Upon receiving word that he was party to a legal proceeding in the Kingdom of Tyre and that he stood to receive some portion of property as a result, Tiefling wizard Pumayo decided to return to his homeland for the first time in some two decades. Apprehensive about traveling so far and to such an ominous locale alone, he prevailed upon barbaric Elf Parthenia, his adventuring companion, to accompany him as a bodyguard. Upon reaching Tyre he rented apartments in the mainland town of Ushu, across the bay from the fortified island city of Tyre itself. 

During the days and hours of downtime between hearings with magistrates, meetings with barristers and notaries, and the like, Pumayo recalled the bronze statue of a Minotaur that he had seen many years before in an abandoned cemetery in the wildlands beyond the city. Envisioning the uses to which he could put this edifice in his experiments with animated constructs, he resolved to retrieve it and, accordingly, set out with Parthenia during a free day two weeks after their arrival in the city. 

Finding the cemetery took long than they expected, as it was further north and west than Pumayo had recalled. After wandering through overgrown fields and scrubby woodlands for a few hours, however, they realized that worn headstones were rising up amidst the brush around them and that they had reached their destination. A short search sufficed to Orient Pumayo and, directly, they saw the statue of the Minotaur rising up on its pedestal over the surrounding vegetation. Unfortunately, other people were present at the site and reconnaissance by Pumayo's viper familiar Kidna revealed 11 robed men conducting some business there. 

While Parthenia took up an overwatch position with her bow under a nearby olive tree, Pumayo advanced into the round plaza and there, surrounded by crumbling sepulchers, spoke with the leader of the group, who turned out to be a Tiefling government official conducting a survey of the area with his staff. After being given leave by the imperious bureaucrat to spend as much time as he wanted in the vicinity, Pumayo learned that he and his people would be working there for several days. Pumayo and Parthenia rejoined each other and resolved to return once the officials had completed their work. 

A few days later, Parthenia returned to the apartment in Ushu after an all-night drinking binge that included a brawl with a Roman marine corporal who she trounced. Discovering Pumayo was not there, she washed and sobered up as well as she could and then set out for the cemetery, concerned that the sorcerer had returned to it by himself. Finding her way back to the plaza of the Minotaur but concerned that in her diminished state she might be missing something and walking into a trap, the barbaric Elf decided to sit down and watch for a while. Before long, a band of a dozen-or-so Hobgoblins wandered into the clearing and, when they did, Parthenia ambushed them with her longbow and grievously wounded two of them. Then, as they advanced on her and one inflicted a minor wound on her with a javelin, she fled through the brush back toward the main road. 

Soon after returning to Ushu, Parthenia found Pumayo playing backgammon in a nearby tavern. Reunited and mutually relieved that nothing was amiss with the other, the two companions resolved to return to the ancient burial ground during hours of darkness and there retrieve the great statue.