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, 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 of the doors are well maintained and are set up to open into the space they protect, 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, knocked 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 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 die 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 lofted 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 doesn'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 Palidin 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 typically 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. 

Updates and Other Boring Things

I have a lot going on lately. 

I have ordered another collection of metal starships from Studio Bergstrom. The larger ships at the bottom are called GP Indochine Cruisers. The 4 small ones are Nipponese Corvettes and the singular one in the middle is a Mongolian Cluster Frigate. I am completely unfamiliar with the source material for these ships, but I love the designs. 

I now have 21 of these ships, which should be enough to play A Billion Suns by Osprey Games. I love that Osprey got into the game business. You can grab a copy on DriveThruRPG. This is a fleet action game, which I enjoy, but I am also looking for other rulesets. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments. 

Previously, I had been using paper tokens for ships. I made a ton of designs. I might upload them to my shop on Ko-Fi when I have the time. 

File under super boring, but I updated the page links above. I have decided to style the website name as TOG in space-constrained places. When I created These Old Games, it never occurred to me to use the initials. I will now. 

I have also updated my privacy policy. I personally don't collect much information beyond what Google already does through the blogger.com website. This is mostly directions to the privacy policies of companies that supply ads to me. 

I am leaning toward only using Awin-based ads for physical goods. This choice is very much a mismatch right now, but I plan on adding more content that directly links to art supplies. For example, I will have my eye on this set of detail brushes, which will be handy for the ships above. 

You might also notice the experiment tab. That is also new. Give it a try and let me know what you think. 

Other upcoming decisions are coming. First, I added myself to LinkTree and also joined SubStack. Jumping to SubStack is to follow some creators I found on MeWe. I don't plan on a big presence there. I barely use my Ko-Fi account as it is, and theoretically, both should generate funds. They don't, but I like the concept. 

In other news, I may jump off the Facebook bus. It drives virtually no interaction and no traffic to my website. 

Shortly, my posts will be returning to Castle Amber. 

What I do on Sundays

It's been over a month since I last posted. I haven't been idle, but I also haven't been playing games as much as I would like to. 

This week is our 25th anniversary, so that is my highest priority. We've actually been together since 1996 or 1997, depending on how we count. That is more than half our lifetimes. 

It's mind-blowing. It feels so long ago and just like yesterday. 

Last month, we went on an adventure to Lake George, Lake Luzerne, and Saratoga Springs. We went hiking, horseback riding, slummed in a few bars, had a wine tasting, and went to two concerts. 

This was our big 25th anniversary blowout weekend, and we had more than a blast. 

In Saratoga Springs, Kitty and I went to see her favorite band, Dave Matthews Band. She wanted a poster from the show, but it was cost-prohibitive. So, I am painting her a copy. 

You'll notice it is horse-themed, thanks to the famous racetrack in Saratoga. It's so much fun that DMB gets in on the local life and events. 

I am, of course, using Meeden Paints but with a twist. I normally use oil paints, but since I have been working on models, I wanted to try acrylic paint. Both links will take you to Meeden, to the types of paints I ordered. I receive remuneration for purchases through the clicked links. 

It's a weird switch, because theoretically acrylics are "easier" to use. Maybe for someone who has always used acrylics, that is true. Cleaning up is ridiculously easy. You spend so little time cleaning up, you hardly have to plan to paint. I love it. 

Also, I believe I can use this paint for models. It's artist paint, but I suspect it will be fine. 

That fired off another side project. I ended up buying several sets of paint brushes, for models, for oils, acrylics, and watercolors. Oh, yeah. Why not take on three different styles of painting? 

Anyway, I kept mixing up the brushes or misplaced them. I kicked myself for not ordering a holder or two from Medeen or running to Michaels for one. 

I have a laser. Why not put it to work? 

I found a free design for a guitar pick box and adapted it to hold paint brushes by putting holes in the lid and a support frame on the bottom to keep the brushes from flopping over. This design uses a living hinge, a technique I've never used. The hinge is easy in principle, but I had issues in assembly. 

I suspect the creator uploaded a file that was "good enough" for their task. I will refine my techniques and the design. If I come up with something unique, I will post over on Etsy or Ko-Fi. 

I have really let my Ko-Fi page languish. I need to fix that. 

Next up: Fiver's saga. The big boy is healing nicely. There is no holding this giant rabbit back. We are uncertain if the screws and plate in his leg took correctly, but he doesn't seem to care. He can jump and climb almost as well as he used to. However, we have not caught him on the counters or dining room table since the accident. 

We have developed a daily routine that pairs with a second hobby: gardening. When I wake up, I get him out of the cage, refill all of the water bowls with fresh water, then feed the cats. Fiver climbs up in my chair and waits for his freshly picked herbs and vegetables. 

I do not let him eat in the chair, despite how he thinks it's his throne. He is such a pleasant boy in the morning, unlike the cats who act like 4:30 am is 4 and a half days without food. 

I have been reading a lot lately. I have slammed through 3 books in about 3 weeks. I read John Scalzi's Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigade. I opted to get a physical copy of these books, but they are also available on Libro.fm. Memberships are cheap. I do the 2 books a month, but they have a cheaper 1 book a month option. 

The third book I am currently ploughing through is A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate NY. I picked it up at the Lake George History Association. This is a lovely little museum next to Shepard Park in Lake George proper. 

The ironic thing is, the book covers the history of the place where I live in Western New York and has little to do with what I would call "Upstate New York", like Lake George. 

Surprisingly, it speaks a lot about what George Washington was up to at the foundation of our country. 250 years later, and sometimes you forget that NYC was the ad hoc capital of the country, that Buffalo was the Wild West, and that the area around the Hudson was (possibly) a hotbed of British Loyalists. 

This book pairs nicely with another favorite of mine: Farm, Shop, Landing: The Rise of a Market Society in the Hudson Valley, 1780–1860 by  Martin Bruegel. If you like Colonial American History, this is a great read.  

Additionally, I have been poring over my new POD BX books. You can order them here (Red) and here (Blue) from DriveThru. While I am locked on to OSE, these are my favorite D&D books. 

Check back later this week; I should have more updates and probably a book review or two for you. I might also talk about how my wife Jennifer got her nickname, Kitty. 

A Diminutive Post

 I am getting ready to write a module where the characters experience the whole adventure under the effects of Diminution. Everyone will be 6" tall for this one. Garter Snakes become dragons, squirrels could be mounts and cockroaches will be even more terrifying than usual. 

One interesting feature of the potion is, it overclocks the characters. The effect should last no longer than 120 minutes per the Red Basic rules. But since the character have all shrunk from 6 feet to 6 inches, they perceive time differently. They believe each dose of the potion shrinks them for twice as long, four hours. Since everyone is operating on this scale, they have no measure of comparison. 

I'll use a mish-mash of magic, history, and biology for this setting. I can't wait to share this. 

Finally! BX Red and BX Blue!

 It finally happened, both the BX Red and BX Blue are now available on DriveThruRPG as POD. 

Not only did I buy them, but I also used them for a one-off adventure. 

You can order them here (Red) and here (Blue). The last couple of pages of each printing include the flyers that would have been packed out in the box with the dice, crayon, and book. I have owned several copies of these, as I read the covers right off of them. I am really glad to have them back in my collection.

I had to cook up an adventure for characters of levels 1-3, and I will share a few details of this in the future. 

I believe this series of posts will land squarely on my Ko-Fi page. Right now, I have virtually no followers and zero membership fees. If you have a Ko-Fi account, come and follow this adventure there.