Castle Xyntillan Sessions 11 and 12: Weddings and Witticisms

In the last session, the party discovered the dungeon level Castle Xyntillan, temporarily lost a hireling to a polymorph and found one of their biggest hauls yet! The wedding is almost upon them! This report sticks together the eleventh and twelfth session, the former of which capped off the long expedition and the latter of which contained the wedding itself.

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.
Francois, Light Footman, noticeably dogless. 

Hilda, Heavy Footman, an ex-miner.

Rodolfo, Heavy Footman, running from a warrant in town.

Hubert, Heavy Footman.

Gwynefa, Arbalist.

Herman, former hireling, transformed into a boar.

Farida, Arbalist, apparent accounting fanatic.

Eckhart, Lightbearer.

Bruno, Light Footman, a talented sharpshooter.
Raymond, Mule.

Claude Malevol, a friendly face at the wedding.

Casualties

None

Loot

Dagger +1

Gold tooth, 1gp

Sacks of gold, 2500gp

Swanky new clothes

A man on the inside

Maltricia's burning enmity

Identified

Scroll of Protection from Metal

Amber Brooch, casts ESP 1/day

The Game

• The game started where it left off, opposite an underground cavern lake. The party examined the area and fished around nearby, and pulling a chain out of the water scored them the corpse of a dead sailor, with a single gold tooth in its mouth and a slim, ornate dagger in its back. 

Longo: Idred, can you turn a corpse into a boat? 

Boroth: I think that’s a higher level spell.

Idred: Maybe if I studied the Libram longer, though I don’t think it had a section on necronautics. Magic works best when not thoroughly examined. 

Longo: Don’t you study books of magic, thoroughly? 

Boroth: Not enough to get the Body to Boat spell. 

Idred: The main practice is in not thinking about it. 

Corby: Cadaver to Catamaran! Remains to Raft!

• Calling their exploration of the lake to a close, they advanced down a nearby tunnel, and soon located a strange room. The statue of a lady stood surrounded by three goatrices, all turned to stone.
• Experimenting with the statue, they found that turning it opened and closed the ways in and out of the room, and revealed a secret door! Passing into it, they found another room piled high with documents, file cabinets and several masked men in black digging through the papers and burning them.

Corby: Little did she know, the auditors had ninjas.

• After a brief standoff, during which the masked men did not speak, the party decided to leave them be, despite Farida's pleas otherwise.
• Not far away, they found themselves in a bar. A handful of headless manservants carried trays about the taproom, while a ghost wiped down the bar. This was Blobert, the proprietor. Taken in by the ghost's good demeanor, the party took a seat and ordered a drink; a nice Chateau Xyntillan to cap off the long expedition. They pumped him for information as to the upcoming wedding, its catering, and gossip about the family.
• They resolved then to check out the 'dressing room' next to Guy's chamber. Not giving the jester's portrait the time of day, they found a chamber containing two misty doorways. Choosing at random, Idred and Corby walked through one, and promptly walked out the other wearing fabulous robes. Boroth took the other one, and walked out in stinking rags. Quickly following Idred and Corby's example, he went through the other door, and walked back in a loincloth and a dunce cap. 
• After this break, they returned to the hidden tax room, and found that the masked men were gone, despite the total lack of an exit for them. Searching through the stacks turned up only the most orderly and clean tax documents, bereft of any incriminating evidence. Oh, and several sacks of gold coins, which they promptly pilfered.

Don't mind if I do

• Weighed down by an immense amount of coinage, the party called the expedition there, making their way safely out of the dungeon level and out of the castle well before sunset. Hooray!
• On their journey back, Boroth had a strange dream, in which his new magic sword spoke to him. It introduced itself as Scrupulous, and charged Boroth with being righteous and stalwart and upholding Law while wielding it.

Boroth: Being righteous and stalwart? How convenient, two of my yearly goals!

• By the time they arrived back in Tours-en-Savoy, they scarcely had a day before they needed to set out for the wedding. They made some quick arrangements, especially banking their hard-earned plunder, got appropriate clothes, picked up Giacomo and joined Claude for the journey back.
• They camped near the castle and went in a couple hours before sundown. The first order of business was to return to Blobert's taproom and get roaring drunk. Along with Claude, the party went down the list of drinks from the most expensive on down. They saved the biggest item, a Liche Liqueur with unknown magical properties, for later. 
• With Claude's help, they made it to the chapel quickly and easily. The garden outside was empty of goatrices. Before going in, they drank the liqueur. Its effect is to grant the drinker a random spell. The party got extra castings of Detect Magic, Read Magic, and Invisibility, 10' radius. Claude also drank, and got Lightning Bolt. The bad news was that they would need to use those spells in a few hours, lest their heads burst open.
• Newly empowered, they stepped inside the chapel. It was a flurry of activity, headless manservants rushing about putting last minute touches on the decorations, while Beatrice Malevol stood at the altar and shouted at them. Her head was attached to her shoulders by a circle of stitches. A giant constrictor snake, Meandering Malevol, had taken over the holy water font. Taking notice of the party, Beatrice made some veiled threats and introduced her new servants.
• Ysabeau, their former hireling, and Ranucci, their former party member, were sitting in the pews. Ysabeau was clearly under a charm, and interacted with the party like a butler. Ranucci was his ordinary, crazy self. 
• Also in Beatrice's service was the party's former lightbearer, Lisette, sweeping the floor and dressed like a maid. Beatrice commanded her to take the groom and his men to see the honeymoon suite. She took them up the stairs and into the room which was boarded up in their last visit. A lavish suite, canopied four poster bed and all, decorated in macabre reds and blacks, with disturbing paintings staring down from the walls.

• Lisette broke down in the room, and Corby gave her a confession at her request while the rest of the party strategized outside. During their talk, Ranucci piped up.

Ranucci: So, Idred... I hear you got lots new spells.

Idred: I have.

Ranucci: Oh, that's great. Funny thing is, I only ever got much use out of the one.

• And then he began to cast Sleep.
• The party jumped into action, pinning him before he could get the spell off, and contemplated what exactly to do with the rogue wizard. 

Boroth: Stick a rag in his mouth!

Longo: Is a knife a rag? 

Boroth: To the best of my knowledge, no. 

Longo: I used that defense in court once.

• After hog-tying him, Boroth used his new ESP brooch to reach into the wizard's mind. He saw weeks in the castle dungeons, a Suggestion spell... and the fact that the wizard's charmer was in the next room.
• As Corby finished giving Lisette her confession, the rest of the party burst into the suite and shouted at Corby to get away from her. In that moment, Lisette's form melted and swirled, two great bat wings extended out of her back, and before them stood Serpentina Malevol, succubus.

Not far off, actually

• She laughed in the party's faces, and revealed that, during the confession, she had slipped a Suggestion on Corby. Unless he could resist, the cleric would be forced to conduct a Chaotic marriage instead of a Lawful one. She glided out of the room, unopposed.
• Reeling from the events of the past minute, the party began to plan. How to work around the spell? How to undo it? What to do if they couldn't do either. In the course of their argument, three of their hirelings stepped forward.
• Farida the arbalist, Hilda he heavy footsoldier, and Eckhart the lightbearer took badges out from under their clothes, identifying them as members of the King's Secret Police and the Royal Tax Authority. They had infiltrated the party to investigate the Malevols' tax evasion, and now was the time to strike.
• After yet more discussion, the plan was set. If Corby couldn't overcome the Suggestion, the secret police would intervene, carry off the lawyer, and so hopefully interrupt the ceremony, in the resulting confusion, Corby would perform a Lawful wedding stealthily while under the guise of doing paperwork.
• They return downstairs, and endured the lead-up to the ceremony. Ysabeau presented them with hors d'oeuvres, from mellified man to boar snout, while the early guests mingled and snuck the party wicked looks.
• Then sunset fell, and the procession began. The Beast made his appearance, a gigantic mass of fur and muscle crowned with a halo of hellfire, riding atop a walking throne. Serpentina and Beatrice entered as bridesmaids, one a hellish beauty and the other a horror. 
• Countess Maltricia Malevol, the vampiress at the head of this whole event, strode in as the maid of honor, perfectly elegant and confident in her victory. She was followed by Hortensia and Longo as the flower girl and ring bearer. 
• Finally, Adelaide walked down the aisle, led by Maltricia's husband, the Count Giscard DeVourey-Malevol, her long bridal train held up by a swarm of black cats.
• The Beast set his throne next to the great stone seat reserved for Aristide, the lich, who was absent, and inaugurated the ceremony with a short speech.
• This was Corby's time to shine. He held the stage with a speech, recounting how the two lovers first met, and how the Groomsmen came to be involved. As Longo delivered the ring, the moment of truth came. Struggling against the spell, the odds were against him. He needed to roll a 12 or better, or else.
• He
• rolled
• a

Quit it with the anticipation!

• 12.
• The table roared. In the game, Corby's face twisted as he walked a tightrope, but in the end, his will won out. Pushing through the enchantment, he finished the ceremony and said the fateful words, "You may now kiss the bride."
• Giacomo and Adelaide kissed. And then Adelaide's mouth steamed and burned, as the magic of the wedding made her husband's very touch harmful to her. The chapel went quiet, as Serpentina went pale and Maltricia's face screwed up in rage. Then The Beast stood, adjudged the wedding sound, and ordered the ceremony finished. The Malevols left one by one, as if in a shock. The last to leave was The Beast, who congratulated the party on their gambits, and left.
• With a hard-won victory under their belt and a man on the inside of the castle, the party took to celebrating. They met back up with Claude, heard the tax authority arresting Vincent, the lawyer, and wound their way back to Blobert's for more drinking. They burned the spells that the liqueur gave them along the way, and at the party's urging, a drunk Claude vaporized a passing zombie with a his Lightning Bolt. For the first time in a while, all was well.
• And thus ended the first 'arc' of sorts of this Castle Xyntillan campaign. What will future expeditions hold for the party? How will they deal with making a new tier of enemies? All that and more, next time.

Takeaways

Holy crap, this post was delayed. Well, not delayed. Procrastinated. I have no excuse for it, besides the fact that I took very poor notes on the eleventh session and delayed the wedding session for 4th of July celebrations. Uhhh, yeah. My bad. 

A mainly social/roleplaying session like this is new ground for me, and I wasn't sure if it would land. The small number of rolls, the heavy emphasis on dialogue, as well as the extensive planning stage in the middle of the session worried me, but the barely-lucky roll and the twist reveal of Serpentina seemed to resonate with the players. It was also a nice change of pace, and tied up the plot the party had been working through for so long. 

I expect the next session will be heavy on carousing, will feature the hiring of some new retainers, and another expedition. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to destabilize the party in their new position that I can't wait to bring out.

Joesky Tax

Since this report was so horribly delayed, accept as my penance this ridiculous spell, found within the pages of the Libram of Heinous Damnation.

Remains to Raft

Spell Level: Magic-User, 3rd Level

Range: Touch, humanoid corpse

Duration: 1 hour/level

The caster transforms a humanoid corpse into a seaworthy raft, as much as 200 square feet, dimensions determined by the caster. When the spell's duration ends, the corpse snaps back to its former shape, and any creature on the raft falls into the water.

Next Chapter: The Knight, the Goat and the Wine Cellar