Dungeons and Dragons

Gunderholfen – Against the Kobolds – Session 2

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

First session of what should be the main dish ot this new campaign: the Gunderholfen megadungeon. It’s mostly vanilla fantasy (less so the deeper you go!), but after years of kinda atypical D&D I think it will still feel refreshing. We’ll see how it goes.

For this campaign we’re using Free League’s Dragonbane as the rpg system and we’re spicing up the whole thing with a Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon flavor so to speak.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Malique, (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Hédralynn (Marjorie), Elf Mage
  • J. Lebeau (Olivier), Dogman Fighter

We start in Longfelt. The PCs hear that the mutants that they had saved are slowly getting back to normal at the town’s sanatorium. Hédralynn sells a scroll of diminution to a gnome magic-user and buys some goods in exchange. The characters leave town, walk through farmlands until they reach the Ganfal Swamp. They have several hours of walking on a treacherous path but they manage to reach the ancient dwarf hold without incidents (no encounters rolled).

Snake Door Entrance (Level 1A)

  • There’s a lot of small, clawed footprints and piles of damaged bones around the entrance. The interior is dimly lit with flickering light.
  • Three kobolds stand guard and threatens the adventurers with their spears. One is slain quickly and the two others flee inside, side-stepping one area on their way.
  • The PCs ran after the fleeing kobolds but took care of not stepping on the suspicious area themselves. Aracyne broke his bow trying to shoot down a kobold. Malique managed to catch one and slew him with his warhammer. The other suffered from the same fate soon after.
  • This wasn’t discreet at all however and now the PCs could hear kobolds coming from the east and from the north at the same time. Aracyne borrowed Hédralynn’s bow and killed an incoming kobold as Malique got in melee against two others. Malique is very efficient with his warhammer but also got stabbed by a spear but nothing serious.
  • Meanwhile Lebeau was facing two other kobolds that tried to bait him into a trap but weren’t subtle enough. One even fell headlong into the hidden pit when he tripped on his own feet in the course of the fight.
  • After taking care of the last kobold together, the adventurers inspect a half-rotten blue curtain and find a passage behind.
  • They get into the chief’s hall. A fearsome kobold, as fearsome as a kobold can be, is flanked by three large weasels and there’s also 5 kobold guards.
  • A big fight ensues. Hédralynn starts to lob fireballs (dragonbane’s fireballs are single target 2d6 dmg, or more if boosted) with abandon. Aracyne finishes a giant weasel with a well-placed arrow. Malique does his best to block spear thrusts at the front. The adventurers prevail but Malique sports many wounds now. Hédralynn does her best to heal him with her magic.
  • Lebeau finds a door behind a wall hanging, this leads to the chief’s modest treasure of copper pieces.
  • Another door in the chief’s hall leads to a larger room that smells of charred flesh. A kobold shaman starts to casts a spell at them as his guards charge the adventurers. Lebeau has a hard time fighting as the shaman unleash a swarm of insects at him. Fortunately the shaman isn’t long for this world as he gets a fireball and an arrow from the elves PCs. One kobold surrenders after his colleagues die and gives some information on the lair’s layout, where the jails are after being asked.
  • Backtracking a little, the adventurers go the kobolds’ jails but a portcullis is blocking their way. The two dogmen manage to force it open. There’s a brief fight thereafter against two kobold guards.
  • There’s two prisoners still alive, the daughter of Clement the tailor and one severely wounded hobgoblin. For some reason Lebeau is convinced that the latter will be a fine addition to the party and asks Hédralynn to spend her last bit of magic on healing him. Lebeau offers a full treasure-part to the hobgoblin if he joins the guild but it will be up to the Aracyne the guild leader to make such a contract or not.
  • The adventurers leave Gundeholfen, go across the Ganfal Swamp safely and get back to town.

Closing Comments:

  • Dragonbane characters start as capable adventurers but they don’t really ever have access to game-changing spells or abilities, unless they find magic items that is. I’m not sure how it wil impact the game later on to be honest.
  • I’ve shortened the walk to the dungeon through the Ganfal Swamp but nonetheless I have to remember that crossing the swamp should be seen very much as an irritating and serious logistic issue to solve before long i.e having a base nearer.
  • They’ve gone through a big chunk of the Kobolds lair and killed 2/3 of them but it wasn’t that easy either. Malique got almost injured despite being the most heavily armored until Olivier reminded Edmond that he could try to block one Kobold’s fatal spear attack with his shield and he succeed in doing so.
  • As we’re not playing a gold>>xp game I’m cutting dramatically on the amount of treasure they find. In fact, most creatures won’t have anything of value. Sorry, but not sorry!
  • The first kobolds that have fled should have alerted 2-3 more kobolds immediately in the next room instead of going farther on the lair. My first mistake of the dungeon happened really quick! I have to look at a few adjacent rooms whenever they advance into a new one just to be sure. I’ll prepare an enemy roster per area next time and won’t be caught off-guard…

The Hole in the Oak – Trogs & Mutants – Session 1

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The start of a new thing for us. This time we’ll have a megadungeon called Gunderholfen as our campaign tentpole. You’ll learn about it soon enough. But not now, in our first session the players have chosen instead to go into the Magical Forest to explore The Hole in the Oak.

TTRPG system used: Free League’s Dragonbane instead of OSE

Aside: Yes, once again I’ll be running adventures within a system not intended for them. This is the way I’ve been doing things for a while now, a bit more complicated as I have to adapt quite a few things, but there’s an intent behind this… Huh, yes, there’s an intent I’m telling you!

Furthermore, I’ll be borrowing some concepts from Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon.

Player Characters (PCs):

  • Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
  • Malique, (Edmond), Dogman Knight
  • Hédralynn (Marjorie), Elf Mage
  • Jean Lebeau (Olivier), Dogman Fighter

We start in Longfelt. The party meets with the town’s high constable Vandemaut who wants them to go check on the dwarven ruins of Gunderhlofen, see if there’s monsters inside or just humanoids. « Oh, I almost forgot », he said, « there’s the daugther of Clement the taylor missing, probably held captive into the ruins. There’s a reward if you manage to save her ». The adventurers buy a few goods and leave town.

They don’t go to Gunderholfen though, they go explore a place that Aracyne had found earlier while roaming the Magical Forest.

The Hole in the Oak. Dungeon Type: Natural (Pertubed).

  • The PCs enter a passage at the base of an ancient oak. They see hoof-prints and boot-prints on the ground. NOLLY’S KINGDOM is carved on a root.
  • They manage to slip through the roots and go left at a junction. A purple-robed man appears from thin air and delivers a semi-coherent message before disappearing.
  • They get into a circular room with a rug in the middle. There’s a rune under the rug.
  • Thence, the PCs open a door west and find two scrolls and numerous jars with tiny dead persons floating in them. They take the scrolls.
  • Going north, they are blocked by a locked door and then open another one into a room that has a pit filled with grimy water and a suspicious pile of gold on the other side. They don’t fall for it and go elsewhere.
  • Going on they hear the subtle sound of a door opening behind them, the one that they found was locked. Three foul-smelling troglodytes are coming at them! The two dogmen have a hard time because of their sensitive sense of smell. The adventurers prevail but Malique is wounded.
  • In the big adjacent room through the now open door, the PCs find a secret door and a chest full of silver pieces.
  • Thence, the PCs go north, they hear the sound of running water. They turn a corner and stumble upon several naked corpses on the ground. A beast lore check tells Hédralynn that they’re most likely ghouls and the PCs retreat silently.
  • Backtracking a little, the adventurers find another access to the underground river and even take the time for some fishing with the fishing canes readily available. They catch several fishes that will come in handy later on.
  • A bit further, they get into a large room with some statue and with several doors and passages going in every direction.
  • In the nearest passage they find a dead dwarf with a coil of nasty black vine around his neck. They see the same black vines hanging from the ceiling a bit further.
  • They try another way. Listening at a door they hear loud snoring. They open the door and see an ogre, terribly malformed and sleeping on a large chair. A makeshift jail hold 4 prisoners, barely human mutants. The adventurers want to free them and Hédralynn opens the jail’s door with a spell. The Ogre doesn’t wake up luckily but the mutants eye the adventurers with a look of hunger. They receive fresh raw fish that they devour instantly Gollum-like.
  • Fed mutants in tow, the PCs go explore a strange metallic room nearby. There’s a huge metal ball on one side and 6 levers on the wall. That doesn’t hold the interest of the adventurers and they go further south along another passage.
  • To their left is a huge widening natural cave but they go right, near the entrance in fact, into a small room with all sort of root faces. The faces speak in unison and offer knowledge in exchange of payment. Cordélia give some silver pieces and learn of the « treachery of the gnomes ». Another go and this time it’s « the fruits of the underworld are magical but can twist the mind of the weak-willed ».
  • Going further they enter a spiralling passage. They also see hoof-prints going in. They find bright-colored hats and cloaks hanging from roots and Jean takes one of each. But seeing that there was 12 hats the PCs get a little anxious to encounter their hoof-footed owners and decide to call it a day.
  • They exit the dungeon and escort the mutants back in town to see if someone could help them with magic or something.

Closing Comments:

  • I’d only skimmed through the adventure prior to running it but it has a very user-friendly layout and it went smoothly enough.
  • The players had more positive comments about the new system than about the adventure itself. in particular they liked how xp gains is attached to the use of skills in Dragonbane.
  • So we have a party of two elves and two dogmen, that’s a bit weird haha! The Dogman kin is not even a thing in Dragonbane but it replaces the Wolfman as a throwback to Kobolds (that are bipedal dogs) in Delicious in Dungeons.
  • The Mage’s magic trick Open/Close isn’t supposed to work on locked doors so I could have retconned the Mutants and Ogre situation but I’ve let it go this time.

Session 48- Back to Port Nyanzaru

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

21 juillet

Session impromptue de D&D 5E alors que ce qui était prévue était plutôt la session annuelle de Vampire: Dark Ages (qui avait déjà été remise à plus tard ce printemps) mais deux des joueurs ont laissé tombé à la dernière minute. Le problème c’est que tous mes efforts de préparations des dernières semaines ont été mis au placard et en remplacement je me retrouve à faire une session d’une campagne quasi-abandonnée! Mais au minimum je pouvais me rabattre sur ma préparation antérieure (principalement celle-ci).

Personnages Joueurs (PJs)

  • (Marjorie) Kalohan, (level 11) High Elf Wizard (evoker), Inheritor,  doit trouver un sort inconnu jusque là avant de pouvoir obtenir son héritage
  • (Isaac) Anfi, (level 11>>12) Locathah Fighter (eldritch knight), Outlander, venu sur la terre ferme en passant par la Caverne-Tunnel, là pour découvrir ce nouvel environnement + Salamandre Géante
  • (Olivier) Léon, (level 9) Human Monk (way of shadow), Outlander, revenu à la vie grâce à Zotzilaha, maintenant libre de faire ce qu’il veut
  • (Edmond) Vingt, (level 8>>9) Myconid Druid (circle of spores), Acolyte, envoyé de Zuggtmoy, la Déesse du fongique + Fourmi Zombifiée
  • (Chris) Pax Double-Poches, (level 10), Halfling Rogue (arcane trickster), Criminal, fuyant un passé criminel, a vu de ses yeux les trésors merveilleux qu’a rapporté le ranger Flyzus de sa dernìère expédition et s’est immiscé dans le groupe depuis
  • (Chris) Rufb (level 10), Half-Orc Barbarian (berserker), Mercenary Veteran; capturé par des pterafolks, seul survivant de sa bande de mercenaires, délivré par Flyzus au sommet du Firefinger
  • (Jason) Shin, (level 10) Tabaxi Fighter (arcane archer), Outlander, veut devenir le plus grand chasseur de tout les temps + Vorn, Shield Guardian

Intro: Coup d’État à Port Nyanzaru

De retour de leur dernier périple dans les jungles de Chult, les aventuriers ont pris connaissance des bouleversements politiques dans la ville principale de la péninsule, Port Nyanzaru. En effet, un membre du conseil de gouvernement, Ifan Talro’a, s’est emparé du pouvoir avec l’appui de mercenaires étrangers et d’un mystérieux chef criminel (Jobal).

Les aventuriers étant à peu près en guerre ouverte contre ces mêmes mercenaires, il ne leur sied pas du tout de les voir placer leur marionnette en tête de la ville…

Entrée et Retrouvailles

Avec un bateau-volant sous la main, faire le trajet jusqu’à Port Nyanzaru depuis leur repaire ne leur a jamais été aussi facile et rapide. Le capitaine Flyzus les dépose à une distance raisonnable de la ville pour ne pas trop afficher leur arrivée. Ensuite, profitant de leur réputation bien méritée de sauveurs, ils se dirigent vers le quartier des pêcheurs (Tiriki’s Anchorage) où les locaux favorisent leur entrée discrète.

Art: Mehmet Ozen

Pax et Léon surveillent les patrouilles des mercenaires, puis à l’aide d’un contact, le groupe s’infiltre à l’intérieur des murs de la ville par un tunnel de contrebandiers. Après quelques essais infructueux, Pax réussit à entrer en contact avec des membres de la Main Mauve, des teinturiers/gang de rue à la solde de Jessamine, une membre du conseil abolit et opposante du nouveau gouverneur. Dans le repaire de cette dernière, ou est aussi présent le magicien Wakanga, les PJs en apprennent beaucoup sur la situation. Après quelques hésitations, les aventuriers décident de s’en prendre à la partie cachée, mystérieuse, de leur ennemi en tentant de sortir Jobal de l’équation. Ce dernier à sa base principale quelque part dans les tunnels sous les antiques ziggurats de la Vieille Ville.

Un bâteau de pêche dépose les PJs près de la Vieille Ville, une illusion programmée de Wakanga les aide à passer inaperçu. Kalohan utilise un sort de True Seeing et trouve une entrée secrète dans un endroit nommée le Gauntlet où des spectacles sanguinaires ont lieu couramment. Les aventuriers s’y engouffrent…

Sous la Ville

Après une première salle bourrée de pièges et une deuxième pleine d’ennemis morts-vivants, les aventuriers s’enfoncent plus avant et affrontents d’autres morts-vivants, cette fois juchés sur un système de passerelle surplombant du bétail en contrebas. Un usage judicieux du sort Shatter de la magicienne accomplit une bonne partie du travail en précipitant les ennemis dans le troupeau, un piétinement s’ensuit….

Plus loin, une grande salle contient de nombreuses cages avec toutes sortes de bestioles à l’intérieur, le tout gardé par des cultistes (des guerriers et une mage). Les PJs ont un plan redoutable: laisser s’échapper des monstres tandis qu’ils s’occupent des gardes les plus proches. Kalohan brise la cage d’un wyvern, la bête s’empresse de terrasser la mage cultiste tout près et prise au dépourvu.

image: Rhadov

Une deuxième cage d’ouverte, cette fois par Pax, voit des Ettercaps cavaler vers la liberté après avoir empêtrés dans leurs toiles leurs geôliers .

Une fois les cultistes éliminés il y a un moment tendu alors que le wyvern semble hésité à les attaquer aussi mais finalement la bête part dans la diretion opposée (au hasard). La suivant à une certaine distance, les aventuriers voient le wyvern confronté à des adversaire morts-vivants et être submergé sous le nombre. Des flèches explosives de shin ont tôt fait de faire le ménage après la mort du wyvern.

TBC

Notes du DM:

  • Marjorie penchait davantage pour organiser une guérilla contre le nouveau pouvoir mais le manque d’enthousiasme des autres joueurs pour cette idée a fait tourner vers une implication plus directe des PJs (baston!).
  • Pour faire vite, j’ai « emprunté » la section Blood Pens du donjon Doomvault (Tales of the Yawning Portal) et l’ai présenté presque tel quel pour une fois.
  • Les joueurs ont bien apprécié d’avoir des monstres dans leur équipe en quelque sorte.

The Bishop of Ximes (Gont: Nest of Spies) -Session 16

David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Our second session of the campaign outside of the Château. This one was a bit laborious in the going as the three boys were out of their zone of comfort in how to approach a somewhat subtle objective. It also led to an absolutely major change of the campaign further on, one that I’ve hinted was possible but I thought was unlikely to happen.

The action this time is set into the city of Ximes, in Averoigne, with a backstory as it turned out heavily inspired by The Holiness of Azédarac by Clark Ashton Smith and, as is my fancy with this campaign I’ve used material from Gabor Lux to help me flesh out the setting a little more.

Echoes from Fomalhaut # 2, 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)

  • Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 6
  • Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
  • Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 6
  • Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 6

Rumors:

  • There’s an extensive network of tunnels below the city of Ximes. Smugglers who makes the run on the Ysoulde river use the tunnels to hide their stuff.
  • Bishop Azédarac is often seen with merchant Jehan Mauvaissoir, a shady individual whom, like the bishop, nobody seems to have known a few years ago.

One important piece of information was obtained in downtime has Cordélia has finished deciphering the notes of the late Rogat Demazien. The latter had some kind of a deal with the « Holy Man »: find a way to create and control gargoyles in exchange for the recipe of a powerful time-travel potion. Could this saintly man be Bishop Azédarac? Certainly all the rumors they heard about him made it sound likely.

Could be useful as for now the adventurers have to work for the Bénédictins monks and the Church in finding incriminating evidence against the infamous bishop to pay off their debt.

Arriving in Ximes

  • Cordélia sends her homonculus at the cathedral to spy on Azédarac’s entourage. She finds a mark in the person of a young nobleman, one Boudevoy, who’s to become a churchman and is now a protégé of the bishop.
  • The adventurers manage to join a game of cards with Boudevoy at the Gamesman’s Court, Cordélia uses her natural charm on naive Boudevoy and convince him to show her (and her friends) where he works, at the cathedral.
  • Inside the cathedral, with the information gathered by the homonculus and with Boudevoy as a laissé-passez of sort, the party manage to find a door leading to the undercity.
  • They get into a large room lit by two braziers, armed men block their way, They get their weapons out and the fight is on! Even if the thugs prove no match for the battle-hardened veterans they still fight to the last one.
  • Thence, the PCs get into another large room and choose to follow the more visibly well-trodden path on their right, ignoring many others.
  • After a few turns this leads them to a locked, reinforced door. Noah starts to try some of his false keys but someone from the other side of the door says that whoever is there better leave very soon.
  • The adventurers retreat no further that in the corridor behind the angle and goad the threatmongers into coming to them. The door opens, furtive footsteps, almost inaudible. Noah advances, crossbow in hands but gets jumped upon by three assassins and almost die. Fortunately his companions rush to help him and manage to prevail.
  • Cordélia, Paul and Monmon then disguise themselves with the assassins’ clothing (bloodsoaked as they are) while Noah will wait back with most of their equipment.
  • They open the door into a large, dimly-lit room with other likewise clothed people and try their best to be inconspicuous. They get to the other side after uttering a quick explanation and get through another locked door.
  • Thence, they get lost for some time in a network of confusing corridors before finding a secret passage. They go North and open a door into a large plush hallway with a dozen thugs playing cards or sipping beverage. There’s a heavy curtain on the northern wall, the adventurers want to check it out but are stopped « did the Boss asked for you? » to which Cordélia replies that indeed they are here to make their report on the intruders situation. The PCs are eyed suspiciously but are brought forward nonetheless (and pretty much trapped).
  • Behind the curtain is a small room with arrow slits on each side, a set of bars blocks another area with and a vague human shape can be seen behind a veil: « Do you think you can fool me? Men, bring the other one » And here comes Noah, with his wrists tied together.
  • « Certainly not » replies Cordélia, thinking fast. And acting on her strong suspicion that it was Azédarac himself behind the veil: « We’ve been sent by the church but we’d much rather make a deal with you, something that could benefit us all and allow my special, frowned-upon talents to flourish… »
  • And so, after a bit more discussion between the adventurers and Azédarac (because indeed it was him), they reached some kind of understanding. Through his powers he would endeavor to get himself and his new allies into another epoch entirely no less…

Closing Comments:

  • There was many ways to approach the (ultimately discarded) mission. The most likely I thought would have seen the party explore a good chunk of the undercity, with possibly many sessions to do so. It did not happen like this at all and I was a bit disappointed quite frankly. I wanted encounters with hanging snagworths and slimecones and dubious characters but instead my players managed, part by inspiration and part randomly, to get the shortest route possible to the hidden domain of Azédarac.
  • Of course Azédarac doesn’t feature in Gont: nest of spies, I’ve switched him over with the assassin leader Grave-Wight. Likewise, the cathedral took the place of keldor’s manor.
  • I still feel a bit of an impostor when I cut open an adventure or setting, discard unwanted stuff, add some other, switch characters and so on and sew it back together to run at my table but at the same time I think it’s the next best thing if I don’t take the time to create my own.
  • It’s the end of this Castle Xyntillan run, big hanging threads and all, just like that.
  • It’s the beginning of something else if we choose so, I’m not quite sure myself. Do we hear the call of Khosura?

The Sword of Roele review – crappy adventure, good dungeon pt 2

David Skelector Birthright, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG , ,

This is the long overdue second part of my review (that virtually no one was waiting for) of this mostly forgotten TSR adventure The Sword of Roele, for the Birthright setting. In the first part I’ve talked about how it has an absolute mess of a scenario, hilariously bad. But now I’m gonna talk about its main dungeon which I find, as the title says, pretty good.

The Sword of Roele, Wolfgang Baur, 1996, AD&D2E, levels 5-8

So you’ve gone through the arduous process of the module’s disjointed, scene-based nodes and finally found the adventure’s main dungeon where the macguffin, I mean the Sword of Roele is. You stand in front of:

The Great Tomb of the Order of the Sun

  • Mid-sized dungeon, 2 levels, 53 rooms
  • funerary complex of knights do-gooders and some of their major figures
  • designed by an evil magic-user architect to accomodate his own needs in his plans to achieve lichdom

The tomb’s only entrance is collapsed with only a narrow path to get in (shown as the « goblin path » on the map even though there’s no goblins in the dungeon, a obvious sign that the dungeon has been refurbished and changed from its original purpose). The PCs will immediately have to confront the troglodyte sentries and do some tunnel fighting.

There’s an whole tribe of 41 trogs in the rooms near the entrance. The trogs are also intruders to the dungeons.

Here’s a great bit:

« If the troglodytes lose 10 or more of
their number, they retreat into Areas 3
and 6. In the storage area they climb up
the tunnel into the audience chamber
(Area 8). They are cold-blooded so they
suffer only one-quarter damage from the
brown mold’s cold. In the hall, they hide
in the shadows behind the statues, waiting
for a chance to ambush foes. »

The trogs take advantage of their resistance to brown mold, that’s great!

When the PCs are in they’ll see large double-doors at their left (upper right on the map), they’ll feel a draft of cold air coming from the right (caused by the brown mold) and see an impressive hallway in front with rows of stone statues/caryatids on each side. They’ll probably notice the corpses of dead thieves on the floor too, at the limit of their light source. Good telegraphing for what represents the main gimmick of this dungeon: of course some caryatids are monsters (circled in red below)! As written the caryatids are the equivalent of lesser stone golems and are perfectly beatable. When I ran this dungeon I’d upgraded the stone statues to full stone golems status, they absolutely have to constitute a proper threat to force some hard choices (and clever ideas) from the players IMO.

a caryatid ready to crush your skull
An « optimal » run to reach the second level could look something like that, with some tense moments of crossing the hallway with the help of diversions. (huh, you may want to include room 21 and 22 if you feel confident! 😉 )

Apart from the troglodytes and caryatids the main denizens are of the undead variety with some constructs sprinkled here and there. The dungeon definitely suffers from a gygaxian naturalism syndrome where things make sense for a tomb but there’s a lack of wonder involved.

Aside: Funnily enough there’s several mention of a resident vampire in the tomb, he’s supposed to be a big deal but he’s in fact nowhere to be found, he’s not even statted! Oops!

The rooms themselves are a mixed bag.

Some are great, like the Chamber of Shadows:

« Three of this chamber’s walls are covered
with an abstract pattern of black
lines. The fourth wall depicts a black
bridge over a misty chasm to a gate of
light. Words are carved into three of the
four stone walls. »

[…]

« The painted bridge at the far side of the
room is the Bridge of Sighs and Shadows,
a magical link through solid rock between
this room and the Divination Room. Only
those who know its secret can cross it. »

Other rooms are pretty boring. There’s several rooms in a row that are just filler; here’s a room with undead falcons, here’s a room with undead hippogriffs, the next one with undead griffons…

The second level is smaller and is designed essentially to confuse the players. It’s heavy on teleportation tricks, traps and of course it has more undeads and constructs.

There’s no faction play in this dungeon, the troglodytes are immediately hostile and other than them there’s few sentient beings. There’s an imp to be found who actually gives good advice as it serves his purpose, that’s nice. There’s also an homonculus but if you’ve met the imp he’ll feel kinda redundant. As written you may also be accompanied by the ghost of the order’s high priest that you can meet before entering the tomb and he does have useful information to provide (and some big secrets) but he’ll get angry if you fall into the usual adventurer’s tomb-robbing habbits and most people will be happy to put him to rest one way or the other before long.

So all in all, this dongeon has several weaknesses, even a few gaffes, but it has also several strong points, the hallway with the caryatids being a favorite of mine. It’s not a great dungeon but it’s good and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be completely forgotten as it is now.

Château d’Éfaurmaje – sessions 1&2

David Skelector aventures d'Edmond, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, my kids, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We played two short sessions to date in Edmond’s own dungeon, le Château d’Éfaurmaje.

Here’s the Dungeon Master with his homemade books.

I’m playing a Magic-User that has a mix of protection and attack spells, Isaac is playing a Warrior that can summon beasts to help us in combat. We basically proposed character concepts to Edmond and he invented our character’s powers on the spot.

We’ve rolled our character stats at random down the line and we’re mapping our progress in the dungeon, the old-school way!
Here we see a tower with a portal of teleportation that we hurriedly jumped into after taking a beating at the hands of an ogre.
  • The monsters are mostly vanilla fantasy: zombies, goblins, orcs, etc. We’ve also encountered « pyrymies », invented by Edmond, small (smaller than goblins) humanoids that fight with a knife in each hand and are very adept at dodging.
  • We’ve heard orcs talking (while we listened to a door) about how it was this time of the year when they changed every door of the castle. Very funny!
  • Edmond has prepared a table of rumors (not all true I’ve been told) that potentially lead to treasures and other sites.
  • There’s also another random roll at the start of a session and Isaac got a Sick condition from it that diminished his strength score until resolved. That’s an interesting addition, clearly something else that Edmond came up on his own.
  • We’ve fled from an ogre as I’ve said but also from a Hydra that we had tried to beat with the help of pyrymies (!), it was way too strong for us!

It’s quite fascinating to me to play in a TTRPG without any rules constraints – Edmond is improvising 90% of the rules along the way and it still works perfectly fine!

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 13

David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

We’re getting back from four days at the cabin where we managed to slip in several hours of tabletop gaming in-between our outdoor activities. Speaking of which, we found morels on our land! So, all in all, a very profitable time indeed…

3 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)

  • 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 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 4>>5
  • Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, heavily armored, Warrior lvl 3>>4

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
  • Georges (Edmond), militia man, Morale 7
  • Valentin (Isaac), shoemaker, 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 thrown in the lake)
  • 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. Eliminated Countess Maltricia Malévol (+1)

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 Burglarized Count Giscard’s room (+1) Put holy water in Count Giscard’s « wine » (+1) Total: 12 1/2

Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5

Played ball with the werepups -1

Current Infractions rating: 6 1/2

Rumors:

  • There are multiples libraries and laboratories in the Castle. A magic-user’s delight… or doom.
  • Some strange folks still pursue the work of the Heretic.

A small return on the end of the last session: the PCs had met former retainer Jacques fortuitously, as unpleasant as ever and now a zombie – as he was roaming in the corridors of the Château. As they got out though – after maybe a hundred yards from the gatehouse – poor Jacques faceplanted on the ground, dead as a rock. The cold-hearted adventurers decided to dump his corpse in the lake with the idea that the monster would make him disappear.

We start in Ximes. Paul-Jean, with the help of Luc le Chaudronnier, prepares another dose of lethal poison. Also, the master alchemist has finished analysing the mysterious flask of Oil found earlier: is has astounding properties – when applied on one’s eyelids it enables to see 10 minutes of a probable future. This Oil of Revelation will come in handy!

The PCs then proceed to hire more retainers. Monmon hires Georges who was part of the townwatch until recently. Noah hires Valentin, a shoemaker.

Grand Entrance

  • The PCs would like to reach the third floor of the Gothic Wing for the first time and they enter at the Grand Entrance. The two statues do their usual thing but nothing special happens.
  • Waiting for them in the Vestibule is the horrible Béatrice the Jilted. She’s accompanied by Agénor, a tall, gaunt pale-looking old man who seems a little lost. There’s also the late Countess’ galant knight, now undead, surrounded by four flirtatious undead ladies. Quite the sight.
  • Béatrice tells the adventurers that they will pay for having slain the Countess. Unless… Would any of them accept to be her suitor? No? Noboby? You can die then!
  • Béatrice is supernaturally fast (always acts first) and jumps on Monmon claws first. She rakes him twice, wounding and paralysing him. Noah hits her twice with his repeating crossbow, hurting her. Pierrot swings an axe at her, connects and she’s down! Is she really dead? Georges is asked to stab her some more to make sure. Paul does a whirlwind attack and slay all four of the undead courtesan ladies. Constant and Paul-Jean attack the zombie knight but he’s a more resilient foe. After a brief moment of hesitation the decrepit Agénor joins the fray and attacks Paul with his bare hands but misses. Paul, Paul-Jean and Noah all try to hurt the old man but to no avail, normal weapons don’t affect him! But Monmon shakes off his paralysis and pierce him with a mighty stab of his spear. Paul hits him with his magic dagger but Agénor touches him in return, wounding him and draining some of his strength. Several hits later and Agénor is incapacitated and gets a stake through his heart (as he’s evidently a vampire) and is hurled outside to be burned by sunlight. The undead knight, surrounded, is the last to fall (he had a backstory but, well… too bad!).
  • Béatrice though doesn’t seem to be able to stay dead for very long. The PCs decapitate her and burn her corpse for good measure. They looted her body prior to that and found a pearl necklace and an amber brooch.
  • They continue with their exploration plan and go to the stairway west of the Vestibule and go up into the Gothic Wing.
  • They’re trying to find the stairway leading to the 3rd floor (the highest). They go through the Feasting Hall and go north into a zigzagging corridor, find the latrine’s « throne » and then open a door to the west.
  • They’re inside a boudoir. Inside a closet they find a silver mirror and a puzzle box. There’s also a dressing screen and something behind but at that moment they hear a very angry Béatrice shouting at them: « You killed me and now you’re stealing from me! » and more that is lost in a primal scream as she runs towards them, claws at the ready. She hits Monmon (again) but this time he resists the paralysis. Noah pierces her with two crossbow bolts and then Monmon pierces her through with his spear. They wander briefly what to do with the unkillable crazy Béatrice but then they find a casket with chains behind the dressing screen and just proceed to toss her corpse in and lock it up. Without her head. Her head is thrown through the window and into Tristano’s pond.
  • Thence the PCs resume their search for a way up. Checking their map (Isaac) they figure that the 2×2 square space in the middle could well be what they seek and indeed, it is the stairway leading up!
  • In front of the stairway the party hears some noise coming from the east, several creatures are coming up from the 1st floor.
  • Constant uses the Oil of Revelation to see a probable future. Thus, he sees another party of adventurers, rough men armed mostly with axes. The leader asks the PCs to leave the Castle, it’s their turn to loot the place. Battle ensues, the PCs have the upper hand but suffer some losses. Still in the vision, the party go to the 3rd floor, breaks open a stuck door and gets into a library.
  • With this knowledge in mind, the PCs hurry to the 3rd floor (Gothic Wing II). Monmon breaks open the door and the group wait in ambush as the newcomers, alerted by the sound, come after them. The PCs win initative, Noah kill two adventurers just like that with his crossbow. Monmon kill another with his spear and then Georges jumps into the action and wounds another but he’s struck in return and dies. Paul takes his place and kill the wounded man and then gets into a duel against the leader who’s no match for him. The two remaining opponents fight to the death (morale check) which is not very long in coming.
  • The PCs loot the bodies and find a few hundreds gold pieces.
  • Thence, the PCs get into a library, don’t look much at the books but find a secret door on one corner with the help of Noah’ sword Scrupulous. Once opened they see a man standing right in front of them. He looks just like the one on the dead or alive wanted portrait of Claude Malévol. The PCs tell the man so but he denies being Claude, he claims to be his twin: Olivier Malévol! After a short deliberation the PCs decide that as the spitting image of a 3000gp reward, well… he would do. Of course, that doesn’t go very well with the would-be ransomed and, in a weird turn of events, the latter’s body melts and turns into a Slime! It lashes out at Monmon who was in the process of seizing him. The pseudopod hurts Monmon and ruins his mail hauberk. This is quite disconcerting to the adventurers and they decide that caution is the better part of valour.
  • They retreat and soon leave the Castle.

Closing Comments:

  • With the current Infractions level, first encounter rolled was to be with the retributory patrol (1d4+1 encounters together). With how the results went I figured that Béatrice was the more strong-willed opponent and would be the leader. She’s not much more than a beefed up ghoul but she’s very persistent…
  • And it so happened in one of those amazing emerging coincidence that they found Béatrice’s Boudoir and put her back inside her very own chained casket!
  • Very clever reading of the map by Isaac to find the stairway, I’m very proud. They’re getting good at this dungeon-delving stuff.
  • XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 2 Secrets: 2
  • Treasures: Pearl Necklace, Amber Brooch, Silver Mirror, Puzzle Box
  • Fatalities: Georges, struck by a rival adventurer’s axe
  • New Infractions: Vanquished Béatrice’s retributory patrol (-4). Eliminated Agénor Malévol. Eliminated Béatrice Malévol.

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 12

David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

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 4
  • 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)

The Maker of Gargoyles (The House of Rogat Demazien) – Session 11

David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

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.

Friday evening, 4 1/2 hours session.

Trail of the Sea Demon, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

  • Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 4>>5
  • Bruno the Wolfman (Marjorie), controlled lycanthropy, Warrior/Skinshifter lvl 3
  • Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow, Expert lvl 5
  • Pierrot (Isaac), caravan hand, dealmaker, Warrior lvl 1
  • 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 3>>4
  • 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 ?
  • Quote: Olivier: « Skittles, skittles everywhere! »
  • Fatalities: None

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 10

David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

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.)

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 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 3
  • 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.