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Castle Never#

Spire#

Above Chorom's wizard chambers. Huge scrying potential and magic potential.

irae used Power Word: Heal by channelling the power of the tower to get one last round in vs the party.

Courtyard#

Geography.#

Up one tower. Across one aqueduct. Into one tower. Spire that leads to mid air.
Main castle entrance only reachable from air gate across.

History#

Drow hit squad + earth quake caused the state it's in. Aboleths and their invasion after earth quake.

Enemies#

Deathlocks + Wights if resting.
Banshees in abandoned towers.
Specteres who offer encouragement or cryptic secrets to visitors
Ghosts equally likely to attack/ignore.
Not willing to provide hints of treasure. Violent reaction towards perceived thieves.

Old Drow encampment#

Now kept up to date by 10 grey cloaks. Holding off zombies with torches and weapons. Some of the members here are undercover drow from bregan-daerthe (informants only).

Treasure#

Crown of Neverwinter (Adv on Charisma check once per day)

Aboleth can reach up to the house with phantasmal force#

Also telepathy first. Quick "hello" sufficient. Then phantasmal illusion of Umberlee. Serpentine humanoid figure. Wavy teal hair that looks like it's fully enveloped in water. Floating above a translucent teal bridge that.

No words, but int save!
If she steps on it. Likely fall.
If she dosen't fade it away. Try Kavaki on GW.t

Original story#

To the uninformed eye, Castle Never looks like a big, hulking ruin. Half its towers fell in the cataclysm, and the wall on its seaward side crumbled to rubble. Chunks of stone and fallen statues litter the windswept courtyard. Inside, the stone corridors stink of ash and dust, which swirls up around the feet of intruders. Even in their emptiness, the corridors never seem vacant. The spirits of the hundreds who died here linger on.

An imposing fixture of Neverwinter’s western end, Castle Never stands as a monument to the city’s former glory. The cataclysm struck it hard, toppling towers, collapsing walls, and starting fires that burned throughout the structure. The entire royal family is thought to have perished, and the remaining servants sealed the vaults, crypts, and grounds with the hope that a worthy heir to Neverwinter would arrive one day to take his or her rightful place on the throne. On that day, it is said, the magic treasures and other resources of the castle will serve the new ruler.

The courtyard of Castle Never bears the traces of a camp that was well hidden but has become increasingly obvious from frequent use. The camp originally belonged to an infamous pair of drow: Drizzt Do’Urden, legendary ranger of the North, and the less well-regarded Jarlaxle, captain of the Bregan D’aerthe mercenaries. The two drow were in the area when the cataclysm claimed Neverwinter, and they still have interests in the region. Specifically, they are looking for clues to tie up a Thayan loose end from their last mission. The drow established this camp as a base of operations in Neverwinter, enabling them to keep an eye on their schemes in the city.

### Hall of Ashen Mirrors
Full-length mirrors once adorned the walls of this long corridor, wherein young heirs of Alagondar practiced their noble gait and posture. The mirrors shattered in the cataclysm, instantly killing anyone in the corridor at the time, just before a wave of searing gas blasted through the huge windows and turned the corpses to ash. This double catastrophe left the hallway a wasteland of soot and splintered glass.

Neverneath, Endless Maze#

The catacombs beneath Castle Never came through the cataclysm mostly untouched, thanks to a warding spell commissioned in times past to maintain the structural integrity of the castle. However, the Spellplague wrought strange changes upon the ward, which has grown in strength as a result of the seeping influence of the active plague deep under the earth. What once protected the catacombs now traps intruders.

The Inner Vault#

The inner vault of the Nine is a simple stone chamber sealed tight with the sigil of Neverwinter carved in its great stone doors. Within, nine marble coffins ring a central throne emblazoned with a sun; the coffins stand as its rays. The throne and the coffins glimmer with dim, warm light to illuminate a chamber carved with idyllic images of summer. In the vault, winter never falls, just as it never did during the time of the nine heroes here entombed.

Map#

Subset of huge map from https://i.redd.it/chfdcdmviem31.jpg
General features:
- hall of mirrors in long red carpet at top.
- Gas chamber trap room
- Slaad teleportation circle!
- Slaad transformation cells
- Aboleth in control (it has all the treasure)
- Cave of gnolls – path to underdark – serve Yenaghu
- Slaad + gnolls fight each other!

Gnoll society#

  • Ruled by a Flind CR9 153 + Shooshuva CR8 137 + 2Fangs of yenaghu.
  • Encounter: flind starts out back with arrow. Guarded by 10 gnolls?
  • Then unleashes shooshuva + 2 fangs.
  • 20-30 something flesh gnawer.
  • Maybe show an encounter between one blue slaad with 5 gnawers.
  • Feed mostly off rodents. Breed Girallions (152 volo)
  • If they befriend the Gnolls, they will tell them the place of their true master (yeenaghu). Ultimately he will just chase them down though.
  • Yenaghu lives on hunting down anything from underdark. Duergar this time?

Gnoll motivation#

Family. Raiding. Warriors. Hate the slaad. Feed sick gnolls to girallions.

Gnoll NPC – Dizz#

Wants Flind's flail so he can replace him. If he can be assassinated without anyone seeing it. He is. Watch for shooshuuva. Pet dog. Don't kill it please. Mine. From Baator. Works if they're stealthing.

Sneak in when sleeping. Release big apes. Sneak into his chamber when he leaves.

Gnoll Capture#

  • If they get captured. Take weapons, throw in armory. Keep one behind.
  • Torrg (better flind) will want them to assassinate the Grey. (Thinks that will make them break ranks).
  • "How we know you not run away?"
  • "Torrg better idea. Torrg and best warriors guard entrance to slaad. You return with grey head. You live."

Slaad society#

One death/grey rules. Rest mostly blue / reds. Makes order out of chaos. Fixes up the situation. Makes more slads.

Death/Grey: Ssendam#

Enslaved by Aboleth after appearance. Feeds it.
His area has two empty sockets, statue of a red and blue slaad.

Aboleth Koth M'gog, Mindgorger#

koth
- Slimy wet walls everywhere. Will make images of self in water. Water causes throwing up.
- Image of self can telepathy talk to people. Will learn desires of people it talks to.
- ASK TO LEARN DESIRES.
- Sends visions to people that are false.
- Obviously false. Pile of treasure. Instead lead into a trap room. Door shuts behind them.

Puzzle room#

Chess 8x8. 20ft by 80ft ledge. Hear bubbling acid. First square is safe. Squares above are stairs.
Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, Bishop, Knight, Rook. Tiles progress 5ft near where they are.

Regal figure with a crown on the far end. Blue light emanating from the head. Need to have 3 people across for it.

5ft at a time.

Crusher#

Room with a giant white gemstone sylinder floor and ceiling. Blood and crushed bones visible on the floor of it. Water around the corners of the room. 20d10 bludgeoning.

Death Slaad#

  • Pretends to be a grey cloak. Igor. Slightly broken english. Stuttery tick (caused by slaadness).
  • Went here 3 months ago, "they [cloaks] must've stopped looking for me"
  • There's many of us here. We've taken refuge down below, feastsing on gnolls.
  • Invis || plane shift if he's suspected.
  • Have you cleared a path? We could get the others. Come help. Some will need help carrying.
  • Been trying to figure it out.

Opens chest. Magical lock. Intense aura of Conjuration.
Claims he's harnessing the power of the shadows for Koth.

Slaad room#

Two statues. If he saws the heads it won't break the puzzle.

Mordai Vell#

Knows about the Wishes from Selune. Was a gift from Selune as thanks

Puzzle room 2#

Behind aboleth along with passage to underdark.

Encounter for Raffolk.#

Raffolk gets tempted with visions of his kid. Duncan.
He'll run after him into the magma pool.

Aboleth fight#

Death slaad: fireball. Then really wail on Zed. +11 to hit. Fear from corner! Major image to lure them in. He's hiding in one pool of water.
Enslave (use slack on the Wis save, 15DC – indicate eye shift)
Use it on spellcasters, then wail on Zed, then the Flind.
Slaad will protect the aboleth – but if they fail the hitting throw, it will go underwater. Down towards underdark.
Aboleth lair action will use the water attack all the time.
Aboleth will enslave. Zed/Flind. Then Tail swipe/pshycic drain on un-ensalved targets
Have a few grey cloaks there as enslaved. Buff Aboleth a bit in enrage? Go into ephemeral mode and gain Nihileth resistances.

It will escape through underdark if things look bad.

Treasure:#

red gem inside of it.
Dragonslayer greatsword.

Deus Ex machina#

Enemy of the gods: buff paladin + cleric
Voice/ghost/greycloak: run. Find Mordai. He knows.

Gnoll enclave#

Special gnoll dog. Whorlestone tunnels nearby?