Ruins of Liscor

The Ruins of Liscor, also known as the Ruins or the Crypt, is a huge crypt or tomb consisting of dark, grey and black stones. It is located about ten miles southeast of Liscor.

Background

The ruins had first been discovered by a Drake shepherd tending his flock. He had been walking over a hill when he’d tripped over a rock.

After he’d nearly broken his foot trying to kick the rock, the Drake had dug a bit of it up and realized the rock wasn’t so much a rock as part of a building. And when he’d dug further with the help of his friends, they had discovered that the bit of the building was in fact an entire structure hidden in the earth.

And after the Antinium had been called and days of excavations had gone by, the city had found that the hill the building had been found on wasn’t so much a hill as the entire structure itself.

Chronology

Soon after the ruins were discovered, adventurers began arriving to Liscor to challenge the dungeon. About a hundred mostly human adventurers and an according supply train camped around the ruins a few weeks later, but they were mostly still digging the ruins out. In this early stage of exploration, the diggers had already to fend off giant Rats, but also spiders and undead. Since a few valuables had been brought out, some adventurers already dared to venture further, but they either never came out or they were turned into undead.

These experiences stopped the explorations for a while, until higher level adventurers arrived. Five adventuring teams (the Silver Spears, the Horns of Hammerad, the Circle of Reneë, the Flawless Flights and Kyrial’s Pride) joined forces with Liscor's foremost [Tactician] Olesm to explore the ruins. Their expedition thought they completely cleared the two upper levels of the Ruins of Liscor from the undead and Crypt Lords. They weren't however prepared for the attack of Skinner, who waited for them in the final chamber. Nearly all adventurers who were part of the expedition died in the ruins; then Skinner broke out with a much larger horde of undead and wiped out the supply camp outside the ruins. Afterwards, Skinner's Attack on Liscor cost many lives in the city.

From the three groups of Circle of Reneë, Flawless Flights and Kyrial's Pride, in total eight adventurers survived the Ruins of Liscor, in addition to Ceria, Olesm, Calruz and Yvlon.

Several days afterwards, Pisces receives a message from Ceria, who survived in the ruins along with Olesm. Erin, together with Ryoka, Pisces, Rags, Toren, and Ksmvr, entered the ruins and successfully retrieved Ceria and Olesm, who were hiding inside empty coffins.

Months later Olesm went back into the ruins with Pisces, to search for Calruz' remains. Instead of finding them, they find, thanks to Olesm's Ring of Sight, a secret room at the opposite of the treasure room where Skinner emerged. In it they found a trapped hexagonal floor that leads down to a burial chamber and heavy evidence that indicate that Calruz had passed trough said chamber. They also found that the burial chamber led to a passageway for Liscor's Dungeon.

Weeks later again, the newly re-formed Horns of Hammerad and the Silver Swords, went to the ruins to pass trough the secret passageway that led for Liscor's Dungeon. While they found their way into the dungeon and subsequently emerged from the Antinium entrance into the dungeon, they couldn't yet locate Calruz on that expedition.

Features and Layout

Surface

The ruins sat half-uncovered against a large hill, with an entrance of black stone gaping open. A wall of black rock. A carved stone doorway and in places, open windows that allowed some ventilation into the massive structure.

The roof had not been excavated, and nor had the lower half of the structure. Apparently, an Antinium had dug down but had gone over a hundred feet without reaching the bottom of this massive structure. The city had decided to only dig up what was necessary, and so the doorway had been uncovered and the rest of the building left alone.

The massive doors could easily hold two creatures twice a Minotaur’s height and one could push two wagons through at the same time. It dwarfed even a large group of people standing in front of the entrance. Perhaps there had once been a fresco or decorative front of some kind, but age had worn away any details.

1st Floor

The upper level had some monster nests (giant rats and Shield Spiders), but also many empty rooms. It was possible for bronze rank adventurers to map this floor and get out with some valuable items, but there were many deaths while exploring those rooms.

Many inexperienced adventurers disappeared while exploring, and weird squiggly white tentacle things kept crawling out of the ruins. The City Watch believed at the time that some kind of brood monster was hiding in the ruins.

2nd Floor

The second floor was an extensive labyrinth of dark rooms, but aside from some treasure put together by Crypt Lords to bait adventurers, not much was found. A large burial room marked the entrance between 1st and 2nd floor.

Two important rooms that were discovered during the first silver-rank expedition were a huge room with a field of stone coffins and the warning of Skinner in form of a nursery rhyme; and on the other end of the dungeon a door with more warnings and wards, which lead to Skinner's chamber. The door to Skinner's chamber was, however, unlocked and the wards broken, when the silver-rank teams of the expedition got there.

Monsters

• Crypt Lords
• Ghouls
• Shield Spiders
• Skeletons
• Wights
• Zombies
• unnamed squiggly things with white tentacles

Guardian

• Skinner (Flesh Worm)

Gallery

The Horns & Co. enter the Ruins by Jason Yao

Trivia

• Although some of the dirt that had once covered the structure had been excavated, it was clear that crypt was huge on a completely different scale than the structures in Liscor.
• One can tell this place is ancient because it has a place to pray.