L2-16. Great Crypt Hall of the Six

Role & feel

A grand processional honoring Suel rites—quiet, impressive, no traps. The hall invites prayer and rewards reverence: each small altar can grant a 1-hour blessing tied to a Suel power. Any one blessing is a “token of leave” that will open the Gods’ Gate by name.

Using the wall altars (player-led, no rolls)

Each PC may receive one blessing at a time. To claim one:

1. Touch the altar’s ruby pip while whispering a short prayer (Old Suloise or translated) on a soft six-count, keeping silence between beats.
2. A faint ruby line traces the shelf; a subtle seal marks the supplicant’s palm.
3. The altar dims for 1 hour after bestowing a blessing (then relights).

Multiple altars: a creature may swap blessings by praying at a different altar; the new one replaces the old.

Blessings

(duration 1 hour; choose the ones you want active in your campaign)

• Wee Jas — Ruby Law. Stewardship of death, magic under order.
  Effect: Resistance to necrotic damage; advantage on saving throws vs. being frightened by undead.
• Lendor — Keeper of the Measure. Cadence, time, inevitability.
  Effect: You cannot be surprised while conscious; once each round you may add +1d4 to one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw made on a turn in which you move no more than half your speed.
• Jascar — Stone & Oath. Bulwark, craft, binding promises.
  Effect: Gain +1 AC while wearing medium or heavy armor or a shield, and advantage on Strength (Athletics) checks to shove, grapple, or resist being moved.
• Pyremius — Flame Under Rule. Purifying heat, decisive strike.
  Effect: Resistance to fire damage; once per turn when you hit, deal an extra 1d4 fire damage.

Inactive niches: Decorative niches for other Suel powers (Kord, Lydia, Dalt , etc.) line the hall but are dormant here; their verses are present as scripture, not boons.

Anathema of the Six (optional rule)

When a Cleric or Paladin devoted to a diametric or enemy deity of the altar’s patron attempts to claim that altar’s blessing, the hall rejects them.

Trigger: A devotee of an opposed god completes the six-count prayer and touches the ruby pip.
Effect (choose one table-wide style):

• Ruby Rebuke (default): The supplicant takes 2d6 psychic and 2d6 radiant damage (no save), gains Bane (no concentration; 1 hour, ends early on dispel magic DC 15), and cannot gain that altar’s blessing.
• Harsh Silence (milder): No damage; the prayer fails and the altar goes dark to that creature for 24 hours.
• Severe Anathema (grim): As Ruby Rebuke, plus disadvantage on spell attacks and enemies have advantage on saves vs. that creature’s divine spells while in L2-16.

Read-aloud cue (short):

Interactions with the Gods’ Gate

• A cursed creature cannot open the Gate—even if another party member holds a valid blessing.
• Lifting the Anathema early: a contrite verse at the matching altar (“Measure mends, law forgives”), remove curse, or leaving L2-16 for 10 minutes to break line-of-effect.

The Gods’ Gate (north landing)

A tall double-leaf of blue-black steel banded in bronze, its face worked with interlaced Suel geometry and the four active god-seals (ruby insets). Protective glyphs trace the margins.

How it opens (no roll): A creature bearing any blessing from this hall places a palm on the matching god-seal and speaks that god’s name (Old Suloise Suel or clear Common). On the next beat of the six-count, bolts withdraw and the doors swing inward.

• No blessing: the door remains inert. Forcing it is futile and only ticks the Attention Clock (+1) with harsh metal echoes.
• Mixed party: any one blessed speaker can open for the whole group.
• Aesthetic effect: when the right name is spoken, the other three seals glow in sympathy—acknowledging the pantheon’s concord here.

Lesser Priests’ Chambers (quick keys)

East-1: Vesting & Rolls

Plain cots, a vesting rack, and a stone desk with service rolls (names, dates, rites kept).

• Finds: incense sticks (6), ruby chalk (3), ledger pages that map who served where (pointers to Wing of Measure vs Wing of Stone).

East-2: Reliquary & Rest

Shallow drawer-niches for finger bones and teeth, with Wee Jas seals.

• Finds: vial of funerary myrrh, scroll of gentle repose, and a cracked processional chime (mends if tapped in a six-count next to any altar).

Connections (no traps)

• Back south: L2-01. Great Crypt Hall of the Six (statue riddle room).
• West-center door: short hall to L2-10. Antechapel of the Ruby Mortarch
• East doors: lesser priests’ chambers (above).
• North: Gods’ Gate (name-keyed by any current blessing) → your northern temple corridors (to be keyed).

Boxed outcomes (quick drops)

Claiming a blessing

The ruby pip warms under your palm. A thin line of light traces the shelf—one… two… three… four… five… six—and your skin takes a faint seal that fades into a memory of heat.

Gate opens by name

The chosen seal brightens; the others answer in low harmony. Bolts draw back with a measured scrape, and the Gods’ Gate swings inward.

Gate ignored / forced (harmless stall)

The geometry holds. Your shove goes nowhere; the echoes skitter down the hall like thrown nails.