Castle Xyntillan Session 5: Groomsmen and Grim Reapers

In the last session, the party discovered the Gothic Wing of Castle Xyntillan, struck it rich with a chance find and caroused their butts off. With a couple of new hirelings in the company and two leveled-up party members, what mischief awaits our protagonists? Find out in this week's session of Castle Xyntillan!

The Party

Longo Lightfoot, Halfling Thief, wears a sky-blue headscarf. Played by CaptainSabatini.
Corby the Joyful, Human Cleric of Sucellus, wears a short, conical hat. Played by diregrizzlybear.
Idred the Most Omniscient, Human MU, wears a full-visored greathelm. Played by David Perry.
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.
Francois, Light Footman, and his hunting dog Fideaux.
Aymeric, Heavy Footman, boasts about the bonuses the party will pay him once he saves their asses.
Ysabeau, Heavy Footman, wants to start his own adventuring company once he has the funds.
Regis, Light Footman.
Bruno, Light Footman, a talented sharpshooter.
Raymond, Mule.


Loot
Animated hammer (bound and captured)
Copper Horn
Approximately 10gp in copper pieces
(Identified) Horseshoe of Saving

The Game

• We kicked off the session by continuing the carousing from last time. Longo was on a gambling spree, with Idred providing extra funds and advice. The two did rather poorly, and Longo almost went into debt but for a loan from Idred. Corby lived up to his religion by getting blackout drunk on cheap wine on a week-long barhopping expedition. Boroth found a local kid to tutor him in Kriegspiel and entered a local tournament. Predictably, he lost big.
• Now established in town, the party gave themselves a proper name: the Groomsmen.

What the party aspires to be

• Among all the celebration, Ranucci went missing. The night before the next expedition, as the party was nursing their collective hangover, someone knocked at their door. Boroth got up to answer. Across their threshold stood a tall, wiry man in a powdered wig and elegant suit. 

Vincent: Excuse me, are you the Groomsmen?

Boroth: Um, yes?

Vincent: Wonderful. I am Vincent Godefroy-Malevol. May I come in?

Boroth: Uhhh..

Idred: Check his teeth!

Vincent: Don't worry. I'm not a vampire. Worse, I'm a lawyer.

Boroth: *almost vomits*

A look that says,
'I'd kick your ass and sue for the shoe leather'

• Vincent stepped inside and informed the party that he was giving them a courtesy call. Under instructions from Adelaide, who was growing frustrated with their delay, he and his companions had kidnapped Ranucci, and were holding him in Castle Xyntillan. Unless they bring Giacomo to her, she will inform The Beast of their actions, Ranucci will be torn limb from limb, and the party will be sued for arson.
• The party negotiated with Vincent, trying to figure out how much time they have. They settled on a fortnight. The party promised to deliver Giacomo, and Vincent stepped back out into the night.
• The next morning the party visited Giacomo in the hospital. He had more color in his face, but he won't be in proper fighting shape for another month. Though the party found the chapel last expedition, the chaotic monks which inhabit it would prevent a Lawful marriage from occurring. They'd need to clear out the monks and clean up the chapel, or else find another one, before the marriage could go forward.

Corby: So we need to stock up on holy water and Lawful-scented candles and reconsecrate a chapel. In a fortnight.

• With their next objective clear, the party returned to the castle, now equipped with two new henchmen, a mule and a wagon. Their first action was to go back to the smithy from the first expedition, where they had trapped the animate hammer, and capture it. They locked it in a chest, bound it with rope, and carried it back to the wagon. The next step would be to bring it back to town, and hopefully reconsecrate the hammer as a trophy and symbol of Sucellus (god of wine and hammers).
• That would have to wait until later. The party had also left the barracks building unexplored in their first expedition, and was about to kick down the door when they were interrupted by a random encounter! 
• Luckily, it was just James the ghostly butler. He spoke politely with the party, and requested that they not disturb the soldiers during their drills. 

Boroth: So, how many soldiers are there in the castle?

James: Well, if I told you that, I’d have to kill you. Ha ha!

That would be tremendously ambitious of you.

• Leaving the soldiers be, the party held up their end of the deal and waited for Adelaide. At the eleventh toll of the bell, she walked out into the courtyard, surrounded by a wave o black cats. The party gave her the good news. Not only had they received her message loud and clear, but Giacomo was prepared to marry her! With his token in hand, Adelaide jumped for joy and ran off to plan the wedding. She also indicated that the servants' chapel in the south wasn't ideal; that the chapel in the north would be a much better venue.
• With their responsibilities for the moment fulfilled, the party decided to tie up some loose ends. The walled-off doorway and the corpses of the adventurers they discovered on a previous expedition were still there, waiting to be further investigated.
• Retracing their steps, the party found an altogether different scene. The corpses had decomposed tremendously since their first visit, and they had some new company; a pair of wheezing, creaking skeletons, which were tearing chunks of flesh off the bodies.The errant undead were no match for the party, and were quickly turned and cut down against the dead end hall.
• The party sat down and took a chisel to the bricked up wall, taking turns and watching for monsters. Before long, the bricks were debris on the floor, and the party opened a new wing to explore.
• The next few rooms contained several curiosities; a peasant corpse decapitated by a miniature guillotine; a pair of adventurers dead in a ransacked room, bearing a drinking horn filled with copper pieces. The highlight of the area was a run-down kitchen, the walls painted with a scene of two devils, and a pair of doors labeled 'the Doors of Good and Bad Fortune'. In a moment, the room transformed into a fungus-ridden ruin, stifled by a sickly smell.

Longo: Idred, you're the magic-user explain this. 

Idred: Idred explains it via an intelligence check. 

Longo: What? 

Idred: Ha ha, just kidding.

• After much worry and deliberation, Boroth stepped forward to open one of the doors. It opened into a cramped cupboard. A cold wind issued forth, and a grinning skeletal figure carrying a giant scythe stepped out.
• Predictably, the whole party panicked and fled. They sprinted back outside with the reaper hot on their heels, aiming for the western gatehouse and the wagon they left on the trail beyond. 
• That was when more than a dozen bandits jumped out from behind cover and shouted, 'STAND AND DELIVER!'

And if you look over there, you'll see the embodiment of death itself charging us.

• The party refused to stop, barreling forwards. Seeing the reaper, the bandits broke rank and scattered. The party ran straight out of the castle, and only afterwards turned to see the reaper waiting at the threshold scythe in hand.

Idred: Surely the Grim Reaper does not just wait around closets waiting for people to open them.

Longo: Maybe that’s how everyone dies.

• They got back to the wagon to find Bruno, the new hireling left to guard the cart, had rustled up a couple of hares to eat for dinner. Finally able to rest and catch their breaths, the party settled in for a break.
• Idred dedicated a few moments of his time to investigating the drinking horn, which had previously held far more copper coins than could feasibly fit inside, and his henchmen had been unable to stuff them all back in. 

David: At this time, Idred would be playing his his horn.

Longo: This is no time for that!

• He discovered that blowing on the horn caused a wave of copper coins to spill out. Doing do twice, almost a thousand copper pieces accumulated in the back of the wagon, heavy, but comprising no more than 10gp in wealth.
• With this dubiously useful discovery, the session ended. Next time, the party will delve back into the castle, hopefully avoiding the bandits and the reaper.

Takeaways

This session, more than any of the previous ones, emphasized how much this style of gaming requires letting go of outcomes and trusting in the dice. The ending, with party chased by the reaper and facing a bandit ambush in front, was utter, unpredictable chaos that I couldn't have come up with if I tried.

Incidentally, I had no idea how to run that scenario, and told the players as much. I had some difficulty a couple of sessions ago when the party ran away from the Stygous birds, since S&W doesn't have clearly defined fleeing and disengaging rules, instead recommending the GM choose between several options or make their own, which I have neglected to do.

That sort of extreme scenario is ripe for GM fiat and rationalization. What is the bandit's reaction to seeing the reaper? How does this affect their modus operandi? Would they even launch an ambush under those circumstances? Is rolling a morale check called for? This is a scenario where good judgement and improvisation is needed, and as a fairly new GM who struggles with being too soft on players, it's not the best place to be in.

Though in my defense, the group has had some tremendous luck in the last few sessions avoiding death. The clearest examples were with the animate swords and the Stygous birds. If Longo hadn't won his initiative roll, he would have been outright skewered, and the party could have easily been one-shot by creatures who dealt 1d10 damage, but the dice were in their favor. I'll stop using my blog as a place to rag on myself for being too soft, and instead spend some time planning a proper gauntlet for the party to suffer through.

Next Chapter: Ruin and Riches