What's inside Fortress Ytrigall?

Week one! see my previous post for the map, enjoy!

 1/1: The Old Gatehouse

Across a dry moat, the gaping mouth of the gatehouse lays open, its massive drawbridge pulled down and its chains ripped out. A rusted and decrepit portcullis blocks the path for those who cannot squeeze through. A trapdoor, used to pour hot sand on would-be attackers below, lays open. The only thing issuing forth from its gaping emptiness now is darkness. A massive rotting wooden door blocks the southern exit, its once-proud metal bindings now rusted and forgotten.

A stuck door in the eastern side of the hall leads to a small barracks room. A table and three chairs stand in a corner, pushed to the side to allow for a bed or two to occupy the rest of the space. Arrow loops line the western side of the room, having once allowed those inside to fire on attackers. A large stone spool, once used to hold the drawbridge chain, is discarded in the corner. A skillful sketch of a woman in antiquated clothing posing on a rock with her knitting has been affixed to the wall over one of the beds. The only word written on the portrait is “Saravell.”

-Searching will turn up 2d6 copper coins in the bedding and scattered on the floor here, as well as a set of two knuckle bone dice on the tabletop. The dice are carved from orc bone.

A small hallway in the western side of the entrance hall leads to a door guarded by an arrow loop. The door to this room is stuck shut. Inside, a cabinet of crumbling dry oak lays against the western wall. A spiral staircase leads to the second story of the guardhouse and access to the outer walls. The wall facing the gate entrance hall is fixed with arrow loops. A stone spool, much like the one in the eastern room, is all that is left here.

-Searching the cabinet yields a set of chainmail, two round shields emblazoned with the sword and scepter charge of the kings of Nogash on them, and two maces. The other contents are too degraded to be of any use. Behind the arms and armor, a note has been hastily scratched on the back of the cabinet. It reads “I wish I had never come to this benighted place. Pellemal, please protect me.”

 

 

1/2: The Stables

The only indication of the age of this building is its partially-collapsed and overgrown roof. Two large wooden doors allow entrance to the modest stable. The smell of old straw and horse shit lies pungent in the air here. The stable floors are mucky and covered with old, rotting straw. Most of the stable doors have survived intact. On the western wall, a rack holds rakes and shovels, along with assorted tack. The saddles and tack are on the verge of disintegration, but the other implements may be salvageable. Scraping and sounds of eating can be heard from the backmost stall. Inside, four zombies crouch, eating the remains of a poor dwarf. They are too engrossed to notice the PCs when they first enter.

-A search of the stalls will turn up 3 silver coins. The zombies are clearly adventurers, though who can tell just how long they’ve been dead. Between them, they have a total of 25 gold pieces in their pouches. Among the mangled remains of the dwarf, ten +1 sling stones and a silver necklace with a moonstone (150gp) are all that can be recovered.

 

 

1/3: The Keep

Dominating the landscape, this formidable building stands over three stories tall. The structure bristles with arrow loops, and its vaulted top is ringed with jagged crenulations. The bluestone structure of the building remains intact to this day, having endured much siege and bloodshed. From the north, one must pass before the formidable keep and around its side while facing a wall of arrow loops. 

Besiegers must climb an exposed staircase that wraps around the eastern side of the keep, terminating at a ten-foot gap in the wall across from a stone platform that allows entry to the second floor. A small drawbridge can be lowered from the platform to allow passage across the gap and to the front door. There are no windows or arrow loops on the ground floor, protecting those inside from attackers. The ground floor is only accessible from inside the keep on the second story.

A large staircase in the northwest side of the keep descends from the second floor to the ground floor. Its banisters are well-hewn marble, and its steps are quite worn with use. The stairs open upon the kitchen, where a large rectangular table dominates the room. Old, rusted pots and pans hang from the ceiling, a massive fireplace is built into the south wall, and cabinets full of broken pottery line the rest of this room. The entire room looks like it had been ransacked at some point, but whatever someone was looking for, they left most of the kitchen strewn about the room trying to find it.

-In the southwestern corner of the kitchen, next to the fireplace and behind a small table, a SECRET TRAP DOOR leads to the catacombs below. The objects in this room are mostly all falling apart, though a thorough search will yield a medium-sized cooking pot that is still intact.

A door on the eastern wall of the kitchen leads to a cramped room stuffed full of rotting bunk beds. The smell of old sweat and sickness hangs in the air here,

-Among the bedding and rotting wood, 10 silver coins, a small bronze holy symbol (10 gp), and a scroll of Protection From Evil written in a delicate and spidery script can be found.

The door to this room, found on the western wall of the kitchen, is locked (key on floor 3.) This is clearly a storeroom. There are at least a dozen barrels of varying sizes stacked along the northwestern corner. On the southern wall, a mass of crates and smaller casks are stacked. In the northeastern corner, a well has been dug, allowing for fresh water to be brought up during a siege.

-The room contains:

3 barrels of Radillian Ice Wine (140 gp a piece). A small cask each of dried apricots, salt pork, dried plums, rotten apples, and walnuts. A large barrel of rotten onions. 2 large barrels of rancid flour. A crate of fine porcelain goblets (250 gp in total). A crate of silver flatware (400 gp). A crate of dried beets. 3 small casks of barley flour. A small crate containing an ornate carving knife (+1 vs. chaos).

          

1/4 : The Temple

The exterior of the temple was once covered in white plaster painted to appear as if wrapped in hawthorn, oak, and linden boughs. The plaster is now mostly crumbled away to reveal the large bluestone blocks underneath. The stained-glass windows, patterned after the four High Gods of the local faith remain remarkably intact. Beyond a stout oak door carved in verses from a long-forgotten hymn, a large statue of the sun god Pellemal greets those who enter.

 In the southeastern and northeastern corners of the main chamber, two smaller statues on pedestals display a phoenix and a griffon respectively. In front of the large statue of Pellemal, a small altar table stands. Candles, dust, and a rusted pewter pan still awaiting alms are all that remain on its surface. A ladder in the southwestern corner leads to the bell tower above.

-If both small statues are removed from their plinths, the large statue will lower a few inches with an audible click and its chest will hinge open to reveal a holy book containing three loose scrolls (Detect Evil, Remove Fear, and Snake Charm), a potion of Detect Illusion, and a thumb-sized ruby in an elaborately carved gold medallion (400 gp, key to next month’s dungeon level.)

-A secret trap door in the northern side of the room leads to the catacombs below.

 

1/5: The Barracks

This two-story wooden barracks has certainly seen better days. The first floor seems mostly intact, if not weathered and decrepit. The second floor, however, has not been as lucky. A large hole in the roof has exposed the interior to the elements, and a small willow tree can be seen sprouting from the hole.

 

 

 

The main room is populated by a small table on the southern wall lined with the broken remains of cookware, a small round table and chairs, and a cracked and leaking fireplace. The window in the southern wall is broken and a cold wind blows in. The door to the north leads to a small storeroom with rotten and unsafe food stores. In the northwest corner, a staircase leads to the second story.

1/6: The Courtyard

Though it is not marked on the map, the courtyard is strewn with detritus. Broken and aging stone rubble, rotting wooden constructions, and the carcasses of some predator’s last meal can all be found in heaps inside the fortress’s walls. If your players would like to spend time searching, for every 10 minutes they spend looking through rubble, roll on the chart below to determine what they may have found. You may decide when they have found all there is to find.

11.	Nothing but soot, dust, dung, and stones.
12.	A scratched hand mirror the size of an apple, a rotten burlap sack of rusted nails, 2d10 sling stones, and a dagger.
13.	A rusted but working padlock, 7 feet of silver chain (300 gp), a fork with an ivory handle.
14.	An intact metal buckler (+1 armor), a long knife (as short sword), and an empty quiver.
15.	A scroll case containing a love letter addressed to a PC (the letter writer does not reveal their identity.)
16.	An old winter cloak, dirty and tattered but still usable.
21.	Nothing but soot, dust, dung, and stones.
22.	A rusted horse brand (as club), iron welding pliers (as club), and a blacksmith’s maul (as war hammer.)
23.	A corroded brass horn.
24.	A tin whistle in the shape of an elf laughing.
25.	3d6 gold coins.
26.	A tattered book on dwarven marriage chants.
31.	Nothing but soot, dust, dung, and stones.
32.	A silver scabbard, chased with gold wire. The top of the scabbard has been adorned in moonstones and onyx in the High Elven fashion (725 gp)
33.	2 bottles of dry red wine from the southern lands (50 gp each.)
34.	A cask with 2d4 bottles of tart, dry white wine from across the eastern sea (75 gp each)
35.	A battle axe with long thin beard and a jagged buttspike, the design of a long-gone mythic empire’s warriors.
36.	An arrow +1.
41.	Nothing but soot, dust, dung, and stones.
42.	The diary of an adventurer.
43.	A potion of Cure Light Wounds.
44.	A purse with 5 emeralds inside (100gp each.)
45.	A small cask with bottles of myrrh, sandalwood oil, and rosemary oil inside.
46.	A ripped backpack with 2d6 rations, a bedroll, and a flask of oil.
51.	Nothing but soot, dust, dung, and stones.
52.	Tin plates etched with curses.
53.	A skeleton still wearing their chain shirt.
54.	A spellbook containing Detect Illusion and Wraithform.
55.	Foe Splitter, the ancestral sword of the legendary hero Vortis of Yoglon. (+1 vs. Snakes and Reptiles)
56.	A human femur scrimshawed with the spell Cause Light Wounds (works as scroll.)
61.	Nothing but soot, dust, dung, and stones.
62.	12 iron spikes, a crowbar, and 30’ of rope.
63.	A prosthetic hand made of teakwood with porcelain fingers.
64.	A wheel of pungent, rubbery cheese and a small stoneware jar of potted meat.
65.	A letter from a PC claiming to be from the future and begging their past self not to enter the dungeon.
66.	An amulet of Protection Against Possession.

 

1/7: The Basement of the Great Tower

The largest tower of the four that anchor the fortress’s walls stands a good 20’ above the other three. This massive construction can be entered from the third floor of the keep and rises two more floors above that. Its basement can be accessed from a trap door on the tower’s second level. The interior is stale and mostly empty, its stores of food and ammunition long since looted.