Castle Xyntillan Session 24: The Grimmest Gardens

 In the last session, the party reconvened with their paladin ally, located their ghostly butler friend, cleared several rooms of enemies, and recovered one of the Malevol heirlooms, the Staff of the Merovings. Even better, they have a solid lead on the Grayl Chamber! Will they bug out with what they already have, or risk digging further into the castle? What treasure awaits discovery? 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. 

Hubert, Heavy Footman.

Gwynefa, Arbalist.

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.

Oscar, Arbalist of unusual strength

LaBeouf, Camp Cook.
Raymond, Mule.

Casualties

None

Loot

Ballroom Guestbook

12 landscape paintings, lightly damaged, 3000gp

'The Nightingale', by Angelo B, 2500gp

Silver horn, 270gp

The Game

• Concluding their inspection of the throne room, the party pressed their ears to the northern doors, and heard the music and steps of a dance beyond. They opened up, and found a great ballroom filled with the shades of the dead, dancing to an unseen orchestra.

Idred: Ever danced, Boroth?
Boroth: No, I remain resolute.

• Boroth ran across the dance floor, almost losing himself as the shades of ghostly women reached out to dance with him, but he returned unscathed.

Longo: You can dance if you want to.

Corby: You can leave your friends behind.

Boroth: I don't dance! But you're making me!

Longo: That was peer pressure. You lost.

• Longo joined him on the floor, similarly resisting. The pair picked a nearby door with smoke curling from below it, and found a comfortable sitting room, bedecked with plush couches, lovely landscape paintings, and a hookah swirling with glowing blue smoke.

JMW Turner. Can you tell where my artistic tastes lie?

• They called the rest of the party out to join them, but while the other PCs made it across the floor fine, almost all their hirelings were caught up in the manic dancing. Before their hirelings could be lost forever, the PCs shoved candle wax in their ears, blocking out the orchestra. 
• In the sitting room, the party took a breather, while some of their more adventurous members took a breath of the hookah.

Longo: Old halfling proverb: Yolo.

Idred: This is no mundane herb.

• The smoke put those who breathed it right to sleep, though they awoke later rested and unharmed. Upon finishing their rest, the party got to plundering the paintings. The option of cutting them out of their frames came up, but to minimize damage, they took the slower route of dismantling the frames.
• The western door was locked, and instead of trying to unlock it, Boroth tried to knock it off its hinges. And failed, jamming it. The unholy racket attracted another family member, Odile Malevol, who shouted at and harangued the party from the other side of the door, demanding that they leave her castle at once. The party jammed the door even more and fled the scene.
• Further north, the party found themselves in a music room, the shades of artists past appearing and disappearing before decrepit instruments. Idred picked up the sheet music strewn about the floor, labeled 'The Nightingale', by Angelo B, and organized the manuscripts while the rest of the party poked about the instruments.
• Returning to the ballroom with wax ready, they located a lounge, replete with more family portraits and a ghostly valet. The party conversed with the paintings, which including getting a bucket of paint thrown on Idred's lovely robes by Bartholomew, almost getting pickpocketed by and receiving the autobiography of Jean-Jacques Malevol, and fielding desperate marriage proposals from the lovely widow Morella Malevol. The valet had to restrain the party from ruining the lounge at several points.

Longo: Hey Corby, how long until you can resurrect Herman? We're overdue for another wedding.

• Continuing their journey, the party entered a glass-domed greenhouse, part of a larger indoor garden they had previously seen from the tower.

Idred: Maybe I should have a greenhouse in my tower.

• They explored the gardens, which just seemed to keep on going.

Longo: Wanna do the special?

Idred: Am I missing a reference?

Longo: Yeah, Session 1. Burn it all down.

*discussing Aurora Malevol in the tower*

Longo: (in a Bane voice) If we let her out, it would be very painful... for you.

• The party located a silver horn, held by a desiccated corpse, which on closer inspection was filled with spiders. Longo held it over a torch and burned the bugs and their webs away. Down a corridor, they found a human skull on a pedestal, overgrown with a pulsating black fungus. Longo approached, and it spoke into his mind. The party incinerated the skull with oil.

Skull: Grow, grow and consume, feed!

Longo: I'm as tall as I'll get!

•  This finally led them to a gardening shed, and they were attacked by a pair of animated gardening shears. I didn't last long, even without the hammer and sickle. The party located a door which connected back to the boulder alley they had passed through so long ago, but decided against traveling in that direction.

Longo: What's the plan if we find The Beast gardening here?

Idred: Cordially greet him?

Corby: The Beast probably isn't Jason Voorhees to us anymore.

GM: *laughs in knowledge of statblocks*

CHEWIE NO!

• The session ended there, with the party still doing well on resources. Where will they go next? Will they try to locate the Holy Grayl? What challenge waits around the corner? Find out in next week's session of Castle Xyntillan!

Takeaways

The party has observed that dungeoneering is effectively a 9-5 job for them. They've always entered the castle in the morning and left no later than 5 in the afternoon, and with the early summer weather, they're not running out of sunshine. Still, with so many resources left, this may be the longest expedition yet.

After getting drained two sessions ago, Boroth has already regained his lost level! It's been a whirlwind ride, with some of the densest loot they've found yet. The party is approaching the zenith of their power, with two sixth-level and two fifth-level characters.

The encounter with Odile Malevol was serendipitous: it was the result of a random encounter roll for jamming the door loudly, but the encounter they rolled was a family member which is actually keyed very close by! Fun little coincidence.

Next Chapter: The Henchman Strikes Back