Deep within the forests north of Bella Noche, in a small clearing where Triton Pond once stood, there is now only a mysterious, aquariumesque structure. Seated atop a small stone pillar and surrounded on all sides by a box of walls is a large cube, filled with water. Those who plunge its depths find only a round seal on the cube's floor, with a picture of two held hands on it.

In order to pass through this seal, two people must hold hands and touch it...but its magic reveals all that they believe about each other.

The Bound Labyrinth is a magical, constantly shifting, underground dungeon with an unusual connection to the power of relationships. Although it was created by the wild magic of Elalar Medredesh as he pined for his lost friend, it seems to have grown into something more since then. Each section of the labyrinth changes completely based upon particularly powerful bonds between individuals within its halls. Something about this magic feels foreign and powerful, like it exists outside of the Weave.

Thus far, our heroes have encountered a wide variety of environments and obstacles within its halls, including an underground, upside-down lake; a desert between two fictional cities at war; a snowy village contending with an icy enchantress; and even the sprawling city landscape of Vasselheim!

Throughout their adventures here, the party has also repeatedly met the spirit of Ayumi, who has provided them with cryptic advice that has been difficult to fully understand. However, one of her messages has proven to be true with each adventure:

"Have you figured it out yet - how this Labyrinth works? The magic of this place exists outside of the Weave itself, even apart from the gods, for it is borne of something that only those who can die could ever truly appreciate…connections. Yet, the nature of the Labyrinth’s magic fluctuates with the nature of those connections. Just as each of you holds beliefs about the others that are constantly changing - weaving stories about one another that may or may not be true - so, too, does the labyrinth’s magic constantly shift.

"Will you choose connection, or disconnection? Warmth, or wrath? This choice, moreso than sword or spell, is what will define the nature of this place’s magic, and the Labyrinth’s magic has the potential to change the world, even to turn the tides of war. Choose wisely."

Yarlana

Class: Sorcerer

Race: Eladrin (spring)

Yarlana is a Spring Eladrin who fled her homeland of Arvandor due to a raging war. After finding herself in the Bound Labyrinth and wandering for a time, she met Kale and other heroes who were there to find their friend Sebastian. After spending some time with our heroes, Yarlana agreed to serve as the party's liaison to the Labyrinth...but this agreement proved to be short-lived.

Yarlana revealed her true colors when, after the party successfully unlocked a deeper level of the Labyrinth, she poisoned them. She had been using them to get deeper into the Labyrinth. After her traumatic past in a war-torn country, she grew to detest violence so much that anything the party did to even remotely seem violent meant that she couldn't trust them...licking bloody water, declaring a thirst for vengeance...even going so far as to interpret their few failures in the Labyrinth as signs that they resorted to violence instead of diplomacy.

Taking Kale hostage, Yarlana explored the Labyrinth further, until they both fell into a pit and were cornered by mind flayers. Eventually, our heroes came to rescue them, and successfully convinced her that the scars of her past didn't have to define her. With that, through Ayumi's spirit and the power of a mysterious goddess, Anahita, Yarlana was suddenly transformed into a paladin of redemption! Now, she fights alongside the party, working with them to repent after her sins, and to find life anew after war destroyed her family and home.

Ayumi

Ornacian Oracle

Class: Bard

Race: Half-Elf

Ayumi is a half-elf, bardic oracle from Ornacia. She is the granddaughter of Elalar and the daughter of Phaedra and Anousheh Nazari, the latter of whom influenced her eventual worship of Anahita, a foreign goddess of stars and sea. One day, she received a prophecy: a distant Labyrinth's intense magical powers could only be unlocked with the strength of an especially intimate bond. At the request of Ornacian royalty (and against the wishes of her mother, Phaedra), Ayumi traveled alongside a royal guard, Bragum, in an attempt to uncover the Labyrinth's secrets. As they traveled together, they grew close, apparently even intimate.

However, the magic that enchants the Labyrinth's entrance seal revealed an uncomfortable truth: Ayumi had been deceiving Bragum, telling him she loved him when it apparently wasn't true. Furious, Bragum chased her away, further into the Labyrinth's tunnels, and grew obsessed with the thought of revenge for the betrayal.

Her spirit now regularly appears to travelers in the Labyrinth, manifesting a familiar song. "You are the ocean's gray waves..."

She seems to have some special connection to the Labyrinth...is she its avatar? Its muse? ...its prisoner?

Bragum Blackrest

Ornacian Guard

Class: Fighter

Race: Dwarf

Bragum is a dwarven fighter from Ornacia, who accompanied an oracle named Ayumi on a journey to the Bound Labyrinth. Their goal was to learn more of the power of the Bound Labyrinth, maybe even to claim it for Ornacia.

On their journey, they grew closer, and he developed feelings for her. However, they learned the hard way that the seal over the Labyrinth's entrance has the power to reveal one's truest feelings about another. Thus, Ayumi's true feelings were revealed to him: she apparently never loved him!

Now, he is bent on revenge for her deceit, even going so far at one point to deny himself his basic needs of food and water in the name of tracking her down. Bragum remains in the Labyrinth as the party's new liaison, replacing Yarlana after the latter's betrayal.

Elalar Medredesh

Class: Sorcerer / Wild Magic

Level: 5

Race: Wood Elf

"Mad Master Medredesh," as he is sometimes called, is the accidental creator of the Bound Labyrinth. Hundreds of years ago, he traveled to Triton Pond to learn of merfolk rumoured to dwell beneath its surface. The merman he met, Canas, told him and his companion that the merfolk meant no harm to the kingdom, but without evidence to prove thus, the merfolk were deemed a danger by King Oberon. He ordered Triton Pond demolished, and although Medredesh tried to stop this, he was unsuccessful in protecting the merfolk.

However, Elalar and Canas made a promise to meet again, and Elalar returned to the empty, filled-in clearing every day for a year. Somehow, this sparked his wild magic, which transformed the pillar that Oberon had placed atop the lake's remains. From his wild magic, the Labyrinth was created atop that pillar.

Alas, Elalar lost much in the intervening years, including some of his mind. Could it have been his guilt over what happened that led to his madness? Perhaps it was the loss of his daughter, Phaedra, who abandoned him. Maybe it was just the frustration of being unable to solve the mystery of the Labyrinth that he himself created...regardless, he has enough mind and life left in him to provide the party with a better understanding of the Bound Labyrinth's magic.

Canas che'Feairde

Class: Undead / Siren

Race: Merfolk

Hundreds of years ago, in life, Canas was the Gris Tribe's diplomat regarding relations with land-dwellers. Soft-spoken and cautious, he met with Elalar Medredesh and Brallevum Marblefall when they inspected Triton Pond, his home, on then-King Oberon's behalf. He insisted that the merfolk meant them no harm, and although the three bonded in friendship, Elalar and Brallevum were unable to convince King Oberon that the merfolk were harmless. As such, the Gris Tribe in Triton Pond were slaughtered as Oberon's forces demolished the lake.

Canas led his people to a coral reef in the ocean, but sadly, the Gris Tribe wasn't accustomed to salt water habitats, and most of them died off in the years following, including Canas. Now, his spirit presides over the merfolk graveyard deep beneath an oceanic crest. He continues to sing the tribe's anthem, the Ballad of the Gris Tribe, a testament to their belief in connecting with other cultures...the darkness, the light...connected by gray...

"You are the ocean's gray waves, destined to seek
life beyond the shore, just out of reach
Yet the waters ever change, flowing like time,
the path is yours to climb"

Anahita

Matron of Star and Sea

Class: Goddess

Deep within the Bound Labyrinth, our heroes discovered the ruined temple of a little-known, foreign goddess named Anahita. Her holy symbol, a blue, eight-pointed star, has appeared once or twice in the Labyrinth before, in connection with Ayumi, but only Hubert witnessed it, and he is long gone. After the party successfully convinced Yarlana to rejoin them, this goddess suddenly sparked a power within her, emboldening her with aquatic magic!

Who is this goddess, though? What could her connection be to the Bound Labyrinth?

Phaedra Medredesh

Ornacian Royal Guard

Class: Paladin

Race: Wood Elf

Rank: Sergeant

Phaedra is Elalar Medredesh's estranged daughter. After her mother passed, Phaedra grew weary of Elalar's madness, and struck out on her own at a young age. This has left her feeling bitter toward her father, even after meeting the love of her life in Ornacia. Now, her daughter, Ayumi, has done something similar, but in the name of finding the Bound Labyrinth. Unable to abandon her duties to the Ornacian crown and also unable accept that her own kin is returning to a place that she considers dangerous, Phaedra's heart has hardened once more. She refuses to reconcile with Elalar until her daughter is safely returned from the Labyrinth borne by her father's wild magic...

Anousheh Nazari

Priestess of Anahita

Class: Cleric

Race: Human

Hailing from a mysterious, faraway kingdom called Achaemenia, Anousheh is a devout worshipper of Anahita. Anousheh first came to Midsommar on a pilgrimage dedicated to her goddess, where she met Phaedra decades ago, upon first visiting Ornacia. The two quickly fell madly in love together, and through Anahita's blessing, the power of their love, and a few excellent Ornacian fertility mages, she gave birth to Ayumi.

Now, Ayumi has taken a journey that leads her back to Phaedra's place of origin, but she also carries a piece of Anousheh's past with her. Will the Matron of Star and Sea protect her? Anousheh prays every day that the tides will wash her daughter back to her own shores soon...