Castle Xyntillan Sessions 35 and 36: The End

In the last session, the party destroyed the guardian of the Holy Grayl, very nearly claimed the artefact for themselves, ran from the ferryman of the Styx and returned to their patron Claude. They took a long vacation while Claude took power in the realm and established them as a chartered company. Now, they return to Castle Xyntillan, seeking the Grayl once again. Will they locate the artefacts they need to claim the Grayl? What will they find waiting for them after so long away from the Castle? All this and more in the final sessions 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.

Jorg, Promoted to Relic-Bearer

Yessica, Arbalist

Stanislas, light footman

Hilda, heavy footman

Kaleb, Arbalist with a nose for booze and a magic pipe

Eric, Light Footman and cart driver.

Oscar, Arbalist of unusual strength

LaBeouf, Camp Cook.
Raymond, Mule.

Casualties

Raymond the Mule, heroically sacrificed

Loot

The Grayl of Good and Bad Destiny

Session 35

• After a timeskip and a well-deserved vacation, the party returned to Castle Xyntillan. This time, they were a chartered company, with Claude as their patron. And their objective was clearer than ever before. 
• At the gates to Xyntillan, they met with Gilbert Malevol the Fox, better known as the bandit leader from session 5. He and his men were camping openly in front of the castle, and greeted the party warmly. After all, they were on the same side.
• Claude had conscripted Gilbert and his men to become tax collectors; specifically, to collect 80% of the party's findings coming out of the castle. Ah, the joys of going legit. They bantered about, and Gilbert directed the party's attention to the castle gate.
• Xyntillan's crumbling gatehouse, the party's go-to entrance to the castle in numerous expeditions, had been handsomely repaired. Above it hung a banner reading, 

Avernus University Class of 1286 Reunion

• Further in, the party noted other repairs and improvements in the months they'd been away. Tristano's coffin had been replaced by a statue of him, the garden was cleaned up, the path was paved. And in front of the great doors, an envelope drew the party's attention. The letter within read, 

Follow the road, then head west. Happy hunting, and remember the Snark. 

-Serpentina

• Sure enough, there were arrows and roadsigns painted on the walls and floors inside. The party took one look at those and went in the exact opposite direction. 
• Their oh-so familiar castle was strange and new. The entrance hall to the south had been scrubbed of bat guano and re-painted in hellish scenes of torment. The party was moving under invisibility, and so chanced to see a woman, strong and cruel-eyed, storming out of the room they sought, putting her jewelry back on. Within that room, the furniture was broken and scattered, and sleeping in the broken remains of a dresser, a demon. A humanoid with the head of a vulture and great dark wings. It was snoring loudly, and the party snuck right past it, down the stairs into the dungeon. 
• Down in the wine cellar, they found yet another demon, a humongous minotaur with skeletal wings, sleeping drunkenly among the debris of a dozen wine barrels. It too, the party snuck past. 
• It had been clear to the party that they were missing a single piece of the puzzle, a single artifact needed to cleanse the Grayl. And in the intervening months, they had nothing but downtime to look over their maps and puzzle out its location.
• Thus they made their way past the warring beet-people past the cave entrance to Hades, to the minor shrine they had sheltered in as recently as the last expedition. They pried up the flagstones, opened the trapdoor beneath, and dragged out the buried treasure. X indeed marked the spot.
• Within, they found a gorgeous set of chain, a crusader's cloak, and an oil lamp. With this final artifact in hand, they journeyed into the Grayl Chamber. The Grayl was right where they had left it, and the Oil washed away the darkness that coated it. 

• At last, the Grayl was in hand! Corby marveled at it, and drank some wine from it. We was joined by the party, and they subsequently decided to use the water from the nearby pool to baptize all their hirelings. If you have the Holy Grayl, you might as well use it.
• When the ritual was done, the party breathed a sigh of relief. That was the moment everything went to hell.
• From the moment he touched the Grayl, Corby had been performing a dark ritual, hiding it with the motions of the baptism. Then, he flipped the silver coin Father Chlodowig had given him, one of the thirty silver pieces of Judas Iscariot, into the Grayl.
• The two opposing artefacts burned. The coin combusted and melted to slag, and the energy released was absorbed into the ritual. The party felt the ground beneath them tremble. They felt as though in freefall for a moment, before they came crashing down.
• The party had no idea what just happened. Even Corby wasn't sure. The zombie crusaders ran out from their tombs, their flesh melting.

"What have you done!?"

• Was all they could say before they were reduced to nothing.
• Outside the Grayl Chamber, the party came face to face with Serpentina and her pet python. She cackled madly, and revealed what had just occurred.
• Corby's ritual had sent Castle Xyntillan and its surroundings into Hell itself.

Session 36

• Castle Xyntillan was going to Hell. The party could feel the ground trembling beneath their feet still. Serpentina was the very picture of calm. Castle Xyntillan would become the anchor for a new layer of Hell, a demonic fortress from which Serpentina herself would rule. The party tried to conspire in the midst of her gloating, but decided against taking her on now.

Longo: Her Boroth, didn't your sister always use to say, 'Shoot for the fences?'

Boroth: My sister was a mute.

• Serpentina dismissed the party and instructed them to get the Grayl out of her castle Its presence was delaying the descent. She then stepped through a magical gate, out of sight.

Corby: Isn’t burying this den of villainy in Hell better for the world?

• The party considered staying in the castle for the time being, at least until they got some phat loot. Stop 1 was the Grayl Chamber again. They had long since decided which items to take from the treasury. The horn of blasting, the magical warhammer, and the two books. They also stole the double-headed axe from the crusader's chamber and gave it to Francois. 

Longo has no self-control

• Their exit path was blocked by a crowd of ghosts at the shore of the lake. They cried out, begging for coin. The party recognized several of the faces in the crowd. Medard the crusader, the pale ladies, a man bleeding from a hundred wounds, and James the butler. 
• They asked James what this was. He explained it was an evacuation. The many ghosts and shades of Xyntillan taking their chances with judgement in Hades instead of Hell. Hell is not kind to ghosts.
• Unfortunately, the psychopomps had spiked their prices due to sudden demand, up to thirty obols. The ghosts were begging the party for coins to assure their passage. 
• The hirelings all threw their coinpurses to the crowd to distract them, and the party followed suit (except for Longo, careful to hide the jingling of his pockets).
• But before they could leave, one thought struck the party. Hortensia, the youngest daughter of the Malevol family. She would still be in the castle. They desperately asked James where she might be found, and he directed them to the mossy chapel nearby. They filled his hands with coins, and bade him farewell.

James: I pray we find each other again in Asphodel, masters. 

• Further south, in the wine cellar, they heard the sound of crushing bones. They once again saw the bull demon, now awake and wringing the blood-stained white-furred body of Bumble the satyr into a barrel to drink his blood. The party elected to take a different route out.

Idred: The Throne would be faster than the ham ladder!

• The party consulted their map, and decided to take a more direct route. They blasted down a wall with the horn, and stepped into the mossy chapel, where Hortensia was hiding behind the altar. They explained the situation to her and led her out.
• They marched past the domain of Louis the Swine King, where they saw his pigs were growing monstrous and red-eyed, and the hirelings covered Hortensia's ears as the King's yells turned to screams and his subjects tore him limb from limb.
• Inside a room of hanging ham legs, they took a ladder up to the main floor, and blew out a pair of walls, leading right outside. The sky was choked with smoke, and the sun took on a red pallor. The castle was surrounded by towering cliffs, growing taller as the castle fell further into Hell. They dashed with Hortensia to the gate, and a shadow fell over the party.

• The winged vulture demon from earlier had been attracted to the noise, and swooped down to attack! The party struck it out of the air with the horn, and fell on it with enchanted weapons of every sort. It lashed out with talons and claws, injuring Hortensia. The skirmish quickly turned against the demon, and it reached out to grab Hortensia, but she wriggled out of its grasp. Then it was over for the foul creature. 
• The party ran out of the castle and towards the cliffs. At the top, Eric and Labeouef, their hirelings, and Raymond the mule, were on lookout for them. They yelled and waved their arms, then dropped a rope.
• But before they could begin their climb, they heard a terrible scream. The cruel-eyed woman from before was chasing after them... but now she had six arms and the lower body of a serpent. 
• They sent Longo and Hortensia up first, while Idred cast a Web spell on the demon. Against all odds, it succeeded, overcoming her magic resistance and sticking her to the ground. That gave the party the time they needed to climb up, but she cut her way out of the webs by the time they made it up. 
• At the lip of a cliff looking into the newest level of Hell, with a fifth-category demon flying toward them, the party heard a new voice.

Raymond: Gentlemen. It's been an honor.

Corby: Did the mule just talk?!

• Raymond the mule, now unhitched from the wagon, charged forward, and off the cliff. It smashed into the demon, and both tumbled to the ground below. 

• The party grabbed what supplies they could from the wagon, and ran. Without the influence of the Grayl, the castle went into freefall, the ground nearby was swallowed up. Only a fiery pit remained.

• Two days later, the party arrived, ragged and tired, in Tours-en-Savoy. In the coming days, they would deliver Hortensia to Claude. Only a handful of Malevols remained alive and in the material world. They never revealed their part in the mess, and all were sworn to silence as to their possession of the Grayl. 
• In the tenth layer of Hell, there stood a new castle, beside a lake of flaming acid, ruled by a cruel succubus and her cronies. 
• One day, perhaps, the Groomsmen will return to a life of adventure. Or a new party will take up their mantle. But for now, they rest.
  

Epilogue and Post-Mortem