Dungeon23: Greystone - Day 10

SANCTUARY!!

Sorry, just channeling my inner Quasimodo there.

Anyway, names for different parts of churches vary a lot, but one of the names for the large gathering area which includes the altar is the sanctuary. I think it's a wonderful word, so for this temple, that's definitely what it's called!

Yesterday, I mentioned a tiny ritual which needs to be done before entering the sanctuary. Any person entering the sanctuary must pour a dipper of water from the font in 1-8 over their head first. If they do this, that person is "anointed" for one day. Anyone entering the sanctuary who is not anointed is, instead, "reproached". They have the disfavor of the ancient deity upon them. The mechanical effect of being "reproached" is that they have disadvantage on all attack rolls.

Disadvantage, of course, is a rule from 5th edition D&D. It's not RAW for Old School Essentials or any 20th century D&D that I'm aware of.  However, I think it's a cracking good rule. Possibly the best thing in 5e, actually.  So, I expect I'm going to be using it a lot.

Advantage and Disadvantage are very easy to implement and understand.  If a character has advantage on a roll, they roll twice and take the better result.  If they have disadvantage, just the opposite: roll twice, take the worse result.  Per 5e rules, a character either has advantage, disadvantage or neither. If a character already has advantage and then gets disadvantage, they cancel out, etc.  Also, you can't have "double advantage" or anything. Though I've fudged that rule in the past and may again.

Anyway! The Narthex/Sanctuary have the first instance of disadvantage in this dungeon so far.  Those who fail to anoint themselves have disadvantage on attack rolls while in the sanctuary.

And they're very likely to need those attack rolls!  There's a very large flock of stirges which have roosted here. The ceiling is fan-vaulted, and the stirges have all their nests among and between the ribs of the vaulting. This is hinted at by the great quantity of grey stirge poop all over the floor.

I'll very likely add at least one more way to access the other rooms of the church, for those who don't want to risk sneaking past the huge flock of stirges, but that'll come as the week progresses.  There's also a tribuna at the west end of the sanctuary. This is one of many words for a raised platform suitable for speeches or sermons. On the tribuna is a beautiful carved white altar. Above the alter is a skylight. The notes refer to room 1-14 for more information about the skylight (and the altar, frankly), so you'll just have to wait to learn more!