Hello D&D folks! As we continue to work on making dungeon maps, we finally reached this level! We also know that we have learned a lot in this process and we will learn more. After all, learning never ends 🙂

We hope you will like the result.

Here it is, Forsaken Vanir Tomb

This is a small dungeon that consists of two or three encounters according to the players’ choices. The encounters are (1) a bundle of ghasts but the players can bypass them, (2) an evil treant, (3) the Vanir mystic.

Background

The tomb belongs to an old Vanir mystic. It was historically locked by gothis (Clerics in Svilland) for the mystic to remain dead. Yet, Vanir cultists got in, broke the seals, and found a way to feed their old mystic back to life again. A character may know that historically a Vanir mystic was buried here and the tomb was then locked by gothis on a successful DC 15 Intelligence (History) check or by casting a legend lore spell.

The Dungeon

The entrance of the tomb up to the first column may have traps (perhaps triggered by pressure plates). These traps were set by Vanir cultists to keep away intruders. There may be magical traps as well, as Vanir cultists would expect gothis or alles to come and try to lock the tomb again or to destroy it.

White Columns

The white circles are columns made of white stone. They have strange runes on them, a successful DC 13 Intelligence (History) check reveals these runes are in the Vanir language of the mythical times.

Within each column, there is a humanoid sacrifice bound and put there through a secret hatch to the column. A successful DC 18 Intelligence (Investigation) check detects the door. If the hatch is opened, the body of the creature is revealed. A successful DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals that the creature is tied to spikes piercing its flesh and it is long dead.

A successful DC 18 Intelligence (Investigation) check can decipher the runes meaning: They are prayers to Vanir gods for taking the life force of the sacrifices within the columns and feeding it to the tomb through the tree. These sacrifices are cursed for their wrongs against the Vanir to remain half-conscious for all the time their blood is magically drained.

If someone casts detect magic spell, it reveals a 9th level necromancy spell as well as a 3rd level necromancy spell. The higher-level spell is the one that magically feeds the blood to the tree, the lower-level one is the curse to keep the victims aware of what is being done to them.

Trapped Sacrifices

A remove curse spell cast on each column removes the curse on the creature that is trapped within. If the column of a creature with curse removed breaks, the creature still appears as a ghast as mentioned below, but it does not attack. Instead, it cries and tries to leave the dungeon.

A dispel magic cast on the column breaks the feeding of that column’s trapped victim to the tree. The creature may still appear as a ghast as mentioned below. When a necromancy spell is dispelled, the trail of blood coming from that column dries and fades.

If the players try to damage the columns or try to clean the trails of blood, the columns break open and 4 ghasts appear. The ghasts howl in madness and pain, during which the characters may make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to remain silent and take a surprise round. Otherwise, the ghasts attack immediately after they are done howling.

If no dispel magic or dispel good and evil is cast on the ghasts when the encounter is over, they lie dead but their bodies still continue to leak trails of blood to the tree.

The Blood Tree

After the columns reside a tree with a pool of blood on the ground below it and trails of blood soaking its trunk. If the characters damage the tree, it awakens as a treant. The treant uses the statistics of a regular treant but it has the following differences:

• Its alignment is Neutral Evil
• Its Strength is 20 (+5) and its to hit is +8.
• Its Slam attack deals 15 (3d6+ 5) bludgeoning damage, its Rock attack deals 27 (4d10 + 5) bludgeoning damage.
• It cannot use the Animate Trees ability.
• Its effective Challenge Rating is 6 (2,300 XP).

When the treant is defeated, it reveals cracks on the wall behind it. The cracks were caused by its roots and trunk. A successful DC 15 Strength check by a pickaxe or similar item destroys that section of the wall by opening a 5-foot-wide gap. Behind it, a tomb is revealed.

The Tomb

The tomb is made of gray, heavy stone. It has runes on it in the Vanir language, written in blood. If the characters did not dispel the necromancy spell that feeds the blood of sacrifices, the tomb opens and the mystic awakens when the characters get into the room. If they dispelled all the sacrifices, the mystic does not rise and remains as a corpse.

The mystic has the template of the Seidr (Svilland Campaign Setting page 160) and has the following additional traits:

• Its Hit Points is 120 (16d8 + 48) and its Constitution is 16 (+3). Yet, its hit points is 10 (1d8 + 6) lower for each sacrifice that was dispelled before.
• Its Wisdom is 20 (+5), its spell save DC is 17 and it has +9 to hit with spell attacks.
• Its effective Challenge Rating is 9 (5,000 XP)

Spellcaster. It is a 16th level spellcaster and has the following spell slots;

• 4 spell slots of 1st level spells
• 3 spell slots each for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spells
• 2 spell slots for 5th level spells
• 1 spell slots each for 6th, 7th, and 8th level spells.

Spells Prepared. The mystic has the following additional spells prepared;

Cantrips (replaced the default ones): chill touch (3d8), fire bolt (3d10), poison spray (3d12), ray of frost (3d8)

5th level (2 slots): cloudkill

6th level (1 slot): circle of death

7th level (1 slot): regenerate

8th level (1 slot): feeblemind