role playing games

Day 25 – Castle Xyntillan

The Party:
Astaire, wizard
Bandit, rabbitling adventurer
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Lou Normand, mad scientist
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’

Hirelings:
Longo, squirreling-at-arms
Ysambeau, laborer
Wagner, laborer

Casualties:
(missing) Hofstetter, light foot soldier, sharpshooter
(missing) Frei, light foot soldier, short sword

The first week of Warmshade

Gilbert Malevol and his merry men have entered the castle, searching for the party. In the serjeant’s room, the party douses their light and stays quiet. Astaire casts clairvoyance and peers through the walls. In the darkness, he sees Gilbert Malevol and his “merry men” arrive down an adjacent hall by torchlight, opening doors and looking for the party. Astaire ceases the spell and as the torchlight appears underneath the door of the serjeant’s room and the shadow of boots step before the threshold, Astaire casts hold portal on the door.

Merry Man: It’s stuck.
Gilbert: Hmpf, let me try!

But the door doesn’t open and Gilbert wanders off deeper into the castle to find the miscreant party.
Heading out after the coast is clear, the party avoids the singing in the mess hall and explores several rooms of a barracks, the last of which was crawling with tiny spiders. An obliquely shaped empty room save for a floursack caught their attention for a while. Then the party returns back to a dumbwaiter they walked by earlier, and wheeling ysambeau and longo up, see a caveman statue opposite, a bathroom door to the east, and a hallway to the west. The party wheels themselves up two at a time and open the bathroom door- to Aristide Malévol, Patrician! Emanating a supernatural menace, he casts Geas over the entire group, which only Lou fails; this cheers up Aristide quite a bit, because he needs a few ingredients he’s left lying about the castle for a special ritual he’s going to perform. Without leaving details, he walks off into the darkness.

Lou: He’s a swell guy! Hope I can help him out.

As Aristide departs, magic swirls around the castle, whether it is from Aristide or a dweomer inside the castle, who can say – but the dumbwaiter the party ascended through moments ago has now become the bathroom that Aristide departed, and the bathroom they were in has become a bedroom! Adjusting to their surroundings in the bedroom, Tugtar hears a weeping behind a dressing screen and hits it with his hammer, knocking over a chained casket behind it, which does nothing to help the sobbing from the casket. Astaire finds and loots a dressing room behind a blue cloth draping the room’s walls. Bandit takes a mirror. A puzzle box is found, and Astaire investigates with it before handing it off to Lou, who investigates it but is also unable to solve the puzzle. Then Jamila also investigates it, and like the others, can’t solve it, but by this point wheezing skeletons have made their way into the bedroom, attacking Longo! Longo’s shield is sundered against the bony claws, and another skeleton luches towards Tugtar. Jamila fires with some arrows and Astaire leaps to the bedroom door, shuts it, and stands against the door. The trapped three skeletons are taken down quickly. When the hall is clear, the party then begins exploring the second floor, wandering down some halls. Astaire opens a door into a room with lit candelabras in the corners and a wooden chest in the center of the room. Stepping in, Astaire is blessed with protection from good and is then questioned by a disembodied voice.

Disembodied voice: What is the purpose of thy affront?
Astaire: We’re just exploring?
Disembodied voice: Mwahahaha!

Astaire opens the chest, it flies open, the doors slams shut, and the candles go out. Everyone runs out of the room and Astaire almost does too, but then heads back and finds a false bottom in the chest- 3,000 gold coin in paper rolls, a hammer, and seven stakes! Moving on into another hall, Bandit leads the way and heads into a ruined bedroom where an invisible figure sleeps in the bed. Bandits sneaks over to the beat-up weapon cabinet against the wall and inspects the wares beyond the broken glass. A suite of different weapons collected over the years is displayed. A longsword catches Bandit’s eye, and but lifting it out of the case caused some noise, and the sleeping figure awoke, shouting “Attention!” The weapons clattered in the cabinet and everyone’s weapons leap to attention. Bandit held onto their sword, and Lou jumps to the fore with his shovel, smacking the invisible figure in the bed. They disappear and all the weapons fall inert again. The lampbearers Wagner and Ysambeau pick out some kris daggers from the pile, and underneath the fallen pile of weapons in the cabinet, Bandit finds a wood box with six military medals inside. Astairs pins a few on the inside of his robe.

Astaire: “If anyone asks, tell them we won!”

Moving on, the party finds the object of their quest: a library! Everyone takes to the shelves and starts a pile of books on the floor they think look promising for finding information on un-petrifying Adelaide, but the books seem to be mostly romances, adventure yarns, and travelogues. Tugtar paws through an overlooked section on musical scores and finds an insane symphony from Ludwig von Schreck and bundled with it, a spellbook of irresistible dance! Bandit finds hardly anything of interest, and the party questions the quality of book subjects in the library.
The party decides to try the second floor of the library, and heads into a room full of hunchbacked scribes chained to their desks, writing feverishly. The scribes are writing the most offensive stuff they can think of. One of the scribes asks Lou for some good material.

Lou: I’ll tell you the MOST offensive joke I know in exchange for writing me a stone-to-flesh spell. Promise?
Scribe: Yeah, I promise.
Lou: *explicit duck sex joke*
Scribe: Oh ho ho ho! that’s really bad. exactly what i want. thanks!
Lou: My spell?
Scribe: Oh yeah. I lied! how’s THAT for offensive?

To which Lou responded by bashing the scribe’s head in. A few scribes are horrified and drop their quills. One is inspired and begins writing with renewed energy.
Meanwhile outside the scribe room in the library, the other party members see a wraith floating down the hallway! Astaire recognizes the wraith as the wasted form of Merlerik Malévol, founder, from his history book on the Malévols. Longo goes to tip a bookcase at the wraith but isn’t quite able to tip it and so retreats. Astaire tries out Tugtar’s new-found spell on the wraith, whos fails and is irrestibably drawn into a dancing a quadrille. The party runs away from the wraith, who attempts to follow while dancing.

Astaire: This spellbook I found is great!
Jamila: That’s TUGTAR’S spellbook, Astaire.

Heading away from the dancing wraith and the scribes, they head north into another room. The party steps into a room with the warm light of a evening in late summer streaming in through the castle murderholes. On plinths against the wall are various busts of the Malévol family. Aristide’s skeletal grin is here, another has a sword through their head, and yet another’s eyes sparkle like gems…

What new members of the family are depicted in these busts?? What secrets do they hold??

Session Xp (2) 200 xp

Risks Taken
Lou kills a scribe 50 xp
Astaire casts irrestible dance on a wraith 100 xp

XP Gained:
Astaire = 300 xp
Bandit = 200 xp
Jamila = 200 xp
Lou = 250 xp
Tugtar = 200 xp

Session XI
Adelaide, “knight stientist”
Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire “Hester”, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, adventurer

Casualties: Adelaide, “knight stientist”

The party examines statues, and finds a secret salt room! Moving on through the dungeon and lighting hallway torches, the party heads upstairs, finding a linen room with a suprised werewolf matron cleaning and folding laundry. A sinister man with a shadow dragging chains tries to attack Bandit, who shoves them into the linen closet and shuts the door. Running back downstairs, the party spends time playing with the mechanical chessplayer in the hall. 6 shambling skeletons creep up the hall and the party attacks. The skeletons bring down Lou and claw attack him, who hits their head pretty hard and almost dies. The skeletons suffer some deaths of their own and retreat back down the hall. The party takes off Lou’s helmet to revive him, which upsets Lou. Heading back to the salt room, Astaire intuits magic about the goat statues and the party pushes one out into the hall. It comes alive, and headbutts Adelaide, turning her stone! Lou is horrified and searches in vain for a solution. The party eventually heads on into a maid’s room, and Astaire finds Olivier Malevol the Oleagineous hanging out in a secret room behind a dresser. Astaire leaves him there, and Lou runs into the room to grill Olivier about stone-turning magic. Olivier gets flustered and eventually loses it, turning into a grey ooze and attacking Lou, who gets knocked out again. At that point the party decides to leave the castle, finding another room with giant mice fighting sheets who are strangling mice. Jamila throws a torch in the room and Bandit nabs a purple silk robe. They escape via boat into the lake, narrowly avoiding the suspicion of the pirate Malevol ghost in the grotto. The party rows across the lake, stashes their boats in a copse of trees, and makes it to the priory on the pass around midnight. Ference the monk takes them in, and lets them rest…
End time: Midnight, Airday

Risky things:
6 skeletons
Gray ooze
Shoving Malevol in linen closet
Lying to pirate Malevol shade

Lou 900 XP
Astaire 700 XP
Tugtar 700 XP
Jamila 700 XP
Bandit 900 XP

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Sesssion XII
Day 12-13
Waterday Morning – Earthday Morning
Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, adventurer

Dawn sets on the Priory of Esilan, and Bandit plays their bugle outside in the sunrise. The party chats with the monks Ferenc, Jarl, and Ursula, (Fishling, Elf, and Eeling, respectively) over cappuccino and hard-boiled eggs, and learn about Esilan, the Keeper of Hours. The party then heads off to Tours-En-Savoy. The weather is sunny with clear skies, and the party comfortably makes it into town a little after nightfall. Lou returns to the Sleeping Snout and checks in with Kelly Bromel about his items in the room he had reserved, to which she informs him that a one-eyed gentleman had came and picked them up days ago. Bandit sets the party up with a room for the night, and Lou, Jamila, and Tugtar retire while Bandit and Astaire go to The Black Comedian to enjoy themselves, and Astaire recognizes a patron from the wanted poster he had found at the castle xyntillan –Claude Malévol! Wistful and in need of a good drinking buddy, Astaire and Bandit hang out and chat for a while about his family and estate. Bandit decides to romance some squirrelings in the back of the bar and follows them upstairs to spend the night, and Astaire drinks a while longer, then heads back to the inn.
The next morning is overcast and a heavy fog has settled into the streets. The party visits Ben Mordechai, who informs the party that Stone-to-Flesh magic would surely be in the Xyntillan libraries, while Geraldina at the hospital could cure a disease over weeks of time if the stricken person was in her care.

XP: Session XP, Carousing

Bandit 110 XP
Rest of party 100 XP

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Session XIII
Day 13
Earthday Morning – Afternoon

Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, adventurer

Astaire has a hangover and eats herring and onion at The Black Comedian – the party joins and eats breakfast – Lou visits Ramses’ grave – the heavy fog dissipates into a cloudy day – Lou talks to Father Brenard about the missing Father Chlodowig now living in Xyntillan – Gets vampire hunting equipment in return – Bandit browses books at the general store – Seemingly out of nowhere, men and women of the town start a riot, complaining about the governor having a mansion while there isn’t even a bulletin board – The party joins the mob –
Bandit: Eyes on the prize! Dethrone the one inside!
The mob is stirred to action and storms the governor’s mansion – Lou and Bandit see an opportunity to see if the governor has a library – Peasants break through the town guards and stream inside – Lou opens a door to a library and a rioting citizen sets fire to the books – Bandit meets the governor Richard Justin Saint-Egreve and his two guards – Bandit sets fire to the drapes and escapes the guards – Lou and Bandit run into the flaming library as the mob takes the second floor – the mob confronts the governor and they cease rioting – attempts to put out the fire fail and everybody begins to flee the mansion – meanwhile, Tugtar meets the winged men – Tugtar pleads for a hippogriff egg – Bandit and Lou steal what books they can before smashing the window and jumping two stories – Lou and Bandit run out of town – the mob is being dispersed and arrested by the town guard – the remaining party rejoins at The Black Comedian – Tugtar buys a hippogriff egg, and talks with the winged men – Bandit hires and leaves instructions for Longo, the Squirreling-at-Arms, to meet at the Priory of Esilan in a few weeks. Next session, the party is going to head west and a rest at the Priory, read some books, and wait for the Hippogriff to hatch…

XP: Session XP, joining a mob, leaping out of a second story window, confronting two guards to set fire to drapes

Bandit 250 XP
Lou 150 XP
Jamila 150 XP
Tugtar 150 XP
Astaire 150 XP

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Session XIV
Day 13- Day 25
Tours-En-Savoy, Priory of Esilan

Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, rabbitling adventurer

Hirelings:
Longo, squirreling-at-arms

New Hirelings:
Ysambeau, laborer
Wagner, laborer
Hofstetter, light foot soldier
Frei, light foot soldier

Loot: Lou’s Bag
Sea Warfare – Threat or Menace?
Sailing is Easier Than You Might Think
Sea Tactics – University Edition – College of Brajanopolis
The Contemporary Sailor
Sailboats & Their Construction: A Summary
Touching on Boats – A Radical Perspective
Drama – The Highly Skilled Commander
Drama – The Highly Skilled Commander: The Erotic Edition (false)
How To Raise a Child: For Aspiring Fathers (Orcs) – in Orcish

Bandit’s Bag
Helveczia Royalty – The Malevols: What You’ve Been Missing
Helveczia Royalty – The Cromans: What You’ve Been Missing
Historical Battle – Helveczia: A Revelation
Historical Battle – Gray Elves: Path To The Truth (false story of battle)
Cookbook – Battered copy of Monster Menu-All, falling apart
Boats – Red Book – Ram Goddess’s Ring

Earthday afternoon – Bandit and Lou hide in the woods – the party is approached in the tavern by a radical admirer – Jamila and Astaire discuss politics with the locals – Tugtar is burdened by the egg – Jamila hails the flying men, and strikes a bargain to return the egg – the water brigade attempts to save the governor’s mansion – the party takes one last walk through town – Ben Mordechai asks for help – Lou packs the horse – Ysambeau carries the lanterns and lamp oil – the party chats with a doomsayer – the mansion burns, and the prisoners hope for safety in the stonework – the party rejoins Lou and Bandit at the jutting rock landmark outside town – the party heads off to the Priory of Esilan – they are greeted by Ferenc the monk – the party spends a week at the priory reading various books stolen from the governor’s mansion, and learning various things – Bandit finds a ring in a false book – after breakfast one day, ready to move on, Ysambeau is sent to retrieve Frei and Hofstetter in Tours-En-Savoy and rendezvous with the party at Castle Xyntillan…
Waterday morning

XP: Session XP
100 party XP

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Session XV
Day 20-25
Priory of Esilan, Vallée du Ciel Trois, Castle Xyntillan

Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, rabbitling adventurer

Hirelings:
Longo, squirreling-at-arms
Ysambeau, laborer
Wagner, laborer
Hofstetter, light foot soldier, sharpshooter
Frei, light foot soldier, short sword

The last week of Longrass

Waiting at the Priory – Tugtar and Jamila break in their armor training in the fields – Lou makes potions in his new pocket laboratory – Bandit trains and grooms, sometimes playing his bugle at sunrise – Astaire reads “Helveczian Royalty, The Malevols: What You’ve Been Missing”, and starts drawing a family tree – Astaire complains to Bandit – “What is your drive? What makes you…thump?” – Astaire articulates his distate for vampires – “Is there Bunnicula in the castle?” – Astaire patches Bandit’s purple robe – the robe is animated, mimes their allegiance to Bandit in gratitude for being rescued from the giant mice – Bandit tries to teach writing Roby the purple robe, it scrawls some marks – Tugtar looks wistfully at the window, and perhaps imagines riding the skies up there, on a hippogriff…

The hirelings arrive from Tours-En-Savoy – Jamila laden with sword, bow, shield and armor, asks a hireling to hold their moneypouch – the party heads to the castle, encounters a group leaving the valley with a cart full of looted chairs – they swap stories with Romien, Ophelia and co. on entrances to the castle, and bid each other adieu – the sun shines on the valley as the party descends, the month of Warmshade begins – the party greets their hireling, Longo, squirreling-at-arms, near the gatehouse ruins

Three headless manservants aimlessly tend the vegetable patch in the courtyard beyond – the archers rain arrows down on the servants – one is caught through the armpit and falls lifeless onto a pumpkin – the last headless manservant is ran through by Astaire’s longsword – Astaire cleans the blade on the manservant’s livery – Lou loots the headless body in the vegetable patch – Ambush! – Gilbert Malévol and 15 bandits stand on the ramparts – “Stand and deliver!” – Gilbert wants the party’s stuff – Astaire puts down his sword – Bandit protests – Gilbert readies the arrows – Bandit uses their magic and delivers a vision of an irate and dissappointed Aristide Malévol to Gilbert – Gilbert pleads with an illusion of the family patriach – the party orders Hofstetter and Frei to flee with the cart – two hirelings and the cart are left to their fate in the courtyard – the remaining party runs to the castle – Gilbert shakes the vision, orders fire – a hail of arrows catch Astaire, Ysambeau, and Wagner

Indoors, they make their way south, to one of the libraries – They smell incense…from a basin on a statue’s pedestal – The zombie statue gets toppled by Tugtar – a secret compartment has a shattered jar expiring in the open air – Quizzical looks from everyone in the party – drunken singing down the hall – at the end of the corridor, a mess hall of veteran skeletons, singing old songs and toasting – retreat from the skeletons – through another hall, another door – a serjeant’s room, with a plumed helmet on a writing desk – Tugtar dons a helmet, gauntlets, and greaves found in a chest – A dumbwaiter that leads upstairs is found – doors slam in the distance – Gilbert Malévol and his merry men enter the castle…

XP: 100 sesh xp, casting vision on Gilbert Malévol

Bandit 300 xp
Rest of party 100 xp

Session IX
Adelaide, “knight stientist”
Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire “Hester”, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, adventurer (found under a boat)

Spiritday, 8:00 PM

Standing in the rain alone, Lou follows the smoke trail to a driftwood fire in the mouth of a beach cave on the opposite shore. Lou lights a torch and signals to his friends across the lake, who take notice and decide to use the boats in the cave to row over their isolated friend. The party flips the boats over to find- a rabbitling adventurer! Adelaide recognizes her friend Bandit from school, but Bandit doesn’t. Up for adventure, he joins the party to go save Lou. Meanwhile, Lou runs away from a giant spider and is getting nervous when he sees his friends on the lake and rejoins them. Lou tells the party his ghost story in the boat, and they return to the cave for a night’s rest, keeping guard with a night watch. As Tugtar took his watch, a wheezing skeleton shambled up the shore, attracted to life. Lou gave the skeleton several stern warnings but still it came for Tugtar, smashing its dessicated bones. Lou chars some of the fingerbones and buries all but one of them. Astaire enjoys the sunrise and smokes his pipe on last watch.
Workday
The party wakes and eats hot dogs for breakfast, then sets off in the rowboats to the castle. Lou bemoans his room reservation and possessions in Tours-En-Savoy, and Bandit peals out a cavalry charge on his bugle. A flock of fifteen eagle hounds on the mountain ridge answer in a baying screech and begin flying toward the party, who row hard to a beachy island to stand and deliver. Arrows are loosed, the eagle hounds arrive, divebombing and snapping at the party. One hound falls into the water, rousing a plesiosaur from the depths of the lake, who breaches and catches a hound from the sky in its mouth. The hounds snap at the lake monster and at the party. The air is all paws, snapping beaks, and feathers, and then a second plesiosaur emerges from the lake, scattering the hounds again! The party takes advantage of the distraction to ship off in their boats. Tugtar tosses some extra eagle hound bodies into the water and last to board the boat. The party takes one last look back to see the eagles hounds flying around the lake monsters as one catches a hound from the sky and swallows it whole…

XP
session: 100xp
fought 5 eagle hounds: 500xp

Tugtar, wheezing skeleton: 100xp

Session X
Adelaide, “knight stientist”
Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire “Hester”, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer
Bandit, adventurer (found under a boat)

Workday 8:40 AM

The party makes a discreet escape from the attention they attracted between the eagle hounds and plesiosaurs and scoots their boats off the island. Tugtar stumbles over a saddle and drags it into the boat with him as they leave. With Lou rowing one boat, Tugtar the other, the party heads to Castle Xyntillan. Nearing the dock and west of the stairs to the courtyard above the party spies the underground cave tunnel they heard rumor of, and decide to boat in. Dangling roots grab Lou, disturbing bats that fly out of the cave. There is a brief kerfluffle as Adelaide is knocked overboard and Bandit jumps boats to save Lou, chewing off the roots. The party spies some golden items glinting in the water, and Jamila dives in to collect them, releasing a trapped rot grub. Surviving the encounter, she then spends some time studying underwater emblems along the cave walls. Declining to investigate them further, the party moves on with Bandit and his lantern at the fore of the first rowboat. Entering a larger chamber with a western shore, the party startles an elderly man there, who inquires their business. Lou frightens the man by impersonating a family member, so half the party gives chase. As Lou and Adelaide bring the boat ashore while Astaire smokes his pipe, they hear a sobbing in the darkness. Lou questions the voice about their past, then Astaire lights a torch, revealing them to be a pitiful diseased figure in rags. The trio decide to not hang around a diseased-looking person and rejoin Bandit, Tugtar, and Jamila, who have entered a theater. Bandit loots the stiff corpses in the benches. The elderly man from before comes wandering back, absent-minded and lost. Lou asks him questions and then the party leaves him to wander off. The party finds a passage backstage, and following suddenly finds themselves outside. A jolly Father Chlodowig greets them from his mossy cave. Astaire goes creeping in the woods and disturbs a patch of owlbears, to which the party responds by taking off up the passage leading to backstage of the theater. Bandit takes the head of the group, leading them upstairs. Heading up the hall past stacks of firewood, he opens an empty room, which leads to a bizarre carpeted room. Tugtar takes the lead, and opens a room where furniture is being chopped into firewood. Adelaide and Lou hear whispers and see mists coming from behind, and urge the party to hurry forward. Next to the firewood room, a empty bar tended by a ghost bartender is “cleaning” dirty glasses. Heeding the “Stay Out!” sign on the kitchen door, the party heads down another hall, and find a room with 3 goat statues and a salt statue pointing north.

Time: 11:30 AM
Lou, Grabbing Roots 50xp
Jamila, Rot Grub 100xp
Adelaide, thrown overboard by bats 50 xp

Session VIII
Adelaide, “knight stientist”
Lou Norman, mad scientist
Astaire “Hester”, wizard
Tugtar ‘the Bringer’
Jamila, loving mother, mysterious archer

Spiritday, 1:00 PM

It’s raining heavily, and wind sways the treetops. The party stands on the western shore of the castle grounds, and looking at their surroundings, decide to explore the vineyard west on the Xyntillan estate. A dreary trek in the rain ensued, squelching in the muddy path fields of weedy pumpkin patchs and cornstalks. Past the fields, a stone bridge led to a dark forest, which lay between the party and the vineyard. Going around the forest to the left, Astaire, Tugtar and Jamila came upon the vine-covered gazebo they’d seen from a distance earlier. As Astaire and Tugtar approached, an elderly form in the gazebo bid them to come out of the rain, but when she saw their muddy clothes and unfamiliar faces, revealed herself as a vicious harridan, breaking her already-broken parasol on Tugtar’s head. Astaire objected to this treatment but the horrible woman berated Astaire and started clawing at him, and momentarily seizing his wrist in a icy grasp, draining his energy. Adelaide made the shot from her crossbow and fired a bolt right into the shrivelled woman’s chest, killing her. Lou stepped up into the gazebo with his torch, stepping over the body. Green vines on the lattice in the gazebo began to uncurl towards Lou, nimbly stepped backwards out of their way– and right into one behind him. There was a couple scratches but Lou managed to wrangle his way out, and the party ran into the woods, while Adelaide killed the vines from a distance. Astaire checked out the gazebo and found a good ol’ healing potion. Back across the woods (not through them), the party made their way to the vineyard, where they happily spent some time trying to find some good grapes among the vines. The rain continued as the party moved on to check out the garden shed behind the winery, then into the winery itself.
Astaire: “I need some wine!”
Lou: “There’s creeps everywhere we go.”
Dissapointingly empty of wine, the party poked around the empty bottles and display cases, Adelaide dropped a silver coin into the rusted coin-operated “Marvelous Malévol Mechanical Band” in the corner, only to be treated to a screeching detuned performance. Headed down the stairs, large casks of wine greeted the party in the torchlight. Trying the taps, the party finds some good wine, and Astaire discovers suspicious hinges on one of the casks- a secret door! Tugtar turns the spigot and unlocks the door, revealing a dank rough-hewn corridor within. At that moment, Adelaide opens the seventh tap, pouring out the menacing whisps of a ghost! Jamila, Tugtar, Adelaide and Astaire all bolt into the false cask, while Lou, sensitive to danger, runs back up the stairs and out of the winery. Removed from his party and unsure what to do about the likely loss of his protegé, Lou dejectedly picks for grapes in the vineyard while the rain pours.
Meanwhile in the dank corridor, the party drank a toast to survival, and then walked and walked, burning out a torch and needing to light a new one as they wound on. Eventually the cave widened, became sandy, and opened a ways from a sandy lakeshore, a mile north of the castle. The party hatched a plan to create smoke for Lou to see, and Astaire went with Lou to drag in some wet driftwood to burn. Across the lake through the rain, the pair faintly saw a headless woman sprint along the shore. They hurried back to the cave, and started the fire.
Eventually Lou accepted that he must move on, and went back to the gardening shed to try the miracle gro plant food on the grapevines. The ‘dirt’ caused them to grow and fruit immediately, but the discovery was short-lived as Patrice Malévol, grizzled and holding a battleaxe, demanded Lou’s business. Patrice was suspicious yet unsure, but after Lou failed two persuasion rolls and ran, she gave chase, yelling to her berserkers to “get him!” Lou ran straight back into the winery, doing the last thing he wanted to do- face the ghost, and maybe escape. Down the stairs he went, and looked right into the ghost’s baleful gaze. He aged ten years on the spot, and panic took Lou right back up the stairs, running right into Patrice, who was amused at Lou’s panic. Her six berserkers stepped into the winery, took Lou’s sack of items, and laughed with their boss at Lou’s plight; that is, until the ghost came up the stairs. A healthy young berserker turned to face the ghost- and aged 50 years, dropping his sword with a cry as his body withered.
Patrice: “I’m not afraid of a ghost! Berserkers, attack!”
In the distraction panic-striken Lou jumped out of Patrice’s grasp and ran, ran, out into the rain past the vineyards, past the fields. He walked along in a stunned silence, his only dream of sweet safety in Tours-En-Savoy. As he walked, he noticed a thick trail of smoke out on the other side of the lakeshore…

Spoiler: Castle Xyntillan!
I started a campaign of Castle Xyntillan a while ago, and i’ve enjoyed other people’s play-throughs of the adventure so i’d thought to share my own. The location itself, Xyntillan, I fell in love with immediately. It touches on a lot of places close to my heart: Castle Neufwanschtein, Castle of Cagliostro, Dracula’s Castle in Symphony of the Night, etc etc.

We’re playing with a custom ruleset i have nicknamed “D&nD: Oop!s all House Rules: House Rules Edition” that started off from Knave Rats, a Maze Rats and Knave hack, and has been steadily incorporating bits and pieces of GLoG over time. It’s a mess, but free from restraint, and slowly improving. My players are regular 5e players and the transition to a sandbox “olde-schoole” game has sometimes been difficult but it’s beginning to make sense and each session gets better and better. This is my first extended campaign and taking notes has been helpful to campaign cohesion.
I’m posting sessions 1-5, and the notes are somewhat brief as we all kept stopping the game to get on the same page about rules and expectations (“What’s the goal of the game? Am I doing this right?”). I didn’t have a plot prepared, the rules were new and untested, and I hadn’t expected risk-averse players who would “rather kill rats in basements” than venture into “a spooky castle filled with weird people.” Fortunately Mother Haggle at the edge of town needed some help recovering their cow and for their efforts they earned some gold, which they spent on equipment.

Session I
Recently in Tour-en-Savoy
Ramususu, one-eyed ronin, and Lou, a magic-user from some wild land, arrive at Tours-en-Savoy in search of Castle Xyntillan. After visiting the Tap Tavern and the Black Comedian, they hear some rumors about the family, and learn of a cave entrance on the lake from Etienne, a mercenary. After two days travel through the mountains, they arrive at the crumbling guardposts of the estate. Inspecting the grounds and getting muddy, they uncover the tomb of Tristano the Love-Lost, stealing his prized fire poker. Approaching the front of the castle, Ramususu and Lou find sleeping skeletons in the guardposts and wake them up by searching their bones. After the resulting battle, the wounded duo decides to call it a day of looting and leave the castle to rest and heal. 

Session II 
5pm, cool and cloudy.
Earthday – Wounded from their scuffle with the guard skeletons, Lou and Ramses scoped out the grounds for a good camping spot. A cozy patch behind a thicket next to the castle wall seemed cozy, and Lou the mad scientist safety-checked the thicket with his shovel, and it was safe, but decided the narrow window known as a murder-hole sounded like an unsafe thing to sleep under. Lou suggested Tristano’s crypt, and Ramses suggested the guard post. Deciding the less macabre route, they camped in the guard post for the night, after tying up twine across the door with bones as a noise alarm and sprinkling caltrops in front of the shack. Went to bed at 6ish. In the middle of the night, a cry of pain awoke the pair. A headless manservant in liveries had walked on the caltrops. It headlessly walked around and back into the castle, where Lou and Ramses tried to get a peek through the old boards of the guard shack at who opened the door but couldn’t. Lou had a bad time sleeping and kept sleeping to around 11. In the meantime Ramses foraged for food in the vegetable patch, minding the scarecrow. A spoopy hollow baying came from the woods beyond the castle, but Ramses stayed in the vegetable patch and didn’t investigate. Lou woke up for a bit and heard it too. 

Fireday – The next morning was moderately rainy. Lou collected some bones and then the pair decided to check out the stables. There was a stall of bugs that Lou poked around with their shovel, and another stall with a ladder leading up into a hayloft. Lou found a saddlebag and Ramses opened it to find a bottle of Malevol family wine, Fiery Reserve, dated 4322. Hearing noises from behind the door to the adjacent room, Lou (dwelling on the murderholes) decides to do some window peeping from outside the stables, and observes skeletons with spears using another skeleton in plate mail hanging from the rafters for target practice– in a room full of interesting odds and ends. After much discussion, during which the conversation was whispered while they hid behind some trees while another headless manservant left the castle and wandered the grounds, they debated heading back to Tours-En-Savoy for supplies. After the headless manservant re-entered the castle (received by another headless manservant), Lou looks through the other murderhole and sees a smithy and a hammer in working on an anvil in a endless monotone. The general spookiness of a floating hammer along with the skeletons quickly decided hasty trip back to Tours-en-Savoy for preparations…

The two-day trek back was blessedly uneventful.
Workday – Feeling intimidated by the room of skeletons, Lou and Ramses asked around town if anyone needs rats in their basement that need killing, or any other small jobs, and found an old woman who had lost her cow. They quickly found three cows in the woods nearby being worshipped by gnomes, and Lou had a long conversation with Bimpnottin, the head gnome, about whether or not these cows were indeed an avatar of the gnome god Baervan Wildwanderer, or merely some lost cow. At some point it occurred to Lou and Ramses that they didn’t know what Mother Haggle’s cow looked like, so Ramses Naruto-ran back to Mother Haggle to get a description (all brown, blue eyes) and returned with the information, discovering that none of the cows were the one they were looking for. Bimpnottin wasn’t surprised in the slightest and said “I told you so!” To Lou. Done with the gnomes, the pair went off into the woods and not long after (around 3pm) found a cow matching Mother Haggle’s description…  

Session III
Ramses and Lou Normand find Mother Haggle’s cow, and manage to coax it back into her yard. Rich with cow money, Ramses and Lou rent a room and board for a week, and Adelaide, fellow adventurer, is convinced to join their party. Three strong and wealthy, the trio hung at at the Black Comedian tavern, making shopping lists and plans. Lou and Ramses both confronted Jacques magic-shaming Ben Mordechai and ended up playing darts together! Lou, asking around for more odd jobs to gain experience, catches the attention of a drunk at the bar, who challenged him to a game of ‘toss’, showing his axe. Lou declined but Ramses joined in, and he and the drunk shared a fun couple of tosses (and cuts) before Ramses missed the catch and took an axe to the face, perishing instantly. Lou spends a lavish 20 gold on the funeral, and Ramses was buried in the church cemetery. Later that day, Hester the magic-user appeared, on his way to Castle Xyntillan and looking for an adventuring mate…

Session IV
Lou, Hester, and Adelaide (another adventurer found at the Black Comedian) all laden with adventuring gear, head off to Castle Xyntillan. Traveling was uneventful, which Lou took advantage of to talk endlessly at Adelaide about any scientific thought that came to mind. Hester saw a deer the first night camping. The second evening, the party set up camp a few miles from the castle. Lou discovered a lone wide-shouldered person at a campfire nearby in the mountains, but the party decided they were better off socializing during the day. The person, however, was gone when the crew checked out the spot the next morning…

Session V
Lou Norman, Adelaide, and Hester, ready to adventure, head down into Xyntillan’s grounds. The day is overcast and foggy. Lou and Adelaide hung back by the castle walls while Hester crept up to the barracks where they last saw their skeletons. Hester made a noise sneaking, and the skeletons took notice! Hester, Lou and Adelaide all took off running through the woods and towards high ground. The skeletons began to falter clambering over boulders, and the part each took turns scrambling up the rocks to find themselves a hidey-spot. Skeletons with spears came clambering soon after, but could not find the party, and wandered back down the hillside towards the castle. The party was sitting on the hillside mulling over how to best the skeletons when a pair of figures were suddenly seen walking down the road. To Hester’s great surprise it was Jamila “Gallows” Star, his love from another time! She was traveling with her son, Tugtar “the Bringer”, a towering figure. Although he cut a nice figure in his livery, he had a rebellious look in his eye. And where had Jamila been all this time? Lou and Adelaide were very confused. Nevertheless, as a party of five, everyone felt much more confident, and as it began to rain and the wind picked up, the party headed back to Castle Xyntillan…