Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The council against the Hero
A hooded Mysterious Figure gathers six villains around a long table: Vaden, Xeven, Pax, Sekt, Scarletta, and Ziri. Their host calls them the greatest powers of evil in the land, but the gathering has one immediate purpose. The Hero has become a common enemy, and the meeting turns toward the Hero's death. Pax wants the kill in his arena; Sekt insists that defeating the Hero belongs to his prophecy. Their agreement on an enemy does little to settle their competing ambitions.
The argument quickly becomes personal. Scarletta teases Sekt about leaving his fourth-dimensional pyramid, and he answers that he may still be there. Ziri wishes to see it and then boasts of cleaning its toilets with a toothbrush stolen from Vaden's castle. Xeven whispers that his necklace supposedly grants wishes instantly. Scarletta mocks Vaden's breath, Vaden threatens her Tower of Mirrors, and the alliance looks close to dissolving into insults before it has begun.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The DeathKnight tells a story
Vaden demands that Ziri respect his gauntlet. Anyone killed by it, he warns, becomes his undead servant for eternity. Ziri's response is that he had only intended to wish for new banana-flavored underpants. The Mysterious Figure restores the meeting's purpose: to defeat their common foe, they must learn everything they can about the Hero. Vaden offers the account of the Hero's entry into his Castle of Bone.
The story is explicitly presented as something that happened in the past, with a warning that actions there may change the villains at the table now. Vaden's descriptions will also have to be read as his descriptions. When he claims that the Hero simply broke in and killed his guards, Xeven immediately challenges the lack of any motive. Scarletta concedes that heroes like loot, but Xeven calls Vaden a liar. The council's interruptions expose the limits of his self-serving version.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Through the front defenses
Enter the Castle of Bone requires one Skeleton Key from the guards outside. Vaden describes this as the beginning of the invasion of his home. Slay Vaden's Undead Guards then requires two guards slain in the lobby. He had placed them there for just such an emergency, and their defeat makes him resolve to recruit stronger replacements. The Hero advances into a castle whose owner treats each fallen defender as both an outrage and a practical inconvenience.
Destroyer in the Foyer requires three Foyer Destroyed. In Vaden's account, the Hero hacks through his Undead Knights with unprecedented efficiency, leaving his defenses thoroughly breached. Beyond the foyer lies the Hall of Fallen DeathKnights. The name prompts jokes at the table about whether its inhabitants have merely slipped on bananas, until Scarletta asks who those fallen lords actually were.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The lords who would not stay down
Help! I'm a Fallen Lord and I Can't Get Up! requires eight Deathknights Fallen, but fighting alone cannot clear the hall. Its former rulers return to unlife whenever they are defeated. Gem-nastics supplies the way through: three Necrogems must be taken from them and placed into the crowns embedded in the walls, appeasing three Fallen Deathknights. Vaden is exasperated that the Hero finds the solution he had considered obscure.
These are the castle's previous rulers, Vaden admits, and he did not build the place. He entered as an adventurer much like the Hero. After defeating the reigning DeathKnight Lord, he inherited that lord's curse and became the castle's new master. Scarletta grasps the consequence before the others do. The Mysterious Figure wants to know what happened to the Hero in the same hall, but Vaden insists on continuing the story in his own order.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Dinner is ruined
The hall opens into the dining room. Bone Appetit requires six Undead Waiters slain, depriving Vaden of dinner service before he has eaten. The Walking Bread follows with two Sickly Chrysalises Burnt, two Wailing Gourds Burnt, three Undead Breads Burnt, and one Knight's Fork. Vaden admits that his food might frighten a human, but complains that burning it prevents it from coming back. Ghoul-ash adds six Ghoul Ash from his dinner guests.
At the table, Pax wonders whether the undead eat at all. Sekt points him toward zombies. Xeven then asks whether Vaden's gauntlet makes even his food undead when he uses a fork, and Vaden says that it does. The culinary horror turns the discussion toward whoever prepares these meals. Vaden names the Butcher, who uses whatever ingredients he can find. The Hero's route now leads into that cook's kitchen.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The kitchen and the long hall
The Butcher requires one Butcher Carved. Vaden describes his chef being carved to pieces with an irritation that outweighs his appreciation for the irony. That death will matter again later, when the chef can tell his own story. For the moment, the Hero continues beyond the ruined dining room into the long double hall, while Vaden begins to recognize the scale of the threat approaching him.
Lean Mean Undead Slaying Machine requires ten Undead Slain along this passage. Vaden watches his minions fall and makes another mental note: he will need to prepare very carefully for the eventual confrontation. His account continues to reduce the Hero's advance to indiscriminate destruction, while the rooms ahead contain the possessions and memories that will reveal how he became bound to the castle.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Trophies and portraits
Moar Loot takes the Hero through Vaden's trophy room. The captured objectives require one Warrior Blade, one Knight's Helm, one Royal Crown, and one Warrior's Screwdriver. These are souvenirs of Vaden's strongest opponents, but he complains that the Hero ignores his taxidermy and takes anything golden. His protest that this is his home, rather than a dungeon crawl, gives his indignation its most direct expression.
Putting Your Hands All over Everything reveals the enchanted portraits in the gallery. With one Warrior's Dusting Rag, the Hero uncovers one image each of Living Vaden, Undead Vaden, and Deathknight Vaden. The blank canvases disclose that the current lord had a past before this form. Back at the council, Scarletta asks what he was like then. Vaden says he was much like the Hero, with his world about to change forever.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - A castle trying to become a dungeon
Vaden explains that his gauntlet is a cursed artifact from a Grimskull dungeon. The Mysterious Figure objects that no one escapes such a place alive; Vaden asks whether he looks alive. The Castle of Bone is not itself a Grimskull dungeon, he says, but it is trying to become one. Anything or anyone who dies there becomes part of it. Scarletta believes she now understands the danger, though the others have not yet put the pieces together.
The Hero meanwhile reaches the ballroom. Paladin Rock requires five Song Request Tickets, two Sweet Dancing Shoes, one Paladin Rock Requested, and one Pencil. Vaden describes the Hero taking tickets from the Grateful Undead, shoes from Those 70s Zombies, and a pencil from the gallery, then requesting music spectacularly unsuited to an undead disco. In his words, the Hero kills the dance floor. The castle's social life falls apart along with its defenses.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Funny bones and a secret code
Do You Find This Humerus? requires five Undead Humerus Bones from the castle's minions. Vaden cannot explain why the Hero wants them and dismisses it as another incomprehensible adventurer habit. His private chambers, at least, should be safe behind a special code. Unfortunately for him, the Knights, Guards, and Warriors have written its pieces down and kept them in their pockets.
Vaden Says requires one each of the three code pieces: Red, Red; Yellow, Green; and Blue, Green, Red. With those clues recovered, the Hero can approach the personal rooms Vaden had considered secure. His lesson to the surviving minions is belated: keeping the secret written on scraps in one's pockets is asking for trouble. The lord who began by expecting an easy kill is now the one trying to avoid being found.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The stolen helm and the porcelain escape
In The Dead King's Bedroom, the Hero arrives while Vaden is still there. Unready for the confrontation, he runs into the bathroom and leaves his helm on the bed. The quest requires one Vaden's Helm, and the Hero takes it. The table scene now shows Vaden without that helm too, and the council's laughter makes the embarrassment worse. Sekt says he preferred Vaden with the helmet on, leading to an uncomfortable exchange about whether Sekt's own skull face is a mask.
Xeven asks where Vaden was while the helm lay on the bed. He admits he was in the bathroom, then describes his retreat as valiant. Ziri identifies the secret escape hatch under the toilet, which he had noticed when stealing Vaden's toothbrush. The revelation leaves the council more interested in where a hidden toilet tunnel could lead than in Vaden's attempt to preserve his dignity.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Following him through the sewer
Game of Porcelain Thrones requires four Trail of Yuck. Vaden's escape has left wet brown splashes that make his route obvious, and the Hero follows through the toilet passage he expected to deter pursuit. Teenage Mutant Sewer Turtles then requires six Turtles Battled. Vaden calls them descendants of pets flushed away long ago. They are accustomed to his use of the tunnel, but keep blocking the Hero's path.
The Hero recognizes a more particular challenge in Adolescent Inhuman Samurai Reptiles. These sewer warriors must be defeated to earn their respect, with their weapons taken as proof: Picasso's Katanas twice, Dali's Bo once, Basquiat's Sai twice, and Warhol's Nunchaku once. The completion account says they step aside and open the manhole cover. Vaden's secret route has delivered the Hero into a part of the castle that initially looks nothing like a torture chamber.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Snuggles in the rainbow room
The Hero emerges into a bright landscape of pink hearts and rainbows. Vaden appears and demands to know why the Hero entered his castle. The answer is unexpected: to save him. He calls it a lie and threatens to let Snuggles the Torturer force an explanation instead. He also reclaims his helm. At the council, the Mysterious Figure questions the account, while Xeven wants to know why a happy pink landscape exists inside the castle at all.
Vaden says that the castle has not assimilated that area yet. Scarletta works out that it is growing and that those killed by the gauntlet become either part of it or its servants. Snuggles himself is a large blue bear who holds the Hero, but becomes distracted by a butterfly. The Hero wriggles free; Snuggles's belated reaction is an alarmed admission that something has gone wrong. The menace of the room and its cheerful appearance belong to the same absurd encounter.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Leaving the torturer behind
Snuggles! requires one Snuggles Defeated before the Hero can leave the torture chamber. Vaden complains that he now needs a new torturer. When Xeven asks about the fate of the Hero, the discussion also reveals Vaden's beloved pet, Rot Tin Tin. Pax assumes it is an unimpressive puppy until Vaden identifies it as a dracolich. The remaining rooms will test the Hero's ability to get past both the castle's defenses and its owner's sentimental attachments.
Game of Bones leads through the library guards, whose outfits Vaden collected in homage to a favorite series. The captured objectives require one Jon Bones' Cape, one Oberon Marrowtell's Armor, one Baskerville's Helmet, and one Knight of Lichens' Lance. To Vaden they are the pride of his collection; to the Hero they become another obstacle and another haul. Of all the lost pieces, Baskerville's helmet hurts him most.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The pet and the treasury
Rot Tin Tin! requires one Rot Tin Tin Slain. Vaden nearly breaks down while describing the loss of his dracolich. He then admits that he can raise it again, which does not make him any less offended. The complaint is about the principle as much as the loss itself, and the tale avoids turning this defeat into proof that the undead pet can never return.
Gold Digger takes the Hero into the treasury, with fifty Vaden's Gold, ten Gold Skulls, and one Crystal Skull required. Vaden describes his golden DeathKnight guards being beaten until the treasury is emptied. His final defense lies through the Arm-ory: a room whose name is literal, because it stores spare arms. There, the Hero closes in on the lord who has spent the visit moving from one defense to the next.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - A fate worse than death
Gotta Hand It To Ya requires five Knights Defeated and five Warriors Defeated in the Arm-ory. With his last defenders falling, Vaden resolves to face the Hero in the throne room. Pax welcomes the prospect of a battle to the death, but Scarletta explains the real trap. Killing Vaden would make the Hero the new DeathKnight Lord; losing would let Vaden's gauntlet turn the Hero into part of the castle forever.
Xeven realizes that the gauntlet must be the secret of the entire castle. Vaden says the fight did not go as expected. Vaden's Defeat requires one Vaden's Arm, and its completion is carefully phrased: the Hero has disarmed him. The outcome avoids the simple alternatives of killing the cursed lord or becoming another victim. The Hero removes the gauntlet-bearing arm and tells Vaden that he is free to leave.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The gauntlet was the castle
At the table, Vaden vows revenge despite having been freed. He now believes that only the gauntlet was trapped in the castle, but Scarletta takes the explanation further: the gauntlet was the Castle of Bone. The Grimskull artifact had been using its wearer to build an expanding dungeon. Every defeated hero made it larger. Vaden could never leave because, in effect, he had been wearing the castle.
Removing Vaden from that role does not destroy the underlying threat. He warns that the gauntlet will restore the previous DeathKnight Lords, and that an ever-growing Castle of Bone will eventually become everyone's problem. Scarletta dismisses the danger as someone else's concern, but the Mysterious Figure recognizes it before returning to the unresolved question: why did the Hero come to free Vaden at all? The council still lacks the knowledge its host considers necessary to end the Hero.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - An arm and the next tale
The council's Vaden is now missing the gauntlet-bearing arm seen earlier. He wishes he could return to the Arm-ory for a replacement. Ziri offers help and wishes another arm from the castle onto him. The result is an oversized green arm that Vaden plainly dislikes. Ziri answers the complaint with a joke about whether Vaden had wanted a Goodbye Kitty Chainsaw instead. The green arm's original owner is not identified.
Pax wants to tell the story of his Death Pit Gladiator Arena, while Ziri interrupts with an offer to describe the Hero's visit to his Cloud City Cat Fortress with laser sharks. Their host promises both a turn, but chooses the Time Traveling Thief next. Xeven agrees to tell a story from the Hero's dark future. Vaden's account has ended with his release rather than the Hero's destruction, leaving the council to seek a more useful explanation in the next villain's tale.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The Butcher has a name
An optional continuation gives the Butcher his own voice. In life he was Chef Ramskull, a celebrated chef with five-star restaurants in the Sandsea, Mythsong, and Yokai. Success did not satisfy him. Hearing of an enchanted cleaver that made any meat perfectly cooked, he came to the Castle of Bone and killed its holder. Taking the weapon made him the new Butcher, bound to cook rotting meat for Flester the Silver and Yurrod the Gold.
The Hero's defeat of him ended that bodily servitude, but his spirit remains bound to the castle. He resents the two former DeathKnight Lords for treating him as a nameless servant and being unable to appreciate flavor. Ramskull asks the Hero to punish them, promising loot as an incentive. His account adds another cursed tool and another former adventurer to the castle's history, while making the Silver and Gold Towers a separate revenge mission after Vaden's defeat.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Climbing the Silver Tower
Eye Sp-eye requires six Sp-eye Cameras from the Spyballs that Ramskull says record intruders for the DeathKnight Lords. He wants the surveillance stopped before the Hero appears on the feed. Stone Cold then requires two Cracked Stone Hearts from the statues in the next room. Breaking their hearts should keep them down, although the chef is quick to criticize the time the work takes.
Slay 'Em All requires three Undead Knights and three Undead Guards slain. The following task, titled Slay 'Em Again in the native capture, adds three Fallen Deathknights and three Undead Warriors. Ramskull alternates reassurance with insults, treating ordinary undead-slaying as work the Hero should be able to do without much help. The early climb establishes him as an effective guide whose encouragement is rarely kind.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Loot that cannot be kept
In Farming For Loot, Ramskull promises to pay up. The Hero gathers one each of a Sp-Eye Camera, Deathknight's Axe, Warrior's Shield, Knight's Helm, and Guard's Skull. Or... Not. immediately reveals the catch: each item must be placed on a trophy plaque to open the passage onward. Ramskull admits that he misled the Hero because adventurers are so motivated by material gain. The five objects are keys to progress rather than the promised personal haul.
Mirror, Mirror requires smashing three mirrors, for reasons the chef refuses to explain. They summon Bloody Scary, and the next quest requires one Bloody Scary Exorcised. Ramskull justifies withholding the warning by insisting that a good hero must be ready for anything. His later request for the ghost's Bloody Scary Mix will reveal a more particular reason for directing the Hero into that confrontation.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Creepers, chests, and Flester
Just Nasty sends the Hero against the Bone Creepers that Ramskull remembers crawling over meat in his kitchen. The captured objective is six Creepers Crushed; the community version lists eight. Scavenger Hunt then requires five Skeleton Keys from the ghouls, followed by five Chests Unlocked in Ghoul Booty. Ramskull hopes to recover his belongings, but a bag labeled Ramshoe's Cooking Utensils provokes another furious protest that nobody remembers his name.
Flester's Guards requires four Undead Golden Knights slain outside the former lord's chamber. Ramskull briefly corrects himself for calling it a throne room, since Flester is no longer the reigning lord, then loses patience with the distinction. Flester the Silver requires one Flester Slain. The chef finally offers something resembling praise. With the Silver Tower cleared, he directs the Hero toward Yurrod and the Gold Tower.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The Gold Tower knows
They Know We're Coming begins the second climb with three Grim Souldiers slain. Ramskull suspects that word of the assault has reached this tower and its defenders have prepared. Elitist Jerks requires four Undead Gold Cards from the Undead Golden Knights. Their high-handed treatment of restaurant staff particularly offends the chef, who jokes that shouting at his own employees ought to be his privilege.
Loot, Hero! offers another chance at treasure, this time with five Pots Smashed and one Piece of Heart. Ramskull insists that the Hero really can keep the loot. Those Aren't Big Birds, Sweetheart follows with six Vampire Bats Staked. The chef advises staking the fallen bats because they are probably vampires, then criticizes the speed of the work. His promise of fair treatment has not softened his impatience.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - The NOPE room and the damaged books
In The Nope Room, Ramskull describes weaker undead being trapped in the chamber that its warning sign has failed to keep them out of. The Hero must free four Ghouls. Unraveling the webs draws the Bone Widow's attention, leading to Arach-NO-phobia and one Bone Widow Squashed. Ramskull jokes that he would be hyperventilating into a paper bag if he could still breathe.
Library Infestation turns the rescue mission back toward the chef's losses. His cookbooks were brought into this library, but Book Maggots have infested it. The Hero recovers eight Cookbook Pages, salvaging at least some of the collection. Ramskull is discouraged by the damage but relieved that not everything has been destroyed. His grudges against the castle's inhabitants are repeatedly bound up with the ordinary tools and pleasures taken from his old life.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Setting other ghosts free
Creepy! reveals bones left by people the Bone Creepers have devoured. Ramskull says those souls will remain trapped while their bones endure. The Hero gathers six Creeper Acid and dissolves six Skulls to release the ghosts. This detour echoes the larger castle curse in a smaller form: physical remains can hold the dead in place, and removing the thing that binds them offers a way out.
It's Not Like They Need Them Anymore offers three Crowns Looted from statues as the Hero's salary. Ramskull suggests biting them to check whether the DeathKnight Lords used real gold. The theft angers the nearby defenders, so Advanced Self Defense requires three Undead Knights Noogied and three Undead Guards Swirlied. The passage mixes the chef's professed generosity with another round of trouble that follows from accepting his advice.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Yurrod the Gold
Take A Mallet To 'Em requires two Statues Crumbled outside Yurrod's chamber. Ramskull declares them almost at the end and compares the taste of anticipation to burnt pasta. Yurrod the Gold then requires one Yurrod Slain. The second former lord falls, finishing the revenge mission the chef proposed after the Hero's encounter with Vaden.
Ramskull praises the Hero's professional work and is delighted that both Flester and Yurrod have lost their smug composure. He wishes he could have seen it. His revenge has been served, but the account does not establish that the castle or its cursed tools have been destroyed, or that his own spirit has been released. The ghost still has business for a willing adventurer, and the restaurants he left behind have not stopped operating.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Ramskull's restaurant errands
In Get my Stuff, Ramskull says the undead exploit his lack of a body to steal his possessions. The Hero can recover one each of his Apron, Hat, Cookbook, Spatula, and Skillet from the suspects he names: a Fallen Deathknight, an Undead Warrior, an Undead Knight, an Undead Guard, and a Ghoul. On receiving them he reluctantly concedes that the work itself is not enough of a reward. Even revenge has not freed him from dependence on someone with hands.
In the Mix explains the earlier mirrors and ghost. Bloody Scary drops an ingredient needed by the people running Ramskull's restaurants during his absence. He asks for one Bloody Scary Mix and will have employees collect it. He does not need it personally; the enterprise has outlived his body. The admission gives his earlier refusal to explain the mirror-smashing a more self-interested purpose than simply testing whether the Hero was prepared.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - Books, roe, and a final recipe
Summer Reading addresses the boredom of eternity in the castle where Ramskull died. It requires ten Book Pages, one Batwing Leather, and three Skullspider Silk to assemble a book. He calls it to die for and immediately wants another. It's A Delicacy! asks for one Spider Egg Roe from the Bone Widow in the NOPE room, for Grimskull sushi. His employees will collect that ingredient too, and he emphatically rejects the idea that death would make him stop running restaurants.
My Final Recipe acknowledges the defeats of Vaden, Flester, and Yurrod, then asks for a Five Star Delight: three Gamey Rat Meat, one Waiter's Notepad, six Turtle's Eggs, six Ghoul Vinegar, one Bag of Bone Flour, and two Spices. Its listed requirements also include carrying both Silver DeathKnight Lord and Golden DeathKnight Lord. Ramskull offers tokens for the result. This final collection remains a separate, conditional undertaking rather than something the Hero's earlier victory automatically supplies.
Throne of Darkness: Vaden's Tale - A little privacy, and another request
A skeleton encountered in the shower has a more immediate complaint. In EEK!, rats keep trying to eat his toes, and the task requires ten Rats Exterminated. His gratitude lasts just long enough to thank the Hero before ordering the visitor out. Even within this castle's grotesque domestic life, a skeleton expects a little privacy.
For a Hero already following the Mysterious Stranger's separate quest line, his local request is All Things Green and Small... It requires one hundred Purification Dust. He praises stamina, endurance, and the usefulness of humble creatures, then holds up the rat as a model of hardiness. His castle greeting directs the Hero back to Shadowfall for a further explanation. This is another thread passing through Vaden's castle, with its larger purpose still to be resolved elsewhere.