Editing X2: Castle Amber

'''X2: Castle Amber''' is an adventure module for the original [[Dungeons & Dragons]] ruleset, released in 1981 by [[Tom Moldvay]]. It was inspired by (and/or an adaptation of) the Averoigne pulp fantasy novels written by [[Clark Ashton Smith]], aka one of the guys whose pulp fantasy tales inspired [[Gary Gygax]] to make D&D in the first place, crossing over the [[B3: Palace of the Silver Princess|B3]]/[[X1: The Isle of Dread|X1]] [[Mystara|Known World]] with Smith's fictional medieval French province of Averoigne.

The module revolves around Castle Amber, a place that was once home to a family of powerful but insane [[wizard]]ry-practicing nobles, the Ambers, who subsist upon frogs and snails, and use far too much garlic. However, when the patriarch Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville) was betrayed and murdered by his relatives, his ghost placed the castle under the curse.

The party takes the role of [[adventurer]]s traveling through Jean Wells' Glantri, only to be pulled into the castle by a mysterious magical mist as night falls, one that quickly kills them if they try to turn away from the castle - predating [[I6: Ravenloft]] by a good two years, so here is where [[Tracy Hickman]] found his Mists of [[Ravenloft]]. With no way out, the party is forced into the castle.

Once trapped inside Castle Amber (or Château d'Amberville), the party's goal is simple: escape! Evading traps and working around the demented yet powerful members of the d'Amberville family, as well as the other, often hostile, creatures that have been brought here by the mad mages. Ultimately, the party will need to find and open a hidden portal that will allow them to explore the province of Averoigne, with an inaccurate map and egregious time-collapse against Smith canon. Here the party must evade the mage-hunting [[Inquisitor]]s and locate the inter-dimensional tomb of Stephen d'Amberville. Only here can they break the curse and return to the relative sanity of Mystara.

Castle Amber was one of the two debut modules for the [[aranea]], [[lupin]] and [[rakasta]] races, all of which appear as monsters. It was also the birthplace of the [[Neh-thalggu]], a brain-collecting [[aberration]], and the [[Magen]], powerful [[golem]]-like [[construct]]s that are essentially an advanced form of [[homunculus]] imbued with [[wizard]]-like spellcasting abilities. There's also a demon, the "Death Demon"; which thread starts getting lost when ''[[M1: Into the Maelstrom]]'' drops a [[balrog|LOLrog]] on the party and is wholly abandoned in the ''Immortals'' line which decides all BXCMI demons shall be epic herewith.

==Reprint and 5e Conversion==

Part of their ongoing licensing agreement with Wizards of the Coast for the "Original Adventures Reincarnated" line of books, [[Dungeon Crawl Classics|Goodman Games]] got permission to reprint and convert the module to 5e as "OAR #5 Castle Amber." It was released in Fall 2020.

Reviews of it are generally positive though people note that most of the essays basically are "READ CLARK ASHTON SMITH!" The 5e conversion is pretty much on point though.

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Modules]] [[Category: Mystara]]