After plundering several more cairns and a warrior's barrow mound, the party makes their way toward the center of The Dead Pines, where they discover a thicket of scrub and pine trees—a dense ring of foliage approximately 300 ft. in diam. and 75 ft. thick.
- Rangers, druids, and elves can make a DC 12 Perception check to sense an ancient magical influence (druidic/nature) that permeates the thicket.
Except for rangers and druids, the dense thicket reduces movement by half again, on top of the normal difficult terrain penalty (one-quarter Speed).
- The foliage provides half-cover (+2 AC) to any target of a ranged attack greater than 10 ft. away, and three-quarters-cover (+5 AC) to any target greater than 20 ft. away. The foliage totally obscures line-of-sight at more than 30 ft. away.
Within the thicket, melee attack rolls by slashing or bludgeoning weapons have disadvantage due to blocking (rangers and druids can make a DC 12 WIS save at the start of their turn to overcome this effect until the start of their next turn).
Investigating further, the party breaks through the ring and enters an inner clearing roughly 150-ft. in diameter. The ground is covered with stiff, knee-high grass and patches of hard dirt, with a few boulders littering the edges of the clearing.
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| Each hex = 5 ft. |
At the center of the clearing stands a 30-ft. high barrow mound capped by a stone dolmen that has been unearthed by centuries of exposure to the elements. A dirt path ascends the steeply-sloped hillock and enters the dolmen's covered enclosure. A massive stone slab, rectangular in its original shape, lies broken in several pieces before the opening. The dolmen mound is surrounded by eight rock cairns.
- The mound blocks direct line-of-sight to the opposite side.
- Buried within each cairn is a skeletal warrior, (2) skeletons, and (4) brittle skeletons. If a cairn is disturbed, the undead will emerge and attack the violator(s). There is no treasure in any of these cairns.
–Skeleton (AC 13; 13 HP (2d8+4); AT 1 scimitar (1d6+2); SD vuln. bludgeoning; imm. poison)
Each cairn is also tied to a crypt inside the tomb beneath the barrow, corresponding roughly to its orientation around the dolmen. The southernmost cairn is tied to the tomb seal in the dolmen enclosure (see below).
- As each corresponding crypt in the dungeon below (or the stone seal) is opened, the undead in the associated cairn rise and begin patrolling the inner circle formed by the cairns, moving methodically around the base of the barrow mound in a counter-clockwise direction. These undead will act to prevent any looters from escaping the tomb when they exit. They will pursue intruders into the ring of dense foliage (and are unaffected by it), but will not pass beyond the thicket's outermost border.
Unbeknownst to the party, a band of tomb robbers has already discovered the dolmen tomb, removed the stone seal, and begun exploring the tomb. Doing so has caused the undead occupants of the southernmost cairn to emerge from beneath the pile and patrol the base of the mound, waiting for the tomb robbers to exit, or any other interlopers to appear.
As the party moves into the clearing to look around, they note that one of the cairns has been disturbed, with the rock pile scattered about an open depression. Suddenly, a patrol of skeletal figures appears from the far side of the mound, marching in formation through the tall grass. Spotting the party, a skeleton in lamellar armor with a wicker shield points his bronze khopesh and speaks a wordless command. The skeletal patrol charges the group with weapons brandished.
After defeating the skeletons, the party climbs to the top of the mound where they investigate the dolmen. Inside the enclosure, they can see that a heavy stone slab (8-ft. long x 6-ft. wide) was once set into the dirt floor, but it has been broken apart and removed (the large stone pieces outside the dolmen's entrance).
Beneath it, a rough stone staircase drops into a dark tomb. Girding themselves for the dangers ahead, the party descends into the chilly darkness...
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In upcoming posts, I will detail the dolmen tomb's interior, in which the former chieftain of the Coyote clan is interred along with his faithful retinue and the clan’s treasures. Because it's a fair amount of text describing 20 chambers, I've decided to post each area of the dungeon key in piece-meal fashion so they're easier to post and digest. Once everything's posted, I'll post a full PDF write-up for anyone who wants to adapt the tomb for their own campaigns.
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