Battlemap
Kezh Cellar
Cold blue water beads on the copper pipes while something drags a cleaver beyond the western archway.
The Kezh Cellar lies beneath a long-abandoned boarding house, its brick rooms converted into a hidden shrine and refuge. The place is small but tightly arranged, with three dangerous chambers opening from a central entry room and the sound of a starving guardian echoing from the west.
The basement smells of wet brick, lamp oil, and old onions, with a sharp copper tang near the locked northern door. Water ticks steadily through the walls, candle flames burn blue in the deeper rooms, and something heavy drags its feet beyond the western archway.
☠ Threat
Kagor Vek, once the boarding house keeper's eldest son, now haunts the western chamber as a corpse-bound guardian. He does not understand that the people he protected are long gone, and he attacks anyone who enters unless shown the house ledger or convinced that the cellar is no longer under threat. His violence grows whenever the traps are disturbed.
History
The cellar began as a storage vault beneath a boarding house owned by the Kesh family, whose name became Kezh after generations of local mispronunciation. During the border wars, Kesh descendants sheltered fugitives below the house and built a small shrine around the ancient cistern. Years later, a desperate apprentice altered the shrine, binding a dead guardian to keep the refugees safe forever.
Encounter Table
CRMud-streaked rats with tiny copper rings caught around their necks.
A shambling bundle of wet rags animated by water leaking from the ancient cistern.
A flickering blue mote that whispers fragments of the old household warning.
Rumours & Whispers
The abandoned boarding house still has a room where the floor knocks from underneath.
A dead keeper patrols the basement and asks every stranger for a name.
Blue water from beneath the old house can cure any wound, but only before sunrise.
The Kesh family hid war treasure below the kitchen, guarded by a door that was never opened.
People who hear dragging metal at night should not follow it downstairs.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Töm Rask, a blunt village mason
A mason hired to inspect a collapsing boarding house vanished after finding a locked door beneath the kitchen.
Forty gold pieces, plus salvage rights to harmless cellar contents
Quest giver: Bekt of Saran, an anxious traveling apothecary
A local healer believes the strange blue water in the basement could cure a wasting sickness, but someone must recover a sealed cistern vial.
Three healing potions and a vial of purified cistern water
Quest giver: Kirg Taz, the watch sergeant
The ghostly guardian has been seen near the house at night, and townsfolk fear it will begin dragging people below.
A civic favor, a safe-conduct writ, and fifty gold pieces
Corridor Notes
Faded chalk arrows point toward the western archway, but each arrow has been turned upside down by a later hand.
Thin copper pipes run along the ceiling, sweating cold water that gathers in shallow puddles.
A line of tiny boot prints crosses the dust and ends at the locked southern door, with no prints leading away.
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