They fled the giant, leading it back up through the traps they had just bypassed, dropping a large boulder on it and causing it to twice fall down a 60' shaft, damaging it enough to kill it, but not before it killed Variel with a thrown boulder.
Faunra screamed in grief for her dead brother, and her tears activated the Harp of Souls, showing it's true power- the power to resurrect the recently dead.
The heroes helped themselves to the giant's treasure and escorted Faunra and Variel back to down.
While in town they confronted Dibbler, who apologized for giving a fake stone to them- declaring he himself had been cheated by a dishonest merchant who sold the stone to him. Ivan attempted to turn Dibbler in to the Blackguard Irregulars, but found that Dibbler's silver tongue was a forced to be reckoned with. Fortunately, Dibbler was forgiving.
An evil goblin named patches attempted to lead the PCs into some kind of trap in the tunnels, but they were wise to his antics and chased him off.
Afterwards the party heard about several groups preparing to enter the Cave in an attempt to find magical artifacts. Apparently a halfling named Zaphod Humperdink had located a very powerful artifact, and had traded it in for quite a fortune to the Chilaxian church in the city.
The party attempted to meet with Zaphoid, but he was not seeing guests. His "notes" on how he got into the cave were for sale for 1000 gp, however. The party obtained a "discounted" copy, to find that the notes were intentionally vague and misleading. They consulted their old friend Dibbler for some advice.
Dibbler pointed them towards a Tiefling Alchemist named Zeta who was the only one Zaphoid would see regularly. Tiffania attempted to gather information from Zeta, but he was on his game. Ivan tracked Zeta to a meeting, and though he didn't understand Infernal, gathered enough to understand they were doing something involving a minotaur.
The party realized that the misdirection magics on the tunnels may be able to be bypassed by a Minotaur's natural maze immunity, and Ivan snuck into the church of law to find a minotaur named Jordan locked in the basement. He revealed that they were holding is daughter hostage to force his cooperation.
The party went to the camp to free the daughter, but found she had already freed herself, having gone into a barbarian rage and broken her chains when they attempted to kill her for being "no longer useful.". The party recruited Clara to help them enter the tunnels and rescue Jordan.
Clara led them through the caves, noting that her father was purposefully leaving tracks to follow and going down extended paths to slow his group's progress. She became immediately frightened when she discovered where they were going- to a shrine of Baphomet the god of minotaurs. Were he to be bound, the priests of Asmodeus may be able to force him to reveal the entire layout of the tunnels and caves, allowing them to gain all the treasure and artifacts for themselves.
The group caught up with the Chilaxians, who used the Horn of Baphomet to summon minotaur warriors to help them, though the party had Clara and now Jordan on their side. They were able to defeat the Chilaxians and obtain the artifact.
When they got to the shrine of Baphomet they were unsure on how to destroy it, so they instead returned the horn to the statue, increasing it's power, and gaining a blessing of the Dark God Baphomet. Jordan taught the party some tricks in maze navigation and went on his way, while Clara stayed in town to start an adventuring career.
In the minotaur dungeon, they discovered several tomes written by the minotaur that lived there, describing his exploits in the tunnels. They included direction to several dungeons inside the caves that have not yet been explored:
The Demiplane of Great Magic- the tunnels led into a rift going into the private demiplane of the powerful wizard Jacob the Exploiter.
The Grave of the
Dragons, - the tunnels lead into a valley in the mountainside where once lived a race of great dragons
The Summoning Chambers- a dungeon guarded by some kind of golem who seeks to have adventurers prove their worth too him
The Dungeon of Mirrors- a dungeon crafted by a wizard obsessed with light and refraction
The Clockwork Dungeon- a high level dungeon with clockwork components constructed for some unknown purpose
Genie's Gamble- a dungeon constructed by four genies on a bet.
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