My wife sent me this image of those amazing (if a bit creepy) fungus masks. Now I just have to make a magic item out of it…
Ceremonial Fungus Mask
RPG
Castle Xyntillan: Classification of the Malévols
As mystery-shrouded Someone asked me to. Ask and you shall receive!
Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products
Now, what follows will be my personal take on how to use the Malévols. I think it could be meant as less of a funhouse and more of a haunted castle approach perhaps? Broadly speaking I’m putting the named characters from the Rogues’ Gallery into three categories with the last one, the True Malévols, subdivided into three more. The term Malévol by default in this module refers to any of the castle’s inhabitants but « True Malévols », in my attempt at classification at least, are exclusively members by birth or wedding of the noble family to whom the castle and surrounding lands (still) belong.
(Note: For my own use and in my play reports I’m often frenchifying the names (i.e James Honoré >> Jean-Honoré) as the Malévols are supposed to be French, but for simplicity’ sake I’ll use the original names here.)
Specters
Specters, ghosts, poltergheists, whatever, things that haunt the castle and don’t have ulterior motives. Some were the accomplices of the Malévols in their nefarious activities and others were simply their victims, discarded lovers, unlucky serfs, etc. All have been denied eternal rest, are bound to the castle and hate the living.
(Note: They all have a draining effect on their attacks. Also, in my game Specters are always, all of them preceded by a telltale sign (i.e ominous children singing, blood dripping from ceiling, etc.).)
List:
- 12 Maximillian (his shadow manifest before he does)
- 20 Sébastian (wet footprints)
- 21 Eustace (blood smears)
- 22 Giselle (plaintive crying)
- 27 Claudette (cold)
- 32 Marcel, only in portraits
- 34 Hugo, (rattling of chains)
- 35 Priscilla (undulating shadows)
- 42 Guillemette (melodious singing)
- 48 Merlerik (whispers)
Castle Staff
Some key members of the castle staff who’ve been around in the tumultous times of the downfall of the castle are cursed to be employees for eternity (that must be the worst fate of all wouldn’t it?). Not part of the Malévol family, they’re nonetheless not to be trifled with. They still try to accomplish their duties, albeit in a twisted parody of their former existence.
(Note: I’m not sure about that one, but I’m thinking that a special condition must be met in order to kill any castle staffer permanently (their bonds to the castle being so strong after all) otherwise they just come back a few days later…)
List:
- 09 Girolamo, Seneschal
- 14 Mandrake, Alchemist
- 16 Hubert, Huntsman
- 18 James Honoré, Butler
- 28 Guy, Jester
- 37 Mortagu, Executioner
- 49 Sybille, Witch
- 50 Bartholomew, Artist
- 55 Frédéric, Playwright
True Malévols
The Malévols are members of a noble french family dating back from the time of Charlemagne, and possibly even earlier as there’s rumors they have ties with the druids worshipping the Old Ones. Some unspeakable ritual (or maybe its just the incommensurate sum of their vices) has cursed their castle and them with it.
Living members
The Malévol family is nigh extinct as far as living members are concerned. The few living ones live mostly outside of its walls but are attracted to the castle like moths to light.
List:
- 01 Gilbert the Fox, bandit, illegitimate son of Reynard
- 06 Claude, official heir, knows enough to dread the moment his inheritance come in effect
- 08 Gregor the Sentient Bug, has pestered one too many time Aristide as a kid
- 15 Olivier the Oleaginous, apprentice to Mandrake the Mixer
- 17 Hortensia the Lovely, younger sibling to Claude and Olivier, innocent
- 19 Reynard the Relapse, alcoholic monk, father of Gilbert
The Blasé Undead
The dead Malévols with a particularly strong personality, tragic destinies or both, are known to linger long after their death and go on with their (mostly wicked) activities. They know joy no more though. Furthermore, decades or centuries of cohabitation have frequently soured their relationships with their siblings to the point that they don’t care much what should happens to them.
(Note: the lair of each of the Blasé Undead should bear obvious signs of their particular decadence.)
List:
- 03 Adelaide the Splendid
- 04 Merton the Encyclopedian
- 10 Beatrice the Jilted
- 33 Gillz the Gothic
- 36 Philomène the Quick
- 39 Lydia the Luckless
- 40 Odile the Odious
- 45 Roberto the Arbiter
- 46 Serpentina the Sweet
- 56 Morella the Mournful
- 58 Agenor the Antique
Leaders of the family council
Some more active Malévols, maybe from a twisted sense of loyalty to their family’s legacy or more immediate desires (i.e bloodlust), still have a vested interest towards the castle’ security.
(Note: They are those who will organize actions against bothersome interlopers.)
List:
- 07 Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods, leader of the druids
- 11 Aristide the Patrician, Aristide is absorded by his thirst for knowledge and will take part on the council only if that’s absolutely necessary (i.e very high Infractions rating)
- 13 Médard the Mighty, a companion to Roland centuries ago, opposes Runcius in almost everything
- 30 Count Giscard, married into the family, from Malinbois
- 31 Countess Maltricia, bored by her vampire husband
- 43 Montfort the Bygone, linked somehow to the lake monster
(Not classified above, some won’t feature in my game: 23 Jean-Luc, 24 Léopold, 25 Patrice, 26 Vincent, 29 Samuel, 38 Rodento, 41 Jerôme, 44 Jaumon, 47 Meandering, 51 Jean-Jacques, 52 Kent, 53 Ambrosius, 54 Charles, 57 Mummified, 59 The Bearer of Sins, 60 The Beast)
So now you can see (in this version) we’ve got 6 living Malévols and 6 leaders. Those are the ones I personally will focus on to add some layers of complexity, plots and whatnot, to the adventure.
I’m also adding my own characters (not featuring on this post) to replace those that I’m discarding and that’s something I very much enjoy to do.
Feel free to tell me if you’re doing something similar or what you’re doing or would do differently.
That’s it for today!
Castle Xyntillan, from the hip comparison with Tegel Manor and Castle Amber
After six sessions in the campaign we’ve reached a critical landmark as the Infractions Rating is high enough now (6 as stated in the book) to warrant a Malévol Intervention against the adventurers.
That means they‘ll try to fend them off actively. That’ll be most interesting. Officially, also as stated in the book, it means as a first step to launch a combination of 1d3+1 encounters against the adventurers. That could be pretty brutal and things will then surely escalate…
But wait, who’s they? Who are the « influential family members » the books talk about in this instance? They’re not specifically named. Of course we can infer who they are from their description (and their stats in some instance) in the Rogues’ Gallery and ultimately, as always, it’s up to the dungeon master to decide which one of the Malévols are the leaders. But that whole process highlight a gap in Castle Xyntillan’s design (in an otherwise great product), as central as they are to the module the Malévol family members aren’t well fleshed out and furthermore, we know next to nothing of their relations to each other. I’ve seen the author argue it was a deliberate choice to keep it simple, and I can see the argument for it. But… Well, I’ve cut my teeth (bad pun) on Vampire: the masquerade/dark ages when I was a teenager and was writing characters relationships charts all the time! The difficulty is that there’s 50+ Malévols but it seems obvious to me that not every one of them should be treated equally.
With that in mind I aim to share my own classification of the Malévols next week but for the moment I’ve gone on a bit of a tangent…
Malévols, Rumps and Ambers oh my!
(Gabor Lux, feel free to write to me if I get anything wrong)
Castle Xyntillan was originally written as to be a revamped Tegel Manor. The project was sidelined and many years later, and much playtesting (and characters deaths), it became its own thing. I would describe it as a generous serving of Tegel Manor, accompanied by a portion of Castle Amber and spiced up with folklore tales.
Both Tegel Manor and Castle Amber are funhouse modules and each feature an extensive family of crazy people at its heart. Tegel Manor has the Rump family, 13 generations of them (with only 3 members alive, in bright red below).
We see CX’s roots in Tegel Manor’s map (as a chassis), use of family « living portraits » (no its not from Harry Potter, haha) and its terse room descriptions. There’s also a similar thing going on with the few living relatives amongst a mostly dead/undead family if we squint a little. I have to mention an interesting twist in TM as the evil Rumps want the lone « good » (he’s not a paragon of virtue by any means) Rump dead in order to complete their ritual!
With Castle Amber we have the d’Ambervile family (shortened to Amber). The Ambers are definitely cursed folks but (most) aren’t undead per se. They’re all very blasé and each have their own brand of wicked hobby to pass time (i.e sponsor of bareknuckle matches!). Also, of particular interest here is its treatment of the Amber family members as random encounters. We can readily see that CX has taken quite a few elements from this ole module too (i.e the indoor forest).
Aside: CX borrows a character (Madeline) from CA which itself had borrowed it from Poe’s The Fall of House Usher.
Aside 2: CA borrows Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne characters and, contrary to the stories, lump them in the same time period, something that I myself will definitely do!
An easy take then is to see Castle Xyntillan as a mix of its two predecessors with of course new inputs from its author’s own ideas. The same goes with its own brand of cursed family; the Malévols are mostly undead and portrait-linked like in TM, but also I think in a way more along CA’s whimsical fantasy. Where CX diverges from the two is with its inclusion of folklore material (i.e The Beast as in the beauty and the beast).
Upcoming: classification of the Malévols
Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) session 6
Life has been hectic the past few weeks, which is usual for this time of the year, but more so this year as my wife is trying to adapt to a new job whilst still having to tie ends at the one she’s leaving behind. We’ll go at a much-needed trip at our cabin next week one last time before winter but for now, it’s gaming time!
Olivier is with his father this week end so no Team Jean this time. Well, that’s not entirely true as Stuffed Jean-Paul has seemingly disinterred himself and somehow got at the rendez-vous point (I’m sure Olivier will protest vehemently when he’ll hear about that!) and so he’s back as Cordélia’s creepy beads-eyed retainer.
Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products
System: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
- Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for good (probably), Necromancer lvl 2
- Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, Expert lvl 2
- Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 3
- Loic Leblanc (Jason), healbot, Adventurer (expert/healer) lvl 2
Retainers:
- Eudes le Bâtard (Marjorie), Comte de La Frenaie’s young bastard son, Morale 9
- Stuffed Jean-Paul (Marjorie), killed by stuffed animals, now stuffed himself, Morale 12
- Conrad (Jason), crusader, heavy drinker, Morale 9
- Jacques (Isaac), daytaler, grumpy, 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 in castle)
- Alphonse, crusader, savaged by Count Giscard’s Children of the Night. (corpse in castle)
Previous Infractions:
Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. (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
Infractions rating: 5
Rumors:
- My uncle once tried to rob the place with his pal, the miller. He was killed by a cupboard.
- Alchemists and practitioners of dark arts have been seen in the company of Azédarac, the Bishop of Ximes!
We start in Vyônes. Noah have crafted himself a fast-loading crossbow. Noah and Loic fail to find a buyer for a regal outfit. Loic hires the Troubadour de l’Automne to help find competent hirelings. He hires ex-crusader Conrad this way. Noah hires one Jacques who seems to have a bad temper. Stuffed Jean-Paul simply show up at the rendez-vous point near Périgon, even if he had been put in a grave the previous week. Bruno is back but Cordélia isn’t interested as she’s been put off by his weird demeanor and his suspicious absence last delve. He begs to be in, without pay if need be, but to no avail. Instead, Cordélia forcefully gets him in the care of the monks at Périgon, hoping that they would find what the hell is wrong with him. Cordélia buys vials of holy water from the monks.
Grand Entrance
- Near the Château Cordélia spot someone hiding behind a bush and send Stuffed Jean-Paul after it. The man in hiding start to run away and Cordélia shoots him with her bow. Loic heals him just enough so he can be interrogated. They learn that Gilbert the Fox want to ambush them once they exit. Loic slit the wounded man’s throat ruthlessly.
- The adventurers try to interact with the 2 monstrous statues at the grand entrance but fail to have any reaction.
- They open the great doors and see that Jean-Honoré the butler is there again in the vestibule. He seems lethargic, with his head down, but still hold a platter with goblets ready to serve. Cordélia sucessfully shoot the platter off his hand, the butler is dismayed at the spill and hurry away through a door to re-fill the drinks.
- Nearby in the Entrance Halls the PCs find a Portrait Gallery. They interact with the portraits (Harry Potter-style): Philomène Malévol smiles and invites them upstair; a bureaucrat is annoyed with the interruption; skeletal and richly-attired Aristide Malévol ignores them; a paint his covered over and bleeds when scratched and a voice says « I’ll be vindicated, you can’t prove anything! »; an executioner is sharpening his axe; Marcel the Malnourished begs for food, Cordélia gives him a ration and ask him a few questions after but he’s sleepy after eating and takes a nap.
- Cordélia sprinkles holy water on the living paints, except Marcel’s, they cease to be « alive »
- A bit further they hear loud singing and much ruckus from a mess hall, they turn left instead in another corridor
- They open a door into the Summer Wing, push aside a heavy curtain and get into a vast throne room with much cobwebs. There’s empty armors each standing in front of columns in rows facing each other. The PCs want the team to coordinate to tie up the armors with ropes, and using the curtain also (as they don’t have enough rope) to immobilize them in case they would get hostile. The plan mostly works, 5 armors are tied to columns but then they animate suddenly and Loic didn’t have time to tie his. And the 2 armors under the curtain just slice it open and free themselves. Combat ensues. Jacques takes a halberd hit on the face and dies instantly. Monmon manages to push an armor on the ground with the help of Cordélia, the armor disassemble with the impact, a swarm of (little) spiders get out of it, quickly scattering away. Loic slam his hammer on another’s helm and dislodges it from its shoulders with the same result. They then team up to break apart the last free armor.
- They inspect the decorated throne. They find a jeweled scepter in a hidden compartment. They also find a button and when pressed it makes the throne descend into the catacombs.
- They go down with the throne into the Lake Grotto area.
- Next room Cordélia does a Smite the Dead, annihilating a bunch of undead nuns.
- A bit further, now into the Oubliette area, they get inside an impressive statuary, they’re attacked by 3 Stone Reapers (statues with scythes). Monmon uses his magic spear to good effect. He and Conrad got wounded too but are immediately healed by Loic. A tough fight but they prevail. They find a precious necklace, a mundane lantern and sheet of paper with a spell of warding (single use) inscribed on it.
- Right next to the statuary are prisoner cells. There’s 3 prisoners, one weirdo is chewing on a dead rat, says that this way the vampires will choose to drain somebody else. Another, Jaubert, gets a promise from the adventurers to kill Mortagu the warden/executioner and bring back the keys. The other one is a gaunt woman that keeps silent.
- They leave the captives behind and go in search of the warden. Past a clammy corridor they get into a root cellar. There they see giant beets, almost humanoids in shape, slumbering. Careful to not disturb the beet creatures they go inspect a statue of a woman that seems out of place. They find a secret passage behind and go inside.
- They get into a cistern room. There’s a well entrance above them. There’s corpses in the water, zombies that animate when they get near. The PCs hurry away and spike the door behind them.
- They get further, evading a trio of cackling witches in a kitchen.
- Next room is empty except for an axe and a stump. And dried blood everywhere. Monmon takes the axe, thinking it will piss off the executioner to be weaponless! (there was chance of finding Mortagu here but it didn’t happen)
- Next room there’s a weird thing going on as heavily-armored Monmon is attracted in the center where a spiked ball attached on a chain is rotating furiously. He got hit 2 times before he could extricate himself from the magnetic field (but he can take it).
- Nearby they find a secret door and get into a large circular room bordered by alcoves. They have time to search a few before alerting the resident rats. A whole horde of rats, hundreds. The PCs flee through the only door and quickly close it behind them.
- They leave the angry screeches and scratching and now see that they’ve circled back to the clammy corridor and root cellar. From there they get to a wine cellar. There’s many barrels along the wall and messing with them they find one that is empty, behind is a secret passage.
- They enter and once they get out of a man-made tunnel they arrive in a cavern. Oddly, they can see the light of day entering at the other end of the cavern. There’s also a satyr wearing robes. He let them pass with the promise that the adventurers bring him alcohol on their way back.
- The PCs enter the Indoorness, a primordial forest unstuck in time and space.
- They follow a path and soon get into a clearing where they see a gazebo surrounded by wildflowers. They get inside. (the players are not old-timers, they have no fear of gazebos) The gazebo fly up at vertiginous speed and reach a splendid cloud garden. They get back on the ground after a while, feeling refreshed.
- Further on the forest path, they come across another clearing, this time there’s a mill. The miller talks about giant mice, trolls under bridges and a druid who’s master of the forest. They pay good money for a cask of whiskey and leave.
- The adventurers were worried at the thought of encountering trolls and decided it was time to turn back and call it a day. They gave the satyr the cask of whiskey which he seized and gulped down without another word. They entered back the catacombs, found their way up to the throne room and managed to get out of the castle yet again… with grumpy fellow Jacques as casualty.
(I had planned to have the players ambushed by bandit Gilbert the Fox and his men as they exited the castle, as it was pretty much telegraphed from last session’s rumors and today’s foreshadowing (the man in hiding) but it was getting late and so it’ll be another time.)
Session wrap up:
- 5 hours session with a lot accomplished, a lot of exploration done if a bit haphazard. They found the way to the « Indoorness » which frankly I’m quite surprised by. When I read the book the first time I wasn’t sure they would ever find it at all. Interesting…
- First time the players get to interact with portraits, even if they’re like everywhere in the castle. That was fun.
- No random encounters, not a single one, against the odds, as I’ve rolled like 30 times (with a 1 on d6 needed)!
- XP: Participation: 1 Treasure: 2 Secrets: 3
- Treasures: Scepter of the Merovings. Jeweled Necklace.
- Fatalities: Jacques, got hit in the face by an Empty Armor’s halberd
- Quote: Marjorie: « Eeeekkk, spiders! I squash them all! Every single one of them! »
- New Infractions: Stole the Scepter of the Merovings, Defaced living portraits with holy water.
Session 46: Temple of the Ever-Burning
Petite session de 3 heures dans laquelle les PJs ont eu le temps d’explorer et de nettoyer le premier de trois étages du temple volcanique. Nous aurions pu jouer plus longtemps mais honnêtement j’avais atteint mon quota plus tôt qu’à l’habitude.
Personnages Joueurs (PJs)
- (Jason) Shin, (level 10) Tabaxi Fighter (arcane archer), Outlander, veut devenir le plus grand chasseur de tout les temps + Vorn, Shield Guardian
- (Marjorie) Kalohan, (level 10) High Elf Wizard (evoker), Inheritor, doit trouver un sort inconnu jusque là avant de pouvoir obtenir son héritage
- (Isaac) Anfi, (level 10) 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 7>>8) Human Monk (way of shadow), Outlander, revenu à la vie grâce à Zotzilaha, maintenant libre de faire ce qu’il veut
- (Edmond) Vingt, (level 6>>7) Myconid Druid (circle of spores), Acolyte, envoyé de Zuggtmoy, la Déesse du fongique + Fourmi Zombifiée
Fuite de Gaz
Les PJs sortent de la salle au trésor. Ils savent que les ennemis sont maintenant aux aguets mais Shin trouve un second passage secret qui leur permet d’éviter de sortir là ou on les attend de pied ferme. Ils formulent un plan: la magicienne va utiliser un sort de Gaseous Form sur elle-même pour tenter de trouver les captifs tandis que le reste du groupe l’attend dans la pièce fermée. Pour plus de sûreté, Kalohan crée une grille avec un Fabricate pour bloquer le passage d’où ils arrivent (1). Puis elle s’échappe en flottant (2).
Chapelle de Feu
En nuage de gaz la magicienne traverse des groupes d’ennemis impunément et parcourt le lieux. Elle traverse des logements de Firenewts, des étables pour les Striders, des entrepôts à vivres et matériels; un habitat assez mondain pour le moment (3). Elle trouve aussi une pièce où sont emprisonnées des harpies, de celles à la langue coupée au service des mercenaires du Flaming Fist, mais pas de traces de l’équipage du bateau volant pour le moment. Puis elle aboutit dans un lieu de culte dédié à Kossuth, dieu des Volcans. Au milieu d’un cercle de braises ardentes se tient un individu agenouillé, en prière, faisant fi de la chaleur. Kalohan hésite à faire un Detect Thoughts, décide contre, et au moment ou elle veut quitter les lieux un mur de feu s’érige et lui bloque le passage. L’individu se redresse, toujours parmi les braises, (c’est visiblement un Efreet) et l’enjoint à venir prier avec lui. Nullement intéressée elle fait un Dispel Magic dissipant le mur de feu et s’éloigne (lentement). L’Efreet lui dit: « On se reverra » et se contente de la regarder s’éloigner.
La porte est percée
Pendant ce temps le groupe subit un premier assaut contre leur position alors que les lourdes portes sont rougies de chaleur puis percées par un pseudopode magmatique. Léon attaque le pseudopode avec un puissant poing d’air, repoussant ainsi le Magma Ooze. Celle-ci par contre peut tirer de dangereuses boules de magma, heureusement que Vingt est là pour faire de la guérison!
Shin et Anfi en profite de leur côté pour envoyer flèches explosives et Ice Knife respectivement par l’ouverture, réduisant les ennemis. Un moment s’écoule puis une nouvelle tentative a lieu alors qu’un imposant personnage (4) défonce la porte!
Il est accompagné d’une autre douzaine de Firenewts, certains ont le temps d’envoyer des crachats enflammés vers les PJs mais ils sont bien vite en déroute alors que le Children of Kossuth succombe sous les attaques combinées des aventuriers.
Dernière Vague
Les ennemis n’ont pas dit leur dernier mot, 2 Fire Elementals s’infiltrent par le tunnel, la grille n’étant pas un obstacle pour eux, tandis que des Firenewts mené par un dangereux cultiste Pterafolk se prépare à attaquer par la porte défoncée. Les élémentaux se révèlent plus difficiles à éliminer pour les PJs, Anfi et Léon absorbent beaucoup de dommages simplement en les attaquant de proche. Shin est lui aussi blessé puisque il était à l’arrière et se retrouve cibler par un des deux, son Shield Guardian est passablement endommagé par l’autre.
Heureusement, Kalohan revient de son exploration à ce moment et un Cone of Cold bien placé a vite fait de changer le rapport de force. Elle est un moment en duel magique contre le Pterafolk mais ce dernier n’est pas de taille contre le combo Lightning Bolt/Counterspell de la magicienne (5).
Ensuite, le groupe de nouveau réunit se rend dans un coin de l’étage encore inexploré où ils affrontent de nouveau des Firenewts, cette fois accompagnés d’une sorte de dinosaure cornu à carapace. Léon se téléporte d’une ombre à une autre et esquive ainsi une charge qui fait trembler le sol. Flèches, sorts et coups déferlent sur la bête confuse, qui succombe vite malgré son blindage. Les Firenewts sont de la chair à canon et sont encore une fois décimés.
Les aventuriers trouvent un imposant escalier…
Notes du DM:
- Ils auraient également pu mieux barricadé les doubles-portes mais ils n’y ont pas pensé
- d’un point de vue tactique c’est bien, mais un joueur qui fait de la reconnaissance seul c’est presque toujours un problème pour l’ambiance du jeu selon mon expérience
- ce qui est réaliste mais pas fascinant
- un children of Kossuth, un Fire Giant essentiellement
- le système de magie de D&D commence à sérieusement me répugner!
Château des Faussesflammes/Castle Xyntillan: Notes of the DM
After 5 sessions here’s a few things that emerged from play that I wish to keep in mind.
RIP and MIA
People are dying in Castle Xyntillan and, pretty much as its author said in his book intro, its the henchmen that bears the brunt of the dying too. Its weird but filling up the crypt with new additions makes me feel like a (morbid) collector. A guy ripped apart by stuffed animals? Check! Another seized off the raft by a lake monster! Check! Collection is coming along great!
Those left behind
I’m patting myself in the back a little but I’m happy with the way I’m showing the players that the castle’s inhabitants react to their intrusion, albeit in minor ways (for the moment). The party saw henchman Charles (killed in a previous foray) being hacked up by ghoul cooks. They also saw Pierre-Jean’s corpse on a wheelbarrow in the garden area. So, I’m keeping tab of who died where and (if left behind) a small prep I do afterward is to decide what happens with the corpses. I have some special things in mind concerning this, oh yeah, I do!
Henchmen are people too
It’s the first time I’m using a character quirks table and it’s been a lot of fun. Jean-Paul Jean the lackwit was endearing said Olivier. So much so that he mounted a special expedition just to retrieve his body so that he could have a proper funeral with the family. That was awesome. We’ve expanded on this idea a bit and decided that the Jean family is numerous in the region, and thus, a grateful Jean family provides a good source of potential henchmen.
(aside: Jean-Paul Jean is a silly name, of course. As is Pierre-Jean Pierre and Paul-Jean Paul. It is possible to have such a name in french, but the repetition of first name and surname is, yeah, silly. I had to say enough to the kids, they would have named every henchmen in this fashion…)
(aside 2: Jean is a male name, english-speaking people have it all wrong)
Rumors
There’s three d12 rumor tables in the book. We don’t roleplay how the rumors come about, we simply roll two per sessions. What I did though was adding a fourth d12 table of rumors that are not about the castle per se, but rather about the setting (of Averoigne). This way they can learn of existing NPCs and of other « dungeons » too. Despite that it might well be that the campaign will focus on the castle only and that would be perfectly fine by me.
Rumors may be true, partially true or false. They found the cave entrance with an obviously true rumor. Some are simply gamer jokes (i.e the gazebos) and can be discarded as such. Some are less obvious and lead to fun moments such as when they heard that red clothing could somehow protect against the « red specter ». Cordélia proceeded to buy some red clothes for her henchmen (not fully trusting the rumor, only on the henchmen), specifiying that they could be put on fast « like a coat is that it? » And when a Malévol that could well be a « red specter » attacked them, well, we had a Little red riding hood moment! Did that work? The jury is still on the fence on that one…
The Malévols
Surprisingly for an OSR product, there’s not much in terms of factions in Castle Xyntillan. That’s a weakness of the module IMO, though many of the Malévols will talk to the PCs, with a wide variety of sincerity. The Malévols themselves, the 50ish of them, don’t satisfy me entirely I must say. A family tree would have been a great appendix. But I’ve been thinking about this and I’m beginning to classify somewhat their roles in a kind of hierarchy. I find it helpful. First there’s the living Malévols who have comprehensible (mostly) goals, an heir, a bandit, a monk, etc. There’s the undead servants with clear support roles; the huntsman, the playwright, the alchemist, the butler, etc, who in fact shouldn’t really be Malévols at all but are important nonetheless. There’s ghosts and specters, all things haunting, powerful or not, that are more hazard than anything. Then there’s the true Malévols who have their own area of the castle, with many brand of peculiar habits. And at the top of the hierarchy ladder there’s a few ancients that are linked with the castle’ very foundations, amid layers of secrets. That’s something that I’m eager to work on, expanding/improving the « rogues’ gallery » will be interesting.
Next session: D&D 5E, Temple of Fire
Our next gaming session will be this weekend for Marjorie’s birthday. She tells me she’s eager to play her 10th level wizard again, and feel powerful, that’s what she said, so we’ll be back in our 5E campaign. We’ll return to the Château des Faussesflammes/Castle Xyntillan soon enough though as the kids much prefer it.
Anyway, last time we played the characters had entered the volcanic lair of fire-loving pterafolks. Their goal is to find the survivors of the Star Princess, an airship that crashed in the area a couple of weeks ago. They managed to enter the lair with stealth and immediately had a choice: turn left into a dimly lit area and explore discreetly or turn right and have a fight against a pterafolk leader and two dozens firenewts guards. They chose to fight. They pretty much decimated their opponents without much resistance and not long after, past a secret door, found the lair’s treasury.
Right there, after like 4 or 5 keyed areas, on a 3 levels, mid-sized dungeon.
That’s because I’m using Gygax’s Hall of the Fire Giant King layout:
The main concept is pretty neat in my opinion; the fire giant king, the « Dungeon Boss » and his treasure is accessible at the very start of the lair. But is it worth abandoning discretion so soon? The players have to make that choice and as designed, it will have a huge impact on how organized or not will be the dungeon’s defenses afterward. Because the goal of the adventure isn’t treasure this time around, it’s to find information (who united the giants in this case), attacking the Boss (and looting the place) can be actually detrimental to their mission.
So, I’m not actually running this adventure mind you, I just needed a map (I’m lazy with maps), but then I liked this idea and decided to use it. It’s a similar setup, in our game too the goal is to find someone, or clues at least. And as I said, my players chose to fight and loot, so our upcoming session will be combat-heavy as the defenders, who are intelligent and had time to organize, will try hard to repulse the invading adventurers. It’s fire-themed, with the aforementionned pterafolks and firenewts will be a variety of monsters that I didn’t use at all in the campaign until now. Including magma oozes, I have this great mini… I just have to use magma oozes!
Play report here.
Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan): Session 5
Still at our cabin, still raining, the boys keep pestering me to play another session. I mean, I’m glad that they like it, I am, but we’re here to enjoy the great outdoors aren’t we? Of course they’re having none of it and they use their ultimate weapon to make me agree, they send 8 yo Edmond to beg… Large-eyed Edmond saying « pretty please » with his cutest voice, my heart of stone melts, no one could resist…
Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products
System: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
- Paul Neref (Olivier), friend of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 3
- Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), a cousin of the Jean, Warrior lvl 2
- Noah (Isaac), loves throwing knives, Expert lvl 2
- Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 2
Retainers:
- Hercule (Isaac), Caravan Hand (hvy), nervous, Morale 7
- Alphonse (Edmond), Crusader (hvy), has a ring of false keys, Morale 9
- Pierre Laroche du Rocher, mason (lgt), contrarian, Morale 6
- Constant Jean, of the numerous Jean clan, daytaler (hvy), healthy, Morale 7
Crypt
- Zachary, Elementalist, electrocuted in front of the Anteroom (corpse in castle)
- Jean-Paul Jean, Man-at-Arms (hvy), ripped apart by stuffed animals (RIP)
- Pierre-Jean Pierre, Man-at-Arms (hvy), clawed to death by a dark monk (RIP)
- Edgar, Man-at-Arms (hvy), throat slashed by a dark monk (corpse in castle)
- Charles, Man-at-Arms (hvy), skewered by a drunken skeleton (corpse in castle)
Previous Infractions:
Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient.
Smoked the Ruined Quarters. Angered a werewolf washwoman. Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings. Failed to convince Jean-Honoré the butler of their lies. Stole a treasure chest full of gold from the Lake Grotto treasury.
Infractions rating: 3
Rumors:
- Gilbert Malévol the Fox and his merry men lurk near the Castle. Watch your belongings!
- There’s really no monsters in Malinbois, just brigands.
We start in Vyones. Paul Nereff recruits a pair of new henchmen. He’s not very fond of Pierre Laroche du Rocher’s personality but he’s very glad that Constant Jean seems like a robust specimen and equips them accordingly (nothing for Pierre, good hauberk for Constant).
Dungeon Level:
- Another go through the lake cave entrance.
- Unfortunately this time the/a lake monster interrupts their short crossing: Poor Hercule is seized off the raft and disappears underwater.
- They go through the flooded vault and on to the room of prophecy. A rather ridiculously anemic « swarm » of 4 (out of 64) crawling hands is easily dispatched.
- Pierre is convinced (through his contrarian nature) to not-not taste the water from the basin of prophecy… He speaks nonsense for awhile aftrerward.
- A bit further, standing in front of another inundated grotto, they ring a bell and here comes Charon the Ferryman himself on his barge! They pay 3 gold pieces each and get aboard. They go through dense fog and disembark not very far it seems.
- They encounter a strange creature with human legs and the upper body of a cockroach. They can’t make heads or tails of its mandible clicking but they let it follow them.
- They get into the Service Tunnels area. They go through an amphitheatre with a skeleton (the unmoving variety) at a ticket booth, otherwise empty.
- In a small room, they see an hovering hatchet splintering an animated table that acts like its in pain. Monmon catches the hatchet middair and shove it in a nearby drawer to spare the agonizing table. They find a collection of valuable polished crystals.
- The adjacent door leads to a taproom with a sinister bartender but is otherwise unoccupied at the moment (that’s a random thing, like much of the module). They leave but not without taking a deck of cards that was left on a table. A very special deck of cards indeed…
- They backtrack a little and stumble into 4 zombies that they kill quickly. The cockroach man still following.
- A stuck door, they bash it open and interrupts some kind of occult ritual! The adventurers quickly kill half a dozen cultists still on their knees. The master though, wearing an antique crown, is already on his feet and use dark sorcery: Paul Nereff averts a most gruesome fate with a feat of will. He’s wounded but not, huh, inverted (!), by an Invert the Inwardness spell. They thrust and slash at the crowned cultist but the latter simply lifts a hand and is absorbed away in some kind of weird vortex.
- After the fight, they go down a few corridors, a set of stairs, more corridors and get into a chapel inside the Understores. There’s some statues of monks, a bas-relief, moss everywhere but the adeventurers also hear dogs barking, getting closer. The cockroach man, still following, is gueninely gleeful.
- Monmon readies his spear and soon skewer one of the Huntsman’s hunting dog jumping at him.
- A chaotic melee ensues as 15 spiked-collared hunting mastiffs are pitted against the fortune seekers. The latter get the upper hand but the Huntsman himself intervenes whilst his dogs are getting killed and kills Pierre Laroche du Rocher with 2 arrows. Another arrow hits Paul Nereff who manages to resist a deadly poison. With most of the dogs killed, the adventurers turn their attention to the Hunstman but he simply vanishes with a blow of his horn, again.
- They leave poor Pierre Laroche du Rocher behind and get back at the lake grotto, call Charon the Ferryman once again and continue exploring the Lake Grotto area.
- They get into a dressing room and find a fool’s garb and a regal outit into a locked cloakroom that Alphonse managed to open with his set of false keys. They can also see, through a grille, a praying man into another room with no doors. They leave him be.
- They encounter Sybille Malévol who offers to sell them some of her potions. They decline. Spiteful, before vanishing she tries to change Paul into a toad but luckily he resists the transformation.
- At the end of another passage arrayed by incense burners they see another chapel. Paul Nereff , notices that the floor tiles aren’t mortared over there. They remove the tiles and start digging but they have few shovels betwen them and its hard work.
- They’re interrupted by a dark-clad, elegant man holding a glass of « wine »: « I’ve never liked this place… » he says, looking at the chapel. Red eyes appear behind him. « Children, do dispose of these va-nu-pieds! » Wolves attack them.
- The adventurers are getting ready to use their wooden stakes on what they suppose is a vampire but the dark-clad man turns into mist (vindicating their not-so wild guess) and let his « children » fight. This time the battle isn’t going so well… Alphonse is downed by the wolves’ ferocious attacks, and then Constant and Paul-Jean Paul, and Monmon soon after. Noah and Paul Nereff, both severely wounded, manage to slay the last wolf. Both then try to apply first aid on their dying comrades. They do a great job and sucessfully save Constant and Paul-Jean. Monmon doesn’t need saving as he’s tough as nails but Alphonse, survivor of the crusade, succumbs to the Château des Faussesflammes…
- The survivors, sporting bloody bandages, get out of the castle the way they came in as fast as their wounds allowed. Fortunately the lake monster doesn’t appear this time.
Wrap up:
- XP: Participation: 1 Treasure: 2 Secrets: 1
- Treasures: polished crystals, regal outfit
- Crypt: Hercule, eaten by the lake monster. Pierre Laroche du Rocher, pierced by the Huntsman’s arrows. Alphonse, savaged by Count Giscard’s Children of the Night.
- Quote:
- New Infractions: Interrupted Runcius Malévol’s pagan ritual. Slightly annoyed Count Giscard while he drank « wine ».
- Paul Neref free of his phobia after another trip at the sanatorium
Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan): Session 4
This play report, and the next one, comes from game sessions played at our cabin with the boys. This summer has been incredibly rainy here in eastern Quebec so we had to stay indoors more than usual. Its unfortunate – I hope that’s not a climate trend that will settle, though it could be a lot worse of course, like the fires that are STILL raging west. But let’s switch to a lighter subject…
Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products
System: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford
Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)
- Paul Neref (Olivier), Warrior lvl 2
- Noah (Isaac), Expert lvl 1
- Monmon (Edmond), Warrior lvl 2
Retainers:
- Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), in training to be a full-fledged Warrior, cousin of deceased Jean-Paul Jean, Morale 8
- Hercules (Isaac), Caravan Hand (hvy), nervous, Morale 7
- Alphonse (Edmond), Crusader (hvy), has a ring of false keys, Morale 9
Crypt
- Zachary, Elementalist, strangled by Malvina Malévol and electrocuted in front of the Anteroom
- Jean-Paul Jean, Man-at-Arms (hvy), lackwit, ripped apart by stuffed animals
- Pierre-Jean Pierre, Man-at-Arms (hvy), clawed to death by a dark monk
- Edgar, Man-at-Arms (hvy), throat slashed by a dark monk
- Charles, Man-at-Arms (hvy), skewered by a drunken skeleton
Previous Infractions:
Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Smoked the Ruined Quarters. Angered a werewolf washwoman. Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings. Failed to convince Jean-Honoré the butler of their lies.
Infractions rating: 3
Rumors:
- It is said that the Hero Roland himself was buried under the Castle, and a great relic with him.
- The goats are not what they seem.
Through the Cave Mouth
- The group, smaller than usual, decide to search for the cave mouth entrance that they’ve heard about. They build a raft with the help of artisan Noah’s knowhow. It’s a bit fragile but it’ll do to get them on the castle’s lake side.
- They disembark in a garden area with unkept vegetation and an outdoor chapel. There’s a fountain in the chapel with copper lambs with topaz for eyes. Paul can’t enter the chapel for some reason. Monmon wanted to pry off the topaz eyes but changed his mind and went against it. Noah takes the white clothe from the altar.
- There’s stairs leading down to the lake surface. Paul notices a small cave entrance hidden behind vegetation. Here it is, the entrance to the Lake Grotto, the rumor was true! They go inside, water to their thighs.
- Bats fly out of the passage. The adventurers find objects in the water, amid bones, a golden comb and a decorative sword.
- The passage leads to a larger grotto but Paul finds a secret door and they get to a flooded vault with 7 submerged sarcophagi. Another secret door, hard to find, leads them to room with a treasure chest. They’re happy with their find but at this moment they hear the dead coming at them. The fight doesn’t go too bad, except for Noah that is nearly dead the others only have a few light wounds. They resume pillaging the treasure chest. There’s a lot of gold and also, a mummified bird that squawks: « X marks the spot« .
- With bags full of gold, the adventurers decided to call it a day.
- They’re back in the flooded passage but between them and the exit are 7 headless manservants. They’re weaponless and not much of a challenge though and the adventurers cut through them and get out.
Wrap up:
- XP: Participation: 1 Treasure: 2 Secrets: 1
- Treasures: 5000gp!
- Crypt: None
- Quote:
- New Infractions: Stole a treasure chest full of gold
- Paul Neref still mentally shaken after 3 visits at the sanatorium
Worlds Without Number rpg – almost a review
Edit 2024-04-09: I’ve refined a bit my thoughts after more sessions of play.
Edit 2024-06-25: idem
Worlds Without Number (WWN) is a 396 pages book by Kevin Crawford. It’s origins lies in the Stars Without Number sci-fi rpg system by the same author. This time the default setting « Latter Earth » is a science fantasy world in the vein of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun or M. John Harrison’s Viriconium (those are my own references, sadly the author doesn’t cites his inspiration sources).
What the book claims to offer is nothing less than everything you need to run a sandbox campaign, or about 2/3 of the book on worldbuilding, mostly in the shape of random tables. The worldbuilding part seems well done to me but I’ve only skimmed through that part, I might use some of this content some day but as of yet I didn’t. The reason why I’ve bought WWN is for the rpg system it offers – so my comments for today will focus on this (much slimmer) part.
What the WWN system is all about?
- It’s an hybrid system. An old-school D&D chassis (i.e roll 3d6 in order for your six attributes) combined with a modularity (i.e foci (feats) that let you be an expert at something, combat or otherwise that also have hydrid classes) that you don’t find in most standard old-school systems.
- It has only 4 main classes: Expert, Warrior, Mage, and the Adventurer (that lets you combine with one of numerous « part-classes » with something like 80 combinations). There’s sub-classes for the Mage: the classical High Mage, the Necromancer, Elementalist and many more. To be frank, I’m on the fence with this whole part-class thing, it offers a lot of options for customizing a character but it also feels a bit wonky. It’s like two systems of character creation instead of one, maybe not a bad thing per se but not the most elegant piece of design either IMO.
- Human-centric world. You can play an elf or dwarf or WWN’s own brand of fantasy races, but only with a bit of fiddling.
- The spells have Vancian names like: « The Coruscating Coffin » or « The Jade Palanquin of the Faceless God ». The magic-users have very few spells per day (only one at 1st and 2nd level!) but again, they’re a lot more impactful than your regular magic missile, i.e. Invisibility at level 1. Magic isn’t risky (like in DCC for example) but you have to choose your moment carefully for maximum impact. Aside from the spells, mages have Arts, lesser magical abilities, most of them utilitarian in nature (read magic + darkvision combined as one example). Each magic specialities have a good list to choose from.
- Combat is d20 based but skill checks use 2d6 + attribute mod + skill level (1 to 4) to beat 6, 8 or 10 or more depending on difficulty. With this less random formula, the characters skill’s competency feels a LOT more relevant.
- On the character’s sheet there’s a list for « readied items » based on the encumbrance capacity (strength-based) of the character. It’s great and efficient.
- Combat is fast and deadly and in my impression it feels more chaotic than tactical (not necessarily a bad thing) unless you pay very close attention to the list of combat options provided i.e. screen ally, snap attack, etc.
Some things unique to WWN:
- There’s a Shock mechanic in combat – martial melee weapons will often (except against an opponent with high AC or with a shield) do damage, even with a miss. It’s a bit counterintuitive but characters that are built for combat (warriors in particular) can do potent damage without ever succeeding with their d20 fight checks…
- There’s a System Strain mechanics that put a limit (your constitution score) on the number of time you can be healed before having to recuperate in a safe place (i.e in town).
- Levels are capped at 10 at which point you may (depending on the type of campaign) become a « Legate » and have access to new powerful abilities.
- A lot of character features to mitigate randomness, including automatic hits, sucesses on skill checks, balancing of hit points the more you level up, etc.
So here’s a few from the hip comments after we had several sessions of play, this might change with further experience:
- Overall WWN characters are
as fragile(edit: not quite true, they have several options to mitigate damage) as your standard old-school one but feel a lot more capable. - The list of part-classes and foci available ensures a great customisation but that comes at a cost: if a player wishes to examine all the options then creating a character in minutes like in simpler systems would be impossible.
- My players are a bit confused with the Shock thing. A low hit points character can easily die from just the shock damage and that seems a bit excessive. But overall I think it makes more sense than wooshing weapon swings half the time.
- My brother Jason played an Adventurer (part-Expert, Part-Healer) and can do magical healing all the time, like every frikin round. He even calls his character a « healbot » like in these tower defense video games… It’s an odd design choice, in stark contrast with the full Mages who have one big moment per session and I’m still on the fence on what to do with this character. (edit; removed the character)
- The system strain is, as far as I can tell, designed to be implemented within an expedition of several sessions’ worth of play. With how we’re playing now with the PCs always back in town after their session of dungeon-crawling (and with downtime), it doesn’t come close to being relevant. I think I’ll have to adjust that.
- My sister’s Necromancer has wiped out 20 out of 24 (1 HD) skeletons with her Smite the Dead spell in last session. Her unique spell of the day but certainly well-spent. The magic system is still fairly close to D&D but its tweaking of limited-use but POTENT spells is interesting. But don’t expect your main villain to fare well in this environment!
- If most of the WWN system is perfectly okay for generic fantasy, the crafting system notably is pretty much designed with science fantasy in mind.
The Intelligence attribute isn’t linked to magic-using this time around so I guess you could have a dumb as a rock Mage? It feels wrong to me.Intelligence is linked with « efforts » which are used to fuel the « Arts », the lesser magical abilities.- The book lacks a proper bestiary, (edit: it has some creature base stats as well as options/powers to add but that’s it, creatures have to be « built », they are not ready to use). Edit: That’s still my biggest complaint to date.
- It’s an excellent system for hex-crawling, less so for dungeon-crawling in my opinion.
All in all, WWN has some weaknesses and I might tweak a few things but I like it. It offers a solid core, with its main strengths being the handling of skills, character customization and idiosyncratic magic system. The main character classes are well thought out and you can easily create whatever you have in mind if you invest a bit more time. A D&D-adjacent game that has a pretty unique feel.
Streets & Spores 