Bastion of Blasphemies | Nightmares Awoken | Beginner Friendly

About the adventure

For centuries, a strange, scorched ruin loomed atop an island in lake Laroba in eastern Ustalav, the fog-shrouded land of horrors. On clear days, the fire-blackened towers and crumbling walls of this ancient castle are visible to those plying the West Sellen River to the east. On some nights, when the fog is light and thin, one might spy lights flickering, as if from high tower windows, yet no such towers rise above the castle today. People whisper about the ruins. Travelers avert their eyes when passing them. They speak quietly of how any who try to reclaim the cursed place tend to meet tragic ends or of how treasure seekers eager to uncover abandoned riches find picked-over web-choked rooms and suffer the most unbearable nightmares for weeks to follow—assuming they simply don’t vanish without a trace. But there comes a time, once every hundred years, when the whispers and idle glances sent this ruin’s way turn to outright terror and wards against evil. For on these centennials, strange green mists wash over the ruins, restoring the castle into a looming testament to one of the most infamous curses in all of Ustalav. On these nights, the Black Coach rides across the spectral span of the Laroba Causeway, its headless coachman seeking specific passengers to take back across the bridge. Those who deny the coachman aren’t forced inside the carriage, but within a week, they meet strange and horrible deaths. Those who accept the invitation to ride back meet fates unknown, for they’re never seen again. Then the mists rise once more, and the castle reverts to an empty ruin, waiting another hundred years before the curse of Bastardhall returns once more. Bastion of Blasphemies is a dungeon crawling adventure beginning at 5th level. Hired by a local to seek clues regarding the fate of her long-vanished parents, the PCs find themselves trapped within the walls of Bastardhall, where they must fight their way through all manner of horrors to escape. Smaller adventures begin the story at level 1 as the group travels through Ustalav, though whether these stories are played through will be up to the group when it has gathered. The game will utilize the following variant rules: - Ancestry Paragon - Free Archetype