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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 3055779" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #359a] Once More into the Depths[/PLAIN]"Oi!" Karak grumbled, picking himself off the floor, capturing in one syllable the sentiments of half the party."Should have seen that coming," Morier confided. He dragged his thumb under his nose and it came away wet with blood."It was stupid of us," Ayremac agreed. He stood and offered his hand to Shamalin, practically dragging the cleric to her feet."Brilliant use of a spell, I must say," Huzair muttered as he got to his own feet, using his shortspear like a walking stick to lever himself up. "Explosive Runes, by the way. Fairly nasty, but it's harmless now that it's triggered." Saying thus he moved closer and opened the first box. Inside was a triangle of blue cloth carefully folded to display a rearing horse worked in silver thread."Huh," Ayremac muttered as he looked over Huzair's shoulder. He extended a hand and traced the rampant gelding. "That's the symbol of Ibrahil, God of Justice.""Seems an odd fit for a dungeon dedicated to Ayphx," Huzair observed as he carefully unfurled the fabric. It was clearly a banner such as one might see fluttering at the head of an army on the march."Gimme that poker o' yers," Karak grumbled as he reached for Huzair's spear. "We'll string up the banner an' see what she looks like.""And leave me without a weapon?" the mage protested, trying unsuccessfully to wrench the spear free of Karak's hand. "Why don't you string it on your waraxe if you're so intent on it?" The dwarf regarded him queerly."Because I can nae swing me axe with a flag attached to it," he stated. "Are ye daft?""And I won't be able to use my spear either, in that case," Huzair argued and Karak easily jerked the shortspear from his hands."And when was the last time ye used this or any other weapon in battle?" the dwarf snorted shaking his head as he began to thread the banner onto the wooden shaft.Morier, meanwhile had opened the second box, revealing a pair of plain metal bracers within. The eldritch warrior removed them and slipped them on readily, hoping secretly for some sort of extra magical protection to keep him from being a magnet for every blade in combat. He could feel the armbands' magic coursing through his body, but he didn't feel any more difficult to hit than he did before putting them on. Frowning he experimented a bit and without really trying very hard, he was able to jump from one side of the room to the other in a single fantastic leap."Some kind of Armbands of Jumping," Huzair stated the obvious, but still managed to sound like he was sharing great wisdom with the group."Those could come in handy," Lela grinned, her smile wide."And last we have this," Ayremac said, drawing forth from the third silver box a chalice that seemed to be carved from a single piece of milky-colored crystal."Oi, now that's a thing ye do nae see every day," Karak said, setting aside his flag and taking the goblet from the holy warrior. Holding the cup high he intoned, "Give me a cold dwarven ale!" Unfortunately, the cup remained empty."Maybe it needs to be filled with liquid first. Hold it up again," Lela suggested, hovering just at the lip of the cup she called on the Green (which, she noted was somewhat difficult in this place, as if it weren't actually on Orune at all), filling the chalice with pure water. "Aqua Crea!"Karak brought the cup down so that he could see into it and some of the water sloshed over the rim and ran onto the floor. "Give me a healing draught!" he urged, and drained the cup in nearly one gulp. But the water remained just water and he scowled. "Mayhaps we'll have to do a bit more experimentin' with this later," he suggested, offering the goblet back to Ayremac."I guess that just leaves the gold," Huzair said, indicating the overflowing chest. " The chest won't fit, but, if we all work together I think we can get all the gold inside by Handy Haversack pretty quickly."Shamalin busied herself with healing up injuries while the others began to gather up handfuls of the reddish gold coins and dump them into Huzair's magic bag. Morier picked one up and looked at it critically; he'd never seen its like before, and moreover he didn't think anybody else in the Realms ever had either. Its mint was totally unfamiliar. On one face was inscribed a sort of stylized star with an eye in the center while the other side bore an oval, broken at either end, with something in the middle like a tower or monolith of jagged lines; or perhaps it was meant to represent a stylized tree.Before he had time to inspect it further, he noticed the burning tingle in his fingertips where he'd handled the coin. He recognized the sensation: poison! At once, he cast it down and knocked the coins from the others' hands in a flurry of motion, but it was too late. They'd all felt the cursed sting of the poisonous metal."Maybe we should just leave this here," Huzair suggested as he carefully poured out all the coins with which he'd just so happily loaded himself up."Aye. Let's head back downstairs and see what awaits us there," Karak suggested, through clenched teeth. No one noticed the stiffness in the dwarf's gait or the way his arms seemed to droop as he walked. And Karak certainly wouldn't admit that he, a dwarf, had been badly effected by poison.</blockquote>

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