Battlemap
Blackwake Crypt
The dead inside do not sleep, they keep watch.
This crypt was once a fortified burial vault for a minor noble line and their oath-sworn attendants. Time, neglect, and a failed rite of protection have left the dead restless, and the deeper chambers now pulse with a hungry will that is knitting them into a single murderous purpose.
Cold air leaks through cracked stone, carrying the stink of damp dust, old incense, and faint grave mold. Every footstep echoes too long, then vanishes into a hush broken by rattling chains, distant scraping, and the occasional whisper that may be wind or the dead.
☠ Threat
A gravebound wight, once the steward of the Blackwake dead, has awakened beneath the crypt and is using the burial wards like a net to draw lesser undead into its service. It hunts intruders through the deeper chambers, feeding on fear and blood while twisting the old funerary protections into traps for the living.
History
The Blackwake family built this crypt after a plague took three heirs in a single winter. To prevent the dead from rising, they hired priest-wardens and sealed their tombs with copied liturgies, iron nails, and a buried reliquary beneath the deepest hall. The rites failed when a grief-maddened steward broke the sacred seal to steal a family signet, and the crypt has never fully forgiven the living.
Encounter Table
CRA loose collection of bones in burial wrappings, drawn to noise and warm blood.
A sluggish corpse in rotted funeral clothes, pulled by the crypt's hunger.
A grave-haunted elite undead sent by the steward to hunt intruders after they are seen.
Rumours & Whispers
The crypt was sealed after the dead started singing during midnight prayers.
Anyone who takes a coin from the barrow finds the same coin in their pocket the next day, cold and wet.
A pale steward still keeps the burial records and can tell a liar by the sound of their heartbeat.
The old shrine inside the hill can calm the dead for a moment if the candles are lit in the right order.
A family signet was stolen years ago, and the crypt will not rest until it is returned.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Mara Venn, undertaker
A local undertaker begs the party to recover a stolen burial signet before the crypt's dead begin surfacing in the village graveyard.
60 gp and a blessing of safe burial for one companion
Quest giver: Brother Edrin, shrine keeper
Farmhands report lantern lights moving inside the hill at night, and a priest wants proof that the crypt's wards are failing.
A healing charm and 50 gp
Quest giver: Tovin Blackwake, minor noble
A family heirloom was lost in a sealed side vault long ago, and an old map suggests the treasure room may still be intact.
A family favor and 75 gp
Quest giver: Jessa Marr, well watcher
The village well has started tasting of dust and grave soil, and someone claims the water rises after every full moon.
40 gp plus free lodging
Corridor Notes
Narrow wall niches hold blackened candles that never melt, only gutter when living creatures pass.
A procession of carved skulls marks the path toward the deeper crypt, some with fresh scratches on the teeth.
Moist flagstones are etched with funerary prayers; stepping on the wrong line makes a hollow ringing in the walls.
Collapsed side passages have been stuffed with old burial linens, as if someone tried to keep something in, not out.
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