Crypt

A vault where the dead are laid in niches, stone coffins and family tombs, under a chapel or a hill. It is dark, dry and smells of dust and old incense. Graves are robbed for the jewels buried with the dead, but the builders knew it, and some of the dead do not stay still.

Light
Dark
Going
Slow

Hear it

Hazards

  • Spiked pit. The floor before the main tomb gives way onto a bed of sharpened stakes, left for grave robbers. D&D 5e: A 3 m (10 ft) pit under a hinged lid that looks like the floor. A creature that steps on it falls and takes 1d6 Bludgeoning plus 2d8 Piercing damage; the lid stays open. A Study action and a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check spot it, and an iron spike keeps the lid shut. Getting out needs a Climb Speed, climbing gear or magic. Deeper for stronger parties: 9 m, 3d6 plus 3d8 (levels 5 to 10); 18 m, 6d6 plus 8d8 (11 to 16); 36 m, 12d6 plus 13d8 (17 to 20).
  • Poisoned needle. The lock of a reliquary or a coffin hides a needle. Whoever forces it feels a sting, then the cold creeping up the arm. D&D 5e: Opening the lock with anything but its key springs the needle: DC 11 Constitution save, or 1d10 Poison damage and the Poisoned condition for 1 hour; half damage only on a success. A Knock spell opens it safely. A Search action and a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check find the needle, and an action with a DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check disarms it (a failure sets it off). Stronger: 2d10 and DC 13 (levels 5 to 10), 4d10 and DC 15 (11 to 16), 10d10 and DC 17 (17 to 20).
  • Sealed air. A tomb closed for centuries holds little air, and torches eat it fast. Heads ache, then flames shrink to blue. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: in a tomb just opened, each open flame makes the air run out faster. After 10 minutes per creature that fits in the room (halved for each torch), every creature makes a DC 12 Constitution save every 10 minutes or gains 1 Exhaustion level; flames go out. Fresh air from the door for 1 hour clears it, and the Exhaustion gained this way goes once the creature breathes freely for a minute.
  • Grave rot. The dust of the dead, the mould on the shrouds: whoever handles them with bare hands may carry something out. D&D 5e (House rule): Our rule: a creature that searches the dead without gloves, or is cut by a bone, makes a DC 11 Constitution save at the end of the day. On a failure it has the Poisoned condition until it finishes a long rest, and that rest gives back no Hit Point Dice. A Medicine DC 12 check, a Lesser Restoration or any healing magic of level 2 or higher cures it.

Adventure hooks

  1. A noble family wants their grandmother’s ring back from her tomb, because the will leaves the estate to whoever wears it. She had herself buried with it on purpose, and left instructions with the sexton.
  2. Grave robbers dug into the crypt from the cellar of the house next door and stopped halfway through a wall. Their tools and their lamp are still there, and the lamp is still lit.
  3. An old sexton has kept the crypt for fifty years and knows the name in every niche, including the ones worn smooth. He wants someone to learn them all before he dies, so that nobody down there is forgotten.
  4. Someone lights a candle before one tomb every night, and the priest holds the only key. He swears it is not him, and asks the party to keep watch; the tomb is the one he will not name.

What may happen

  1. Names cut in the stone, worn smooth by hands. One of them was scratched out on purpose.
  2. A coffin lid has been pushed aside from the inside. The dust on the floor shows no footprints out.
  3. A ring still on a dead hand, a sword across a chest. Taking them feels wrong, and somebody may notice.
  4. A single candle burns on an old tomb. It was lit today.
  5. An old woman sits by a tomb and talks to it softly. She asks the party to leave her husband in peace.
  6. Whispers come from a wall of niches, too faint to understand, all at the same time.
  7. Rats have built a nest of shroud scraps in a skull. They scatter, and something larger moves behind them.
  8. Over the inner door, a warning carved in an old script: the sleeper here must not be woken.
  9. A rough tunnel breaks through the wall from outside. Grave robbers came this way, and did not leave by it.
  10. The smell of fresh incense, though nothing burns. It grows stronger near one tomb.
  11. Bones hung on strings tinkle in a draught at the end of the hall. They ring when something passes.
  12. An offering bowl with old coins in it. Leaving one more is said to buy safe passage.

Creatures

To bring back

Ghoul Bile, Zombie Ichor, Crawling Claw Nail, Ghost Light, Ghoul Tongue, Will-o'-Wisp Spark, Ectoplasm Portion, Fog of the Veil, Vampiric Dust, Will-o'-Wisp Trail, Revenant Soul, Skullfire Essence, Banshee Dust, Death Knight Ashes

Other sites

Dungeon, Graveyard, Ruin, Sewer, Fortress, Mine Works, Temple, Laboratory, City

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

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