The Mortuary Temple

The front gatehouse to the Tomb is styled as a temple, once decorated that it could play host to kings and dignitaries, now fallen into disrepair and disrepute; pilgrimages into the Tomb are few and far between now, with the Gate sealed and the Tomb’s ghosts angry.

While the Temple once had entire wings of cloisters, monastic cells for the nuns and monks who tended the Temple and its dead, and kitchens, now only three women remain to tend it: the Abbess and one other nun, along with one of the stablehands.

Mother-Superior Mirida, the Abbess, is perhaps in her late 50s. She retains her position as leader of the Temple, as small as it has gotten. She still radiates serenity and peace to those in her presence, taking some of the weight of all worldly concerns off of her visitors’ shoulders, as if they were a little less pressing, a little more manageable, giving the confidence to know that everything that others must do will be done well; this is as much a result of a supernatural glamour she has been blessed with as it is her personality. She also has a blessing that if one directly under her gaze attempts to lie, their words will stick in their throat. She carries the key to the Tomb door on a chain around her neck tucked under her habit at all times except when she sleeps; then she keeps it in a secret compartment beside her bed.

Narie the stablehand handles all the dirty tasks among the outbuildings of the Temple. When visitors come to the temple, she tends their animals and leaves them to their business with the nuns. When the whole trio takes meals with a company of visitors, she listens much and speaks little. When the temple is desperate for money, she robs graves for their treasures while the nuns look the other way; for their part the nuns are ashamed, but see it as a necessary evil. She has a cell set up for her to sleep in, but spends most of her nights in Mirida’s bed. Despite her decade and a half of service here, she has no plans to take a nun’s vows.

Sister Therina was once a librarian before the Temple sold off its library to sustain its existence. Now she serves as a general custodian, maintaining what can be maintained, cleaning the living areas, and cooking for the trio and any guests.

The three take their meals (with any visitors) in what was once a grand hall that accommodated royal funerals, but now only the tables remain of it, as they were considered too large to be worth the expense of trying to cart off by any buyers; dishes of tin and wood sit where once silver and gold did.

They are obligated by their oaths to help pilgrims entering, though they have a low tolerance for grave robbers. All three have a wealth of knowledge of the Tomb; Mirida knows recent comings and goings and has decades of Temple life to draw on, Therina once read every book in the library, and Narie knows much of the layout of the upper levels, though what they volunteer when not asked specific questions is rarely useful. Mirida may ask adventurers to promise not to rob offerings; she will be able to tell at a glance the look of one who has broken a promise to her on return (note that this only applies to offerings and grave goods, and not to, for instance, treasure brought in purposely by current or former occupants). She may also expect adventurers to give a tithe to the Temple. While none of the three are particularly strong fighters or magicians, attempts to push past them will be difficult, as the passage from Temple to Tomb is locked and the trio know every hiding-place and shortcut in or around the Temple.

The cells kept as living chambers are in a distant wing, now effectively an outbuilding given the disrepair of the intervening places, and the three retire to them by nightfall and advise any guests to do the same, especially on moonless nights; the locks on the Tomb entrance were never meant to contain such ferocious and numerous ghosts as now dwell within.