Cairn of the Buried Hymn
This haunting is one of many mountain traps laid across the Shavag ranges to guard the titan's sleeping routes and punish the uninitiated. The land itself becomes a ritual snare. When a creature steps into the marked ground, the stones answer with a buried hymn, and spectral hands of ash and rock claw up from the earth. The haunting does not simply harm intruders. It tries to turn them around, isolate them, and drive them toward worse ground deeper in the mountains.
Cairn of the Buried Hymn
Defenses
Detection
“A ring of black slate teeth surrounds a cracked cairn-mark in the mountain floor. When light passes over it, the stones seem to inhale, and the shadow inside the ring ripples like a deep well of smoke. Thin prayer cords, braided from hair and copper wire, are knotted between nearby rocks.”
Standard Engagement
The hazard triggers when a living creature enters the marked ground, disturbs the cairn, or speaks above a whisper within 20 feet of the central stones.
At initiative 20, the buried hymn lashes out at all creatures in the marked area. Each creature must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d6 necrotic damage, is pushed 5 feet in a direction of the hazard's choice, and cannot take reactions until the start of its next turn. If a creature is already frightened by this hazard, it instead takes 3d6 necrotic damage on a failed save. If no creature is in the marked area, the haunting whispers in warning and waits.
The hazard resets at dusk, or after 10 minutes of silence if no creature remains within 60 feet of the cairn.
On initiative 20, the haunting forces a chorus of buried voices. Each nonincapacitated creature in the marked area must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or take 2d6 necrotic damage and be frightened of the cairn until the end of its next turn. On a success, the creature takes half damage and is not frightened.
If a creature fails the Wisdom save by 5 or more, it is also pulled 10 feet toward the center of the marked ground, if possible. If this movement would place it over a ledge or into difficult terrain, it instead falls prone in the nearest safe space.
A creature frightened by the hazard has disadvantage on the next ability check it makes to move away from the area, disable the hazard, or cast a spell with verbal components while within the marked ground.
This hazard is one of many scattered through the Shavag ranges. If another Cairn of the Buried Hymn is within 1 mile, the first time one is disabled each day, every other active cairn in range gains advantage on its next saving throw to resist being disrupted.
While a creature is frightened by this hazard, it leaves a faint trail of ash on stone and snow. Creatures tracking that trail have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to follow it, which can lead to ambushes or dead ends.
If the hazard is reduced to 0 hp, the central cairn cracks open and releases a final burst of grave-cold force. Each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 1d6 necrotic damage and have its speed reduced by 10 feet until the end of its next turn.
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