Brazen Wolfe Tabletop

The Crypts Trials

451MoDe2416

The party lands upon the bottom of the flight of stairs after descending sixty or so feet. The entrance behind them reveals the canopy of trees and the night sky beyond but before them is old chiselled stone that has not lasted the test of time. The air is cold, damp and earthy with the only light comes from their own light sources and the Red candle that flickers in Elara’s hands. As the party delve deeper into the crypt it begins to feel that it is more a maze of corridors and chambers rather than structured and ordered space.

As they continue the rooms and corridors they encounter seemed designed to trick, delay, and confuse any who dare enter as they are nearly all identical even down to the same piles or rubbish and bones within the rooms and against the walls. However after noticing something odd about one of the rooms they discover a cleverly disguised adjoined corridor

After but a few moments travelling down the new corridor the first chamber they enter is a large, circular room with a high ceiling. In the centre of the room stands a pedestal in which rests a glowing crystal. The walls are adorned with murals depicting scenes of ancient battles and forgotten heroes, all crumbling to ruins and to be forgotten soon. As the party approaches the pedestal, a low hum fills the air, and a voice echoes through the chamber.

‘To proceed, you must answer the riddle that guards this chamber and this is third of three such rooms. Only the worthy may pass and only those who pass are worthy.’ a voice comes from the room itself as the crystal in the middle of the room starts to levitate and thrum with arcane magic.

After a few heart beats the voice speaks again ‘I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?’.

The party listen to the words and as they sit their in silence the soft drip of water in some corner of the room echoes out. Inspired with the answer the party gives their response to which a section of the wall grinds away revealing another passageway deeper into the crypt.

As the party step through the end of this corridor they are greeted by a series of walls. After a few minutes the realisation of what this chamber represents hits hard, this chamber is a labyrinthine corridor filled with mirrors and illusions. The walls seem to shift and move as the party navigate through the maze which makes standard tricks for overcoming a labyrinth less useful, but not useless. After a few moments they find that they reach the centre of the labyrinth where an identical crystal from the one earlier sits on a similar pedestal.

‘Only those who see through deception shall find the true path. Navigate the path laid before you and reach the door on the other side.’ the voice calls out once the party approach it. The party hear from somewhere deeper in the room the sound of metal grating as a something in the maze shifts. Whether something opens or something closes it is nearly impossible to tell.

Reaching the exit of the maze they recount the guardian creatures that had begun to stalk them which forced them to move faster through the maze. Luckily the walls ceased changing but the threat of the creatures cornering and attacking them urged them onwards. However this caused them to miss obvious queues and get lost as they made simple mistakes. As they burst through the last parts of the maze and closed the door behind them a loud grumbling echoes out from behind them as tremors could be felt through the ground. Looking in the room behind them they managed to watch the last of the walls that made up the maze shift into the floor to be swallowed back up by the room that created it.

Ahead of them the third chamber is a vast hall filled with statues of ancient warriors. Nearly each statue holds a weapon with more scattered on the floor around them. The floor is inscribed with a large, intricate pattern where the party can see a depiction of a battle from some long forgotten time. At the far end of the hall is a corridor that is barred off with a large statue standing firmly in the middle of passage. Suddenly a voice from their left makes them jump as another crystal glows into life.

‘The key to the gate ahead lies within the pattern. Match the weapons to their correct owners, the corresponding places where they would have stood on their last march, and the way shall be revealed’. The party move forward to look at the statues. after a moment they place the dropped weapons in the hands of the statues in which the weapons which was closest to them. As they place the last weapon an image of a full moon glows in the centre of the pattern and a few statues have their eyes glow.

After some trial and error and watching the moon imagery in the centre of the moon wane from full to near new, or the dark of the moon, they worked out the pattern. With a satisfying click the gate in front of them receded into the wall revealing the corridor before them. As they approached the final statue, a much newer and pristine stone its eyes burned alive and a cold voice resonated out.

‘You have made it this far Guardians of the light but here you shall remain. But to make this interesting so your final moments to let you know that you have truly failed. A riddle that will haunt you for the rest of your isolation and fuel your despair.’ it paused for a moment its massive arms moving to grip onto the stone handles of weapons at its back.

‘My life can be measured in hours, I only serve to be devoured. Slim, I am quick. Fat, I am slow. Wind is my foe.’ it said, slowly and menacingly with a hissing like rhythm. As it waited for the parties response.

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