Omar swings his fist into the gut of Finrod, the dwarf’s fist was a lot more solid than flesh and bone should be and it seemed to sting a little as well. Finrod backpedaled from the dwarf and as Omar’s fist receded from the elf’s abdomen, Finrod saw it covered in blood, his stomach was bleeding. Omar’s other fist swung for Finrod’s head, this time the elf ducked as saw dozens of wasp stingers stinking out of the flesh of Omar’s fist, in-between knuckles and even out of the finger joints.
Finrod slashed his blade across the thigh of Omar and watched in horror as instead of the blood he expected, a writhing mass of black red wasps erupted from the wound and launched themselves at Finrod. Screaming in terror, Finrod fled back to the entry ramp.
“We are at a disadvantage, no?” Paquito ponders
“What? You what to retreat now that we’re within reach of some great prize? Coward!” Gorfine exclaims
“You don’t know that there’s actually a prize to be gotten do you? Or that you would even want it, Omar looks to have been granted immortality, but I wouldn’t want to get it that way.” Sillaqui scolds the rogue minotaur
Another eruption of wasps sounds from ahead of them, convinced even Gorfine that retreat now was the best option until they could find a way to deal with this wasp threat. They found Finrod cowering at the bottom of the ramp.
“What’s wrong twig?” Gorfine asks
“I can’t climb the ramp, too steep and the dirt is loose, I can’t get a grip.” Finrod replies shaking in terror
“Nonsense, you’re just too afraid to retreat by yourself.” Gorfine insinuates
The drone of wasp wings drowns out further conversation as the animated form of Omar descends upon the party; Paquito shoves Sillaqui out of the way as he impales Omar with his spear. The Minotaur Lord wrenches the weapon free tearing the dwarf’s body along his right ribcage with a horrible gash. The wound unleashes a new flock of bugs that descend upon Finrod. The elf attempts to beat back the swarm with his hands but is soon overmatched as hundreds of the critters alight upon the elf.
“Retreat!” Paquito shouts as his hefts up Sillaqui and begins a slow ascent up the dirt ramp followed closely behind by Ratchet.
Gorfine instead ignores that order and stabs Finrod several times in the back, the minotaur didn’t know if that was a “thank you” or a “you bastard” look in the elf’s eyes, but Gorfine could care less. The elf would lose his fight eventually and there would be two of those things after them instead of just one.
Ratchet used his races innate ability and blinked to the top of the ramp, just inside the hallway leading to it, and found himself in a dead end corridor. Gorfine, accustomed to climbing all kinds of surfaces, easily outdistanced the encumbered Paquito and reached the top of the ramp, only to find the large stone idol which had been sitting on the floor of the room not half a minute ago blocking his path. Gorfine thought he saw the stone figure’s eyes narrow but dismissed it as a trick of the light, until it raised it’s massive arms slammed Gorfine into the ramp. The stunned minotaur stumbled back and collapsed prone. Luciann trailed behind the rest of the party, unaccustomed to treacherous climbing the elf was driven on by a wanting of not to become what Omar had become.
Paquito saw Gorfine fall, and unable to locate Ratchet, assumed he had come to the end of his life. He put Sillaqui down along side him and touching her cheek one last time mouthed the word “go”, he then charged up the ramp spear in hand mouth curled in a sneer of defiance. The idol slapped at the approaching Paquito, but could not deter the sorcerer from his goal as Paquito thrusts the spear into the eye of the idol and watched his hopes snap like dry kindling as the spear was rendered useless.
A low rumbling sound came from the idol, as if the living stone figure mocked Paquito. Paquito’s hands came together and the Minotaur Lord issued scorching rays from his hands into the center of the stone figure, nothing happened, not even a burn mark. It raised it’s arms again to strike, Paquito stood there not wanting to dodge what fate had deemed his ending would be. He wished the giants could have been here to save him, he wished Benat had come back from her training to snipe this thing from afar. The stone fists came down and struck not Paquito but an intercepting Sillaqui who crumpled to the ground and dropped her cargo, a very stunned Luciann.
“No!” Paquito shouted as he bent down to protect Sillaqui, who was still breathing and looked up at Paquito
“Couldn’t let you go without trying first.” Sillaqui whispered
Luciann sent magic missiles into the idol and watched as they bounced off harmlessly, “impossible” Luciann sighed
Gorfine watched the proceedings from his prone vantage point and decided that to live and fight another day was the best option here. He slowed his breathing and made a concerted attempt to appear for all intensive purposes as dead to anyone who might casually glance in his direction.
The idol reared back for another attack, but a shimmering glow appeared around it’s form, the idol twisted in the archway and turned back to reveal a determined Ratchet unloading a searing light spell into the back of the idol. Paquito watched as the idol seemed to shimmer and in a moment of clarity, deduced why he hadn’t seen his efforts rewarded. The Minotaur Lord rose to his feet and looked down at Luciann.
“Get up and blast that thing, now!” Paquito shouted as he opened his mouth to call forth the magic of the collar he wore around his neck, a dragon’s gout of fire engulfed the idol.
Luciann stood up and released his scorching rays into the idol as Ratchet fired another searing light spell as the idol. Sillaqui rolled over on her stomach and breathed a cone of ice chilling air at the idol. The combined might of the effects caused the illusion of perfection to shatter and the form of the idol to explode in a shower of rock and debris. The shrapnel was unable to get through Paquito’s and Sillaqui’s tough skin, Ratchet was able to duck away from most of the blast, however Luciann was struck by the head of the idol and his head was crushed as a result of the victory.
Sillaqui and Ratchet attempted to administer first aid but the elf was beyond simple repair. They lifted him off of the ramp and into the hallway where they stayed with him until he ceased breathing. While searching the debris, Paquito located a small bejeweled ring and pocketed it for safe keeping after it’s magical aura was far beyond anything Paquito could comprehend. Paquito then hefted Luciann over his shoulder as the remaining group headed back for the safety of the maze.
“What about Gorfine?” Ratchet asked
“Leave him; I have no use for those you do not wish to participate in a team sport. No?” Paquito answered
Gorfine of course crept up the ramp and into the darkness of the earth after he was sure Paquito and his buddies could no longer hear or see him.
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Luciann was reincarnated as a drow, as a reward for sacrificing himself; Paquito gave him the ring found in the idol rubble. The ring gave Luciann immense intelligence and wisdom at the expense of his health as it brought his Constitution to 2 and transformed his head into the head of an ibis. Thus ended Luciann’s days of adventure as he retired from active participation and designed aquifer and many magical items for the minotaur tribe.
Ratchet stayed with the tribe for a few more months before deciding to try his luck striking out to make his on fortune, to this day he is still annoying subterranean evils with his own band of gnomish hunters.
Finrod and Omar’s bodies were never recovered.
Korg returned to the maze two years after he left to construct and lead a shrine to Umtala, he now counts about half of the minotaurs and a few members of other races as members and his church seems to be flourishing.
Gronar never returned and Korg does not speak of him, although a few have heard snippets of a prayer Korg gives once a month that mentions Gronar, but nothing more than that.
Benat finished her training, but never visited the maze; she spoke with Korg a few times when the giant had need to visit the elven town. Soon, she too struck out on her own.
Lothred is currently seeking ways to extend his life from centuries to eternity
Sillaqui resides in the maze and spends her days singing to the children and retelling the deeds of the “reluctant minotaur and the giants.”
Paquito hasn’t been seen in days, having disappeared from his own room one night. He finally had turned the small key his mentor gave over in his hand one too many times and decided to try it on his own door. After hearing a click, Paquito opened his door to find he was no longer in the maze or even on the material plane. Even closing and reopening the door did not work. Currently he is advertising for a way back to his material plane; however, no one in Arborea seems to really care.