Castle Xyntillan - Session 1 - Expeditions #1 & #2

Disclaimer: after writing up session 2, I was kindly informed that Gabor Lux is a transphobe and bigot. For this reason, I won't be writing more reports to avoid promoting his work, and won't be paying for his stuff (it's all on the Google, actually!). I suggest you do the same~.

My polycule's big enough that I have enough players to schedule a weekly D&D game, so I've decided to run the excellent Gabor Lux' Castle Xyntillan using Marcia B's Fantastic Medieval Campaigns: Basic.

As prep before the campaign, I printed my PDF into a spiralbound copy I can easily annotate and bookmark (I've yet to get small coloured bookmark sticky notes, couldn't find them at my local store so I'll have to order some, they'll come in handy a lot as I decided not to use my laptop for this one). I totally forgot to print GM maps for easy reference which I will do for next time. Instead what I did was print full Player Maps with no keys but the whole room layout laid out for the players because mapping has been tricky in our test run (using Stonehell). I know mapping is usually a pretty important part of the old-school game but I figured having a map would give an interesting physical thing for the players to play with and make plans around. Exploration speed was about the same, surprisingly, with twelve rooms done in a fairly long (3-4h) duet session.

Today was a duet with P, who ran two groups: 

Expedition #1 - "The Beginning"
Freddy (F1), Jeanne (E1), Florence (M1); 

Expedition #2 - "Vampire!"
Jeanne (E1), Marie (F1), François (M1) + Petit Louis (14 yo torchbearer)

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Week 1, Expedition #1
After a two day trek through the valley and crossing the lake by skiff, the group arrived at the foot of the Château. Freddy led Jeanne and Florence through the main entrance, promptly ignored a crying spectral butler in the vestibule and went west to a decrepit, abandoned room. After three failed attempts at breaking down the next door, it opened from within and the party met Vincent Godefroy-Malévol, a rogue and lawyer who questioned the party as to who they were. They pretended to be lost and looking for food, which Vincent took offense with, thinking them beggars. Freddy, in turn, decided to murder him, a fight ensued. Vincent ended up bloodied and near death when he called for guards, and when five shambling headless corpses joined the fray, Freddy decided it was time to run. He got captured and thrown into an oubliette while Jeanne and Florence ran off the property, mocked by the entrance Gargoyles.

Florence took the lead and decided the group should check out the Lake Tower. Inside, they met Mélard Malévol the Mighty, a lawful spectral crusader in a temple of Baphomet, depressed by the family's fall into corruption and evil. He asked who they were and they tried to pass themselves off as maids, but the ghost wasn't easily duped and warned them about the tower's dangers. Florence ignored those and went upstairs followed closely by Jeanne. They triggered a rolling stone trap while ascending and miraculously escaped unscathed, only to then enter a room covered in soot where blackened silverware attracted the mage's attention. Immediately, a flying mummy head screamed like a banshee at the thieves, terrorizing Jeanne who fled downstairs. Florence tried a vade retro and promptly got her face eaten. Once Jeanne calmed down, she asked Mélard for guidance, who told her the Summer Wing holds a more "manageable" threat, that of the vile Rodento Ratsputin, King of the Rats, whom he hates very much for bringing filth into the castle. He suggested she starts there before trying to tackle more dangerous foes, and warned her again before going back to his sorrows.

Week 2, Expedition #2
Jeanne, this time accompanied by Marie the Fighter, François the Mage (both chaotics) and a teenage torchbearer by the name of Lil' Louis, went in through the front door once again. This time, corpses at the front door were raised by one of the gargoyles, and chased the party, fleeing forward into the unknown east side of the vestibule. They quickly went through a Butler's room and an Occult Library before resting into a Red Antechamber where they were assaulted by masked murderers, badly hidden behind blood-red drapes. Marie died immediately, while François rushed through another door, this one secured by a bat-shaped lock (which because I forgot about it was conveniently left ajar).

That's when the party met Count Giscard DeVourey-Malévol, a powerful vampire and one of the campaign bosses, chilling in a sofa in his personal chambers. The masked murderers threw smoke bombs and ran off; François was immediately hypnotized but managed to close the door on Jeanne's face, saving her from the Count's deadly charm. The Count made a quick and kinky meal out of François, and Jeanne pressed on northward as she knew zombies were waiting on her if she retraced her steps back.

She met a lecherous monk which she ignored and hurried, following her map to find her way back to the vestibule, passing by a gallery of living portraits and floating candles, and started her second journey back to Tours-en-Savoy, once more the sole survivor, but this time carrying key information
(ie: the chamber of one of the castle's masters).

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Post-Mortem
P plays fast, 12 rooms in a few hours, the map helped tremendously, and it showed when I occasionally took it away when her party was being chased and running around instead of cautiously exploring. She did not mind the change from 3LBB OD&D to FMC:B, did not miss the coin-based encumbrance, ability scores, or Clerics. Mentioned 24XX spoiled her when I nerded out about the finer points of initiative. On my end, I found ascending armor class split seconds faster than consulting the attack matrices, and I like a coin toss more than more granular saving throws or morale checks that eventually average out to about 50:50 anyways. Describing characters also comes easily even without stats.

Homework
- Get color sticky note bookmarks for quick reference (each area, rogue's gallery, etc)
- Print better character sheets allowing for multiple character per sheet (we're going through them fast)
- Get the Underground level's Players' Map ready as one entrance the PCs know of is to the Winery.
- Get a Random Character Generator ready for FMC:B (possibly handled by the programmer GF).

House Rules
FMC:B is almost as simple as Searchers Into the Unknown, although it features three classes (no Cleric, but an Expert). I've also added a rule from Seven Voyages of Zylarthen which has been sitting in my library gathering dust for years, which is that any PC can try to turn the undead:

- Turn Undead
Any one character may attempt a vade retro by brandishing a cross*, per encounter
2D6 + Level VS 9 + Undead HD, Turn 2D6 HD worth if Successful, beat by 6+ to Destroy instead.

* Since the nearest town to Castle Xyntillan is Tours-en-Savoy and the region is mountainous and french-sounding, I just set the game in late 16th century France, in Savoy in the Alps.

- Death's Door
In FMC:B, characters get to Tempt Fate (coin toss) when they get to 0 HP to survive.
I decided to specify that this only applies to characters rescued after a fight or during an escape attempt.
On a successful call, the character can be brought back on their feet with 1 HP and remain in play after a turn is spent on first aid (the wounds weren't as bad as we initially thought!).

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Rest in Peace
- Freddy? (F1), thrown in the Oubliettes by Vincent Godefroy-Malévol
- Florence (M1), devoured by a Floating Mummy Head
- Marie (F1), eviscerated by a Masked Murderer
- François (M1), dehydrated by the Count