The Lady’s Hand (A Dickings & Dalliances Adventure) - (Closed Except By Invitation)

[Nouh_Bdee]

The two adventurers, plus the vedger who had lowered itself into the room behind them, hear a scrabbling sound of claws on stone from the room that just opened, but the darkness inside is difficult to see into. It's a large, open room with several partially crumbled statues dotted about the space.

 

[justspitballing]

Before entering the room blindly Sprite pulls out her torch and quickly lights it. She then tosses it into the room, hoping it will cast a good bit of light. Given her weapon of choice, the great axe, it will be to awkward to swing with said axe while holding the torch at the same time. The best thing she can hope for is that the place where the torch lands allows them to all see well enough. After the torch lands on the floor she slowly walks towards the flame, ready for a fight.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The light of the torch reveals four statues in the room of vaguely humanoid figures, nude, with exaggerated genitalia. They're arranged in a square shape in the center of the room, turned inward to face a low stone table. Shifting shadows flicker around the room, and the edges of the room cannot be seen clearly. There's a door to the left that looks in similar shape to the one door that just collapsed. The far right corner is especially dark.

 

[Poprockz]

"Well that's creepy as hell," Arx stated matter-of-factly, her eyes narrowing at each of the statues. She had absolutely heard scrabbling from in there, and that didn't make her feel very safe. Either something was in there, something likely nasty, or the statues themselves had moved. Neither option was particularly comforting, the changeling shivering slightly and biting her lip. Was this the trap one had to have their clothes off for? She wasn't sure.

One one hand, she didn't want to be gutted by something with claws or clubbed to death with stone fists. On the other hand, it might have some kind of enchantment that made clothes strangle the person. Quite the dilemma.

"Do you think this is the trap where you have to be naked? Or should we just go in back-to-back and hope for the best?" Arx licked her lips nervously, her eyes drawn to the dark corners as though looking at them would change the fact that the darkness was impenetrable.

 

[justspitballing]

"The trap of no clothing is likely in the treasure room itself. We're kind of off the beaten trail now. I felt I heard something alive," Sprite states. She approaches the dark corner, her axe drawn, relatively sure if something was moving around that would be the easiest place it could hide in.

 

[Poprockz]

"Me too," she murmured, crouching and drawing her daggers. Her eyes scanned the room again as she tried to minimize her presence, slowly following Sprite a few paces back. Every now and then she would glance at the statues, just to make sure they were still motionless.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

As the vedger follows a few paces behind them, more scrabbling can be heard from the darkness of the far right corner of the room, but nothing approaches them, and nothing else moves. There’s a small object on the table, and the faint outline of a doorway can be seen against the back wall.

 

[justspitballing]

Sprite feels this is off. A dangerous being would have attacked by now. Hiding in shadows shows a sense of trying to defend itself. There was in reality just a good of a chance the creature in question was a simple lost animal as it was that it could be of harm. As such Sprite kneels down, putting her axe to the side, and folding in her wings, trying to seem as small and none threatening as possible. She then very slowly edges towards the darkness of the corner. Her hope was that this softer approach would lead to the creature showing itself.

 

[Poprockz]

Her eyes fell upon the object on the table as her gaze did one of its sweeps across the room. Regardless of how she squinted, she wasn't going to make it out in the dim light unless she got closer. Sprite seemed confident with what she was doing, so Arx chose to creep quietly toward the small table until she was essentially at the edge of the statues's square.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Arx was greeted by the sight of glittering gold on the table, a piece of jewelry that is hard to classify in the dim light. Still, it’s more than Sprite gets for her trouble. The harpy is met only with silence, the scrabbling creature stilled, but no more revealed in the dark.

 

[justspitballing]

Sprite hears a voice say to her lightly, "you're not supposed to be here."

It doesn't come from the darkness though, it's all around her. It's in her very head. She grabs her face and falls backwards. Then she quickly springs up and starts stripping her armor as quickly as possible.

"Spirits in this room! Even more of the blasted things! They don't want us here, and we are clothed. You were right, I was wrong," Sprite states as she quickly gets naked with no shame or a second thought about it. Shame is for the weak.

She tosses her armor away and then goes back into her weak and purposely small stance.

 

[Poprockz]

The mysterious jewelry didn’t look boobie-trapped, but she still felt just a bit of trepidation. As such, Sprite’s sudden comments made her jump, her head whipping around to look at the bird before looking down at her armor. She wasn’t quite sure how she had been clued in to such a thing, as the changeling hadn’t seen or heard any ghosts, but stripping naked just in case seemed like the safer thing to do.

Arx did just that, quickly peeling off her armor and stuffing it in her bag before setting the bag back down. Now that was taken care of, it was probably safe to navigate the room itself. Walking closer, she reached out and picked up the jewelry from he table, turning it over in her hands. Per haps this was part of the treasure?

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The jewelry is a small, choker-style necklace with a band of woven gold, made to bend and fold and stretch. There is a stone set in the center, but it’s too dark to make out anything like color or clarity so deep into the temple.

As Sprite disrobes, all three adventurers hear guttural, phlegmy laughter—aurally this time—coming from deeper into the darkest corner of the room. It actually sounds further away than should be possible if the room is intact, although it’s too dark to see even the walls.

 

[justspitballing]

Sprite decided to take the laugh to be a good sign, though in reality it should have been terrifying. How she wished she had a magical moon blade axe to light the way, because managing the darkness of this place and keeping herself ready to defend properly was showing to be a very difficult challenge. She took a couple of steps back and grabbed her fallen torch, having to put her axe down for a moment. She moved the flame forward into the darkness of the corner and pressed on ahead.

"We are not hear to disrespect your tomb and we mean you no harm," Spirit says as she moves. She glances over to Arx and motions for her to put down the treasure. Of course Arx was a rogue so there wasn't a guarantee she would not stash the treasure on her.

 

[Poprockz]

The laughter made Arx cringe, finding it to be either cruel or condescending. It had the vibe to her of someone pointing and laughing at them for getting naked, as though they were being foolishly silly. Who knows? Maybe someone ghostly really was doing so- it wasn't like they could see into those dark corners so it was a possibility. She was with Sprite up until she asked the rogue to put down the treasure. Frowning, she crossed her arms, still holding it in her hands but not moving away from the table.

"Why can't I keep it? Unlike the dead people here, I could actually use it. Besides, they're the rude ones for not even showing their face and asking me to put it down politely." By this point she was essentially pouting stubbornly, her eyes challenging the harpy to try to convince her to leave it behind.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The scrabbling sound resumes, and moves further away. The voice returns, in both their heads this time.

<<don’t care about the tomb don’t care. That what you come for yes yes? You leave after go away? Then do you do, and LEAVE LITTLE OL’ ME ALONE>>

 

[justspitballing]

Sprite couldn't see how the laughing and the voice telling them to leave could possibly be related. It was almost like multiple things were in play, each conflicting with the other.

Sprite stood up, seeing no need to go closer to something that so clearly wanted to be left alone. She also looked back over at Arx. She honestly couldn't think of a more incorrect decision then taking the treasure right now, but Arx was her own being. If she wanted to do this then she could.

"Fine, just keep in mind you're not going to have anywhere to stash it now," Sprite says, taking note of Arx's naked form.

After that Sprite ignores the dark corner fully, letting the voice have its space, and then goes straight for the shabby looking door on the side of the wall.

 

[Poprockz]

"That's the great thing about jewelry-" Arx said in a self-satisfied way, slipping the jewel onto her wrist as an ornate bracelet, "you can wear it." It looked quite lovely on her wrist, the jewel catching what little light the torch would throw its way.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Soft chuckles seemed to fade into the distance, but the room itself remained unchanged and unentered. The door Sprite stood before, like all the doors made of wood in this forgotten temple, looked ready to collapse at any moment, but until it did, nothing beyond could be seen.

 

[justspitballing]

Sprite doesn't care if opening the door would damage it. This fun house of sorts had to be dealt with and solved before it did them both in. She opens the door fully and looks inside.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Sprite opens the door to see a large room with elaborate carvings in the old stone walls. Four pillars make a square in the room, with ovoid finials glowing a faint orange on top of each. There appears to have been a large cave-in at some point, which a calm pool of water occupying most of the center and right edge of the room. The light from the pillars is just enough to see by, and a set of shelves and chests can be seen past the pool.

 

[justspitballing]

So this was the treasure area. Sprite got her axe ready and entered the room. She was still naked so likely safe, but she had to stay on her guard.

"We will have to check each of these chests. The item we seek could be in one of them," Sprite said.

Of course she was no expert for checking for traps so for now all she could do was be prepared.

 

[Poprockz]

Arx felt a slight zing... of magic. Her eyes went to the bracelet suspiciously, but she didn't take it off. The changing debated about it for a moment before shrugging and following Sprite. The ghost said they shouldn't be wearing any clothes, but he didn't say anything about jewelry. Besides, this was a temple where people went to get fucked, not get fucked over so it couldn't be too malicious of a spell in all likelihood. It was probably just some sort of charm.

Poking her head into the treasure room, she got her bearings before squinting more closely at it, trying to find any traps that may have been set there.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

As Arx peers inside the room and Sprite steps in, the only sound they hear is a faint rippling in the pool.

 

[justspitballing]

Sprite pondered the idea of just flying over the pool, trying to carry Arx with her, but this was no time to act brash. Without her armor she was not fully ready for a fight after all, she had to be smart. She picked up a free pebble off the floor and tossed it gently at the pool of water, figuring if there was something dangerous it would make itself known by doing so.