Alice brings a box

"You guys ready for some fuuuun?" Alice practically sang as she entered the living room, carrying some odd box she'd found in the basement.

The house was very old, and there were plenty of weird items left over from the last tenants, one of which was the box she'd found the day prior. She'd go and look for strange things when she was bored, and had stumbled across the game which looked as though it was incredibly old, yet perfectly preserved. It was almost freaky. ...Almost.

Gretchen looked at the box with with curious eyes. She'd hoped to get some actual studying done today, but that wish quickly disappeared when she laid her gaze upon the strange object. She had a fascination for antiques, especially strange ones. This thing neatly fell into that category of interest.

Scooting over to the coffee table they'd gathered around Alice opened the box to reveal a boardgame with cards and a single die. This further piqued Gretchen's interest as she also happened to be a major game freak.

Alice and Gretchen quickly worked together to sort out all the items inside the old box and set up the game. Without consulting with her peers, Alice granted each of her friends a game piece each. At first glance they looked like bowling pins with various colors. There was a manual at the very bottom of the box that none of the girls bothered to retrieve and actually read.

Instead of reading the instructions, Alice figured the only way to play the game was to roll the die and move the pieces thereafter. The board was also split into different colors that matched the cards in the four decks. Putting two and two together Gretchen added that they were supposed to draw cards based on the color they landed on. This reminded her of a trivia game she'd played with her parents when she was younger. She was a brilliant trivia game player and had a lot of useless facts backed up into her brain for moments just like this. Her competitive side started to show as a grin began forming on her face.

Himari and Rebecca didn't seem to share their friend's enthusiasm, but decided to tag along never the less. The girls all placed their game pieces on what they assumed to be the starting grid. They then quarreled over who should start. Himari argued she should be first as she was the youngest.

Instead of just playing based on reverse seniority Gretchen proposed the girls roll for the order instead, to which they all agreed.

Alice, who was holding the die at the time rolled a one. Her disappointment soon turned into amazement as the game lit up for a brief moment.

(Rough sketch of the gameboard layout)

"Does this thing have batteries or something?" Himari asked quizzically.

"I have no idea, I found it in the basement yesterday. I thought it was like suuuper old or something..." Alice responded.

Had the girls not been so preoccupied with the source of the lights they might've noticed that their game pieces had been reshaped into miniature copies of themselves.

Without any input, Alice's piece moved on its own to the first square. This sudden movement creeped them all out. Rebecca jumped out of her seat in shock and asked who'd moved the piece in a frantic manner. There was no response, none of the girls had any idea why the piece had suddenly moved.

"Maybe it's magnetic?" Alice proposed, completely neglecting how the game had instinctively known which piece belonged to her.

"Well, I guess that settles who starts then.." Gretchen seemed a little disgruntled, she'd been the most eager to play and really wanted to go first. She'd have to be satisfied with going second it seemed, as she sat next to Alice.

Himari wasted little time and drew a red card for her friend.