That’s it, now that the Geminate has retired we’re all playing with our second character. Here’s another optional scenario, one that was unlocked by a particularly gruesome town event.
Characters
Grayzill the Snowdancer (David) lvl 2>>3, General Winter is on the field
Britney the Banner Spear (Mathieu) lvl 2 a great leader, might be related to Bruce
Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 2, Master of the 4th dimension
Remember the strange event in town when the Drifter turned crazy and slashed open our bellies after he did the same with his own? Well, now we’re investigating the source of this malign influence, right outside of town.
Guards and hounds from town turned murderous by the influence.I guess it’s okay to kill them? Sorry guys, we’re adventurers, we’re not paid to ask ourselves morale questions…Vermlings now, a lot of them! Quick, door manoeuvre!We’ll kill them one by one hehe…Hey, you’re not supposed to do that, that’s not fair!And now the pièce de résistance, the Evil Disco Ball of Mind Control!And machines protecting the Disco Ball while the villain flees the scene. Coward!
Closing Comments:
We’ve killed everything except in the final room, It was not necessary to win but we felt we had not much choice to avoid being surrounded on all sides.
The vermlings put us under a lot of pressure when they got a « jump » card that allowed them to get inside the room.
The Banner Spear is tanky, has superior HP and do good damage if he manages to be in position which is not always easy.
Can’t say that our characters have that great a synergy. The Blink Blade is a great hit & run damage dealer that mostly do his own thing. My Snowdancer is support with healing and some repositioning of enemies. The Banner Spear need allies (or summons) to work effectively. Our current group is functional/good but don’t have any emergent combos or such that would make it more impressive.
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.
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)
Another side scenario, this one could be found inside the last scenario we did – an item we’ve looted is leading to further adventure with promises of riches. As my character is pretty much obsessed with gold I voted for this one and my fellow players were happy to oblige.
Characters
Grayzill the Snowdancer (David) lvl 2, General Winter is on the field
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 5>>6>>retirement, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 2, master of the 4th dimension
A magic mirror, that’s what we had found, but we promptly damaged it just as we were transported inside some dimensional pocket. Unfortunately this is no treasure-laden lair (dammit) but rather a prison of sort for a savvas called The Shimmer. The place is split into two symmetrical halves with some effects manifesting into one another. The incarcerated Shimmer is in both halves at the same time.
« Sorry Boson, you’re the new guy, you go alone… » Boson proceeds to get almost killed immediately.The Shimmer knows how to create a mood! (surely if Math’s decors weren’t improving each time we would be sorely disappointed! No pressure.)« You’re all alone now, the both of you. »We’ve vanquished the Shimmer, even with his ridiculous amount of HPs. But look, here’s the magic mirror lying on the ground! What, you see a chest? No it’s a scenario item and thus, a magic mirror I tell you!In a most fitting moment, the Geminate are reflected/doubled or is quadrupled? This is getting complicated…Hey, we’ve killed the boss already, why don’t you just gently **** off?The Geminate: « no it’s fine, more XPs yesss!Finally we get out of the mirror world. Note how I didn’t forget to take a final picture this time, incredible!
Closing Comments:
The start of the scenario was disastrous for the Blink Blade but fortunately he managed to clear his side of the room with a bit of luck and then he could recuperate before going on.
Hard but well-designed scenario, with an unusual gimmick that gave it a lot of flavor. Could have given it a better title though!
The Geminate retires, the last of the original trio to do so. His personal quest (of getting 150 xps through cards) was also more demanding.
Frosthaven (as Gloomhaven did) almost always offers a solid tactical experience. The narrative experience is mostly hit & miss though IMO. This time was definitely on the hit side, the events (before and after the scenario) were interesting and flavorful.
Character retirement in Frosthaven/Gloomhaven can be quite fast, maybe a bit too fast. The idea behind this obviously is to have the possibility of playing every characters within the span of the campaign. Aside from trying a new character, a further incentive for the players to get it done is that it also unlocks town buildings. Now, if only we could unlock a merchant shop or something, that’d be great.
Characters
Grayzill the Snowdancer (David) lvl 2, General Winter is on the field
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 5, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Boson the Blink Blade (Guillaume) lvl 2, master of the 4th dimension
Our new friend, Boson the Blink Blade, convinces us of helping him with his personal quest that got something to do with a group of aesthers, weird ethereal beings, with this particular group even weirder than usual as its members act as a single mind. Stop talking in unison, it’s disturbing! Anyway, they want us to retrieve/save the Elemental Array, whatever that is.
Inside the Aesther Outpost:
Living Bones, Frozen Corpses and Snow Imps. All former members of the Ice Capades I think.
This one has botched his acrobatic figure.
Geminate and Snowdancer from afar: « Let’s go Boson, you’re doing great! »Still more ex Ice Capades finishing lacing their skates.This diminutive fellow is a killing machine!The star of the show, Rime Heart, doing something bad to the Elemental Array.Huh, yeah, one more pic showing us defeating the monsters would have been great!
Closing Comments:
This scenario is the start of Boson’s personal quest and leads to something else in 6 weeks of in-game time.
The Blink Blade looks like a stronger than average character, with interesting mechanics of fast and slow turns that accomplish a lot of different things in a single turn.
Rime Heart was a more beefy version of an Icy Wraith but it didn’t picked is more annoying cards fortunately.
Snow Imps are an absolute priority to kill as the brittle condition they give with their attacks make everything else very lethal.
Looting the final chest unlocks another side scenario, one with promises of treasure.
Tredir the Drifter is asked to save the True Oak because some unhinged folks claim it’s not that true of an oak and want to turn it to ashes. Ain’t it all a bit excessive? Can’t each have their own oak and y’know, be happy and let be? And what do the squirrels think of all of this? Are there even squirrels in the frosthaven universe? So many questions…
This is the final scenario in the Drifter’s personal quest after which he will retire.
Characters
Grayzill the Snowdancer (David) lvl 1, General Winter is on the field
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 4>>5, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Tredir the Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 5>>retirement, versatile Inox fighter
While the Drifter rummages through his stuff and prepares himself, it seems like the Geminate is particularly eager to help save the True Oak for their own unscrutable motives (yeah, it’s for XP) … They rush forward, activate a shield/retaliate combo, inflicting heavy damage to the hounds and fanatics.But they get in a bit of a pickle… The fanatics are firm believers of « an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth » maxim. Fortunately the Drifter joins the melee and bashes skulls left and right. I patch up the Geminate as best I can thereafter and we’re good to go.And here’s the True Oak in all its splendor, assaulted by fanatics and Sun Demons. I channel life energy and heal the sacred tree almost faster that he can be damaged whilst my companions kill the offenders.More fanatics and their leader, the so-called « White Flame » sporting a flaming sword. Well, it won’t be long before he’s extinguished! Tredir uses the Decanter of Mist that he just found, reducing the ranged attacks of the Sun Demons and it’s time for a Firefly Swarm from the Geminate.
Closing Comments:
Math sat on the True Oak mini and almost crushed it before he could even use it for the first time!
I used the persistent loss card Cold Therapy that allowed me to do a massive amount of healing during the scenario. As the True Oak was considered an ally I could heal it and it finished with full hit points!
We had our first winter outpost event. An evil influence in town is leading to bizarre acts of violence. We ourselves fall victim to this when the Drifter disembowels himself and then went after us (successfully, we’ll be wounded at the start of our next scenario)! We were joking afterward that it’s much better for this maniac to retire and he won’t be missed!
The retirement of the Drifter boosted our prosperity level to 3 and that means that our characters can’t be lower that level 2 as of now, that means that I’m bumped up to lvl 2 and Guillaume’s new character will start lvl 2.
Our first bifurcation of the campaign where the players aren’t exploring the Château des Faussesflammes/Castle Xyntillan but are investigating the rumors about gargoyles attacks in the city of Vyônes. The premise is directly inspired by Clark Ashton Smith’ The Maker of Gargoyles story and I’m also using an adventure provided into Gabor Lux’s Trail of the Sea Demon module. This scenario was already close enough thematically speaking so mixing the two together wasn’t too cumbersome.
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), don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 2>>3
Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, Warrior lvl 3
Retainers:
Raymond, (Isaac) Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
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)
Rumors: n/a
We start in the city of Vyônes. The adventurers want to know what’s up with the gargoyle attacks in the city. They learn without much efforts (within the monastery archives) that it had happened before, decades ago, when Archbishop Ambrosius had commissioned gargoyles for his cathedral and those had somehow been animated with an evil intent. Many people had been found horribly mangled, innocent bystanders mostly, but one of the victim was revealed to be the very sculptor (Blaise) that had created the killer gargoyles. So the first step for the PCs is to find the sculptor’s grave…
The cemetary where he lies, a place of repose for the poor or frowned-upon, is a bit outside the city’s walls. The PCs manage to find Blaise’s discreet tombstone and start to dig. After a few minutes of work they see the graveyard attendant’s lantern closing on them. Monmon sends his toy soldiers, they disperse and rattle their spears on stone and manage to spook off the attendant.
They resume their digging and finally find a skeleton (coffin has rotten away), less the skull!
The graveyard attendant is back with city watchmen but the PCs boldly claim that they’re investigating on behalf of the Church (they’re not) and THEY will ask the questions!
The graveyard attendant reveals that Blaise’s grave has been opened up a couple of weeks ago. 2+2= someone has been here before, took the sculptor’s skull for some unscrutable purpose. With some more cooking the graveyard attendant describes the gravedigger and his helpers as he had been bribed to let them do their foul work.
The PC’s new trail lead them to one Rogat Demazien, a cloth merchant that has his house and shop in the dilapidated (recently purged) cathar district of Vyônes.
Close to the house and adjacent shop, Cordélia sends her homonculus to do some reconnaissance. It sees much activity in the shop, drunks and filles de joies going in and out of the three-story building. It also sees a figure on the roof jumping from the shop-turned-brothel to Rogat Demazien’s house. The homonculus flies to the top of the house, there’s a smashed trapdoor (like it bursted out from below), it goes inside and soon comes before a gruesome scene as a man, the one who had jumped between roofs, is dying of horrible wounds. The culprit is obviously the gargoyle sitting on its pedestal, blood dripping from claws and fangs…
Cordélia calls back her homonculus. The party decides to enter the brothel to gather information. The place is a mess, there’s not much left pointing to its former function. The PCs are approached by a large bearded man, Raoulet the pimp, who in a threatening manner wants to know what they’re doing here. Cordélia improvises that she’s here to entertain the crowd. She offers a « performance » (best left undisclosed) that even this disreputable crowd can appreciate.
The pimp, now a lot more amiable, accepts to answer their question. He knows the owner of the place, Rogat Demazien. Yes, he can even lead them to him and he starts to walk them to a door nearby. But Cordélia has a better idea, she seduces him into being alone with her, and huh, slits his throat in a moment of distraction shall we say. She them promptly casts a Raise Dead on his corpse along with a Terrible Liveliness that will ensure that he looks and acts like a non-dead person (albeit under her control).
Only then do they open the door, the undead pimp in tow, and find a flight of stairs going down.
Below, they are in a room with storage for dyes. Paul finds that one barrel has a corpse inside, a man, but fully soaked in the mixture and hard to see any specific features.
The adventurers then get through a secret passage, it’s trapped, both Monmon and Bruno are hit by javelins.
There’s a large room with a basin filled with water. Ghostly whispers can be heard, tales of disquieting pratices. Cordélia takes a look in the basin and has to resist the urge to dive in.
Further in the undercity, in a room with many pillars, a dozen robed cultists are kneeling before a grotesque and unsettling statue (Tsathogga). The PCs attack. They kill cultists left and right, it’s a massacre. But then, the dead cultists jump back on their feet baring vampire fangs and hurl themselves at the invaders! Monmon, Paul and Pierrot each receive a few bites but fortunately the cultists aren’t true vampires, not that hard to kill and are dispatched for good this time.
With the cultists eliminated, the PCs examine the room. They find a map of the marshy region south with an X marking a location. They also find a vial with an eye symbol on it that was hidden in a secret compartment. Cordélia puts holy water on the statue but it doesn’t do anything good, a deep sinister laugh can be heard and Constant and Monmon fall uncousious on the spot! One dose of the Oil of Cleansings on Monmon restores him but with Constant still unconscious and many of them sporting a few wounds, the adventurers choose to leave the area and come back later.
Leaving the wounded behind to recuperate, the PCs go see the alchemist Luc Le Chaudronier in Ximes for him to identify the vial found in the cultists room.
The alchemist will be working on the identification for a while. Cordélia had time to interrogate the undead pimp and it has been revealed that the owner, Rogat Demazien, is in fact dead. Raoulet met the latter outside of his house as he was apparently fleeing and was severely wounded (something like a claw mark) and instead of helping him, he accelerated his demise. He soon claimed the cloth shop for himself. But now he’s a zombie under Cordélia’s control, there’s some kind of poetic justice going on here I tell you!
Three days later, the adventurers are back the house of Rogat Demazien. They have procured some equipment for the work ahead: two hands hammers, heavy shields and iron nets.
The PCs try to enlist Raoulet’s thugs to accompany them in the house but after having lost several men in a prior attempt at burglary they want nothing to do with it anymore.
The PCs decide to enter via the rooftop, they get some planks and go from the cloth shop to the house.
They enter the 2nd floor through the trapdoor and are prepared to fight the gargoyle they know is there. Constant and Bruno rush the gargoyle with shields , Paul and Monmon cover it with the heavy net. Everyone who can bash it with hammers and break the gargoyle to pieces. So far so good.
The adjacent room is dimly lit by an ever-burning brazier as well as from the curtained balcony. They remove the curtain revealing a gargoyle that was hidden in the shadows. They start to repeat their tactical manoeuvre but Noah fail to resist a mind-control attack and he shoots two crossbow bolts on Constant’s back, fortunately missing. The gargoyle jump on Constant and wounds him. Paul counters with a big swing of his Guts sword that removes a big chunk of stone. Noah shoots Paul in the back, piercing him with two bolts. The surrounded gargoyle is shattered soon after and Noah is freed from the enchantment. They find a crystal prism inside a gold-inlaid wooden box, Noah takes it.
Down a stairway to 1st floor, they see a corridor covered in cobwebs that have glittering sparkles in them (which the kids refer as skittles) but don’t enter. They instead turn left into a dark room, their torch is oddly weakened to a faint glimmer. Cordélia casts an Extirpate the Arcana that removes the magical darkness. There’s another gargoyle, toad-like with a big smiling head, This one has a mental attack that hurts Paul badly. It wounds Bruno with its claws before being overwhelmed and defeated. They find black garments of fine quality in an exquisitely-made wardrobe.
They loot an adjacent bedroom.
They go down at ground floor. They enter a workshop with an half-finished gargoyle that they smash to bits for good measure. They pick up schematics of various models of gargoyles.
There’s a kitchen and then they go at the main room of the floor. The place is messy (and apparently the last gargoyle is playing a video game and looks just like the kids’ uncle Jason and there’s empty candy (skittles) bags everywhere). Not much to be found here except the entrance door.
As they haven’t found Blaise’s skull yet, they go back up on the 1st floor on the corridor with sparkly cobwebs. On closer inspection those were nodules of pure lunar silver.
Pass the corridor they find Rogat Demazien’ study. There’s a bunch of scrolls and letters on a desk. With the help of Noah’s magic sword Scrupulous they find a hidden closet behind a portrait on the wall depicting a young attractive woman. Inside the closet are many interesting objects, Blaise’ skull not the least which was covered by an ornamented leather piece. There’s also a leather-bound booklet, two vials of exotic oils, a gnarled piece of dark wood, a cup with not-quite liquid green light, a preserved transparent lizard and another scroll.
That’s it, they finished rummaging through Rogat Demazien’s house. Hopefully they’ll discover a few things perusing the letters and booklet. A bit of necromancy with Blaise’ skull could be in order too…
Closing Comments
This session was a nice change of pace to our usual castle-crawling. If I had been more subtle with the rumor given earlier (not mentionning the gargoyles as the de facto culprits) it could have been a proper investigation scenario. Instead, as written the rumor was more of an easter egg, a nod towards Clark Ashton Smith’s oeuvre. Ah well, what’s done is done.
In the adventure as written, Rogat Demazien was only absent. With how I changed it, discovering his whereabouts was optional (but worth 1 xp), as was learning the cause of his death.
This campaign, its backbone being Castle Xyntillan, will live to be Gabor Lux & friends heavy I’m thinking. I’m slowly getting to know this game designer’s catalog and there’s a lot I like about his style and furthermore, a lot that I can potentially use for this present Averoigne campaign.
XP: participation 1, treasures 3, secrets 2
Treasures: Oil of ?, Crystal Prism (400gp), decorative box (80gp), Surcoat of the Assassin (800gp), 9 nodules of lunar silver, Blaise’s skull, ornamented leather piece ?
Interesting session with the first half in known territory and the second half with exploration and weird things happening. I was sure that the players were gonna try to go inside Aristide’s laboratory with how it ended last session and one of the player, Marjorie, still wanted to do this. But she was outvoted by the boys yet again (they were a bit all over the place on what they wanted to do but they agreed upon not wanting to risk an encounter with Aristide yet. Smart boys). (Short session, 3 hours.)
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 4
Bruno the Wolfman (Marjorie), controlled lycanthropy, Warrior/Skinshifter lvl 2>>3
Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow, Expert lvl 4>>5
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 4>>5
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 4>>5
Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 2
Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, Warrior lvl 2>>3
Retainers:
Raymond, (Isaac) Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
Pierrot (Isaac), caravan hand, begs for more money, Morale 8
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:
Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Eliminated Aranéa Malévol (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
Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5
Played ball with the werepups -1
Infractions rating: 2 1/2
Rumors:
Gargoyles in Vyônes, the citizens are terrified!
It was the Enchantress of Sylaire that has cursed the Malévol family centuries ago.
We start in Vyônes. Cordélia buys a cask of wine. The PCs try to learn more about the gargoyles mentionned in the rumor. They consult the monastery’s library in Périgon and find a book on the occult. They learn that it started a while ago with one mason artist that worked on Vyônes’s cathedral, an evil man (now deceased), that infused his creations with a life of their own. Cordélia wants to inspect the artist’s tomb in Vyônes but it will be for another time as the others are eager to delve once more in the Château des Fausseflammes.
Grand Entrance
The two statues bordering the double doors react at their approach, one erupts in maniacal laughter, the other flicks its fingers. Nothing else happens.
The vestibule is empty, Jean-Honoré the butler is nowhere to be seen, probably still vexed from his treatment at the hand of the adventurers. The PCs beeline to the Throne Room without encountering anything. They use the throne elevator to go down.
Down in the Lake grotto area, they go north to the chapel of the 3 saints. A single Empty Armor that’s blocking the way is quickly dispatched, with a final blow from Bruno’s claws that sends the head flying.
At the chapel they remove the unmortared tiles and start digging with shovels and picks. Everyone except Cordélia and Monmon who stand guard.
4 cultists turn the corner from the east, alerted by the noise. Paul picks up his Guts sword and slay the cultists with one big swipe. They resume digging…
20 minutes later, they hit something hard in the ground, there’s a trapdoor. Once opened they find a ladder going down. At the bottom of the pit they find a footlocker with a well-made (but a bit outdated) chainmail, a crusader’ surcoat and small vial (the Oils of Cleansing (!)). Cordélia has some knowledge of religious beliefs and knows more or less what the small vial is about.
Their delve is already worthwhile but they decide that they would try to explore more of the Indoorness.
The secret entrance isn’t that far from where they are. They get to the root cellar, this time the Beetmen are awake and want a fight, the eleven of them, but an opportune roof collapse (effective use of Noah’s focus Lucky II, once per session) blocked the Beetmen from reaching the adventurers.
The PCs enter the Indoorness. The satyr hermit is there playing his pipes. Cordélia gives him a cask of wine and the satyr shoos them away, eager to start his drinking.
They go west, they walk fo about an hour until they reach a ford and cross the river to the north near a waterfall.
Another 20 minutes, still in the path going north, they see a brick house. On closer inspection they see that in fact the house is made up of mouldy gingerbread! Looking from a window they see that nobody’s home but there’s a cooking plate full of gingerbread men on a table. Monmon enters the house and let his toy soldiers inspect the gingerbread men. The gingerbread men get up and an epic fight between the toy soldiers and the gingerbread men ensues! A soldier gets in trouble after he dropped his spear and Monmon intervenes to help him, grabs a ginger bread man and just… munches him. The toy soldiers are in awe of Monmon’s godlike might, this is victory!
Except that Monmon now starts to shrink and candy buttons also pop up on his body, he’s quickly transforming into a gingerbread man! But the group thinks fast and tries the Oils of Cleansing on poor Monmon and it works, he gets back to his proper self.
Putting the gingerbread house behind (they set it on fire for good measure) they reach a vast and well-tended park with hedges, marble benches, topiaries, etc. There’s also people in the park, sitting or strolling about, but they’re revealed to be several copies of Tristano and his damsel. And they can see the Château des Fausseflammes just beyond the park!
There’s a weird spatial distortion going on, the more they move towards the castle, the slower they appear to move. Cordélia remove the enchantment with a spell of Extirpate the Arcana, they can move freely at last but they now see that the castle is only a theatrical decor. There’s a muppets scene going on with a witch/enchantress seemingly berating a crowned noble (that looked like Runcius). Watching the decor, Cordélia feels an intense malaise and decides to leave the area.
The party takes another path that goes west from the park. They soon reach a silvery lake. Monmon sees some kind of structures at the bottom of the lake and the PCs ponder about a way to reach the structure but decides to leave it at that.
Still further, they go north again and reach a great circle of stones, Stonehenge-like, and at first there’s not anyone there but as the PCs are looking at the stones to find some clues several robed men appear from nowhere. Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods is among them.
The adventurers start to run for their life. Suddenly, a verdant wall of brambles and roots block their escape but Cordélia remove it with her magic.
The druids run after them, some have bows. A druid that runs supernaturally fast tackles down the slowest member of the party, Paul. The PCs stop running and make a stand. Noah is very efficient with his repeating crossbows. The druids are more numerous, some shoot arrows from behind inflicting several wounds but those in melee can’t match the martial prowesses of the adventurers. However a Sleep spell falls on the PCs leaving only Cordélia and Paul standing, those two scramble to wake their companions up. Cordélia had sent her Reaper towards Runcius but a big flash occurs and it is annihilated. Finally the adventurers, sporting numerous wounds, have the upper hand leaving only Runcius that has retreated back to the circle of stones.
The PCs are determined to kill Runcius as he’s alone now and they suppose he must be low in spells (he had 2 spells left). Runcius has a bronze dagger dripping with poison. Cordélia doesn’t have any spells left and his reduced to shooting arrows. Noah and Pierrot both has only 1 HP remaining. But the PCs are 8 against 1 and they win initiative! Cordélia and Noah shoot projectiles at Runcius and then the warriors swarm the archdruid, wounding him severely. Runcius does the most horrible Evert the Inwardness on Constant Jean (save succeed, half damage) wounding him fatally (but saved by Cordélia’s necromantic art) and try to stab Monmon with his dagger but misses (veteran’s luck). He dies soon after, with the final blow delivered by Paul. « Free, at last » he says before expiring.
Cordélia takes his Crown of the Lost.
Session wrap up
A lot accomplished with essentially what were spur of the moment decisions. The death of Runcius is a big deal as is finding the two major artefacts. I was as much surprised as the players with the appearance of Runcius at the circle of stones as I had not read this section beforehand. It turned out very well for the players, they’re capable adventurers by now, but the risk of casualties was high indeed.
XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 3 Secrets: 2
Treasures: Chainmail +1, Crusader’ surcoat, Oils of Cleansing, Crown of the Lost
Quote: Isaac: « We could take a bite out of Monmon, see how he tastes? »
Fatalities: Constant Jean, but survived with Cordélia’s power over death
New Infractions: Killed Runcius Malévol the Dark Man of the Woods. Stole the Oils of Cleansing +1. Stole the Crown of the Lost +1.
Here’s our tenth scenario of the campaign. I’m playing a new character, one we’ve unlocked previously. I must say that the retirement of my first character, the boneshaper, felt a bit too rushed (at level 4, come on!). That said I’m glad to discover a new set of cards with a completely different play style.
This time we do an optional scenario where we’ve been asked to help in the building of a road through the mountains, a shorthcut that will bring more commerce. The theming is a bit peculiar – we have access to explosives, which we’ll use to clear ice and huh, animals out of the way… The unstoppable march of progress I guess…
Characters
Grayzill the Snowdancer (David) lvl 1, General Winter is on the field
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 4, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Tredir the Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 4>>5, versatile Inox fighter
Hounds, Polar Bears, Snow Imps, the very nature stands in our way.Time to use these…More and more guardians keep appearing, there’s just no end to them.We make our way further, still more beasts that hope in vain to stop our capitalist venture.But the power of DYNAMITE is with us, we win by blowing everything to smitereens.
Closing Comments:
Damn if I was tired for this one and it showed with sub-par play on my part and also with my lack of notes…
I’m quite happy to be a bad guy in certain circumstances, but blowing up animals to bits? Yikes.
This was also a scenario that put a lot of pressure on us, we had to leave most of the loot behind us unfortunately. We were all three pretty much battered up at the end and it was definitely a close call.
Next scenario will be the Drifter’s last one, so we’ll have two low-level characters for a while. Good thing is that now Math seems to know what he’s doing with his Geminate and he was instrumental to our victory today.
The time for our yearly vampire game is near already. I’m not sure at all that we’ll manage to find a date that fits for everyone but I have to assume we will and get ready (about time!). Just after the session last year I was thinking that next time I would send the PCs to the New World alongside Spanish conquistadores but I’m now reluctant to do so for several reasons:
There’s alternative interesting options that could get them anywhere in the world or they could stay in Spain and, yeah, it would be much better if they chose for themselves
It’s still a bit early for our timeline unless we skip a century (or fudge history).
It’s a lot of research for an area of the world that I don’t know well. They could start in Hispaniola, go on a rampage inland, get into Tenochtitlan alongside Cortès would be one possibility I guess? Maybe.
Fighting werejaguars and strange mesoamerican vampires and whatnot could be nice but I feel like the all-important intrigue side of Vampire would be quite shallow if I’m not fully prepared. It’s not D&D, fight scenes do happen but the bulk of the game lies elsewhere.
So anyway, my plan is to start just where we’ve ended last time, early in the 15th century, in the PC’s haven, the fortified city of Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain. From there opportunities to expand their horizon will certainly arise, and they could still move their homebase somewhere else but the Age of Sail is a bit further down the line so it gives us some time to choose.
Here’s some notes I can share that set the background for what’s coming:
Historical Context of the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century
Right at the start of the 15th century Portuguese and Spanish sailors are mandated to find a way around Africa to get access to the East and beat the stranglehold that the Venetians and Ottomans had on this most lucrative of trade route. It won’t be until 1498 that Vasco de Gama reach India that way (he’s quite the ruthless guy this Vasco btw, they don’t mention this in school!)). It was discovered that Africa is a LOT larger than Europeans of the time thought it was. That fact led to try some even bolder sea journeys, this time to the West through the Atlantic.
There’s a constant power struggle between the monarchy, the nobility (the hidalgos and the great nobles of the South in particular), the cities and the rising merchant class.
From the beginning of its inception the infamous Spanish Inquisition was tightly linked with the Spanish Monarchy. Historically, it served more as an intrument of persecution against the jews and muslims that converted to catholicism than against witchcraft or anything else.
Sheep (wool) are a big deal in the economy of the time and there’s money to be made with the commerce of wool to Flanders. Accordingly there’s also a powerful sheep-herders union called the Mesta.
There’s some intermittent wars between Portugal and Castille, Castille and Aragon, Castille and the Granada Caliphat to the south (finally overcome in 1492 amidst a messy family dispute on the almohad side). Portugal is also allied with Britain, and Castile with France for a while, in opposing alliances.
There’s three great Orders of Knights, much like the well-known Templars, that were assembled to fight against the Muslims and that have castles all over the place.
Aragon and Castile will unite into one realm with the wedding of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1474 after a long and complicated struggle for dominance between rival factions (with quite a few low blows, (i.e discarding the rightful heiress after a smear campaign falsely pretending she was a bastard) and the rise of a new dynasty. I’ve read that in some ways it was a surprising turn of events as an alliance of Portugal and Castile could have been seen as more natural.
Mortals Institutions worth having influence over:
Christophe Colomb a la cour d’Isabelle IChristophe Colomb a la cour d’Isabelle I (“Christopher Columbus in the Court of Isabella I”), colour lithograph, c. 1840s; in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Monarchies: Portugal, Castile, Aragon
Great Nobles: the Enriquez, Mendoza and Guzmàn families
The Catholic Church
The Inquisition
The Orders of Knights: Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara
Trade to the North via Oviedo and the Bay of Biscay
Increasingly far-reaching trade from Lisbon and Sevile
We played last week on a special scenario pertaining to Guillaume’s character personal quest (leading to his soon-to-be retirement) but I forgot to take the start of the scenario picture so yeah, too bad, I’m skipping it.
As for now we continue on the same path (there’s 3 main planned paths to the campaign each with some mutually excluding sub-paths), we’ve decided to focus on the Algox’s and we haven’t even dipped into the two others for the moment. I have no idea if it changes anything on the long run.
Characters
Miasma the Boneshaper (David) lvl 4>>retirement, minions: Bob the dead lumberjack and Raging Sally
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 4, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Tredir the Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 4, versatile Inox fighter
We stumble upon a scene of carnage; dead Algox warriors with weird gashes on their corpses. Of course they’re not dead dead and they rise up to fight us.The Geminate is singularly motivated to kill an enemy the quickest way possible and they pull one undead Algox right into two traps back to back. That does the job!We clean up the first room without getting a single scratch between us. Our confidence level is high!And then we come face to face with a monster we’ve never seen before: Burrowing Blades. They’re very mobile and often focus on the farthest target, moving around a lot and messing with our positioning. We definitely have some scratches on us now!We find an Algox survivor on the last area, cornered by more monsters. We apparently have to save himWe soon find out that he’s not the bravest soul out there… The dude just kept his defensive stance while we have to do all the hard work!
Closing Comments:
The Burrowing Blades are really nicely designed, with very thematic cards abilities. They don’t seem to do incredible damage but they have some hard to predict (in a good way) tactics that can force us outside our comfort zone. Great addition to the frosthaven’s roster of foes!
The surviving Algox kept picking defensive cards round after round, resulting in him doing absolutely nothing useful and us bemoaning his lack of courage. That was funny.
Big news, I’ve achieved my character’s personal quest in this scenario so Miasma is officialy taking her retirement from adventuring life. I feel bittersweet about that because I had a lot of fun with this character and her necromantic powers!
Next scenario will be the last one of the (in-game) summer season with several planned events on the outpost phase. After that we’ll enter winter in the campaign and we’ve been led to believe that it brings more complications and dangers to the town we’re paid to protect. We’ll see.
Streets & Spores 
