Clearing a tomb of undead was routine. You approached by half light or by day and you used a weapon that burned everything inside. The average grave was no more than a few rooms deep. Enough flasks of alchemist fire generated convection sufficient to cook unliving flesh until it fell off the bone. Skeletons charred into heaps of cremains, wights came gibbering out the entrance to dissolve in the sunlight. Mummies made sounds like a man suffocating in a bag. The loss of scrolls and cloth and delicate artwork was regrettable. So was being chewed for an hour as the potion of troll blood surging through your veins kept you alive just long enough to feed the ghouls.
For living things it was the same. Set an ambush at the entrance, smoke them out and slaughter them.
Tabor fondled his amulets and mouthed a prayer to the Hungry Dungeon before tossing the flask. Eda and Salvador had thrown theirs unlit, a "wet shot" to splash fuel into the corners before igniting. With the God propitiated, he threw.
A word came from the cave. He didn't understand it.
The burning oil went out. With it, the sun.
Eda kindled a Light spell but it would not spark. Without even the moons to light them the dunes looked like waves in some primal watery abyss, awaiting the creation of the world.
The sound came again. Tabor realized it was his name, spoken from the mouth of the tomb.
1: THE GARDEN WITHOUT WEEDS
A mage scours the plain for mummies and uses them as fertilizer for making necrotic plant monsters.
A: The entrance to the tomb looks like a little oasis in the rock face. Trees and ferns and mosses grow on the stone and hang like curtains over the stone stairs. The space inside smells like mulch and water.
B: Stone passage full of Guardian Brambles (CC1). Plants allow passage of the Gardener and his Servitors, wait until intruders are halfway through before striking. Immobilized victims are attacked by the Flowering Ghouls (CC2) from H. If beaten surviving ghouls fall back to H. Walls painted with faded images of slaves groveling before the sun.
C: Dripping stairs flanked by shelves. Two potions of Endure Elements. Hook with coat of living skin impregnated with chlorophyll. If fed a tiny amount of sugar it "breathes" to keep the wearer cool on the Plain.
D: Disused hallway. Water pooling on the floor. Pieces of smashed animal statues.
E: Druidic "office". Ancient wooden cabinet used as writing desk. Small tree in rotating pot like a wooden doner, bark shaved off for writing scrolls. Bark scrolls of (tree shape, cure/cause serious wounds, control weather, commune with nature, locate plant or animal)
F: Druidic bedroom. Soft moss and salvaged cloth. Crack in floor with taproot descending far into the earth, bringing up water for plants in the tomb.
G: Burial chamber converted to work area. Wall paintings melted by damp air. Giant grinder with wheels to crush the stacked mummies. Big sarcophagus with lid half open. Work table has sorting tray with 3,500 SP in jewelry taken from mummies. Sarcophagus holds the first Rotting Crawler (CC2). When it emerges to attack so do any ghouls in H.
H: Mulch rooms. Heaps of hummus and glowing flowers. Mashed mummies are deposited here to mature. The five Flowering Ghouls lurk here. Buried in the mulch are 2,680 SP in bent gold, squashed silver and precious stones too hard to be crushed by the rollers.
I: Sarcophagus. Human silhouette with three eyed face. Rotting Crawler (CC2) lurks inside if not alerted.
TAFF DROWN-IN-THE-DIRT
Taff is a human kidnapped and raised by Elves, replaced by a changeling baby. He worships the Lord of Leaves, the nature God who doesn't mind his disciples raising an undead plant monster or two if it helps them get one over on so-called civilized man. He doesn't raid settlements because he wants to build up a big army for the ultimate revolt to crush the incipient machine civilization that will inevitably follow farms and cities. This revolt will be coordinated by the Lord through dream sending.
His plan is simple. Send the Flower Ghouls out to get inert mummies from tombs. Grind
up mummies and deposit the potash in the mulch rooms to grow necrotic
flowers. Load these evil plants into the sarcophagus to make Rotting
Crawlers. So far he's only made one.
Stats as Druid Level 6, the Lord's love lets him control the undead plant creatures.
Local Encounter: The protective plants on the Rotting Crawler and Flower Ghouls let them survive in the sun.
2: THE TOMB OF THE GOD
This tomb holds an Undead Demigod and what remains of the Adventurers who disturbed his slumber.
A: The stone hatch covering the entrance has been smashed, revealing a giant-sized staircase leading into the earth. Totems and pictograms placed by Gnolls, Orcs, Mantids and Red Dwarves warn against entry.
B: The downward sloping passage once had art on the walls, all of which was deliberately sanded away. The inscriptions have been chiseled out. The only adornment is a more recent carving in the language of the north:
WE FOUR MEN OF LAKE CONQUERED THE TOMB OF THE GODS
Eero
Tuomas
Antti
Juha
Below this, carved much more hastily is the two-stroke glyph for danger in the same language. (The surviving Lakeman chiseled it on his way out)
D: Enormous hall of murals. On one side, a giant man descends from space and mates with a human woman. The man's face is missing from the carving. On the opposite wall, the woman lies burst open on the ground and a giant stands over her, bearing a skull lantern in one hand and a sword in the other.
J: Tomb of the God. Three Draugr (CC1) guard a giant sarcophagus. These are what remain of the Lakemen who came to conquer the tomb, resurrected by The Violent One.
- Eero, fat and strong. Short sword +1 (Light) and Shield +1
- Tuomas, bearded and bald. Short sword +1 and Shield +1
- Juha, headless. Trident +2 (Warning) Chainmail + 2, Shield + 1
Draugr can polymorph themselves. A favorite trick is to all three transform into 10 HD Hydras to deal absurd melee damage. If a Draugr is destroyed or if the coffin is opened, The Violent One awakes.
JA: Treasure room. 29,300 SP in gems, plus
THE VIOLENT ONE
The Violent One is a Nephil Lich (CC1), a demigod resurrected after death and endowed with powerful magic. In death his memory was erased. He cannot recall his father's face, nor how to call him down from the heavens. He believes he is the only living thing in the world, and any living things that enter his tomb are undead. When he kills and resurrects them as undead servitors (pick your favorite) he's delivering them from evil and restoring them to life. Breaking through his fog of delusions is difficult and a terrible idea. If he got his memories back nothing on the Plain would be safe.
Spells:
- Level 1: Chromatic Orb, Detect Illusion, Wall of Fog, Colour Spray, Detect Magic, Light (Darkness) Locate Plant or Animal, Animal Friendship, Speak with Animals, Speak with Animals
- Level 2: Knock, Knock, Improved Phantasmal Force, Detect Magic, Know Alignment, Resist Fire, Resist Fire, Obscuring Mist, Create Water
- Level 3: Dispel Magic, Fireball, Fireball, Paralysation, Continual Light (Continual Darkness), Continual Light (Continual Darkness), Growth of Animal, Tree Shape, Hold Animal
- Level 4: Charm Monster, Polymorph Self, Polymorph Others, Dispel Magic, Protection from Evil 10’ Radius (C), Neutralize Poison, Create Water, Cure Serious Wounds (Cause Serious Wounds), Protection from Fire and Lightning
- Level 5: Pass-Wall, Transmute Rock to Mud (Transmute Mud to Rock), Animate Dead, Quest (Remove Quest), Insect Plague, Raise Dead (Finger of Death) Control Weather, Transmute Rock to Mud (Mud to Rock)
- Level 6: Control Weather, Invisible Stalker, Death Spell
Local Encounter: None. The Draugr and their master don't leave the tomb.
3: THE BAT KING
A crypt infested with bats, living and undead both.
A: The tomb entrance is at the back of a lava tube cave, which emerges into a malpais of igneous rock that slashes the feet.
The winding entry staircase opens up into a square chamber with a further staircase descends into the earth. Stacked in this foyer are bowls, plates and jugs, filled with fruit husks, peels, rinds and old bloodstains. Drawings on the wall show stick figures offering fruit and blood to enormous bats. The ceiling has a grid-like pattern cut into the stone. The floor has a layer of dried guano.
A colony of 19 Giant Bats and 70 Normal Bats live here, visible in the rafters if the light is held high. They chitter when the chamber is disturbed (alerting the occupants of B), but do not attack unless fired on.
B: The floor is carpeted with Guano, the ceiling crawls with monster bats. Five Vambats (CC2) and the Bat King roost here. On a positive reaction roll the King demands intruders return to A to make their offerings properly. On a neutral or lower roll he attacks with his minions. Characters who fight standing on the floor risk slipping. Slip near the pit at E and risk falling in.
C: Storeroom. Piled furniture covered with guano. 1,500 SP in grave goods inside, but eleven Rot Grubs (OSE Advanced) lurk in the filth.
D: Sarcophagus painted with a bat-nosed face. Empty except for a heap of amulets worth 1,900 SP.
E: 20' deep drainage shaft to protect tomb from flash floods. Used for disposal by the bats. Bones, clothing and beaten up armor, plus 1,610 SP and a Figurine of Wondrous Power (Goat of Terror).
BAT KING
The Bat King was a Werebat, killed by a Vampire and interred by friends and family who believed him dead. He reanimated in his tomb as a Bat King and once he clawed his way out of the sarcophagus he reestablished his "empire", terrorizing local tribes to extract tribute. He
wants blood for himself and his Vambats, fruit and nectar for his
normal bats subjects. If disrespected he skips straight to violence. He can command the living bats in the tomb to fly in a thick swarm that shades him and his Vambats from the sun. This allows them to fight outside, though they only do so if someone burns them out.
Local Encounter: By night, the Bat King, D5 Vambats, 3D6 Giant Bats and 7D10 Bats, looking for blood and sweet treats. By day, Orcs leaving fruit.
THE MAKING OF
A common criticism of undead focused dungeons is how fast they get boring. You turn and turn and chop through endless waves of fodder enemies that always attack on sight. Monsters that attack on sight and fight to the death are scary in fiction but get old fast in RPGs. The creatures in these tombs are malevolent but not mindless.
I may have gone a little crazy with these encounters. CC1 monsters are written for battle with AD&D player characters, who are generally stronger than OSE (B/X) characters and can attain higher levels (though how often people made it to 20 and above is up for debate). But it's not the end of the world if I make the encounters a little tougher. The Plain is supposed to be hell on earth. Plus a cool guy on the Night at the Opera server has been leading his players through all my dungeons (in Begone FOE, even!) and making quick work of them. All my ideas about difficulty come from my own playtests with a small group of players, many of whom play irregularly and thus have lower level characters. A larger, consistent group might be able to handle something harder.
CC1 monsters are dual statted for AD&D and Basic. The Nephil Lich casts as a minimum Level 20 Wizard and Cleric, while in OSE the max level is 14. I don't think this is a huge deal. A Level 14 caster with access to both lists still hits hard, provided he doesn't get overwhelmed through sheer action economy. Combined with the Draugr he should be okay.
Thanks again to Dariusz Sitek for the tombs.
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