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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1499100" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Riddle-BoxOur heroes nervously free the large cube from its emerald tether.  Sybele and Thrush (both of whom are larger than a normal member of their race through one form of magic or another)* fly up beneath it and catch it before it plunges into the Void.“Let’s take it back to Var to mess with it,” Orbius suggests, and the others agree.  A short trump contact later, the party has returned to the town that has become- more or less- their base.The box is big and heavy, and with a grunt the two oversized adventurers deposit it on the ground.  A close examination while it was still hanging had revealed three panels and some runes, and now our heroes examine the thing more closely.  Horbin, with his helm of subtitles, translates the runes: “Many tails have I,/ or many a beginning;/ If I fail people sigh;/ Wails mark their passing.”The three panels bear images of a mighty oak tree with many branching roots reaching into loamy soil, a cat with many hissing snake-headed tails, and a rope with one end frayed and partially unraveled.“It’s the rope,” says Sybele instantly.“Hold on,” Orbius cries.  “We should be careful- it might be some kind of trap!”  Sybele shrugs and subsides as the party renders up its customary flurry of divinations.  A pair of auguries are cast to determine whether weal or woe will result from pressing the cat or the rope panel; but the answer in ‘neither.’  Orbius casts a vision and sees them touching one of the panels, but on Moil.  “We have to take it back to the City That Waits to use it,” he tells the others.“Tomorrow,” says Angel.***That night, Sybele continues to expand her power of metamorphosis by changing into many different forms for Thrush’s enjoyment, starting with that of Queen Moira.  ***In the morning, Horbin issues a sending to Till.  Don’t give up!  I haven’t forgotten you- are you being treated well?  I’m coming for you!There is no reply. Near the end of breakfast, the group is summoned by King Malford.  “I’ve got to deal with a giant insurrection in the mountains,” he announces.  “Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone, all right?”  He glares at the L.“Of course not,” Lester agrees easily.“No more turning the hall to magma, or mud, or whatever!”“Er, right,” Lester nods.“And I’m sending you a bill for the repairs you’ve required.”“No problem, no problem.”  Inwardly, the L thinks, Damn- I’ll have to go adventuring some more.  I don’t have any money.Malford grunts and dismisses them, and our heroes once more take themselves away to the Demiplane of Moil, rooted at the edge of the Negative Energy Plane.***Lester auguries on the subject of touching the rope face of the cube, and the result is ‘weal.’“That’s the bad one, I think,” the L comments.  “No, wait a sec-“  Orbius, ignoring him, casts an augury regarding touching the tree.  The answer is ‘neither.’  Nodding his head, he touches the rope panel.  Nothing visible happens, so he scries the phantom flyer.  With a grin, he declares, “The red bars are gone!”***”What do you suppose the sands of time that the Vestige guarded were?” Horbin asks.  “We probably need them, right?”  “Good point,” Sybele says.  “Maybe Orbius or Lester can divine where they are.”Lester’s already done so.  “The Dreaming Tower,” he announces.“That sounds familiar,” Angelfire muses.“Yeah,” says Horbin, “remember that Faericles guy?”  Drelvin shudders.  “He said something about that!  He was guarding it or something, right?”“Hey, now that I think about it,” Angel answers slowly, “wasn’t there a bridge that led out of the room he guarded?”  She’s gazing at his tower.  “I see the one we went in on- when we worked our way up through the rooms of the tower of test- but not the one we saw from inside.”“You’re right,” says Drelvin.  “It’s only visible from within!”“Don’t tell me we have to work our way back up through there,” Patyn groans.“I don’t think so- maybe we can fly up and find the bridge.”It’s about time for another mass fly, so after that our heroes take flight.  Indeed, they find the bridge- including a small opening in the side of the tower that leads back into Faericles’ chamber.  They enter; from within, the bridge outside is plainly visible.  And so is the tower it terminates in.Our heroes take to the bridge.Soon they have entered the next tower.  A short hall has doors at either side; it ends at the central pillar that supports the shaft of the tower.  A gaping hole in the floor leads to a dizzy fall to the Void churning below.  On a jutting platform affixed to the central pillar is a red stone dais, on which is an hourglass filled with blue sand.  A message is engraved into the stone next to the hourglass in the same red stone as the platform itself.  Horbin reads, “When the sand run out bring the glass about.”  He turns to the others.  “Pretty self-explanatory.”He flips the hourglass and the sands start to run.  Orbius sends his mobile scry to check the phantom flyer, but the situation is the same. “I think we have to run the glass out and flip it again,” he states, and when they do- after an hour- his scrying eye shows the truth of the matter.  “It worked!  Two sets of bars down...”Also in the tower the group finds a large store of vials of something that Horbin tells them is labeled ‘lucidaphen.’“What’s that?” wonders Sybele.“I’ve heard of it before,” Ten Buck Tom states.  “It’s supposed to induce dreams of prophetic power!”“It looks a little messed up, though,” Thrush says.  “Look- these are kinda amber, but this one’s dark brown- yuck, it looks like it’s starting to congeal.”The group again breaks into a debate on the merits of trying the lucidaphen when they rest.  “After all, we don’t really know what to do next at this point,” points out Thrush.“We should go after Acererak and destroy him!” exclaims Patyn.  For once, Angelfire agrees with him.  They exchange a frank look.Everyone else, however, agrees that Felenga has to be their target.  “He’s the key to everything we’ve been involved in for months,” says Horbin.  “Let’s finish him off!  That takes care of the Temple of Elemental Evil, it clears up half our problems in one fell swoop.”“What else does Acererak’s riddle tell us?  We killed the dragon and the dark weaver with her glowing webs-““What if the emerald webs and the dark weaver are separate challenges?” suggests Thrush suddenly.  “That might free up the last set of bars holding the phantom flyer,” answers Sybele.“Okay- well, I’ve burned up most of my divinations for the day,” says Orbius.  “Plus we’re out of flying and stuff.  So let’s rest-““And try this lucidaphen stuff,” Angelfire interjects.“-and tomorrow, we’ll try to figure out our next move.”*One of Sybele’s warrior of chaos abilities was a size increase, with all the impressive stuff that entailed.  Thrush was subject to enlarge and permanency by Orbius.  Both of these things were in the story hour, but for those of you who either missed it or don’t go back that far, there’s the scoop. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Next Time: Our heroes take drugs and have weird dreams, then talk about it!  Much information is divined!  And our heroes find a real live Moilian!  (Yes, live as in living!)</blockquote>

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