Crypt Entrance
RoomDCC CON17 · p.2
Open source p.2Area 1-1 – Crypt Entrance
After mile upon mile of slogging through deep jungle, the party has finally reached its destination. Ahead of you lies a half-buried ruin of dark stone, overgrown with thorny vines and rank fungi, and bathed in the light of the two moons, both of which are full. A great tree stands athwart the ruins, and you can see small winged shapes silently flitting among its branches.
Tall steps lead up to a large, stone door engraved with blocky carvings of serpents, men, and things that are something of both. In the center of the door is a colorful mosaic in the likeness of a serpentman. In his left hand he holds a crudely rendered humanoid figure, dripping what appears to be blood into a bowl in his right hand. The bowl projects outward from the door itself. It is empty except for some blackish muck and a few leaves.
In the branches of the gigantic tree atop the crypt are dozens of small, feathered and winged serpents. They are non-venomous insectivores, and won’t attack unless the PCs attack them first; then, they attack as a swarm.
Winged Serpent Swarm: Init ; Atk swarming bite melee (); AC 10; HD ; hp 20; MV fly 50’; Act special; SP bite all targets within 20’ x 20’ space, half damage from nonarea attacks; SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL N.
To open the crypt door, the PCs must shed fresh blood into the bowl sticking out from the mural (1 hp damage is sufficient). With this blood sacrifice, the door glows with a fiendish green light, recedes inward, and rolls out of the way.
Eight hunters from a tribe of savage serpent-folk watch from the nearby jungle. The ruin is sacred to their people. They
watch and wait unless the party manages to open the door, in which case they attack immediately. The survivors attempt to flee if the PCs kill 4 of them.
Savage Serpent-folk Hunters (8): Init ; Atk bite melee ( + poison, DC 14 Fort save or paralysis rounds) or dagger melee (), or short bow missile (); AC 12; HD ; hp 4, 8, 9, 7, 10, 4, 6, 9; MV 30’; Act ; SP to move silently; SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL L.
Another group of serpent-men are traveling toward the crypt bringing, as sacrificial victim, a princess of the savage wood elves who also inhabit this jungle. They arrive rounds after the party opens the crypt. The group consists of a cobra shaman, four asp-men, and two great python serpent-men. The shaman carries a wooden scepter bearing chips of the Traveling Stones used to activate the crypt’s Sending Statues (these function just as the stones themselves), and frequently visits the site to cast sacrifices into the Great Well. The cobra shaman knows the crypt’s secrets.
Cobra Shaman (1): Init ; Atk bite melee ( + poison DC 20 Fort or death), or spit missile (range 40’; DC 14 Fort save or target blinded for turns), or spell; AC 14; HD ; hp 20; MV 30’; Act ; SP to move silently, harmful spell 4 times per day (drain each from Strength, Agility, and Stamina, DC 13 Will save or avoid); SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL L.
Great Python Serpent-men (2): Init ; Atk bite melee () or claws melee ( plus crushing grasp); AC 14; HD ; hp 11, 12; MV 30’; Act ; SP to move silently in jungle, crushing grasp each round, DC 15 Strength check to escape; SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL L.
Asp-men (4): Init ; Atk bite melee ( + poison DC 14 Fort or death within rounds if not healed), or spear melee (), or short bow missile (); AC 12; HD ; hp 4, 12, 11, 6; MV 30’; Act ; SP to move silently; SV Fort , Ref , Will ; AL L.