The Ruby Labyrinth

The Marauders seldom remain in the same mindset for long, and this usually prevents them from creating talismans and artefacts - to the relief of all other mages. But the rare marauder talismans that appear are often enough to cause a lot of grief. Some are "gifts" created to spread dynamism and chaos in the world, while others are complete puzzles. The Ruby Labyrinth is one of them, created by Master Lanach Ter Bandara just after he succumbed to marauderdom in the third century BC.

The Labyrinth is carved from a huge perfect ruby, several inches across and of course priceless. In shape it is roughly cubical, covered with deep grooves forming an intricate labyrinth of swirling patterns that seem to extend from the surface into its interior, towards the nexus at its centre. Anybody who looks into it will feel their gazes drawn toward the centre, where all lines converge into - something. No two viewers can agree on what it is or how it really looks, but everybody feels strongly drawn towards it. Some mages claim the centre represents entropy, the regular ruby static reality and the labyrinth dynamism. Others see the centre as a symbol or correspondent of the Enigma, the true secret of Reality.

Regardless of what its nature is, its purpose seems clear to anybody who handles it - to find a path to its centre from the eight bevels at its corners, to reach some unknowable prize. Each bevel is inscribed with a complex symbol, which might correspond to a sphere (assuming that the centre holds the ninth sphere). But which symbol is which sphere has not been solved. Each detail is yet another riddle, driving the reflective mind crazy with their hints.

As a person tries to find the path (or paths) between the bevels and the centre (perhaps the solution is to find the path from one bevel to another?), odd things happen. Brief glimpses of hidden truths are revealed and tantalisingly vanish; minor distractions appear and hinder the solver, and an eerie feeling of foreboding fills the viewer. If the solver is tenacious and persists, he will break through - into the Ruby. Because the labyrinth is a trap.

Trapped people are only trapped mentally as a pure mind, their bodies lie comatose by the ruby. But their minds are trapped within walls of blood-red ruby, where tunnels and passages swirl endlessly. The only way to escape is to return to the entrance point - or perhaps find a way to the centre. The chilling truth is that most victims have attempted the latter alternative, becoming trapped within the passages driven by hope, determination or obsession. If the uninhabited body is not cared for it will die, but the trapped minds will remain in the labyrinth. Through the centuries many victims have become wraiths within the ruby, gradually degenerating into obsessive shadows of their former selves.

Some desperate entities (they are hardly beings any more, let alone human) constantly hunt the passages in search for new visitors they try to trick into revealing the path out. As soon as they learn this (and they are willing to use any available means to do it) they sweep off to the exit and possess the empty body of the visitor. If they succeed, they will then relish in the base pleasures of the material world more than a vampire in lust frenzy, deliberately selecting vices that will kill them in ecstasy - anything to avoid the endless state of mental twisting they have had to endure inside the labyrinth. Many also try to destroy the labyrinth itself, but it has a surprising habit of surviving.

Adventurous mages have tried using the labyrinth as a focus for magick, and to their big surprise succeeded quite well. The labyrinth seems to work as a multi-sphere focus for all kinds of magick, regardless of sphere. However, there is a small twist. Each time paradox hits the mage there is a chance that a backlash occurs - a backlash that will rip the mind of the mage into the labyrinth. In addition to finding the correct way out, the mage has to identify the symbol of the sphere (?) that signifies his exit.

Master Lanach Ter Bandara died laughing as the Mysteries of Hecate finally found his hiding place in the ocean and ripped apart his body and soul using their crude bone tools. With him died the only chance of solving the labyrinth completely - if there ever was one.

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