Cymnea's Watch investigation, part The Last!
Taleyn remains in constant contact with Robert while the others go about their business of sliding through worm goo and the like. She doesn't seem very talkative.
Robert is not especially talkative either. Something about blood loss and having used most of his willpower to get rid of spirits. Still, his wife is paying attention to him now. Things are looking up.
Raphaela sat up at one point, drinking up her water supply like there's no tommorow and helping Quin with graves. It goes slower now they're so close. She looks towards the two feldanes now and then to see if she needs to buy an urn.
When things get quiet, Taleyn intones from the depths of her concentration, "I think he will be all right, but I have to bar the Door until certain."
"Leave the knife," Robert instructs his wife of the thing still sticking out of his chest. "For now."
Taleyn says, "Yes. I will." She has bandaged him *around* the knife, so at least there's that. "So-- you can talk, can you?" an edge creeping into her voice.
Robert keeps his eyes closed, his pallor looking like someone who should be in his grave, even if evidence points otherwise. "That depends. If I can talk am I going to be in trouble?"
Taleyn keeps up the stern look. "Not at all. You are, however, in for quite the talking-*to*. But not now. For now, you stay put."
"I did what was necessary," is pointed out to Taleyn by Robert. Who is definitely not wishing to move just yet.
Taleyn hisses in a breath. "I recognize and respect it. Only next time, do *try* not to nick a major artery in the process! I'm really not qualified for field surgery."
Raphaela looks down at Robert, what...creepy feldanes. "You survived THAT? Sturdy man." she ponders "I would try salt seal but I never did it for a wound...and anyway...I'm out of salt. Should we trump him out?"
Robert shakes his head. "Taleyn barred the way." That's all the explanation he's about to give as he risks a deeper breath and finds it hurts.
Raphaela asks "Can you guys tell...if I managed to guess spots of the corpses right?"
Robert lets his eyes shut again and then shakes his head. "Too weak just now. Some time."
Raphaela is crouching by bandaged Bob (knife still in) and what wonder, he lives. Sturdy! Tally is focusing on keeping him a live, Liya is checking worm parts are really dead and Quin continued to dig, slowly, around marked graves.
Robert is even talking. Mostly to find out how much trouble he's in with Taleyn.
It does seem that the corpses are straight down from where Robert indicated. They encounter nothing in the digging for quite some, suspenseful time. Was it all for nothing??? The worms came out at a depth of something like 45-50 feet down from ground level. Another full 10 feet goes by. Tensions rise.
Quinlan is staying firmly out of the marital issues, now that at least he's not going to have to tell their mother that Robert's dead. Back to digging he goes, being careful not to damage any bodies he comes across. Possibly if he digs fast enough he'll dig his way to the Undercity and away from domestic disputes?
Robert does not have rising tensions. Mostly he has a rising and falling chest. Which is good enough for him right now, because even that hurts with a dagger still stuck, out of it.
Raphaela looks at Robert "HOw would he be able to tell?"
Robert shakes his head slowly. "Five in number, but no Sorgo or I would have Named them such."
Raphaela huhs "Odd. There were five with Sorgo...but there were also five attackers..."
Taleyn nods and says gravely, "Thank you, Beloved." To Raphaela she says, "Even in Death, a spirit can retain a ghost of its mortal seeming. If one was a Knight, say, you might see it still wearing its livery from life." She looks troubled. "Oh... I hadn't thought about their possibly being shades of the assassins! Set here to guard the ones they erased?"
Quinlan keeps digging, noting, "There's going to be more than five bodies then."
Robert manages not to make some trite comment. Just.
Quinlan's task would grow harder and harder, were density of the stone a problem for him. His power over earth is such that the change in stone is merely a detail. Suddenly, the hard stone gives way to something that feels more like cement.
Liya decides the worm is definitely dead. And she recovers from being dropped down to the rock along with the worm head. Ow. Mayhem mrowls softly, as she pets his head, and then the two come over to see what is going on, fairly quietly.
Raphaela wonders "I hope no more zombies. They were fun at first but they show up in EVERY adventur I have..." she crouches by QUin's dig and touches new ground. "Hm...."
Robert says, "I like zombies."
Taleyn answers Quinlan, "Not necessarily. Spirits can be summoned to guard an area and held in place in many different ways-- through an anchor, a bind, or even a geas undertaken in life. Plus other, darker methods." Her mouth quirks at Raphaela's remark. "You a magnet for the Undead, then? Perhaps we should follow you around."
Quinlan pauses his digging to tap the cement, scratching at it with his fingernails to see if it's old enough to be crumbly. "...This is new. Well. Not new. Different. Deliberate. Trouble?"
The cement, it looks so innocent!
Raphaela says "Oldest way of making your enemies vanish...Cement them in your basement...But with magic included...Maybe we could encounter some sort of seal too... As a detecting shield."
Liya gives the Feldanes a very worried glance, her eyes gleaming blue with a glow for a moment, and then she looks over where Quinlan is digging, concentrating there to see if there's anything she can sense. Mayhem looks that way too, curiously.
Quinlan sniffs at the revealed cement, probably sniffing for magic. "Learned to smell wards, working with Karm..."
Robert listens to all of this going on, a hand slowly lifting in an effort to find the hilt of the blade buried in his chest.
Raphaela nods "Right. We're missing a Karm! How did that happen?" she smacks her forehead. "Say...Can you at least tell me limit of the cementy part? Is it entire level or just one part of cellar?"
Taleyn doesn't quite slap Robert's hand, but it's a near thing. "What are you doing?" she hisses.
Robert's hand closes around the dagger and his gaze grows more distant. Is be planning on pulling the blade out? He goes still, for a long time. With that far away look on his face again. Maybe he died?
Liya extends her senses, and uses what she can of Mayhem's to examine the place, concentrating on sensing anything she can feel that might help. Danger? Nature out of sorts? Anything alive other than the group here investigating?
Raphaela's pale eyes scan the area for any weirdness. And her seals still hold where earth doesn't disrupt the salt.
Quinlan has his hands flat on the revealed cement, murmuring...after a few moments his eyes open. "Something odd there," he says, pointing. "Might be important, might be another trap. Ready for me to dig toward it?"
Liya moves towards Quinlan, her attention on a spot fairly near to Quinlan's left hand. "Something not right," she says, and then looks at Quinlan. "Are we talking about the same spot?" she asks, hopefully. She moves to point to the spot she's identified.
Robert's fingers tighten around the hilt of the blade and there's a grunt as he tugs at it in an effort to free the dagger. Really. And possibly bleed to death.
You paged Raphaela with 'If it were you, you'd sink a trigger into that cement so that anyone trying to dig through it would go KABOOM! And... You'd put it... THERE! Near where the others are looking.'.
Taleyn insists, "Robert! Stop it!"
Robert grunts. "Need it out."
Raphaela nods towars the spot "THat's likely where another trigger would be placed... should we try to avoid it or... set it off?" Raphaela contemplates "It might be design to damage the remains...in which case we'd lose all we came here for..." she places a palm on cement.
Taleyn makes an exasperated noise at Robert, but she cannot break concentration on barring his way, not even to look at her Trumps for useful rescue. Instead, she redoubles her efforts to bar his way-- "Fine!"
There's a sickening sucking noise and then the sound of something being freed that was under pressure. Yep, Rob got the knife out. Spurt.
Liya winces at that sound, and she looks over at the group. "Should we call for a Mandrake?" she asks, thoughtfully. Though her attention then goes back to Raphaela, to see if she can help.
Taleyn devotes every last scrap of her attention to keep Robert alive with no blood in his body. She is Not Pleased. Will probably be less so, should the room blow up underneath them.
Quinlan nods to Liyandra. "I think we leave it alone for now and get a Mandrake," he says. "She can keep him from dying. It's not the same as healing him."
Robert somehow manages to keep hold of the dagger, slick with his own blood. His other hand presses to the wound in an effort to seal it. Small s.
"I don't have any way to contact one, do you, Quinlan?" Liya asks, first. "Or Raphaela?"
Raphaela says "I don't want one more to them. I have no trump of Mandrakes..."
Taleyn manages to breathe out "No.... Mandrake's... Trumps."
Quinlan sits back on his heels, reaching into his belt pouch. "...I have ...Celeste. That's the only Mandrake card I have."
Quinlan offers his trump of Celeste to Taleyn. "She'd listen to you more than anyone else here, I think?"
Taleyn cannot break her concentration even to see that it is herself to whom Quinlan is offering her the Trump, alas!
Robert says, "Pressure on it," is instructed by Robert, who seems far more concerned about that than trumping anyone."
Raphaela bites her lip and nods "He can talk, he's fine. But we can't set off something with him here... and we can't evacuate him and Tally and continue without Feldanes."
Raphaela mutters "Can you move to my circle then please. And we'll continue." That should in THEORY protect them.
Robert settles this by trying to guide Taleyn's hand to his bloody chest. See. Like this.
Liya looks at Robert, and then she says, "I think he wants to see what's there as much as the rest of us do," she says. "And they are here, though I'm not sure how much help they are able to provide at the moment?"
Quinlan mms. "Okay - avoid the weirdness in the concrete, keep digging? Yeah?"
Taleyn breathes, "Stable for now," by way of report.
"Bodies in the cement," Robert repeats, fixing Taleyn with a look that says he has no intention of going anywhere.
Raphaela says "I'd put network of triggers...Make sure nobody will miss them. So...be careful, and we must be prepared to react if anything happens....
Quinlan nods slowly. "I'll dig around them as carefully as I can," he says, and resumes work.
Quinlan's words ring true-- there *is* weirdness in the concrete. To all heightened, magical, and engineering sensibilities, it seems as if ancient magics over time have simply lost their integrity and seeped into their substrate. As to mechanical triggers, Raphaela's words seem to ring true-- at one very tense point, Mayhem appears to scent something acrid in the air, and Quinlan's digging uncovers a fine green mesh. Ancient copper wiring perhaps?
Raphaela meeps. "Trace that but do not disturb it!" proper archaeology "We might be niable to expose mechanical structure of sort of mine field. If it is chemical we're in more trouble and jump to salt circles. Air should stay safe there. Best pest control in contained spaces is gas."
Liya wrinkles her nose, as she smells the acrid whatsit through Mayhem's nose. "Ugh, I hate that part of this, smelling what the cat does," she mumbles. "Smells acrid. Metallic, maybe?"
Raphaela hms "Might be something decayed."
Quinlan works very carefully, as the grid might be anything - including fragile lines of decayed dust. "Raph, you're the mechanical genius. What do you make of it?"
Raphaela says "It might be old decayed wiring of sorts...We could try to avoid it, but we might hit another one..." she looks around "Ever played sinking ships on a grid?"
Raphaela says "We need elimination system...But five bodies are probably all tied into trap. I'd do it that way. So no way to avoid."
Liya sort of stares at the two, as she looks. "Or it might be all the way through?" she says slowly. "Hard to say." Then she shrugs. "Well, if there's no way to avoid the trap, what's the safest way to trigger it?"
Quinlan huhs. "If they're wired to destroy the bodies...go around the trap and unearth the bodies first?"
Robert merely issues instructions for how to avoid the bodies, or rather dig around them not into them. Everything else is someone else's problem.
Raphaela says "I'd recommend trigger it but...with it being decayed..."
Liya shrugs, and just watches, now, keeping her senses alert for more trouble. "Lucky Quinlan."
Quinlan is caaareful now. Traps have been terribly unpleasant so far, no desire to set off any more. "Somebody was really, *really* determined about this..."
The first handful seems to scoop away smoothly. Quinlan gets a few feet down, when Liya's senses get itchy, and Raphaela's warning about traps possibly salted through the stone appears to be correct. He will have to go around or risk triggering it.
That makes two of them. Robert is checking out how he's feeling, by testing breathing harder.
Raphaela hms as she paces, eyeing locations of graves "There is always similar principle to maximize effect. Based on geometry. Optimize the result... It depends on what actual aim would be... Trap us or destroy them..." her mind rushes as they keep at it, trying to think as many chess games possible ahead, to think up anything before it happens. Pace pace, cookie, pace.
Liya raises a hand. "Uhm, Quinlan - Hold up. I think there's something there," Liya says. "It's like they're all through this cement, I think Raphaela is right."
Raphaela mutters "Next time I'll think up a way to seal traps safely..." off topic.
Quinlan stops his digging. "All right. Then...what's the plan?"
Robert suggests. "Trigger it"
Taleyn says, "Use... my... amulet? Salt... for... safety?"
Raphaela says "That works only for you."
"I will live." Robert assures Taleyn. "Now go help them, wife."
Raphaela says "All in the circle of salt. Then, trigger it."
Taleyn looks bitterly mistrustful of the word of a man who just bled himself to death. She eases off her concentration long enough to pick Robert up and carry him into the circle.
Quinlan nods, though it's a bit uncertain. He retreats to Raph's circle, taking a handful of debris with him to toss onto the grid.
Liya gets Mayhem to jump over the salt, and she too moves into the circle.
Raphaela nods "It will buy us time to react on whatever happens...Unless of course it's a drop."
All are in the circle, and the innocent, ancient, corrupted trap lies waiting... waiting.
Raphaela closes her eyes briefly, then looks up and nips a cookie.
Quinlan tosses his debris into the grid, to set off...whatever it does.
Liya tries as hard as she can to be ready for anything. With no clue what she's ready for. Though she does look a little bit tense until after she gets into the circle, at which point she calms, as does Mayhem. The big cat at least sticking with Liya so far.
To magical sensers, Raph's seals feel almost like a pause bubble.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The explosion seems to rock the entire world, but maybe that's just because the party is at Ground Zero. It is loud-- so very loud! But it's like watching some kind of moving picture surrounding them. The flames engulf them, but they feel no heat!
Raphaela plucks pin and pierces both her palms, reinforcing the circle with blood, eyes frosting over with salt again. Instinct.
Robert flinches, but then that's all he is capable of doing just now, trying to turn his head from the barrage of flames.
Quinlan startles, studying the fire. "Wow. They *really* didn't want those bodies disturbed. I'm guessing they're ash now?"
Taleyn shields Robert with her own body, getting blood all over herself in the process.
Liya's breath catches, her eyes widening and both hands go to poor Mayhem's head, soothing him, as the big cat WHINES. Poor thing.
Raphaela says "Why didn't they destroy them in first place then. They want US to be ash. Is this REAL? What is it??"
You paged Quinlan with 'It looks set to burn for a while, something like an alchemical fire preparation that burns when air hits it, and that it was probably triggered by just the littlest blast, from the booby trap, to expose it to the air.'.
Robert turns his attention back, trying to focus on where the bodies were to see if they still are.
Raphaela's forehead starts to drip sweat...from effort since there's no heat.
Quinlan purses his lips, 'feeling' the fire. Almost reaching out to it. "If it's going to burn the bodies, let it tell me what it knows."
Liya has to take some time with Mayhem, but she certainly can check to see if the fire feels natural, or again, if it's strange like the first fire.
Raphaela says "Sorgo should survive fire I am...nearly certain. If this flimsy barrier can...Will it burn out...if I keep us...long enough...?" the pink circle of salt turns blood red and actually starts to crystalize upwards, glowing in light.
Quinlan is focusing ...on the fire? Murmuring spells, but the flames themselves are acting to obscure what it is he's doing. All he has to say is "Keep us safe, Raph...I've got a Sorgo. The fire will burn out when its fuel runs out, shouldn't be all that long. I'm warding the Sorgo from the fire."
Robert keeps his attention fixed towards the bodies,
Raphaela nods "He should be...sal..ty one." puns. Even when she's biting her lip to will the power into the circle.
Taleyn is just looking on, still with a hand on Robert, but her eyes wide with wonder. Being inside a bubble of fire is, after all, not something one experiences every day.
"Not much longer now, Raph," says Quinlan quietly. "The sorgo's body is safe, the fire's dying down."
Raphaela falls back, letting circle do it's job as the attack level lessens. Her voice is even hoarser "Water...please..." she clutches at her throat "Thirst..."
To the people trapped inside the magic circle inside a firebomb with an increasingly freaked-out jaguar, it might seem like hours, but in fact Quinlan is right-- the fire is noticeably subsiding.
Taleyn slaps her own canteen, and passes it to Raphaela. "Here, dear."
Quinlan nods. "I'll refill the canteen as much as you need, as soon as the sorgo body's safe from the fire."
Robert says, "How much longer, Quinlan?"
Taleyn begins to eye Mayhem warily, as much as she likes kitties, for this one is a Big Cat in a flaming bubble with the scent of blood all around it. "I know he's well-trained..." she remarks, as if to reassure herself.
Robert is the easy meat here, relax Taleyn!
Raphaela smiles weakly, her eyes still frosted over like she wears a mask of salt. It decreases much slower than before, as she downs water in big gulps. Not even a doubt in Hem.
In fact, the flames are now dying quickly.
"Not much," Quinlan reassures. "The body's safe from the fire. If you need more water, Raph, just hand me the canteen when you're ready."
Raphaela hands it out in his direction blindly. Hoarsly she says "Chemical fires burn out hotter but quicker as well. We...have to check if air after it is alright outside."
Mayhem's agitation likewise seems to subside, and soon he is back to high spirits. In a few minutes, the flames are gone completely, and only scorched earth remain-- along with a small pit unearthed by the blast.
Quinlan smiles. "I can handle purifying that if we need to." He whispers a small spell at the canteen, and passes it back to Raph - now full of clean, pure water.
Raphaela smiles "So practical, Quin." she washes her face too, and palms...full of salt burned wounds. She reaches into her satchel for bandages, barely able to move fingers, but trying not to show it.
Liya has spent the time calming Mayhem. Well trained he is, but he is still a jaguar and sometimes he does take her attention. She eases a bit, as the fire does, having had to keep the poor cat from totally going insane at the huge heaping gobs of FIRE all around them.
Robert just grunts at something and tries to roll so he can see what's going on.
Once the smoke has started to dissipate and rise to the top of the pit, it becomes clearer that there are blackened bones inside the little pit-- and one nicely-preserved mummified corpse, whose clothes are blackened but essentially intact. Both of the corpse's fists are clenched. It is evident that his cause of death was from a stabbing in the back. The other remains seem to be left as they fell, in poses of violent death.
Quinlan looks over at Raph, and sure she has enough water, murmurs yet another spell, holding one hand outside Raph's ward. As he whispers, the air becomes clearer - and the smoke and dust seem to gather themselves into a little marble in his palm. "Ok. Safe enough now, I think."
On better look, body seems definitely too well preserved for the age spent here...eerily so, but there are crystals of salt peeking through his fingers of the fists. Raph pads over after wrapping her hands and gloving them up. "...cousin...I've come to give you peace at long last. Sorry for our delay."
There seems to be a wadded up piece of paper sticking out of the corpse's withered hand. It probably would not have been visible in a living, fleshier body.
Liya looks, making a mental note. She promptly finds a piece of paper, and a writing utensil, trying to draw the situation, as they see it, before they move anything. Just in case.
Quinlan pockets the smoke marble - hey, it might set off another trap next time - and approaches the body. "...Message from the dead?"
Raphaela crouches by the body "He's not still here is he?" she asks Taleyn "If he is, please ask for permission...to take this."
Liya finishes drawing, looking around to see if there is anything else she can see that might be of use. Or that Mayhem can.
Taleyn reluctantly tears her attention from Robert, but at least she is already perceptually in the Spirit world. "I... I don't understand it. We weren't sensing a thing from their spirits before that trap was sprung. Only now their voices are as clear as day!" She concentrates. "You're being taken into the bosom of your kin-- your family resting place. Your relative asks if she can take the paper." A pause, then: "He says, 'Take it at our peril-- not from him, but from that which might come after us for having it.'"
Quinlan looks toward Taleyn. "What can the spirits tell us about...well, *all* this?"
Liya and Mayhem stay back to let Raphaela and Taleyn do their thing. She's still bemused about all this, even if she technically knew that the Feldanes could - well, she's not so sure that she's not creeped out.
Taleyn shakes her head. "I'm sorry-- they're too far sunk into the madness of ancient unrest. I could try to get something out of them beyond shouts of betrayal, but it will take time, and honestly the kindest thing would be to set them all to rest at once."
Raphaela nods to Quin's question, and headtilts at Taleyn with a nod afterwards. To Sorgo she says "It's all right. You've waited for far too long. I'll take on your watch over this. We stand here in your place. YOu can rest at ease now, we'll set things right." not a word of doubt.
Raphaela gets the paper and unravels it VEEEEEEEERRRRRRRY carefully.
Quinlan isn't *entirely* comfortable with presences he can't hear or sense being around. Especially crazy ones. But - that's what Feldanes are for, right? Right.
Taleyn relays Raphaela's message to the fallen Sorgo and prepares to lay them all to rest.
Raphaela ahs "ALso, Benedict says hi."
Brand blinks.
The parchment scrap ought to be dust by now, but something about the Sorgo's body has kept it as preserved as the body and his clothes and effects. An extremely careful unraveling shows what secret has been buried here, lo these many centuries--
It's a laundry list.
Well, actually, a list of places.
All of the places seem to be related to various myths and legends regarding Oberon's first Queen.
Raphaela looks at that list "NO answers, more clues."
Quinlan peers at the parchment. "Time to dig out the maps and see what it is we're not seeing. This might be worth taking to Karm."
Liya arches a brow, but says nothing, because she has no clue what to say. Then after a moment, she says, "Out of the frying pan?"
This makes Taleyn laugh for some reason.
Liya curiously asks, "Is this place on the list?"
Cymnea's Watch does, indeed, appear on the list.
Raphaela says "And they never left...What ever was after them..." she says "We should give it to experts for hidden messages just in case..." she also looks in his other closed fist... just in case.
"...Potentially a seal, anchored with lives?" Quinlan muses. "Yeah. Chantris could find hidden messages."
Taleyn murmurs some things in a low voice, arms outstretched, then a burst of cold wind blows through the pit.
Among the other still-legible items on the list are:
-An island land mass somewhere in the Golden Circle.
-A curious landmark-- a peaked rock jutting skyward on the edge of a vast sea that cascades into a gorge as long as the horizon itself. Many myths have sprung up about how such a place formed. One story tells that it was caused by the very first act of spite-- an argument between the Night and the Day, a cup smashed against a rock in anger, a rift which caused the earth to split, and the cup's contents spilling evermore into the rift, which will never be healed until the chasm is closed. Yet another myth says it was the first act of betrayal that rent the earth, not a cup but a brother-god's head smashed against that jutting rock, and the betrayer's iniquity shall last until the waters fill the void. Still darker stories are whispered around campfires on cold nights-- that the peaked rock was once a mighty sword, and it was thrust through the back of the Mother Goddess by the youngest of her children, cleaving her flesh wide with its deadly blow, and the water that spills evermore is her blood. Another legend says that the waters are the tears of the betrayer, who walks the world evermore in search of redemption. Locals may not agree on which myth is the favorite, but they all say that anyone who can reach the rock and stare down into the chasm will see the visions of people betrayed.
-A mountainous place whose lofty, uninhabitable spires were reputedly carved by the talons of the Beast of Air and Darkness, legendarily slain by a single golden arrow of the son of the Sun. One obscure tale says the arrow was enchanted by his mother Cimminea.
-A rock in the middle of a far-flung ocean, simply marked "Symnea's Rest".
All of these are mere notes jotted-down.
Hardly seems suitable for murdering five knights over.
Raphaela reads "Salt magic was rediscovered when I followed less legends than this."
Taleyn turns back from the remains. "It is done." Then, "I say, mind if I jot this down?"
You paged Raphaela with 'YOU TOTALLY ARE!!!! :D :D :D And you're very welcome! :D'.
Liya looks up, and she agrees. "I'd like to copy this down too, if it's okay."
Quinlan looks the list over. "Islands. Boundaries. Between-places. I'd like a copy too. We can get teams set up to explore these locations."
Brand says, "Add me to the list"
Raphaela says "We better transcribe it as many times as possible. So we can all follow clues and be haunted."
Raphaela looks up at Brand. Totally forgot creepy prince was there.
"And make sure we don't lose it," Liya agrees.
Taleyn nods swiftly, then beams a bright smile. "I LOVE intellectual curiosity!" She withdraws a somewhat bloody notepad and pencil stub from her gambeson pocket.
Raphaela nods "I have my cousin to bury... ANd others should be honored too. Then we have to explore and decide where to go first."
Taleyn smiles. "Not to worry-- I'm taking them with me. As Knights of Prince Benedict, it is only fitting I give them their due honor. Maybe even find homes for all these bones."
Quinlan nods. "I'll get my copy and then ...we can drag my ...'heroic' brother off to the hospital." He gives Robert an amused look. "Seriously man. You couldn't go for a gut wound? We need that stitched up."
Liya writes quickly, but write she definitely does. "Interesting though - I wonder - " she stops there, looking very thoughtful, especially as the conversation goes to the nearly dead Feldane.
Raphaela looks at Liya "YOu wonder?"
Taleyn remarks anew, "I say-- I feel rather guilty for dragging you all into this. But I'm jolly glad you're into it!" She grins again, finishes her jotting, and turns her attention to Robert once more, her sentiments obviously with Quinlan in this department. She lifts him again, but joins Raphaela in looking at Liya.
"It'll wait," Liya decides. "First let's look after the wounded. But - one of those is somehow familiar." She is trying to put two and two together.
Quinlan shoos Liyandra up out of the dig. "Stop thinking about it. Let your mind rest. Get some ice cream, clear the smoke out. It'll come to you."
Raphaela catches Liya by the collar "Tellllll meee!" no patience.
Taleyn's eyes widen at Liya's words, but she steadfastly nods and preps Robert for the ascent. Like a practiced mountaineer, she secures him to her with ropes and starts the climb.
Raphaela WILL keep her here. She can't just finish with a hanger dammit!
Liya looks at Raphaela. "I don't - I can't figure it out." Mayhem mrowls, and Liya looks to Raphaela. "I promise I'll tell you once I know, okay?"
Raphaela nodnods, must bee tired. "I don't think I can climb. You climb up and then I'll trump you Tally..." she tries.
Taleyn calls down, "Certainly!"
Raphaela's saltburned palms...not liking rope.
Too bad they never got the stairs built. Stupid worm. Mayhem heads up the dirt, rocks and walls to the opening, like he's got no problem climbing things like trees, ships, the usual. Liya watches him to make sure he gets up there and then she squirrels up the rope without a second thought.
Quinlan moves to pick up Raphaela, since Taleyn has Robert. Skinny scrawny mage is still of Oberon's blood; climbs the rope with Raph on his shoulders, provided she doesn't squeak or crush his skull between her thighs.
Wishful thinking Quin. She just might fall asleep on top of you.
Robert is not especially talkative either. Something about blood loss and having used most of his willpower to get rid of spirits. Still, his wife is paying attention to him now. Things are looking up.
Raphaela sat up at one point, drinking up her water supply like there's no tommorow and helping Quin with graves. It goes slower now they're so close. She looks towards the two feldanes now and then to see if she needs to buy an urn.
When things get quiet, Taleyn intones from the depths of her concentration, "I think he will be all right, but I have to bar the Door until certain."
"Leave the knife," Robert instructs his wife of the thing still sticking out of his chest. "For now."
Taleyn says, "Yes. I will." She has bandaged him *around* the knife, so at least there's that. "So-- you can talk, can you?" an edge creeping into her voice.
Robert keeps his eyes closed, his pallor looking like someone who should be in his grave, even if evidence points otherwise. "That depends. If I can talk am I going to be in trouble?"
Taleyn keeps up the stern look. "Not at all. You are, however, in for quite the talking-*to*. But not now. For now, you stay put."
"I did what was necessary," is pointed out to Taleyn by Robert. Who is definitely not wishing to move just yet.
Taleyn hisses in a breath. "I recognize and respect it. Only next time, do *try* not to nick a major artery in the process! I'm really not qualified for field surgery."
Raphaela looks down at Robert, what...creepy feldanes. "You survived THAT? Sturdy man." she ponders "I would try salt seal but I never did it for a wound...and anyway...I'm out of salt. Should we trump him out?"
Robert shakes his head. "Taleyn barred the way." That's all the explanation he's about to give as he risks a deeper breath and finds it hurts.
Raphaela asks "Can you guys tell...if I managed to guess spots of the corpses right?"
Robert lets his eyes shut again and then shakes his head. "Too weak just now. Some time."
Raphaela is crouching by bandaged Bob (knife still in) and what wonder, he lives. Sturdy! Tally is focusing on keeping him a live, Liya is checking worm parts are really dead and Quin continued to dig, slowly, around marked graves.
Robert is even talking. Mostly to find out how much trouble he's in with Taleyn.
It does seem that the corpses are straight down from where Robert indicated. They encounter nothing in the digging for quite some, suspenseful time. Was it all for nothing??? The worms came out at a depth of something like 45-50 feet down from ground level. Another full 10 feet goes by. Tensions rise.
Quinlan is staying firmly out of the marital issues, now that at least he's not going to have to tell their mother that Robert's dead. Back to digging he goes, being careful not to damage any bodies he comes across. Possibly if he digs fast enough he'll dig his way to the Undercity and away from domestic disputes?
Robert does not have rising tensions. Mostly he has a rising and falling chest. Which is good enough for him right now, because even that hurts with a dagger still stuck, out of it.
Raphaela looks at Robert "HOw would he be able to tell?"
Robert shakes his head slowly. "Five in number, but no Sorgo or I would have Named them such."
Raphaela huhs "Odd. There were five with Sorgo...but there were also five attackers..."
Taleyn nods and says gravely, "Thank you, Beloved." To Raphaela she says, "Even in Death, a spirit can retain a ghost of its mortal seeming. If one was a Knight, say, you might see it still wearing its livery from life." She looks troubled. "Oh... I hadn't thought about their possibly being shades of the assassins! Set here to guard the ones they erased?"
Quinlan keeps digging, noting, "There's going to be more than five bodies then."
Robert manages not to make some trite comment. Just.
Quinlan's task would grow harder and harder, were density of the stone a problem for him. His power over earth is such that the change in stone is merely a detail. Suddenly, the hard stone gives way to something that feels more like cement.
Liya decides the worm is definitely dead. And she recovers from being dropped down to the rock along with the worm head. Ow. Mayhem mrowls softly, as she pets his head, and then the two come over to see what is going on, fairly quietly.
Raphaela wonders "I hope no more zombies. They were fun at first but they show up in EVERY adventur I have..." she crouches by QUin's dig and touches new ground. "Hm...."
Robert says, "I like zombies."
Taleyn answers Quinlan, "Not necessarily. Spirits can be summoned to guard an area and held in place in many different ways-- through an anchor, a bind, or even a geas undertaken in life. Plus other, darker methods." Her mouth quirks at Raphaela's remark. "You a magnet for the Undead, then? Perhaps we should follow you around."
Quinlan pauses his digging to tap the cement, scratching at it with his fingernails to see if it's old enough to be crumbly. "...This is new. Well. Not new. Different. Deliberate. Trouble?"
The cement, it looks so innocent!
Raphaela says "Oldest way of making your enemies vanish...Cement them in your basement...But with magic included...Maybe we could encounter some sort of seal too... As a detecting shield."
Liya gives the Feldanes a very worried glance, her eyes gleaming blue with a glow for a moment, and then she looks over where Quinlan is digging, concentrating there to see if there's anything she can sense. Mayhem looks that way too, curiously.
Quinlan sniffs at the revealed cement, probably sniffing for magic. "Learned to smell wards, working with Karm..."
Robert listens to all of this going on, a hand slowly lifting in an effort to find the hilt of the blade buried in his chest.
Raphaela nods "Right. We're missing a Karm! How did that happen?" she smacks her forehead. "Say...Can you at least tell me limit of the cementy part? Is it entire level or just one part of cellar?"
Taleyn doesn't quite slap Robert's hand, but it's a near thing. "What are you doing?" she hisses.
Robert's hand closes around the dagger and his gaze grows more distant. Is be planning on pulling the blade out? He goes still, for a long time. With that far away look on his face again. Maybe he died?
Liya extends her senses, and uses what she can of Mayhem's to examine the place, concentrating on sensing anything she can feel that might help. Danger? Nature out of sorts? Anything alive other than the group here investigating?
Raphaela's pale eyes scan the area for any weirdness. And her seals still hold where earth doesn't disrupt the salt.
Quinlan has his hands flat on the revealed cement, murmuring...after a few moments his eyes open. "Something odd there," he says, pointing. "Might be important, might be another trap. Ready for me to dig toward it?"
Liya moves towards Quinlan, her attention on a spot fairly near to Quinlan's left hand. "Something not right," she says, and then looks at Quinlan. "Are we talking about the same spot?" she asks, hopefully. She moves to point to the spot she's identified.
Robert's fingers tighten around the hilt of the blade and there's a grunt as he tugs at it in an effort to free the dagger. Really. And possibly bleed to death.
You paged Raphaela with 'If it were you, you'd sink a trigger into that cement so that anyone trying to dig through it would go KABOOM! And... You'd put it... THERE! Near where the others are looking.'.
Taleyn insists, "Robert! Stop it!"
Robert grunts. "Need it out."
Raphaela nods towars the spot "THat's likely where another trigger would be placed... should we try to avoid it or... set it off?" Raphaela contemplates "It might be design to damage the remains...in which case we'd lose all we came here for..." she places a palm on cement.
Taleyn makes an exasperated noise at Robert, but she cannot break concentration on barring his way, not even to look at her Trumps for useful rescue. Instead, she redoubles her efforts to bar his way-- "Fine!"
There's a sickening sucking noise and then the sound of something being freed that was under pressure. Yep, Rob got the knife out. Spurt.
Liya winces at that sound, and she looks over at the group. "Should we call for a Mandrake?" she asks, thoughtfully. Though her attention then goes back to Raphaela, to see if she can help.
Taleyn devotes every last scrap of her attention to keep Robert alive with no blood in his body. She is Not Pleased. Will probably be less so, should the room blow up underneath them.
Quinlan nods to Liyandra. "I think we leave it alone for now and get a Mandrake," he says. "She can keep him from dying. It's not the same as healing him."
Robert somehow manages to keep hold of the dagger, slick with his own blood. His other hand presses to the wound in an effort to seal it. Small s.
"I don't have any way to contact one, do you, Quinlan?" Liya asks, first. "Or Raphaela?"
Raphaela says "I don't want one more to them. I have no trump of Mandrakes..."
Taleyn manages to breathe out "No.... Mandrake's... Trumps."
Quinlan sits back on his heels, reaching into his belt pouch. "...I have ...Celeste. That's the only Mandrake card I have."
Quinlan offers his trump of Celeste to Taleyn. "She'd listen to you more than anyone else here, I think?"
Taleyn cannot break her concentration even to see that it is herself to whom Quinlan is offering her the Trump, alas!
Robert says, "Pressure on it," is instructed by Robert, who seems far more concerned about that than trumping anyone."
Raphaela bites her lip and nods "He can talk, he's fine. But we can't set off something with him here... and we can't evacuate him and Tally and continue without Feldanes."
Raphaela mutters "Can you move to my circle then please. And we'll continue." That should in THEORY protect them.
Robert settles this by trying to guide Taleyn's hand to his bloody chest. See. Like this.
Liya looks at Robert, and then she says, "I think he wants to see what's there as much as the rest of us do," she says. "And they are here, though I'm not sure how much help they are able to provide at the moment?"
Quinlan mms. "Okay - avoid the weirdness in the concrete, keep digging? Yeah?"
Taleyn breathes, "Stable for now," by way of report.
"Bodies in the cement," Robert repeats, fixing Taleyn with a look that says he has no intention of going anywhere.
Raphaela says "I'd put network of triggers...Make sure nobody will miss them. So...be careful, and we must be prepared to react if anything happens....
Quinlan nods slowly. "I'll dig around them as carefully as I can," he says, and resumes work.
Quinlan's words ring true-- there *is* weirdness in the concrete. To all heightened, magical, and engineering sensibilities, it seems as if ancient magics over time have simply lost their integrity and seeped into their substrate. As to mechanical triggers, Raphaela's words seem to ring true-- at one very tense point, Mayhem appears to scent something acrid in the air, and Quinlan's digging uncovers a fine green mesh. Ancient copper wiring perhaps?
Raphaela meeps. "Trace that but do not disturb it!" proper archaeology "We might be niable to expose mechanical structure of sort of mine field. If it is chemical we're in more trouble and jump to salt circles. Air should stay safe there. Best pest control in contained spaces is gas."
Liya wrinkles her nose, as she smells the acrid whatsit through Mayhem's nose. "Ugh, I hate that part of this, smelling what the cat does," she mumbles. "Smells acrid. Metallic, maybe?"
Raphaela hms "Might be something decayed."
Quinlan works very carefully, as the grid might be anything - including fragile lines of decayed dust. "Raph, you're the mechanical genius. What do you make of it?"
Raphaela says "It might be old decayed wiring of sorts...We could try to avoid it, but we might hit another one..." she looks around "Ever played sinking ships on a grid?"
Raphaela says "We need elimination system...But five bodies are probably all tied into trap. I'd do it that way. So no way to avoid."
Liya sort of stares at the two, as she looks. "Or it might be all the way through?" she says slowly. "Hard to say." Then she shrugs. "Well, if there's no way to avoid the trap, what's the safest way to trigger it?"
Quinlan huhs. "If they're wired to destroy the bodies...go around the trap and unearth the bodies first?"
Robert merely issues instructions for how to avoid the bodies, or rather dig around them not into them. Everything else is someone else's problem.
Raphaela says "I'd recommend trigger it but...with it being decayed..."
Liya shrugs, and just watches, now, keeping her senses alert for more trouble. "Lucky Quinlan."
Quinlan is caaareful now. Traps have been terribly unpleasant so far, no desire to set off any more. "Somebody was really, *really* determined about this..."
The first handful seems to scoop away smoothly. Quinlan gets a few feet down, when Liya's senses get itchy, and Raphaela's warning about traps possibly salted through the stone appears to be correct. He will have to go around or risk triggering it.
That makes two of them. Robert is checking out how he's feeling, by testing breathing harder.
Raphaela hms as she paces, eyeing locations of graves "There is always similar principle to maximize effect. Based on geometry. Optimize the result... It depends on what actual aim would be... Trap us or destroy them..." her mind rushes as they keep at it, trying to think as many chess games possible ahead, to think up anything before it happens. Pace pace, cookie, pace.
Liya raises a hand. "Uhm, Quinlan - Hold up. I think there's something there," Liya says. "It's like they're all through this cement, I think Raphaela is right."
Raphaela mutters "Next time I'll think up a way to seal traps safely..." off topic.
Quinlan stops his digging. "All right. Then...what's the plan?"
Robert suggests. "Trigger it"
Taleyn says, "Use... my... amulet? Salt... for... safety?"
Raphaela says "That works only for you."
"I will live." Robert assures Taleyn. "Now go help them, wife."
Raphaela says "All in the circle of salt. Then, trigger it."
Taleyn looks bitterly mistrustful of the word of a man who just bled himself to death. She eases off her concentration long enough to pick Robert up and carry him into the circle.
Quinlan nods, though it's a bit uncertain. He retreats to Raph's circle, taking a handful of debris with him to toss onto the grid.
Liya gets Mayhem to jump over the salt, and she too moves into the circle.
Raphaela nods "It will buy us time to react on whatever happens...Unless of course it's a drop."
All are in the circle, and the innocent, ancient, corrupted trap lies waiting... waiting.
Raphaela closes her eyes briefly, then looks up and nips a cookie.
Quinlan tosses his debris into the grid, to set off...whatever it does.
Liya tries as hard as she can to be ready for anything. With no clue what she's ready for. Though she does look a little bit tense until after she gets into the circle, at which point she calms, as does Mayhem. The big cat at least sticking with Liya so far.
To magical sensers, Raph's seals feel almost like a pause bubble.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The explosion seems to rock the entire world, but maybe that's just because the party is at Ground Zero. It is loud-- so very loud! But it's like watching some kind of moving picture surrounding them. The flames engulf them, but they feel no heat!
Raphaela plucks pin and pierces both her palms, reinforcing the circle with blood, eyes frosting over with salt again. Instinct.
Robert flinches, but then that's all he is capable of doing just now, trying to turn his head from the barrage of flames.
Quinlan startles, studying the fire. "Wow. They *really* didn't want those bodies disturbed. I'm guessing they're ash now?"
Taleyn shields Robert with her own body, getting blood all over herself in the process.
Liya's breath catches, her eyes widening and both hands go to poor Mayhem's head, soothing him, as the big cat WHINES. Poor thing.
Raphaela says "Why didn't they destroy them in first place then. They want US to be ash. Is this REAL? What is it??"
You paged Quinlan with 'It looks set to burn for a while, something like an alchemical fire preparation that burns when air hits it, and that it was probably triggered by just the littlest blast, from the booby trap, to expose it to the air.'.
Robert turns his attention back, trying to focus on where the bodies were to see if they still are.
Raphaela's forehead starts to drip sweat...from effort since there's no heat.
Quinlan purses his lips, 'feeling' the fire. Almost reaching out to it. "If it's going to burn the bodies, let it tell me what it knows."
Liya has to take some time with Mayhem, but she certainly can check to see if the fire feels natural, or again, if it's strange like the first fire.
Raphaela says "Sorgo should survive fire I am...nearly certain. If this flimsy barrier can...Will it burn out...if I keep us...long enough...?" the pink circle of salt turns blood red and actually starts to crystalize upwards, glowing in light.
Quinlan is focusing ...on the fire? Murmuring spells, but the flames themselves are acting to obscure what it is he's doing. All he has to say is "Keep us safe, Raph...I've got a Sorgo. The fire will burn out when its fuel runs out, shouldn't be all that long. I'm warding the Sorgo from the fire."
Robert keeps his attention fixed towards the bodies,
Raphaela nods "He should be...sal..ty one." puns. Even when she's biting her lip to will the power into the circle.
Taleyn is just looking on, still with a hand on Robert, but her eyes wide with wonder. Being inside a bubble of fire is, after all, not something one experiences every day.
"Not much longer now, Raph," says Quinlan quietly. "The sorgo's body is safe, the fire's dying down."
Raphaela falls back, letting circle do it's job as the attack level lessens. Her voice is even hoarser "Water...please..." she clutches at her throat "Thirst..."
To the people trapped inside the magic circle inside a firebomb with an increasingly freaked-out jaguar, it might seem like hours, but in fact Quinlan is right-- the fire is noticeably subsiding.
Taleyn slaps her own canteen, and passes it to Raphaela. "Here, dear."
Quinlan nods. "I'll refill the canteen as much as you need, as soon as the sorgo body's safe from the fire."
Robert says, "How much longer, Quinlan?"
Taleyn begins to eye Mayhem warily, as much as she likes kitties, for this one is a Big Cat in a flaming bubble with the scent of blood all around it. "I know he's well-trained..." she remarks, as if to reassure herself.
Robert is the easy meat here, relax Taleyn!
Raphaela smiles weakly, her eyes still frosted over like she wears a mask of salt. It decreases much slower than before, as she downs water in big gulps. Not even a doubt in Hem.
In fact, the flames are now dying quickly.
"Not much," Quinlan reassures. "The body's safe from the fire. If you need more water, Raph, just hand me the canteen when you're ready."
Raphaela hands it out in his direction blindly. Hoarsly she says "Chemical fires burn out hotter but quicker as well. We...have to check if air after it is alright outside."
Mayhem's agitation likewise seems to subside, and soon he is back to high spirits. In a few minutes, the flames are gone completely, and only scorched earth remain-- along with a small pit unearthed by the blast.
Quinlan smiles. "I can handle purifying that if we need to." He whispers a small spell at the canteen, and passes it back to Raph - now full of clean, pure water.
Raphaela smiles "So practical, Quin." she washes her face too, and palms...full of salt burned wounds. She reaches into her satchel for bandages, barely able to move fingers, but trying not to show it.
Liya has spent the time calming Mayhem. Well trained he is, but he is still a jaguar and sometimes he does take her attention. She eases a bit, as the fire does, having had to keep the poor cat from totally going insane at the huge heaping gobs of FIRE all around them.
Robert just grunts at something and tries to roll so he can see what's going on.
Once the smoke has started to dissipate and rise to the top of the pit, it becomes clearer that there are blackened bones inside the little pit-- and one nicely-preserved mummified corpse, whose clothes are blackened but essentially intact. Both of the corpse's fists are clenched. It is evident that his cause of death was from a stabbing in the back. The other remains seem to be left as they fell, in poses of violent death.
Quinlan looks over at Raph, and sure she has enough water, murmurs yet another spell, holding one hand outside Raph's ward. As he whispers, the air becomes clearer - and the smoke and dust seem to gather themselves into a little marble in his palm. "Ok. Safe enough now, I think."
On better look, body seems definitely too well preserved for the age spent here...eerily so, but there are crystals of salt peeking through his fingers of the fists. Raph pads over after wrapping her hands and gloving them up. "...cousin...I've come to give you peace at long last. Sorry for our delay."
There seems to be a wadded up piece of paper sticking out of the corpse's withered hand. It probably would not have been visible in a living, fleshier body.
Liya looks, making a mental note. She promptly finds a piece of paper, and a writing utensil, trying to draw the situation, as they see it, before they move anything. Just in case.
Quinlan pockets the smoke marble - hey, it might set off another trap next time - and approaches the body. "...Message from the dead?"
Raphaela crouches by the body "He's not still here is he?" she asks Taleyn "If he is, please ask for permission...to take this."
Liya finishes drawing, looking around to see if there is anything else she can see that might be of use. Or that Mayhem can.
Taleyn reluctantly tears her attention from Robert, but at least she is already perceptually in the Spirit world. "I... I don't understand it. We weren't sensing a thing from their spirits before that trap was sprung. Only now their voices are as clear as day!" She concentrates. "You're being taken into the bosom of your kin-- your family resting place. Your relative asks if she can take the paper." A pause, then: "He says, 'Take it at our peril-- not from him, but from that which might come after us for having it.'"
Quinlan looks toward Taleyn. "What can the spirits tell us about...well, *all* this?"
Liya and Mayhem stay back to let Raphaela and Taleyn do their thing. She's still bemused about all this, even if she technically knew that the Feldanes could - well, she's not so sure that she's not creeped out.
Taleyn shakes her head. "I'm sorry-- they're too far sunk into the madness of ancient unrest. I could try to get something out of them beyond shouts of betrayal, but it will take time, and honestly the kindest thing would be to set them all to rest at once."
Raphaela nods to Quin's question, and headtilts at Taleyn with a nod afterwards. To Sorgo she says "It's all right. You've waited for far too long. I'll take on your watch over this. We stand here in your place. YOu can rest at ease now, we'll set things right." not a word of doubt.
Raphaela gets the paper and unravels it VEEEEEEEERRRRRRRY carefully.
Quinlan isn't *entirely* comfortable with presences he can't hear or sense being around. Especially crazy ones. But - that's what Feldanes are for, right? Right.
Taleyn relays Raphaela's message to the fallen Sorgo and prepares to lay them all to rest.
Raphaela ahs "ALso, Benedict says hi."
Brand blinks.
The parchment scrap ought to be dust by now, but something about the Sorgo's body has kept it as preserved as the body and his clothes and effects. An extremely careful unraveling shows what secret has been buried here, lo these many centuries--
It's a laundry list.
Well, actually, a list of places.
All of the places seem to be related to various myths and legends regarding Oberon's first Queen.
Raphaela looks at that list "NO answers, more clues."
Quinlan peers at the parchment. "Time to dig out the maps and see what it is we're not seeing. This might be worth taking to Karm."
Liya arches a brow, but says nothing, because she has no clue what to say. Then after a moment, she says, "Out of the frying pan?"
This makes Taleyn laugh for some reason.
Liya curiously asks, "Is this place on the list?"
Cymnea's Watch does, indeed, appear on the list.
Raphaela says "And they never left...What ever was after them..." she says "We should give it to experts for hidden messages just in case..." she also looks in his other closed fist... just in case.
"...Potentially a seal, anchored with lives?" Quinlan muses. "Yeah. Chantris could find hidden messages."
Taleyn murmurs some things in a low voice, arms outstretched, then a burst of cold wind blows through the pit.
Among the other still-legible items on the list are:
-An island land mass somewhere in the Golden Circle.
-A curious landmark-- a peaked rock jutting skyward on the edge of a vast sea that cascades into a gorge as long as the horizon itself. Many myths have sprung up about how such a place formed. One story tells that it was caused by the very first act of spite-- an argument between the Night and the Day, a cup smashed against a rock in anger, a rift which caused the earth to split, and the cup's contents spilling evermore into the rift, which will never be healed until the chasm is closed. Yet another myth says it was the first act of betrayal that rent the earth, not a cup but a brother-god's head smashed against that jutting rock, and the betrayer's iniquity shall last until the waters fill the void. Still darker stories are whispered around campfires on cold nights-- that the peaked rock was once a mighty sword, and it was thrust through the back of the Mother Goddess by the youngest of her children, cleaving her flesh wide with its deadly blow, and the water that spills evermore is her blood. Another legend says that the waters are the tears of the betrayer, who walks the world evermore in search of redemption. Locals may not agree on which myth is the favorite, but they all say that anyone who can reach the rock and stare down into the chasm will see the visions of people betrayed.
-A mountainous place whose lofty, uninhabitable spires were reputedly carved by the talons of the Beast of Air and Darkness, legendarily slain by a single golden arrow of the son of the Sun. One obscure tale says the arrow was enchanted by his mother Cimminea.
-A rock in the middle of a far-flung ocean, simply marked "Symnea's Rest".
All of these are mere notes jotted-down.
Hardly seems suitable for murdering five knights over.
Raphaela reads "Salt magic was rediscovered when I followed less legends than this."
Taleyn turns back from the remains. "It is done." Then, "I say, mind if I jot this down?"
You paged Raphaela with 'YOU TOTALLY ARE!!!! :D :D :D And you're very welcome! :D'.
Liya looks up, and she agrees. "I'd like to copy this down too, if it's okay."
Quinlan looks the list over. "Islands. Boundaries. Between-places. I'd like a copy too. We can get teams set up to explore these locations."
Brand says, "Add me to the list"
Raphaela says "We better transcribe it as many times as possible. So we can all follow clues and be haunted."
Raphaela looks up at Brand. Totally forgot creepy prince was there.
"And make sure we don't lose it," Liya agrees.
Taleyn nods swiftly, then beams a bright smile. "I LOVE intellectual curiosity!" She withdraws a somewhat bloody notepad and pencil stub from her gambeson pocket.
Raphaela nods "I have my cousin to bury... ANd others should be honored too. Then we have to explore and decide where to go first."
Taleyn smiles. "Not to worry-- I'm taking them with me. As Knights of Prince Benedict, it is only fitting I give them their due honor. Maybe even find homes for all these bones."
Quinlan nods. "I'll get my copy and then ...we can drag my ...'heroic' brother off to the hospital." He gives Robert an amused look. "Seriously man. You couldn't go for a gut wound? We need that stitched up."
Liya writes quickly, but write she definitely does. "Interesting though - I wonder - " she stops there, looking very thoughtful, especially as the conversation goes to the nearly dead Feldane.
Raphaela looks at Liya "YOu wonder?"
Taleyn remarks anew, "I say-- I feel rather guilty for dragging you all into this. But I'm jolly glad you're into it!" She grins again, finishes her jotting, and turns her attention to Robert once more, her sentiments obviously with Quinlan in this department. She lifts him again, but joins Raphaela in looking at Liya.
"It'll wait," Liya decides. "First let's look after the wounded. But - one of those is somehow familiar." She is trying to put two and two together.
Quinlan shoos Liyandra up out of the dig. "Stop thinking about it. Let your mind rest. Get some ice cream, clear the smoke out. It'll come to you."
Raphaela catches Liya by the collar "Tellllll meee!" no patience.
Taleyn's eyes widen at Liya's words, but she steadfastly nods and preps Robert for the ascent. Like a practiced mountaineer, she secures him to her with ropes and starts the climb.
Raphaela WILL keep her here. She can't just finish with a hanger dammit!
Liya looks at Raphaela. "I don't - I can't figure it out." Mayhem mrowls, and Liya looks to Raphaela. "I promise I'll tell you once I know, okay?"
Raphaela nodnods, must bee tired. "I don't think I can climb. You climb up and then I'll trump you Tally..." she tries.
Taleyn calls down, "Certainly!"
Raphaela's saltburned palms...not liking rope.
Too bad they never got the stairs built. Stupid worm. Mayhem heads up the dirt, rocks and walls to the opening, like he's got no problem climbing things like trees, ships, the usual. Liya watches him to make sure he gets up there and then she squirrels up the rope without a second thought.
Quinlan moves to pick up Raphaela, since Taleyn has Robert. Skinny scrawny mage is still of Oberon's blood; climbs the rope with Raph on his shoulders, provided she doesn't squeak or crush his skull between her thighs.
Wishful thinking Quin. She just might fall asleep on top of you.