Page 62 - Curse of Strahd_Neat

Both staircases in the north wall lead down to area
Everything in this room is coated with dust, including Kl 9. The eastern double doors can be pulled open to
a large, heavy table in the center of the floor. A thick book reveal area K26 beyond. The single door in the east wall
lies open on a desk, with an inkwell and a quill next to it. opens into area K30.
There is a broken door in the north wall, and a staircase FORTUNES OF RAVENLOFT
in the south wall plunges into darkness. On each side of · If your card reading reveals that a treasure is here, it
the staircase, a skeletal figure draped in gleaming chain lies on the marble dais, just behind the throne.
mail stands sagging at attention, holding a rusty halberd. If your card reading indicates an encounter with
Strahd in this area, he is sitting on the wooden throne.
The skeletons, which were assembled by Cyrus Belview K26. GUARDS' POST
(see area K62), are held together with wire frames and
hung on pegs. They pose no threat. If the characters enter this hall through either set of
The staircase descends to area K62. The east door double doors, read:
leading to the courtyard is swollen in its frame and re­
quires a successful DC 10 Strength check to force open. The doors open to reveal another set of double doors
The north door is cracked and hangs loose on its hinges; ten feet ahead, Between these doors, a ten-foot-wide
beyond it lies another dust-filled chamber (area K24).
The ancient book is weathered and brittle, but the ink corridor stretches north to south. At each end of the hall,
in the well is fresh. At the top of each page is scribed floating in the darkness, is a human skeleton clad in the
the message "Please register for your own convenience rusted armor and tattered livery of a castle guard.
and that of your next of kin." The book is more than half­
filled with names, all of them illegible.
The "floating" skeletons hang from pegs on the north
K24. SERVANTS' UARTERS and south walls. The skeletons, which were assembled
by Cyrus Belview (see area K62), are held together
with wire and are harmless. Behind the skeleton on
Broken furniture and torn cloth are strewn about this the north wall is a secret door that can be pushed open
twenty-by-forty-foot room. Dim light comes from a pair into area K33.
If the characters enter this hall by way of the secret
of dirt-caked windows in the northeast corner. A narrow door that adjoins area K33, they see the skeleton hang­
staircase with no railing ascends along the north wall. ing on the inside of the secret door as soon as they pull
it open, and, with a light source or darkvision, can see
the skeleton at the south end of the hall as well.
The stairs lead to area K34.
K27. KING'S HALL
COURT OF THE COUNT
Refer to map 4 of the castle for areas K25 through K34.
This twenty-foot-high hall has a dark, vaulted ceiling
K25. AUDIENCE HALL draped with cobwebs. A low moan seems to travel the
length of the corridor as it rises and falls, intoning sad­
ness and despair.
Dim light from the courtyard falls into this great hall
through the broken glass and iron latticework of a large
window in the west wall. This immense room is a place The moaning is only the wind.
Characters who examine the ceiling can, with a suc­
of chilly, brooding darkness. Empty iron sconces dot cessful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check, spot pulleys
the walls. Hundreds of dust-laden cobwebs drape the and a rope that run the full length of the corridor along
hall, hiding the ceiling from view. Directly across from the ceiling, well hidden by the cobwebs, These items are
the window stand a set of double doors in the east wall. explained in "Flight of the Vampire" below.
Farther south, a single door also leads from the east wall. Halfway down the hall on the south side is a narrow
Staircases at both ends of the north wall lead down. secret door that can be pulled open to reveal area K31.
At the far southern end of the hall, a large wooden FLIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE
throne stands atop a marble dais. The high-backed Hidden in a compartment above the western set of dou­
throne faces south, away from most of the room. ble doors is a dressed wooden mannequin that looks
exactly like Strahd. It Weil.rs a blackcloak, its fangs are
bared; and its -arms and clawed fingers are outstretched
A secret door in the sC>uth wall leads to area K13. It is in a threatetiing ,manner.The mannequin is attached
hidden by dust and cobwebs, and requires a successful to a roJe that runs" through pull�ys fc.!stened alo!"}g the
·
DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check to find. length of the hallway cei_liQg. ·

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==--•-::-- CHAPTER 4 I CASTLE RAVEN LO.IT 61
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