Chapter 2.26: The Enochian Tower

(DC 14 versus constitution 9)
The main room lights up with a red flash that temporarily blinds them all. It disappears in the blink of an eye and leaves a heavy breathing Oslando in the center of it.
“You were absolutely right”, the half-elf says while looking at the somewhat recovered satyr. “It hurts.” He puffs two times and gets up again, pressing his hands against his trembling knees. “But it’s nothing I can’t overcome. I’m going back in again. Lyssa, can you show me the map?”
He walks over, muscles cramping from the demonic acupuncture he just received. “You can lean on me if you want to. Catch your breath and such.” Her face looks friendly, but he declines. He admires her ability to still be joyful and caring when things are getting tough. He has experienced otherwise once too often.
“So, I can go the same way as before”, he says as he moves the piece of gold from its starting point one small square to the right, one upwards and one to the right again. “Do you want me to go here?” He moves it upwards again and looks at the captain. Her mind is full of doubts, reassessing her strategies to get her friends safely through this leeching labyrint.
“Yes”, she eventually says. “Hopefully you’re going the right way.”

(DC 14 versus constitution 12)
“I’ve gone right, forward, right. One final check: you want me to move forward now?” He really doesn’t want to spring another trap. The feeling those sharp tentacles gave him was awful, but the piercing pain wasn’t even the worst part. During that second the tendrils were inside his body, he could feel his vitality being drained. He didn’t see it all very clear, but he could swear the needles were filled with his blood as they became one with the magical walls again.
“Yes, I think that’s the best option”, she says firmly, trying to hide the hesitancy she wants to answer with.
He takes a step forward and waits a few seconds in absolute silence, not moving an inch. Nothing happens.
“Okay”, he slowly says as he starts feeling around, “there’s a wall in front of me and to my right. I can only move to the left or to where I can from. So, I presume I must go left?”
She confirms it, but as soon as Oslando lifts his foot to move to the next tile, the magical red barriers pop up again and make fleeing impossible.
“I am trapped, Lyssa. I’m coming your way.” He quickly rolls himself up into a lumpy ball, trying to evade the siphoning pins coming from the upper parts. Unfortunately, it’s as if the red barriers can feel where the half-elf is and their thin, pointy fingers bypass his armor and dive into his meat. They suck away all the blood they can find and pull back when saturated. The incredible tension he builds up between his jaws prevents him from letting out a tortured scream.
When he opens his eyes, he sits on the floor in front of his companions. “Someone else can enter the maze now. I’m just going to sit down for a bit.”
“Okay, let me go inside”, Lyssa says and she lays her arm around Oslando, inspecting him to see if any wounds are visible. “It’s my fault, my strategy that let you into this trap. One of you can draw on the map. I’ll go in.”
As she stands up and moves over to the door, Bruq stands in her way. “You go draw on that map”, the satyr suggests with a friendly voice, “I can take another hit. And, maybe and hopefully, I’ll find the way to the crystal this time.”

(DC 14 versus constitution 18)
“What is the strategy this time?” Bruq tries to say with enough laughter so she can’t hear the anxiety that holds him.
“There is one more option if we continue to the right, but we haven’t explored anything to the left yet. If you move on tile to the right and one forward, you can move one to the left. Let’s continue from there on.”
The satyr follows her instructions to the letter, moving around the maze as if he knows it like the back of his hand, but he slows down when making the first movement to the left in this sadistic journey.
“It’s safe”, he says. “There’s a wall behind me, but that’s it.” Lyssa observes the map after drawing a thin blue line on it.
“No point in not trying to go forward. We have to do that eventually, so… Go forward, I guess.”
The hesitant sound of her voice troubles him, but there’s no going back now. He places his hoof very gently on the next tile. Scared to get his hand cut off, he takes out an arrow and makes jabbing movements with it in every direction.
“No walls to my left and right. And none behind me, of course, only one in front of me.” She takes the coin, taps the map with it and finally places it on the paper again.
“Go left.” It’s being going well and she sounds certain of her case.
He’s starting to regain trust in his tracking skills again, even though the entire circumstance prevents him from using it properly.
“There is a wall in the front and the back. Do you...” He stops in the middle of his sentence and they all wait anxiously for what Bruq is going to say next. “No, no, no”, they can hear his voice echo. “Not again. Why can’t I break these walls? Why does it have to take my blood? No. Fuck you, tendrils. Get away from me or I swear I’ll find who is doing this do me and I’m going to… No! Ah!”
And he appears again, eyes closed and lying in the floor, unresponsive to the calling of his friends.