The Dead Below

Background

The rumors of the old church were too much for you. Talk of an ancient king that died on a march for war and the many treasures he was buried with. You all got to talking about it. You all got to planning, and now you all are standing before the crumbling ruined church. If you hadn’t gotten lost you wouldn’t have made it so late. In the distance the light is failing, the sun is setting, and as it does you don’t feel as safe as you did on the road here.

…and it looks like it’s going to rain.

Encounters

Church in Ruins~

“The walls of the old church stand bowed, the roof having long ago fallen into the hall itself. Chunks of stone, timbers, and roof slates create an uncertain footing as you begin to move in. At the far end of the hall some of the debris has been piled to the side of an open trap door. From within a soft yellow glow emanates.”

The old church has a collapsed roof fallen into an empty hall. Long ago it was emptied when the church was abandoned. The hall is filled with debris from the fallen roof but there is nothing of value. When the party approaches the trap door the glow will fade implying something or someone moved on. It will start to rain heavily as they cross the hall.

The trap door opens to a sturdy set of stone stairs that lead down into the crypt below.

The Crypt~

“It is dark and the rain is quickly beginning to pool about the bottom of the stairs, flowing down the steps themselves. Lined against the walls are the platforms that should hold sarcophagi, but there are none. Similarly the walls have several open and empty boxes for the resting place of the cremated. You have a bad feeling about this adventure; it seems that all you are going to get is wet and tired. Then there is a sound at the far end of the room, and from that direction you see the peering of a pair of yellow eyes low to the ground.”

The crypt was emptied when the church was abandoned but there are secrets to be discovered. The crypt has 1d3+P giant rats lurking about. They will move to attack the party very quickly but will not leave the crypt due to the rain.

If the party searches they will find scratches on the floor by a secret door that is easily found and opened.

Hidden Areas1. The Secret ChamberBeyond the secret door is a small chamber only 3 yards square with a door at the opposite end. The door is ajar and as the players open the secret door a light shining from beyond will dim and move away.

2. Hidden Crypt“Pushing open the ancient wood door you find another crypt beyond the first.

This one has four raised platforms with disturbed sarcophagi on them. From one at the far end is the gleam of gold.”

The sarcophagi each contain a disturbed dead in the form of a zombie. There will be 1 per player character and as they cross the room they will finishing pushing the lid off their sarcophagus and attack the players.

The gleam of gold is false and after the zombies are slain the players will find the gleam dissolves as they approach. They will instead find a loose flag stone that shows a tunnel down with a latter built into the wall. The passage leads down to an under-crypt.

The Under-CryptBelow the old church’s crypt is a long forgotten hidden crypt. Within this crypt is a maze of chambers with ancient burials and old king’s tombs. It is a very dangerous place and as the player’s characters enter the under crypt they should be made aware of this.

The under crypt is a maze in the fact that it is not laid out logically and is various size chambers connected directly or by stairways only. Some chambers are only hazards and lack anything of value or even safety. It is perpetually dark and the powers of necromancy are so strong sometimes light is even reduced.

Hazards: There are two regular appearing hazards that the characters can be affected by; grasping smoke and bile of the earth.

Grasping smoke takes the form of a dark blue vapor that hovers near the floor and will typically only come to about the ankles of the characters. It will not flow from the chamber it is in. Characters move through will feel as if hands are grabbing their feet trying to trip them. During a combat situation they move at half speed and must make successful dexterity checks every turn or fall prone.

Bile of the earth is oil corrupted by necromantic magic and seeps from the floor into the chamber in puddles. It will light on fire very easily and the fume will poison any living creature in the room requiring them to make a