Disclaimer: I do not own any of the races, classes, lore, spells, or mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition from Wizards of the Coast. This is a fanfiction story based in a personal world with original characters. No money is being made from this work. This is for pure amusement due to my fascination with D&D mechanics.
D&D Adventure
Pt. 13 - The Cube
Ander and Kerri rejoined the group just as the foursome arrived back from their scouting expedition.
"How's it look down there?" Lia tucked the book away in her bag and stood up.
"There's a door at the end that was barred from the outside." Iados said. "Jun lifted it off like it was nothing. We didn't open it, but I did try to peep in through a crack in the bottom of the door. Way too dark to see anything though."
"Well, what are we waiting for? We know the Cube is in there, let's finish this." Kerri clapped her hands excitedly and moved forward a couple of feet down the hall. Elaine cast a worrying eye over her friend as she walked past. She made a mental note of her slightly puffy eyes and fresh tear tracks.
"Are you ok?" Elaine asked as she jogged to catch up. Kerri nodded.
"I'm fine, I was just overwhelmed for a minute with all that dust." Kerri said with a smile as she literally waved off her friend's comment. Elaine wasn't reassured.
"I'm with Kerri, let's finish this and get out of this place, it's really depressing." Carric marched over and stood next to his fellow Half-elf. "I assume that Jun and Iados will of course volunteer to go through the door first."
"How come we have to go through first?" Iados asked as the group began moving forward, Jun taking the lead.
"I'm much better long-range." Carric trailed the group from behind, bow out and ready.
"You were pretty good with those swords of yours back with the Kenku." Jun called out over his shoulder.
"I don't remember that." Iados's face twisted in confusion.
"You were unconscious, again." Carric said, making sure to emphasize 'again'. Iados glared.
"That was kind of funny thinking back on it." Lia tapped her chin. "I come up the road, dragging an unconscious Ander, I look up to see what the noise is coming from the building, and there's you in a heap on the ground. I distinctly remember cursing."
"I've gotten better at dodging." The Tiefling growled as Lia came up and patted him on the back.
"We know, it's all thanks to the slow dancing you do." Lia reassured him.
"It's not dancing," He said dejectedly as they reached the door. "I'll explain later, let's just kill this thing."
Jun did a final check that everyone was ready, and Elaine made sure that everyone's Light sticks were good to go. With a yell, Jun kicked the door open and strode in, his eyes scanning all around looking for a large transparent Cube.
As everyone crowded in behind him, they all took a moment to take in the room. It was a large room, probably forty by forty. The corner opposite the door held the remains of several collapsed and melted wooden bookcases. The remains of a desk or table stood a few feet away. The floor itself was absolutely spotless save for a few divits from presumably acid puddles. In the far corner, were the remains of a circle with runes etched into the stone. Several of the runes were cracked and parts of the circle just gone. On the far wall to their left, stood a door.
Elaine was the first to see it. As she'd scanned the room, the Light hit the area around the circle…differently. It seemed to be refracted in a way. Either way, it wasn't natural. Elaine hissed to her party members and pointed in that direction.
Lia made the first move against it. Bringing her hands up, she recited an incantation under her breath as she cast the spell. A loud cracking sound filled the air, as weeds and vines sprang up out of the stone in the area Elaine had indicated. In a matter of seconds, a twenty foot of square of vegetation had captured the cube. As the vines twisted through its body, everyone could see as the acid corroded them. Already the smell of burning vine filled the air as the cube ate through its prison.
"Hurry and get through the door, I don't know how long this'll hold him!" Lia yelled as she moved farther into the room. Kerri, Elaine, Ander, and Carric all rushed past the vine patch. Carric was the closest to it, and with unnatural speed, a sliver of the cube shot out with a squelch and slapped Carric like a whip as he ran past. Carric hissed in pain as the acidic slap cut into his shoulder. Once they reached the door, they were relieved to find that it was unlocked.
Stumbling in, they found an area that could be called a chapel. About four or so pews were set up facing a table that was decorated as an altar with a black tablecloth reaching down to the ground. Candles were set up around the edges, with a metal outline of Vecna's symbol sitting on top.
"Start looking for that letter." Carric said as he took up a position at the door with his bow. Ander and Elaine looked around the pews, while Kerri took the altar. As she moved the tablecloth aside, she screamed. Carric rounded on her, bow drawn.
"It's ok," Elaine assured the archer as she raced over. "It's only a body." As she'd lifted the tablecloth, Kerri had come face to face with a skeleton dressed in a black robe, curled around a wooden box.
"I'm so sorry," Elaine whispered as she pulled off the skeleton's fingers in order to reach the box.
Back in the room, the cube was slowly but surely inching its way out of the vines. While Lia moved to a position behind it, Jun had pulled out his javelins and was chucking them at the cube. Iados, in an effort to cover Lia while she moved, had taken to grabbing pieces of strewn wood and chucking them into the mass as well. Each item thrown in was just absorbed into the Cube with a disgusting sucking sound. They could see the pockets of acid move around within it, moving to eat whatever the latest catch was.
"At the very least, we'll be able to see him with all this debris in him." Iados said as he threw a whole shelf at the creature.
"Until he dissolves it anyway." Jun threw another javelin. He could tell that they were drawing its attention as it inched slowly in their direction.
Seeing that the cube was about to escape the vines, Lia tried to lasso it back with Thorn Whip. The first one grabbed onto the cube, but before it could be pulled back, an acidic pocket had already moved and eaten through the vine as it cut into the creature. On the second try she succeeded in pulling it back before the vine broke.
"What's taking so long?" Jun called to Carric, who was taking pot shots at the creature. Little by little they could tell that the cube was taking damage as it seemed to shrink, but not enough.
"They're being bested by a box." Carric called back as he looked over his shoulder. All three of them were trying to break open the box. After Ander accidentally hit Elaine's finger instead of the lock, Carric gave an exasperated sigh and ran over.
"We are supposed to be quick." Carric took the dagger from Ander and broke the lock with one hit of the hilt. Inside was a folded piece of parchment and four gems. Ander quickly grabbed the gems and stuffed them in a pouch, while Carric pocketed the parchment.
"Hurry up!" Iados yelled, his head sticking just inside the doorway. As quickly as he was there, he was gone. Kerri headed to the door and got there just in time to see the cube reach out and grab onto Iados's leg as he ran by. With a cry of pain, he tumbled to the ground, the arm burning into his flesh. Jun ran forward and wrenched Iados out of its grasp. Lia stood near the door they'd entered from.
"Is there another way out of the room?" Lia yelled at Kerri. The cube was at the edge of her vines, and obviously its reach made the path to Jun and Iados dangerous.
"I don't know!" Kerri yelled back, panic beginning to creep into her voice. Turning her back, she quickly scanned the room, only to find that everyone else was already working on it. Against the fall wall was a familiar metal door, and this side had handholds. As she turned back to Lia, Kerri felt a stinging pain around her ankle.
"Shit!" Kerri said as her ankle was pulled out from under her as the cube pulled her towards it. There was a grunt above her, and suddenly a hand was pulling Kerri's entire arm back and for a moment she was the rope in a game of tug of war. With a disgusting squelching sound the cube lost its grip on Kerri's ankle. Carric wasted no time in pulling Kerri back into the room.
"The metal door opened into this room!" Carric yelled out at the others as he watched Jun jam his last javelin into the creature. "We'll meet you at the fountain!" Carric slammed the door to the chapel shut. Elaine and Kerri were already ready with a pew that they shoved in front of the wooden door.
It took all four of them to pull up on the metal door, and quite frankly it was a miracle that they were able to jam another pew under it long enough for them to escape. As the four of them went running down the hall they heard the crunch as the pew gave up.
In a full-out run, it wasn't long before Ander and his short legs started to fall behind. Carric paused and scooped the Halfling up on to his shoulders as he chased after the girls. As they ran up the illusioned hallway, all of them were too focused on running and getting back to their party members to be trapped by the illusion. Ander however was caught, and as Carric forcibly pulled him through, a stabbing pain went through his head that caused him to see stars and feel disoriented. As they flung open the door, Kerri led the way through the shortcut hallway they'd taken nary an hour ago. When they emerged into the main hallway, they saw Jun and Iados anxiously waiting for them while Lia stood on the lip of the fountain and hurled puffs of gas at the cube to no obvious effect.
"Hurry!" Iados yelled as he and Jun started up towards the entrance. Carric passed off the Halfling to Iados once they were in range, and he pulled out his bow once again. With Carric bringing up the rear, they all ran up the slippery passage. Thankfully it seemed to be easier going up than it was down, for some. Halfway up Kerri's foot that'd been grabbed by the Cube gave up and she fell down. Immediately she started sliding back down towards the cube that was only a few feet behind them.
With instinct kicking in, Jun reached out as Kerri slid past him and grabbed her arm. Her shoulder jostled painfully as her descent was abruptly ended, but she was too grateful to complain. With Jun's help she scrambled up and they burst out in the fading sunlight with everyone else. Elaine and Carric stood at the mine entrance and fired a few more shots each into the creature.
The creature swelled up, and burst like a balloon. With it's ooze and acid mixing with the loose gravel and mud, it began to slide down into the mine. The smell of melting stone wafted up out of the passage as those with darkvision saw pools of acid begin to form all the way down.
"Quick question," Iados said as he stood watching the slow descent of the acid into the chamber below. "While you guys were furiously running for your lives, did you stop and grab the chest of money?" Silence descended upon the group for a full minute before Kerri burst out laughing, followed by Elaine.
"I think that's a no." Jun said as he settled himself down on the ground, not caring about the lingering mud. His breath came in ragged breaths and his heartrate was up. He felt like he was coming down off a Rage, but more in control. He liked that feeling.
"Is there a way we can get back in to retrieve the chest?" Lia collapsed on the ground leaning against Iados as he followed suit. Soon everyone was down in one form or another. Ander had splayed eagle.
"Maybe, anyone got some lye or ammonia?" Ander asked out loud, his eyes closed as he soaked in the sunlight.
"I've got a bar of lye soap on me." Carric said, with accompanying cries from Elaine, Kerri, and Jun. "Don't think we're gonna find any ammonia though."
"That's ok, remind me in the morning to test out the lye bars and see if that's enough to neutralize the acid in the passages." Ander said, his voice noticeably tired.
"Hey," Jun said as he stood up. "Don't fall asleep here, let's at least make our way back to our cave." The Barbarian picked up the Halfling, and led the party back to the cave they'd used previously.
Jun and Iados volunteered to go find some firewood and they feasted on Owlbear meat that night. Afterwards, they all settled in for an early night after a busy day.
"So, what do you think of Ander's idea?" Jun asked Carric as they sat around the campfire. Everyone else had already turned in even though the sun had just set.
"You mean of joining up as an adventuring party?" Carric broke off some sticks and flung them into the fire. Jun nodded.
"Do you think it's a good idea?"
"It's a better idea then him just going off by himself." Carric gave a small chuckle. "What can I say, I mean, we've all heard the stories of parties going off and finding treasure. Treasure to set them up for the rest of the lives, treasure that made them nobles and knights. Performing daring deeds that made those groups legends."
"What about all the stories of those who die adventuring?" Jun countered. "Ander said so himself, there are those who don't adventure because of how many didn't come back."
"This could be a real chance to change your life. A chance to find treasure like what's stuck down in the mine right now. With enough money you don't have to answer to the world, the world has to answer to you. I don't see the problem with adventuring for a while at least. Also, in a party this size, we stand a good shot."
Jun sighed and hung his head, but he had a grin on his face. "You do make a good point about our party. There are some I worry about, but they all held their own, including you."
"I'm probably the person you have to worry about the least." Carric leaned back and stared up at the cave ceiling. "Let's make a deal, if we go through with this, I'll keep an eye on Elaine and Kerri, and you keep Ander out of trouble."
"What about Lia and Iados?"
"Let's see if they can keep each other out of trouble first."
"Ok, and what if you get into trouble?"
"Then I fully expect you to rally the troops and come get my ass."
"And if I get in trouble?"
"Then I will rally the troops and run the hell away because I don't want to meet anything that can take you down."
Jun howled with laughter, before he quickly stifled it and cast a nervous gaze out at those sleeping. "It's a deal," The two of them shook hands. The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
The next morning, Carric ventured out into the Settlement in search of arrows and more salt. While he was gone, everyone else accompanied Ander back to the mine. They ground down the lye soap bars into a powder and set off. Elaine lit three Light sticks and handed them out. Elaine wasn't wearing her armor. She'd been convinced by Iados that she might not want to be weighed down as they went down a tunnel of acid puddles, just in case.
There'd been a late-night sprinkling, and that'd been enough to wash some of the larger acid puddles further down the tunnel.
Instead of walking in the mud, almost everyone decided to walk on the exposed stone as much as possible. The stones were pockmarked from the acid, but they were the clearest acid-free trail they could see.
Ander tested the lye powder on some of the small acid puddles they came across, their surfaces hardening. He saved the majority of the powder though for the main course. By the time they came across the broken fountain they'd found the large puddles of leftover ooze mass and acid. Some of the larger mass chucks still held the acidic pockets, but the whole area had a rancid smell. The ooze was decomposing fast.
Taking a small amount of the lye powder, Ander sprinkled it over the nearest acid puddle. The mixture immediately began to bubble and fizz with loud pops. After about a minute, the surface of the puddle began to hard until it was a solid block.
"I think this'll work." Ander said. "We'll have to go slow, but we should be able to carve a path to the chest." It took the better part of the next two hours to navigate as straight a shot to the guardroom as possible.
They quickly found that the ooze was a very good vessel for carrying the acid far and wide. The ooze spread out thin over the floor, flooding cracks in the walls and floor. As the ooze flooded, it brought the acid. In a couple of places, the group could see large cracks in the walls as the integrity of the walls was comprised and the weight of the earthen ceiling and the mountain above bared down.
One of the more prominent places of this damage was the shortcut passage.
"Do we want to risk it?" Ander asked as he eyed the large crack that traveled the height of the wall.
"Not if we don't have to." Jun moved the group down the main hall and through the door that still sat opened. Just inside the door was one of the largest puddles of ooze, since it'd been funneled into one place. Ander used the powder, but he couldn't be sure how much of it was acid and how much of it was ooze.
"We don't all have to go in." Kerri said as she surveyed the room. "I'm pretty sure I can jump that easily enough."
"Me too," Iados handed his weapon to Lia and started to stretch. They'd all left the majority of their gear back at the cave. No sense in risking it down here with the acid. Kerri handed her sword to Elaine.
"We're so close now,
Just a jump and a skip,
To the treasure we found,
In this acidic pit." Kerri sang as she stretched.
"Not one of your better ones, but I guess it'll work." Elaine shrugged as she judged the attempt at Inspiration.
"Let's see you do better." Kerri challenged.
"And dare to do better than one who's been trained her whole life to perform feats of song and dance, I wouldn't dare." Elaine smiled sweetly. "But in all seriousness, be careful."
Kerri nodded and turned to Iados. "You or me first?"
"Why don't you let me, that way I can save your butt if you trip." Iados cocked a wicked grin. Backing up as far as he could, he took a running start. With a perfect long jump the Tiefling cleared the puddle and stuck the landing on the other side. "Your turn." Iados said as he turned around, his grin even wider.
"Here goes nothing." Kerri backed up and ran forward, attempting a long jump same as Iados. Her jump was actually smoother than Iados's, not that anyone but Iados noticed. She cleared the puddle no problem and stuck the landing.
"That was fun." Kerri told Iados, a huge grin on her face.
"What till you try that on a ship mast during a storm. Then it's really fun." Iados gave a laugh. Turning back to the group at the door. "You guys want to toss us a light?" Jun threw one of the sticks at the Tiefling, and Iados caught it easily. "See you in a minute."
The two of them headed off towards the chest.
"See, now if that was Lia, I'd be worried about growing bored." Ander commented as they watched the duo disappear around the corner. Lia rolled her eyes.
"Have any of you thought more about my offer?" The Wizard asked, settling himself down on an untouched piece of stone. Ander was small enough to find a place big enough, the others were forced to stand.
"Carric and I talked about it last night, and we're both of the mind to agree." Jun kept his eyes on the area around them.
"I have no problem with it, really my only other career choice right now is working in a Temple and I don't want to." Elaine shrugged. "I can guess what Kerri's answer is."
"She already gave me her answer." Ander said. "Lia?"
"Why not? It's not like I have a life waiting for me back home." Lia sighed and leaned against a wall. A bit of dust filtered down from above and landed on her. "I hope they're quick, this place doesn't seem like it'll last much longer."
"Which is weird, because dwarves are usually very good builders, especially underground." Ander gave a little cough from the dust.
"One could argue that they weren't exactly motivated to do their best in renovating this place." Elaine eyed the ceiling warily. "What was that?" Elaine started looking around.
"What was what?" Lia asked.
"I thought I heard something, it sounded like water." Elaine started to get worried. "How close to the mine was that underground river?"
"Close enough to be diverted. Stay here." Jun left the group and headed back down the hallway, scanning the ceiling. He disappeared around the corner as he went down the shortcut.
"Hey guys, you mind hurrying up?" Ander called down towards Iados and Kerri. Jun reappeared from the shortcut.
"It's not coming from there," He continued down towards the fountain.
"You guys ready to catch?" A voice said from the doorway. Looking back, Iados and Kerri stood on the other side, each of them carrying the chest.
"Not quite, Elaine thinks she heard water and Jun went to go check it out." Lia explained. "How heavy is it?"
"Heavy enough, move out of the way." Iados and Kerri began swinging the chest. "When I say 'Go', move out of the way." Iados began to count.
"1, 2, 3, go!" The two of them hurled the chest over the puddle, but the angle was bad. The chest hit the side of the doorframe and just shattered. Money pieces flew everywhere, hitting everyone and everything.
"What the hell?" Jun roared, having arrived back just in time watch the chest shatter.
"Sorry, my bad." Iados sheepishly raised his finger. Jun just took a deep breath.
"Lia, you and Elaine go get some bags to put the money into, I highly doubt all of it is going to fit in our pockets. The rest of us will start picking it all up."
"Got it!" Lia and Elaine ran off to follow Jun's instructions. Elaine stopped for a second.
"Oh, did you find anything?"
"There's some water bubbling up from the fountain. Everything looked stable enough though." Jun explained, and Elaine nodded and ran off.
It took the girls about ten or so minutes to come back with an emptied pack and a blanket.
"Best we could do, sorry." Lia handed the blanket to Jun, and then tossed the pack to Iados. The throw was a little short, but Iados was able to reach out enough to just save it from the puddle.
"How bad's the loss?" Elaine looked at the large stacks of coins that Ander was accumulating.
"Not as bad as it could have been. As long as the coins didn't fall in the acid pools, they seem to be alright. The ooze doesn't seem to be detrimental." Ander gingerly picked up a gold piece and added it to the pile.
"Did you see Carric?" Jun asked as he finished messing with the blanket. Using some creative folds and knots, he was able to make quite a large bag out of the blanket.
"Yeah, he was getting the last of the Owlbear meat and hide ready for transport." Lia explained as she started scooping Ander's piles into the new bag. "We explained what had happened and he just laughed."
"We would have brought his blanket as well but he was already using it to tie the Owlbear hide up in." Elaine winced as she accidentally touched acid instead of ooze.
"Oh yeah, Iados, are you in or out with the adventuring party?" Ander called out.
"In!" Iados yelled back.
"Alright, let's finish this up so we can be done with this stupid mine." Ander had a renewed vigor as he fished out coins.
An hour later they'd managed to save as many coins as possible. Ander estimated that they'd lost roughly a fourth of their haul, but overall it could have been worse. By this point though, dust and dirt had started to fall with alarming regularity from the ceiling, and looks up showed that a fissure had formed, originating from the shortcut hall and spreading fast.
Iados easily lobbed the full pack over to Jun, and then backed up for a long jump. This time he didn't have a good start and landed in the puddle. As soon as his left foot hit the ground, he yelled in pain and jumped away as fast as he could.
"Iados!" Elaine and Lia crouched down next to him. His boot had the whole bottom missing as the acid had eaten away and gotten to his flesh. Elaine took what was left of the lye and sprinkled some of it on Iados's foot.
"We need to get him out of here before I can do anything more. I don't want to waste a healing spell until I get a better look at it." Elaine explained as she and Lia helped Iados stand on one foot.
"Well, your turn Kerri." Jun turned back to the Half-Elf still waiting on the other side of the puddle, whose face had gone white. "You'll be fine, just jump like you did before and you'll make it."
Kerri gave a big gulp and nodded. She took quite a few steps back, and then ran. Gracefully she cleared the puddle and stuck the landing.
"See, nothing to it." Jun patted her on the shoulder before going over and slinging Iados over his shoulder.
The group headed off, and as they made their way carefully around the fountain, it was impossible to miss the new cracks that had developed both on the ceiling and the remains of the fountain. Water gurgled out of the cracks in the fountain, spilling onto the floor and mixing the remaining ooze and acid. Even moving fast, it was impossible to avoid the acid now.
Everyone's boots took the brunt of the acidic sludge but thankfully didn't penetrate. They all knew they'd have to replace their boots as soon as possible.
Heading back up the passage, the extra moisture in the tunnel had caused the mud, dirt, and rocks to shift. Ander, Elaine, and Kerri all managed to stumble, Elaine and Ander avoided any of the acid, but Kerri wasn't so lucky. Her right knee landed in a small puddle and she screamed.
Falling over, she landed in another puddle of acid. Her face hit the ground and her ear landed in the new puddle. Kerri screamed, and went unconscious, the side of her face beginning to smoke..
Lia was the first to act, rushing over and pulling her out of the acid. As soon as Elaine was within armshot, she pumped her highest heal spell into her friend. Lia and Elaine saw the faint glimmer of the magic as it wrapped itself around her burned knee and around her right ear. Kerri came to groggy consciousness. The two females helped her out of the tunnel.
The six of them were a messy sight when they finally got back to their camp. Carric had Owlbear cooking on skewers around the fire, as he salted what was left of the meat and divided it out. He managed to wrangle a few days rations out for everyone from what was still good of the meat. The low temps from the weather had helped keep the meat, but fresh meat does eventually go bad.
"What happened?" Carric cried as he stood up and helped Kerri. Elaine and Lia set about laying out Iados' and Kerri's bed rolls and the two patients were deposited on them.
"Acid," Ander grunted, as he struggled to carry the large blanket of coins.
Elaine dug out her 'Herbalism Kit', and then Ander's 'Healer's Kit' when he told her about it. Over the course of the next hour, between the two kits Elaine was able to create a salve that she slathered onto the acidic injuries. Iados's foot retained a small scar, but no lasting damage. It was the same with Kerri's knee.
As long as Kerri used the salve every day for a while, the burns on her ear and face around the ear would heal evenly and not scar. The actual ear though was a different story. As Elaine applied the salve to the top of it, the top half of Kerri's slightly pointed ear tore off. There was very little blood, and virtually no pain. Using a small knife Elaine was able to make the tear smooth so it would heal clean and straight.
"How's your hearing?" Elaine asked as she bandaged the top of the ear.
"I don't hear anything differently, so it seems I'm lucky that it was just the outside of the ear that was hurt." Kerri said softly, her eyes closed.
"I think we should stay for another day before we head out, to give you two time to heal fully before heading back to Rocklyn." Lia said from her place next to Iados. He was leaned up against a wall, his foot elevated on a bedroll.
"No complaints from me, I'd rather start my new life as an adventurer on the right foot." Iados said with a grin at his own pun. There were a few groans in response.
"Actually, about the adventuring party," Jun started.
"Don't tell me you're chickening out!" Ander said as he stood up. "We need you, you're the muscle!"
"Thanks, but I was just going to say that I need a bit of time before I start up. There's a place I've been meaning to go and I think now's a good time before we start this."
"Where are you headed?" Carric asked from his bedroll. He had his knife out and was trying to whittle some arrow shafts. His search of the Settlement had turned up a few arrowheads.
"The Silver Rise Mountains outside Dayur. There's some people I need to meet up there." Jun admitted.
"Then I'll go with you," Ander said as he sat back down and pulled the Driftglobe back into his lap. He'd been taking the opportunity while Elaine worked to try to find the last of the command words. "I've actually got some business in Dayur, and to be perfectly honest we need to get certified before we just run off and adventure."
"How about this, since there's actually someone I want to talk to as well, let's take some time and get some stuff in order. How long is it gonna take for certification to come through?" Carric asked.
"Anywhere from a week to several months." Ander answered with a shrug.
"Ok, how about we meet up in three months then?" No one had any objections to Carric's suggestion.
"We can meet up in Esterwill at the monastery." Iados offered. "They're used to having people crash there, so if we have to wait a bit longer for approval we can just stay there."
"Sounds as good an idea as any." Said Lia. She'd pulled out the journal and was reading through it more in-depth.
"Alright then, we've got a plan. We'll head out tomorrow, go our separate ways, and meet up in Esterwill in three months' time." Carric smiled, happy in the plan.
"So Ander," Iados looked over at the Halfling as the Driftglobe started to rise and hover above him. "What kind of info will be the Circle be needing anyway? Does a past in piracy disqualify you? If so, you can just tell them that I worked on an independent trading vessel."
A/N: Well, there it is, the end of the first adventure. At this point everyone is now level three. Because a lot of the classes have the first real class features come up, the characters will be taking some downtime to explore that. First up we'll have Jun's downtime as he heads into the Silver Rise Mountains with Ander! Stay tuned, and don't forget to review!