Into the Crypt

Opening

The mischief of Bergum fades out above you as you enter the lower shaft behind the Sheriff. It’s quiet in a way you might expect of a cold, dank cave, but all around are the remnants of quite a commotion. Discarded picks and shovels sit silently against the rock, joined by ousted lanterns that have already seen their final flames.

As you branch from the main tunnels into a cramped, fresh alcove, the Sheriff stops abruptly, hangs his lantern on a thick steel hook, and beckons you close.

“Alright. Breach is right around this corner. The whole shaft’s been empty since the night it opened. Barely anyone’ll set foot down here these last few days, and I don’t blame ’em. Can’t say I’m too confident you’ll be able to seal this up, but I guess you’re all we’ve got right now. You handle what’s in there, and I’ll keep things from fallin’ apart topside.”

He lights a fresh torch and heads back up the way you came.

If the players are new to Pathfinder, invite character introductions and a quick review of their options here. The sheriff and deputies have kept curious townsfolk away, so this is the first willing expedition. No one topside has useful details about the tomb.

A1. Entrance

The tunnel ends abruptly at a wall of collapsed rubble—the site of the miners’ catastrophic mistake. As you scramble into the opening, the cramped tunnel gives way to a massive, cavernous hall of the dead. The air is stagnant and carries a tang of cave moss and a thousand years of decay.

Dozens of stone sarcophagi line the floor, but the peace of this place has been shattered. Mining tremors cracked the seals on many tombs, and faint, cold mist drifts from open caskets, confirming this as the source of the town’s haunting.

Across the expanse of stone and shadow, a single narrow door stands ajar, leading deeper into darkness.

Establish the scale, decay, and disturbed seals. A2 is within this burial hall; the open door leads to A3.

A2. Disturbed Burial

It didn’t crumble like the wall, but a jagged spiderweb fracture runs down the sarcophagus. Through the fissure comes a faint, dry scratching—like fingernails on stone.

A DC 15 Seek check identifies the cracked sarcophagus near the entrance. Its cover is AC 15, Hardness 5, and requires DC 18 Athletics to move.

The blue crystal is one of three that can bypass the guardians in A7.

A3. Dusty Hallway

Pushing through the narrow door, the atmosphere instantly changes from vault-like crypt to choking hallway. The stone walls are slick with humidity and the ceiling presses low overhead. Deep, dusty alcoves line both sides, holding dozens of funerary urns—some clay, some bronze—all covered in soot and dust.

Reaching into a large urn on the north side triggers the web and releases the swarm.

The hall continues toward A5. Rubble to the right offers a route through A4.

A4. Collapsed Wall

The hallway curves into pitch darkness, but to your right a precarious mound of collapsed rubble has opened the wall, offering a dangerous path over the wreckage into another chamber.

Climbing the wreckage requires DC 8 Athletics. At the top, crossing shifting debris requires DC 12 Acrobatics. After three total failures across these checks, the passage seals for the rest of the party. Anyone isolated by the collapse reunites with the group in A7.

A5. Dark Hallway

The hallway continues forward, narrow and draped in complete darkness. Its smooth stone walls are cool and damp, their torchlight long faded.

The first character to pass the collapsed wall is afflicted by Phantom Footsteps. Near the corner, a character without darkvision or light trips over a skeleton and triggers Pit of Toil. A character with darkvision or a light source must Seek the skeleton to notice what it holds.

The crimson crystal is the second key for A7.

A6. Treasure Room

Along the Atrium’s western wall, ten feet of smooth stone appears perfectly seamless. An exceptionally observant eye might catch one flaw: near the center, a small block protrudes barely a finger-width, betrayed by a ridge of settled dust.

Pushing it sends a low grinding shudder through the floor. The wall slides into darkness, revealing a small, dry chamber where torchlight catches the gleam of gold and treasures.

The PDF does not assign a discovery DC. Use the party’s exploration activities and Pathfinder’s level-appropriate simple DC guidance rather than hiding required progress behind an invented number.

The amber crystal completes the set used at A7.

A7. Atrium

The cramped passage gives way to a large square chamber of impressive vaulted stone. It feels grand and solemn, dominated by stone gargoyles set into all four walls, staring down with vacant, malevolent eyes.

Along the far wall, a high mound of rubble reveals the other side of the earlier cave-in. The eastern wall holds an elaborate door of massive granite slabs carved with forgotten runes. Beside it stands a heavy stone lever.

A secret DC 5 Perception check notices three shaped crystal sockets above the lever. Placing the blue, crimson, and amber crystals in them causes the gargoyles to crumble and opens the door safely.

Final section: Grand Mausoleum

The big stone door opens, catching and grinding over eons of dust and bone. The room beyond is slowly revealed by the dim light behind you and seems devoid of the decay you have grown accustomed to down here. Your first steps echo throughout a chamber much larger than the one you left. As your eyes adjust, crystal-blue braziers crackle to life through the hall, revealing the full grandeur of the marble mausoleum. Great pillars line its center. At the far end, a few short stairs lead up to a pristine marble sarcophagus.

Before anything activates, describe scorched sightlines radiating from the casket, clean shadows behind the solid columns, funerary chains connected to three linked seals, and faint runes in the Retainers’ chests. Let players inspect and reposition freely. Solid columns completely block the pulse.

Encounter sequence

1. Touching the casket releases a harmless Warning Pulse. Explicitly show that a solid column blocks it.
2. Three Hryngar Retainers awaken. Roll initiative.
3. Barrow Pulse activates each round from the casket.
4. A Retainer becomes inert at 0 HP or when its runic heart is disabled.
5. A pulse that reaches an inert Retainer restores 10 HP and reactivates it. A solid column prevents this.
6. When all three Retainers are inert simultaneously, the seals break and the Runelord emerges.
7. Barrow Pulse transfers to the Runelord and originates from its current space.
8. Destroying the Runelord ends the pulse.

Retainer tactics

Retainers use their chain launchers to threaten characters outside cover, then Pull, Grab, and Constrict to drag targets into the next pulse’s line. They value exposure over immediate damage. Telegraph this intent by having chains scrape across column edges and Retainers reposition for a clear lane.

Track the changing battlefield

Use three visible tokens for Retainer state and flip each between active and inert. At every pulse, trace line of effect from its origin to all creatures and inert Retainers. Announce when all three seals break. Once the Runelord appears, physically move the pulse-origin marker with it.

The PDF’s numbered B1 outline and “Boulder Roll” placeholder are obsolete. This is the finalized encounter.