X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 0

It is time to begin. This is the introductory post of my solo play-through of Castle Amber. I grabbed a copy just before Christmas from DriveThruRPG, and you can, too. Click the link. 

I am using the Old School Essentials rule set. For the most part, these are available on Drivethru. You might like the Rule Tome, or you can carry on with whatever old-school D&D product. I've played it with AD&D e1, B/X, BECMI, and RC. There is no real reason to change what you are comfortable with. None of these rule changes should break X2. 

Carry on as you see fit. 

I have already outlined the characters that will be adventuring in Castle Amber in this post. The party is loaded towards physical combat, having only 2 Magic Users and 3 Clerics. Two elves give the party a little more magic. For brevity, I will simply list all 13 characters:

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

I said the magic words: Comfort and Brevity. This is not a good combination. You should be comfortable with the rules you are using, which is why I suggest your favorite because you will know them best. X2 launches with a railroad. The characters find themselves in the 1. The Foyer. There is no path but forward. This is where brevity hurts. 

There is no way the author could know what type of campaign you run, so it goes into a default railroad scenario. This might not be necessary for your campaign setting and style of play. First, you can ditch the railroad entirely by landing your characters in the Foyer, but not subjecting them to the mist. This is easy enough, but you have to know your players, not the characters. The presentation you use might put a bug in their bonnet to explore Castle Amber without the nasty wall of mist to force them. It's your world, and Castle Amber can sit idle until the party takes the challenge. You can wait them out. 

Or you can go all Fifth Edition and declare a "one-shot" where Castle Amber is the ONLY adventure for a series of sessions. 

For my session 0, I am going to lay out a cosy-catastraphe scenario. The party has wandered to the castle in the dark, and is brought up short by locked doors to the Foyer. The doors unlock in the daytime. The party sets up camp for the night. 

In the dark, exploration is limited to an area of 200 or 300 feet east, west, and south. In my campaign world, I limit nighttime activities, and I would not present any wandering monsters or other suggestions they should explore at night. 

In the morning, they will be able to either try to get out of the area and fail or proceed willingly into the Foyer. If they explore the environs, the trail approaching the castle goes south for a few hundred feet and turns. It is entirely hemmed in by trees. 

Proceeding around the bend will result in the party stumbling back to the castle. A perplexing mystery. If they wander into the trees, they will encounter the fog and mist as described in X2, with one change. Animals won't wander into the mist, and the mist hides a dense forest. 

It is like the box to the right. Not particularly notable or scary, just odd. 

Next, the area around the entrance to the foyer has fruit trees, berries, grass, two troughs of water filled by a fountain, and two wall-mounted hay racks. There are also several post-mounted hitches on at the foot of the stairs. 

This area has several magical oddities: 

• Horses tied to the hitches will magically release themselves to graze. 
• The hayboxes will refill every morning. 
• Dogs will find bones and small prey easily, as if set out for them.
• If a character mentions a type of fruit or berry that has not been described previously, it will appear the next morning. 

The gist of all of his is that it is horse heaven. The party should feel very comfortable leaving their animals here, which speeds progress into the Castle. 

Try not to make the party too inquisitive here. The windows are too high to easily reach and have dark-stained glass in the panes, meaning they can't peek into rooms. The party could load up on fruit and berries here if short on supplies. For several sessions, they can retreat here to heal up and rest. 

On the first night and first morning, the party discovers themselves in a trap. 

Alexei and Rety scope out the Foyer doors and deem them safe and free of traps, while everyone else readies their gear. The Foyer's inner doors open by themselves, jump-scaring everyone. The weapons come out and the party assembles into a marching order:

Merry, Lance, Jude, and Nodonn take the front rank.
Ana, Alexei, Solvo, and Thomas are in the second rank.
Dorian and Thomas bracket Sybil and Bel, who want to go first.
Lance, Pizzaballa, and Rety take the rear.

The party bypasses the door to room 2 quietly and moves into the main hallway. Entering the majestic hallway leaves the party perplexed. They put away their weapons, except for Solvo and Lance, who keep their bows out. They quietly send Rety and Alexei down the hall, creeping down the right and left walls respectively.

Rety listens at each door, but hears nothing. She detects a musky and smoky smell from the second door. She also notes this is the only door with a keyhole. The door is very thick and has covers on both sides of the keyhole, so she can see nothing. Once they reach the end of the hall, they pull out their bows to cover the rest of the party.

Merry, Jude, and Nodonn quietly advance to Rety and Lance's position. At this point, I roll for wandering monsters, and the result is nothing. Bel and Sybil follow the three men to the door to Indoor Forest. Merry signals for everyone to draw weapons and open the door.

Curious glances are exchanged as they view the Indoor Forest. Cautiously, the rest of the party advances to get a look. Confused by the sight, Lance and Alexei are sent back outside to get a better look. They return and confirm that this forest is actually inside the castle. I roll again for wandering monsters, and again the result is nothing.

The whole party exits the castle to regroup.

They know three doors have locks, but do not try them. These are the two bedrooms and the study. The party opens and closes the door to the Indoor Forest. They know there are no traps in the hallways, and the carpet nicely silences footsteps. They have no reason to believe there are wandering monsters, but this is wrong.

Rety, Nodonn, Merry, and Jude convince the party to start at the first door, searching room by room until they discover someone or something. 

We will pick up there in Session 1.