Rune puzzle cube

The rune puzzle cube is a small cube in the campaign Yeni Dünya ("New World") whose faces bear runes and can be turned to solve it. It was among the gifts brought to the band of adventurers by Travis, who said that his people did not know how it worked and hoped its new owner, the gnome engineer Finli, could solve it.¹²³

How it works

It is not enough to gather matching signs: a face must be set so that its runes form a meaning. When the runes of one face were arranged to mean curse and binding, that face woke a power of hexing, and a solved face stays fixed. The meaning of a face's runes becomes clear only once it is complete; Finli thought he might try to copy them. When every face is solved, something will come out of the cube.⁴⁵⁶

The faces opened

After about a day a second face opened, which lets its holder vanish into mist and appear elsewhere; Finli first used it in a fight, turning the cube to disappear and reappear beside Fauna. Later, with Fauna's help, he solved another face, and a rune meaning speed lit up. Further attempts failed, at the clinic and on the road to Uzun İskele, though the cube was said to hold mechanisms that would make later solutions easier.^7891011

In a fight on the road to Aquila, Finli turned the cube and touched it with words of power; as it spun and slowed, his own movements quickened. When he shifted place, the cube closed and mist covered him before he appeared elsewhere.¹²¹³

In a shared dream-like vision the band later passed through, Finli found the cube just as he had left it.¹⁴