The Story
This Temple to the Grace Marshal was established when the gods still walked Al'tehrun. It was used as a place of public worship for people in the northern region of the continent now known as Olessar. Additionally, the temple served as a vault, a holding place for powerful relics and artifacts which the Knights Duvonte sought to safeguard from outside influences.
In one of their last acts defending the realm before the establishment of the Ends of Empryean, Beskem left an imprint on the mountainous region (creating the basin Rookmore resides in), resulting in the displacement of this temple beneath the earth. This event coincided with their more widely known act of defense, plunging The Blade du Colosseaux into the ground and "gracing" the land one last time (creating the Greater Sheathe Gulf and its connection to the greater Sunderset Ocean).
Approaching the Temple
The Pines de Colosseaux grow denser on the western side of this basin within the Steppes of Grace
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A thin layer of frozen dirt breaks beneath your feet, giving way to a hole in the ground. Uncovered by the disruption is a long-covered stone brick structure beneath the Pines de Colosseaux. |
Areas of the Temple
Level 1: Public Access Worship
B1, Foyer
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Lit by natural light streaming from the hole in the stone brick ceiling, faded and rotted banners hang along the walls of this long, empty hall. A large set of iron doors, blocked shut with ice and packed earth, occupy the east wall. Smaller open archways flank the iron doors, and the hall narrows to an archway to the west. A consistent dripping echoes from the furthest archway, toward the western chamber. |
B2, Equipment Storage
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Rotted wooden planks and long rusted iron weapons and armor litter the floor of this small chamber. Pinned to the Western wall by a greatsword wedged between stone bricks is a dented iron helm. |
The greatsword is mundane, but will function as a key for the secret door in B10. Removing it allows the secret door to B4a in this wall to swing open freely.
B3, Siege Defenses Storage
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Eroded by time, ropes, wooden planks, and iron braces spill out of this archway and fill the chamber beyond. The light from the ceiling sends sharp and violent jagged shadows along the southern wall. |
B4a, Guard Post, North
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A small, dust-choked sentry's post. The east wall, which previously housed the arrow slit, is caved in and overtaken with earth and dirt. The earth seems loosely packed and is disturbed by an earthworm pushing from the earth into the chamber with you. Abandoned on the floor is a rusted but intact longsword and shield. |
The longsword is mundane, but will function as a key for the secret door in B10. The shield is also mundane, and has a simplistic engraving of a sword sheathed in a mountain.
Shortly after entering this chamber, a Purple Wormling emerges from the dirt cave-in and attacks the nearest creature inside.
B4b, Guard Post, South
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A small, dust-choked sentry's post houses a skeleton adorned in rusted armor. An arrow sits in its ribcage. A fragile bow and aged quiver lay near its hands. The east wall houses a dirt-choked arrow slit. |
The arrows and bow are brittle and unusable, but the arrowheads can be scavenged or used.
B5, Prayer Chamber
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A slow, sharp dripping sound echoes through the archways and up the vaulted ceiling of this long hall. Along the west wall is a long stone table with scattered evidence of prayer: a number of rusted holy symbols, candle wax, and food offerings. The dripping leads you to focus on a rusted metal offering bowl, filled with a dark brackish liquid which falls in drops from the high ceiling. A similar brackish liquid |
The liquid on the ground and in the bowl are the remains of several recently slain oozes. A surviving Black Pudding resides in the ceiling here. It drops on anyone who investigates the bowl or otherwise walks beneath it.
B6, Chapel
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A stone relief of the Grace Marshall is carved into the rocky northern wall stands tall behind a stone podium: an 6 foot tall figure in full stone armor holding his sword in front of him with its tip sheathed partly in the stone ground below. The podium houses a dusty, closed tome and faces 3 rows of stone pews. |
The tome is a book titled "Together, Unbreakable". It contains passages and messaging for leading a sermon which focus on the themes of honor, duty, and reliability.
B7, Prayer Materials Storage
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A smaller chamber with warped wooden tables and a pool of water gathers on the floor around long unused incense and charcoal. From the northwest corner of the ceiling, an occasional drip of groundwater falls onto the scattered prayer materials below. On the wall and floor around the puddle grows a large patch of thick mold and fungus. |
The plant in the northwest corner is actually a Mantrap, and feeds on any creature who wanders too close. It uses its Attractive Pollen ability when a creature approaches the puddle or passes through the room.
B8, Public Reading Room
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Four plain wooden tables and accompanying chairs stand in the still silence of this room. Melted wax has fused itself to the corner of each table. On the East Wall, a section of the wall protrudes further than the rest of the otherwise featureless edges of this room. |
B9, Public Scriptures Storage
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Each footstep crunches and rips into the parchment and scrolls scattered on the floor of this stone room. Heavy wooden bookshelves sag and bend under the weight of countless tomes on their shelves. |
B10, Statue of Beskem
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Standing 14 feet tall, a free standing statue made entirely of marble stands guard in the center of this chamber. Carved onto the body is a full iron helm, featureless plate armor, and outstretched arms holding an enormous iron sword whose tip sinks into the pedestal below. A small engraving of Celestial at the foot of the statue reads "Our First Protector, Unbending Beskem." On the ground before the statue is a longsword, fractured at the hilt and laying in multiple pieces on the stone brick ground. |
In front of the statue is a slit in the floor, slightly wider than gaps between the otherwise uniform stone brick floor. Mimicking the statue and inserting an edged blade (longsword, greatsword, etc.) into the slit unlocks the entrance to the stairway down to the Champion Hall (B11). Removing the weapon reseals the door.
Level 2: The Inner Sanctum
B11, Hall of Champions
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The staircase leads further underground, and a deep boom echoes from further within the temple. The stairway lands at the opening of a sprawling hall. Faded banners and paintings hang along the walls. Four archways lead off the sides of this hall, and a massive iron door. Dust settles around the hall |
B12, Private Reading Room
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B13, Private Scripture Storage
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Bookshelves are cracked and splintered on the ground before you. Countless tomes are strewn across the floor, covering almost the entirety of the floor. |
B14, Main Sleeping Quarters
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Rows of musty bunk beds line both walls of this long chamber. Two footlockers sit closed at the foot of each of the lower beds. |
B15, Personal Storage
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B16, Facilities
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A small chamber with several stone partitions which separate cramped spaces. Each portion houses a raised stone platform with a sizable, circular hole. |
B17, Dining Hall
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B18, Kitchen
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B19, Food Storage
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Level 3: The Vault
B20, Relic Housing
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B21a, Vault, Main Chamber
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B21b, Vault, Scripture Chamber
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B21c, Vault, NE Chamber
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B21d, Vault, NW Chamber
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B21e, Vault, SW Chamber
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B21f, Vault, Maximum Security
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A small greenish-metallic chamber with adamantine walls, floor, and ceiling each filled with intricate carvings, depictions of armor - shields, helms, and worn pieces all throughout history fill every square inch of the walls. In the center is an adamantine statue of Beskem, with an oversized, beautifully made greatsword in its grasp, tip piercing the metal below. |
The blade stored here is the Earthsplitter: the colossal blade wielded by Beskem themselves before the Rive, and their champion Terrive in the beginning years of the Gait. As an artifact of the Grace Marshal, the wielder has the potential to carve the land beneath them and grow to enormous size in battle.