Due to various other events going on, only three players were able to participate in the final session of Castle Amber: Tait, playing his 5th level fighter, Callen, playing his 4th level dwarf fighter, and Shane, playing a 6th-level magic-user. (This is far, far weaker than the party that had gone through the rest of the adventure!)
The group had found the three keys that led through the Silver Gate to Averoigne, so we began with them entering that strange realm. At least it might have been a strange realm with a more awake DM at the helm, but the effects of my recent illness are lingering and I was quite exhausted when running the session. As a result, I didn’t instil the place with all the wonder that might have been possible. Of course, I was also having to deal with Shane and Tait, so that probably explains a lot of why I just went to the heart of the story without spending too much time on the extraneous details.
The group (in a fortunate random encounter) soon met Moriamis, a woman who accepted their offer to take them to a nearby inn. There, they learnt that she did know how to create a potion of time travel, one of the items they needed to break the curse and return home. She offered to make one for them if they’d embarrass the bishop, who was actually a black wizard.
Upon reaching Vyones, the capital of the land, the group discovered it was shortly to be attacked by a great colossus – the folk needed heroes to stop it! Luckily for the folk of Vyones, the players volunteered for the job, and were provided with five doses of a powder that, if thrown into the face of the colossus would dispel its animating magic. One problem – the colossus was 100 feet tall! This proved no problem for the group, as Shane cast fly and invisibility on Tait, who then flew up and disabled the colossus; the fall killing its creator, who was riding on its back.
I was impressed. Shane then used invisibility to sneak into the Bishop’s home, where he found a hidden chamber with articles of black magic. Alerting the authorities created the embarrassment that Moriamis had wanted, and so, upon their return to the inn, she gave them the potion of time travel they needed; the serpent-encircled mirror had also been their prize for slaying the colossus.
Two items down, two to go. The group travelled to Perigon, where they discovered the local lord had been attacked by a strange beast, which had disappeared into the room of the local Abbot. Upon confronting the Abbot, he changed into the Beast, and the group were forced to slay him. This allowed them to take the third of the items, the Ring of Eibon.
The fourth item proved to be in the enchanted realm of Sylaire, which the group found without much difficulty. The chatelaine of Sylaire, the enchantress Sephora, was more than happy to give the group the final item – the Sword of Sylaire – if they’d kill a werewolf ravaging the realm for her. This proved exceedingly easy (it had only four hit dice and died quickly), and the group were able to perform the ritual that led to the Tomb of Stephen Amber.
The Tomb had several guardians, notably a sleeping blue dragon that Tait foolishly awoke. Shane quickly cast fireball at it, and the reduction in hit points allowed the group to survive its electricity breath weapon (I play that a dragon’s breath weapon does damage equal to its current hit points). The further guardians were dealt with in turn: a flame salamander, a stone giant, a manticore, a mud golem and a five-headed hydra. Shane used fireball and magic missile a lot to make everything easier, and the group retreated to rest twice, taking advantage of the strange amber forcefield that rose when they did so.
Finally, they found Stephen Amber’s crypt, where they followed the instructions on his coffin’s lid and burnt the tapestry showing his death. This returned him to life and allowed him to break the curse. The group were returned to outside Castle Amber, which decayed into a ruin before their eyes, becoming the ruin they’d been exploring in the wilds of the Northlands for several months before. Stephen, alive and well, gave them various gifts, including restoring Tait’s original character to life (his half-orc; he’d been playing Gunther, the half-orc’s henchman), and giving all some magical items. Then Stephen teleported away to explore the realm he found himself in, and our play in Castle Amber came to an end.