The four heroes, grunting and sweating, manage to lever one of the huge coppery doors into the slot on one of the six sides of the Godbox. This close to the powerful machine, you can all feel your bodies vibrate and your vision wavers from the intense but short-range forces at work.
The door clicks firmly into place and a strange, high-pitched humming begins to emanate from deep within the machine. The xulgaths, now gathering in a crowd, look on anxiously.
"Is that...a good thing?" Wymond asks cautiously.
"Uhhhhh... yes? It's definitely powering up now, maybe we should see if these good folks want to help feed their god too? We've shown them this much so far.
OhMyGods!OhMyGods!OhMyGods!IHaveNoIdeaWhat'sGoingToHappenButIBetIt'sGoingTo BeEpicAndIHopeWeDon'tDie.
Perfire flinches as the 'god' begins to emit it's hum. When the expected explosion doesn't immediately occur he opens his eyes with tentative relief.
Lilika gets another door!
Wymond moves to help her move it.
The team goes and gets the remaining doors, feeding them into the machine one after another. Each subsequent door inserted into the device lowers the tone of the Godbox’s humming and increases its volume until the hum is the loudest thing in the room and you are shouting to be heard.
Five doors have been inserted into the machine and clicked into place. Worried (or is it angry?) troglodytes look on with reptilian gazes as you haul the last of the doors into the room.
'' Perfire shouts as they heave the final door towards the sphere.
Frizz's tiny frame sways under the final door as they approach the contraption.
Lilika pushes the last door into place.
Wymond finishes as he helps push the door into place.
With a sudden clang! that seems quiet compared to the previous noise, all the steel and iron objects fall from the Godbox's sides, treasure piling around your feet and the machine is quiet.
Deathly quiet.
All around, dozens of troglodytes gasp.
"You... killed the god!" yells Slaagh, furious.
Others shout in their own hissing, rasping tongue. Things look like they're about to get out of hand...
'oh dear' Perfire says faintly while backing away from the mob.
"Uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh.... good thing we're surrounded by weapons? I think now's the time to grab one? OrMaybeWymondCanTalkToThemAgain? OrMaybeWeTakeTheDoorsOut? OrMaybeTheGodIsAsleepAndIt'llWakeUpSoon?"
Frizz frantically scans the loot pile for her shortsword or any other weapon that looks well made. Fumbling her whip into hand.
Lilika raises an eyebrow, then bows down to inspect the machine, curious what's happened.
Desperate for weapons, Frizz can't seem to spot any of those he knows were there only just moments before!
Lilika inspects the defunct Godbox, with no idea what she's looking for. All she knows is that it's not doing what it had been doing.
"Way to go, Frizz!" Wymond comments, whirling around and yanking on the door they'd just put in place to try and remove it.
The door barely budges. Wymond can tell that it might come loose if a lot more force were applied, but he's not strong enough to yank it out on his own.
After inspecting the box, Lilika shakes her head.
"No," Lilika states loudly -- as if she totally knows what she's talking about -- "Did you not see it's spirit rise? Did you not hear it's final hum of joy? Your god has ascended. It's freed by our hand and your guidance. I suspect this is why it brought you here. You divine mission is fulfilled. Rejoice."
...she waits to see if they believe her lies spiritual insights.
For a moment, there is total silence. Then, "What?" says Slaagh. "But... but... food. And water." He thinks a little more "And peace between the tribes... What of that?"
Catching on, Perfire jumps in to aide. 'Maybe the god brought you hear for two reasons. To bring you together as one tribe and to have you here to help guide us towards freeing it. It knew if you worked together you'd be strong and wise enough to show us what it needed.'
"yes, yes, All praise...and glory...to the godbox...and stuff...it has ascended..."
Frizz continues to search for a suitable weapon for herself and Wymond, while going along with Lilika's ploy as well.
Lilika nods at Perfire. "Yes, of course you should remain united, that was the Godbox's will. And food is outside in the wilds. Have you been?"
Frizz, you can see a buckler, a battle-axe and a light mace at your feet.
"Ascended," croaks Savisk. "Then you have left us with no hope. No way to stay here and no way home!"
Perfire thinks for a moment as the troglodytes are given pause. 'And look at the bounty your god has left for you!' He sweeps an hand over the pile of metal objects at their feet. 'Surely with this hoard you could find a new home safely as long as you stayed together.'
Frizz looks at Perfire incredulously, mouth agape.
"You don't think we should take a small token or five of appreciation for the work we just did?"
She hisses under her breath.
She then nudges Wymond in the ribs and nods toward the battle-axe and buckler.
"Have you even confirmed that you can't stay here? Do you know for sure that the food and water have stopped now that your god is ascended? And even if it has, once a god ascends, it can look over you from a higher place now. Before it clearly could only influence your lives here because it was trapped here too. Now that it's ascended, it can watch over you all across Avistan!"
'Anything we keep is useless if they decide to kill us' Perfire whispers back.
Lilika nods along with Perfire then crosses her arms and gives the troglodytes a sorrowful look. "Such a lack of faith you display!" Lilika scolds. [b]"You assume your life here is over before even trying to continue it? Have faith in your god, and take comfort in the bounty he left you.
"There's ALWAYS hope, Slagh!" Wymond exclaims, giving up on the door and turning around.
"I don't presume te know yer god's ways, why it brought ye here, why it yanked iron to it like some lodestone, only te drop it now. I don't know why my own god sent a celestial pig te tell me I'm some kinda chosen champion."
Triath gives a snort that almost sounds like a "Huh?"
"But I'll tell ye what I do know. I know that there's a strength even a god can't match: the strength ye find in a family, in a clan, in a community. That is the greatest gift the skraa-orm thagh gave ye, ye have it still now, and it can never be taken away! These tools and offerings ye gave te the god? It's given them back te ye, and ye can use them te make yer lives even better, not just survive but thrive. Ye can trade 'em to the surface dwellers in places like Thornkeep an' Fort Inevitable, an' buy the seed an' supplies te grow food, stakin' out a place up there in the River Kingdoms te call yer own. An' that food'll be even BETTER than what the skraa-orm thagh gave ye, because ye can cook and prepare it however ye like. The fruits of one's labor will always taste sweeter than the things someone simply deigns te give ye. It'd be pleasin' te Erastil, my god, and prob'ly te yer own as well, wherever it's gone now. One god watchin' over ye got ye the stuff te start with...imagine the bounty an' happiness that could come with TWO gods watchin' over ye."
He gives a warm smile to the crowd, hoping his genuine offer of aid would convince them not to take cruel and bloody revenge, especially since he was armorless and the last time that had happened he'd nearly died.
As the camera zooms away from Wymonds face as he gives his godly speech, you see Frizz nonchalantly eying over the treasure some more as she plays with a red beaded necklace around her throat.
Savisk, the priestess stares at Wymond while her people grip their weapons and look angrily at their dead god. Triath makes a whuffling sound that just might be porcine amusement.
The troglodyte eyes her people, your people, your distant weapons and the huge pile of loot. She looks back at you and speaks to her people. With an unreadable face, Slaagh translates. "She says we have passed the Test of the Godbox. She says we will go and find a new place with the treasure the god has given us."
Savisk looks now at you all. "She says you may choose the best item for yourself, and the rest will belong to the xulgath. She... she..."
Slaagh and Savisk talk back and forth briskly in their language. "The great and wise Savisk says that I will accompany you as a... lightbringer. A torch-bearer."
Perfire breathes a sigh of relief at Slaagh's words and almost immediately regrets it, catching another whiff of the gathered xulgath. His minds then sets to the riddle of the 'best item'.
Wymond breathes a sigh of relief, and then gives Savik and Slagh a gracious bow.
"Thank ye, Slagh. That is a relief and a generous gift."
He rubs the back of his neck.
"How long would ye be comin' with us fer? We'd not want te keep ye from yer people fer too long."
Slaagh looks back to Savisk and then back to you. "Permanently, it seems."
As soon as Slaagh mentions they get to choose some loot, Frizz jumps with a clap and immediately bends down to start cataloging the various items around the GodBox. She doesn't seem to hear about the addition to their party.
She'll begin to make piles categorizing things by item type and then quality. Armor in one pile. Small weapons in another. Big weapons in another. Magical looking things in their own pile.
Does Frizz have any particular ability she wants to bring to bear on the sorting activity?
Relieved this didn't turn to violence, Lilika slips off to re-equip herself. With her gear back on, she gives Slaagh a nod of welcome, then examines Frizz's piles of stuff.
She picks up the first object in the 'maybe magic pile' and turns it over in her hands for a minute to see if Frizz's goes is accurate.
A dud, she places into the new 'Junk' pile.
She repeats the process, picking up a mystery item from the pile, looking it over, putting it back down again. The magical objects, the places to one side.
You soon determine what's magical in the Godbox's hoard.
* A +1 striking greatsword
* A suit of +1 chainmail
* A brooch of shielding
There are also a suit of non-magical full plate armor and a cold iron (low-grade) dagger and a minor sturdy steel shield, as well as dozens of other pieces of armor, weapons and adventuring gear.
As she finishes sorting, she peeks Lilika working her magic.
With a beaming smile, she says
"Thanks Lilika! I thought maybe that big sword could be for Mister Wymond and maybe Mister Perfire would want some armor, and that necklace, I think that necklace would look pretty on you, but also this dagger looked pretty sharp and isn't normal metal..."
Frizz continues with a simple explanation for each piece of gear she thought might be magical.