Ossuary

The Ossuary is a smallish tomb containing the remains and grave goods of some distant relatives of the pharaohs, along with the corpses of their retainers and household animals. It is undoubtedly riddled with many traps, and its undead denizens are unlikely to take kindly to looting.

You can make out a staircase leading downwards into a small tomb. Sand surrounds the staircase and is continuously pouring onto it. Before long the staircase will be gone. They say that some distant relatives of the pharaohs were entombed here.

Useful Info

The Ossuary is a randomly generated special level of the Dungeon, accessible through a timed portal and occasionally found in the early dungeon around the same floors that the Sewers are generated on. Although its layout varies greatly, you can always expect to find undead monsters (including mummies), numerous traps, and a pile of treasure at the end. An exit should be located right by the entrance, but leaving will seal off the floor forever.

Layout

The Ossuary's layout is unpredictable. Although it's always a fairly small floor, it ranges from a wide open crypt with little cover, to a series of interconnected squares, all separated by secret doors. The presence of secret doors is usually pretty obvious; if you see treasure through transparent walls, there's probably some means of getting there.

Tips & Tricks

• The Ossuary is often found very early in the game. Ice elementalists and Necromancers without Dispel Undead may want to skip it if they have no means of dealing with undead enemies.
• The mummies you encounter are slow, but pack a potent death curse when defeated: each time you take one out, a piece of equipment in your inventory is cursed. Fire damage or weapons of holy wrath will make short work of them, but killing them with summoned monsters lets you avoid the curse entirely. This goes double for encounters with a guardian mummy; their death curses are much more dangerous.
• Although a little bit of Traps & Doors skill will certainly help you with the many traps and secret doors of the Ossuary, most characters can bumble through without too much trouble. Poison resistance and exploring while at full HP is a fine substitute.
  • High-metabolism characters such as trolls may wish to give this branch a pass if they don't have much in the way of food, as you'll probably be waiting around for quite a bit in the more trap-heavy versions.
• If you open the first door and suddenly find yourself facing an Ossuary that's half underwater, expect bog bodies in surprisingly large numbers. These creatures can do extra cold damage in melee, especially to low-level characters who are less likely to have resistance. Keep an eye on your potions!
• If you see the message: "You feel the presence of a powerful and evil guardian...", expect the main treasure pile at the end of the ossuary to be watched over by a guardian mummy, which (depending on your skill set) may be well beyond your ability to kill. Even if you do manage to kill it, you'll still get pegged with a nasty death curse.

Monsters

• Scorpion (Rare)
• Mummy
• Guardian mummy (Rare)
• Wight (Rare)
• Mimic (Rare)
• Skeleton
• Zombie
• Simulacrum (Rare)
• Spectral thing (Rare)
  • Possible Base Races: Bat, Giant newt, Rat, Quokka, Jackal, Hound, Adder, Water moccasin, Worm, Worker ant, Scorpion, Kobold, Big kobold, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Gnoll, Orc, Human, Elf, Centaur

Ossuary Variant Monsters

• Decayed bog body (weaker, has Throw Frost instead of Bolt of Cold)

Timeout Messages

1: Nearby sand pours into the staircase. 2: Nearby sand pours into the staircase, lightly covering it. 3: Nearby sand pours into the staircase, greatly covering it. 4: Nearby sand pours into the staircase, almost completely blocking access.