Taking your plates with you, the five members of the group enter the Great Hall. It is indeed quite large, with a high ceiling and four balconies overlooking it from the second floor. It is well-lit by everburning torches, and decorated with colorful tapestries depicting triumphs of the forces of good over the forces of evil, particularly fiends and undead. Several fireplaces on the east side are shared with the Kitchen, and appear to be heavily used today. Numerous doors lead out of the Hall to other places on the ground floor.

Although it normally holds many tables and benches, it is mostly bare today, as the majority of the furniture was dragged outside to enjoy the good weather and allow more space for people to mingle.

You proceed through it, your footsteps echoing slightly off the bare stone floor, to a door located at the rear. It's not locked, as a mere lock would not have a point here. Opening it, you find a spiral staircase descending into the rock below, lit by Continual Flame torches (hereafter referred to as "magical torches" or simply "torches").

These stairs spiral down to a tall room located beneath the great hall. One end of the room appears to be the top of a damaged tower, sunken into the rock below. The doorway in the tower is blocked by an iron door, obviously added later, and the tower itself is carved with a spiderweb-like tracery of runes that glow gold and silver. All members of the order know that this Seal was designed and placed upon the most intact portion of Dracula’s castle, specifically to prevent the castle from being magically rebuilt or re-summoned should Dracula return to the material plane.

More of the castle lies beneath, but as far as everyone knows, it has been silent and empty for over a hundred years.

Anyone who wishes to analyze the Seal should make an Arcana check.