Catacombs

Probably the least well known, and certainly the least understood part of Gwyfned city, the catacomb ward is buried deep underground, beneath Lower City. This is a confusing, haphazardly interconnected warren of tunnels that criss-cross each other for hundreds of miles.

No one lives down there permanently, although well frequented by the Underchurch congregation, and these passages are quite haunted. The architecture is a mix of Karmithian sewers, sub-basements, and catacombs.

Underchurch—There are secret under churches beneath about a third of Gwyfned’s surface churches, and these subterranean places of worship usually are identical to the above-ground churches, but devoted to the Underchurch and its congregations. The largest underchurch is beneath the Basilica of Gwyfned. The Canons Regular of St. Morlite serve and oversee this secret, necromantic community.

Osteomantium—There is no room for surface graveyards in Gwyfned, so the leaders answered this dilemma by digging out an immense ossuary. This is a group burial, and the faithful’s bones are divided by type and artistically arranged by the monks. It is a grim but beautiful place.

Catacombs—Before the Osteomantium was built, wealthy dead were interred on shelves in tunnels. These passageways and their deceased occupants seem to stretch on and on.

Spoiled Places—There are places underground that have become spoiled, where the walls between worlds have thinned, and hell is much too close. In these unmarked and unmapped places, the only way up and out of the underground is to go deeper and deeper—it makes no logical sense, but it is as it is. It’s dangerous, because there are also deep areas where these tunnels are co-existent with hell, and wandering into hell and getting trapped is a genuine threat.