Magium Inquisition: Kir'A'Rrak, and the Cult of the Golden Spiral

Let it be clear that this investigation is of classified intelligence, and the participants and principle witnesses have agreed to have their memories modified after we have deliberated upon these matters. What we are about to unfurl is of a subject matter heretical to the Magisterium. A subject matter which threatens not just the order and safety of our citizens here in Dalair, but in all realms.
I am Inquisitor Aarador, this is channcelor Jyse, and that is Dragonspeaker Tycerius.
The charcoal sketching that I am about to show you was taken from a relief carved into a golden monument found in the Tawnos Basicalla following the... 'event' at the I.N.S.M.D. Asylum in Osklund.
I'm sure many of you already have some predicatations about the asylum, its Neuromancers, and the Night of Terror, but for now let us focus on the engraving. The writing that you are seeing with its spiral characters may at first not strike you as anything other than illumination, but from our attempts to decipher it we have found that subjects have begun to 'understand' it, and I use that word quite loosely, in a relatively consistent pattern. One word, in particular, has been uttered by those called to examine it at any length. A word which has no etomology that we are aware of here in -this- world, but a word that has been described by the so called 'mad prophecies' of the Mouths of Madness. Such works would rarely be examined by a council such as this, but given the... 'extreme' circumstances in which we find ourselves, I'm afraid we must entertain even the outlandish in pursuit of... whatever may qualify for truth in this investigation.
That word is... Kir'A'Rrak.
And perhaps it would be best to start from the beginning. We know where the slab which this etching was taken from first appeared. Allow me to introduce our first principle document, written by Adiam Khardell. The parchment that I am about to hand out is a written account of course. Mr. Khardell unfortunately took his own life only a few short weeks after selling the object in question following the... murder of his wife. This parchment is a copy from his journal which was recovered by chancellor Jyse after the incident was reported.

The Tentagel Auction

"When I arrived at the Tentagel Auction (5281AR) I had intended to purchase a number of writings and book leaflets belonging to the House of Saerl. It was during the annex of Saeref after the War of the Broken Lance. Nearly a hundred years had passed since Aarunsurlye had been destroyed, and the knights broken. There were rumors of a rebellion stirring in the city, but at the time it seemed that the Magisterium's foothold was rather secure. I thought the writings, and bestiaries of the Iskar Astartes might hold some historical value worth preserving, or maybe perhaps just as a keepsake for my collection. I'm Iskardian in blood through my father, and he served the House of Saerl, although I'm Eldar on my mother's side.
But when the auction took place a new item had been added to the collection for sale. A golden tablet. A slab. It was ten feet high and bore those markings unlike any I had ever seen. It was sold to the Tentagel for pennies of what it was truly worth. The gold alone could have been melted down into bricks or coins for thrice the value (something I learned only after the auction). I, like many there assumed it was only gold-leaf, or at best, gold plated. The piece had arrived so suddenly to the auction house that I'm certain even they were unaware that it was in fact, a solid monolith.
My contact at the Tentagel had said that it had been delivered by a group of wayfayers. At the time he believed them to be nothing more than mercenaries. Imagine his surprise when he found out years later that it was the Centurions themselves! Ha. It was only then that he began to truly suspect the real value of what had been sold that day.
I'm not sure why I bid upon the piece, truthfully. Something about the images struck me as... longingly beautiful... I was smitten by it. I believe I purchased it at a sum of five-thousand Orrens, perhaps more after tax. It was delivered to my estate in Saeref and I spent many hours viewing it alone. I found its markings transfixing. Its curvature stole into my very thoughts at all hours. I was constantly distracted by my desire to be near it, and to understand more of its strange writings. Somehow... somehow it was becoming clearer to me the more I absorbed its precense.
I became fixated upon it. My wife went so far as to even say obsessed.
It was ultimately her who demanded that I sold it. It was her... that damned witch... who contacted a buyer in Dalair. A man named Mezrah Dagon. The price that he offered was... well... I would have been a fool to refuse it but... life seems so hollow now without it. I only wish to see it again. I have never felt such remorse for the sale of a piece from my collection. The world is grey now, and the light seems so pale. I asked Mr. Dagon if I could retain a copy of the tablet's script but he never responded... and I'm... not sure what to do with myself anymore... being separated from that beautiful piece of work. I sometimes find myself violently angry with my wife for having conducted its sale. I can't sleep. I cannot eat.
All I want is to see it again... just... just one more time."

— Adiam Khardell

Mr. Khardell's murder-suicide sparked concern amongst collegues and friends, but at the time there were more pressing issues to be addressed in Saeref. After the end of the annex the records at the Arcanux there were lost as the Iskar Astartes sacked the institute. It was an investigation that should have not been buried. We have strict enforcement policies for this type of Numenera. Regardless, Mr. Khardell's journal does explain how the tablet arrived in Osklund...

The Tawnos Basillica

Mezrah Dagon was a cleric of the Endless in the city of Osklund. His mother, and father, were both killed in the Night of Terror, and Mezrah himself was severely burned in the fires. During that night, some of the few survivors of the event were those barricading themselves in the Basillica until the Magisterium's Crucibles arrived and... quelled... the riots.
It was a massacre.
Survivors say that at the peak of the calamity, Mezrah climbed into the high towers of Tawnos and began ringing the bells, and singing in an unknown tongue. Many thought he was trying to draw survivors towards ther Basillica to safety but one of the inmates of I.N.S.M.D. who was rescued before the asylum's destruction gave this report to the contrary:

"He was raving mad. He was singing at the sky, trying to call down a judgement from the stars. He said the door in the heaven was opening. That the Spiral Presence was near. He kept shouting that word that became so common in the church after the fires: Kir'A'Rrak! Kir'A'Rrak! Kir'A'Rrak! Kir'A'Rrak!
Oh gods, I can still hear it in my mind, and see the expression on his face as he was shouting it above the flames.

After the Night of Terror the Magisterium tried to sweep the incident under the rug as quickly as possible. Even if the Crucibles had no choice but to cull the mad populace of Osklund, the blow back from a massacre of that scale of our own citizens with so many unknown factors was enough to end the careers of any Archmages involved in the operation.
We should have been more careful, and we should have conducted more research. Our attention following that event became heavily fixated on the asylum, and its Neuromancers themselves... we overlooked that something dangerous may have been taking root in the city proper. We didn't investigate Mezrah, or the Tawnos Basillica.
We failed to stop the formation of a star-cult, and many are dead because of that negligence.

The Cult of the Golden Spiral

We have kept spies in Osklund since the Night of Terror, but even they became suspects as they were exposed more and more to the odd powers, charismatic leaders, and strange phenomenon that surrounded I.N.S.M.D. in the following decades. The asylum had lost much of its prestige after the fires, and few residents wished to remain in the city after witnessing the massacre... but those that did flocked to the Tawnos Basillica, and the preaching of Mezrah Dagon.
Mezrah covered the idols and altars of the Endless in his church after the fires with golden cloth. He and his followers began to wear yellow robes, and hold midnight vigils, and sermons. Their practices, and traditions quickly began to escalate in both theatrics, and evangelism. However, they understood the need for secrecry, and they heavily distrusted outsiders. To join their membership, and become closer to their most elaborate rituals required a series of acts of ever increasing loyalty, and perversion of both the mind, and the flesh.
Many of the members of the Golden Spiral of the Basillica began to display... strange... physical deformities, and transformations. Those that had become the most changed were taken below the city, where they worshipped the sky from beneath the ground.
The sketches I'm passing out now are of subjects recovered from the undercity. I warn you that these etchings are quite disturbing in nature. The physical transformation process is similar to one called Fleshwarping practiced in the Underdark by the Drow, but whereas that practice of body-shaping is an explicit form of torture this... this is something else. A revelry of forms akin to an impressionest's painting of what a body should resemble. What is perhaps more disturbing is that the higher members of the Golden Spiral, including Mezrah Dagon, were capable of 'hiding' these changes. You'll find an anatomical drawing of one such member in the final pages. Look closely at how the chitin, and insectoid limbs could be carefully folded and masked beneath pouches that had formed in their skin. Look at how their bones could bend, and nest within hollow recesses. Look at the acute nervous systems, and the elastic nature of the tendons.
Look carefully at how creatures such of this could be hiding in plain sight within the borders of our realm. One of them could be in this very room, and unlike a Doppleganger or arcane disguise, our magic would be unable to detect such a threat.
Whatever power gave them the ability to create these forms they discovered using the golden tablet.

The Tablet of Kir'A'Rrak

We do not know from where the golden tablet originated, but when it came into the possession of Mezrah Dagon and was brought back to the Tawnos Basillica, this was the moment that their fantacism became evangelized. This is when they began to send 'clerics' of their order out into the towns and cities surrounding Osklund to gather new disciples.
This was the moment where it became a threat to the Elder Realm, and if not for the destruction of I.N.S.M.D. we would not even be aware of that threat.
How many of the Golden Spiral are hiding now within the borders of our nation? How far have they spread? How do we find them? How do we stop them before more Traveler Cults emerge?
That is the purpose of this council. To develop a means to seek out and destroy this threat with extreme prejudice. The tablet itself, and all artifacts of a similar nature that we uncover during our investigation will be destroyed, and all record of them with it. The Magisterium will keep only records of our meetings in the Library of Myrddin in Xathrus, and when we have completed our work, all of our memories of these councils will be removed, or modified.
Now... let us begin.

"The time of the conjunction is upon us! We have seen the signs. We have heard the crystal voice in the night. We have all been touched by the Spiral Presence! By the Gods of Old that slumber in the dark between the stars. They are not weak things like the Endless. They need no one to believe in them to hold sway and power! The universe was stolen from them when the lights were placed by the Azer in days of yore. Their dreaming was interrupted. We are nothing but krill among the unphathomable waves of worlds and stars! They will return! They will return! If they are not already here among us now!"

— From the 'Mouths of Madness'

Type

Record, Transcript (Communication)