The Last Role of the Dice: A Fable Adventure – Part 5

A tale where YOU choose what happens next! Or at least vote for it. Read Part 4 Here

The dice have spoken. You must get to Brightwood Tower and defeat the demonic presence there.

You reason that the three table-top game aficionados must have a pretty good idea of how to get to Brightwood in a hurry, since they have just completed a round trip. They tell you they made use of a secret cullis gate owned by a street magician in the Old Quarter. Ordinarily, only Heroes can use these transportation devices, but the magician has figured out how to let anyone travel through it. On the way to him now, they warn you that he can be tough to bargain with.

‘We had to give him an Orb of Interplanar Transference for our journey,’ says Ben. ‘And those are, like, really had to find.’

‘Don’t let him see your dice,’ adds Jim. ‘He’ll want them for sure.’

You arrive at a dingy, little tent in the Old Quarter, housed between a foul-smelling fishmonger stall and an Amethyst Clearing House. A crooked sign hangs on the front with the words ‘Miracle Bob’ painted on it. You’re surprised that not only are you and your three friends able to fit inside, but there is ample space for a cage full of dovitts (a hybrid of doves and rabbits), a large sarcophagus into which various swords have been inserted,  dozens of piles of books and a large chair upon which Miracle Bob himself is seated.

‘Back for another ride so soon?’ he asks upon seeing the trio. The turban on his head has been hastily placed there during your entrance and is slanting down over his face. After hearing of your need to get to Brightwood, he closes his eyes and puts a hand to his temple as if in deep concentration.

‘You have with you… an item… yes, a very special item. It is rare and precious and of great value. I can feel it calling to me. Yes, its voice is strong. It really wants to be with me.’ He opens his eyes as if coming out of a trance. ‘I’m afraid I’ll need to take it in payment.’

You put your hand in your backpack as the three table-top gamers look on in horror. Ben mouths a ‘no’. Jim closes his eyes and bites on his fist. But you have no choice. You take your hand out of the bag and produce… the book of alliterations you found next to you this morning.

‘Ah, I love alliterations,’ says Miracle. ‘They’re dazzling, dizzying and… um… d-d-d… oh, just give it here.’ He grabs the book from you as your three friends all exhale with exhilarated excitement. Miracle Bob raises a curtain behind him, revealing a stone circle with steps leading up to it. ‘Off you go then.’

After turning down Jim’s bids to buy the dice off you and promising to return one day to tell them all about your quest, you step on to the cullis gate and vanish into thin air. Although you remember Walter describing the sensation to you once, nothing quite prepares you for it, and you appear in Brightwood seconds later, out of breath and disoriented.

You don’t have time to get your bearings though, as you find yourself assaulted by hideous, floating, shrieking creatures. Banshees! It’s been decades since the last reported sightings of these beings, yet here they are. You can see the grounds leading to Brightwood Tower ahead, but the gate is covered by the banshees. You slash down as many as you can until, above the noise of their screams, you hear a man shouting: ‘Over here!’

A group of travelling traders have walled themselves up behind their merchandise by the side of the road. Some of their stock has spilled, including a bottle of green dye that stains a large section of road. One of the traders, whose moustache has turned green because of the dye, shouts for you to join them, claiming you’ll be safe while you wait for the banshees to pass.

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