TEXT: the
  Crying Blades
  houserules
  Tukram’s Tomb
  Introductory Adventure
  Daimon Games
  
  2
  The Crying Blades
  HouseRules for roleplaying games 
  Tukram’s Tomb: Introductory Adventure - Beta 0.2
  Copyright 2017 Daimon Games
  www.daimongames.com
  The Crying Blades
  HouseRules for roleplaying games 
  Tukram’s Tomb: Introductory Adventure - Beta 0.2
  Copyright 2017 Daimon Games
  www.daimongames.com
  
  3
  Summary
  Introduction 
  5
  The Villages 
  7
  Wilderness 
  11
  The Tomb 
  13
  
  4
  
  5
  Foreword
  T
  he Tomb of  Tukram is a short 
  introductory adventure for the 
  Crying Blades. It presents a traditional 
  expedition inside an ancient tomb, al-
  legedly full of  treasures and rich of  po-
  tentially deadly encounters.
  The adventure is written in the for-
  mat I find most useful and easy to run: 
  the GM can read the adventure before-
  hand and be prepared, or otherwise can 
  basically just run it while reading it for 
  the first time.
  In the rare cases where a location 
  references another, there is a clear note 
  about it that guides the GM to the ap-
  propriate page. Zero percent prep and 
  work, one hundred percent fun.
  Illustrations
  T
  he artwork used in the book is in 
  public domain:
  Other Notes
  I
  f  you’d like to know more about The 
  Crying Blades, you can check a free 
  preview on RpgNow.
  The Crying Blades is an OSR fantasy 
  roleplaying game, built on the fundation 
  of  the tradition and with a few innova-
  tions and twists. It was inspired mostly 
  by Lamentations of  the Flame Princess 
  and by Swords & Wizardry, but many 
  other games also had a significant in-
  fluence on the design, from WhiteHack 
  to BlackHack, from Dungeon World to 
  Fate.
  So far, two manuals (out of  three) 
  have been released:
  •	Volume One: Characters & Basics
  •	Volume Two: Sorcery & Blessings
  If  you’d like to start with something 
  easier and faster, there’s also The Cry-
  ing Hack - based on David Black’s “The 
  Black Hack”.
  It’s less than 20 pages and offers a 
  fast rules compendium for some quick 
  dungeon crawling:
  •	The Crying Hack
  Many thanks also to those who made 
  so far comments and suggestions about 
  the adventure.
  Introduction
  •	Map by Josiane d’Este-Curry* (Map 
  of  the tomb of  Merneith)  14
  •	Giovanni D. Tiepolo*  1, 10, 11
  •	Harry Clarke*  2
  •	Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre*  8
  •	Other Public Domain images from 
  various artists*  9
  •	Pieter Bruegel the Elder*  12
  •	Piranesi*  28
  •	Salvator Rosa*  4
  •	Stefano della Bella*  3
  
  6
  Blank for GM notes
  
  7
  will allow the characters to collect ran-
  dom rumors as by the appropriate table 
  (roll a d10).
  Rumors are marked with T for true, 
  and F for false information (of  course, 
  the players do not know what’s true and 
  what’s false - for those telling them, all 
  rumors are true).
  Each character gets to roll once on 
  the table; repeated results simply indi-
  cate that the same rumor is reported by 
  more than one villager.
  If  the characters pay to obtain ad-
  ditional information, roll+coin spent. 
  Paying for information allows each 
  character to roll a second time.
  T
  here are two villages nearby the 
  tomb; the first populated and the 
  second in ruins, abandoned.
  The first village (where you may 
  start the adventure, if  you wish, in-
  stead of  in front of  the tomb itself) 
  hosts approximately a hundred families 
  of  farmers and hunters, and is within 
  one day walk from the tomb.
  Staying in the village overnight, in 
  the tavern or hosted by locals, or active-
  ly seeking information about the tomb, 
  The Villages
  d10
  True/False
  Rumor as told by the villagers
  1
  T
  Tukram was a barbaric warlord and was buried with his demonic blade
  2
  F
  Tukram's ghost still hunts the tomb
  3
  F
  Human sacrifice held within the tomb placates the evil spirits for a night
  4
  T
  Tukram's dead body is perfectly preserved. The warlord is described in 
  ancient scrolls as covered in fearsome tattoos
  5
  F
  Bandits often use the tomb as a hideout
  6
  F
  Tukram was killed with his own blade
  7
  T
  Tukram's collected enemy skulls
  8
  T
  Tukram was a bloodthirsty warlord, keen on killing enemies in person. 
  They say he kept prisoners alive just to kill one every morning
  9
  T
  Tukram's collected enemy skulls, used for sorcery, for eternal youth
  10
  T
  There's another body in the tomb: it's the one of  a sorcerer that was 
  buried there by the villagers' ancestors, generations ago
  11
  T
  It is better to leave a proper offer in the appropriate places. Characters 
  can hear about this only if  they roll a 10 and paid for this information
  Table 1: Rumors’ Table
  
  8
  Random NPC Generator
  I
  f  you need to make up an NPC on the 
  spot, you can use the tables below. 
  Roll a d6 as many times as needed to 
  make up some prominent features and 
  improvise the rest. If  the characters 
  want to head for the tomb, don’t let 
  them get stuck in the village in idle chat 
  or meaningless interactions.
  These tables do not represent the en-
  tire village population, nor a statisti-
  cal distribution of  occupations and 
  such. They’re just random generators 
  for those villagers that the characters 
  interact with.
  d6
  Starter
  1
  Slim
  2
  Tall
  3
  Long limbs
  4
  Shady
  5
  Loud
  6
  Fancy
  Table 2: Start an NPC
  d6
  Occupation
  1
  Farmer
  2
  Hunter
  3
  Artisan
  4
  Slave
  5
  Guide
  6
  Unemployed
  Table 3: NPC’s Occupation
  d6
  Noteworthy
  1
  Missing eye(s)
  2
  Scar(s)
  3
  Jewel(s)
  4
  Beautiful
  5
  Special weapon
  6
  Very young
  Table 4: NPC’s Noteworthy Trait
  d6
  Attitude
  1
  Rude
  2
  Friendly
  3
  Pleasing
  4
  Honest
  5
  Scared
  6
  Boasting
  Table 5: NPC’s Initial Attitude
  
  9
  The Second Village
  T
  he second village is abandoned, 
  and within one hour walk from 
  the tomb. There is not much left here: 
  the wooden houses have rotten and col-
  lapsed, and only a few stone buildings 
  still sort of  stand. There’s nothing to 
  loot, there’s no food, no tools, no riches. 
  Centuries have passed since when the 
  village was abandoned, and anything 
  value has been already taken by others.
  Only a fortified tower offers some rel-
  ative protection: it has a single entrance 
  easily defendable, and even though it 
  has no door, its walls are high and thick. 
  The wooden floors have lasted until 
  now, and it’s possible to use shaky stairs 
  to get to the higher floors.
  Only the third and top floor threatens 
  to collapse: warn the players of  it and 
  if  anyone ventures to the very top of  
  the tower, there’s a 20% chance every 
  Turn that the third and top floor will 
  collapse. Inflict harm appropriately.
  The Cemetery
  T
  here is a small cemetery on the 
  hill next to the village: it’s visible 
  and recognizable as such, but there’s 
  nothing of  value there. 
  According to your taste, you may or 
  may not have spooky but weak undeads 
  bugging the party if  they stay in the 
  abandoned village overnight.
  If  you need stats for undead on the 
  fly, use the below. 
  There’s 1d6 of  them wandering from 
  the cemetery to the village every night, 
  and 1d6+4 of  them in the cemetery it-
  self.
  If  you have no other rules for falling 
  damage, every character falling from 
  the third floor to the second suffers 
  1/3 HP damage (yes, a third of  all 
  HP, rounded up). Anyone on the sec-
  ond floor at the time of  the collapse 
  suffers 1/2 HP damage (yes, half  the 
  HP) from all the wood and stone fall-
  ing from the top. Allow a save on dex-
  terity or similar to those on the second 
  floor: reduce damage to only 1/4 of  
  the HP in case of  success.
  Rotten corpse: 1 HD, 3 HP, 10 AC, 
  1d4 damage for claws and bite.
  Save: 6 (roll under)
  Special: there’s a 1 in 6 chance that 
  any corpse will rise again, with the 
  same stats, the next round after being 
  slain.
  
  10
  
  11
  Wilderness
  T
  he area around the first village 
  is relatively safe: it’s the land of  
  farmers and hunters, and most of  the 
  predatory beasts have learned to keep 
  away from humans. 
  While traveling the fields and forest 
  within half  a day from the village, there 
  is no risk of  dangerous encounters.
  The second half  of  the journey to 
  the tomb might reserve some nasty sur-
  prises, though. If  you’d like the chance 
  of  an encounter or two before the dun-
  geon, roll a d10 on the wilderness en-
  counters table below, twice.
  The first encounter might occur 
  while traveling between the first village 
  and the second, abandoned one. 
  The second encounter might occur 
  between the abandoned village and the 
  tomb itself.
  To make the return trip also danger-
  ous, you can again roll twice when the 
  characters travel from the tomb back to 
  civilization.
  If  you roll the same result and a re-
  peated encounter is credible, use it (the 
  same pack of  wolves, another fairy, for 
  example). Otherwise, go to the next.
  If  you don’t like wilderness encoun-
  ters, skip this table and head straight to 
  the description of  the tomb.
  
  12
  d12
  Encounter
  1
  A lonely, scrawny wolf: 
  1 HD, 3 HP, 12 AC, 1d4+1 damage bite. Save: 8 (roll under)
  2
  Giant Worker Ant: 
  2 HD, 6 HP, 14 AC, 1d6 damage bite. Save: 9 (roll under)
  There must be at least 2d10 more in proximity and 5d20 in their nest
  3
  Vampire tree:
  3 HD, 9 HP, 10 AC, 1d6 damage branches (4 attacks). Save: 12 (roll under)
  Holds the corpse of  a brigand (4d12 coins treasure)
  4
  A pack of  d4+1 wolves: 
  2+2 HD, 8 HP, 12 AC, 1d4+1 damage bite. Save: 10 (roll under)
  If  the party leaves them a horse or mule, they’ll be content with that
  5
  Invisible fairy:
  2 HD, 3 HP, 18 AC, 1d4 damage piercing screams. Save: 14 (roll under)
  Demands 1d6 coins payment from each character, except from the one which 
  the fairy favors (the one with the highest charisma score?). A kiss to the invis-
  ible fairy will be enough to grant this one passage
  6
  Wild Boar: 
  3+3 HD, 12 HP, 12 AC, 3d4 damage gore. Save: 12 (roll under)
  Continue attacks 2 rounds after death
  7
  Rats; at least 1d20 of  them. Every 4 rats count as:
  1+1 HD, 4 HP, 12 AC, 1d4 damage bite. Save: 6 (roll under)
  8
  The dead corpses of  a woman and a child, recently killed:
  There’s 1d10 coins scattered around
  9-12
  Nothing dangerous; just regular wildlife and sceneries
  Table 6: Wilderness Encounters
  
  13
  The Tomb
  W
  hen the characters approach 
  the tomb, it appears as follows: 
  surrounded by the trees of  the forest, 
  there’s a single hill almost perfectly 
  rounded. On the top of  it there’s a 
  large, flat and dark stone, which is the 
  roof  of  the burial building.
  The stone is lifted on huge squared 
  columns, short and thick, made of  the 
  same material.
  The tomb is half  sunken in the 
  ground of  the hill: the stone blocks 
  used to make the pillars are huge and 
  appear to be very heavy; the roof  ap-
  pears to be made by a single block. 
  It is too big to think that humans 
  might ever have moved it: even the gi-
  ants of  the legends could not have lift-
  ed it. You all should be wondering how 
  the hell they built this thing.
  There are more or less ten columns 
  on each side of  the tomb, and fewer to 
  the back, while there are none in front. 
  There seem to be two entrances to the 
  tomb, leading into the hill itself.
  Other Details
  I
  n fact, the tomb is dug into the 
  ground, and the huge roof  stone 
  stands on the ground of  the hill as 
  much as on the columns. The space 
  between the columns is also half  filled 
  by the ground of  the hill and smaller 
  stones, probably placed here while the 
  tomb was dug.
  If  anyone in the party has extensive 
  knowledge about this sort of  stuff, or 
  if  they spend time investigating the 
  subject, the characters can probably 
  determine that the black columns and 
  the black large dark stone were already 
  here. 
  Although they appear to be artificial, 
  they were not likely placed here by hu-
  mans or similar creatures. Something 
  far bigger or stronger, or some obscure 
  magical power, must have placed the 
  stones here on the hill. 
  The tomb of  Tukram is more recent: 
  it was built by the barbarians by dig-
  ging into the hill and placing leftover 
  dirt and rocks all around, thus filling 
  the space between columns and under 
  the large stone roof.
  All the locations in the tomb are 
  marked with a number, and are pre-
  sented in the next paragraphs, one by 
  one, starting from the entrance to the 
  tomb.
  
  14
  
  15
  1) The Entrance
  A 
  semicircular hole, dug in the 
  ground and reinforced by gray 
  stone. Flat stones on the floor lead to 
  a flight of  stairs that plunges into the 
  darkness below. 
  The air is stale and humid. The walls 
  to the side of  the stairs are made in the 
  same gray stone and are covered with 
  moss.
  2) The Offering Chamber
  N
  ext to the entrance, there’s a rect-
  angular doorframe, with no door. 
  Inside there’s a small rectangular room, 
  walls made of  stone, and with floor lit-
  tered by excrements and dirt, and the 
  leftovers of  a fire. There’s a human 
  rotten corpse on the floor, and what ap-
  pears like a big bear in the far left cor-
  ner.
  Further inspection of  the room will 
  reveal that the corpse holds no loot and 
  that the bear is dead, probably because 
  of  the many spear wounds on its flanks. 
  The animal was probably wounded by 
  hunters and escaped into the chamber, 
  where it died. The hunters didn’t both-
  er to follow their prey here.
  In the corner there’s a skull carved 
  in the stone (indicated by the black 
  dot): it’s slightly bigger than a regular 
  skull and it appears to be ancient. It was 
  probably carved by those who built the 
  tomb, and it seems to have holes in the 
  eyes’ sockets.
  Closer inspection will reveal one iron 
  coin stuck in one of  the eye’s sockets. 
  Anything dropped in the eye’s sockets 
  will fall somewhere below, in the dark. 
  There is actually a little tunnel behind 
  the skull that descends to room 4, 
  where the offerings fall.
  The skull was used by those visiting 
  the tomb to drop their offerings: usually 
  meaningless junk, sometimes precious 
  coins, rarely anything more of  value.
  If  a character drops a silver coin 
  (or anything of  at least moderate val-
  ue) in the skull, wait for their first failed 
  roll. When they fail a roll, tell them that 
  they imagine to hear a voice whisper-
  ing “Thank you for your offer” and let 
  them re-roll. This works only once per 
  character, and only for those who made 
  an offering before the players could un-
  derstand the mechanism.
  If  a character drops a gold coin or 
  something of  higher value in the skull, 
  
  16
  same as above, again just once. But if  at 
  any time during the adventure they die, 
  they will wake up in the cemetery of  
  the abandoned village, at the end of  the 
  adventure (take their character’s sheet 
  and return them to the players at the 
  end of  the adventure). They remem-
  ber nothing of  what they did after they 
  dropped the coin: they just remember 
  having this weird dream of  a barbaric 
  feast that lasted a day and a night and 
  where they were guests of  honor and 
  where they... oh, no, they don’t want to 
  talk about what they did at the feast.
  3) The Stairs
  W
  hile it is possible to see some-
  thing with the light from the 
  outside while beginning to descend the 
  stairs, it becomes pitch dark where 
  the number 3 is placed, and afterwards. 
  The stairs are steep and even though 
  they’re made in stone, they’re ancient 
  and unsteady. They must be climbed 
  with care. Anyone running up or down 
  in a hurry or without paying attention 
  (escaping? fighting on them?) must 
  pass a save on Dexterity or fall for 1 
  HP damage. 
  More importantly, anyone falling on 
  the stairs while descending will fall to 
  the platform where there is a black 
  dot, which is actually a pressure plate 
  for a trap. 
  While descending the stairs, if  no 
  lights are used, the characters will also 
  automatically trigger the trap. 
  Otherwise, they will notice that on 
  the floor of  the platform there are three 
  dead bodies, which are old enough to 
  be turned almost to skeletons. If  they 
  look around, they’ll see several circular 
  holes on the roof. The entire platform is 
  a single, large pressure plate.
  It is possible to jump and avoid trig-
  gering the trap, without the need to 
  make any rolls. A dexterity check or 
  a clever plan is necessary if  the char-
  acters want to enter chambers 4 or 5, 
  which have corridors accessible from 
  the trapped platform.
  Oh, yes: the pressure plate simply 
  makes deadly iron spikes descend from 
  the roof, and then they spring back 
  when the pressure plate is released of  
  enough weight.
  Technical facts about the trap: 
  •	There are not enough spikes to pre-
  vent passage
  •	Triggering the trap while walking 
  very close to the walls makes it basi-
  cally useless, because spikes don’t get 
  you, there
  •	The trap instead is deadly efficient 
  if  at least two people step together 
  on the pressure plate: each character 
  on the plate suffers a hit from 1d4 
  spikes, each dealing 1d6 damage 
  (1d6-1 if  the character wears any 
  armor)
  •	The trap does not trigger if  a single 
  character walks slowly on the plate, 
  but triggers if  someone runs on it or 
  falls on it, or if  two or more charac-
  ters together step on it
  
  17
  •	As long as the weight of  two or 
  more people is on the platform, 
  spikes do not return into the roof. 
  The three dead bodies, together with 
  their rusty gear, barely count as a 
  single person. So two of  the charac-
  ters will need to be on the platform 
  to hold the trap still, or one over-
  loaded with gear and metal armor
  4) The Treasure Chamber
  A
  ll the offerings from the skull in 
  the Offering Chamber (chamber 2) 
  fall here, into a chest, through a crack 
  in the wall (there’s a small tunnel slid-
  ing down from chamber 2 above). The 
  chest is full of  iron, worthless coins. 
  Every turn spent digging into this 
  pile of  worthless metal (which is so 
  abundant that it overflows on the floor) 
  will reveal 1d10 silver coins (up to a 
  maximum of  6 Turns). A roll of  10 (or 
  0) on the d10 will reveal instead of  10 
  silver coins, 1d6 gold coins.
  The chamber itself  contains noth-
  ing more than the chest and a large, 
  fine carving of  a battle scene on the 
  wall in front of  the chest. The battle 
  reasonably represents a barbarian gang 
  of  man and woman warriors slaying a 
  helpless group of  local farmers.
  5) The Warriors’ Chamber
  A
  s the other rooms, this one is made 
  in gray stone (it should be clear 
  by now that this is not the same stone 
  as the dark stone used for the columns 
  and the exterior roof  of  the tomb). It 
  is quite large and at the end of  it are 
  three statues of  barbarian warriors: 
  the first is a man, the second a wom-
  an, and the third is covered by a heavy, 
  carefully carved, bear fur that hides the 
  warrior features well enough to make it 
  impossible to determine if  it’s a man or 
  a woman.
  If  someone tries to check “under the 
  furs”, they get stung by a small wooden 
  needle. The needle was poisoned, but 
  luckily for the players, the toxin has lost 
  most of  its power. Ask for a Save vs. 
  poison: if  the character succeeds, it’s 
  1 HP damage, if  they fail, only 2 HP 
  damage. 
  At this point, between the pressure 
  plate and the poisoned needle, they 
  should have learned to be careful.
  The Warriors’ Chamber opens onto 
  another smaller room: the room is 
  empty except for what looks like the 
  stone sarcophagus of  a horse. The lid 
  is heavy but easy enough for two char-
  acters to move. Inside the sarcophagus 
  is what looks precisely like the skeleton 
  of  a horse.
  
  18
  A single red ruby is inside what was 
  the mouth of  the horse. It’s worth 400 
  silver pieces, and if  the characters pick 
  it up... nothing bad happens.
  Detect Magic or Detect Evil will 
  notify the characters that the statues 
  and the dead horse are all four magical, 
  even though they do not move.
  Read Magic will determine that all 
  statues are guardians to the tomb, but 
  nothing more. 
  The horse, instead, was probably 
  blessed when alive, but there’s almost 
  nothing left of  its former magic.
  6) The Stairs again
  T
  he steps here are irregular and 
  very tall: each of  them is at least 
  half  the height of  a man. It is easy 
  enough to jump down them one by one, 
  or climb them down, and also climb 
  them up, no rolls required. Where there 
  is a black dot, another corpse is lying 
  on the floor, and circular holes are vis-
  ible again on the roof. This is all visible 
  even from afar, from where the previous 
  trap was.
  The problem is: as soon as the first 
  character steps where the number 6 is, 
  the floor tiles and makes the character(s) 
  slide onto the pressure plate.
  Damage is inflicted as in the previous 
  trap: 1d4 spikes, each dealing 1d6 dam-
  age (1d6-1 if  the character wears any 
  armor).
  The weight of  a single body is 
  enough to trigger the trap and enough 
  to keep the pressure plate down so that 
  spikes do not go back up. The body on 
  the floor is a fake: it’s carved in stone. 
  These barbarians were nasty and devi-
  ous. Again, walking close to the walls is 
  enough to avoid the spikes.
  7) The Scale Chamber
  T
  he room is empty besides a few 
  corpses on the floor and a small 
  altar in the far left corner of  the room. 
  The corpses are in various stages of  
  decomposition; one barely more than a 
  skeleton. They wear an assortment of  
  rotten leather armor and rusty chain-
  mail and with them are their rusted 
  weapons. If  characters check for traps, 
  they notice nothing: there are a few lose 
  stones on the floor, but these are not 
  pressure plates.
  On the small altar, there is a small 
  iron weighing scale. 
  On one side there’s a rusty dagger, on 
  the other a little red stone, some grains 
  of  a black powder, a wooden figure of  
  an eagle consumed by time and barely 
  recognizable. 
  The dagger is heavier than the other 
  items, but just a little, so the scale is al-
  most perfectly balanced.
  If  the characters take the dagger, 
  the scale tiles to the other side, and 
  the movement also unlocks the door to 
  chamber 9 (the main burial room).
  Basically, any action that moves the 
  scale to the center will unlock the 
  door to chamber 9. 
  If  anyone closely examines the scale 
  will notice that it’s fixed into place and 
  perhaps can guess there’s some hidden 
  mechanism behind it.
  The dagger is a +1 weapon (to-hit 
  and damage) but only against undead. 
  If  used against the necromancer of  
  room 9, the dagger seems to come to 
  life: its blade will glow in fierce red, 
  and the weapon becomes a +3 weapon 
  (to-hit and damage) but at the price of  
  draining 1 HP from the wielder, every 
  round. A character holding this weapon 
  cannot drop it or switch it to another 
  
  19
  weapon: if  someone has it in hand when 
  fighting the necromancer, they must 
  use this weapon... but they’re still free 
  to decide not to attack, thus save them-
  selves from loosing HP in that round.
  If  the characters take the rest of  the 
  treasure (the red stone, the black pow-
  der, the small wooden eagle), the scale 
  will eventually tip on the side of  the 
  dagger. This happens when at least two 
  (or all three) objects are removed from 
  the plate. 
  When this happens, the necroman-
  cer in chamber 9 comes to life, but it 
  will not move nor make any noise, for 
  now.
  The red stone is clearly magical and 
  glows faintly: if  a character smashes it 
  with a weapon, the weapon gains a +1 
  bonus in the next fight, and the first 
  damage inflicted with it will translate 
  into HP regained by the character. It is 
  worth 100 sp if  sold as a simple gem, 
  200 if  the magical power is revealed.
  The black powder appears more or 
  less like a spice or some sort of  salt. 
  Read Magic or a similar spell will re-
  veal that if  used to draw a circle on the 
  floor (large enough only for a single 
  person standing), no undead can pass 
  that barrier. If  used to draw a straight 
  line, any undead crossing the line will 
  lose 1d6+4 HP. If  placed in the mouth 
  of  a dead body, it will prevent it from 
  ever being risen as undead, as long as 
  the salt remains in their mouth.
  The wooden eagle was once pretty 
  and elegantly carved, but has been con-
  sumed by time, and is of  no value, ap-
  parently.
  If  the characters didn’t touch the 
  dagger nor the other three items on 
  the scale, they can leave the room with 
  no problems. But if  they touched the 
  dagger or the other objects (even if  
  they left them in place), once they leave 
  the room, the corpses on the floor 
  will animate.
  The corpses will wait for the last of  
  the characters to be on the threshold 
  of  the room, and then attack the group 
  from behind. Unless the last one or two 
  characters succeed in a Notice test (or 
  Perception, or whatever you use), the 
  undead will attack with the favor of  
  surprise.
  The attack will be of  two undead 
  against the last character in line, and 
  one undead against the one before the 
  last. If  the undead have the favor of  the 
  surprise, they attack with a +4 to-hit 
  and +2 to damage.
  If  the undead do not have the favor 
  of  the surprise, roll initiative normally.
  The undead are four in total, in vari-
  ous status of  decomposition; one of  
  them is barely more than a skeleton. 
  They all have the following statistics:
  
  20
  Remember that the characters are 
  likely to be fighting next to the stairs 
  and the trap of  location 6.
  8) The Altar Room
  A
  ll the walls are of  this room are 
  covered by skulls carved in the 
  stone and there’s a small altar in the 
  center of  it. On the altar are two small 
  offering plates, filled with a total of  222 
  silver coins.
  If  the characters examine the room, 
  they will notice that 22 of  the hundreds 
  of  skulls carved in stone have a hole 
  in their mouth. If  a coin is dropped 
  in each of  them, a secret door opens to 
  chamber 10.
  If  the characters look for secret doors 
  before unlocking the door using 22 
  coins, they will automatically find evi-
  dence of  the secret door, but the door 
  is closed and carved in the stone, and 
  won’t open easily. 
  The characters must find a way to 
  pull it open somehow (if  they have a 
  crowbar, it will do). If  they manage to 
  open the door or force it open, a small 
  passage leads to chamber 10.
  9) The Burial Chamber
  The burial chamber is behind a cou-
  ple of  black iron doors. The doors are 
  locked, but the lock can be picked by 
  any rogue or thief  or anyone with the 
  appropriate skills, if  the release mecha-
  nism in chamber 7 is not detected. The 
  doors are quite solid and cannot be 
  broken, but a few hours of  excavation 
  of  the stone walls can anyway grant 
  access to the burial chamber, either by 
  breaking the doors hinges or by dig-
  ging a tunnel straight into the burial 
  chamber.
  The burial chamber is made by the 
  same black stone as the outside pillars 
  and roof, and contains a large number 
  of  chests and baskets that were once full 
  of  offerings from the barbaric tribes. 
  Most of  the offerings were food, pelts, 
  leather, and have long rotten. There are 
  some metal offerings like shields, weap-
  ons, armors, but all of  them are rusty 
  and quite heavy and rough compared to 
  those that the characters already have. 
  If  anyone wants to make a set of  
  barbaric weapons and armors, consider 
  that everything weights a bit more than 
  regular equipment, and weapons have a 
  -1 to hit while armor offers -1 than the 
  corresponding regular AC.
  Undead of  room 7: 2 HD, 6 HP, 10 
  AC, 1d4 damage for claws and bite, 
  or 1d6 for rusty weapons if  the char-
  acters left them there on the floor. 
  Save: 6 (roll under)
  
  21
  On the walls there’s a line in white 
  polished marble, sculpted with aston-
  ishing skills, which depicts the con-
  quests and heroic deeds of  Tukram. 
  Which clearly was a woman, consid-
  ering she appears in every scene, lead-
  ing the barbarian tribe, and armed with 
  a large vicious blade. Reveal this detail 
  to the characters only if  they spend 
  time examining the marble decorations.
  The chamber’s roof  is higher than 
  the other rooms of  the tomb, and on 
  all sides are small holes at the top of  
  the walls, which probably in the past let 
  light come in from the outside. Now the 
  little tunnels have given in or vegeta-
  tion and dirt have covered them all, and 
  they’re in any case too small even for a 
  child to use as a passage.
  At the far end of  the burial cham-
  ber, there’s a platform in the same 
  white marble as the decoration on the 
  walls, and on it, there is an altar covered 
  by hundreds of  rusted swords. 
  On the altar lays the body of  a man 
  in chainmail, with a silver circlet on 
  the head and a large sword to the side. 
  The body is decomposing, but not yet 
  a skeleton, and for some reason there’s 
  no smell. Also, if  anyone bothers to ask, 
  it looks far more recent than it should 
  be, if  this was really Tukram. The body 
  is the one of  a necromancer that was 
  killed generations ago by the ancestors 
  of  the villagers.
  The necromancer is the one respon-
  sible for the second village being aban-
  doned: his twisted experiments with 
  the dead have caused too many of  them 
  to rise, and the locals have lost their pa-
  tience. For over a month the abandoned 
  village, while it was still populated, 
  was plagued by undead attacks, while 
  the hunters and the strongest of  the 
  farmers were hunting the necromancer 
  through the woods, and then have man-
  aged to kill him nearby this tomb. They 
  decided to bury him in this tomb, and 
  have displaced the body they found on 
  the altar (which was also not Tukram), 
  substituting it with the one of  the nec-
  romancer.
  The local priests have blessed the 
  village multiple times, but the undead 
  plague didn’t stop, so the villagers 
  eventually packed their things and re-
  built somewhere else.
  The necromancer’s body is dead but 
  a fraction of  his former spirit is 
  trapped in the scale in room 7.
  If  the characters made the scale tip to 
  the side of  the dagger, the body came 
  back alive. It is waiting for the charac-
  ters to approach before rising and at-
  tacking.
  If  instead the scale was left undis-
  turbed, or if  it was tipped only to the 
  other side (where the gem, the black 
  salt and the small wooden eagle are), 
  the corpse will not move.
  If  the necromancer rises to fight, use 
  these stats:
  Necromancer: 3 HD, 8 HP, 14 AC, 
  1d4 damage for claws and bite, or 
  1d6+1 for the large sword if  the 
  characters didn’t take it somehow from 
  him.
  Save: 15 (roll under).
  In every even round (2nd round, 4th, 
  and so on) the necromancer will use a 
  random spell after the regular attack. 
  Roll a d6 on the next table to deter-
  mine which spell is used.
  
  22
  10) Secret Room One
  T
  his room is hidden behind the se-
  cret door of  the altar room (cham-
  ber 8). There is nothing relevant here: 
  the room is dark and smells like stale 
  air. There are some insects crawling on 
  the floor, but nothing else.
  11) Secret Room Two
  T
  he room is empty but there’s a 
  mysterious barbaric rune carved 
  on the floor, where there is a small 
  black dot. Characters can easily step 
  around it, if  they have any source of  
  lighting they’ll automatically spot it.
  Detect Magic or Detect Evil will 
  reveal that the rune is malignant. If  a 
  character does not step around it but 
  across it, or steps on it, or touches it 
  while examining it, that character is 
  marked by the rune. The rune has three 
  “charges” and will mark up to three 
  characters.
  A character that is marked will be 
  stalked by one of  the three statues of  
  room number 5, from the moment 
  they will step out of  the tomb. The 
  statue(s) will get to the characters in 
  their first night of  rest (in the woods or 
  back in one of  the villages) and never 
  give up pursuit until they’re destroyed. 
  See the previous table under “Animate 
  Statue” for the statues’ scores.
  d6
  Spell
  1
  Pain Circle
  All characters fighting the necromancer will suffer 1d6 magical damage (Save 
  vs. Magic for half  damage). For each character struck by pain failing the Save, 
  the necromancer regains 1 HP
  2-5
  Animate Undead
  One of  the undead in room 7 will rise and join the fight after one more round. 
  If  they were already destroyed by the characters, they do rise again but with 
  only 1 HP (they keep rising as long as their bodies are not utterly destroyed or 
  the necromancer killed)
  6
  Animate Statue
  One of  the statues of  room 5 will slowly march to aid the necromancer. It takes 
  3 rounds for the statue to join the fight, and the characters will be clearly able to 
  understand something’s coming: they can hear stony heavy steps and the traps 
  triggering on the stairs and so on. Only one statue can be animated at the same 
  time. When the statue joins the fight, it has the following stats:
  Animated Statue: 
  4 HD, 15 HP, 12 AC, 2 attacks, 1d6 damage with heavy fist and 1d8 with stone 
  weapon.
  Save: 12 (roll under).
  If  the necromancer dies, the statue stops fighting and freezes in place
  Table 7: Necromancer’s Spells
  
  23
  12) Secret Room Three
  T
  his room is empty.
  13) Stairs Room
  T
  his room is empty, except for a 
  flight of  circular stairs plunging 
  down in the darkness. Descending the 
  stairs leads the characters to a long 
  corridor, which ends in another set of  
  stairs, ascending.
  14) The Other Stairs Room
  T
  he tunnel starting from number 
  13 goes here, to the other side of  
  the map. Stairs going up from the corri-
  dor lead to another empty chamber, but 
  the walls, floor and roof  here are made 
  by precious white marble. 
  There is a heavy iron door, richly dec-
  orated with battle scenes, on one side of  
  the room, leading to the next. The door 
  is heavy but will open if  anyone pushes 
  hard enough.
  15) The Real Burial Chamber
  A
  nother room made by precious 
  white marble, with a single mar-
  ble platform in its center. On the marble 
  lies the naked body of  a woman, cov-
  ered with tattoos. She’s clearly dead, 
  but perfectly preserved. 
  She’s not beautiful but everything in 
  her speaks of  war and command. Her 
  face is strong, and the eyes, open even 
  in death, are dark and magnetic. She’s 
  Tukram.
  There is a golden pot resting on her 
  belly, full of  jewels and precious stones, 
  worth 1d4x1000 coins in total, but 
  which is impossible to sell unless the 
  characters travel to a major city.
  If  anyone takes the treasure, a mag-
  ic seal is broken and the entire tunnel 
  from 14 back to 13 collapses (if  anyone 
  is in the tunnel, well, they’re dead). 
  It will take the characters 5 days to 
  dig their way out through the tunnel (7 
  if  they don’t eat a ration at least every 
  day). But if  someone is smart enough 
  to break the walls in room 14 or 15 and 
  dig in the dirt straight out of  the burial 
  chamber to the side of  the hill, in a few 
  hours they will be out in open air.
  
  24
  Detect Magic will reveal that there 
  is magic on the treasure (the magic 
  trap) but also something else there... 
  close to the dead body of  Tukram. 
  If  the characters move the dead body, 
  there is a long, dark blade resting un-
  der her, in a shallow hole on the marble 
  table.
  The blade is a +1 weapon (+1 to-hit 
  and damage) with a demonic power in 
  it: anyone killed by the blade has their 
  soul trapped in their skull, and cannot 
  reach the underworld. 
  Every time a person is killed by the 
  blade, the wielder can regain 1d6 HP or 
  rejuvenate of  1 day, but not more than 
  once per day. Kill one a day to basically 
  become immortal, but yes, you must kill 
  every single day.
  16) The Skulls Chambers
  T
  hese three chambers are complete-
  ly sealed. A close inspection of  
  the walls of  the adjacent chambers (9 
  and 12) will reveal nothing, but Detect 
  Magic or Detect Evil will identify that 
  there’s something behind the walls.
  If  the characters dig into the earth 
  from the outside, or into the stone walls 
  from inside the tomb, they will be able 
  to open a passage into the chambers.
  The chambers’ walls are all covered 
  with carefully stacked skulls; by dig-
  ging into the chambers the characters 
  will make many of  them to fall to the 
  ground, shattering.
  Each broken skull will shriek in 
  pain, as the soul trapped into it finally 
  finds a way into the underworld where 
  it belongs. It is a mystery how the 
  builders managed to place the skulls 
  here covering every inch of  each of  the 
  walls and sealing the chambers, but the 
  characters probably don’t care.
  When breaking the skulls entering 
  the room, there is a 10% chance that 
  a blessing will be released on the first 
  character entering the room (roll 1 to 
  10 on a d100) and a 10% chance that in-
  stead it will be a curse (11 to 20 on the 
  same d100).
  Each skull contains a soul; each of  
  them of  a man or woman killed by 
  Tukram and by the virtue of  the magi-
  cal blade (see chamber 15), their souls 
  were trapped in their dead skulls. 
  If  the characters know nothing about 
  the blade, the only things they know are 
  these:
  
  25
  •	The skulls are real, and ancient
  •	When a skull is broken, a shriek re-
  sounds and then a cold breeze blows 
  in proximity of  it, whispering with 
  release
  •	There are probably thousands of  
  skulls in each chamber
  Magical investigation will reveal 
  that each skull contains a soul, which 
  is trapped and cannot reach the under-
  world.
  Close examination with Detect 
  Magic or Detect Evil will identify a 
  dozen blessed skulls and a dozen cursed 
  ones, in total (for the three chambers). 
  If  the characters investigate one cham-
  ber only, there’s a d6 blessed skulls and 
  a d6 cursed skulls.
  If  the characters are breaking skulls 
  randomly after entering the room, for 
  each of  them there is a 1% chance that 
  a blessing is released, and a 1% chance 
  that it’s a curse. 
  Roll in secret a d100 if  the characters 
  start to break skulls, 1 is a blessing, 
  11 a curse. You don’t want to roll in-
  dividually for each skull, ask them how 
  many they break and increase odds pro-
  portionally.
  If  the characters decide to carry the 
  blessed or cursed skulls outside, each 
  of  them counts as one inventory slot 
  (same as 100 coins treasure). 
  The skulls have no market value, but 
  alchemists or sorcerers might pay up to 
  30 coins for each of  them (blessed or 
  cursed).
  The blessing: if  the character is 
  wounded, heal 1d4. 
  Otherwise roll a d6 on the table.
  The curse: roll a d6 for a random 
  curse.
  While the blessings are permanent, 
  these curses can be cured with the ap-
  propriate spells or blessings (such as 
  Remove Curse).
  17) The Hollow Columns
  T
  hese three pillars on the back 
  of  the tomb are partially hol-
  low. They look normal from the out-
  side of  the tomb, but beyond the thick 
  vegetation growing on them, there’s 
  room enough for one man at the time 
  to squeeze trough. Each of  them hosts 
  a small chamber where animals have 
  made their lairs and they can be used 
  for safekeeping. No one will ever find 
  whatever the characters decide to hide 
  in here.
  d6
  Blessing
  1-2
  Increase a random attribute 
  by one point (works only once 
  for the entire party, further 
  rolls of  1-2 count as 3-4)
  3-4
  The character gains 100 XP
  5-6
  The character gains 1 Hit 
  Point (to the maximum Hit 
  Points, increasing the total of  
  available HP permanently)
  Table 8: Skulls’ Blessings
  d6
  Curses
  1-2
  The character looses 1 point 
  of  Charisma
  3-4
  The character looses 1 point 
  of  a random attribute
  5-6
  The character looses 1 HP 
  permanently but never below 
  1 HP
  Table 9: Skulls’ Curses
  
  26
  LICENSE
  OPEN GAME CONTENT
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, 
  Wizards of  the Coast, Inc.
  System Reference Document © 2000, Wiz-
  ards of  the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathon Tweet, 
  Monte Cook,  Skip Williams, based on original 
  material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. 
  System Reference Document © 2000-2003, 
  Wizards of  the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan 
  Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, 
  Andy Collins, David Noonan, Rich Redman, 
  Bruce R. Cordell, John D. Rateliff, Thomas Reid, 
  James Wyatt, based on original material by E. 
  Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
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  2002–2004, Wizards of  the Coast, Inc.; Authors 
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  pher Perkins, Rodney Thompson, and JD Wiker, 
  based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte 
  Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, Peter Adki-
  son, Bruce R. Cordell, John Tynes, Andy Collins, 
  and JD Wiker.
  Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, © 2008, 
  Matthew J. Finch.
  Lamentations of  the Flame Princess: Weird 
  Fantasy Role-Playing Player Core Book: Rules 
  & Magic © 2013 LotFP, author James Edward 
  Raggi IV.
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  WhiteHack 2nd Edition, Copyright 2015, 
  Christian Mehrstam.
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  concepts.
  
  28
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Crying Blades/Crying Blades Tukrams Tomb/Crying Blades Tukrams Tomb.pdf