Castles Forlorn 
Castles Forlorn is a boxed set. There’s a 96-page book, and two 32-page books. The crux of this module details a castle to explore. But rather than plop the PCs into the castle, it offers up some smaller quests to help provide some clues and tools regarding the castle proper. These are in the 2nd of the smaller books, and I’ll review each separately here.
This crux of this module lies in the 96-page book, and one of 32-page books contains random encounters you can place in the castle proper. The other 32-page book details all the short adventures you can run leading up to the Castle proper. Curiously, though, none of those modules gives you an actual reason to go to the castle, unless you count the Vistani matriarch pleading with you to rescue Petar if he is taken by the goblyns in “Trail of Tears”. You’d have to be rather cold-hearted not to do that, if he is kidnapped, but this is Ravenloft after all.
The story of this place is complex, but basically boils down to Tristan ApBlanc. In another world, he was born to a human mother, and a vampire father. The townspeople killed his father, and then tried to kill him. His mother rushed him off to a druid’s sacred grove, where a druid named Rual hid him away. The mother was then killed. As Tristan grew into a teenager, he became a vampire, and then attacked and killed Rual, who cursed him in the process. Then, he died, and shortly thereafter arose as a ghost. Rual’s curse bound him to the grove, where he was trapped for many years. He became a vampyre (a living blood drinker) by day, and a ghost by night.
Tristan used the wolves to do his bidding, and amassed a small fortune (you know, from killing things, and looting them – by way of his wolves), and eventually built a keep on the site of the grove (which he was still bound to). Eventually, Tristan marries a woman named Isolt, and they have three kids. Tristan eventually kills two of his own children and imprisons the third in his dungeon. His wife eventually dies in an apparent suicide. Eventually, the castle became seemingly abandoned.
Some 50 years passed, and Tristen made himself known once again, but this time going by name of Marc, pretending to be a descendant. Once again, “Marc” cleared the castle grounds, and improved on the castle. The ApFittle family – which had ruled in Tristan’s absence, was eventually attacked, and thrown in his dungeon for trying to defy his claims to rule the entirety of the lands around his castle. As he declared himself lord of the domain, Ravenloft obliged, wrenching the entirety into the domains of dread. Earning its moniker, “Forlorn”.
The rest of the first book details the primary inhabitants of the castle, Tristan, and all the various rooms found within. It also details the lands (which are mostly barren), and the various factions at play here – the goblyns, the druids, and that’s mostly it. The castle itself shifts between 3 different time periods, referred to as Castle A, B and C. These represent his early life, mid-life and the current time-period. As the castles shifts between periods, the PCs might interact with some of the mortals that might have inhabited in Caste A, for example, and learn more about what happened here. The general flow of the module is thus mostly exploring the castle with the added twist of having it shift between time periods, allowing the PCs to reason together what happened.
Unlike other Ravenloft modules that seem a little high for their level range, Castles Forlon, at level 4-6, might be a little under-leveled. I feel like you’d get more mileage out of this thing with a lot of very tough, and interesting battles. Tristan himself is quite a formidable opponent, as well as the number of other ghosts and monsters that inhabit the castle. As such, I think I’d be inclined to up the range here to about 7-9. A lot of the druid NPCs are already around level 12. The only real problem that I can see with Castles Forlorn is a lack of a solid hook to get the PCs into it. Forlorn itself is mostly devoid of any human settlements, which makes journeying here somewhat problematic. I still feel like I could place “Lady of the Mists” here on an island in the lake. The hook for that quest could get the PCs into the land, and since both have a similar vibe, might pair well with one another. The druids here seem to have the most reason to want Tristan dead, and thus would be the most likely to want to hire the PCs to see this done, especially if the PCs ally themselves with the druids, or prove their worth to them in some way.
Lastly, this module isn’t for the faint of heart. You can’t simply run this from top to bottom. The layout is a little all over the place, and to run it properly will require a fair amount of preparation. The other big issue with Castles Forlorn not only with the beginning, but with the end. The resolution here is sort of undefined. Is Tristan killable? How difficult are you going to make that? And then, ultimately, what happens if the PCs manage to pull that off? Just showing up, looting a castle, fighting a bunch of stuff, and then fleeing – leaving the state of affairs exactly as it started, will feeling underwhelming. So, you’re going to want to have a very defined beginning and end before you embark on this adventure.
Castles Forlorn – Trail of Tears
This is a very short adventure. The PCs arrive out of the mist and meet a small Vistani camp. There they meet Petar, a red-headed Vistani. Goblyns attack, and the goblyns either take Petar, or they are defeated, and flee. If he is taken, his grandmother implores the PCs to go to the castle to rescue him. Regardless, she will read their fortunes (which are all vague). That’s it. Short and sweet, I guess.
Castles Forlorn – Still Waters
The PCs encounter an insane ex-cleric of a Nordic god, Svendar. He complains about a bunch of stuff but is convinced that the sea monster in the lake is friendly. He wants the PCs to find his holy symbol so he can cast spells again. The holy symbol is basically impossible to find. During the encounter, he might sing them a song called the “Lament of the Dead”. It has clues regarding this place.
Castles Forlorn - Caverns of the Dead
At the end of Still Waters, the cleric speaks of the “Maw of Arawn”. It’s a reference to a mountain, which he believes will lead home. Spoiler alert: it won’t. But that’s apparently the impetus to get the PCs to explore this mountain. You don’t really need him. You could have the PCs explore this area for just about any reason. While they are there, they stumble into a goblin doing strange things. Turns out, he’s possessed by a creature called an Odem, which is basically described as an unkillable ghost that basically takes over a host’s body. There’s a save for this, but the Odem just moves from body to body until it finds someone who fails a save. At that point, the GM gets to control this person and forces them to do stupid things. It’s as heavy-handed and dumb as it sounds. Fortunately, it’s presence here isn’t necessary.
What follows is a standard 2nd edition-esque dungeon crawl fighting a bunch of goblyns. It’s only 7 rooms, but ultimately ends in a battle in which the goblins attempt to capture the PCs. They have a telepathic connection with the lord of this land, it seems, and he wants them captured. One of the goblins bargains with the PCs in exchange for them helping make him the leader of the goblins. Which is, basically undefined, aside from making him a possible recurring NPC in the future. It seems all intention is for the PCs to escape here.
There doesn’t appear to be anything to really gain from running this quest. It’s a pretty standard dungeon crawl fighting upwards of 60+ goblyns. As such, it doesn’t feel very Ravenloft-like.
Castles Forlorn – Howling Vengeance
This adventure takes place before the PCs are about to make camp – presumably in the wilds somewhere in Forlorn. At this point, they hear chanting in the distance. Investigating, they stumble onto some druids summoning a bunch of wolves and a figure who is not named but is basically
Herne the Hunter. PCs who stick around are also transformed into wolves. PCs get saves for this but failing it is the best outcome, otherwise you’re considered prey. As part of the wolf pack, the PCs (who are now wolves) hunt alongside the pack and attack an undead treant, a bunch of goblins, and are potentially diseased by some fungi. After the hunt, the leader of the druids is friendly towards them, but not overly so.
This module is short (3 pages), but is kind of interesting, though really heavy-handed. Of course, forcing the PCs to hunt as dogs all night long means they won’t get in their rest, making the following day harder on them. Instead of saving throws against the call of the hunt, I would just have the PCs feel some sort of primal calling and subtly ask them if they want to be hunted, or to be the hunters? It should be an obvious choice, I would think. Also, drop the fungus – it’s unnecessarily lethal, and just not that interesting. This isn’t a bad adventure, though I’m not sure it really adds all that much to the overall storyline.
Castles Forlorn – Shattered Secrets
Forlorn, it seems, is mostly uninhabited, save for goblyns, some wildlife, and a couple of groups of druids that navigate the lands via some underground caverns. In this module, the PCs are set up randomly by zombie wolves (what, no ghost bears?), and stumble into a cavern that breaks away beneath them, leading them into the druid’s sacred tunnels – an area they call Sanctuary. The way this plays out is a little contrived, and somewhat awkward, but the goal here is to make the druids your allies (that mostly depends on the PC’s actions), and possibly survive a goblin attack, since their fall into Sanctuary has also inadvertently revealed its location to the goblyns (and also the lord of the land, since he sees what they see).
The point of this module seems to be to find a clue to the location of a druidic artifact. The only way to find it is by casting
locate object and even then, only if the druids tell the PCs about it. But even then, they don’t find it – they can just find a drawing of it, and a geist will tell them how to find it. Also, the map to Sanctuary looks like it was drawn by a 13-year-old. It is abysmal. Along the way, the party might encounter some sort of deranged prisoner. The druids have him here for his own protection. He doesn’t speak, and the module describes ways of curing him, but admits that “such powers are beyond the means of the druids (and probably the PCs as well)”. Ok, so why put him here at all??
This module is a bit of a mess. Everything about it feels hastily thrown together – especially the map.
Castles Forlorn - Music of the Mists
In this quest, you seek out the Horn of the Sacred Grove, which is a powerful druidic artifact. The quest gives you a hook in the form of a werewolf named Sardo and his lover, Yolna, who are on their way to the Maw or Arawn, which is where the horn is located. Otherwise, you’ll need to have run either “Shattered Secrets” to find the clue to this location, or to follow the Svendar, the crazed cleric from “Still Waters”. As neither of those are great choices, having a 3rd option is a welcome sight.
If the PCs agree to aid the couple (it is a fairly thin hook but it seems better than the other two options, honestly). What proceeds is a climb up a 4,500-foot-tall mountain. Eventually, the PCs a valley of bones, and fight a mist horror and a bone golem. The horn is somewhat problematic, and almost meant not for the PCs, but rather for the NPC druids. This would be especially true if the party has no druid.
Castles Forlorn – A Bitter Harvest
There’s not much to this quest, really. The PCs explore the ruins of Birnam – what remains of the only city in Forlorn. There, they encounter Grimishkas (gremlins), who lead them on a chase towards a death’s head tree, which honestly, is about the coolest/weirdest monster in all of D&D. And, uh, that’s it.
