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Brandath Crypts
The Brandath Crypts are located in Waterdeep's “City of the Dead”, a public park dotted with mausoleums and crypt-complexes.
get the maps from https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/42819/roleplaying-games/dragon-heist-remix-part-6b-the-brandath-crypts
(See Dragon Heist, p. 179.)
At dusk, hundreds of driftglobes make their way from the inhavited part of the city and congregate in the City of the Dead. They spend the night here and then disperse, returning to the waking city at dawn. No one knows the reason for this.
At night, the City of the Dead is closed. Two city guards are stationed at each entry gate. It requires a DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check to slip over the walls.
Guardians
SIR AMBROSE EVERDAWN (LG male human Tethyrian knight): An aging servant of Kelemvor (god of the dead), patrols the cemetery from sunset to sunrise, chasing off grave robbers and making sure the dead stay buried. Characters who creep around the cemetery in the dark have a 30 percent chance of running into him. If that happens, he escorts them out and alerts the City Guard if they refuse to leave.
BRANDATH TREANT: The largest tree growing by the main entrance to the Brandath Mausoleums is a treant. It awakens when one or more creatures approach and growls, “Only those of Brandath blood are welcome here! Begone!”
If Renaer Neverember (of Brandath blood) is present, the treant allows him and his companions to pass unmolested. It says to Renaer in passing, “Your mother was a lovely person.”
If someone other than a Brandath attempts to enter a mausoleum, the treant will animate two trees and attack. The treant and its animated allies are too big to enter all but the main chambers of Mausoleum C.
LADY ALETHEA’S TOMB
Renaer's mother, Lady Alethea is interred here.
This room was actually the first Brandath mausoleum and it was the burial site of Lord Anri, who rested here undisturbed for many hundred years while his descendants lived, died, and were buried around him.
The ego of Lord Dagult Neverember, however, manifests in myriad ways. When his wife, Lady Alethea Brandath, died, Lord Dagult wished to exult her in death. Lady Alethea, however, had requested a simple tomb in the Brandath Crypts. Nevertheless, Lord Dagult got what he wanted by refurbishing Lord Anri’s tomb and burying her there, giving her a place of primacy.
LADY ALETHEA’S SARCOPHAGUS: Clearly newer than the rest of the crypt, a bouquet of wilted flowers lies atop her sarcophagus (which is sculpted in her likeness).
GM Note: The flowers were left by Renaer. PORTRAIT ON THE CEILING: A faded, chipped portrait of Lord Anri adorns the the plaster ceiling. He is identified in the portrait with a labeled banner. Fresh script around the perimeter of the painting reads, in four languages, “The beauty of our age, in death, is watched over by the spirits of her ancestors.”
DC 14 Intelligence (History): The portrait was actually added to the crypt several centuries after Lord Anri’s time. In the portrait, he is wearing an alexandrite-tipped pin and is holding a distinctive dwarven compass in his left hand. (DC 17: These are symbols of the Maroon Brotherhood, an obscure fraternal order that was once active in Waterdeep but not longer exists.) GM Note: Lord Anri was not a member of the Maroon Brotherhood; the painting was commissioned by the brotherhood and added the symbolism retroactively.
SECRET PASSAGE
A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) test discovers that the southern wall of the crypt is false, disguising the staircase leading to the old crypts beneath the mausoleum.
THE OLD CRYPTS
See the map on p. 71 of Dragon Heist.
STAIRS DOWN: Sconces for torches are placed on the walls, but there are no torches within them. The airy is dry. There is a thick coating of dust, but a large amount of fairly recent traffic has disturbed it up and down the main hall.
DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation): The top step is scorched by a recent explosion. A DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check identifies this as the remains of a triggered glyph of warding. (GM Note: Triggered by the Cassalanter team that removed the Eye.) AREA M2: One of the sconces has been ripped from the wall here and tossed to the floor.
DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation): The remnants of a glyph of warding can be found on the floor here. It’s been rendered inactive by someone blotting out several key strokes of the glyph. Sconce: There was a secret compartment behind the sconce. It’s empty now. (GM Note: This is where Lord Neverember hid the Third Eye, which the Cassalanters then stole.) TO THE VAULT: The collapsed eastern end of the tunnel is actually an illusion that conceals an intact archway filled with a heavy door of steel.
The Arch: The keystone of the arch is decorated to appear like a mountain with a purple alexandrite gemstone in the middle of it (a variation of Dumathoin’s holy symbol). The voussoir have various symbols carved in them in alternation with dwarven runes: A dwarven compass, a serpent’s forked tongue, a scarabaeus, a brain with two tentacles (Ilsensine’s holy symbol), a broken arrow (Laduguer’s holy symbol). (GM Note: These are all symbols of the Maroon Brotherhood.) The Door: Obviously much more recent than the surrounding stonework (it was installed by Lord Dagult to provide some actual physical security for the vault), and has actually damaged some of the ancient symbols on the arch. It’s a 2-foot-thick vault door, with a DC 22 lock. There’s an alarm spell on the door, but it’s keyed to Lord Dagult and, assuming he’s still in Neverwinter, he’s too far away to get the ping. Beyond the Door: A 10-foot-wide hallway that slopes down to the Vault (see Part 6C). A glyph of warding has been placed so that it triggers on anyone stepping through the door.