A young woman in priestly robes who keeps an old shrine to the Maker at the bottom of a hidden stair beneath the buried complex at The Mirror Lake — directly above the Moon sanctum’s octagon. She called the party pilgrims and made them welcome. (S9)
What We Know (all S9)
- Met at the bottom of the spiral stair under the hidden, lightning-trapped hatch in the domed hall — the stair “clean and well maintained,” the shrine lit by magical lights.
- Mid to late teens, human, dark hair. Priestly robes. She is obviously Amani — of the Aman, the Highlands people — though she didn’t say so (Aaron).
- She greeted the party in Hazadi.
- She offered them — “pilgrims” — a place to stay. She did not ask for a pilgrim’s sign (Aaron).
- She mentioned a head priest who visits sometimes. (Aaron, 2026-10-03) Nothing more about them is recorded — no name, no word on how often or from where.
- The shrine she keeps is well appointed, though in a rather old style.
- When the party prayed at the shrine, she noticed something off about their prayers. The notes don’t say what, or whether she said anything about it.
- She told the party they were welcome to descend the stairway off the shrine to meditate — and to make sure to wear robes against the cold. Partway down is an antechamber with two sets of clerical robes that appear to be enchanted to resist cold; below that, a room painted with wings; at the bottom, the Moon sanctum’s octagon and its six crystal shards. See The Mirror Lake.
That is everything on record. Nothing records her saying who she is, or anything about the five masked Corrupted who were camped in the hall above her hatch — nor whether the party told her what happened up there.
Speculation
Speculation
Every fact about her is ordinary and the sum is not. A teenage girl, weeks beyond the last road, in a clean shrine with working magical lights, under a hall where five Corrupted challenged strangers in the Black Speech — and her first words are a welcome, in the party’s own language. Someone feeds her, clothes her, and taught her the rite. Readings, none excluded:
- She is what she looks like: an acolyte or keeper of a living tradition that still tends this place — the way the Order of the Dawn tended theirs until ~1639. The head priest who “visits sometimes” fits this: there are others, a hierarchy, and a route by which they come and go (the tunnels to the hills and the gully?).
- She and the masked five belong to the same arrangement — they keep the door, she keeps the shrine, and both expect “pilgrims.” They demanded a sign; the notes record her asking for none. See The Pilgrim’s Sign.
- She doesn’t know what is upstairs — the hatch was hidden and trapped, and could have been keeping them out.
- She is not what she looks like. The party has met one other custodian of an octagon, and he was a talking corpse.
Speculation
“Something off about our prayers.” The shrine is “in a rather old style.” The plainest reading is that the party prays the modern Eastern Church way and she knows an older rite — which would make her the first living witness to how the Faith was practised here before whatever ended this place. But the notes don’t say what she noticed, and it may have been something about the people rather than the words: one of the four at that shrine is a bound elf, and one has been called to.
Open Questions
- Who is she, and who taught her?
- Who is the head priest — how often do they visit, from where, by which door, and how do they get past (or along with) the Corrupted in the hall above?
- What does she know about the masked five — and does she know they are dead?
- What did she notice about the prayers?
- Why “pilgrims”? Who else comes, how often, and do they carry a sign?
- What does she think is at the bottom of the stairs she sends people down to meditate?
- An Aman girl speaking Hazadi, far south of The Highlands and outside Hazad altogether — from where?
Appearances
- Session 9 — welcomes the party as pilgrims; notices their prayers; mentions a visiting head priest; sends them down to the octagon.