DICECASTERS #2 The Oath Forged Key

Back in the magical world of the game, Henry, Robin, and Seth are starting to realize that every new quest brings more questions. When a golden key appears—and vanishes just as quickly—they find themselves unraveling riddles, navigating secret chambers, and uncovering hidden loyalties in the village they thought they could trust.

But something—or someone—is working against them.

As alliances shift and the clock winds down, the cousins must protect the key, outwit a cunning thief, and prove they’re worthy of unlocking the next level of the game.

It was a sunny Saturday morning and Henry sat on the basement couch, his back to the gaming table and the TV in front of him. Sunlight streamed through the narrow basement window, casting a golden rectangle on the dusty rug. The room smelled faintly of popcorn from their recent movie night, mixed with the crayons their mom kept in an old metal cookie tin.

The map still laid open on the table and the dice remained ever on the top. For the last month there had been no sign that the dice would ever glow again, but Henry refused to give up hope.

He looked down at the role-playing manual open in his lap before moving on to the character sheet in his hands. For the hundredth time since they had come out of the cursed forest, he stared at the journal with unknown contents on his equipment list and dreamt about what might be inside.

“It could be a giant book of spells.” he mused aloud.
His sister Robin was on the ground next to him, putting together a puzzle. She didn’t look up, just grunted in response.

“Or maybe there are more maps in it for other areas?” he continued, glancing over at the table where the map scroll lay.

Robin finally looked over at him, her right eyebrow raised slightly. “You’ve said that a time or two.” She laughed and went back to her puzzle.

She was right. There were only so many ideas that Henry could come up with for what might be in the journal, and he’d been over them all many times.

He sighed. “I’m just so ready to go back in!” he shoved the paper back into the book and slammed it shut with a loud crack. He put it head back against the couch and closed his eyes.

His rest was short lived as the door to the basement burst open and the knob slammed into the wall behind it. Henry’s eyes shot open and he saw his cousin Seth looking at the wall with a sheepish expression on his face.

Seth made a grimace and Robin pushed herself up to sit on her knees, glaring at the newcomer. “Better be more careful, or mom is going to be really annoyed.” she said.

He nodded grimly and carefully shut the door before bounding over to the table.

“Any change?” he asked, even as he picked up the non-glowing, rune-free dice. His face fell. “I guess not.” he said dejectedly before tossing the dice up into the air and catching them again.

The others murmured in response.

Seth moved over to the couch still tossing and catching the dice and sat next to Henry. He glanced at the manual Henry still held, with the crumpled paper now sticking out of the edge.

“Still looking at your character sheet?” Seth asked, nodding his chin towards the book.

“Yeah,” Henry muttered, watching the dice go up and down in the air. “And I’ve still got no idea what’s inside.”

Seth shrugged and shifted on the couch, trying to get comfortable. “So, what are we going to do today?”

Henry shrugged back, still watching the dice move through the air. “I figured we would just hang out here and keep an eye on the dice.”

“We could watch a movie? I think they are playing a double monster movie feature on Channel 13 today.” Seth reached for the TV controller, but stopped when he heard the groans of dissent from his cousins.

“Ok… um, we could play the game normally, you know, just with papers and our imagination.” suggested Seth.
Henry mulled over the idea, but shook his head eventually.
“Can you imagine trying to play like that now that we’ve been inside the game?”

Seth nodded. “Fair point.” he said, tossing the dice really high in the air. “Well, hey, these don’t look like they are going to start glowing any time soon.” He caught the dice and didn’t toss them again, examining the sides for any signs of the runes. “Why don’t we go watch the soccer games going on at school today? You know, my mom’s a nurse and she always says that the full moon is when the most accidents happen. Maybe someone will get hurt!” said Seth, excitedly.

“Seth!” exclaimed Robin, craning her head around from her spot on the ground to glare at her cousin again.

“Not, like, badly hurt. Just enough to be funny!” Seth defended. Henry smiled at them both and took the dice from Seth’s hand.

Henry shook the dice, willing them to light up again. “I’m just ready to go back into the game, you know?” he said grumpily.

“Yeah, me too.” agreed Seth.

“And me too!” said Robin, putting the final piece of the puzzle in its place. “I want to make sure that Mara made it back to the village alright. It was so late at night when we left. I hope someone was waiting for her… ” she trailed off, pushing up and sitting back on her heels.

Seth stood up from the couch and took a step towards the basement door before turning back to face his cousins.

“Well, we will find out eventually I’m sure, but not…” he stopped mid-sentence.

Henry was frozen in place. His eyes fixed on the dice in his hand.

Robin looked from Seth to Henry, her eyes finally finding the dice. Her hand flew to her mouth.

The runes were back. And they were glowing.