The stone outer wall of the castle grounds is ragged and overgrown, standing out against the ground like a demented giant’s grimy teeth. The castle grounds are overgrown with weeds and tall grass interspersed among young trees. To the southeast a mild reek wafts on the breeze toward you.
The castle stands stark against the cliff face behind it. The side towers have caved in and taken part of the second floor with them. Empty windows high above the ground stare back at you like vacant eyes, unblinking, unmoving, except for a single shutter that sways open and shut in the wind far above the crenellated battlements.
What may have once been a wooden addendum barely stands against the south wall of the castle. A pair of imposing wooden doors shield the secrets of Illustrious Castle from your prying eyes.
If they look closely they might see arrow slits and spy holes in the entry hall. The roof of the castle is slanted to keep snow from accumulating and to keep enemies from the mountains off. The outer wall of the castle grounds is easily circumvented. It was not patched reliably after the Great War. The guardhouse at the gates was wood and stone. The wood has fallen entirely, and some of the stone. It has no roof. There are rodents living among the guardhouse ruins, but that’s about it.
There are two levels of windows: about twenty feet up are the high windows for the main ballroom (2), the entrance (1), the servant’s quarters (7), and the old meeting room (8). Thirty-five feet up are upstairs windows: the long hallway and the lounge (13). All windows had shutters; most are gone except the one that keeps swinging.
The towers were of the kind that jut out from the upper floor. There were three, one in the southwest, one in the northwest, and one in the northeast corners. The battlements are about fifteen feet up. To get to them, you had to go through the towers, making it difficult to get to them now.
The grounds are overgrown with weeds and tall grass. Careful searching in the Old Bazaar will reveal the remains of wooden frames and stone frames, burned and destroyed by the goblins in the war. Anything that remained of the frames that was not burned, was taken by farmers after the Order destroyed itself.
The tunnels marked on the map were dug by the goblins. They intend to keep this castle, and can use the tunnels to outflank attackers—they’re expecting their hobgoblin overlords, but will also repulse humans or anyone else if they think they’ll succeed. The tunnels are approximately two to three yards underground, a foot wide and two to three feet in diameter. The dots show where the tunnels reach the surface.
There is a large pile of dirt near each of the holes. If the characters search the piles, a perception roll nets them an odd, bird-like skull. Characters with some sort of knowledge that applies might recognize it as not bird-like, but more crab-like. These strange bones were found as the goblins dug underground, and are very old Karuat bones.
Wandering Monsters
There are few wandering monsters. The wildlife has learned to avoid the area, and the goblins only attack if they need to repulse invaders or feel they have something to gain. That is, against opponents weaker than them. Every hour, however, there is a 5% chance of an encounter with one of the other denizens of the castle or its grounds:
| Encounter | Number | Maximum | See Room | ||
| 01-50 | Large spider | 1 | 5 | 8 | 50% |
| 51-65 | Rats | d8 | 200 | 10 | 15% |
| 66-75 | Coppersnakes | 1 | 4 | 14 | 10% |
| 76-85 | Killer toads | d2 | 11 | stagnant pool | 10% |
| 86-93 | Blood hawks | d2 | 2 | 20, upstairs | 8% |
| 94-98 | Strigae | d6 | 9 | 16 | 5% |
| 99-00 | Crown of eyes | 1 | 2 | 13, upstairs | 2% |
See the entry hall description for more about the goblins. Remember that they are keeping watch on the grounds.
The Stagnant Pool (A)
A stagnant puddle, trying hard to be a swamp, sends a pungent reek into the still air around the castle. Large, slow bugs swarm within the reeds and tall grass, and thick-leafed plants grow about the green-encrusted water. The reek seems to bring its own rich, fetid warmth to the air.
When any creature comes within four yards of the swamp, the chance of wandering monsters increases to 20% every ten minutes and the encounter will be with d4 killer toads. There are a maximum of 11 toads in the swamp.
The stagnant pool is actually an overgrown well. Water flows into the well from an underground source, diverted by the Dwarves, but it has been clogged up with vegetation and dirt. In working condition it would have poured down into the underground and further down into the main river (which the Dwarves never reached). The blockage blocks up both the hole and the well, Water soaks through the vegetation and up through the well and through the ground, as well as down into the Secret Places (area 16). The water is warm, about seventy to seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, as it comes from a warm spring within the mountains. Thus, this tiny little “swamp” remains warm and lush year-round.
The water comes out about thirty feet down. The vegetation can hold about a hundred pounds without partially collapsing so that whatever was on it falls through. Below the vegetation, the hole slides down at a steep angle, several hundred feet to Tunnel to the Swamp (16) in The Secret Places. The clogged area can be burrowed through; the toads occasionally do. Otherwise, however, the water lies stagnant and occasionally overflows down the hill and over the cliff.
Killer toads: fantastic 2; move 6/12; claws d4; defense 2; bite to swallow.
The Secret Entrance (B)
Beneath the dry, crackling shade of the pine trees, brown needles crunch underfoot. The cliff’s face is grey stone, rugged and clean, with a jagged gash leading into darkness.
Out behind the trees, and covered in foliage now, is a crack in the cliff face. The crack in the cliff is a foot and a half wide at its widest and four feet tall, though it widens inside. It can be traversed, albeit very carefully. It leads to the back rooms of the castle where the large snakes and strigae are.
The Old Stable (C)
Wooden walls partially covered and partially destroyed by old landslides and mudslides rot inward to what was once a horse stable. Many of the boards of the wall are gone completely. The north wall of the stable is the castle wall, and a wall has partially cracked, leaving a sliver of a hole in the side of the castle. To the southeast, beyond a small copse of trees, the side of the mountain runs diagonally south and west.
The stables were never fully repaired after the War. Nothing beyond insects or an occasional rodent live in the stables. The large spiders from room 7 might be attracted by an undue amount of noise in this area. The wall has partially caved in to room 7, leaving a thin crack that a shorter character might be able to slip through—and that the spiders definitely can.
There is also a secret (on this side) door into the old meeting room (8). The door is kept closed by the goblins, but is not as secret as it once was due to age and neglect. Rolls to see it are at a bonus of 2.
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