Hook: The party was asked to search for Alith Vaelrin by Garrin Dace.
You approach Crypt of House Vaelrin and nothing seems amiss. The trees are just as beautiful as the rest of Vel Enweir. The crypt entrance, made of polished marble, lies ahead.
Background
Once a proud resting place for a minor noble elven house, the Crypt of House Vaelrin now serves as a covert base for the Black Star Cult. The cultists have desecrated its sacred halls to perform soul-binding rituals, siphoning corrupted ley energy to weaken the Ring of Verdant Stillness.
Unbeknownst to the druids or Queen Aelra Sylanthiel, one of the three major groves has already been compromised. The cult’s efforts here are part of a larger plan to destabilize the region by weaponizing long-suppressed decay. The party arrives just after the cult has completed one such ritual at Vael’Telor and is beginning another inside the Vaelrin crypt.
Garrin Dace, a lowly tavern worker with a guilty conscience, asked the party to investigate the disappearance of Alith Vaelrin, claiming the young elf was last seen heading toward the crypt. The truth is far darker—Alith is already dead, killed by cultists upon arrival and used as a body-double by the halfling operative Myhran to confuse any potential witnesses.
As the players explore the crypt, they will not only uncover the cult’s presence but may also awaken Melissa Vaelrin, a revenant born of grief and vengeance. Her presence is tied to a long-buried secret involving Garrin and the destruction of House Vaelrin. Her reappearance sets into motion the supernatural events that will later culminate in The Scarlet Shield Haunting.
What appears at first to be a missing person case will instead reveal:
- Proof of the cult’s coordinated effort to unravel the leyline network
- A soulstone-based ritual that mimics necromantic awakening
- The first direct evidence tying grove corruption to the weakening of the ring
- The tragic fallout from a hidden past, forcing the party to choose between secrecy and justice
Encounter Sequence
1. Scouts
There are three scouts that will come up to the crypt and open the secret door in the first room. If the players decide to wait and investigate before going in, they may see this. Otherwise, the scouts will come up from behind while they are in the first or second room.
2. The First Room
In the first area of the crypt with a single coffin, there is a secret door behind the altar. The trick to open it is to drop blood onto the altar, which is absorbed immediately and opens. There are some ways the players might get the door to open:
- They can read about blood rituals in a book on the desk (should be vague) and figure it out.
- If anyone is hit by an attack in the room, roll 2d20 if within 5 feet or 1d20 if within 10 feet. With a total of 18 or greater, a drop of blood flies onto the altar and it opens (potentially mid-combat).
- With a DC 17 Investigation/Arcana check or Detect Magic, they may figure out that the altar is a secret door.
- They can try to destroy the altar, it is immune to slashing/piercing/burning/etc. but can take bludgeoning damage. It has 50hp and an AC of 18.
- If they open the coffin, they find a skeleton, stripped clean of any valuables and a new corpse of a young elf (Alith Vaelrin, who they are looking for). Myhran in the final room will be using his form. Players can cast Speak with Dead to ask him about what’s going on and he can tell them how to open the door. He has no valuables on him.
Behind the secret door, there are three rooms. One straight ahead (the north room), one to the left (the west room), and one to the right (the east room.)
3. The West Room
The west room is where the cultists are staying. The coffins have been ransacked/destroyed and there are sleeping bags, etc. scattered along the floor. There is one sleeping scout who is sick, he may wake up if the players aren’t quiet and scream for Myrhan.
Loot: Bone dice, a cheap ring, 2 rations, and a Potion of Resistance. Currency: 4 gp, 35 sp, and 12 cp.
4. The East Room
In the east room, there are two bodies lying on top of the gravestones. They are Tessa Durn and her boyfriend, remarkably preserved. Jesse Duran is hiding in the ceiling on a lip of stone. In order to find him, the players would need to actively search and DC 20 perception. If anyone gets too close to the bodies they will hear something metallic clink to the ground and poison gas will start to fill the room.
Poison Gas:
- Roll initiative to determine turns/rounds
- Every round, roll a DC 15 const saving throw. Take 2d10 damage on a failed save or half as much on successful save.
- Every round, the radius of the gas increases by 5 feet (max 20 feet).
The North Room
This is where Myrhan initially is, though he may be drawn out by noise.
A scarred halfling dressed in a long, dark officer’s coat, Myhran moves with soldierly precision. One hand grips a fine silver-inlaid rapier, the other hovers near a compact pistol holstered at his side. His face is stern and calculating, but there’s a flicker of fanatic intensity in his eyes.
Combat with Myhran
- Tactics:
- Will use hit-and-run tactics, utilizing the coffins for cover.
- Multi-attack (3) with rapier/pistol.
- Will attempt to reach one of the central coffins to activate a ritual using a soulstone (see below).
- If reduced to 50% HP, he will drink a Potion of Greater Healing (4d4+4).
- He is willing to parley, but only to stall while the ritual completes.
- Personality: Cold, utilitarian, but believes the ends (breaking the Verdant Stillness) justify all means. Loyal to the Black Star Cultists.
Read when Myhran places the stone
Myhran moves to one of the sealed coffins and presses a small, black soulstone against its surface. The stone melts like wax, sinking slowly into the lid, which ripples unnaturally before hardening once more. A dull violet glow spreads across the coffin’s carvings, tracing old family crests and binding sigils like veins of light.
Then, at the beginning of Myhran’s next turn
Moments later, a slow, rhythmic pounding begins from inside the coffin. It’s deliberate—too precise to be random motion—and accompanied by a faint voice that whispers in Elvish:
“Let me out…”
As soon as the lid is cracked open, it flies off. Everyone in the room must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw or take 1d10 bludgeoning damage from the flying rock.
Out from the coffin bursts a revenant of an elven woman, her form gaunt but elegant, wrapped in beautiful robes. Her eyes glow with a cold, silvery light, and her voice resonates with quiet fury and sorrow.
She surveys the room with slow, deliberate movements, locking eyes with each of you in turn.
“You are not my killers.”
She steps lightly out of the coffin, bare feet not touching the ground. Her body begins to shimmer at the edges as she turns toward the ceiling, light passing through her in ghostly streaks.
Then, in a silent upward rush, she ascends through the stone—her form phasing through marble as if it were mist, leaving only a faint whisper of wind and a few drifting motes of silver light in her wake.
Note in the North Room
Myrlen’Thal will soon fall. The ritual at Vael’Telor was a success—resistance was brief, though the dryads fought harder than expected. The black crystal was destroyed by some local do-gooders, but it had done its job. We estimate ley-drainage within acceptable range for Stage IV operations. Rot has already spread as far as the Vael’telor tributary, and local spirits have begun to unravel. Containment is no longer viable. Visibility is increasing.
The decay proves the theory: the ring exists, and it is failing. We believe this is evidence that our intelligence was correct. The Verdant Stillness can be broken.
_—Myhran