Solo Doomslayer Labyrinth-Crawl

[Old Rusty Pipe]

So I'm finally in a position to run an idea I had years ago on this very forum. From the 1001 Story Ideas from Wraith:

"For centuries the Pardoners have sought the secret to convert Angst into Pathos. Their obsession with this goal has led to the creation of the Angst Battery. At last the Oracles' foresight has revealed the place where a solution may be found: near the Well of the Void in a forgotten temple where the Neverborn sleep. The place is so tainted by Oblivion that any Wraith would succumb to Specterhood long before returning. The only hope is to leave your shadow behind. With the power of Shadow Summons the Master Pardoner has cleaved your shadow from your psyche. What was an accident to the great Charon was a hard choice for you. Now your existence is measured in hours before you fade forever from the Shadowlands. Good luck Doomslayer, you're going to need it..."

I have one player lined up over the next two weeks, and I'm basically thinking of running this as equivalent to 5 Minute Dungeon. When a Wraith is separated from their Shadow via Shadow Summons, every hour they must roll all Passions at difficulty 6. If they fail all Passion rolls, they fade forever from existence. So I'm planning on treating one hour as exactly one hour of play time, paused for breaks.

Take out the Angst, the Shadow, and the importance of Fetters. Can I get some help designing a ridiculously dangerous Labyrinth mission for a one shot Wraith game? I'm trying to come up with something thematically appropriate to the setting and capture the nature of Wraith, but the clock is ticking and survival is definitely not guaranteed. The player has agreed to the Passion rolls. The story can end on a bad roll at the start of the adventure.

Any ideas to capture this idea?

[Shakanaka]

There is a specific portion of the Masquers Guild called the "Helldivers". They specifically specialize in infiltrating the Labyrinth in the effect of pretending to be a Spectre to get far. I believe a session like this will be akin to Metal Gear Solid where you have to sneak your way past the entire game or take up small bouts where you have to fight alot of things at once.

If you want hard danger, make encounters where your player will have to speak with other Spectres and try to move "he's one of them" very often. In the intermissions where has some respite, emphasize how the Labyrinth at any moment shifts and lures to different positions or areas in an instant. One second he's walking down a regular shaft, then within a blink he's in a ward in the Labyrinth that's an entire interior of some abattoir-like hospital; which would be owned by a Nephwrack concerned with torture or psychological madness. In some areas in the Labyrinth, he can be could literally walk into a pit at around that puts him into a plasm pool full of Plasmic nasties. Make him feel that the Labyrinth is somehow aware and KNOWS he doesn't belong, but make the bursts where it lashes up build up.

As he gets deeper in the Labyrinth, put more Amphistikoli in his way; the cities where Spectres congregate. In many instances in such sites he could be destroyed instantly, even without failing a Passion roll. As he gets MORE closer, now the grand-temples dedicated to Oblivion grow more in number and stronger. The Spectres less savage, and more of calculating wrought-spreaders of Oblivion. They'll be more harder to deceive as deception is their succor and how they've existed for so long. Make it so that eventually they'd figure out what your PC is up to, because the possibility of Angst being turned into Pathos for Wraith society would be a big no-no for them. The whole of the Labyrinth would be "awake" and after him at that point; where its unlikely he will survive.

The possibilities with the Labyrinth is endless.

[Black Fox]

Can I get some help designing a ridiculously dangerous Labyrinth mission for a one shot Wraith game? I'm trying to come up with something thematically appropriate to the setting and capture the nature of Wraith, but the clock is ticking and survival is definitely not guaranteed.

It sounds like you basically want to run the Wraith PC through a gauntlet until they reach the Well of the Void at which point you run your climactic encounter. So you want a scenario where the PC starts somewhere relatively safe and sane and it progressively gets worse. I'd look for inspiration where a single character gets put through the wringer like that.

You want a mix of environmental obstacles (that are more like roleplaying encounters than a simple roll dice to resolve - Sea of Shadows has things called Tempest Zones that would be good examples), foes to fight, opportunities for stealth/combat avoidance, and perhaps some encounters with non-spectres of people trapped there who could be temporary allies, hindrances, or objects of pity/horror. I also recommend having a powerful enough bad guy that can survive one encounter with the PC that could potentially show up multiple times during the PC's travel - which he could "defeat" each time in multiple ways. Recurring antagonists can help build tension along the way.

Use a mix of spectres, plasmic entities, and wraiths trapped/lost/stuck in the Labyrinth as the encounters to mix things up.

I'd look at Apocalypse Now as an example - Martin Sheen as Captain Willard goes through physical danger and psychological descent as he gets closer to Colonel Kurtz. I'd also use the movie Die Hard as John McLane is by himself being hunted by the bad guys. Frodo and Sam's infiltration of Shelob's Lair and Mordor to throw the ring into Mt Doom is also apt. The 2005 movie Descent also fits the bill. The main character deteriorates throughout each of these movies. I think you can find various inspirations that will work for you, and it won't take much time to watch the movies.

[Old Rusty Pipe]

Great films to watch to grasp what I'm going for. I'm thinking Helldiver with the crushing paranoia of a stealth horror campaign. I'm coming up with a rough draft of random encounters through the Labryinth. I enjoyed the expression of how bad this would be for Spectres. Once the Hive Mind catches whats happening, all bets are off. This wouldn't change the outcome of the war, but it would still be a major loss for the Neverborn.