Ruins of Kathas Castle
The Ruins of Kathas Castle lay to the east, across the river from Newhaven. The party learned of this location in Session 5 when they discovered a letter among the cultist effects:
"We flee east, to the Ruins of Kathas Castle, where the old stones are. The ritual must go on."
The cult retreated here after the party raided their previous hideout. High Order Malgora directed the relocation, and whatever ritual the cult was conducting, they intended to complete it among the ancient stones.
The party crossed the ferry east in pursuit during Session 5 and launched a failed assault on the cult compound in Session 6 — losing their weapons and backpacks in the process.
By Session 10, the fort in the hills was confirmed as Malgora's base and the site of the coming ritual, believed to be one to two nights away. The party set out to kill Malgora and retrieve the head, hoping the blood magic within would reveal who Malgora really is.
Inside the Fort
The party got in during Session 11, and the ruins turned out to be more than old stones:
- An encampment, scouted invisibly by Eimador, holding prisoners and enough robed cultists to steal a disguise from
- A tower, reached in stolen robes and guarded by a Blood Elemental
- The inner circle's rooms, which held the cult's map and Malgora's diary
Progress stopped at a vertical wall of blood. With the way forward sealed, the only route left was down.
Below, and Above
Down was where the cult kept a failed vessel, feeding off blood pumps imbued with blood magic. The party destroyed the pumps in Session 12, and the vessel with them, then climbed to the top of the tower — where High Order Malgora waited with Sanguinax's orb.
The Collapse
The ruins did not survive the visit. The building came apart as the party left it, drifting down under feather fall while the old stones fell around them. Whatever Kathas Castle had been before the cult found it, it is rubble now.