This is the third of a series of articles about graveyards, interment, crypts, coffins and similar issues, for role-playing games. It employs 4E Dungeons & Dragons rules.
Murina Family Crypt (Area)
The banking guild repossessed Murina Manor, an old structure located in the PCs’ home city, last year and began leasing it for business and residential use. Events sinister and mysterious occur in the tunnels and old family crypts under the estate.
What People Know
A character knows the following information about the Murina Manor with a successful History or Streetwise skill check.
- DC 14: The Murina were a noble family, important to the city and the kingdom. Their fortunes and numbers declined over the decades, until the few members of the family who remained sold or abandoned many of their previous holdings. This includes the Murina Manor.
- DC 16: The rates for the suites and apartments are reasonable, and it has easy access to several sections of the city.
- DC 20: Vague and sinister rumors circulate about the old family crypts.
Suites for Lease
GMs are encouraged to have the PCs lease residential space in the manor as a long-term residence. The manor is old and rambling, though well maintained by the large and mute grounds keeper, Aita Velcha. The design of the manor is left to the discretion of the GM.
The Crypt of the Honored Dead
The crypt grew as the Murina family built, expanded, burned to the ground, and rebuilt the manor. Now the shadowy crypt is home to the remains of six or seven generations of the Murina family. The remains of most, bones or ashes, rest inside the walls or below the floor, in urns or ossuaries. Only select members of the family rest in one of the 23 sarcophagi. The central most sarcophagus stands closed, but empty, and is used by the city’s thieves’ guild as temporary storage (Streetwise DC 24 to know this).
The crypt snakes under the main house building, a side yard, and the stables. A short staircase leads from a cellar of the house to the north end of the crypt, and a second, longer, staircase runs up from the southern end of the crypt to the manor’s stables. A pile of animal bones in the northeastern-most alcove conceals a disused entrance (Perception DC 20 to find, Thievery DC 18 to open) that opens into a short tunnel leading to the Necropolis, which runs below the city.
According to the leasing agent, tenants may use the crypt for storage. However, opening any of the sarcophagi, disturbing the remains, robbing the crypt, or stealing or damaging any other tenant’s personal possessions violates the lease agreement and is grounds for eviction. Tenants store wine, brandy and sherry in notches along the walls, next to and between the urns and ossuaries. A cask of Amontillado sherry, an expensive liquor, is stored here. Behind the cask, bricked up in a cubbyhole and chained to the back wall, is a (very cross) skeleton in a decaying jester’s costume.
Several tenants store locked trunks and wardrobes, which contain personal possessions of low value, like quilts and old stoneware, in the crypt. Velcha stores some of his mundane grounds-keeping tools (a garden spade, a saw, rake, etc.) in one large wardrobe (Thievery DC 18 to open). Under this wardrobe is a locked chest (Perception DC 20 to find, Thievery DC 22 to open), inside of which are Velcha’s paraphernalia of the cult.
Periodic secret and wicked rites of the cult are practiced around a circle drawn on the flagstones in the middle of the largest chamber in the crypt.
A Nefarious Cult
Sometime between the Murina family abandoning the manor and when the banking guild turned it into a condominium, an Orcus cult established a new cell in the city.
Because the cult and its practices are illegal, cult members rotate where they conduct rituals, rarely practicing their profane acts in the same place twice within a few weeks. This cell uses the Murina family crypt a few times a year for its rites and always during the spring and autumn Days of the Dead.
Aita Velcha – his real name is Aita Murina – leads this cell of the cult, which is largely composed of teens that smoke, drink, and screw too much. Most of these teens are children of tenants already living in the manor.
The GM should slowly reveal that the PCs neighbors’ teenage children and the grounds keeper are evil, insane, and obsessed with death and the undead. Further, the PCs should not know who among their neighbors is and is not part of the cult.
Refer to “human rabble” in the Monster Manual for the appropriate statistics for any teens working with Velcha.
Aita “Velcha” Murina (Level 5 Cleric Controller)
Medium natural humanoid XP 200
Initiative +3
Senses: Perception +5
HP 51; Bloodied 26
AC 17; Fortitude 13; Reflex 11; Will 12
Saving Throws +1
Speed 6 (Moves normally through difficult terrain)
Action Points 0
Standard Actions
[MA] Battleaxe (Weapon) • At-Will
Attack: +10 vs. AC
1d10+3 damage
[MA] Righteous Brand (Divine • Weapon) • At-Will
Attack: Melee Weapon; one creature; +3 vs. AC
1d10+3 damage and one ally within 5 squares of Murina gains a power bonus to melee attack rolls against the target equal to Murina ’s Strength (+3) modifier until the end of Murina ’s next turn.
[RA] Lance of Faith (Implement) • At-Will
Attack: Ranged 5; one target; one target; +3 vs. Reflex
1d8 + 5 damage, one ally gains a +2 power bonus to his next attack against the target.
[RA] Cause Fear (Divine • Implement) • Encounter
Attack: Ranged 10; one target; +3 vs. Will
The target moves its speed + 1 away from Murina . The fleeing target avoids unsafe squares and difficult terrain if it can. This movement provokes opportunity attacks.
[RA] Cascade of Darkness (Divine • Implement) • Daily
Attack: Ranged 10; +3 vs. Will
3d8+3 modifier radiant damage, and the target gains vulnerability 5 to all Murina ’s attacks (save ends).
Alignment Evil
Languages Common, Supernal
Skills Arcana 7, Heal 10, Insight 10, Intimidate 3, Perception 5, Stealth 2, Religion 7
Str 16 (+5)Dex 11 (+2)Wis Wis 16 (+5)
Con 14 (+4)Int 10 (+2)Cha 12 (+3)
Several years ago, things scarier than Aita cut out his tongue. Now the big man communicates by writing with a bit of chalk on a slate shingle he carries with him. He believes cult service will restore his family’s fortunes. And his tongue. He employs his foul axe as his unholy divine implement.
The Days of the Dead
The first day of autumn and the first day of spring are important holidays for honoring the dead, specifically the Days of the Dead. The first day of autumn draws the living world closer to an otherworld of gloom and death, while the first day of spring draws the living world closer to an otherworld of light and seemingly perpetual summer.
Many races recount stories of lost family members and friends in festive public events. Arguments pass back and forth about who developed the custom, but during these holidays in some human and in some gnome communities, elders wear masks to portray those who have passed – a solemn responsibility and honor. On these holidays people clean the gravesites of family and friends.
Events on the holidays include commemorative events at significant battlefields for military organizations and important public rituals for religious groups. The living consider it unlucky to engage in military engagements on either of the Days of the Dead; however, the undead feel no such compunction.
Days of the Dead Rules Modification
Conducting rituals that allow for interactions with the spirits of the deceased, or involving the appropriate transitive plane (one of gloom for the autumn event and one of light for the spring event) is easier on the Days of the Dead. There is a +4 circumstantial bonus, which stacks with any other appropriate bonuses, for skill checks for these rituals on these holidays.
Adventure Hooks
- Help: A favorite cult tactic is for a teenage member of the cult to trick a well-meaning adventurer into believing the cult member is an innocent victim who has fallen into the clutches of a mad killer (i.e. Aita). The adventurer is led on a wild-goose chase around the manor grounds and through adjacent tunnels and cellars, only to realize, too late, that the teens are part of the scheme and it is all a terrible trap.
- Sorry for the Interruption: The local thieves’ guild is aware of the existence of the cult, but not the particulars. A thief using the secret entrance and intending to access the empty sarcophagus could stumble upon the cult in the middle of a ritual.
Edited by Charles Dickey
