The party are in the employ Lord Crawley, the latest in a long line of decreasingly wealthy lords to take possession of Castle Senex. The castle has seen better days. In fact, the castle is renown for its better days.

Situated in a remote, backwards area of the Kingdom, Castle Senex has a storied history of fighting off invading giants, armies of ghost werewolves, necromancer gnomes, and dozens of other kingdom-threatening evils. The residents even managed to bring down a dragon and now the skull of Odiosus the Vile hangs above the castle gate.

For the last century or two, however, the castle has changed hands multiple times, and the funding for its upkeep has dropped off precipitously. Now, what was once a celebrated home of bravery has become the ramshackle home for what is basically the fantasy equivalent of Phules Company.

The players travel with their Lord Crawley to take possession of the castle and Crawley, fascinated by the history of the castle, immediately sets about restoring its glory. First they'll have to whip the current staff (now down to a skeleton crew of surly servants) into shape. Then they'll have to clean up the countryside of kobolds and other minor threats so that the surrounding farms can be rehabilitated and repopulated.

As the castle beings to come back to life, however, so do the threats. A few rare demi-human incursions begin to multiply into some serious dangers. This increases the castle's fame and increases the tourist dollars of visiting nobles eager to be seen in the newest celebrity location. The more money spent improving the castle, the more people move in, the more dangerous the assaults become.

Eventually, the party stumble on to a secret chamber in the castle where no less a figure than Crawley's umptieth grandsire wrote down the true history of the castle. Seems a curse was placed on it because of the arrogance of a previous owner - as long as the castle exists, the kingdom would be in danger. Restoring the castle from its decrepitude has also awakened the curse.

Now the party are stuck between an increasingly driven Crawley and an increasingly dangerous curse. Do they break the curse? Do they treat it as silly superstition? Or do they go against Crawley and put an end to the restoration?