Page 86 - Curse of Strahd_Neat
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spike or by some other means, it opens when 100 K84. CATACOMBS
pounds of weight or more is placed on it. When the
trapdoor opens, everyone who is standing on it slides
into the marble chute below (area K82). The trapdoor
then resets. Buried deep beneath the �eep of Raven loft lie ancient
catacombs, with arched ceilings supported by wide, hol
K82. MARBLE SLIDE low columns that double as crypts. Cobwebs hang limp
If one or more characters fall through the trapdoor in in the musty air. A thick fog clings to the Acor, which is
area K81, read: covered in putrid waste. The black ceiling is moving.
The catacombs fill an area roughly 110 feet east to west
You fall into a chute of polished black marble and slide
l ] by 180 feet north to south, and the floor is covered in
into the darkness.
several inches of bat guano. The catacombs are made
up of 10-foot-wide arched walkways running between
The chute plunges from the trapdoor in area K81 10-foot-square crypts, which serve as pillars that sup
through a one-way secret door into a flooded cell (area port the 20-foot-high ceiling. The area has five means of
K74e). Characters who slide all the way to the bottom entry and exit:
are deposited in the cell, but take no damage. The slide , The door adjacent to crypt 1 (connecting
contains no handholds and is too slippery to ascend with area K81)
without the aid of magic. , A barred archway to the north (connecting
with area K85)
K83. SPIRAL STAIR , A barred archway to the south (connecting with area
I I , A barred archway to the east (connecting
K86 but warded by teleport traps)
with area K87)
Behind the door lies a dark spiral staircase.
• The high tower stair (area K18) or the shaft (area
The staircase starts at area K78, climbs to a landing at K18a) to the west
area K83a, and continues upward to area K37. Each crypt is sealed with a chiseled stone "door"-ac
tually a tight-fitting stone slab measuring 3 feet wide,
K83A. SPIRAL STAIR LANDING 5 feet tall, and 3 inches thick. Removing or resetting a
An extension of area K83, this landing is shown stone slab requires an action and a successful DC 15
on map 11. Strength check.
Each crypt houses the remains of the person or per
sons whose epitaph is inscribed on the front of the slab.
This forty-foot-long corridor connects two spiral stair The crypts are described in the following sections, their
epitaphs noted under the crypt's number in italics.
ways, one leading up and the other descending into the
Unless noted otherwise, each crypt contains a 3-foot
depths of Castle Raven loft. Hanging from an iron rod
by-6-foot rectangular bier of marble, 3 feet high, with a
bolted to the eastern wall is a dusty, ten-foot-square tap
skeleton draped in rags lying atop it.
estry depicting knights on horseback charging across a The catacombs are home to tens of thousands of bats.
The bats hang here during daytime hours and fly out in
battlefield under a bloodred sky. The lead knight rides a
black horse and wears a fur-lined black cloak, dark gray the evening through the high tower's central shaft (area
K18a) to hunt at night. They will not attack intruders
armor, and a visored helm shaped like a wolf's head. His
unless they are provoked or are specifically commanded
sword glows with the light of the sun.
to do so by Strahd. If one or more bats within a 10-foot
square on the map are attacked or caught in the area
The stairs at the nor.th end of the west wall descends of a harmful spell, 2d4 swarms of bats form in that
to a door leading to area K78. The stairs at the south area and attack. No more swarms can be formed in that
end of the west wall lead up, ending at door that opens square until the next dawn, when more bats arrive to
into area K37. replenish those that were killed.
TREASURE TELEPORT TRAPS
The tapestry depicts Strahd's father, King Barov, lead Invisible teleport traps are lo.cated between crypts 37
ing his fearsome knights into.glorious battle. The tap and 38, .between crypt 3� and the wall south of it, and
estry weighs 10 pounds arid is· worth 750 gp intact. If it · between crypt 38 and the wa!Lsciuth of it. The. traps
·
becomes damageifwhile iii t_he party's possession, it is can't be perceiveq excepf�it1{�f}a¢;cfpiagic'spell, .··.
... whtih.i:ey_�13ii, an',a1,1ra of cd�}ur�tlon·iiagic in the
worthless unless mende,d. ··.· r r . .,- ,.
,
..
,· ... ,. .. ·.;· t�.' .J;(··-(·�·-;.,::-�: .- r .. : _ _.
. ·.·-.. , ...... -: ...
··.: . _. .. •, .' ...
: . ;·.
CHAPTER 4 I CASTLE RAVENLOFT •
85
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