Sisters of Chyon and the Tenth Labyrinth

In the southern hemisphere, in the continent of Ueris, lay the ruins of one of the true wonders of Benu--the Tenth Labyrinth.

Legend says that a great technomancer called Chyon of Dhrom had taken residence among the canyonlands to while away the millennia, developing incredible technologies the likes of which Benu had not seen. His powers of intellect and ambition did not go unnoticed and before long nearby kingdoms sent spies, hoping to procure his secrets by any means necessary.

Maze of Madness

To ward off, confuse, and confound his enemies, Chyon used his techno magicks to carve a great maze into the canyons that looked natural to the untrained eye. He added many deadly pitfalls, traps, and puzzles as well as various "guardians" to deter robbers from stealing the magnificent secrets kept safe within his vaults.

Countless intrepid adventurers paid the ultimate price for their curiosity or their bounties. But some did escape with partial maps of his labyrinth. Eventually Chyon came to realize that the sheer number of attempts would catch up with him. So he finally created a final maze--the tenth.

 

Instead of a completely separate labyrinth though, he connected all the mazes into a giant, moving, multi-level mega puzzle. Each of the previous nine were now interconnected. No single map could ever be produced with enough accuracy to be useful in future expeditions.

The Ultimate Guardians

Having achieved such great accomplishments on Benu, Chyon understood that living in this dimension became like a straight jacket to his now otherworldly abilities. Knowing he soon must depart for a higher plane, he left behind two master guardians to watch over his labyrinth.

Chyon knew he could not himself stay on Benu to personally judge the intentions of those who entered the maze, so he forged two great female sphinx to test would-be invaders and robbers.

He imbued the sphinxes with consciousness. Sephia would be assess would-be assailants through pointed interrogation using logic and reason. Qureo, possessed the ability to empathically evaluate the sincerity and intentions of the entrant. Both are quite cruel and pityless.

They remain the most formidable guardians of the labyrinth--stationed just before the great vault--at the heart of the puzzle. Anyone lucky enough to make it that far, would be tested. Only honorable individuals of noble purpose would be permitted entrance. And they would be re-tested upon exit, for it was under the weight of bearing witness to the astounding artifacts inside the vault, that avarice-riddled entrants would buckle.

Sphinx Powers and Abilities  

The sisters are just under 100 feet tall, and have the ability to stare into the very soul of their targets. Through a massive psionic attack they can render victims powerless, petrified with fear, or vaporized. They are made of an unknown material which is nye indestructible.

Psionic Roar

Victims must roll Save vs. Stunned or Paralysis. Characters with Dexterity or Agility scores lower than 8-9 suffer a -1 penalty, 6-7 suffer -2, and 5 or lower -3. Paralyzing effect lasts for 1d6 rounds. The sisters will then conduct the Test of Courage on their targets. Should their prey fail, the Sisters will employ optic blasts to dispose of targets.

Test of Courage

The sisters will forge an illusion in the mind of their targets in which they must face their deepest fears. Victims must roll Save vs. Fear using the same modifiers found in the Psionic Roar above. Failure indicates they are now also paralyzed (roll 1d6 to determine duration). Those who lose their save also lose commensurate Charisma/Presence attribute scores (-1, -2, -3, per above). Victims who's Charisma/Presense falls below 4 will be driven mad for the remainder of the session.

Disintegrating Optic Blasts

These deadly beams render the final judgement on those poor, unfortunate souls at their feet. They gain a +1, +2, or +3 to hit (the exact oppisite of the ranges found in Psionic Roar). Damage is extreme: 2d8+1 for each eye (fire as two, simultaneous shots per sphinx).

Rumors:

• Chyon is thought to be the first of the Ancient Kings to disappear from Benu.
• The souls of Chyon's own sisters are thought to reside (or be trapped) within the giant statues.
• Anyone pure of heart who can pass both into and out from the inmost vault, shall be free to leave without harm, provided they leave without taking any artifacts.
• A hologram of Chyon (which appears real) will apparate before the great sphinx sisters to intimidate his victims before the test begins.
• Chyon may be the inventor of some of Benu's more well-known artifacts.

Song of the Kings

The Bando speak of the "Song of Kings" which is not a song that can be heard with ears, but with the mind. It's a channel of psionic energy that ripples through the planet and acts as a carrier wave for thoughts, memories, impressions left in the collective unconscious of time.

The Ancient Kings were the first to employ this power, and subsequently taught it to their followers. When they took their empire to new worlds, they were able to "awaken" the song by geophysical manipulation of a planet's core and tuning it to the local solar winds. These worlds then lit up like auroras with immeasurable psionic energies, creating a intergalactic grid between them that could then be tapped, mapped, and traveled.

Ruined temples throughout Benu are thought to rest over areas the song can be best "heard" or utilized. These places act as amplifiers where the song can be made corporeal, (i.e., produce sounds, sights, even scents) and help bring forth bits of the spacetime stream (past, present, and future) into being.

Gifted psions can "sing" and telepathically commune with living as well as the long lost. Relics from ancient times could be permanently imbued with the song, but that technology has long been forgotten.

The Ancient Kings of Benu

The Ancient Kings of Benu are oldest know sentience in the galaxy. At a time when the stars were barely a wink, they were the first to divine the secrets of spacetime travel, immortality, and the true nature of the universe.
They would go on to build a body of knowledge that would make them "gods". The 12 original Kings came from the root tribes and included nomads, tradesmen, alchemists, fishermen, farmers, teachers, a soldier, and even a performer.

Long after they'd made Benu a paradise, they expanded their empire over the millennia, planting tribal colonies and leaving their mark on each world--each rendered more splendid than the one before it. They've long passed into myth, but relics of their ancient ways and wondrous technologies remain.

Benu is in twilight now, and the Kings may no longer be seen, but their presence is felt and it's said that the wind still carries their songs, even as it beats down their temples on a million tiny blue worlds.