Re: Castle Hunadora Map?

onmyoji · Post by **onmyoji** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 2:39 am

Hey all!

First time poster, but I've been lurking here for the last three years or so. This is an amazing resource! Curse of Strahd got me hooked on Ravenloft a few years back, and now I find myself sitting in the DM's chair.

I'm working on setting up a fairly elaborate and ambitious Ravenloft campaign, doing the Grand Conjunction in canonical order. One thing assisting this is that my group has recently moved to Pathfinder 2E, so since I have to basically reinvent the old modules from scratch anyway, it won't be too hard to fix the leveling problem while I'm at it.

Anyway, the query that brings me to post tonight is this: I know Gundarak isn't very well documented in official Ravenloft materials, but has anyone at all—official or otherwise—produced maps of Dule Gundar's stronghold, Castle Hunadora? I don't see how I could possibly be more indebted to the FoS as the resources here have saved me countless times over already. But all the same, if one exists, I would greatly appreciate a link to anything documenting the internal structure or mechanics of Castle Hunadora—or at least any more than KotBR's description does. That seems to be the only major place so far I can't seem to find maps for.

Oh — while we're at it, the same goes for maps of Teufeldorf or Zeidenberg, but I'm pretty sure neither of those areas have been mapped, unless fans have done it.

Thanks in advance!

- onmyoji

P.S. — I do plan on keeping my group's progress documented via a wiki and session logs available online, so if anyone's interested, I wouldn't mind sharing the link once we get started. I am planning on sticking fairly close to canon in most places that it exists, but I've definitely planned a number of pleasant alterations that should make this experience vastly different from the modules as-written.

Mephisto of the FoS · Post by **Mephisto of the FoS** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 5:05 am

I had sketched Castle Hunadora many years ago for the sequel of Fest of Goblyns but I had the PC's being assisted by an ex-PC-turned-vampire by Dominiani using the ancient vampire transforming coffin and he knew of a passage that led to Medraut's laboratory and from there to the throne room where the portal Castle Hunadora opened after they staked the Duke, similar to KotBR. I don't have the sketch and the partys movements where limited to the areas of the castle I mentioned but the name comes from Castle Hunedoara also known as Corvin Castle in Romania. And it fits the description as it has trees all around it which Mr.Soth thought was stupid...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvin_Castle

but I think this castle I found on the internet could also be Castle Hunadora https://i.redd.it/lt3emrk89u421.png

As for Duke Gundar there is an article in Book of Secrets and he appears in the adventure a Calling from Verbrek. I haven't decided yet if I prefer him as a nosferatu vamnpire or a normal one. I mean I prefer him as a normal vampire but then again I like Dominianis version as a nosferatu celebral vampire so the Duke must have been nosferatu. But if that was the case he wouldn't be immobilised by the sun when the adventurer's who killed him in Cstle Hunadora drew the curtain covering the windows. So I am a bit confused with that. I think the best version is him being a normal eminent vampire but because Dominiani's creation was so particular Dominini was transformed into a celebral vamire who has powers similar to a nosferatu. His official stats from Gaz IV would be human eminent vampire Ari6/Ftr10, NE, so Ill stick to that, cause if he was a nosferatu he would have all these domination powers similar to Von Kharkov.

Also I have posted an image of Dominiani if you are interested... http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... 1&start=30

onmyoji · Post by **onmyoji** » Sat Feb 20, 2021 8:06 pm

Thanks! The castle did come up as I Google-searched for maps. I had briefly considered adapting the real castle map, but didn't give it much thought, since I figured *someone* out there has probably DMed the assassination of Duke Gundar.

I definitely appreciate the response though! Also glad to see the map of the castle is fairly simple... shouldn't be too difficult to adapt. Now it's just a matter of what different tricks and traps to tuck into it.

— onmyoji

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:22 pm

I had my players go to Hunadora, and mapped part of the main floor, and the underground level (Medraut's lab and playground). Session 63. By following the journal, you should see what is where. If not let me know, I'll dig the details.

onmyoji · Post by **onmyoji** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 8:10 pm

Fantastic! Thanks Joël!

Sorry for the ignorance, but is the journal located right on FoS or......? To be honest, the wiki has been what I've been making primary use of at FoS.

— onmyoji

P.S. — First session was tonight and it went well. It's a rewrite of Feast of Goblyns, and so far, the players have made it from Cormyr into the Mists, were besieged by werewolves, and made it to Harmonia. Gonna write up a log and post it later for any interested.

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:41 pm

See the Veranda part of this web site

Yes please let us know how it went!

onmyoji · Post by **onmyoji** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 12:22 am

Thanks so much! I'll be sure to give it a look!

I'm not planning to run Hunadora until after FoG, which I've expanded to include the "Jack Bequick" and "Mother Fury" adventures from Creatures of the Night. Due to a lack of non-river ports in Kartakass, it's going to be contrived to get anyone from Kartakass straight on-board the Endurance without any Mist-related weirdness, so I decided to shoehorn Gundar's assassination right at the end of FoG. (The few sources that mention the assassination state it happened the same year, so it's kind of a waste to -not- do it then, especially since they'll have met Dominiani.) And we're only meeting once-per-week for 4-5 hours, so I'll have more than enough time to plan Hunadora in advance.

Also, since Jander Sunstar ends up becoming a major NPC in the original-first-but-now-second campaign I wanted to run, I figured I'd steer them towards the obvious port in Dementlieu and just hit up some one-shots from CotN and Chilling Tales along the way, meet Van Richten, do the Jander bit in Falkovnia, and so on. They can catch the Endurance at port in Dementlieu, and maybe it'll seem like it's all worth doing. Shoehorning Gundar in at the beginning of that and giving them another darklord to kill sounds perfectly at place to me!

I'm actually quite proud of my FoG rewrite. If this goes the way I hope, I might've actually succeeded in turning Dominiani into a tragic villain, not just a madman. Here's hoping!!

— onmyoji

DocBeard · Post by **DocBeard** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:30 am

In the interest of keeping the convo going, what are some fun terrain features you think could make Castle Hundora special?

When I think of Gundar, I think of how he's actually way more of a people person than Strahd, keeping a family of monsters close to him and training up distinctive minions like Henfroth/Dominini. Strahd, meanwhile, DOES have a family but they're kept at arm's length. None of them lair in Ravenloft with him, or at least not often. So I'd want something to catch some of that social vampire energy.

Henfroth's labs having some toxic residue from his hideous experiments is a give in. Ghostly remains of the people he's lobotomized, a wailing feature PCs have to work around if they trigger a combat there, opening the wrong door or cabinet has a chance of triggering the stored, painful last memories of a victim, 'psychic surgeon vampire' generates a tun of cool terrain and trap feature ideas. Even after being abandoned and left to the Gundarkites I imagine no one willingly goes down there.

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:55 am

Add Medraut's lab! (Knight of the Black Rose), a demented child wizard playground and lab.

DocBeard · Post by **DocBeard** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:21 am

Man that'd be a cool thing for Gabrielle Adierre to find; the lost notes of generations of Gundar wizards would be a hell of a trump card against Malocchio.

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:38 pm

Indeed! IMC the castle was only half explored (too dangerous, too many soldiers died in deadly traps).

But yes, Gabrielle could want somebody to explore it to find a book or something.

onmyoji · Post by **onmyoji** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:23 pm

Joël of the FoS wrote:Add Medraut's lab! (Knight of the Black Rose), a demented child wizard playground and lab.

This would be perfectly fine, though if you're sticking with canon (as I am trying my best to do), Medraut has been dead for 16 years by the time. That said, his lab could still be fun somehow. I mean, if he was a wizard, he can't be the *only* one in all of Gundarak. It's entirely possible that Gundar had someone else take over it. I mean, no darklord worth his salt would have a lab like that unused for sixteen years.

I will also take this moment to tease that I found a fun way to put Medraut into my current campaign's back-narrative, but I don't want to spoil it yet in case my players find their way here somehow. (Working on the first session write-up from last night. Once it's done, I'll start a separate thread for those who want to follow along.)

I also agree with the note on Gabrielle Aderre. That would be super cool too. Though it doesn't seem like my campaign will be there around that time. From what I can tell thus far, the only time they'll be in the Kartakass-Gundarak area—save for the parts of Gundarak that are absorbed by Barovia—is for FoG and Gundar's death. I don't know much of the lore for Invidia since I'm fairly new to Ravenloft and it didn't really come up for what I was planning to run. No reason we can't go back in another campaign though!

While I do appreciate more Hunadora suggestions, I don't actually have any of my own at the moment unfortunately. All I really know of Hunadora I learned from Knight of the Black Rose, which of course, provides very little detail.

— onmyoji

Joël of the FoS · Post by **Joël of the FoS** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:11 pm

onmyoji wrote:
Joël of the FoS wrote:Add Medraut's lab! (Knight of the Black Rose), a demented child wizard playground and lab.
This would be perfectly fine, though if you're sticking with canon (as I am trying my best to do), Medraut has been dead for 16 years by the time. That said, his lab could still be fun somehow. I mean, if he was a wizard, he can't be the *only* one in all of Gundarak. It's entirely possible that Gundar had someone else take over it. I mean, no darklord worth his salt would have a lab like that unused for sixteen years.

If Gundar had it sealed when Medraut was killled, it makes it even more creepy and dangerous. What survived? What escaped?

That's how I DMed it. When the players entered the level, it was decades after anybody did.

onmyoji · Post by **onmyoji** » Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:38 pm

Joël of the FoS wrote: If Gundar had it sealed when Medraut was killled, it makes it even more creepy and dangerous. What survived? What escaped?

That's how I DMed it. When the players entered the level, it was decades after anybody did.

Point noted. Gonna consider doing that for sure!

— onmyoji

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