Altar of Silence

The altar of Silence was an elaborately crafted monument made from a black marble plinth, ilmenite columns, and crystallized dreams. It was located in a cave used by the Church of Silence as a place of worship in Blackhills. When activated using the Silence spell, it worked as a portal leading to the Quiet World.

The efforts to build the altar started after the first goblin siege of Blackhills in 1925 PGE, and was finished in 2077. As fate would have it, it took a second goblin siege to destroy it, and the altar was lost under rock and water in 2127.

The altar was studied thoroughly by Ōdnan Ref moments before the second goblin siege. He made the following notes: 

• The altar itself, and 10 ft around it is enchanted with the Hallow spell with a silence effect. The altar is furthermore enchanted with a modified Plane Shift spell that requires a cast of the Silence spell to activate. Since the spell requires verbal components, the caster must stand outside the enchantment, or be able to cast the spell without components.
• Pillars are made of Ilmenite, a titanium/iron rich stone. It has high blast resistance. If refined in large quantities a titanite steel can be produced, which can be used to make non-magical enhanced weapons.
• The plinth is made of black marble metamorphosed from dark limestone, it has calcite veins.
• The crystals are native to the Quiet World. Within the Quiet World they would contain memories and dreams of dead people. A dream cleric would be necessary to make perfect sense of the memories, perhaps even being able to utilize them to learn skills. Without proper training or guidance, however, the weave of dreams will be incomprehensible, and may lead to madness. The yellow crystals when properly refined is a component in the potion of sleep.
• The trees and flowers are native to Sawaarre’s dream, and have no other purpose than decoration or religious worship.
• The butterflies are one of the first creatures dreamed by Silence himself. They feed on dreams, but supposedly serve no other purpose.

by PrippyMontyPoppyCock