The Bell Beneath the Barrow
The Bell Beneath the Barrow
Read aloud
The funeral bell rings from beneath the Old Hills, though no bell has hung there for three hundred years. Across De Gylleneåsarna, dead villagers rise in their homes with strips of gold beneath their tongues, each whispering the same broken oath. Lady Elin Vey begs you to descend into the sealed crypt before the ninth toll, but she refuses to say what her family buried there.
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Descend through the barrow and learn the nature of the undead outbreak.
- 2Resolve the broken covenant before the haunting spreads beyond the villages.
- 3Choose the fate of the Bell-Warden and the sealed crypt.
- 4Force the local authority to face the truth or gain leverage over its future rule.Optional
The clock
The black bell will toll nine times. The first toll has already sounded. The second occurs when the party reaches the barrow. The third through eighth occur after major delays, failed rituals, or loud disturbances. At the ninth toll, the sealed inner door opens partially, the undead leave the dungeon, and the Hollow Crown gains a channel into the world.
Scenes
- 0:00The First Toll
- 0:45The Road of Unburied Names
- 1:20The Oath in Ash
- 2:20The Mint of the Betrayed
- 3:05The Ninth Toll
- 4:35Ashes at Dawn
Cast
- Lady Elin VeyConflicted questgiver
- Odran PellOccult intermediary
- Maerra Voss, the Bell-WardenTragic undead guardian and antagonist
- Tovin RuskVillage witness
The hook
Set the scene
Rain falls in thin silver threads over the Nine Hearth villages. No one speaks above a whisper. In the square, Lady Elin Vey stands beside a covered corpse, her formal mourning clothes stained with mud. When the black bell tolls from beneath the hills, the corpse sits upright and turns its head toward her. A strip of dull gold slips from its mouth, and the dead villager says, in a voice dry as leaves, "Nine promised. One betrayed. The door remembers." Elin asks the party to follow her to the barrow before the next toll.
How Lady Elin Vey asks
Lady Elin Vey approaches the party in the village square after the first bell toll.
She offers official sanction, supplies, and payment, but avoids direct questions about House Vey’s history. If challenged, she admits that her family has maintained the barrow’s secrecy for generations, claiming that public knowledge would cause panic and civil war.
Rumours
Scenes
about 5 hours0:00
45 min
social and combatThe table is here
1. The First Toll
The rain-soaked square and surrounding homes of the Nine Hearth villages.
The party witnesses the first supernatural outbreak, hears the bell, and receives the urgent mission. They can save villagers, pursue a risen corpse, or question Lady Elin before leaving.
The Houses That RememberNextClues from the risen dead point toward the Old Hills. Tovin Rusk can provide a hidden approach to the barrow, while Lady Elin supplies the official route.
0:45
35 min
exploration and skill
2. The Road of Unburied Names
The Old Hills beneath a sky darkened by storm clouds and circling carrion birds.
The party crosses the abandoned hill road and discovers signs that the crypt has been disturbed from below. They must choose whether to use the main barrow entrance, a collapsed shepherd’s tunnel, or a route through the old Vey burial ground.
NextWhichever entrance the party chooses leads to the Hall of Nine Hearths, but each route reveals a different piece of the concealed history.
1:20
60 min
exploration and skill
3. The Oath in Ash
A subterranean hall of ash-filled braziers, carved hearth posts, and moving golden inscriptions.
The party navigates the Hall of Nine Hearths, reconstructs the meaning of the oath fragments, and decides whether to preserve, purify, or destroy them. The chamber offers evidence that the living community, not a single champion, once renewed the covenant.
The Hall of Nine HearthsNextThe correctly interpreted fragments reveal the path to the Black Bell Chamber. A false interpretation sends the party toward the Crownless Mint or awakens additional guardians.
2:20
45 min
social and exploration
4. The Mint of the Betrayed
A ruined chamber lined with crude furnaces, melted funerary masks, and stacks of obsolete golden coins.
The party enters the Crownless Mint, where they can recover the missing gold fragment and learn that House Vey’s ancestor broke the covenant during a famine. Odran Pell may urge them to expose the truth, while Lady Elin may demand that the fragment be surrendered.
NextThe missing fragment opens the inner crypt and determines whether the party holds enough of the original oath to attempt a full restoration.
3:05
90 min
combat and social
5. The Ninth Toll
A circular crypt beneath a cracked golden bell, with a sealed door opening onto impossible darkness.
The party confronts Maerra Voss beneath the black bell. She offers visions, bargains, and a dangerous alliance before violence begins or a ritual is attempted. The party must choose which truth to speak aloud and what cost they will accept.
The Black Bell ChamberNextThe chosen resolution determines whether the villages are saved, ruled by undead, bound to a new oath, or left exposed to the coming darkness.
4:35
30 min
social
6. Ashes at Dawn
The village square at dawn, filled with ash, bells, grieving families, and watching officials.
In the aftermath, the party returns to the villages with the dead silent, the bell quiet, or the curse transformed. Survivors demand answers, while Lady Elin decides whether to confess, flee, or claim victory.
NextThe party receives its immediate reward, but the fate of the Old Hills begins a wider struggle over the sealed bells and the Hollow Crown.
Behind it
What people believe
The Old Hills conceal a sealed crypt built by the founders of De Gylleneåsarna.
After centuries of silence, a black funeral bell has begun ringing beneath the earth, and dead villagers are rising while carrying pieces of an ancient golden oath. Lady Elin Vey, acting for the local authority, asks the party to enter the dungeon, discover the cause, and prevent the undead from spreading. The party may learn that the curse is tied to a broken promise, a bound spirit, and a threat sealed behind the crypt’s innermost door.
Background
Long before the villages of De Gylleneåsarna were marked on any map, the Old Hills were held by the Covenant of Nine Hearths.
The hill clans swore an oath to keep the dead beneath the earth and to bar the way against the Hollow Crown, an ancient power said to be sleeping beyond the world. The covenant was sealed in a golden bell buried beneath a barrow, where the oathbound dead were appointed as guardians. Generations later, the ruling House of Vey concealed the truth. Their ancestors broke the covenant by removing a fragment of the bell and using its gold to mint emergency coin during a famine. The oath fractured, the dead began to stir, and the spirit of the final oathkeeper, Maerra Voss, became bound to the crypt. Now the black funeral bell rings beneath the hills, calling the dead back to their unfinished duty. Each risen villager carries a fragment of the broken oath, while something older than Maerra listens from beyond the sealed crypt door.
The stakes
If the party succeeds, the villages survive and the dead are given a chance at rest, but the truth about the broken covenant destabilizes local rule.
If the party delays, the undead spread from house to house and the ninth toll opens the inner seal. If the party chooses power over truth, De Gylleneåsarna gains a new military or supernatural force while the Hollow Crown becomes aware of the living world.
Encounters
3The Houses That Remember
Combat and horror
A cramped village lane under cold rain, with burning thatch, open graves, overturned carts, and dark windows filled with watching faces.
Foes
Oath-Bound Villagers
Grave-Hearth Reavers
The Bell-Warden's Choir
ComplicationThe dead rise in coordinated waves whenever the bell tolls. Destroying one corpse causes its oath fragment to leap to another body unless the fragment is seized, purified, or carried away from the bell’s resonance.
ScalingFor a smaller or weaker party, use fewer risen villagers and allow the oath fragments to be subdued with a simple ritual. For a stronger party, add elite dead carrying multiple fragments and have the bell awaken fallen ancestors during the battle.
The Hall of Nine Hearths
Exploration and skill
A vast underground hall supported by blackened timber pillars, each carved like a hearth post. Ash falls upward from cold braziers, and golden script crawls across the floor.
Foes
Ashen Scribes
Oath-Eating Moths
Restless Covenant Dead
ComplicationThe crypt’s inscriptions contradict one another. Each correct interpretation opens a safe route, while a false interpretation awakens guardians or erases one oath fragment from memory.
ScalingFor a smaller or weaker party, provide three clear symbols as clues and reduce the number of guardians. For a stronger party, require the party to reconcile conflicting testimony from the dead while enemies attack from sealed niches.
The Black Bell Chamber
Combat, social, and supernatural confrontation
A circular crypt beneath a cracked golden bell. Chains descend into a bottomless shaft, while nine stone seats surround a pool of dark water. The sealed door behind the bell bears a symbol that does not belong to any known human faith.
Foes
Maerra Voss, the Bell-Warden
The Crownless Herald
Oath-Shattered Revenants
ComplicationMaerra offers each character a vision of the future they most fear. Accepting her terms grants passage and a supernatural boon, but adds one living name to the bell’s final toll.
ScalingFor a smaller or weaker party, Maerra fights indirectly through the chamber and allows negotiation to pause combat. For a stronger party, the Crownless Herald partially manifests beyond the sealed door, creating a second threat and a rapidly worsening ritual.
Cast
4Lady Elin Vey
QuestgiverConflicted questgiver
WantsQuestgiver and potential betrayer. She wants the undead stopped before the villages collapse, but she also wants the truth about her family’s role buried. If cornered, she may offer the party to Maerra in exchange for preserving House Vey’s authority.
“I told the council the bell was not a warning. It was a summons. They answered by locking the records away.”
Odran Pell
Occult intermediary
WantsOccult intermediary and witness. He seeks to restore the Golden Oath, but believes one living soul must willingly take the place of the final oathkeeper.
“The dead are not asking to be forgiven. They are asking whether the living still remember what was promised.”
Maerra Voss, the Bell-Warden
Tragic undead guardian and antagonist
WantsPrincipal guardian of the dungeon. Once the final oathkeeper, Maerra was transformed into a deathless warden when the covenant broke. She seeks release, yet believes sacrificing the living is acceptable if it seals the Hollow Crown away.
“I was sworn to guard the door. I was never sworn to let you leave.”
Tovin Rusk
Village witness
WantsWitness and possible ally. He wants his family’s dead laid to rest and fears that the authorities will silence anyone who speaks of the old covenant.
“My father rose with a strip of gold beneath his tongue. He begged me to burn the house before he remembered my name.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
Fragment of the Golden Oath, which grants protection against one form of undead influence but causes unsettling dreams.
Bell-Metal Charm, which can silence a supernatural sound once, but attracts the attention of distant entities when used.
Maerra’s Black Key, which opens one sealed passage beneath the Old Hills and may also unlock a future barrow.
Crownless Coin, valuable as currency or evidence, but cursed with the voice of the Hollow Crown.
On a win
The party reaches the Black Bell Chamber before the ninth toll and determines the fate of the broken oath.
If they restore it correctly, the undead collapse into ash and the villages gain a fragile peace, though the sealed door begins to whisper. If they defeat Maerra and reinforce the seal, the immediate threat ends but the original covenant remains only partially understood. If they negotiate with Maerra, she may willingly pass on if the party accepts a cost, such as exposing House Vey, surrendering a powerful memory, or promising to investigate the other buried bells. If they bargain with House Vey or another faction, the party gains immediate advantage but leaves De Gylleneåsarna politically and spiritually compromised.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party abandons the dungeon, loses too much time, or fails several major objectives.
- The bell rings nine times before the party restores or breaks the oath. The dead leave the dungeon and begin reclaiming the villages of De Gylleneåsarna.
- The party accepts Lady Elin’s bargain or uses the oath fragments without learning their original meaning.
- The Golden Oath is restored incorrectly. The undead become obedient to House Vey, creating a disciplined army beneath the authority of the local ruler.
- The party defeats the Bell-Warden while ignoring the sealed crypt and the final ritual.
- Maerra is destroyed without sealing the inner door. Her spirit disperses, but the Hollow Crown gains a voice in the mortal world and begins whispering through dreams.
- The party chooses the sacrificial restoration path.
- A living character becomes the new Bell-Warden. The dungeon quiets, but the character is bound to remain beneath the hills unless another willing replacement is found.
Complications (d6)
- 1A dead villager outside the dungeon begins speaking in the voice of a living party member, revealing a private fear or secret before attacking.
- 2The black bell rings once, causing every corpse in the current area to sit upright and point toward the sealed inner crypt.
- 3A fragment of the Golden Oath burns through its carrier’s flesh and brands the nearest living creature with a temporary death-mark.
- 4The dungeon shifts as old burial passages collapse, separating the party from one another and opening a route toward a forgotten lower chamber.
- 5A frightened survivor arrives carrying a stolen oath fragment. The dead pursue them, but the fragment may be necessary to restore the covenant.
- 6A voice from beyond the sealed crypt promises safety and power to anyone who breaks the remaining oath fragments instead of restoring them.
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