Dungeon23, January Day 29

 The crypts continue...

Area 3

The heavy wooden double doors to this room are neither locked nor trapped.

Upon entering the room, read the following text:

This square room has cobblestone floors and plastered walls. Four heavy wooden pillars secure the ceiling at each corner. Across the room, facing the doors is a large stone statue of a male hellspawn holding an open book. The book is held in a way to be read by onlookers, not the figure in the statue.

The statue is carved to resemble the founder of the evil cult, a now-deceased hellspawn: Mormentos Darkhorn. A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check will inform the PCs that Mormentos was once a powerful religious leader belonging to the Temple of the Nine Hells. However, after a prophetic vision, he disappeared and went into seclusion.

Trap: The writing on the book held by the statue is in the Infernal language and seems to speak of the rise of the Nine Hells during the legendary “end times.” But this is mainly a trap to lure in the curious and unwary. The writing on the book is a glyph of warding, which can only be detected with a successful DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check. These explosive runes activate when they are read.

When triggered, the glyph erupts with magical energy in a 20-ft-radius sphere centered on the glyph. The sphere spreads around corners. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 23 (5d8) acid damage on a failed saving throw, or half as much damage on a successful one.