Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 10

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

Interesting session with the first half in known territory and the second half with exploration and weird things happening. I was sure that the players were gonna try to go inside Aristide’s laboratory with how it ended last session and one of the player, Marjorie, still wanted to do this. But she was outvoted by the boys yet again (they were a bit all over the place on what they wanted to do but they agreed upon not wanting to risk an encounter with Aristide yet. Smart boys). (Short session, 3 hours.)

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

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

  • Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 4
  • Bruno the Wolfman (Marjorie), controlled lycanthropy, Warrior/Skinshifter lvl 2>>3
  • Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow, Expert lvl 4>>5
  • Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 4>>5
  • Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 4>>5
  • Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 3
  • Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, Warrior lvl 2>>3

Retainers:

  • Raymond, (Isaac) Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
  • Pierrot (Isaac), caravan hand, begs for more money, Morale 8

Crypt

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

Previous Infractions:

Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Eliminated Aranéa Malévol (0)

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

Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5

Played ball with the werepups -1

Infractions rating: 2 1/2

Rumors:

  • Gargoyles in Vyônes, the citizens are terrified!
  • It was the Enchantress of Sylaire that has cursed the Malévol family centuries ago.

We start in Vyônes. Cordélia buys a cask of wine. The PCs try to learn more about the gargoyles mentionned in the rumor. They consult the monastery’s library in Périgon and find a book on the occult. They learn that it started a while ago with one mason artist that worked on Vyônes’s cathedral, an evil man (now deceased), that infused his creations with a life of their own. Cordélia wants to inspect the artist’s tomb in Vyônes but it will be for another time as the others are eager to delve once more in the Château des Fausseflammes.

Grand Entrance

  • The two statues bordering the double doors react at their approach, one erupts in maniacal laughter, the other flicks its fingers. Nothing else happens.
  • The vestibule is empty, Jean-Honoré the butler is nowhere to be seen, probably still vexed from his treatment at the hand of the adventurers. The PCs beeline to the Throne Room without encountering anything. They use the throne elevator to go down.
  • Down in the Lake grotto area, they go north to the chapel of the 3 saints. A single Empty Armor that’s blocking the way is quickly dispatched, with a final blow from Bruno’s claws that sends the head flying.
  • At the chapel they remove the unmortared tiles and start digging with shovels and picks. Everyone except Cordélia and Monmon who stand guard.
  • 4 cultists turn the corner from the east, alerted by the noise. Paul picks up his Guts sword and slay the cultists with one big swipe. They resume digging…
  • 20 minutes later, they hit something hard in the ground, there’s a trapdoor. Once opened they find a ladder going down. At the bottom of the pit they find a footlocker with a well-made (but a bit outdated) chainmail, a crusader’ surcoat and small vial (the Oils of Cleansing (!)). Cordélia has some knowledge of religious beliefs and knows more or less what the small vial is about.
  • Their delve is already worthwhile but they decide that they would try to explore more of the Indoorness.
  • The secret entrance isn’t that far from where they are. They get to the root cellar, this time the Beetmen are awake and want a fight, the eleven of them, but an opportune roof collapse (effective use of Noah’s focus Lucky II, once per session) blocked the Beetmen from reaching the adventurers.
  • The PCs enter the Indoorness. The satyr hermit is there playing his pipes. Cordélia gives him a cask of wine and the satyr shoos them away, eager to start his drinking.
  • They go west, they walk fo about an hour until they reach a ford and cross the river to the north near a waterfall.
  • Another 20 minutes, still in the path going north, they see a brick house. On closer inspection they see that in fact the house is made up of mouldy gingerbread! Looking from a window they see that nobody’s home but there’s a cooking plate full of gingerbread men on a table. Monmon enters the house and let his toy soldiers inspect the gingerbread men. The gingerbread men get up and an epic fight between the toy soldiers and the gingerbread men ensues! A soldier gets in trouble after he dropped his spear and Monmon intervenes to help him, grabs a ginger bread man and just… munches him. The toy soldiers are in awe of Monmon’s godlike might, this is victory!
  • Except that Monmon now starts to shrink and candy buttons also pop up on his body, he’s quickly transforming into a gingerbread man! But the group thinks fast and tries the Oils of Cleansing on poor Monmon and it works, he gets back to his proper self.
  • Putting the gingerbread house behind (they set it on fire for good measure) they reach a vast and well-tended park with hedges, marble benches, topiaries, etc. There’s also people in the park, sitting or strolling about, but they’re revealed to be several copies of Tristano and his damsel. And they can see the Château des Fausseflammes just beyond the park!
  • There’s a weird spatial distortion going on, the more they move towards the castle, the slower they appear to move. Cordélia remove the enchantment with a spell of Extirpate the Arcana, they can move freely at last but they now see that the castle is only a theatrical decor. There’s a muppets scene going on with a witch/enchantress seemingly berating a crowned noble (that looked like Runcius). Watching the decor, Cordélia feels an intense malaise and decides to leave the area.
  • The party takes another path that goes west from the park. They soon reach a silvery lake. Monmon sees some kind of structures at the bottom of the lake and the PCs ponder about a way to reach the structure but decides to leave it at that.
  • Still further, they go north again and reach a great circle of stones, Stonehenge-like, and at first there’s not anyone there but as the PCs are looking at the stones to find some clues several robed men appear from nowhere. Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods is among them.
  • The adventurers start to run for their life. Suddenly, a verdant wall of brambles and roots block their escape but Cordélia remove it with her magic.
  • The druids run after them, some have bows. A druid that runs supernaturally fast tackles down the slowest member of the party, Paul. The PCs stop running and make a stand. Noah is very efficient with his repeating crossbows. The druids are more numerous, some shoot arrows from behind inflicting several wounds but those in melee can’t match the martial prowesses of the adventurers. However a Sleep spell falls on the PCs leaving only Cordélia and Paul standing, those two scramble to wake their companions up. Cordélia had sent her Reaper towards Runcius but a big flash occurs and it is annihilated. Finally the adventurers, sporting numerous wounds, have the upper hand leaving only Runcius that has retreated back to the circle of stones.
  • The PCs are determined to kill Runcius as he’s alone now and they suppose he must be low in spells (he had 2 spells left). Runcius has a bronze dagger dripping with poison. Cordélia doesn’t have any spells left and his reduced to shooting arrows. Noah and Pierrot both has only 1 HP remaining. But the PCs are 8 against 1 and they win initiative! Cordélia and Noah shoot projectiles at Runcius and then the warriors swarm the archdruid, wounding him severely. Runcius does the most horrible Evert the Inwardness on Constant Jean (save succeed, half damage) wounding him fatally (but saved by Cordélia’s necromantic art) and try to stab Monmon with his dagger but misses (veteran’s luck). He dies soon after, with the final blow delivered by Paul. « Free, at last » he says before expiring.
  • Cordélia takes his Crown of the Lost.

Session wrap up

  • A lot accomplished with essentially what were spur of the moment decisions. The death of Runcius is a big deal as is finding the two major artefacts. I was as much surprised as the players with the appearance of Runcius at the circle of stones as I had not read this section beforehand. It turned out very well for the players, they’re capable adventurers by now, but the risk of casualties was high indeed.
  • XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 3 Secrets: 2
  • Treasures: Chainmail +1, Crusader’ surcoat, Oils of Cleansing, Crown of the Lost
  • Quote: Isaac: « We could take a bite out of Monmon, see how he tastes? »
  • Fatalities: Constant Jean, but survived with Cordélia’s power over death
  • New Infractions: Killed Runcius Malévol the Dark Man of the Woods. Stole the Oils of Cleansing +1. Stole the Crown of the Lost +1.

Frosthaven – Work Freeze (114)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Here’s our tenth scenario of the campaign. I’m playing a new character, one we’ve unlocked previously. I must say that the retirement of my first character, the boneshaper, felt a bit too rushed (at level 4, come on!). That said I’m glad to discover a new set of cards with a completely different play style.

This time we do an optional scenario where we’ve been asked to help in the building of a road through the mountains, a shorthcut that will bring more commerce. The theming is a bit peculiar – we have access to explosives, which we’ll use to clear ice and huh, animals out of the way… The unstoppable march of progress I guess…

Characters

  • Grayzill the Snowdancer (David) lvl 1, General Winter is on the field
  • T-Gee/Mina the Geminate (Math) lvl 4, two competing hiveminded insect swarms in a single body
  • Tredir the Drifter (Guillaume) lvl 4>>5, versatile Inox fighter
Hounds, Polar Bears, Snow Imps, the very nature stands in our way.
Time to use these…
More and more guardians keep appearing, there’s just no end to them.
We make our way further, still more beasts that hope in vain to stop our capitalist venture.
But the power of DYNAMITE is with us, we win by blowing everything to smitereens.

Closing Comments:

  • Damn if I was tired for this one and it showed with sub-par play on my part and also with my lack of notes…
  • I’m quite happy to be a bad guy in certain circumstances, but blowing up animals to bits? Yikes.
  • This was also a scenario that put a lot of pressure on us, we had to leave most of the loot behind us unfortunately. We were all three pretty much battered up at the end and it was definitely a close call.
  • Next scenario will be the Drifter’s last one, so we’ll have two low-level characters for a while. Good thing is that now Math seems to know what he’s doing with his Geminate and he was instrumental to our victory today.

Medieval Spain, prep for Vampire: the dark ages rpg session

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG, session prep, vampire: dark ages, world of darkness

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:

  1. 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
  2. It’s still a bit early for our timeline unless we skip a century (or fudge history).
  3. 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.
  4. 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
  • Local Town officials, elected or minor nobility
  • The Mesta, sheep herders Union
  • The Cortes, representative assembly of towns

Frosthaven – Crystal Fields (18)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

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 him
We 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.

Château d’Éfaurmaje – Edmond’s first dungeon

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

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!

Delicious in Dungeon: the Golden Kingdom megadungeon, Book 9

David Skelector Books, Delicious in Dungeon, Fantasy, manga, Monsters

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!

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 9

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

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.

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

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)

Frosthaven – Crystal Enclosure (10)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

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 algox
But 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.

Frosthaven – The Ruins of Solstice (104)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

Another random scenario, this one unlocked when we’d found a key in the Glowing Catacombs (loot deck). It gave us access to a strange pocket dimension where Spring and Winter coexists at the same time, separated only by a thin line.

Mechanically speaking the scenario offers something interesting as the board is split in two halves, with the Earth element always strong in the left and Ice in the right. Furthermore, monsters each have an elemental affinity and are vulnerable (lose 1hp) if they finish their turn on the « wrong » side.

Characters

  • Miasma the Boneshaper (David) lvl 3>>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, versatile Inox fighter

Me and Bob choose Spring, you may go into Winter. (2 rounds later, Miasma fleeing from Earth Demons) « I’ve changed my mind, I prefer Winter! »
Tredir the Drifter smashes a Frost Demon to pieces.
My, my… Lots of things going on. The cloaked figures are dangerous dudes (Savvas Icestorm) and the very first thing they do is to summon additional demons, that’s troublesome. T-Gee/Mina kills a bunch of Faeries. Raging Sally is downed by two ranged (piercing) attacks from the Savvas, nooooo!
We’re slowly cleaning up the place, I heal the Drifter some more so he can get back into the fray.
One more area to go. Me and the Drifter aren’t in great shape by the time we get there. Fortunately the Geminate stil has most of their power and is here to save the day.
You know what, between mud and snow, this whole seasonal change is a real pain if you ask me.
T-Gee and Mina are quarreling over their body even more than usual today, what’s up with that? It’s left to Tredir and I to end this Solstice thing already.

Closing Comments:

  • T-Gee/Mina achieved a new Mastery after managing to switch between forms every single round. This and his numerous 2-perks battle goals achieved means that he has a LOT of perks unlocked for such a new character.
  • Maybe we could have exploited the 2 halves of the board gimmick a bit better. A team with crowd control-type characters would certainly have had an easier time.
  • Having easy access to the earth element in this scenario was really convenient for my character, giving me several boosts to my cards all along.
  • The Drifter had a whole bunch of curses put on him by the faeries, like 7-8, but he didn’t pick a single one of them, that’s some luck!
  • Losing Raging Sally in the middle of the scenario was a hard blow, hindering my capacity to ditch good damage further on. What I managed to provide was a lot of healing to my companions, something that the Boneshaper is surprisingly good at.
  • The Drifter gets even more xp than I now that he’s got a good handle on his character’s back and forth abilities.

Frosthaven – The Eternal Crave (122)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

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 ». whistles
The 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…