Sample Dungeon: The Crypt Areas 31 through 38

So this is it.  My last entry in this little project.  It's been enjoyable.  My aim wasn't so much in creating a product so much as showing how I'd personally run this particular dungeon, but I will probably get around to formatting it as a .pdf in case anybody wants to use it for themselves. 

Area 31: Meat Locker

If the party has already encountered Mata (random encounter #2) then the door hear is ajar only a crack.  If the party has not, then the door is stuck shut (roll normally to open) and Mata still unconscious within.  The stone floor in front of the door is scraped in a white arc, evidence of frequent opening and closing of the warped, bulging door. 

If Mata is found, roll for a reaction normally but treat any hostile reaction as fearful.  She has only her now dirty and tattered clothes.  Her last memory is of searching for a lost goat beyond her nearby village close to nightfall.  She wants to go home.

As characters approach areas 32 & 33, they begin to smell decomposing flesh.

Area 32: Abattoir of the Dead

Death and slaughter cling to the air here.  Dark, shapeless forms cling to the edges of the room.  From the doorway, they appear to be bloody lumps of cloth and pale flesh. 

Characters entering or lingering at the threshold of area 32 must make a successful Save vs. Poison or become incapacitated while wracked with an episode of vigorous vomiting.  This lasts for however long they remain plus 1d6x10 rounds.  Those that save can resist the urge to vomit but find the place unsavory. 

The shapeless forms are the remains of twenty villagers, in varying states of decay.  The piles are mostly skin, fat, some blood and torn clothing.  The bones and organs have mostly been removed and consumed by ghouls.  Characters touching any of the bodies have a  2 in 6 chance of encountering 1d6 rot grubs.  Each body has a 1 in 6 chance of having 2d6 silver pieces (50%) or 3d6 copper pieces (50%).\

Area 33: Bone Room

The chamber and the passageway leading directly to it are both filled with old bones.  Many of them have been cracked open and the marrow withdrawn. 

Area 34: New Altar

Skulls and bones have been stacked in a regular pattern to form a semi-circular wall on the far side of this square room.  Close to the open doorway leading in from the south a wide stone basin rests upon a short stone plinth.  The basin is nearly filled with a congealing red liquid.  Red stains mar the basin, plinth and nearby floor.  The air here is much hotter and denser that elsewhere in the crypts.

This altar is dedicated to the dark power that inhabits or controls the Tear of Horkus (area 29).  Pouring any amount of blood from the basin will summon 2 wraiths to the chamber that will immediately attack the party.  Tipping over the basin and dumping out all of the blood will break the spell over the crypts.  The gloom that limits vision to 20’ will dissipate entirely over the course of the next turn.  Additionally the temperature will slowly drop within the crypts from a balmy 85 to cooler 55 degrees Fahrenheit at the rate of 1 degree per turn.

Beneath the plinth (open doors check to move) is a hollowed-out area of the floor and residing there is a small chest.  Characters attempting to move the plinth will knock over the blood basin unless it is lifted from the plinth.  A cautious party that lifts the basin without dropping any blood may carefully extract the chest without raising the wraiths.  The chest contains 3,000 GP, 20 random gems, 4 pieces of random jewelry, a potion of polymorph, a scroll of ward against undead, a decanter of endless water, a scarab of protection and bracers of AC 4.

Behind the semi-circular wall of bones is a concealed passageway that will be discovered on a successful search.  It may only be accessed by taking apart a portion of the wall.

Area 35: Boudoir of Doom

Several of the ghouls use this room and the three 10’ square rooms to the north as areas for rest and amusement.  Bone shards and hollowed out bones litter the floors, though there is nothing here of particular value.  There is a 3 in 6 chance of an encounter when characters explore this area.

Area 36 and 37: Drogo’s Demesne

If Drogo has not yet been encountered somewhere in the crypts then he will be found here in one of these two rooms separated by badly stained but whole wall hangings concealing a small, adjoining passage.  When characters approach either of the entry points for either of the rooms, Drogo has a 50/50 chance of being in one room or the other.  If characters enter the room Drogo is in he has a 2 in 6 chance of surprising them.  If they enter the unoccupied room, then Drogo will automatically surprise the party.  He will most likely use his free round to observe the party then decide whether to fight or flee and possibly return with reinforcements (d% of remaining ghouls (round up) in 3d6 rounds; i.e. If 8 of 20 ghouls remain, and the DM rolls 22% then 2 ghouls (25%) return, including Drogo.

Area 36:  Amongst the filth and debris of this room is a skull with the top smashed in.  Hair and skin, not yet rotted away, cling to it.  A bloody grey ooze clings to the inside of the brain cavity.  A human eye ball lies in the dirt nearby.

Area 37: A leg, still clothed in leggings and a fashionable men’s leather boot, rests against a nearby wall.

Area 38: Secret Room

The secret door to this area is activated by pulling a lever concealed behind a false stone on the south wall 5’ east from the door.  Once closed, it may not be opened from the inside nor broken through easily as the door is made from iron and concealed to appear as a normal stone wall.

The walls of this circular chamber are set with eight pairs of chains at waist height.  Two robed skeletons lie crumpled against opposite walls, arms locked in the wall-mounted manacles and facing one another, legs splayed out before them.   

This room has not been accessed since the time before the abbey’s fall.  These two skeleton are all that remains of two vocally critical priests that disappeared.  They still wear their robes but were stripped of all valuables except for an invisible pouch tied around the neck of one of the skeletons, beneath the robes.  Finding the pouch may occur by happenstance when searching the remains (1 in 6) or by any careful, methodical search of the skeleton that would reasonably reveal an invisible pouch. 

The pouch is small and of old, cured leather as is the strip that fastens it about the neck of the wearer.  It is permanently invisible as are its contents, until removed.  Inside is a ruby worth 750 GP. 

Area 39: Stairwell

This oft used stairway goes up to the surface.  A concealed trap door lies hidden amongst some brush clinging to the side of the hill upon which the abbey ruin resides.  A footpath, barely discernible, leads down to the valley below and up to the hilltop ruin.