Skip to content
The Salt Gallery - AI-generated fantasy Building

The Salt Gallery

Under a dry plain, the Cleth-Aurix Examiners have carved a court into a salt mine. They call it the Salt Gallery. A block of polished salt serves as the bench, while a shallow pan of white salt forms the floor. Above it, benches rise in a ring cut into the mine wall. At one end of the chamber, a witness stands in a pit with salt up to their knees. A bell hangs over the bench, and a ledger waits beside it.

Buildings
Building

The Salt Gallery

The air is dry and tastes faintly of iron.
Type
Judicial hearing hall and…
Condition
Well-Maintained
Size
Large
Run by
Rhosyn Valle

Overview

Under a dry plain, the Cleth-Aurix Examiners have carved a court into a salt mine. They call it the Salt Gallery. A block of polished salt serves as the bench, while a shallow pan of white salt forms the floor. Above it, benches rise in a ring cut into the mine wall. At one end of the chamber, a witness stands in a pit with salt up to their knees. A bell hangs over the bench, and a ledger waits beside it.

Atmosphere

The air is dry and tastes faintly of iron. Footsteps rasp across the salt pan, and even a quiet voice reaches the far benches with unnerving clarity. The chamber feels orderly, but a spreading grayness on the floor has made every hearing tense.

Style

A working courtroom cut directly into a salt mine. Its broad central chamber has a raised bench of solid rock salt, a recessed witness pit, and a gallery of tiered benches carved into the surrounding wall. Narrow passages lead to the archive and clerk’s rooms.

What stands out

A high bench of smooth, pale rock salt with a bell and ledger close at hand
A wide salt pan whose discolored patches are copied into the record before they fade
A witness pit with a ladder and salt reaching knee height
An upper ring of benches that gives every hearing a clear view of the witness
A locked archive room containing sealed jars of salt from past trials

History

The Examiners made the mine into a court so that testimony would be heard plainly and records kept in one place. The salt floor’s changing marks became part of the Gallery’s practice: after a hearing, clerks note where it darkened, and the bench considers those marks alongside testimony and other evidence. The marks are said to fade by morning. Recently, the floor has begun darkening even when no one lies, and Examiner Rhosyn Valle has suspended the usual reading of the stains until she understands why.

  • Hearings and Procedure

    The Examiner sits at the polished salt bench beneath a hanging bell. Witnesses stand in a knee-deep pit, where every word carries across the chamber. The bench hears disputes involving religious practice, disputed testimony, and charges brought under Cleth-Aurix law. The Gallery’s stains are evidence to be considered, not a verdict in themselves.

  • The Stain Floor

    At each day’s end, the clerk records the floor’s pale and dark marks in a bound ledger. The marks fade by morning, so the record is the only lasting account. A creature that speaks the whole truth here and is believed by the bench has Advantage on its next Charisma (Persuasion) check against a Cleth-Aurix Examiner.

  • The Salt Archive

    Sealed jars hold samples of salt gathered from the floor after past trials. Only an order from the bench permits a jar to be opened. Each is labeled with a date and case reference, though a few old labels have become difficult to read. The archive is kept cool, dry, and under lock.

  • The Examiner’s Seat

    An Inquisitor who occupies the Examiner’s seat for an hour may regain one expended spell slot of 1st or 2nd level. This boon can be received only once per Long Rest. The Examiners treat the seat as a duty, not a prize, and expect anyone who uses it to keep the ledger honestly.

People

3 people
  • Presiding Examiner and custodian of the GalleryRhosyn Valle

    Quiet, patient, and exacting. She distrusts conclusions that arrive too easily and carries the memory of every person whose case has passed before her.

  • Presiding ExaminerRhosyn Valle

    A quiet woman in her fifties who remembers each of the 619 people she has convicted or acquitted. She has paused her readings of the floor’s stains rather than risk mistaking an unexplained mark for proof.

  • Court clerk and InquisitorJoss Marrin

    A young Inquisitor learning how much uncertainty a court must tolerate. He has continued recording the stains despite Rhosyn’s caution and is troubled by marks appearing when testimony is plainly truthful.

Rumours

1Some clerks believe the new stains appear beneath the benches rather than near the witness, as though the chamber is marking something the court has not asked about.
2A jar in the archive is said to hold salt from a trial whose ledger entry was removed. No one agrees on which case it was.
3Joss has been seen checking the floor after the Gallery closes, though he insists he is only making sure the day’s marks were copied.

Secret

The secret · GM only

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn The Salt Gallery into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.