Fleas kept a healthy distance from The Piano, only popping in to snatch her gemstones once she was sure there was no risk. Though she didn't say anything, and still found The Piano suspicious, she had to agree with her acoustic accomplice's sentiments. They did make a good team. She had even smiled a bit when the Piano pulled out that spear. "Mefft himm?" Fleas says, mouth full of the stone tentacle she'd just retrieved. She spits it out into the strange divot between her wings. She'd taken to keeping her gemstones back there, using the new limbs to shuffle the stones back when they started to slip. That one skull was starting to hurt. She looks up at some invisible spot.
"I guess, yeah. Don't know him personally, but that dude's a real piece of work. I dunno what he does. He was just followin us during that Hydra trial, real awful thing. I didn't die though, so thats kind of a first." Fleas reflects on that for a moment. Huh. She'd been pretty lucky recently. She wasnt optimistic enough to hope thinking on the fact didn't change jinx it.
"When I got to the end he was there and sent some sorta bolt of pain through me. Sucked. Soon as I woke up he gave me a stone. I was ready to accept him killin me again." What a weird sequence of events that had been. "This event--no. I don't know why they call him that if he just kills people. The guy wants a bunch of magic for some weird stone hes got for some 'Dreamer'? I didn't ask questions. I don't really know what I want for a reward either. I've...never thought on what I want, ya'know? I just go living one day after the next. I've never thought on anything deeper." She blinked. Should she have some...purpose? Something to do other than avoid danger? She was broken from her reverie by the awful sight of The Piano's gold writing writhing about on it.
She stumbled back and was promptly thrown into the second anxiety causing event of a newcomer. She whipped around at the third voice. A leopard. Twice her size. She was feeling mighty dwarfed. Fleas scratched at a bald spot on her neck, struggling with the tightrope act of scratching while keeping her stones on her back. She shuddered. At least they both talked. At least the newcomer was recognizably...animal.
"Right. Lets get back into it, then. Hey, how 'bout you, newcomer? Got any ideas for a wish?" Fleas sent out an idle pulse of magicka as she spoke.
"When I speak"
When I think
((No worries!! this thread is AW so you were free to join!))
Fleas wandered a distance away from her terrifying aquaintances after pointing out the weak ping of magicka she'd detected. Far enough to not get pounced at, close enough to run to if someting else pounced at her. She was happy to have help, and they'd certainly scare away any eyehooks, but if she stuck around them she'd scratch herself bald in a week. Unconsciously proving the point, she brought her foreleg up to gnaw at. Fleas resisted the urge to shake herself out. Instead she sniffed around the entrance to a trio of branching tunnels, flicking her ears here and there. Fleas sent out another pulse of magicka, grimacing as that awful buzz started on her gemstone. The responding ping felt stronger than the last one. Her ears pricked forward in interest.
"Somethin here as well, it seems!" She barked out.
"When I speak"
When I think
((Submitted a gm request!))
The Piano's search bore fruit; though whether any of it was magical was hard to say without a specifically magical search. The first item uncovered was an old, partially dessicated leather-and-fur armor cuirass built for a quadrupedal creature of some sort, one that probably weighed a couple hundred pounds. It formed overlapping, stealth-oriented, soft armor with straps and fur-wrapped buckles (so as to make no sound) with additional armor tilting upward to run up the back of the neck of some creature shaped like a sheep or goat. The top curved into an overlapping hood fitted with two more leather pieces that were fitted to a pair of large, curled horns like those of a ram. On the whole, its dusty brown color was easy to miss where it lay buried in the sandy earth, and it had been partially eaten away by Quillmice and mummified in its time lost, becoming flaked and fragile.
The second item was a likewise time-battered leather harness fitted with eight storage pouches for smaller objects. This object seemed to have been fitted to a large, reptilian creature, like a monitor lizard. Seven of the pouches still held items. The first, a dust that had once been herbs of some kind, but had long since dried away. The second held six small gemstones, one of which--a small, dark red Pyrope--held Fledgling-level magic. The other five were quite dead, though again this would need to be checked with magic first. The other pouches held small bones that might've once been a prey item secured away for a snack; a small leather canteen that was now not only dried out but partially rotten; a little collection of interesting items such as a mother-of-pearl button and a serrated tooth; and, of all things, a stainless steel butter knife. The knife was still in good shape, but as a butter knife, was uniquely unsuitable to be a weapon.
The third item was a towering spine of Purpurite gemstone, almost two feet long, that had once sat on the back of a massive lizard of some sort. It was now dead, magic-less, but lay abandoned in the dust of a ledge; Hydra's predators had seen no point in chewing rock, and so it'd been left alone.
Heathen's find was a large hunk of dim blood red, shiny Proustite gemstone, like a huge droplet of blood, though if someone were to Detect Magic on it they would find it quite bereft of magic.
Fleas located a Fledgling-level Jacinth--likewise blood red--in the shape of a massive cloven hoof from something the size of a giraffe or so. A spike protruded from one end. Most likely, she would need help to transport this; perhaps her larger Piano-shaped companion could aid in transporting it in return for a Merchant reward, itself. The second item Fleas would find was a Pupil-level chunk of pink spinel gemstone.
Let me know if I missed any rolls!
@Fleas @The Piano @Heathen
The Piano would find that, unfortunately, smashing all these specific items together will do little more than possibly damage them. Any magic that they held would not be revealed in such a manner.
The first of these items was a rough chunk of Olivine--void of life or magic, though the Piano had no way of telling, but pretty beneath its dusty coat. The second looked like a small stone drinking cup that had been hidden away; it looked plain but well-worn. What a strange thing to find in a desert canyon. The third, by comparison, was quite striking: a cobalt blue, translucent Azurite in the shape of a creature's single neck vertebra, with a small, slender spine jutting from the back of the neck. Hues of cloudy violet deeply shaded its edges, while its center seemed to be the heart of some unknown sea.
The cup, as it would turn out--should the Piano have it somehow checked--was enchanted. The spell Purify had been permanently affixed to its plain, cracked and chipped shape, allowing it to always provide its drinker with resistance to toxins and the like. Useful, no doubt, for living in Hydra--the waters of the Dead Marsh were rarely safe.
@The Piano
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