Castle Xyntillan Session 1: Roses and Ruins

With the beer virus keeping us all inside, what better time is there to start that campaign you've had on your mind? Last night I ran my first Castle Xyntillan game, which will hopefully become a weekly campaign for the foreseeable future. I've praised Castle Xyntillan before, but the real test of a product is at the table. I collected a party from the OSR Discord, and ran the first session last Friday.

The Party

Longo Lightfoot, Halfling Thief, wears a sky-blue headscarf. Played by CaptainSabatini.
Corby the Joyful, Human Cleric, wears a short, conical hat. Played by diregrizzlybear.
Ramanucci the Omniscient, Human MU, wears an orange and indigo polka-dotted hood. Played by DymeNovelti.
Idred the Most Omniscient, Human MU, wears a full-visored greathelm. Played by David Perry, of Lithyscape and Principia Apocrypha fame.
Boroth Swinney the Joyous, Human Fighter, played by Justin Hamilton
Lisette the Lucky, Torchbearer who had been on a previous expedition to the castle, and saw most of her companions butchered.
Willemot the Wary, Light Footman.
Stanislas, Light Footman.
Francois, Light Footman, and his hunting dog Fideaux.

Rumors
Longo Lightfoot has heard: “The goats are not what they seem.”
Corby has heard: “Xyntillan is now for sale to the first to pay the 25,000 gold piece asking price to the family lawyer.”
Idred has heard: “The ancient incantation “FOE GYG” will keep the lesser undead at bay… well, usually. For a while, anyway.”
Ramanucci has heard: “Vampires roost in the dungeon. Beware the toll of the bell!”
Boroth has heard: “Xyntillan? I would rather go to Wolkmarstal. A much better place.”

After rolling up their characters, I had each player roll on JB's B/X Headgear table for some added flavor. The party hypothesizes that Idred wears the greathelm to compensate for his devastatingly low Constitution score.

Between the three folk saints I made for Castle Xyntillan, the party selected the Cherry Crow. They found the other choices too stringent, and liked the idea of helping to reunite lost loves.

Loot
Various simple tools
Bag of jumping beans
Flask of fiery wine, as a potion of extra healing
A golden hand-mirror, worth 900gp
The last existing seed sample of Rosa gallica xyntillanensis
Zombie lint

Casualties
Francois and Stanislas, light footmen. In critical condition.
No deaths.

The Game

• We opened in the Black Comedian tavern in Tours-en-Savoy, the party celebrating their last night of safety before traveling to the castle. They got to know each other, got an overview of the town, and then spent the night in revelry.
• The next day they began on their journey east. Hiking through the mountain passes for two days, they entered the Valley of Three Rainbows, and looked upon Castle Xyntillan.
• Lisette's old party had entered via the southern gate. She still had nightmares about her companions being decapitated by man-eating hats, and chose instead to enter by the eastern gatehouse.
• They entered the outer courtyard, studded with a pavilion, a large pond with a tomb on a little island, a rose garden, a stable with attached buildings and two great double doors. 
• The party investigated the tomb on the lake, a stone sarcophagus imprinted with the name 'Tristano Malevol' and four hand prints. They placed their hands on the imprints, and felt something push back. The lid of the sarcophagus rose up, and out popped a 4-armed skeleton in colorful livery. This was Tristano Malevol, who was frustrated at being woken up from his beauty sleep, and was altogether unimpressed with the lack of comely lasses in the party's company. 

Tristano Malevol
Pictured in with his other arms in the coat

• The party did their best to get on his good side and get to know him, but the skeleton was wary. He demanded that the party return with some of Mme Polidori's girls from town; strawberry blondes if possible; and returned to his sarcophagus to sleep. 

Party: If nothing else, we can come back with ample amounts of prostitutes and holy water.

• The party investigated the rose garden, climbing over the low parapet. They found two adjoining doors; to the west, there was a castle tower converted into a shed, filled with tools and gardening supplies, including tubes of rose seed cultivars. One of those was unfamiliar to the botanically inclined wizards, labeled R. gallica xyntillanensis, which the players pocketed. The shed also contained a pouch of beans, which jumped and vibrated when prodded or exposed to sunlight. 

Party: Jumping beans, those are worth at least a cow.

Party: Those are from the New World right? Mexico?

• By this time, the characters had spent so long in the rose garden that its sweet, soporific scent had taken effect; all but Longo and Boroth fell to the ground in a deep sleep. Boroth opened the eastern door, which led into a bare room filled with broken furniture and a trampled body. As soon as the door was opened, two horses, transparent and rainbow-tinged, with whinnies like bells and yawning mountains, charged ahead. Boroth closed that door.
• Then, the rose vines came alive and attempted to trip him. They slunk back against the wall as he looked at them, but decided to douse them in oil and light them on fire. The rose vines stuck to the wall, but were soon engulfed in flames. The party waited out the blaze in the shed, and when the flames died down, discovered that the vines had grown around several decomposing bodies buried in the soil. 
• The party regained their senses and direction, and attempted to make sense of the last ten minutes. Ramanucci approached the east door to check out the psychedelic horses. He opened it, was similarly dazzled by them, and closed the door on their snouts.

By Hananymous

Party: What did they look like?
Ranucci: You’re familiar with the concept of a nightmare. Need I say more?
Party: How do we tame them?
Ranucci: Don’t eat before bed, avoid spicy food. 

• Afterwards, the party walked to the south of the courtyard. They investigated the vegetable garden, which was growing a strange, new world crop: a tu-ma-tu. A low wooden structure was attached to the southern wall, a stable in the center. The party passed through the gate to find a series of empty stalls and a hayloft up a ladder. One of the stalls was crawling with a swarm of cat-sized insects, with hard shells and mandibles. The party shied away from them, and clambered up to the hayloft to discover a flask of fiery wine (potion of healing, with a twist). 
• The room adjoining to the east was a smithy, with a fire still burning and a hammer still clanging on the anvil despite the absence of a smith. As Boroth burst through the door, the hammer floated in the air, reoriented itself, and flew straight at Boroth, clocking him in the mug. Corby examined the hammer, and successfully turned it with his clerical faith (he apparently is dedicated to the god of hammers, agriculture and wine). 

Party: Can you use magic to make the metal float towards us?
Idred: Impossible.
Ranucci: Possible but beneath me.

• The next ten minutes were spent on several schemes by Corby to recruit this floating hammer to his cause.These include putting on a tattered apron and trying to convince the hammer or his good intentions. It nestled itself in the apron's pouch, then attempted to strike the cleric in the balls, but only twisted itself up. The party tied it in the apron and stuck it under the anvil.
• The party resolves not to try the west door, from which sounds of weapons hitting training dummies issue. Immediately after leaving the stables, the party heard the toll of the castle bells. 11 o'clock. The great double doors opened, and a pale young woman in an array of colorful silks walked out into the courtyard with a basket under her arm and a parade of black cats following her. The party greeted her, and she introduced herself as Adelaide Malevol. 

Adelaide Malevol the Splendid
Pictured with one of her 3d12 cats
By Cecilia Beaux

• She recognized Lisette from her previous expedition, and was in an excellent mood to see the party. They made small talk for a short while, until Adelaide hinted that The Beast might not be too happy to see that the party had burned down his rose garden. She suggested that the party might buy her silence with a favor. 
• When asked what she wanted, she became morose and told of how her true love, one Giacomo, had run away from her. The party gathered that this man had been one of Lisette's companions, captured in a previous expedition, whom Adelaide had taken as a toy, though not before one of the other family members ripped out an eye. He escaped not long ago, and may have made it back to town. Under their obligation to the Cherry Crow (and not wanting something called The Beast to be on their asses) the party promised to return him to the Castle once they returned to town. 
• As Adelaide retired inside, the party followed her, but found that she disappeared once she crossed the threshold. A dark, wide corridor stretched out before them, extending beyond the reach of their torches. Now, they entered the castle proper. 
• They avoided the double doors at the far end, worrying it led to the east courtyard where The Beast supposedly dwelt. They instead turned south. They encountered an empty room with a dank latrine, and in the other direction, a hallway led them to a room from which grunts and the sounds of rattling chains issued.

'Chains and grunts?'
'One hell of  party!'
'Let's resolve not to kinkshame.'

• 4 zombies sat at a table inside, playing cards. The room was bare save for a few simple beds, and a large wardrobe covered in heavy padlocks, which shook constantly. The zombies weren't immediately hostile, and Corby sat down to gamble with them. The pot contained some copper coins, lint and skin scraps. Corby put down a silver coin, and the zombies treated him like a high roller. 

By Stuart Webster

• The zombies did not allow the party to get close to the wardrobe, but after Corby wiped the floor with them and took his 'winnings' the party left the room and made a plan. Corby returned to the table, pretending he had lost something, and the party surrounded the zombies. The undead bolted up out of their chairs, but too late to avoid the first wave of attacks. They fought hard, and reduced both Francois and Stanislas to exactly 0HP in a single hit. 
• However, they were quickly dismantled, with the largest, meanest zombie being taken out in style by Francois' hunting dog, which ripped out its Achilles tendon, rode on its back and ripped up the neck until it stopped moving. The party dared to open the wardrobe and hope they hadn't made everything worse. Inside was a young man in livery, wrapped up in rope. He was freed and stepped out, declaring, 'The curse! It is no more! Let me-' before crumbling to dust. He left behind a very valuable gold mirror, however. 
• With two hirelings in critical condition, a fair bit of odd treasure in their pockets, and charged by an undead noblewoman to hunt down her escaped love, the party ended the session.

Takeaways

The book was quite easy to run. The biggest challenge in the first session was describing the large, open space of the outer courtyard, and the shapes of the landmarks within. The cramped, indoor spaces of the castle are much easier to describe, and playing via voice chat makes it a bit more difficult.

The loot was light in this first session, as much time was spent getting to know the area. The pace of loot and rooms will likely speed up substantially now that they are inside the dungeon.

Two attacks by zombies in a single round reduced two hirelings from full health to exactly 0. I decided that hirelings would be treated as 1st level PCs, and survive to -1 hit points. They got help quickly, so they're not dead, but until they've got a good night's rest, they're not going to be fighting.

The roleplay encounters were quite fun, especially with Adelaide Malevol. Beyond plundering the castle, I plan for party actions and family plots to bleed out into the town. Adelaide hinted at the more powerful family members in the castle, namely the elder vampires and Aristide, the lich patriarch. The party was suitably unnerved.

The party was also unsettled by the idea of The Beast and his retribution for the rose garden. They don't know how much trouble they're in...

Next Chapter: Monsters and Matrimony