The Company:
- Hendrik (MU5)
- Jürg (F3)
- Francesco (F3)
- “Loyal” Lukas (heavy foot)
- “Fat” Jonas (porter)
Loot:
- A bottle of wine
- A box with six medals
- Big rolls of crumbling paper
- A naughty pamphlet
- Pickle jar with moving eyes
- Unlabeled booklet
- Handful of paper records of adventurer exploits
Casualties: Lukas, the fanatically loyal heavy footsoldier, beheaded by the grim reaper’s scythe.
Report:
In the week preceding the next expedition, Othmar, the captain of the guard who was insulted by Jürg some time ago during a carousing spree, talks trash about the company to the men for hire who hang out in the town’s bars. They double their fees in response.
Jürg talks to some shady types in The Tap who are looking for a magic sword known as “Darkslayer”. They recognize him as a fellow member of the faction of Chaos. They tell him the sword will give people like them untold power. Someone, probably one of the members of the pious arm of the family, has buried it in one of the castle’s gardens. Its dark powers should make the sword’s presence obvious once you get close to it.
The company also toys with the idea of using Blérot, who is still hiding out with them, to get rid of Othmar, but they don’t follow through on the plan (yet).
***
A smaller company than usual makes their way to the castle. Hendrik is put in charge of the expedition. The magic-user decides to take a second stab at seeking out one of the castle’s laboratories.
During their approach they check on “Heinz’s bean”, planted alongside the castle’s south wall. They are pleased to see it has grown to a height of 20 cm and is happily dancing on the spot, the soil it springs from vibrating to an unheard beat.
The company enters through the grand entrance, ignore the ghost of James the butler, and immediately tack west to a large empty room. Here they take a thus far unexplored stairway leading up. At its end, they find a door. Opening it, they see a door to the east, a hallway opening onto a large room to the west, and straight ahead an alcove with the bust of a stern bearded crusader who is observing them intently.
Having not brought any clerics with them, they ignore the crusader, and head west into a feasting hall. Here they see a large table scattered with bones. There is also a tapestry depicting a knight fighting a swamp creature, and many shields with local family crests. The bones appear to be a mix of goat, sheep, and — as feared — human.
With a shudder, the company continues west into another hallway. Here, they are greeted by animated vines which appear to be minding their own business. The company however do not trust the things, and Hendrik taps one with his woodland staff, instantly destroying it. The remaining vine attacks. Francesco makes to chop away with his halberd but in a rare moment of ineptitude the thing slips from his fingers. However, Hendrik and Jurg make short work of the thing.
The company emerges from the hallway into a large two-story library. Hendrik immediately begins to browse the holdings with great expectations. Francesco, somewhat out of his depth, tries to help by looking at the pictures. When he finds a particularly salacious pamphlet he decides to stick it in his tunic for safe keeping. With the aid of a detect magic spell, Hendrik locates a unmarked booklet stuck behind a row of sheet music.
They explore a hallway leading north from the far corner of the library. The first door they try opens onto a storage space filled with rolls of yellowing crumbling paper. Jürg decides he wants to take them, because you can never be too sure, and spreads out his portable hole on the floor. However, rather than a portal to the 10-feet-deep pocket dimension, the hole opens onto a vista of stars and planets in cold, dead space. Air begins to suck from the room, tugging at its occupants. Before disaster can strike, however, Jürg manages to snatch up the hole again, saving them from oblivion. With balls of steel, Jürg once again puts down the hole, and begins to shove rolls of paper down into the pocket dimension beyond.
The company returns to the library. They try a door next to a hearth in the north wall and discover a large room with a number of lamentable hunchbacks chained to desks, diligently copying passages from books onto sheafs of paper. Upon inspection the passages appear to be invariable of a scandalous nature. Picking through papers scattered throughout the room they discover accounts of hapless adventurers meeting their doom in the castle in a variety of grim but amusing ways. At some point, a trap door opens in the ceiling, and papers are dumped down it by persons unseen.
Leaving the room again, they try yet another door in the library, and find a spiral stairs leading up and down. They head up to the second level and enter the upper floor of the library. They search the shelves for more notable items, and come across the statue of a reaper holding a book. Francesco goes off to check the connecting room to the east. Hendrik continues to search for books to the west. Jürg stays behind and — true to form — bashes the statue in the head. It animates and gestures an invitation to peruse the book. Despite knowing better, Jürg begins to read, and finds his own name. That moment, a reaper appears next to him, which immediately makes a swipe for his head with its scythe.
Jürg backs away while frantically pulling a potion of heroism from his pack. Francesco runs to come to his aid, as does Hendrik — in the mean time casting a protective spell on himself. Jürg downs his potion, and Hendrik casts another protective spell on the fighting-man. At that point, a second reaper appears who goes for the magic-user. Loyal heavy foot soldier Lukas comes to his master’s aid, and is rewarded by a reaper of his very own. Francesco stops in his tracks and decides not to make things even worse by intervening as well. He can only look on helplessly as his companions do battle with their own personal reapers. Lukas is hit by death’s scythe, is paralyzed, and beheaded. His reaper emits a booming laugh and disappears along with the poor retainer’s corpse. Jürg and Hendrik continue to fight for their lives. The magic-user defeats death with a relentless barrage of magic missiles. Jürg, meanwhile, simply smashes the reaper with repeated bashings of his mace +1. A close call indeed.
As they collect their wits, the reaper statue appears from between bookcases and shows them how he strikes out two names from his book before returning to his original location. The company look at each other, shrug, and continue their expedition.
The next room to the east is a spacious lounge. Decapitated heads growl at them from couches. A glowing orb hangs over a card table. A large tapestry shows a chronicle of the Malévol family. On another wall hangs a wood carving of a procession of kings playing instruments. Hendrik approaches the card table and is invited by a pair of animated gloves to join in on a game. Despite his sharp wits the magic-user loses the game due to shameless cheating by the ghostly dealer. When they investigate the wood carving the kings begin to sing ballads, one of which is about a gallant knight named Roland “who lost his fiery heart.”
They consider continuing to the next room east, from where they see faint glimmers of candlelight and hear the sound of music. But in stead, they check a door to the north and find a hallway with two more doors. These they ignore, head back to the circular stairs, and down to the first floor of the library.
In the library they go into a hallway leading north and take a door into a largely empty room. A door to the south opens onto a thoroughly ruined bedroom of what must have been a military officer. Hendrik inspects a weapons cabinet filled with a wide range of armaments. Jürg tosses the matras and is surprised to find something invisible was lying on it which hops off and in a gruff man’s voice calls “attention!” All the weapons, including those held by the company, rise in response and point threateningly at the companions. Jürg calls “turn left!” and the weapons move around in confusion, buying enough time for Hendrik to flee the room. Then, slapping his forehead, Jürg remembers, and shouts “at ease!” and the weapons drop to the ground. Relieved, they make a quick search of the room and find a bottle of wine and a box of medals in a hidden compartment in the bottom of the weapon cabinet.
When Francesco and Jürg join Hendrik outside the room they are attacked from behind by a pair of hand swarms that emerge from the now-dark captain’s room. One is almost immediately obliterated by magic. The other begins to chortle a distressed Francesco. Jürg manages to bash the hands from his compatriot, and what remains is soon enough dispatched by combined physical and magical violence.
The company decides they have had enough, and make their way to the exit the way they came. At the top of the stairs down to the ground floor they hear awful sobbing come from below. They see a lamentable figure wrapped in bandages that weep black puss cross the empty room that they were heading towards. With held breaths they watch it disappear, and then pile out of the castle as fast as they can.
***
Upon return to town they sell off the medals for a modest return. The unlabeled booklet turns out to contain weird music, a spell called “irresistible rondeau”, and a handwritten note:
“Should the hunter hunted be, decipher this mystery: his heart is stone, but a heart he keeps — if you catch him when he’s at peace”
Referee Commentary:
This session was just a delight. A smaller party makes for even faster play than usual. There were more than a few pleasant surprises and fun little moments while running. When we came to the library and I read about the reaper I was like “really, Melan?” and laughing out loud. My players have gotten used to it. The scene with the weapons was also one where I did not expect the players to immediately catch on, but they did, and it was a lot of fun.
I should also give a tip of the hat to Jürg’s player who, when confronted by the reaper inviting him to read the book decided to flip a coin to see what Jürg would do. A lesser player would have decided their character would not do it for fear of the consequences. Or they would read it “because that’s what my character would do.” But in stead, they went to the dice, mirroring the way I’ve been trying to run the game as well, with a suitable degree of detachment from my monsters and NPCs. Delightful.
I don’t really have any referee regrets, and we did not come across any rules issues, so I think we can keep it at that. The players have uncovered more than a few new clues related to that mysterious heart they saw light up over the impenetrable secret door in the ghoul tomb. Let’s see if they’ll pursue these further…