Castle Drearburh

> *"Over the doors were tiny white figures in a multitude of poses, hundreds of thousands of them, carved using some weird trick where their eyes seemed to look right at you, Whenever Gideon had been made to go through those doors as a kid, she'd screamed like she was dying."*
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**Castle Drearburh** is the stronghold of and grandest facility on the Ninth House. Housing the ruling family and the church, there is very little worth mentioning on Ninth that does not happen within the walls of Castle Drearburh. The entire castle is decorated to the tastes of a bone adept, and reflects the level of solemn ritual that runs life on the Ninth.

## **Layout**

### The Main Castle

#### **The Church**

> *"The arches overhead had been dusted with bioluminescent powders that sometimes tricked down as pale green glitter into the nave, and in all the radiating chapels sat speechless skeletons, still dusty from farming."*
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The central space of the Ninth House, the church is a long narrow hall on the bottom level of the castle. Lit by gas-discharged lights and luminescent powders, it is a dark, dusty and silent place. With enough pews to seat a thousand, the meager Ninth House inhabitants tend to cluster in the transept-- an area running perpendicular to the main hall. The nobles, Harrowhark, her parents, and her great-aunts, sit in a position of honor in the aspe. Marshal Crux, the cavalier primary, and other non-nobles may be granted seats of honor in the chevets.

#### **The Library**

> *"They were lurking in the personal Nonagesimus library, a stone-arched room packed tight with shelves of the musty and neglected books Harrowhark didn't study and the musty, less neglected books that she did."*
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The library is a stone arched room containing a couch, a desk, and many shelves of old books of necromancy. Harrow uses this room as a study and an office.

#### **The Secundarius Bell**

A bell that tolls as an announcement to the people of the Ninth House.

* First Bell: A morning call to prayers that begins each day.
* Muster Call: A twenty bell ring to summon the people of Ninth House to the church for muster.

### Lower Levels

#### **Postulant Cells**

The inhabitants of Ninth House primarily reside in the cells—rooms given to religious observers. The cells reflect the austerity of the House itself, being generally small and simple.

* Gideon Nav's Cell: Located seventeen floors below the Shuttle Landing Field, Gideon's cell is predictably bare. It is only noted to contain a bed, bathroom, and a hook to hang her robes.

#### **Catacombs**

The catacombs under the church and the Ninth House cells descend into more and more ancient tombs. Most of the upper catacomb niches lie empty, as their skeletons have been raised to serve the Ninth House, while the lowest ones are stuffed with ancient bones, masks, weapons, and grave goods.

Gideon Nav's mother was interred in a nameless catacomb niche five floors below Gideon's cell, but it has been empty since Gideon was eight years old—when her skeleton was boiled and raised into service.

#### **Generators**

> *"The machines sat alone in their carved out, chilly niches, garlanded with black crepe from Ninth devotees long dead..."*
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At the bottom of the drillshift lay a maze of generators, each encased in a cage and decorated with black crepe. According to Gideon, there is no one left who knows how to work or repair the generators.

#### **Lifts**

Ninth House is equipped with lifts to facilitate movement through the various levels. The lifts down to the crypts are described as open platform and metal, requiring a key to use. Like much of Ninth, the lifts are in a bad state of disrepair.

#### **The Monument**

> *"Harrow pushed open this door and led the way into a long, oblong chamber of bone-choked niches and bad copies of funerary masks, of wrapped bundles and seriously ancient grave goods."*
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Deep within the catacombs among the crypts lay the Anastasian monument, where the fiercest warriors are interred. An oblong chamber of burial sites and pillars, the monument is decorated with funeral paraphernalia and the weapons of the warriors buried there.

### Connected Facilities

#### **Planter Fields**

Skeleton-worked agricultural fields capable only of growing snow leeks. The fields contain heat lamps to prevent their meager crops from freezing.

#### **Shuttle Landing Field**

> *"In the dark, she made an opening amble of the field's perimeter, and she pressed her hands up hard against the cold and oily rock of the cave walls."*
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Twenty-two flights up from the catacombs, the Shuttle Landing Field is an empty pit filled with hard-packed dirt and rock floor with generator-powered floodlights. A second-story metal balcony offers a view down the drillshaft to the doors of Castle Drearburh proper. Though hardly a hotspot of travel, Ninth House receives infrequent shipments of supplies and postulants.

## **Known Inhabitants**

### The Tombkeeper's Line

* Anastasia The First (Former)
* Priamhark Noniusvianus (Former)
* Pelleamena Novenarius (Former)
* Harrowhark Nonagesimus

### Cavaliers

* Mortus (Former)
* Ortus Nigenad (Former)
* Gideon Nav

### The Sister of the Locked Tomb

* Sister Aisamorta
* Sister Lachrimorta
* Sister Glaurica (Former)

## **References**

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 1
2. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 3
3. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 5
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 1
5. ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 51
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 4
7. ↑ "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 4