Castle Avernus

[The_Confessor]

So, my victi- I mean my players are making their way to Castle Avernus, home of Azalin. The problem I have is that I can find very little info on the castle itself beyond the tidbit presented in Gaz II. Does anyone know of any other sources of info regarding this location?

Also, what's the deal with Vlad Drakov and gunpowder? Has he ever gotten his hands on any? Does it always fail him? It seems like the perfect tool of warfare and I've yet to see any info on the this looney lil warlord and the black powder.

Thanks in advance!

[Malus Black]

The adventure From the Shadows is mainly a long dungeon crawl through Castle Avernus, and it's available from Wizards' downloads page.

[Lord Cyclohexane]

Castle Avernus is profiled in quite a bit of detail in the adventure From the Shadows, as the later part involves traipsing around Castle Avernus and eventually killing Azalin.

It's still available for download on Wizards's website (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/downloads), but I don't recall if the maps are included with the module itself. Regardless, that's still your best resource if you don't own the module already.

As for Drakov and blackpowder... I kinda see Drakov as being painfully anachronistic, where he'd see the use of blackpowder cannon and guns as being dishonorable and beneath a true warrior. So, just like magic, it's something he wouldn't look into with any real seriousness.

[HuManBing]

Maps are available with the download. I remember reading somewhere that those maps actually have some cartographical inconsistencies within them, and one player actually redid the maps so they made more sense. I can't remember the site though.

I like From the Shadows. It was my first Ravenloft module I ever bought and it was good fun for my players.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I've just been prepping From the shadows myself. I didn't notice anything too bad in the map. Just you have to assume that the room of illusion connects to the hallway next to it, otherwise there's no way up the tower. It's unclear on the map, but that's my best guess.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

There's some obvious re-engineering that's necessary to bring the castle in line with 3E, of course, e.g. ditching the Elemental-magic room (not really a "school" per se) and adding one for bardic magic, etc. But it's not hard to make such corrections.

As for Drakov and blackpowder, I have to suspect that the honest, secret, deep-down truth is that guns just plain scare the guy. They make the whole idea of "macho fighter" tank-types like him obsolete, which he finds extremely disturbing on a subconscious level. As Vlad's in no way the sort to cope well with such un-manly emotions as doubt, he cops out of his dilemma by calling guns "dishonorable", "cowardly", and "beneath him", thus blotting out the unpleasant truth that he and his warriors are a bunch of antiquated dinosaurs in a world of sneaky, light-touch tactics.