encounters include a Shape Changed gold dragon as set dressing. There are two new intelligent humanoid raced. No, three. No, maybe four. Are the creatures made in vats golems? Are they a new race? Does each version count separately?
  It is set in the real world but in a fictional part of France during the Medieval Period, sorta'.

  Castle Amber is very famously based on some of the short stories of Clark Ashton Smith and Zelazny's Amber series. The comet, beast, colossus, fictional French region, and more are Smith. The pattern, magical cards, odd family, and more are Zelazny.

Spoilers for books and the module Castle Amber follow!