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The Guide

Everything The Chronicle knows

Chapter X

GuideBarrow crypts

Barrow crypts

Barrow crypts are the tombs of houses that died out long ago, half dungeon and half puzzle. Look for a walled graveyard with a dark, steep-roofed mausoleum, rows of graves and dead trees hung with soul lanterns. Inside the mausoleum, stairs lead deep underground.

A dark stone mausoleum with a steep roof in a graveyard full of cobwebs and soul lanterns
The way in: a walled graveyard with a dark mausoleum. Stairs inside lead deep underground.

What's down there

  • The Hall of the Fallen: four stone sarcophagi of the founder's children, and four cold braziers on pedestals of gold (the crown), iron (the sword), hay (the harvest) and bone.
  • The sealed tomb of the house's founder, at the far end of the hall. Its stones can't be broken or dug around until it opens.
  • The catacombs: passages that branch off the hall, laid out differently in every crypt. Watch out for arrow traps (a dark pressure plate between two pillars), burial halls with a skeleton spawner, an ossuary with old graves to brush for treasure, and a cave-in with a secret room behind a chiseled wall block. Undead also spawn in the dark.
Four lit braziers on pedestals in a dark crypt hall
The Hall of the Fallen: four braziers on pedestals of gold, iron, hay and bone, lit in the right order.

Opening the tomb

  1. Read the epitaphs. Right-click each sarcophagus. It tells you which child lies there, their emblem, and a clue about when they died, such as "When I fell, only one of us still lived."
  2. Light the braziers with flint and steel, in the order the children died. Light one out of turn and the flames go out and the dead rise. When you get it right, the four flames burn as one.
  3. Find the sigil. The Sigil of House … (a glowing dark shard) lies in a chest in the catacombs, always the one farthest from the hall. Once the flames are lit, the game tells you which direction to look.
  4. Right-click the seal with the sigil in your inventory. The seal cracks open and the founder rises as the Barrow-Lord, a boss that grows stronger as your house gains renown.
The boss Briar Wolfsbane, the Barrow-Lord, appearing in a dark crypt with a boss bar
The founder rises as the Barrow-Lord: "Who wakes the dead of my house?"

The reward

Lay the Barrow-Lord to rest and your character takes up the fallen house's last heirloom: a sword, axe, helmet or chestplate (iron, or diamond for a renowned house). The fallen house carried it for two generations, so it's a rank 2 heirloom from the start, with their names in its history. Your house also gains 6 renown, the Chronicle records the deed, and the tomb holds a chest of treasure.

Every crypt belongs to a different fallen house with its own names and its own answer. To find one, take the Lay the dead to rest job at an inn.