Castle Nostromo lies in the Deadlands of Lore. The original structure was conquered by Ripley Valtrith, over a thousand years ago, after a long and bloody battle and then quickly sealed away in the center of a vast fortress. The fortress began its fall into desolation and ruin 600 years ago when the last of the Valtrith line, Jaysun and his sister Dyana, were sealed in their tombs under mysterious circumstances.
The opening cutscene for Castle Nostromo has the player and rival hunters, Symone DuBellmount and Valencia Surehunter, climbing up from the Valtrith Tomb in order to find out more about the warlord clan that claimed Castle Nostromo as their home.
Art and animation by Tomasz Dawczak. Written by Laurie Cotsonika.
Players could choose to stay behind in Dyana’s room to read her diary or to play as Symone and explore the long abandoned castle in search of an escape route.
Players that chose to explore as Symone were started in room 27 with the goal of finding an ancient exosuit armor, placed in room 1.
Despite the large explorable map, there is only a single creature encounter in the quest. Colored circles on the floor represent an “abduction chance” (purple is 30%, red is 50%, and green is 70%) for Symone to be caught by a Void Queen and be sent back to the queen’s nest in room 10. If Symone is caught, the triggered pad is removed. The most direct routes are heavily seeded with the abduction pads while the lowest route has a very minimal chance of being caught.
