Goodman Games

I'm planning on starting this tonight, depending on how much prep time I have, but one thing I'm not clear on...what does Castle Whiterock look like?

For instance, if you were standing a mile away, what would you see?

The first encounters...I'm not clear on what I'm looking at. I know it's an ancient monastery, and I basically get the different rooms and whatnot. But if I'm standing, say, outside the tables at 1-2, and I look up...what do I see? Is that whole area...inside something? 1-1 is described as having a roof, so is it a gatehouse *inside* the larger structure that is an ancient monastery? Or do you go from the entrance, outside the gates, and under open sky, to being inside an open-air monastery?

There's a lot of material here and I can't find any good visual references.

There are two areas that gave me a better idea of what the castle looks like

1. Player's Handout E - This is a drawing of what the castle looked like before being abandoned. Now picture the lower level being underwater and the towers having fallen down, the walls have collapsed in spots, for the upper level. The descriptions of the various areas for Level 1 can help in figuring out what parts have fallen down.

2. Picture on page 6 of the Redbook - This picture shows adventurers looking from a hill over the lake to the fully built Castle Whiterock. This helped give me a sense of the surrounding area, of the lake and the type of terrain around the castle. Again, you will need to use some imagination to picture the castle in ruins, but it can help place things.

I also found some pictures of a ruined castle by a lake, Loch Ness Castle, and printed up one to show the players. That helped give them an idea of the ruined state of the castle, sitting by a large lake.

Castle Urquhart, Loch Ness

That's a neat picture and really helps to set the mood. I think I'll use it for my campaign. Thanks for the find, and for sharing it with us!

One thing to keep in mind about this picture is that the lake by the castle is much higher and larger than this picture. There is also another lake (Deanmeere or something like that) which is supposed to be to the west of the castle (which would be right where the people are located in that picture. Also, the entrance to the castle is somehow behind it, although I'm not sure exactly how it would work since that's where the river from level six dumps out.

I've been trying to make an overland map ala B10 but I'm finding it difficult.

I've been to that castle. While it might look all remote, just to the left of the frame is a parking lot and a highway.