The Company:
- Jaquet (F3)
- Hendrik (MU2)
- Ynes (T4)
- Davignon (C3)
- Bartolomea (C4)
- Edna & Franziska (heavy foot)
- Rivka & India (porters)
- Gene (C1 retainer)
- Jürg (non-combatant, Bartolomea’s husband)
Loot:
- A barrel of fine wine
- Five bottles of “the best”
- Four lecherous wall hangings
- And also: a cursed silver cross, an ominous magic mirror, a silver dagger, an empty bottle marked “spirits”, a jar of poisoned salve, and a broken trilobite fossil
Casualties: None, barely.
Report:
In the week before the next expedition, Bartolomea is once again visited by her angel. It is very angry with her because she has been neglecting her quest for the oils of cleansing. Bartolomea wakes up feeling absolutely terrible.
While going about her business in town, someone tells her the goats are not what they seem. She wants to know more, but the person just thinks they’re dangerous maybe?
Late one night while hanging around The Black Comedian, she has a run-in with what looks like the ghost of a dark-clad thespian. The man is looking for someone named Patrice Desjardin-Malévol, who betrayed him. Bartolomea tries to negotiate a deal with the phantom, nut it responds poorly, and vanishes.
Meanwhile, Ynes asks around where she might find the marble throne of her vision. She does not learn much beyond some well-meant suggestions that a throne is typically found in a throne room?
Finally, Bartolomea goes carousing. Several days later, when sobriety returns to her, she vaguely remembers being inducted into some kind of secret society or perhaps even a cult? But for the life of her she can’t remember the secret symbols that members use to signal each other.
***
On the morning of Wednesday, February 14, 1526 the company find themselves once more at the gates of Castle Xyntillan. They head to the grand entrance. Before entering, they diligently drag away a couple of dead bodies from the gates and dump them in the stream that runs south of the castle and empties into the lake. They’ve been attacked before by bodies raised by one of the statues next to the entrance and did not much care for it.
In the vestibule an argument develops between Ynes and Bartolomea about where to head next. Both are under a quest and each have their own goal in mind. Jaquet, being this expedition’s captain, decides in Ynes’s favor, and they head through a west door that opens onto a corridor.
The company explores a number of rooms along the corridor’s north fork. First they poke around a closet, and take an empty bottle marked “spirits” that vaguely smells of alcohol. Then they stick their heads into what appears to be a bathroom of sorts, holding several tubs, one occupied by a large toad that croaks at the company pleadingly.
While they are figuring out how to deal with the toad, they are attacked in the rear by a vicious undead matron whom they had crossed paths with previously. The woman is wild haired, has empty eye sockets crawling with spiders, a cloud of moths circling around her. She has not forgotten the company, curses them, tells them to leave, and to make her point absolutely clear, proceeds to shred poor Jürg to pieces and drains his life energy.
Thanks to clever maneuvering and a lucky turning attempt, Jürg is pulled back from death’s door, and the undead matron is trapped and destroyed. They chop of her head, stow it for future use, and turn their attention back to the toad-occupied bathroom.
Bartolomea casts speak with animals and tries to figure out what the toad’s needs are, because they want to make sure they can search the room safely for treasure. It appears to be hungry, not much more than that. They try to placate it with rations, which it appreciates, but it remains more than a little peckish. Jaquet loses his patience and blows the toad to smithereens with his arquebus. They find no treasure except a greasy jar of what appears to be some kind of salve, and leave.
The next room they search appears to have been previously occupied by a maid. A large mirror with a dusty surface stands out in particular. It detects as magic but they don’t trust it so they carefully cover it with a sheet and place it at the corridor’s entrance so they can easily take it with them when they leave. The room is tossed, but not much else is found. They take a tarnished silver dagger from between bloody bed sheets, and a green felt cloak from the wardrobe.
The company heads further south down the hallway, and check a door to the west. It opens onto what appear to be stables. Ynes wants to investigate further, but Jaquet pulls her back into the corridor, determined to first explore further south.
The next door, also heading west, opens onto a large chapel decorated with frescoes of wine-harvesting monks. The room’s centerpiece is an altar marked by the fossil of a trilobite. The clerics are impressed with the chapel and kneel in prayer at the altar. The remainder of the company begin to search the room.
Suddenly, a door to the southeast open and in files a large procession of undead monks chanting satanic hymns. They make a circuit of the chapel, while the company looks on flabbergasted. Then, they surround the clerics at the altar and close in for the attack!
The company regain their senses and don’t hesitate to act. Ynes shoots a monk in the back from the shadows with her crossbow. Jaquet also fires with his crossbow. Davignon tries to turn the monsters but fails. Then, Bartolomea begins to preach, and in one fell swoop absolutely obliterates every single monk.
They continue their search of the chapel. They hear singing from a hallway leading west. Bartolomea tries and fails to remove the trilobite fossil, which detects as magical, from the altar.
They also find a secret entrance behind the altar. Beyond it, a crawl space is filled with casks of what appears to be an excellent vintage. Searching the space further, they find a shaft in the floor on one end, and another secret door at the other end.
This secret door, as well as the door from which the evil monks entered the room, lead to the pleasure den of a cleric gone bad. Behind the portrait of the pope they find a liquor cabinet. They take its contents. Several wall hangings showing young nymphs are taken down and rolled up for transport upon departure. Under the bed, of course, they find dirty books.
A door heading north opens into a hallway. In it, the body of a cleric slumps against the next door. When they approach, a toad emerges from the man’s mouth, observes the company blankly, and makes for the exit.
They push the body aside, and open the door he was slumped against. Here they see a prayer room with a silver cross hanging upside down from the wall. Bartolomea has a vision of herself rushing in, grabbing the cross, and nearly dying from a curse, the cross crumbling to ashes. Instead, they carefully the cross in cloth, and pack it for future inspection.
With that, the company decides they’ve had enough excitement. They shoulder the rolled up wall hangings, roll out a cask of wine, and safely make it back out of the castle.
Along the way, Ynes thinks to check on the dancing bean once planted by the late magic user Heinz along the south wall near the grand entrance. She is surprised to find a small vine has sprouted and that it is rhythmically swaying side to side, the soil from which it emerges gently vibrating…
***
Back in town they have a bunch of stuff identified and sold off. They experiment with the creepy mirror, which turns out to show a parallel world in which the dead are alive and the living are dead. Bartolomea uses it to have the undead matron’s severed head confirm she is a Malévol.
The company goes carousing again, and manage to avoid any serious mishaps. The worst that happens is that Ynes is find for misbehavior.
Poor Jürg is admitted to the local hospital to be treated for his drained energy. The sisters say it will take more than a few weeks for him to recover.
Their final act is to pack up the undead matron’s head in a box, and send it, along with a letter, to the bishop of Chamrousse. Bartolomea hopes dearly this will be the evidence she needs to gain access to the crypt below the church…
Referee Commentary:
This was a relatively compact session due to the fact that the players decided to head back to town early once they’d collected more than a few bulky pieces of treasure. We diligently track encumbrance and they are always apprehensive of dropping below their maximum movement rate.
The scene towards the end in the prayer room with Bartolomea’s vision requires a small explanation, perhaps. What happened is that I mistakenly described the prayer room when they explored the maid’s room. When I discovered this, I hesitated for a moment to correct myself, but ultimately decided to explain my mistake to the players, and we explored the maid’s room instead. When they did come across the prayer room in its correct location, I decided to work in the meta-knowledge Bartolomea’s player had gained the first time around in the form of a vision. It worked out quite well in this case, I think.
I use the alternative rules in Castle Xyntillan for undead energy drain. So characters do not lose levels, but depending on the type of undead are drained of ability points. In the case of Jürg and (slight spoiler) Odile, I ruled she was the equivalent of a wight and therefore would drain 1d6 CON with every successful hit. Jürg dropped from 9 to 6 to 4. A close call! It’s funny how the mere fact that a non-combatant retainer in question is Bartolomea’s husband adds to the drama. I don’t think any normal retainer would have received the care and attention Jürg did.
The outright destruction of the pack of evil monks was another lucky break. I am beginning to wonder if the alternative turning mechanic we are using might be a bit unbalanced. Or maybe I’m just being fooled by randomness. Hard to say. In any case I might switch to a more traditional approach, at least as an experiment. Although I will try to adapt the OD&D turning rules to something that does not require a lookup table. Because I absolutely hate those.