The Amber Family Chapel

Entering the Amber Family Chapel, the party found a large room in the shape of a + with an altar at the far side. Statues lined the walls and stairs led up. Rudy wandered off to investigate the altar while Kuppies took a closer look at the statues. Once he was within arms reach of a statue, it came to life and attempted to touch him. Kuppies decided to roll the dice and allow the statue to touch him. It’s touch made him violently ill. Several other party members tested their luck with the statues and few beneficial effects transpired.

To name a few:

Many members became sick and lost healing surges

Kuppies grew a tail and lost one movement from it.

Subsequently, he got the choice of raising a skill point of his choice, or losing the tail. He opted for the tail.

Several people lost skill points and a couple even gained.

In the end, a dozen statues were left unmolested as the party had their fill of the random effects.

Heading up the stairs, the party found a choir loft with 88 statues, mouths wide open, and an organ. Rudy, with his insatiable curiosity pressed a key on the organ and the most perfect note was uttered from a statue. Wanting to not tempt fate, the party departed the loft. Little did they know the statues originally were great singers whom the Amber’s captured and turned into this organ.

Further exploration of the left and right sections of the + yielded several monastic cells, but nothing else.

Heading to the top of the plus, there were a cluster of rooms. Only three had things of note. The first room, had 10 skeletons sitting in a circle around an eleventh. The 10 skeletons were of little challenge, however, the one in the center was a large creature, with 4 arms, each equipped with a scimitar. As combat progressed, Ekeraath took a couple hits and then came face to face with the large beast. Unfortunately for Ekeraath, 3 of the 4 scimitars found the mark and Ekeraath collapsed, bleeding and unconscious. With some healing from Leenia and Alexander, he returned to the fray and the party was able to overcome the Skeletal Tomb Guardian and claim another large silver key that was around his neck.

Following that room, a small, private altar area was discovered, behind a secret door, and the party met Simon Amber praying inside. While very personable, even offering to join the party, insight checks by Leenia and Kuppies portrayed him as untrustworthy and the party passed on his offer of assistance. They would later learn is was a very wise decision.

The final room was a small library that Charles Amber was occupying. Charles quickly informed the party he was very sensitive to noise and an excellent role playing experience occurred as everyone whispered and fell into character. A great deal about the Ambers was learned from Charles. First, Simon is completely evil and would have betrayed and potentially attacked the party the first chance he had. During the conversation, Charles expounded on what had transpired in the mansion when Prince Stephen returned from creating the island.

The rest of the family, including Prince Stephen's beloved wife, Princess Catherine, had planned to betray and capture him. Hoping that by doing so they would be able to leave the mansion he had confined them to for so long. When the time came, Stephen proved to be a worthy adversary and while they were able to imprison him, he brought down a terrible curse upon the mansion, creating the mist outside that prevents anyone from leaving and stopping the passage of time within so the mansion became an eternal prison for everyone who survived the curse.