Gravesites IV: The Coffin Shop

Kovchegi Coffin Shop (Area)

An aging pair of married gnomes operates the coffin shop. Publicly, he is known as a carpenter who chose to make coffins exclusively because it is lucrative.

What People Know

A character knows the following information about the Kovchegi Coffin Shop with a successful Streetwise skill check.

• DC 16: The coffin shop is located in the city’s commercial district, and sells the best coffins, urns, and ossuaries in the city.
• DC 18: The elder Mister and Missus Kovchegi are supposedly estranged from their daughter.
• DC 20: The “right” people know the story about the carpenter is true as far as it goes, and that both gnomes are also semi-retired members of the local thieves’ guild.
• DC 22: Young Miss Kovchegi’s estrangement from her parents is an act and the three are close.
• DC 24: The coffins and ossuaries they make are sometimes used for smuggling; despite that, they are legitimately known as the best coffin and ossuary makers in the city.

The Coffin and Casket Shop

The coffin shop is located in the city’s commercial district. It is a well-maintained two-story building, with the store and workshop on the ground floor and the Kovchegi’s private residence on the second floor.

Several grave markers (wood, bronze, and stone) and a sarcophagus are displayed in the small yard outside and in front of the shop. The shop’s interior is a clean, whitewashed, and somber place, where the gnomes sells urns, coffins, ossuaries, oilcloth, sarcophagi, and grave markers.

At the north end of the workshop, the Kovchegis build coffins and ossuaries. It contains woodworking tools, paint, and currently underway projects, all of which are neatly organized. They purchase the oilcloth, urns, and sarcophagi rather than make these items themselves. At the south end of the workshop, they store materials (including contraband) before it is used or shipped out.

Coffins, Oilcloth, Sarcophagi, and Grave Markers

The coffins the shop sells range from simple wooden affairs, sturdy and watertight, to elaborate pieces with gilt edges and intricate carvings. This is also true of the urns and ossuary boxes. A sarcophagus is a stone box and usually large enough to hold a coffin. Economic realities often mean peasants wrap the remains of the deceased in heavy oiled cloth. Many people do not add dates (of birth or death) to grave markers as an urban legend says that information helps necromancers create undead. Leaving this information off also reduces the cost of an item by 1 gp. The Kovchegis also craft wards against the undead.

Grave Goods

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Old Mister & Missus Kovchegi (Level 6 Gnome Rogues)

Small fey humanoids XP 250 each

Initiative +5

Senses: Perception +6

HP 49; Bloodied 24

AC 16; Fortitude 14; Reflex 18; Will 16

Speed 6

Action Points 1

Traits

Fade Away (immediate reaction, when the gnome takes damage; encounter) • Illusion

Old Missus Kovchegi possesses this ability, but her husband does not. She turns invisible until she attacks or until the end of her next turn.

Reactive Stealth

If a gnome has cover or concealment when it makes an initiative check at the start of an encounter, it may make a Stealth check to escape notice.

Sly Flourish

At the start of an encounter, either of the Kovchegis has combat advantage against any creatures that have not yet acted.

Quick Fingers

Make a Thievery check as part of this action, even if the check is normally a standard action.

Sneak Attack

Once per round, either of the Kovchegis gains +2d6 damage when they individually have combat advantage.

Standard Actions

[MBA] Dagger (weapon) • At-Will

+11 vs. AC; 1d4 +3 damage.

[MW] Trick Strike • Daily

+9 damage with dagger, and the target slides the target 1 square.

[MW] Deep Cut • Daily

+8 damage with dagger, and ongoing +6 damage.

[MA] Deft Strike • At Will

Either of the Kovchegis may move 2 squares before the attack. +11 vs. AC; 1d4 +6 damage.

[MA] King’s Castle • Encounter

+14 vs Reflex; 2d4 +6 damage; either of the Kovchegis may also switch places with a willing adjacent ally.

Move Actions

[MW] Bait and Switch (Arcane, Charm) • Encounter

Effect: +8 damage, and the gnome may switch places with the target and may then shift 6 squares.

[R] Ghost sound (illusion) • Encounter

Ranged 10; Old Mister Kovchegi possesses this ability and his wife does not. It permits him to cause a sound as quiet as a whisper or as loud as a yelling or fighting creature to emanate from the target. He may produce nonvocal sounds such as the ringing of a sword blow, jingling armor, or scraping stone. If he whispers, he may whisper quietly enough that only creatures adjacent to the target can hear his words.

Alignment Unaligned

Languages Common, Elven, Gnome

Skills Arcana +10, Stealth +11, Thievery +9, Religion +9

Str 10 (+3) Dex 16 (+6) Wis 14 (+5)

Con 12 (+4) Int 12 (+4) Cha 17 (+6)

These stats should suffice for both Mister and Missus Kovchegi, should some member of the party feel a compulsion to attack either of the elderly gnome coffin makers.

The three members of the Kovchegi gnome family feed each other secrets about the city, particularly about the activities of the undead and the local thieves’ guild. They periodically help people smuggle contraband in coffins sent out of the city, charging about 20% of the price of the contraband to be smuggled, or 100 gp to move a living person in a casket. Mister and Missus Kovchegi detest necromancers and the undead. They charge necromancers five times the usual rate.

The Kovchegis are also notorious information brokers, collecting, trading, and selling information. They specialize in information about death, interment customs and rituals, local gravesites of all kinds, recent deaths and the ensuing interments, and the undead. They charge 20 gp per question answered, though they also accept favors as payment and trade information for information. As part of a long-standing agreement with the local thieves’ guild, neither of them answers questions about the other.

Burial and the Undead

Eventually, everyone and everything dies. In a world where the existence of the undead is a matter of fact, proper disposal of the remains of the deceased is arguably more important that it is in the real world, where those remains do not try to eat people.

Proper interment inhibits the creation of undead. A proper burial demonstrates respect for the deceased; while undead fester in evil and blasphemy. Further, elements like coffins and deep burial in holy ground interfere with necromancy. Even if the necromancy works, the undead monster will have to fight its way out of the coffin and dig through six or seven feet of consecrated earth. Undead created in this way frequently destroy themselves before they emerge from the ground.

As such, necromancers and evil cults of death depend more on an illicit trade in stolen remains than they do on the presence of graveyards, and undead creation rarely happens at graveside.

Burial and the Dead Rules Modification

•Reducing the remains to ash and powder. If this is done, the only undead into which the remains may be transformed are incorporeal. It also reduces the weight of the remains by 9/10ths.

••Stripping the remains of flesh and leaving only bones. If this is done, the only undead into which the remains may be transformed are skeletal. It also reduces the weight of the remains by 4/5ths.

Edited by Charles Dickey