Battlemap
Gravehollow Crypt
The dead here do not rest, they wait.
This is a vast crypt complex built in layers, from the simple burial halls above to the sealed ritual vaults below. Its dead do not rest cleanly, and the deeper chambers suggest a cult has been tending the place long after the original builders were gone.
Cold air crawls through stone halls that sweat with damp and grave mold. Faint chanting seems to come from nowhere, bone dust crunches underfoot, and the light dies quickly in corners where old funerary magic still clings.
☠Threat
A malevolent wight-keeper and its gravebound servants have taken control of the deepest vault, using prisoned souls and stolen shrine power to keep the dead animated. The deeper the party goes, the more the crypt itself behaves like a guardian, sealing doors, awakening bones, and punishing loud or careless movement.
History
Long ago, the people of the valley buried their honored dead in a stone crypt beneath a hill of chalk and root. When plague and war thinned the settlements, the burial site grew into a larger necropolis, then a hidden refuge for a corpse-keeper cult that sealed prisoners, hoarded grave goods, and raised wards against tomb robbers. The original custodians vanished, leaving their work to rot beneath newer hands.
Encounter Table
CRA loose patrol of old bones patrols intersections and reacts to loud combat.
A grave-dirt soaked corpse drifts through the lower halls, drawn to living breath.
A furious burial spirit manifests near shrines and treasure rooms, seeking to reclaim stolen offerings.
A clutch of scavenging undead vermin pours from cracks and follows the scent of food.
Rumours & Whispers
People say a dead priest still rings the bells below the hill when strangers enter the crypt.
A farmer swears he found gold coins in a rabbit burrow after a storm washed dirt off the grave mound.
The old burial ground was built over a temple, and the temple never agreed to stay buried.
Wights in the valley fear sunlight but not prayers, so long as the prayers are spoken by someone the dead once knew.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Sister Elren, village sexton
A local sexton begs the party to recover a burial ledger stolen from the cemetery records, claiming it names a noble family buried inside the crypt.
25 gp each and a blessed funerary charm
Quest giver: Mayor Thane Voss
Ghostly lantern lights have been seen on the hill at night, and livestock found dead with grave dirt in their mouths. The villagers want the source ended before the next burial moon.
40 gp each and land-rights favor
Quest giver: Nessa Vale, rogue antiquarian
A rival tomb raider offers to split a find from the crypt if the party clears the lower halls first. They know a secret route, but not what waits beyond it.
A share of recovered treasure and a map fragment
Quest giver: Father Corwin, chapel priest
A child claims to hear their dead parent calling from beneath the chapel floor. A priest suspects a spirit is trapped in the crypt and needs release.
A scroll of protection from evil and good
Corridor Notes
Black wax drips from iron sconces, though no flames burn in them. The wax smells faintly of myrrh and blood.
Shallow channels cut into the floor carry stale water and the occasional pale bone shard. The water echoes footsteps a room away.
Mossy reliefs of mourners have had their faces chiseled away. Hidden seams around the carvings suggest secret doors and old escape routes.
A thin rattle can be heard behind some walls, as if loose bones are rolling in the masonry. It grows louder near the deeper shrines.
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