The Sturmvoraus Lair
Castle Sturmvoraus is the traditional residence and family seat of the Princely House of Sturmvoraus.
The castle is situated in the town of Sturmhalten, which commands Balan's Gap, a mountain pass of strategic importance, especially following the destruction of the Passholdt bridge.
The castle is a powerful fortress, and warded by a lightning moat, a rare but highly effective defensive feature. Inside, Castle Sturmvoraus is an elegant and luxurious dwelling decorated in a High Victorian style. When first depicted in the comic, Prince Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus lives there with his son, Tarvek, , and daughter, Anevka. Wilhelm and Tarvek are both Sparks, while Anevka, critically injured by one of Aaronev’s experiments, interacts with the world via a human-shaped clank built by Tarvek based upon Tinka’s design. Anevka is attended at most times by four footmen, who carry around her physical body inside an external life support system.
Castle Sturmvoraus includes well equipped workshop/laboratories for Aaronev as well as separate facilities in the South Tower used by Tarvek. Since some of their work has been of apparently questionable virtue in the past, there are many concealment mechanisms ✣ , hidden rooms and stealthy passageways throughout the complex. This has apparently foiled Wulfenbach Questers looking for inappropriate activity.
The Castle houses a secret chapel to The Other, used by Aaronev and the Geisterdamen, which holds the Summoning Engine used to try to download The Other's consciousness into "suitable" female specimens, heretofore unsuccessfully.
Castle Sturmvoraus also has dungeons, which in turn are linked to extensive sewers, underground passages, oubliettes, and enormous deep-lying caverns. The party attempting to rescue Agatha from the Sturmvoraus family, including Lars, Krosp, Zeetha, Oggie, Dimo, and Maxim, enters the precincts of the Castle through the sewers. They encounter numerous monsters presumed to be leftover Sturmvoraus experiments, including one that costs Dimo his left arm. In one of the oubliettes they find and liberate a storyteller whom Oggie recognizes as a great-great grandson. The party also encounters an army of Geisterdamen moving through the underground highway, transporting slaver wasp engines.
Following the Battle of Sturmhalten and the resulting devestation of the town and departure (one way or another) of all three members of the ruling family, it is unknown who, if anyone, lives in the structure.