Temple Square — Beacon
Braver's Temple
Read to Players
“The floor inside Braver's Temple is white tile, unmarked and clean in the way that suggests it is cleaned often. Four giant columns rise from the floor to the ceiling, marble-veined and pale, and the walls between them are marble as well — smooth and without ornament except for the tapestries. Six of them hang at intervals around the room, each one floor-to-ceiling and depicting something that took years to complete. A stone podium near the center holds a large open book. The pages are filled in a hand that is deliberate and unhurried.
At the far end of the room, a low raised platform with rows of wooden chairs faces the podium — plain chairs, without cushion or ceremony. A long table near the right wall holds food. It is not elaborate: bread, fruit, simple things. Three monks in cobalt blue robes move quietly around it, setting and clearing without looking up. Cobalt blue carpets trimmed in gold run from the entrance to the platform, and from each of the three interior doors.
The tower above is not accessible from the main floor. The door to it is unmarked.”
The Tapestries
Six tapestries hang at intervals around the main hall, each floor-to-ceiling.
The First Flame
A figure stands alone at the center of absolute darkness. One hand is raised, and from it — a single point of flame. Around the edges of the tapestry, the darkness curls back as if pushed. There are no other figures. The flame is everything.
The Giving of Names
A crowd — so many figures they blur at the edges — stretches across the full width of the tapestry. Each face is distinct. In the center, the same figure from the first tapestry stands with arms open, not as a ruler but as someone returning from a long journey. The faces in the crowd are not reverent. Some are laughing. Some are crying. Some are looking at each other instead of the figure.
The First Death
A single figure lies on dark ground. Around them, others kneel. The flame — visible in a corner of the tapestry — is smaller here, and slightly dimmer. The kneeling figures do not look afraid. They look as though they are waiting for something they know will come.
The Long Road
A road — impossibly long, winding through mountains, valleys, a city at one edge, open sea at another — rendered in extraordinary detail. Hundreds of figures travel it. Some are far ahead. Some have only just begun. A few are sitting at the side, resting. No figure appears twice. No two are moving in exactly the same direction.
The City on the Shore
A coastal city — not Beacon, but something older and larger — built on white stone cliffs above a deep blue sea. At the city's center, a tower. From the tower, light. The city itself is full: ships in the harbor, figures in the streets, lights in every window. At the bottom edge of the tapestry, barely visible, a small boat is putting out from shore into open water.
The Unfinished
Most of the tapestry is complete. A vast scene — suggested sky, suggested land, figures at the edges moving toward a center that is not yet there. The central section is bare thread. Not damaged or worn — the weave is intact, but the image stops before it resolves. What is being depicted is unclear. What it is waiting for is unclear.
Services
General Wisdom
The monks will sit with you. There is no fee. You may ask questions, describe a problem, or say nothing at all. A monk will listen and, when you are finished, offer what they can.
Light Healing
Minor wounds can be treated here. Monks trained in Braver's practice may lay hands on the injured. There is no fee, though a donation to the food table is considered good form.
Curse Removal
"If something has been placed on you that should not be there, come and speak with us." The monks do not advertise this service. They offer it when it seems warranted.
Information
The podium book contains records going back to the temple's founding. If you are searching for something — a name, a lineage, an event — a monk can look.
The Monks
Brother Hotence
Second in Command
Human (Male)
Young — mid-twenties at most, probably younger than he looks. Blonde hair kept short, gray eyes that sit quietly in his face. He dresses in the same cobalt blue as the other monks, but there is something about the way he stands that suggests he has been singled out. He runs the day-to-day temple operations and is the monk the party will interact with most.
Father Undoubted
Head of the Temple
Human (Male)
Old in the way that certain people get — the kind of old that doesn't look fragile, just very far along. White hair, cut short and neat. Moves slowly through the main hall on the rare occasions he comes down from the tower. He does not idle. When he appears, it is because he intends to be somewhere specific, and he gets there.