Vault of the Revenant

This is the dungeon crawl that the party takes in order to find James Haller.

The entire quest is an elaborate psychic illusion, as the party are all strapped into the Dream Chamber and are slowly having their soul, magic, and physical energies “eaten” by the Vu-Yunu. None the less, this portion of the story progresses exactly like a standard adventure dungeon dive, which will be described in detail here.

The true plot advances in parallel as the party delves deeper into the Vault of the Revenant: Vokovi is the young and usually talented primary dream weaver for this feeding, and Nusivi is his guard (she serves the role of companion-guardian - making sure the Vokovi doesn't forget his upbringing - though she ultimately fails at the later task.) As he notices unexpected responses from the party to encounters, he suspects that there may be things he was never told about the nature of their meal. So, he modifies the design of the Vault-play to test to see if they have the souls of white beings, as he does. By these tests, he gradually learns by observing the player's reactions that they are, in fact, sentient and holy creatures - not just feed-animals.

In fact, the party demonstrate moral courage the surpasses even the best of the Vu-Yunu. At the end of this morbid theatre, as it becomes apparent that the humans may be rescued by the Vu-Koko, Vokovi performs one last test before deciding to kill them, or let them wake…

The VuKoko have been cast as lower-lifeform enemies to the party consistently during the adventure so far (harassing attacks, upon crossing the island - then during explication in the City of Light, and finally the raid before they departed for the vault). This degradation continues during the trials. For example, imagine a test/room based on the Parable of the Good Samaritan but the man beset by robbers is replaced with a Vukoko citizen, Vokovi is the Priest, Nusuvi is the Levite, and the players can be the Samaritan:

  Jesus answered, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
  By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
  In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side.
  But a certain Samaritan, as he traveled, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion, came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
  He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host,and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.'
  Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?"

  He said, "He who showed mercy on him."

  Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do."

Here's some source material about “The Cardinal Virtues” and “The Contrary Virtues” to be used to build out the vault.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_virtues

• Prudence - able to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time
• Justice - proper moderation between self-interest and the rights and needs of others
• Restraint or Temperance - practicing self-control, abstention, and moderation
• Courage or Fortitude - forbearance, endurance, and ability to confront fear and uncertainty, or intimidation

The Cardinal virtues as depicted on the tomb of Pope Clement II in Bamberg Cathedral

Iustitia (justice)	Fortitudo (fortitude)	Sapientia (prudence)	Temperantia (temperance)

On the tomb of Sir John Hotham, in St Mary's Church, South Dalton the four figures are:

• Justice - holding a sword.
• Temperance - mixing wine and water in two jugs.
• Fortitude - with a broken column.
• Truth - holding a mirror and being attacked by a serpent.

From http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_sevenvirtues.htm

In addition to the four “cardinal virtues” of prudence, fortitude, justice and temperance some Christian theologians promoted the idea of three “theological” virtues, faith hope and love. Together, they make up the sevel cardinal or heavenly virtues.

The first four can be traced back to Greek philosophers and Christian theologians readily adopted them, arguing that they were applicable to all humans, Christian or otherwise. The final three developed out of Christian theological work, but in particular from the writings of Paul in the New Testament. They were not applied to all humans because theologians thought that they were not naturally a part of human character due to the Fall into sin. Instead, they came directly from God after one is baptized.

There are also seven “contrary” virtues: humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, generosity, and diligence. They are called “contrary” because each one stands in direct opposition to one of the seven deadly sins. It is believed that a conscious attempt to cultivate these virtues will help a person avoid their contrary sins: humility is opposed to pride, kindness is opposed to envy, abstinence is opposed to gluttony, chastity is opposed to lust, patience is opposed to anger, generosity is opposed to greed, and diligence is opposed to sloth