Norvania

*The small town of Norvania is a peaceful village. It is nestled in a valley, deep in the Synvarian mountains, surrounded by a forest of thick dark pines, murmuring brooks of cold, clear water, and frost-laden ferns. In the town, thatch-roofed cottages sigh thick white smoke, comfortingly into the air, as townsfolk wander the gravel streets. The only non-idyllic part of this rural village is the long-abandoned gothic castle which sits on a bluff, high above Norvania, casting a menacing shadow from its crumbling ramparts.*

*Norvania exists under the control of a greedy, if not complacent local ruler, Baron Switschanks. Its inhabitants eke out a meager living, hunting in the deep woods, fishing from the small streams, farming sweet beets, and brewing the region’s famous thick hoppy beer. Its inhabitants are a steadfast and simple folk, poor but happy, who are content to work hard, eat well, and live slowly.*

*At least, this was the case until recently, when a group of young, foolhardy adventures from the south decided to travel to the castle on the cliff, in search of treasure. There, they awoke Lord Voldestadt, a vampire of ancient renown, from his 400 year slumber. Since then, this blood-thirsty monster has preyed upon the townsfolk of Norvania for a month, taking new victims in the night. It is said that the Vampire needs only a sample of your blood to make you his thrall- his servant and slave of body and mind.*

*Since no-one can trust each other, the terrified Norvanians have petitioned Baron Switschanks to take action. Then the Baron has hired you, 5 adventurers who coincidentally were passing through Norvania at the same time. None of you know each other, but the promise of gold and mead were enough to entice you into working together. Now you find yourself marching up the steep cliff path towards the gates of Castle Voldestadt, looking amongst yourselves with fear and trepidation. Is everyone who they claim to be? Can everyone be trusted? And, most of all, what awaits you inside the Vampire’s Lair?*

*Walking along the path, to your right is a steep cliff, with a drop hundreds of feet down towards a dark pine forest. A fall would inevitably kill you. To your left, another cliff face, towering above you.*

*Suddenly, a series of howls interrupt your thoughts. Standing above you, blocking the path forward, are 3 large wolves, saliva dripping from their sharp teeth, hot breath fogging the cold night air. And behind you, seemingly from nowhere, three more. They growl, and begin to run toward you.*

Everyone should be told that they are they “Bad Guy”- all have different motives

1. Ryan is an assassin, who has been trailing Lewis & Mich for weeks, and is looking for their opportunity to kill them. They figure that a treacherous undead filled castle might be the perfect opportunity to off their target and make it look like an accident, but any overt attempts to kill Lewis & Mich will undoubtedly turn the rest of the party on them.
2. David is a thrall of the vampire lord Voldestadt. Their job is, in addition to sowing chaos and discord amongst the group, to ensure that the party is low as health as possible before they reach the vampire’s chambers. Voldestadt, after all, likes his meat *fresh*.
3. Keiran is in the pocket of Baron Switschanks, who is looking for a reason to kill Ryan, as years ago Ryan was in Norvania, and ended up killing the Baron’s mistress. Their job is to convince the rest of the party that Ryan is a thrall of the vampire (though they aren’t), in order for the rest of the party to turn on them, so the Baron can have his revenge without publicly admitting infidelity.
4. Lewis & Mich are on the run from the Gnome Cartel in New Erfgurd. For some reason or another they got in over their heads, and now owe an inordinate amount of money to the Cartel- so much money that selling the castle itself may not pay their debt. Still, their goal is to ensure that, whatever the outcome of the night is, they will be the only two to survive, and therefore be able to claim all and any treasure that is to be found in the Castle.

# Castle of Voldestad

The castle ruins can be found in a roughly circular clearing approximately 600 ft in diameter. Once reaching the castle, read the following:
**The woods open up here into a large clearing. The broken ruins of what was a once might castle lie in the center of the open area, the castle itself built onto a cliff jutting out of the mountain face. Most of the castle has crumbled into a useless pile of rubble, and fallen away into the valley below. The main entrance to the castle, still intact, seems to be missing its door.**

### General Castle Notes

* All doors are wood: AC15, HP18, and are unlocked unless otherwise noted.

### 2 Entrance Way

**You see what must have once been the primary gate keep for this castle. The large wooden doors must have been knocked off their hinges by a great force, as they lie in the center of this circular room. The ground is littered with rubble. To the east, an intact archway leads to an interior section. To the west, a courtyard appears to be visible. To the north, in the doorway that was presumably previously oppucpied by the fallen doors in the middle of the room, appears to be a shimmering magical barrier, with two floating keyholes in the middle of it.**

6 dire rats live in a nest under the fallen doors. They will not attack unless their home is disturbed. The doors are heavy, requiring a strength check (DC 25) to move. Several characters can help in the attempt. Trying to move the doors provokes the rats to slide out of a narrow tunnel they’ve dug in the floor and attack.

**Tactics**: The dire rats will hide until someone disturbs their nest. They will be aware of the PCs by scent. The rats will attempt to gang up on one PC at a time. Before they initially come out from under the door, have PCs roll a listen check opposed by the rats’ Move Silently check. Any PC that does not make their Listen check will be surprised (unless that player specifically said that their character was prepared for something to come out from under the door).

**Treasure**: The dire rat nest is a hole mostly filled up with old leather and cloth fragments. A successful search (DC 15) reveals a small red gem (ruby) worth 100gp

The magical barrier will deal 1d6 points of shock damage to anyone who touches it, but will not actually prevent anyone from passing.

### 1 Armory

**This square room is in relatively good condition. Along the north wall is a rack of spears with warped wooden hafts. Swords of various sizes hang from a rack on the south wall, all showing signs of rust. Two rusted suits of armor lie against the far west wall.**

**Treasure**: There are 6 short spears, 2 long swords, 2 short swords, and a

greatsword. All are in very poor condition. They will not sell for much and any attempt to use them as weapons rolls with disadvantage. The armor is human-sized splint mail, but it is so fully rusted that it is useless (any attempt to pick up the armor or move it will just break off rusty pieces)

Whilst they are examining the weapons and such, one of the rusted suits of armor starts moving- inside is a flesh golem (+2 AC). Inside the flesh golem are 3 rubies and a rusted key.

### 3 Courtyard

**You stand in what was apparently once an open courtyard in this castle. The ground is packed dirt, with occasional weeds sprouting up here and there. Immense amounts of rubble lie to the north, and the fallen tower forms a makeshift wall across the northside of the courtyard.**

There is a locking pit trap in this room, marked in red on the map

PUMPKIN MONSTERS

6 Vine blights

### 4 Storage Room I

The wooden door to this room is closed but not locked or stuck

**This is a smaller room, perhaps once used for storage. It is completely empty, except for mortar dust on the ground.**

Collapsing Roof Trap

### 5 Storage Room II

The wooden door to this room are closed, but not locked or stuck

**This is a smaller room, perhaps once used for storage. There are wooden crates stacked in this room.**

Treasure: One wooden crate contains 4 light crossbows that are in good shape. Another crate contains crossbow bolts, but many are warped from water damage. A character spending time searching through the crate can find 10 bolts that are still usable. The rest of the crates are empty

### 6 Storage Room III

Even through the west wall of this room has collapsed, the ceiling is intact. Rubble from the fallen tower in Areas 7 + 8 have filled the wall breach, so that the only way into this room is the door from Area 5, which is closed but not locked.

**This is a smaller room, perhaps once used for storage. Part of the eastern wall has collapsed and is now just a pile of rubble. The room is completely empty except for mortar dust and rocks on the ground. You see what appears to be another wooden door on the north wall.**

A displacer beast is awaiting here, guarding the treasure behind the wooden door to the north.  It will attack the first person to open the door, almost exclusively.

The treasure itself, which contains 2 healing potions and 4 rubies and an old rusty key, is in a chest with a poison needle trap

### 7 Collapsed Tower

**A large stone tower that was part of the castle must have fallen over here, across the courtyard. Picking your way through the rubble, you can see that you are in the hollowed out remains of that tower. You can see bits of the sky through the broken holes above you. There is debris everywhere. In the back corner of the room is a grotesque vampiric face, its mouth open in a snarl. Impenetrable darkness fills the gaping mouth, which is roughly 2 feet in diameter.**

If the characters spend some time searching through the rubble, they have a chance to find (Investigation DC 25) a locked iron box that looks like it survived the tower’s collapse

**Treasure**: A small locked iron box (DC 25) that contains 7 rubies, and a health potion.

**Development**: If the PCs have not already dealt with it, searching in this area is 100% likely to bring out the carrion crawler from Area 7. Even just passing through Area 8 may attract the  attention of the crawler (see Area 7 for more details on this).

### 8 Crawler Den

**This part of the fallen tower has created a cave-like crevice from the rubble. It’s very dark inside.**

If any character enters this room, the two carrion crawlers here will immediately attack them. Because of the darkness, unless the PC’s have light or darkvision, they won’t see the crawler until it is on top of them.

There is a falling net trap here, triggered by the first person to walk into the room

**Treasure**: The crawler’s latest victim was an armored fighter (who was one of the previous adventuring party). The fighter was separated from his group, paralyzed, then dragged in here and killed. On his body the PCs can find human-sized +1 scale armor, a+1 longsword, a large

steel shield, and a leather backpack that contains 50 ft. of silk rope and a potion of greater healing. He also has a small leather belt pouch that contains 2 rubies.

**Development**: Any character not moving silently between Areas 1 and 7 is 50% likely to be noticed by the carrion crawler, which will come out and attack that character. Any character attempting to move Stealthy past the opening to Area 8 must make a check opposed by the crawler’s perception check. If they are heard, they are still only 50% likely to draw it out of Area 7.

### 15 Grand Hallway

**This was once a grand hall with a vaulted ceiling supported by arches, with horrifying visages of gargoyles perched in the alcoves. Most of the ceiling is intact, but it has many holes in it. This place must have been a great feasting hall. Despite the state of disrepair, torches burn merrily in sconces at even intervals around the wall, and the ground appears to have been swept clean, and even the long, chipped wooden table that dominates the middle of the room has been cleaned and set with silverware and plates.**

**A dark corridor leads east into a rather intact looking part of the castle. Two large stone doors to the north have, inset in the middle of a division, a circular depression that distinctly looks like an object is meant to be placed inside.**

### 14 Shrine

The door to this room is closed but not locked.

**This room must have once been a small shrine or chapel for use in the castle. A stone altar is secured against the far east wall. There seems to be some sort of ceremonial weapon mounted above the altar. Stone carvings of various heroic looking and armor-clad figured can still be made out along the walls.**

This is a shrine to Pelar. It has been long abandoned, but is still sanctified. A cleric or paladin of Pelar will immediately recognize the significance of the carvings and deduce the nature of the shrine. Other characters may make a Religion check (DC15) to identify the patron god of this small chapel.

**Treasure**: The weapon is a +1 warhammer and is mounted on brackets in the wall directly above the altar. It can be easily lifted out of those brackets. Any character examining it before removing it will notice that it is remarkable free of dust and rust (which should hint at its magical nature)

**Development**: The party may rest safely here, as none of the denizens of the castle ruin will venture inside this room

### 13 Bedroom

The door to this room is locked (DC20), although there is an open archway leading from Area 11.

**A large, four poster bed dominates the center of this room. Most of its linen appears to be in sad shape, however, and there is a definite sag in the mattress. A large wooden chest in good repair lies at the foot of the bed.**

There is nothing special about the bed. The chest is locked (DC 20). It is also trapped. Any attempt to force the lid or open the lock without the proper key (which is long since missing) will set off the needle trap. The chest is extremely strong and durable because it is made from Ironwood, thus is difficult to force open (AC19, HP18).

**Poison Needle Trap**: DC20 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find, DC15 Dexterity check using thieves tools to disable, removing the needle. Unsuccessfully attempting to pick the lock triggers the trap. Once triggers, the lock picker takes 1 piercing damage and 11(2d10) poison damage, and must succeed on a DC 15 Con saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour.

*A poisoned creature has disadvantage on Attack rolls and Ability Checks*

**Treasure**: The chest itself is valuable because it is made out of Ironwood, although an Intelligence check may be required to notice this fact. It weighs 50 lbs empty and (if intact) can be sold for 300 gp. The chest contains 29 pp, 231 gp, 107 sp, 2 potions of cure light wounds, a scroll of silence (scribed by a cleric of Pelar, although this isn’t obvious from just reading or identifying the scroll).

### 12 Sitting Room

The door to this room is locked (DC15 Dex with Theives tools), although there is an oen archway leading from Area 10.

**This was once a fine room with tapestries on the walls and expensive furniture. Now the tapestries are decayed to the point where you can no longer discern the scenes. A small table and some sitting chairs are scattered about this room, but they rotted and unsafe to use**

**Do some funny NPC. Literally just some crazy old guy who happens to be in the castle.**

### 11 Common Room

This room has no door.

**Looking in through this doorway, you see a room with some wooden crates in the northeast corner. The door that belongs in this doorway appears to be missing.**

The crates are all closed, but empty inside. In order for the characters to enter, they must pass over a 10 ft. x 10 ft. covered pit trap. They can avoid the pit trap (if the notice it) by jumping over it, or by simply taking the pair of doors to the east.

**Pit Trap**: DC15 Wisdom perception check to find, DC15 Intelligence to confirm that it’s a pit trap. 10ft x 20ft pit. Once detected an iron spike or similar object can be wedged between. 2d6 damage to first person to cross threshold without making a perception check first.

### 10 Stairs

The door to this room is closed but not locked. Any character can open it easily.

**Upon opening the door to this room, you immediately see a dead human body lying on the center of the floor. It is face down, with its feet towards you. It appears to be long dead and you catch a slight stench of decay coming from the corpse. The body wears tattered robes that look like they were torn in a struggle. Statues of gargoyles, posed in various ways, decorate the perimeter of the room.**

The body is that of the wizard member of the previous adventuring party. He was killed in this room by the 2 gargoyles that lie in wait amongst the false gargoyle statues. They spring to life the minute someone touches the corpse. On his corpse is a healing potion, 7 rubies, and the stone key.