Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Entourage had previously been riding upon beasts of burden when they had seen the Labyrinth approaching in the distance. There was a slight curse from Xanathos as they approached, he had been less than willing to part with his large demon, however it seemed that the demons would be too large to travel through the Labyrinth's walls, so they would have to be left. Indeed, Xanathos was nearly too large himself to fit through the walls, although he would find a way.

The emissary group consisted of himself, C'tanlik, Branka and Grashnak among the nameables, and accompanying them were 10 Dead-men, each around six feet in height, and covered in the same armour that Xanathos wore, 5 Body slaves, each around twelve foot in height, covered head to toe in the black armour that both Xanathos and the Dead-men elite troops used. Lastly were 10 Corpse slaves, brought by C'tanlik and Grashnak as cannon fodder for the Labyrinth.

They were now within 200 metres of the Labyrinth, and Xanathos raised his arm to call the group to a halt. Each member took time to dismount from their large demons, before releasing them to return to the Empire in the north. Xanathos himself walked towards the entrance of the Labyrinth, before turning to address his group. Slowly he turned to them and began to speak. "It appears the Labyrinth walls are narrower than our information provided, therefore we shall progress in this order: C'tanlik shall go in the lead, with 2 Corpse slaves before him. Followed by 2 ranks of Dead-men, 2 men wide, I shall then follow C'tanlik, with the remaining 3 ranks of Dead-men behind me, with Grashnak and Branka behind them, followed by 4 ranks of Corpse-slaves inbetween them, and followed by 5 ranks of Body-slaves, one slave in each rank."

With those words uttered, the group formed into its ranks, and began its progress into the Labyrinth. As they moved, C'tanlik took direct control of the corpse slaves, relieving their slave-controllers from deep within the Empire's core temporarily. With control of his two slaves, C'tanlik allowed the slaves to wander ahead of the group by ten feet, exploring for any hidden dangers. Xanathos himself would be able to see all the action over the heads of C'tanlik and the Dead-men, as his height reached 9' 5". The group could spend limitless time wandering the Labyrinth, being fed from the strong aura of death already, they would find no problem sustaining themselves here.

Xanathos cursed as he marched down the long labyrinth walls. This was most tiring indeed, very boring. As he marched along the long straight section he called ahead to C'tanlik "Allow the Corpses to run ahead of us all, and see if there is any change in the stonework!"

Nope. Nothing. Just more corridor. It seemed endless! Eventually, someone might find something.

One of the Corpses would suddenly pause and look at the right wall curiously. After a moment or two, it stepped toward it, and then through the wall. At least, that's how it would look to everyone trailing it. Upon coming up to where it "disappeared", they would find the Corpse standing on the other side. An optical illusion! Who knows how many other such passages they might have passed. The new passage seemed to run parallel to the one they were currently in, but at least it was a change.

Now that they had saw through the optical illusion, they would likely be able to recognize it again should they come across some more, which there weren't many of. Backtracking along the new corridor, if they didn't move to any other hidden ones along the way, would bring them to a junction, going to the left and right. Split up or choose one or the other? Either way, things were going to start getting exciting pretty soon.

A stone depressed into the floor after being stepped upon by someone in the entourage, and a few seconds later the floor behind them rose up, sliding a wall up from the ground and effectively blocking their only way back to the exit (or was it?). The wall had a face carved into it with a mouth forming an "O" shape. From this mouth came flying out a spear, down the center of the corridor, looking to impale someone in the party. Fortunately for them, if they could make it, there were several alcoves lined down along the corridor for them to hide in, if they make it, but it could only fit one or two human-sized people at a time. A spear shot out of the hole every 5 seconds.

The next corner wasn't too far off, and they would soon arrive in a tiny square littered with dusty stone blocks and debris, and three branching passages: straight, left, and right. In the middle of the square was a road sign, with arrows pointing in all directions, all of them indicating that direction was the way to the center.

"Oh ho ho! Visitors we have, hm!" came a squirrelly sounding voice from behind one of the stone blocks.