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A selection of creatures and items which I really like, because they are interesting and original. Some of them are quite powerful, but that is by no means essential for them to be included here. Some of them are mine, but most of them are created by various of my players. The following things are included in this page:
Click on the names of the items to return to this list.
By Keith Grainge, from the playtest of the 'Knights of Amber' game run at ACUK 2003.
Alphonso is one of the Knights of Amber, and this is his pride and joy. The double looks exactly like him and Alphonso uses it to attend dull social occasions or training sessions, fight duels he can't be bothered with, and provide an alibi when he needs it (usually when he is out seducing someone's wife!). Because of his use of the Stunt Double, Alphonso has a reputation for having 'off days' when his skills and so on are much worse than normal.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
Cirrus and Strymon are steeds useful for both land and water which were given to Connor and Nemain as coming-of-age presents when they walked the Rebman Pattern at age 16. Connor's steed is named Strymon, Nemain's Cirrus. They are trained war-steeds, can turn from horse form into an eel-like underwater form, run at very high speed, and are hard to hurt.
Their horse forms are sleek and athletic; their eel-thing forms are vaguely like smooth unwrapped sea-horses, or horse-headed eels. They are dolphin-grey in colour in both their forms, Strymon with a blue tint, Cirrus with a green tint, and their eyes are solid black. They are omnivorous, with the teeth to match.
From 'The Last Enemy' game.
A set of clothing which Damien found in shadow when he concluded that he needed some armour. They are a full suit of eighteenth-century style clothes, but the material of which they are made is highly resistant to damage and allows them to be as effective as a suit of armour. The clothes can also change style at the whim of the wearer, so as to be appropriate to any number of settings; however, they are always a set of eighteenth-century style clothes, and cannot change into clothes of any other style. In addition to this, if they are damaged the Wardrobe will (slowly) repair itself and it will also keep both itself and its wearer clean and tidy.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
Etienne's winged horse, a white Pegasus-type beast, that is a white horse with large white-feathered wings. Electra is quite intelligent, more so than a normal horse, and understands simple speech, although cannot speak herself. She can fly very fast (a hundred miles an hour or so), is trained as a war-horse, and wears enchanted chainmail barding for protection. She can carry a rider without problems, and one other person in addition to that, as long as they are fairly small. She is also enchanted to be particularly resistant to magical effects.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A shield which Etienne has enchanted to protect her from physical projectiles of all kinds. The enchantment comes in two parts. First, the shield warps the shadow around it so that all projectiles which might hit its bearer are attracted in and hit it instead (Mould Shadow Environment). Secondly, the shield is enchanted to be extraordinarily tough, so as to resist all the projectiles which hit it. Note that the shield has never been tested against really powerful projectiles, such as those from sixteen-inch battleship guns...
From 'The Last Enemy' game.
A group of creatures Tristan searched for in shadow to be guardians of the group's six children (Angelique, Eleanor, Beatrice, Carl, Luther and Octavius), one for each of the next generation. They are fit and strong and fast and hard to hurt and intelligent (though they do not speak) and hard to sneak up on, especially by Julian, Tristan hoped. They are each an extraordinary creature in their own shadow, with their own names and personalities. The creatures are:
In all cases the creature (and its parents if relevant) realised that they had been granted these powers as part of a higher purpose that they must fulfil. For example, Salcilia's parents are proud when Tristan turns up to take the young dragon away as opposed to trying to burn him to death for kidnapping their son...
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A gift which Etienne gave to Gerard. It is a fully functional combat helmet with a perfectly comfortable fit, which allows the wearer to see through any magical deceptions and concealments (such as invisibility) and to recognise lies and other auditory deceptions. These powers work to some extent in Amber, and fully out in shadow.
Gerard was quite happy to receive and use the Helm right up to the point where Etienne betrayed Amber...
From the playtest of 'The Meanest Of Shadows' game.
Roland was the character from the 'Song of Roland', who just happened to be an Amberite, a son of Julian, and who survived the death scene at the end of the Song and was brought to Amber by Julian. He bears the Horn of Roland, a magical horn which, when sounded, will summon aid to the bearer, that is, some form of local help will arrive some time after sounding the horn (this is done as a form of Mould Shadow Environment). Also, Julian will be aware whenever the horn is sounded (or at least the horn will attempt to alert him); this is a form of self-activating Trump Image, activated without the blower of the horn needing to do anything beyond blowing the Horn.
From 'The Last Enemy' game.
A wrist bracer of plain but durable leather, with Ibrahim's emblem of a stooping eagle (similar to that on his spell rack ring) upon it, traced out in a wire made of a silvery metal of some kind. The bracer has a 'Lightning Bolt' spell hard-wired into it. When it is cast the lightning, which has a slight reddish tinge to it, appears to flow from the eagle's eyes in the direction that the wielder points the arm wearing the bracer.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A white combat-trained stallion from Jihx's home shadow of Ahnel. The horse has a light blue crystal embedded in its chest. When the crystal is inactive (i.e. under normal circumstances) it is just like any other horse, but when activated (by Jihx) the crystal forms into half-body-covering light blue glass barding which is extremely tough. Since Jihx left Ahnel and came to Amber his horse has also been enhanced by Jihx's moving it through shadow so as to run much more quickly (blue sparks flying from its hooves as it does so), and to have a ranged psychic link with Jihx.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A ring in the form of a snake coiled into a ring shape, its head and tail side by side (not swallowing its own tail). The ring can animate into a real snake which can change between a variety of sizes from the same size it is in ring form to very large. The snake also has a ranged Psychic link to Jihx.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A white hawk which, when it turns up, is normally carrying some useful mundane item it has picked up en route to Jihx through shadow (Mould Shadow Stuff). It also has a ranged psychic link to Jihx, is very tough, is combat-trained and can change size from the size of a normal hawk to a hawk large and strong enough to carry Jihx (although it is not strong enough to do this in all shadows); it cannot carry more than one person at a time, though.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A pack of magically-enhanced wolves which Lillian created. They each have an alternate Trump-card-like form and so are normally carried by Lillian 'folded up' in the same pack as her Trump Deck. Each wolf card has the image of the wolf it turns into on its face, and when activated folds into an origami wolf which then bulks up and changes into the real thing as it hits the floor.
The wolves are all much faster, stronger and tougher than normal wolves. They appear to be normal wolves and are all largely identical other than the fact that the fur on each of their foreheads forms the symbols '1' to '12'.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
One of Skyrie's Empowered items. Terminus Est is a sword with an unusually long and hollow hilt. The blade behaves partially as a liquid, flowing back into the hilt when the sword is not in use, yet sharper than any steel when the sword is drawn (an Unusual Property). The exact form of the blade can be varied, up to about five feet in length, with curves and waves possible. Control of the blade shape is achieved through the grip on the hilt, and slight wrist motions - these motions also form a natural part of general swordplay, so the blade will tend to fluctuate and change shape during a fight. This can be disconcerting, but a true swordsman will quickly see that the blade changes to his advantages (for example, the motion of a lunge will cause the blade to lengthen).
From 'The Black Freighter' game run by Emma Sansone, in which I played at AmberCon UK 2001
The ship of Lucius Kalvekkio, my character in 'The Black Freighter', the Tiamat is a large 17th century-style warship, built in the Golden Circle shadow of Louisdor. She was originally the Royal Louisdorian Navy Ship (RLNS) Louis, named after the King of the shadow. Powerful, highly enchanted, the most expensive and most magical ship ever built in Louisdor, she was a force to be reckoned with, the pride and flagship of the Louisdorian Navy.
Unfortunately, her captain was selected on the basis of political connections rather than skill, which allowed Lucius to steal her and turn her into a pirate ship. As part of this the original figurehead of the ship (a depiction of King Louis of Louisador) has been replaced by that of a vaguely feminine scaled and tentacled sea-monster thing and the ship herself renamed to the Tiamat. The ship has also been somewhat modified to carry larger cargoes than she was designed to (by the removal of some weaponry).
The Tiamat is mainly armed with cannon, but also has a number of ballistae for those shadows where gunpowder does not work. The ship is quite highly enchanted for a number of effects:
She has quite a large crew of several hundred people. They tend not to use gunpowder weapons but instead to rely on crossbows (which are, in any case, faster to use and more reliable than the likes of flintlock pistols and muskets).
From 'The Last Enemy' game.
A device built by Tamarind in order to allow him to construct a second Trump-powered device entirely in Tir-Na Nog'th, by stabilising the second device during the times Tir-Na Nog'th was not in the sky and preventing its Trump energies from fading. It is a frame into which a Trump or Trump Sketch can fit (and which can also hold other forms of Trump-powered devices), designed to focus Trump energies on and into the thing it is holding. It does all of the following things:
As he built it, Tamarind got the impression that the Frame works not so much by focussing Trump energy as by getting the psychic impression of the subject more quickly (focusing the psychic energy from them faster, perhaps), and placing it in the Trump more effectively.
Even Brand and Fiona seemed to be quite impressed by the Frame.
From 'The Last Enemy' game.
A device built by Tamarind in order to allow people who are not Trump artists to gain the benefits of the Trump Defence power when resisting unwanted Trump calls and other such intrusions. The person wearing the ring still has to concentrate on resisting the intrusion, but when they do so the item increases the power of this resistance as if they were using Trump Defence. These items are only of real benefit to those who are not Trump artists; those who are can use them but get no benefit over the Trump Defence they could normally do anyway.
There are currently two of these items, one of which Tamarind created for Beltaine, and one of which he created for Chalice, his and Beltaine's daughter.
From 'The Last Enemy' game.
Tristan's flying castle, which he acquired in his years wandering shadow with Isabel. In addition to the people and other creatures who inhabit it, the castle itself is alive and sentient, with a female personality. Corvallin is aware of all within her walls and can do various things without human assistance. She is warm, kind and gentle most of the time, but feels deeply protective of those who live within her walls - threaten them at your peril. High Psyche types can feel her watchful presence when inside the castle. She can talk to other people from the command room in the central tower of the castle: an image of a young lady appears in a full length mirror there and appears to talk from it.
An absolutely huge place (not up to Castle Amber standards but still vast), Corvallin bears many resemblances to a traditional medieval castle. The walls seem to be made from expertly shaped blocks which fit together perfectly, apparently without need for mortar, and have a silvered surface with the result that the castle gleams in the sunlight. There is one heavily fortified Barbican which provides the only gate to the outside world (apart from pesky flying creatures landing on the battlements); the castle can extends a ramp to allow people down to the ground from the gates. Strong towers reinforce the outer walls. Inside the outer wall the towers are far more slender and graceful, but these too are mounted with ballistae and catapults to ward against aerial attack. The central keep has at its centre the tallest tower, and it is from here that the castles defences are co-ordinated. It sits on a slab of flat, very thick bedrock.
The rest of the castle is designed to be a pleasant home, with several suites of lushly appointed apartments, courtyards and even gardens scattered around connected by winding corridors. Accommodation blocks house the guards, servants and their families. Close to the gate house there are stables and "roosts" for the griffins which would engage any airborne enemy.
Over the years, Tristan was constantly playing with this castle by manipulating shadow, and his presence there for eighty (subjective) years has made the thing reasonably Real. Since it is not fixed in shadow Tristan can find it just about anywhere (within reason) just like any other artefact. The castle itself can move through shadow under Tristan's control, or when he's not there just head towards him. He has spent a lot of time improving all the defences and training a small army to man it. Its amazing how spurred on you can get by the thought of Oberon hunting you down...
As part of this, the castle is of course continually patrolled, but Tristan has ordered that the squads should never have fewer than five guards in them - he's a great believer in safety through numbers.
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
A gift which Etienne gave to Vialle. They are a pair of fine rings which allow the wearer to 'feel' colours. Although not of great utility to a sighted person they are of much more use to a blind sculptress.
Vialle was quite happy to receive and use the rings, experimenting with coloured sculptures, right up to the point where Etienne betrayed Amber...
From the 'Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again' game.
As a high-ranked member of the Army of the Republic in the shadow of The Tunnel, Whippoorwill has his own personal War Machine. This is a large and rather strange war machine whose design is dictated by the rather unusual physical laws of The Tunnel (see below for a picture). The machine is steam powered, tracked, and appears to be around forty tonnes in weight. It is heavily armoured and covered in bizarre weapons - pincers, circular saws, poison gas dispensers, water cannon, poison gas dispensers, tunnelling drills and so on - but has no guns. It looks like a cross between a tank, a crab, and something out of 'Robot Wars'.
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The Machine is:
