Session 8 and 9: Ghosts and boulders
Gaston - Level 2 Thief
Bodo - Level 2 Halfling
Grim - Level 1 Dwarf †
Karl - Level 2 Dwarf
Rat - Level 3 Thief
Iosef - Level 3 Cleric
The cleansing of the temple and the death of Grim
After a long period of laying low, carousing and doing side jobs, the adventuring company (still without an official title, although la Guardia d'Onore in Memoria di Francesco is still pending) finally came back together for another bout with Castle Xyntillan! After carefully organizing the possible goals during Alberto's meeting, Rat decided the party should focus on an entirely different goal: dealing with the evil monks in the chapel they discovered and exploring the room from which they appeared. With his more than adequate oratory skills, Rat quickly managed to convince the other participants that this was to be the priority of the raid. No sooner said than done, the party departed, invigorated with newfound motivation and courage.
Once inside the castle, taking the grand entrance as usual, they made their way towards the ominous chapel. There the party decided to rest for a bit, after which they would have built a barricade out of the pews. But, to their dismay, the undead servants of the church surprised them during their rest, and the barricade was never built. For a few seconds the party waited to see how the column of malign monks was going to act, but when they turned towards the adventurers and revealed their razor-sharp claws, they knew a vicious fight was at hand!
The fight proved to be quick but very lethal... for both sides. All monks were dealt with, but at the cost of not one but two companions! Almost immediately Clovis, one of the hired hands, got his throat slit by a deadly claw and bled out. His cries, reduced to a wet gurgling, made the companions sick to their stomach. And just when the battle seemed to turn in favor of the adventurers, Grim the dwarf was killed in much the same way. A shock went through the party, followed by disbelief. But there was nothing to be done about it.
The party then explored the room east of the apse, from which the undead monks had come. After some exploring it was clear that this room belonged to the head priest. It was revealed that the priest was quite the connoisseur of expensive wines, and also had an interest in indecent literature, a stack of which he had hidden under his bed. Behind a secret door leading to a corridor they found even more wine barrels, and a trapdoor to the grotto. An upside down silver cross found in a small prayer room was left alone after it turned black when prodded with a ten-foot-pole.
Encounter with a vampiric ghost
After returning to Tours-en-Savoy the party said their formal goodbyes to their fallen comrade, and quickly replaced him with a new dwarf named Nein. Nein joined the party on their new raid into the castle. This time they decided to explore beyond the entrance halls in the south-eastern part of the castle. The party spent some time exploring a room next to the head butler's rooms, which seemed to be used for some sort of occult research. The room was filled with peculiar materials and ingredients and puzzling diagrams. What drew the most attention was a stuffed raven on a writing desk, which was eagerly bagged by Rat. After leaving this room through a door in the east, the party stumbled upon what seemed to be an antechamber, featuring a door with a sinister mechanical lock. The lock was made of black iron and shaped like the face of a bat, with wings on both sides. Not taking any chances, Gaston the locksmith checked if it was trapped and successfully deduced that the teeth of the batface were, in fact, poisoned. The party decided to leave it alone for now, but just when they were about to leave the room, a ghost phased through the batdoor.
The terrified party, huddled against the north-east corner of the antechamber, watched as the hideous thing floated into the room. The slow, ominous entrance of the ghost made their hair stood on end. For a short moment a flood of questions raced through their minds. Was this the inhabitant of the room behind the batdoor? Did it hear Gaston meddle with the lock? Was it angry? Has it seen us? But all these thoughts were swiftly swept away like smoke in a breeze, when the ghost turned towards the party. A horrid visage, gaunt and emaciated, gazed upon the companions, and its look had but one expression: hunger. Immediately the adventurers started panicking. Could their weapons hurt it? Some fled towards the door they came from, but Karl and Rat, wielding magic weapons, stood their ground. The ghost went for Karl's neck, attempting to suck his blood, but a stab in the back interrupted its feeding.
'How can a ghost be hungry?' Bodo exclaimed, and although the inquiry wasn't based on a false premise, it didn't really help the party at that time.
Meanwhile, Karl's Blade of Rel hacked away at the vicious ghost and Rat kept stabbing with his magic dagger. Their hopes of survival grew when they could see the ghost visibly recoil with each hit, screeching as its ectoplasm teared. The cleric, Iosef, tried to exorcise the spawn of evil, but his holy symbol meant nothing to the vampiric entity. Iosef's healing powers meant a lot to Karl, though, keeping him in the fight. Victory had never been so sweet when the ghost finally succumbed, disappearing with a final scream.
The profit:
- Five bottles of expensive wine - 750g
- Three barrels of less expensive wine - 900g
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| Map of the southern part of the castle with the chapel |
Session 9
Karl - Level 4 Dwarf
Rat - Level 3 Thief †
Iosef - Level 3 Cleric
Nein - Level 1 Dwarf
Trouble at the front door
Another day, another raid. Four members of the still unnamed adventuring company went into Castle Xyntillan, planning to explore further beyond the antechamber. Unfortunately, their adventure was greatly hampered by multiple encounters at the grand entrance.
First they were welcomed by three zombies banging their heads at the doors. They didn't pose much of a threat for the valiant companions. But just when the adventurers found out the doors were locked, they were attacked by an extremely angry, corpulent and surprisingly alive monk! Unfortunately for him, the monk didn't pose much of a threat either, and was quickly subdued and tied down. When the monk regained consciousness he seemed to have forgotten about what had transpired, but soon lost his temper again when the party didn't seem too eager to untie him. When he couldn't supply the party with much useful information, a discussion followed about his fate. The four adventurers decided he should be thrown from the ramp leading up to the grand entrance. This didn't kill the monk, so some of the members used his tied and broken body as target practice until the swearing priest went silent forever. What will the other members of the Malévol family think about this?
The party soon found out how at least one Malévol felt about this, when they heard a sinister laugh coming from behind them. Leaning against the castle wall stood Olivier Malévol, the identical twin of Claude Malévol, arms crossed and grinning widely. Luckily for them, he didn't think too much of the murder and even offered to unlock the grand entrance for them, for which the party happily thanked him. But, to their dismay, before he reached the doors, the young man seemed to melt and within a moment the stupefied adventurers were not looking at a dandy gentleman anymore, but a huge grey ooze!
This foe greatly disturbed Karl the dwarf, usually the most eager companion to stand in the front ranks. But the fact that grey oozes dissolves metal as if it were butter in a summer sun was well known within the part, and the otherwise courageous dwarf didn't feel like losing his shiny plate armor. Thus the slimy opponent was only attacked from a safe distance, which was easily maintained, as the thing was extremely slow. While burning oil only turned it into a flaming ooze; arrows, bolts and slingstones made quick work of the monster. Soon it was dead, the party still unscathed.
But again, just as the ooze was dealt with, another voice was heard from above the gatehouse. This time it came from a shade wearing the dress of a Caribbean pirate, and it introduced itself as Jean-Luc Malévol the Dastardly. The translucent buccaneer seemed rather entertained by the party's last fight and agreed to open the doors as a token of gratituity, finally clearing the way into the castle. The ghost gave the party a stern warning not to go look for it's treasure though, but still laughed jovially when it disappeared in the wind. This castle sure houses some peculiar boarders.
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| The cleric Iosef turns the zombies at the grand entrance |
The boulder and the death of Rat
Inside the castle the four adventurers made their way towards the antechamber and continued on from there, ignoring the batlock. In the first hallway they stumbled upon an interesting sculpture: a huge, perfectly round boulder resting upon a stone pedestal. The foreboding boulder was immediately designated as dangerous, and three out of four companions opted to just leave it be. Only Rat could not contain his curiosity, and went to take a closer look. The thief inspected it, saw nothing out of the ordinary (apart from the misplaced boulder itself), and then crawled inside the space between the wall and the pedestal, over which the boulder protruded. When there was nothing there either, he placed his hand on the boulder, caressed it and called it a "sweet boulder". Immediately the boulder smashed into the wall above Rat, who was still lying prone, and then rushed towards the other end of the corridor.
Rat, now quite shaken after his close-call with death, made a run for his companions, who were watching the scene unfold from around the corner of a connected corridor. Alas, he was too slow and when the boulder came back around Rat was sadly smeared across the floor. Before returning to the Tours-en-Savoy, the three remaining adventurers explored one more room, which proved to be quite profitable. The room had probably belonged to a young lady, with decaying clothes and cosmetic items scattered around. Some golden buttons were still in good shape, and inside a cavity behind a mirror, they found a golden box of sweets! The sweets were unfortunately replaced with severed fingers and toes, all with nicely lacquered nails, but the box itself was surely worth much.
Sluggish encounter
With fresh eagerness the three surviving adventurers went back to Castle Xyntillan just a few days later, taking some drunk fool off the streets with them. He later introduced himself as Mouse, and was surprisingly agreeable to his new situation. Again the party went to the south-eastern part of the castle, beyond the antechamber, this time ignoring the menacing boulder.
Following the corridor, the party eventually opened a door that led them to a parlor that had once been nicely decorated, but now the wood floor, furniture and wall panelling were heavily damaged by some sort of acid. When the party went to take a look inside, they fortunately noticed the disgusting slugs in time, crawling around on the ceiling, although one of them almost dropped on Nein's head. When more and more dropped, the party decided there were too many to kill with ordinary weapons, and they planned to lure the slugs into the corridor with the boulder.
They chose the doorway to the antechamber as an escape route and waited a while for the slow creatures to crawl into the corridor. When they finally did, Mouse shot an arrow at the boulder, and just as last time, it rolled towards them with tremendous speed, splattering slugjuice everywhere. The companions quickly escaped before the boulder could reach them. They feared that the boulder was not just rolling up and down the corridor, but would actually chase them into the antechamber, so they closed the door before running towards the occult room. A loud bang on the door behind them confirmed their fears, and they had only just put another door between them and the antechamber, when they heard the boulder crash into that very room. When the second door fell, the party had already escaped the castle.
The profit:
- Gold ring belonging to the fat priest - 80g
- Golden buttons - 300g
- Golden box of sweets- 1400g
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| Map of the south-eastern part of the castle |
Karl is level 4,niet 3!
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