Castle Garrison

Side quest

Something was walled up under the ruins of Castle Garrison, the old capital.

The Sealed Wall

Among the ruins of Castle Garrison, west of Zephyr, steps lead down into an old cellar. Its west end is closed off by a newer wall (W), too solid to break. A job for the Engineers’ Guild.

Map of Castle Garrison Cellar — Castle Garrison Cellar

Pulver

In Wisp, Hirema, in the south-west of town, is studying a black powder she calls Pulver, which explodes in fire. After three hours of persuading, she lends you some.

Blast the Wall

The Pulver blows the wall apart, and behind it is a ladder down. As you climb down, six Weak Ervolts swarm you; the wall was there to keep them below.

The Upper Tunnel

The tunnel runs from the ladder in the north-east to a ladder down in the south-west.

Map of Castle Garrison Tunnels (Upper) — Castle Garrison Tunnels (Upper)

The Runestone

You come down in the north-east. The passage west, in the middle of the west side, leads into the next cave; the runestone (R) lies in a part of this cave you can only reach from there, through the passage further south.

Map of Castle Garrison Tunnels — Castle Garrison Tunnels

Munk's Journal

In this cave lie the remains of Commander Munk of the Royal Guard (M), sent down after the ervolts two hundred years ago, with his journal and Munk’s Broadsword (1). Two holes in the south lead down; the western one goes on to Quothar’s door, the eastern one to a dead end with treasure.

Quothar's Door

The runestone opens the door (D) with the matching symbol, west of where you come down. The ladder beyond leads up into an abandoned house. 800 gold (1), Boots of Defense (2), and a War-Wizard Staff (3) lie in the south, reached from the eastern hole.

Map of Below Quothar's House — Below Quothar's House

Quothar's Journal

The house belonged to Quothar, a mage who four hundred years ago tried to make living servants instead of golems, lost control of them, and was killed. His journal is in the house. The ervolts are his creatures.

The Reward

In Zephyr, the scholar Imadalo reads both journals and pays 1000 gold for them, which solves the riddle of Castle Garrison’s fall.

You receive 1,000 gold.

The party's journal

We found an old cellar among the ruins of Castle Garrison. Inside there is a strange wall that was more recently installed. Perhaps something is behind it, but we'll need the Engineers' Guild to knock it down.

Hirema in Wisp gave us Pulver, a strange black powder that explodes when in contact with fire. The explosion should be enough to knock down the wall in the cellar.

We found a strange runestone while in the tunnels.

We found a journal from Commander Munk of the Royal Guard dated nearly 200 years ago. He was sent down to investigate the ervolt infestation and never returned.

We followed the tunnels as far as they went and they led to an abandoned house back on the surface. The runestone we found got us inside. The house used to belong to Quothar 400 years ago and has been magically barriered ever since.

He was an animator who tried to create living creatures instead of golems. His plans backfired and his ervolts attacked him. He tried to stop them but they escaped into the caves near his house. He was later killed, his house sealed off, and the matter forgotten.

Many years later, the ervolts must have found a way into the tunnels that connect to the Castle Garrison ruins. By then, their numbers were too great to suppress, and the castle was sealed off and abandoned.

We must be the first to make this important discovery. We should probably tell someone our story.

Imadalo in Zephyr was very interested to hear about our discovery below Castle Garrison. He gave us 1000 gold in return for the journals we found. It is probably a fraction of the money he'll make off of our discovery. Thankfully, we didn't show him the treasures we found below as well.