Still at our cabin, still raining, the boys keep pestering me to play another session. I mean, I’m glad that they like it, I am, but we’re here to enjoy the great outdoors aren’t we? Of course they’re having none of it and they use their ultimate weapon to make me agree, they send 8 yo Edmond to beg… Large-eyed Edmond saying « pretty please » with his cutest voice, my heart of stone melts, no one could resist…

Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products

System: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

• Paul Neref (Olivier), friend of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 3
• Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), a cousin of the Jean, Warrior lvl 2
• Noah (Isaac), loves throwing knives, Expert lvl 2
• Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 2

Retainers:

• Hercule (Isaac), Caravan Hand (hvy), nervous, Morale 7
• Alphonse (Edmond), Crusader (hvy), has a ring of false keys, Morale 9
• Pierre Laroche du Rocher, mason (lgt), contrarian, Morale 6
• Constant Jean, of the numerous Jean clan, daytaler (hvy), healthy, Morale 7

Crypt

• Zachary, Elementalist, electrocuted in front of the Anteroom (corpse in castle)
• Jean-Paul Jean, Man-at-Arms (hvy), ripped apart by stuffed animals (RIP)
• Pierre-Jean Pierre, Man-at-Arms (hvy), clawed to death by a dark monk (RIP)
• Edgar, Man-at-Arms (hvy), throat slashed by a dark monk (corpse in castle)
• Charles, Man-at-Arms (hvy), skewered by a drunken skeleton (corpse in castle)

Previous Infractions:

Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient.

Smoked the Ruined Quarters. Angered a werewolf washwoman. Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings. Failed to convince Jean-Honoré the butler of their lies. Stole a treasure chest full of gold from the Lake Grotto treasury.

Infractions rating: 3

Rumors:

• Gilbert Malévol the Fox and his merry men lurk near the Castle. Watch your belongings!
• There’s really no monsters in Malinbois, just brigands.

We start in Vyones. Paul Nereff recruits a pair of new henchmen. He’s not very fond of Pierre Laroche du Rocher’s personality but he’s very glad that Constant Jean seems like a robust specimen and equips them accordingly (nothing for Pierre, good hauberk for Constant).

Dungeon Level:

• Another go through the lake cave entrance.
• Unfortunately this time the/a lake monster interrupts their short crossing: Poor Hercule is seized off the raft and disappears underwater.
• They go through the flooded vault and on to the room of prophecy. A rather ridiculously anemic « swarm » of 4 (out of 64) crawling hands is easily dispatched.
• Pierre is convinced (through his contrarian nature) to not-not taste the water from the basin of prophecy… He speaks nonsense for awhile aftrerward.
• A bit further, standing in front of another inundated grotto, they ring a bell and here comes Charon the Ferryman himself on his barge! They pay 3 gold pieces each and get aboard. They go through dense fog and disembark not very far it seems.
• They encounter a strange creature with human legs and the upper body of a cockroach. They can’t make heads or tails of its mandible clicking but they let it follow them.
• They get into the Service Tunnels area. They go through an amphitheatre with a skeleton (the unmoving variety) at a ticket booth, otherwise empty.
• In a small room, they see an hovering hatchet splintering an animated table that acts like its in pain. Monmon catches the hatchet middair and shove it in a nearby drawer to spare the agonizing table. They find a collection of valuable polished crystals.
• The adjacent door leads to a taproom with a sinister bartender but is otherwise unoccupied at the moment (that’s a random thing, like much of the module). They leave but not without taking a deck of cards that was left on a table. A very special deck of cards indeed…
• They backtrack a little and stumble into 4 zombies that they kill quickly. The cockroach man still following.
• A stuck door, they bash it open and interrupts some kind of occult ritual! The adventurers quickly kill half a dozen cultists still on their knees. The master though, wearing an antique crown, is already on his feet and use dark sorcery: Paul Nereff averts a most gruesome fate with a feat of will. He’s wounded but not, huh, inverted (!), by an Invert the Inwardness spell. They thrust and slash at the crowned cultist but the latter simply lifts a hand and is absorbed away in some kind of weird vortex.
• After the fight, they go down a few corridors, a set of stairs, more corridors and get into a chapel inside the Understores. There’s some statues of monks, a bas-relief, moss everywhere but the adeventurers also hear dogs barking, getting closer. The cockroach man, still following, is gueninely gleeful.
• Monmon readies his spear and soon skewer one of the Huntsman’s hunting dog jumping at him.
• A chaotic melee ensues as 15 spiked-collared hunting mastiffs are pitted against the fortune seekers. The latter get the upper hand but the Huntsman himself intervenes whilst his dogs are getting killed and kills Pierre Laroche du Rocher with 2 arrows. Another arrow hits Paul Nereff who manages to resist a deadly poison. With most of the dogs killed, the adventurers turn their attention to the Hunstman but he simply vanishes with a blow of his horn, again.
• They leave poor Pierre Laroche du Rocher behind and get back at the lake grotto, call Charon the Ferryman once again and continue exploring the Lake Grotto area.
• They get into a dressing room and find a fool’s garb and a regal outit into a locked cloakroom that Alphonse managed to open with his set of false keys. They can also see, through a grille, a praying man into another room with no doors. They leave him be.
• They encounter Sybille Malévol who offers to sell them some of her potions. They decline. Spiteful, before vanishing she tries to change Paul into a toad but luckily he resists the transformation.
• At the end of another passage arrayed by incense burners they see another chapel. Paul Nereff , notices that the floor tiles aren’t mortared over there. They remove the tiles and start digging but they have few shovels betwen them and its hard work.
• They’re interrupted by a dark-clad, elegant man holding a glass of « wine »: « I’ve never liked this place… » he says, looking at the chapel. Red eyes appear behind him. « Children, do dispose of these va-nu-pieds! » Wolves attack them.
• The adventurers are getting ready to use their wooden stakes on what they suppose is a vampire but the dark-clad man turns into mist (vindicating their not-so wild guess) and let his « children » fight. This time the battle isn’t going so well… Alphonse is downed by the wolves’ ferocious attacks, and then Constant and Paul-Jean Paul, and Monmon soon after. Noah and Paul Nereff, both severely wounded, manage to slay the last wolf. Both then try to apply first aid on their dying comrades. They do a great job and sucessfully save Constant and Paul-Jean. Monmon doesn’t need saving as he’s tough as nails but Alphonse, survivor of the crusade, succumbs to the Château des Faussesflammes…
• The survivors, sporting bloody bandages, get out of the castle the way they came in as fast as their wounds allowed. Fortunately the lake monster doesn’t appear this time.

Wrap up:

• XP: Participation: 1 Treasure: 2 Secrets: 1
• Treasures: polished crystals, regal outfit
• Crypt: Hercule, eaten by the lake monster. Pierre Laroche du Rocher, pierced by the Huntsman’s arrows. Alphonse, savaged by Count Giscard’s Children of the Night.
• Quote:
• New Infractions: Interrupted Runcius Malévol’s pagan ritual. Slightly annoyed Count Giscard while he drank « wine ».
• Paul Neref free of his phobia after another trip at the sanatorium