On A Knife Edge

Chapter 6: The Battle has Just Begun

The party emerged from the ballroom; the cryptex clutched tight in Rance's hand.

"We should probably get back to the tavern." Rance said "to, if nothing else, get a little sleep. We can also see if we can find Grimble anywhere, but I doubt he will be there this late."

Lucian glanced up at the sky, the moon hanging high. "It must be late. When we were walking to the manor; it was just dusk. Hey Rance, on the way back can I see the cryptex? I think I can make out the runes on it."

Rance hands over the small metal box.

Lucian turns the small dull metal box with nine dials on the top that spin with different symbols on each dial in his hands. On the front of the box there is an inscription embossed that is in an infernal script. Lucian parses out the infernal and it says. "Forever I Burn."

Lucian looks at the party. "The box says Forever I Burn. That must be a clue to open it. Anyone have any ideas?"

Rory glances at Lucian. "Shouldn't we give the box thing to Grimble? I mean he is the one that sent us to cleanse the ghosts."

Rance speaks back up, "You know. I don't think we need to even tell him about the box. I mean he never said anything about retrieving treasure for him. Just that we needed to wipe out the ghosts which we did. Plus..." Rance now said with a conspiratorial tone. "Whatever is inside of this could be dangerous. We can just be giving nukes to a random guy."

"Brimstone!" Kainith then exclaimed.

"What?" Rory asked

"Brimstone." Kainith repeated. "I think the key to opening the box is brimstone. It's nine characters and meets the requirement of the clue. You know, Forever I Burn. Just like all the tales tell, in the dusty old tomes that talk about the hells."

Lucian like a flash, his hands dancing across the dials, spins them until the word brimstone is spelled in infernal runes.

"Click"

"I think it's open guys!" Lucian exclaimed

As he opened the box his excitement faded to confusion."It's a bunch of glowing golden strings?"

Kainith gasped "No way! Lemme see them!" He bounded closer to Lucian, yanking the box from his grasp.

"These are amazing. Look.." He took a string out and pointed at it. "You see the ridges on this string?" He hurriedly put that one away and pulled out a different string "And see this one? It's a little bit smaller around!"

Rance looked at Kainith with an exasperated look on his face. "Okay, yeah so? It's a box of golden string. Do you think it will at least sell for a decent amount?"

Kainith looked offended. "We will not be selling these." Kainith closes the box and puts it in a pocket in his jacket. He then reaches around and pulls his lute in front of him. "Those strings go on here." He plucks a few strings in a melody. "When Lucian said there were just golden strings I hoped they were what I thought they were. These bad boys..." he pulls the box back out of his pocket. "...are the Avengers Strings of Power or at least that's what some bard in Cainite called them. Legend says there were very few created and they make stringed instruments and the music they play more powerful."

Lucian piped up "I mean that is just legend do you really think some golden string could really contain magic like that?"

Kainith replied. "I do. Just a few days ago if you told me a colorful rock could teleport you between planes I would have called that crazy. Compared to that, these strings are nothing but I do think they will really help us on our adventure."