Death and the Rubble
In Pavis on Godday, Fertility Week, Storm Season, 1617 S.T. all the auspices proved wrong. An initiation gone wrong, a father dead seemingly at random. But worse was yet to manifest....
What family members had been found gathered at the Chalana Arroy temple. Cam, Senech and Gil each agreed to aid the Chalana Arroy priestess their prayers.
The three brothers knelt outside the central altar, praying for the priestess's success. Drozal's body was alone with the priestess in the inner temple. Hours passed. A single light shone in the priestess' hand. The room grew cold, the air stale. Darkness seemed to gather, and the light harder to see.
Gil felt his connection to the ceremony, the spiritual sinking down into darkness, the progress of the priestess. He sensed her confidence, her knowledge of the path she travelled.
Then came a change, a hesitance from the healer. Her light flickered behind the screen that hid the holy of holies. Gil felt her surprise and disorientation. That sense grew, and awareness faded....
Hours later, everyone (except their father) had recovered. The healer looked tired and shaken, as did Gil, who seemed as if he had seen his own death. They gathered in the antechamber of the White Lady's hall, joined there by their eldest brother, Asher, then by the eldest, daughter Gilli. The former had a message from a strange source, the latter a hangover.
To all of them, the priestess explained: "I passed from the goddess' Healing Hall, making my way to the Halls of Judgement. That grim path I knew well, and I felt Gil's protection there as I went. But as I approached the First Gate, normally something easily achieved, the path grew darker and more obscured. Gil's aid froze and broke. I was in danger of losing the path as the dark force grew more aware of me. So, then, I turned back, ending the ritual." She paused. "I'm sorry, but until I know that such a thing will not haunt the path again, I cannot attempt to bring your honored father back again."
"That's not all." Asher spoke up. He waved an open scroll case before his brothers and sister. "Just after dawn, a runner from the Pavis temple came, sent by Fleeter Nemm. The boy says that a great booming rattled the Temple Gate, and when they looked, they found this. There's a message reading 'Whatever you are doing angers our ancestors and endangers us all. Before you proceed, consult me. I await you at dawn.' It's signed 'Kroly'."
Long discussion of this (and some time spent sobering up Gilli) ended with a resolution to visit this unknown uncle as soon as practical, though they had already missed the dawn. Servants were dispached to fetch tack and mounts, and after a short visit to Fleeter Nemm at the temple, everyone was about to depart from the Temple Gate for the Real City.
Then Gilli discovered that Senech had stolen Wakwakis, the mask of the Constable of Pavis, while visiting Fleeter Nemm's chambers. After a short scuffle ending in Gilli putting Senech to sleep face down in a Zebra pen, Gil got the mask and fast talked his way back to Fleeter's chamber, where he replaced it in its niche, swapping it for Senech's hat, which the trickster had left hung there.
After this excitement, the trip to the Real City was comparatively uneventful. They passed a few wagons hauling flour or beer, got directions from a local who seemed to recognize them as noblemen and members of the Rass, and finally approached the Rass Manor.
Part of a long-destroyed outer wall surrounding the Real City, Rass Manor is on the Real City Hill about half way up. Of half a dozen or so outer reinforcements to the old curtain wall, only this remains in good repair. A square stone fort with an interior manor house, courtyard and a huge tower within an inner bailey, approaching riders can see many repairs to its ancient walls and slate roofs.
Approaching the gate, the brothers and sisters sat under the gaze of chipped gargoyles carved into the lintel. A peephole slid aside, and cool grey eyes looked out. "Rass children? Yes, I see. You are expected."
A short, broad-shouldered warrior slid the door open. Leading them out of the gatehouse, everyone noted his stiff-kneed limp and well-worn armor."The Rass awaits you in the manor house. These boys will see to your mounts. Follow me."
Approaching the fortified villa on the right, its main door swung open, apparantly of its own accord. Cam noticed a woman on the battlements, though no one else saw her. Passing into a dark hallway, weapon racks, and two huge armored guards that only Cam saw. The whole place stank of great age and well-worn stone.
[The siblings meet their creepy old uncle Kroly, and learn that the curse may be physically centered on the family tower, which Kroly cannot enter.]
While Asher, Gilli and Senech searched the manor's records, Gill returned to the new city to search the villa there. Searching his father's papers revealed a stack of prophecies generated at the Pavis temple. Mostly inexplicable, they offer some insight, perhaps. The same search also revealed a woman's side tradition of secret sorcery in the Rass Family, as well as what appeared to be a magical glass wand.
The latest party discussion and info comparison suggests that the curse originated shortly after the Troll Occupation, that the curse may have "Six legs" and that the curse has lost strength compared to many years ago. The family has decided to attempt a divination at the Lhankor Mhy temple in the hopes that the Knowing God will reveal clearer info than the Pavis priests. But what shall they ask?
After long discussion, Asher went off to the New City temple of the Knowing God, where he performed a diviniation with great success, though it cost him personally. Aided by his temple mentor and drawing upon the power and prayers of his kin, Lhankor Mhy revealed the following:
A howling wind to hell awaits the disembodied. Beware for them.
Dead awaiting the unwelcome and the welcome. Greet the servants, destroy the dark ones.
Hell's land crushes the altar. Do not touch it, but recognize its worth.
Then the altar is free.
Ancestors await. Treat with them.
The Black Heart of the Curse surrounds the power of the Rass.
To fight the curse is to strengthen it, yet it may be broken by its own design.
While those who had spent the past evening sweating for meaning in Pavis' prophecies felt this was spectacularly clear, Asher seemed to expect more. "It's a good thing I did so well on the divination. Otherwise, it might have been obscure." he joked.
Wiith these instructions in hand, the Rass family resolved to enter the tower, leaving Uncle Kroly behind. Instead, he gathered together locals who owed the shaman favors, and led a ceremony to support their efforts in the tower. Fifty Old City locals came to pray and lend their magical support.
