X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 3.2 Cape Canem!

In Posts 3.0 and 3.1, I did a fair bit of storytelling. We are going to explore a little more story, but then bring the party back together with the dice.  

To recap, the Magen received the names Parker and Warren in session 3.0. These two "characters" are included with the party as backups when other characters fall in combat. I am treating them as NPC with only the basic Demos Magen stats. They don't have classes yet. Session 3.0 also saw our magic-using heroes deplete all of their low-level spells and a fair amount of oil. 

In Session 3.1, we met Gronk and Gabby. Gabby, Lance, and Alexei all participated in the Bonds of Hospitality. Should the three of them attack one another, they will fall ill. No one has any intention of that. We also established Gronk as an excellent title to go with his name: 

"Seigneur Gronk, Chevalier du Bois de Lilas, le Défenseur des Voies Anciennes et Secrètes"

I left everyone hanging. Nononn and Merry were absent for the burning of the slimes, puddings, and molds. I am using AI to track PC and monster locations. Nice tool, if I remember to tell you the results. Nononn and Merry knocked on the door to rakasta's lair and were admitted before the party went on the warpath. I didn't indicate this very well in my last two posts. We are picking up with them. 

Merry and Nononn rolled for reaction. The rakasta leader was well disposed to them. They all sat down and talked about what was happening. The rasaka leader explains that they are exiles hiding from a revolt. Either he attempted to overthrow his lord, or he was the deposed lord. It wasn't clear. Typical cats. 

I have decided the rakasta leader's name is Thaddius. Thaddius explains that they went into hiding. With the support of Gabriella Durant, they have made a home here. Gabby harvests rare herbs from the indoor forest. Healing herbs and, of course, catnip, plus a few other items. He also alluded to Richard the Lionheart, who gave them sanctuary and Richard's odd sister.  

If I had real players, this conversation could be played for laughs. Outside the room, the other characters are fighting the slimes and such. As Thaddius tries to dig information out of Merry and Nononn, the sound of combat forces reaction rolls. The louder the combat gets, the worse it goes for Merry and Nononn. Finally, the smell of burning oil and slime got to Thaddius, and he investigated. 

Combat with the slimes was all over but the crying. Pizzaballa, Parker, and Warren avoided the combat area and were going to knock on the rakasta's door when Thaddius and his followers poured out into the hallway. Thaddius sees the total carnage. Ick and carpets were wet and burning. Smoke and steam filled the air. Thaddius was confused and angry. 

And made his first mistake. I rolled using OSR Solo. Thaddius had mistaken Warren, Parker, and Pizzaballa for castle guards because two of them had been guards of a sort. He barks, "Seize the DOGS!" indicating Merry and Nononn. 

Alexei, Gabby, Gronk, and Lance were walking up behind everyone. As Thaddius pounded on the northern door, Gabby dropped her things and pulled out her sling. Lance and Alexei unlimbered their bows as Gronk ran in circles.   

A large lion-headed man stomped out into the hallway. 

Round 1: The party has initiative, but doesn't know what to do. The team on the left drew weapons. Gabby unleashed a stone at Richard, the Lionhearted, the man with the lion's head. Lance and Alexei sent arrows, while Gronk dashed back to the Indoor Forest. 

I have a lot of cheat-sheets for this. Richard takes 10 points of damage from the shots to the back. At this moment, I realized that X2 doesn't take equipment into account in stat blocks. Richard should be AC:0. It doesn't matter, as Lance and Gabby rolled a 19 and 20 with a mod for shooting for behind. 

Richard roared in pain and drew his sword (+3). Here lies the second issue. Richard was supposed ot be alone when he unleashed his fear-causing roar. I consulted OSR Solo a couple of times and determined that the roar only affects the enemies he is facing.  

The effects were immediate. Solvo, Rety, Thomas, Khouri, and Jude all made their saves. Dorian, Bel, and Sybil all failed. I have to consult the Oracle again. Since there is nowhere to run, Bel and Sybil ran in circles like Gronk, preventing Dorian from running past them. 

Solvo and Rety lofted arrows into the leading rakasta, doing 6 points of damage. Khouri and Jude charged Richard and Thaddius from the front. Merry and Nononn do the same from the side. The 11 rakasta charged the western half of the party. 

Round 2: The party barely won initiative. Bel and Sybil held hands and escaped the only way they could: they turned invisible. Those were their last two spells. Dorian's feet were rooted in fear. Solvo and Rety unload on the rakasta again, this time with Thomas helping. The first rasasta goes down, forcing morale. Of course, they rolled a two. As if this melee wasn't chaotic enough.  

Richard took more fire from behind, but only Gabby did 3 points of damage. Richard is now squared off against Jude, charging with a polearm, and Khouri backs him up at a slower pace. Jude hit for a whopping 11 points of damage thanks to his bonuses, and Richard did the exact same damage. Khouri was unable to hit. 

Thaddius was in the way and distracted, so his morale held. Nononn and Merry go at him. Nononn struck for 7 points, and Merry was struck for a total of 6 points. 

Round 3: I consulted OSR Solo to see if the rasaska should surrender, run for it, or do something else. They are surrounded, with the enemy to their front in a state of panic. The roll indicated "Complication". I decide that the rakasta paused to take in the tactical situation. They eyed up Thomas, Rety, and Solvo and didn't like the odds of turning their backs on archers and a slinger. Dorian was also an attractive target. They couldn't see Bel and Sybil anymore. In the next round, they will charge again. 

Dorian was still rooted in place. Missiles fly, and two different rakasta were struck for 4 points each. 

Jude was hit for 7 points of damage, leaving him with only 8 HP. Jude couldn't hit, but Khouri was able to slash for a total of 5 points of damage. Richard has 27 HP left. 

Merry and Nononn go at Thaddius again and end him. 

Round 4

I haven't forgotten Parker, Warren, and Pizzaballa. Pizzaballa ordered the two Magen after the rakasta while he runs towards Jude. 

Round 4: Let's do the easy part. Parker and Warren pace the rakasta, and won't catch up. 

Lance, Gabby, and Alexei advanced past the melee with Richard, firing into the backs of the rakasta. Rety and Solvo fired, while Thomas took a defensive stance with his mace. The two lead rakasta go down, leaving 8 more. Lance's team was totally ineffective at shooting into their backs. No one from that group hit anything.

Round 5a, Jude and Pizzaballa are on the left,
Nononn and Khouri on the right. 

Meanwhile, Jude drops his polearm and uses his sword. He did massive 9 points of damage to Richard, leaving him at 19 HP. Richard clobbered Jude for 5 points of damage, leaving him at 3. Khouri missed, while Nononn closed in to attack in the next round. Merry pulls his bow and sets off after the rest of the rakasta. 

Round 5a: The party has initiative again. Pizzaballa made a fateful choice: he healed Jude, bringing the Knight back to 10 HP. Jude struck again for 7 points, Khouri for 3, and Nononn for 4. Richard, furious with the Cleric, dropped him with a brutal cut. 

Round 5b, the MU's are in the upper left corner.

Round 5b: The two Magic-Users moved invisibly to the northern door and opened it to hide inside. 

As a DM note, the rakasta would see and hear the door open. They are not fooled by the invisibility spell right now. But the prey is out of reach. As a historical note, castle doors usually open into the space they protect to keep the hinges safe from destruction. This will come up, later. 

Rety was screwed and knew it. While she had initiative and a bow, 4 rakasta were barreling at her. She dropped the bow to flee, taking a 3-point slash across the back. She dashed to the open northern door, with the clouder of rakasta on her heels. 

Fleeing prey was like catnip. 

Round 5c: Thomas in front, Solvo behind him.
And Dorian is on the far left.

Round 5c: On the southern side of the hall, Dorian was starting to shake off the fear and pulled his mace. Solvo lofted an arrow into the lead rakasta for 3 points, then dropped the bow. Thomas slugged another cat-man for 7 points and paid for it, taking a series of brutal slashes for 9 points. 

I did this one out of order because the rest of the gang could only reach the last four targets without endangering their friends. 

The rest of the party showered the northern group of rakasta with missiles, downing one and 2 HP to another. They were torn as to which group to help. 

Round 6: The party has lost initiative. Richard sliced Jude for 5 points of damage while Jude protected Pizzaballa's body. Khouri and Nononn attacked, but only Khouri stuck. Richard has a single hit point. Pizzaballa dropped a hit point to -4. 

Rety was slashed again, dropping her to 7 HP. She gave up her attack to get through the doorway, and Bel and Sybil slam it on the hands of her attackers. One more rakasta goes down to missile fire. 

On the other side of the hall, Solvo drew his sword and moved to Thomas's side. The two of them took a beating. Thomas was knocked down to 5 HP, while Solvo has 13 left. 

Boy, this post is long. 

Round 7. Again, the party loses initiative. Richard struck at Khouri for 9 points of damage before Jude could finish him off. Pizzaballa is at -5 hp. Khouri stabbed Richard several times to ensure he stayed down. 

For the players hiding behind the northern door, I improvised a sort of opposed check. Each rakasta has a 50-50 chance of opening the door. The heroes, using their own open stuck door roll, can force it closed again. A funny thing happens. The door doesn't budge on the first attempt, then opens briefly, before being slammed closed again. Arrows downed a rakasta from behind.  

The rakasta savage Solvo and Thomas again. Thomas folded and hit the floor. Solvo skinned the cat that did it. Dorian missed his chance to do something for the party. 

In the next round, Merry makes a terrible choice. He runs back to heal Pizzaballa. Dorian and Solvo missed the rakasta and it downed Solvo. On the other side of the hall, the rakasta breached the door and took Rety down. 

Rather than go round by round, the party mops up. One rakasta escaped through the foyer and disappeared into the trees. In need of healing, the party retreated into the study. Solvo, Thomas, Pizzaballa, Sybil, Belaphon, and Rety are in need of serious healing. 

We will pick up next time with the aftermath. Hopefully, the next post will neither as long or be as complicated as this one. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 3.1 Be Strength and Warning and Speed Forever

Let's take a moment to stat up Gabby's familiar, a giant rabbit named Gronk. 

Gronk: 

AC 6, HD 1/2, hp 7, #AT Special, D None, Save As Gabby, ML 10

Gronk has several special abilities.

He can identify plants at will. This ability can detect decay, poison, and other unsafe conditions. His armor class reflects his high speed. Gronk has more HP than normal thanks to his bonding with Gabby. Gronk rolls his own initiative at a +3 every melee round. He is surprised only on roll of 1. 

He can move at 240'/80' for up to 10 rounds. He can also deadstop at those speeds, allowing him to run and hide in shadows in the same round. He has a 50% chance to hide in the shadows, but is more likely to hide behind something rather than in the shadows. He can listen at doors on 1-5, an ability he extends to Gabby. Gronk, like all rabbits, can see better in the dark than humans. This is another ability he extends to Gabby.

Gronk is not terribly inclined to listen at doors. He finds it weird and unrabbit-like. When he identifies plants, he expects to eat. 

Gronk has no attacks. If he wins initiative, he can blow through humanoid opponents, meaning he can always escape combat in any direction he wishes. He cannot do the same to other creatures or animals.

Gabby can cast spells through him, as if the spell originated at his location. I don't know where this rule came from. It is not in the from Timothy Brannon's books. This ability is something I have always done for Magic-Users, but I don't know where I got the idea from. This ability does permit Gronk and other familiars to make attack rolls to touch someone if required by the spell. Gabby believes it's wrong to cast a harmful spell (blight, charm, cause light wounds, etc.) using Gronk as a conduit. Evil Witches and Magic-Users do not suffer from this limitation. 

All of the rest of Gronk's "abilities" tend to fall in the category of "being a rabbit" and will be explained as they occur. They don't affect combat as they are flavoring.  

Alexei and Lance followed Gabby through the door to the Indoor Forest. Gronk thumped in warning. 

"Hey, your guys are here," said Gronk. 

"Am I hearing things?" Lance asks Alexei. 

"Of course you are, I'm talking to you," said Gronk. 

Alexei, being an Elf and a Bard, succeeded in not looking surprised, but couldn't think of a response. Gabby saved him from his silence. 

"Hey, what did I tell you about sitting in the grass?" asked Gabby. 

"The killer trees will magically appear and try to kill me," answered Gronk before thumbing in mock alarm. As if summoned, tenticles appear on the right side of the path, with a third appearing behind Gabby on the left. 

Characters in Purple, Killer Trees in Red

Roll for initiative! 

Lance and Alexei had their bows ready and went first. They target the tree accosting Gronk. They easily hit, severing two of four limbs. The remaining limbs missed the rabbit. The second tree retracts its limbs, frustrated by the bowmen. 

The next round saw the third tree also back off, as Gabby slowly walked out of reach. She set a large bowl-like shield down on the path and spread a large blanket to sit on. The Bard and Elf sent two more arrows after the tentacles, but missed. The tree flailed its limbs uselessly. 

The killer trees grumbled in frustration as Gabby began humming a tune. Pleased, Alexei sat down and pulled out his lute to play along. Gabby said nothing as she picked through a pile of harvested plants on the shield. The trees went silently, listening to the party. 

(Witches normally don't use shields. This is on loan from the rakasta so she can carry more plants.)

Gronk seated himself next to Gabby, placing himself between the herbs and the two strangers. Sorting through her plants, she distractedly placed some in front of Gronk. The rabbit muttered the name of each as he grazed from the offerings. 

"Mint... Ooh, clover. Nice," he said. 

Lance gawked at the rabbit, causing Alexei to elbow him. Not sure what to do, Lance pawed through his pack, pulling some rations and two wineskins out. As an afterthought, he pulled an apple out.  

"My name is Gabriella Durant," she said. "Such kindness is appreciated. You wouldn't happen to have some meat in there?"  

"For the rabbit?" he asked. 

"No. For the trees, silly." 

Lance shrugged, pulled some jerky out and sniffed it. "Do trees here normally eat meat?" 

"Unfortunately, yes," she answered. 

"Ahem," said Alexei, nodding to Lance without missing a beat in the tune he played. 

"Oh," said Lance. He stood and pulled off his sword, placing it between himself and Gabriella before settling back to his knees. "My name is Lance, man-at-arms of the Lady Khouri. My companion is Alexei Gleeman." 

Gabby responded by placing her silver dagger on top of Lance's sword. "Well met, kind sirs." 

"Pfft," said Gronk. Gabby smiled and patted the rabbit on the head. 

"Sorry, my friend. Gentlemen, this is Mon Seigneur Gronk, Chevalier du Bois de Lilas, le Défenseur des Voies Anciennes et Secrètes." Neither man understood anything beyond the name, the severe tone, and the gravity of the title.  

Gronk honked at them before continuing his forging. 

"Allow me to offer such hospitality as I may, in this accursed place." She pulled out four small bowls and several thimble-sized cups. Lance offered her the wine, and she beamed. 

She cast the Ritual Spell, Bonds of Hospitality, upon them all and they all drank except for Gronk. 

"As the lord defender of the Witch, I may not be bound by such magic. Instead, I offer you my respect and care on the lady's behalf," said Gronk as he bobbled through a lagomorphic version of a bow. 

Gabriella removed Gronk's cup from the blanket, kissed it, and poured it into the grass as an offering to the forest. When she returned the cup to the blanket, Lance and Alexei solemnly bowed their heads, in respect of the sacrifice. Gronk repeated his odd bow to the lady before thumping in respect to the forest. 

"Peace and kindness to you and all you defend, great sir," Alexei said to the rabbit. "We thank you for your consideration." 

Gronk looked pleased. "They are so civil compared to the rakaska." 

Gabby shrugged, then placed some berries and leaves in each little bowl. The rabbit didn't seem to mind eating this. Once they were done, the ritual was complete. All participants are unable to engage in hostility for the next 24 hours, or they will be sickened. Except the rabbit, of course. 

Gabby gathered up her belongings, packing them away. She flicked through the herbs on the shield, selecting several large leaves. She gestured towards the jerky Lance had produced, and he handed them over. 

Unbeknownst to the men, the ritual included the two closest killer trees. Gabby took the jerky and leaves over to the wounded one and set them on the ground within its reach. It ate all of it and was healed. This one tree will ignore Gabby, Lance, and Alexei from here on out.

"You mentioned the rakaska. Are they the cat-men we saw?" asked Alexei. 

"Yes, I am in their employ. I keep them well and healthy," she waved, indicating the herbs she had collected. "However, I grow tired of this agreement." 

She pulled a large silver key on a chain from her tunic. "I wish to be free." 

If you like the Witch character I am using, thank Timothy S. Brannan. 

Please see the following links for DrivThruRPG: 

• The Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch Tradition
• The Left Hand Path - The Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft Traditions
• Daughters of Darkness: The Mara Witch for Basic Era Games
• The Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch for Basic Era Games
• Cult of Diana: The Amazon Witch for Basic Era Games
• The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Witch Tradition
• Witch Character Sheet - Folio

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 3 - Split the Party Quarce

There are a lot of good reasons not to split the party. In the last session, Lance and Alexei wandered off after a woman they saw. After a brief combat, the party spotted the Raskasta and split again. Merry and Nononn decided to confront the Raskasta to see where Lance and Alexei went. Rety and Jude led the rest of the party to the Indoor Forest before changing their minds and choosing a different course. Rety and Jude fixated on room 8, the obvious trap. 

Let us get to the fourth division of the party. 

Pizzaballa was sitting at the bottom of the stairs to the foyer. Black smoke poured from the double doors. He was watching the Demos Magen* with interest, trying to think of a name for each of them. One was rubbing down Jude's horse while the other watched rabbits frolicking in the grass. There was a mighty TH-ruHMP! as Jude and the gang threw another flask of oil at the slimes. 

"Burning flasks of oil do 1d8 per round of damage," said the Magen watching the rabbits. "That is an awful amount of damage for such a low-tech utility item." 

Pizzaballa shook his head, "We aren't supposed to talk about it. It's not in the spirit of the game. But I do get your point, kind sir." 

"Who says?" the other Magen asked. 

"'Who?' indeed," answered Pizzaballa. "If I may be so bold, may I call you 'Warren'?" 

The Magen looked pleased. "We would be pleased. Warren is a good name. Where does it come from?" he asked. 

"The French, I believe. People from Jean-Louis's homeland," said Pizzaballa. 

"Warren, Pizzaballa. What shall we be named?" The Magen had gone back to brushing down the horse. 

"Hmm. Good question." After a long minute, Pizzaballa offered, "Parker, I think 'Parker' is an excellent name for you." 

"I do like it. Where does it come from?" he asked. 

"Well, that is complicated. It started in Old French, then was adopted into Middle English. Many people would be familiar with it from a comic book character. His name was Peter." 

"I do not like Peter. I like Parker," said the second Magen. "What does it mean?" 

"Well, a parker one who watches or cares for animals," answered the Cleric. 

A sizzle came echoing from the doorway and the black smoke was softened by a gout of steam. 

"Do you really think the wet carpet will stop them from burning down the castle?" asked Parker.

Pizzaballa shrugged. "Maybe. I hope."  

Before this session, I ran a poll among the younglings I know. Room 8 held a gray ooze, a giant green slime, and a black puddling. It is a classic Gygaxian trap for the unwary. I also mention that I have run this module several times. The first time, the party avoided the trap with a 10-foot pole, as any good D&D player would. The second time, it was throwing objects, like the towels from room 6. After that, everyone immediately identified the ooze, the slime, and the pudding by description. 

I polled 7 players between 20 and 25 years of age. All 7 of them identified the threat from the description only and proposed throwing as much burning oil into the room as possible. Zero modern players are fooled by this scenario. 

To paraphrase Octavia Butler, "To be remembered is to be lied about." 

I have taken great liberties with this module. There are movies, French, Shakespeare, Old and Middle English, comic book characters, cell phones, etc., in these posts and sessions. This is because my campaign takes place in a fallen version of our world. I can do that. 

In running the poll, this scenario SEEMS not worth running. But is that true? 

No, this is the lie. No one has fallen for the obvious trick of setting foot in the room for four decades of my play experience. Since that is a fact and true, I have to ask, "What is the point of this scenario?" The obvious trap is not the purpose.  

Moldvay isn't Gary Gygax, but he wrote to his level and style, which includes some fairly deep thinking. Room 8 was meant to be a sink for resources. Look at my characters (click the link to see that post). I made mistakes when creating these characters and did not permit myself time or thought to properly equip the party. Even still, the party has access to 23 flasks of oil and dozens of torches. 

This scenario needs to be played out because I can't have the party walk into the Indoor Forest with the ability to unload 23d8 points of damage every round. They also cast some spells to give themselves an advantage, like bless and their remaining magic missile spells. 

This is why I let this play out as I did. I won't bore you with the details, but the gray ooze is the dangerous creature here. It has the fewest hit points but is faster and better protected than the slime and the black pudding. I used an Excel spreadsheet to run through the combat several times. The RND function is not great for dice rolls, but it is a close approximation. The longest fight took 8 rounds. But used up most of the party's oil and torches. 

Let's collect up treasure and experience: 3000 gp plus 1000 pp in coins. Thomas and Dorian decide to grant Pizzaballa the staff of healing. Jude is offered the sword. This is 888 exp per character. While Pizzaballa didn't participate in combat, he did engage in planning, so he received experience this time. 

Pizzaballa is now level 3. Sybil is a special case; she has the power of a 4th-level Magic-User, but only had 9851 exp due to the use of a wish spell. She is now earning experience towards 5th-level. 

Let me share this album, as it seems appropriate.  

This post is getting long, so we will visit with Gabby, Alexei, and Gabby in Session 3.1 and Nononn and Merry in 3.2. 

*Is Magen a collective noun? For the way I have been playing them up, I think it is appropriate. 

Burn and Etch - Dungeon Terrain Again

I'm on my third run of dungeon terrain. Laser cutting and etching do take practice. In the first image, I cut too many pieces. I meant to have 1 six-inch wall, 2 4" walls, 4 2" walls, and 4 1"x1" walls. I accidentally cut an extra 1x1 that could have been doors or details. 

On the prior run, I ran into a bunch of "fix it in post" issues. The red highlights are places where the laser power was off, or the wood was warped and didn't cut all the way through. The blue highlights are two pieces where I etched instead of burning a cutout. And the real insult is in yellow. Having known I was cutting too many 1x1 pillars, I failed to fix it by removing the parts. Hence the extra parts in the image above. 

The whole "I can fix that" defeats the purpose of having a laser. Handcutting dings up the pieces, causes scratches, or causes blowouts. These are all things the laser should do so I don't have to. 

Once I hammer out these issues, I plan on adding doors, tables, and other scenery to the collection. In a perfect world, I would sell the physical goods. I am hampered by shipping costs, which could be $20.00 per set. That seems self-defeating or at least very limiting. 

I might list them on Etsy or KoFi as a digital file.

An interesting byproduct of all of this cutting was that I made a ruin from scrap pieces. 

Maybe you remember the little structure I showed for my B2 Keep on the Borderlands Sessions. The little building above represents either the left or the right side of the fortified house. This is one of those Bob Ross moments where we know there is a cabin or whatnot, but nothing about who built it or who lived there. 

Since it is positioned on the rim of the valley, over the Caves of Chaos, it stands to reason that either the fortified house was abandoned when the monsters moved in. Or it could have been built afterward, as a beachhead against the monsters. 

Personally, I like the latter. I could imagine that forces from the Keep could have gotten a foothold against the actual monsters, but then it was destroyed with the coming of the priests. Perhaps the zombies and skeletons in the Caves are the former inhabitants of the fortification. 

Grim. 

I like telling myself these little stories. The cool thing about them is that when a character is supposed to have some lore or special knowledge, I can drop these little musings on them so they can tell the party. Sure, the story has to be brief, and it does turn into a game of telephone where the story distorts, but I make the player character's distortion canon to the campaign. It can make Bards, Wizards, and learned Clerics seem more special. 

Next up, we will return to Castle Amber. After that, I'll get painting. And third, I will tell you about The Game of the Weather Witch. 

Taxing Times - An IRL Update and Session 2.5 Update

Real life is really interesting. I helped a friend get her Book Club going. I don't attend Book Club, but I help her vet books. I am reading a lot of books lately. Add in that the Buffalo Sabres are rocking it in the NHL and tax season, and I know I am gearing up for a posting rut. 

I will just have to power through it. 

Let's get this show on the road with Gabby the Witch, who was mentioned in my last post. Castle Amber has a weird and taxing structure for any DM. If you can successfully run this module, you can do anything. 

The structure of Castle Amber is a straight-up railroad. I've played it with others several times, maybe as many as 4 times. The players really enjoy it, so long as you lampshade the railroad. I can guess why this module is written as a railroad: you bought a module with the intention of running it. Therefore, there must be no deviation from actually running Castle Amber. 

That isn't the style of modern games, and to be honest, it was probably never sytle of B/X games, either.

I gave some suggestions to avoid the initial railroad back in Session 0. The railroad doesn't end when the characters enter the misty foyer; it is assumed throughout the whole story. It's structurally built into the scenario. In Session 1, the players encountered Jean-Louis. The way it is written, it seems like Jean-Louis will always be there in the same state the party left him in. The same happens in a bunch of encounters, and in the discovery of the key and the letter for those who would be free. Annoying, but a good DM can compensate for that with some minor changes. 

One of my minor changes is the introduction of the rakshasa. Because of repeated replays over the years, the rakashasa are more often than not neutral or friendly toward the party. I've decided on this run that they will be friendly again. My head canon for the rakshasa is that they are exiles and are using the unusual properties of the Castle to stay out of harm's way. 

That is where Gabby comes in. She is a hierling of the rakashasa and didn't sign up to live in a castle trapped in time. She wants out. She is one who would be free. Gabby knows what must be done because the rakashasa shared the letter/scroll with her, but can't do it herself. This is where the party comes in. 

The witch character class is  from Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch. They have some cool abilities. She is a spell caster who can wear cloth, padded or leather armor, she has 1d4 hp per level and weilds a sling and a magic staff. Of course, she has a couple of daggers. Witches can heal with herbs and cast ritual magic. They also have their own spell list. At the 5th level, Gabby has 2 first-level spells, 2 second-level spells, a third-level spell, and 2 ritual spells. 

The rakshasa have given her tiger-claws, but she has no idea what to do with them. She made a couple of lanyards and uses the claws like clasps for her robes and a buckle for her belt. 

Currently, she has left the rakshasa on the mission for them and to check on her Familiar named Gronk in the Indoor Forest. I "decided" Gronk is a giant rabbit because I have a giant rabbit. 

Alexei and Lance have abandoned the party to follow her. Typical. 

The remaining party members know about the rakashasa in the Study, they know someone entered the Indoor Forest, and they know they haven't searched Room 8, Servant's Quarters. They detected the green slime in there, but since Alexei and Lance vanished, they have other fish to fry. This is where session three will pick up. 

As always, I am using my favorite B/X rules, Old School Essentials. You can grab the "Basic" set for free on DriveThru. It put Basic in quotes because the rules cover characters up to 14th level and has an attack matrix to 36th level. Obviously, you'll need X2 - Castle Amber. I also have an Oracle resource called OSR Solo.