The Bell of the Apocalypse is a cult bell in the caves of chaos south of Caladan’s castle, whose clapper is a death pendulum that cuts victims in half. Its third toll on the third day was to open “the gates of midnight” and call the dead; Los Condenados (“the Condemned”) stopped it.
| Type | Object |
| Chronicle | NOV |
| Spanish entry | Campana del Apocalipsis (Los Condenados) |
Description
The victims were the valley’s elders. After the third toll, the lord’s wives were to come and grind the bones.
History
- First toll: over the funeral of Silas in Helix. The Abbot showed his painting of Caladan, lord of the panthers and bearer of the two keys, and ordered: “Corten el badajo. Quiten la campana de ese lugar. Es la alerta.” (“Cut the clapper. Remove the bell. It is the alarm.“) Three days remained, with two and a half of travel. The Seekers, Caladan’s companions fifteen years earlier and watched by him, could not approach; the already tainted Condemned could pass unseen. Success would let the Abbot call the north against the Death Knight of Barrowmaze.
- Second toll: at night in the forest of Salazar, under an old druid who had opened a side path. They had lost their horses to skeletons fighting like soldiers and killed a naga; the witch’s swamp lay ahead.
- Third toll (stopped): in dead cultists’ robes, they found the ritual underway. The prophetess Basilia, infiltrated in the cult, helped them. The cursed priest, a dark echo of Numa Pompilius, died with most of his cult. The Abbot’s raven carried: “Frenamos la tercera campanada.” (“We stopped the third toll.“)
It is the only clean mission the chronicle credits to the Condemned; the end of the land came anyway, by another route, through them.
Open questions
- Whether “the gates of midnight” are the Midnight Circuit, opened months later beneath Ardis Vala with other keys, is not established.