Mirror Maze

• Self-harm
  • Ritual-bloodletting or similar forms of self-harm may occur as magical components or sacrifices.

Since the fall of the Strelitsia Dynasty, the reclusive House Yonsa has been the guardian of the ruins of the Once-Great Library. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Empire, the Library they guard is not a Library, but an underground Mirror Maze that has a mind and hunger of its own.

Tethnda Yonsa has been in charge of the house and the ruin for the past two decades. There are rumours that she murdered her own husband. Her sole daughter, Ninsë Yonsa, has reached 18. Never, not even once, has she ventured out of the mansion. Now a stranger appears at their gate, who claims to be a merchant, but is in secretly seeking a way into the Library, without knowing what it is he seeks…

The style of the setting appears to be a cross between fantasy, Gothic and Byzantine. The Vignette is centred on the Yonsa Mansion: a large, beautiful, if somewhat gloomy, mansion. The mansion is surrounded by ruins, with broken monoliths and half-crumbled walls lying around. Directly beneath the mansion is the Mirror Maze, the size of which has yet to be determined.

• Tethnda: Playable.. Lady of House Yonsa. An uptight woman in her 40s who has ruled her house alone for the past 18 years, since the death of her husband. Calculating and aloft, she is seen by many as cruel. To her, all that she does, she does for the good of House Yonsa.

• Ninsë: Playable.. Tethnda's only child. 18 years old. Due to reasons unknown to her, she had never been allowed to leave the Yonsa mansion. Terrified of the prospect of having to inherit her mother's place, she always sought to escape, but was never successful.

• Mno: Playable.. A resident old magician in House Yonsa that never speaks. Some say he fed his tongue to a silver cat in exchange for knowledge. He is mostly seen in his lab or the green house, mixing potions or reading indecipherable tomes.

• Siilan: Playable.. The magician's apprentice. An urchin adopted by Mno when he was stealing herb from the green house. They are kind and gentle, grateful towards Mno and House Yonsa. Grew up with Ninsë and tries to help her when he can, even though they have conflicted feelings about going against Tethnda's orders.

• Phaeveon: Playable.. A magician disguised as a travelling merchant, strikingly young and charming. He comes to House Yonsa, seeking access to the forbidden knowledge that lies beneath the ruin.

• ——————: Playable. The Mirror Maze. More ancient than the Empire itself, no one knows who built it, if anyone. It was used by the Strelitsian Emperors as a “library”. The Empire used to feed it its brightest minds, so that their knowledge may be kept forever. This tradition has been long forgotten. The Mirror Maze hungers for company.

• 1: Ninsë attempts to escape, with the aid of Siilan's magic. They are noticed by Mno who alerted Tethnda. The escape attempt fails again.

• 2: Phaeveon comes to House Yonsa, pretending to be a travelling merchant. He witnesses Tethnda telling Ninsë and Siilan off. He is allowed to show them his wares and manages to convince Tethnda to let him stay for a few days.

• 3: Siilan and Ninsë meet in the greehouse, where they confess their love and Ninsë makes Siilan promise that they will be free.

• 4: Phaeveon is caught when he tries to enter the Mirror Maze. Mno's magic blasts him into the Maze as punishment, but Ninsë and Siilan also enters the Maze. Tethnda covers up the affair.

• 5: Phaeveon, Siilan and Ninsë are trapped in the Mirror Maze. They look for exits but find none. In despair and fear, Ninsë kills Phaeveon. Siilan and Ninsë are forever lost in the Maze, losing their faces and bodies and boundaries. The Mirror Maze is sated, for now.