Castle Xyntillan Session 19: Fear of Heights and Hunters

In the last session, the party explored the upper quarters of Castle Xyntillan, played cards, almost lost their wizard, blew up eldritch horrors, took on another holy quest and got themselves some Van Helsing gear. What remains to be found in the upper floors? Who will they run into? 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.

Clovis, Heavy Footman.

Eric, Light Footman and cart driver.

LaBeouf, Camp Cook.
Raymond, Mule.

Casualties

Idred, unconscious and resuscitated. Again

Loot

Red Raven Wine

The Game

• After getting their new gear together, the party took a look at the iron key they had looted from the butler in the last session and tried a little experiment. They used it to unlock the door with the slime trail outside of it, expecting to find more acidic slugs on the other side.
• Instead, they found a skeleton covered in a grey gelatinous material, with a golden medallion inside. Herman poked it with a ten foot pole, and the tip began to corrode. The gelatin rippled and moved, sloughing off the skeleton and moving towards the party.
• They shut the door and spiked it shut, then ran like hell, hoping it wouldn't move under the door and follow.
• They left a door in the creepy raven room on their last sweep, so they returned there. Boroth went in alone first to check if the room was safe. He found that the blood had dried, but was interrupted by a voice from nowhere, demanding to know who he was. 

Boroth: It's gotten less creepy here after the blood dried.

GM: I'd like to say truer words were never spoken... but just no.

• The demand came from a figure formed from the shadows... which took the shape of a guy in a wig and a pirate costume. He introduced himself as Jean-Luc Malevol, scourge of the seven seas, and attacked Boroth!

• The party burst into the room and fought the shade off, who swore that the party would never find his treasure, before fleeing.

Corby: I'm conflicted about trying to turn it or hit it with my magic hammer.

• The door they had ignored last time led into an opulent bedroom, full of brocade, nice furniture, and fruit and wine set out. On the canopied bed lay a very comely naked woman. Boroth loudly apologized and averted his eyes.

Boroth: Guys, there's something spooky in there. A lady!

Longo: Was she undulating? We've angered someone who undulates. There's too many Malevols to keep track.

Boroth: There's like, ten. *counts on his fingers*

• She stirred, and invited the party in once she was decent (for a given value of decent). She introduced herself as Angela, a guest in the castle. They joined her inside for a rest. Boroth tasted the wine and made his save against its intoxicating effects, and recommended the rest of the party stay sober. She claimed a little bird had told her all about the party and their new friend in town, Brother Michel.

Angela: You're treasure hunters! How exciting!

Longo: I call it pillaging.

Boroth: Ever since I took up the sword we're supposed to call it 'Lawful Reclamation.'

• Outside, the party heard an unearthly moaning. Angela informed them that it was the ghost of Giselle Malevol, one of the many Malevols hunting for the party. She wouldn't enter the room without Angela's invitation, but if the party weren't willing to cooperate, she might kick them out and let them take their chances with the ghost. The party heard her out, and agreed to send her regards to Brother Michel and recommend she visit him in the castle. She offered to teach the party the secret language of birds, which they nervously declined.
• In exchange, she informed them about Rel, the strange masked warrior who had killed Bruno. She told them that a fighter of their acquaintance, left behind in the castle, had stumbled on the Sword of Rel and that the weapon had corrupted him. They quickly deduced that the fighter in question must be Ysabeau.

Longo: We've been Melniboned!

• Some time afterwards, they left her room on good terms, with not a bloodthirsty ghost in sight.

Longo: She's over there talking to birds! What do they know? Nothing! They're stupid birds!

• A door nearby emitted singsong humming, which the party made a note of, but did not open at the moment.
• They encountered a pack of a dozen rigormortises in the hallway, which were promptly cut to shreds and blasted with turning.
• They encountered a room which rained blood from the ceiling. The party rigged up a makeshift umbrella from a tent canvas and went inside. The room was filled with ruined weapons and armor, and the portrait of a sad nobleman. In a closet, they found row on row of buckets filled with blood.

Idred: I doubt any of the vampires would bow to drink out a bucket… maybe stock for the sprinkler system in this room?

• They stumbled into another office, piled high with cabinets, in which a severed hand rapped loudly on a table. It scuttled under the table as the party approached, and as they were trying to get out, a Stygous bird attacked from underneath a sack. The party saw it before it attacked, however, and with no small amount of luck managed to slaughter it.

GM: Seriously? Two attacks for maximum damage in a row? 

• And in a padded coffer, the party found a black bottle labeled 'Red Raven Wine.'
• The party pushed through grand exterior doors, and found themselves on a bridge above the castle roof, leading into the Donjon which had towered over them since the first session.

• They entered the second level of the tower, where chains suspended from the ceiling dropped to a lower floor down a huge shaft. Dozens of rag-clothed skeletons sat against the wall. The party quickly noted that they weren't shackled, and turned them with extreme prejudice. Half of them crumbled to dust, and while the other half charged the party, they were quickly destroyed.
• The party observed a series of rungs driven into the dungeon could be accessed from the balcony, and led to a higher floor, and there were staircases leading up and down. Idred checked out the chains and the shaft, noting the winch in the ceiling. 
• Then the wizard was pushed into the shaft by an invisible force. He flailed about to grab the chains, but they slipped through his grasp. He fell, and fell, and fell, through the first floor, and down into the dungeon level, into the same oubliette he had looted in the last expedition. He was bleeding out, just a couple minutes from death, for the second time this expedition.

Idred: A heroic individual could make a controlled descent down a rope.

Longo: Yeah, but what can we do?

• Boroth immediately jumped onto the chains and tried to climb down them, with a great deal of difficulty. Longo made the more judicious decision to have his henchmen hold a rope while he rappelled down with some bottles of brandy.
• He arrived in time to save Idred from death, but with bad luck it took two bottles of brandy to do the trick. Longo fashioned the rope into a simple harness, Idred was pulled up to the first floor, made his way up the stairs, then collapsed in front of the party, still banged up and not far from death.

Corby: I was going to make a joke about wizards having noodly arms, but I think Idred is the strongest member of the party.

Longo: He's just lazy!

• The stairs up led to a scary locked door, iron with a skull-shaped lock. They didn't want to try their luck in that moment. Instead, Longo tried his luck climbing the outside of the tower with the rungs.

Fear of heights? What's that?

• The ascent was going fine, until Longo realized he was directly over the eastern courtyard, and the statues in it. Including the statue of a crocodile-ape monster. Which the party knew for a fact was animate. And which in this moment left its pedestal and climbed up to Longo's position. Its stone claws dug into the tower and it reached Longo with frightening speed.
• It then notified Longo that the rung two steps up always gave out when weight was on it. They exchanged pleasantries, and it introduced itself as the Blind Beast of Xyntillan. He was very friendly as it happened, and he exchanged information with Longo about the tower, including the presence of a mummy and 'Pigeons from Hell.'

I was made aware that this is a thing

• They also exchanged riddles. Longo supplied him two riddles the party had been faced with. The Beast had heard one before, but did not know the answer, and knew the answer to the other, which he had not before heard. 

Blind Beast: The hunter hunts without leaving his castle, on endless forest paths where he is the master.

Longo, deliberating: What's the answer?

Blind Beast: Look down.

• In the courtyard below, a pack of hunting dogs had gathered, and at their head, a hunter dressed in green, his face leathery and putrid. Longo said a quick farewell to the Blind Beast, and dashed back to the safety of the tower. The hunter launched two arrows with unusual speed, but one only nicked Longo. He reported back quickly, as the party heard the dogs bark, and they saw the hunter lead his pack into the castle towards them.
• With that little cliffhanger, the session ended. With a hunter on their heels, will the party fight? Will they escape? Will they face the Pigeons from Hell? All that and more in next week's session of Castle Xyntillan!

Takeaways

The campaign has been light on the treasure these last few sessions, besides the vampire-hunting equipment. It looks like the party has emptied out the low-hanging fruit of the dungeon, and all the good treasure remaining is in the places the party has been dreading, like the lake tower and the northwest wing.

Idred's been something of a butt monkey these last two sessions, being reduced to negative hit points once in each. I can say confidently that I gave him a shot at avoiding both these events, and it wasn't just naked targeting.

That ending scene went over very well, and I can say that it was completely unplanned. I didn't know the party would visit the tower, or that Longo would try the rungs, or that the Blind Beast would approach, or that the Beast would roll a perfect Reaction roll. Even moreso, he happened to have a riddle about the hunter, which was the exact encounter I rolled for that time slot! One of the players confided that he loved the scene, which still fills my cold GM heart with a spark of joy.

Next Chapter: Hoard of the Hell-Pigeons