Into the Chasm - Episode 2

The Labyrinth: in which the maze shifts, the dead speak, and the beast appears

Featuring: Jrain Fanlish, Finnan Oakstride, Justas Rhostrin, Ekko, Eolo
In Taelgar: Jan 25, 1730 DR
On Earth: Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Zeyfa’s Labyrinth

The party pushes deeper into Zeyfa’s Labyrinth, surviving a warm crevasse and worsening storm, questioning a dead man from Melusa, and emerging into a black‑stone chamber where a shaggy white beast appears.

Timeline

Jan 25, 1730 DR, afternoon: The party explores deeper into Zeyfa’s Labyrinth as the maze shifts around them, then spills into a black‑stone chamber where a beast waits.

Cast of Characters

Jrain Fanlish – Brevan scout and woodswalker, leading the party’s navigation and keeping them moving.
Finnan Oakstride – halfling bard and collector of stories, mapping the maze and drawing lore from memory and magic.
Justas Rhostrin – veteran devoted to the Kestavo, anchoring the group with stubborn resolve and healing.
Ekko – kenku druid of Kemeko Monastery, reading the winds and turning to primal magic to survive the labyrinth’s traps.
Eolo – young kenku warrior, bold and unflinching in the maze’s tight quarters.
Kalima – terrified woman from Melusa, wounded by the labyrinth’s violence and desperate to turn back.
Rala – Jrain’s avian companion, used for scouting ahead through tunnels and chambers.
Unnamed man of Melusa – a corpse trapped in ice, questioned with Speak with Dead.
Zeyfa – the cruel West Wind, whose labyrinth twists to pen the party in.
Melua – a kestavo name remembered in Finnan’s old Teft‑travel stories, possibly tied to Melusa.

Places

Zeyfa’s Labyrinth – the ice‑and‑stone maze whose geometry shifts under storm and booming pulses.
Melusa – a cliff‑carved village named by the dead, described as enduring on fish and fog, bound to sacrifice.
Great Chasm – referenced as a point of comparison for storms, stone, and the feeling of “depth.”
Teft – river tied to Finnan’s remembered stories of a waterfall shrine.

Narrative Summary

Our session begins as, drawn onward by the shifting geometry of Zeyfa’s Labyrinth, the party descends from the entrance chamber into tight, snowy tunnels of stone and hoarfrost, trying to keep their bearings as wind gusts swirl and passages fork unpredictably. In a low, ice-walled chamber split by a warm crevasse fringed with ice “ferns,” they test the depths with a lighted snowball, only to watch the light abruptly vanish, feel the wind and snow thicken, and struggle to get everyone across as Kalima pleads to turn back. Pressing forward, they find a human corpse pinned by ice and use Speak with Dead to learn of Melusa, a cliff-carved village that offers sacrifices to Zeyfa; the dead insists the labyrinth does not let anyone escape, while Finnan’s Memory of the Ancestors links Melusa to old stories of a waterfall shrine along the Teft tied to a kestavo called Melua.

The storm worsens into whiteout as ice seems to grow beneath their feet and the maze rearranges itself around booming pulses and shadowy wind-creatures that sweep through open rooms. Kalima is injured in the chaos and becomes even more fearful of being carried by the kenku, while the party relies on rope, stealth, and spells to keep moving through narrowing choices and vanishing exits. Eventually, a right-hand tunnel of hanging ice veils becomes a trap: Ekko’s Create Bonfire shatters the ice and triggers a collapse: an avalanche-like surge, forcing the party to leap into darkness and slide down slick, non-reflective black ice. They spill out into a quiet black-stone chamber with sheer ice walls, just in time for Kalima to warn of a hidden beast—and for a towering shaggy white monster (with frost forming into new shapes nearby) to answer Justas’s challenge.

Combat Summary

Wind-creatures in the storm rooms: As whiteout tightens and the maze’s exits shift, shadowy wind-creatures sweep through the blizzard-choked chambers, forcing the party to retreat, loop, and slip past them rather than meet them head-on.

Detailed Bullet Points

Entering the Labyrinth

The party stands on an icy bridge/arch at the “ceiling” of the labyrinth’s entrance chamber, looking down about 6–8 feet into an irregular oval space (roughly 10–15 feet across) piled with snow.
Above is an opaque, stormy white “sky” they can’t see through; below (outside the platform area) is the super-strong wind that previously threw them back upward.
Kalima clutches a glowing rock “blessed” by Romil the Glacier King and repeatedly prays for protection from ice and snow, visibly terrified but willing to proceed with coaxing from Justas and Finnan.
The group briefly reorients: if the bridge is “south,” two passages trend northward (northeast-ish) and two trend southwest-ish; Finnan begins mapping despite the uncertainty.
Ekko’s amulet is reviewed: when he becomes a Large beast he gains Jump (30-foot jump), and when he becomes a tiny beast he gains advantage on Stealth checks.
The party establishes marching order (Rala scouting ahead; kenku choosing positions); Finnan ensures light coverage by casting Light on one of Jrain’s arrows (after moving it off his ocarina), while Kalima keeps her own light.
They enter a narrow, snowy tunnel that opens onto rough stone floors and walls; the ceiling is ice/snowpack, and hoarfrost webs the stone.
The passage twists and forks; lacking magical navigation, they choose a consistent direction: Jrain leads them left, aiming for “north,” rather than having Rala check every opening.
The left route slopes downward 25–30 feet, with patches of slick ice that make Kalima’s footing uncertain, and opens into a small “finger-like” junction room with four exits and sudden gusts of wind.
Finnan tests airflow and notes two still passages and two with opposing breezes; with no better basis, he chooses the farthest-right still passage.
That corridor runs about 50 feet to a dead end: a wall of ice blocks the way, though they hear a loud dripping sound seeming to come from beyond the ice.
Ekko compares the place to the Great Chasm: it has familiar “inside-the-Chasm” aspects, but feels deeper and oddly more “alive” than the abandoned, carved vibe he associates with the Chasm.
Finnan checks the stone and judges it ordinary (granite-like, similar to Sentinel mountain caves), then the group backtracks to try the next option.

The Crevasse Room

The next passage opens into a wider, low-ceilinged chamber (about 40–50 feet across, ceiling ~5 feet high) with ice walls and poor visibility at the edges of their light.
A wide crack in the floor (about 10–15 feet across) divides the room; warm air rises from it, and ice “fern” tendrils line the edges, waving slightly until they still when approached.
The group reiterates the goal as they understand it from Kalima: finding the center / stopping “Zeyfa’s” beast or minion is the only way out.
They test the crevasse with a Light-touched snowball: the light is visible for only 2–3 seconds before it abruptly goes out, with no sound of impact; the group debates whether the light was dispelled or obscured.
As the light vanishes, the “ferns” shudder rapidly and a swirling wind begins to build in the room; a distant, unsettling howl rides the wind.
Eolo examines the ice ferns up close, plucks one (it stiffens and cracks like ice), tastes it (metallic tang), and concludes it must be magical.
Justas produces 50 feet of rope; Finnan proposes tying it to a kenku’s leg so someone can scout the far side without risk of an endless fall.
Jrain considers using Rala (darkvision) to scout, but without a way to communicate back (unless ritual Speak with Animals), they decide not to wait.
Ekko impatiently flies across anyway and reports (telepathically) that the far side has snowy stone and two passage options (one straight ahead, one turning right).
Eolo tries to jump without flying, slips on the icy floor, and nearly slides into the crevasse before catching himself; a hot burst of damp air jets up from the crack and condenses into denser snow, reducing visibility further.
With conditions worsening, Eolo flies across and Finnan rides him piggyback; Finnan tries to minimize crossings because each pass seems to make the room snowier and windier.
Jrain uses levitation to help get across and potentially share Kalima’s weight with a kenku; Kalima clings to Justas and urges going back.
Justas attempts a roped crossing; he missteps and swings down into pitch blackness, feeling hot air and briefly losing all vision before Eolo telekinetically yanks him up; he takes 2 damage on the far side and his sight returns.
Past the crevasse, the storm remains loud and disorienting; the party heads toward a right-hand corridor, only to find the maze shifting (an exit disappears and a new opening appears), and a tossed snowball vanishes into the swirling white.

The Dead Speak

The party pushes on through howling wind and treacherous, ice-growing footing, following sharp turns into a small stone chamber where a human corpse is trapped against the wall by ice at its hands and feet.
Finnan produces a Speak with Dead scroll and the group pauses to decide questions; the corpse is fleshy (not skeletal) and surrounded by gear (shield, bow, quiver, daggers, unlit torches, battered leather armor, helm).
Finnan tries Old Zimkovan; the conversation is halting, but the corpse answers: it is from “Melusa,” a name Kalima clearly recognizes and reacts to with fear and tension.
Asked how it died, the corpse describes the wind “coming alive,” sharp and deadly—“just like you’d think Zeyfa’s minion would be.”
The corpse (and party) identify the setting as Zeyfa’s Labyrinth, and Zeyfa as the cruel west wind in kestavo lore, with “children” that cause trouble and must be placated.
The party asks about escape; the corpse insists no one escapes and no stories come out of the labyrinth.
Asked why it entered, the corpse explains it was selected as the village’s sunrise sacrifice and had no choice.
Justas tries to learn more about Melusa’s location and its guiding spirits; Kalima implies their old gods/spirits are “lost” and only stories remain.
The corpse describes Melusa as carved into ice on the side of a vast gray cliff, with a river/waterfall running through the village and plunging into the depths; the villagers eat fish from the river.
After the spell, Finnan uses Memory of the Ancestors and recalls old halfling-travel stories of a Teft waterfall shrine tied to a kestavo called Melua; he suggests “Melusa” may mean “village of Melua,” from a time before the Great Chasm.
Ekko and Finnan discuss what the Vejo Vaikai believe about the Chasm’s origins: no single canonical story, but competing views (ancient/eternal, cursed wound, or a place of elemental balance with rumored planar portals).
They loot what’s usable: Finnan takes the two torches; Jrain takes the arrows; Eolo takes the daggers; Justas takes a plain silver ring worn on a necklace.

Twisting Passages

Leaving the corpse behind, the party trudges through worsening whiteout (20–30 feet visibility) as ice thickens on stone and even seems to grow underfoot, making movement slow and hazardous.
A corridor ends abruptly at black stone; they choose to trend right and soon hear repeated “booms” ahead, like quiet sonic bursts strong enough to ripple the air and shove snow.
They time the pulses (roughly every four seconds) and run through one at a time; Jrain’s movement helps her keep footing in the slick, half-formed ice.
The group debates getting Kalima through safely (rope and/or kenku carrying); the kenku attempt a carry under buffeting wind, but Ekko is blown back and drops Kalima.
Kalima is hurt (badly bruised/cracked rib), terrified of the kenku afterward, and Justas promises and then provides healing (Cure Wounds) once he reaches her.
The maze opens into “finger-like” hubs with many narrow exits; they repeatedly choose the rightmost passage, and Justas leaves a hidden note (“5 passages”) as a marker in the snow.
They emerge into a room where shadowy, humanoid wind-creatures sweep through the blizzard—forms of wind with hints of bone and leather, arms like knife edges—forcing quick decisions about retreat and direction.
Finnan marks the wall with ink to test their route; they discover they have looped back to the same room and that the number/arrangement of exits shifts between passes as the storm grows more violent.
By looping again, they reduce the room’s exits to a single passage across, but must creep through the room to avoid being noticed.
Jrain casts Pass Without Trace and Finnan adds Bardic Inspiration; despite Justas’s disadvantage, the party succeeds at a cautious stealth passage.
On the far side the wind calms slightly (visibility improves to ~15–20 feet), but the booming hazard remains up ahead; they decide to keep pushing, with Justas carrying Kalima through the next “boom” zone by force of will and strength.

Lost in the Labyrinth

The party expects a familiar turn but instead steps into a circular, snow-choked chamber with three exits (left, right, and straight ahead); Finnan states outright that the labyrinth’s paths are changing and chooses “right” anyway.
The right-hand tunnel is hung with thin sheets of ice like curtains, with cool mist pooling beneath; they consider burning through rather than pushing and breaking them by hand.
Ekko uses Create Bonfire to melt the ice; it shatters far louder than expected and a wall collapses open into darkness, while a roaring wind and an avalanche-like surge races toward them from behind.
They try to smash through the ice veils, but new ice seems to form as they break it; more collapses leave them on snow that feels unsupported, with danger pressing from both sides.
With no time, they jump into the darkness and slide down slick, non-reflective black ice; their light remains, but it reveals only each other and the featureless black slope.
The chute ejects them into open air about 20 feet up in a large, stormless chamber (black stone floor, sheer ice walls, and a boulder fall visible at distance).
In the sudden fall, Ekko flies; Justas slams his axe into the ice wall and hangs on while holding Kalima, using Bardic Inspiration to get a secure bite.
Jrain turns her fall into a controlled descent using her climbing experience; Finnan grabs Eolo mid-slide and clings to his leg as Eolo stabilizes in the oddly calm air.
Ekko picks up Kalima despite her suspicion (“He dropped me last time”); Finnan reassures her, but she immediately tries to scramble away from the center and warns that a beast is here.
Finnan casts Minor Illusion to extend the ice wall and give Kalima a place to hide while Justas drops down (taking 3 damage on a failed Dex save) and prepares for a fight.
Justas draws attention by bellowing and banging axe on shield; a 10-foot-tall shaggy white beast with dark red eyes emerges roaring, while frost gathers near the walls into shadowy bestial forms beneath each kenku.