Thinkin’ about Tegel (Manor, that is)

Having owned it since the late 70’s, I’m surprised that I never used Tegel Manor more. My maps are worn more from floating around wherever I stored my game stuff over the decades than from use. The players map has only a few halls and rooms penciled in (including the wizards tower), showing that I never really had the place explored by PC’s much.

I really only remember two or three sessions of using Tegel Manor. Once I was around 15, fairly new to gaming, but more experienced than my schoolfriends, mostly because of spending a lot of time playing at Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica with the older creeps who hung out there. My game world (still in use to this very day) was new, so there was no need for things to make much sense in my setting. A funhouse dungeon fit just fine.

I really only remember a couple of things from the first time I used it. The thing that really stands out in my memory is that I had the players greeted by Green Martian Warhoons in the front ball room. Yeah, I know. I don’t know why I included them, but the main reason might have been that at the time I had some great Green Martian miniatures and probably wanted to use them. My main memory of that is the player who was pissed that I didn’t give the Warhoons minuses to hit because they laughed heartily as the blasted away with their radium rifles.

A couple of years later I was visiting my teenage sweetheart in Ventura, and as she was up for playing some D&D I pulled out Tegel and she had two or three of her mid level characters visit the place. I remember later that night the PC’s fleeing from the manor in terror from some ghosts, but I also remember before that Denise having great fun checking out the Rump Family portraits (not liking “Rump,” I actually called them the “Tegel Family”) down one long hall.

But after those halcyon teen gaming sessions, Tegel has floated around in my game containers for decades. My game world had really evolved from a Judges Guild/Arduin Grimoire “anything goes” type of world into a more adult, “realistic” fantasy world. Zeus and Thor etc. were replaced by gods of my own creation (or created by cleric player characters that came along), and crazy funhouse dungeons were mostly replaced by locations with ecologies that made some kind of sense.

Although I haven’t been to Disneyland in decades (blasphemy for a Southern Californian), I went two or three times a year as a kid and teen. The Haunted Mansion was my favorite, and I think that is why Tegel really caught my imagination. You could picture a band of adventurer’s hacking and spell-ing their way through HM just as they would TM. Something was going on in every nook and cranny.

So over the long Memorial Day weekend, I found myself digging out Tegel and giving it a look over for the first time in years. I soon came to the conclusion (probably thanks to a bit of help from some Fat Tire Ale) that there is indeed a place for Tegel Manor in my world. In fact, I never had it go away. I have had it referenced to a time or two within game, and so it must of course still sit up on a hill above Tegel Village, a few short miles North of my main world city Tanmoor.

During my campaign last year (the same one pretty much that goes on currently), a mage character found references to Tegel Manor amongst some books in a treasure trove, and at the time it looked like the seed had been planted: at some point this mage was going to visit Tegel. Unfortunately, that player eventually dropped out of the group, so Tegel left my mind at that point.

But taking another look at my Tegel Material, I see that the ecology of the place (in a fantasy world) is very clear. The family (Rump, Tegel, whatever) is one seriously cursed group. Something weird going on with each and every member of that tree. Therefore, the mansion itself is cursed, soaked in the awful souls of the Rump/Tegel family, and attracting all sorts of evil and undead into it’s rooms and behind the walls. It’s a self-perpetuating evil, one that will probably exist there long after the elves of the forest have faded away and man drives around in horseless carriages.

A campaign to explore Tegel sounds fun on paper, but really, it would be a long haul and a deadly one. One wraith too many, one ghost over the line, and you have characters that have been seriously reduced in level, and seriously aged. Player might not appreciate that , especially considering the low treasure yield. But a mini-campaign, 4 or 5 sessions, might be just the thing for a party of 4th-6th level dudes.

So after a handful of games in my next campaign (probably to start late this year or early next year when I finish The Night Below campaign), I think I’ll lead the new PC’s to Tegel. Right now, I’m envisioning characters on a quest for a mage or sage looking for some item in the manor. I’d have them focus on one corner or wing of the castle, perhaps pitching a temporary camp in Tegel Village, the garden patio at the back of the house (close to the haunted outhouse indicated on the map!), or even inside at the main ballroom near the front door. From there, they would set out about that portion of the house, looking for clues to the McGuffen they would be searching for.

Months away, I know, but it’s fun to start thinking about it, and about my players (who all seem to have never heard of Tegel Manor) reacting to all the weird, scary, and cool shit in Tegel!