Tomb of the Silent Eye — Extended Edition

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Page 1 - Cover, hook and parameters

THE TOMB OF THE SILENT EYE - Extended Edition

Subtitle: A tomb built to silence prophecies begins to listen to the living again.

Embermist is just a moorland hamlet, too poor to be defended, too old to be innocent. We live there between cold peat bogs, split cairns and ridge paths where the hanged sometimes change branches when no one is looking. Above the village sleeps a mound older than the houses, older even than the stories that claim to explain it.

This night the bells stopped in the middle of a peal. The dogs opened their mouths without barking. Newborns cried without sound. Then the old mound parted along a clear crack, like a granite eyelid. Since then, every word spoken near the mound dies too quickly, swallowed by something that already recognizes the shape of human voices.

At the heart of the tomb rests the Silent Eye, an obsidian globe sealed in the forehead of a petrified oracle. The Watchers of the Last Breath once locked him there in order to put the dead to sleep too lucidly and to prevent certain visions from returning to the world. A modern brotherhood of blind augurs, led by Brother Galt, believes they have found the perfect revelation there. She only understood half the truth: the Eye responds, but each response feeds the Guardian of Rest, a stone power that transforms villages into silent necropolises.

Session settings

System: Shadowdark RPG
Players: 3-5
Duration: 4-6 hours
Recommended level: 1-3
Tone: sepulchral, tense, old-school, with progressive discovery of a funerary truth
Promise: extended mini-dungeon, playable village, clear countdown, several factions and strong moral choice finale

Content Warnings

Corpses, funerary relics and corrupted rites
Light ritual mutilation around the eyes and tongue
Community pressure, possible sacrifice of NPC or PC
Omens, supernatural silence and still conscious dead

Summary of the conflict

The PCs arrive in Embermist as a brotherhood of augurs descend into a reopened tomb to awaken the Silent Eye before dawn. Above all, the village wants to find its voice, save loved ones or take advantage of the relic according to everyone's interests. In the depths, the dead of the place do not seek massacre: they want to prevent an ancient seal from being used as a prophecy machine. The real conflict, then, is not just surviving the dungeon, but deciding who has the right to hear the future, at what cost, and whether certain truths should remain buried.

Page 2 - Extended Context, Hidden Truth and the Clock of Silence

Before Embermist, the moor was still called Watchmen's Walk. Cairns were erected there for the dead who continued to speak after their burial. Early settlers discovered that deep in some hills, black stones "heard" prayers, then returned them as cruel omens. The Last Breath Watchers were born from this fear. Neither classical priests nor necromancers, they were border guards: they buried voices that were too exact.

The tomb was built around a volunteer, the oracle Ithria of the Nine Watches. According to the pious version, she agreed to be petrified alive to hold the Eye in her own skull until the end of the ages. According to the more honest inscriptions, she knew above all that the relic could not be enclosed in any lasting box as long as a human spirit continued to "look with it." The tomb is therefore not a simple chest. It is a complete liturgical machine made of black salt, slabs tuned to sound, echoless wells and dead people bound by oath.

Hidden truth for the GM

The Silent Eye does not reveal the future. He assembles possibilities by stealing fragments of voice, memory and attention from those who question him. The more you use it, the quieter the nearby world becomes, literally deprived of speech, and the more the Guardian of Rest gains in density. The Watchers understood this. Brother Galt believes that this is an acceptable price to obtain a finally pure prophecy.

The Rest Keeper is not an independent demon. This is the functional part of the tomb, the mineral will that arises when the containment system is twisted toward divination. He protects silence like other monsters protect treasure.

What the forces at play want

Blind omens: hearing the Eye before dawn, even at the cost of a sacrifice and a partial awakening of the Guardian.
The dead linked to the mound: prevent their prison from being converted into an oracle of war, wealth or power.
Brumecendre: return to a normal life, save the missing and if possible transform the disaster into an advantage.
The PCs: survive, enrich themselves, rescue innocents, look for an omen or simply not leave such an artifact in the hands of others.

Clock of silence

Use a clock from 0 to 6. Add 1 when:

the PCs lose 30 to 45 minutes with no clear progress
a great uproar, a prolonged fight or a collapse shakes the tomb
blood touches an unpurified ritual surface
a PC uses the Eye, a fragment of the Eye or an incomplete ritual to obtain a vision
omens gain time thanks to a lie, a diversion or an unrescued prisoner

Recommended effects:

0-1: local silence, muffled voices, torches burning near the steles
2-3: appearance of black breath on the walls, mute dogs in the village, a porter disappears in the galleries
4: the Guardian of Rest receives his first breath, the final chamber becomes active, Galt now refuses any compromise of his own
5: silence overflows from the mound onto Embermist; the bells no longer ring at all and the recent dead in the cemetery open their eyes
6: the tomb chooses a brutal resolution; the Guardian fully awakens or the Eye separates from its host

Pressure and light

As always in Shadowdark, remember that light is time. In this tomb, the burning of torches also becomes a ritual barometer. From clock 4 onwards, any light source left unattended near a stele, a well or the Eye loses an additional 10 minutes of duration.

Page 3 - Act 1: Embermist before the descent

Act 1 should establish the village as something other than a vestibule. Embermist needs the PCs, but not everyone has the same idea of what to save.

Read to players

The hamlet clings to a fold of the moor as if hoping not to be seen from the sky. Thatched roofs heavy with rain, black stone walls, low cemetery, skinny bell tower twisted by the wind. However, this evening, the wind exists without noise. Residents talk too close together, as if their own words might be lost between their lips and neighboring ears.

On the square, a rope still hangs from the bell's clapper. She moves. No sound comes out.

Essential Surface NPCs

#### Yselde the night light Cairn digger, relic scavenger, pious enough to fear the mound and poor enough to think of it as an income. She sold Galt an incomplete plan of the tomb without imagining that he would attempt a revival. She now wants to save her brother Doran, enlisted as a porter.

#### Mayor Hallen Rusk Pragmatic, nervous, authoritarian only when someone listens to him. He offers a real reward to the PCs, but his real reflex remains to preserve the village before justice. He would rather see the relic resealed and the matter buried.

#### Sister Neva of the White Road Wounded pilgrim held in Brumecendre by rain and bad luck. She recognizes old Watcher symbols on the bone stakes. If the PCs treat it with respect, it provides useful liturgical details and a morality less greedy than that of the village.

#### Doran Brother of Yselde, sturdy porter, seen alive when the omens took him away with bags of salt and skins of black water. His rescue gives the scenario a concrete urgency.

Recommended opening scenes

#### The official story Hallen explains that "fanatics from the southern slopes" descended into the mound to steal a relic. This is true, but he forgets that Embermist has already been discreetly plundering the exterior niches for years and that certain objects of the rite are missing because of the village.

#### Dumb dogs A simple and powerful detail: the dogs of the hamlet follow the PCs everywhere, mouths open, without a sound. If a character speaks softly to them, one of them stares at the hill and scratches the dirt three times.

#### The silent bell A PC who examines the bell sees worn inscriptions under the bronze: "What should not be heard must first be named." This is a direct clue to the logic of the tomb.

Hooks to involve the PCs

1. Hallen promises 120 gp, lasting local favor, and any non-sacred loot recovered from the mound.
2. Yselde begs the PCs to save Doran before dawn, then half-admits that she helped the augurs without understanding their madness.
3. A PC dreamed the previous night of a closed eye in a damp stone that pronounced his name without a mouth.
4. Sister Neva claims that an ancient text speaks of other sister relics of the Eye, buried in the border hills.

What the PCs can learn before entering

The augurs deliberately mutilated their eyes to “only see the inside”.
A secondary entrance exists through a wet break to the northeast of the mound.
Local looters avoid a room where the slightest noise seems to come back heavier than before.
Eight people came down: Galt, four augurs, Sera the novice, Doran the porter and a second porter already dead or lost.

End of Act 1 expected

By the end of this page, the PCs should be motivated by at least two simultaneous drivers: reward, rescue, curiosity about the relic, or fear of what Galt may release.

Page 4 - Act 1: approach to the tumulus and first chambers

The mound should play like a readable mini-dungeon. The first zones teach the logic of the place: here, sound is matter, light is a countdown, and the clues can really be useful.

Text card

1. Split entrance -> 2. Narthex of the Porters and 3. Collapsed corridor
2. Narthex of the Porters -> 4. Room of Mute Stelae
3. Collapsed Corridor -> 5. Drowned Crypt
4. Room of Mute Stelae -> 6. Blind Well
5. Drowned Crypt -> 6. Blind Well
6. Blind Well -> 7. Black Salt Gallery
7. Black Salt Gallery -> 8. Clay Eyelids Room
8. Hall of Clay Eyelids -> 9. Antechamber of the Salt Throne
9. Antechamber of the Salt Throne -> 10. Chamber of the Eye

1. Split entry

Open crack in the mound, wet steps, bone stakes and black ribbons without rustling. Two bodies lie near the threshold: a looter with bleeding ears and a porter suffocated by black ash.

Clues and winnings:

9 gp, a small quarry hammer, a half-full flask of oil
traces of heavy bags pulled inwards
ritual lime sign indicating that Galt intends to return this way

Risk:

If the PCs shout, test DC 11 WIS or feeling dizzy; the next group roll in the tomb is made with narrative disadvantage if the GM uses this option

2. Narthex of the Porters

Lower room with stone benches. Sculpted silhouettes of servants carry miniature slabs on their backs. A central channel leads inwards.

What we find there:

a opened bag of black salt
Doran's footprints trailing from one knee
a symbol of the closed eye recently engraved with a knife by Sera

Secret:

under a bench, a schist tablet lists three injunctions: “Cover the noise”, “Refuse the gaze”, “Never let the blood touch the forehead”

3. Collapsed hallway

Secondary passage, wet, narrow, where you have to move on all fours. Good access for stealth, bad for panic.

Useful tests:

DEX DC 12 to progress quickly without losing equipment
STR DC 13 to free a stuck companion

Reward:

direct arrival behind the Drowned Crypt, with tactical advantage over a possible patrol

4. Room of Silent Stelae

Seven steles as tall as giants, engraved with barred ears, sewn mouths and closed eyes. Each stele absorbs a different range of sound.

How to play it:

speaking against the good stele opens a rift towards the Blind Well
hitting the wrong one wakes up 1d3 omens or advances the clock of silence
pouring oil on the engravings allows you to read hidden words: "Silence is not absence. It is a lock."

5. Drowned Crypt

Calf-deep black water, broken chains, open niches and overturned votive lamps. The ceiling is low enough that the smoke settles there quickly.

Hazards:

echo leeches in the walls
hanging bones which fall if you wade suddenly
floating oil that can be ignited to clear the area, but at the cost of blinding smoke

Loot:

an intact votive lamp that does not go out in a humid environment
a silver funeral mask worth 35 gp
an engraved clavicle that can serve as a focus for the counter-rite

6. Blind Well

Large coping around a vertical well which does not send back any echo. Five black bronze slabs form a crown on the ground.

Old-school logic:

each significant vibration descends into the well and informs the final chamber
covering the tiles with fabric, sand or mud reduces this risk
a character who lies down and looks at the bottom sees not his torch, but his own face with closed eyes

Proceed to Act 2 when:

the PCs reach the Blind Well
or save/intercept Sera
or understand that the tomb is not a simple place of pillage but a mechanism still in operation

Page 5 - Act 2: depths, revelations and fractures

Act 2 widens the grave morally. The PCs no longer just explore. They enter into an architecture designed to choose who has the right to know.

7. Black Salt Gallery

Long corridor where lines of salt outline an ancient protective circle. The augurs partially erased it to complete their ritual.

Effects:

walking in an intact line soothes the dead of the place
breaking the salt further gives Galt a narrative advantage for his rite
reconstituting a line requires 1 turn, a little salt and a DC 12 INT or WIS test

Discovery:

the second bearer, dead but not yet completely emptied of his voice; he whispers "Doran alive... the knife... the novice lies and helps"

8. Clay Eyelid Room

Niches full of clay faces with closed eyes. Each contains a fragment of memory confiscated by the Eye over the centuries.

What the PCs can get:

the real name of the oracle Ithria
the image of a former Watcher performing the counter-rite
a personal memory stolen from Galt, revealing that he is actually trying to hear his dead sister's last words

Cost:

touching a clay face requires a test DC 13 WIS
failure: the PC loses a minor useful or embarrassing memory for 1 hour, which the GM can recall later in the form of a blank

9. Antechamber of the Salt Throne

Transition room full of old stretchers, hooks and mineral sheets. Sera can hide there, pray there or betray there according to the desired rhythm.

Will be the novice

Young woman scarred on the scalp, one eye still intact, the other already covered with a milky veil by the rites of auguries. She is terrified, fascinated and not yet lost.

What she knows:

Galt needs three things to "open" the Eye: fresh blood, forehead clear of the oracle, complete silence
Doran is alive but tied near the final chamber as a sacrifice reserve
the dead priestess of the tomb continues to appear in polished surfaces

What she wants:

get out alive
do not return to the augurs if Galt dies
perhaps keep a fragment of vision for herself

The Tongueless Priestess

The ghost of Lady Thesra, ancient Nightlight, appears in still water, polished masks or the surface of the Eye itself. It does not attack unless there is serious desecration. She wants to prevent the prophetic use of the relic.

She can teach the counter-rite if the PCs:

gather his broken jaw and tie it properly
put a little black salt back in the erased circle
pronounce the name of Ithria without seeking to ask for a vision in exchange

Major Revelations of Act 2

The Eye never says the "pure" future. He constructs possible futures with pieces of stolen voices.
The Guardian of the Rest is the defensive function of the tomb, not its original occupant.
Galt doesn't just want to know. He wants to hear the sentence his sister said to him when she was dying, a sentence he never understood because of a fire and a collapsing roof.
The Watchers had prepared three legitimate exits: resealing, transfer to a willing guardian, or destruction by breaking the mirror and salt. None is without cost.

Complications to inject

Doran hears the PCs and struggles, advancing the clock if he is not calmed down quickly
Yselde may have followed the group in secret to retrieve a mask or save her brother at the worst possible moment
blind augurs shrink from clear light, but fight to the death if Galt promises them immediate vision

Page 6 - Act 2: prepare for the breaking point

From here, the scenario must stop offering neutral solutions. The PCs now have enough information to understand the cost of the possible choices, but not enough time to properly repair everything.

First clear contact with the Eye

When a PC looks at a polished surface in the antechamber or approaches the oracle's front, the Eye responds even before it is fully open. He doesn't speak out loud. He finishes sentences that the character was thinking in silence.

Examples:

“You want to know if you will survive. Bad question.”
“The dead person you mourn does not blame you for what you believe.”
“If I show you the door, what voice will you give me in return?”

Play the Eye as a cold, precise, never hysterical intelligence. He seduces better than he threatens.

The three main routes to climax

#### 1. Resealing Close the oracle's brow again, purify the circle and send the Guardian back to sleep.

Prerequisites:

black salt
name of Ithria
closing gesture learned from Thesra or deduced from the steles

#### 2. Destruction Shatter the Eye and disrupt the architecture of the tomb before the stolen energy settles elsewhere.

Prerequisites:

heavy weapon, consecrated copper, or controlled fall into the Blind Well
understand that the Guardian will come out in force during the operation

#### 3. Ownership Steal the Eye, transfer its anchor to a volunteer, or let Galt take it in a dirty compromise.

Prerequisites:

accept that the curse leaves the mound with a new bearer
manage the reaction of the Guardian, the dead and the survivors of Embermist

Game reminder Shadowdark

The important tests here should be kept simple and concrete.

DEX DC 12 to intervene quickly under the pressure of the rite
INT or WIS DC 13 to correctly read a liturgical gesture
STR DC 14 to move the oracle, close a slab or contain the Guardian for a moment
CHA DC 14 to switch Sera, Yselde or even Galt during the final scene

Before the climax, leave three more levers for the PCs

Free Doran to deprive Galt of a sacrifice
Return Sera so that she sabotages the last gesture of the rite
Repair part of the circle to weaken the Guardian's aura

How to show that the place is closing

At clock 4 or more:

the walls take on the texture of briefly damp mineral flesh
the words become shorter in the mouth, as if a syllable has been lost
lanterns cast shadows with closed eyes
the well returns slow, almost cardiac beats

The page should end at the moment when the door to the Eye Chamber is no longer just an objective. It is a moral threshold.

Page 7 - Act 3: the Chamber of the Eye

The climax begins when the PCs reach the final chamber, or sooner if the Silence Clock reaches 5 and the tomb decides to rush its own resolution.

Recommended dramatic layout

Ideally located in the room:

the oracle Ithria petrified on her throne of black salt
the Eye still sealed or already half open in his forehead
Brother Galt in the circle, ready to finish the gesture
Doran or another living captive
one or two surviving omens
the Guardian of Rest emerging from the walls like compressed dust

Read to players

The room is round, too calm, lined with low steles on which rest bowls of salt, ash and green copper. In the center, the oracle sits on a throne carved from a single block. His face is no longer entirely human; it is part of the statue, the skull and the mask. In his forehead, the obsidian orb seems deeper than an object of this size should be. Brother Galt does not greet you with hatred, but with relief. As if he's been waiting for you all along.

Brother Galt at climax

Galt must be played as a tired fanatic, lucid in flashes, capable of real sadness.

What he suggests depending on the situation:

share the vision if the PCs let him finish
offer Doran in place of a PC to avoid immediate combat
abandon the omens and flee with the Eye if the Guardian awakens too quickly
kneel for a moment if someone mentions your sister by her real name, Maerwynn

Possible major actions

#### 1. Negotiate under threat The PCs speak with Galt, Sera, the Eye, or even Thesra through the black surfaces. Very Shadowdark in spirit: a good negotiation can avoid a head-on confrontation without making the scene easy.

#### 2. Cut the rite Extinguish the censers, close the front, move the victim, break the sacrificial blade, or spill the salt. Each option weakens Galt but can trigger the Guardian faster.

#### 3. Confront the Guardian The Guardian is not necessarily the main "boss", but a terrible material pressure. He blocks exits, muffles verbal spells, and pushes everyone to act quickly.

#### 4. Steal the Eye A PC can remove or receive the Eye. Make it a major gesture, not just a free action. It must cost blood, a risky test, or a lasting consequence.

Rhythm Tips

always provide usable information before irreversible danger
let Galt speak the truth at least once
reward intelligent ritual gestures even if they do not follow exactly the planned plan
don't reduce the scene to "kill the last enemy and search"

The complete counter-rite

If the PCs have learned it, it takes three steps:

cover the Eye with black salt and dry cloth
close the jaw of Thesra or the oracle depending on the chosen interpretation
say out loud: “What was kept is not given. What was you is not sold.”

A character who performs this gesture under pressure gains 1 luck token if your table uses one.

Page 8 - Act 3: four major resolutions

The following resolutions are the strong endings of the storyline. They can be played as is or partially combined depending on the survivors.

End A - Just resealing

Condition: The PCs interrupt Galt, release the sacrifice, and complete the counterrite before the Guardian fully awakens.

Resolution: The silence does not disappear suddenly; it recedes piece by piece, like a dark tide. The Eye becomes opaque and depthless again. The oracle sags slightly on his throne. The Guardian freezes in the stone of the walls. The dead of the mound find an uneasy but stable rest.

Cost:

the tomb remains dangerous and must be monitored
Embermist learns he lives above a real prison
Yselde, Hallen or Sera may still want to come back one day

Ending B - Impure Destruction

Condition: The Eye is broken or thrown into the Blind Well with enough ritual force to break its anchor.

Resolution: The tomb convulses. The steles burst, the well spits out a breath charged with ancient voices, and the Guardian of Rest fully materializes for a short scene of survival or collapse. The artifact is destroyed, but the hill maintains a zone of silence around it for months.

Cost:

part of the tumulus collapses
treasures and evidence are lost
Cindermist gains a cursed ruin instead of a sealed tomb

Ending C - Sacrilegious theft

Condition: The PCs or Galt seize the Eye and leave the tomb alive.

Resolution: The village finds its voices again for a time, because the source of silence has left the hill. But the relic is no longer locked away. The wearer hears secret doors, hollow cavities, and sometimes the silent thoughts of sleepers within close range. Other factions will quickly learn that such an item is in circulation.

Cost:

progressive curse on the wearer
future hunting by scholars, fanatics, necromancers or surviving Watchers
Galt can become a recurring rival if he escapes without the artifact

End D - Prophetic pact

Condition: a PC, Sera or even Galt agrees to voluntarily take on the role of new human anchor, with full knowledge of the price.

Resolution: The Eye leaves the front of Ithria but does not become free. He anchors himself to a new living guardian, who now sees the blind spots of the nearby world: traps, secret doors, obvious lies, omens in flashes. The Keeper of Rest returns to sleep because a human spirit takes charge.

Cost:

the new goalkeeper gradually loses the warmth of his voice
every night, test DC 13 WIS or 1 STR point lost until the next complete rest in a holy place
the campaign gains a tragic artifact bearer rather than a solved problem

Epilogue Questions

Who in Brumecendre knows the true version of the facts in the morning?
Does the group keep the secret of the tomb or do they sell it?
If an omen was heard, who will pay the price later?

Page 9 - Random tables, detailed NPCs and creatures Shadowdark

Table D6 - Meetings in the mound

1. Two looters hidden in a niche demand a sharing of the loot in exchange for panicked but true information.
2. A procession of motionless dead people stands in a corridor until someone speaks too loudly.
3. Sera appears alone with a lamp, pretends to want to help, then gauges who can get her out alive.
4. A heavy shadow crosses a wall sideways: a simple sign from the Guardian, not yet his attack.
5. Doran weakly calls for help from behind a poorly closed slab.
6. The ghost of Thesra indicates without words a stele, a broken jaw or a line of salt to repair.

Table D6 - Treasures and finds

1. Three blackened silver funerary rings, total value 30 gp.
2. Evening incense still dry; burned in a ritual room, it gives advantage to the next test linked to the counter-rite.
3. Watchmen's lamp; its flame remains stable in wind and humidity, but it attracts the dead linked to the place.
4. Black copper blade; dagger +1 against undead and stone creatures, but it whispers in sleep.
5. Thin obsidian mask; value 60 gp, or ritual tool giving advantage in speaking to Thesra.
6. Polished Fragment of the Eye; once per day, allows you to sense a secret door within close range, but requires a DC 12 WIS check at the next dawn.

Table D6 - What Stolen Vision Shows

1. A belfry without a bell at the top of a distant city shrouded in mist.
2. A companion of the group dying in front of a door that no one recognizes yet.
3. An underground monastery where other skull-oracles still stare into the dark.
4. Galt's sister young, alive, writing a name on a wet slab.
5. A dragon or draconic thing sleeping under a mountain pierced with tombs.
6. The bearer of the Eye sitting one day on a throne of salt that he does not yet know.

Detailed NPCs

#### Brother Galt Former novice of a burned-down hospice, who became leader of fanatics after confusing mourning and revelation. Soft voice, precise gestures, empty but never absent gaze.

Motives:

finally hearing his sister's last sentence
prove that the world can be made readable
survive if possible, even at the cost of his disciples

Weaknesses:

guilt
intimate truths named out loud
the complete awakening of the Guardian, which he fears more than he admits

#### Will be Novice not yet completely lost. She can become a guide, a thief, a witness or a future antagonist depending on the ending.

Motives:

get out alive
not becoming a person again after seeing a vision
choose for herself who it will belong to next

#### Yselde Excellent surface survivor, never quite loyal, never quite cowardly. If she goes down, it is less for the gold than for the shame of her own role.

Creatures Shadowdark

#### Blind augury HP 7, AC 12, ATK dagger +2 (1d4) or sling +2 (1d4), close MV, Special: if a target has spoken loudly, shouted or cast a verbal spell this round, the augury has advantage over its next attack against it. Moral 7.

#### Echo Leech HP 9, AC 13, ATK bite +3 (1d6), MV near swim, Special: stolen voice; the target cannot speak until the end of their next turn, and must pass a DC 12 CON check to cast a verbal spell before then. Moral 6.

#### Guardian of Rest HP 26, AC 15, ATK stone fist +4 (1d8) or funeral embrace +4, close MV, Special: aura of silence; at close range, verbal spells require a DC 13 INT or WIS check, otherwise they do not go off but are not lost. On a natural 18+, the grip immobilizes the target until a DC 13 STR test is passed. Moral 12.

#### Thesra, tongueless priestess HP 10, AC 12, ATK sepulchral touch +2 (1d4), close MV flies, Special: never attacks first; if appeased, she blesses a torch or ritual gesture, giving advantage to the next resealing test. Moral 10.

#### Brother Galt HP 12, AC 13, ATK ritual knife +3 (1d6) or blinding powder +2, close MV, Special: faded prophet; once per scene, he can force a visible PC to reroll a successful roll by immediately describing the worst consequence encountered. Moral 8.

Page 10 - Annexes, worldbuilding Shadowdark and campaign trails

Drive the tomb in true Shadowdark style

Reward concrete observation: salt, cloth, oil, ropes, boards and silence are tools, not decoration.
Don't hide all the logic behind tests. The steles, the salt lines and the well provide legible clues.
Keep the light pressure present. In this scenario, running out of torches is almost like wasting ritual time.
The most important monsters want to impose a condition as much as they want to inflict damage.

Link this scenario to a Shadowdark campaign

The Eye may be just one of nine reliquaries of vision built in the fall of a forgotten empire.
The Last Breath Watchers can provide an ancient faction of guardians, enemies or troublesome allies.
Embermist can become a thankless but useful base between two descents underground.
A Free City Scholar, Prince-Bishop, or Frontier Necromancer may wish to purchase or recover any clues from the tomb.

Country trails

The name seen in a vision refers to a second underground observatory buried under a ruined monastery.
Galt survives and founds a cult of stolen speech around a simple shard of the Eye.
Sera becomes a hunter of visionary relics, an ambiguous rival of the group.
The silence that has touched Embermist extends to other necropolises, a sign that a network of seals is falling one by one.
Doran swears he heard at the bottom of the well a map to "the city without bells", the ideal place for a sequel.

Local awards and suites

Hallen actually pays if the village survives and keeps its voice.
Yselde offers the PCs access to her looter caches if Doran returns alive.
Sister Neva can direct the group to other frontier shrines and provide a sacred letter of introduction.

Compatibility and licensing

Shadowdark compatible.
Independent third party product designed for Shadowdark RPG, with no official affiliation with The Arcane Library.

Credits

Design and text: AITTIA Studio
Editorial line: Scenarios Shadowdark AITTIA Studio
Version: FR master, extended edition 10 A5 pages