Koriszegy Keep

 

art by andreasrocha, source

Official Version

Koriszegy Keep is only one of two ruins to be described in Gaz1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, making it one of the few official dungeons to exist in the Grand Duchy. In the Gazetteer it gets a short write-up.

"Koriszegy Keep: One of the famous haunted places of Karameikos is Koriszegy Keep, which was once the seat of power of the Traladaran Koriszegy family. As legend has it, some 200 years ago a great calamity befell the Koriszegys, breaking down their walls and destroying their family, and people who wander too close to the ruin often disappear. The legend is true; those centuries ago, the head of the family tried to forge a pact with evil forces and, for his trouble, was changed into a vampire - but cursed so that he could never leave his own castle for more than a day."

 The gazetteer goes on to detail 8 areas on two simple maps. 

This Blog's Version

In my version of Mystara I will keep the background but expand the site so that it becomes a proper dungeon. 

The vampire is Baron Balthazo Koriszegy, and as the gazetteer says, he tried to make a pact with dark forces of Chaos. In his arrogance he demanded more power than would be offered to chaos warriors, chaos clerics or twisted summoners. He thought that as the ruler of south-western Traldar he should be entitled to becoming a Chaos Prince. The powers of Chaos had a different opinion. 

As he was transformed into a vampire, a massive lightning storm erupted over the castle, shattering walls, turrets and windows. In his rage and frustration of what was happening to him the newly vampiric Balthazo Koriszegy went on a bloodthirsty rampage through the castle, killing all those who did not flee. He slew his own wife and eldest son, while his two young daughters escaped with their nanny to the relative safety of Luln. It is believed they renounced the Koriszegy name and thus the lineage ended. 

In matters of architecture Koriszegy Keep has been left in ruins. As well as the main keep there is an outer wall with various towers and turrets and a gatehouse, all of which are in serious disrepair. Although some of them still have roofs, Balthazo does not consider these outer buildings sufficient shelter from sunlight, and only visits them at night. The main keep is still intact below the uppermost floor and sunlight cannot reach the first three storeys. Beneath the keep there are the dungeons, excavated by animated undead under the direction of the Baron after his transformation. 

Baron Balthazo Koriszegy is quite mad and perpetually dreams of conqering southern Karameikos, which he sees as reclaiming his original lands and maybe adding some more by right of conquest. Those who dispute his claim or point out that he is trapped in his castle will provoke a murderous rage. At other times he is consumed by a deep melancholy and self-loathing for what he did to his loved ones and his current predicament. He wanders the dungeons and at night the parapets of the keep muttering and berating himself. His attitude towards visitors is normally paranoid defensiveness combined with a thirst for blood - he generally attacks first and asks questions (usually to himself) later. There are occasions when he actually wants to talk to mortals, usually for information or some transaction: companionship no longer interests him. During such meetings he can maintain a veneer of aristocratic respectability and decorum for a while but he finds this difficult to maintain as the night draws on. More than two hours in the company of mortals and he starts twitching and salivating, trying to keep his savage impulses under control. 

However, as the gazetteer mentions he cannot be away from Koriszegy Keep when dawn comes - he must sleep in his own home during the day. It is a compulsion similar to a Geas spell that he must obey and if he is visiting a nearby town during the night, he will always depart with enough time to reach his home before dawn. Luln, Radlebb Keep and Fort Doom are all within a night's travel but Specularum and Threshold are safe from his visits. He tends to feed once per month, and may either visit one of the nearby settlements, or snatch travelling victims off the road. His resting place within the keep is the family crypt where his main coffin is inside a stone sarcophagus with a stone lid that requires a combined strength of 19 to move. There is also a small hole in the side of the sarcophagus and the baron can get through this either in bat form or in gaseous form. He also has back-up coffins stashed around the keep and dungeon in case the crypt is discovered by his enemies. 

He has minions, both living and undead. He has not yet created any other vampires but his family slain during his initial rampage have become wraiths, haunting the keep and seeking targets to vent their pain and despair. Many of his faithful servants have become ghouls while his guards have become wights. Nobody is sure why he has not created new vampires from his victims. Perhaps he does not want any rivals, only lesser undead as servants, or maybe there is an aspect of the curse that means unlike normal vampires he cannot infect others with the curse of vampirism.  He has used his necromantic magic to animate various skeletons and zombies including some types not seen before.  

He has a few human followers who act as his agents and spies in living settlements such as Luln and Radlebb Keep who report to him, though only briefly (they know he starts getting hungry after more than an hour in the presence of fresh blood). He also has a loose alliance with a band of werewolves that live in the local woods. Their ability to appear human during the day makes them useful for infiltrating villages and towns. However, they can be rebellious and argumentative, so the Baron keeps them at arm's length. They are also aware that Baron Koriszegy is not entirely sane, and although they go along with his fantasies of conquest, they are well aware this will not actually happen.

In terms of combat stats there are several options:

• The Basic D&D option which has just one stat block for vampires, and Baron Koriszegy conforms to the statistics for a standard vampire. 
• AC 2, HD 9**, Mv 120'/Fly 180', Att 1 touch  + special, Damage 1d10+ energy drain, Save F9, Ml 11, Align C, XP 2300, spec abil: 
• polymorph to bat or wolf at will, 
• gaseous form, 
• attack drains 2 levels per hit, 
• immune to non-magical weapons, 
• Charm Person as gaze attack at -2 to save vs spells
• Summon Bats, Giant Bats, Rats, Giant Rats, Wolves & Dire Wolves (each once per day) 
• regenerate 3hp/rnd, forced into gaseous form at 0 hp
• undead immunities (immune to mind-affecting spells, poison, disease & death magic)
• The AD&D option which allows certain vampires to retain spellcasting abilities they had in life. If this is the case, Baron Koriszegy has the spells of a 10th level magic user, but otherwise uses the stats given above.
• The Van Richten option, which draws from the 2nd Edition AD&D book Van Richten's Guide to Vampires where the older the vampire is, the more powerful it gets. At over 200 years old, Baron Koriszegy would be considered to be in the Old category. Stats would be AC 2, HD 10+2,  Mv 150'/fly 180', Att 1 touch  + special, Damage 1d10+ energy drain, Save F10, Ml 11, Align C, XP 2300, +2 or better magic weapons to hit, special abilities as above. He also casts spells as a 10th level magic user. 

art by Bill Willingham