Battlemap
Calathis Necropolis
The bones of Calathis have started answering back.
Beneath the dead city of Calathis sprawls a necropolis of crypts and natural caverns, once built to contain a plague's worth of burials. Now it is infected by death-mana and a desperate necromantic cult whose final ritual has failed in the worst possible way, leaving the cultists dead, the dead awakened, and the living stranded deep below.
Cold, damp air clings to the skin and tastes of mildew, incense, and old grave soil. Faint scratching moves through the walls, bones clatter somewhere below, and green witchlight leaks from cracked tomb seals, turning every corridor into a place of half-seen shapes and hard shadows.
☠Threat
The dungeon is now ruled by the aftermath of a botched summoning. The cult sacrificed itself to open a channel to death-mana, but the ritual awakened the deeper dead and drew a hungry force into the caverns, causing restless undead and swarms of vermin to patrol the complex as if following a silent command.
History
When plague and war emptied Calathis, the city fathers dug a vast necropolis beneath the ruined streets to bury the dead away from the living. Over generations it grew into a labyrinth of tombs, shrines, and sealed ossuaries, eventually sinking into the caverns below. After the city fell, a necromantic cult moved in, using the old burial roads for rituals meant to weaken the king above.
Encounter Table
CRA loose knot of grave rats with fungus-caked fur and dead eyes.
An improvised undead patrol stitched together from cult leftovers and old burial dead.
A patient giant spider that hunts the upper tomb routes and drops from ceiling cracks.
A skeletal sexton carrying lantern hooks and keys it no longer understands.
Rumours & Whispers
The dead of Calathis still walk because the city was buried angry and unfinished.
A cult of grave-scholars vanished below the ruins after promising to raise a king-killer.
Spiders the size of hounds have been seen in the old storm drains near the necropolis.
Some say a hidden royal stair lies somewhere inside the burial complex, but only the dead know the route.
A green light at night sometimes leaks from cracks in the ruined city, and people who follow it do not return.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: None, the hook begins with the summoning disaster itself
The party must survive the necropolis and find a route back to the surface before the death-mana surge seals the tunnels forever.
Safe passage, lost supplies, and whatever treasure they can carry
Quest giver: Captain Meris Vale, royal investigator
A surface contact offers payment to recover proof of the cult's ties to the king's enemies.
Gold and political favor in the capital
Quest giver: Old archivist Hessa, if she can be found among the survivors
An old burial map suggests a secret royal stair under the necropolis that could lead out past the city ruins.
A direct route to the surface and a noble patron's gratitude
Quest giver: Priest-caller Iven, a frightened survivor in hiding
The cult's ritual site may still contain a fragment of the summoning circle, useful for closing or reversing the opening.
A rare cleansing rite or anti-undead blessing
Corridor Notes
Shallow drainage channels run along the floor, filled with black water that reflects light a beat too late.
Every third arch bears plague marks and burial sigils, many gouged out by recent cult chisels.
Thin webs hang from ceiling cracks, often trembling before spiders or something larger passes nearby.
Broken bier wheels and old hand carts lie abandoned at junctions, useful as cover but noisy to move.
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