A Dangerous Encounter in the Crypt

The crypt

The party of adventurers make their way through the crypt. They find a locked door. The rogue begins picking its lock. With a click, the door is unlocked, and it slowly creaks open. The adventurers enter the room. The room is filled with dust and cobwebs. A row of shelves lines the back wall of the room. Dozens of chests are stacked along the shelves and have been chained to the wall. A single chest lies sideways on the floor in front of the shelves. The rogue picks it up and inspects it. He tries to pick at its lock, but he is unsuccessful. The rest of the party start searching the room for a key. The mage finds it under a stack of weathered scrolls. The rogue holds the chest while the mage fiddles with the key. The rest of the party continue to inspect the room. After a little persuasion, the mage is able to unlock the chest. She slowly opens the chest and looks inside. The rogue peeks inside and is disappointed when he discovers that the chest is only filled with bones. The mage inspects the bones closely. What seemed like a random assortment of bones turns out to be the bones that form a hand. Suddenly, the hand jumps out at her. The rogue, taken by surprise, drops the chest. The warrior, noticing the commotion, rushes to the mage. He grabs the skeletal hand and throws it across the room. The hand crashes into the shelves of chests. All of the chests begin to shake violently. They try to lurch toward the party but are restrained by the chains. The adventurers begin to back away out of the room. The hand, crawling on its fingers, rushes towards the party. Just before it can reach them, the warrior slams the door, sealing the hand inside. The adventurers continue their way through the crypt. They proceed down a great hall. Several ancient warriors lay along the sides of the hall. Their iron mail is fused together with rust and grit overtime, sealing them within their own armor like a coffin. At the end of the great hall is another locked door. The rogue realizes that he had left the key in the chest when they escaped from the previous room. Meanwhile, the skeletal hand unlocks the last chest on the shelves. The bones from each of the chest begin to rattle and float. The bones swirl around the room and assemble into a body. The fully formed skeleton picks up the key and a staff in one of the chests and proceeds to the door. The rogue crouches down in front of it and pulls his tools from his pouch. He places the lockpick into the door's keyhole and begins picking it. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices the iron banded planks of the door begin to move. He stares closely. The crack between two planks opens revealing an eye looking back at him. Alarmed, the rogue tries to jump back. However, before he can react, the keyhole turns into a mouth and sucks his whole arm in up to the shoulder. The rest of the group try to help him, but then they hear a noise down the other end of the great hall. The skeleton from the previous room stands before them. The necromancer raises its staff, and the skeleton warriors begin to move. Their rusty mail cracks and breaks away leaving the skeletons with great chunks of armor missing. The warrior swings his warhammer against the nearest skeleton. The skeleton explodes in a cloud of orange dust and bone fragments. Another skeleton warrior, wielding a shield and dragging a broken blade, shambles towards the party. The ranger looses multiple arrows at it. One arrow sinks into the decaying shield. Another arrow passes harmlessly through the skeleton's ribcage. A third arrow strikes the skeleton in the helmet, causing a loud ringing sound, and forcing the skeleton's head to snap back from the sheer force. The warrior and the ranger continue to fend off the approaching skeletons while the mage desperately tries to help the rogue out of his precarious position.