The Danzuishanese Maze - Floor 4: Duality and representation

Both Nirrum and I think in terms of perspective

Neither of us are particularly efficient at communicating those perspectives

The  maze so far has been following a very carefully designed pattern. In general, each floor has an antechamber, and then a hub-room with branching paths from the hub, The Third breaks this a bit by not having an antechamber, but the Fourth Returns to form. That said, this floor has the distinction of having effects from a previous floor affect it. It also has a different Track, Technically two.

Start with this one, the other one is..... far more artful and subtle, but necessary to grasp the context of the room.



Not only that, we get to see a flawless victory for the party, and learn the True Identity of Gary "The Beast" Lasereyes. It's very exciting I assure you.

Fourth Floor - Duality and Representation

The first area of the 4th floor is a crescent that reconnects to both entrances to this floor from above. The crescent looks above a massive (2 mile wide, one mile high) sandy field lit by what appears to be a painted on moon on the cieling, spreading bright light for 10ft around a gargantuan and sleek silvery golem with interlocking metal plates and dim light for 20 beyond. The golem is shaped not unlike a massive slim dragonborn or abishai, with longer arms and 8 eyes. It sits on an appropriately sized throne made out of a darker material but with similar styling. When the players leave the crescent or make it to the center of the cresecent it stands up, bows and reaches towards the players, palm up, reaching for a sort of handshake. It does not appear to be threatening. It has the stats of an ancient black dragon, but does not have a fly speed unless it gets back to its chair, which attaches to it and becomes its wings.

I actually reduced the size of this room drastically, because I realized that while I had envisioned it to be so large, that it was impossible to portray on a mat during combat, not to mention impossible to get the good ending. The golem was using a fairly low Thai boxing stance, hammering in their sophistication and understanding of the situation. Originally it didn't have wings, but y'know, I'm lazy and just ran through the Monster manual for a statblock, then decided that making the chair into wings was cool.

There is no way down from the crescent save a 30ft drop
100 ft behind the dragonborn-like colossus, an similarly sized gargantuan Monkey (Rhesus Macaque) awaits (Statted as a Goristro with its strength and dexterity swapped, No gore attack, and climb speed equal to its walk speed, which is now 50ft). It is entirely biological but can cast scorching ray from its eyes at 5th level. Charisma is its ability score for this. It sits in the darkness, back on to the party.
When the construct leaves its chair, the monkey looks over. When the Construct bows, the Monkey turns quickly, when it reaches out to the players, the monkey charges it, howling. It fights the construct and attempts to throw it away from the party.

That's him, your honor. Gary "The Beast" Lasereyes

• Neither the construct nor the monkey are hostile to the players and will put themselves in danger to protect the party from any sort of threat.
  • If the Kraken's door was not the entry and the players open up the Kraken's door and the kraken is still alive, the kraken breaks through the wall and into the area. Whichever combatant is winning rushes the Kraken. If the Kraken attempts to attack the players, both Combatants will attack it with unrelenting rage. When the kraken is sufficiently dead, both creatures return to threat assessment modes of behaviour, and if the party intervenes, they will become non-hostile to eachother on successful dc18 animal handling checks (made with advantage if the party has food or is able to give food to the construct to give to the monkey) and DC 18 persuasion checks, (made with advantage if the monkey is already somehow calm, or if the construct is offered any amount of money). The monkey does not want the construct near the party, and checks to calm the monkey are made with disadvantage if the party approaches the robot physically. Five successes before five failures, once a day, can endear the two to eachother, should the party stay with them for that time or find a way out of the maze for them. The robot counts as a sentient creature for the purposes of earning the title of Maze hunter.
    
    So fun fact, Remember how the Paladin Aggro'd the Kraken on the previous floor? Yeah. The bardlock ran to this other door which was thankfully not a full mile away after the fight started. The cleric came in at the last minute to grant guidance or enhance ability, which made the last roll meet the DC Exactly. It was a win or lose moment, save or die, and they came out on top. The party watched these two being fight for them and managed to mend their relationship, a temporary state
    
• Neither one will attack the players, even if provoked, though they will both attempt to reposition such that the players are not a threat, moving out of their range if possible.
  
  The monkey grabbed the cleric and held him close.He fought it for a bit but like, When Gary wants something, he takes it. The primal instinct and very instilled urge to protect was highlighted here, both creatures stood to gain from the party. Peaceful and organized social structures are beneficial to both the manufactured, artifical bonds of intelligent beings as well as to the Bonds of primitive beasts. https://ncase.me/trust/ is a good resource to learn about why this came about and what it means for two creatures to pursue this course of action.

• When one is dead, if the players helped, they will give to the party an item. The construct will give a Daern's instant fortress, making it on the spot with hundreds of tiny fingers and arms reaching out to pick up its own scrap metal. The monkey sniffs around for a bit and procures a Manual of bodily health, ready to use.
  
  The books are extremely rare on my setting. Rather, they're almost always on cooldown.Daern's instant fortress is always a favourite.This scene paints value in both created work and found objects. Value is value no matter its source, and socially speaking, those who grant you that value are a positive thing to have around.
  
• Both are gargantuan and trapped within the room and think highly of the party unless magically made hostile. The Construct is unable to think in terms simple enough for telepathy to work, while the monkey is a monkey.
  
  Communication barriers of such sorts revolve around the problem of density of information, a word can only convey so much meaning, and depending on how that meaning is organized it can have so many other interpretations. The Robot's information density far exceeds what we are are capable of communicating in our current context, while the monkey had the opposite problem, an inability to encode much in a meaningful way at all. Despite this, Speak with animals is a spell. The Druid had it on hand of course, and tamed and named Gary, bribing him with food and trees.
  
• The construct is made of mundane materials, the monkey is made of meat.
  
  I guess it's important that I give that other song now.... Enjoy.
  
  
  
  This song has a music video that I can't find anymore and it was an important part of my youth, as it was something my cousins had shown me, and anything they did was automatically cool.
  As you can see I have extremely complex and sophisticated sources of inspiration myself. Clearly, the pinnacle of culture.

At the far end of the field of sand is a single gate That is only large enough for a small character to fit through, and only if squeezing. The guide says the party needs to turn back and find another way forward, unless a way in is figured out.

I had forgotten the cleric had wind walk, and the druid had polymorph. They left the robot behind, which is a shame, that guy was an expert businessman in my mind and a legendary accountant. This is also where they learned that the monkey had eye beams, He had them to fight the robot as it flew around the room but the kraken came in on like, turn two of that fight, swearing to kill the Paladin. The party tried to tunnel through the wall of the maze with the robot punching the wall like a Shaolin monk. Gary, not wanting to be outdone, used his laser eyes.


The other side of the small corridor Has Six gates on the walls of a narrow room with an octagonal pendentive. A square shaft leading from the second floor to the fifth passes through here on the way to floor 5 room 2.

They never did try the pit, even when they smelled mayonnaise they had left behind in the dungeon previously coming from above. Each Door in this room is a different method of storytelling. An open gate beckons to adventure, a glass window offers you a view, A stained glass window will shine its story on you while a carving can be felt. A puppet show implies someone on the other side, while a mirror shows someone their own story. A hidden door of course is a story that's told whether you see it or not, it still happens and it's a journey you might yet take anyway. Part of this room had the feeling of some of the citadel from half-life 2, and I would have included some hallways if it fit the design.

From left to right:

• Door 1 is a gothic iron double gate that is 5 feet across. Through its bars the party can view a room that contains an empty brass braizer, covered in charcoal dust. Bags of charcoal and dried sage, mugwort and lavender, all clearly labelled in infernal. functionally there is over 250g worth of such material here.
  
  Useful, two characters got their familiars back.
  
• Door two is a sliding glass door, through which the party can see a writing mass of rot grubs consuming a corpse, The corpse has a wand of fireball with 2 charges remaining
  
  The Paladin is immune to disease, which it turns out, rot grubs are.The door in question is actually the glass sliding door at my mother's house. No metaphor there, It's just what I think of when I think of sliding glass doors. I wonder how they would have reacted if I described the white plastic trim?
  
• Door 3 is a Stained glass window with a hidden handle that can only be seen on a dc 13 investigation check. It depicts the birth of Bahamut and Tiamat from Io. Behind
  
  This Is where I forgot to finish a sentence and I needed to make something up on the fly, I think it was a demon. and a carving of some kind that they chipped
  
• Between doors 3 and 4 is a spinning false wall that makes an audible click if door 6 is opened, this leads down to floor 5
  
  AHA, Egress!
  
• Door 4 is a rice paper sliding door with stained wooden rods. if the party approaches it, a shadow puppet play begins, depicting the story of Garg and Moonslicer, followed by Ooghie, followed by Los Tiburon, Followed by Phantom the manatee. If opened, the party faces a green abishai. Behind the green abishai is a rack of 6 +1 scimitars, and a bottle of clear liquid that produces very small bubbles if shaken (moonshine).
  
   A very important facet of this dungeon was to give the party too much treasure, as I expect them to give it away as quest rewards or sell it so they can buy property in one of the major cities. A green Abishai, and green dragons, represent poison. Not just physical poison but metaphoric, mental poison. Like Grima wormtongue, they corrupt with their words, and if this is implied to be the storyteller, what does that mean about the purity of the stories told?
  
• Door 5 is a wooden door that is carved to show the line of succession of some human kingdom (sweden, specifically) with each figure shown in its most flattering context. A wight waits on the other side of the door sitting on a low-level treasure hoard
  
  This is actually a Skyrim reference. Skyrim, despite its flaws, remains my favourite game of all time, even now, nearly eight years after its release.
  
• Door 6 is a large mirror with an obvious handle. The door swings inward through a small frame. Behind this door is an elf man, who is staring forlornly at a skeleton of another elf, long dead. The elf perks up when the players enter and ask if they're there to save him. If they say yes, he picks up a large pack and follows. This creature is an adult oblex
  
  See, I've timed this post to come out after the session where they find this out. They took this guy with them! On the next floor, the bardlock noticed that he was a shapeshifter but failed the nature roll. They're wary but not aware. The oblex's pack contains the rest of itself.

Kotsi: Paȑ ra'ke ar
   Piralysarraha Nirrum