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Realms
by Night - Part 6
The Monks of the Three Candles
By Steven Schend
Typical Location: Castle Ward—Piergeiron’s Palace, the South Tower and western facade.
Long before the spires of the Open Lord’s Palace graced the skies of Waterdeep, its site was home to an abbey of monks and clerics of Chauntea’s faith. It was one of the oldest buildings and it predated the rise of Nimoar’s Hold, sharing the peninsula with only a rough village and the remnants of Halaster’s Hold. The abbey fell in fire and ruin during the Second Troll War 430 years ago, and while the building has been dust for so long, its devout spirits wend their way across time and death to continue their vigils and prayers.
In the South Tower of the palace, the spiral stairs leading up to the levels above and below are lit at the ground floor by a wall sconce of three candles. Every night two hours before dawn, the guards in the South Tower begin to hear the approaching steps and chants of a number of monks. The sounds of ghostly monks approach the guard post, then turn and head directly toward the stairwell and the candles. However, they follow a long-gone path, walking up stairs that haven’t existed in four centuries, through the candles and the wall behind them, and out onto the former slopes where they once attended their crops. As each ghost passes through the candle, it flares and sputters, highlighting some features on each ghostly monk. The sight of them lasts for all of three seconds, and then the ghostly monks return to their endeavors. The ghosts seem to pay no mind to the goings-on or even the physical changes to the environment, as they still follow patterns now centuries gone.
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There are no less than seven minor hauntings within the walls of Piergeiron’s Palace, all of which are equally linked to the long lost abbey of Chauntea. There were also a few more recent ghosts tied to the many unjust deaths during the Misrule of the Lords Magister, but many of those have been laid to rest by reinternment and restitution to the family of the deceased. All within the building recognize its hauntings, and very few seem bothered by them at all until they become violent (as some do on the anniversary of Mrykul’s attack on Waterdeep during the Godswar).
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