shifty louts

Castle Xyntillan #4 - July 31st 1323 (Summer)

Party Members

Overheard in the Market Square

Led by the strong-willed Olivette Raoulin, 11 family members grieve and petition the Prefect Richard Justin Saint-Egreve to intervene in the matter! Members of their households were hired by the Adventurers and haven’t returned from Castle Xyntillan. One poor soul, Nicole, speaks of encountering the walking dead after the violent death of one their employers and the group being attacked as they fled its walls!

Three agents of the Royal Finance Ministry have arrived in Tours-en-Savoy, inquiring the whereabouts of a missing tax agent.

One of the friendlier types at the Tap says in hushed tones that “Tours-en-Savoy is full of the Castle’s spies and to be mindful of what and to whom you speak to.”

Casualties

Loot

Narrative

“One by one, the Castle takes its tithe. Yet still, the living return.”

A human band (though with one dwarf and one halfling) gathered new strength. Nicole, a porter who had seen much of the castle, guided them down the switchback trails by moonlight. The gatehouse was strangely still. Emily, a light footman, climbed ahead and found no bandits. The company entered.

In a tower hall, the thief Rin of the Purple Cloak discovered a sack of beans that writhed of their own accord. An overgrown rose garden followed. Its vines lunged, hiding rotten limbs. They hacked at the growth until a door opened and a young noblewoman, flocked by black cats, appeared, furious at their destruction. Maximilian Malt hurled a spear and missed. The woman fled into the dark.

They pursued through locked servant halls. One door gave way to a passage where phantasmal horses thundered past, trampling Maximilian to death before their eyes. His body was looted, as was custom. From another door stumbled James, a survivor who’d seen the spectral steeds before.

Deeper in, they found laundry mounds hiding a sword, and beyond that, servants’ passages echoing with thumping. At their end: a chamber of copper sheets, drums, spears, and a great elephant-headed idol.

Faithful to the Solar Deity, the group sought its destruction, yet as the ropes tightened, barbed chains lashed out, tearing Krac, James, and Rin to pieces. Rin tried to save himself with the beans he found earlier only for it to animate and hurl his body into walls until it was pulp.

The hirelings fled, Emily and Olivia running, while the porters Nicole, Alyssia, and Florina braved on. With Aubrey, they stumbled into Karls, Gerfum the halfling (seventh of his name!), and Fumfun the wizard, who styled himself in livery finer than his wits.

Together, they pressed north, following the bay of hounds in a chapel of Her Solar Deity. Twenty dogs greeted them, not with teeth but with wagging tails. Fed happily by Gerfum and Fumfun. Frescoes showed witchfinders and hounds purging sinners, though the holy symbol lay broken. The company righted it, as best they could.

A hollow voice filled the air:

“Go forth now and gain the means to control my servants. Feasting and drinking will be the way, but not the dust of paper. The face of stone will stand before the hidden door.”

Southward, they found electrical rods sparking with eldritch energy, tended by oblivious hunchbacks. Westward, Gerfum uncovered a hidden laboratory, an alchemical den of acids, vials, and books. At its heart sat a smoky ebony mirror. Karls touched it, his fingers vanished into cold blackness and returned frostbitten.

They stripped the lab, porters staggering beneath the loot, and left Castle Xyntillan at dawn’s light.

Only Olivia returned later in Tours-en-Savoy, dazed, missing her gear. She told a grim tale. Emily the footman had been captured by the Malevols, and still lives as their prisoner!

GM Thoughts

Messed up the door procedure. Had doors locked / stuck on 1-2 instead of 1:6

Balanced by extremely deadly traps

Any actual encounters resulted in friendly rolls