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Temple · Small · Medium

Third Bell Temple

Blue light leaks through the cracks beneath the altar, and one of the three carved bells is missing its clapper.
Rooms
8
Foes
10, CR 1/4 to 3
Traps
2
Treasure
195 gp
12345678Entrance
Select a room on the plan to open it.

The party is in

1. The Bell Entry

Seen

Something wanders by

At a glance

The threat

An undead bell-keeper called the Quiet Warden remains in the inner sanctuary, bound to protect the sleeping oracle and now convinced every intruder has come to release it.

Wandering monsters (1d3)

  1. 1

    1d4× Temple batCR 1/4

    When: A loud noise, bright flame, or movement near the entrance ceiling draws it from a crack in the stone.A pale bat with a torn wing circles near the ceiling, disturbed by torch smoke and loud voices.
  2. 2

    Roving keeper skeletonCR 1/2

    When: It wanders in after the party disturbs the cells or leaves a door standing open.A loose-boned skeleton in a keeper's sash scrapes along the corridor, searching for the names on its missing slate.
  3. 3

    1d3× Ash ratCR 1/4

    When: The smell of food or the sound of a dropped metal object brings it from a corridor fissure.A large ash-dusted rat sniffs at packs and follows the scent of food, vanishing into wall cracks when threatened.

Rooms

8
1

The Bell Entry

1 foetreasuresecret

What they see

Read aloud

The low entrance hall opens beneath a cracked lintel carved with three bells, one of them deliberately erased. Dusty benches face a dry basin; faint green light marks four exits, including two walls whose stonework hides narrow doors.

Features

  • Three-bell lintel with one bell chiseled away
  • Dry stone basin stained by mineral deposits
  • Two secret doors, west and east, concealed by fitted relief panels

What the GM knows

Monsters

Temple batCR 1/4

A pallid, thumb-sized cave bat with a rasping cry; it nests above the lintel and reacts to bright light.Tactics. It flutters at faces to distract intruders, then flees through cracks if struck.

Treasure

Offering cup8 gp

A tarnished copper offering cup remains wedged beneath the basin's lip.
Room secrets · GM only

Notes

The normal north door leads to the library, the south door to the first prison, and the secret exits lead west to and east toward a narrow passage. The bat's cry carries into rooms 1 and 2.

4 doors: E (normal), W (locked), N (normal), S (normal)

The place

What it is

The Third Bell Temple is a compact shrine complex sunk into a hillside, its public chambers giving way to narrow prison cells and a sealed inner sanctuary.

Atmosphere

Cold mineral damp clings to the skin.

The threat

An undead bell-keeper called the Quiet Warden remains in the inner sanctuary, bound to protect the sleeping oracle and now convinced every intruder has come to release it.

History

The temple was built by a small order of bell-keepers who guarded a buried oracle said to hear disasters before they came.

Rumors

1d4
Roll a rumor

  1. 1A spring on the hillside tastes of copper, and its water sometimes rings in a cup.
  2. 2A keeper's ghost walks the old prison, counting names no one can hear.
  3. 3The temple bells once warned the valley before floods, but no one remembers the right order.
  4. 4A surveyor found a door in the hillside and returned with a map covered in blue stains.

Plot hooks

3
InvestigationThe Bell in the NightA local shrine's bell has begun sounding by itself at night, and those who hear it wake with the same image of a flooded stone hall. The party is asked to find the temple and silence the source.From: A worried caretaker from a nearby roadside shrineReward: A modest purse, a healing draught, and the shrine's promise of sanctuary
RescueThe Missing SurveyA surveyor found a sealed entrance while mapping a hillside spring, then vanished after reporting blue light below. Recover the survey notes and determine whether the spring is safe to use.From: A village reeve with the surveyor's unfinished mapReward: Payment in silver and the right to keep any recovered temple relics
RetrievalRecords Before RainA collector wants the temple's carved record tablets before the damp destroys them, but the tablets also describe how to maintain the ward. The party must choose whether to sell, preserve, or use the knowledge.From: A traveling antiquities brokerReward: A small cache of coin or access to a specialist who can identify relics

Corridors

4

  • Between and

    A shallow channel cut into the floor carries a trickle of water toward the entrance, though it runs uphill for several feet near the prison.

  • Between and

    Faded wall panels show robed attendants carrying bowls toward a sealed central altar. Scraping sounds sometimes answer footsteps from the other side of the stone.

  • Between and

    Iron rings set at shoulder height once held prisoners; one still bears a snapped length of chain that taps the wall when air moves through the passage.

  • Between and

    Small copper bells hang above the floor on nearly invisible threads. Most are silent, but one rings softly when the pressure plate in shifts.

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