The Slumbering Castle Devlog 1

Half a century ago a king ruled here - The ruler of a very small but ancient domain.  The king had a princeling son, and a court bard, and a retinue of servants and vassals.  He ruled from a castle which had grown out from its ancient foundation.

The castle and the town it stands over is a ruin.  Heavy mists shroud the entire place.  The stones are overgrown with thorn and flower.  And beneath the fog and bramble, resting without end in their stations, are the sleepers.  The names of the castle, its monarch and princeling are all gone - stricken from all record and memory by invocation.  

 

Every so often, usually in the springtime, a group will venture into the castle looking for treasure unguarded by the sleeping sentries, unwanted by the nobles and courtesans in their pleasant dreams.  Most of these folk never return.  

In a nearby town, rules a regent.  Folk from the town don't trust coin taken from the castle.  They will say it's cursed.  But further afield, no one knows or cares of such things.  The layered curses of the castle don't go further than the bramble forest after all.  

So new folk who hear the rumors will come as they have before.

Trina Schart Hyman

This is the Slumbering Castle. This is perhaps my favorite adventure location/dungeon idea I've ever had. Through a series of posts I plan to document my process for completing this adventure and reveal some of its secrets.

Current Inspirations
Sleeping Beauty
The City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky - This is the clearest inspiration for how I want this to run and where I got the ideas from outside of the original fairy tale. In this book there is a place in the city that is quarantined with powerful magical runes to prevent a curse within from spreading to the rest of the world. The cursed district was once the wealthiest ward of the city and is filled with treasures, so foolish individuals sometimes go there looking for magical artifacts and treasure to be sold. The longer you stay, the more pull you feel towards joining in a mythical endless feast, the more urge you feel to dance to imaginary music and eat invisible food. I can't really describe it in a way that does it justice but I'd highly recommend the book.
Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian - I've never had the chance to play any of these games but I love them visually. The emptiness and beauty of ruined places are aspects I want to capture in The Slumbering Castle.