The Pathfinder's Labyrinth

Mad Rangers and Builders of Roads

image by tsonline

Ariadne looked back with a wild rage in her eyes. Her gaze pierced through her shoulder length jet black hair.
"Please." she said, her voice cracked and wavered as she desperately tried to maintain composure. She tried to hide the fear but the memories that eluded her for so long came flooding back.
She spoke in a way that was strangely out of character. It was like the woman she was before leaked through. She was, if for only a moment, lucid, sane, and beyond terrified.
She continued then, speaking through tears welling up in her eyes.
"For my sake, please don't make me go back in there again."

The Jeelix Maze is a massive subterranean network of corridors, each filled with all manor of horrors. The maze often shifts and changes and only a pathfinder would know how to navigate it. The maze changes those who enter and survive. It changes how their minds work and once it does, any roads planned by that mind will be free of the dilation of time and space . Once out, few dare to venture back in.
What lies within the maze is a matter of debate as any pathfinder asked gives radically different answers. some say its filled with monsters, others that it is void of anything at all. Some say they never saw what lied in wait for them but heard it all to well. Regardless the maze forever keeps its secrets until someone brave or stupid comes along seeking to change that fact.

Architecture

The maze both inside and out on the top floor is made of solid marble. Various colors have been recorded, but the smoothness and substance are never different. The maze routinely alters itself. A part of the learning process according to the pathfinders. Paths change almost constantly though no seismic activity is felt outside. This leads some to believe the maze itself is not part of the physical world. Its sheer size based on description alone would make it impossible. Some accounts of massive spires and obelisks towering over the maze itself have been recorded among many other strange things.

History

The maze has been an oddity in Estoyan history for generations before its discovery. Its first appearance was actually nowhere near Jeelix but instead, placed the maze a few miles away from Yithwitch. It was gone by nightfall, however, and when tales came out of the north about a maze in the mist, the king couldn't resist. The first expedition was gathered. Juno consisted of the best herbalists, survivalists, and rangers the crown could find. Most never made it out. Only twenty eight of the original two hundred and eighty three made it out of the maze alive. Since then, only those who volunteer,of their own volition and not under orders of another, may enter the maze, and they must do so many times before the doors are opened. The pathfinders know who wishes to enter and who is forced to. For most both then and now, the pathfinders and their maze are both feared and loved.

The Purpose of The Maze

No one knows the true purpose of the labyrinth or who built it. This is due, in part, to the pathfinders themselves. They always end up giving different answers to the question and protecting the place with violence if need be. The maze, whether intended or not, seems to have a profound effect on the mind of any who enter. They gain the ability to build stable roads that will suffer the effects of Universal Vertigo and have an innate sense of direction. They also receive visions from the labyrinth, though it isn't clear if it is the maze itself or something within it that delivers that vision. Visions often concern a target to kill such as a fiend or monster in their vicinity. These powers, however come at the cost of the victims sanity. Each pathfinder comes with their own unique brand of madness.

Alternative Names

The Jeelix Maze, The labyrinth

Type

Megastructure, Land based

Parent Location

Jeelix

Owner

Tammer Roux, King of Estoya

Owning Organization

The Estoyan Pathfinders