Five masked Corrupted demanded a “pilgrim’s sign” in the Black Speech and killed Titus. One hidden staircase below them, a girl in priestly robes welcomed the party as “pilgrims” in Hazadi. Somebody still makes pilgrimage to The Mirror Lake.
The Question
Who are the pilgrims, what is the sign — and are the masked five and Mirriam parts of the same arrangement, or opposite sides of a trapped door?
What We Know (all S9)
On the road
- Haroun noticed a few places used as campsites “at various points in the past” along the old Imperial road south.
- The fort’s store room appears to have seen some use since the fort was abandoned.
- A carved tunnel system links the buried complex to that storeroom (walled off), to an exit in the hills, and to a gully away from the lake — as well as to the ruined upper complex and the deeper one.
The masked five
- In the large domed room below the stairs, five masked humanoids stepped out — three armored, two mostly naked with scars and tattoos; very odd masks, some with antlers; axes, warhammers, great axes.
- They spoke the Black Speech. Per Ari, who understands it, they were asking for the “pilgrim’s sign.” The phrase reaches the party only through her translation.
- Then they attacked. Titus died; all five were killed. Under the masks their faces were viscerally disgusting — “obviously corrupted.”
- The party found rooms where they had been camping — the five; the party thinks that was all of them (Aaron) — and some shrines in the back of the good-repair section, near a pool where ritual washing might take place.
Under the hatch
- A hidden floor panel in that same domed room, with a lightning trap. Beneath it a clean, well-maintained spiral stair, very long and deep.
- At the bottom, Mirriam — teenage, in priestly robes, keeping a well-appointed, old-style shrine to the Maker with magical lights. She greeted the party in Hazadi and offered “pilgrims” a place to stay. She did not ask for a sign (Aaron).
- She mentioned a head priest who visits sometimes (Aaron). No name; nothing on how often, from where, or by which way in.
- She noticed something off about the party’s prayers, and still told them they were welcome to descend and meditate, with robes provided against the cold — two sets, apparently enchanted, waiting in an antechamber.
- What pilgrims descend to: a room painted with wings, then the Moon sanctum’s octagon (Aaron), with six crystal shards laid out with intent in a star, reading as overwhelming evil and overwhelming magic.
Contradictions & Oddities
- Both the Corrupted and the girl said “pilgrim.” One party demanded proof and attacked; the other asked for nothing (confirmed — Aaron) and offered beds.
- The hatch was hidden and trapped; the stair below it is swept. Somebody passes that trap routinely, or there is another way down. A head priest “visits sometimes” — so either they walk through a hall where five Corrupted were camped, or they come in some other way.
- A shrine to the Maker sits between a camp of Corrupted and an octagon that reads as overwhelming evil. The Corrupted are, by every doctrine the party knows, the Deceiver’s servants.
- Robes for visitors are laid out in advance. Meditation in the cold room is a provided-for practice, not an improvisation.
- The masked five asked a question before they attacked. Raiders don’t check credentials.
- The pilgrim whose account the party is following was a wealthy Auvernian of the first conversion, centuries ago (The Orders of the Five Courts). The campsites and the storeroom’s use don’t read as centuries old — “at various points in the past,” “since the fort was abandoned.”
Theories
Theory: The pilgrimage never stopped — it changed hands
The old route to “the glory of the moon” still carries traffic, and its current users include Corrupted. The masked five were door-wardens for that traffic: the challenge-and-sign is how they tell their own from strangers. The campsites on the road, the apparently used storeroom, and the tunnels out to the hills and the gully are the pilgrimage’s infrastructure. On this reading Mirriam is the shrine’s keeper within that system — and her welcome was either a mistake (she assumed the wardens had passed the party) or not a mistake at all.
Theory: Two tenants, one door
The masked five were camped on top of something they couldn’t reach, or didn’t know was there: the hatch was hidden, and the lightning trap is what kept it that way. Mirriam and whoever supplies her use another route (the tunnels) and an older rite. Then “pilgrim’s sign” might be the shrine’s password — something the Corrupted had learned to demand because they were hunting the real pilgrims.
The head priest is the test
Whoever visits Mirriam “sometimes” has to reach her. If they come through the domed hall, the masked five let them pass — Theory 1, and the sign is theirs to show. If they come by a way that avoids the hall, the two tenants really are separate — Theory 2. One question to Mirriam (“which way does the head priest come?”) sorts the theories.
Theory: The sign is something the party could have had
The pilgrim’s account the party carries describes the journey; it may also describe what a pilgrim was expected to show. Nobody has gone back through the copy with that question (as far as the notes record). The anathematized order of the moon (Aurelius Balventius) is the obvious candidate for whoever issued such signs when this place was above ground — speculation on top of speculation.
On the masks
Estelle wears one too — in dreams, by her own account for protection and candour. Nothing connects the two beyond the word. Noted only so nobody has to rediscover the coincidence.
Next Steps
- Ask Mirriam — who the pilgrims are, what the sign is, who the masked ones were, who the head priest is and which way they come in, and how she is supplied
- Search the five bodies and their camp for anything that could be a sign — tokens, marks, the masks themselves, the tattoos. (Only a light search of the bodies so far; the party means to do a better one — Aaron.)
- Ask Ari for their exact words, and what else the Black Speech calls a “pilgrim”
- Re-read the copied pilgrim’s account for anything a pilgrim was told to carry or show
- Follow the hill and gully tunnels outward — where do the paths from those exits go?
- Is Gaius, who sends diggers to ruins along this same road, part of this traffic? Nothing links them yet
- Work out who walled off the storeroom tunnel, and from which side