The Temple of the Labyrinth
Connects to: 25.14, 29.01, 29.14.01, 29.14.13, 29.14.16, 29.14.29, 29.14.36, 29.14.38, 29.14.48, 29.14.50, 29.14.52 and 31.04.
In the seediest corner of the Gnomish Quarter of the Shuttered City, far from the shops of the reputable apothecaries and tinkerers and illusionists, beyond the cozy taverns and smoke shops, and past even the stalls and tents of the most disreputable naga-oil salesmen and pawn shop owners, lie the slums, which have sunk to the point of being half-underground and will be claimed entirely by the Undercity in a man’s age or two. Once, when an ancient Doge allowed the construction of the Gnomish Quarter over the heated objections of an ancient Matriarch, these were the row houses build by the first, wealthiest influx of gnomish artisans and traders, and now their low ceilings and narrow halls mean that their occupants are limited to destitute gnomes and halflings. Kobolds and goblins who attempt to defy their geases (29.14.01) and remain in the City indefinitely often find their way into these warrens. Occasionally their wasted corpses are found among the trash strewn about the alleys, but rumors persist that there is some way to break the geas, and it can be found in this slum.
Even if this rumor is true, it would by no means by the most remarkable feature of the slum. For among the half-buried tenements, there is an ancient storefront, which might once have been prosperous but has now fallen into wrack and ruin like everything around it. Its glass windows were long ago replaced with oilskins and its intricately carved wooden sign has faded and rotted to the point of near-illegibility. It proclaims that this is the Temple of Labyrinth, and it is, indeed, a temple, one which is known as far as the Pirate Kingdoms of the Bitter Coast and Grumluda. When questions arise to why an alien temple is allowed beyond the sanctuary of the Twelve Embassies, the Priests of the City will usually answer that the Temple of the Labyrinth is so piteous that it makes the glory of Alberon all the more evident by contrast. This is a lie, and it is one of the three lies that Priests of the City are allowed to tell.
On the highest floor of the Steeple of Alberon, above the Tabernacle, the Church’s coffers and the personal chambers of the Matriarch, there is the Sealed Library. Here, the Church keeps the books that are too dangerous or blasphemous to allow any but the Matriarch to read, but too valuable to destroy. The library contains one of three known copies of the Testament of Weneslas Stannev, the spell book of the Arch-Lich of Naros, and the only un-redacted version of the Scroll of Seven Shadows. It also contains a contract between the first Matriarch of the City and the High Priestess of the Labyrinth, written in dwarven cuneiform stamped into a strange sheet of unsmeltable metal, promising that the Temple of Labyrinth will always have a place in the City of Shuttered Windows.
Inside the Temple of the Labyrinth, there is a single cluttered room with a low altar, rickety pews, stacks of rotting hymnals and at least a dozen half-empty wrought-iron candelabra. If the pews were full, a wizard could slaughter every congregant with a single fireball, but the pews are always empty. The room is suffused by the odor of filth and decay that is barely concealed by cloying incense.
Behind the altar sits High Priestess, a gnome so bent with age that she is as twisted as any Deep Dwarf. It is unknown whether she ever moves from her spot, but no visitor has seen her anywhere else. Her robes are elven silk, embroidered with a maze-like pattern of dizzying intricacy. Once her robes would have been worth more than the herds of the Olmsteds (31.04), but now they are ragged and threadbare: apparently not even elven silk lasts forever. This is the highest representative of Chimalia, She Who is Fate, She Who Dwells in the Labyrinth of Law and Chaos, mother and sister of Tiamat. Despite living at the fringe of the Undercity, she is an Elector, making her the equal of the Matriarch or the head of any Great Family, but she has never cast a vote.
Supplicants may sit in the pews and wait for her to address them, and those she notices are allowed approach her to ask one whispered question, and receive one whispered answer. It is said that those who get up before she acknowledges them will never be answered. Most give up after a few hours, but some are desperate enough to wait days before they have to leave out of thirst or hunger (this would explain the stench). A few die sitting in the pews waiting for an answer that will never come, including the last Doge. Zeem Olmsted (31.04) endured the humiliation of the ear-geld and then waited two days for an answer. The last time Drogo the Baldfaced was bold enough to show himself in the City, he visited the Temple, and needed to wait only a few minutes for his answer. It is said that when he left the City, he was pale as a Night Cow, and weeping openly.
Connections:
- A strange and terrible monster stalks the streets of the Gnomish Quarter: the Geas Eater.
- The High Priestesses of this temple are drawn from a line of gnomes who live in Mazy Hollow (25.14).
- One of the stores in this quarter is the best place in the City to buy pearls (29.14.38).
- Deep in the Gnomish Quarter there is an illegal academy where High Tongue (29.14.52) verb declensions are spoken of in whispers lest unkind ears hear them.
Hooks:
- What did the last Doge want to know? How about Zeem and Drogo?
- Why was the Church willing to tolerate the presence of the Temple?
- Why is the Temple of the Labyrinth so impoverished? Are there any other priests of Chimalia out there?