Getting to Know - the Lords of the Crypt

The Abronti: For generations, a family of wealth and influence, with an ancestry tainted by bloodborne illness and dramatic madness. Through the years, the more troublesome members would find themselves spirited off to distant monasteries, undertaking extended expeditions, or admitted to quiet sanitariums. Eventually, the family name was overtaken by tragedy and illness – passing entirely with the demise of the unmarried and childless Cauvage Abronti. With no legal heirs, the bulk of the remaining family fortune passed into trust with an organization known as the Vault Foundation. In time, out of respect for its greatest benefactor, the organization became the Abronti Trust. The exact details of the setup and administration of this venture are very complicated.

Dark Inquest: With the Abronti family extinct, and no one to protest the instigation of questionable legal proceedings, the opportunists and scavengers came out from beneath various rocks to lay their dubious claims. For the better part of two years, the legal representatives of the departed Abronti family held the line against every covetous siege. Then, the departed family elders, led by Cauvage Abronti, stepped forward into the light to reclaim their own. To their credit, the Abronti elders had arranged for a letter of introduction to be delivered to the office of their solicitor before making their reappearance. At the time, the letter was thought to have been a joke in poor taste.

Vault Cabal: The Abrontis were dead to begin with. Yet, in death, their wealth and influence had only grown. Through the loyal diligence and faithful competence of servants, representatives, caretakers, employees, and officials, the Abronti family had quietly carried on. Debts were paid, properties maintained, investments managed, and secrets kept. So many secrets. One of which, apparently, being that of immortality – of a sort. For the Abrontis were most certainly dead. Of this there was no doubt. And the dead could not lay claim to the property and title of the living. Well, not until passage of the Open Crypt Act of 332. Pretty impressive what money, influence, and careful estate planning can accomplish.

The Crypt: Much of this backstory and setting detail came about while pondering the nature and purpose of the Crypt Thing. While I understand a lot of the complaints about the Fiend Folio, it was an exciting surprise on the shelf of my local B. Dalton bookseller. Nothing against the life-altering work of Gary Gygax, but I was ready for something different after the Monster Manual. Let’s face it – more than half the entries in that book weren’t exactly unknown to a kid versed in fantasy and mythology. More often than not, the fiends within this folio were new to me. Even then, I was getting a feel for the artists of the day. Opening the Fiend Folio those first few times, I was welcomed by a few familiar favorites. Of course, there were tons of illustrations jarring to my untrained eye. In short, I didn’t like a lot of them. Many failed to capture or inspire my imagination. One that succeeded more than admirably was found on page 21, under the entry of Crypt Thing. Not the simple mug shot next to the stat block – the glorious portrait at the center of the second column.

The Thing: I know I’ve said it before, but that Russ Nicholson illustration of the Crypt Thing and…lone adventurer that made his saving throw? Bodyguard? Master? Admirer? Cultist? I didn’t know – but it got me thinking. Could the Crypt Thing be part of something greater? Something besides a creepy dungeon inconvenience? I mean, they weren’t undead – and they were implied to take some sort of perverse pleasure in messing with hapless adventurers. Yet, it had a Neutral alignment. No chaotic whim. No inherent malice. Though skeletal, there was no indication of unlife. No mention of the usual immunities given to animated dead things (well, it could only be hit be magical weapons – but that’s true of a lot of critters). No claim to construct status. Was I supposed to assume this creature was somehow alive?

The Spark: I’ve seen a lot of unfavorable Fiend Folio reviews. And, yes – I get it. Now, I’m not going to say that all those naysayers have limited imaginations…but –

Personally, I don’t really use many of the Fiend Folio entries with their Fiend Factory settings. For me, they are sources of inspiration more than immutable stat blocks and static flavor text to be cut-and-pasted right into my setting. But then, I’m the guy that finds all the countless Demon and Devil entries in both Monster Manuals to be kind of tedious and a bit of a waste of space – especially in the MM2. I wasn’t disturbed by Demons and Devils in my RPG in the 80s – I was bored by them. But, that’s another blog entry entirely.

The Crypt Thing. Not undead. Well, even back then we pretty much ignored that bit. We just figured it couldn’t be turned as long as it sat in its chair as a guardian. That was it’s only purpose, after all. Roger Musson’s written description implied a few options and left some intriguing wiggle room. 100% chance to be encountered In Lair (“at least, none have been encountered elsewhere”). Oh, Roger – you delightful tease. The Crypt Thing may speak – and it will lie! Those companions of yours that vanished – they were destroyed. You wanna be next? You feeling lucky? Not all Crypt Things even teleport their victims – we have “aberrant” versions that paralyze and invisibilize them instead. Variant monsters mentioned right in the description of the original monster entry. That was my jam!

Variance: Did I call the Crypt Thing a guardian before? Oops. That was presumptuous of me. The Fiend Folio entry never mentions that. It has a lair – we presumed it had to be guarding something. Honestly, I’ve used the Thing as nothing more than a nuisance encounter at the end of a dead-end passage. But, I do have a tendency to modify and adapt monsters for my own setting. Now, the original entry never specifies that the Thing is not undead – it just never mentions that it is. I mean – it’s a robed skeleton. Okay – “A pale, solitary skeletal being…” Come on. Pale? Sure – bones tend to be kind of pale. Skeletal? Like – skeletally thin? Nope. Doesn’t even have eyes in its empty sockets, according to both illustrations.

Second Coming: 2E AD&D gave us the updated Crypt Thing in the Monstrous Manual – instituting some of our assumptions and alterations in the process. Oh, and a much less interesting illustration. If this had been my introduction to the monster, I doubt I’d be writing all this nonsense today. Still, this later entry clarified the undead status of the Crypt Thing. It gave us a bit of an origin and purpose: raised or created by spell to protect the bodies of those laid to rest. We also get verification that it cannot be turned in its own lair. The range of clothing choices increases from only brown robes to a more fashionable black. Oh – and the eye sockets gleam with nifty red pinpoints of light. Doesn’t really do much for me. 2E AD&D didn’t inspire me much more than 1E, to be honest. I usually preferred my own embellishments and adaptations.

Clothes Maketh the Thing: Brown robes. Black robes. I’d been considering the robes long before the Monstrous Manual came into my grasp. My campaign had introduced a villain shrouded in a voluminous cloak of woven spiderweb. The cloak was a powerful artifact that gave the villain much of his necromantic power. Well – that’s what the players believed. Truthfully, the villain wore what looked like a spider earring – and this was the actual villain. An alien spider that wove a cloak and controlled the mind of its victim to further its own goals while no one suspected the innocuous piece of jewelry hidden within the hood of the cloak. Also, I really liked the monster known as the Cloaker. These potential details generated the idea of making the Crypt Thing’s robes the actual monster, instead of the skeleton.

Cryptic Things: The Crypt Thing is among the least of an undead society resulting from the explorations and machinations of the Abronti elders. Robed in unassuming brown, these creatures form a base caste of servitor undead. Common belief places the members of the inner circle of the original cabal in the roles of Crypt Dooms, the most powerful of these creatures and the keepers of the bindings over all the rest. The society of the crypt is centered on arcane bindings and control of the shadowy unlife of its members. Robed in gray, the Crypt Warder oversees and maintains the Crypt Things. The black-robed Crypt Doom holds the source and sharing of the animating power behind the Crypt Things and the rest. The Abronti elders themselves wear robes of deepest violet and are known as Crypt Lords.

Things to Do: With an established hierarchy of status and power, the Abronti organization could focus on their important goals. At the top of the list was immortality, followed closely by gaining power enough to maintain that immortality indefinitely.

There is much more to explore - including the secret journey of the Abronti elders from death to undeath, the true nature of the Crypt Thing (and the others), and specific stats/details of each creature type. These revelations (and more) will be compiled and shared.