Old Bones
Malarch, a practitioner of Black Magic requires the bones of a person revered in life. Since his practices are frowned upon by most, he is hesitant to disturb the resting places in his local community or to do this work himself. Through some local lore, he has located what he believes to be an old holy site of some folks who once inhabited the region, but have long since moved on, which contains the remains of their holy leaders or shamans as they called them. His plan is to hire some adventurers, who are notoriously amoral in disturbing the sites of the interred dead, whether recent or long past. Still, knowing this to be questionable, he is willing to pay well.
The GM should determine the amount Malarch is willing to pay that is appropriate to his game.
Malarch approaches a group of likely adventurers with the proposition; travel to this remote site and retrieve some old bones of the dead that are interred therein. He will pay well for the bones after a short ritual wherein he can verify that they are actually from the tomb. He provides the party with the location of the tomb on a hand drawn map. The GM can place it at any distance he wishes form the local population center.
The tomb itself is merely a few connected caves in some hilly region of semi-wilderness.
Room 1: Entrance and Guardian
The entrance of the cave lies at the base of a rocky hill, scraggly trees and brush surround the entrance. Faded paintings of animals and hunting scenes surround the outer walls. It is dark within.
A successful perception check (TN15) reveals that there has been activity around the cave; signs of disturbance are present, the ground seems disturbed and there is crushed grass.
A short narrow passage leads into a large cave. It is dark within as little light streams in from the entrance. Within the darkness resting is a giant snake which has made the cave its lair. It will strike when the someone approaches.
Monster: Giant Snake
The cave is decorated with paintings depicting the life of the hunting based society. No obvious exits are present. There is one large human scaled mural. See Room 2 for details.
Room 2: Puzzle
The human scaled painting depicts a party of hunters bearing a body into a cave, surrounded by weeping women and shamans. The entrance to the next cave has been sealed with hard mud and painted over by the large mural. A dwarf with stone sense can detect this otherwise a perception check (TN18) is required, or the GM can have it discovered if a careful search is done or provided a +5 bonus to the check. The mud is about a half foot thick and can be chiped away and broken through with a pick or magic. A narrow passage into the next cave lays beyond.
Room 3: Red Herring
The next cave is also decorated with painting of hunting. Several piles of bones wrapped in some material which has mostly rotted away. These bones are not those of Shaman, but rather the remains of great hunters who were lain here to honor them. Should the party return with any of these bones their mission has failed. Malarch will perform his verification ritual and learn they are not the bones he needed. Since he's short of temper, he will be furious, and dismiss the party. He might pay them a fraction of what he promised to be rid of them but will not engage them further.
Hidden like Room 2 is another entrance to the real resting place of the Shaman bones. Like Room 2 this it is cleverly hidden but can be found as detailed in Room 2.
Room 4: Climax
This cave like the others is painted in scenes from tribal life; these however depict the holy men of the tribe performing rites and rituals.
Like Room 3 there are bones lain in neat piles around the cave. Any disturbance of the bones causes a guardian spirit to manifest. It appears like a shaman in the paintings. It is clearly agitated and speaks in a long forgotten language. If someone can decipher it's language it warns against disturbing the resting place of these holy men.
Should anyone attempt to remove the bones, the guardian spirit attacks.
Monster: Guardian Spirit
Room 5: Plot Twist
Anyone in possession of the bones will experience increasing feeling of disquiet. They will see, feel or hear ghostly touches or sightings. If sleeping their dreams will be disturbed. These feelings will continue and increase in intensity. The only way to be rid of this is to return the bones to the cave or relinquish the bones altogether.
