The Key to Victory

[Fangor the Fierce]

[sblock=In the Cave]"Listen to Jareth. Check the place out, VERY WELL. Remember, this is a dragons' hoard. They are not keen on leaving their treasure unguarded. I know that all too well, from experience. Ans it's not a request. Drop the bag, check the place out, VERY well...."

Mal checks out the cave, deciding to crawl up above, to the ceiling, to check out just to get a birds eye view of this place.[/sblock]

 

[jackslate45]

Ern glares at the other prisoners and asks "Where is it located at?"

 

[HolyMan]

The thug points a thumb over his shoulder at the forest. "Other side of the trees not far. Just another 50 paces or so. Haden was gathering equipment for the Reavers to fight against them elves."

[sblock=In the cave] Aver sighs and goes to the pedestal. He stares at it for long minutes and then coughs a little. After a few more minutes of looking and running his fingers over it the coughing gets worse and he starts to wheeze a bit as he breathes.

Putting a hand to his head he says, "I'm really getting light headed. But... but I don't see anything. You know I think that the trap around here is this place itself. You run out of air while you search or loading up and..." the elf finishes with a gulp.

"I think I want to leave now," he says walking unsteadily towards the water.

From Malaroc's perch he sees nothing amiss but does notice that is breathing is a bit more labored from the exertion.

Jareth notice he too has to try harder to bring in enough air into his lungs.[/sblock]

 

[Dragonwriter]

[sblock=Cave]
Jareth isn't pleased at this turn of events. "Never thought I'd see you walk away from treasure," he says wryly. "Fine. Aver, you grab the crown and the sword. If they're trapped, you're the most-likely to be able to dodge. If you've got a sack, fill it with however much you can manage underwater. Otherwise, we're out of here. Same goes for you Mal."

Jareth fills his belt pouches (which he previously emptied up above) with a few handfuls of coins, then slips into the water again.

OOC: Jareth can manage about 20 pounds of coins before they actually impede him in the water... Funny how that works. I know the belt pouches can't hold that much anyway. Just grabbing what I can before breathing gets too hard, then waiting to swim out with the others. I can manage almost three minutes of holding my breath, according to the rules, and it should take less than a minute to swim back to the surface.
[/sblock]

 

[ghostcat]

Trinham is watching the thugs and the lake, waiting for the others to return. Suddenly, his stomach starts to grumble. remembering that they have been on short rations for quite a while now he quietly asks Em "What did you do for food while you were down here?"

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

[sblock=Cave] OOC - Mal had dropped his studded leather, along with various weapons. Kept the good dragon gauntlets on though. He can carry up to 46 lbs of loot and still have a light load. His backpack is still with him, ready to use to stow lootage.

Quickly clambering down, Mal begins to shove the coins into his pack, making sure to check its weight when he thinks it is full enough to still be able to swim with and not have trouble. He tries to take slow breaths, knowing that their air supply is short.

Making sure Aver leaves first, he alerts Jareth as well. "Aver, you go first, I will bring up the rear."

He does not speak anymore, allowing the air to be used for breathing instead of talking. Once in the water, he follows Jareth out, and swims back to the group, loot in tow.[/sblock]

 

[HolyMan]

"We go hunting. Out..." the thug starst to say bit stops as once again bubbles form on the lake surface, followed by Jareth and the others.

"Out where!" Tira says raising her voice. "You don't mean outside. In the wood do you?"

Looking nervous the thug looks to Trinham for help but seeing none answers nevrously, "Umm... yeah."

"The tunnel," he says pointing to the large exit. "It leads outside."

"Oh no," Tira says shock in her eyes. "The Wardens they could know we are here."

 

[Dragonwriter]

Jareth hauls himself out of the water, vaguely hearing Tira. He starts to empty out the recovered treasure and return his normal gear to its proper place (after attempting a little pressure-wringing of his clothes). He looks over at his half-sister and Trinham, along with the prisoners. "What's this? What about the Wardens?"

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Mal breaks the surface of the water, looking about for Aver. He pulls himself to the shore and begins to try and dry out his breeches. Luckily, he had left his shirt and armor here, safe and dry it would seem. The others can now see that his body is riddled with tattoos.

There are symbols, one on each shoulder, as well as one on each side of his chest. They look archaic, but not recognizable. He then kneels, and begins to inspect the dragon gauntlet that Haden had been using...

"Can anyone tell if this thing is magical?" he asks, holding up his hand with the gauntlet on it.

 

[jackslate45]

Ernestine had enough decency to turn away from Mal and Jareth when they started drying off. "Trinham was trying earlier, but I do not know if he still can. None of these items are magical. If he cant I can try. I also want to check that rod Aver stole. Which reminds me, these guys say there is an armory. Apparently they were preparing for war. Well, that IS normal for them, but I know we don't want to delay for too long."

Ernestine looked at Trinham with sad eyes and said "My food came from the rations I stocked up on before I ran, and the fungas and fish I was able to catch in that cave afterwards."

"As for the Warnuts, who are they?"