Layer 600: Endless Maze
The realm of Baphomet, the Horned King and Prince of Beasts. It was an infinite maze inhabited by minotaurs, ogres, and goristros. The obyrith Pale Night resided in the layer and retained control over a portion of it from within the Bone Castle.
Baphomet's realm, supposedly infinite in size. Here, Baphomet dwelt in his palace, the Lyktion, and spent his time creating various new demonic breeds in his infamous Tower of Science. Some of his more successful creations were the Goristroi, the Bulezaus, the Ghours, and the feral ankashars.
Baphomet, the bellowing Prince of Beasis. dwells at the center of an infinite maze of twisting corridors and trapped switchbacks. Its endless passages connect to several other labyrinths elsewhere on the plane, such as the Puzzling Hedge of Shendilavri or the Valley of the Crypt Things on Thanatos. Such connections bring legions of (often unwilling) visitors to the Endless Maze, where they soon become hopelessly lost, almost welcoming the slobbering beasts dispatched by Baphomet to prowl the maze in search of intruders.
Numerous Minotaur tribes inhabit the maze, usually led by half-fiend minotaurs or Rogue bulezaus that have escaped the Blood War. These creatures revere Baphomet as a patron deity, and such is their devotion that some eventually escape the maze to preach the gospel of the Prince of Beasts to the minotaurs of the Material Plane. In addition to the ram-headed Bulezau, several "domestic" demon breeds created in Baphomet's Tower of Science haunt the layer, including brutal horned ogres known as ghours and the Demon lord's most oft-exported creations, the goristros. Numerous wild goristros hungrily wander the forlorn hallways of the Endless Maze, keeping the larger corridors and galleries free from intruders (and often dumbly crushing allied servants ot Baphomet for good measure). The demon lord tolerates raiding parties of glabrezus who occasionally abduct these creatures to lash them into the service of a distant demon lord, for Baphomet knows that the goristros' stature and battle prowess carry his legend to all corners of The Abyss.
For all the demons and shrieking horrors ot the maze, the layer supports a large number of mortals capable ot providing succor or danger to visiting adventurers. These furtive, untrusting creatures are the Lost, usually gnolls or humans released from the dungeons below Baphomer's palace at the Lyktion, Baphomet and his servitors casually hunt down these pitiful creatures as a way to slake boredom or keep fresh for more important battles. When an allied demon lord or powerful mortal spellcaster wishes some service from the Prince of Beasts, Baphomet instructs him to find a specific member of the Lost, and often refuses to discuss things further until that individual has been brought to him. In remote corners ol the layer members of the Lost gather in motley gangs to eke out survival and desperately search for escape.
Most corridors in the Endless Maze appear as smooth-walled worked passages some 10 feet in width, with a ceiling 10 or 20 feer above the level stone floor. Here and there, the hallways open into grand, vaulted promenades or constrict to narrow crawlways barely 1 foor in diameter. Near the Lyktion and Baphomet's other redoubts, the maze architecture is intricate, clean, and well maintained, with walls of ivory, white marble, granite, and porphyry. The immaculate condition of the maze is often marred by great swaths of blood, mangled bodies, and other gruesome leavings from battles between demons, adventurers, and other lost souls. Farther from the region often patrolled by Baphomet himself, the maze falls into crumbling disrepair and ultimately takes on the characteristic of unworked natural passages. Near portals to other layers, the maze sometimes takes on architectural or artistic trappings reminiscent of the layer on the other side of the gate. No natural illumination graces the Endless Maze, although everburning torches keep important passageways illuminated so that Baphomet's victims can see the twisted laces of their pursuers.
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