Castle Xyntillan Session 16: Let's Not go to Hades, 'Tis a Silly Place

In the last session, the party pressed deeper into the dungeons beneath Castle Xyntillan, got ambushed by a fake mummy, mapped the tombs and faced down a pack of ghouls. They discovered a hidden item of great interest, the Will of Aristide Malevol! What revelation is contained in the will? Will the party make it out of the dungeons unscathed? All this and more 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, wears a masked helm depicting a happy human face. Played by Justin Hamilton.
Francois, Light Footman, noticeably dogless. 

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

Hubert, Heavy Footman.

Gwynefa, Arbalist.

Herman, Arbalist, escaped convict and former boar.

Emil, Lightbearer, strange obsession with some Malevols.

Karo, Arbalist.

Allan, Arbalist, claims to know a great secret, pursues a Malevol for past crimes.

Bruno, Light Footman, a talented sharpshooter.

LaBeouf, Camp Cook.
Raymond, Mule.

Casualties

Bruno, murdered by the unidentified fighter.

Loot

Wine barrel, 3000gp

Sack of platinum, 700gp

The Joyhammer (created)

The Game

• The party stood over the two coffins, with a sack of gold and the Will. Idred immediately opened and read it. Then he cackled evilly and read it to the rest of the party.

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• The gist of the will: Aristide disowned the estranged current Count of Xantillon, Jean-Giscard Malevol, and bequeathed all the family lands, including the Castle, to Claude Malevol.
• The party was understandably excited. They discussed leaving the Will in its hiding spot, or finding somewhere else to safeguard it in the castle, but settled on taking it with them.
• They filled out their map of the tombs, finally opening the door leading to the odd clacking. Another crypt, this one inhabited by a swarm of bats, four gargoyles in the corners, and a pair of animated dentures hopping about atop the coffin.

Boroth: This is dangerous. I mean, there's danger everywhere we go, but here... the gargoyles could animate, and a vampire could burst out, and the teeth could bite us in the face, and the bats!

• They left the crypt alone, and followed a new corridor with the telltale signs of ghoul tracks. They located one of the injured ghouls they fought earlier in a side-closet gnawing on old bones, and it went down with ease. The other stragglers were still missing, however.

Boroth: We did it, let's see what treasures it was hiding in its closet!

• They returned to the fizzing, bubbling pool, and Idred blew his copper cornucopia into it. A gigantic pile of copper (all of 8gp) splashed in... to no effect.

Idred: Sometimes no effect is an effect.

• They paid Herman extra to drink the fizzy water. He did so, and gained the powers of future prophecy! 
• *Future* being the operative word, as he entered a trance in which he promised to deliver a prophecy at a later date.
• They found another tomb, this one flooded with tepid water. It smelled like bouillon, and the party paid Herman extra again to drink it. It was disgusting, but appeared normal.

GM: Just checking Idred, you have 6hp?

Idred: Yeah.

GM: Interesting.

Corby: Things you don't want to hear the GM say!

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• They returned to the grotto from last session where they left the bell. Since they were, more or less, on their way out, they decided to test it. Boroth stepped forward and rang the bell. Out of the mist came a skiff, paddled by a tall, robed figure. It came to the shore and intoned: "Three coins for passage."

Boroth: Where to?

Reaper: The Shores of Death.

Boroth: Oh. Thanks, but we're not going that way.

Reaper: I have been summoned. I shall not leave without a passenger.

Boroth: ...

Reaper: ...

Boroth: Soooo, Herman?

Herman: Fuck you guys!

Reaper: Eenie, meenie, miney...

Boroth: I don't think we have a Moe!

• The Reaper randomly selected the hireling Hubert as his target. The party closed ranks and retreated, fighting off the Reaper. Though it attacked Hubert, its scythe missed, and Hubert responded with a critical hit, and the party was able to defeat it!
• It swiftly turned to dust, leaving only a lantern and a pouch containing 11 coins.

Corby: Wait, 11 coins? That's not a multiple of three! What's going on here?

• They inspected the lantern, hoping for it to be something magical. It wasn't, but as they lit it, they saw another figure down the corridor from them: Leopold Malevol, the factor they had received their wedding invitation from.

Boroth: Aren't we looking for Malevols to kill?

Idred: I think we're good on that.

Corby: Extra credit never hurt anyone.

• He stood at a distance, and demanded they hand 'it' over. The party played dumb, but Boroth read his mind and confirmed he was looking for the Will, which he was fairly certain the party had stolen. Then a pack of Rigormortises emerged from the doors behind the party, and Leopold pulled out a jar of Razzle-Dazzles. 
• The party conferred, and Boroth took a scrap of parchment out from Idred's pack. He walked forward to make the 'exchange.' Leopold protested and told Boroth to leave the scroll on the ground, halfway between them. Boroth did so, and the party got ready to attack when Leopold realized the deception. As soon as he opened the parchment, combat was on!
• Leopold threw the jar and commanded the zombies to attack. The party closed ranks and Boroth charged at Leopold. But before he could connect, a bolt flew out from the darkness behind Leopold and struck Boroth!
• The party's front lines dealt with the Razzle-Dazzles while Corby turned the zombies and the arbalists focused fire on Leopold. He turned to run, but was hit with a Sleep spell, and fell to the ground!
• All seemed to go well for the party. But as they watched the zombies run, they saw another figure standing over Leopold. A fighter wearing a closed Corinthian helm, rummaging through Leopold's pockets... as Leopold bled to death from a slash across the neck.
• Still surrounded by Razzle-Dazzles, the party chose to stay still. The figure stole Leopold's ring and a pocket watch, and ran off, out of the lamplight.

WANTED: Has anyone seen this man?

• The party stayed still, letting the Razzle-Dazzles lose interest and drift away. The Rigormortises returned before long, but the party played them off against the floating balls of light and escaped in the confusion. They regrouped in the root cellar, the same direction the masked fighter ran off.
• The party was eager to get out of dodge, but still wanted to get the wine barrel they marked at the start of the expedition. In the wine cellar, they found a gross, overweight monk tasting the wine. Though taken aback by the party's appearance, he introduced himself as Reynard Malevol. The party made conversation, during which he was intolerably rude. 
• In the end, the party left him, and retreated down the goat-hole to visit Bumble. They stayed with him in the Indoornesse (just outside the cave) for a couple hours, while Longo waited up top as a lookout. He saw a lumbering undead creature scare Reynard away, which left the room a while later, leaving a trail of lime dust and plaster in its wake.
• With the cellar clear, the party carefully carried the barrel upstairs and out of the castle. They exited without issue.
• On their way back, still in high spirits, the party saw deep tracks on the path, as if from a person in heavy armor running. When they returned to the wagon, they found Bruno's body, only a couple hours old.
• They pieced together the events of the fight from the environment. A crossbow bolt embedded in a tree by Bruno's lookout spot, and one of his arrows in a tree in the direction of the castle. Disturbances on the topsoil from wrestling, blood spread over a large area. Bruno's blade was clean, and two horses were missing.
• LaBeouf, the company cook, emerged from the underbrush when the party approached and confirmed their interpretation of events. A warrior in a Corinthian helm had attacked Bruno while LaBeouf was picking mushrooms nearby. Bruno had insulted the warrior, as if he knew him. Bruno had been killed in cold blood while the warrior stole Boroth and Idred's horses and galloped off.
• The party buried Bruno and held a short ceremony. Labeouf made mushroom stew. As he laid the hireling's spirit to rest, Corby heard a single word, whispered in the wind: 
• Traitor!
• The party returned to Tours-en-Savoy, got a good price on the wine barrel, and settled back in. Corby had a busy couple days. While dealing with the loss of a hireling, he noticed a new, very impressive warhorse in the town stables, and found Father Brenard in a deeply unsettled mood. He also buckled down on a longtime project of his: turning the animated hammer the party captured many expeditions ago into a tool he could use.
• At great expense in components and effort, he succeeded! The animated hammer was repurposed toward a Lawful end, and so became the first magic item to be forged in the campaign: The Joyhammer, a warhammer+1 with the special properties of a Dancing Sword.
• And so this session and expedition ended. What will happen next? Will the party reveal the Will to Claude? Will they discover the identity of the masked warrior, Bruno's murderer? And why is the town priest so disturbed? All this and more in the next session of Castle Xyntillan!

Takeaways

Corby expressed a desire to 'convert' the hammer quite some time ago, perhaps as early as the first session, when they first encountered it. I decided a while back what its properties would be if Corby worked to transform it, and suggested the name 'The Joyhammer' when it was forged. The name was adopted, and I'm quite happy with the outcome.

In the course of this session, and many others, I've noted long moments of silence at the table. Due to the online and voice-based nature of the game, it's difficult to read the room in these situations. I've decided there's value in leaving some of those moments, since I don't know when the players are checking their inventory, or just thinking/strategizing, or leaving room for other players to talk or make suggestions, It's just one of the limitations of the medium.

The masked warrior is a character the party knows. In fact, they're intimately familiar. The party brainstormed the warrior's identity, wondering if it might be Claude. Unless I missed their saying so, it seems they suggested every possible suspect besides the actual person. They will be back.

Relatedly, that ring and watch they stole off Leopold? Those items had a total worth exceeding the party's haul from the entire expedition! The masked warrior has not only escaped, but they have escaped with a great deal of funding for their mysterious plans! Muahahahaha!

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And no, I haven't gone crazy from figuring out how to embed GIFs into my blog posts. Now go away, I have to detail the villain's plots for next session.

Next Chapter: The Groomsmen and the Quest for the...