The Plane of Vitas Nova

Barrows Family Crypt

3 min read

Barrows Family Crypt

A mausoleum-style crypt holding the records and remains of the Barrows family and its sworn allies, located “just over a bridge yonder” from Weber-Hollows. Stone door at the entrance, vines on the outside, sunlight bleeding through gaps in the deteriorating roof. The crypt is a building, not a cave.

Layout (per session 2026-05-01)

Entry chamber:

  • Two stone statues of ancient Verdant Lords stand at the ready, one with a scythe, one with a great sword. “Swords to plowshares” theme.
  • Two tomb names carved on the walls: Aradorn Barrows the Unifier and Isar Recmir.
  • Three pictographic etchings, each top half visible, bottom half overgrown by reactive vines.
  • Five animal sigil totems (vulture, stag, wolf, boar, bear) mounted as removable insignias.
  • Three slots at the bottom of the picture wall to receive the totems.
  • A hidden floor latch (Investigation DC ~12) opens onto a sunken sarcophagus chamber.

Sarcophagus chamber:

  • Aradorn’s sarcophagus — contains his rotted body. A piece of jewelry has been ripped from his hand (the gold-and-green-gemstone Speak-with-Dead ring, recovered separately from the owl bear’s lair).
  • Isar Recmir’s sarcophagus — EMPTY. No body, no bones.

The Three-Phase Puzzle

Phase 1 (top half visible, vines covering bottom):

  1. Two figures forming a brotherly bond.
  2. Two brothers in arms leading an expedition away from a large fire, in Verdant Lord armor.
  3. Arrival at a series of caves.

Solving order locked: Stag → slot 1, Wolf → slot 2, Vulture → slot 3. Bear was tried and rejected (a vine attempted to slap the placer; Mage Hand was also slapped away). Boar and Bear remained unused.

Phase 2 (bottom half revealed once all three sigils placed):

  1. The brothers were arguing, not bonding.
  2. One brother set fire to allow the other into cave depths. Metallic structures in the background — “metal augmentations to homes, something nature would reject.” Possible Mightstone / Weakstone.
  3. The cave collapsed, separating the brothers forever.

Below the third panel: a slender white-furred humanoid creature with stag-like antlers and unnaturally long arms, posing ominously. Likely Amareses or an ominous variant of her.

Defenders

After the bottom-half reveal, the two stone statues animate as stone Verdant Lord guards — vines act as their blood vessels, weapons are stone-and-vine. They re-knit if killed without their pair. Defeated by the party in ~12 in-fiction seconds; faint protective magic lingered on the corpses afterward.

Open Threads

  • Speak with Dead on Aradorn (pending; the party has the ring, intends to use it next session).
  • Where is Isar’s body / consciousness?
  • The “metallic features” in the brothers’ panel — are they the lifting mechanism under Weber Hollows?
  • The slender antlered figure — whose god is this, really?
  • Do the unused Bear and Boar sigils mark Verdant Lord seats not yet revealed?

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