Martyr's Refuge
In the mountains on the east border of the Belfimbre Plateau, half a day's travel from the Rilean community of Tusey, there are an abundance of unexplored cave systems. Many tales have sprung up around the caves, stories of dragons, treaure, spirits and magic. One of these caves, difficult to reach but well known to the locals, is called the Martyr's Refuge. It is not large, low-ceilinged and only wide enough for four men abreast at its widest points, but it reaches deep into the mountains. The cave is notable as a holy site to the Marran Church, and attracts a small number of pilgrims each year from the north of the Plateau. It is the site of the Martyrdom of Elze, a Marran soldier's wife who led a small force of soldiers from a rout to a victory, but its significance has been overshadowed by her grave and the site of the battle in which she fell, which is in any case more accessible to Marrans being in the north.
Within the cave, after it widens out slightly past the narrow entrance, a small shrine has been constructed. A simple wooden altar, somewhat warped by the ever-present moisture of the cave and partly stained by the orange water. Votive offerings have been left on and around the altar, often small knives, bandages, or embroidered tokens. In this climate, such things quickly go to rust or mold, so the shrine does not have the dignified air or refined look of a religious site, and this is something the Marran Church has not tried to fix - even if they could - given that organisation's unease with the idea of women being Martyrs. Regardless, Elze's legend is popular among the Marrans living in Belfimbre, so the Church does not act against it. Moving deeper into the mountain, the cave gradually slopes downwards, and grows narrower. There, the trickle of water flowing down along the floor makes footing treacherous and the light from the sun cannot reach, until a narrow point is reached through which a steep drop into darkness is visible.
The cave extends further into the mountain from there, but around sixty paces in it becomes too narrow for a person to pass. The local Rileans sometimes claim that the sounds made by the wind passing through the rock - for somewhere in that space the cave is open to the sky - are made by the spirits of the people who died in the cave alongside the Martyr.
It is quite common for children to break into the shrine and make off with the offerings, or damage the altar. The local Rileans care little about this, chiding them only for the risk of climbing to the cave, but it creates a rift with the Marrans to the north that is still present even in the region's current time of peace.
Type
Cave
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