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, wears a masked helm, depicting a happy human face. 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.
Casualties
Lisette the Lucky, lost in the castle
Willemot the Wary, animated armor
Fideaux, animated armor
Aymeric, animated armor
Ysabeau, lost in the castle
Regis, animated armor
Loot
2 halberds (only 1 recovered)
The Libram of Heinous Damnation, 15,000gp
The Game
- The party started the session resting by the wagon. They were spooked after narrowly escaping the reaper they awakened, and made a careful search of the gatehouse before going back in. They found tracks to the north, likely the fleeing bandits, but the reaper was nowhere to be seen.
- Their first act was to return to the Doors of Good and Bad Fortune, hoping they had gotten the worst of it. Corby and Longo entered the room, plugging their noses, while the rest of the party waited outside. Throwing open the north door... and a grinning skeletal figure carrying a giant scythe stepped out.
 |
| Sunnuva- again?! |
This is my good fortune - to meet you here!
- They screamed and the party ran for the exit. Again. But not before the reaper got a swipe in at Corby. It hit, but rolled minimal damage and Corby succeeded his save against paralysis.
- Overcoming the cold running through his veins he and Longo beat a hasty retreat through the gatehouse and back to the wagon for the second time that day.
- They took another breather, with Longo spying on the reaper from afar, but failing to hide in the bushes from its sight.
Longo: I’ll go see if the reaper is still there.
Idred: Go ahead, it’s your death.
Longo: No, it’s Corby’s Death.
Longo (failing to hide): My explanation will be that it has a magical sense.
- Waiting out the reaper, the party delved into the castle for the third time that day. Exploring past the doors of Good and Bad Fortune, they encountered several odd features; a spiral staircase leading to the basement, a hallway with a slight magnetic field, a windy tunnel and an old war room bedecked in rotten banners. They heard the banging of metal not far away; Corby got excited by the thought of another hammer.
- They located the banging behind a locked door, and Longo's loud attempts to pick it open earned him some jokes. Inside was an armory, filled with weapons and dummies wearing suits of armor. There were also two closet doors, in a similar configuration to the room they had encountered the reapers, with the banging sound coming from the southern door. Something was trying to break out.
Boroth: Longo, is this one of your friends?
- They set about making a catalogue of the room's contents and opened the north door. Rearing up out of the darkness, fixing its beady eyes on the party, was a rust monster!
- ... which turned out to be a taxidermy. Never to be accused of not being resourceful, the party got over their collective heart attack and dragged the taxidermied monster out in front of the southern door, hoping whatever came out would be as spooked as they were. Longo undid the lock in record time, and Boroth stood to the side to open the door.
- They timed it just right, opening before the next strike against the door. Out of the closet stepped a suit of beat-up plate armor, swinging a sword which got stuck in the rust monster, and was rapidly wrenched out. It turned to the north and stepped forward, backing Boroth into one of the armored training dummies.
- The party let loose with missiles, and Idred got a couple good hits in with his darts. That was the moment the party's luck ran out, however.
- Every single one of the party's subsequent attacks bounced off the armor. It tore into the party, cleaving hirelings apart. Regis and the hunting dog Fideaux went down in a single swing. Boroth was slashed terribly, taking maximum damage, but his tremendous constitution allowed him to stay up. As the party sounded the retreat, the armor's attacks to the party's back took down Aymeric and Willemot as well.
- Worse, Lisette and Ysabeau panicked at the sight of their slaughtered companions, and got lost in the confusion. Lisette took the party's lamp, and they had to crawl along the wall, holding hands to avoid losing each other. Boroth lit his lamp, and they scurried back to the spiral staircase they discovered earlier.
- When the dust settled, five party members stood in the lamplight. The four player characters and Francois, the only hireling present who had not broken rank and had not been murdered. Bruno was still waiting outside by the wagon with the mule, and Stanislas was sick back in town. The party had been cut in half.
- In that vulnerable position, another silhouette appeared in their light. A jovial and finely dressed man with a shortsword at his belt petting a black cat in his arms. He introduced himself as Leopold Malevol, a local factor, and handed Corby a letter sealed with the wax image of a smiling bat. He read it aloud to the party.
 |
| Written to the best of my ability in actual medieval style. |
Longo: I think they’re expecting me to be ring bearer, given how suave I am.
GM: And short.
Longo: I wasn’t going to mention that.
- Leopold excused himself upon making his delivery, and expressed regret he wouldn't be invited. After discussing the letter and its implications, the party decided to soldier on and complete their original objective; find the lakeside chapel and see what preparations would need to be made to host the wedding there. Also, find some loot so that the expedition wasn't a complete disaster.
Idred: Maybe James could tell us more about it.
Longo: James is kind of a dick.
Idred: James is perfectly well put together how dare you.
- They passed by the grand bath, thankfully with no sign of the Beast this time. A long, wide hallway was home to the rolling to and fro of a giant boulder, which the party managed to time their dash across. They popped out into an outdoor garden. It was mid-afternoon, and the sun glittered on the lake. In front of them was a sizable two-story chapel, and among the bushes trotted a trio of goats-
Longo: GOATS! WATCH OUT! THEY'RE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM!
- which approached the party in an excellent mood, jumping up and down around them.
- A feeling of calm pervaded the whole garden, and the party decided to use their daily Detect Magic to examine the area. The goats appeared to be magical beasts, though non-hostile at the moment. A statue and a dark patch of ground gave off a slight aura as well, but the party kept their eye on the prize and entered the chapel.
- Bizarrely, every single character asked themselves the same question upon entering, "Am I contemplating violence or treachery?" Answering honestly to themselves in the negative, they crossed the threshold and were overwhelmed by a sense of peace inside. The chapel was clean and orderly, lit by sunlight through stained-glass windows. A font filled with clear water and a simple altar covered in a white cloth. This place was excellent for a Lawful wedding.
 |
| Source |
- The upstairs of the chapel contained a hallway with two doors; one barred and nailed up. The party entered the open door and found a bare study room covered in dust. Idred examined a bookshelf, and a pair of rotgrubs jumped out of the pages and burrowed into his skin, but the party quickly burned them with torches and lamp oil while Idred picked up and read dusty alchemical calculations to distract from the pain.
- The centerpiece of the room was a lectern, with a heavy book closed atop it. It was bound in leather, with a dozen black jewels inlaid into the cover, and gold lettering which read, 'The Libram of Heinous Damnation'. At a moment's glace, it seemed to be a tome that would allow a spellcaster to quickly and easily sell their soul for power, and was worth over 10,000 gold pieces for the cover alone.
Idred: Yeah, we're taking that.
- With a gigantic find, a major objective completed, and almost all of the party's hirelings wiped out, we ended the session. Next time, the party will be substantially richer and more powerful, and will begin to prepare in earnest for what promises to be an eventful wedding.
Takeaways
Between sessions, I took a moment to choose a concrete fleeing rule. I settled on, 'You can successfully flee from an encounter as long as you are as fats or faster than them, but each enemy in range gets a free attack as you escape.' It came into play twice this game, both times to good effect in my opinion.
The incident with the reaper was super intense for me. Corby was lucky to only take 1 point of damage and succeed his save. If he hadn't, we would have just been killed in that moment.
The animated armor wasn't entirely out of the party's league, and they might have defeated it if they hadn't had terrible luck on their rolls and stuck out the second round of the fight. Its cleaving ability made it a terror for the 1HD hirelings, however, and it just tore through the party's front line. If they stuck around, they may have conquered it, or the player character might have gotten chopped up.
It's a credit to Castle Xyntillan that, in the face of a totally improvised plot with no root in the original module, it's held up very well. There's enough moving parts here, enough varied locations and opportunities, that it can be host to a great variety of player experiences.
My plan for the wedding scene, which I've already mentioned to the players and expect will take place in two or three sessions, will be a break from the usual exploration gameplay, instead being a social encounter based around trickery, deception, plans within plans and the like. My ideal outcome for that scene will be one party defeating the other through guile, pulling a final ace out of their sleeve. Note that I didn't say it would be the players' victory. I've committed to setting the villains' plans in motion before I know what the players intend to do. It won't be easy, and it won't be fair, but it'll genuinely be up to player agency to win the day. And if they fail, the stakes aren't a TPK, but the loss of an NPC and the humiliation of the party. And either way, there will be a clear new villain for the players to go up against...
Next Chapter: The Bridesmaid's Bizarre Boudoir
No comments:
Post a Comment