The Labyrinth is a diverse and wonderful place. Why settle for stock stone temples and vaulting churches when your holy sites can be as varied as the planes themselves?
This series explores several places of power considered holy, for GMs to provide meaningful backdrops to their adventure concepts. Players may find this article useful to establish personal goals for their characters or to flesh out their backstory by connecting themselves to these sites.
The Unchained Barque
The open ocean is home to all sorts of people who crave freedom. Many of those people were oppressed under the lash and sought the thrill and hardship that come with the choices of free will. The ship they sail on might not be the most pristine, fastest, heavily armed, or even attractive, but it is home.
To those folks, the Unchained Barque is not just an immense ship, it is a temple to the sea, the sky, and liberty itself. Many people who join the crew of the Unchained Barque stay for sailing experience, some to worship the gods of the seas, and some to further their own goals. Everyone is welcome on the decks, as long as they follow some basic rules.
Who Is Worshipped on the Barque?
Within the worlds of the Labyrinth, the Barque is marginally devoted to Herak-Mavros. The priest-captains that have piloted the ship claim that their devotion is two-fold: that their devotion to the Stormlord keeps the ship safe in its voyages along labyrinthine rivers and the Astral Sea, and that their ever-waging war on oppression is blessed by the god of battle.
In Midgard, the great white galleon recently operated outside of occupied Krakova, assailing vampiric fleets in the oppressed frozen waters around the City of Mermaids. Priesthoods of Charun and Sif share tenuous control of the Unchained Barque through a third-party captain. The alliance has worked for many generations, so long as neither faith is seen as getting preferential treatment.
The Appearance of the Barque
The Barque can take many forms in different worlds. In purely desert worlds, it’s an immense caravan, traveling from oasis to oasis battling slavers. On massive jungle worlds, the Barque is built on the back and sides of an immense canopy-swinging monkey that delivers the captain and crew to the various free tree-city ports. Still yet, in steampunk-style settings, it can be a brass-covered, gear-laden zeppelin crewed by unstable eccentrics.
In the Labyrinth, it looks like a massive river barge, cruising the twisting rivers of the Styx and other major rivers, even flying across the Astral Sea. Its timbers and decking glimmer from white wood, fitted together in a hodgepodge but sturdy way. The ship is of patchwork construction, following different shipbuilding aesthetics and different materials. Observers have noted, however, that in spite of its mismatched nature, the Barque inspires harmony and pride.
Regardless of form, the ship serves its core function: to provide safety to people fleeing oppression, to allow people to live life on their own terms, and to provide a mobile platform for combatants wishing to wage war on oppressors. Unlike other pirate ships, the Unchained Barque is unconcerned with monetary gain and wealth. The nature of the temple-ship allows it to transport crew vast distances along ley lines, the Astral Sea, or whichever magical routes the ship can harness.
Available Services
Traditional temples ask for or require a monetary donation for their services. For most things, the Barque’s captain and crew ask for certain services instead of coin. Downtime activities are explored more fully in the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide.
| Service | Effect | Cost |
| Enchanted mooring | The crew offers the PCs a rope of climbing. | 150 gp |
| Expeditious travel | A vehicle can travel 75% faster to a location. | Each PC must work as crew for a week, succeeding at an appropriate at DC 14 ability check that helps the crew. On a failure, the PC suffers one level of exhaustion. |
| Freedom | The priesthood will cast banishment on a PC to remove a possessing creature or remove curse if cursed by an item. | No additional cost. Releasing people from oppressive forces is core to the priesthood’s beliefs. |
| Haven of liberty | The PC gains 3 Luck. | The PC carouses with the crew, succeeding on a DC 14 CON save. Failure means the PC gains 1 Luck and one level of exhaustion. |
| Seafaring | The crew of the Barque trains the PC in Water Vehicles as the training downtime activity in half the normal amount of time. | The PC must undertake a mission to free a specific captive the crew of the Barque knows about. |
| Taste of the sea | Crafting healing potions as a down time activity costs half the normal amount of time and gold. | The waters used to create the potion leave it with an extremely salty taste. |
Controlling the Unchained Barque
The Barque can be attuned to, like certain magic items, granting the attuner certain liberties in controlling its lair actions. Situations or powerful items (listed only by name in this article—they are free to be invented by GMs) reduce the time to attune to the Barque to 1 action, allowing the power of the Unchained Barque to change hands in the middle of battle!
To attune to the Barque, a creature must do one of the following:
Take the Helm. Visions of a creature’s previous actions manifest as rough seas and storms around the Unchained Barque. The creature must take the helm and make a DC 14 WIS (Water Vehicles) check each round they attempt to gain control of the temple-ship. On a failure, lightning strikes the ship, dealing 3d6 thunder damage to the creature making the check and 2d6 lightning damage to each other creature on the deck. A creature must succeed a total number of times equal to its WIS modifier plus its PB (minimum 1) to attune to the Unchained.
Vie for Control. If two or more creatures struggle for control of the ship, the seas around the Unchained amplify each creature’s fear and guilt as storms wrack the ship. Each creature proceeds as if they were each using Take the Helm, but no creatures competing can be successful while attempting to exert their will over another creature. Each creature takes the appropriate thunder and lightning damage from Take the Helm, but only once a round. Attunement is granted to the first creature who voluntarily relinquishes control or voluntarily leaves the contest in Vie for Control.
Powerful Relics. Possession of the broken shackles allows a creature to know the conditions for attuning to the Unchained Barque successfully after at least one round participating in Vie for Control. Possession of the compass-heart pendant grants advantage on WIS (Water Vehicles) checks.
Once attuned, the Barque allows the attuned creature to use the following lair actions.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), anyone in command of the Barque takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the creature can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- Destination Unknown. The ship magically lurches several hundred miles away from its current location. Three enemy creatures (GM’s choice) must make a DC 14 CON save or become incapacitated with sickness for 1d6 rounds.
- Liberty! Two target creatures are immune to the grappled and restrained conditions until the end of their next turn.
- Upheaval. The deck of the Unchained Barque lurches. Each enemy must succeed on a DC 14 DEX save or fall prone.