Zoom 2021-05-27 21:00

Summary: “Oh Bugger!” said Pooh. AGAIN!
DM answers/clarifications
* The ‘Manifest’ referred to in Legend 22 - Mithril are the manifestations of a religion such as the First Sword of Shanah, the Guardian of Wyldwood etc. The other religions have their own, and Darrell will send us notes on them.
* The Drake/Dragon prints at the ‘bomb-site’ appear to show the creature landing/appearing, looking around and then taking off. It seemed heavier but shorter than the Lady In White. The Drake/Dragon prints were not contemporaneous with the horse prints.
* Brokev definitely thought that the Lady In White was 'of the Wild'. Brokev's Wild line clarification: run of the mill Wild, not WILD touched like the centaurs of the Wildwood introduction (though she is!).
* The Spy’s detect lie/evasion skill also acts as counter-detect lie/evasion – and Phinon was obviously very good at it, and chose not to hide the fact that he was using it. The exact mechanism of who ‘wins’ when two people with this skill try to ‘overcome’ the other’s ability was not explained (ie DM will make it up as he goes along...)
Opening the underfloor compartment:
The magic users and thieves arrive as ‘merchants’ as expected. It takes 2 and a half hours (and the use of the second anti-magic spell) but the thieves successfully open the compartment and remove a small, heavy box. They also successfully reinstate the traps (confirmed by Find Traps showing that all wards and warnings are still in place.) The party congratulate the thieves, the thieves congratulate themselves and then all leave happily. In the meantime, Joshua sells the wine to the real merchant in the group for 40gp.
See Inside The Underfloor Cubbyhole
The effects of the box:
Caradoc, who is holding the box, starts finding it hard to concentrate and starts losing track of conversations etc – like a strong localised ‘Great Spell of Forgetting’.
The party decide to see if it affects each member equally – or if high wisdom, high int, low int or wis, different religions etc might provide some protection.
* Joshua has the same effect.
* Garaf has the same effect.
* Quercuis tries putting the remains of the mithril symbol on it. Same effect.
* Umar picks it up and looks at it dimly. Same effect.
* Dougal: same effect.
* Wun – won’t go near the damn thing. Has an extremely strong antithesis to it.
* Twoo: Same effect.
* Bazin, like Wun, won’t go near it.
* Brokev strongly dislikes it, but would be prepared to touch it if asked. We didn’t ask.
The party concludes from this that the box probably contains an extremely powerful Avatar, as the clerics’ antithesis to it is similar - but much stronger – than what they felt from the Wild avatar Brooch. The fact that the Wyldwood druids didn’t feel discomfort implies it isn’t a Wild avatar – so it’s probably Elvish.
The party therefore decides that the best thing to do is not to open the box, but to try to get it to some appropriate high level authority who might know what to do with it.
Unfortunately, the box has different ideas about this and decides to open itself.
Can’t we just take the money?
The clasp on the box pings open by itself, and can’t be closed. Caradoc wraps wires around the box to keep it closed. These start to snap. Umar manages to use his strength to close the clasp on the box. Quercuis has an idea and takes the now-closed box to the courtyard to see what the Tree makes of it – but the Tree starts ‘shuddering’ as it is brought close, so Q. doesn’t go any closer. Then the clasp pings open again - and there is a knock at the front door.
So, Caradoc rushes out through the back door to go see who’s at the front door, and Umar tries to close the clasp on the box again. He fails – and is aware that he ‘saved’ against something happening to him. Unable to keep the box closed, Umar chucks it to the far side of the courtyard, and the party prepare for combat against …... a box.
Meanwhile Caradoc gets round to the front of the house to find a pair of Elves who disdainfully state that we have something of theirs, and they want it back.  “Or what?” asks Caradoc. “Or it will do what it can do” say the Elves. Caradoc shrugs and decides to let them in by using his special knock on the front door.
During this time, the box is the courtyard has grown bigger, and the lid opens. The party continues to look on warily, while Francis and Brokev go to open the front door in response to Caradoc’s knock.
Francis was not really expecting to see a couple of Elves – the slayers/imprisoners of his family – standing casually outside his front door, so he does the natural thing (for him) of trying to skewer them on his longsword – aided by Brokev. A round of hits are exchanged with F. and B. coming off decidedly worse, and as others in the party prepare to fight the Elves, Caradoc steps in between the Elves and F. and tries to stop the fight – muttering something along lines of ‘way above our pay grade’. This does not deter Francis one little bit, and he is obviously prepared to hit Caradoc in order to get to the Elves.
The rest of the party now don’t know really what to do given our two fighters trying to hit the Elves but Caradoc trying to stop them. General consensus is that this is a fight we will lose – so Twoo casts a ‘sleep’ spell on Brokev (it worked – no need for an ‘enhanced’ sleep this time) and as F. carries on attacking the Elves, the clerics move up to be ready to pick up the pieces. F. puts us a good show, but is soon on the ground - unconscious, bleeding heavily and near death. The Elves step back and allow our clerics to bind and heal F. (but we don’t bring him back to consciousness yet!) 
One Elf dim-doors towards the box, reaches in and takes out a small silver brooch. Shouting ‘Got it!’ he saunters back to the front door, tips Caradoc 1gp and then both Elves leave. Important correction by the DM: The Elf that "tips" Caradoc is the one who remained by the door, not the one who picked up the mcguffin from the chest. This coin is revealed to have a Wyldwood symbol scratched into it.
What we are left with:
* A magical ‘box of holding’ - it is a 1 foot cube, that shrinks down to a 4” cube when the lid is closed (without crushing the contents!)
* 3 magical scrolls (still in the box)
* A magical Necklace (still in the box)
* Some patching up to do with Francis.
* The feeling that we are in deep doo-doo. 
*And a gold coin with a Wyldwood scratched into it.