X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 8 - There are Rules

I have a pretty strict rule. Don't throw dice unless you can risk Random. The gist of this is that if a player has agency or the DM needs agency, don't let a random die roll ruin that. The corollary is obvious: don't fudge rolls because you got a roll that you didn't like. 

What if you goof and throw those dice and get a result no one will like? As the DM you can not modify the die roll but you can modify the whole situation. 

Here is the scenario: Rety and the team are laying their friend Nononn to rest, burying him in the Indoor Forest in Castle Amber. They exited the Study, and since they weren't being terribly quiet, I rolled for wandering monsters. The result was 12 hobgoblins. 

Can the party kill 12 hobgoblins? Hell, yes. But the character's intention was to lay a friend to rest. I should not have picked up the dice. That was a bad call. 

How can I fix it? Play it through with a different point of view. 

The hobgoblin stepped out of a room and spotted the heroes. Numbers-wise, this would be an even fight, except the obvious magic-users were in plain sight. Plus, the magic users had the cover of their fighting men. 

The hobgoblins faded away, and the heroes continued on with their mission. 

Rather than let this one go, several of the party members have ESP. I would have explained the encounter in ESP-fuelled dreams. But using real-world logic. Funny logic, it is logical.  

The hobgoblins explain their actions to their leader.

"We saw the invaders," said Murg. 

"And where are their heads?" the chieftain asked. 

"Well... We didn't attack," Murg sheepishly answered.  

"Cowards!" barked the chieftain.

"But sir, they were carrying a human body. Towards the dining hall." 

"What?" said the chieftain.

"Sir, I think they're cannibals," said Murg.  

"Disgusting! Rally the gang. We must destroy these awful invaders. They have crossed a line, there must be rules and standards!" 

The encounter didn't result in a fight and it does make sense from a certain point of view. In this way, the die rolls are honored, but not in the way that was expected. Sometimes encounters can be misunderstandings. 

We will pick up with the hobgoblin attack after the funeral. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 8 - Rety to Atone

It looks like a chapel

It's hard to believe most of this motley crew has survived for over a year. That is 13 months of me trying to track 26 different characters. Rety started in the driver's seat last August in the Caves of Chaos and, after the loss of many of her friends, drifted along with events. With the death of Nononn, she is ready to take the reins again.

In this post, the party will get back to basics, and so will I. This post is about bookkeeping and character roles. 

The issue with Session 7 was that the party had long ago stopped paying attention to roles and supplies. With no one in charge, their behavior was limited to simple reactions. They entered a massive space with nooks, crannies, and more than a boatload of nasties to contend with. And Nononn died as a result.

From my end, I had scattered notes, and as the DM, I lost track of things. Since this is largely a solo endeavor, with me planning the actions of nearly a dozen characters and twice as many monsters, I skimped on the basics, such as tracking inventory.

It's time to fix that.

I've taken the first step and stated the problem: a lack of foresight. When you are the DM, you may notice your players stop wanting to be their characters. If you see this happening, you can throw in an event that allows the party to recuperate and gather their thoughts, remake or reforge themselves, so to speak. 

One option is to simply let them get lost in a minor way. Being lost is defined as not knowing where one is, which is a perfect description of what is happening to the party. Getting lost can be beneficial to a party. No one knows where they are, so they can take a breath and recollect, away from constant threats.

I also favor a mini-event where the party encounters people who allow them a moment to get a grip on their perspective. We see this in movies and books a lot, so it's fair game in my opinion. Atreyu encounters Morla the Turtle, the Hobbits meet Tom Bombadil, and the children in Narnia meet Father Christmas. I have a pre-generated duo named Jen and Flameheart that I can throw into almost any campaign... except this one, because the party is trapped. 

However, three people could fill the role instead.

Let us return to the party in the chapel, panic in progress. The party collected Nononn's remains. Sybil lies next to him, paralysed. Belaphon sat, trapped in blindness. Dorian discovered the curse when he tried to heal Jude. Merry and Gabby whisper about evil curses and take over the healing process. The zombies howled and hammered on the doors. 

Rety took it in and was outraged. She took charge of the situation. 

Why would she take charge? She has an 18 Charisma and she turned it on. 

"Mon Seigneur Gronk, Chevalier du Bois de Lilas, le Défenseur des Voies Anciennes et Secrètes. Rally my troops!" barked Rety. This was something the rabbit dreamed of. He barked orders at the party, sending them this way and that. 

Nonplussed, Gabby's mouth dropped open. 

"Lady Gabrielle Durant, benefactor of this party, we must ready your quarters for the wounded," said Rety in a near-reverent whisper. Gabby, who was no slouch in the charm department, found this both respectful and needful. 

Gronk had the fighters gather up the treasure. They looted the cleric's and magic user's quarters. He ordered all the doors to be checked and spiked closed. While the party didn't know it, Gronk heard the bees and the cockatrice in the room with the holes. Not wanting a fight, the party forgoes more treasure.

They use bedding to make two litters for Nononn and Sybil. 

Destination selected, the Rety led them south and out of the chapel. They traversed the Indoor Forest and made it to the door to Area 5, before encountering trouble. 

William Amber bellowed, "Who the hell are you?" as he stuck Dorian with a hold person spell. 

Rety, Lance, and Khouri loosed arrows at him. With only 29 hit points and no chance to ready a spell, the party handled him easily. The arrows did little, except that every hit prevented the preparation of a spell. Wizards in B/X shouldn't travel alone, or the DM should prep the wizard with spells instead of using the listed suggestions. Fireball or lightning bolt would have made this a challenge. 

Rety grumbled as Lance picked up Dorian. She was losing more men to carrying people. They raced to the Study and barred the door. 

I find that spells like sleep and hold person are more traps than effective attack spells. The consequences come after combat, usually not during combat. William tied up two, possibly 3 characters with one spell, since Dorian needed to be carried away. 

This looks like a study

Once inside the study, wounds were attended to, and armor and weapons cleaned. Rety and Gabby prepared a meal for the party and discussed a few things. They asked the party to arrange their equipment on one table while the other table was set for the meal. 

The Rakastas left a lot of mundane items behind, which the party took advantage of. Sybil, Dorian, and Bela all rested on fine furs. Nononn was draped in silk. 

Since the party was at rest, the hold person's spells faded away naturally. Surprisingly, Sybil's first act was to cast Continual Light on Belaphon to relieve him of his curse. When Dorian rose, the three recovered heroes added their equipment and treasure to the pile on the table. 

Sybil's sword glowed ominously as it reacted to chaotic creatures, in this case, Sybil.  

"Sybil, sheath your sword," she ordered, and the Magic-User took it back. This is a character-defining weapon, and Rety had no intention of putting it in the party's sharing pile.  

The silverware and plates were rather large for humans and demihumans, but they made do. As they ate, Rety spelled out her simple plan. 

"To attend to our friend, Nononn, we must first attend to ourselves," she announced.  

The party drank their wines and spirits to honor their fallen friend as she continued. Rety encouraged this, as booze is one less thing to carry, and toasting their friend showed self-control rather than a drunken pity party. The party has 4 bags of holding, a tremendous carrying capacity, yet they aren't using it effectively. They need to get rid of some stuff and replace it with others. 

"Once this task is complete, we must provision ourselves for a long foray into the castle. We should no longer plan on retreat," she said. The party nodded in agreement. 

"We shall check our animals, gather what we can from the forest, and start our journey. I know not how long we shall be, but I would like to be free of this place by the end of the week." 

This garnered many grunts of approval. None knew how extensive this adventure would be. They aren't even halfway through it. My personal plan is to get them to Averoigne by mid-October. I will have to enlist my kids to help with all of the combat rolls. 

After dinner, Gronk arranged the party into frontline fighters, second-rank fighters, and rearguard. Gabby and Rety dressed them as needed, with many fighters trading weapons and armor with one another. Jude and Merry wholeheartedly agreed with this process, while Lance and Khouri grumbled as her kit was replaced. However, as the two women dressed Lance in the finest armor and gave him the best sword, Khouri's objections tailed off, and Lance was well pleased. He looked like a proper knight. 

Rather than detail how everyone was armed individually, I will explain it as Rety did. She used a chessboard to explain it to everyone. 

The front rank of fighting men had the heaviest armor with lighter sidearms. These were Parker, Warren, and Lance. The next rank has slightly lighter armor, bows, and swords, with the exception being Jude, who doesn't use a bow. Khouri and Merry rounded out the second rank. The third rank was made up of the two magic users on the flanks and Dorian in the middle. Rety took the rear position with her bow, as a tail gunner. Jude, being centrally located, could issue commands and warnings. 

Lety distributed the 4 Bags of Holding among the ranks. Lance, Jude, Dorian, and Lety each have one. The vast majority of the party's gear was placed in the bags, leaving everyone carrying very light loads. However, for their very next task, no one will be carrying a backpack. 

The party readied Nononn for his final foray to the burial site in the Indoor Forest. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 7 - Can I Help You? Part II

In my last post, we left the heroes in the Chapel, where Simon confronted them. I should have labeled the map last time, but this is what we roughly have: 

Technically, no one is surprised, but Simon's marked out like a Shakespearean actor and said his line: 

"Can I help you!" 

On target for a haughty D'Amberville, but a poor plan for picking a fight. He is denoted by the red S. Behind him were the bone golem and the pack of skeletons. On the left, I have marked out the 3 groups of Zombies. 

Parker and Warren tense and begin advancing on him, with Jude following. They know the D'Amberville family well. In reaction to this, the snap-case characters react. Khouri and Lance loosed arrows as they are a team. Although separated, they think alike. Rety joined in the fun. Sybil ripped off a magic missile. Alexei starts playing the organ to set the tone. 

Simon paid for his mistake, taking 13 points of damage. 

Sooooo many targets.

Round 2. I roll 3 dice for initiative. The skeletons and golem burst through the door behind Simon while the zombies start moving towards the sound of Simon's voice. Parker, Warren, and Jude continue their advance. Lance, Khouri, Rety, Nononn, and Merry loose arrows. Gabby and Dorian merely watch while Sybil steps out of Bel's way so he can loft his
magic missile. 

Simon took another 12 points of damage and can't cast a spell. He readied a mace. He is down to 12 HP. He allows the skeletons and golem to interpose themselves between him and the party. 

Round 3. The party continues to roll well for initiative. Parker, Warran, and Jude sweep past Merry and Nononn. Nononn drew his sword and followed them. Sybil and Bel were out of magic missiles and split up. Sybil ran after Jude's team while Bel made for the stairs. 

The dynamic of the combat changes. Merry and Dorian turn all of the skeletons but are perplexed by the golem, which they can't identify at range. 

Lance and Khouri kept firing arrows, but missed. This gave Simon a chance to cast hold person on Sybil, rooting her in place. 

Round 4: The bone golem and Jude's team met. Parker and Warren were struck for 3 and 7 HP. The zombies burst out of the western door. Merry could hear them, but couldn't see them as they were behind the statues. He stopped and turned. Simon struck Bel with continual darkness. Bel stumbled into a statue, triggering it. It bestowed a very ironic gift on him: a scroll of protection from magic. Helpful, but not really. 

The fighting men go at the golem, dealing 12 points of damage. 

Khouri, Rety, and Lance target Simon again. They do one point of damage, knocking him to 11 HP. 

Gabby ran down the stairs, intending to help Sybil. She was blocked by Bel, flailing between two statues, enshrouded in darkness. She yelled at him to stop moving. Luckily, he didn't trigger either statue again. 

Round 5: The golem gets the drop on the party again, this time with Simon helping. Warren, Parker, and Jude took 8, 7, and 3 HP damage, respectively. Khouri was not able to get an angle on a target and advanced in on the melee, bow still drawn.   

At the bottom of the stairs, Bel flailed against the statues, thinking he was under attack. Gabby grabbed him and pulled him away. The darkness spell was far more effective than I thought it would be. Lance followed her into the chaotic situation.  

Jude managed to strike Simon for 6 HP, leaving just 3 HP. 

Rety climbed over the railing and down to the chapel floor. Climb is a wildly under-used and under-rated ability.   

Round 6: The party tied with the monsters for initiative. Merry easily turned the zombies, and they retreated back to their cells. Khouri continued her advance, while Lance stumbled towards Gabby and the confused Bel. Sybil was still held. 

The golem was struck for 18 more points of damage, leaving it with just 7 HP. Simon backed up but used Finger of Death on Nononn. He handily saved. 

Charles opened the eastern door and muttered: "What's happening?" This woke Madiline and her bloodlust for Charles. She charged for the stairs with Doian in hot pursuit. 

Round 7: The party goes first. Nononn slipped around the golem and narrowly missed Simon in the doorway. The three fighters pummeled the golem to death. 

Lance, Merry, and Khouri continue their advance on Simon. Dorian and Madiline made it down the stairs, while Rety sprinted to the altar. Lord, this room is big. 

Simon took a second go at Nononn with Finger of Death and this time the fighter lost. 

Round 8: The three fighting men breached the door and killed Simon. Gabby finally restrained Bel, while Madiline raged at Charles. Rety paused, not knowing which way to go. 

Charles smiled evilly and darted forward to cast a spell. Nononn rose from the chapel floor and shambled to intercept Madiline. Due to the nature of his death, Nononn rose with his full hit points, armor class, and weapon. 

Narrative rounds: The chaos was complete. Madiline and Nononn raced at each other, with the whole party in pursuit. Charles protected his retreat with a wall of ice. Rety separated from the party, entering the northwestern door to stalk Charles. The animated Nononn slew Madiline and turned on the party. Sadly, the party defeated their former ally.

Rety had followed Charles back to his lair in room 30 and observed from the shadows, hidden off to the right of his door. Charles readied himself for a battle, securing his room the best he could. He cast darkness at the northwestern turn of the hallway. He sent his wizard eye down to the northwestern doorway of the chapel to watch the party. Rety silently watched, bow in hand, while Charles searched his library for anything that could assist him in the upcoming fight. 

Khouri led the fighting men down the northwestern hallway, taking a moment to swipe at the wizard's eye. Alerted by the attack on the eye, Charles took a final frantic look around the room. That was when Rety loosed an arrow into his back. She had surprised him. 

His shriek caused the fighting men to move in double time. Merry and Khouri took the lead to get the others through the darkness. 

In the next round, Rety stepped into the room and hit him with another arrow. And that was all the time the angry fighters needed to enter the room themselves and put an end to him. Jude and Merry threw up a stink about dismembering the body. The other grumbled but agreed.   

They circled back to kill the skeletons before everyone banded together to spike the zombies' cell door shut. 

We leave the party with Sybil held, Bel enshrouded in darkness, and Nonnon dead. Everyone except Dorian, Gabby, and Lance had some wounds. 

The party had defeated 18 zombies, 9 skeletons, a bone golem, and three of D'Amberville. 

There will be a lot of mopping up before the next session. I will post bookkeeping, share Warren and Parker's character sheets, and award experience. 

Planning Session 7.1 - Keys and Oops

We left the party in the Chapel, in the middle of a massive brawl in Castle Amber. 

This post is kind of spoiler-heavy, so you might want to stop reading here. I am going to tell you what happens to the party in the future. I am already 3 sessions ahead of the Chapel, although you can't know that. 

While this is a solo playthrough, "solo" is not 100% accurate. I often point this out within individual posts. 

First, I have been using AI to assist me in tracking the whereabouts of the party when it splits up. This helps me track time and locations. I don't use AI for grammar checking because it gets excited about dashes, dash-em, commas, and semicolons. AI cannot assess sentence complexity very well and will suggest these bits of punctuation far too often. It will also battle with my built-in Chrome spellchecker, which is crazy. It also cheats if asked to roll dice or "randomly" select an option. We'll see that happen again shortly. 

Second, I often ask my children to throw dice and select character actions. They don't really want to sit and play, but occasionally they help me with this series by helping roll through large combats or throwing plot twists at me. 

I also use my copy of OSR Solo, an old-school oracle book for solo play to generate ideas, which I guess is a third modifier in this less-than-solo adventure. 

Let's get to the second big oops of this series. Pizzalla, Solvo, and Thomas have all died. Alexei has been turned insubstantial. Alexei's items are just as insubstantial as he is. But Solvo's backpack contained a bag of holding, and were both were transferred to another character's bag of holding in a second backpack. Technically speaking, I lost track of those supplies, and the party did, too. 

After the Battle of the Chapel, the party will discover their mistake and Parker and Warren will be properly provisioned as fighters, complete with bows and arrows, plus some other kit. 

Next item. I should have tracked the keys. I had forgotten that the party needed 3 keys. Here are their locations as of now: 

3. Study (In Gabby's possession.)
18. Fountain of Death (The Rakshasa took it)
27. Consultation Room (We are almost there)
52. Bobbing for a Key 

The module does suggest reducing the number of keys depending on how the party is doing. Essentially, I have hard-coded a reduction of one key by allowing the Rakshasa to take one from the fountain. I figured they would either die and the party would loot the key from the corpses, or the Rakshasa would make it to the gate and the party would find one key already there. 

First, I asked AI if the Rakshasa should enter Averoigne. I asked it to ignore mechanics, the module, and just give me a yes-or-no answer. It said yes and backed it up with all kinds of mechanics and hallucinated details about the module, Clark Ashton Smith's writings, and D&D in general. 

Sigh. AI, you kind of suck. 

I was going to roll a die and consult my copy of OSR Solo but then decided that Rakshasa in Averoigne would be fun. No random die rolls, no AI. It's fun. I am doing it. 

Why? Because I want to introduce a new NPC to Averoigne, a person named Madeline. She is a chef. She was created using my very own ruleset for NPCs called Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners.

However, this set of rules isn't the one that has been downloaded hundreds of times. 

No, this is a complete rewrite specifically meant for Old School Essentials and I will use their Open Game Content license. I hope to have this done by Christmas, and it will be my first non-PWYW title. I will not take the old edition down. It will continue to be PWYW. 

I plan on 2, maybe 3 booklets in this new edition. The first is the rules, and the second booklet will be a helper PDF and zip file so that others can build content off of it. I have to comply with their OGL, and I plan on being as helpful as possible to other creators. I haven't decided if a 3rd booklet is necessary. 

In order to assist with this project, I have created an OSE character generator. Critical to this project is the ability to generate characters using average dice, which this generator does. I AM using AI to create this generator, BUT as a crutch for the coding skills I have lost. As time goes on, I am recovering my coding skills and my reliance on AI is dropping. 

I hope you stick with me in these year-end endeavors and stay for what is to come in 2027. In the next post, we will see how the party fares in the Chapel and possibly beyond. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 7 - Can I Help You? Part I

It has been far too long since I posted the adventures in Castle Amber. We left the party in the Chapel. 

It's easy to forget how big the Castle is. Each square is 10 feet, not five. Since I am discussing size, the party now has 3 extra characters. I have decided that Alexei will be present until the party exits the Castle. He is non-corporeal, so he is limited to magic only. 

Parker and Warren have taken the class of Fighter. Since the beginning, they have had 24 HP. On average, they must be equivalent to 5th-level fighters, with no Constitution bonuses. As Fighters, they are much more dangerous than Demos Magen, mostly due to armor and weapon selections. Given the party is trapped in the castle, they have only the halberds and breastplates they were pictured holding. The party also gives them some daggers and slings, the only extra weapons the party had. 

We left the party in the corner marked 25, with a sleeping Magdalene D'Amberville. Alexei wandered away, up the stairs, to inspect the organ in the Choir Loft. 

Simon's room (32) is an odd place, with 3 secret doors leading to it. Charles's room (30) makes more sense. Rooms 26a-f contain Zombies, while Room 27 holds the bone golem and skeletons. 

I mention this as Alexei approached the organ. The party was not being quiet, so we are about to experience a lot of combat. Remember I mentioned how big the castle and chapel are? It turns out, all of the creatures in here are faster than most of the party. That will play into combat. 

Zombies in D&D are fast-moving but slow-fighting. They can run down a party, but once they catch them, Zombies are always last to act. That is an interesting dynamic.

Let's put the players on the field and take roll call. 

Alexei, Rety, Dorian, and Lance went upstairs. Rety and Lance have bows out to act as overwatch for the party, while Alexei wondered if the organ worked. Dorian administered care to the sleeping Magdalene D'Amberville, while Merry, Nononn, and Gabby guarded the area. Belaphon and Sybil, ever incautious, explored area 24 near the trap door and altar. 

Parker, Warren, Jude, and Khouri had a plan. They moved to the east side of the chapel and breached the door leading to 26a-c. I made a judgment call and decided all the doors were well maintained and set up to open into the space they protected, like monastic cells rather than prison cells. Jude listened at the outer door and the door to 26b. He heard nothing and opened the door. 

The zombies bellowed at the intrusion, and Jude slammed the door closed. 

In the first round of combat, the lead Zombie threw the door open, and Jude hit him with his polearm. Khouri stepped in and fired an arrow into its face, finishing it. Parker and Warren retreated back into the chapel, with Warren dropping his weapon to hold the door open and keep the torch high. Parker guarded his back. 

Lance and Rety, alerted by the noise, nocked arrows and leaned on the railing. Everyone else in the party looked to action, uncertain as to what was happening. 

Round 2: Khouri darted through the open door and turned around, bow leveled. Jude and the next Zombie exchanged blows as Jude retreated through the door. Warren slammed the door closed. 

Rety and Lance could see the melee, but had no targets. Bela and Sybil could see movement, and Bela cast light on the altar. The rest of the party drew weapons, but couldn't decide whether to retreat or move to Jude and the others. 

Unbeknownst to the party, Simon decided to check on the noise. Simon moved to the western door to the chapel and would not arrive for 5 more rounds, even if he ran. Charles hates noise and does nothing. Also unknown to the party, the remaining 6 zombies advance from 26a and 26c to back up their brethren. 

Doors can be a real problem. 

But the statues are worse. 

Round 3: Khouri moved south along the wall, while Jude, Warren, and Parker formed a wall of polearms. The two zombies died in the hedgehog of long weapons. 

Charles was on the move, while Simon cursed the noise of battle. 

The rest of the party made a choice and started moving to the stairs to the choir loft. Merry and Nononn drew bows and covered Dorian, the sleeping woman, and Gabby. In stepping out of the space, the Fighter and Paladin almost triggered a statue. Bela and Sybil moved southward, still facing the action, unsure where they were needed most. 

I really need to paint these guys.

Round 4: The doorway to 26a-c was blocked by the bodies of Zombies, so the four heroes backed up. The three Fighters, ready for combat, didn't think of the danger of the statues. They almost triggered. Bel and Sybil paced them, moving south. The damned statues prevented anyone from firing, except Khouri, who was on the south wall. Since she hadn't tried to cross the row of statues, she was not in danger of triggering them. 

Khouri hit the first Zombie through the door with an arrow. It turned to face her, but she was out of reach. The three men faced the remaining five zombies, but only three were in reach. One was dropped. 

Round 5: Charles made a stop to collect the bone golem and the skeleton crew. 

Khouri loosed an arrow not at the zombie pursuing her but into one of the last two Zombies leaving area 26a-c. She struck well. The 3 fighters downed two more Zombies. To collect, one Zombie pursued Khouri while the remaining four pursued Parker, Warren, and Jude. Finally, everyone could see the Zombies. 

Nononn and Merry sprinted to support Jude's battered team. Again, the party was lucky as the men didn't trigger the statues. Khouri dropped her bow and darted between the statues. One of them triggered and touched her, raising her Constitution by a point. She had only a 9, so this bonus didn't really help her. She and the Zombie exchanged blows, with Khouri taking the worst of it: 8 HP. Her Zombie was down to one hit point. 

The fighters tore into their remaining foes. Two down and two to go. Jude and Parker took minor damage. 

Round 6: Bel and Sybil ran to the stairs, making it most of the way. Nononn and Merry slowed as the fighters dispatched the remaining Zombies. 

Round 7: In the silence, Khouri moved to recover her bow, this time remembering to inch between the statues to prevent another triggered curse or boon. The Paladin and the remaining fighters rallied on the eastern side of the chapel. 

I don't think Moldvay meant for this area to become a battlefield. I suspect the intention was to ambush the party in the nooks and crannies of 26a-f before letting the party stumble into different pitfalls of the northern end of the chapel. 

This area is a wonderful place to let a young party cut loose and learn the ropes of mass combat. It presents so many challenges. The doors and statues are barriers to sight while also representing problems. The magic users are too young to unleash combat-ending spells. The distances and darkness caused issues with turning undead, simply because no one knew they were undead. Picking different areas to pass through meant that some characters weren't even in the melee. Also, the speed of the monsters matched the characters, making retreat a possible losing proposition. By clustering together, the party managed to avoid getting overrun and slaughtered. 

Speaking of clusters, Simon stood listening at the door on the northwestern side of the room, with his gang of undead behind him. In typical D'Amberville fashion, he threw open the door and shouted: 

"Can I help you?" 

Alexei knew what he had to do; he took a seat before the organ and began to play. Next time, we will see the other half of the Chapel Blitz. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 6.1 - Curses and Boons

We Were Promised Jetpacks are from Scotland.
This statue is cursed. 

In my last post, I didn't detail what each party member received from the Statues. 

Lance received a magic item, a +2 shortsword. Merry was given a +2 flaming sword, which he gave to Khouri. Both also received a ring of fire resistance, which they each kept. This means every member of the party has at least one magic weapon and a magic item. 

Khouri was cursed to grow a tail, which would slow her movement. As a post-human, she is immune to haste and slow. Instead, she was briefly incapacitated as her systems fought off the curse. She gets very hot when these sorts of alterations hit her. She might be able to fight or run while under this effect, but at a penalty. I love this effect as it is both helpful while coming at a cost. 

Merry was diseased, but he has a divine immunity to diseases. No effect. 

This is a Disney Magic Sword.

Sybil had her Intelligence go up from 13 to 14. This is not entirely helpful since she is chaotic with a disastrously low Wisdom of 6. On the positive side, she gains another bonus 1st-level spell. I use the old D&D Wisdom table for Magic-Users, switching out Intelligence for Wisdom. I got the idea from the Goldbox game Champions of Kyrnn.

The final curse is very interesting. Dorian was cursed with Empathic Healing. I totally ripped this off from the text-based game, Gemstone IV. 

Here is how Empathic Healing works: 

Dorian's cure and heal spells only work on himself. He can't directly cast them on others. Nor can he cast the reverse of a healing or cure spell at all. They don't function for him.  

When healing someone else, he picks a fixed amount of damage to cure: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20. You'll notice these numbers match dice. The subject of the healing immediately receives these hit points, up to their maximum HP. He cannot over-cure someone to more HP than what they had. Any extra HP is lost. When curing blindness, disease, etc., the subject is cured immediately. 

In the next round, the damage or status is moved from the healed to Dorian. 

Transferring hit point damage works like this: Dorian picks a number from the list above. He rolls a die to see how much damage he suffered in the transference. But there is a push-down effect. If he attempted to restore 20 HP, he rolls a 1d12 to see how much actual damage he took. A choice of 12 results in a 1d10 die roll, 10 points is reduced to a 1d8, and so on. Curing 4 HP, he receives a flat 2 points of damage. Dorian needs to be aware of his own resources since this could kill him outright if he doesn't have enough HP. 

In the third round, he can cast whatever spell he wants on himself to get rid of the damage. 

In the case of blindness, disease, etc. Dorian is allowed the same saving throw the victim failed. If necessary, he can cast the appropriate cure on himself, either immediately or when he has time. Since Clerics pray for spells, he can do this even when blind, deaf*, poisoned, cursed, or diseased. This is a benefit to Dorian here as the allowed saving throw can eliminate the need for casting a spell.

There is one more effect of this curse: it is communicable. If someone uses magic to heal Dorian, like Merry the Paladin or a different cleric casts a spell on him, the healer could also be cursed to have Empathic Healing, too. 

I like curses that work like legal stipulations. There is some good with even the worst curse. Khouri and Gabby have equally weird curses on them. Khouri is nearly immortal, but she is not subject to haste or slow spells. Other magical effects won't work on her, but I haven't explored all of these options yet. Gabby accidentally let a spell get away from her when she cast the Bonds of Hospitality on the Unicorn and Dragon**. She is forever bound to be hospitable to them because they are immortal. The same goes for Alexei, which is less of an issue as he is insubstantial. This will become a plot point later. 

Curses that become a definition of a character are the best because no one has to work to remember them. They just are. 

Next time, the party will meet a person slightly more cursed than themselves. 

*A second campaign note: I have a status for being deafened, and there is a second spell for curing it. It is the same level as the one for blindness. 

**Third campaign note: Unicorns and Dragons are effectively immortal in my campaign. They can only die from violence and misadventure. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 6.0 Count Your Curses and Blessings

Tangent! You can now get these books POD!
Basic here and Expert here.

Gamers often perceive Old School D&D as lethal. That is true and false. Combat tends to be lethal because the players make poor choices in combat OR the DM goofs and throws a scenario at the party that they misconstrue as winnable. This is poor playing by either the character, the DM, or both.

Completely random things tend to be mitigated by the party being aware of a threat that they avoid, plus they have a saving throw or skill throw as a backup option. That tends to make magic, tricks, and traps far less deadly than combat. 

In all fairness, PC in anything higher than 2nd edition have way too many ways to avoid death. It's the way people play. Instead of the campaign, it's the individual players that count. I dislike this because players can be heroes, but never the stuff of legends. 

When playing OSE or any AD&D or B/X game, I have a general guideline: If no one rolls for it, whatever is expected happens, for good or bad. This isn't cheating. It's simply not leaving fate to dice.  

Back to the scenario at hand. Castle Amber, the Chapel. This is my typical ad link so you can buy it. 

I know... I know. If you are one of the dozens of people who are reading this, you own it. But still, there is the ad link.

It's been over a month, so let's recap. The heroes met the Dragon and the Unicorn, and with their help, defeated the Wild Hunt. There are 13 or 14 characters, depending on how you count:

1. Alexei (turned to a ghost) 

2. Belaphon

3. Dorian

4. Gabby

5. Jude

6. Khouri

7. Lance

8. Merry

9. Nononn

10. Rety

11. Sybil

Maybe one of the statues looks like
this.

We can add Warren, Parker, and Gronk the rabbit. Gronk will never have stats, being a familiar and a rabbit, but the two Magen are there to absorb party losses by slowly becoming a classed character. 

The party has advanced to the door to the chapel of Castle Amber. I need to put on my DM hat to navigate this part of the module. In the chapel, there are 24 statues with a 1-in-6 chance of coming to life (per character) and bestowing a curse or boon on that person. The problem is obvious: with only the 10 classed characters, every single statue should trigger every single time. That is neither mysterious nor fun, because the characters have a 50-50 chance of receiving a bad or a good effect. This turns the whole scenario into a Monty Hall conga line. The surviving characters would receive only the benefits of taking the fallen's treasure. 

The way I read this is that part of the module is that this is an event that should be mysterious. I also don't want the possibility of forking out 24 magic items, boosting everyone's stats, or giving every character a permanent plus one. I want events that further the story. 

Good-bad-good-bad!

First things first, upon entering the chapel, the party hears strains of music. Alexei's ghost plays a sad song on his lute. Surprised, but not too surprised, the party greets him. He warns them that what is about to happen is tragic. Madeline Amber was buried by her brother prematurely, and it will be unlikely that the party will be able to save them both. He also warns them about the dangers of the statues. 

Being non-corporeal, he does the only thing he can to assist them: he casts sleep on Madeline Amber to give the party time to think. He also mentions the Rakshasa entered the Chapel, discovered the trap door, and have moved on to their certain doom. Having done his good deeds, he fades away to his now eternal work of playing for the revelers in the Dining Hall. 

I dislike the trap door in this area because it is a dead end for the party to make it to the dungeon without finding the keys and secret to escape Castle Amber. This is one of the challenges when writing a module: something may make sense on paper, like the presence of a trap door, but could also vex the players and DM by causing unfixable problems. Alexei's warning to the party made more sense to me than ignoring the trap door as the module advised. 

Next problem. The statues trigger too often to be mysterious. One in six is a lot. I devised a new mechanic to trigger the statues. Looking at the saving throw charts, most of the characters have around 5 in 20 to save vs the effects of the statue. Well, that is close to 3 out of 4, so I rolled a bunch of four-siders. If the result was 1-3, then I rolled a 1d6 to see if the statue came to life. Yeah, the math doesn't work, and I am doing it backwards. 

After a bit, even this felt like too much die rolling. I could have resorted to my favorite OSR Solo oracle book, but that is also more die-rolling. I am not a fan of AI, but I do have a Gemini and ChatGPT account, so I asked AI to do it. 

And it was not as good as what I would have gotten from OSR Solo, but it was easier.  

I was reminded of why I don't like AI. I got a result, but a very curious one. The numbers look random, but for some reason the bot fixated on specific characters. I repeated this 4 times per chatbot. For some reason, it fixated on just 4 characters: Lance, Gabby, Khouri, and Dorian. At least 2 of those characters were hit in every run, sometimes more than once. When I removed several from the mix, the AI locked on two other characters. 

I don't like these results, but I am running with them with one modification. When Gabby saw the first statue touch Dorian, she immediately stopped participating. Jude stopped with them. In rerunning the scenario without these three characters, Lance, Khouri, and Merry became victims of AI fixation. 

Here were the results: Dorian was cursed. Lance received a magic item, as did Merry. Khouri was cursed to grow a tail (the slowing result), which her Post-Human physiology negated. Again, she suffered some harm as she overheated from negating the attack. Merry was touched a second time and was diseased. He is immune to that. Sybil received a +1 to one ability, and it was not a helpful one.  

I might make a follow-up post because I think I know why I got these results. We are going to leave off here. The next post will be 6.1, where I detail these results and possibly talk about AI. 

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 it too difficult. In fact, the party doesn't meet a single wandering monster. 

Previously, I mentioned the Rakshasa entered the forest first. What I did in this case was roll for wandering monsters on a schedule, then gave the party and the Rakshasa a 50-50 chance of meeting the rolled monsters. The Rakshasa got the short end of the stick using this method. They ran from a group of bears before getting into 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 endlessly, increasing her chances 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 to sleep. The rest of the party stood by politely. 

"It's 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 pleasant cases," said the unicorn. "You are well met, again, witch." 

Gabby bowed to them both before bringing out the key. "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 the 'corn and I are bound by Gabby's spell," the lady continued. "We suggest either traveling east or north."

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

(I think I have spelled "Rakshasa" 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 Rakshasa lay dead, along with a horse and a woman. The woman was Isidora Amber. Disturbingly, it appeared the Rakshasa attacked each other. All had noticeable tiger-claw wounds. 

The party deduces that the woman was waylaid by the Rakshasa as she sat near the fountain. The reality was the opposite. Isidora Amber ambushed the Rakshasa 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 started feeding them. They were perplexed that the squirrels didn'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, unhorsing 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 casualty. 

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 handles all movement and gives up its attacks. Once the rider becomes separated from their mount, both are free to attack. Anything else is too overpowering. 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 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 his shield. I figured he had a shield to go with the lance. 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. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 4.2 Character Updates - Officially Wrong

The other day, I posted updated Character Sheets and then realized I had forgotten to update their ability scores and ancillary stats. I like to relax and watch a hockey game, and sometimes write a bit while doing that. Updating character sheets while watching hockey simply didn't work. 

You know what I did? I did it again for the Sabres vs. Stars game. I did go back after the game and tried to double-check things. If I have made a mistake this time, it will be Officially Wrong forever. 

I have a feeling I botched Jude's stats, but lost my notes. I guess I'll never know for sure. 

Gabby's sheet is still blank on the equipment. This is because I am not using the standard sheet for her. I am using the character folio made by JV West for Other Side Publishing. 

I didn't want to post a file of that, but here is the sample image from DrivethruRPG:

I love it. 

This weekend, I will continue the adventure. 

To get us ready, let's have a brief recap of where we left the party. There were some clear winners and losers at dinner in Castle Amber. Gabby was able to save the day a couple of times to prevent instant death. She had foreknowledge of the potential dangers from a disastrous meal eaten by the Rakshasa. 

Gronk, as a rabbit, offered a lot of bad advice. He warned the characters about the beef, bread, and mushrooms - all items rabbits can't eat. He offered no opinion on the alcohol because, as an intelligent rabbit, he doesn't consume alcohol but knows humanoids do and enjoy it. All of this happened because some of the items were outside of his knowledge. As a DM, you can feed the party information, but the party would be wise to understand that some creatures don't have the same ideas or perspectives as themselves. That's right out of Niven's Laws:

15. There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.
15a. Niven's corollary: The gene-tampered turkey you're talking to isn't necessarily one of them. 

Giant rabbits aren't turkeys, but they are close. And heavier. And eat more.  

All of the participants in the meal had their stats scrambled. Sybil, as a chaotic character, was damaged the most by losing a point of Wisdom and gaining Charisma. She can talk a good game, but the games won't be ones you'd want to play. 

Alexei paid the ultimate price, fading away to join the ghostly party. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 

This is the soul version of Hotel California. The reason for it is two-fold. It's a good song that holds up to changes. That's how I like to play D&D. It's also a callback to when my wife and I saw Don Henley in concert. You know he HAD to play this song, but after decades of playing Hotel California, he gave it a Zydeco rhythm. Sometimes, you have to change things up to keep it fresh. 

This is Gabby's role in the party. She has more experience in the Castle and a wildly different perspective than the party. She will attempt to herd this wacky bunch through the Indoor Forest, a place she knows pretty well. It couldn't be worse than herding Rakshasa. Lance followed her in there, so at least he is willing to trust her. That may sway the party into avoiding some of the threats. 

So, I will see you next time in the Wood Between Worlds... er the Indoor Forest. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 4.1 Character Updates - Mistakes Were Made

The best intentions sometimes go sideways. 

I scanned in my character sheets after session 4.0 and forgot to update their ability scores from the Tossed Salad Incident. I will come back and fix it tomorrow. 

Here is a link to the sheets: Session 4.0 character sheets. You can see I use one of the OSE sheets for nearly every member of the party. These are available on several websites, such as Necrotic Gnome and DriveThruRPG. They are free despite the cart button on each website. My Ko-Fi has the same thing going on, free items still have a cart button. 

Gabby's sheet is largely blank because I am using a specific witch-themed character sheet for her. It is protected by magic... er, a cat in the image on the left. 

In the last session, the party topped up their supplies. You'll notice on the character sheets that most players have one and only one flask of oil. Those who have more flasks are the mature characters who are unlikely to set someone or something on fire with it. 

Like the sleep spell, oil is an underrated means of attack. I wanted to get it out of the way before continuing the adventure.

In the next session or two, we will meet two interesting creatures depicted by some of the most evocative pieces of artwork in a module. 

For shits and giggles, and my wife*, I made my own Unicorn Character Class. It's not too OP as the class is based on the Magic-User. I need to update this character class, as one core feature is missing from the class: Untrammel. Untrammel is a special ability in my campaign that causes restrictions like webs and ropes to unbind to free someone. 

Maybe I'll do that this week. 

*There is a long-running joke in our family about the unicorn character class:

"Dad, if Mom can be a unicorn, how will you top that?"

"Mecha`corn."  

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 wandering 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 Rakshasa stood in the hallway. Gabby and Nononn were able to negotiate with them and solve a couple of problems. At the end of the last session, the party laid the dead respectfully outside for burial. The new Rakshasa took over and buried them for the party. They were encouraged to do this as the party turned over all of the dead Rakshasa's weapons and the herbs Gabby had collected. Catnip was highly desired by them. The newcomers then left through the Indoor Forest. As the Rakshasa 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 Rakshasa'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 the modifiers 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 wouldn't make it through unscathed, if at all. 

And they didn't. 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 guests. 

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 Rakshasa that breached the door and downed Rety. They both have only 3 and 4 hp left.

Gabby pulled the party into the Rakshasa 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 showed the party the Rakshasa'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 Rakshasa 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 had 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.