#22 The Music of Malignancy
During his many years of prayer and contemplation, the Hermit of Barfunweltz has created all manner of ecclesiastical artefacts and religious relics. The vast majority are no more than what they seem: worthless trinkets fashioned by a blind madman from the contents of desecrated graves. But amid the religious paraphernalia are a few works of terrible genius, most notably the extraordinary Mortis Organ.
When the Hermit of Barfunweltz eventually heard about the Gravewalkers Chamber razing the Cathedral to the ground, he finally ventured out of his solitude to pay his respects to the sacred site. By his mystical second sight, he discerned that the Cathedral's great organ, though buried, had suffered miraculously little damage. This spectacular musical instrument had once led the Society of the Sanguine Rose in their worship of the False Apostle.
The Hermit tracked down the former Organist of Barfunweltz Cathedral to assist him. Once a dignified and sophisticated musical genius, he had now become something completely different - a naked, flesh-eating crypt ghoul - yet his ardor for music had endured.
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| The Organist |
Next the Hermit summoned a host of Nighthaunt from the Procession of the Foolish Martyrs, and directed them to infiltrate the site, extract the organ, and transport it back to his hermitage. He set about restoring and then transforming the mighty instrument into his most diabolical creation: the Mortis Organ.
Borne aloft by a spectral guard, the Mortis Organ may be transported onto the field of battle where its malignant melodies inspire the servants of the Sanguine Rose, especially in their manipulations of the winds of Shyish. As the Organist makes music, the sinister instrument channels the necromantic energies of the Foolish Martyrs through its pipes to produce magical disturbances, emanating as harmonies so melancholic they can destroy a mortal's mind. They say there was a secret chord the Organist played and it pleased the Hermit to imbue it with power to unleash a devastating shockwave of death magic. All who hear it - from the lowliest brutes who don't really care for music, to baffled kings - find themselves standing before the Lord of the Sanguine Rose with nothing on their lips but his praise.
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