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 Last Respite

In the Labyrinth, the Last Respite keeps a low profile, enticing hunters and vacationers to get away and explore the natural world. Most “guests” of the lodge are wealthy, dim, eccentric, and aloof, who have so much money that they need to get away to nature for a vacation. The taxidermied heads of large prey loom down at visitors who encounter many locked doors.

The hunter-priests of Nakresh revel in this folly. They turn the Respite into a truly horrifying experience that few escape from with their sanity intact. In Midgard, the Respite lies in the mountains southeast of Bad Solitz, where the cultists devoted to Chernobog can prey on the rich, foolish nobles that run the city.

The temple’s currency is fear, devoted to the hunt and humbling of the haughty. The priests provide each for the guests and invited hunters to hospitality, comfort, and filling meals, luring the prey into a false sense of security until dinner. Tales of the hunt, combined with simple, but effective magic, flicker lights, amplify sound, and begin to haunt the guests. Meanwhile, priests and invited hunters alike gather to compete against each other for the most prized prey. The grounds of the Respite are filled with rat holes, labyrinthine halls, and terrifying images. The priests know how to harness the secrets of the Respite, allowing them to terrify subjects remotely, rearrange the rooms and halls to instill confusion and panic, and trip and slow fleeing prey.

Who Is Worshipped in the Respite?

Cruel hunter gods are revered at the Respite. In Midgard, it could be consecrated to V’ashra the Tormentor or the dark god known as the Hunter.

The Appearance of the Respite

The Last Respite is a three-story hunting lodge. Usually located in remote mountain passes, thick primeval forests, or at the base of dark crags, the lodge serves as a gathering place of hunters. The hunters, though, aren’t after large game, they crave the hunt that only can be fulfilled with more “intelligent” prey.

In other worlds, the Last Respite could be a large tavern, where guests never leave. it could be the wicker home of wicked hags, where some find sweets and danger. In desert worlds, the Respite could be a series of tents at an oasis, releasing prisoners into the desert for sport. In maritime worlds, remote deserted islands could be filled with cannibals and crazed jungle guides.

Available Services

Traditional temples ask for or require a monetary donation for their services. The Last Respite patrons ask for certain nefarious services instead of coin. Downtime activities are explored more fully in the Tales of the Valiant Player’s Guide.

Service	Effect	Cost
Alchemical services	Craft an item downtime activities creating poisons take half the amount of required time and gp in materials.	The PC must use the Help action on priesthood members conducting The Hunt Begins.
Assassinate	The priesthood attempts to kill a target of the PC’s choice.	The PCs must convince a noble to take a vacation at the Last Respite.
Hunting Lessons	The PC can take the training downtime activity to gain proficiency with the Survival skill in half the time.	The PC must convince the priesthood they are not wealthy, do not posses the Noble background, and do not associate with anyone with the Noble background.
Labyrinthine Library	The PC may use the research downtime activity with a +3 bonus.	The priesthood does not take your donation, but each day you must find the library in the maze of rooms with a successful DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check. Each failed check increases the amount of time you spend at the Respite by an additional day.
Powerful Items	The PC gains an arrow of slaying (humanoid) or dagger of venom.	The PCs must survive a night at the Last Respite and not flee the grounds.
Tales by the Fire	PCs who are proficient with Survival gain 3 Luck.	The PCs must spend a day with the last person that attuned to the Last Respite.

Controlling the Last Respite

The Last Respite 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 Respite to 1 action, allowing the power of the Respite to change hands in the middle of battle!

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

The Hunt Begins. A creature must be hospitable to waiting guests, passing an opposed CHA (Deception) check. Later that evening, they must tell terrifying tales to the guests at dinner, passing a DC 15 CHA (Intimidation or Performance) check. Finally, in the thin hours of the morning, the creature must hunt the terrified guests, through a successful DC 16 WIS (Perception), WIS (Survival), or INT (Investigation) check. Killing the chosen prey with a melee or ranged attack while the prey is frightened immediately attunes the creature to the Respite. The Hunt Begins takes an uninterrupted 6 hours to complete.

The Better Hunter Wins. Each hunter competes with other hunters after midnight. If all of the other hunters are incapacitated or frightened, the last hunter who is not incapacitated or frightened automatically attunes to the Last Respite.

Potent Relics. The crooked mask of the mandril allows the wielder to use the thaumaturgy and minor illusion spells. The shadow lantern gives advantage on WIS (Survival) checks to track prey. Possession of both of these items allows the creature a one-time use of one lair action listed below as a bonus action.

Once attuned, the Last Respite allows the attuned creature to use the following lair actions.

Lair Actions

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

• Maze of Hallways. The rooms, halls, and doors of the Respite change their configuration. Doors open to new rooms, brick walls, or hallways where they hadn’t before. Each enemy near a door makes a DC 16 WIS save or becomes subject to the confusion spell until the end of their next turn.

• The Walls Close In. Each enemy makes a DC 16 WIS save. On a failure, any enemy that moves more than 10 feet becomes prone. If, instead, the target doesn’t move, it becomes frightened of any wall until the end of its next turn.

• They’re All Locked! Each door in the Respite slams shut and locks. One enemy creatures make a DC 16 WIS save or becomes paralyzed until the end of its next turn.

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