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 Crystal Caves

No light is needed within these underground passages. The brilliance of an inner light reflects throughout a massive geode. Rainbow patterns of color dance along the ceiling highlighting millions of crystals of various shapes and sizes. This is the Crystal Cave of Khespotan, a holy site and location of pilgrimage for underground and surface dwellers alike.

Who Is Worshipped at the Caves?

The Caves are devoted to an earth-centered entity. In Midgard, the god-dragon Khespotan sleeps below the earth, collecting souls and inscribing the fate of mortals on crystals. When explorers first found the Caves, they thought that they had found the vault where Khespotan kept the fates of all mortals. In our world, the Caves could be a ruined temple to Gaia sunken deep into the earth, or a shrine to Nabu wedged into a humbling crevice.

In worlds throughout the Labyrinth, the Caves are a holy site of Cartokk. Some pilgrims of the Labyrinth see this cave as the place where the dreaming god sleeps. Some say that his dreams are kept safe here in crystalline form. The Caves look different in each world of the Labyrinth. Massive resonant coral grottos could create natural music in aquatic worlds. In frozen or mountainous worlds, the caves could be an immense ice construct, offering knowledge and respite from the harsh climate. In demonic worlds, the Caves could be a collection of tortured souls who prophesize to worthy mortals.

The Appearance of the Caves

The Caves of Khespotan are unworked and unadorned. No one has dared to disrupt the natural light of the crystals, nor attempt to create permanent altars, daises, or instruments to worship the Earth Dragon. Priests and attendants are always found here, generally quiet and unassuming, but fierce when making sure the crystals aren’t touched or bothered in any way. Violence within the Caves is strictly forbidden.

Available Services

Traditional temples ask for or require a monetary donation for their services. The Cave priests 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
Inscription	PCs perform a downtime activity to scribe a scroll as if the scribed spell were one level lower. Cantrips can be scribed for 5 gp in cost.	The priesthood insists that the PC forage further, locally, underground for the correct fungus and minerals for inscription.
Intertwined Fates	Any number of creatures can become married with a religious service downtime activity.	The involved creatures spend an additional week in contemplative silence.
Knowing Your Fate	The PC gains 3 Luck.	PCs must spend a day in quiet contemplation in the Caves.
Lessons From Destiny	PCs perform the researching downtime activity in half the time. The Caves count as a well-stocked library.	The PC must bring the blood of Khespotan to the priests.
Linguistics	The PC can take the training downtime activity to learn Deep Speech, Primordial, or Undercommon in half the time.	The cost of training can be brought to the priests in the form of supplies they need to survive underground, such as rope or fresh produce.
Relic	The PC obtains a single stone of good luck from the priesthood.	The PCs defeat a bullete that has been threatening the Cave.

Controlling the Caves

The Caves can be attuned to, like certain magic items, granting the attuner certain liberties in controlling the House’s lair actions. Situations or powerful items (listed only by name in this article) reduce the time to attune to the Caves to 1 action, allowing the power of the Crystal Caves of Khespotan to change hands in the middle of battle!

To attune to the Caves, a creature must do one of the following:

Slumber of The Earth Dragon. A creature must sleep in the Caves for four hours under the effects of a special concoction that puts it to sleep. While asleep, the creature sees visions of the future and must succeed on a DC 15 WIS save. On a failure, the creature takes 18 (4d8) psychic damage, or half as much damage on a success. The creature may attempt the saving throw multiple times, until it succeeds or it chooses to stop attempting. At the end of four hours asleep and a successful save, a creature attunes to the Caves.

Submit To Fate. Multiple people vying for control of the Caves may do so. Each participant must find a crystal in the Cave that holds their fate. As an action, creatures can find such a crystal with a DC 15 WIS (Insight) check. Once they find a suitable crystal, the creature makes a WIS save as described in Slumber Of The Earth Dragon. A creature can choose to make the save with disadvantage. If they choose to do so, another participant of their choice also makes the WIS save with disadvantage. Non-participants trying to influence the result via divinatory class features, spells, or effects take 2d8 psychic damage.  

Valued Artifacts. Anyone in possession of the blood of Khespotan has advantage on CON saves and advantage on initiative checks while in the Caves. Anyone wielding the eternal scroll of fate has resistance to psychic damage while in the Caves.

Once attuned, the Caves allow the attuned creature to use the following lair actions.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), anyone in command of the Caves takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the creature can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:

• Prescience. The attuned creature can see the immediate future. All allies are under the effects of the bless spell until the end of their next turn.

• Shattered Fate. One crystals erupts. Any creature within 10 feet of it must make a successful DC 15 DEX save or be blinded until the end of its next turn.

• Weaver of Fates. Until the beginning of the next turn, a creature attuned to the Caves can force two different creatures to reroll one attack roll, saving throw, or ability check (no action required).

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