Session 5

TLDR

The party reaches the first sanctum — a temple carved into a desert gash, battered open long ago, with a freezing tunnel beneath it and a dead abbot who talks. He tells them the Red Star rose, the chains broke, the gem broke, and something divine broke him, then nearly kills them and curses Titus. Back in Halwa, the thing from Kraus’s Folly turns out to be Madeline Fusard, a Phoenix knight-confessor imprisoned six years and remade into something that hungers for blood — and she has a name for the party: Constanza Bethlen. On the voyage home, a masked woman named Estelle starts visiting Farraj’s dreams with a cosmology of six sanctums, six fallen Voices, and a gift.

Key Developments

The first sanctum found and entered — the Monastery of the Dawn site is the Sanctum of Sethariel: battered doors, a cremation pile, a smashed altar, and a frozen octagon 100 feet down with a shattered purple gem and a hostile dead abbot. See The Abbot.
“The red star rose, they broke the door, they broke my brothers, they broke the chains, they broke the gem, and then I touched the divinity and it broke me.” — the abbot’s own account, in Old Imperial. Two separate incursions are readable in the stonework: one ~100 years ago (siege-breaking, heavy footfalls, smashed altar), one 5–10 years ago (pitons, a torn-open wall, the cremation).
Estelle, a masked woman contacting Farraj in dreams, delivers the first real theory of what sanctums are: prisons for the Six Voices, the great angels who followed the Deceiver. Six, possibly seven. She gives Farraj an orrery — which he still has when he wakes.
Madeline Fusard — the creature from Kraus’s Folly — is a Phoenix knight-confessor, restored to her right mind by Sister Alasia. Her testimony names the fugitive Constanza Bethlen and describes the folly’s lord: tall, sandy blond, the best warrior she has ever seen.
Gandolfini was dean of the University of Krenau — the party’s dead Phoenix knight was a scholar, and possibly the very kind of scholar they’ve been hunting for. (Madeline)
Titus is cursed by the abbot; the Halwa eastern priest says it needs a far stronger cleric. See The Curse on Titus.
Something tugged at Haroun’s soul the night after the sanctum — and he told no one. See The Call at the Sanctum. (Player knowledge only — the party does not know this.)
Sister Alasia was finally reached, off the books, and warned Haroun to be careful of Father Ignacio.

New People Met

Mamud (desert guide) · The Abbot · Madeline Fusard · Estelle · (named but unseen: Constanza Bethlen, the folly’s swordsman lord, the scholars Madeline recommended)

Notes

Back in Halwa

We make it back to Halwa without incident
For now, we absorb Lindse into our servant retinue (or, well, we didn’t bring any with us to Halwa, but that’s the plan)
- Since she only speaks Reichspiel, Ari takes charge of her
Haroun writes up a report on what we encountered at Kraus’ folly and had Achmed forward that to Uncle
There used to be a larger Eagle Knight presence here, but after the incident with the Order of the Owl a few years back they decided to reduce that presence and adopted a more observational approach
Gnaeus, Farraj and Titus disguise themselves as expats and explore the expat areas of Halwa, gathering information. Haroun tried to disguise himself, but utterly failed
- Gnaeus
  - Lots of complaints by older expats about newer expats
  - Some mention of the plague still going around the western kingdom
    - The harbor master has been inspecting ships coming from the west for sick people
  - In general, not a very effective intelligence gathering run
- Farraj
  - People are concerned about the gang violence heating up (including mention of an attack on some new comers just the other day)
  - Things are worse in Halwa lately
    - Possibly related to recent leadership changes in the local gangs (Clans of Halwa)
  - Regarding father Ignacio
    - People are skeptical about him
    - They understood Sister Alacia
    - His sermons are more of the Maker Smite! variety, vs the Sister’s versions, which were more Maker Protect!
    - This isn’t going over well with the expat community
  - While the Averoigne civil war is technically over, the nation is still in bad shape. The plague has arrived, Crown support is weak and the crown is also deep in debt
Haroun spends the day getting updates on the changes in Halwa since he left from Achmed

Mamud

Mamud, the guide Achmed found, showed up the next day
- Mamud is very weather beaten, wears loose clothes that totally cover him
- He speaks a strongly accented Hazadi
- There is a small oasis about an hour away that he camps at
- He mentioned guiding a party of westerners there a few years back
  - They had a dwarf in their party
  - They seemed nervous when they returned
  - This was a few years ago, before the battle between the Owl and Eagle knights (which was itself 3–4 years ago)
  - He will wait three evenings for us
  - It’s a one day trip to the oasis, one from oasis to the temple of the dawn
  - Achmed is paying and Mamud is providing all of the supplies, including travelling clothes
We leave the next morning
Haroun attempts to disguise himself again and go out into town
- He checks up on a few places that Sister Alacia used to frequent (a couple of poor houses) and finds her at one of them
- He waits until she leaves and then approaches her
- She says that Haroun should be careful around Father Ignacio
- They agreed to meet later, once the party is back

The Sanctum

We travel due north into the high desert
The day in the desert is absolutely brutal, most of the party arrives at the oasis immensely fatigued
The next morning, pre-dawn, we travel an hour to a rockier area that has a ‘gash’ in the ground, perhaps 100 feet wide by 500 feet long and 200 feet deep → Sanctum of Sethariel
- There’s an old and not maintained stairs carved into the edge
- Everyone makes down the stairs safely (Gnaeus just walks down the wall)
- Gnaeus notices that there are some places near the stairs where someone had chiseled in some pitons moderately recently (last 5–10 years)
- The doors to the temple, which is carved into the wall, face the east
  - The doors are hanging open
  - Very thick, heavy, metal bound, wood
  - Not just hanging open, they were battered open
  - The internal bar is broken
  - Looks like it was smashed open by some sort of siege weapon
  - This happened a long while ago, more than the 5–10 years ago that the corpse burning dates from
  - Some of the flagstones past the door are crushed. In a pattern that appears to be by a heavy being walking on them?
- There appears to be a pile of charred corpses on the other side of the chasm from the doors
  - About two dozen corpses
  - Someone maybe made a makeshift bonfire, but didn’t have enough fuel
  - They were old corpses when they were burned
  - This was perhaps an attempt at a religious cremation
  - The burning happened maybe a few years ago
- Corridors going north and south
  - To the south there are rooms appear to be living quarters
    - Looks like these rooms were stripped, apparently to fuel the cremation fire
  - Same to the north
- There’s a central internal, tall, columned room to the west with walls painted with scenes from the book of light
  - The divots in the floor continue on through this room
    - And then on to a hole smashed in the wall, during the 100 year ago incursion
  - Smashed altar on the west wall
    - Smashed during the 100 year ago incursion
  - Side room, perhaps with long tables that were hauled out? Also with painted walls
  - Another side room, also well painted
    - Probably a library
    - Another room hanging off the library
      - Also painted
      - With a torn open wall
        
        Hiding a small chamber behind it
        
        This appears to be from the 5–10 year ago incursion
  - Tunnel past the smashed wall
    - Roughly worked, narrow stone passage, stairs down. Cool air coming out
    - As we head down, the air is getting colder and colder. Much colder than we would expect
    - This tunnel is likely even older than the temple
    - The cold is so bad that we can’t stay in it for long
    - Haroun detects faint background magic, and strong evil in the tunnel
    - About 100 feet down is a large octagonal room, 50 foot ceilings, smooth stone walls, dark purple, almost black
    - There is the corpse of an old man, sitting cross legged with a long wispy beard, dressed in aging clerical vestments, sitting in the center of the room → The Abbot
      - It speaks as we enter, in Old Imperial: “The red star rose, they broke the door, they broke my brothers, they broke the chains, they broke the gem, and then I touched the divinity and it broke me”
      - Then he attacked us. We retreated up the stairs in a running engagement with the abbot, who had a circle of magical darkness and drained our constitution. Gnaeus was teleporting people out one at a time
      - Oddly, Haroun was the one who wanted to stay and fight this time while Gnaeus wanted to leave
      - It didn’t chase us past the temple entrance
      - He cursed Titus on the way out → The Curse on Titus
      - Ari thinks she saw bits of crystal on the floor of the room before we retreated
  - New plan, Haroun sends his magical sight to the octagon and Gnaeus teleports a torch there
    - Haroun clearly saw what seemed to be shards of a translucent purple gem
  - We decide to leave
- Mamud takes us back to the oasis with the intent of traveling back to Halwa the next day
- Haroun feels something tugging at his soul in the night → The Call at the Sanctum
  - Akin to when he first awakened to the maker as a youth
  - It’s intense, appealing and right
  - He managed to resist it
  - He does not tell anyone else about it
- The return trip is just as rough as the trip to the sanctum

Halwa Again

We check with the eastern priest in Halwa about Titus’ curse, and are told that this will require a much stronger priest
Gnaeus, with the aid of Haroun and Farraj, go looking for information about the party of Owl knights that went to the sanctum five-ish years ago
- We do hear that at least half a dozen gang members have been killed while we were out. Not from one gang though. It’s rumored that it was unusual in some way, and the gang members are scared
- We do find someone who remembers the Owl knights
  - A dwarf
  - A big human
  - A few others that didn’t stand out as much
  - A rather motley crew
  - They stayed with a Cardacci merchant who later got caught up in the big Owl/Eagle fight

Madeline

Haroun gets a message from Sister Alacia to meet her at a church storehouse
- Sister Alacia introduces him to Madeline Fusard, the now recovered woman we fought in the basement of Kraus’ folly
- Her story
  - She was a knight confessor of the Order of the Phoenix
  - In Averoigne she oversaw the case of Constanza Bethlem, accused of witchcraft
  - Madeline believed she was innocent
  - Constanza escaped, and four Phoenix knights were slain
  - Madeline traced her to Halwa, where she traced a rumor to Kraus’ folly
  - She found a man of such martial skill that she was overwhelmed
  - Madeline was captured and performed a ritual on her, to test her faith?
  - She was afflicted with some sort of… curse?
  - She wants to die, but literally doesn’t know how to die
  - Sister Alacia helped her come back to her right mind
  - Madeline wants to make sure that word of Constanza Bethlen and her relationship, of which details are unknown, to the man who captured Madeline is known
  - Constanza
    - About 20 now
    - Dark hair
    - Very attractive
    - House of Bethlen was deposed as the rulers of Marschatten after the third crusade
      - The kingdom was divided into three princedoms after that
    - The house of Bethlen was reduced to just holding Krenau, a city. And this was a side branch of the house
    - She was raised in secret from at least the age of five, groomed to be the bride of one of the princes
    - That prince was killed in the civil war
    - She somehow escaped with the help of some Owl knights and went to Averoinge, attempting to acquire protection from her pursuers, which is where she was accused of witchcraft
    - This is when Madeline met her
    - Madeline initially thought Constanza was innocent but questioned that when Constanza escaped, but now is maybe back to thinking Constanza might be innocent
  - The man who captured Madeline was tall, sandy blond hair, very skilled fighter
    - The best warrior she’s ever seen, and Madeline has seen some of the best
    - Likely Averoigne, though not certain
  - Madeline was locked up for about six years
  - It’s Madeline who has been preying on the gangsters
  - Her intent is to continue hunting Constanza
  - Madeline’s gift is one that enables her to track people
  - But she lost track of Constanza and is hoping to find her trail again
  - She has heard of Knight Confessor Gandolfini
    - Stationed in Morrschatten for a long time
    - Good reputation
  - Regarding the ritual that transformed her
    - Her blood was drained
    - She was fed new blood
    - She recovered
    - Now she hungers for blood and only blood
    - She’s stronger and faster than she used to be
    - Fire hurts her
    - Lightning and normal weapons do very little
    - She recovers very fast
    - It can be hard to control herself
  - Haroun and Madeline agree to exchange information through Sister Alacia in the future
  - Haroun asks if she knows of any scholars specializing in math or astronomy in the west
    - Gandolfini was the dean of the university of Krenau
    - She mentions the names of a few scholars who might be usefully specialized in astronomy or mathematics
  - Madeline is very apologetic for attacking us
- Sister Alacia is thankful that Haroun heard her out
- “I would like to believe that the maker has the power to free Madeline from this terrible curse”
We keep vague track of the gang members dying before we leave
- More gang leaders turn up dead, those with the worst reputations
- Though the rate of deaths is dropping

Estelle

It takes another four days to arrange for a ship
- This time it’s a larger galley, with more comfortable quarters
- First night on the ship, Farraj has an unusually clear dream
  - Hilltop with a large tree, a bright, starlit sky
  - Woman wearing a mask is there → Estelle
  - She greets Farraj by name and introduces herself as Estelle
  - “You have found the Sanctum of Sethariel” and she wishes to make our acquaintance, “as one who knows of the sanctums”
  - She seeks a fair exchange of knowledge
  - Farraj doesn’t really engage with her, worried about heresy
  - She mentions that whenever he sees her, there will always be stars like this
- Farraj mentions it to us and we brainstorm questions and topics to avoid
  - Topics to cover
    - What is a sanctum
    - How did she learn about us
    - What is the broken crystal in sanctum
    - What the abbot said
    - Locations of the other sanctums
    - Star charts (only if we get decent info from Estelle first)
    - Same for the Red Star
  - Topics to avoid
    - Anything not sanctum related
- Estelle tries again four days later
  - Farraj does not recognize the stars and asks about them; Estelle answers that they are nameless imaginary ones she created as an identifier
    - Farraj tries to invent and name constellations
  - Farraj asks if she has contacted others about the sanctums and she says this is the first time she has asked (divined?) if someone has visited the sanctums and the answer has been yes
  - She has not visited herself but is interested in anyone else who is searching for or visiting them
    - It is her role to gather information, through both scholarship and divination
    - She cautions that her answers are only as good as her knowledge and may not be absolutely correct
  - She is sure there are 6 and possibly 7 sanctums, based on the story → The Six Voices
    - One story is that the Deceiver had 6 or perhaps 7 great angels who followed him into rebellion, the 6 Voices or Six in One
      - Dawn, Day, Dusk, Moon, Stars, Silence
      - Throne, though that may be the Deceiver
        
        Spoke for the Maker to the peoples of the world
      - They were not cast down into hell (the infernal realm where the unfaithful servants of the maker who followed the deceiver were banished) but rather imprisoned, and the sanctums are the doors to their prisons
  - Says she picked star theme because that’s the court of knowledge
  - She is not worried about the Church’s reaction because she serves the Maker
  - She divined if anyone had entered a sanctum, then what their name was, then used that to establish dream contact
  - Admits to knowing location of Sanctums of the Dawn (Halwah), Stars (wastes south of Cardacci), maybe Moon (somewhere south of Hazad, maybe closer to the coast than mountains)
    - Located at confluences of magic (Leylines)
    - May be themed accordingly, but maybe not
  - Sanctums predate Empire, Church, Old Elven Empire, any known history
  - Broken crystal was gateway from physical to spiritual
  - Former abbot’s words:
    - Chains could be bindings of Sathariel (Voice of the Dawn)
    - Encountering a fallen servant of the Maker could leave a mark on the soul
    - Red star might indicate times when certain interactions with sanctums are possible
  - Asking her about the star/leyline charts, she responded that she would see what she could do and to give her some time
- We sail on for another 12 days and have incredibly bad luck with the weather, so it takes longer
- Estelle appears again
  - She has a gift for Farraj
  - She hands Farraj an orrery
  - He has it when he wakes up
    - About a foot in diameter
    - Made of an assortment of metals

Loose Threads

An orrery that crossed out of a dream into Farraj’s hands. Is it the monastery’s orrery? What is it for, and what does accepting a gift from Estelle cost?
Who is Estelle? She divines names, reaches into dreams, moves objects out of them, and says she serves the Maker while retailing what the Church would call heresy. She owes the party an answer on the star/leyline charts.
The Curse on Titus — needs a far stronger priest than Halwa has.
The Call at the Sanctum — Haroun resisted something that felt like his awakening to the Maker, and hasn’t told the party.
The abbot is still down there, and so are the shards of the gem. Whatever “touched the divinity” means, he did it and stayed.
Constanza Bethlen — fugitive, ~20, dark hair, connected somehow to the swordsman at Kraus’s Folly. A comb with black hair sat in that lord’s chamber (S4).
The swordsman — tall, sandy blond, probably Averoigne, the best fighter Madeline has ever seen. Still unnamed, still at large, still owns a warp circle.
Madeline Fusard is loose in Halwa killing gang leaders and hunting Constanza; the party’s channel to her runs through Sister Alasia.
Gandolfini was dean of the University of Krenau — the man the party watched die was exactly the scholar they’ve been looking for.
The scholars Madeline named — write them down before they’re forgotten.
The Owl party that came here 5–10 years ago: a dwarf, a big human, a motley crew, hosted by a Cardacci merchant later caught in the Owl/Eagle fight.

The Fallen World

Explorer