Tomb Beneath the Mound (Patreon)

The Silent Road leads from the city’s necropolis out into the hinterlands, a broken and erratic trail of cobblestones left long ago to the depredations of nature and time. At the end of the Silent Road is a solitary dromos-style tomb that has been here for so long that the mound above it became the foundation for a set of standing stones and then for a watch tower, both of which have also fallen to the intractable force of time. Today we explore the tomb itself.

While the tomb is significantly older than the tower and stone circle on the hilltop, it has survived the ages in much better shape than the structures above. There are two entrances to the tomb – the dromos-style entry in the hillside that leads to the fallen front door, and a series of iron ladder rungs that were added to the northwestern stairs chamber that lead up to the tower above (these are clearly newer construction than the tomb proper). The crypts near the entry have been violated and looted, but most of the ones further into the structure are still sealed. Inscriptions in an ancient tongue describe this as the resting place of the last priestesses of the second dawn, whose deaths brought about the beginning of the third age. It also warns that if disturbed, they will arise powerful and vengeful and seek to return the world to the second age.

The main hall of the upper level has a double stairway down to the chambers beneath, as well as a further set of stairs down in the chamber to the northwest (that also links up to the tower above). The crypts in this chamber are still sealed, but the floor of one has given way and the massive sarcophagus within has fallen into the hall below.

There are two chambers on the lower level. The southern chamber is pillared and has a pair of niches where two consorts of the priestesses of the second dawn were sacrificed. The north chamber contains more crypts, with an elevated platform leading to the three crypts of the high priestesses, believed to be identical triplets who all died at the same moment as the sun set upon the second age.

The 1200 dpi versions of the map were drawn at a scale of 300 pixels per square and are 10,800 x 7,200 pixels (36 x 24 squares). To use this with a VTT you would need to resize the squares to either 70 pixels (for 5′ squares) or 140 pixels (for the 10‘ foot squares that work with the furnishings as shown) – so resizing the image to 2,520 x 1.680 pixels or 5,040 x 3,360 pixels, respectively.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/06/10/tomb-beneath-the-mound/