Once upon a time, a noble knight opposed the witch Iggwilv.

However, Iggwilv was the lover of the arch demon Grazzt. And Grazzt used his power – and an opportunity given by a traitor – to banish the knight and his entire castle from the World of Greyhawk into the Abyss.

A few hundred years later, it has returned. Guess what my group are now exploring?

Our Friday night Greyhawk campaign is running fortnightly, and typically runs for 2-1/2 hours each session. The group has now spent two sessions exploring the castle. Well, actually less than that, since the first session had the set-up and the travel to the castle environs.

The first session of exploration saw them find the first lot of demons that had come with the castle as it returned to the Prime Material Plane. Life-draining demons of horrid aspect, with large numbers of lesser demons surrounding them. But when they were slain, an eerie silence fell over the castle. It had been centuries. Surely the knight and his family were no longer alive?

Tonight’s session continued their exploration of the ground floor of the castle. I’d bought castle maps by Gabriel Pickard to populate, and set up a dynamic lighting grid on top to keep the sense of exploration.

Of particular note, they first found a secret door that led to the treasury. But first they found the remains of two unfortunate guards – but now were wraiths infused with abyssal fire. What made them different? Well, each time they took damage, they dealt 2d6 necrotic damage to each adjacent character; when slain they exploded in a 10-foot burst of necrotic fire (2d6 necrotic, 4d6 fire). Dexterity saves allowed a character to take half damage, but it was very damaging for the party.

Into the treasury, the party went, in which there were five chests. The contents:

• Chest #1 (locked, trapped with a poison needle): +1 adamantine shortsword
• Chest #2 (locked): 1000 sp, 200 pp
• Chest #3 (locked): 1000 gp
• Chest #4 (locked, magical trap summons a fire elemental myrmidon): wand of lightning bolts
• Chest #5 (locked, spraying acid trap): 1000 sp, 1000 cp

The rogue, with the paladin closely behind, investigated the chests and rolled incredibly poorly, finding only the trap on chest #1 – which he removed. The fire elemental was summoned and defeated. The acid sprayed both the paladin and rogue!

The rogue also failed to unlock all the locks. The party – after much discussion – found a crowbar and a potion of giant strength. Together, with the help of the artificer, they were finally able to open all the chests.

But then it was time to cast identify as a ritual. And my random monster check came up a 1 on a 1d6… monsters interrupted! In fact, three shadow demons, who proved very problematic. They’d emerge from the shadows then hide. All the party had darkvision, so there wasn’t a light source to stop the shadow demons hiding! By the time the battle was over, the party were more than ready for a short rest. I rolled for it, but no more random monster intervened.

Once they had regained their hit points (and with the sorcerer low on spells), they left the treasury and continued to explore, finding more stairs up, and another guard post – but, thankfully, no undead or demons.

The kitchen was empty, save for a lone keg. Quite paranoid, they avoided it.

They found several sets of stairs leading up, but preferred to stay on the ground level until it was fully explored.

The last significant encounter was in an orchard, where the twisted trees erupted as a Tree Blight, grabbing the rogue and dealing much damage to him. But then the Sorcerer used his blight spell for the first time! Apparently, Tree Blights aren’t immune to blight, and it was easily defeated.

There will be more secrets to find as they explore further. What happened to the knight and his family? What other foul creatures now live in the castle?

Not particularly surprisingly, we ended the session with the party leaving to take a long rest. It’s a dangerous place to explore!