The PCs visited both Count Giscard’s room (he was absent) and Countess Maltricia’s (she was there). I’ll get on with the play report and I’ll share some thoughts on that afterward.

3 1/2 hours session.

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

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

• Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
• Bruno the Wolfman (Marjorie), controlled lycanthropy, Warrior/Skinshifter lvl 3
• Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 5
• Pierrot (Isaac), caravan hand, dealmaker extraordinaire, Warrior lvl 1>>2
• Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 5
• Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 5
• Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), apprentice alchemist, don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 3
• Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, heavily armored, Warrior lvl 3

Retainers:

• Raymond, (Isaac) Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
• Raoulet the Pimp, (Marjorie), undead pimp with a semblance of life, Morale 12

Crypt

• Zachary, Elementalist, electrocuted in front of the Anteroom (corpse in castle)
• Pierre-Jean Pierre, ex-monk, clawed to death by a dark monk (RIP)
• Edgar, daytaler, throat slashed by a dark monk, (corpse in castle)
• Charles, daytaler, skewered by a drunken skeleton (corpse in castle)
• Hercule, caravan hand, seized off the raft by the Lake Monster (MIA)
• Pierre Laroche du Rocher, mason, pierced by the Huntsman’s arrows (corpse seized by Charon, RIP)
• Alphonse, crusader, savaged by Count Giscard’s Children of the Night. (corpse in castle)
• Jacques, daytaler, got hit in the face by an Empty Armor’s halberd (corpse in castle)
• Stuffed Jean-Paul  killed by stuffed animals, stuffed himself, bursted into flames (RIP)

Previous Infractions in the Château:

Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Eliminated Aranéa Malévol. Eliminated Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods. (0)

Smoked the Ruined Quarters: 1/2 Angered a werewolf washwoman: 1/2 Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings: 1 Failed to convince Jean-Honoré the butler of their lies: 1/2 Stole a treasure chest full of gold from the Lake Grotto treasury: 1/2 Interrupted Runcius Malévol’s pagan ritual: 1 Slightly annoyed Count Giscard Malévol while he drank « wine »: 1 Stole the Scepter of the Merovings: 1 Defaced living portraits with holy water: 1 Bullied Jean-Honoré the Butler: 1/2 Smashed the busts in the Bust Gallery: 1 Stole the Oil of Cleansings: 1 Stole the Crown of the Lost: 1 Total: 9 1/2

Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5

Played ball with the werepups -1

Infractions rating: 4 1/2

Rumors:

• Druids were once the true masters of Averoigne, we still see some remnants of their reign here and there.
• Claude Malévol is being sought by the law outside Vyônes. He doesn’t dare to step outside town.

We start in Ximes. Paul-Jean has finished his basic training in alchemy with Luc Le Chaudronnier. The two of them managed to duplicate the lethal poison found on Runcius’s blade and made a potion. Raoulet the Pimp is left in Vyônes and does business as usual on behalf of Cordélia, he’s ordered to keep his ears open for interesting rumors.

Grand Entrance

• The PCs want to get inside the castle’s catacombs once more and they enter at the Grand Entrance. The statues do their usual thing but nothing special happens.
• In the Vestibule they see Jean-Honoré the butler giving orders to ghostly servants to properly to accomodate an important guest in a room to the east.
• After some deliberations among themselves, the adventurers decide to talk to the guest with some ideas of gaining an important ally. Jean-Honoré protests when they enter the room without being invited but then acts as if everything is normal.
• The « guest » has been dead for quite a while by the look of it. Careful observation by Monmon reveals that he has been strangled. They find some notes detailing some kind of conspiracy.
• Cordélia and Noah find a secret door on the back of the fireplace. It leads to a crawlspace stacked with hanging pieces of ham.
• Another secret door inside this crawlspace débouche to a large room with a lot of magic-related paraphenarlia. Paul-Jean picks up some ingredients that’ll serve for potion-brewing eventually. Cordélia inspects complex diagrams and with her superior intellect she gains some insight on secret knowledge (+1 int).
• They leave the Occult Room and get into empty room from where they see a special reinforced door with a metal bat affixed on it. They also find a miniature (3 » high) guillotine. The PCs start to mess with the bat (a bat lock), moving its wings up on its hinges, but only manage to get a strident alarm sound on.
• The alarm attracts someone apparently, the door to the north opens and the PCs immediatley recognizes their former hireling Jacques with his face showing a horrible gaping wound. He’s pretty much a zombie now. But he talks. Oh yes he does… And he complains a lot about his mistreatment as an hireling, left to rot in the castle and all. He’s determined to follow the party around until he gets a proper compensation, like a new house or something (imagine the face of his neighbours when they see him!).
• The PCs resume their work on the bat lock and manages to make it open its mouth and show its tongue (without being bitten). Cordélia puts some drops of her blood on the bat’s tongue but to no effect. Monmon then spots a discreet keylock and proceed to try to unlock the door using his set of false keys and succeeds!
• They’re now inside a sumptuously-decorated room. There’s a coffin in the middle of the room, they have found Count Giscard’s room! Paul takes a dueling sword hanging on the walls. Cordélia pours holy water on a decanter with red liquid in it. She takes four flasks of well-aged brandy in a liquor cabinet.
• There’s also three living portraits in the room. Lydia, encircled by moths, would like Paul to go to meet her at her room (near the throne room). Next portrait, Claudette lifts her head off her shoulders causing Constant Jean to start fleeing in panic but his companions manage to calm him. Finally, in the third portrait the fearsome Countess Maltricia says that she has a lot more to offer than poor, pathetic Lydia and she reveals where her in-the-flesh counterpart is (very near to the north).
• The PCs open a door to a balcony, right past it is another door that leads to the Countess’ room. Paul opens the door and remove a heavy black curtain. Light pours in the eastern part of the room (roughly 40×60). Countess Maltricia is indeed in the room and screeches in anger at the intrusion. She’s not alone, a fully-armored knight under her thrall blocks the door and moreover, the Countess uses magic so that blades of force swirl all around him. The Countess tries to use her beguiling powers on Paul but he resists. Paul attacks the knight but misses and is grievously harmed by the magic blades in return. Constant takes his place but soon falls to a Coruscating Coffin spell from the Countess. Cordélia replies with a Smite the Dead on the Countess but it’s negated by a magic barrier (the barrier is broken in the process though). Constant is pulled in the back to be given first aid by Paul-Jean. At the same time Paul takes the vial of lethal poison and smashes it right on the knight’s face (I had specified his helmet’s visor was open) and the latter starts to choke, falls to his knees and soon is convulsing and dies! Noah runs inside the room and quickly shoots two crossbow bolts at the Countess, hurting her. Bruno leaps at her with supernatural speed and slashes her with his claws. The others follow inside and lunge at her with their swords, inflicting more damage. The severely wounded and surrounded Countess turns into mist but another Smite the Dead turns her back to her physical form (I’ve ruled it that way). Paul pierces her heart with a wooden stake and the Countess is unceremoniously thrown outside her room on the balcony where sunlight quickly turn her to ashes… The adventurers have slain the powerful Countess Maltricia!
• They loot the room and the search through the vampire’s ashes and find many valuables. having accomplished a great feat, they then leave the Château.

Closing Comments:

• Forgot again to activate Monmon’s Deus Vult curse. Bad DM, bad!
• The way I see it living portraits act like the subject would normally do but are not really the one they depict. In other words, it’s not a two-way conversation where, say, the Countess would have learned the PCs were coming for her. So in my mind portraits can be a valuable source of information, balancing the risk they may represent (often having a negative effect attached).
• I think Countess Maltricia, a vampire and sorceress, should have offered a greater threat. I forgot to roll an encounter for reinforment coming to her help so there’s that. But the fact that half her room was exposed to sunlight (with the balcony’s door facing south and the sun to the west) severely limited her options in my mind. She just couldn’t target the PCs that were on the balcony with one of her more potent multi-target spell. I could have made her fled outright and wait the PCs in a better position, maybe.
• On the other hand, her appearance at her room was due to a random roll. So in retrospective, the players were lucky to learn where they could find her room just at the right time and they seized the occasion.
• I think, smashing the poison vial on the knight’s face was a great move and then they acted quickly to overwhelm the Countess, eight against one, so I think even if I somewhat mismanaged her (tactically speaking), overall the players still earned their victory.
• XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 3 Secrets: 1
• Treasures: Duelling Sword +2, 4 bottles of well-aged brandy, pearls & precious stones worth 6000gp, ruby ring 2400gp
• Fatalities: None
• New Infractions: Burglarized Count Giscard’s room (+1) Put holy water in his « wine » (+1) Killed Countess Maltricia (+1)