The Silent Castle
The Silent Castle has a story that begins in the ancient days of the Greenwold... and a curse which it has yet to live down.
The fact of its existence is a dark mark upon the history of the lands around it. The foundations of the castle were laid long ago, in the days just after the gods departed the world, leaving the mortal races to decide their own fates. In that time of uncertainty, the first bricks of the castle's foundation were lain, and mortared with blood.
As priests and wizards explored the boundaries of the cosmos - probing the outer planes with their minds - some made contact with the devils of the lower planes. These early warlocks struck up the very first devilish pacts, drawing infernal power from the fiends of hell. Over time, a society lead by powerful warlocks formed. As their knowledge advanced, they began to seek to control the devils they bartered with - first mastering the method of summoning, then the secrets of trapping and binding the devils.
The works of the warlocks succeeded all too well. They soon built a grand kingdom founded upon the terrible power of bound devils - harnessing their infernal might to fuel great acts of magic, expand their reach, and entertain their population.
The price for claiming such power was high. To bind a devil, an enchanted amulet is needed... and such amulets can only be made by sacrificing someone that the creator loves to the forces of darkness.
The binding of devils, having become essential to the continuation of the kingdom, became a civic act. Those willing to sacrifice their loves were exalted by the kingdom - granted titles of nobility and positions of power - living in luxury until death, when the devils would come for them and drag their souls to hell.
Undaunted by hubris and afraid of their fate, this nobility of warlocks concocted a plan to cheat both the devils and death itself. A great castle was constructed, built to summon one of the lords of hell itself, a mighty Archdevil. At the peak of a great sacrifice ritual, they struck a bargain with it - all the souls of the kingdom in exchange for eternal reprieve from hell.
The wish was granted. All who die within the castle become ghosts, their souls bound to it forever more, incapable of ever moving on. Safe from hell, they filled the castle with arcane amusements powered by bound devils.
As the eons passed, those entertainments broke down and became objects of torment. The half-mad ghosts of the nobles writhe in boredom and self-loathing to this day.
After a long, desolate trek across the wasteland that was once the Greenwold, you at last arrive at the castle described to you. Huge, it juts up the mountainside like a cruelly serrated onyx knife, at once grand and foul. It radiates a splendor both wicked and macabre, an echo of the darkness that once filled its desiccated halls. The castle's gates hang open, offering no resistance as you enter.
Within, you set foot on the castle’s worn cobblestone courtyard. A dominating silence hangs heavy. No rustle of leaves, gusts of wind, or cries of distant buzzards can be heard. Just graveyard quiet under a wool gray sky. Adjoining the courtyard, extending in a hundred foot radius, is a great summoning circle - cold and dead. Three conical pillars stand at equal points around the summoning circle, rising 15 ft. into the air. They twist toward the overcast sky before hooking in at the top, like the ends of grasping talons.
A two inch deep groove runs around the perimeter of the summoning circle, and down into the center in a spiral pattern. The other end of the groove runs into the castle itself, splitting again and again like a complex glyph carved across the entire enormous structure.
Type
Castle
Parent Location
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