91 rooms · levels 50–55
This room is a bloody mess... What else would you expect in Castle Dreadyre?
This passage is lined with a tattered, stained rug that mocks the once regal air of the castle, and its walls are scarred with the signs of battle. A set of stone steps descends to the sitting room on the main floor, and the passage continues south into the Great Hall.
This is the eastern end of the Castle's Great Hall. The fine marble that tiled the floor is shattered and scarred, and the paintings and tapestries that lined the eastern wall lie in broken heaps or hang in ribbons from their mountings. The hall continues west, and a smaller passage leads north.
This is the center of the Great Hall of Harakus, the most lavish chamber of the castle, stripped of its splendor by the siege. All that remains are scorched and scarred pillars, smashed furniture and a scratched, splintered marble floor. The great chandelier that once shone over royal balls and ceremonies lies in a shattered heap in the middle of the room. The hall continues west and east.
This is the western end of what is left of the Great Hall of Harakus; its high vaulted ceiling is nearly the only thing still whole. Tall windows in the southern wall look out over the front wall of the castle. A ravaged hallway leads north, the hall continues east, and a wide set of steps descends to the main floor.
This hallway was badly damaged in the attack on the castle. Only a few blood-soaked patches of the elegant carpet remain; the rest is shredded or gone, and the heavy wooden furniture that lined the corridor is mangled and overturned. The hall leads south onto the Great Hall, and a doorway opens east into a dimly lit office.
The jungle path crests a low hill here, and the shrieks of wild animals and the drone of huge insects are nearly deafening. From the top of the rise the trees thin enough to the north to give a good look at what lies beyond: the dark towers of a ruined castle. To the east the trail joins a wider road through the jungle.
An old castle dominates the view, so ruined it looks ready to fall apart, and the jungle presses against its walls as if to swallow it. A great tower rises from its center, with four smaller towers at its corners. Blood runs steadily from an open window high in the southwestern tower, and a scream, faint with distance, drifts down from somewhere inside. The path winds west down to the drawbridge, and back south over the hill.
Just to the north a bridge crosses a vile moat to the gate of this dark castle. The smell of the dead hangs in the air, and it only grows stronger toward the bridge. A horrific scream rings out from the far northeastern tower... someone may still be alive in there! The jungle path leads back east.
The moat below is a dark greenish soup that smells of dead animals; a bloated warthog floats by, a lesson in what comes of drinking these stagnant waters. The bridge itself is still sound, as if no one has crossed it in years. A small guardhouse juts off the east end of the bridge, and to the north a portcullis bars the way into the decaying castle. The jungle path is to the south. A message is written on the wall.
The kingdom of Harakus once kept watch from this guardhouse over everyone who came and went. The vile creatures that sacked the palace never leave the castle walls, so the little house has been spared, the last sign of how fine Harakus was before its fall. The drawbridge is back to the west.
The walls here rise two stories, hung with dead brown vines, and the wind that funnels through the entryway carries the stench of death that fills this keep. The central courtyard opens to the north; the portcullis and the drawbridge are to the south.
This is the main courtyard of the castle, where its people once gathered for festivals, proclamations, plays and the occasional beheading; the great stage at its north side could hold an audience of hundreds. A stairwell leads down into the dungeons, sealed by a heavy gate of iron and stone that looks as if it has been locked for ages. The Great Hall lies to the north, and the way out of the castle is to the south. A note is being blown around in the wind.
This was once the Great Hall of Harakus. Portraits of every king to rule this palace since the dawn of time hang on the walls, some beaten, others slashed to ribbons. Long-dried blood stains the walls, the floor and even the ceiling, yet not a single body is to be found. The scent of death grows stronger, and screams and moans can just be heard. The hall continues north, and the courtyard is to the south.
The Great Hall runs north to the throne room and south to the courtyard, and two smaller hallways branch off: to the east lies the library, and to the west is darkness. Bloodstains grow more frequent here, and a fresh puddle has gathered in the corner of the eastern hallway. A grand staircase climbs to the second floor and the main tower, and another descends to the hallways below.
This was once the most elegant room in Harakus. Two thrones stand side by side, equal in stature, so buried in vines and rubbish that no one could sit in them. A huge stained glass window fills the northern wall and lets in the faintest light. Blood, smeared and pooled, coats nearly everything, but there is no body to show whose it was. A large message is written on the wall in blood. The Great Hall is back to the south.
This is the southern end of the great Harakus Library. What was once a wealth of knowledge is now little more than rubble: bookcases lie overturned, their contents litter the floor, and blood stains the walls and the debris as if a great battle was fought among the shelves. More of the library lies to the north, a sitting room is to the south, and the main hallway is back to the west.
This is the northern end of the great Harakus Library. Books and parchments are scattered everywhere. Only one book is still legible, sitting on a table in the middle of the room as if nothing had touched it. A study opens to the east, and more of the library lies to the south.
People once came here to read the library's books in peace and quiet. Now the tables are overturned, the reading candles smashed, and the chairs scored with claw and bite marks; the marks of battle are everywhere. The library is to the west and a hallway leads south.
This long, once exquisite hallway runs north and south through the keep. The doors on either side are useless, blocked by piles of debris. Puddles of blood cover the floor, and of all the decorative candle mounts on the walls only one still holds its candle, which looks as if it has not been lit in ages. The study is to the north and a conference room to the south.
A mighty oaken table fills the middle of the room, where the nobles once met to discuss the well-being of the castle. Now it is scarred with claw marks and stained with the blood of the very people it served, and moth-eaten tapestries hang from the walls, too torn to make out. Hallways lead north and south, and a sitting room is to the west.
Large, luxurious couches that once offered the height of comfort lie torn apart, their feathers and down scattered about the room with the remains of small tables and reading lamps. A small stage stands in the corner, where a musician once played to soothe his listeners; not even the sweetest melody could ease the horror that fills the kingdom now. A conference room is to the east and the library to the north, and a set of stone steps leads up to the second floor of the castle.
The main hallway of the castle runs north and south, and a smaller passage heads off to the west. A door in the eastern wall is blocked by a fallen bookcase, its shelves scarred and its contents stained with the blood of those who defended it. Blackened blood covers most of the walls and floor, testament to the horrendous battle fought here. The conference room is to the north, and the hallway continues south.
A spiral staircase twists down into the lower levels of the castle. It is noticeably warmer here than anywhere else in the palace: heat rises from the bottom of the stairs, and a yellow light dances on the wall about halfway down. A small hallway leads east to a larger passage.
A heavy stone staircase winds slowly up toward the castle's battlements, and the wind whips down it into the rest of the castle. The narrow landing opens onto a hallway to the north. The bloodstains that mar the rest of the palace thin out here.
A narrow walkway runs along the top of the front wall. Down below, beyond the wall, the drawbridge and the guardhouse can be seen, and far off to the southeast a large temple rises out of the jungle. There are no bloodstains up here at all. The catwalk runs west, and a stairwell winds down into the castle.
This is the middle of the catwalk along the top of the front wall, right above the castle gate. The drawbridge lies some forty or fifty feet below, and a fall from here would hurt badly... The catwalk runs east and west.
The catwalk ends here at the western corner of the front wall. In a frontal assault this would have been the ideal place for archers, yet there is no blood up here, as if Harakus was never ready for the onslaught that engulfed it. The walkway runs back east along the wall, and a stone staircase descends into the castle.
This landing at the foot of a rounding staircase opens onto a large hallway to the north, and the stairs climb to the battlements. The candles on the wall are all out, blown out by the harsh wind that comes down from above, and there is less blood here than in the rest of the castle.
Everything that stood in this once remarkable hallway has been destroyed: tapestries, bookcases and tables lie in heaps of bloodstained rubble. A staircase is to the east and a large kitchen to the north, and to the south the hallway opens onto a stone staircase. A note is sticking halfway out of a pile of rubble.
The staircase looks old and unstable. Its shaky steps descend into the lower level of the castle, into an impenetrable darkness, and another flight climbs to the second floor. There are more bloodstains and puddles here than anywhere else in the castle. A hallway is to the west.
Many wonderful meals were prepared here for the royalty of Harakus, but now the kitchen is in disarray, with utensils littering the floor and the sinks. The putrid smell of rotting meat fills the room, strongest from the food locker to the east. A back hallway leads north, and another hallway is to the south.
Servants once used this passage to carry meals from the kitchen, to the south, to the dining hall to the north. Trays, serving carts and silver utensils are thrown about among the bloodstains, and the smell of rotting food grows stronger toward the kitchen.
A long table runs east and west down the middle of this room. A large window in the northern wall is caked with dried blood, giving the whole room a reddish hue. A mass slaughter took place here: the half-eaten meals on the table say the people of Harakus were taken totally by surprise. The stale odor of death permeates every inch of the place. The dining hall continues east, and a back hallway leads south.
The table here is long enough to seat more than a hundred people on its two sides. It survived the battle that wiped out the people of Harakus, though not without damage; the chairs were smashed to bits. The other end of the dining hall is to the west, and a hallway leads south.
The hallway splits here, one way running north into the dining hall and the other south toward a storeroom, while the intersection by the Great Hall is to the east. The smell of death mixes with the putrid smell of rotting meat; the kitchen must not be far away.
The food supply of Harakus was kept here, but the heaps of rancid, maggot-infested meat say it went bad a long time ago, and the stench is overpowering. A hallway leads north, and the kitchen is to the west.
Four hallways come together here beneath the castle. A woman's scream echoes from the corridor to the east; from the west there is only silence, a faint dripping comes from the north, and a deep growl from the cellar to the south warns all to keep away. A staircase climbs to the main floor.
What was once a grand wine cellar has been reduced to rubble: the cases are smashed to pieces, wine has spilled across the floor and broken bottles lie everywhere. What kind of beast could wreck a room so savagely? The intersection is to the north.
This hallway is a dead end, flooded with two feet of greenish water that reeks of dead fish. A small grate in the northern wall drips water steadily into the room. An intersection of hallways is back to the south.
The waters of this moat are a greenish yellow and smell worse than trollish bile, and large tentacles break the stagnant surface now and then. What kind of beast lives in such a place? A grate in the castle wall offers an escape back inside, and vines hanging from the bank above could be climbed up out of the moat.
Shrubs and tangled plants cover the ground behind the castle, and the jungle rises like a wall a few feet beyond, too thick to enter. A small path heads off east toward a large cave, and the moat lies below, its repulsive smell wafting up the bank.
An eerie pulsing glow comes from the mouth of a large cave to the north, growing brighter toward its back. The distant rumble of something huge moving about inside is a clear warning not to disturb what lives within. A small path leads west along the moat.
Every piece of furniture that stood here is smashed to rubble, blackened, dried blood is spattered into every corner, and weapons lie scattered about. The corridor bends north, and the intersection is back to the west.
Every kind of weapon known is thrown about this long hallway: swords, axes, maces, cudgels, even a set of nunchaku. All of them are brittle and rusted now, but they must have taken many lives; a slaughter of epic proportions happened here long ago. Side passages lie buried under mounds of bloodstained weapons that would take hours to dig through, so the only ways on are the corridor bending south and the hallway running east to the tower.
Written on the eastern wall in huge smears of blood is the word War. Weapons and the gear of war lie everywhere, so thick it is hard to move between them. The staircase up into the northeastern tower is clear, but a sudden scream of pain warns against disturbing whoever lives up there. The weapon-strewn hallway leads back west.
Torture devices can be made out among the heaps of weaponry and debris: a rack against the northern wall, a chair studded with large spikes by the western one. The screams from the top of the tower are clearer here, plainly a woman's, and crashing and pounding noises go with them. The staircase climbs on toward the screams and descends to the lower levels of the castle.
The screams of pain and suffering are almost deafening now. The door to the room at the top of the tower is just above, and it grows harder to climb over the mountains of fallen weapons. The stairwell leads back down into the castle.
A large unmade bed fills the middle of the room, with dressers and end tables set about it and clothes strewn on the floor. A small chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and a window in the eastern wall lets in a little light through heavy black curtains. The stairs lead down.
Everything here is broken to pieces, bookcases, tapestries and benches heaped into piles of debris. The sounds of clawing and biting fade, and puddles of blood seem to take their place. The eerie quiet gives a feeling that something is not right. The corridor runs on west, and an intersection of hallways is to the east.
The sounds of horror that fill the rest of the castle can no longer be heard. Some bookcases and desks have survived the ravages of battle and time, and the debris is thinner, yet nothing eases the dread that fills these walls. The corridor runs east and west.
A staircase climbs into the northwestern tower of the castle. Not a footfall can be heard here, nor any other sound; the eerie silence is a warning to go carefully. A hallway is to the east.
A lone torch flickers on stone and mortar as the staircase spirals upward, and more torches set in the curved wall make a voiceless chorus of dancing shadows. Shadows of unknown origin dart in and out at the edge of the light, and now and then one seems to glide out of rhythm with the rest. Not a sound can be heard. The stairs climb on, and lead back down to the lower hallways.
Darkness seeps through this part of the tower; the torches gave up their weary vigil long ago. The unearthly silence seems able to steal the breath of the living and leaves them without hope. The cold steps wind up and down.
Deprived of sound and light, the cold stone stairs climb until they end at the ceiling of the tower. It does seem odd that a staircase leads to nowhere... The only way out is back down the stairs.
Stairs lead down here from the courtyard, behind a heavy gate, into the filthy prisons where the vile and dangerous criminals of Harakus were once kept. A hallway leads south to the cells. It is colder here than anywhere else in the castle, almost painfully so.
The prison hallway runs south toward another cell and north toward the stairs. The door of the cell to the east is rusted open, and the door of the cell to the west lies on the ground, off its hinges. Long-extinguished torches hang on the walls in rusted sconces.
A small wooden board hangs from the eastern wall, once the bed of countless prisoners. A few old mats and a great deal of dust are all else the cell holds. Its door is rusted open onto the hallway to the west. The cell is unnaturally cold.
This cell holds nothing but dust, spiderwebs and its own door, lying on the floor. The doorway to the east leads back to the prison hallway. A closer look shows a little blood seeping out from under the western wall.
Blood pours steadily into this room from a grate in the ceiling. All four walls are smeared with it and the floor is ten inches deep in it. In the middle of the floor the pool swirls into a whirlpool that is drawn magically upward rather than down. The only way out is to the east, back into the dungeons.
The prison hallway runs north to the other cells and south to a locked cell. Extinguished torches hang on the walls, and the cell doors on either side are rusted shut. The door of the cell to the south has a brand new lock.
A mat lies on the ground by the eastern wall of this cramped cell, and small rodents scuttle away as the door opens. Spiders scurry up the webs on the ceiling and walls, and dust covers everything. The way out is north into the prison hallway.
Flames dance up the walls and across the floor and ceiling to the east, as if the whole hallway there were made of fire. The heat can be felt from here, and it says plainly: do not enter. A stairway leads up into the cooler rooms of the castle.
Flames dance madly over the walls, the ceiling and the floor, reaching out to engulf anyone who passes. The fiery hallway turns south; to the west it is merely hot. Go carefully.
Bright flames cover the walls, the floor and the ceiling. A closer look shows the fire springing from the mortar of the stone walls themselves: magical fire, for only the strongest of mages can make fire that burns forever from nothing. A stone staircase, also covered in fire, lies to the east, and the hallway runs back north.
This staircase climbs into the southeastern tower of the castle. Fire dances on every wall and on the stairs themselves, so hot it must be magical. Looking up shows only a column of fire with the staircase climbing its empty core into blackness. The hallway of fire is to the west.
Fire blazes around the circular wall of the tower, fed somehow by the mortar of its stones, and streams of flame chase each other across the floor and the ceiling. The smell of death and the sight of blood are forgotten; there is only the torturous heat. The flaming staircase climbs toward the top of the tower and descends to the basement, both ways through the same unbearable fire.
Flames dance madly around the circular wall and the stairway. A small haven from this blazing inferno can be seen just one more flight up, though what lives there may be fiercer than the fires that rage around these walls. Below is nothing but a column of fire with the staircase plunging through its black center.
This small bedroom is a haven from the fires below; it must belong to whoever made that barrier. A mat on the floor under the window and a reading desk beneath a lamp are the only signs that anyone sleeps here. A large pentagram is drawn on the floor in blood. The stairs lead back down into the flames.
This chamber is barely visible under a thick cloak of suffocating darkness; even magic and lamps show only vague shapes. Steps lead up, and a hallway of sorts heads west.
A light flickers on a wall to the south, but otherwise this corridor is sunk in darkness. Blood a foot deep floods the floor and flows away through a small grate at the bottom of the southern wall. Since the level never falls, something must be feeding it... The chamber of darkness is to the east.
A small torch halfway down the eastern wall barely lights this stretch of hallway, though it is enough to make out an exit to the west. The blood is so deep here that one would have to swim or fly to go on. A large stone block peeks out of the thick pool, which swirls round and round as if it were draining away somewhere under the floor. The hallway runs back north.
Blood flows steadily down this staircase, rolling off each step on its way. Torches hang about the room, so someone must still live here, though who would live amid so much blood? It is almost six feet deep and threatens to drown anything that passes. The stairs climb into the tower, and the hallway is to the east.
Blood flows steadily down the rounding staircase from somewhere far above and into the swamp of blood below. Torches light the way as the stairs twist upward into the castle's southwestern tower.
Blood flows steadily from the room just above. An altar to the Prince of Darkness stands here, with sacrificed animals and people strewn about it; two candles burning on the altar give the only light. The stairs climb to the source of the blood and descend into the tower.
The source of the river of blood is a huge altar to the Prince of Darkness in the middle of the room. Blood pours endlessly from the mouth of a large cloaked statue at its center, and bloody knives and the corpses of young women lie slumped across it. Hundreds of candles burn about the altar. The blood flows away down the stairs into the castle below.
The great staircase rises here from the main floor and continues up into the central tower of the palace. Four hallways branch off from the landing, each ending in a room: the king's office to the north, a meeting chamber to the east, the High Chancellor's office to the south and the palace safe room to the west.
The king came here to study and to ponder the kingdom's problems. Now his great oaken desk is demolished and his papers are scattered about the room. The king's journal rests among the rubble of his desk. The landing is back to the south.
Glass display cases are smashed, the large wooden display tables broken to pieces, and the elegant tapestries torn and covered in blood. The crown jewels and treasures lie scattered about the room: whoever attacked was not after the wealth of Harakus. The landing is to the east.
A large redwood desk has been smashed into hundreds of pieces, nearly every one of them bloodied. Wisps of smoke still rise from a small reading lamp, as if it was put out only moments ago. An open doorway leads north to the landing, and another opens onto a hallway to the west.
The large black table in the middle of this chamber survived the battle that ended Harakus, though not without scars. The king and his counselors met here to discuss the affairs of the realm; now the room is only a solemn reminder of what once was. An exit leads west to the landing.
The great staircase spirals up toward the bedroom of the King and Queen. It is made of the finest ebony, with a banister of wrought gold, and a once rich carpet runs down the middle of its marble steps, now dyed horrid shades of scarlet and violet by the blood spilled defending the royal bedroom. Below is the second floor landing.
Blood stains the tattered carpet on the marble stairs, and the golden banister is deeply scarred and bent by the fighting that raged here. Smears of blood cover the walls, yet with all these signs of death, no bodies are to be found. A faint groaning drifts down from the royal bedroom above, and the stairs spiral down toward the second floor.
What was once the royal bedroom of the King and Queen of Harakus is now the home of a great stone altar: a slab of blackened stone a foot off the floor, with an arching pillar of obsidian standing over it like a doorway to nowhere. The furniture is smashed, and blood covers the rest of the room. A book lies open on the altar to a very interesting passage. The stairs spiral down into the central tower.
Screams of pain and agony echo endlessly through this dreaded void of nothingness and darkness. Lost souls float in every direction, tortured forever by unseen demons, and just beyond sight light sparks in many-colored arcs that tangle and dive and vanish. A current of drifting souls leads north, deeper into the realm.
The souls of the dead flow past here like a river, moaning, their faces stretched in endless torment as they drift toward a darkness to the north, where something vast and cold waits on a throne. A field of writhing shapes lies to the east, the clash of battle comes from the west, and the current back toward the portal runs south.
At the heart of the Realm of the Dead stands a throne of bone and shadow, and the cold here is the cold of the grave. Every soul in the realm is drawn toward this place, toward the one who rules it. The river of souls flows away to the south, and the pit of black fire burns to the west.
Shapes writhe on a plain of ash beneath a sky that is no sky, pinned down by unseen demons who never tire. Their choked cries and maddening, jumbled voices fill the nothingness. The river of souls flows past to the west.
The clank of weapons and the cries of the dying ring out here: the echoes of every battle ever lost, fought again and again by shadows that never fall. Through the din a dull red glow shows to the north. The river of souls is to the east.
A pit of black flame burns in the void here, giving heat without light, and the souls drawn into it scream without end. A great cold presence waits to the east, and the clamor of battle comes from the south.
This large cave of rough-hewn stone is bathed in a strange, unnatural light. A close look at the glowing walls shows that the power in them is psionic. A huge sleeping hollow fills the back of the cave, and a great pile of bones is heaped against its eastern wall. The only way out is to the south.