Thinking Out Loud - Chapel of the Aquiline Cross

[RangerWickett]

Pas D'Arms
The Chapel of the Aquiline Cross belonged to an order of knights devoted to protecting the Aquiline Heart, a relic able to grant immortality. The order was destroyed over a century and a half ago by the wrath of a widow. Now a curse lays across this once-holy site, and the party must brave its dangers to find the truth about the Aquiline Heart before others can gain its terrible power. An adventure for characters level 10 through 12.



The party will enter this adventure thinking it's a bit of a sidetrek. They've had to cross a mountain range on foot, and are looking forward to finding shelter and comfort, but instead they come across a group of less-experienced adventurers who have a quest of their own. The two groups have the same general path ahead of them, and there are supposed to be lots of vicious spirits and demons haunting a woodland that's in their path, so hopefully they'll agree to travel together. This is an attempt at working a faux-dungeon crawl into my mostly above-ground, teleport-happy campaign. The PCs are currently without a mage who can cast teleport, and are hundreds of miles from civilization, so I figure this is as good a time as any.

The Chapel was mostly destroyed a long time ago. One of the knights was killed by his fellows because he was in love with a demon summoner, and they believed he was enscorcelled. In revenge, his widow summoned a demon to destroy the order, and the demon left the place cursed. In their heyday, the order's knights would normally defend the local law, assist in military affairs, and fight supernatural dangers.

But their underlying mandate was to protect the location of the Aquiline Heart. Legend says that anyone who eats the Heart or tastes its blood becomes immortal. In history, only one person has found the Heart, the wiseman Jeju, who founded the Order, and guided it for three hundred years. Those who study the Heart say that the personal journal of Jeju is kept in the Order's vault, defended by traps, magic, and faith, and that in its pages is a map to the Aquiline Heart, and clues to how to avoid the dangers around it. Thankfully, even after the Order was destroyed, none were able to penetrate deep enough into the chapel to find the journal, because of the curse.

The chapel is located in a wild, overgrown forest that stretches along the Valnek River. North of the river is wilderness, with ruins of fallen cities dotting the countryside, providing havens for savages and monsters. The group will have to cross the Valnek River at some point to get back to civilization, and local legend says that the only save way is along the Road of Roses. The Road passes the ruined fort city of Brockade Risa, and crosses two bridges over the winding path of the Valnek River. Between these two bridges is the now abandoned Chapel of the Aquiline Cross. No roses grow within.

Before the group reaches the first bridge, they come across an old inn that actually has smoke coming out of a chimney. It's the first safe haven they've seen in weeks, and its surrounded by rose gardens, so it should be free from the demons rumored in the woods. Inside they find only one man, named Mr. Pratt, though he claims his daughter should be back soon; she tends to the flowers. He offers them a free night's stay if they'll do a few chores, and over dinner he'll tell them a ghost story about the uneasy spirit of Sir Gerrick, a knight of the Aquiline Cross who defends the chapel and jousts with any who come.

 

[Hand of Evil]

sound like a wonderful start to an adventure. Some things I would check into (to disreard if I did not like) other meanings/spellings for the word heart, center of, love of, a deer (hart) and other meanings for eating and tasting. For some reason, I could see a girl as the heart and the tasting could be a loving, and she may be a vampire and so the sharing of blood makes one a vampire...

 

[RangerWickett]

Sir Gerrick was one of the many knights killed by the demon that destroyed the order. The evening of the attack, Sir Gerrick was leading a mass on a high holy day, and had just received approval to have his daughter begin training in the order. She was not there that night, and was spared the slaughter, but Sir Gerrick's spirit endures, protecting the chapel until someone returns to continue the order's traditions. Mr. Pratt, the owner of the inn, says that he stays here because he, like Gerrick, feels an obligation to this place.

Mr. Pratt ends the evening by offering warm beds to everyone. His daughter never shows up, but if anyone asks, he doesn't seem worried.

The next day, the group sets out. When they reach the bridge, they find it an old, worn length of granite with a few remaining highlights of marble and gold that haven't been looted yet. Once they step onto the bridge, a mounted knight appears on the far end of the bridge and approaches. His body is covered in armor, so his face is hidden, but he tells the group that they cannot pass unless one of their number agrees to joust with him. He tells them that this Pas d'Arms will last until one who defeats him chooses to follow the quest to protect the Aquiline Heart, thus renewing the honor of their order.

The bridge is 500 feet long, crossing the river and surrounded by once-tended gardens. Any who try to cross without a joust find the bridge stretches on forever. It's possible to just go around, but if you go off the path, you have to contend with demons. If you do joust with him, he's a nearly impossible foe to defeat, because few people carry around magical lances that can harm him in a joust. However, it's not necessary to win the joust, just compete. If you do win, though, Sir Gerrick will offer to teach you about the Order of the Aquiline Cross.


The chapel grounds are surrounded by an old stone wall, erected after the chapel was destroyed to seal it off. Strange stone figures hang from the top of the walls, leering down with hideous faces, but never moving. The entrance to the grounds is a broken section of the wall that looks like it was magically shaped open. Just beyond this entrance are the shattered pieces of fallen statues, the specific features of which are unclear. Most of the fallen rocks are granite, but the standing statues appear to be marble, and depict holy images of angels and birds in flight.

The center of the chapel grounds is a mile-long lake, which is iced over at this time of year. Surrounding the lake are several clusters of collapsed houses, shrines to various old families of knights, a dockhouse with boats, the chapel itself, and secondary buildings that held kitchens and storage areas. Assuming the group comes in the daytime, no monsters attack, and mysterious phenomena is at a minimum, which the worst event being that shadows seem to ebb and surge occasionally, like the sun is drifting back and forth. Between the statuary, untended trees grow, now bare branches in the winter's snow.

The main point of interest is the chapel itself. It spans nearly a half-mile along the lake, a long face looking out over the lake. There is a central area that is the main church, with two long wings stretching out to either side. These actually slightly resemble actual 'wings.' If you look at the chapel from the other side of the lake, you'll see a central body of the building, with the wings stretching out long and fanning upward at the ends, like a bird taking flight. In general shape, it vaguely resembles the Japanese Byodo-in, though much larger and more Roman than Japanese.

The central area has the main chapel with stairs leading up to it, and side stairs that lead up to an upper floor with official suites, meeting rooms, and a long belltower. The chapel hall is one-thousand feet long, with a 30-ft. statue of an angel standing at the far end, behind the dais. The walls are decorated with long lines of horsemen statues in bronze, and a half-mile long tapestry rings the entire room. Stone pews fill the church, stained with blood, and the once grand windows that should fill the room with light are blocked by hundreds of statues that seem completely out of place.

Doorways lead into the wings, which are each two stories, with relics, ancient texts, and treasures stored in numerous rooms. There are choir rooms with old songbooks, armories where family swords have had their inscriptions removed, and libraries which sit still and silent. Everything is covered in cobwebs, except for bronze sculptures of birds that fill numerous nooks around the chapel building. Some birds are flying, but most are perched, staring down judgmentally. Each sculpture has a plaque that reads a line from the religious texts of the Chapel