the Blue Night Labyrinths

[taichara]

Sometimes dungeons get … weird.

Different.

Adventurers hie themselves down twisting stairs, or follow a winding passage, or wrench open a door to a pillared chamber, and find themselves in a very different place.

Here the dungeon is a tangle of passages turning back on themselves – sometimes looping, impossibly, back in an endless recursion – in a confusing labyrinth that sometimes opens up into wider courtyards or promenades, but seldom an actual chamber. The walls, the flooring, the ceiling above: all the same featureless black shot through with occasional threads of indigo that glow faintly to the beat of some unseen heart.

In here, light travels no further than a candle’s soft glow, if that. Which makes the gleaming of the strange growths and small globular growths and other things stand out eerily, faint pinpoints in the darkness ahead.

Oh and there are things that prowl these strange halls. Creatures cloaked in tattered, filmy shrouds; some might be hunched and humanoid, others stranger beasts, and all desire to feed on the marrow – and the fear, and the life itself – of intruders into their domain, ever growing their own numbers. Some of the creatures were adventurers, once; now their belongings rot in the passages while they stalk fresh prey. Some say the beasts spread the strange dungeon infection as their own numbers grow.

But how can that be, when the strange warp traps those that stumble into it? And trap it certainly does, because there is no way out – step inside and follow endless mazy passages until death or worse, unless you find the key. The key of strangely gleaming, pearly golden glass that unlocks the door to freedom.

Until you find that key, wander the passages, find sustenance from fungal pearls and strange glassy fruits, and try not to lose yourself to the beasts below.


The Monsters

Creatures in this strange glow-lined labyrinth pursue their prey relentlessly, so long as they can sense it. Worse, their bestial nature is infectious:

- if one kills you, your corpse spawns 1d4 Prowlers of half your Hit Dice (no less than 1 HD)
- while within the labyrinth, if you are injured by a Monster a number of times equal to your CON you will transform into a Monstrous version of yourself unless:
* you succeed in leaving, which resets the count
* you eat a Pale Blossom, which lowers the count by 2d3
and, for every quarter of your allotted “Monstrosity points” you fill up, you take -2 to social tests (like Reactions).

All such Monsters have the following in common (a template to apply to critters and NPCs alike):
- Fear Aura: within 20’, inflicts Fear (- [half HD]) to all rolls)
- Devour: wounds inflicted by a Monster lower a random stat by 1d3 for 1d4+1 hours (Monsters of greater than 7 HD add: half of damage dealt can only be healed by rest)
- half-damage from mundane damage (greater than 7 HD: immune to mundane damage)
- Morale 12

Prowler: A hunched and gnarled creature obscured by tatters and filmy rags of once-colours, yet still somehow savages with terrible jaws and soul-chilling fright.. 1 HD+, AC 14, +[HD] rend (2d4), ML 12, Fear Aura, Devour, half-damage (or immunity) from mundane sources


The Gifts

There’s shining things to be found in these harrowing passages, though. The strange smooth walls sprout stranger growths, and some treasures just seem to appear (to say nothing of any valuables lost by other once-adventurers).

For every 1d3+1 hour travelling the labyrinth, and every time a promenade, courtyard or hall is entered, roll 2d6:

02: Amber Bell. shaped all of one piece, it seems. rung, silently, will protect a 40’ rad. from Monsters and other hostiles for 8 hrs, then crumbles to dust.
03: Silver Pearl. palm-sized orb. on d6: 1-4, will fuel a spell up to 1d4+1 levels if consumed; 5-6, contains a spell that can be cast or learned.
04: Jewel Fruit: Healing. strange transparent fruit, crystalline but crushable. heals 2d4+2 if consumed.
05: Jewel Fruit. 2d4+2 strange transparent fruit of softly glowing crystal in many colours, each worth 2d6x25 gp.
06: Pearl Fungus.. pale globular fungal bodies, faintly luminous, weirdly syrupy. 1d4+1 rations.
07: Pearl Fungus.. pale globular fungal bodies, faintly luminous, weirdly syrupy. 2d3+1 rations.
08: Jewel Fruit. 1d3 strange transparent fruit of softly glowing crystal in many colours, each worth 2d6x50 gp.
09: Pale Blossom. a pure white lotus of uncountable unfading petals. will purify 2d3 points of Monstrosity, or any poison or illness, if consumed.
10: Golden Pearl. palm-sized orb, if consumed, grants the ability to drive off Monsters 1d4 times; any Monster will flee if within 50’, and is vulnerable to mundane injury for 1d3 hours after exposure.
11: Glasswing Dagger. a wedge-shaped flying construct of translucent material, attacking with needles of magical force. once activated, obeys and functions for 4 hrs. 1d4 HD.
12: The Key.


There’s always the special ones …

Some souls more daring (or mad) have made forays into these warp-labyrinths their bread and butter, returning with the eerie glowing bounty making their packs bulge – and maybe even with themselves intact. Mostly.

Harvester. d6 HD. Armour: Light. Weapon: 1d8
- increase carrying capacity by half again
- Sacrifice: spend hp to enchant weapon, 1 hp/action, 1 hp/+1
- Feral Hunger: gain a ration from a bestial carcass, + heal 1d4 hp if from a Monster; Monstrosity track always ¼ full.