The Restless Dead of Stonecross

Adventure Overview

The Restless Dead of Stonecross is a short underground adventure for four 3rd-level characters. The party is hired to clear skeletons and zombies from the burial grounds beneath the village cemetery, then discovers that a newly awakened wraith is commanding the dead.

The burial complex is not a straight corridor. Six chambers are joined by narrow tunnels, old processional passages, and collapsed side routes. The party can enter through the cemetery stair, a sinkhole among the graves, or an old drainage tunnel below the hill. Their choice changes the order of the first two encounters and the clues they find before facing the wraith.

1. Background and Hook

Stonecross has buried its dead beneath the cemetery hill for nearly four hundred years. The oldest tombs belong to the Wardens of Stonecross, soldiers who died defending the first settlement. Newer crypts were cut around those chambers until the hill became a tangled network of burial halls.

Six nights ago, grave robbers entered through an old drainage tunnel. They broke the seal on the tomb of Warden-Captain Odran Vale and stole the silver funeral chain laid across his sarcophagus. Odran rose as a wraith. His anger spread through the burial grounds, animating skeletons and zombies in the surrounding chambers.

Two gravediggers escaped the cemetery stair. Since then, the dead have emerged after sunset. Reeve Lenora Voss offers the party 150 gp to clear the underground tombs and make the cemetery safe.

What the Villagers Know

• The undead include both bare skeletons and recently buried corpses.
• The main stair is the safest way down, but the gravediggers saw several skeletons beyond it.
• The sinkhole provides a concealed entrance but requires a dangerous descent.
• The eastern drain is narrow and partly flooded. Strange whispering has been heard near its opening.
• A local mason remembers that some interior tunnels collapsed during an earthquake twenty years ago.

Optional Supplies

Priest Halwen provides two flasks of holy water and a rough charcoal rubbing of the Wardens' crest. The crest—a stone bridge beneath three stars—can identify Odran's tomb and the memorial plaques connected to his past.

2. Choosing an Entrance

The characters may inspect all three entrances before choosing. Once underground, they can discover the other routes from inside.

The Cemetery Stair

A locked iron gate blocks the broad stair. Reeve Voss provides the key. This route enters Area 1: Hall of Passing and leads directly toward the skeletons in Area 2. It is the simplest and most obvious approach.

The North Sinkhole

The sinkhole drops 20 feet into Area 3: Gallery of Names. A rope makes the descent automatic. Without one, each character must succeed on a DC 11 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall the final 10 feet and take 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage. This route bypasses the skeletons at first and reveals an important clue about Odran.

The Eastern Drain

The drain is a 4-foot-high stone tunnel containing ankle-deep water. A character who succeeds on a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check hears wet movement ahead and prevents the zombies in Area 4 from surprising the party. The drain enters directly into Area 4: The Flooded Crypt.

3. Burial Grounds Layout

Use the table below as a map key. Most intact passages are 5 feet wide and 7 feet high. The chambers are dark, their doors are stone, and sound carries easily through the tunnels.

Collapsed Tunnels

• Area 1 to Area 4: Impassable without several days of excavation.
• Area 3 to Area 5: Three characters can clear the rubble in 20 minutes. A successful DC 12 group Strength (Athletics) check reduces this to 10 minutes. On a failed group check, falling stone deals 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage to one randomly chosen worker.
• Area 2 to Area 5: A DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check finds a narrow crawlway behind loose burial stones. Medium creatures must squeeze through it. Skeletons cannot follow through the tightest section.
• Area 4 to Area 6: Completely blocked. Cold air seeping through the rubble hints that the final tomb lies beyond, but the party must reach it through Area 5.

4. Area 1: Hall of Passing

This chamber is empty. Characters entering by the cemetery stair can examine the disturbed dust and learn that several sets of bony footprints move repeatedly between Areas 1 and 2. A successful DC 11 Intelligence (Investigation) check also reveals bootprints left by three living people—the grave robbers—heading deeper into the complex.

The collapsed southern passage once led to Area 4. Characters examining it can tell that it has been blocked for years and did not cause the recent outbreak.

5. Area 2: The Bone Gallery

Six skeletons defend this room. Only four are visible when combat begins. Two remain motionless in upper niches and drop into the chamber at the start of round two. A character with passive Perception 13 or higher notices them before combat.

Tactics and Terrain

• Three skeletons use shortbows from behind stone biers, gaining half cover. The others advance with shortswords.
• A character can use an action to push a freestanding burial shelf onto an adjacent skeleton with a successful DC 12 Strength check. The skeleton takes 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage and falls prone.
• If the party entered through Area 3, the skeletons face away from that door. A character who succeeds on a DC 12 group Dexterity (Stealth) check gives the party surprise.
• The skeletons fight until destroyed and do not pursue creatures through the crawlway to Area 5.

6. Area 3: Gallery of Names

This chamber is safe. Hundreds of names are carved into its walls. The north sinkhole has broken through the ceiling, leaving roots and loose soil hanging overhead.

A bronze plaque bears the crest of the Wardens and the following inscription:

A character who studies the plaque and succeeds on a DC 11 Intelligence (History or Religion) check understands that the silver funeral chain was part of Odran's burial rite. Even on a failure, the inscription clearly suggests that the missing silver object matters.

The party can safely take a short rest here after defeating either the skeletons or zombies. Undead do not enter this memorial gallery unless the characters bring Odran's funerary banner from Area 5 into the room.

7. Area 4: The Flooded Crypt

Four zombies lie beneath the dark water. If the party enters through the eastern drain without detecting them, the zombies have advantage on their initiative checks. Otherwise, the characters see the water moving before combat begins.

Tactics and Terrain

• The water is 2 feet deep and counts as difficult terrain for creatures without a swim speed. The raised central aisle and stone biers are dry.
• Two zombies rise near the entrance. The other two emerge at the end of the first round, preventing all four from surrounding one character immediately.
• A hanging iron censer can be dropped by cutting its rope. A creature beneath it must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage on a failure or half as much on a success.
• The zombies pursue slowly but do not climb the sinkhole shaft.

8. Area 5: The Broken Reliquary

Cracked shelves and smashed ceremonial objects fill this irregular chamber. Three bedrolls, a crowbar, and an empty leather case show where the grave robbers camped. A dark blood trail ends beside the collapsed route to Area 3.

One robber died here and the others fled. The dead robber's journal explains that they took “the captain's silver chain” and planned to sell it in a market town two days east. They left the burial grounds through the drain shortly before the undead fully awakened.

Funerary Banner

A tattered blue-and-silver banner rests inside an intact cedar case. Its embroidered crest matches Odran's plaque. A character carrying the banner openly gains advantage on Charisma checks made to reason with the wraith. Placing it across Odran's sarcophagus weakens him, as described in Area 6.

Reliquary Trap

A small silver coffer sits beneath a fallen shelf. Lifting it without first noticing the thin wire releases a cloud of grave dust. A character searching the coffer finds the wire with a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check. If triggered, creatures within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 10 minutes. A poisoned creature can repeat the save at the end of each minute.

9. Area 6: The Warden's Tomb

Speaking with Odran

Odran does not attack immediately unless the party opens his sarcophagus or attacks him. He demands the return of his silver funeral chain. The characters probably do not have it, but they can weaken or lay him to rest in other ways.

• Promise restitution: A character who presents the robber's journal and succeeds on a DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) check convinces Odran that the party is pursuing the true thieves. The DC is 12 if the character also carries the funerary banner.
• Restore his honor: Placing the funerary banner across the sarcophagus and speaking the final line from his memorial plaque automatically suppresses Odran's Life Drain for one round and removes his resistance to nonmagical weapon damage for the rest of the encounter.
• Offer silver: Placing at least 50 gp worth of silver coins or objects on the sarcophagus counts as a temporary replacement for the chain and grants advantage on the Persuasion check.

On a successful Persuasion check, Odran agrees to return to his tomb for seven days. The party must recover the chain during that time or he rises again. If the party refuses his demand, fails the check by 5 or more, or attacks, combat begins.

Combat

• Odran begins near the sarcophagus and targets anyone carrying stolen burial treasure before other characters.
• He uses Gravebound Howl early, then moves through the sarcophagus and pillars to avoid being surrounded.
• The wraith cannot leave this chamber while the broken clasp remains on the sarcophagus.
• At 10 hit points or fewer, Odran offers one last bargain: return his chain within seven days, and he will cease fighting.

10. Conclusion and Rewards

If Odran is destroyed, the skeletons and zombies collapse immediately. If he is temporarily laid to rest, any surviving undead become motionless but will rise again after seven days unless the chain is returned.

Reeve Voss pays the promised 150 gp once the burial grounds are safe. She also allows the party to keep coins, gems, potions, and objects recovered from the grave robbers' camp, but asks that clearly marked funerary objects be returned.

Recovering the Silver Chain

If the party made peace with Odran, the robber's journal provides an easy follow-up adventure. The surviving thieves are traveling east to sell the chain. They may be simple bandits, servants of a necromancer, or victims now pursued by other undead.

Enemy Statistics

These simplified statistics include everything needed to run the adventure.

One-Page GM Reference

• Goal: Clear the underground burial grounds and stop the force animating the dead.
• Truth: Grave robbers stole Odran Vale's silver funeral chain, waking him as a tomb-bound wraith.
• Entrances: Cemetery stair to Area 1; sinkhole to Area 3; eastern drain to Area 4.
• Encounters: Six skeletons in Area 2; four zombies in Area 4; Odran in Area 6.
• Key clues: Memorial plaque in Area 3; robber's journal and funerary banner in Area 5.
• Safe rest: Area 3 after either lesser-undead encounter.
• Final choices: Destroy Odran, replace the missing silver, or promise to recover his chain within seven days.
• Reward: 150 gp from Reeve Voss plus unclaimed coins, gems, and potions.