"Oh," it continued, its voice growing a little more distorted with every item it picked up. (It couldn't help it; the items were stored in the same space that contained its strings.) "What reward were you thinking of asking for? He said we could pretty much pick anything, right." It had a pretty good idea of what it wanted already, but it thought it might like to hear what others were thinking. Perhaps someone would think of something genius it hadn't.

As it spoke, the gold writing that served as its vision shifted once again, this time so it could scan the canyon walls above its lid for anything interesting. Perhaps some poor fool in ages past had thought to hide something in a higher place, or had simply died in said higher place.

Heathen

____________________________________________

Survival is awarded to the worthy

When faced with the decision of where to go to find things lost to time by the dead, Heathen had only one idea in mind. The only place they had found 'safe' in this forsaken cave, and the only place they knew of with refreshments for when they inevitably had to rest. The last thing they expected, however, was to find other living Gembounds in the very spot they wished to search. How charming. They did not need to ask if that was what they were here for. Why else would they be in Hydra, digging holes and moving stones?

"I don't even want to know what you are," He announced his presence with blunt words, but honest ones, directed at the piano, "but I do want to get in on the search."

The leopard did not pretend to be friendly and instead set to work, moving what rocks they could and digging out abandoned burrows to better view their contents. Seeing how snack-sized one half of the unlikely pair was, Heathen wondered how the thing was still alive in the first place considering, well, Hydra. Were things calmed in the cave for a while? Did the Masked figure have something to do with it? Maybe they were just lucky, left alone in favour of something that wasn't protected by a living creation of wood and string.

How is it moving like that?! He shuddered.

Maybe things in a cave filled with the very magic he himself used shouldn't shock him so much, but there was just something so strange, even considering that, about a moving, living, breathing(?) Piano. Did it breathe? Did it see? Heathen was staring.

"Spoken words!" And thoughts Compared to actions!

OOC Notes: Really hope you both don't mind me joining in! They'll behave, I promise!

@Fleas @The Piano

Heathen

____________________________________________

Survival is awarded to the worthy

Heathen shook themself out of it, focusing as best they could on the task at hand. Staring, as tempting as it was to try and work out the being's functionality, would not help them figure out just what they could earn from this challenge. Besides, maybe they would find something worth keeping.

Heathen dug into another hole, eyes peeled for anything shiny.

What kind of rewards were they after? He wondered if it was worth it to ask, having missed the Piano's question.

"Spoken words!" And thoughts Compared to actions!

OOC Notes:

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

@The Piano
@Heathen
((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 alien writing on the Piano's side glittered dangerously. It prepared itself to gently, yet threateningly remind the feline newcomer to speak respectfully or not at all, but Fleas started talking first and it seemed a bit awkward to interrupt its companion just to make an icy comment. Ruefully, it maintained a dignified silence as it combed through its new findings. It had no magical way of telling if any were useful for their purpose, but... surely one did not come to face the privation Hydra without any sort of useful enchantment on their belongings.

"You've died often?" it asked curiously as a string curled around the butter knife. What a wonderfully shiny weapon, if a bit small. "I've never died at all." It waved it experimentally through the air. Time to mess around and find out. It set the wearable items against a stone, picked up the butter knife and the serrated tooth, and gave them a good WHACK! against each other.

It seemed only sensible that warriors going to their deaths would bring enchanted items suited for combat, if they brought any at all. This should help the spells show themselves if they were there, it thought.

As for Fleas's reward... "Why would you agree to help, then, if you've got nothing in mind that you want?" It was genuinely mystified. Certainly the Organization would not have taken on such a task for free. "It doesn't sound as if the Merchant has been particularly nice to you." Returning a favor, it could understand. This? ... Not entirely. It rolled toward the locations Fleas pointed it to and retrieved her finds. Gemstones, both of them.

"Are you planning to keep these?" it asked casually. "If you're not going to give them to the Merchant?" If not, it would find a use for the smaller ones, the ones that wouldn't be too much trouble to carry. If Fleas wanted them... well, it was happy to help her carry them back. For a price.

Anyway. It continued to scour the rocks and cracks of the Crucible. Perhaps it'd find more stuff to violently test for magic.

The Piano kept a figurative eye--a literal golden scribble--on the leopard as it searched. Why were they even here, with them, if they weren't going to act friendly about it? It caught the leopard staring back. Perhaps, it thought suspiciously, they wanted to steal their finds. Not on The Piano's watch.

Slowly, deliberately, it reached out a set of strings and turned over the next stone. It would show itself to be a far more agreeable and useful partner than any leopard.

As it searched, it was quite happy to keep whacking its finds against one another. It loved using the butter knife in particular, smacking it against things like a tuning fork. It even hit it against the Crucible's walls a few times just for fun. Idly, it wondered if it might have a talent for adding percussion to its musical repertoire.

Humming casually, it dug its strings into rock alcoves and sandy, gravelly soil as it sought more items to put to the test.

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