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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3355830" data-attributes="member: 11760">Watching the group disappear, Katadid works himself into a fury of tics and jolts."That ... the gnome ... that ..." He spins around and shouts at no one in particular. "That makes NO SENSE!"Hazel sighs, turning and pointing the wizard back at the group's erstwhile hiding place. If Tiberius is truly coming today, and the arguments and interspecies standoff hasn't already scared him away, it's going to take a lot of work to cover all the evidence that the barrow is being watched.Tucker, however, has other things on his mind. He wraps the loose end of rope tied to the captive around his arm so Tucker's hands are both free, and walks back toward his abandoned sword in the middle of the group. He follows after Katadid, his kobold hostage in tow."Kat, apologize to Wormy for me," he asks, as he slips something from his belt. "And make it clear this is neither a punishment for him nor in any way his fault."Before anyone can react, Tucker reaches out and grabs Renraw, clamping a manacle on the wizard's good arm, then attaches the other half of the restraint to Wormy."You may not be our sacrificial hostage, Beancounter, but that doesn't mean you're free to scurry off to save your own hide. I don't speak lizard, but we can all recognize a rat, and Lothian help me, if you don't sit down, shut up and generally behave yourself until this is over, I'll tell Wormy he's free to go home with the new snack we've just given him. If you're needed, act. Until then, don't."With that, Tucker leads the bound pair to a tree and helps Wormy sit down gently. Tucker offers his pack, warmed by being pressed against the deputy's back during the hard hike out here, as a cushion, so the cold-blooded creature doesn't have to sit on the icy ground. The cold-blooded wizard will have to fend for himself.Hazel turns a pine branch over and over in her hands, watching the mouth of the cairn. Her hands shake slightly, and can't seem to pull her thoughts together. Then, certain of a task that she can do, she methodically clears every trace of tracks, leaving the forest's carpet of wet leaves, muddy ground and snowy patches as seemingly undisturbed as she can make it. After wiping out her own tracks, she backs into the cramped space and tugs a pair of branches across the entrance.She looks over the party, giving Renraw and Emmerson a hard glare."Be quiet this time. And if you can't manage it, I'm sure the deputy will happily drag you back to town by your boot heels." She peeks out through the bushes. "I need to watch for this Tiberius fellow. Tucker, are you taking responsibility for Wormy, then? Make sure he stays in the shade. Kat, be sure to ask him -- quietly -- every so often if he needs water, all right? We want to send him back as the best-cared-for kobold in the barony."She shifts until she finds an acceptable break in the branches for peering out at the clearing and settles in, turning back once and reaching an arm out to touch Kat's sleeve."And starting tomorrow, you're teaching me Draconic, yeah?""Yes, certainly. I think it will soon prove to be a most useful language to know," Katadid says vaguely.* * *Half-running, half-dragged through the unlit cairn, Bufer looks over at the kobold priestess of Tiamat."You're here for the bodies, right?" he asks, as he stumbles over an uneven stone on the floor. "The four corpses that Chandler told you about?"She ignores Bufer's question, just as she had ignored his first. She holds up a hand, now that the kobolds are well inside the dungeon, and they pause. She pulls her goggles off her eyes, as do the rest of them, and they blink, bleary-eyed after wearing the goggles so long.Now totally out of earshot of the party, she looks at Bufer and makes a comment in Draconic. Another kobold, whose name she apparently mentioned, looks up, looks at the gnome, and nods, smiling.Another barked command, and the party is moving again, down the line of sarcophagi where animated skeletons once hid. For the first time, Bufer realizes the lid is back on one sarcophagus, and the group stops beside it. Pick keeps one hand on the gnome's leash, but the kobolds drop their gear and encircle the sarcophagus, deft fingers slipping under the lid. With a grunt and what sounds like a good deal of swearing by the kobolds, the lid is lifted off. Two kobolds spring up onto the lip of the sarcophagus and then drop inside and begin lifting out their prize: The bodies of their fellows Bufer and his companions had found two weeks ago, concealed here at some point after that.Pick makes another comment, this time for Bufer's benefit -- or at his expense -- but it's a clipped comment in Draconic and it brings smirks to the lips of her team.</blockquote>

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