Paquito's torment
I awoke beaten and bloodied but breathing, taking account of my senses I realize that I am blindfolded, gagged, and my wrists and ankles have been restrained. All is quiet except for the labored breathing of someone laying on the floor behind me. I smell the iron of my own blood and not much else. I feel as though I'm laying on stone as opposed to some other material like dirt. My head aches, but that is to be expected, my right shoulder also aches, though I have no idea from what injury it occurred from.
Straining against my bonds, I find them to give no quarter. I run my fingers over the material and it feels like thick leather. A feeling of despair rains down upon me like an unforgiving hammer striking an anvil. My blood senses an evil old and powerful, like a famished vampire it longs to drink of the power. The sensation nauseates me and I fight the urge to retch, as doing so would surely suffocate me.
A stray thought enters my head, and I realize that I have no concept of the passage of time. I could've been unconscious for days and not have known it. I wonder what has become of my traveling companions. I wonder if they're even alive to come looking for me, not that I would even be able to help them in that regards. I wonder what fate holds for me, am I to be viciously beaten in formal combat? Am I to be dismantled for spell components? Will I be brainwashed into turning against my friends and bringing about a reign of fire upon them all!? Ahem, got a little carried away there.
Time passes slowly as I count away the seconds in my head, I shift a little on my left side and I head metal scraping against stone. Methodically repeating the same movement I ascertain that my collar is still around my neck. Rolling onto my stomach, and back again, I believe that the dragon amulet has been removed from my neck however. My fingers are numb from the circulation depriving restraints around my wrists. Surely it will only be a matter of time before they fall off dead, then what good would I be as a sorcerer?
The sound of a heavy lock being moved echoes through the room, the lock grates across stone, then the lock is raised and a door is opened. I hear the wooden frame of the door as it traces a beaten path across the floor, only to become lodged as the floor must be raised a little at the end of the door's journey. The sounds of heavy hoofs, followed by several lighter ones signaling the arrival of my captors, cascade through my ears. I wince in anticipation of what is to come next.
*snort* "Awake are you? I don't know what clan you are from, but they must be sickly indeed." a low reverberating voices echoes through the chamber
Cold claw-like fingers rake into my forehead around the blindfold, they tear away skin and I feel the warm trickle of blood as it runs down my face. I instinctively try to turn away from the pain, and my blindfold gets ripped from my head. Before my stands the largest minotaur I've ever seen, his face covered in a red leather cowl that conceals all but his eyes. Hesitating with my eyes a moment longer I realize that it's not the leather that's red, but the caked on dried blood that gives the cowl a crimson appearance.
"Open your eyes cur!" The minotaur commands. I sense the evil in his voice, my blood longs to reach out and connect with the force that drives this being.
I clamp my eyes shut and force my soul to rail against these feelings, I try to block out his face, but even in the darkness behind my eyes I see his visage. The large fist of the minotaur slams into the back of my head, a shower of scintillating lights falls behind my eyes, yet I staunchly refuse to obey his commands.
"Prepare him." the bullord says as he exits the room to his left, followed by four bulls, two minotaurs, and two bugbears. Lastly the albino mage walks up and makes an arcane symbol with her hands, the symbol wavers in the air like a mirage. She then approaches me, taking paint from out of a pouch on her belt, she begins to draw arcane and infernal symbols upon my immobile body.
"Wha." I utter
"Shh, silence. If Taurranous hears you, he will kill you before I can help. You should have followed my directions, you were lucky to escape the wheep." the maze mage's whispers in your ear. "Taurranous means to serve both of you to his debased god." The mage continues while she applies the same symbols to the body next to me.
I get a good look at the body, it's definitely an elf. Although I can not tell for certain whether it is Nameroc or even male for that matter. Both of it's wrists have been horribly crushed, as have it's ankles. Huge welts of blue and black cover most of it's back, soft whimpers escape what must be a swollen and bleeding mouth. Even with no knowledge in the healing arts, I can tell the decrepit being labors to breath. The viciousness of the attack shivers my spine, yet warms my blood.
"The ogre's men were here earlier, they copied your friend here, and plan on infiltrating your own army to better deal with the giants. Your friends won't make it back here alive to rescue you, it's up to you to rescue yourself." The mage finishes covering the body next to me in runes.
"Taurranous has a tunnel that opens under the drinking hall of the elves, the ogre will create a diversion to empty most of the village. Taurranous will then pour into the village unseen and unhindered, there will be many deaths." She continues
"I have hidden your spell components behind you, it is my job to draw the blood from you. I will cut your bonds and you will have mere seconds to chose your fate. You will see what I mean when your bonds drop."
"The only way all of us live, is for you to kill Taurranous. Any other solution will result in the death of many. This ends soon, one way or the other." The mage then leaves the room via the same entrance the bullord arrived in.
I wonder why she bothered to leave me unblinfolded, I couldn't possibly be anywhere close enough power wise to defeat Taurranous, maybe this is their idea of a sick twisted game. Searching my head I find that all of my spells have returned, I must have been unconscious for at least half a day, probably more.
I strain my neck to get a look at what I'm lying on, it appears to be a huge stone hand. I look over at the elf and see it too rest upon a stone hand. Dark stains which I assume to be blood cover the floor beneath the hand the elf rests on. Following the muscled stone arm up to it's shoulder, I see a huge wing thrown in an open pose as if the stone figure it's attached to could take flight at any moment. My eyes then take in the face of the stone being, evil and corruption fill my senses and the face of a human with small horns upon his head looks down at me with a fang filled mouth. The cockiness in my blood retracts and reels at the weight of the stare the figure gives me.
My mind floods with a vision of the devilish minotaur from my tormented dreams. A flesh and blood representative of the stone figure appears behind the minotaur, it strikes down the minotaur and laughs as Taurranous and his minions dance around the stone figure I lay upon. The eyes of the stone figure blink and turn a reddish-orange, like lava the colors twist and swirl, if I could move I would run and never stop. Fear fills ever corner of my heart, I pray for cowardice, there is no difference between dying a hero or dying a coward if no one is left to say which you are.
A thumping sound drains away my hearing, like the beating of a heart, it drives my blood through my veins in a wicked game of chicken. The thumping increases it's beat, my heart races to keep pace. My blood strains against the bonds around my wrists and ankles, I feel the pain of a thousand pin pricks as capillaries burst from the pressure. My extremities go numb, I can no longer see as the blood pressure forces my liquid life to spill upon the surface of my eyes.
My eardrums burst from within, yet I still hear the thumping. I beats for me like a life clock, pounding away the rest of my life. I can stand the pain no longer, I force my jaws open, I part my lips, I shout for this assault to cease. No sound issues forth from my mouth, for my tongue has turned against me. Like a vile snake it seeks out the back of my throat and chokes off the very air that keeps me from falling from my perilous edge of sanity. I fight to free me beleaguered hands, I need to breathe, I need to claw my tongue out of my mouth, I must be free.
I cannot tell if my hands ever reached my mouth, even though my eyes were shut, I see a deeper darkness well up around me. It drowns me within it's boundaries, yet the thumping goes on. It vibrates the very darkness around me, boiling it to the point of evaporation, what skin I can still feel, is peeled off as the darkness disintegrates into nothingness. Then a familiar voice wedges itself into my mind.
"He is ready. I shall rule for eternity!" Taurranous shouts