Four Corpses on Mauve Velvet

Characters 

Arthur – Cleric 1 – A weak armed bible basher. 

Donna – Cleric 1 – A strong faced woman of the cloth. 

Gwen – Thief 1 – A lithe assassin in the making. 

William – Fighter 1 – A confident middle-aged warrior, scruffy and brave. 

Baptiste – Light footman – working for Gwen. 

Later 

Tim Kaufman – Halfling 1 – A merchant who lost his wagon in an accident. 

Sindri – Elf 1 – a cloaked and broody lord. 

---

“We have to find another entrance into that place, the cleric in the basement hates my guts, and the ghostly butler is mad we took his papers, the grand entrance is suicide!” 

“Let’s use that gondola we found in the satyr pavilion.”

“What about the giant dinosaur looking monster in the lake?”

“This bell we found should take care of it.” 

So it was decided. The party marched up the valley, and what a lovely march it was too, the summer being finally upon them. A gentle breeze up the mountain pushed them along. The daylight had increased, and that meant after two days of marching they arrived earlier than usual, and sunset would be a long way off. 

Rather than camping in the vicinity of the castle, which had been growing more and more dangerous, the party headed straight for the pavilion. The rope they attached last time was hanging loose in the river. Resourceful thief Gwen hooked it and reattached it. They were over the deep waters in no time. 

William began to sing to the statue as had been done before, the rest of the party keeping watch nervously. The statue animated, piped its song and then its plinth clacked open revealing a black lacquered gondola adorned with a female figurehead, fangs protruding from her mouth. 

The party donned the captured robes and masks, then dragged the boat to the shore below the looming castle, boarded, and shoved off.

“This is much faster than walking!” And so it was, especially with the burly William and Baptiste as oarsmen. 

The party noticed on the eastern walls of Xyntillan, high atop jagged cliffs, two large towers. Between these towers, around eighty foot off the waters face, was a gargoyle railed balcony. No windows appeared on this side of the castle – ominous. 

“Towards that lake tower!” 

They rowed towards a massive lake tower connected to the castle via an arched bridge. They circled this and took a quick look at the southern side of the castle, the part that faced the lake. They saw a garden above a water rampart. Interesting, but they were more interested in the lake tower. 

Running down from the lake towers bridge and into the water was a huge chain. This looked very interesting. The party examined it, and at the chains end, down in the waters, was a box or crate was attached. The party attached the boat to the pillar of the bridge after some faffing around with arrows, then, one by one, they climbed the chain onto the bridge.

Atop the bridge the chain was attached to some sort of winch, perhaps an old repurposed catapult. The lake tower had a huge bronze door decorated with three equal armed cross. 

Before they had a chance to play with the winch a roar echoed from the lake, and a thrashing in the water revealed a long reptilian neck snaking up and squinting at them. 

“Thar she blows! Nessie is upon us!” 

The creature began swimming towards the bridge, spittle flying from its cerated mouth, its devilish black eyes full of hunger. 

The party charged through the door into the lake tower, all except Gwen who hid next to the winch and began ringing the hand bell. The creature began to slow to identify where the ringing was coming from. 

The tower door flew inward and the party saw a high vaulted temple, four wide columns led to a high altar of black stone. Atop this was a bronze statue of a goat headed man, his naked torso had the breasts of a woman, his legs were crossed. It’s right hand pointed up in benediction, but the left was downward, holding a crescent moon shaped weapon. The walls of this temple were painted with frescoes of goat riding templars jousting and engaging in unspeakable evils. 

A ghost up in the rafters called out to them “Dark ones, see what you have done to the temple of the templars.” His anger was plain. He floated towards them. 

Outside, Gwen still rang the bell, but nessie swam under the bridge, then, in a moment of horror its head reared up behind the thief. 

“Clever girl” was all the would be assassin could say before the large maw chomped her in half. 

Inside the temple Donna threw off her cultists disguise, “We are not evil sire, we come in the name of law.” The others joined her in this. Soon the ancient templar calmed and began to weep at the state of his families evil legacy. 

“We did not go on crusade to fall to same evils that we sought to destroy!” 

He gave the party a quest, to find a chapel in the South of the castle, on the ground floor, and to reconsecrate it. The party happily accepted. Arthur was told that a special cape lay in a room to the north. 

“Now, lets take a closer look at that weapon in the statues hand.” 

William approached it with a cloak in hand. He moved close and grasped the strange crescent shaped discus. But as he did, the green eyes of the statue glimmered, and its nose shot out a clump of green slime. William screamed out, but was not quick enough to avoid the goo. It squirted onto his chest and began dissolving his armour. 

“Help help!” The brave warrior cried. He began to run to the door, maybe jumping into the water would help, but he was stopped by the ghostly templar who told him fire was the cure, then he vanished. 

Donna pulled out her lantern oil and dowsed her writhing friend, then lit it up. Unfortunately William was consumed by the sizzling ooze, and then by the flames. RIP. 

The party took a quick breather, taking in all this chaos. 

Arthur explored to the north, finding a cloak room, and inside a very fine templar cloak that was double sided. He put this on. The others found another room and swiped some very big ecclesiastical candle sticks. 

Two adventurers burst through the door just then, Halfling Tim Kaufman and Sindri the elf. They’d just escaped some zombies. The party made their acquaintance and soon accepted them into their ranks. It was time to go up to the second level. 

Up the stone stairs the party was met with a long corridor lined with statues of the saints. They moved cautiously, and in the face of Saint Cyprian they saw two fine rubies set as eyes. Mr. Kaufman delicately popped these out, he’ll surely make for a fine burglar. 

As they proceeded down the corridor, they heard the tapping of footsteps behind them. Sindri and Baptiste twirled around, and were toe to toe with a masked killer. Dressed in black this swarthy madman plunged his dagger into Baptiste’s breast, killing him instantly. Sindri fell back, and the two clerics Donna and Arthur charged the dark assassin. But alas, they were no match, and with a shimmering swipe and a razor sharp slash the two clerics were dead. They’d managed to wound the attacker however, who then moved towards Mr. Kaufman and Sindri, wiping clean the dagger with his black gloved hand. Crash, slash, the fight was over in a matter of seconds, Sindri had taken the huge ecclesiastical candle stick and caved the killers head in. 

“Time to leave I think.” 

In a mad rush that’s what the two survivors did, down into the temple, and out onto the bridge, they quickly climbed down the chain, boarded the boat they’d been told about and rowed off. 

Just then, a roar cam from the bastion of the castle. A huge hairy creature with horns like a demon peered down at them with contempt, its long cape flowing like a river of mauve along the parapets. Go, go, go, they rowed as quickly as their arms allowed. 

“Intruders!” The creature roared, and like a lion it raced along the embrasures of the castle and leapt down onto the bridge with a crash. The party just caught glimpse of the beastly thing, standing nearly eight foot tall, a hideous yellow eyed face above a full cravat. It ripped up a gargoyle as though it were a loaf of bread, and dashed this into the lake. 

“Phew!” The two survivors rowed down the river, and made it back to town in record time. 

What will they do next?