L2-04. Processional Corridor — The Sixfold Way
Shallow wall niches hold six cracked incense bells and six narrow bronze plaques etched in Old Suloise. Each plaque sits beneath a bell. The bells are meant to be lifted and steadied (not rung) while the verse beneath is recited in a slow six-count—that’s the corridor’s grammar. The plaques are legible to anyone who learned Suel rites in the Ruby Stacks or who takes time to transliterate.
East and west, low doors wait beneath funerary sigils; to the north, a taller arch is banded in black and ruby. The air smells of resin and old metal.
Role & feel
Ceremonial processional that carried mourners from the Mortuary into the crypt wings. The corridor enforces pace, silence, and order; wrong cadence triggers a mechanical flensing from below.
Incense Bells & Plaques (Wee Jas)
DM note — deciphering:
• If the party previously found the Canticles of the Ruby Measure in L1’s library, they can translate 1–2 lines per minute with that book in hand.
• Comprehend languages reveals the meaning immediately.
• A PC with Suel religious lore who takes 10 minutes to cross-reference symbols can puzzle out all verses without a roll.
• Performance/Religion checks can speed things up, but aren’t required.
Ruby Vigil Torches (divine fire)
Bracket torches along the walls burn with a steady ruby flame. They’re part of the rite and don’t smoke or drip.
- Light: bright 20 ft, dim 20 ft; counts as magical for overcoming darkness.
- Lawful flame: the fire won’t ignite cloth or flesh unless a procession violation occurs (then it will briefly sear offenders as part of the trap).
- Can’t be doused by water, wind, or mundane means.
- Snuffing: only dispel magic (DC 13 spellcasting ability check if cast at 3rd level) or antimagic field can extinguish a torch.
- Relight: speaking any plaque verse on a six-count while touching the sconce causes the flame to blossom back to life at the next beat.
- Tactile clue: when the corridor accepts the party’s cadence, the flames lean slightly forward in time with the count (a soft visual metronome).
Environmental trap
The Sixfold Spike Choir
- Trigger: sprinting, loud talk/shouting, jostling a door without rite, or stepping off the notched stones during a procession.
- Effect (when active): the corridor cycles six hidden spike banks (from south to north, then back). Each active 10-ft segment erupts with needle-spikes and thin hook blades.
- Creatures in the active segment make a DC 13 DEX save or take 9 (2d8) piercing + 7 (2d6) necrotic and are knocked prone (flensed shins/feet on a success, half damage, no prone.
- A prone creature may crawl 5 ft as a reaction to avoid the next bank’s pop (describe hugging the floor between beats).
- Escalation: if the Choir triggers twice within a minute, add 1 tick to the Mortarch Attention Clock (blood scent; a patrol may probe from a nearby wing).
- Reset: the mechanism cools after one round without new violations.
How to bypass without rolling
Any one of these player-led behaviors just works:
- Processional pace: one PC keeps a soft six-count (finger taps or whispered breath) while everyone steps only on the notched tiles at half speed (10 ft/round).
- Stud sweep: tap each of the six brass studs in order (south → north) on a six-count; the studs glow faintly for 1 minute—the Choir is suppressed.
- Bell hush: lift and still the three bells (south, mid, north) on a six-count; with all three steadied, doors may be approached safely.
Optional checks = helpers only: Thieves’ tools (DC 13) can wedge one bank (permanently safe) in 1 minute; Religion/History confirms the bell/stud order for hesitant groups.
Boxed outcomes you can drop live
- Safe procession
Your steps find the notched stones. Six soft beats guide you forward. The brass studs warm under your feet; the floor remains perfectly still.
- Warning sputter (first misstep)
A thin click answers your footfall. Needles twitch up a finger’s width—then withdraw like a held breath.
- Full eruption
Metal flowers burst from the grout—needles and hooks knifing upward. Stone hisses; blood spatters and runs in tidy channels.
Ruby Hallow — Processional Disfavor (Wee Jas)
What this is: The entire corridor is under a temple-grade ward keyed to Wee Jas: Law, Magic, Death. She disdains chaotic deities and holds specific rivalries within the Suel pantheon, notably Beltar, Dalt, Phaulkon, Phyton, and Vatun; lawful cooperation with Heironeous/Hextor is plausible in service of order.
Who is affected: Any cleric or paladin who is (a) devoted to one of those listed opposed Suel powers, or (b) explicitly serves a chaotic patron deity (DM discretion), suffers disfavor here. (Lawful-faith PCs of Heironeous/Hextor are not penalized by default.)
Trigger condition: While moving faster than half speed, speaking above a whisper, or touching a door without steadied bells/studs, the ward regards the creature as a disruptor rather than a petitioner.
Effects (pick the “Standard” line, or use the Optional knobs)
Standard: The creature is Baned by Ruby Law: subtract 1d4 from attack rolls, ability checks, and Concentration checks, and their spell save DCs are reduced by 1 while the trigger condition persists.
Optional theming knobs (use any):
- Domain friction: If the patron is Phaulkon (sky, swiftness), any Dash provokes a DC 13 Dex save or fall prone on the spike “sputter.” If Phyton (beauty/cultivation), plant-summoning spells require a DC 13 spellcasting check or fizzle (slot not spent). If Vatun (winter), cold spells deal –2 damage per die here. If Beltar (pits/spite), shove/grapple attempts suffer an extra –2. If Dalt (portals/keys), Knock and similar effects here are cast at disadvantage. (All represent the corridor’s legalism resisting alien portfolios.)
What the party can read from the room (no rolls)
- Six is the grammar: notched tiles every 6th; six brass Procession studs along the centerline; six cracked bells in wall niches.
- Spike choir clues: the hairline chevrons in the grout align with knee-high slots at the skirting stones—clear signs of up-thrust rather than spray.
- Plaque (Old Suloise, easy gloss): “Walk on the measure. Be silent between beats.”
Exits & thresholds
East (to L2-06: Wing of Measure
family crypts, “safe” wing
Low basalt door with a measuring-rod relief; six small ruby pips along the lower jamb.
Open, no roll: while the studs are lit (or you maintain a hush six-count), place a hand on the rod and say—calmly—“Kept to order.” Bolts withdraw with a soft chime.
If jostled or rushed: triggers Choir at the nearest bank and adds 1 Attention tick.
The six Wee Jas dogma verses (Old Suloise → quick gloss)
Use these as literal plaque text. Read slowly, on a six-beat cadence. I’ve built them straight out of her dogma: Law, Magic, Death/Stewardship, Beauty/Vanity tempered by order, lawful necromancy, and sacred fire.
- “Lex Rubi stat; tace inter ictus.”
Ruby Law stands; be silent between beats. - “Magia clavem tenet; Lex manum regit.”
Magic is the key; Law guides the hand. - “Mortuos custodimus, non rapimus; debitum servamus.”
We steward the dead, not steal them; we keep what is due. - “Decus sine lege est superbia; speculum dealba, concupiscentiam vela.”
Beauty without law is vanity; polish the vessel, veil the hunger. - “Servitus concessa post mortem licet; inviti quiescant.”
Service granted by consent after death is lawful; the unwilling must rest. - “Ignis sacer illuminat; umbra docet.”
The sacred flame illuminates; the shadow teaches.
How these help the puzzle: Reciting any verse in a soft six-count while someone steadies its bell will suppress the nearest spike bank for 1 minute. Steadying all three bells (south, mid, north) at once with any three verses suppresses the entire corridor.
Comments