The Tomb of the Twin Generals
A modular dungeon-section suitable for diverting a level 5 D&D party
What this is: Need an extra section in your mega-dungeon, a quick quest to round out a session that’s mostly downtime, or an introduction to level 5 play? This three room dungeon-ette is your haunted tomb! All you need to do is provide a motivation to get there, or simply have the party stumble in (Note: when I ran the Tomb of the Twin Generals, I had an NPC the party was supposed to meet go missing, and all signs lead to a cave with the tomb in it. More on that later.)
Overview: The Tomb of the Twin Generals is a cave that opens into a secret tomb of officers who fought a war long ago. It is recommended that you add cultural/historical context from your own game (I have noted examples where I did so).
The Map:
Special thanks to DungeonScrawl, a most excellent free tool.
Room 1: The Entrance
“The smell of decay and fur hits your nose as you enter a low, pitch-dark cave carved out of natural stone. The floor is covered in bones—some very old, some putridly-fresh but picked clean—such that you can’t see the floor, though each of the walls are unbroken rough stone. Staring at you in surprise, then dropping to a low, threatening hunch, are four dire wolves, each one mangy and slavering with hunger. The dire wolves wear collars with broken chains attached, and five metal loops jut out of the wall opposite you where the chains were once fastened. As you notice the largest direwolf chewing on a detached leg of the missing fifth, the ground begins to move beneath you.”
This room should be a nice warm-up for the party, as the dire wolves will be particularly effective in the cramped space due to Pack Tactics. Once the battle begins, reveal two swarms of poisonous snakes hiding beneath the bones, ideally occupying the same space as a luckless PC. The breakdown of the fight is the following:
Four Dire Wolves (XP 200 each), Monster Manual pg. 321
Two Poisonous Snake Swarms (XP 450 each), Monster Manual pg. 338
Once they are done, the PCs can search the room. If they decide to search the pile of bones only, my recommendation would be to move the secret button to open the hidden door there, given a high enough Investigation check.
Investigation (DC 10): “After a little scrabbling around, you find that between the chain loops at the far end of the room the wall has a little give. Pressing in further, you hear a rough scrape to your left as the wall slides down, revealing a short passage into another room.”
Investigation (DC 15): “Underneath the bones, you hear a tiny rattling. Hiding inside a humanoid skull is a little mouse with poofy brown fur and beady black eyes. Seeing you aren’t a dire wolf, it sniffs you curiously.”
Room 2: The Memorial
“Dust and cobwebs threaten your nose at every step as you come inside a long hall lined with ancient crypts. They stand upright, each carved in the likeness of its occupant in life, surrounded with candles long-ago turned to puddles of wax and each with a closed box of grave goods at their feet. At the end of the room there is mural showing a battle, brave soldiers in a solemn spear line bravely facing an unseen enemy.
At the end of the room, there are some stairs leading to a closed door. You hear the faint sound of screams coming from the other side.”
Example of How I Used My Campaign’s Lore Here- History (DC 15): “The art on the upright tombs and mural is angular, but basic and exaggerated, consistent with the style from the late-Kreng Dynasty Sikshalans. Knowing this, you can infer that the men buried here were respected Sikshalan auxiliary officers in Tan Thanat XII’s final war against the encroaching Oni, who would soon overwhelm the realm and bring one thousand years of Oni rule to Zeng. Even though they lost their war, it would seem that the locals still saw fit to honor their dead in secret.”
The grave goods, of course, will be catnip to the seasoned adventurer’s eye. If your party is not given to looting every closed box they come across, replace the strength check below with an investigation check.
Strength (DC 12): “Pushing aside the heavy lids of the grave goods boxes, you see that each sarcophagi was left with items befitting their profession in the army. Most include medals of rank, unusably rusted spear tips, and ancient uniforms, all of which could be sold for up to 50gp to a collector of antiquities, though not all merchants would see the value in such things. Two of the tombs, that of a medical officer and of a magical-artillery caster, contain items of interest.”
(Tomb marked (1) on the map) The Ancient Medic’s Circlet: A small silver circlet bearing symbols of healing, renewal, and rebirth. Wearing it grants the bearer +1 to medicine checks made to stabilize grievously wounded (downed) comrades.
(Tomb marked (2) on the map) The Ancient Artillery-Mage’s Scroll: A scroll of fireball, upon which there are drawings of artillery-mages in formation raining spells down on massed enemies.
Room 3: The Embalming Room
“You push the door open and step into a vast hall. Ringing the ceiling are statues of long-dead heroes, and from the walls stone shelves full of canopic jars and embalming tools jut into the gloom. In the middle of the room there is a raised dais, upon which is an embalming slab of smooth polished granite. On either side of the dais two upright tombs stand, doors left wide open. Their inhabitants’ desiccated bodies are now nothing more than passengers inside shells of ancient plate armor animated by unsettled souls. The two pairs of plate are at the embalming table, greatswords in put to the side as they puzzle over which of the hooks to use to draw [NPC Name’s] brain out of [their] nose.”
The NPC: In my campaign, the NPC in question was Winter Rain, a member of an order of dynasty-affiliated philosopher monks traveling to the PC’s headquarters to serve as something like a political commandant. Winter Rain did not help the party in the slightest during the fight, instead switching between terrified screams and unpleasant chiding of the party for not coming earlier.
The PCs are here facing off against two Helmed Horrors, CR 4 constructs here reflavored to be undead (make sure to remember their updated creature type if holy magic is in play). These guys are written as pretty beefy, and since there are only two I would recommend aggressively countering your party’s particular strengths by choosing their spell resistances with care, unless you want the fight to run shorter, in which case do away with some of the resistances.
Two Helmed Horrors (XP 1,100 each), Monster Manual pg. 183
Image credit: Monster Manual, Wizards of the Coast
Example of How I Would’ve Used My Campaign’s Lore Here, If My PCs Had Asked- History (DC 15): “It seems as though the two suits of armor were once, and in a way still are, owned by generals in the army. In certain upper class Sikshalan burial traditions, embalming should always be done under the watch of auspicious spirits of the dead.”
History (DC 20): “In awe, you realize whose souls you just ostensibly laid to rest. Trii Janak and Rakmik Janak were the Twin Generals of Sikshala, the leaders of the Sikshalan resistance against Oni occupation for decades. It was rumored they died in Tan Ogejidai’s boiling pits, but this very tomb proves that story is a lie.”
Wrap-up: That is the Tomb of the Twin Generals! Short and sweet. If you want to distribute more loot or a special campaign-relevant item, having something carried by one or both of the generals would be a good way to go (if the PCs ask, I would recommend you describe the ornate ancient armor as very much stuck to the rotten corpses inside, and let them deal with that sticky puzzle as they will). If you are dropping this into a larger dungeon feel free to add doors going out in Room 3 as well.
I hope you and your party enjoy your adventure!