Castle Xyntillan Session 1

The Party

Unnamed thief (1) Unnamed fighter (1) Marthe (Magic User 1)

Turns spent in the dungeon

8

Known Rumors

• Blerot the woodsman swore to avenge his murdered love who disppeared the in castle. He never returned.
• Wearing red keeps the Red Spectre away… for a while.

Treasure

• A medal
• 6 portraits of Malevols from the portrait hall near the Grand Entrance.
• Scouted 3 rooms

Report

[We started in media res at the entrance they chose: the Grand Entrance]

The party (a magic user, thief, and fighter with no retainers) circled the statues, then went into the castle.

James the Butler

James the Butler wept and then offered them directions or to inform the lord that they’ve arrived. 

They claimed to need guidance to the lord’s chambers because they’re police investigating the woodsman’s wife’s kidnapping or murder.

The butler did not like this. He pointed out that his lord was also their lord and that he’d need to consult with him first. They continued to insist that they held authority and his irritation grew.

The magic user cast charm person with a scroll. (She opted for 3d6 gold instead of random equipment so she could scribe one scroll prior to the session.) It failed. James called out, “There are hostile guests!”

Headless footmen arrived, were dubious (after a reaction roll), asked questions to verify why the PCs were there, and were satisfied by revised description given of official police business. They scoffed at the butler (after a reaction roll.) They guided the party around the corner to the stairs and pointed them in the right direction when they asked for guidance toward the Lord’s chambers.

Portrait Hall

They looked at each Malevol family portrait and looked behind them for hidden stuff. The flying arrow from the portrait of the huntsman missed the fighter (who was wearing plate armor.)

Up the stairs and into the Grand Dining Hall

They immediately felt suspicious of the dragon statue at the landing and of the feast. They prepared to grab the silverware and run. They checked the silverware, and it disintegrated. Disappointing.

They excitedly smashed the statue with hammers and opened the coffin within. The thief hid to prepare to backstab whatever might be inside. The fighter waited over the coffin as the thief raised the lid from back to prepare to backstab.

Marcel the Malnourished was inside. He begged for a crust of bread. Marcel fought them a bit. Round 1: They missed. He missed. Round 2: He missed. They hit hard but he didn’t seem to notice. Round 3: They recognized Marcel as possibly the fellow they’d tried to give bread to in the painting. One of them grabbed food from the table to give him but it turned to ash. Expecting this to be the case, the fighter had a ration ready and put it to the skeleton’s mouth. Marcel was grateful and sat down to eat at the table. (20xp. “All monsters defeated by the party (i.e. slain, outsmarted, captured, scared away, etc.) grant XP based on how powerful they are.")

But we don’t have treasure!

They searched the coffin and found only a medal worth 1gp, which they took.

[The players now needed to leave my house.]

They hurried downstairs to the portraits, grabbed 6 of them, and left.

Referee Notes

Session Prep

• I pre-generated their characters (using this fantastic thing that exports a superb character sheet at the end) and gave them random equipment using the tables in Carcass Crawler 2.

• I determined who would be encountered before the game started and read each entry. I also did encounter rolls and wrote when encounters would occur on the Old School Essentials Time Tracker.

• I read ahead (and missed the stair problem.)

• I read 12 of the very helpful Vague Countries sessions.

The players

The players were my wife and a couple. (Emily, Katie, and Sam.) The couple had never played a TTRPG before. No one named their character.

They brought their two kids to hang out with my two kids. All the kids are 6 or under. This means many interruptions as people leave the table to communicate with, feed, or comfort their children. The kids played together fantastically, yet we still had to prevent them from accidentally hurting each other, and there were two self-injuries anyway. I think we spent about 2.5 hours of real time and got about 2 hours of actual gaming out of it, which is surprisingly good.

Are There Stairs? WHERE?

I spent a few minutes trying to understand the stairs that SEEMED to be in E3. I couldn’t tell if they were coming from e20 or e3. The first step appears to be right at the door of e20, which doesn’t make sense. I eventually decided that they were just outside of that door, in e3. This was incorrect, but at least I guessed the right room! They are in e3.

Big Boned

Marcel the Malnourished is skinny in his portrait, but his actual undead skeleton is described as having “a fat bulk.” That was confusing to me. I couldn’t figure out how to describe a fat skeleton, so I didn’t try. I should have tried. His bulk was meant to convey his unusually high HP, I think.

Portraits Aren’t Treasure

Whoops. I should have told the players that their characters understand that people don’t want to buy magic things because they’re just too weird and ooky. They also don’t count for XP. Oh well. We were out of time anyway.

A Dull Session

Not much happened. They only played for 8 turns. I did everything I could think of to speed up the game except skip mapping. I should have skipped mapping.

I suspect they won’t play again. But maybe?