The Burden of Grief
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Cartography: The room is 40 feet from east to west and 40 feet north to south. The two northern corners are beveled at a 45-degree angle. There is a door on the western wall, located 10 feet north of the south wall. |
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Room Details: The ceiling here is 10 feet high. The air quality is nominal. The volume of the room is approximately 4,000 cubic feet. The elevation of the room is -100 feet. This room is included in Dungeon Zone 1. |
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Landmarks: A row of four 10-foot tall columns evenly spaced along the south wall, a 10-foot wide semi-circular stepped dais jutting out from the north wall, upon which is stationed a statue of a weeping woman depicted holding the limp body of a child. |
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Four smooth columns trace the southern wall opposite a semi-circular stepped dais that rises against the northern wall, hoisting a marble statue at its center. The stone figure depicts a woman, her arms wrapped protectively around the limp form of a child. Every detail of her anguish is captured in the folds of her garments and the tension in her posture, her grief rendered almost tangible. |
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A statue depicts a mourning woman holding the limp body of a child, whose small hand clasps a hollow stone vial. The statue rests on a stone dais inscribed, “Only with burdens shed can sorrow be set free.” The statue is enchanted: whenever a living creature shares a memory of genuine sorrow, magical tears stream from the mother’s eyes. Six such memories are required to fill the child’s vial. Once full, a stone‑grinding rumble sounds as the statue slides aside, revealing a hidden compartment containing six scrolls. Disturbing the scrolls awakens a soulbound banshee that haunts the chamber. Each scroll appears to be a child’s doodle, but a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals them to be spell scrolls. |
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The soulbound banshee will act to prevent the scrolls from being removed. In life, the banshee was a mother whose child, an oracle and arcane prodigy, was dying from the toll of their innate powers. To save her child, she made a pact with a mysterious entity, sacrificing her own life. Her soul remains bound here, trapped in this chamber, while the child presumably survived. |
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