Fantasy Core RPG Adventure: Goth Hallow-Burial Chamber 1

Goth Hallow

A Fantasy Core Adventure

© Jerry Harris 2014

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)

Adventure Index

Burial Chamber of the Skeleton King

1. The Cave-In (1 XP)

This area was an unfinished crypt for the burial mound.  It’s 20’ down from the cave-in and ends in a 2’ standing pool of stagnant water along with debris from above.

Immediately after someone has hit the water, an Armored Ghoul rises up and attacks from surprise (DC 18 to detect).  Another one will rise up when the next person drops in (DC 12 to detect).  As soon as everyone is at the bottom, Zombies from above will start dropping in, one at a time.  It’s a DC 18 Ref Sv to avoid them (DC 12 after the first one) or take 1d10 damage and will be pinned underwater (next rd, DC 12 Str Check to get loose and DC 12 Fort Sv each rd or drowned).  Zombies that hit bottom will be stunned for 1 rd and will also be reduced to 1 Hp.  A total of six will be coming down this way, so it’s imperative for the characters to make it out of this chamber quickly. 

As soon as the group vacates, Ghouls from above (slightly smarter) will start clamoring down the rope, one at a time.  The characters may wish to cut that rope, as a Ghoul will be coming down every 2 rds, for a total of four.   The passage goes upward and on to dry ground.

          

2. Passageway (0 XP)

Large stones line the walls and support a stone roof.  Graffiti from various ages line the walls.  Most unintelligible, but a few are in known tongues.  Of course, all they say is the equivalent of, “Kilroy was here.”

Two dead guards that are now Armored ghouls hunt in the corridor.  They’ll be in front of the boulder-filled passage that used to be the entrance to the tomb.  They’ll be attracted to any fighting in the passage, like the Ghouls following the characters into the passageway. 

3. The Ritual (2 XP)

There is a burial chamber across from the former entrance.  Inside are four stone sarcophagi.  All of them are closed for now and contain a Barrow Wight.  Disturbing any of the lids will awaken all of them, and require at least two people to move.      

The center of the room is a little more eye-catching.  A bloody pentagram has crudely painted onto the floor, along with various paraphernalia of a magic ceremony.  The blood came from the four young bodies that were part of the ceremony.  One has been disemboweled, one beheaded, one cleaved in twain, and one girl’s body has been staked out in the center, her chest cracked open.  This is where the ceremony took place that awakened all the dead of Goth Hallow. 

These are the students that the characters were sent to find.  However, all of them are wearing their signet rings.  If any of the bodies are disturbed, the party will hear a faint girl’s voice calling out.  “Where’s my heart!  Where’s my heart!”  The next rd, the voice becomes more insistent, along with random items moving around the chamber.  The next rd, the voice is screaming, everyone must make a DC 12 Ref Sv or take 1d6 damage from flying debris.  The next rd, DC 18 Ref Sv or 1d8 damage, and by this time, the Wights have woken up and are moving aside their sarcophagi lids and will attack the next rd (and the poltergeist attack stops). 

The Wights won’t leave the chamber if the characters leave the room.  If the party stays and defeats them, the girl’s voice returns, asking for her heart, sobbing.  At this point, the party can try to interact with the spirit.  She’s nearly incoherent, but can identify herself as Samantha, that she was a student, and that their professor, Wickum, was killed by creatures in the tombs, and then he...  At which point she breaks down and asks for her heart again, before fading off.   

(Optionally, upon exiting the chamber, the group runs into 10 weakened Zombies (1 Hp each).  They were massing for an attack.  It can be implied that there are more behind this group.  This can be used to move the group along.)