L2-14. Court of Witness - Ruby Audit Office

Purpose & feel

• The Wee Jas clerks once logged processions, sealings, and special dispensations here. It’s a lawful “paperwork” room—simple to use, hostile to rushing.

Features

• Witness Desk (center): Bronze-capped basalt, with
• Ruby stamp (chip set in a handle),
• Seal heater (cold),
• Wax tablets (blank), ink brush, count-cord (six knots).
  Inscription (Old Suloise): “Witness, then proceed.”
• Ledger Niches (north wall): Pigeonholes with bone tally sticks, wax tablets, a small Wee Jas ribbon-seal, and a maplet slate of adjacent rooms (Crossroads, Vault, Gods’ Door).
• Chime loop (south wall): Six fingertip chimes (metronome for players).
• East arch: 10 ft passage to the Gods’ Door antechamber (the monumental door is in sight and readable from here).

Using the Court

(player-skill; no checks)

Witness Rite (records your entry)

1. One creature places a palm on the Witness Desk.
2. Another rings the chimes in a soft six-count.
3. On six, speak a respectful funerary line (Common or Old Suloise) and stamp a wax tablet.

Result — Ruby Poise (boon): Up to two creatures gain advantage on one timing-based save/check in the next 10 minutes (e.g., rollers, vent timing, coordinated presses). Also reduce Attention by 1 (min 0).

Fumble (loud/off-count): The desk gives a thin buzz; no boon, Attention +1.

Opening the Gods’ Door

(two intended paths)

Keep your earlier rule from L2-16: a creature blessed at a side altar can speak that god’s name at the door to open it. This room adds a lawful “clerk’s override” the party can discover.

• Primary (as established): A character who carries an hour-long altar blessing from L2-16 may speak that deity’s name on a six-count at the threshold to open the door.
• Lawful Override (this room): After completing the Witness Rite, place the freshly stamped wax tablet into the east jamb recess (waist-high slot; Perception 12 or any careful search) and press the ruby pip ring on a six-count.
• Success: The Gods’ Door unlatches and swings open for 1 minute.
• Cost: Marks the ledger as a special dispensation: Attention +1 the moment it closes (custodians notice an unscheduled entry later).

Fail-forward: Forcing or banging at the east door: +1 Attention and a brief ruby crackle; try again after 1 minute.

Hazards & pressure

• Noise (shouting, armor dump, smashing glyphs) → +1 Attention each.
• Attention ≥ 3: A Ruby Custodian with 2 Ruby Zombies approaches from the west (L2-10 side) in 1d4 rounds, attempting to hold the east threshold.

Secrets & loot

• Ribbon-seal (north niches): Presenting this to any Ruby Custodian grants advantage on one parley/stand-down check here.
• Count-cord (desk): Once/day, after a spoken six-count, grant +1 to an ally’s next ability/tool check within 30 ft.
• Maplet slate: Quick sketch of Crossroads ↔ Court ↔ Gods’ Door and the thin link west to the Vault—a fair nudge if players missed that side passage.

Boxed outcomes

• Witness observed (boon): One… two… three… four… five… six—the stamp takes clean; the seams cool to a soft ruby. You feel the room relax, just a little.
• Gods’ Door override: The tablet slides into the jamb; ruby points chase the edge of the door, and a deep latch thunks. The panels ease inward on a measured breath.

Ledger (excerpted registry)

† Valdris’s “death” marks his embalming/entombment date; he now endures as the Ruby Mortarch.

DM use

• Treat these as name-plates on sarcophagi, wall-slabs, or bone-racks.
• Sprinkle job marks (square, anvil, skull-star, six-bars) beside names to hint which god/rite a niche belongs to.
• When players search, let a name confirm location: e.g., finding Odrik Kendoran in L2-11a telegraphs the Fortubo/Jascar flavor.
• Feel free to roll d6 per family to add extra cousins; keep ages 50–95 for humans of the era.