The Moloch: a setting sourcebook for KULT

Chapter 14: The Nameless Bride

The PCs make a few steps into the brilliant light and Susanne keels over and has a miscarriage right there. The almost gelatinous fetus twitches and liquefies quickly, only a stain remains.

The PCs find themselves in a large palace the interior of which is practically devoid of furniture. The predominant colours are white, silver and gold. There is a constant, irregular shaking of the ground, and grumbling noises can be heard from far away. The PCs meet nobody.

Susanne recovers from the event she hasn't even noticed and is easier to lead now - but she still shows no will of her own. The PCs walk through halls, large rooms, staircases etc. and do not meet anyone, nor do they find a sign of inhabitants. They find windows through which they can overlook a vast natural area - hills, forests, rivers etc. with no sign of civilization, no paths or buildings, even though the area seems to be easy to negotiate. On the far horizon the palace still goes on - in fact it seems to circle the world.

The PCs are completely unable to find a window on the other side to look out, even though they try traveling in one direction for as long as possible. It seems all exits and all windows point to this one side only (which in fact they do).

Next, the PCs try to get downstairs. They find a vast staircase and at the bottom of it the first sign of life - or what's left of it. Angels, impaled on their weapons, lie helter-skelter at the foot of the stairs, though there is no sign of combat. It's as if they had all killed themselves. On a pedestal not far from the carnage there is a large book, opened right in the middle. The visible pages are blank. When the PCs turn the pages they find the same sentence written on every page, even those formerly blank: 'I rest between Life and Knowledge'.

The PCs walk through the first exit they find and begin to walk through the natural area. They find that once they have left the palace behind it is always on the horizon in all directions; it doesn't seem to get any nearer or farther away, as long as the view is not obstructed it's always on the horizon. They can see that in some places the building has collapsed; as they progress they find that the area is continually shaken by earthquakes of varying degree. In some areas the ground has split open, and one can look down into bottomless pits; only in unimaginable depths, as if looking down right through the earth and to the stars on the other side, can one see fires burning.

Eventually the PCs reach a hedgerow. They walk along the hedgerow, hoping to reach the palace again because they have decided that there is nothing to be gained from walking here. They find that the ground is strewn with smallish bones like of animals, but some looking like those of children, babies even. The hedgerow seems to be circular; finally they reach some kind of entrance, where a dead and completely burnt body lies in the middle of the passage. The only thing left is the hilt of a sword but no blade.

The PCs walk inside and shortly later find a hill with two trees on it. They also discover that some kind of inner voice, barely audible, has led them here. They begin to dig between the trees and they find the shallow grave of a naked woman, dead but warm to the touch, with the thin roots of the trees digging into and out of her flesh. Nothing happens, but the PCs wait. Finally the PCs decide to move Susanne closer to the woman, and with a swift movement the woman grabs Susanne and kisses her on the mouth. Susanne is practically drunk empty - the shell the woman finally lets go of is definitely dead. But the woman does not attack the PCs next. Instead she thanks them and says that she has waited an eternity to finally be given a soul; now she has one, and she has life and knowledge at her beck and call. She is the second wife of Adam, the one after Lilith who did not want to lie beneath him as she was created equal but before Eve who was created from his rib and therefore his inferior; god had created her from dust like Adam, but Adam had been watching as bones formed, flesh crawled across her frame, muscles and sinews dug their way through the body and skin finally covered her insides, and he could never bear touching her. She was lain to rest between the trees of Life and Knowledge without a name and without a soul.

Knowledge is still streaming into her through the roots of the trees, and she says she knows how to thank the PCs: she is going to send them back. And when she says 'back' she means it.