Amber of the Woods Introduction

Mar 15, 2022

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Here is where The Tales of Penumaria series begins properly, with the start of Amber of the Woods. This is the story of Amber Merichello, a girl brought to Penumaria from another world, on an adventure of discovery, enchantment, and wonder. As she learns to adapt to the wild sword-and-sorcery world of Penumaria, she will meet wonderful friends, powerful foes and learn valuable lessons about herself and the person she truly wants to become.

Amber of the Woods will be an episodic story with entries coming on a regular basis. The episodes will be roughly 10,000 words each, and they will be summarized in the Substack Article and then linked to like they’re supplemental material.

And of course, this will inspire other worldbuilding articles as they come up, starting with the Magic Forest and the Village of Oakroot proper. They will have their own separate article.

About Amber Merichello

Evansville, Indiana was a quiet and peaceful small town in the midwest, a river-based down with a logistics hub that ensures that it’ll survive the passage of time. It’s best known for its fairgrounds, a bright and musical place that operated…only during state and county fairs, various festivals and events, and rented out for parties. It sits quietly on all the other days, and while those who manage the fairgrounds keep the place well maintained and standing (even when it’s not operating) it got reduced to a juvenile hangout in the Current Year; a delinquent’s paradise to escape the world of expectations and escalating problems.

Amber Merichello was one such troubled youth. She never was one to fit into school; they say that children wanted to be educated, but school often gets in the way of that. Then her mother passes away, which didn’t help matters when her sole remaining family member, her father Donnovan, had to work longer hours and grew more distant during the passage of time, something he tried to keep from happening. This led to more serious trouble with bullying by her peers, which caused her to fight back. This eventually got her expelled, leaving her with options outside getting a GED.

She would’ve ended up doing crime or drugs or prostitution. Instead, she got into an obsession that some would consider weird: Touhou, the series of bullet-hell shooters and Japanese cultural phenomenon. It got her into a local fan group and, while she still caught grief for it, it helped her gain the happiness and wonder that she lost.

Or was taken from her, according to her. She’s very opinionated and strong-willed. Some would consider her conceited or haughty, full of herself. She’d deny it. She just considers herself normal in a world full of idiots who refuse to understand things. The only time she could claim that she was actually smug is when she learned that the principal who expelled her ended up out of a job himself. The schadenfreude was too great to resist.

In recent years, her father, Donnovan, began to agree with her to a point about the world around her growing crazier and crazier, to the point where they both found solace camping in that campground near the edge of town, where they could soothe frazzled nerves and firey tempers with memories of better times with a larger family. They got separated in a storm, so Amber ducked into one of the abandoned dark rides to get out of the rain.

She was never heard from again.

Arriving in this new world of wizards and dragons with only the clothes on her back, Amber wandered this new land with curious trepidation. Where was she? How did she get here? As each chapter unfolds, Amber’s tale will take her to mysterious places and go on all kinds of new adventures.

Amber Merichello herself is a relatively average teenager who walks to the beat of her own drum. Proud and outspoken, Amber’s heart is often in the right place, and she stands firm in the face of adversity. Inventive and bright, Amber enjoys diving deep into topics that catch her attention and is an avid reader with a desire to learn that survived the toxicity of school and kept her out of the worst of trouble well past getting that GED. As a wildly obsessed fan of the Touhou phenomenon, Amber always wanted to be one of the heroes from the series of games as well. And once she found out that she can do magic and become a wizard, she made it her goal to become just that, using her magic capabilities to emulate bullet hell.

Amber is by no means perfect. Her fierce temper and smart mouth have gotten her into hot water on several occasions. And while she doesn’t look down on others, she still feels like she’s surrounded by too many stupid people, and the summary of her permanent record, ‘Does not suffer fools kindly,’ pops up one time too often than she wanted to.

Fortunately for her, she didn’t have to live with an idiot. In fact, she’s the apprentice of what could be the best Grandmother Witch in all the land. Grandmother Nalladrie Emerisle, a kind-hearted, but tough-skinned elderly witch who took Amber under her wing, and through her patient teaching, Amber learns more not only about Penumaria and the world of magic but about herself as well.

Amber Merichello’s Stat Block

The Stories of Tales of Penumaria have the feel of an adventuring module, and that includes having characters that level up. In the story, this takes place with a stat block that progresses, and Amber would have one in this story. Amber starts at level zero, with a modified Commoner Stat Block from the Monster Manual (Page 345,) which will progress into a new class as events shape her character and experiences.

Other main characters will have this progression as well, or at least their stat block visible. In time, Amber will form an adventuring party, complete with their own stat blocks. In other cases, characters who are introduced will have a stat block accompany them as well, for informational purposes.

About Nalladrie Emerisle

Amber’s mentor is the great and powerful “Grandmother” Nalladrie Emerisle, the latest in a long tradition of witches to wear the mantle of the Witch of the Woods. A strange old woman of mysterious origins, her kinship with an “outsider” like Amber brings them together.

Nalladrie carries a myriad of stories among the people of Oakroot; to some, she is a scourge that seeks to capture wayward travelers and children in the Forest of Magic. Others say she’s a kind old lady that has provided aid and help when needed. The truth is simple. Nalladrie does what is needed to protect the Forest of Magic from people, and to protect people from the Forest of Magic.

Nalladrie is also a firm and guiding tutor in the field of Magic. Though Amber is Eager to start blasting her enemies with fireballs and soaring through the skies on a magic broom, Nalladrie often provides a sobering mentoring to temper Amber’s eagerness into honest responsibility.

“I might be a good witch. I might be a wicked witch. But if you ask me, dearie. I’m a bit of both! Tee-hee-hee-hee. I basically do what it right, for better of worse.” — Grandmother Nalladrie

As the Witch of the Woods, Nalladrie also has the duty to find a successor to inherit the mantle and powers the Witch possesses. Unsuccessful after so many years of searching, Nalladrie turned to the celestials for an apprentice capable of understanding the blessing and burden of her station. Finding Amber wandering through the woods one day, Nalladrie hopes this oddly-dressed girl and her strange native tongue is the answer to those prayers

The Forest of Magic

The Forest of Magic earns its name due to the sheer influx of mana that causes the plants and animals to drastically change, having features and dangers far beyond a typical wilderness. Some say the Forest itself is alive with its own consciousness inhabiting each tree, flower and bush, able to use them to actively repel threats. Not to be outdone by the flora, the fauna pose an even greater threat, with wolves as huge as horses, spiders that can spin their webs and snare the unwary, snakes that can coil whole beings tight before they are consumed, and the Queensbloom; something only heard of in legends, as few - if any - who have encountered it have lived to tell the tale.

The Forest of Magic, if left to it’s own devices, will slowly encroach on surrounding areas, overgrowth consuming everything in its path. It is through a symbiotic relationship with its mantle-bearer, the Witch of the Woods, that the Forest remains “docile” enough to merely defend itself without encroaching on nearby lands.

My take on Flaws

One of the most exciting moments of a story comes from the hero, having been humbled and beaten down through the story, starting to turn the corner where they pick themselves up; where they’ve finally understood, learned the lessons needed, and the time is at hand to lead to the defining moment where the hero trounces the villain.

At the outset of Amber in the Woods, I hadn’t come up with any particularly challenging flaws for Amber or Nalladrie to work with. This is going to sound like a copout, but I thought:

“Of course this character has a flaw. I just haven’t found it yet.”

It does sound a cop-out, doesn’t it? It is also the truth: I just haven’t found this character’s flaw yet. It has yet to appear to me. When stumped by such a difficult problem, asking for an outside perspective is helpful. With a little trial and error, Bread (one of my Discord collaborators) and I agreed to ones that aren’t world-ending, but may still provide enough drama to tell a good story.

You don’t always have a character fully developed and fleshed out right off the bat. Sometimes you only see a small snapshot of that character who is just appearing in your imagination. When I first set up Amber, I only knew as much about her as the reader did. I know the name, her skills and talents, the situation she is in, and her desire to get her daddy back. Nothing more. Everything else was covered in the proverbial fog I had to push away. And I can’t push it all away at once, I had to push it a bit at a time.

This isn’t a unique problem; a lot of characters we created are like that. We only see a small part of the character when we make it. In some cases, especially in D&D, the character is little more than just numbers on a character sheet, and maybe if you spent enough time on it, the TIBF section (Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws.) Other than the numbers and something you rolled on a table, you know as much about your character as the Storyteller, the other players, or anyone else. There’s a reason why Xanathar’s Guide to Everything has a ‘This is Your Life’ section (starting on Page 61) so that you’ll at least have something more to work with.

But if you truly want to know a character you created, you’re going to need to walk the proverbial mile in that character’s shoes. It can be hard not to get attached when it comes to fiction writing, and finding out more about a character and getting yourself to really care for that character is a necessity. So there is a need to find a way to have the character you’re working with share more about themselves. That’s why I roleplay a lot on Discord—and later Guilded—and that’s on top of me writing Touhou Lostword: Cherries Wild. Yes, I do get into Roleplays with others. Sometimes they get steamy. But the roleplay is set up in a private server that creates a ‘safe space,’ (See Footnote 1) where I can explore what these characters will or won’t do.

It is in these stories and roleplays where more of the character is revealed, especially the parts that run differently from the player. Or in Amber’s case, the sides of her that is different from mine. This is where I find that she has a “Do no Wrong but Take no Shit” philosophy to life, and when she’s angry, that anger can see for miles and spurs her to act. Sometimes it’s rash, sometimes she plans, but always with sincerity and conviction.

In comparison: I pretty much end up stewing in those negative feelings instead of using them to fuel my actions.

The Ki-sho-ten-ketsu Cycle

You might find the pace of my writing to be slower, with more focus on the world and how the characters interact with each other. The story may start off slowly, to let characters hang out and get to know each other before getting into adventure.

That is because of the structure I write my stories in, which will be different to some. Another discussion from Discord brought me to this style of writing. Of course, Amber’s life as Nalladrie’s apprentice is not going to be a cakewalk by any means, but she won’t be constantly grounded by woe and tragedy at every turn, either.

My structure of writing uses a four-part Eastern style structure known as Kishotenketsu. Many novels and mangas from Japan use this style and it provides a structure for the stories that make conflict…optional. If it’s there, it’s there; if it’s not, it doesn’t have to be there. The focus on my writing is in another place. I’ll even use it in writing my campaigns since if there’s going to be conflict in a tabletop RPG, it’s going to come from the players.

The four parts of Ki-sho-ten-ketsu story correspond to the four parts of this word:

1. Ki: Introduction. This is where the story starts, the characters are introduced, and the world they’re in is described.

2. Sho: Development. Once the characters are introduced, they then show off more about themselves, how they relate to each other, what roles they have in the world, whatever current developments they are undergoing. If there’s a task that needs to be done in the story, it begins here. This is when the tale really gets its full head of steam, and once it’s at full strength, it’s ready for…

3. Ten: Twist. The story runs into its complication. Could be a surprise twist, a setback, an unexpected discovery, an appearance of something that comes out of left field, or just plain Murphy’s Law paying people a visit. This is where any plans get tested, or completely fall apart, and if there is any conflict in the story, it happens here.

4. Ketsu: Conclusion. This is where the characters deal with the Twist. This part shows how the Ten affects both the Ki and Sho parts and how the characters and the world around them reconcile with what the complication has done.

You’ll be seeing a lot of Kishotenketsu in my stories, especially when it comes in cycles. For example, in Amber of the Woods, the story begins, of course, with the initial Ki Stage. That’s when Amber’s introduced, the Woods is introduced, Nalladrie is introduced, all the necessary staging, including any and all flashbacks. The Sho Stage part starts when Nalladrie starts helping Amber with her quest in reuniting with her father. In exchange, Amber would become her little helpmate, assisting the kindly old woman around the house and running chores and errands. A small price to pay, Amber realizes and was about to settle into this rule when she blurts out that she could see the ever-changing color of Nalladrie’s eyes, which leads us to theTen Stage. Amber can see Octarine, which means that Amber could become a witch herself, and eventually, be able to bring her father here as well. This is also an answer to Nalladrie’s plans, where she reveals that she’s looking for an apprentice. And they agree to become mentor and apprentice by the use of a bonding ritual, which is the Ketsu Stage.

And then the next morning, we come to the next Ki Stage, where Nalladrie teaches Amber some starter magic, followed by the Ten Stage of the pair going to Oakroot and Amber finding first hand how the public is in Penumaria…and how they react toward Amber’s new grandmother. This will lead to another Sho Stage, and so on and so on. You’ll read those parts soon enough. Hell, I’ll be writing those parts soon enough.

That’s just an example of what the Ki-Sho-Ten-Ketsu cycle can do, where it can open up a fully fleshed out world with interesting characters and provide plenty of action and surprises and challenges to overcome without having to drop monsters on Oakroot, and as Nalladrie’s past experiences will show, hope may not always be there to make things better.

You’ll just have to wait and see.

Naturally, a world-building story is going to have its own share of things to keep track of. Attached below is one for Amber of the Woods in how it adds to the world of Penumaria. As usual, spoilers remain at the tail end of the document with plenty of warning, so please keep that in mind when reading.

Here’s the link to the Document: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjNYReLtj6OInmzOU9LiowLjsGJa

The next article will be Episode 1 of Amber of the Woods.