A machine left by another civilization, operating on laws not known to us.
Overview
The Sarcophagus facilities are medical preservation installations built by the civilization that occupied Terra before the Great Eruption. Each is powered by an energy source of a scale the current civilization cannot replicate — a single facility’s output could supply Chrysalis City for a thousand year. Inside, the preserved remains of the old civilization’s people still lie in their chambers: elves, dwarves, and others, kept in stasis by systems waiting for a cure or solution that never came before the systems failed.
The facilities are buried across Terra, numbered from 28 to 59, and connected by the same volcanic tunnel network that runs beneath Malachite, Chrysalis City, and the deeper Underdark. No two factions currently searching for them are working together.
The Numbered Facilities
- Facility 28 — Ruins. Nothing intact beyond writings describing the site’s purpose. Discovered beneath Malachite City at roughly 2,000ft, by Dragon Logistics.
- Facility 31 — Worn metal walls, structurally intact. Energy units still output power, though a malfunction killed everyone inside. Buried roughly 800ft beneath Rhine Labs — a location unlikely to be a coincidence, since Kristen Wright is currently draining its energy for the Horizon Arc Project.
- Facility 37 — Newer and better-fitted than 28 or 31. Power supply shut off. Contains a researcher’s remains, a tome connected to Asmodeus, automatons resembling Schinsharo with mechanical arms, and apparent manufacturing capability. Not yet discovered by any surface faction.
- Facility 59 — Best preserved of the known sites, 400ft beneath Dawn Town in Chrysalis City, hidden under the cover of the Outer Storage Facility. Controlled by Chrysalis Labs; see Facility 59 and What Lies Below for full detail on that site specifically.
The Buried City Sarcophagus
A Sarcophagus sits on the western edge of the Buried City, the ancient settlement sealed beneath crystal and old magma from Titania’s eruption, connected to an old reactor-plant to its south. This is the installation the deep-delve party (Bam, Grunk, Strunk, Schinsharo, Kazaman — delving group #710) found and explored across several sessions:
- The entry hall’s walls carry murals for visitors: long-eared elves and bearded dwarves, a mushroom dragon and a forest dragon, a great spider rising from below, and the building of the great sealed coffins.
- The chamber holds a handprint panel that was found to match Schinsharo’s own hand — the first hint of his connection to whatever built this place.
- Vitrified dwarves and elves were later found deeper in a metal corridor beyond, alongside the Dragon Swan (raw session term), a creature able to vitrify targets, sing them to sleep, and raise the vitrified as undead. The party sealed the afflicted back into their sarcophagi after defeating it.
- The site rewarded the party with a set of awakened Tinker’s Tools.
Role in the Horizon Arc Project
The Sarcophagus network is central to the Horizon Arc Project: the Vivarium Lab aboard the project’s vessel is powered directly by a Sarcophagus, and its power output — wildly disproportionate to anything a conventional vessel needs — is one of the clearest signs the “Pioneer Project” cover story hides something larger. Kristen Wright is siphoning Facility 31’s still-functioning energy units for the project, using cover contracts such as the Wright Commission and the Deep-Earth Tunneling Logistics Contract to keep contractors and property owners from realizing what they’re really supporting.
What It Was All For
The old civilization’s purpose in building the Sarcophagi remains an open question the DM notes deliberately leave as a hook: were they preserving the sick and injured to await a cure, or fleeing something else entirely? One line of speculation circulating among faction insiders is that the previous civilization wasn’t fleeing war or natural disaster at all — that Originium itself, rather than being merely misused, was the catastrophe they were trying to outlast.
Notes
- Naming conflict, unresolved: This page’s title and filename (“The Sarcophagus below Terra”) do not match the wikilink target used throughout the rest of wiki_konradsboks and the other vaults, which consistently link to
[[The Sarcophagus]](e.g. from Continental Island Terra, Rhine Lab, Horizon Arc Project, Schinsharo). Recommend confirming with Konrad whether to rename this file/title toThe Sarcophagusto match existing links, or add an alias, before publishing. - Facility 37 identity conflict, unresolved:
journeysthroughterra_Underdark beneath Terra.mdexplicitly identifies the Buried City’s Sarcophagus as Facility 37 and states it “has not yet been discovered by any surface faction.” This contradicts the deep-delve party’s own session material (dungeonsanddragonsSession 2–5 logs), where that same Buried City Sarcophagus was found, explored, and fought over — including the handprint match to Schinsharo and the Dragon Swan encounter. Either the Buried City site is not Facility 37, or the “undiscovered” framing needs to be retconned/updated. Flagging rather than resolving. - The raw
dungeonsanddragons_The Sarcophagus.mdnote attributes discovery of Facilities 28, 59, and 31 jointly to “Dragon Logistics together with Malachite Forges,” while other current wiki_konradsboks pages (Rhine Lab, Chrysalis City Facility 59) attribute Facility 31 to Rhine Labs and Facility 59 to Chrysalis Labs specifically. Likely just an early draft’s looser attribution rather than a hard conflict, but noting the discrepancy. - “Dragon Swan” is the term used in the raw session summaries; no wiki_konradsboks statblock or bestiary entry currently exists under that name — left as-is rather than inventing a formal creature entry.
- No image currently sourced for this page;
Background-Hall_of_Stasis.webpis embedded in the rawdungeonsanddragonsnote and could be reused here if it exists in the wiki_konradsboks attachments folder — left unconfirmed rather than assumed.