Chapter 2: Out of the Frying Pan

The faces are all familiar: a stablehand a few years older than Yelnar, who was always gentle with the horses. An older man, wiry and grey-haired, the keep’s cook who swore he never used magic, but still managed to produce amazing meals... and a bit of sweet bread for the small boy who could never quite keep up with his brothers, no matter how hard he tried. A guardsman for the family, who had a bit of magical talent, but always preferred a sword and shield to a magic missile. There are around 20 in all, cut down by blades and axes and clubs before their time. Yelnar’s brother is not among the dead.

Elora is able to detect that each of the boxes bears something magical, but there does not seem to be anything magical about the boxes themselves, or the locks on the boxes.

Verrian takes a careful look at the boxes, and realizes that each has the same poison needle trap in the lock. Once the first one is disarmed, it's easy to see how to take care of the others. However, the locks seem to have been rusted or otherwise damaged during storage, because they're surprisingly difficult to open.

But, given that there's a fair amount of time and no major rush to get them open, Verrian continues to poke and fiddle at the lock and finally, each of them pop open.

The first box is surprisingly large inside, for its size. In fact, as you look at it again, inside and outside, it does seem that there's some sort of extradimensional effect on the inside of the box. There are several books inside that would appear to be spellbooks. Nothing else is inside the first box.

The second box contains seven potions. Conveniently, they are labeled with runes that can be easily deciphered with read magic.

Two are potions of mage armor, two are potions of cure light wounds, one is a potion of cure moderate wounds, one is a potion of enlarge person, and the last is an oil of magic weapon.

The final box, the small metal box found along the corral fence, contains a ring and a letter. The ring is clearly magical, giving off a faint abjuration aura to a detect magic spell, but is not immediately identifiable.

The letter is readable, but cryptic.

Stones and time
Bears watch still
Ancients lay buried
Circle calls them forth

There is also a crude drawing, which seems to be a map of sorts.