Leviathan
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: For submission into the Netherworld Codex Contest. Also, to create an adventure location that is guaranteed to take more than it gives.Image Credit: "Castleworld II- Ghosts" by ChrisCold on DeviantArt.com
Canon: N/A
Links: The Valley of Lies
SETTING INFORMATION
Structure Name: KandelkryptClassification: Mausoleum/Library
Location: Overlooking the Valley of Lies, Chaos
Affiliation: Dark Side
Accessibility
Kandelkrypt is extremely difficult to access. For one thing, it exists within Chaos, with no close rifts to real space. This is a realm of the dead, of the liars and the honest alike. But to those that make it to the front gates of the Truthbarrows find an even more dangerous obstacle. To enter, and to leave, one has to speak a well-kept secret. The locks are of the mind, and the keys are your lies.
Description
From the outside, Kandelkrypt is an imposing sight. Overlooking the great and terrible Valley of Lies, the wrought stone is a towering cube, with black gold filigree, Grecian pillars, and heavy iron gates. Skull motifs are worked into reliefs, grave sights, and even the door knockers. The eternal windstorm that swirls around the Valley are ominously absent at Kandelkrypt, but the moanings of the skulls in the Valley can be heard even here.
Force Ghosts, beings of light and shadow, dwell around the mausoleum, in the graveyard full of unlit candles, many driven to paranoia and blubbering nothingness. If one quiets their mind, they can hear the skulls and these beings whispering intelligible falsehoods into their ear, promising madness and truth in equal parts.
Perhaps the most dangerous part of Kandelkrypt is the aura that surrounds it. The intense Dark Side energy surrounding the area forces any being, spirit or otherwise, to be compelled to speak truths. If asked questions, it is difficult to not answer in a complete, comprehensive, truthful answer, and even masters of the Dark Side, or those under the protection of Force Light, can find themselves slipping up if they are not careful.
POINTS OF INTERESTThe Wicked Cemetery
The area surrounding Kandelkrypt is the site of a disorganized jumble of headstones and unlit candles. It seems that wherever one steps, there is a plaque in a language forgotten to time, or a simple granite pillar with runes around the base, or a broken statue of an extinct species long lost. The ground is covered in wax from melted candlesticks, although the candles themselves haven’t been lit for a millenia, and the wicks on each candle are completely unburnt. Lighting one will reveal that while they catch fire, the wicks don’t shorten and die. None of these gravesites have bodies underneath, as far as one might dig. Scholars are confused as to their origin, practicability, or even meaning. Rumor has it that decrypting any one of these headstones could lead to ancient, dangerous knowledge. Force Spirits wander here, speaking their impossible languages, and simply staring at anything, or anyone, that doesn’t belong. Pilgrims must be careful not to fall into the Valley of Lies, or risk being stuck there for time immemorial.
The Liar’s Gate
The gate itself is nearly a hundred feet tall, made of some unidentified heavy iron material. Two large skulls rest on the doorway, each holding a knocker in it’s jaw. The doors are indestructible, unable to be seen through, immune to the Force, and for all intents and purposes, immovable. To enter or leave Kandelkrypt, a secret must be sacrificed. The level and severity of the secret varies from person to person, but more powerful Force Users tend to need larger secrets to enter. The prospective secret is whispered to the door, and the heavy, immovable gate will swing open with unnatural force, closing with that same force behind the pilgrim. It is not entirely known what happens to the secrets uttered into the door. Some say that the secret will find it’s way to the pilgrim’s worst enemy. Others say it is kept by the door, to be given to another pilgrim in another life. There have even been accounts of the pilgrim forgetting the secret after whispering it.
Kandelkrypt Proper
The inside of Kandelkrypt is tolerable, considering the locale. Many books litter study after library after study, troves of forgotten knowledge waiting to be deciphered and remembered. Candelabras and candlesticks cover every empty space and hall, each with long-since-dried dripping wax, and unlit wicks, which never seem to burn up if lit. This is a place of study, and looking up histories forgotten. Not much time should be spent here, as madness threatens to take the mind, but it is a place where questions can be answered, if one has the mental fortitude for it. The bodies of those that fail litter the ground here, skeletons and slowly-decaying corpses, each with their head mysteriously missing. Inside every room, there is an identical large tome, written in fevered writing, outlining theories and explaining the properties of Kandelkrypt.
The Underkrypt
This is the reason most pilgrims come to Kandelkrypt. There are stairways going down from Kandelkrypt proper, leading past the libraries and studies, leading to a large, underground burial chamber. It is dark, damp, but lit by immortal green candles. There are alcoves that hold the heads of countless Force Users, some faces showing a deep calm, others twisted in agony, others with no flesh, only bone. If a pilgrim were to place the skull of a dead Force User here, Kandelkrypt would attempt to call their spirit to the Underkrypt, to appear before the pilgrim. The spirit is held there for an hour at most, and while there, the pilgrim and the spirit can converse, although the spirit is not compelled to answer, outside of Kandelkrypts truthful aura. The spirit is then released to where they resided before, unable to be called upon again by the same pilgrim.
SECURITY<Maximum>
Most of the security of the Mausoleum lies in getting there. Chaos is nigh impossible to traverse, even for the dead, as one false step could consign a would-be pilgrim to a deathless, painful existence. When one makes it to Kandelkrypt, however, there are no guards. No traps, no secrets. Only the aura of truthfulness, the Liar’s Gate, and the inevitable madness of too much forbidden knowledge endanger the pilgrim.
HISTORICAL INFORMATIONKandelkrypt was first documented during the Netherworld Crisis in 844 ABY, when an entire enclave of Jedi padawans were whisked to Chaos, outside Kandelkrypt. While a few Jedi scattered, confused and despairing, a select few stayed, and studied the enormous structure. As the days wore on, madness began overtaking this group, until they began to kill each other off at the Liar’s Gate. Only one remained. This last Jedi began to uncover the secrets of the Truthbarrows, documenting everything about the place in a large tome, in which many copies can still be found in the crypt itself, authored by a "Kryptkeeper".
She was finally found by a recovery mission, outside the gate, doors wide open, and the headless corpses of her compatriots scattered around her. She fought and screamed as she was dragged away, raving about the “candles” and “faces in the mausoleum”. She was hospitalized after the Netherworld Crisis, and seemed to be on the path of recovery. Until she was found dead in her hospital bed, her head missing.
NETHERWORLD INFORMATIONGate: There are no nearby gates. It is a dangerous trek through the Netherworld to find Kandelkrypt. However, maps and instructions to get to Kandelkrypt, while rare, do exist in the darker corners of the Galaxy, usually making use of a Gate a large distance away.
Lucidity: Outside the oddities, like the aura of truthfulness, this place follows the regular conventions of real-space.
Hostility: The spirits of Kandelkrypt are often there because they were chronic, dangerous liars, or seekers of truth. The spirits that call the Truthbarrows home cannot hurt the living, and can only whisper the truth in their ears. Other than this, the spirits are benevolent, perhaps as a trick to lure pilgrims into the mausoleum, driving them to lunacy. Or perhaps these beings simply seek kindred spirits, so to speak, those curious enough to put their mind and body at risk for knowledge.
