Kia looks sharply at Chary. "If they need help, we help them."
"If they are calling for help, it could be a trap. Fey - no offense to our own fey - are tricky beings. We should be wary."
Arianwyn sighs and says "Don't follow me." to the rest of the group, and creeps to the left.
Shadowy as the realm he inhabits, the warlock eases his way down the path the left. A shadow fey woman gropes her way down the path, calling piteously as tears roll from her empty eye sockets.
"I hear you little one, I'm not far away."
"Yes Kia, if they need help, we will help them. However, I doubt many down here actually NEED our help. As our gnoll friend here points out, it could easily be a trap."
Chary then shifts her attention back to where Arianwyn is headed.
Arianwyn says quietly, "Be not afraid. For whom do you weep?"
"My child. My little one. I hear her, but I cannot reach her. It is the curse."
She turns to Arianwyn. "I am Ardevallissen Thiomoire. Can you help us?"
"I am Arianwyn," the warlock states in his usual simple manner, "I shall help as best I can. From whence comes this curse?"
"The Raven Lord? Was your moment so fleeting or have the years passed faster than I dreamed? The curse is such that I may never find my child nor she me and yet we must search on in desperate hope. When we were cast out to the Labyrinth, such was her Majesty's command."
"Years?" he replies, "Raven Lord am I still, and it has been scant days that we were in Court. What was your crime?"
"An ill-judged word. There are many such as I. I know that I have been here many years. I feel the tatters of my clothing, the brittleness of my bones. Help me find my child and we will all aid you. Robbed of our eyes by the monster, even if all is forgiven, we cannot return."
"All is not as it seems..." Arianwyn muses, "Tell me of this monster that has your eyes. I will have my comrades join us."
"'Lo," he calls to the rest, "This lady requires our aid."
Ardevallissen waits quietly. "I shall tell you when all are gathered."
"More good deeds" says Kia brightly and goes to join Arianwyn. Nevertheless, she makes sure her bow is in her hand, though not in any threatening way.
Chary makes her way over to Arianwyn...but stays 5 feet away from the lady in distress.
Chary and Kia make their way towards Arianwyn and his new friend to discover him deep in conversation with an incredibly ancient eladrin woman clad in tattered rags. Her face, void of eyes, turns at the sound of your approach.
Whiteclaw stands next to Chary, waiting to hear from Arianwyn what aid the ancient woman requires.
Tutavak silently joins the rest of the Chosen and listens.
"There is a monster in the dark heart of the Labyrinth, near the King's Tower. They say he is from the oldest times and not even the Blood Royal wish to remember him. He steals eyes from any who would pass him. A giant and unstoppable. He guards the caverns of the forlorn as well as the King himself. They fear him and will do his bidding - as will we all. There is a thread that binds us to him and at his call we must obey."
"How do you ask our help, if you must obey the giant?" Tutavak asks seriously.
"Intriguing..." Arianwyn muses, "Unstoppable sounds like an interesting challenge."
He narrows his eyes and attempts to discern the magical tie between the woman and the monster.
The woman turns to Tutavak and laughs.
"Why would he care what help I ask? I am an insect to him. If he is challenged he will call all those whose eyes he holds and use us as a shield. For sport. He cannot kill us himself, but a challenger may do so without cost to him. You will face many of us between you and the Eye Golem."
Arianwyn looks between the worlds and can see the faintest possible trail leading from Ardevallessen to somewhere deeper in the Labyrinth. He discerns no way of breaking the connection without first removing the holder of the eyes.
"Well then, we shall do our best to avoid killing the eyeless ones. We seek the King - must we first face this creature who holds the eyes?"
"You seek the King? A wild madness binds him and he looks to the Eye Golem to guard him."
She turns, head lifted and listening to something that only she seems able to hear.
"Ah, my little one, I will find you. My child is calling."
Arianwyn nods, "Very well."
"Well then," he says to the group, "We have a meeting with the Eye Golem. It promises to be interesting. We must avoid harming the eyeless ones that it will summon."
"Any suggestions on how to defeat him would be welcome... I don't like fighting unstoppable creatures as a rule."
"How does he take a person's eyes from them?"
"Our eyes become part of his body. It is said that if he falls the captive eyes go free, but who can say? As to defeating him, all I know is that he is the stuff of light and light itself cannot harm him."
Years of picking up unconsidered knowledge stand the warlock in good stead as he remembers a few nuggets of information.
Plan? We don't need a plan...let's just wing it! (so says the impetuous one...)
Kia sighs. "We'd better get on I suppose then."
The arcane link spied by Arianwyn points the way, but naturally takes no account of the hedges, vines and other shrubbery in the way. An hour or more passes before you reach your destination. At last the maze opens into a clearing with a stone cave mouth set to the north.
At the centre, waiting, is a giant of great muscle and white-marble skin, so pale that it glows in the light of the tower you can see beyond a glass wall topped with eyes. The golem is at least 10 feet tall and its skin is covered with real eyes of different sizes and belonging to many different races as well as sigils that merely resemble eyes.
Surrounding him are twelve blinded shadow fey. Among them, to your horror, are Brightspur and Lishekki, alive, but horribly aged.
At your approach, all the golem's eyes open simultaneously and the blinded slaves turn towards you.
Arianwyn
Everyone else
Insight DC25
"Not how I would have chosen, Brightspur, but you get your fight."
"The Might of Kargzant? I cannot be mistaken, surely," For all his quavering old man's voice, Brightspur seems cheered to hear an old acquaintance in the darkness.
"We should have fought a few centuries ago, but I am still dangerous, even if no longer drunk."
Since the blinded are unarmed, this first at least seems unlikely to be true.
Chary places herself at the front of the group, and stands ready for...something?!
Chary then gasps at her vision of the blinded individuals that are indeed younger than she originally thought!
"Remember, they are under an enchantment. We must avoid harming them." Arianwyn cautions.
"Brightspur," he says quietly, "It has scarce been a few days since last we met. You are all under a glamour. But... I sense that my words will avail naught."
Kia frowns. She doesn't like fighting old people, even if she has to miss them.