Stumbling to the ground, sweeting and over loaded with a massive backpack a young man tried to pull himself from the dirt. Dressed in rough ragged clothes, his body thin and height stunted from malnutrition, with skin that was a pale sickly color with various old scars visible beneath the ragged clothing. His whole body was incredibly dirty as though he hadn’t bathed in months. He had dark unkempt hair and a strange ominous tattoo in the center of his forehead.

Carefully trying to get back up while balancing the heavy load on his back, he was working as quickly as his weak body could manage when he heard the approaching steps of the overseer.

“Get back up ye lazy retard, come on back into line with the rest of ye stupid slaves.” The overseer barked out angrily.

With that order the young man’s body jerked involuntarily as the ominous tattoo on his forehead gave off a small glow, then his body convulsed shortly before rushing to complete the orders given.

Left as nothing more than an observer in his own body even while it was pushing itself past the breaking point leaving him in immense pain there was nothing he could do as it was moving of its own accord.

As he returned to his place in line a rock came flying from beyond view and strike the slave in front of him square in the temple. The slave’s head snapped in the opposite direction as the body bent over and fell to the side never to rise again.

Rocks continued to fly thru the air as his ‘masters’ rushed from cover to cover with shields over head and firing bolts of arrows at the sources of the flying rocks, goblins. There slingers were set up on a rocky outcropping just a little distance away, while bands of boar riding goblins armed with spears and javelins raced over the hills and attacked the caravan.

Another rock whizzes by mear inches from his face, but the body just trudges on of it’s own accord. The goblins kept firing volley after volley of missiles at the caravan and it’s defenders, providing crude covering fire for the boar-riders to advance on the hunters positions.

A small band of goblin boar riders had assaulted a group of hunters mere meters from the young man. the hunters had been completely overwhelmed by the shock from the charge. As it appeared the goblins were about to finish off the remaining adventurers and push thru, three hunters who had until now stayed in reserve charged in to the melee. A blonde haired spearman, a blue haired swordswoman, and a black haired dual wielding swordsman. These three were more experienced than the first group of hunters and quickly dispatched several goblins and boars forcing the rest to scatter.

The young man pulled his eyes away from the battle raging around him, despite the stones flying just inches from his head there was nothing he could do about it and honestly he didn’t care who won this skirmish. Instead he looked out past the fighting to the landscape beyond. A vast field of rolling hills and sparse forests beneath a dome of rock.

They were in fact in a massive cavern with steep mountains for walls. The floor was rocky with numerous hills breaking up line of sight. There were many large rock outcroppings jutting up into the air with several reaching all the way up to the ceiling. The roof appeared to be made of natural stone but strangely it had a large crystal in the center that radiated all of the light for the cavern.

The cavern was several kilometers long and more than a kilometer wide. A river came pouring down the mountain like walls in a great waterfall and flowed in a twisting fashion between the hills and then into a cave on the other side of the cavern.

Several herds of giant rams could be seen in the distance. They were scattered throughout the hills, these rams big enough that a grown man could ride one like a horse with curled horns the strength of iron and the temperament of thunder storms.

This was the Maze of Beasts, a mysterious and very dangerous realm buried beneath the earth. This one cavern was just one of a seemingly endless number of caverns, chambers, and cave tunnels stretching throughout the massive Maze. It was nestled beneath a massive mountain range with multiple entrances scattered throughout and on either side of the mountain range. As the name would suggest the Maze contained labyrinthine tunnel networks and a dizzying array of monsters within its confines creating a innumerable multitude of biomes and ecologies.

While the young man was lost in thought the caravan of slaves and their hunter ‘masters’ had advanced further through the cavern’s landscape and was approaching a cluster of large hills at the foot of the mountain walls. The goblins had apparently retreated and it looked as though they were in the clear.

The young man was actually a little disappointed that the goblins didn’t continue their assault. He had no love for his ‘masters,’ for the tattoo on his forehead was a slave brand that compels him to follow their orders. He had long since lost all control over his own body, his feet marched, his hands clenched, and his back breaking all to fulfill orders he could not refuse. The slave brand ensures that he obeys his ‘masters’ and so whenever an order is given to him he will obey it, to the end for instance he couldn’t even speak for at one time he was ordered to keep silent and the order was never cancelled or superseded, that was years ago. He couldn’t even scream.

As the caravan wound thru the hills a horn blared in front of the caravan, everyone had stopped. The young man struggled to see what was going on. Eventually he was able to catch a few glimpses. Goblin boar-riders, they had regrouped and reformed on the hills ahead of the path, but it wouldn’t be a concern if it was just the Goblins that they fought off earlier. The young man caught sight of deviations amongst the boars. Some had smooth grey skin, dead looking eyes and sharp triangular teeth, others had large bony growths dotting their bodies, Goblins from several tribes were present. And in the center of the Goblin formation was a cluster Goblins riding large vicious Dire wolves, the chieftains had shown themselves.

While the caravan was at a halt as the hunters prepared to face the goblins, the young man began to hear a low rumbling. From over the hills, behind the stopped caravan the thundering rumble was building. Then with an explosion of noise and pandemonium a horde of stampeding giant rams appeared. Trailing and on the flanks of the stampede were a number of boar-rider goblins making it obvious that the caravan had stumbled into a trap.

Caught between the host of goblins to their front and the stampede of monsters from the rear, the hunters began to panic and buckle, fleeing up the hills towards the mountain walls. The young man along with the rest of the slaves just stood in place, they had been ordered to stay in place and the brands enforced their compliance to those orders.

“Get to cover!” one of the fleeing hunters yelled. And with that simple line the entire caravan of slaves burst to life scrambling up the hills to get to cover.

The young man immediately dropped the bloated bags to make his escape to cover. Normally a slave couldn’t disregard an order from their ‘official’ masters, but when a new set of orders have been given they can overwrite older orders. Evading both bad terrain and the stampeding beasts he desperately clawed his way further up the mountain while dodging missiles and keeping his distance from the hunters.

The goblins taking advantage of the chaos have rode into the scattered ranks of the hunters, vicious skirmishes broke out everywhere. It was pandemonium. Boar and goblin catching small groups of hunters and slaves, and skewering them on spear and tusk. Slaves trampled to death stampeding dire rams. A cross bolt slamming into a goblin’s chest knocking it off its boar.

The blonde haired spearman killing a boar with a thrust from his spear, while several dozen hunters organized a defense on a nearby hill.

All the while the young man had navigated threw the churning chaos, ascended up the mountain and found a cave, it looked to be an entrance to one the various tunnels that connected this cavern to the rest of the Maze. As he silently entered looking for a place to rest a figure came out from behind a rock outcropping.

“How did a stupid slave get all the way up here?” the overseer sneered angrily and loudly. He looked shaken from the recent ordeal, and was taking out his frustrations on the slave before him. Though the young man remembered seeing this overseer being among the first to flee to safety. “Wait where’s the supplies ye suppose to be carrying? “ the overseer wondered aloud. “You dropped them didn’t ye, worthless stupid slave couldn’t do anything right.”

The young man recoiled at the overseers tantrum, he would love to point out to the overseer that he also was missing most of his gear and appeared to have ditched it during the escape. Alas he wasn’t allowed to say a word and so couldn’t argue or fight back in any way against the overseers verbal assault.

“You retards are only good for one thing, carrying. Are you such a fucking retard that you couldn’t even do the one thing your good at? Fuck, an idiot dumbass like you should be grateful that we take the time to find something useful for you, yet you screw even that up!.” He yelled while stomping his foot into the ground.

“Now your going down there to retu-“ while he was speaking a spider had crawled out a hidden crack in the wall and lunged at the overseer. Hitting him in the back mid-sentence, quickly wrapping it’s long spindly legs around him as he futilely struggled against the massive spider. The short brawl was soon put to an end when the spider bit into the overseers neck causing his body to freeze up, his a picture of pure terror, then the spider began to drag him back into the crack.

With the abrupt interruption the young man felt strange. As if he wasn’t being compelled anymore, as if a string had cut. As if….. he has been, released.

“Hah, hah…Huh. Wait, I can. Speak.” First the young man sighed then realized he had spoken for the first time in years. For the first time in years the young man could hear the sound of his own voice. He pondered as to how he was now free of the orders he had been given. Normally a slave couldn’t disregard an order from their ‘official masters,’ but apparently there was a loophole. Maybe an order stopped in mid-sentence some how overwritten all preexisting orders that the slave was subject to.

Looking around to make sure that there was nobody nearby. The rout was still a chaotic mess outside of the cave and no one else had reached this particular cave as of yet. Then he looked back at the spider that had inadvertently granted him some semblance of freedom. He had to escape, it was possible that if one of his ‘masters’ were to reach him then they could apply a new set of orders thus stripping him of his newly found freedom and he couldn’t go back up to the surface there he’ll just be captured and brought back to his ‘owners’ thus if he wanted to retain his freedom he had to go further into the maze.

Thus he motioned into the shadows, and down the tunnel into the depths of the maze.

A massive dark cavern, the ground one giant swamp. In the distance were the only sources of light for this portion of the Maze, scattered clumps of giant mushrooms with the parts between the stalk and the domes were glowing. This cavern was a realm of shadows with a haunting atmosphere, there were even ruins hidden about the muck and filth.

The young now escaped slave was finishing his meal, just meat from the scavenged remains of a beast killed by something bigger and more vicious in the maze, cooked over a fire. How long had he been down here weeks, months; huge portions of the maze didn’t have a typical day night cycle and since he had nothing else for a reference he was losing track.

Between the darkness and the treacherous ground conditions it was exceedingly dangerous. Huge sections of it were virtually inaccessible because of the pools of stagnate water littered about.

It was difficult to live alone down hear in the maze. Constantly evading monstrous beasts, and dodging bands of humans wandering the tunnels. Keeping to the edges of the cavern he had managed to avoid the many dangers, but since he couldn’t return to the surface it was only a matter of time before he succumbed to one of the threats that lurked here.

The young man didn’t know how much longer he had down here in the Maze, but if he was going to die then he would do so free.

He began to sneak along the edges of the cavern’s periphery far beyond what little light that was provided by the tree sized mushrooms. Keeping one hand on the wall so as to not get lost, eventually he felt what seemed to be a door. In the pitch black of the shadows the entrance couldn’t be noticed at all, and he was only discovering by feeling the gap in the wall.

Now he was caught in a dilemma, to continue on or explore what was inside. He knew that there could be a great many dangers and the only weapon he had to protect himself was a discarded bone that he had sharpened himself. But on the other hand if it proved safe it would make a superb hideout and he was running ragged constantly being on lookout for threats. But what did it matter he was most likely going to die anyway might as well do something with your freedom. And so after some consideration he decided to enter.

After going through the pitch black passageway he stumbled into what seemed to be a room. It’s size, appearance or décor was currently unknown as it was completely dark and the young man didn’t have anything to use as a light source. But the young man could touch and feel his way thru the complex. The walls felt straight and smooth as if crafted and not a natural formation. There were squared straight hallways and wooden doors frames, though rotting and falling apart. The interior actually seemed quite nice if dusty and ill kept. And there were more rooms and passages though all of them were dark so after a while the young man started to feel lost. It seemed to be a hidden maze within a maze.

Eventually after a long if uneventful exploration the young man found a strange room, it seemed to be circular what with the slight feeling of curvature in the wall. He felt many small elevations in the floor, little straight bumps that turned in angular motions and connected with further bumps, he suspected that it was some geometric pattern on the floor. Moving away from the wall, following the pattern he came upon, something. It was smooth to the touch not stone maybe glass but it still feel, but it was large and spherical.

As he was trying to understand what this object was it began to glow. The room filled with an eerie light revealing that it was in fact circular and that the floor was covered in a geometric pattern converging on the luminescent sphere before him.

Everything was at a stand still as the air seemed to tense up, then after precious minutes of waiting a ghostly mechanical voice rang through the room.

[Master.]