Hamish's Crypts-Hillside Entrance
The entrances to the crypts have been sealed off and lost for generations of humans...that is, until now! Finding an entrance is difficult enough as it is, but if you are going to find one, the prevailing wisdom is try to find one that is lesser known, to avoid the most egregious of Hamish's clever traps and misdirections. This is one such; a lesser known entrance that was originally used to facilitate removal of material and equipment.
Read the following aloud, if you wish:
Your nose takes as long, to adjust to the musty smell down here, as your eyes do to the extreme change in lighting. As you head down several flights of rough cut stairs, you realize the central pillar around which the stairs are built, is made entirely of bones. Skulls, pelvises, finger bones and ribs, there is no part of an Elf that is not represented, here. Entire rib cages, containing the remains of yet other bodies, have been lovingly mortared together in honor. They have been cherished as they were interred, here, and the feelings of grief and loss are quite palpable. A feeling of peacefulness is not absent, mind you...it is just that there is also a prevailing sense of sadness. Hamish Skaalder's shame at his species' actions shines through in the careful placement of each skeletal structure. The stairs end a mere thirty feet below Tellus' surface in this area. The stairs twisted around like a corkscrew, for all that, and you can see how it would be quite easy to lose your bearings. Reaching the floor, the staccato sounds of your boots on the tiled floor catch your attention, and they are revealed as slabs of tile made with bone dust. Leaving the corner wherein the stairs meet the floor, you look around the room you have come to find yourself standing in. They are catacomb walls-meaning they, too, are made of bones and bone fragments large enough to mortar together. It is lit by a single, clay, oil lamp that is filling the small entrance space with the acrid smell of burning whale blubber. The terracotta lamp is unglazed and, thankfully, not made with a single Elven bone. It is guarded by five watchful skeletons, as well as an interesting device you spy just on the other side of the archway that serves this entrance as a door. A five-foot-diameter steel ball, covered entirely in spikes, rolls quickly back and forth just on the other side of the arch leading to the next room, which also has walls clad in bones and bone fragments. There is an altar and treasure chest made entirely of bone, and a huge, throne-like structure placed atop the bone altar. More bone tiles clad part of the floor of the room, surrounding a goodly amount of green-veined marble that is grouted with gold-dust infused mortar. This mortaring technique, known as Kitari, is a uniquely Elvish decor that fell out of favor two thousand or more years ago.
Your nose takes as long, to adjust to the musty smell down here, as your eyes do to the extreme change in lighting. As you head down several flights of rough cut stairs, you realize the central pillar around which the stairs are built, is made entirely of bones. Skulls, pelvises, finger bones and ribs, there is no part of an Elf that is not represented, here. Entire rib cages, containing the remains of yet other bodies, have been lovingly mortared together in honor. They have been cherished as they were interred, here, and the feelings of grief and loss are quite palpable. A feeling of peacefulness is not absent, mind you...it is just that there is also a prevailing sense of sadness. Hamish Skaalder's shame at his species' actions shines through in the careful placement of each skeletal structure. The stairs end a mere thirty feet below Tellus' surface in this area. The stairs twisted around like a corkscrew, for all that, and you can see how it would be quite easy to lose your bearings. Reaching the floor, the staccato sounds of your boots on the tiled floor catch your attention, and they are revealed as slabs of tile made with bone dust. Leaving the corner wherein the stairs meet the floor, you look around the room you have come to find yourself standing in. They are catacomb walls-meaning they, too, are made of bones and bone fragments large enough to mortar together. It is lit by a single, clay, oil lamp that is filling the small entrance space with the acrid smell of burning whale blubber. The terracotta lamp is unglazed and, thankfully, not made with a single Elven bone. It is guarded by five watchful skeletons, as well as an interesting device you spy just on the other side of the archway that serves this entrance as a door. A five-foot-diameter steel ball, covered entirely in spikes, rolls quickly back and forth just on the other side of the arch leading to the next room, which also has walls clad in bones and bone fragments. There is an altar and treasure chest made entirely of bone, and a huge, throne-like structure placed atop the bone altar. More bone tiles clad part of the floor of the room, surrounding a goodly amount of green-veined marble that is grouted with gold-dust infused mortar. This mortaring technique, known as Kitari, is a uniquely Elvish decor that fell out of favor two thousand or more years ago.
Purpose / Function
The human atonement attempt of Hamish Skaalder.
Design
It is a 20'x25' room, floored with bone tiles and walled with individual mortared bones.
Entries
A granite staircase descending from above, around a column made of mortared bones, alights in the southwest corner.
Sensory & Appearance
It is musty; it is dusty. It has been undisturbed for many hundreds of years. The walls are comprised of bones and bone fragments that have been expertly mortared together, and the floors are made of tiles that have been made with bone dust.
Contents & Furnishings
There is a single clay oil lamp hanging in the center of the room.
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