Mockeries of Death
Sigisfarne - March 19
Rushd's accounts
Cai's accounts
We are going to church. Rush’d is checking his sword a lot. “Don’t bother with me”.
Rush’d is older, he is hired for all sorts of killings, assassinations, not very courageous - sensible.
Clive and his friends bet with him to come down here. There was a hole in the wall, which yewtree first went in and they got in.
The Church
Looks a bit different and stranger than a typical church. Symbols of the weeping mother. Some symbolisms are totally foreign. There’s a stone steps that go up to the bell tower and then there’s a spiral set of stairs that lead down into the darkness.
He was found mendling with the tombs. There was a poisonous trap there. It was in the lids of the tombs. There was an entry wound visible.
But who would put things here as a trap? Whoever didn’t want people to fiddle with the tombs. This place was closed for years… It is an old place that we built Sigis upon.
Down it’s just a cellar, basement, bare place. The walls are carved stone, by hand. There’s 4 corridors with 4 symbols. N: crown, E: tear drop, S: Halo, W: Bread. Smell of rot in the air from the W. Decay smell/death to the S. North is where Clive was found. South there is a room, with stone coffins standing upright. All of them are open and have bones in them, piled up. There’s only 1 coffin with a lid depicting someone on the cover - this one does not seem to be as noble as the other drawings - maybe a head priest. The floor is littered with small needles.
We hear movement, clattering coming from the room. Close to us. It is coming from the North of us, Cai can see bones rearrange themselves and float to assemble into skeletons. We can hear a breath/whisper like a word in a language we don’t understand.
Fight!
Cai runs back, while Razzy pushes the stone coffin on the animating bones and slams on the ground. The bones are crushed. The other 2 skeletons are attacking Razzy. Matheus rushes to the room and Rush’d throws himself on the skeletons, effectively pinning down one. Cai charges one of the skeletons and tries to stab it in the “head”. Razzy grabs the torch from Rush’d and shoves it on an orifice of the pinned skeleton. (or it hit someone else?). The other skeleton ignores Cai and tries to get Razzy, but fails. Matheus is charging with his shield to slam the skeleton after successfully throwing his torch to Cai. They both fall to the ground. Cai smashes one of the skeleton’s face with her first, the bones seem to lose this “energy” that holds them together. Things get quiet.
Cai sits back, catching her breath. The stone coffin at the end of the room was shaked during the fight. It’s lid is a bit slid down. She can see some bones from within. She crawls there and with her mirror sees a mass of bones and also… an object, square, maybe from clay or stone/tile, colored - faded, resting among the bones. She hesitates to grab it but..
Matheus grabs it, it’s a piece of floor (a tile). There used to be a red tear drop symbol painted on it.
Teardrop in our religion is an omen. The symbol is the same as the one on the corridor.
Matheus goes back to the North and opens one of the tombs. The trap mechanism snaps, but nothing happens. He finds a crown, a golden circlet??? A golden band. Matheus gets the golden circlet. There’s also a tablet there, stone one. There are symbols on it as well as drawings like hieroglyphs, recognising it as magic.
The rest go to the teardrop room. It’s a small room and the walls are covered in holy paintings. They are covered in sut? (burned). It looks beautiful. We recognise some symbology and the face of the weeping mother, but none of them is a recognisable story. There’s an altar that is old and has seen a lot of use. Damaged. Made of stone. Covered in dirt and dust. Behind the altar, low on the wall, Rush’d sees an icon of the weeping mother. Well-preserved, colorful - very well made. Rush’d takes it and sees there is some golden paint on it, and a piece of the wall that is missing behind the icon in a square shape.
The painting looks like a holy pilgrimage, this woman, who looks like the weeping mother, it looks like she is on a holy journey. The ground is hard cracked earth, some trees in the background - featureless. She is walking barefoot, looks tired, one hand around her pregnant belly.
Rush’d whispers out to Matheus to come over and when he comes they check if the tile fits the square on the wall. It fits! Rush’d says that this is where it fits! The teardrop is a drop of blood, it’s glowing blue suddenly on the tile. Matheus grabs him on the side. There’s a small crawl space now there, the icon and the wall disappeared (there’s no glow, no icon). A breeze is coming from there.
“Clive was found where he should not have been. So I go where I should not be.” Cai goes in. Rush’d right back. Advices her to hold her knife. They reach a room with some very narrow stairs going down. We can see many steps. When Cai speaks there’s huge reverb, indicating that there’s a vast way down.
We go down and we see a space colder than where we were, deeper in the Earth. There’s stone below your feet. Parts of the wall glisten with damp, there’s stone tables - they look like altars, no legs, a block of stone, but it’s not certain if it’s an altar or just a block of stone. There’s an animal head that is hanging on the wall. In front of us is a cloaked figure that seems to have been waiting here. Is it waiting for you? Not clear. It seems to be a 7 ft man, with a long disheveled beard, long hair, bread, a brown cloak with a hood - holds a brass-bladed scythe decorated with strange motifs, intricate intertwined branches. He speaks in an accent we cannot place. “Welcome”.
Rush’d asks “who are you in the house of the holy mother?”. He seems puzzled. You can call me Hacket. Caretaker of this place. Matheus: what are you taking care of.
This place is old, older than you know, it used to be a holy place.
“And it isn’t anymore?”
Not to none that remember. What was worshiped here, is forgotten and it is left to the far reaches of the world.
Rhush’d: “Not the weeping mother?”
Creature: A moewling baby, an infant of a religion.
Matheus: a mockery!
Creature: “perhaps, but I am not here to judge, you seek passage?”
Matheus:
If you intend to enter here, bewarned, old magics lay here, you need my blessing.
If you want my blessing, fetch me this.
Wheat, holy (a plant, γκι) and freshwater.
People
Factions
Locations
Mockeries of death
Rushd and Razzy go back to the Ruined Church in Sigisfarne They bring Cai and Mateus this time. Quickly they go to the catacombs again.
In the halo room (south), while the group investigates, three skeletons come to life. Razzy drops one of the standing coffins in one of them, and the group grapple with the remaining two until they are again still.
Cai finds a small brick box, inside the larger of the coffins. It has the teardrop of the Weeping Mother. Mateus takes it and puts it in his backpack.
Mateus goes back to the crown room (north). He loots a small golden circlet and a stone tablet from one of the tombs.
Small altar small room small gutter
On the teardrop corridor (east), in a small room, the group sees some artistic paintings. They recognise the symbology but not the stories. One of them is of a pregnant woman on pilgrimage. Some areas are covered in soot.
Rushd finds a small hole in the wall - a missing brick - behind the small altar. He calls for Mateus and they see that the newfound brick fits the hole.
The brick shines, and a secret passageway opens to a small gutter. Cai goes first, and Rushd follows her.
Hackett, the caretaker
On the other end of the corridor, a longer room hosts small stone tables. On top of each table is a different animal head.
A creature dressed in a dark robe, with its face covered in shadows, carries a brass-bladed scythe. The weapon has strange motifs.
The creature introduces itself as Hackett, the caretaker of this holy place. It taunts the Church of the Weeping Mother and wants payment so he can bless the advancement of the group.
“
What was worshipped here is forgotten and left to the far reaches of the world
A meowing babe, an infant of a religion [Church of the Weeping Mother]
You seek the passage
Be warned, there is old magic
Fetch me a handful of wheat, fresh water, holly (γκι)
“