Desnova 14, 1423.
After detecting magic, the PCs discover some of the spears held by the statue's horse are magical, and break them free of the statue. Nebol'shoy is also damaged when sweeping the room and seeing what the cat statue from the storage closet radiates. They head south to the next area where there are some moveable columns that affect wolf statue heads, producing a last will & testament from the architect of the castle as well as a magical saber. Next they find the smoking room where Nebol'shoy and Sludd partake of hookahs that make them glow with faerie fire of various colors. Rucia and Bjork enjoy ancient meat that still spins upon a spit in one of the hearths, and Aldren finds a jade key in an illusory hearth which radiates no heat.
They visit a master bedroom where they find yet another magical sword hidden in the spokes of a carriage like bed frame, a robe of stars in an armoire and a magical powdering kit which can de-age the user a few years after use. Rucia thrashes up the room pretty hard. In the next area, a study, they find some valuable tea sets, a spellbook once belonging to a green dragonborn wizard named Glimmerthorn, and a set of valuable encyclopedias too heavy to currently take. Nebol'shoy and Sludd are now fully radiating faerie fire of purple and green, respectively. A door to the south is covered in an undulating shield of blood which turns out to be a portal. Rucia steps through and is deposited outside the castle. The PCs lower a rope through and he climbs back up and in. Bjork fails to dispel the door, so they abandon this path for now.
They next find an organ hall with a few well-dressed skeletons, and while Rucia is dismantling them and Bjork is searching through the musical sheets, the group is attacked by spectral sentries that try to flank them between two doors. They hit fairly hard and manage to kill Sludd, turning him into one of their own number, who also has to be brought down by the PCs. Gentle repose is cast upon the fallen D'vryn, and the PCs decide to take another long rest, though it drains them, by setting up Leomund's Tiny Hut in the servant's closet where they found the cat statue.
Desnova 15, 1423.
Something tampers with the closet door overnight, but otherwise the PCs are unmolested, waking up drained further by the castle's cumulative curse. Rucia uses revivify on Sludd's preserved corpse, and the rogue rejoins the world of the living. The group decides to wheel back to the blood door, and this time Bjork manages to dispel it. To no one's surprise, this is where Razakhel has decided to make her stand, some sort of torture chamber with a cauldron of blood that feeds various taps and pipes throughout the castle. The fight is tough in tight quarters, especially after the blood-fiend summons a pair of sanguine golems to assist her, but she no longer quite overpowers them the way she once did at the brothel in the village of Zolovny. After nearly instagibbing Aldren with a blood-port into his body, she is taken down, which disables her creation.
Rucia finds a sword made of Razakhel's blood-spikes, all that remains of her, while Bjork finds the second half of the rune-key needed to access the subcellars where the rest of Nebol'shoy's former associates must wait in hiding...
PCs: Aldren, Bjork, Nebol'shoy, Rucia
At this point we will be taking a brief recess for a couple months, and will be updating the characters to the next edition of D&D rules.
