20 Pieces of Crypt & Catacomb Dressing
Designed to house the dead, crypts and catacombs often include many religious features as well as decorations dealing with death and the afterlife.
The crypt’s arched ceiling features many small one-foot -square tiles. Each is brightly coloured and depicts stylised scenes of the world.
Each of this crypt's sarcophagi stand upon one-foot high stone plinths. The name of the interred is carved onto each plinth’s riser.
The crypt has a wooden floor, and was built over a natural cave. If the crypt is particularly old, the wood could be brittle and rotten. Incautious adventurers could step through the floor and plummet into the pit.
As #3 above, but deep heaps of bones fill the pit. These break the adventurers’ fall to some extent, but some could animate to attack those falling into their midst. The shades and haunts of the deceased could also linger in the mass grave.
Deep niches carved into the crypt’s walls hold stacked arrays of bones. The bones are wired and glued together and form a macabre display; some such sculptures are shaped in the sigil of the god of death; disturbing them would be blasphemy.
A small shrine pierces one wall. A low altar, covered in mouldering offerings, burnt-down candles and the like, fills much of the niche. Faded paintings of an idealised afterlife adorn the niche’s walls.
The crypt is virtually air-tight. Thus, when the characters first open its door the crypt the air is musty and foul-smelling. It takes an hour or so, once the crypt is opened, for the smell to dissipate.
A great chandelier crafted from bones held together with cunningly threaded wires hangs from the ceiling of each room. A hanging chain can be used to lower and raise each chandelier, but doing so makes a loud noise—which may alert any lurking undead to the presence of intruders (and their next meal).
Each chamber has an ornate archway leading into it, and each archway has prayers carved into its face. The prayers speak of death and eternal rest. Several inscriptions tell of the curses that will befall those disturbing the crypt.
Graven images of the god of death and his servants adorn many of the walls in a macabre display of the afterworld. In many of the images, the dead are shown kneeling for judgement before the god.
Wrought iron torch sconces, shaped like skeletal arms emerging from the walls, are set through the crypt. Several hold partially burnt torches. Soot stains the wall behind and ceiling above the sconces.
Rusty black iron gates protect each burial chamber from casual invasion. The gates squeal loudly, when opened. Several are stuck shut, but none are locked.
The ceilings in the crypt are vaulted, and sound carries oddly through the chambers. Echoes are weird, and seem to continue for longer than they should.
Once brightly coloured tiles decorate the floor. Many in the central parts of chambers and corridors are now cracked, chipped or broken. Pictures on the floor tiles include stylised animals, coats or arms and the like.
Hideously macabre statues of over-sized skeletal warriors stand watch over each chamber and corridor junction. The skeletons stand on plinths in small niches and have the aspect of guardians.
The crypt is either old or badly built. The stones comprising its ceiling sometimes groan as they shift slightly under the pressure of the surrounding earth, stone or sand. Dust, grit and gravel lie thickly, in places.
The crypt’s ceiling is particularly low—deliberately so to give those entering the place a sense of claustrophobia. Some of the archways are so low, human-sized explorers must crawl through them.
The crypt’s ceilings are double the normal height. Short sets of stairs made of bones lead up to each burial niche. Some chambers feature two levels of burial niches.
A subterranean river has broken through into the crypt. Dark, chill water fills the crypt to a depth of four-feet. When it rains above, the crypt quickly fills with water.
The crypt was built in this location because here the barriers between the Material and Shadow planes are particularly weak. Weak negative energy seeps into the crypt. This is not enough to animate the dead resting within but now and then a skeleton quivers or judders. Shadows also gather thickly in the crypt; mundane light sources and magical lights of lower than 3rd-level only throw light half as far as normal.
Want More?
This article is an extract from 20 Things #63: Crypts & Catacombs. Add the book to your GM’s toolkit today! Alternatively, check out the 20 Things Archive for more handy, flavoursome and time-saving 20 Things articles ready for immediate use in your campaign.
Design Creighton Broadhurst Art Matt Morrow
