Breach Below Bergum: GM Guide
Adventure background
Bergum began as a river-line stop where trains cooled their boilers. Twenty years ago, a worker slipped from the embankment into the richest vein of silver found in the kingdom for a generation. The new Bergum Mining Guild poured in labor, machinery, and coin. Now the vein is spent; only a skeleton crew remains to clear the tunnels and shutter the operation.
During that cleanup, a miner broke through an unstable wall into an ancient buried shrine. Something inside was disturbed. Apparitions spilled into Bergum, and the badly outmatched sheriff requested help. The Ministry of Obscure Affairs sent its nearest detectives.
At a glance
- System: Pathfinder Second Edition
- Party: Four 5th-level pregenerated characters
- Shape: Seven-room crypt exploration followed by a staged mausoleum encounter
- Expected length: One long session or two short sessions
Adventure flow
- The sheriff escorts the party to the new breach and leaves them to investigate.
- The party explores the crypt, facing haunts, traps, a swarm, and an optional gargoyle fight.
- Three colored crystals found through exploration safely open the Grand Mausoleum.
- A warning pulse teaches the mausoleum’s line-of-effect rule.
- The party manages three self-restoring Hryngar Retainers before the Reanimated Hryngar Runelord emerges.
- Destroying the Runelord ends the Barrow Pulse and quiets the tomb.
Running for new Pathfinder players
Let players introduce their characters before entering A1. Explain the three-action economy in play, call out skill actions when a room supports them, and make the consequences of exploration choices clear. In the final chamber, visibly demonstrate that a solid column blocks the harmless Warning Pulse before damage is at stake.
Encounter and XP overview
| Location | Challenge | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A2 | Entombed Spirit | Published hazard; blue crystal |
| A3 | Hampering Web and Spider Swarm | Published references; treasure |
| A5 | Phantom Footsteps and Pit of Toil | Published hazards; crimson crystal |
| A7 | Four Gargoyles | Avoided with all three crystals |
| Grand Mausoleum | Three weak Hryngar Retainers, Barrow Pulse, Reanimated Hryngar Runelord | Staged final encounter |
Use the XP values from the linked published creature and hazard references after confirming the exact versions at your table. The finalized Barrow Pulse encounter supersedes the obsolete B1 outline and “Boulder Roll” placeholder in the PDF.