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.
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 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 ?
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 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.
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.
Inspired by our ongoing Castle Xyntillan’s campaign, both Isaac and Edmond are designing their own castle/dungeon. I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for the last 2-3 years but I’m proud to say that my sons have beaten me to it. Here’s Edmond’s maps. Keep in mind that he’s 8 years old!
Edmond tells me that the dice on the maps are meant to indicate how many dice you rolls for random encounters on each location. I see that there’s two mimic monsters, some sort of teleporter, a LOT of traps and at least one secret door. Edmond tells me that a magic item to be found is a chess pawn that boosts xp gained while you wear it, pretty awesome!Items are drawn on his maps: treasure chest with their value in gold, a set of armor, a knight’s helmet, another special treasure that gives a big chunk of xp and many other things.
The best part is that it will be playtested very soon!
Special thanks to Gabor Lux for his Castle Xyntillan module!
Okay we’re at Book 9 now. Took me some time as my son had managed to lose the book inside his own room and couldn’t find it back even after I browbeat him into cleaning his mess. Kids… I mean, my son is awesome but tidiness is NOT is forte. Anyhow, I finally managed to find the book on the bottom of a drawer so here we are.
Right at the start we get an encounter with a black-armored, sword and whip wielding Dullahan (headless knight). It seems like it’s part spirit part physical. Its sword attack goes right through armor without damaging it. It’s also impervious to attacks, even magic ones! What’s one suppose to do? Laios, critically wounded, manages to make a deal with the Dullahan and it was pretty much the only reason why he didn’t die.
After that we have probably the most extreme example of dungeon ecology/monster biology to date when Laios’ Guild stumbles upon the reproducing ground of a swarm of Succubus [succubi]. True Succubus are demonic in nature but there’s another sort of creature that have been named after them: the Succubus Mosquito! Just like their namesake they can take the appearance of something of irresistible sex-appeal to their would-be victim. When they’re close enough they plunged their piercing, hollow tongue inside their victim to suck them dry. But wait there’s more, they then transform the stolen blood into a milk-like substance to nourish (via their anus, for good measure) their insect larvae that are kept in still water…
In the last third of the book we learn a lot about dungeons, why they exist and how they grow over time when it has found a « master ». Dungeons are basically prisons for demons (entities from another world), one demon per dungeon to be more precise. A demon/dungeon needs to interact with people to get stronger and thus does what it can to lure people to itself (riches and desire-fulfilling promises). The more powerful and complex the desires of someone are, the more strength the demon will gain when it will feed (literally) upon them. A person « eaten » in this manner will be either too weak to survive or become a shell of its former self.
So you see, Delicious in Dungeon has many typical fantasy fares, and not typical at all dungeon ecology and monster biology. It’s also sort of about food, nutrition and food taboos… But it could also have been called Dungeons & Demons!
Aranéa Malévol, the one who was put in charge by the Malévol Council to take care of their little invasion problem has been thoroughly vanquished by the adventurers. I’m letting the players know that they have earned a respite, the pressure is down for a while, so they can resume their exploration of the cursed castle on more « normal » terms. Short session, 2 1/2 hours.
System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 3>>4
Bruno the Wolfman (Marjorie), controlled lycanthropy, Warrior/Skinshifter lvl 1>>2
Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow, Expert lvl 4
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 4
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 4
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 2
Retainers:
Stuffed Jean-Paul (Marjorie), killed by stuffed animals, now stuffed himself, Morale 12
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)
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
Infractions rating: 3 1/2
Rumors:
I’d bring a few horses or a cart for the bulky valuables. You’ll thank me later.
Aristide Malévol the Patrician, who had conquered death by unholy means, is the true power in the Château des Faussesflammes. Do not cross him!
We start in Vyônes. Noah has upgraded his (already potent) crossbow to a repeating crossbow. Cordélia has made the ritual to link the homonculus to herself. The party goes to Périgon where they hire two brothers with horses and a cart. Pierrot begs the party so he can have 20 gp more than his agreed salary; his house is in disrepair, his wife is sickly, his grandmother has died, all manners of woes afflicts the poor guy… Noah refuses to give him more. Monmon gives him 5 gp from his own money.
Gatehouse:
The party leaves the cart, its team and Raymond at the entrance and then enter through the Gatehouse, under the scrutiny of the ravens as usual. Their plan is STILL to go explore the Occult Maze on the 2nd floor.
Storerooms. There’s two dead adventurers in the corridor with the spectral horses. Cordélia cast Raise Corpse on one as a diversion for the horses and the party hurry to the nearest door on the left while the zombie is being trampled.
From one storeroom to another they get to the coffin where Paul got his magic dagger by removing it from the heart of a dead woman, a geyser of blood had erupted from her pierced chest when de did. The woman’s body is nowhere to be seen but there’s still (fresh) blood dripping from the coffin. Cordélia pours a vial of holy water in the coffin and they hear a languished scream. The ghost of Gisèle Pierced-Heart, discarded mistress of a Malévol, is no more.
They get to the stairway nearby that leads to the Maze of the Occult. They can hear children singing a twisted melody. The singing stops abruptly when the party gets in the hallway, the air gets colder instantly and The Strangler appears and assaults Monmon. Monmon dodges the attack and pierces the specter with his magic spear. Paul strikes it with his magic dagger and The Strangler is once again vanquished.
A bit further, the adventurers open a door to a room where some kind of entertainment gig is going on for a ghostly audience. Knives juggling and throwing; Stuffed Jean-Paul is unfazed when knives fly all around his head and his awarded a money pouch for having (unwittingly) served in the performance. There’s also prestidigitation tricks and a floating hand holding cards. Paul picks a card, there’s Death on it and it gets out of the card and attacks! Fortunately the Reaper keeps missing Paul with his scythe and Paul slays it. The Death on the card transforms into an Emperor and Paul feels more vigorous.
On the next room the party come face to face with Count Giscard, the vampire they already encountered and whose Children of the Night nearly TPKed them. This time the Count, still drinking a glass of « wine », is having a contest with two captured adventurers: a fight to first blood. He asks the PCs to participate in the event and wily Cordélia delegates Stuffed Jean-Paul (whom doesn’t bleed!) to the fight. Stuffed Jean-Paul wins, the adventurer is promptly drained of his remaining blood by the Count. However, the contest isn’t finish, there will also be fight against his servant in full plate, the first to achieve three significant strikes. This time (after much hesitation from the players) it’s Paul that comes forward. He fights brillantly again and wins. The Count gives him a Laurels Wreath as a reward and then asks to get themselves out of his sight.
On the next room, the Yellow Room, the PCs find many things. Cordélia collects small yellow flowers that were growing over the remains of two interlaced skeletons. Monmon finds a black cloak +1 in a closet. Noah finds for 1000 gp worth of perfumes, makeup and other beauty paraphernalia. Paul is almost killed by a guillotine trap set in another closet but survives by some extraordinary luck. He finds a message stuffed inside a old boot that describes the location of a treasure.
The party having explored all the doors on this corridor backtracks into the hallway and open the door to a small chapel. There a plaque under the statue of a saint invites them to unburden them of « Vanity ». Cordélia cut a lock of her hair and feels a bit more confident after doing so.
In another room they find creepy wax figures and crates full of candles. Paul is pretty sure he saw one figure moving very sligthly. The party gets out but Noah takes one last peep inside and sees that one figure now looks eerily like Paul. Noah barricades the door efficiently with furnitures and planks. The noise doesn’t attract anything fortunately.
In the next room there’s a supply of utilitarian bottles and also a poltergeist throwing the bottles at them. Stuffed Jean-Pauls eats a bottle right in the face and an animated feather duster swipes glass from him right after. Monmon, Noah and Paul attack the poltergeist as he was seizing another bottle and slay it.
Now, the PCs have run out of doors to open in this section, except the one that killed Zachary with an electric arc. There’s writings on the door: « Here be the laboratory of Aristide Malévol the Patrician. If you know this name, you know you have no place here; if you know it not, let this warning suffice. » Warning unheeded, Cordélia orders Stuffed Jean-Paul to open the door. He does so but also bursts into flames. It’s the end of Stuffed Jean-Paul…
Through the open door, inside the Anteroom, the PCs see copper coils each side of the rooms that seem to come out of the floor below.
They’ve done enough for the moment and start to exit the castle. They’re back in the courtyard when they hear joyful yapping and see young-looking wolves, werepups they’re guessing, coming at them fast. Noah wants to shoot them with his repeating crossbow and silver bolts he has but Cordélia has a better plan. She takes out lengths of clothing and quickly makes a ball with it, throws it in the opposite direction. the werepups race each other to get to the improvised ball and the PCs hurry outside the castle’s perimeter!
Session wrap up
Olivier was absolutely JUBILANT after he won the Emperor card giving his character 1 HD to add and even more after he got the laurels wreath that gives + 1 level (and saving his life one time)!
Isaac on the other hand was disappointed that he didn’t have to try his new repeating crossbow, Van Helsing-style, on anything this session.
The players seem determined to access Aristide’s laboratory, that should be quite interesting in the upcoming session.
XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 3 Secrets: 1
Treasures: a pouch of 200 gp, an Emperor card, a crown of laurels, 1000 gp worth of perfumes & paraphernalia
Quote: « Here, go fetch! »
Fatalities: Stuffed Jean-Paul took on fire after touching the anteroom’s door
New Infractions: Played ball with the werepups (-1, substracts to infractions level, they liked it)
We’re back on track on the campaign’s algox thread as we’re now pursuing on our brand-new sled those who’d set a trap for us a bit earlier at the Frozen Crypt.
Characters
Miasma the Boneshaper (David) lvl 4, minions: Bob the dead lumberjack and Raging Sally
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 3, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Tredir the Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 3>>4, versatile Inox fighter
This time the Icefolks are channelling magic through icy « conduits », protecting them from damage unless we break these first.
2 algox priests and a guard, nothing to stop us there except for their magic protection. The Geminate start off the hostilities with a powerful Hail of Thorns, damaging everything nearby (and even a bit of collateral damage too!).The drifter efficiently smashes an ice column with his club and then throws an explosive vial at another. Soon after the protection is down and we’re able to kill the algoxBut we’re in for a big surprise as the Geminate steps forward we’re suddenly forced (pulled, slide down?) to another area just as we thought we could take it slow and steady. This time there’s an Algox Icespeaker (with the blue axes, nice mini), a tricky foe.Again we have to break those damn ice columns if we wish to have any hope of harming our opponents whilst they suffer from no such limitations. The Drifter: « I’m so dead! » The Boneshaper: « Smash this inconvenient ice my minions! »The Drifter survives to his own surprise but is forced back to lick his wounds a little. But T-Gee/Mina are ready to take over and get in the fray. I protect them as much as I can with a power I’ve just acquired, a wonderful not-gruesome-at-all Flesh Shield.Meanwhile the 2 algox priests keep using their healing powers on their allies so the fight is a bit of a slog.But we have greater resilience and determination than the Algox clearly and the survivors are now in disarray. My undead minions slay the last guard and the priests soon join him in whatever subzero afterlife he went.
Closing Comments:
Just realized that Math’s character’s names T-Gee/Mina are an anagram for Geminate… Well done Math, well done.
Because of how the scenario was designed, forcing us forward unexpectedly, we were a bit caught off guard for the big fight. The Drifter in particular was already at half his HP and kept saying that he was gonna die. Plus, we’ve left loot tokens behind in the previous area. Annoying.
The Algox Priests picked the healing card like 3-4 times in a row, slowing our killing, but not contributing much else to the fight fortunately.
As Math mentioned, all three of our starting characters have big hands of cards (12,12 and 14), which in haven terms, means we can survive longer and soak blows (discarding a card) if we’re low on HP. We can handle being in trouble for a while, even when it seems a bit overwhelming like it did in this scenario.
The Geminate looted the treasure tile and picked (at random) a Freezing Crystal, really fitting for this scenario, nice!
We’ve built the Lvl 3 craftsman in town and unlocked a few interesting items doing so.
We do our first random scenario of the campaign, one that has been revealed in a road event because Tredir our Drifter accepted the challenge of eating a Firepepper! Hurray!
Characters
Miasma the Boneshaper (David) lvl 3, minions: Bob the dead lumberjack and Raging Sally
T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 2>>3, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
Tredir the Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 2>>3, versatile Inox fighter
A fortuitous encounter has led us to participate in an important ritual in order to placate a dangerous entity that goes by the lovely name of Hungry Maw. In short, we already found Fireppers – now we must find some special bark, the last ingredient in order to nourish nothing less than its Eternal Crave…
Or we could just fight the entity but I mean, we can’t pass the occasion to be chefs can we!
We must navigate a treacherous path with slippery ground, traps and ice shards. The polar bear roars whilst the snow imps throw snowballs at us, damn the little annoying buggers!Poor skeleton Bob wants to join the action but falls into a pit trap.I think it’s mating season for the polar bears, lucky us.The drifter: « don’t mind me ». whistlesThe Geminate and Raging Sally fight the bears as the Drifter goes further and gets a look at another area.Here it is, our goal, almost encased in ice.But some sinister force conspires against us and new foes appear literally from nowhere (hey you, yes you scenario designer, stop throwing curveballs at us!).The drifter has the bark, now he needs to get back to the cauldron at the entrance and get on with the special brew. The geminate helps him get through another wave of monsters with a Firefly Swarm attack that kills 3 snow imps at once! Impressive!
As for me, I’m too busy stealing every bit of furniture that’s lying around, there’ll be not a single bit left after I’m done!
With a bit of fiddling we manage to cook the special recipe, the Hungry Maw is satiated and gets back to sleep. Success!
And don’t forget, what’s hot entering is hot exiting too!
Closing Comments:
We’ve had a much easier time with this one than the last scenario but it took more than 3 hours, longer than usual. Part of the set-up we didn’t even get to see: the room with the Hungry Maw and a forking path that has locked when we chose to go the other way.
There was a (mainly) mathematical puzzle at the end, our first answer was wrong but was taken into account by the scenario, providing us with another hint. The hint confused the hell out of me but Math came up with the answer, phew!
We’ve got through the entire loot deck this time with me picking up a big chunk of it as I’m almost always lagging behind. What can I say, someone has to do it!
Hey look! I’ve finally added the names of our characters! I guess Miasma is finally remembering who’s tagging along beside her undead minions…
Streets & Spores 
