A site “by the mirror lake, where you can see the glory of the moon, in the south of the empire” — described, with the journey there, by an old Auvernian pilgrim (S7). It is the Moon sanctum (Aaron) — and, as of S9, the place the party is standing in: a placid lake that mirrors the hills, a landslide-buried religious complex, and beneath it an octagon like the one at the Sanctum of Sethariel. It cost them Titus.
CONFIRMED (S9; Aaron, 2026-10-03): this is the mirror lake, and the Moon sanctum
The party’s S7 reading held: the pilgrim’s “glory of the moon” + Estelle’s guess that Moon lies “south of Hazad.” The lake at the end of the pilgrim’s road is the mirror lake, and the octagon under the ruins beside it is the Moon sanctum — the second sanctum the party has entered, and the first one the Order of the Owl never found. (What settled it at the table isn’t in the notes.) See The Six Voices.
What We Know
- The source: an Old Imperial rendition of an Auvernian pilgrim’s account in the Balventia library — a wealthy nobleman who also visited “The Order of the Dawn.” Gnaeus had the journey description copied. (S7) See The Orders of the Five Courts.
- Master Baram has heard the names of some of the stops, but doesn’t know where they are — and says House Menenia is obsessed with this kind of stuff. (S8)
- Atilius found a map with the mirror lake on it at Castromar. Correlating the maps was hard going. (S8)
- The party also holds copies of Al-Hakim University maps of southern Hazad and the old, abandoned Imperial areas to the south (via Berdi), and Ari’s three candidate lines from the orrery and the equations — the three points where they cross another line are, the party is fairly sure, three possible Moon-site locations. (S8; Aaron) When she drew them, nobody knew where the mirror lake was.
The Road So Far (S8)
The party follows the pilgrim’s path “as best we can” (Aaron); the map correlation at Castromar was “resolved as much as it could be — enough to set out.” Lindse and the servants were sent home by ship as too dangerous to bring; Titus and Ari came.
- Castromar → a week south — easy going, still within House Menenia’s lands.
- The roads peter out; the country is sparsely populated.
- A week in dense forest past the border — into the old Imperial lands, not The Badlands (Aaron).
- The ruins of a small city or large town — expected from the pilgrim’s journal. The account’s route is holding up on the ground.
- Signs of other people within the past few days.
- A big recent excavation — weeks of effort by multiple people — down to a cellar with multiple rooms. The party explored it: nothing of particular note (Aaron).
- Locals ambushed the party: they had dug the pit, on the advice of a man named Gaius, who tells them where to dig for money. The party killed half; the rest fled.
The Road, Continued (S9)
- An old Imperial road south from the ruined town — it eases travel despite its age. Rain; minor rivers and streams, some with surviving bridges; foraging and hunting. Haroun notices a few places used as campsites “at various points in the past.” The remains of a few other settlements appear to match the pilgrim’s descriptions.
- After a few more weeks: a river 300 feet wide, very deep, slow. Bridge pylons; no bridge. A smaller road along the north bank matches the pilgrim’s next step — followed east, much degraded, in places eaten by the shifting river.
- After about a week: a surviving bridge — and across it a complex mostly covered by a major landslide.
The Site (all S9)
The lake. It looks like the river widens here into a large and placid lake, in which the southern hills are clearly reflected. North side heavily forested; south side very hilly.
The fort and the town. Across the bridge, on the south bank (Aaron): a ruined fort with a small walled town on its west side. The fort’s store room appears to have seen some use since the fort was abandoned (the party camped there). Otherwise little: a few shards of stained glass and the like. The landslide affected different parts of the town differently.
The buried complex. In the town, the entrance to a structure that appears to have survived under the rubble — immensely deteriorated after hundreds of years under the earth, quite large, with domes and atriums, maze-like. Two days of mapping found two sets of stairs. It feels like the entrance area of a religious complex.
Below the stairs — in much better condition. A large domed room, where five masked Corrupted challenged the party in the Black Speech for a “pilgrim’s sign,” attacked, killed Titus, and died. See The Pilgrim’s Sign. Also down here, in good repair: a large room with a pool where ritual washing might take place; rooms where they had been camping — the five, and the party thinks that was all of them (Aaron); some shrines in the back. The bodies have had only a light search (Aaron).
The tunnels. A tunnel carved into the stone at the back of the upper complex branches five ways:
- to the fort’s storeroom — walled off (Gnaeus opened a temporary breach by magic);
- to an exit in the hills;
- to a gully away from the lake;
- back into the ruined complex — perhaps a document storage area; nothing has survived the centuries;
- into the good-repair section of the deeper complex (the washing-pool room).
The hatch. A hidden floor panel in the domed room (Haroun spotted it), with a lightning trap that hurt him. Under it, a spiral stone staircase — clean, well maintained, very long and deep.
The shrine. At the bottom, an old shrine to the Maker with magical lights — well appointed, though in a rather old style — kept by Mirriam, a girl in her mid-to-late teens in priestly robes, obviously Amani (Aaron), who greeted the party in Hazadi and offered “pilgrims” a place to stay. She mentioned a head priest who visits sometimes (Aaron).
The descent. A stairway off the shrine, which Mirriam said the party was welcome to descend to meditate — wearing robes against the cold. Partway down, an antechamber with two sets of clerical robes that appear to be enchanted to resist cold. Deeper, a room with paintings of wings on the walls. The deeper it goes, the colder it gets.
The octagon — the Moon sanctum. At the bottom, an octagonal room, “like at the temple of the Dawn”: smooth black/purple walls, and in the center six shards of a broken crystal, roughly two feet long each, laid out with intent in a star pattern. To Haroun’s senses the shards read as overwhelming evil — it stunned him — and overwhelming magic. The crystal is purple — a different, brighter shade than the Dawn gem (Aaron). The shards have not been touched (Aaron).
Against the Dawn sanctum
| Sanctum of Sethariel — Dawn (S5) | Here — Moon (S9) | |
|---|---|---|
| Above it | Monastery of the Dawn, carved into a chasm wall | A buried religious complex beside a fort and walled town |
| The way down | Rough, narrow stair older than the temple, behind a smashed wall | Hidden, trapped hatch; clean, maintained spiral stair; a shrine; then a second stair |
| The cold | Deepening far past natural | ”The deeper it goes, the colder it gets” — with enchanted robes provided |
| The chamber | 50-ft octagon, smooth dark purple stone, almost black | Octagon, smooth black/purple walls (size not recorded) |
| The crystal | Shards of a translucent purple gem, scattered | Six shards, ~2 ft each, a brighter purple (Aaron), laid out with intent in a star |
| Haroun’s reading | Strong evil in the tunnel; faint background magic | Overwhelming evil (stunned him) and overwhelming magic, on the shards |
| The custodian | The Abbot — a talking corpse, hostile | Mirriam — a living girl, welcoming; and a head priest who visits sometimes (Aaron) |
| The damage | Siege-broken doors, smashed altar, dead monks | A landslide over the upper complex; no break-in recorded |
Speculation
Speculation
The crystal here is broken too. At the Dawn sanctum, Estelle called the gem “a gateway from the physical to the spiritual,” and its breaking was the centre of The Abbot’s story. If this is the same kind of object, then a second prison’s gateway is in pieces — but these pieces were gathered and arranged, and they are far “louder” to Haroun than the Dawn shards were. Broken and tended is a different thing from broken and abandoned. Six shards, a six-pointed arrangement, Six Voices: noted, not concluded.
Speculation
Nobody stormed this place — the hill fell on it. No battered doors, no smashed altar. Whether the landslide was the Maker’s weather or somebody’s decision, it hid the complex without ending what goes on beneath it: the stair is swept, the lights work, the robes are laid out.
Speculation (S8)
The party is not the only traffic on this road. A weeks-long dig at a pilgrim waypoint, directed by a man with an Old Imperial name, in abandoned ruin country. Most likely they are treasure-seekers who dig everywhere. The less comfortable reading is that someone else is also following an old route south — and the survivors have now told them about armed strangers.
S9: the less comfortable reading gained ground — old campsites along the road, a storeroom at the fort that appears to have been used, and at the end of it Corrupted asking for a “pilgrim’s sign.” Nothing yet links Gaius or his diggers to any of that. See The Pilgrim’s Sign.