L2-03. Mortuary of Ruby Law - First Ceremonial Hall

Arrival (first reveal)

The attendants at work

The recent dead (use after a scan or when PCs approach the biers)

The Custodian notices the party

If the party enters respectfully (low voices, hands washed, weapons low)

Purpose & feel

This is the washing, naming, and binding hall—where priests prepared the dead before interment deeper within. Everything is geometry, cadence, and care.

Wee Jas Holy Symbol by 3orcs

Features

• Six biers: each with a ruby stud that, when pressed in six-count sequence (any bier → next → next), lights a thin line along the floor connecting them.
• Incense stations: three shallow braziers; lighting them in order of the phrase (Lendor → Wee Jas → Jascar → Pyremius) fills the room with a steady, sweet smoke that calms the hall’s guardian.
• Tool carts: scalpels (silvered), clamps, linen, sealing wax, tiny vials of funerary myrrh (6 uses; counts as holy water vs. undead for 1 minute if smeared on a weapon).
• Relief inscription (Old Suloise, with gloss): “Keep the measure, keep the law; bind the oath, quench the ire.”

North Doors: The Six Diamonds

(Processional Threshold)

Two tall basalt-clad leaves inlaid with six concentric diamond lattices (the Processional mark). Fresh ruby chalk lines (Mortarch’s hand) circle certain nodes.

Double doors of black stone wait beneath a lattice of six interlocking diamonds. Newer ruby chalk rings scrawl across the design, as if someone re-taught the door what to obey.

How to open (lore-first, no roll)

• In this hall, press the ruby studs on all six biers in a six-count sequence (any bier → next → next) while one character maintains a soft breath cadence.
• Then touch the door lattice from inner diamond to outer on a six-beat sweep.
• The diamonds glow in order; bolts withdraw.

Mortarch interference (trap if rushed or wrong)

• Touching the outer ring first triggers Diamonds Inverse: DC 13 DEX or 8 (2d6) slashing + 5 (1d10) necrotic as fine cutting lines snap from the jambs; success halves.
• Loud forcing attempt adds 1 tick to the Attention Clock.

Leads to: L2-04 Processional Corridor → branching crypt wings (see “Next Up” below).

West Door: Service Chain (Ossuary Access)

West Door Service Chain by 3orcs

A squat side door banded in bronze with six name-plates (empty). Inside, the Mortarch’s ghouls use this run to move bodies.

A workman’s door squats in the west wall, low and strong. Six blank name-plates march down its face; a smear of dried resin darkens the handle.

Open / Bypass

• Slide-bar on the Mortuary side—quiet if lifted on a six-count.
• Naming a deceased (as in the Absolution Door) while you lift the bar prevents a bell-clack behind the wall.
• Forcing it or lifting off-beat rings a bone chime deep in the stacks (adds 1 tick to the Attention Clock).

Leads to: L2-05. Ossuary Stacks “The Bone-Chain” (dense bones, excellent ambush ground).

South Grate: Bone-Wash Drain (Crawl)

Iron grate over the drainage runnel; ruby wax seal cracked. A Small creature (or Reduce) can squeeze through.

The drain along the south wall narrows into a barred culvert, its iron dark with preservative. Ruby wax fills the hinge seams—split, and split again.

Notes

• Prying the grate free without chattering it requires patience and cloth padding (describe it; no roll).
• A smeared myrrh line (from your room’s supplies) keeps ghouls from following for 1 hour.

Leads to: maintenance crawl that can bypass a later Beltar pit hall and emerge near a wing’s rear niches.

L2-03a. Ruby Lift Vestibule (side room)

A narrow side door in the south wall opens into a tight stone vestibule. An iron-banded lift gate fills the far wall; beside it, a waist-high lever pedestal bears six small ruby pips and a horizontal measure bar. Warm, resin-sweet air seeps from a viewing slit over the gate, and faint chainwork ticks somewhere below.

Use (lore-first): If the Flame Transept below is properly Quenched (L2-09), the six pips glow. Place both hands on the measure bar and rock it through six calm clicks while another turns the lever ring through six detents, holding silence between beats—the gate unlatches and the lift moves.

Hazard: Running the lift while the transept is not Quenched scorches riders (DC 12 Con each round; 1d10 fire, half on success) and noisy, off-beat operation vents a steam lash in the room (DC 13 Dex; 2d6 fire; stall for 1 round) and ticks the attention clock (+1).

Exits: Door back to L2-03 Mortuary of Ruby Law; lift down to L2-09. Flame Transept — “Under-Ash Service” (Lift Well).

Guardian & social puzzle

A Ruby Custodian (use Wight stats, voice of a priest) pacifies if the rites are kept.

• Default attitude: wary but non-hostile if the party enters respectfully (hands washed, voice low).
• Appeasement (no roll): perform the incense order on a six-count and name a dead; the Custodian bows and offers guidance (“Take the Measure path; leave the Pit path shut”).
• Offense: loud desecration, drawn steel against the biers, or door-bashing → the Custodian calls 2 embalmer skeletons from wall niches and fights to subdue, not kill.

Quick tactics if it goes loud

• Round 1: Custodian brandishes funerary staff (longsword profile), commands Silence! (flavor) and attacks the noisiest offender.
• Round 2: Two Skeletons emerge; the Custodian tries to Grapple one living foe to drag them onto a bier (thematic restraint).
• Round 3+: If a character smears funerary myrrh on a weapon or recites the watch-prayer on a six-count, the Custodian disengages and yields the room.

Boxed outcomes

• Rites observed (social success)

Incense rises in three thin cords; ruby studs glow, one… two… three… four… five… six. The robed Custodian lowers its blade and inclines its head. In ancient Suel, “Proceed in order. Keep the measure.”

• Desecration (combat begins)

The ruby sigils flare a warning. From the wall-niches, bone and bronze stir. The Custodian’s voice is a dry rasp: In ancient Suel, “Respect the quiet, or be made quiet.”

• Fail-forward (one rite correct)

The air wavers with incense, but the studs remain dark. The Custodian’s skull turns as if listening—unconvinced, not yet enraged.

Secrets, treasure, and leads

• Hidden drawer (Investigation or smart rummage): beneath the central bier—Ruby Chalk (10 uses), mason’s square (advantage to align future wards), Scroll (gentle repose), and a Ledger Tablet noting which families claimed which crypt wings (names you can tie to your campaign).
• Drain grate: leads to a maintenance crawl (Small creatures or Reduce can pass) that bypasses a later Beltar “pit” hall—but reeks of old preservative and is slippery.

Ruby Custodian — 2nd-person lines

(Ancient Suel → gloss)

Opening, if rites are observed (calm, six-count)

• “Suloise tal—meisa sei.” You keep the measure—good.
• “Tu venis sub Rubi-Lex; tace inter ictus.” You come beneath Ruby Law; be silent between beats.
• “Nomina mortuos; transis ordinatim.” Name the dead; you pass in order.

Identifying authority (invoking the Mortarch)

• “Per Sigillum Mortarchae Rubri, custodio hanc domum.” By the Ruby Mortarch’s seal, I keep this house.
• “Lex Rubi stat; mensura regit.” Ruby Law stands; the measure rules.

Statement of intent (the pitch)

• “Vos audimini: templum Suelum recipiemus.” Hear this: we reclaim the Suel temple.
• “Dei nostri—Lendor, Wee Jas, Jascar, Pyremius—iterum dominantur.” Our gods—Lendor, Wee Jas, Jascar, Pyremius—will rule again.
• “Potestas nostra par erit, immo superabit, omnes deos horum agrorum.” Our power shall rival—indeed surpass—all gods of these lands.
• “Gens Suloise, iusti rectores, surgent.” The Suel people—the righteous rulers—will rise.

Testing the party’s stance

• “Vos—servietis Ordini, an rumpetis Legem?” You—will you serve the Order, or break the Law?
• “Promittite: mensuram servabitis, iussa feretis Mortarchae.” Swear: you will keep the measure and bear the Mortarch’s commands.

If the party shows respect / neutrality

• “Recte. Transite Processionalem; Cavete Semitam Putei.” Rightly done. Take the Processional; beware the Pit Path.
• “Si opus est, dicas orationem vigiliae: Lendoris Mensura, Lex Rubi; Lapis Jascari, Flamma Pyremii—Suloise transit.” If needed, speak the watch-prayer…

If the party hesitates or claims other loyalties

• “Non estis Suloises? Etiam sic: silentium, ritus, ordo—tunc pax.” Not Suel? Even so: silence, rite, order—then peace.
• “Offendite ritus—flendet lapis, mordebit flamma.” Offend the rites—the stone will flense, the flame will bite.

If they mock the rites or grow loud (warning)

• “Stulte. Mensuram fregistis.” Fools. You broke the measure.
• “Trespassores flendi sunt.” Trespassers must be flensed.
• “Tacete—aut taceri faciam.” Be silent—or be made silent.

If they pledge to aid the Mortarch (recruitment)

• “Iuramentum audivi.” I hear your oath.
• “Portate signum—Sigillum Mortarchae—et patebunt vobis ostia.” Bear the Mortarch’s sign, and doors will open to you.
• “Adducte corpora ad sacra opera; servos excitabimus.” Bring bodies for sacred work; we will raise servants.

Dismissal / permission to pass

• “Procedite in ordine. Mensurate gressus vestros.” Proceed in order. Measure your steps.
• “Lex Rubi aspicit.” Ruby Law watches.

Combat trigger line (if they desecrate)

• “Iudicium.” Judgment.

Quick delivery tips

• Speak on a soft six-beat (tap thumb to pinky: 1-2-3-4-5-6).
• Keep phrases short; let a breath fall between beats for Ruby Law.
• If players try to parley in Common, answer in Old Suloise first, then give a clipped two-word gloss like “Keep measure,” “Name dead,” or “Take Processional.”