Background

During the goblin wars, Illustrious Castle was overtaken. When the goblins were pushed back, the remnants of the Order of Illustration returned to the castle. But the best of the Order had been lost in the great push south.

The Order of Illustration, once dedicated to learning and the spread of knowledge became secretive and reclusive. Seen less and less often in the nearby town of Biblyon, they eventually disappeared completely. When, one late autumn the librarians and townsfolk investigated the castle, they found a mass suicide in a ruined castle. Unable to live with their degraded state, the Order had simply done away with itself.

Since then, the castle has been an eerie place, avoided, haunted. Biblyon remains a place of learning and research, but the deserted castle overlooks the town as a sleeping giant, empty, crumbling, and foreboding.

Biblyon, the Walled Library

Biblyon is a town founded for the preservation of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. It is a town filled not just with scholars, but with adventurous scholars. The kind that not only study natural philosophy but that head out into the wilderness and return with a dead mushroom walker or a jar full of oblivion fleas.

One of the first things that travelers from East will notice is that they are not asked to check their weapons at the gates, and that just about everyone carries at least a short sword. One of the first things that travelers from the West will notice is that even the women do so. Biblyon is too close to the wilderness to take any chances with its defense, and it is a far more enlightened town than Black Stag when it comes to treating women as equals. Biblyon’s life blood is scholarship, its currency is knowledge.

Many of the townsfolk trace their ancestry back to the knights of the Order of Illustration. Others are the offspring of, or even still are, farmers, merchants, and travelers from the West, East, and South. There is an infectious sense of camaraderie and competition in the air about Biblyon. A faction of Costumers has a fraternal house in Biblyon, and still hold to Dodgson’s call for more openness among sorcerors.

Biblyon is forty miles north of Hightown.

The History of Biblyon

Biblyon was founded as a place of learning by the Order of Illustration as they built Illustrious Castle. Biblyon is also known as “the walled library,” for the twelve-foot stone wall that spans the entrance to the town proper. When the Order still existed, the Order protected the town. Today the wall and the citizens themselves protect the town.

The Library at Biblyon

The Library of Biblyon is not as large as the library of the College at Crosspoint, but the quality of its holdings are unmatched. It has the most originals and the oldest works in all the known world. It is also the only real library in West Highland. Its collection of treatises on astronomy and on political science excel even the College at Crosspoint. The Library has 953 books and hundreds more manuscripts, including 132 books taken from the Castle after the fall of the Order. The number of books originally ran into the thousands, but many books were lost when the Goblin Mage overran Highland with his army of Orcs.

The main library in the castle was also trashed. The Order supposedly had thousands of books, some even from before the cataclysm. Only the above-mentioned 132 were salvaged from the library.

Tutoris Libris

The defense of Biblyon is managed by the Tutoris Libris, an elite guard of warriors and sorcerors devoted to the protection, dissemination, and gathering of knowledge. It is their mission, for example, to seek out interesting people and convince them that their journal is best kept in Biblyon after their death.

The History of Illustrious Castle

Illustrious Castle was built seven centuries ago. It was the first bastion of civilization this side of the High Divide. It was built by the Knights of the Order of Illustration after Vince Kellius led the Order of Illustration across the mountains and into West Highland to found a remote place of learning and research. He wished to create a place of enduring knowledge to counter the dark years following the cataclysm. In the east, where there were more people, there was a backlash against knowledge, against writing, against science, so he took his books and his priests across the mountains where they could be safe, and where they could wait until mankind once again was ready for learning.

During the Goblin Wars a century ago, the castle was overrun and the best of the Order died defending both it and the town of Biblyon. The remnants of the Knights of the Order were able to re-take the castle after the Great War, but their numbers were small and they weren’t the visionaries. The Order fell into decay. It broke its ties with the town. The Order became paranoid about spies, and would capture and torture anyone found near the castle. People stayed away. After a few years the townsfolk began to notice that no one in the Order had come to town for trade in many months. A visit to the castle confirmed that no one was left alive. It has been abandoned since then, nearly a century.

From that time, the castle has been used only as a source for furniture, and wood in winter, or, more recently, as nothing but a tale to scare children with. It is now seen only by wide-ranging farmers and hunters, who often pass below it traveling between their farms, or between their farms and Biblyon.

Stories are told in Biblyon of how children occasionally dare each other into the castle, but return with stories of strange noises and phantoms, horrible swamp creatures, gigantic spiders, and things that they can’t even begin to describe. The most persistent tales tell that the castle is haunted by the last leader of the Order, Tragos d’Illus.

Recent History

For the past several months travelers to Biblyon, hunters, and farmers, have been hit with a scattered string of Night Troll attacks. In this area, “Night Trolls” are goblins and hobgoblins, the former ruled by the latter. In this case, it has only been goblins. The attacks--or, more specifically, the rumor of them, as the attacks have been small in number--have slowed the trickle of travelers to only the most dedicated scholars.

Adventure Guide's Notes

The Order of Illustration

Old Deer River is an entrance to the Underground. In this area of the Underground are the Crab-Men, the Karuat. When the Karuat lived here originally, they lived above ground, but many millennia past they moved into the Underground, beyond the great lake beneath Illustrious Castle. Their burial ground beneath the castle is especially sacred to them, and while it does not play a part in this adventure, they still make regular trips to the burial area for their rituals. This could become the basis for a future adventure, of course.

Farmers and hunters still find stone spearheads from when the Karuat roamed aboveground.

A captured Night Priest subverted them into thinking that they could summon demons to gain knowledge and power.

The sacred nature of the Karuat burial chambers brought added power to the heretical attempts by the decayed Order to conjure forth demons in an attempt to gain further power and knowledge without working for it. They did not understand this place of power, and the demon rebelled against their summoning. He destroyed all within the castle. He was unable to escape and still lies in wait in the secret summoning areas beneath Illustrious Castle. In revenge, he has also caused Tragos d’Illus to remain and haunt the castle.

The growing power of the demon Eliazu has also spawned or summoned many twisted creatures in the area of the castle. As he grows in power, he draws more fantastic creatures to the castle.

The Night Trolls

The Night Trolls that have been acting in the area are Goblins who have rebelled against their Hobgoblin masters and taken up residence in the castle. They rebelled in the autumn, led by a tough and smart Goblin named Ustark. But Ustark died last All Hallows Eve under the influence of the Phantasm of Tragos d’Illus .

The remaining Goblins have simply been making ends meet, reveling in their freedom but having no vision for it.

The winter was long and cold, and they lived off of small animals who didn’t have the sense to hibernate, and by raiding local farms for stored food and farm animals. They have killed travelers and farmers, but they prefer to simply steal without confrontation whenever possible. They are open to bargaining if anyone understands their tongue.

Some townsfolk and farmers may remember the discovery of the dead orcs last summer, a tiny battle of large and small night troll corpses (orcs and goblins). “It looked as though they killed each other.”

They won’t necessarily mention that the fight happened by the castle. Bad things seem to happen there. Tom Corner over by the gap was attacked by a huge hawk last year. No one paid much attention to it, though Tom did need some convincing that it wasn't a demon. In fact, it was one of the blood hawks; but this was before the Crowns of Eyes began stealing body parts, so he eventually was convinced it was a normal hawk that looked big only because it was attacking him. But even if it were just a normal hawk, it’s the kind of thing that happens by the castle.

Timeline

Involving the Adventurers

The most obvious reason for the characters to be here is to study at Biblyon.

If the characters are traveling through the area that you have placed Biblyon and the castle, they might run across a burnt carriage (the source of the smoke that someone saw recently), and be able to trace the carriage’s attackers to the castle. Or, they might be visitors to Biblyon, looking for special knowledge known to be in Biblyon--or rumored to have been part of the knowledge that the Order took with it to its demise. If you choose the latter, you should put that knowledge, or a clue to that knowledge’s current location, somewhere in the castle, probably in the upper floor or in the basements.

Perhaps they’ve run across a reference in the diaries of the late Bishop Robert Agwood to the misgivings of the Order’s priest, Edgar Lewar.

If they’ve been through The Lost Castle of the Astronomers they may be looking for the secret underground complex built by the Dwarves.

Character History

If any of your players’ characters are from the area, they may ask if they’ve ever visited the castle. In general, adults steer clear of it at night, but they do often pass by. There is a natural resting spot just below the castle. Many farmers and travelers use it; it is about half a day’s walk to Biblyon. The natural path has always gone past the castle, that’s why they built the castle there.

Children, especially teen-agers, being what they are, it is not at all unlikely that some would go into the castle at night on a dare. Because travel tends to occur when the moon is at its brightest, it also isn’t unlikely that they will do so on a night when Tragos d’Illus is haunting.

If you wish to, and a player brings it up, you can simply roll: a 10% chance that if they entered the castle at night, they met with the apparition. Or you can simply decide that since they brought it up, it happened.

Yes, you remember the castle at night, the beams of moonlight shining like shafts through the holes in the stone castle walls. It was a warm night; you fell asleep inside the deserted foyer. When you awoke later, you felt the night’s chill, and you realized that someone was walking towards you in the dark hallway beyond the foyer. You heard the rustling of a dragging robe, and saw a king arrayed in the finest robes glide slowly into the deserted ballroom. It’s eyes were white discs writhing, and when it turned to you and opened its mouth crickets fell to the ground. You heard them fall. And then you turned and ran, out of the castle, across the castle grounds, and down the path to your campsite, and you kept running until morning, when you rested in a glade in the warm sunshine. Your friends who had dared you to go inside ran when they heard you screaming. You later pretended that you’d just been kidding them, and boy were they scared! But you will never forget that gaping mouth leaking bugs to the stone floor.

You have never been in Illustrious Castle again, not even during the day.

It is unlikely that anyone will be in the castle on Hallowe’en night, as people are genuinely afraid of the place, and the night when spirits walk is not a time to be in a haunted castle. If a player assures you that their character did, find out who else went in with them. There were others; if there weren’t, their character would not have come out alive. Some of their friends did not, and the worst part is that their friends died at the hands of each other. Their character barely escaped alive. That bloody night has haunted them ever since.

In either case, this information should be conveyed privately to that player.

Adventurer Level

This adventure is designed for characters of second to third level. At least one sorceror or prophet is expected, and probably at least two warriors and one thief.

The adventure is also sparsely populated, especially in the dungeon. If the characters require more of a challenge, you can choose to place Eliazu at a more advanced stage in his plans. More demons, more skeletons and perhaps other undead, especially in the basement. More fantastic evil creatures in the castle and the surrounding forests.

Treasure

Coins in this adventure are given as coins in Highland. A shilling is one monetary unit, a penny is a twelfth monetary units, a half-penny is half that, and a farthing is a forty-eighth monetary unit. If you use the generic system, just make a shilling one unit, a penny a tenth unit, and a farthing two hundredth units.

Inside the castle, there are also special coins made by the Order. See the back for more information about these coins.

After the Adventure

Unless the characters find the scepter, the castle (or its ruin) is likely to remain haunted by Tragos d’Illus. Depending on whether the characters took anything from the Karuat tomb, the Karuat may come looking for their relics.