The stones echo with your footfalls, the furtive sound amplified to a disquieting ring. The empty satchel hangs loosely over your shoulder.
What promise it holds, a maw for your [[ghoulish trophies]].
[[Behold->Colonnade]]
What kind of desperation brought you here, intruder?
It matters not. That will never be known.
All that will be remembered is your desecration, grave-robber.
[[Back->Antrum]]
I know not if you still feel awe, but the ruined temple before you would touch the heart of any man who possessed one.
Listing columns give inadequate support to the high roof. Dappled spears of light fall between crumbled brick. The eye of heaven still pierces this place, a witness to your [[imminent sin]].
[[Altar]]
[[Hall to the right]]
The stone itself blocks your way, fallen rubble shielding this wing from your rapacious grasp. A small mercy at least.
[[Back->Colonnade]]
I was standing just here, behind the altar. My flock before me. I can remember the look on their faces as we were forced out, marching towards to our pitiful end.
But you care not. The shroud on the altar, and what's beneath it, has no meaning to you. No value. The decaying books, the holy icons, dead weight at best.
[[Remove the shroud]]
[[Open the books]]
{ (if: $Icons is 0)[ [[Examine the icons]] ] }
You fool not even yourself with your protest. Pick over the bones long dry of marrow, but do not believe yourself pure.
[[Back->Colonnade]]
If only his friends could see you now. Taking off the burial shroud, laying bare his cold bones. Do you see their mourning faces?
Or are you blinded by the glint of gold? Do his bands and bracers, belts and buckles call to you? More than his restless soul?
[[Take the gold adornments]]
[[Replace the shroud->Altar]]
Perhaps you mistook them for containing some great worth. A brief glance dissuades you from that notion as you cast your eye over rites and rituals, litanies and hymns.
An ark, to our people. To others? A curio at most, a trifle to be bought for a trifling sum. Onwards should the ravenous look.
[[Take the books]]
[[Back->Altar]]
These were beautiful objects of carved wood, painted with the faces and attire of the gods themselves. You could scarcely make any of that out now.
The splintered limbs have been beset by rot, faces I know better than my own now unrecognisable. Weep for these beautiful, dead things.
[[Take the icons]]
[[Back->Altar]]
Bones crumble to dust under your brutal grasp. What burial is this? I would weep for my lost friend had I tears to shed.
I wish this deed would haunt you, but it will not. I would hurl down curses with righteous fury but we both know you will suffer no misfortune. No stigmata of your foul deed will mark you. Might this dark secret eat away at your soul? I now doubt you possess one.
Leave, take your meagre bounty. Tell others of our newfound pauperage, let us rest.
[[End]]
Perhaps, just perhaps, I misjudged you. Maybe you only did it for coin, maybe you found some revelation within that tome. It matters not.
With you, a small piece of our faith re-enters the world. Will it arise from the ashes or lie in some forgotten library? Will you be a prophet or merely a vessel? I cannot say, only it gives me hope that one day, others may know of our truth.
[[End]]
[[Delve again?->Antrum]]
Did you have the arrogance to think they'd reveal themselves to you, one of the unitiated? Were there any thoughts behind your blasphemous action besides your avarice?
The gods themselves seem to recoil at your affront, their rotting shells crumble at your touch, leaving nothing of value for you to steal. They too have now deserted this place.
[[Back->Altar]]
(set:$Icons to 1)
A Hymn Long Silenced
The first game by lapdog.
Many thanks to my testers, you know who you are.
[[Begin->Antrum]]