Rico

Rico (artist's rendering) with an Ioun Stone.

Rico is a Drow Wizard and a main antagonist of the Tier 3 campaign. He is a non-player character.

## Background

Rico's background is known solely from the thirteenth book in the collection of the *Encyclopedic History of Tier 3*, and he presumably recorded much of this himself, so it is unknown how reliable this source is. The records state Rico came to Tier 3 while rather young, and soon awed everybody with his extensive intelligence. Aaron has stated Rico was the "brightest he'd ever seen". Rico's teammates were Halley and Io, although it is unclear if they knew each other before enrollment at Tier 3.

After having fully established his team as the golden children of Tier 3, the best in their respective fields, Rico began acting suspiciously. His position as the favorite student granted him access to many confidential parts of Tier 3, since he was so "precocious" and "upstanding". He began to tamper with Tier 3's inner workings in this period, unbeknownst to the Headmasters.

Eventually, disillusioned with the principles of valor and honor which Tier 3 waved sappily as their banner, Rico and Halley announced they would leave the organization to found their own, an institution based on ambition and power that would not be hindered by archaic rules or moral pandering. They left Io behind, believing Heart fighters were weak and remnants of the idyllic but quaint Tier system. Io was heartbroken by this loss, as she had trusted the two and believed them to be her friends.

## Bomb Threat

Several weeks after their disappearance, Rico and Halley exploited the Tier 3 communications system, which Rico had tampered with, to announce their placement of a bomb in the facility. If a team was able to successfully follow the trail of puzzles Rico had left encrypted across the organization, the duo would deem that team worthy of induction into Rico and Halley's elite cabal. When Rico and Halley were using the transmission system, the blue and yellow slices of the Tier 3 logo overlapped first the red slice and then each other, forming a green circle and bathing the facility in green light.

Several teams participated, although all with the aim of finding the bomb and saving the organization rather than joining Rico and Halley. The six members of the two teams which progressed the furthest, Bingle, Kefz, Arrick, the Cat, River, and Belle, were all taken by Rico upon discovery of the bomb, and placed into a labyrinth with the goal of determining the most worthy apprentices.

## Labyrinth

Rico constructed an elaborate maze which contained a gauntlet of tests designed to tax the mind and body (and, to a lesser extent, the spirit: only the Church Room and the Two Princes required Heart-specific skills). These included a door locked by a Sudoku grid, a room with a tilting floor over a snake pit, a church with holy water that induced spiritual dreams, a room littered with objects in which only one served as the exit key, a banquet table with a knife that required self-sacrifice to advance, a room with a cyborg centipede blocking the exit, a battlefield on which war could only be averted by reconciling the two princes (who were lovers), a cathedral with a massive beast chained inside of it, a number of collapsing columns with lava beneath, and a central arena with a Minotaur inside of it.

Rico appeared a number of times throughout the maze to goad the teams forward, inform them of the other's progress, or just to taunt them. He revived Bingle when Bingle was suffering grievous fall injuries, at the expense of an as-yet-unknown cost which River and Kefz promised to him while pleading for their friend's life.

At the center of the maze, both teams had to face a Minotaur to win: however, River, Bingle, and Kefz were rescued by Io and Rem, while the Cat died fighting his team's, leaving only Arrick and Belle to join Rico and Halley's organization.

## Diplomacy

Rico journeyed to a meeting of nobles, attempting to gain their trust and eventually be able to exert influence over their kingdoms, utilizing their armies and siphoning their riches. Halley accompanied him on this mission, as did his betrothed Alejandra, who had been arranged to marry him in a loveless political move. Rem and Io attempted to stop Rico by disguising themselves as diplomats and countering his entreaties, and they enlisted Kefz, Bingle, and River to assist them in this task.

Rico eventually uncovered their disguises, chasing them up one of the castle turrets, where Rem and Io leapt to safety through one of Rem's portals. Bingle, River, and Kefz, along with Alejandra, who sought to escape Rico's machinations, were not fast enough, and Rico caught them with a spell that delivered a blast of white light. The would-be escapees felt as if the spell was "tearing the skin from their bones and burning them alive", and they fell unconscious. Upon awakening, the four found themselves lying on their backs in a grassy field.

Rico's current whereabouts, as well as the intended effect of his spell, are unknown.

## Personality

Rico is extravagant and cold in attitude. He speaks in an demeaning and somewhat effeminate tone, with just a hint of an accent. He looks down on those who are not as intelligent as he is, and he feels evidently as if morality and compassion are useless, with power, ascendance, and cunning being his primary ideals.

## Appearance

Rico is of average height for a Drow, but appears very short in comparison to Halley, whom he is usually with. He has grey hair, not because of age but because of his race, and violet to lavender eyes. Rico has a mustache and goatee, unusually for an elf. His ears are also rounded, indicating he may in fact be of mixed human and elf heritage. He wears elaborate gold-embossed robes, the source of which is unknown.

Rico's age is unknown, but he presents himself as fairly young.