Consequences
Weapons were drawn and the shouting from the judge continued. Meanwhile, Lox had managed to work his way through the impending melee and was unlocking the door that they had entered through. When his picking was complete, he shouted, “Let’s get outta here, this is no fun!”
The judge, angered by Lox’s maneuvers, began shouting “You may not exit the court! You have committed high treason against Lord Korvish!”
Lox turned on his heel and shouted back, “I haven’t done nuthin’ wrong! And you can tell Lord Korvish that his ‘magical’ rings don’t work!”
With that, Lox took off his silver ring and threw it at the judge, hitting him square in the brow, causing him to shout “Order in the Court!” repeatedly.
The party had exited the room and Lox had pulled the door shut. The group waited, weapons ready, for the door to burst open. After a few tense moments, they realized they were not being pursued, and sheathed their weapons.
“Let’s try not to waste anymore time,” Prynne said, eyeing Lox again.
“Lox, you really shouldn’t have thrown your ring,” Nuttin said. “What if it really is a ring that sustains you? You’ll be hungry before long.”
“Don’t worry about me, Nuttin. I’ll be fine.”
“Well, if you were my youngling, I’da tanned your hide a long time ago for those kinda shenanigans.”
The party continued down the hall. There seemed to be many passageways that lead to dead-ends, which Lox insisted on searching each time. Finally, when they came to a passageway that lead to a door, Dent called upon Lox to check it for traps. Finding none, he unlocked the door and skipped inside.
“Oooh, levers! I wonder what they do?” pondered Lox aloud.
There were six levers lining the back wall of the room. Each lever was made of a different metal; Brass, Iron, Tin, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
“Lox, don’t touch…” cried Dent, but it was too late. Lox had grabbed the silver lever and tugged hard. A moment later, a panel slid out along the wall, revealing a small wooden box.
“Wow! A little treasure chest,” Lox beamed.
“Don’t pull anything else, you fool,” reprimanded Belasco. “Our goal is to survive the maze, after all.”
Lox opened the box which, surprisingly, was not locked. Upon opening the chest, a faint glow began emanating from within.
“Wow…it’s all glowy inside. I wonder what’s in there that makes it glow like that…”
Lox quickly reached his hand inside the box, and pulled out a spiked chain.
“Look at what I found in the box, Dent!”
Dent, surprised that Lox actually found something within the glowing box that didn’t harm him, snatched the chest away.
“You are far too careless, Lox. You need to think more before you react,” he said.
“Let me have a look at that weapon, halfling,” called Belasco. “I believe I can put that to better use than you.”
Lox handed over the spiked chain and looked to Dent.
“I wanna pull something from the magic box,” he cried.
“What do you think, Nuttin?” asked Dent.
“Well, I actually have never heard of such a thing, but it is still glowing, right?”
“I say we let the halfling give it another try,” smirked Belasco.
“Yeah! Lemme try it again, Dent, pleeeeeeze?”
Dent bent down, allowing Lox to reach into the wooden chest. When Lox pulled his hand out this time, he possessed a potion.
“Hey look, it’s a potion that let’s you see in the dark,” Lox said.
“You jokester, Lumley. You can’t identify such things,” said Nuttin with a smirk. “Let me see that.”
When Nuttin took hold of the potion, however, he instantly knew what the potion did. Shocked by the knowledge, he just looked up at Dent.
“By my Granddaddy’s pickle pot, he’s right!”
“What nonsense is this,” Prynne demanded.
“It’s true,” Belasco said. “I can tell you that this spiked chain is magical. I can’t explain how I know it, but I knew as soon as I touched it. It’s impressive magic.”
“Let me try,” Prynne insisted.
She reached her hand into the box and pulled forth a chainmail gauntlet with solid metal knuckles.
“Amazing,” she said. “It was forged long ago by dwarves…it has amazing strength...”
Stunned that the box was still aglow, Dent decided to try, and pulled out what he described as a “Belt of Many Pockets.”
“Ooooh, Dent, please let me have it! I’ll trade you the potion I pulled for the belt with pockets,” cried the excited Lox.
“It glows still,” noticed Venus. “Let us continue to pull from this treasure trove!”
“Wait my friends,” called Nuttin. “We should consider the consequences of our actions. Do you really think that Korvish would allow such items to appear without some sort of consequence?”
“The halfling has a point,” said Venus.
“But what if this chest is here to provide us with items we need to complete our tasks or to help aid us, like the rings,” replied Dent.
“I say we take all the items we can. Sure we’re taking a chance, but we took a chance in entering this maze to begin with,” Prynne added.
The group just stood for a moment, pondering what Nuttin had said. Then Nuttin spoke up. “Dent has a point. Perhaps they are here to aid us…”
With that, the adventurers pulled one after the other until finally the glow from within the box dimmed and slowly died.
“Amazing,” commented Belasco.
By the time they had finished, the group collectively had a wide assortment of potions, rings, armor and weapons. Everyone found something to fit their own personal adventuring style as they divvied up the treasure evenly. Belasco had his Spiked Chain of Sweeping; Prynne had a Vampyric Short Sword; Venus had a Scimitar of Flying; Dent received The Silverman’s Axe; Lox clung closely to his Belt of Many Pockets and Nuttin was happy with The Staff of Evocation. Aside from magical weapons, the group divvied up amulets, bracers, rings, and cloaks. It had been a prosperous find, indeed.
“I wonder if we’ll get another box by pulling another lever,” wondered Lox.
Too preoccupied with their new items, the group didn’t notice Lox reaching for the Iron lever until it was too late. Acid rain poured forth from tiny pin-like holes in the ceiling, causing the party to shriek in pain.
Lox, realizing his error, pulled the lever again hoping to end the spray of pain. Unfortunately for the party, it only increased the precipitation of the rain.
“Dammit, Lumley,” shouted Nuttin.
The group began to scatter, with Nuttin and Prynne making their way out of the room and into the corridor.
Belasco decided to pull the Bronze lever, which seemed to have no effect. Dent pulled the lever closest to him, which happened to be the Gold lever. This produced a mist that sprayed him all over. Instantly he felt revived and made his way from the downpour. Venus reached for the Brass lever, which caused a set of pillars to drop from the ceiling, narrowly missing Belasco and Dent, who were making their way out of the room. Venus quickly followed behind.
“What is wrong with you!? You could have killed us,” cried Venus angrily. “Are you mad? As Belasco pointed out earlier, the only way to get a True Wish is to make it out of this maze alive! If that is not your plan, perhaps you should venture out alone!”
“I just thought we could get more magical goodies,” said Lox sadly.
“I told you,” said Nuttin, “you can’t get that many treasures without consequences.”
“Halflings…”mumbled Prynne.
Dent sighed. “Let’s move on.”
The Adventure Continues…
