The Red Tomb
BACKGROUND
The Red Tomb is a three thousand four hundred year old mud-brick mega-structure that once dominated the landscape. It was visible to anyone across and on the river. As a tomb, it was also an occupied site with a temple filled with clerics who toiled building the mud-brick tomb.
The Red Tomb was eventually abandoned, and rainfall over centuries eroded the red mud brick surface until it was little more than a hill. Grasses grew and the Red Tomb was forgotten. Traladaran people settled in the area and life went on.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
Parts of the Red Tomb have been discovered over the years and there are multiple breach points allowing access to the Red Tomb across the Hill district including the cellars of the white arrow Inn down the hill in Yarthmont when workers penetrated a temple with a high ceiling held up by red painted pillars dedicated to a red painted immortal - a temple with no point of entry. It was only a matter of time before a more extensive part of the Red Tomb was penetrated.
Excavations beneath the Castle of King Stephan Karameikos the third to create new storage vaults were undertaken last year. Everything was going fine until last night when the body of a guard was discovered by a hole in a wall. Four of the kings guard went in to investigate what was initially thought to be the tunnel of criminals attempting to breach the castle and failed to return.
The hole on the other hand was a question mark. Something had entered the storage vaults, killed a guard, and was on their side of the hole in the wall. A skeleton warrior with a sickle-blade sword emerged from the breach. It was quickly determined that the tunnels beneath the represented a much older pre-existing structure. The skeleton was obviously a guardian and beneath the hill was a tomb.
The existance of an undead filled tomb beneath the Castle of the King of all Karameikos represented a threat to the stability of the state. It is necessary therefore to bring in adventurers.
PRINCE VALEN KNOWS SOME GUYS
Having heard of the exploits of the adventurers from agents within the spy network of Queen Olivia, Prince Valen actually wanted to meet the adventurers and get a more accurate report of their exploits. What better way to assess them than have them deal with this current crisis.
As the dungeon master you may have already arranged the background of one of the adventurers is an agent of Olivia's spy network. Otherwise someone else will have reported on the activities of the adventurers.
THE NEW VEILED SOCIETY
Since the deportation of the last member of the Radu family (Zweis was deported to the Isle of dread along with other less violent veiled society and iron ring members) the veiled society struggled to function. A few surviving members have altered the overall strategic plan to one of intelligence gathering, recruiting young Traladarans, and encouraging anti-monarchy protests.
THE WHITE ARROW INN
Having been in the workforce digging in the cellar Gregor Haas discovered the temple by chance. He then 'convinced' the owner they should sell up with a temple dedicated to some evil immortal beneath the Inn only going to bring them bad luck. Gregor became the owner of the white arrow Inn and the temple below it. He looted a few items in the temple - a bowl which when filled with water shows what is seen by anyone wearing an amulet of spying - of which there were several.
GREGOR HAAS
Stats: Thief; level 9; 25hp; Chaotic; S14, I18, W11, D18, C9, Ch14;
skills: Forgery+3, read/Write (Traladaran), read/Write (Darokinian), read/Write (Thyatian), read/Write (Alphatian),
Equipment: Traladaran Needle (1d4), Darokinian Padded Armour, Bowl of Watching.
Background: Gregor Haas is Innkeeper at the white arrow Inn, and a senior commander in the new veiled society. He has been instrumental in reshaping the destiny of the veiled society.
IT BEGINS
A letter, more a Summons, has been delivered to the Inn where the adventurers stay. It names the adventurers individually requiring them to present themselves at the castle this morning. It is signed by Prince Valen.
Gregor Haas, the Innkeeper, and a senior commander in the veiled society, wonders if this is about the incident last night.
Gregor learned this morning that a guard was killed in the cellars beneath the Castle by undead and that there is a breach into a much older dungeon. He has been gathering reports of little subterranean oddities beneath the hill, and the few the veiled society have mapped are at the edge of the hill. If the dungeons connect, then they represent a considerable structure beneath the hill. Haas adds the summons to his collection, one with the actual signature of Prince Valen will be of value. He then goes about creating a forgery of the document with a plan to provide it to the adventurers. Odds are that the castle authorities will not question it considering they issued the summons.
Innkeeper Gregor Haas has his servants go immediatly to each of the adventurers and rouse them from their rooms. He also gifts an amulet of spying to any Traladaran in the party. He will say it wards off evil...something they will need if rumors of undead in the castle are true.
ARRIVING AT THE CASTLE
The guards at the gate require presentation of the summons and will ask each of the adventurers to identify themselves against the listed names. The document will be sent to a bureaucrat in charge while the adventurers are scrutinised by the guards.
Once the adventurers are waved in, one of the guards will make a derogatory remark about any Traladaran in the group: 'Traladaran Scum.'
If this provokes the adventurers to violence other guards will be summoned and they will be dumped in cells.
ASTER GREN
A dwarf in nice clothing, clean shaven, young looking waves them. Aster Gren welcomes them to the castle and apologies that Prince Valen himself is unable to meet with them. Aster immediately begins explaining the situation as he leads them through a door, and down several flights of stairs to a twenty foot square room with two guards and a locked door. Observant adventurers will notice the reinforced door and its lock look brand new.
Its at this point he asks if they need extra equipment. The guards have three spare torches and a light crossbow with ammunition they can provide. Aster Gren then instructs a guard to open the door.
Aster Gren leads them around the left turn following the hallway past the storage vault to the breach in the wall at the end of the tunnel.
He informs the party they need check in with the guards at the guard post every hour. He also reminds the adventurers:
"Four Guardsmen went in and didnt come out. Bring them home if you can!"
Gren departs heading back to the door and the guardpost. If the adventurers do not escort him to the door he is beheaded by a lone skeleton warrior weilding a sickle-blade Shortsword.
THE SKELETON GUARD
The skeleton guardian had wandered in and was in the storage vault furthest from the tunnel breach. Battling the skeleton should prove difficult - has higher than usual hitpoints (See below).
Examining the remains of the skeleton it becomes apparent that the sickle-blade has been engraved with artwork at some point. DC16 (1d20 + wisdom bonuses) to check.
There is a one in six chance of a skeleton guardian being encountered every hour. There are twenty such skeleton guardians Including this one and the one encountered and battled the previous night through the entire red tomb complex. These do not turn as undead. They are infact bone Golems with one sword and two arms as opposed to four arms and four swords.
THE CELLARS
Area 1: This twenty by twenty chamber is manned twenty four hours a day by two of the kings guard. They guard a locked reinforced timber door. There are surplus torches and crossbow ammunition here as well.
Area 2: This ten feet wide hallway connects the door to area 1 to the castle's newest storage vaults (areas 3 & 4). The hallway winds about these chambers ending at 2a: a breach into an older hallway (area 5).
Area 3: A guardian skeleton is in this vault at the very moment the adventurers leave area 1 to inspect Location 2a. At any other time the chamber is likely empty of skeleton guardians, though it does have a nice stack of crates and barrels that will conceal most of the storage vault from anyone looking in from the hallway.
There is also a hole in the ceiling that goes up some fifty feet to a metal cover in the courtyard.
Area 4: much like area 3, this area is however empty of goods but contains some rubble that was yet to be removed up the shaft in the back of the vault. Work was abandoned after the tunnel wall was breached at 2a and guards went missing.
There is a shovel, two picks, a hammer, and a 50' rope here along with a full waterskin.
UNTO THE BREACH
Area 5: Immediately to the left of the breach is a secret door in the opposite wall leading to room 7. The secret door is slightly ajar and will be noticed by anyone who declares they are searching for secret doors. Locations 5a-d are mudbrick walls that can be knocked through into walled off areas. They are identified on a wisdom check (DC16).
Area 6: This room has plaster walls painted with images of something long faded. The dominant feature is a wooden box four feet by four feet by four feet. Its a puzzle box that requires three detect and remove traps to avoid unleashing the spring blade traps. Within are a dozen scrolls of beaten gold (10gp melt value each/100gp each to historians) scribed in an ancient language (Nithian). The scrolls detail a recent outbreak of vampirism in the city of Hap-na-yag providing no details as to its location.
Area 7: The Guardsmen discovered this chamber almost immediately and were looking to claim any treasure for themselves when three of them were killed by gas released from a silver urn. There are ten such urns including the open one (each worth a hundred gold pieces) and nine urns are filled with a poison gas. The gas was a preserving agent to protect the flayed skins within and prevent their regeneration. They are the skins of the half-troll Nithian soldiers whose remains were used to create the bone Golem guardians. Any skin freed will summon its guardian remains so it can regenerate fully. A skeleton guardian will arrive in 1d6 turns to take posession of its skin. Once it has its skin it will be fully regenerated in a day and the half troll soldier will havethe following Stats:
Half-troll Nithian Soldier: Fighter; level 1; chaotic; AC8; 18hp; S18, I9, W7, D12, C16, Ch14; regeneration 1hp/round; sickle-blade Shortsword (1d6/behead unarmoured opponent on 20). Until then the skin will regenerate any damage taken by the skeleton guardian at 1hp per round.
As Dungeon Master you should feel free to instill int the player's minds that these are undead. If the party runs into a skeleton with a skin it will have partially regenerated organs hanging out. Let players come to the conclusion these might even be nasty Vampires - or worse.
Area 8: Identical to area 6, this puzzle box has been smashed open and its gold scrolls looted. The skin that escaped it's urn in area 7 took them once it had control of its skeletal remains. Its headed for the temple of the Red goddess by the most indirect route - it wont smash through bricked up tunnels to get there. Once Na-as-ul reaches the temple he will use the scroll to activate the bronze Golem (despite the Red paint) which will smash its way out through the cellars of the white arrow Inn and attack the population.
Area 9: This tunnel dead ends thirty feet beyond the odd cross-roads that connects it to the rest of the dungeon. It was originally an entry tunnel hight up on the red tomb at the top of stairs that climbed the hill. The priests backfilled the tunnel with a hundred feet of mud bricks. If the adventurers are of a mind to remove the mud bricks over the next month, there are a pair of heavy timber doors clad in copper.
Area 10: This chamber contains a collection of Two hundred skulls plastered into the walls. It is an unusual artistic choice for a room. There are no other features of interest. If the skulls are smashed open, very old copper coins spill out. There are some two thousand Nithian copper pieces plastered up in the skulls. The coins have the symbol of thanatos and can be used as the unholy symbol of that immortal. The skulls were Young priests of Ra slaughtered by clerics of Thanatos. they were plastered up with unholy symbols of thanatos placed in their skulls.
Area 11: While its shape and alignment match area 10 it lacks the skulls plastered in the walls.
Area 12: This chamber contains piles of Nithian sickle-blade shortswords. The leather handles have rotted away as have the timber racks. There are fifty bronze weapons in need of a weaponsmith. Each sickle-blade Shortsword is worth about 10gp and weighs 50cn.
Area 13: Positioned above the stairs to a lower level, this chamber is much like area 12. The weapons that were racked here are bronze spears. Thirty bronze spear heads, ten in each pile are worth 10gp and weigh 50cn each.
Area 14: Originally this was a guard post before the tomb was sealed up. All that remains now is a brazier suspended under a bronze tripod (50gp/500cn) and a wounded guard. Bren collapsed here thanks to his injuries. He is near death with only 1hp remaining.
Area 15: This was a shrine to an obscure Nithian dwarf immortal. A painting of the bearded dwarf warrior (worshiped by guards and Nithian housholds) still occupies the far wall.
This dwarf immortal will be of interest to dwarves of a non lawful alignment looking to become dwarf-clerics. There is sufficient information on the wall to discern the religious ceremony of Bes.
Area 16: This tunnel dead ends (or appears to do so). There is infact an air shaft two feet by two feet that climbs toward the surface some twenty feet up before dead ending at heavy timbers overlying a floor of the upper cellars.
Area 17: Identical to room 6, this plastered chamber contains a wooden puzzle box four feet by four feet by four feet contains a selection of bronze tools: scrapers, knives, probes; and scrolls of beaten gold with no writing.
Area 18: There is fresh blood here. The last surviving guard looking for an escape route that wouldnt take him out through the castle, ran into a skeleton guardian headed for room 7 to bond with its skin. The Guard retreated to the stairs at 5a and descended down to the lower level.
With an examination of the blood, a Wisdom check (DC9) reveals a trail back the way the adventurers came.
Area 19: This triangular Observatory sits at the top of stairs that climb from a lower level. It is dominated by a twelve edged bronze mirror of scrying which any individual (more advanced than a crystal ball which is restricted in use to magic users) wearing Nithian Jewelery (amulets of spying included) can use to observe as a crystal ball.
Area 20: This area is on the verge of collapse. If anyone touches the ceiling a large section gives way inflicting 1d6 crush damage. The whole chamber will collapse a turn later for 20d6 damage to anyone in the chamber.
Area 21: This was in its day a barracks for young clerics.
Area 22: This chamber was a common prayer hall dedicated to Ra. The artwork on plaster walls can be translated as the prayers and ceremonies of Ra.
Area 23: This was the quarters of Ak-en-et, a third level priest of Ra. A search will reveal a necklace holy symbol dedicated to Ra.
Area 24: This section of tunnel has collapsed long ago. Tree roots grow down here and belong to an old tree in a garden near the castle.
DESCENDING INTO THE UNDERWORLD
The lower levels become more dangerous for the adventurers. followers of Entropic immortals who bought down the Nithian civilization infiltrated the Red Tomb. Unfortunately it is necessary to delve deep as one of those followers has been unleashed (the flayed skin from a silver urn in area 7). It is also necessary to delve lower levels as access to the observatory in area 19 can only be undertaken from a lower level. To go up it is necessary to go down.
The magic crafting, mountain cracking Wizard just spent years beating how to cast Read Magic into your PC's head. Then he turns you loose with the ability to memorize one spell a day just so the Party you hang out with between feeding the wizard's pet Xorn and scrubbing glass vials in the laboratory clean can use you as a meat shield fifty feet into the dungeon. No. If you are going into that dungeon it will be because the Wizard wants you to go fetch something important like a giant spider eyeball, the whereabouts of his previous apprentice, the heart of nekron, or stomp the competition. He is going to hand you a Scroll of Dimension Door so you can bail on the party if it looks bad.
