X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 4.0 Fate Comes Knocking

Let me start with a big thank you to all the people who told me what "NSA" meant in my last post. "No Special Abilities". I didn't find a typo. The sword and armor were taken by Jude.  

Jude is now an AC tank but he is still soft on actual HP. 

The party was in hiding, trying to get their hit points up. Since they are quiet, I decided to only roll 4 times for wander monsters. Three Galvan Magen stumbled upon the party, but Parker and Warren played dress-up and convinced their former brethren to leave. 

Second, fate knocked on the Study door. 12 rakasta stood in the hallway. Gabby and Nononn were able to negotiate with them and solved a couple of problems. At the end of the last session, the party laid the dead respectfully outside for burial. The new rakasta took over and buried them for the party. They were encouraged to do this as the party turned over all of the dead rakasta's weapons and the herbs Gabby had collected. Catnip was highly desired by them. The newcomers then left through the Indoor Forest. As the rakasta wandered the area, the party completed the burial of their dead. 

All of this was a bit white-knuckled for a party with depleted hit points, so they heeded Gabby's advice and hunkered down in the Study for 48 hours. 

Searching through the rakasta's gear, they found all kinds of useful things, most of which were only good for role-play. They found needles and thread, tents, clothing, rope, bedding, food, and a few flasks of oil, plus a few casks of water, wine, and brandy.

They also searched the study itself. The Magic-Users and Cleric found some interesting books, while the Bard found a map and a book of musical instruments. 

The party equitably distributed the equipment of the dead, since there was no escape from this place. They are in possession of 3 bags of holding. They can literally carry more than 2 fully loaded wagons. They took 3 of the smallest tents and the casks. 

As they sat out the next day, they modified the clothing they found the best they could. Each party member has 50 feet of rope, one flask of oil, a small lamp, a bedroll, and an extra set of clothes. Most of this was packed away in the bags of holding. 

They found one barrel of beef jerky, which everyone liked, and 6 barrels of dried fish, which almost no one liked. Warren and Parker found it acceptable, mostly because they have little experience with real food. When the time comes, they will convert to actual character classes to make up for party losses and have real opinions and tastes. 

After 48 hours, the party got itchy feet. Nononn, Jude, and Rety continued the military-like sweep of the west wing, despite Gabby warning them against that. She was able to steer them away from the room with the wraiths. At this point, I realized I had made a mistake of omission. The whole area 5 was described as a giant, blinding trap. Since I haven't mentioned it until now, it will continue to be ignored. 

Some things can't be fixed. 

The party discovered the ghost hobgoblins and followed them into the Dining Room. Gabby has experienced this meal before and tried to dissuade the party. Her plea convinced Lance, Merry, and Dorian not to participate. As the others sat down for a fine meal, Gabby asked the non-participants to take a seat. Alexei was an edge case, opting to drink everything placed before him as he strummed a dinner-time tune.

Rather than go through each serving, I will pause only on the negative results. The tossed salad affects everyone in small ways, but really impacts Sybil. Her Charisma goes up by two while her Wisdom, which was already pretty low, dropped by one. Being chaotic, this is dangerously close to the funniest Thief I have ever rolled. 

This is an odd trick for B/X based rules because of how the ability score modifiers work. You are unlikely to change enough to be mechanically affected, unless you lose points in your prime requisite ability. In AD&D, the effects are more dramatic because of the modifers are spread a little more. 

Khouri and Jude suffer from the bread. Since Khouri is a post-human with both heavily modified genes and nanites, she gets hot instead of suffering from the starvation-like hunger that Jude will experience. It doesn't harm her, but it does prevent her from eating any more food. She wandered the room, fanning herself and swearing. She is also immune to slow and haste spells. I have thought of adding more immunities, but that would require going through every spell. 

Gronk was less than helpful, advising the party on what should and should not be eaten. As a rabbit, he warns them about the bread, mushrooms, and beef, which was a confusing mixed bag of advice. Jude and Bel laugh off the warnings as "Rabbit-Talk" and immediately run afoul of poisoned mushrooms. Only the forward thinking and quick action by Gabby saved their lives. Since the whole party sat, there were extra glasses of amber wine to cancel the poison. 

Bel is not the smartest guy and rejoined the meal to the finish. As a bit of meta-humor, Jude eats Nononn's bread and undoes the curse of the bread, but then stops participating. Nononn and Rety grew wary of the meal and stopped, too. 

Gabby was relieved; she was convinced the party would make it through unscathed. Bel, Sybil, and Alexei drank the brandy, and Alexei paid the price. His playing took on a haunted sound as he faded away with the other guest. 

In the next session, there will be combat and immortal creatures. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 3.3 Knock-Knock!

The last session was rough. I am continuing that post here to cover the aftermath of the fight. At the end of the day, Pizzaballa, Solvo, Thomas, and Rety were reduced to zero hit points or less. Bel and Sybil fought bravely to fight off a rakasta that breached the door and downed Rety. They both have only 3 and 4 hp left.

Gabby pulled the party into the rakasta lair for rest and healing. In the end, Pizzaballa, Solvo, and Thomas succumbed to their wounds. All of the healing magic has been used. Gabby advises the party that there is an area in the Indoor Forest where the dead can be buried. Warren and Parker, as Magen associated with the castle lords, would be ignored by most monsters. They volunteer to dig graves. 

Gabby also turned over the key she had to the party and asked to join them. She also shows the party the rakastaa's larder and treasure. 

Each surviving member of the party received 1802 exp... assuming they survived the next encounter. 

Across the hall, the Ogre posing as Janet Amber discovered Richard's body and the trails of blood to the study door. 

Janet...er the Ogre, roared and charged the door. At the sound, Sybil and Bel approached the door to see what the noise was. The door's latch gave way, and the door smashed the Magic-Users to the ground. Jude and the Ogre met each other with weapons, and Jude was knocked unconscious, again. 

The battle was brutal and brief. Injuries mount. 

Afterwards, Merry and Nononn picked over Richard's body and gave Jude the plate armor and sword.  Returning to Richard's room, they saw the open secret door. They discovered the body in the fireplace and removed it. By its side, they placed the bodies of Richard and the rakasta leader. 

Standing in the hall, they realized they needed help. Lance, Khouri, and Alexei joined them, and they all dragged the other rakasta bodies out of the foyer and laid them along the western wall of the castle. 

Grim task completed, the party decided to move their dead to Richard's room for burial at some point in the near future. 

Warren, Parker, and Gronk returned to the study. With so many of the party injured, they decided to hunker down in the study until they have a reasonable amount of hit points left. Gronk was displeased with this choice until Gabby made him a nest near the fireplace. Lance and Alexei barricaded the door with the furniture. The rakasta conveniently left bedding for them to use, rich carpets and rugs. 

Since 9 characters participated in the battle against the Ogre, I assigned another 3925 exp to them, or 380 exp each. I also discovered an odd glitch with the copy of X2 I have. There is a typo: 

I have no idea what NSA would mean, so I ignored it. I suspect this is a rare scanning artifact. If you have an original copy, could you tell me what that word is? 

Over the next week, I will be updating character sheets, calculating exp awards, etc. 

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 rakshasa'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 rakshasa leader was well disposed to them. They all sat down and talked about what was happening. The rakshasa 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 rakshasa 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 rakshasa'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 rakshasa, 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. 

Project Detour - Laser and Paint Edition

This week has a lot of detours. I've run the laser 4 times since Saturday. Now I have a lot of items to assemble and complete. I wrote a review and revamped my review page with HTML. I rolled a character for my X2 - Castle Amber campaign and have a piece or two to write on that. Finally, I have broken with Amazon for what I hope is the final time and have a new alternative in the wings. 

Let's go back to front: Amazon disabled my account because I don't generate enough clicks and sales.

Well, yes. There is no solid connection between Amazon and me. I have to dream up really awkward ways to work a link in. I'm not good at sales, and I use that awkwardness as a crutch. It's time to stop. 

What do I have as an alternative? 

Two items and three mentions: 

Awin, an affiliate marketing platform,
Libro.fm, an alternative to Amazon's Audible, 
and finally, Meeden Art, Inc., an art supply company marketing through Awin. 

I obviously love to read. I had hoped to pick up Libro.fm as an affiliate through Awin. They felt I wasn't a good match. I agree. This website is very niche. But I still want to support them and others.  

Let me tell you a bit about Libro.fm. They are like Audible, but their style is different. You can pick from three subscriptions: one book a month, two books a month, and a yearly subscription, with a great discount on 12 books in a year. 

Second, they are totally DRM-free, unlike Audible. 

Third, they allow you to designate a local bookstore as your favorite. When you purchase through Libro.fm, a portion of each membership or individual book sale goes to that bookstore. I have selected Sulfur Books, a glorious little bookstore in Clifton Springs, NY.  (I will come back and post again about Clifton Springs, but not here.)

While I don't have Libro.fm as an affiliate, I can share my membership link like this. When you click that link and place an order, I receive a free title. To be honest, considering the amount I read, that's better than gold. I could not be happier with this deal. 

If you have a website and you like books, maybe you should consider Libro.fm. This is not an affiliate program with approvals and such. It's offered to all of their members, for all users. I love it. 

Awin also led me to Meeden Art, Inc. I am very passionate about painting and drawing, despite not being very good. 

Creating an ad for art supplies is something I wouldn't have to work at. In fact, on day one, I purchased some paints and gave myself two laser cutting projects to support my artistic habits. I overpurchased in the extreme, but I will burn through this paint fairly quickly. 

The reason you are not seeing an ad for Meeden is that I need a tax document to complete the process, and it is tax season. I will be responsible and do my taxes early to get that document. Or, I won't post any ads until I do those taxes at the last possible second. I must roll for impulse control. :) 

Not being too strongly aligned with my TheseOldGames brand, they would be extremely prominent without being an off-ramp. This matches my tactics for DriveThruRPG. I can give you a link, you know what the link is for, and you can partake as you wish. 

And let me thank you and DTRPG again for that support. You and DriveThruRPG easily pay for my web costs. 

Moving backwards, I have created a new NPC for Castle Amber. Her name is Gabriella, or Gabby, and she is a witch. She is trapped just like the party but she has been here for a very long time. If you follow my suggestion and don't completely railroad the party into Castle Amber, you will need links back to your campaign world. Gabby is one of my links to home. 

I will be posting about her in my next run back to the Castle. These links to my Castle Amber series will display all of the posts in that category, so you may go all the way back to the beginning. Castle Amber is an epic module and could take all year to work through. 

In order to generate her, I used one of Timothy S. Brannan's books called Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch for Basic Era Games. This is one of a whole series on Witches for B/X style games. I use the OSE ruleset, and we will see how well these books merge with that system. 

This was also an opportunity to refresh my review page with actual HTML. It is so much easier to update now. Let me know what you think in the comments, either here or there. My pages have a comment section, too. 

Let me share the last item, the item I wanted to be the focus of this post, but failed at. I have a couple of items I rocked out with the laser. The first item was a repeat of physical dungeon terrain. This is the collision of art and gaming. I love making terrain and painting figures. 

The dungeon terrain consists of 1", 2", 4", and 6" walls, pictured in the upper left of this image. They are modular and now have a texture etched on them. In the near future, I will stain one set and paint another. I am not sure how I want them to look, so I want to see both styles. 

I will be doing a follow up post on these little bits and bobs. 

The next two projects are obvious for painting. I was able to cut a palette out of 1/8" plywood. It came out nicely. I thought it would be too thin, but it wasn't. I also thought I would need to bevel the edge, but I didn't do that either. It works nicely as is. 

The final item was a color wheel. Color wheels are a self-teaching tool. However, they are annoying to do on canvas. You need 1/8" or 1/4" masking tape to lay out the spaces. I cannot tell you how annoying it is to mask out 135 or more spaces for paint. 

Etching a color wheel is amazingly fast. I could do this on canvas, but I wanted to try a wood panel. It's nearly perfect. Zoom in, and you will see that I dropped the brush in the red/pink area. If I had masked that area with tape, that mark would have been on the tape. 

Oh, well.  

The final thing I will comment on is my intended structural changes to the website. I have nearly finished the Review Page and this simple change makes it simple to maintain. I will need to do more reviews in the future.  

One other change I made was to my post categories. I now have a template so I can post a whole series of articles and link back to them via a single category search.  That is very useful and was a trivia change all readers can see, but it is non-disruptive. 

In 2026, I will be marching backwards and cleaning up articles and posts, mostly for grammar. For all non-game book reviews, I will be adding my Libro.fm link. Once I have Awin and Meeden Art set up, I will also be applying ads to posts, too. 

Thanks for sticking with me through these changes. 

Review: Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch for Basic Era Games

Title: Craft of the Wise: The Pagan Witch for Basic Era Games
Publisher: The Other Side Publishing
Author: Timothy S. Brannan
Year: 2019
Pages: 67 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think... I hope I have all of these witch-themed books by Timothy Brannan. I was hunting for a particular ritual for an upcoming game and post, and couldn't find it. Well, that is because this one title doesn't pop up in the search for "Witch" in the DriveThruRPG app. 

The Pagan Witch has all of the same great artwork you'd come to expect from Brannan's prior works. Again, I took the date above from the forward, which provides excellent insight into why these books were published. The whole series has a great layout and detailed explanations in each chapter. There are no surprise changes from book to book. 

This title focuses on Pagan Traditions. This goes hand in hand with my love of the Romans. While not Roman at all, they were there alongside them. And of course, they didn't get along much. This book covers what it means to be a witch while highlighting what THAT means to other characters, like magic users and clerics. Backtracking to the Introduction, Brannan pulled in the modern-day depictions of a witch. 

Like the other books, it starts with the class description, cowens (assistants to the witch), and familiars. Personally, I think familiars are more "witch-like" than "wizard-like" and enjoy the details given to them in this series. From the class description, he moves on to spells, rituals, monsters, magic items, and NPC witches. This book is well constructed to get the most out of the concept. 

My reason for reaching for this book this weekend was that I needed a ritual spell to cast a particular character in a special light. You'll be seeing Gabby in my next post for X2 - Castle Amber.

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 2 - Into the Breach

In session 1, the party retreated to the Castle's exterior to take stock. Merry, Jude, Rety, and Nononn make a plan of attack once the foyer doors open in the morning.  

Session 1.5 presented the character sheets. If you want to know what the party has, take a moment to review. 

The party obtained some treasure, but more importantly, received two Demos Magen who are now behaving oddly. They make the choice to leave them outside under the watchful eye of Pizzaballa while the rest of the team explores the northwestern corner of the castle. 

Rety checks the door just south of rooms 6, 7, and 8 and finds it unlocked. As the main party listens at door 8, there is a click. Alexei and Lance walked to room 6 and opened the door. Nononn has a caniption. While the team searches the linen closet, he orders the two green characters into the main hall to listen for Pizzaballa and keep watch on the approach. 

The party doesn't hear anything in room 8 and opens the door. They study the slime-encrusted room and decide that there is nothing of interest at the moment. They close the door. 

Rety believes she heard something in room 7, so the party arms itself for battle. In reality, she failed her roll and reacted to an imagined sound. 

Rety, Merry, and Kuri take a knee, bows drawn in 5 feet back from the door. Behind them, the magic-using characters stand ready to fling magic missiles over the bowmen's heads. Thomas and Dorian flank either side of the door to push it open. Behind the clerics, Jude and Nononn wait, weapons drawn. 

This is Kevin.

On the other side of the door, Ted turns to Bob and hisses, "Did you hear that?" 

Kevin waves 6 of his eight legs. "Someone's stealing our towels." 

The Arenea ready themselves for what will be known as The Battle of Soap and Towels. 

This is one of those odd times, where A) I wasn't going to do a commercial but now I am, and B) one module refers to another. Castle Amber refers the reader to X1, which features the Arenea as antagonists to the Phantons on the Isle of Dread.  

In this case, neither side will engage in movement. Everyone is locked and loaded. Thomas unlatches the door. Both Dorian and Thomas give it a good push. Initiative is simultaneous, and no one is surprised. 

I have decided I didn't like the Arenea's spells and gave them different ones, but it doesn't matter much. All three bow wielders target Bob and let fly. Not only is his spell foiled, but he drops dead. Kevin and Ted unleash Magic Missiles at the same time as Solvo, Sybil, and Belaphon. 

All of the magic users are hit and are slightly toasty. Since the party is making all kinds of noise, I roll for a wandering monster and get Raskasta. Alexei and Lance notice the largest Cat Man they have ever seen and retreat into the corner of the main hall, behind the double doors on the south wall. They are trying not to be seen. A group of five of them comes out of the Study. No one looks at Alexei and Lance.  

Round 2. The Arenea win initiative and take the fight vertical, skittering up the walls to the ceiling. Thomas, Dorian, Nononn, and Jude rush into the room. The two Arenea try to blind Nononn and Jude with continual light spells, but fail. Jude has a polearm and is able to take Ted off the ceiling. No one else can reach that high. 

The Magic Users fade southward, with Solvo guarding them. They both took heavy hits in the last round and are really annoyed. They don't realize Alexei and Lance are not visible. 

The party found better jewelry than this. 

The lead Raskasta gives a gruff command to a young woman and closes the door to the Study. The woman runs off down the hall to the Indoor Forest. 

Round 3. The bowmen advance into the room, and the party mops the floor with Kevin. Bel, and Sybil led by Solvo, stumble out into the main hallway to regroup as the rest of the party searches for more monsters hiding in the webs. They were tagged by one magic missile each, but sometimes Magic Users will play up their spells' power for the watching masses. 

Bel sees the door to the Indoor Forest close. He looks to Lance and Alexei, but they are nowhere to be found. Bel lets out a groan as Sybil runs to the foyer to check on Pizzaballa. 

The party splits again. Bel, leads Nononn, Solvo, and Rety to the doors to the Forest, bows ready. Sybil and Pizzaballa return to the southside of the main hall with Merry and his bow for cover. Kuri, Jude, Dorian, and Thomas continue to search the Arenea lair. 

Bel opens the door to the Forest. There is no one in sight. They communicate this the best they can with hand gestures to Merry's team. Jude collects up the treasure they find in the lair and returns to the team in the main hallway. 

Each character has gained 435 Experience, except Lance, Alexei, and Pizzaballa, who missed out on the combat. This closes up Session 2. I hope you enjoyed it.

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 1.5 - The Character Sheets

Here is the scorecard post. I should have started with a character list and character sheets. You know why? In Session 1, I put Lance at the front and in the last rank in the marching order. Dummy. Tracking 13 characters is a beast. 

These are PDF files from my Google Drive account. You don't need an account to download them

1. Merry the Halfling, Paladin
2. (Ana) Khouri, Post Human, Fighter
3. Lance, Human, Fighter
4. Alexei, Elf, Bard
5. Pizzaballa, Elf, Cleric
6. Nodonn, Human, Fighter
7. Solvo, Elf
8. Thomas, Cleric
9. Jude (aka Punch), Knight
10. Rety, Thief
11. Dorian, Cleric 
12. Sybil, MU
13. Belaphon (aka Bel), MU

There are also Demos Magen with the party now. They do not have character sheets. 

If I had posted these earlier, I would have successfully completed my #CharacterCreationChallenge. As it stands, I am still a few short. 

Before we go further, let's have the overt DriveThruRPG commercial: 

I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials. I picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free. 

Exactly why I haven't been posting links to X2 Castle Amber is beyond me. I've been nattering on about it for weeks. 

When I posted Session 0, I listed the characters' levels. I didn't do that this time because modules like X2 put the characters in a sweet spot where low-level characters rapidly catch up with somewhat higher-level characters due to the taking of gold. The party won 10,000 gps from Jean-Louis D'Amberville in Session 1. 

In adapting this for my table, I have solved the railroad problem by allowing the characters to retreat to a point of safety outside of the Foyer. That's cool. However, the module was written as a railroad and doesn't take into account that if you subvert that point, the party could return to Jean-Louis's Salon over and over again. 

Should 10,000 gps and 3 more Magen be available every time? 

Yes-No. Jean-Louis and his Magen should be there, but should not offer a match to the players each time. At least not for money. That would be game-breaking because dumping 10,000 gps on the party would send their levels through the roof in short order. 

Here is a handy post where I compare all of the character level charts from OSE. Since OSE doesn't have the concept of "Challenge Rating", you can use this chart to quickly determine how much experience is too much to hand out. It doesn't help with creating a combat scenario, but it will stop you from throwing too much cash at the party in one go. It also helps you determine how quickly low-level characters can catch up to higher ones and what classes will rapidly level. 

Jude (formerly known as Punch) had this issue. In the B2 sessions, he struggled to keep up because he obtained most of his experience from combat, not treasure. In B/X, limiting the treasure is the best way to keep characters in a certain regime of play. 

I don't know if we'll see Jean-Louis later, but I have a couple of ideas about how I would play him. He was a pomus ass at first, then morphed into a gamer and gambler. The next time the party sees him, I suspect he will act like a trainer, a promoter, and a coach. He should stay interesting, but slightly annoying, so the party doesn't get stuck. This is why I gave him a cell phone in the last session. Players would catch the meta of a pre-republic French dude trying to be an Instagram influencer. That's fun. 

I believe I'll have time to post again on Saturday or Sunday.