The Fallen World

Mysteries Index

9 min read

The party’s open questions, ranked roughly by current priority.

Standing Assignments (from Uncle)

  1. The Sanctum Investigation — sanctum #1 entered (S5); the orrery is a working instrument (S6) — and, per Estelle, a copy (S8); the Owl’s math is equations, partly old dwarven, and Ari has three candidate lines (S8); the pilgrim’s road ended at The Mirror Lake in a second octagon — six crystal shards laid out in a star, a living keeper, and Corrupted at the door (S9) — confirmed as the Moon sanctum (Aaron). Six or seven prisons, four candidate sites, two entered — and no unbroken gem yet seen
  2. Why Did the Phoenix Knights Come to Hazad — the second standing order

Urgent

  1. The Pilgrim’s Sign — new (S9): five masked Corrupted demanded a “pilgrim’s sign” in the Black Speech and killed Titus; one hidden stair below them, Mirriam welcomed the party as “pilgrims” — no sign asked — and mentioned a head priest who visits sometimes. Somebody still makes pilgrimage to the lake — who, and with what credential?
  2. The Elf Scapegoating — escalated (S7): the riot became a pogrom. Roughly half the capital’s ~10,000 elves are dead, the rest mostly homeless, ~100 “riot leaders” publicly executed — and the question of who built the rumor campaign now has a body count
  3. The Orders of the Five Courts — new (S7): the holy orders were once named for the Heavenly Courts; the Phoenix was “the order of the day”; an order of the moon was anathematized under Aurelius Balventius — a kinsman of House Balventia. The Church’s own institutions mirror Estelle’s cosmology
  4. The Riot at the Ulpia Estate — aftermath in (S7): one guard dead, one saved; other estates were hit, so it was a real riot — and the party is still fairly certain the snipers were targeted even though the mob may not have been
  5. The Death of Naqi al-Akram — he was pulled off Awad’s expedition by his sister’s death and then died at home. Sadiq is holding something back — and the “within the month” follow-up meeting is running out of month (S7)

The Western Thread

  1. On the Summoning of Guardian Spirits — Benedicto Malipiero is the Most Holy’s younger brother, condemned for heresy ~1710 — and the Phoenix purged knowledge of him, with his family’s help (S7)
  2. The Night in the Royal Castle — who sent the assassins. Marc Abayante saw it coming and gathered the order anyway (S6)
  3. The Lord of Kraus’s Folly — the Averoigne swordsman, the Ritual Magic circle, and Amalricht von-Haup as its possible builder
  4. The Monastery of the Dawn and the Orrery — the monastery died in a siege; the dream-orrery is a recent Clan Grum instrument — which Estelle calls a copy of the original — the party suspects a reverse-engineered copy of the monastery’s jeweled orrery (S8); and the Order of the Dawn was one of the Court orders (S7)
  5. The Halwa Ambushes — Sister Alasia reached at last, but who sent the thugs is still open

The Succession Crisis

  1. The Death of Crown Prince Awad — accident, assassination, or something in the ruins? His usual bodyguard was removed from the trip and then died. Nobody has the roster of who did go
  2. The Attacks on Baahir — hastily assembled, three people, very professional (Ismad, S6); Harim al-Faisal was used, not complicit

Party Business

  1. Ari and the Ring — the heretical binding and House Aurunculeia’s secret
  2. The Call at the Sanctum — now party knowledge (S6); Haroun told them himself. Has not recurred

Resolved

  • The Curse on Titus — lifted by Father Jamar in one night (S6). Kept for the theory it probably killed. No re-examination — the party’s stance is that lifted curses don’t come back (Aaron). Titus was killed in S9, by an axe, not the curse

Evidence Files

Minor Threads

  • Who is Mirriam, who taught her, who is the head priest who visits her sometimes, and what did she notice about the party’s prayers? (S9)
  • Who laid out the six shards in the Moon sanctum’s octagon, and when did that crystal break? (S9)
  • Where did Ari learn the Black Speech? The party hadn’t known she understood it, and doesn’t know whether she speaks it. (S9, Aaron)
  • Is the lake on one of Ari’s three intersection points? The party doesn’t know yet (Aaron). The first ground-truth test of the Owl’s equations. (S9)
  • Who is owed word of Titus’s death — and can any be sent from here? The party holds his ashes. (S9)
  • Who is Estelle? Uncle and Maajid suspect the Order of the Phoenix — no proof. And the Phoenix reportedly used divination in the war forty years ago. (S6)
  • Where did the orrery come from? A Clan Grum instrument, 10–20 years old, used and maintained. Instrument-makers keep books. (S6) Estelle (S8): it’s a copy of the original — the party suspects of the Monastery of the Dawn’s jeweled orrery. Who commissioned the copy?
  • The sanctums have never been mentioned to Visenne de Tarrand or Isabel d’Allais (confirmed — Justin) — though the party did ask them about the Order of the Dawn, and they knew nothing of it. They’re still at Gazra and can be released into the party’s custody on request. (S6)
  • Does Isabel d’Allais know her father is dead? She defends d’Allais in the present tense — which is also the wiki’s open question about his fate. (S6)
  • Who murdered House Bethlen in 1720, and why then? Constanza Bethlen has been officially dead since infancy. (S6)
  • Amalricht von-Haup and Kristof Gruben both died ~1736 — two Krenau men, in the year the Owl was purged. Get causes of death. (S6) (von-Haup as the Kraus’s Folly circle-builder was only Uncle and Ismad speculating — the builder is unknown.)
  • Who is Marin’s cousin of Clan Agaddum, who was on the Fall 1732 party that killed the demon and recovered the tome — and are they alive? (S6, GM)
  • Who knew Etienne’s intentions early? Madeline was appointed Marie-Celeste’s tutor in anticipation of the legitimization. (S6, GM)
  • Was Madeline Marc Abayante’s paramour? Rumor, per Visenne — and Madeline’s own account never touched him or Marie-Celeste. (S6) If it’s ever raised with her: her lover and her charge both died in one night — tread gently (GM).
  • Did the two Ulpia guards live? Resolved (S7): one died, one was saved.
  • The political aftermath of Farraj killing scores of commoners with lightning in the capital. (S6) (Still unaddressed through S7 — the ~100 public executions may have soaked up the city’s appetite for blame, or merely postponed it.)
  • Who ordered and carried out the execution of ~100 “riot leaders” — and how were they identified in five days? (S7)
  • Are Ari’s contacts in the elven community alive? Half the community is dead and nobody has checked. (S7)
  • Who helped Silvia Menenia write her letter — her mother (S8).
  • Who is Gaius, and who else is digging along the pilgrim’s road? (S8) Nothing yet links him to the road’s other traffic — see The Pilgrim’s Sign (S9).
  • What cover story did Haroun give Master Najlad for the orrery? (S8)
  • The missing equations for Ari’s intersecting, less static lines — Farraj forgot to ask Estelle. (S8)
  • Copy the mirror-lake pilgrimage account — done during the library visit (Aaron; unrecorded): the party holds the journey description. Possible directions toward the Moon sanctum. (S7)
  • Is Aurelius Balventius a Balventia ancestor? Resolved: same house, believed a distant ancestor (S7, per Aaron). Open now: does the Countess know the anathema record sits in her own library, and how does the family tell the story?
  • Salemon Fouquier — a living archprelate who used divination in the Fifth Crusade (pro/con only, at least per the book — GM); and where is Ximes? (S7)
  • Is the “Goat Sun” The Red Star? A Third Crusade rising would make four. (S7)
  • Sadiq’s follow-up meeting — “within the month” (S6), and the month is nearly out. (S7)
  • Why do Uncle and Ismad doubt Benedicto Malipiero’s execution? Answered (GM): no good evidence he’s dead — and a man of his background had to know how the church would respond, so he was incredibly foolish, indifferent to death, or had a plan. See his page.
  • Does Charles de Tarrand know his daughter is a hostage in Hazad? Five years, no ransom. (S6)
  • Constanza Bethlen — fugitive, ~20, dark hair, some unknown relationship to the folly’s lord — and the rightful heir to Morrschatten, carrying the Betrayer Queen’s gift. (S5, GM)
  • Sister Alasia and Haroun — what she’s actually running in Halwa, and why she called Madeline an “old friend”. (GM) And Uncle’s Men have now told the Eagle about Madeline. (S6)
  • Daughters of Touraine — Odette, Alphonsine, Eloise: claimants to Averoigne under the Doge’s protection. (GM)
  • The Ritual of Rebirth — who else can perform it, what it costs, and why nobody has mentioned it with a Crown Prince freshly dead. (GM)
  • The hidden chamber the second incursion tore open at the Sanctum of Sethariel — what came out of it? (S5)
  • The scholars Madeline named, and Gandolfini’s university at Krenau — which burned in the 1731 sack. (S5, GM)
  • What became of Jehanne d’Allais, the Owl’s last commander, when the order was dissolved and its members executed. (GM)
  • Ask Madeline about Marie-Celeste de la Courcel — she was the murdered heir’s tutor and never mentioned it. (GM; corroborated in-world S6)
  • What Bren and Arnolf’s “extended questioning” by Uncle’s Men reveals. (GM)
  • What the Eagle learned from the Halwa captives in 1734 — and who decided to keep them alive on royal ground for five years. Sister Alia has been minding them the whole time. (S4, S6)
  • The wisp of smoke over Kraus’s Folly seen from the ship — who else was there? (S4)
  • The ~20 bandits on the university road — possibly the highland mercenaries the wine hall remembered passing a month earlier, looking for a contract. Nothing links the two. (S3)
  • The unnamed “very large woman” who accompanies Princess Ensah. (S3)

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