July 2nd, 2017

The Questions of the Cube

From my left:

Chris playing Deckard the human ex-fighter thief

Nick playing Merrick the human fighter

Nilo playing Kag the human magic-user

Paige playing Keeva the halfling infiltrator

Sarai playing Desorna the elven axe-maiden

Hunter playing Justina Faith the human cleric

Zack playing LaVeya the human druid

and the DM playing Ydee, Catherine's half-elven thief

After spending the night in the Aerie of the Silver Eagles, the party gathered with Gregor to discuss the next steps. It was decided that getting the insight of Glykras would be helpful as he was the most powerful mage that anyone knew of in the area. Gregor also suggested that leaving the cube on Glenalen's workbench would be the best idea since those who had been teleported by the cube returned to where the cube was and, if Glenalen returned from his adventure, his appearance in Glykras' home could result in a bad experience for everyone concerned. Thus Deckard made as detailed a series of drawings as he could and the party prepared to travel to Treefold to talk to Glykras while Gregor stayed at the Aerie to wait for his companions to return. Gregor also wrote the party a note to give to Barron, the dwarven cleric of the Silver Eagles, if they passed him on the road on his way back to the Aerie from Treefold after making a supply run.

The first day out from the Aerie the party was ambushed by a hail of arrows from each side of the road as the road cut through the forest. The arrows had come from the trees where indistinct human figures could occasionally be fleetingly seen. Deckard took out his bow to return fire and tried to drift into the brush to conceal himself on the left side of the road while Ydee dove into the brush on the other side of the road. Kag, Desorna, and Keeva were wounded in the initial flurries and decided to make a run for it while the wounded LaVeya and Justina stood their ground and prepared to help fight. Merrick, his inner fury rising to the surface, began throwing every weapon he could as often as he could.

LaVeya's first spell was faerie fire, which easily identified the targets in the trees and unfortunately identified Ydee sneaking up a tree to attack the archer within. While Deckard was dropping max damage salvos of arrows from his bow and Merrick was throwing everything he could lay his hands on, Kag stopped partway down the road to fire magic missiles at the illuminated figures and Desorna used her sling.

The party's attacks began to take their toll on the attackers with first one, then several falling out of the trees as they were killed. Once all nine of the targets on the right side of the road were destroyed, the party noticed that there had been no arrows from the left side after those first two salvos as the archers on the left had fled after seeing the faerie fire outline those on the right. An examination of the fallen archers revealed that they were from Trotaria and possibly still hunting the party for their crimes there. The bodies, when searched, turned up some coins and some longbows and arrows that had survived the fall from the trees. Merrick took a bow to augment his weaponry and everyone who needed to took some arrows. Then the party continued on their way.

As they prepared to camp for the evening there was a rustling in the underbrush and five bugbears leapt to the attack. Though the party was still hurting some from their earlier battle, they made short work of the overmatched bugbears. Searching their bodies earned the party some more coins and a rather bedraggled clerical heal wounds scroll.

The next day they encountered a fairly grumpy dwarf riding north along the road on a leaded down mule cart. A human woman rode beside him. When the gruff opening conversation was over with (“Are you Barron?” “Who wants to know?”) and the note from Gregor handed over, the dwarf was more willing to talk. He also handed the party a young cleric that the priest at the temple sent along with him, telling the group that they would need her more than the Silver Eagles would.

With their new party member in tow, the adventurers continued on to Treefold and from there to the house of Glykras. The expected gigantic doorman answered the door and, after a brief wait, took them to the small barracks where they had stayed previously.

After a short while the party was taken to Glykras' lab where he waited for them. Quite a bit of question and answer/guessing went on, the upshot of which was that Glykras had heard of a fallen kingdom far to the south where magic and even some machinery were advanced beyond what was now known. Access to the tombs of the kings and queens of the land was only granted by magic, and the 'keys' to these tombs held by the high priests of their religions. The cube, based on how it worked and the artwork they had seen within the tomb, made Glykras think that the cube was one of the legendary keys. The red coloration on one side once the party had exited might mean that the tomb was closed and unreachable until the color faded, or perhaps it might open the fabled seventh face, allowing access to the richly appointed tomb of the God-Emperor of those lands. There was no way to know for sure unless the party wished to experiment further.

The party agreed to keep in touch and let Glykras know if they learned more. After this was done, Deckard made a bargain with the mage. Leaving an arrow of direction and a short sword of sharpness (+1 to attack, +3 to damage) as collateral, Deckard managed to rent-to-own a large bag of holding. Glykras also told Merrick that his shield was in fact appearing to develop a spontaneous magical ability as a result of some of the fantastic adventures and odd situations Merrick had used it in. There was no way of telling what kind of magic it might gain, nor of when the magic would fully manifest, but the potential was exciting all the same.

After their return to Treefold, Deckard prevailed upon the party that taking two weeks in town for him (and Ydee) to train their skills would be very beneficial. The others agreed and the two thieves trained to their sixth levels. Deckard also used the down time from training to improve his Trotarian from familiar to practiced.

Once that time had passed and the training was complete, the party took the trip back to the Aerie. The journey was not uneventful as the party was attacked at night by an intellect devourer who robbed their mage of spell points and used its own spells to delay Merrick and then escape the scene.

where Gregor greeted them with a “Where have you been? It has been nearly three weeks!” Explanations were given and then introductions were made as Gregor introduced the adventurers to his friends. Barron, the dwarven cleric, they had already met. There were two human males, an elven female, and a halfling male. Tobon, the halfling, was a thief. Syrenia, the elven female, was a druid. Nathaniel, one of the human males, was a fighter, and the second human male was Glenalen, the magic-user.

The adventurers were happy to see that Glenalen had returned successfully and asked for his story. He told of a tomb that was similar to the one the group had explored, except one of the rooms behind bronze doors in the tomb he had entered was what looked like a magic-user's library and display chamber. Unfortunately when Glenalen had moved to touch the books the animated creatures who were defenders of this place attacked causing him to flee since he was not prepared for battle. He spoke of using the rope trick spell to catch naps when he could and to dodge the giant stone statue with its immense two-handed sword that constantly patrolled the halls of the tomb. Finally Glenalen had managed to find the key to activate the escape and found himself back in his workroom again after a harrowing five days total in the tomb. Being in the tomb without most of his equipment made things very risky, but he did manage to survive thanks to his spells and some items he had in the pockets of his robes.

Along with this was the information that a side adjacent to the red one had turned blue when Glenalen had escaped, though both colors had faded as the days had gone by, to the point that the red was now a light pink and the royal blue was now sky blue. Still, knowledge of what these colors indicated helped the two groups plan out their next steps. Curiosity about the cube and the tombs it might give access to on its other sides was interesting to both the groups, plus the potential for long-lost treasures within, much like the secret that Merrick possessed. The two agreed that they would each try to activate another side and see where it took them and, once they returned, see what had changed about the cube. With these plans made both groups retired for the night and slept dreaming of the adventures to come.

And here we ended for the evening.

Experience points for the party:

Deckard: 748

Merrick: 748

Kag: 612

Keeva: 612

Desorna: 612

Justinia: 680

LaVeya: 680

Ydee: 374