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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 702236" data-attributes="member: 96">The dragon's face grins, and the back wall of the room sinks slowly into the floor. Behind it, a room - possibly twenty feet square, and lit by flickering torches. The floor of the room is covered in piles of coin, and in the back corner, you can see some chests. A pair of copper statues stand watch over the horde.Ahoke whews. "I'm glad that was the right answer," she says, turning to look at Harvester. "Though it is the only one that made sense..." She looks back towards the "new" room, and takes a step in.Harvester marches towards the new room, his scythe held ready. He frowns, then nods as he nears Ahoke. "As am I..."Coins clink and slide under Ahoke's foot as she enters the room.Harvester moves to one of the statues and studies it thoughtfully.Ahoke mmms to herself, licking her lips greedily. "There's lots of money in here." She stoops, letting some of the coins run through her stubby fingers. "Although," she admits reluctantly, "We'd probably better not weight ourselves down too much with this stuff. It'll keep us from saving the kids.'Sen-Jyu grins at the pair, though he appears poised to dive out of the way. "Glad that we're all agreed on the answer," he murmurs to himself.The coins gleam red-gold in the ruddy torchlight, but it is clear that they are made from the metal the town is famous for. They bear the head of a dragon - presumably Copperdeath - on their obverse, and some sort of sigil on the reverse.Ahoke hmms. "I might be remembering this wrong," she says, "But copper isn't worth as much as say, gold. Right?" She too moves over to statues, eyeing them suspiciously.Harvester murmurs aloud, as he reads a plaque, "Arkady Bellwright... this chamber may have been here for centuries.... at least, so it would appear from these dates..." He bends over to lift a coin and look at the sigil on its reverse."I think you're remembering accurately," Sen-Jyu replies, kneeling to scoop up one of the coins and look at the sigil on one of its sides.Ahoke peers around the room, and then starts to walk around its perimeter, looking for ways out.Harvester pockets the coin - a souvenir of sorts - and proceeds to one of the chests to examine it, now.Sen-Jyu shrugs, pocketing the one coin. "So, shall we continue? Or is there something here that I'm not seeing?"Harvester says, "Just some chests, Sen..."Ahoke hmms, moving over to a chest, and nudges it experimentally with her toe. "I wonder if it has something in it besides copper..."Harvester glances to his companions, "Can you determine if they are trapped in some manner?Ahoke looks at Harvester, askance. "What did you just call me?" She blinks then, and looks around the room. "Wait... that didn't sound like you."Harvester looks back at Ahoke, brow furrowed, "That damn lizard again?"Sen-Jyu advances toward the chest, but pauses at Ahoke's question. "Er... I could search for any... incongruencies on the chest?" he offers, slightly on the hesitant side.Harvester, knowing his weaknesses, is more than willing to allow the others to open the chests, and moves to the second statue to examine it.Ahoke's brow furrows in a fierce scowl. "It called me a little morsel. No one calls a dwarf a morsel," she says indignantly. She then steps aside for Sen-Jyu. "Er, go ahead."Harvester laughs softly, "Indigestion, maybe.... if it swallows you whole..."Sen-Jyu stoops by the chest that Ahoke had prodded, fingers exploring its surface for unusual devices, like things that are meant to kill suspicious rogues.Ahoke smirks at Harvester, and then watches Sen-Jyu, with her arms folded across her chest.Harvester's head tilts a bit, as he points out to Ahoke, "Here's a dwarven town founder, Kay... Thruin Deepdelve. Old guy.""This chest seems fine," says Sen-Jyu after a couple minutes of examination. "I can't say I'm all that qualified to open locked chests, however." He meanders over to the second chest, conducting a similar investigation.Sen-Jyu shrugs, his eyes raising from the second chest, nodding his approval. "This one appears fine, too."Ahoke smashes in the top of the first chest with her club, with the sound of splintering wood. And then suddenly, she drops to the ground, gripping, of all things, her leg, face screwed up in what can only be agony.Harvester moves towards Ahoke as qickly as he is able, and grabs her leg for a quick inspection, "Hold still, Kay!"Sen-Jyu scowls at the urgency of Ahoke's agony, but stands back and lets the Harvester do his work. "... must've missed something," he breathes.Ahoke eventually stops writhing, and then coughs. "Wolverine's balls! I didn't think I'd ever feel pain like that again..." She scowls at the leg. "That's impossible! The wounds that I got from a bear trap came back."Harvester begins moving his hands in a rapid pattern, and speaks his words of healing. "I do not know what caused the wounds, but shall, with the blessing of He Who Is To Come, heal them...."Ahoke grimaces at Harvester. "Thanks." She turns, looking back at the chest. "I don't think I want to get into it anymore."The shattered top lies loosely on the contents - the wood easily plucked forth to reveal what is within..."... what, exactly, happened?" This, from Sen-Jyu, who's worriedly appraising the others for signs of exactly what it was that caused Ahoke to break out in open wounds.Ahoke bites her lower lip. "I don't know." She turns, fastening a ferocious glare at the chest. "Once, when I was a little one, I accidentally stepped into a bear trap. It was like I relived that. I guess I should be grateful that I hadn't been half eaten by a mountain lion."Harvester murmurs as he plucks wood from the chest, "A mystical trap on the chest, I'm guessin..."  Harvester, ever speaking the obvious.Ahoke hmmphs. "I hate mystical crap. At least, I do now. What's in the chest?"Sen-Jyu shakes his head. "Magic. Hmmph. Strange magic, and quite impolite." Moving to open the second chest, he sighs, "Though I suppose it's impolite to procure the possessions of others, even if they are evil..."Harvester lifts items out, one at a time. Some scrolls. A crystal. A sword. He examines the crystal first.Ahoke moves over towards the sword, interested.Sen-Jyu opens the other chest, exposing a mixed heaping of gold and silver coins.Harvester pauses, then turns the crystal about in his hands, "Innerestin.. I almost didn't see the crystal, despite it being iridescent... seemed to camoflage itself or something..."Ahoke coughs. "A copper sword with a rabbit's foot on it. Do you think it's magical?" She turns, glancing at Sen-Jyu. "Oooooooo," she says, her mouth forming a perfect "o."Harvester glances over as he takes the scrolls in hand to examine now. "Anything buried inside?Sen-Jyu takes out his wakizashi, using its point to part the coins and discover what else might be in the second chest.Harvester looks at Ahoke, and the sword she carries. "A rabbit's foot? Mayhaps it's lucky?Ahoke shrugs, and adds the sword to her ever growing collection of weapons, strapping it onto her belt. "I don't know what's so lucky about a rabbit that managed to get caught long enough to have its foot chopped off," she says, uncertainly. "Maybe it's unlucky."Harvester shakes his head, "Wrong or not, humans have believed for a long time that rabbit feet were lucky. And four-leaf clovers, and..."Sen-Jyu sheathes his wakizashi, face contorting a little with discomfort. He gets down on his knees to continue sorting through the coins.Ahoke turns back to look at Sen-Jyu. "Is it causing you pain too?"Harvester looks up from the scrolls. "Well. _Someone_ knows where we are, and hopes we've got dinner set..."Ahoke ers. "What do you mean, Harvester?" She looks up, hand going for the axe handle.Harvester murmurs as he peruses the scrolls, "Heard a voice. Says it knows where we are. Hopes we're ready for company."Sen-Jyu doesn't look up, but instead starts to empty the chest of its coins, pouring them into his backpack.Ahoke draws her axe, and half crouches in a ready position, listening.Ahoke whispers, "You're right. I hear footsteps." And then she waits.Sen-Jyu leaves his backpack propped up against the chest, standing straight and withdrawing both swords from their sheathes.Harvester sticks a pair of scrolls into one tube, and the third into a separate container and stows it all. He rises, pocketing the crystal and scooping up his glowing scythe. He, too, turns and steps away from the others. "Nothing else, Sen?"Sen-Jyu shakes his head at the Harvester, but says nothing, straining to hear what Ahoke has heard.Harsh voices twist your heads towards the statue-lined corridor - the language of thanork, and a large number of them to boot. They come scuttling out of the darkness, their narrowed eyes shining in the reflected light of the torches and Harvester's scythe, clutching their javelins and morningstars, ears folded flat against their heads.You count a half-score of the creatures within sight...and who knows how many more of them lurk unseen in the shadows?The goblins hesitate at the mouth of the hall, and a flight of javelins flies towards our heros - clattering from armor or poorly aimed, only one finds it's mark - a red line drawn in blood across Sen-Jyu's cheek.Harvester reaches up to a glittering necklace at his throat and speaks in a loud, commanding tone, "By He Who Is To Come, I call down His blessing upon us!"Moments after completing his incantation, there is the -thump- of a crossbow, and Harvester looks down to see a wooden shaft protruding from just under his ribcage...A second flight of javelins arcs through the air, and again Sen-Jyu is the sole person to play victim.Seeing the ranks of thanork approach, Sen-Jyu leaps forward, swords glinting with curved smiles. His own smile is rather dampened at seeing the hail of javelins in the torchlight, and two of them strike him, leaving him bleeding and unhappy, but still fighting.Sen-Jyu's hum is high-pitched and buzzes with anger as he throws himself toward the ranks of thanork. Dancing into their front line, he gestures with a sharp, quick motion, and Ichido-sama greets the first of them with death.Ahoke charges in at one of the thanork, swinging with her axe, and misses. Dwarven curses fill the room as she readies herself for another attack.One last desultory javelin flies through the air to clatter from the steel plates shielding the Harvester's body. Meanwhile, the front ranks of the goblins hurriedly drop their javelins, pulling morningstars from their belts. They swing the spiked clubs with more enthusiasm than skill - Sen-Jyu is able to dodge their blows easily, while Ahoke's stockier form is dealt a glancing blow that tears a bloody furrow in her scalp.Harvester again intones the words of power granted him by his deity, and a shining, translucent scythe appears in the air and slashes forward, in aid of his beleagured companions. A gobling falls, shrieking.The crossbow-weilding goblin hangs back from the combat, reloading his weapon. Heedless of his companions, he fires it into the melee......missing cleanly.The goblins now move to surround Ahoke and Sen-Jyu, and one of them slips past the samurai's defense to land a well-aimed blow on the spirit-folks knee. Only his fast footwork turns it from a shattering blow to a mere scratch.Sen-Jyu's anticipation of the attack is his saving grace; the thanork do not find him an easy target, with his blades working not only as his fangs, but his scales as well.The one to wound Sen-Jyu also is deserving of his wrath, and Ichido-sama is not to be denied. Leaping back two feet, he gives himself enough room for his katana to be slashed forward, catching another thanork across the chest. His stroke is strong and merciless, and leaves the goblin falling backward in two separate pieces. The wakizashi also lashes out, but against a foe who has not yet earned his anger, it only gives a welt across the goblin's flesh.Ahoke snarls at one of her mortal enemies, and sends the stone head of her axe splintering through its skull, and into its brain. A spray of hot, rust colored blood splashes out in all directions.Taken aback by this unexpected show of force, the remaining goblins shriek in their gutteral tongue. "Bree-yark!" is the sound of their cry, as they break ranks and run, some dropping to all fours for more speed as they lope back down the corridor.The Harvester's scythe floats ephemerally after them, slicing one across its back as it runs.Ahoke chases after the fleeing thanork, raising her axe. As she disappears into the darkness, the sickening thud of stone into bone is heard once again.  The shrill screams of the thanork echo eerily down the dark corridor, mingling with Ahoke's laughter.After noting the complete darkness that the thanork have retreated to, Sen-Jyu chooses the intelligent thing -- stay close to the light.Harvester begins to pant, with the heavy exertion given to his running. The shimmering scythe winks out.Ahoke comes to a halt, looking behind her, when the light goes out of Harvester's scythe. She grumbles, not pursuing. "We'd probably better do something about that," she says, looking back to the corner to make sure that the thanork aren't trying to sneak up on them. "So that you can see."</blockquote>

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