X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 5.0 - Ancient and Secret Ways

The Indoor Forest is a shockingly big place. In 1 inch=5 feet, the map would be about 70 inches across and up and down. 

This area should be a slog, but there are not enough events and wandering monsters to make is too difficult. In fact, the party doesn't meet a single wandering monsters. 

Previously, I mention the rakasta entered the forest first. What I did in this case was rolled for wandering monsters on a schedule, then gave the party and the rakasta a 50-50 chance of meeting the rolled monsters. The rakasta got the short end of the stick using this method. They ran from a group of bears, before getting in a fight.  

With Gabby and Gronk as guides at the front of the group, the party made it through relatively quickly. This area is really only dangerous if the party wanders from the path, and Gabby wouldn't let them. 

I would make a real group of players pick a proper marching order, but since this is a solo session, the order is very loose. Gronk and Lance lead, with Nononn and Gabby behind them. Jude, Merry, Parker and Warren ring the magic users and clerics. Rety is the trailer, watching everyone's backs. 

To bring the Killer Trees back, Gabby and Lance threw meat to them which made them happy. The rough patch happens with the illusions. Sybil has become less wise and is empowered by magic and chaos. She wanted to investigate endless, increasing her changes of wandering into something dangerous. Rety, Lance and Gabby convinced her to return to the task at hand. 

Having made their way to the lady and unicorn, Gabby and Gronk sat down to wait for them to awake. The rest of the party doesn't exactly follow suit, but they do become aware that this is some sort of game between the witch and the denizens of the forest. Lance and Khouri took a knee nearby when they realized both were pretending sleep. The rest of the party stood by politely. 

"Its ok," said Gabby. "We shared Bonds of Hospitality which prevents violence." 

The lady sat up and said, "That was a long time ago, and it should not hold." 

This ritual spell is limited to a day or so, but I would use this spell to introduce some weirdness of Castle Amber to the party. 

"You should not have cast it on an immortal being. I dislike being bound, even in cases that are pleasant," said the unicorn. "You are well met, again, witch." 

Gabby bowed to them both before bringing the key out. "We wish to be free." 

The lady nodded. I personally dislike how long it takes the party to know the secret of Castle Amber. 

The lady, full of the lore of dragons can recite part of the mystery but not all: 

"The secret that will break the curse surrounding Castle Amber and lift the gray mist is engraved on the inside lid of Stephen Amber's casket. To summon Prince Stephen's tomb from beyond space and time, four magical items are needed. And it starts with the key." 

Gabby smiled at them. 

"Where is the tomb?" asked Nononn. 

"We do not know." the unicorn answered, "but it is reachable from the castle. You will have to explore it more." 

"Wait," said Rety, "Have you explored the castle completely?" 

The lady smiled. "No, we are immortal beings, we are not confined by the mists and magic. We can leave any time we like."

"And no, we can lead you out. You are trapped by your own doing just and I and the 'corn are bound by Gabby's spell," the lady continued. "We suggest either traveling east or north."

"Beware of the cat men, the Rakasta. They move ahead of you, seeking something else entirely." 

(I think I have spelled "rakasta" wrong every time, differently. If only AI was good for something.) 

The party thanked them and moved north along the path. At the fountain in the middle of the forest, they found bodies, the aftermath of a fight. Five rakasta laid dead, along with a horse and a woman. The woman was Isidora Amber. Disturbingly, it appeared the rakasta attacked each other. All had noticeable tiger-claw wounds. 

The party deduces the woman was waylaid by the rakasta as she sat near the fountain. The reality was the opposite, Isidora Amber ambushed the rakasta as they killed the amoeba in the fountain. The survivors escaped with the key. Gabby took Isidora's potion and ring while Bel took her spell book. 

The party moved northwest, and stopped when they spotted movement to the right. 

"Show offs!" grumbled Gronk. 

At first, the party only saw squirrels. Then they saw the squirrels transform acorns into gold. More curious and amused, Bel, Rety, Lance, and Sybil start feeding them. They were perplexed that the squirrels don't turn apples, peaches, and plums into gold. They had a nervous moment when a squirrel touched Lance, but he didn't turn to gold either. 

Amused, they started to move away when Wild Hunt blocked the path before them. 

Warren, Parker, Nononn, Jude, and Merry formed a line between the rest of the party and The Hunt. No one moved as both groups stared each other down. The impasse was broken by an angry snort from behind the party. The lady and the unicorn had followed them. 

The lady dismounted and waved to Jude, who smiled. He mounted the 'corn with his pole arm held like a lance. Nononn gave him a shield and I pulled out my copy of Chainmail to use the jousting rules. That link is to DriveThruRPG. 

Breaking a lance does 1d4 points of damage, unhorsed does 1d6 and helmet hits and injuries do full weapon damage. Jude manages to unhorse Andrew David. I could have had Jude continue with the other four, or I could have stopped here, using the morale rules. Andrew David, having been knocked down would have counted as the first causality. 

Although the unicorn was simply a vehicle for Jude to use his abilities, I do have a fully spec'ed out Unicorn class to use. You can check it out here. I may reformat this and post it as an actual character class on DrivethruRPG and Ko-Fi. 

I have never really been satisfied with mounted combat in D&D, in every version. I use a format where the mount does all of the movement and gives up their attacks. Once the rider becomes separated from their mount, both are free to attack. Anything else is too overpower. I guess I should get better at describing quick and fast movement, because I can't find a way to fix these rules. They are good enough, I guess. 

I didn't take detailed notes as I went through this combat while watching hockey. The party was victorious, having killed Andrew David, the elk, two tigers and both lupin. They now have his potion, his mace +2 and shield. The rest fled due to failing morale. 

The party healed themselves up and proceeded on to the Chapel entrance. The next session will be session 6.0. 

Over the next week, I will be watching the Sabres battle the Canadiens while making some changes to the website. The top banner for DriveThruRPG is only the start of some changes around here.