30x20 Multi-Level Battlemap - Cliffton Castle

Cliffton Castle

An old wooden bridge leads you across a chasm to the walls of the castle, large pillars hold up a grand round dome above while below lies a small shrine. The lower portion of a tower is being used as an archive of information containing all goods ever shipped here or exported as well as all guests that have arrived.

Market stalls line the walls where goods and wares are sold, while a holding cell is nearby to deal with any troublemakers. Above are multiple battlements that lead to a guards tower and quarters, as well as tower for the lord’s advisor and the lord’s quarters themselves.

Adventure Seed

Before your travel to the castle you’re warned that the roads to the castle may be dangerous, apparently harpy like creatures have taken up residence on the mountainside and are harassing travelers as well as the local villagers in the valley below. Almost a dozen children have gone missing over the last couple months and these creatures are being blamed.

However, you arrive at the castle unmolested and upon crossing the bridge you notice the heads of many harpies upon stakes lining it’s outer walls. All of the heads but one seem rather small, almost as if they were but hatchlings, their all to human faces eerily like that of human children.

After signing in at the archive you enter the market place, chatter is abound with the sale of goods crafted from materials only found within these mountains. Two small children are practicing sword fighting with wooden weapons on the battlements above and one wearing fine silken clothes.

In the lower markets several men in recently bloodied armor are laughing about what seems to be the extermination of the harpy nest that’s been hassling travelers earlier that day. Apparently the nest only contained one elderly harpy and more than a dozen hatchlings, so the knights dispatched them all in quick fashion. They seem quite proud of themselves, before screaming is heard from the battlements.

A women is pointing towards the sky as a flock of dark figures swoop down attacking those within the castles walls. Some of the adult harpies attack guards and citizens, while others chase down children not to kill but to grab and fly away with. One of these children is the lord’s boy, the child that was playing upon the battlements. You see him struggle as a harpy carries him away. The harpies kill whose they can and kidnap as many children as possible before retreating or retreat if they take to many loses.

After the carnage, the lord who has an injured is heard frantically screaming for his son, he begs you to track down the harpies to save the children that have been kidnapped. He can’t offer any assistance from his guard as many have been injured or killed however he hastily and perhaps foolhardily offers anything you want as a reward. If you go after the harpies on the same day you’ll arrive just in time to interrupt their ritual that will begin the transformation of the children into harpy hatchlings. Saving them from a horrible fate, however if you wait till the next day to go after them you’ll be to late, the children already transformed.

Note: If any of the valley folk accompany you to the castle they will notice that the small heads on the pikes are deformed heads of their children that have gone missing…