Echo Crypt

Echo Crypt is a vast labyrinth of tunnels and passages said to plunge and wind some two leagues into the Oerth. Several entrances to the Crypt lay in a narrow canyon a few leagues east of Karakast, close to the border between the Domain of Greyhawk and the Duchy Palatine of Urnst. Its original builders are unknown, even to the long-yeared Dwarves, though their sagas speak of it as a place of dread even in the elder days when the heroes of Karakast roamed far and wrought mighty deeds. Unlike many of the other cairn complexes and necropolis that litter the Cairn Hills, relatively little of Echo Crypt has been explored or plundered. This is in part due to its vast extent – stretching over two leagues beneath the mountains by some estimates. Another reason is that most of the tunnels that make up this vast labyrinth are scarcely over two feet in height. These claustrophobic crawl spaces wind for miles forming a complex and bewildering network that links a number of large and apparently natural caverns. This maze has its own perilous ecosystem of creatures. Strange semi-transparent Ropers, Cloakers, and giant albino cave lizards haunt the large caverns. Chokers lurk in the narrower spaces and dwarven versions of gelatinous cubes, and other oozes, scour the tunnels for prey.
However, it is neither the narrowness of the tunnels nor the predators roaming there that deters so many from entering Echo Crypt. The complex takes its name from what the wise call, “a strange magical phenomenon,” though most common folk prefer to call a curse. Breaking the chill and eerie silence of Echo Crypt with even a fragment of a word can unleash terrible magics on the speaker. The sound of voices reverberates strangely within the passages, echoing unnaturally before rebounding in the form of spells such as shatter, shout, greater shout, silence, and even various power word spells. Some of the more intelligent predators lurking in the Crypt have learned to associate noise with weakened prey or carrion and are actively drawn to any source of noise. Understandably, the thought that the merest syllable might mean death deters many – especially clerics, wizards, sorcerers, and bards – from exploring the caverns.

Type

Crypt