The Lantern Crypt
The dead wait beneath blue lanterns, and one of them still keeps watch.
The crypt lies beneath a collapsed roadside chapel, its burial chambers still sealed against the living. Blue corpse-lights reveal cracked sarcophagi, old offerings, and signs that something below has begun disturbing the dead.
Cold, stale air hangs beneath the earth, carrying the smells of wet stone, old incense, and dry dust. Faint blue witchlights burn in cracked wall niches, while distant knocks and the scrape of bone echo through the crypt.
☠ Threat
Brother Caldus, the Ashen Sexton, is an undead priest bound to the deepest vault. He believes every living creature is a corpse that has not yet accepted its proper silence. Caldus uses the crypt's old funeral magic to animate bones, extinguish light, and lure intruders toward his sarcophagus, where he attempts to add their names to the burial roll.
History
The crypt was built by the Lantern Saints, a small funerary order that served villages along the old trade road. They placed honored dead in the outer chamber, then constructed a hidden burial vault for Brother Caldus, a priest who claimed to hear commands from beneath the earth. When Caldus murdered three acolytes, the order sealed him below and abandoned the chapel after completing the binding rites.
Encounter Table
CRA skeleton wrapped in rotting prayer cloth drags a broken censer through the corridors.
A pale swarm of grave moths pours from cracks in the ceiling and clings to warm bodies.
A nervous grave robber armed with a shovel and carrying stolen candles searches for an exit.
Rumours & Whispers
The ruined chapel bell rings at midnight, even though the bell tower collapsed years ago.
A dead man was seen walking toward the chapel carrying a lantern that gave off blue fire.
The crypt's priest offers immortality to anyone willing to write their name in his book.
The old burial vault contains a noble signet, but every thief who sought it returned without a shadow.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Mara Venn, the exhausted village sexton
A village gravedigger has vanished after finding fresh footprints leading beneath the ruined chapel.
25 gp, a silver funeral bell worth 15 gp, and free lodging for a week
Quest giver: Edrin Vale, the village priest
The village's dead are being found outside their graves with black candle wax under their fingernails.
A blessed lantern that sheds bright light and grants advantage on one saving throw against being frightened
Quest giver: Lady Orla Fen, a discreet estate agent
A noble family wants a signet ring recovered from an ancestor's tomb before a rival heir arrives to claim it.
40 gp and a small family signet worth 20 gp
Corridor Notes
Faded funeral prayers are carved into the walls, but several lines have been scratched away and replaced with warnings in Common.
Small clay offering bowls line the floor, each filled with blackened candle stubs and a single human tooth.
A thin draft flows toward Room 3, carrying a whisper that sounds like a name being repeated.
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