Grand Chamber
From the Antechamber, the player characters will enter into an L-shaped corridor that wraps around two sides of the large, barrel-vaulted central room that makes up the grand chamber itself. It is unlikely the players will get very far into the Grand Chamber without being drawn into the Radulesc Family Encounter. Certainly, if they triggered the Alarm spell in the Mural Chamber, the family is ready and waiting for them.
Moving along the L-shaped corridor, the player characters will discover entrance to the burial chamber of Doma Caliopia Radulesc. Beyond that, at the upper northeast end of the corridor is a shrine to Vehira and Azane.
The barrel-vaulted central room is 20 meters long by 15 meters wide, supported by six massive columns hewn from the living rock and decorated on all sides with murals. The floor outside the columns wraps around a sunken floor on three sides. This sunken area is 1.5 meters lower than the rest of the room, creating a natural flow that leads to the slab sealing the burial chamber of Gheorigu Radulesc.
On the eastern wall of the central room, behind the columns supporting the roof, are the entrances to the burial chambers of the three elder Radulesc children, Gorgu, Mariusz, and Cristalia. In the southwest corner, off to the side of Gheorigu Radulesc’s chamber, is the chamber of the youngest Radulesc child, the priest Valor Radulesc.
The Grand Chamber is decorated with murals on the outer walls surrounding the room. These depict the many accomplishments of the Radulesc family, seemingly going back to antiquity. The barrel vault is painted with a massive mural depicting the members of the Radulesc family entombed here (faces not completed) being lifted up to the Celestial sphere by light shining from the Eye of Vehira, where their ancestors await them in glory.
The sunken area of the floor is decorated in an ornate pattern of ceramic and sulphur gemstone tiles. The entire space glows in a dim yellow light emitted from six large sulphur gems set into the support columns that seem to be weakly enchanted to provide magical light.
In the center of the room, in the middle of the floor, are signs of a ritual. A circle of skulls and candles are arranged around what appears to be a large magic circle, painted in what might be blood. The symbol in the center is of a sideways figure-eight, or infinity sign. The ritual performed here was not performed recently. Additional evidence can be gained by casting Psychometry.
CHALLENGE
21C using Archaeology skill (-3)Anyone with the Archaeology skill can attempt to date this ritual by examining the various artifacts and symboles left behind. A successful roll will determine the ritual was probably performed more than a century ago, but less than five hundred years ago. A critical success will tell them it was performed about 200 years ago.
CHALLENGE
21C using Intelligence (+1) or Theology (+5)Most people will recognize the infinity symbol in the magic circle as the sign of Mol-Imit, the Infernal Queen of the Damned.
CHALLENGE
21C using Theology (-3) or Ritual (-1)Those with a Theology or Ritual skill who study the placement of the skulls and candles, and who note the inscriptions around the circle will be able to determine that the ritual performed here may have been an appeal to Mol-Imit summoning her to raise or otherwise empower the dead - this is pure necromancy of the highest order, and anyone who participated in this ritual would have been guilty of a capital offense.
The entrance to the burial chamber of Gheorigu Radulesc appears to have been smashed open very recently. There is a bunch of seemingly abanndoned equipment here including lanterns and tools used to break through the slab into the chamber itself. Searching throught this abandoned equipment will yield some important evidence.
The slabs sealing the other five burial chambers in the Grand Chamber all appear to have been smashed open from the inside….