Into the Tomb Lands, Encounters 24 through 28 (Patreon)

Encounters 24, 25, 26, 27, & 28 of my "Into the Tomb Lands" #Dungeon23 project are up. It's still free for all to see at the original post at https://www.patreon.com/posts/76655396, but I decided to start posting a few new rooms at a time by themselves for Patreons, so people can just read the new content without having to scroll through everything that's already on the main page with the map.

And, for the first time, I added some spot art to one of the encounters.

After this, there will be a short minimap (starting today, the 29th), and then another full map starts o February 1st, with 28 new areas.

24. The Mourner's Chamber is where the death attendants who prepared the Tomb of the Guardian, and the rest of this upper level of the Tomb Lands, for actual burial. It has numerous cabinets, tables, chairs, alchemical tools, and an oven to allow preparation for mummification, cremation, embalming, death masks, death casts, and dressing and painting of corpses. It's all worth two major low-level treasures, and can be used as a place to cook, repair armor, weapons, or tools, or do medicinal or alchemical work.

It also holds two Mummer Elves -- a brother and sister named Caelyndron and Celyndra. They are natives of the Long Quiet, a small family residence where the descendants of the gravetakers of the Guardian's Tomb still reside (found down the waterfall at Area 9).

Mummer Elves are connected to concepts of death and the grave the way some fairies are tied to nature and the woods. Within the Tomb Lands, they need not eat or drink and few of the creatures that dwell here attack them without first being attacked (the Crawler in Area 18 ignores them unless they damage it, for example).

Caelyndron and Celyndra's family normally visit the Guardian's Tomb once per decade, but their visit here was brought on by rumblings deep within the Tomb Lands, and their father, a Death Seer, foresaw that a great plague of death and desolation had broken out of one of the deepest tombs in the Tomb Lands, and it being free put all of reality at risk. Caelyndron and Celyndra came days ago to see if the tomb Guardian could ensure the Rogue Death could be kept from leaving the Tomb Lands, but the Guardian is much weakened and refused to help. It also demanded they wait, here, until it or another force that might prevent the Rogue Death's escape

(Art by warmtail)

Caelyndron and Celyndra would, very much, like to convince the PCs to agree to help, so they can leave this room. They are skilled artisans, crafters, and healers, and have a mystic knack called the Stiltz, which allows them to literally hammer, bake, spin, and sew valuable metals and stones into food, cloth, and equipment. If the PCs are friendly to them, they can severe the place of a general store, taking PC treasure and turning it into bespoke gear and magic items appropriate to your game system.

They are fascinated to meet people from outside the Tomb lands, and particularly intrigued by anyone who is Tomb Marked, who they sense have a great destiny within the Empire of Graves... which they have never seen, but are sure exists down in the Tomb Lands somewhere.

However, as Mummer Elves of the tomb lands, they will not (and due to geases, literally cannot) reveal anything they know about rooms, fight anything native to the Tomb Lands that does not attack them, or help anyone overcome any threats or challenges here. They are happy to travel with the PCs, but at the minimum always hang back, and prefer to step up a small campsite within a level for the PCs to operate out of.

25. Red Marrow of the Earth is a kind of cross between slime and fungus that leaks out of the cracks at the far end of the corridor. It has only appeared since the Tomb Land rose to the surface (which can be discovered with an easy underground Lore, Dungeoneering, or Spelunking check, whatever the game system has), or the Mummer Elves in Area 24 can confirm it's not original to the level.

The material covers all of one section of the wall, and some of the floor and ceiling. It looks like crusty old boils with tiny waving bright crimson tendrils. it can move, but only at a rate of 9 or so inches an hour (5 feet per 8 hours). Anyone gnome or halfling-sized can move through this section with no risk of touching it, humans must make an Easy agility check, bigger folk a Hard agility check.

If touched the Red Marrow Mold causes you to bleed, and to have to succeed at an Easy mental resistance check or try to touch another living creature with the infected part of your skin. The bleed is slow at first, but speeds up over time. It can be cured with a moderate healing or herbalism check, or the mummer elves in Area 24 can do it (but want the PCs to promise to help stop the Rogue Death if they haven't already).

The Red Marrow Mold is too wet to burn. It does dry out with smoke or if scraped off the stone, though either process takes an hour and risks exposure to the material regardless of a creature's size.

Treasure: If the moss is cleared, a magic pickaxe "Gravebreaker," is found. It does additional damage to rock and earth, including creatures made of rock or earth, and can be used by anyone proficient in axes or other short-hafted weapons. If the mummer elves in Area 24 are shown this pick, they do not recognize the style of its crafting, and are horrified anyone would name anything Gravebreaker within the Tomb Lands.

26. The wetway is a rushing waterfall down a rough rock chute. Traveling along it is a Very Hard check. However, like Area 9 is has brass rings and pullies set along it. Unlike Area 9, they are currently rigged with sturdy silken ropes set with rings, clamps, and loops. This is a Shaft Rig, designed to travel along the flooded  water chutes of the Tomb lands, and is how Caelyndron and Celyndra got up from their dwelling down below Area 9, and how they got up from Area 14 9as they avoided the stairs). They can detach it from the bottom or top, show Pcs how to use it, and traveling that way is an Easy check.

27. The Upper Runoff is essentially the same at the Runoff (Area 12), except there's no major magic item to be found here.

28. The Pool of Offerings is one of the places the River Dōrophoreō enters into the Tomb Lands. A hard ancient history or lore check (or an easy check for anyone with death-related skills, such as priest of a death god, or an executioner) reveals this is the river of death goods, the supernatural route that anything offered to the departed takes to reach the souls of those it is meant for. Most such offerings become a clear, glittering fluid and flow directly to the souls they are meant for. But if that soul is beyond reach (such as some locked in Hell and other punishment realms), or the offering ritual was not performed correctly, or the soul does not want the offering (such as offerings given as bribes or apologies to souls uninterested in such), then the gifts can take physical forms from time to time.

The River Dōrophoreō is one of the primary sources of goods into the Tomb Lands. The mummer elves in Area 24 can show PCs how to fish here in the Pool of Offerings, which can produce basic goods (at random, but focusing on things the fisher can actually use right now, like food if needed) at at rate equal to what unskilled labor could earn them. A character who increases their skill in fishing can instead produce items as quickly as a skilled working at the same level of mastery could earn such things.

The mummer elves in Area 24 can also tell PCs that the River Dōrophoreō flows into the Gomos Sea, much deeper in the Tomb lands, where the Free Towns of Floatsom and Jetsome can be located, along with the largest settlement within the Tomb Lands, Gravelight. While only minor items can be finished out of the river this high up, much more valuable items can be drawn out of the Gomos Sea by those with the skill to do so.