The Dolmen Tomb – Area 14: Wise-woman's Crypt

 

Dozens of ancient skeletons are laid out on straw mats lining the floor of this dusty crypt. A profusion of jars rest on the floor against the east and west walls. A carved stone sarcophagus stands near the angled south walls. The lid is carved with ancient glyphs that name the interred as Ninu the Ageless—Wise-woman of the Coyote Clan. Outsider.

• Skeletons. A trap is triggered when the secret door opens (see area 13).

• Jugs and Jars. These clay vessels—60 in all—come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (40 “small,” 20 “large”). Some are colorfully painted; others are plain. All are closed with a lid or stopper of some sort. Most are found to contain various dried animal, vegetable, or mineral specimens. These items are components for magical elixirs (see below). If the jars are searched thoroughly:

• Five of the small jars are clearly marked with elfish designs. Each contain a perfectly-preserved humanoid body part: an eye of brilliant green, a slender tongue, or an elf’s ear. Each eye and ear can be found twice, but the tongue is only found once.

• One of the large jars contains a flint knife; this item will only be found once.

• Sarcophagus. Despite the skeletons in the room animating, the unsealed sarcophagus lid remains closed. Inside is the mummified body of an old woman, her long silken hair tied up into a tight bun. Her eyes and lips have been sewn shut, and her ears are missing. She wears a simple tunic and a hempen belt with a silver wand tucked into it. Her body is surrounded by valueless offerings: carved totems, bundles of dried herbs, animal skulls, painted stones, piles of colored sand, etc.
  

  When the lid is opened, the body stirs and sits up, sniffing the air (she doesn’t appear aggressive, just repulsive). If left undisturbed, she crawls out onto the floor, moving about on her hands and knees. She sniffs the party, but ignores them and begins searching the various large jars for something (picking each one up and shaking it).

• Each round, there is a 1:20 chance that she finds the jar with the knife (the target # increases by ‘1’ after each failure). When she finds it, she severs the stitches closing her eyes and lips, revealing that her eyes and tongue are missing (she is blind, mute, and deaf).

• She then undertakes a search of the small jars for her missing body parts (1:8 chance to find one each round, with the target # increasing by 1 each round, then starting over once she finds one). As she finds each part, she attaches it and regains one of her senses. When she finds and attaches her tongue, she can speak but it only sounds like ghostly whispering. She may be understood by casting Speak with Dead.

           If attacked at any point, she cowers away, moaning and whimpering…

• Cowering counts as a Dodge and provides resistance to all damage. If she doesn’t have any of her eyes yet, then she is blind, so attacks against her are made at normal chances. She resumes her search if the party ceases attacking her.
  

• Trying to snatch the wand from her belt counts as an attack.

• If attacked a second time, she continues cowering, but a banshee appears above her and Wails, then vanishes: Every person within 30 ft. who hears her takes 3d6 psychic damage and must make a DC 13 CON save or be reduced to 0 HP.

• If attacked a third time, she rises as a full-strength crypt hag (identical to a night hag, except she is not evil, and is a fey creature rather than a fiend). She may also still be blind, deaf, and/or mute. Rather than attack the party, she becomes ethereal on her turn and will now haunt the dreams of any characters who struck her, admonishing them nightly until they make amends somehow (this will potentially put the silver wand out of the party’s reach for now).

• Ninu the Wise-woman. If the party allows her to restore her senses, she bows respectfully and offers them the silver wand. She then lays out a rattan mat and gathers various implements from the offering items within her sarcophagus: a tin pan, a copper pot, a mortar and pestle, several wooden spoons, and a ceramic jug with a spout shaped like a vulture’s head (see area 2). Sitting cross-legged before the mat, she points to an area of jars, indicating for someone to bring her one of them.

• Roll a component randomly from the alchemy chart below—she needs one specimen each of animal, vegetable, and mineral types. Once she has a component of one type, she rejects any other similar types and demands a new one instead.

• Once she has three such components, she thumps the empty jug on the floor, then sits back and waits for someone to fetch a jugful of water from the basin in area 2. When she has everything, she will brew a magic elixir—a minor potion—for the party (see below).

• She will make up to (3) elixirs in a single day if someone brings her the required ingredients for each one. Each elixir takes 1d3 hours to brew.

• Silver Wand. Other than being made of silver, this wand is identical to the items found in areas 5 and 6. See area 19 for details on using this wand.

–Campaign Note: If they figure out a way to communicate with her, Ninu's backstory gives the party clues about a hidden temple that lies deep within the Badlands, and provides hints to any elf characters in the group that the remnants of an ancient tribe of "wild elves" still live among the canyons. Long ago, this tribe of elves were druids led by their queen, Athera, who founded the temple to care for the land and guide the primitive humans who lived there. 

Over time, Athera began to be worshiped by the human clans—who called her Thera—and she ultimately became a demi-goddess.* She eventually returned to the faerie-realm, leaving her successors to manage the temple's affairs.

Ninu is the sister of Asura, the First-Priestess of the temple of Thera, whose bones are located in the ossuary in area 12. Ninu was a lesser priestess in the temple when it was discovered and attacked by the cult of Khoss after a betrayal by the Second-Priestess. Ninu fled the temple and took up with the Coyote Clan, helping them resist the depredations of the cult and their red orc allies. 

During an attempt to recover the First-Priestess' body from the temple, which succeeded, Ninu was killed and mutilated by red orcs. Her remains were eventually gathered from the battlefield and returned to the clan, and she was interred here in the tomb.

*The inference to the players was that the pagan humans of this area worshiped Thera as a goddess and that, later, when humanity became civilized, her faith was folded up into the Solis pantheon.

<< Area 13: Trapped Hall

>> Area 14: Champion's Crypt

__________

Crypt Hag's Elixirs
To make one of her elixirs, Ninu requires (1) specimen each of an animal, plant, and mineral component (see STEP 1 below). Once she has a component of one particular type, she rejects any other similar types and demands a new one instead. Finally, she needs a jugful of water from the basin in area 2.

• When Ninu has everything she needs, she will brew an elixir for the party. She will only make (3) elixirs in a single day before returning to her sarcophagus to rest.

• She has enough “usable” applications of each component type among the many jars to make up to (60) elixirs before her stocks are depleted. She will only continue making elixirs for the party so long as they remain dedicated to helping the Coyote Clan remove the curse upon it and/or liberating the temple of Thera from the evil forces that occupy it (see area 20).
  

• All the components are made of local flora/fauna/minerals. Attentive players may note the recipes to specific elixirs and can forage the Badlands to find more of the same components to replenish her stocks. Party members will be unable to brew the elixirs themselves, however, which requires Ninu's special knowledge.
  
  

STEP 1: Determine Base Components.
Most of these specimens are dried and/or powdered, or fragments which Ninu pulverizes in her mortar.

D6	1) ANIMAL	2) ANIMAL	3) PLANT	4) PLANT	5) MINERAL	6) MINERAL
1	bones	horn	seeds/seed oil	wood/leaves	charcoal	ashes
2	blood	venom gland	herb	flowers	stone	gems
3	hair/fur	feathers/scales	sap/resin	berries/fruit	pitch	petroleum
4	organ	egg/foetus	nuts	vegetables	river clay	fossil
5	eye	claw/nail	roots	fungi	fine sand	grave dirt
6	tooth/fang	carapace	thorns/needles	special	mercury	metal

• Once the base component is determined, roll to determine the specific type of each one on the following tables, ignoring or re-rolling any results that don’t make sense.
  
  

STEP 2: Determine Animal Type.
Roll on the following table or pick an appropriate animal based on the specimen rolled in STEP 1.

D6	1) FISH/REPTILE	2) BIRD	3) MAMMAL	4) INSECT	5) HUMANOID	6) MONSTER
1	trout	crow	goat	scorpion	goblin	manticore
2	crawdad	vulture	mule	centipede	bugbear	ogre
3	lizard	hawk	bat	ant	red orc	harpy
4	toad	axebeak	camel	ankheg	gnoll	stirge
5	raptor	roadrunner	bear	spider	lizardman	minotaur
6	viper	roc	ram	beetle	kobold	ghoul

STEP 3: Determine Plant Type.
Roll one the following or pick an appropriate plant based on the specimen rolled in STEP 1.

• Seeds/Seed Oil: (1d6) 1 = barley; 2 = palm; 3 = sesame; 4 = shea; 5 = safflower; 6 = sunflower

• Herb: roll on the following table:
  

D6	1–3 = COMMON	4–5 = UNCOMMON	6 = RARE
1	mustard	lavender	wormwood
2	rosemary	fennel	saffron
3	golden sage	yarrow	feverfew
4	thyme	cilantro	coriander
5	oregano	geranium	anise
6	mint	dill	marsh-mallow

• Sap/Resin: (1d6) 1 = pine; 2 = shea; 3 = mesquite; 4 = aloe; 5 = tarweed; 6 = creosote

• Nuts: (1d6) 1 = pine; 2 = almond; 3 = jojoba (goat nut); 4 = pistachio; 5 = pecan; 6 = yuba

• Roots: (1d6) 1 = wild onion; 2 = red potato; 3 = golden carrot; 4 = radish; 5 = sweet potato; 6 = garlic

• Thorns/Needles: (1d6) 1 = rose; 2 = cactus; 3 = prickly poppy; 4 = whitethorn acacia; 5 = blackberry; 6 = firethorn

• Wood/Leaves: (1d6) 1 = pine; 2 = mesquite; 3 = apple; 4 = pecan; 5 = ironwood; 6 = palm

• Flowers: (1d6) 1 = peyote; 2 = poppy; 3 = marigold; 4 = sunflower; 5 = rose; 6 = desert lily

• Berries/Fruit: (1d6) 1 = apple; 2 = fig; 3 = date; 4 = olive; 5 = blackberry; 6 = strawberry

• Vegetables: (1d6) 1 = squash; 2 = melon; 3 = pepper (1d10 heat scale); 4 = tomato; 5 = cucumber; 6 = eggplant

• Fungi: (1d6) 1 = truffle; 2 = shaggy mane; 3 = fly agaric; 4 = earthstar; 5 = chaga; 6 = death cap

• Special: (1d6) 1 = shambling mound; 2 = needler (cactus monster); 3 = tumbler (tumbleweed monster); 4 = assassin vine; 5 = twig/vine blight; 6 = pine treant
  
  

STEP 4: Determine Mineral Type.
Roll on the following list to determine the exact mineral sample rolled in STEP 1.

• Charcoal (powdered; commonly found or made)

• Stone: (1d6) 1 = sandstone; 2 = quartz; 3 = chalk; 4 = sulfur; 5 = river stone; 6 = lime

• Pitch (hardened chunks)
  

• River Clay: (may be retrieved from ancient, dried-up riverbeds; clay is flecked with 1d6) 1-3 = iron; 4–5 = quartz; 6 = gol

• Fine Sand: (may be found in various regions of the Badlands; 1d6) 1 = red; 2 = blue; 3 = yellow; 4 = umber; 5 = gray; 6 = black
  

• Mercury (may be found in deposits of cinnabar, or mercuric sulfide)

• Ashes (50/50 animal/plant; determine source as above)

• Gem (roll type and rarity from DMG)

• Petroleum (may be found as tar sands containing unrefined bitumen)
  

• Fossil (50/50 animal/plant; determine source as above)

• Grave Dirt (must be from consecrated burial grounds, not simply dirt from where someone died)

• Metal: (1d6) = 1–5 (1d6: 1–2: copper, 3–4 = tin, 5–6 iron/rust); 6 = precious (1d6: 1–4 silver, 5 = gold; 6 = roll another 1d6: 1–5 = gold; 6 = roll another 1d6: 1–4 = platinum; 5 = mithril; 6 = adamantine)
  
  

STEP 5: Determine Resulting Elixir.
Roll on the following table to determine the elixir Ninu concocts with the gathered components. Once a "recipe" is known, the party can collect the same components and the elixir can be replicated up to 2d3 more times before she runs out of the necessary components. A different combination of components can also result in an identical elixir if a previously-rolled concoction is re-rolled using a different recipe.

D6	1) ABILITY	2) ATTRIBUTE	3) BATTLE	4) SPELL	5) UTILITY	6) SPECIAL
1	Strength	Alertness	Defense	Power	Poison	Levitation
2	Dexterity	Hardiness	Precision	Potency	Poultice	Luck
3	Constitution	Quickness	Deadliness	Intensity	Restoration	Revivify
4	Intelligence	Acuity	Healing	Far-casting	Climbing	Clairvoyance
5	Wisdom	Aptitude	Ironhide	Effectiveness	Omen	Heroism
6	Charisma	Indomitability	Recovery	Replenishment	Darkvision	Polymorph

Each of the following elixirs only lasts for (1) month before becoming inert liquids. The effects may not be stacked; if a second elixir is consumed while another one is active, the first one cancels out as the second one takes effect.

Elixir Descriptions

–Ability Elixirs: These increase the drinker's relevant ability score modifier by +1 for 10 minutes.

–Attribute Elixirs: These modify one of the drinker's primary features for 10 minutes.

• Alertness = Drinker cannot be Surprised and gains advantage on Initiative rolls.
• Hardiness = Drinker gains +2 temporary HP per level.
• Quickness = Drinker gains +10 Speed.
• Acuity = Drinker gains advantage on all WIS (Perception) and INT (Investigation) checks.
• Aptitude = Drinker gains advantage on all ability and tool checks.
  
• Indomitability = Drinker gains advantage on all saves.
  

–Combat Elixirs: These modify one of the drinker's combat attributes for 10 minutes.

• Defense = Drinker's AC increases by 2.
• Precision = Drinker gains +1 to weapon attack rolls.
• Deadliness = Drinker doubles their ability score modifier to weapon attack damage.
• Healing = Drinker regains 1d4+1 HP instantaneously (no duration). NOTE: 1–2:6 of these acts as a full Healing Potion.
• Ironhide = Drinker gains resistance to non-magic weapon damage.
• Recovery = Drinker regenerates 1d3 HP at the start of each of their turns so long as they have at least 1 HP.
  

–Spell Elixirs: These modify one of the drinker's spellcasting attributes for 10 minutes.

• Power = Drinker gains +1 to spell attack rolls. 
• Potency = Drinker’s spell save DC increases by 1.
• Intensity = Drinker’s spell damage increases by +1 per die rolled, and they may re-roll any result of '1' on any damage die, taking the result of the second roll (even if another 1).
• Far-casting = Drinker’s spell ranges increase by 50%; spells with a range of Touch can now be cast up to 10 ft. away.
• Effectiveness = The area-of-effect of any 3rd level or lower spell cast by the drinker increases by 50%. For spells targeting an individual creature, the caster may target (2) creatures instead.
• Replenishment = Whenever the drinker casts a spell of 3rd level or lower, they may roll a CON save vs. DC 10+1 per spell level cast. If successful, the caster does not expend a spell slot for the casting. This can occur successfully up to one time per the caster’s Proficiency bonus, after which the effect ends.
  

–Utility Elixirs: These have varying effects and durations.

• Poison = Drinker suffers the Poisoned condition for 1d3 hours (no save).
• Poultice = During a Short Rest, the elixir is applied to any wounds, adding +1d3 per HD expended to the user's HP recovery.
• Restoration = Drinker ends either one disease effect or one of the following conditions: Blinded, Deafened, Paralyzed, or Poisoned (instantaneous).
  
• Climbing = Drinker gains a climbing speed equal to their walking speed and has advantage on any STR (Athletics) checks to climb for 10 minutes.
  
• Omen = During the next 10 minutes, the drinker can use their Action to determine whether the results of a single decision they intend to make will be good, bad, both, or neutral (as the Augury spell). Once they receive such a “gut instinct,” the effect ends.
• Darkvision = Drinker either gains Darkvision to 60-ft. range, or doubles their current Darkvision range for 1 hour.

–Special Elixirs: These mimic the effects of a spell or similar potion.

• Levitation = Drinker can Levitate (as spell) for (1) minute (no Concentration req.)
• Luck = During the next 10 minutes, the drinker can re-roll any single ability check, attack roll, or saving throw, taking the results of the second roll. Once a re-roll is made, the effect ends.
• Revivify = Returns a “dead” subject to life if administered within (1) minute of dying.
• Clairvoyance = As spell, but the duration is only (1) minute (no Concentration req.)
• Heroism = As Potion of Heroism, but the duration is only (10) minutes (no Concentration req.)
• Polymorph = Drinker shape-changes into a normal beast of the same type as the Animal component used to make the elixir for (10) minutes (no Concentration req.) To end the effect early, the drinker must use their Action and make a DC 15 WIS save to revert back to their normal form. Once reverted, the elixir's effect ends.