Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 14

30 Mai 202431 Mai 2024 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Xyntillan

A full-fledged adventurer dies in the Château…

Not exactly a full session as it was shortened due to what happened. We continued to play afterward but I consider each delve a separate session anyway. Worth mentionning: I’ve noted in the past how we had whole sessions that were very light on random encounters despite many many rolls but in the last few sessions we’ve seen pretty much the contrary.

1 hour session.

Castle Xyntillan, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products, compatible with Swords & Wizardry

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 5
Pierrot (Isaac), caravan hand, dealmaker extraordinaire, Warrior lvl 2
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 5
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 5
Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), apprentice alchemist, don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 5
Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, heavily armored, Warrior lvl 4

Retainers:

Raymond (NPC), Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
Raoulet the Pimp (Marjorie), undead pimp with a semblance of life, Morale 12
Valentin (Isaac), shoemaker, Morale 7
Gaston (Edmond), poacher, not very bright, Morale 6
Hyacinthe (Edmond), caravan hand, very calm and attentive, Morale 9

Crypt

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

Previous Infractions in the Château:

Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Eliminated Aranéa Malévol. Eliminated Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods. Eliminated Countess Maltricia Malévol. Eliminated Agénor Malévol. Eliminated Béatrice Malévol. (+1)

Smoked the Ruined Quarters: 1/2 Angered a werewolf washwoman: 1/2 Stole the Reliquary of Bygone Kings: 1 Failed to convince Jean-Honoré the butler of their lies: 1/2 Stole a treasure chest full of gold from the Lake Grotto treasury: 1/2 Interrupted Runcius Malévol’s pagan ritual: 1 Slightly annoyed Count Giscard Malévol while he drank « wine »: 1 Stole the Scepter of the Merovings: 1 Defaced living portraits with holy water: 1 Bullied Jean-Honoré the Butler: 1/2 Smashed the busts in the Bust Gallery: 1 Stole the Oil of Cleansings: 1 Stole the Crown of the Lost: 1 Burglarized Count Giscard’s room (+1) Put holy water in Count Giscard’s « wine » (+1) Total: 12 1/2

Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5

Vanquished Béatrice Malévol’s retributory patrol -4

Played ball with the werepups -1

Current Infractions rating: 2 1/2

Rumors:

Avoid the northwestern section!
The Château is now for sale to the first to pay the 25,000 gp asking price to the family lawyer.

Alchemy lab: one more dose of oil of revelation

We start in Ximes. Monmon recruits two more retainers, Gaston and Hyacinthe, and Noah keeps the services of Valentin.

Grand Entrance

The PCs wish to go to the catacombs and they enter at the Grand Entrance. The two statues do their usual thing but nothing special happens.
Past the vestibule and the portrait gallery, into the Entrance Halls, they go in the corridor leading to the Throne Room. The adventurers see rocks and rotten cabbages bouncing off the corner’s wall. They soon encounter Étienne the Lapidated, he’s not hostile but complains about the constant deluge of projectiles aimed at him that appears from thin air. He says this is unfair treatment for the small pécadilles he did back in the day (proceeds to enumerate all the heinous crimes he commited in his life). The PCs move on but some of them are hurt by Étienne’s deserved punishment on their way out.
Thence they get into the Throne Room, activate the elevator and get down into the underground level, in the Lake Grotto area. They soon hear some metal grinding sounds, like someone sharpening a tool or weapon.
Constant puts a dose of Oil of revelation on his eyelids and has a vision of a probable future. He sees the party going into a fight against Mortagu the Executionner, slaying him but not before he slays Noah himself…
Now the adventurers try to find Mortagu but he’s the one who takes them by surprise. In a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy he chooses Noah as his target and swings his heavy axe at him. Noah, unaware, dodges the attack inadvertently (Lucky) as he slips and falls right at that moment. Monmon stabs Mortagu with his spear and wounds him grievously. Mortagu swings his axe again at Noah who’s still on the floor and decapitates him. The Executionner then gets overwhelmed and is killed soon after.
Monmon gets hold of Noah’s body and head and the adventurers start backtracking their steps to leave the Château as they have a solution in mind for Noah’s predicament.
On their way out back in the Entrance Halls they encounter Olivier Malévol, the one who has turned into a slime before their eyes in their last delve. He seems content enough to be free to roam the Château and don’t seem to hold a grudge against them for trying to kidnap him. He even tells the party that if they succeed in capturing Claude, he would be rather glad as he would become the rightful heir in lieu of his twin brother. He may be a bit delusional.
Leaving the Château behind, the PCs want to buy back the Sacred Cloth that they had foolishly sold for a derisory amount several delves ago. The buyer, a benedictine monk from the abbey of Périgon is reluctant to sell back this holy item but he finally accepts on the condition that the adventurers would undertake a somewhat perilous mission, they must investigate Bishop Azédarac’s pratices in dark arts and bring back incriminiating evidence to the church.
And so, with the acceptance of this mission the PCs get back the Sacred Cloth and with the proper ritual the holy powers bring Noah back to life, a bit more frail than before and with a very impressive scar all around his neck.

Closing Comments:

Étienne the Lapidated is my creation, he’s something like an attriting nuisance mostly.
12 yo Isaac took pretty badly to his character’s death with the fact that it was his second character to die and the other players have only lost retainers to date. I think it was Olivier who thought of getting back the Sacred Cloth and I couldn’t bring myself to be too harsh on this issue.
XP: Participation: 1 Treasures: 0 Secrets: 0
Treasures: none
Fatalities: Noah, decapitated by Mortagu the Executionner
New Infractions: none

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 13

24 Mai 202431 Mai 2024 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Xyntillan

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

3 hours session

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

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 5
Pierrot (Isaac), caravan hand, dealmaker extraordinaire, Warrior lvl 2
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 5
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 5
Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), apprentice alchemist, don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 4>>5
Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, heavily armored, Warrior lvl 3>>4

Retainers:

Raymond (Isaac), Man-at-Arms, gruff, vassal of the Comte de la Frenaie, Morale 7
Raoulet the Pimp (Marjorie), undead pimp with a semblance of life, Morale 12
Georges (Edmond), militia man, Morale 7
Valentin (Isaac), shoemaker, Morale 7

Crypt

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

Previous Infractions in the Château:

Eliminated Tristano Malévol the Love-Lost. Eliminated Merlerik the Ancient. Eliminated Aranéa Malévol. Eliminated Runcius the Dark Man of the Woods. Eliminated Countess Maltricia Malévol (+1)

Vanquished Aranéa Malévol’s retributory patrol -5

Played ball with the werepups -1

Current Infractions rating: 6 1/2

Rumors:

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

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

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

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

Grand Entrance

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

Closing Comments:

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

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 10

6 mars 202422 Mai 2024 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Xyntillan

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)

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.

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 9

13 février 202422 Mai 2024 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Xyntillan

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)

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan) – Session 7

24 novembre 202327 mars 2025 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Averoigne, Castle Xyntillan

It’s been quite some time since we’ve played anything and as our next few weekends are all pretty much booked already I’ve decided to do a thursday night session within our ongoing haunted castle campaign.

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 3
Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, Expert lvl 3
Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 3
Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 3
Paul-Jean Paul (Olivier), don’t confuse him with Jean-Paul Jean, Warrior lvl 1
Constant Jean (Olivier), vigorous member of the Jean clan, Warrior lvl 1

Retainers:

Stuffed Jean-Paul (Marjorie), killed by stuffed animals, now stuffed himself, Morale 12
Phoebus (Marjorie), ex-monk, paranoid, Morale 8
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)
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. (0)

Infractions rating: 7

Rumors:

Vyônes is filled with Count de la Frênaie’ spies… if you look to your left, that women is one of them.
Blérot the Woodsman swore to avenge his murdered love, but disappeared in the castle without a trace.

We start in Vyônes. Noah has crafted a bigass Pavise shield with spikes and all for Constant Jean who has finished his martial training. The Troubadour de l’Automne hasn’t found anyone worthwhile for them for the moment. Retainer Eudes is leaving this time around as he was summoned home by his father, the Count de la Frênaie. The group leaves for Périgon. At the monastery Cordélia learns from the abbot that retainer Bruno is linked Renfield-style with a vampiress from the Château des Fausseflammes. Not only that but the poor soul also suffers from lycanthropy! They might be able to treat him, the abbot says, but he requires a suitable donation (250gp) which Cordélia agrees to pay. Cordélia hires young Phoebus who’s not suited to ascetic monk life. Noah hires Pierrot who almost immediately begs to have a salary advance along with his hiring fee. Noah agrees to it.

Gatehouse

The fortune seekers enters through the gatehouse, under the watchful eyes of the ravens.
They know where they want to go, they go directly to the Entrance Passage. The double doors are open.
The side door that leads into the Servants’ Wing has been repaired and as they wondered upon this fact a volley of arrows is let loose on them from the murder holes! Fortunately Paul Nareff has time to shout « Watch out! » (he has the very useful Alert focus). Those with shields (Constant’s newly-crafted shield come in handy) make good use of them (Screen ally manoeuver) and the worst of the volley is evaded with only a few arrows hitting flesh.
In a hurry to get out of this lethal situation Monmon once again breaks open the side door. It falls off directly on top of the previous broken door.
They all get in and start to attack the archers, skeleton archers in fact. An arrow from Cordélia doesn’t do much. Monmon smashes one to bits with his spear with a swooping motion. Paul Nareff kills another with his short sword. The others follow suit and only one skeletons remains at the end of the round (this side of the passage), it tries to rake the face of Pierrot with one skeletal hand but fails and is quickly dispatched thereafter.
The adventurers go on. They quickly go through already-explored territory inside the Servants’ Wing and get to the set of stairs near the dark monks’ chapel. They go up.
They’re now in the Gothic Wing. They see a bust inside a nook directly in front. Monmon goes see the bust, it depicts Médard « the mighty » Malévol, and failing to resist a geas and he exclaims loudly « DEUS VULT » and charges into the large open Feasting Hall nearby.
A bit beffudled his companions try to keep pace with him and en route they encounter Jean-Honoré the Butler who says the feast will be ready soon. They almost trample him as his platter of glasse is sent flying and crashes on the floor. He protests and cries. They ignore his pleas and continue after their single-minded companion.
But Monmon is stopped abruptly, seems to float middair for a second before everyone understand that he’s stuck in a huge spider web!
There’s some weird shadow tricks going on around them and they hear a feminine voice: « well, well, what have we got here, a choice morsel, yessss… ». They also hear the clank clank of metal boots coming from the north behind closed doors.
Monmon tries to get out of the web but to no avail, he’s stuck even worst. Cordélia shoots an arrow at something moving on the ceiling but only hit a bit of tapestry or so it seems.
Paul-Jean swings his longsword at the web and manages to cut it enough (very difficult, he rolled very high) to free Monmon from his predicament.
They all run further west and get into the Lesser Library. They don’t linger but passing by, Monmon snatches away a massive book that was held under an ominous grim reaper statue.
They turn on a corridor, open a door and get into a records room where hunchback, disfigured scribes are writing, each chained to its own desk. The scribes take a quick glance at the adventurers and then continue with their work. The PCs look at the sheets of paper and most are about them! Some about events that occured, some are outright lies (or are they?) and others don’t make much sense.
And then Monmon decides to look at the book that he found earlier. A Reaper appear before him. It swings at him with a scythe but misses. Paul intervenes but now a second Reaper appears in front of Paul! Monmon wound his with his antique spear. Paul has his +1 dagger and gets a hit too but his wounded in return (he resists a paralysis effect). Cordélia does a Smite the Dead that finish the two Reapers but another appears before her. She tries something very risky, a Command the Dead on the Reaper, if the Reaper resist (1/2) she has no other spell and she’s pretty much dead. The Reaper fails to resist and is under Cordélia’s control!
Monmon sense the compulsion of his personal crusade mounting again and leave the room shouting a mighty « DEUS VULT! » again. He gets into a fight soon after against a pair of Fallen Knights in rusted plate armors. His spear punch a big hole into one’s armor but he gets hit himself by an axe blow. His companions yet again come to help him but Paul Nareff sees a beautiful woman (her arachnid lower half notwithstanding) lurking at the corner of the corridor that tries to entice him to come to her (charm person) but he resists and Stuffed Jean-Paul, oblivious to her charming influence, shoots an arrow at her and hit her shoulder. She gets away.
Meanwhile, the others has joined the melee against the zombie Fallen Knights. Another hit from Monmon and a crossbow bolt from Noah downs one opponent and Paul Nareff cut his head off to make sure (execution attack). The other is soon overwhelmed by their combined attacks.
Inside the room of the Fallen Knights they find their second (!) fancy dentelle underwear on a chair (that’s a random curio thing on a d100). Paul Nareff put the underwear on one of the aforementionned scribe’s head who seems suddenly happy (for some undisclosed reason), to the point of stopping writing entirely.
They enter a disquieting séance room and quickly get out.
They enter a small room with two doors. There’s also a small chest on the floor. Inside are 6 tiny (6 inches tall) lead soldiers/hoplites that come to life when Monmon opens it (another random curio). They dont talk but seem to swear allegiance to him, banging their spears on their shield and all that (Edmond is absolutely DELIGHTED!).
They get into a Knight Hall, a large room with columns that support a high ceiling. There’s a mezzanine and music can be heard coming from above. There’s a foyer with a huge sword hanging above ¨like Guts’ sword¨ asks Olivier ¨Yes, like Guts’ sword¨. It falls down treacherously when Monmon approaches but he sidestep it. Paul Nareff takes it with glee. Monmon wants to send one of his little soldiers up a ladder on the mezzanine. The soldiers make a series of rock paper scissors matches and the final loser is sent. He bravely climbs the ladder and get above. The music is interrupted, there’s some scratching noises, a squeal and then a big (normal) rat fall down on the ground at the feet of the PCs, a tiny spear jutting from its side. The little soldier reappear, victorious! Monmon is very proud! Cordélia go up and find a well-crafted harp. How come there was music, they don’t know…
They go nearby and get into a Bust Gallery. There’s five busts on pedestals. Paul Nareff smashes the one depicting Aranéa Malévol, the very same that tried to charm him (and did the web that captured Monmon presumably). He resists a curse. Monmon steal the gems that served as eyes on Claudette Malévol’s. Blood come out when he does but nothing else happens. There’s a short sword jutting out from Eustache’s bust, Noah takes it. Paul again, smashes Aristide and Maximillien busts, resisting another curse with the latter (he’s been lucky with that!).
Noah’s new sword, Scrupulous, vibrates when he gets near a secret sliding door and thus find a empty room with another door.
The door leads to a secret lab. Inside a basket full of decapitated heads Cordélia find an Amulet of Wolfkin. There’s a small glass domes with buzzing sparks, Monmon gets electrocuted when he opens it (he has not much hp left now). There’s jars filled with an opalescent liquid, one as an homonculus floating in it. Cordélia wants to free it and he gesticulates not to do it. She takes the jar with her.
They decide to call it a day and get out. The path on their map is pretty straightforward to the nearest exit: the Grand Entrance. They don’t encounter anything on their way out, not even the butler, but when they open the heavy double doors into the sunlight, they’re suprised to find three of their former henchmen lying on the ground.
The two statues at the Grand Entrance do their usual thing, one laughs, the other snaps its fingers and at that very moment the dead henchmen get up. Disquieting but not much danger as Paul Nareff cleaves one in two and severely wound the two others with one big swing of his Guts sword (whirlwind assault focus). They finish the two wounded zombies and leave the corpses there.
They leave the castle. Cordélia hides Stuffed Jean-Paul and the Reaper inside a local cemetary. She goes to the city of Ximes to consult with Luc Le Chaudronnier about the homonculus.

Session wrap up

4 hours session, a lot accomplished again with the players choosing to explore a new area with a process a bit less random than usual but that was complicated when Monmon got his geas from Médard’s bust. I don’t play his condition as hard as I could but it will still be very problematic on the coming sessions.
The Entrance Passage’s murder holes ambush could have gone a lot worse but a combination of relevant abilities they possess and some luck made it not too bad with only light injuries.
Speaking of this, it’s quite obvious that World Without Numbers give characters stronger abilities than other OSR systems but except for the Healer there’s nothing too egregious that I don’t approve
We’ve played a bit more with WWN combat manoeuvers this session (screen ally, execution, etc) and it was great. There’s still some other useful ones to try for another time.
Having a Reaper under Cordélia’s control is strong, very strong in fact with no time limits, but it’s also quite fun and of course Marjorie is absolutely thrilled of having succeeded this impressive feat
XP: Participation: 1 Treasure: 2 Secrets: 1
Treasures: 2 saphirs 550gp, magic sword Scrupulous, Amulet of Wolfkin, beautiful harp
Fatalities:
Quote: Marjorie: » I hate this fucking game, nothing ever works! It SUCKS! » 2 minutes later after taking control of a Reaper: « Yes, yes, YES! I LOVE IT!
New Infractions: Bullied Jean-Honoré the Butler (1/2) Smashed the busts in the Bust Gallery (1)

Castle Xyntillan: Classification of the Malévols

17 octobre 202320 avril 2024 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, OSR, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Xyntillan, Malévol

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

13 octobre 202327 novembre 2024 David Skelector Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Amber, Castle Xyntillan, Tegel Manor

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

5 octobre 202323 novembre 2023 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Averoigne, Castle Xyntillan

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)

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.

Château des Faussesflammes/Castle Xyntillan: Notes of the DM

7 septembre 202311 février 2025 David Skelector Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, megadungeon, OSR, Roleplaying Game, RPG Castle Xyntillan

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.

Edit: Classification of the Malévols

Château des Faussesflammes (Castle Xyntillan): Session 5

20 août 20233 octobre 2023 David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Fantasy, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG Averoigne, Castle Xyntillan

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