{ "id": "temple", "label": "Temple", "forgeStageType": "barrow", "schema": 1, "placeNameStyle": "claimant", "_model": "Interior kernel, older and stranger than a church. A temple wants the rite performed exactly, to be fed, to keep its name unsaid, or to be the only one. Its accommodations are what a priesthood does when a god is literal.", "facetProgression": { "approach": "institution", "complication": "ritual", "turn": "demand", "descent": "wound", "threshold": "anchor", "ending": "demand" }, "claimants": [ "God-Beneath", "Veiled One", "Hierophant", "Oracle of the Steps", "Nameless", "Twice-Born", "Last Priest" ], "appetites": [ { "id": "rite", "want": "to have the rite performed exactly", "lack": "performed wrongly", "purpose": "the words would never be got wrong", "motif": "exactness", "prize": "tablet", "conscript": "the celebrants", "asks": "\"Was that the correct form?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "copy whatever gesture is being made, exactly and without hurrying", "attribute": "Poise", "successes": 2, "why": "the form was kept", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "fed", "want": "to be given something living", "lack": "unfed", "purpose": "the altar would never be dry", "motif": "sacrifice", "prize": "knife", "conscript": "the offered", "asks": "\"What will you give me?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "give up something you will actually miss, at the altar", "attribute": "Flair", "successes": 2, "why": "it has been given something that cost", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "unnamed", "want": "never to have its name said aloud", "lack": "named", "purpose": "nobody would ever speak it", "motif": "silence", "prize": "veil", "conscript": "the speakers", "asks": "\"Who told you my name?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "say nothing at all for a full exchange, and let the silence stand", "attribute": "Poise", "successes": 2, "why": "nobody said it", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "sole", "want": "to be the only one worshipped here", "lack": "one of many", "purpose": "no other name would ever be spoken here", "motif": "exclusion", "prize": "idol", "conscript": "the heretics", "asks": "\"Whose else do you carry?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "put away or cover any token of another faith you carry", "attribute": "Wits", "successes": 2, "why": "it is the only one here", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } } ], "accommodations": [ { "id": "initiated", "text": "initiated {conscript} into a mystery they could not survive knowing", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "rite", "unnamed", "sole" ] }, { "id": "offered", "text": "offered {conscript} on the stone, in order, over years", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "fed", "rite", "sole" ] }, { "id": "silenced", "text": "took the tongues of {conscript} so the name could not be said", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "unnamed", "sole" ] }, { "id": "veiled", "text": "veiled {conscript} and would not let them be looked at again", "cruelty": 2, "fits": [ "unnamed", "rite", "fed" ] }, { "id": "cast", "text": "cast {conscript} out and had their gods broken in the street", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "sole", "unnamed" ] }, { "id": "bound", "text": "bound {conscript} to the service and did not release them", "cruelty": 1, "fits": [ "rite", "fed", "sole" ] } ], "prizes": { "tablet": { "label": "the tablet with the rite cut correctly", "function": "the only complete copy of the words" }, "knife": { "label": "the knife the offerings were made with", "function": "the only thing the altar has ever accepted" }, "veil": { "label": "the veil that was never lifted", "function": "the only thing that has kept the name safe" }, "idol": { "label": "the idol that outlasted all the others", "function": "the last one standing when the rest were broken" } }, "placeNames": { "first": [ "The Temple of the", "The House of the", "The Steps of the", "The Sanctum of the", "The Shrine of the" ] }, "areaNames": { "approach": [ "The Temenos", "The Great Steps", "The Outer Court", "The Processional Way", "The Threshold Stone" ], "complication": [ "The Court of Lamps", "The Hall of Columns", "The Purification Court", "The Lesser Shrine", "The Ambulatory" ], "turn": [ "The Veil", "The Oracle's Step", "The Hall of Answers", "The Middle Sanctum", "The Way of Offerings" ], "descent": [ "The Undercroft of Bones", "The Cistern of Ash", "The Deep Cell", "The Sacrifice Pit", "The Lower Sanctum" ], "threshold": [ "The Antechamber of the God", "The Robing Cell", "The Treasury of Vows", "The Last Veil", "The Silent Room" ], "ending": [ "The Holy of Holies", "Before the Idol", "The Innermost", "The God-Beneath" ] }, "factions": [ { "id": "celebrants", "name": "the Celebrants", "kind": "undead", "essence": "still performing a rite that has no ending written", "handledBy": "courtesy" }, { "id": "looters", "name": "tomb-robbers", "kind": "living", "essence": "here for gold and out of their depth", "handledBy": "trade" }, { "id": "silenced", "name": "the Tongueless", "kind": "undead", "essence": "keeping a name they can no longer say", "handledBy": "silence" }, { "id": "broken", "name": "the broken gods", "kind": "beast", "essence": "cast out and still in the building", "handledBy": "force" } ], "triggerGlossary": { "announced": "came up the processional way, upright, as a celebrant would", "seenTwice": "reflected in lamp-oil, or seen by two of the Tongueless", "loud": "a word said aloud in a place built to carry words", "lingering": "stayed still long enough for the rite to include you", "disturbed": "touched, moved or uncovered something set apart" }, "rosters": { "skirmish": { "line": "3 Skeletons in celebrants' robes", "foes": [ { "n": 3, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless; will not break the procession" } ], "harmedBy": "anything", "avoid": "walk in step with them and they take you for celebrants" }, "fight": { "line": "1 Ghoul in the sacrifice pit and 2 Skeletons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Ghoul", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 4, "nerve": 5, "note": "free Called Shot to freeze on a hit" }, { "n": 2, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "anything", "avoid": "it is fed on a schedule and will not leave the pit if the offering is made" }, "battle": { "line": "1 Necromancer as Hierophant and 3 Skeletons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Necromancer", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 6, "nerve": 4, "note": "raises one per round while the rite continues" }, { "n": 3, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "anything — but interrupting the rite stops the raising", "avoid": "he cannot break off mid-rite; wait for the pause and he will parley" }, "nightmare": { "line": "1 Wraith of the Veiled One, 1 Ghoul and 4 Skeletons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Wraith", "atk": 5, "def": 3, "grit": 10, "nerve": 5, "note": "INCORPOREAL — chill touch ignores armour, drains 1 max Grit" }, { "n": 1, "name": "Ghoul", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 4, "nerve": 5, "note": "freezes on a hit" }, { "n": 4, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; anything for the rest", "avoid": "it does not strike anyone who has said nothing — say so before initiative" } }, "motifs": { "exactness": { "danger": "error", "dangerLine": "the rite is still being performed, and it notices a wrong hand", "trigger": "disturbed", "facets": { "institution": [ "floor-marks showing where each celebrant stands, worn deep", "a rite cut into the walls in three languages, all agreeing", "lamps in a pattern that is clearly not decorative" ], "ritual": [ "a procession stepping the same eleven paces, over and over", "hands raised and lowered on a count nobody gives", "a cup passed along a line with a gap in it" ], "demand": [ "a floor-mark exactly your size, empty", "a doorway you must enter with a particular foot first", "a hall that makes you aware you are doing it wrong" ], "wound": [ "a wall where the rite is cut wrongly and then corrected, twice", "celebrants' hands broken and reset in the correct position", "a tablet with an error scratched out so hard the stone split" ], "anchor": [ "a tablet with the rite cut correctly, once", "a master copy under glass, unweathered", "a lead sheet with the words punched into it" ] }, "features": [ "a floor-mark scrubbed brighter than the rest", "a lamp moved out of the pattern", "fresh chalk correcting a carved line", "a cup set down mid-passage", "a robe folded wrongly and refolded", "footprints in ash, eleven paces, repeating" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a floor-mark exactly your size, empty in the line", "cost": "standing on it joins the rite", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you take the place and step the measure correctly — the Celebrants accept you", "failure": "you step it wrongly and the rite must begin again: lose a Turn, +1 Bane", "orElse": "stay off the marks; the procession goes round you, coldly" } }, { "cue": "a rite cut on the wall in three languages that do not quite agree", "cost": "one of them is the correct one", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the version the others were copied from and know the true form", "failure": "you pick a corrupted copy and are confidently wrong for the rest of the delve", "orElse": "copy all three and decide later: one Turn" } }, { "cue": "a doorway you must enter with a particular foot first", "cost": "which foot is not written anywhere obvious", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you read it off the floor-wear and enter correctly", "failure": "you enter wrongly and the temple resets you to the previous room", "orElse": "go through the servants' arch: one Turn, and it is beneath you" } }, { "cue": "a cup being passed along a line with a gap where you stand", "cost": "taking it commits you; refusing breaks the line", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you take, pass and are counted a celebrant for the rest of the delve", "failure": "you fumble the pass and the line stops: everything turns to look", "orElse": "step out of the line before it reaches you: the rite pauses, and resumes without you" } }, { "cue": "a tablet with an error scratched out hard enough to split the stone", "cost": "the correction matters more than the error", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 1", "success": "you read the correction and know one thing the temple insists on", "failure": "you read only the error and act on it once, wrongly", "orElse": "leave it; you go on not knowing" } }, { "cue": "lamps arranged in a pattern with one lamp out of place", "cost": "restoring it is either piety or interference", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you set it right and the pattern completes — the temple opens a way it had closed", "failure": "you move the wrong lamp and the pattern is broken worse: roll the clock", "orElse": "leave the pattern; the way stays shut" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "eleven Celebrants", "doing": "stepping a measure with a gap in the line where one is missing", "onArrival": "the gap arrives in front of you", "because": "the measure requires eleven and there are ten", "offer": "step the measure and they will carry you to the middle sanctum" }, { "occupant": "the Hierophant", "doing": "correcting a carved line with a chisel, again", "onArrival": "it offers you the chisel, handle first", "because": "the text has never once been right", "offer": "cut one correct character and it will read you the whole rite" }, { "occupant": "two living looters", "doing": "copying wall-text they cannot read onto wax", "onArrival": "they look up, guilty, and offer to share", "because": "they are selling the rite to somebody", "offer": "tell them what it says and they will tell you what is in the treasury" }, { "occupant": "a cup", "doing": "travelling along a line of hands toward you", "onArrival": "the hand before yours holds it out", "because": "the passing must not stop", "offer": "take it and pass it, and the line lets you through" }, { "occupant": "one of the Celebrants", "doing": "holding a gesture and waiting to be released from it", "onArrival": "its arms are shaking, which should not be possible", "because": "the next word of the rite was never spoken", "offer": "say any word with authority and it lowers its arms and thanks you" }, { "occupant": "the lamps", "doing": "going out one at a time in the pattern's order", "onArrival": "the nearest gutters as you enter", "because": "the pattern is completing itself, wrongly", "offer": "relight one out of order and the temple loses count, which helps you" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "tablet", "cue": "a tablet with the rite cut correctly", "benefit": "once, perform any rite here exactly right", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the temple expects you to perform the rest of it" }, { "id": "floormark", "cue": "a chip of a floor-mark", "benefit": "once, take somebody's place in a formal order", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "whoever you displaced is looking for their place" }, { "id": "leadsheet", "cue": "a lead sheet with the words punched in", "benefit": "once, say something so exactly it cannot be argued with", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you cannot say the same thing twice differently" }, { "id": "chisel", "cue": "the Hierophant's chisel", "benefit": "once, correct something written and make it true", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the previous version begins to want to be restored", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" } }, { "id": "lamppattern", "cue": "one lamp from the pattern", "benefit": "once, make a place behave as the temple intends", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the pattern is short a lamp and the temple is searching" } ] }, "sacrifice": { "danger": "hunger", "dangerLine": "the altar is dry, and the temple has been waiting a long time", "trigger": "lingering", "facets": { "institution": [ "channels cut into the floor, all sloping the same way", "a stone with a hollow and a lip at one end", "hooks in a beam at the height of a hanging thing" ], "ritual": [ "a beast led up the steps by nobody, nightly", "a knife laid out, cleaned, and laid out again", "a bowl carried in full and carried out empty" ], "demand": [ "a stone with a hollow exactly the size of a person's chest", "a channel that runs toward you when you stand still", "a room that makes you count how many of you there are" ], "wound": [ "channels scoured white by too much use", "a pit under the floor, filled and filled again", "a knife broken deliberately and the pieces kept apart" ], "anchor": [ "the knife itself, clean, on a folded cloth", "a bowl that has never been washed", "a ledger of what was given and on what day" ] }, "features": [ "a channel scrubbed clean, recently", "a beast tethered and left", "a knife laid out on fresh cloth", "the pit lid moved aside", "blood that has not dried in a dry room", "a bowl set out, empty and waiting" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "an altar with a hollow and a channel, and nothing on it", "cost": "the temple will take something either way", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you give something that costs you and the altar is satisfied for the delve", "failure": "you give something worthless and it is refused: +1 Bane", "orElse": "give nothing; the altar takes an opportunity later instead" } }, { "cue": "a beast tethered at the steps, left by somebody", "cost": "freeing it or offering it are both decisions", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you make the offering properly and the temple grants you passage", "failure": "you free it and the temple takes the loss out of your reckoning: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave it tethered; it is still there when you come back" } }, { "cue": "a knife broken in two and the halves kept apart", "cost": "joining them is the obvious thing and obviously unwise", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you join them and hold the only thing the altar accepts", "failure": "you join them and the knife wants using: it is +1 Bane per area to carry", "orElse": "leave the halves apart; nothing is armed" } }, { "cue": "a pit under a moved lid, and something at the bottom", "cost": "what is down there was given, not thrown", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you go down and come back with what was given, and the temple allows it", "failure": "you fall the last of it: 2 Grit, and something down there notices", "orElse": "leave the lid; the pit keeps what it was given" } }, { "cue": "a bowl carried in full and set down empty in front of you", "cost": "the bowl is asking", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you fill it with something of yours and the Celebrants become helpful", "failure": "you fill it with water and the insult is understood: +1 Bane", "orElse": "hand it back empty; the bowl waits for someone else" } }, { "cue": "a ledger of what was given and on what day, with today blank", "cost": "writing in it commits you to giving", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 1", "success": "you enter something already spent and the day is counted paid", "failure": "you enter a promise and the temple will collect: +1 Bane at the ending", "orElse": "leave the day blank; the temple notices the gap" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "a beast", "doing": "standing tethered at the top of the steps, quite calm", "onArrival": "it turns its head and looks at you without alarm", "because": "it was led up and nobody came to take it", "offer": "untie it and lead it out, and the temple counts the debt deferred" }, { "occupant": "the Last Priest", "doing": "cleaning a knife that is already clean", "onArrival": "it sets the knife down between you and it", "because": "the offering hour came and nothing was brought", "offer": "bring it anything living and it will open the inner doors" }, { "occupant": "two living looters", "doing": "arguing beside an open pit about who goes down", "onArrival": "they stop and one offers you a rope", "because": "what is down there is worth having", "offer": "hold the rope and they will share what comes up" }, { "occupant": "the channels", "doing": "running with something in a room where nothing has been cut", "onArrival": "the flow moves toward your feet", "because": "the altar is being fed from somewhere", "offer": "follow the channels back and you find what is being given" }, { "occupant": "one of the Celebrants", "doing": "holding a bowl out at arm's length, waiting", "onArrival": "its arms do not lower", "because": "the bowl has not been filled in three centuries", "offer": "fill it and every Celebrant in the temple will stand aside" }, { "occupant": "the altar", "doing": "sitting warm in a cold room with the hollow wet", "onArrival": "the wetness is fresh", "because": "something was given here very recently", "offer": "find out what, and the temple treats you as party to it" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "knife", "cue": "the offering knife, clean", "benefit": "once, an attack cannot be defended against", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the temple counts what you take with it as given to it" }, { "id": "bowl", "cue": "a bowl that has never been washed", "benefit": "once, make an offering count double", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the bowl must not leave the temple, and you will want to take it" }, { "id": "tether", "cue": "a tether from the steps", "benefit": "once, bind something so it cannot leave", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "whatever you bind is now yours to give", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Greed" } }, { "id": "givenledger", "cue": "the ledger of what was given", "benefit": "once, prove a debt to the temple is paid", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "an unpaid day of yours is written in it" }, { "id": "pitstone", "cue": "a stone from the bottom of the pit", "benefit": "once, survive something that should have taken you", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the pit is owed a substitution" } ] }, "silence": { "danger": "utterance", "dangerLine": "the name must not be said, and the temple is listening for it", "trigger": "loud", "facets": { "institution": [ "inscriptions with one word chiselled out of every line", "a hall built to swallow sound rather than carry it", "hangings doubled on every wall" ], "ritual": [ "a rite performed entirely in gesture", "a bell with the clapper removed and hung anyway", "lips touched before crossing every threshold" ], "demand": [ "a room that makes your breathing audible", "a veil you are expected to speak behind, not through", "a doorway where your own voice does not follow you in" ], "wound": [ "jaws wired shut on every figure in a frieze", "a mouth chiselled out of a statue and the hole smoothed", "tongues in a jar, counted" ], "anchor": [ "a veil that has never been lifted", "a sealed box that hums when carried", "a name written once and buried face-down" ] }, "features": [ "a hanging pulled aside and left", "fresh wax on lips of a statue", "a jar moved from a shelf", "a clapper found on the floor", "a word scratched into plaster and rubbed at", "a door muffled with cloth, recently" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a veil you are expected to speak behind, not through", "cost": "speaking through it says the name into the room", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you speak behind it correctly and the Tongueless treat you as initiated", "failure": "you speak through it and something hears its own name: roll the clock, +1 Bane", "orElse": "say nothing at all: safe, and you learn nothing" } }, { "cue": "an inscription with one word cut out of every line", "cost": "reconstructing the word is possible and is the whole point", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you work it out and do not say it — knowing it is enough to open the way", "failure": "you say it aloud without meaning to: everything in the temple turns", "orElse": "leave it unreconstructed: one Turn to find another way" } }, { "cue": "a bell with the clapper hung beside it", "cost": "ringing it would be the loudest thing here in centuries", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you strike it once, deliberately, and everything hostile withdraws for a scene", "failure": "the note goes on far too long and brings what it was meant to keep out", "orElse": "leave the clapper down; the silence holds" } }, { "cue": "a jar of tongues, counted, with a gap", "cost": "the count matters to something", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you work out whose is missing and can use the name of the one who kept it", "failure": "you disturb the count and the Tongueless follow you thereafter", "orElse": "leave the jar; the count stays wrong" } }, { "cue": "a sealed box that hums when it is carried", "cost": "opening it is how the name got out last time", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you carry it without opening it and it opens doors for you", "failure": "you open it: the name is loose in the room, +1 Bane and roll the clock", "orElse": "leave it sealed and where it is" } }, { "cue": "a name written once and buried face-down", "cost": "turning it over reads it", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 1", "success": "you read it with your eyes only and hold something the temple fears", "failure": "you read it aloud out of habit: the temple stops treating you as a guest", "orElse": "leave it face-down; whatever is written stays buried" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "one of the Tongueless", "doing": "mouthing a word it cannot make a sound with", "onArrival": "it takes your hand and shapes it into a gesture", "because": "it kept the name and lost the means to say it", "offer": "let it shape your hand and you will be able to say the word once, safely" }, { "occupant": "the hangings", "doing": "doubling along the wall as you watch, muffling further", "onArrival": "the room becomes noticeably quieter", "because": "something is about to be said and must not be heard", "offer": "speak first, quietly, and the hangings still" }, { "occupant": "a living scholar", "doing": "copying an inscription and leaving the cut-out word blank", "onArrival": "they hold a finger to their lips and keep writing", "because": "they know what the gap is and will not write it", "offer": "promise not to say it and they will show you where it is written whole" }, { "occupant": "the Veiled One's chair", "doing": "standing empty behind a veil that moves without air", "onArrival": "the veil bellies toward you", "because": "something behind it is waiting to be addressed", "offer": "address it without using any name and it will answer one question" }, { "occupant": "three of the Tongueless", "doing": "standing in a line with their hands over their mouths", "onArrival": "they part to let you through and do not lower their hands", "because": "the silence must be kept by somebody", "offer": "cover your own mouth and walk through, and they follow and guard you" }, { "occupant": "a bell", "doing": "hanging with its clapper on the floor beneath it", "onArrival": "the bell moves very slightly", "because": "the hour is due and cannot be struck", "offer": "strike it with your hand — no clapper, no name — and the temple opens" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "veil", "cue": "a length of the veil, unlifted", "benefit": "once, say something without anything hearing who said it", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "your voice is not recognised by allies either" }, { "id": "sealedbox", "cue": "a small sealed box that hums", "benefit": "once, open it and unmake something with a word", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the name is loose afterwards and looking for a mouth", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" } }, { "id": "clapper", "cue": "a bell clapper, heavy", "benefit": "once, make a sound that nothing here can ignore", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "everything comes to see what rang" }, { "id": "tonguejar", "cue": "a jar with one tongue in it", "benefit": "once, speak with the voice of whoever it belonged to", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "they say something of their own each time" }, { "id": "buriedname", "cue": "a tablet, face-down, unread", "benefit": "once, read a name and know what it commands", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the name knows it has been read" } ] }, "exclusion": { "danger": "rivalry", "dangerLine": "the temple will not share, and it can smell another god on you", "trigger": "seenTwice", "facets": { "institution": [ "niches all along a wall, every one of them emptied", "a floor of broken idols laid face-down as paving", "a single lamp where a row of lamps was fixed" ], "ritual": [ "a censing of the doorway against something that keeps returning", "tokens of other faiths collected in a basket at the door", "a rite of exclusion cut beside every entrance" ], "demand": [ "a doorway that will not admit anything with two allegiances", "a room where only one thing may be venerated at a time", "a plinth built for one and made larger since" ], "wound": [ "idols broken carefully rather than in anger, and stacked", "a frieze with every rival figure chiselled to a blank", "a shrine walled up with the offerings still inside" ], "anchor": [ "the last idol standing, undamaged", "a basket of confiscated tokens, still full", "a list of gods forbidden here, complete" ] }, "features": [ "a niche recently emptied", "a token dropped at the doorway", "fresh mortar sealing a small shrine", "broken idol-pieces sorted by size", "a censer used at a door and left", "a name scratched off a frieze, this year" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a basket at the door for tokens of other faiths", "cost": "giving up a token is a real cost to whoever carries it", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you give one up properly and the temple treats the party as its own", "failure": "you keep one and it is smelled on you: the next encounter starts hostile", "orElse": "hand over everything: safe, and something you valued is gone" } }, { "cue": "a shrine walled up with the offerings still inside", "cost": "opening it frees a rival the temple beat", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you open it and what is inside is grateful and useful", "failure": "you open it and the temple treats you as its enemy from here", "orElse": "leave it sealed; it has been sealed a long time" } }, { "cue": "a floor of broken idols laid face-down as paving", "cost": "turning one over is a small resurrection", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find one still whole beneath and it will speak for you once", "failure": "you turn over a broken one and it is angry with everybody", "orElse": "walk over them without looking; the temple approves" } }, { "cue": "the last idol standing, undamaged, and a hammer beside it", "cost": "the hammer was left there on purpose", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you refuse the invitation and the temple is satisfied you are loyal", "failure": "you take up the hammer and something in the temple decides what you are", "orElse": "take the hammer away and hide it: the invitation stands for someone else" } }, { "cue": "a list of gods forbidden here, complete and long", "cost": "one of them is one you know", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the name that matters and can use it against the temple later", "failure": "you are seen reading it and are assumed to be one of them: +1 Bane", "orElse": "do not read the list; ignorance is safest here" } }, { "cue": "a censer at a doorway, still warm, used against something", "cost": "using it yourself declares a side", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you cense the doorway and whatever keeps returning is held off for the delve", "failure": "you use it wrongly and it clears the way in instead", "orElse": "leave it; the door is uncensed and something uses it" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "one of the Celebrants", "doing": "emptying a niche that has been empty for centuries", "onArrival": "it dusts the empty shelf and moves to the next", "because": "the niches must be kept clear", "offer": "help it dust and it will show you where what was in them went" }, { "occupant": "a broken god", "doing": "standing assembled wrongly from pieces off the floor", "onArrival": "the assembly shifts as you look at it", "because": "it has been trying to stand up for a long time", "offer": "assemble it correctly and it will owe you, and it is still strong" }, { "occupant": "two living pilgrims", "doing": "hiding a token in a wall before going in", "onArrival": "they beg you, silently, not to say anything", "because": "they cannot give it up and cannot carry it in", "offer": "hide it better for them and they will guide you inside" }, { "occupant": "the last idol", "doing": "standing alone on a plinth built for a row", "onArrival": "the lamp before it is freshly lit", "because": "it outlasted the others and knows it", "offer": "praise it aloud and it will let you pass anywhere in the temple" }, { "occupant": "the basket at the door", "doing": "filling further than when you last passed it", "onArrival": "something in it is yours", "because": "the confiscation continues without a doorkeeper", "offer": "take back only what is yours and the temple allows it" }, { "occupant": "the Last Priest", "doing": "chiselling a rival's name off a frieze it has already cleared", "onArrival": "it hands you the chisel and points at a blank", "because": "the frieze must be clean and always has more names", "offer": "chisel one blank and it will name every god it drove out" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "lastidol", "cue": "a small idol, undamaged", "benefit": "once, be protected as the temple protects its own", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you may carry no other token while you hold it" }, { "id": "tokenbasket", "cue": "a confiscated token from the basket", "benefit": "once, call on a god this temple hates", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the temple knows, and stops treating you as a guest", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" } }, { "id": "hammer", "cue": "the hammer left beside the idol", "benefit": "once, break something that should not be breakable", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the temple counts you a breaker of gods, approvingly" }, { "id": "forbiddenlist", "cue": "the list of forbidden gods", "benefit": "once, name what something is afraid of", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you are assumed to worship whatever you name" }, { "id": "facepaving", "cue": "a face-down idol-fragment", "benefit": "once, hide your allegiance entirely", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "nothing recognises you, including help" } ] } } }