TABLE of CONTENTS BACKGROUND 2 Tracking Down the Lost Hot Water Springs

TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND 2 Tracking down the lost hot water springs...... 10 Recent events ...... 2 ENDING THE SCENARIO ...... 11 THE INVESTIGATORS ...... 3 Blowing up the statue ...... 11 Using the Romanian Contract as part of a campaign...... 3 Renegotiating the pact ...... 11 DRAMATIS PERSONAE 3 Making a stand...... 11 Count Stefan Gabor ...... 3 Escape ...... 12 Rozalia Gabor ...... 4 CONCLUSION ...... 12 LOCATION 4 Rewards ...... 12 EXPLORING THE VALLEY ...... 4 NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS AND MONSTERS 12 Vascre village ...... 5 Servants ...... 13 The Hotel site ...... 5 Villagers...... 13 The Cave ...... 5 The Strigoi ...... 13 EXPLORING THE CASTLE ...... 5 PREGENERATED INVESTIGATORS 13 Main building ...... 6 BOOKER / BRENDA CLARK ...... 14 The Tower ...... 7 EMERSON / EDITH WILLIAMS ...... 15 Courtyard ...... 7 DWIGHT / DOROTHY WEATHERFORD ...... 16 Basement & ramparts ...... 8 MILTON / MEREDITH ROBERTS ...... 17 RUNNING THE SCENARIO 8 BARNETT / BLANCHE ELLIS ...... 18 STARTING THE SCENARIO ...... 8 HANDOUTS 19 Dead horses ...... 9 A tour of Castle Orlat ...... 9 THE JOB ...... 9 Surveying and buying land ...... 9 Location scouting ...... 9 Tunneling ...... 10

Sample file

THE ROMANIAN CONTRACT Building a hotel in the Carpathian Mountains turns up secrets both recent and ancient.

This scenario takes place in a remote Romanian castle in the silver bullets (the silver is harmless to ghouls, but bullets are 1920s. Accommodating five players, it can be played in one or not). The Count fortified himself inside his castle, but the two sessions. The investigators are a British survey team ghouls, sensing danger, attacked the nearby village of Vascre location scouting for the construction of a grand hotel. While instead. Many were killed in what came to be known as the conducting their work, they will come upon old secrets and werewolf plague of 1844, the Count had to finally give in, his discover that there is some truth to ancient folklore. rebellion a failure. Investigators will be guests to an enigmatic Hungarian count, The Gabor line declined after that - the current count has no while staying in an old and empty castle in a remote mountain more living relatives, his wife died in childbirth, leaving him and valley in the Carpathians. The valley is plagued by the strigoi of the child, Rozalia Gabor, last of the family. The current count Romanian folklore. Players expecting to face a vampire are in for Stefan Gabor does not intend to honor the pact and let his only a surprise though, because the strigoi are actually Lovecraftian child be taken by monsters. Fighting the creatures seemed ghouls, who have struck a deal with the count's family. A deal hopeless, yet there might be other ways, Count Gabor learned the count is reneging on, bringing the wrath of the strigoi upon magic, seeking answers in the ancient occult arts, but to no avail. them all. As Rozalia's birthday approached he was ready for desperate In this scenario the investigators must work on their job measures. during the day, their tasks will inevitably lead to discovering more about the valley and the monstrous creatures. Each night Recent events ghouls will be stalking the investigators, first subtly observing Count Gabor hired two British engineers to build an elevator them, but growing more aggressive over the course of the into the main building of Castle Orlat. He claimed the reason scenario. Investigators will have to unravel the secrets of this was to make the castle more modern and habitable, but he strange land before they fall victim to them. actually had far more sinister intentions. He needed foreigners The Keeper will have plenty of opportunity to slowly ratchet from far away, so that nobody would come to investigate their up the tension as the monsters’ tactics evolve. The ghouls are disappearance. cunning foes, they know that humans can be dangerous to them, Count Gabor summoned a strigoi and offered it the two Brits they will want to scare off meddling investigators, but are wise in exchange for his daughter. The beast did not answer, but enough to avoid killing them outright, because they know that Count Gabor was convinced from the look in its eyes, that it had dead humans attract other humans. Over the course of the understood. Both Brits were housed in the first bedroom, where scenario the strigoi go from being occasionally spotted by a secret passage in the wall allows strigoi to enter the room. One investigators, to chasing and attacking them, to finally all out night the Brits were taken by the monsters, never to be seen fighting persistent investigators. The ghouls are dangerous, but again. But it was not enough to satisfy them, still they creeped they are not invincible - resourceful investigators might find a near the castle, an ever-present reminder of Rozalia's upcoming way to turn the tables. sixteenth birthday. Rozalia was shocked when she learned the truth about what happened to the two kind gentlemen. She became despaired BACKGROUND when the strigoi did not relent to their demands on her life. She would not permit anybody else to be sacrificed in vain, she would In 1677 a tribe of ghouls moved into a mountain valley near willingly accept her fate to save others. Count Gabor would have Castle Orlat in the Carpathians. This spelled doom for the local none of this and locked her up in the dungeon - better alive and population. imprisoned, than fed to the monsters. The local count was overwhelmed by the apparent scourge of The Count took it upon himself to secure the castle against the devils who had seemingly come straight from hell to punish his monsters. He had all entrances to the basement sealed, so that domain. In a last act of desperation, the count decided to make the strigoi could not reach the dungeon cell holding Rozalia. The a literal deal with the devil - he summoned the monsters and elevator remained the only way to access the basement. offered them a peace treaty. Surprisingly, the ghouls accepted, Unknown to the Count the strigoi have been digging tunnels promising to leave the humans alone, but demanded the counts that allow them to get inside the castle's outer walls and they first born as a ward. Broken heartedly the count agreed. From have recently broken through into the basement. It is only a this day forward each successive generation of the noble house matter of time until they find a way to breach Rozalia's prison. of Gabor has had to give up their first born to the ghouls on the The Count has heard them move inside the walls at night, unsure child's sixteenth birthday. A secret practice that keeps everyone if what he heard was real or his own nightmares. in the valley safe. Luck finally shined on the Count when a faraway company The creatures passed from recent memory and lived on in inquired about building a grand hotel on his lands. He folklore as strigoi, a name by which they are still known by immediately agreed and is now eagerly awaiting the survey today. Throughout the centuries they mostly kept the pact and team. Meanwhile the strigoi are getting more impatient, were onlySample rarely seen by humans other than the Gabor family. running around in the castle's secretfile tunnels, scratching inside In 1844 Count Andre Gabor refused to give up his beloved the walls and spying from the thick woods of the valley. The child and thought to fight the creatures instead. He personally investigators are the last chance for the house of Gabor. shot and killed one of the beasts using a revolver loaded with 2

trained team of specialists, the company hired only the very best for this job. The company has all the required tools and materials delivered to Hermannstadt, the closest town to the site. This includes:

● 250 lbs. of dynamite used for tunneling (packed into small water-resistant crates) including electric detonators and plenty of wire and fuses. ● Tunneling tools - shovels, pickaxes, hand drills and the like. ● Kerosene lamps. ● Geographic survey equipment - compass, measuring devices etc. ● A large glass plate camera with magnesium flash (the flash is required for indoor use). ● Anything else that the investigators request before leaving (within reason, the company sees no value in providing the investigators with holy water or military grade rifles).

Using the Romanian Contract as part of a campaign If you want to use this scenario as part of a campaign you need to make some minor adjustments to justify the presence of existing investigators. The easier option is to have the company hire existing investigators for the job. This only makes sense if the THE INVESTIGATORS investigators have at least some of the required skills for the job. The investigators will be a survey team employed by Smith & You can remove some of the tasks that your investigators are not Woodford operating hotels out of London. The company has able to handle - for example most investigator teams lack tunnel great ambitions to create a luxurious hotel in the Carpathian engineers, so you could decide that tunneling will be handled by Mountains - stunning scenery, exotic location and natural hot a different team later. springs - all just one train ride away from Sofia, one of the stops For more mythos savvy investigators skip the job part on the Simplon Orient Express. The grand hotel is meant to entirely. Point the investigators towards the disappearance of attract the high class of Europe and consequently no expense is the two British engineers, combined with rumors of monsters in spared in constructing it. If investigators can complete their the area, it should be enough to get seasoned investigators tasks in Romania, there will be lucrative promotion waiting for interested. Count Gabor’s motivation remains the same, he still them at home. hopes to use the investigators and will welcome them to stay in The survey team will have to find and mark the exact location the castle. The investigation will go much faster if the of the hotel, plan the railway line, which might involve test investigators are not working their jobs during the day. tunneling, negotiate a deal with the local landlord, Count Gabor, Investigators are likely to stay only for one or two nights, so play find the fabled hot water springs hinted at in historical sources, the ghoul threats earlier and play the monsters more and finally snap some good photographs from the site to attract aggressively. investors. Five pre-generated investigators are provided, all can be played as either male or female versions: DRAMATIS PERSONAE ● Booker/Brenda Clark, tunnel engineer ● Emerson/Edith Williams, cartographer and alpinist Count Stefan Gabor, 55, cursed aristocrat ● Dwight/Dorothy Weatherford, historian and translator and sorcerer Milton/Meredith Roberts, legal consultant and chief ● Count Stefan Gabor spends his days worrying and negotiator contemplating and his nights conducting divination rituals and ● Barnett/Blanche Ellis, photographer working alchemy. He has gathered a lot of obscure arcane You can of course create your own investigators. When knowledge, but most of it is useless. He now hopes to make use creating investigators for this scenario it is highly recommended of the investigators arriving at the castle. that the Keeper summarizes to the players the tasks that the Although of Hungarian descent, the count speaks surprisingly investigators will have to complete and what skills they will good English, except for some odd intonation (bring out your Samplebest Bella Lugosi impression). Hefile attributes his English skills to require (see The Job on page 9), so that players can create characters that are up to the task. Success requires a highly plenty of practice conversing with the two Brits who stayed here to build the elevator.

The Count is of two minds about the investigators. On one She cannot stand the thought of anybody else dying because hand, they could be valuable allies against the strigoi, on the of her and does not believe that it would help anyway. She other hand, five sacrifices might be enough to appease the intends to willingly give herself to the strigoi. When the Count beasts. The Count is unsure what to do and will stall until he learned of this, he imprisoned her in the old dungeon. For now, makes up his mind. If investigators show themselves to be she is safe from the strigoi in her cell, but can never leave. Now capable against the strigoi or come up with a clever plan, then she spends most days looking out of a tiny window, occasionally the Count happily takes their side and offers any help he can. reading books and writing poetry. But if the investigators seem of no help, then he will try to When investigators do find her, she will plead with them to sacrifice them the same way he did with the two British help her escape. She is initially reluctant to tell them about the engineers. Until then he prefers the investigators not learning strigoi, believing it to be something best kept secret, but if about the strigoi, as they might simply flee the valley. investigators already seem to be in the know, she will tell them everything, including her plans to sacrifice herself. Description: Looks older than he really is, with gray hair and wrinkled features. Description: Fair haired and beautiful, with a longing look.

Traits: Proud, cautious, and reserved. Traits: Curious and caring.

Roleplaying hooks: Host to the investigators and owner of Roleplaying hooks: Urges investigators to help her escape the the land. Equally likely to aid or betray the investigators. dungeon, can fill in details about the family's relationship with the strigoi. LOCATION This scenario takes place in Siebenbürgen, known in the West as Transylvania, a remote province in the Kingdom of Romania. The province went to Romania after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, most of the people are Romanian with some Hungarians and traces of Saxons. Visiting investigators will find that German is often spoken, while English speakers are hard to come by. Coming from the bustle of London, this rural land is going to feel medieval - there is no electricity, telegraphs or plumbing - road transport is by horse drawn carriage, illumination is provided by gaslight lanterns. The locals are superstitious, friendly and curious of foreigners.

The Valley - Keeper’s Map

Rozalia Gabor, 16, trapped maiden Rozalia has long since wished to escape the valley and live in a city. She has cherished memories of the few occasions when the Count has taken her to balls held in Hermannstadt and even a short trip to Italy last year. Her outlook changed once she learned of the family curse and her role. Count Gabor could not hide the disappearance of the two British engineers from her, so he explained everything to her. EXPLORING THE VALLEY Rozalia could not bear to have the death of two gentlemen she At the heart of the scenario is a picturesque Carpathian had grown fond of on her conscience. Things took a turn for the mountain valley. Thick woodlands and swamps lay wedged worse onceSample her sixteenth birthday passed and the strigoi started between low mountains to thefile east and west. Perched on a to creep closer to the castle. The Brits had died in vain, and she dramatic bluff is Castle Orlat, which overlooks a narrow pass in believed herself to be at fault. the mountain range, an important site for the wars of centuries

4 past. North of the castle is the village of Vascre, nestled between next to natural warm springs that have a strong smell of sulfur. thick woods. There is a cave opening in the cliff wall - see The Cave below.

Vascre village The Cave Vascre is a collection of small, mostly stone houses flanked by There is a tall and narrow cave entrance in a cliffside near the deep woods to the south and farmsteads to the north. This is a foul-smelling hot springs south-east of Vascre. Investigators can place where time has stood still for centuries. The village has no enter this narrow crevice, inside is a short twisting path that quest house or inn, as it rarely ever receives visitors. nonetheless manages to obscure all sunlight from reaching the vast cavern at the end. This cavern is the heart of the strigoi, Church: The largest building in the village is a medieval their holy site. In the middle of this cave is large statue, at first fortified church with a low stone wall encircling it. This church glance it will appear like a natural stalagmite, yet it is also was in fact built nearly a century before Castle Orlat, as an aging unmistakably the image of a bloated sitting beast like figure - a priest, Victor Pontar, is happy to point out. stalagmite has seemingly naturally formed this shape - the The church has several books of record which note marriages, ominous improbability of this revelation triggers a Sanity loss of births and deaths. The priest is not too keen on letting 1/1d4+1. investigators browse the older volumes, fearing that they may The cavern floor is uneven, and several tunnels lead out from damage them, but he can be reassured with Fast Talk or it in all directions, natural rock formations create terraces and Persuasion giving good reason to investigate the records. The balconies, should investigators light a strong light (for example church books will reveal that several people died in 1844 due to photographing the statue) they will see dozens of strigoi the “werewolf plague”, as the record keeper has described it. watching down at them from above like a theater audience. This There is nothing about the arrival of the strigoi because the shocking sight calls for a Sanity roll with 1/1d8 loss. Regardless records only go back to the 18th century. The Gabor family never of if they were spotted or not, the strigoi will not let investigators appears in these records, the priest can explain that this is due linger here, investigators will promptly be chased out of the cave. to their family not being christened in this church here, but in (see also Blowing up the Statue on page 11.) their own chapel inside Castle Orlat.

Graveyard: In addition to locals, the graveyard also contains graves of the two Brits, Mark Brown and Dan Barrington - the dates on their gravestones disturbingly recent. As all the locals know, these graves are in fact empty, the men ostensibly died in a mountaineering accident and their bodies were never discovered. Many locals suspect foul play on the parts of Count Gabor but are too afraid of him to speak up to the authorities. There are no members of the Gabor family here, if asked the locals can explain that the Gabor family has their own crypt located under the castle chapel. Systematically surveying the gravestones would reveal that an unusually high number of people died in 1844.

Rumors: The villagers fear Count Gabor - some suspect he is a solomonari, a warlock in league with the devil (which is partially true, he does practice witchcraft). Some even suspect that the Gabor family sacrifices their children to get supernatural powers, nobody has seen Rozalia Gabor in a while. Others are more rational, considering this superstition, but even they suspect foul play concerning the two British engineers who stayed here. The villagers will try to warn the investigators to be wary of the Count but are not too forward about it because they are afraid of the Count. Some might even claim that the count is a strigoi, a terrible creature of Romanian folklore. Some villagers will claim that they have seen a strigoi in the woods after dark. If investigators ask follow-up questions about the strigoi, then paraphrase Handout Contract 2: Strigoi in Romanian folklore.

The Hotel site EXPLORING THE CASTLE The potential location of the planned hotel is on the western Count Gabor will host the investigators in Castle Orlat during mountain looking north. When investigators wander that area their stay. The castle was built during the late medieval period (see TheSample Job) they will encounter curious barrows visible as as a fortress, as such it has little filecomforts, it is built to withstand earthen mounds covering the mountain like blood vessels. These a siege, not to house a noble family, more modern furnishings are tunnels dug by the strigoi. If investigators make an effort to do little to disguise this fact. The castle hallways are narrow, the track down the source of the mounds, they will reach a cliff face ceilings are low, and windows are sparse. Count Gabor has only 5 two servants, far too little for a castle of this size, as a result dust hunting days. Old guns and stale ammunition are unreliable and cobwebs, peeling paint and crumbling walls are everywhere. however and these weapons malfunction on a roll of 90 or The castle of Count Gabor has short of one hundred rooms, higher. here are a few that will be of interest to the investigators. Elevator: An elevator connects all three floors of the main Castle Orlat - Keeper’s Map building and the dungeon below. The elevator is fully manually operated by pulling a crank one way or the other. Getting caught between the moving elevator and the floors can cause serious injury (1D10 damage). Investigators may hear the elevator engine revving at odd times (like when everybody is gathered in the dining room for dinner), it is a servant bringing food to Rozalia in the dungeon. If Count Gabor is with them, he will make up a quick lie, like claiming it must be the investigators luggage being brought up. Investigators can spot the lie with a Psychology check.

Kitchen: There is one poorly barricaded stairway leading to the basement here. Strigoi broke through it, entered the courtyard and killed the horses in the stable. The servants hastily repaired it; they might be seen walling off the stairway during the scenario.

First Bedroom: a sparsely furnished bedroom is ready to house investigators. Two will be housed here, others across the hall. This is the very same room where the two Brits were staying. On their last night, the Count locked them into the room from the outside. They were trapped and frightened of the sounds coming from within the walls. They left a warning to any future guests of the Count - a message is carved into the floorboards, see Handout Contract 1: Carved warning. Servants hid the message by placing a bed over it. A successful Spot Hidden roll will find this message if investigators decide to search the room.

Handout Contract 1: Carved warning MARK BROWN AND DAN HARRINGTON WERE IMPRISONED HERE BY THE COUNT. CREATURES IN THE WALLS C Main building Great hall: a large gate in the courtyard opens to this eerie hall. A large cupboard hides a hole in the wall that leads into a Slim gothic windows let only thin rays of light into the dusty hall. narrow passage inside the castle's outer wall. Strigoi are A faded painting depicting a scene of wolf hunting from frequently running along this path and could easily smash horseback hangs above an unused fireplace. A fairly new through the flimsy back wall of the cupboard and emerge into painting of Rozalia Gabor hangs opposite the fireplace. A steep the room - this is how they got the previous tenants. grand staircase splits into two, one path leading to the armory and the other to the dining room. Master bedroom: The largest of the bedrooms furnished with crimson tapestries and heavy curtains that permanently shroud Armory: two sets of full plate armor and various swords and the room in darkness - this is Count Gabors bedroom. On a fine muskets, both local and Turkish trophies, line the walls. A dark dark mahogany desk is a white marble figurine of an angel with velvet cloth covers one of the pieces, a long barreled and finely outstretched arms, one key hangs from each arm. The smaller engraved heavy revolver and a set of six silver bullets. A key opens the ritual room in the tower, the larger one opens Firearms (Handgun) or History check will reveal it to be a Rozalia's cell door. handmade ball and cap revolver based on an early Colt design from the middle of the 19th century. It was used in the Rozalia's room: one bedroom stands out among the dank unsuccessful fight against the strigoi in 1844 and Count Gabor rooms of the castle. It receives warm morning light from the does not want to see it anymore, lest it remind him of his own east, it is decorated by a hanging flower tapestry and a large cowardice. mirror. Judging by the possessions, investigators can easily tell Many ofSample the firearms are still in working order and could be that this was the room of a lady. fileRozalia lived in this room before used during the scenario (a few older small caliber rifles, her imprisonment. shotguns and antiques like flintlock pistols and muskets). Count Gabor has some rounds of ammunition left over from his 6

There are two versions of the strigois origin. In the first case they are created through a curse placed on a child at birth.

The curse does not manifest until the child's sixteenth birthday, when they suddenly head out into the woods and return as strigoi. In the second version being a strigoi is a gift from the devil to one of his pupils. The Scholomance is a secret academy supposedly hidden in the hills near Hermannstadt, where witches and warlocks (called solomonari) learn magic for seven years in vast underground caverns. The best student gets turned into a strigoi by the headmaster, who is none other than the devil himself.

Ritual room: The highest room of the tower is always locked (key in Master Bedroom). Count Gabor practices witchcraft in this room. This is a former lookout tower and has windows in each direction, which gives the Count access to moonlight on clear nights, useful for alchemy. The walls of this room are covered with alchemical formulas and various components, there is a large bronze bowl in the middle of the room into which the count will spill animal entrails to work his divination magic. Viewing such a ritual (through the keyhole for example) or its aftermath costs 1/1D4 Sanity points. The Tower The tower is only accessible through the courtyard and a secret Courtyard door in the library, that connects to tunnels inside the outer wall. A narrow cobblestone courtyard connects the main building and tower and has a small stable in it. It is also the only way to reach Library: Most of the tower is made up of a two-story library full the chapel, which is in a separate smaller tower. All access to the of oak paneled cupboards with glass doors housing musty old walls and ramparts has been walled shut. tomes. An investigator who spends their time here will notice the Count coming and going into the ritual room above. A secret Stable: A small stable houses a black carriage, but no horses. door behind a bookshelf leads into secret tunnels inside the Even a cursory search provides plenty of evidence that horses outer wall. were kept here until recently. A successful Spot Hidden check Investigators can find information about strigoi here if they will notice a small smudge of blood on the ground. Strigoi killed know to search for it. On a successful Library Use check hand the horses who were kept here, the servants cleaned up as best the investigator Handout Contract 2: Strigoi in as they could. Romanian folklore, on a failed check they will have to spend the better part of a day to obtain the same information. Chapel: A yellow door with peeling paint and a small wooden cross on it marks the entrance to the castle's chapel from the Handout Contract 2: Strigoi in Romanian folklore courtyard. The interior is dark and covered in the dust of years, there is little of note remaining in this room - a small wooden Strigoi are the restless souls of dead witches. Strigoi bench awkwardly placed in the middle of the room, an ancient stories are similar to West-European werewolf tales. baptismal font in the corner and a large cross in the back, that is Strigoi leave at night (especially full moon nights) from now home to a nest of swallows going in and out of a broken their graves to do the devil's bidding. They lead people window. There is a stairway here going down to the crypt, but it has been boarded shut. The boards can be broken loose with a into the woods, steal infant children and eat freshly STR roll, no check is required if proper tools are used. buried corpses. Crypt: Members of the Gabor family are buried here, rows upon Some strigoi are believed to be living witches who use rows of tombstones on the walls give evidence to this long- lasting practice. Multiple things can be learned from examining their magical power to assume the shape of a wolf or the tombstones. Count Gabor’s wife, Marina, died sixteen years other animal.Sample In some tales strigoi also have the power ago. No tombstone for Rozaliafile Gabor can be found (if the to turn invisible, move through walls, cause rain and hail investigators already know to look for it). There seem to be too or weaken their victims through sucking their blood. many children among the buried, noticeably every generation seems to have someone dying at age sixteen. Should the 7 investigators be so ghoulish as to exhume one of these tombs, Basement: Under the castle is a vast basement of former they will find them empty (the firstborns were given to the storerooms, wine cellars and dungeons. All of it has been strigoi, leaving no remains to be buried). abandoned for a while now. All stairs leading to the basement A large hole has been recently dug in the back wall of the crypt. have been walled shut, it is currently only accessible by elevator This hole is the work of strigoi. If investigators decide to go - at least that is what the Count believes, it is in fact also through this hole, they will find themselves in the basement near accessible via a hole from the crypt, a poorly boarded up the dungeon. Strigoi frequently visit this place and can ambush stairway in the kitchen and through a network of secret tunnels investigators crawling through the hole one at a time. A single in the outer walls. Strigoi frequently visit this place and might strigoi will silently wait in the shadows (Hard success on Spot jump investigators from the shadows before disappearing Hidden to notice the glare of yellow eyes) for one or two behind unused wine racks and a maze of dark tunnels. investigators to crawl through, then attack them before other investigators can come to their rescue. This situation can easily Dungeon: Close to the elevator is a single prison cell with a turn fatal for the unlucky investigator - however early in the heavy reinforced door. Rozalia Gabor lives in this cell, looking scenario the strigoi want to merely scare investigators, not kill out of one single small window. She is not lacking in anything, them (see Running the Scenario on page 8), they will strike to servants bring her anything she wants, but she cannot leave. injure and then let the investigator escape. RUNNING THE SCENARIO This is a free form scenario with no fixed sequence of events. The scenario starts off with the final leg of the Investigators journey into the valley, to communicate the remoteness of the location. After introductions are made with the ominous Count Gabor, investigators are free to go about their tasks in any order while staying at the castle. Each day the investigators can progress further in their job, incidentally discovering ever more clues about what is really happening. Each night they will be hunted by strigoi - at first, they might see yellow eyes watching them from the darkness or hear scratching in the walls, but as the scenario progresses the monsters become more aggressive, investigators may witness them skulking around or even be chased and attacked by them. Once the investigators have a good sense of what they are up against, it will be time to move the scenario towards an end game, multiple options are provided - take the players' lead.

STARTING THE SCENARIO The scenario starts with the investigators arriving in Hermannstadt, where they pick up the company order of tools and dynamite (one large wagon with 4 horses). The Count was supposed to send a carriage to pick them up in Hermannstadt, but no carriage ever comes. Play up the unease of being alone in a foreign town and do not focus on the logistics - the company covers all expenses from train tickets to last minute hotel bookings to hiring drivers.

Two days after the agreed upon pickup date a letter from Count Gabor arrives - he regrets not being able to pick up the Basement & ramparts investigators but does not elaborate on the reason why (see Dead Walls and ramparts: The outer walls are filled with secret Horses on page 9). They are to take the train to Vascre village tunnels which connect the ramparts to the basement and various and make their way to the castle from there. buildings. Straight, extremely narrow and low tunnels are The investigators are of course free to make their own way occasionally broken up by steep stairways, strigoi can towards Orlat Castle before receiving word from Count Gabor. occasionally be heard running up and down these paths. These Checking railway maps will show a local line going towards tunnels allowed the castle's defenders to move to and from the Vascre village near Castle Orlat. The ride is packed with people, ramparts unseen, now they hide the movement of the strigoi. All mostly peasants traveling to and from the down market, finely access ways between the courtyard and the tunnels are walled dressed foreigners will attract a lot of attention in these parts. off. The tunnelsSample connect to the secret passage in the library and file the opening in the first bedroom. The Count does not yet realize that the strigoi are using these tunnels to move about the castle.

Dead horses Surveying and buying land When the investigators arrive in Vascre they will witness a During the first round of negotiations Count Gabor produces an commotion in the village. Several people are gathered in a old map from the beginning of the 19th century, it is a map of his semicircle by the butcher's shop - two dead horses are in the domain. This map is not up to par by modern geographical street in front of the butcher's shop, the carcasses look like they standards, and it is in fact not clear if the proposed site for the were mauled by beasts, getting a good look triggers a 0/1D3 hotel is even on the Count's lands at all. A successful Law roll Sanity loss. The carcasses were taken from the castle stable and establishes that the Count's domain is defined by border stones were brought here on Count Gabors orders. The poor butcher is (failure on the roll means that this can only be established after utterly perplexed and has no idea what to do with them. spending half a day consulting Austro-Hungarian law books). Ostensibly wolves attacked and killed the horses - locals are The stones are physically marked stones on the mountain that highly doubtful of this though, how did wolves manage to get must be found and their precise geodetic location fixed in order inside the castle courtyard? Discussions with the locals will to know the actual border of the Count's lands. likely lead to them sharing gossip about Count Gabor (see Vascre village on page 5). Finding the stones requires a successful Navigate roll to locate them and a successful CON roll to do the strenuous hike A tour of Castle Orlat in one day. While only the character leading the group needs to The gates of Castle Orlat stand invitingly open. The investigators succeed on the Navigate roll, everybody who comes along will first sight will be a servant carrying a live hare into the kitchen, need to succeed on the later roll or suffer one penalty die to all not paying them much attention. There will not be hare for physical actions from exhaustion until they can get a good dinner anytime soon though, the Count will use the poor night's rest. The investigators can avoid the later roll if they split creature's entrails for divination. When asked about it the the task onto two separate days. Failure on the Navigate roll servant is silent, only commenting that Count Gabor is already means that the investigators did not find the stones, but may try on his way here to greet the investigators. again tomorrow, add one bonus die for each such failed Soon the Count arrives himself dressed in a fanciful yet expedition, as their familiarity with the mountainside increases. ancient looking dressing robe. The Count apologizes for not Instead of wasting a day, investigators may opt to push a being able to pick them up and then quickly changes the subject, Navigate roll, but this risks remaining outside past nightfall, an insisting they accompany him on a tour of the castle. He will excellent opportunity to stage an encounter with a spying show investigators the grand hall and armory, demonstrating strigoi. how a flintlock pistol is operated; then he will use the elevator to bring the investigators back down to the ground floor, cracking Measuring the stones' precise location requires a successful a joke about how odd it is for them to have a count as an elevator Science (Geography) check, failure indicating that additional boy; crossing the courtyard he will tell them a little bit about locations must be visited to triangulate the measurements - this Castle Orlat's history as a fortress; he will take them to the tower too will delay them beyond nightfall or cost an additional day. and show them the library where investigators are welcome to Investigators wandering the mountainside will notice the study any of the volumes, it is also his preferred place to hold earthen mounds (see The Hotel site on page 5), a Science negotiations later; finally he will lead investigators back to the (Geography or Geology) check establishes that these are not main building and show them to their rooms on the third floor, naturally occurring. quite close to his own. Throughout the tour the Count avoids all attempts to talk Buying the land: Once the land has been surveyed and a good business, preferring to do this tomorrow when they are all site of the hotel is indeed found to be inside the Count's borders, rested. At the end of the tour the Count changes from his playful the negotiations can begin in earnest. The Count will find many tone and gives one stern warning: investigators are not to faults with the plan, protesting proposed rail lines (see below), wander other parts of the castle and under no circumstances are asking too high a price, requiring a castle retrofit be made part they to take the elevator to the basement – “it is very dangerous”. of the contract etc. He is not a good negotiator and can be easily He will not elaborate on this, preferring to keep the investigators Persuaded to back away from demands, but he always comes in the dark, at least for now. up with a new reason not to sign the final contract. He is in fact After the tour and dinner, the investigators will have free rein stalling for time, as a successful Psychology roll reveals. He to do as they please. The Count ensures them that there is no does not wish to sign anything until he is sure what he intends rush, and they can stay as long as they need. to do with the investigators. Location scouting THE JOB The company has a proposed location for the hotel, but there are The investigators have several tasks to complete which will take no precise enough maps available for this region to set the exact multiple days. These tasks will point them at a lot of clues about location. Investigators must visit the hillside, find a suitable what is really going on in the valley and investigators are free to spot and fix its location with a Science (Geography) roll - follow up on these. Failing skill checks on the job usually means failure means their efforts are delayed beyond nightfall. a delay in their efforts, necessitating they stay for another night, during which they will be haunted by the strigoi, who wish to Photographing the site: they will need a good photo of the scare themSample away from these lands. future views from the hotelfile windows. Unluckily for the investigators the mountainside is heavily forested at this altitude - they will have to come up with a way to create good photos regardless.