Mazes and Murder: The Further Adventures of Meg and Lyz

We last left Meg and Lyz hiding in a large cavern that was somehow part of the research complex they were trying to escape. They had made camp in a heavily forested part of the cavern, and decided to relax for a little while. Having been running for their lives mostly non-stop since they had met, neither really knew anything about the other, so they used their downtime to properly introduce themselves. Lyz regaled her quest to find her lost sailor sweetheart, and how her search had brought her to a fairy ring that turned out to be a trap by denizens of the facility they were currently hiding in. Meg shared her story of life on the streets and high seas until she was kidnapped along with some visiting wizards and imprisoned on a boat. Her and the wizards found themselves on an island that was being overtaken by a shadowy presence, and upon defeating that presence, Meg was sucked through a portal, landing her in her current situation.

Having gotten to know each other, the two women decided to explore the cavern they had found. Meg mentioned that she had been there before, but had not explored it thoroughly. They headed north and came across a small goblin camp. The goblins were roasting some kind of meat over the fire, and the sight of food reminded the girls how low on rations they were. Meg reasonably suggested a surprise attack on the goblins so they could take the food, but Lyz insisted on trying to talk to them first, hoping they would be willing to simply share their food. This did not go over well. Meg stayed hidden in the underbrush while Lyz approached the camp, and the goblins seemed overjoyed at how easy their next meal would prove to be. They attacked as soon as she came close enough to stab, and with Meg occupied by a sniper in the trees, the battle did not start out well. One overly eager goblin was even able to rip a chunk of flesh from Lyz's arm with a fork and knife, chowing down on it in the middle of battle. Fortunately, once they had their wits back about them, Meg and Lyz took down the goblins fairly easily, and helped themselves to their meager supplies.

After resting, they continued to head north. The forest became much darker and thicker, and numerous feathers and tracks told them there were owlbears nearby. They successfully avoided running into any, but did come to a clearing with an odd metal statue in the middle. The statue was of a man and seemed to be made of tin or a similar metal. There was a gaping hole in the statue's chest and back, however, where the metal was peeled back, as if something had exploded out of it. Somewhat puzzled and thoroughly creeped out, the pair continued onward.

They eventually came to a large formation of stones that Meg vaguely recognized from the last time she was in this cavern. They surrounded an impossibly tall, brightly lit tower that she knew she recognized, and the girls decided the tower was as good a spot as any to head towards. The stones surrounding the tower were at least as tall as Meg, and it wasn't until she stepped into the formation that she remembered they formed a shifting, confusing labyrinth. Knowing nothing about the labyrinth, Lyz followed her into the stone formation and also became instantly lost. They wandered for a little while trying to find each other before Lyz got frustrated and pulled out her broomstick. Enchanting it to fly, she took to the skies above the labyrinth and managed to find Meg. They flew over the maze and landed safely in the grass surrounding the base of the tower.

The tower was even bigger up close, so big around that they could barely see it curve. They followed the wall of the tower, exploring the area around it, and noticed several dead creatures of various types lying around it. The only thing the creatures seemed to have in common, apart from being dead, was that they were all embedded into the ground, some several feet into the ground. Taking this as a warning, they proceeded carefully around the tower until they found a huge set of double doors. Near the doors was a stone pedestal with an engraving neither of them could read. Deciding to rest before attempting to open the door, they made camp in one of the deeper impressions in the ground, this one occupied only by a large skull.

When they woke the next morning and scrambled out of their hole, they were surprised to discover a golden statue of a minotaur standing on the once-empty stone pedestal. The statue didn't look friendly, so they decided to leave it alone for now. Turning their attention to the door, they noticed a small tablet embedded in the wall next to it. There was no locking mechanism on it, simply the words, "When is a door not a door?" Meg blinked for a few seconds before asking Lyz, "When it's ajar?" To both of their surprise, the large doors groaned open.

Within the tower was a large open room with doors on both sides leading off to unknown rooms. In the very middle of the room was an open pit in the floor, a matching hole in the ceiling above it. The purpose of the pit confused the girls at first, but as they watched, a loud rumbling sound filled the room and a large something barreled down the shaft, almost too fast to see. The pit seemed to be guarded by a man in a guard's uniform, but with a black armband neither girl had seen before. Whoever this guard was, he probably wasn't affiliated with the guards back in the living quarters. They were still wearing servant's uniforms, so they decided to approach the guard. As soon as the guard saw them, however, he became hostile and demanded to know why they were there. Lyz tried to explain that they had simply gotten lost and need to find their way back to the servant's quarters, but the guard didn't buy it. He managed to yell "Intruders!" before Meg pulled out her crossbow and shot him in the neck, killing him.

Fearing reinforcements, they hid in a corner and waited for the other guards to come out. They came out of one of the rooms off to the side and dragged the dead orc in before coming back out to look for the intruders. Once they did, the pair decided they could probably take them, so Meg greeted them with another shot from her crossbow and Lyz started conjuring a storm cloud in order to bring a little lightning to the fight. The guards ended up being tougher than they thought, especially one particular guard, a large lizardman who seemed to be a leader of some kind. Meg finally dealt him a killing stab to the back with her rapier and as soon as he died his body stiffened and turned to stone, trapping Meg's rapier. It took all of her strength to pull it out again.

Once the guards were dealt with and their monies and fineries taken, the pair explored the room off to the side where the guards had come out of. It seemed to be a barracks of some kind, filled with cots, one of which held the first guard Meg had killed. A voice was coming from a strange device sitting on a table in the room, demanding to know what was going on. Lyz impersonated one of the guards, telling them that everything was fine and, due to her excellent people skills, did a lot better than Han Solo did. Whoever was on the other end of the intercom seemed to believe her and switched off, allowing them to search the room for anything interesting. Lyz was excited to find a romance novel hidden under one of the cots, as it was part of the "Captain Segueway" series she had recently started reading. Meg inspected the body of the dead guard, an orc, and found a silver ring on one of his fingers, with the name "Lenore" inscribed on it. The ring was not magical, but very lovely, so Meg pulled it off the orc's finger, and slipped it on her own, delighted at its beauty.

Returning to the main room, Meg and Lyz discovered a set of rope-operated lifts near the pit. Not sure where they went or how sturdy they were, they decided to leave them be for now, and checked out the door on the opposite wall. It led to a narrow set of stairs that seemed to wind all the way around the tower. The stairs were extremely dusty and looked like they hadn't been used in quite some time, so they decided to see where they led. After climbing for hours they finally made it to another floor. It was laid out almost exactly like the one below, but they noticed that when the something passed through the shaft here, a ring of sparks and flame flew up from around the pit. The pit was guarded by a large humanoid completely covered in a suit of full plate, holding a huge greatsword.

Deciding whoever it was probably shouldn't be tangled with, Meg disguised herself as one of the human guards they had killed downstairs and put on one of the stolen guard uniforms. While Lyz stayed behind in the stairwell, she approached the guard and told it she had come to relieve it. The guard considered this for a moment before nodding and starting to walk away. It stopped quite suddenly however, turning back to Meg and putting its visor up. With the visor up, they could see the guard was a female orc and it was staring in shock and rage at the ring on Meg's finger. Without warning she charged Meg, greatsword at the ready. Both Lyz and Meg proved quicker than she was, though, as Lyz immediately jumped out from the stairwell and threw her dagger at the orc, and Meg met her charge with a stab from her rapier. Unfortunately, both attacks proved ineffective against the orc's armor. Lyz once again started to call up a lightning storm and Meg did her best to find the chinks in heavy plate the orc wore. The orc was quite proficient with her huge sword and despite Meg's agile dodging, she was beaten and bloody by the time they finally killed the orc. Coughing up blood, Meg decided to do a quick search before retreating somewhere safe to rest. They had no intention of lugging around the orc's heavy armor, but a quick Detect Magic spell by Lyz showed the breastplate and sword the orc carried were both magical, so she stuck them in her bag of holding to be identified later. Meg also found a silver ring on her finger, identical to the one she had taken off the guard downstairs, except inscribed on it was the word "Beloved". Not one to leave something shiny, Meg took this ring as well, putting it on her other hand. A few quick healing spells by Lyz later, and they were both healthy enough to hobble back to the deserted stairwell, where they finally rested.

Stay tuned for next week's harrowing and likely amoral episode of The Adventures of Meg and Lyz!