[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: Shiho died! But she was only _sorta_ dead! That'll teach her to open treasure chests without taking precautions first!] [The group is in that same room where Shiho 'died,' ready to either open the chest again or move on to other parts of the dungeon.] [Session Start] * In a flash of industrial light and magic, Amy plushifies. * Daphne walks right up to the chest. "If anyone wants me to not open this, speak up." Oop. There she goes. * Cara picks up plushie Amy. * Shiho shrugs. "May as well open it. Any traps that were on it were probably sprung the first time." * Daphne nods and roughly opens the chest. * Chest opens. Daphne does not die. * Daphne looks around inside the chest. * Rocky runs up to the chest and hops up and down to see inside. "Shiny? Shiny?" * Chest is holding three bluish vials and a sparkly wand of black wood, about nine inches long. * Cara walks over. "What is it?" Drinks and a stick. * Shiho looks inside. But a shiny stick! * The wand is very shiny. * Daphne picks up the wand. * The wand does not react to Daphne. * Rocky waves his paws at Daphne. "I want the shiny stick!" * Daphne eyes the wand, and shrugs. "No idea. Cara?" * Cara looks at the stick. "A wand, maybe?" Gimme! I guess. Any way to figure out what it does? Uh...I dunno. * Daphne grins and wags a finger at Rocky. "You'll get your turn." Let me see it. Some wands identify themselves to a wizard when held. This simple ones, usually. Really? * Daphne shrugs and hands it to Shiho. "Didn't know you were a wizard." * Shiho takes it. "You sure? You were at the school when I went to take classes." * Shiho looks at it. Ah. That's true. It's a stoneskin spell. Practically used up, though. Used up? It's got limited uses? * Shiho nods. Well, probably still useful. * Shiho puts it in her backpack. "We may as well hang onto it, though. Might come in handy." Stoneskin? Hm. So...stoneskin...that's like Amy's spell, but better, right? * Shiho nods. * Rocky grins. "More shinies for us!" So, what should we do now? * Rocky hops onto Shiho's shoulder. * Daphne picks up one of the vials of liquid. "And these?" * The vials are slightly heavy, probably full of liquid. Potions, probably. Though I'm not drinking one to find out what it does. ^^; * Shiho shrugs. "Potions, probably. But without quaffing one, there's no way for me to tell what they do." Heh. Fair enough. * Daphne puts them in her backpack, just in case. I suppose an Identify spell would work, but I don't have one. Identify spell...I wonder how I could do that... * Shiho chuckles. "Well, I don't think you could draw it..." * Cara giggles. "I don't know how I could." ^^ So what should we do now? We've got two hallways, a locked door, and a funny tile behind another door left. I'd suggest we just continue down the present hallway. Sure. * Cara nods. "Okay." * Daphne heads back out into the hallway. * Shiho follows Daphne. * Cara follows Daphne. * Rocky rides on Shiho's shoulder. * The direction you haven't been down yet vanishes into the darkness, but near the edge of your light is a door in the south wall. * Daphne heads left, down towards the next door, looking around for anything interesting. Like traps. * Shiho follows Daphne. "Let's check in here." Sounds like a plan. * Cara marks the door down on her map. * Daphne looks the door over. * As you near that door, you can see that another fifteen feet or so past that door, the hall turns south still further. * This door, as with the others, is sturdy metal bound wood. * Daphne tries the door's handle. * THe handle turns. Daphne, don't stand directly in front of the door when you open it. Alright. Hm. * Daphne stands to one side and tries to open the door. * Cara backs away from the door a little. * The door does not open. It looks like it might, given a little more effort, though. Hm. Stubborn one. * Daphne gives it another shot. You can do it, Daphne. ^_^ I might just be paranoid, but we're better safe than sorry. Nothin' wrong with paranoid. * The door still does not give way. * Daphne frowns. * Daphne tries one more time. * The door bursts into the room beyond, the back of which is shrouded in darkness beyond the range of your torch. Yay! Go Daphne! * Daphne takes a look in once she's sure that nothing's going to fly out and kill her. * From what you _can_ see, the room appears to have once been some sort of mass bedroom, as the remains of several bunk beds are stacked here, with sturdy wooden chests at the foot of each. You can see two chests and sets of bunk beds within the range of your torch. Hunh. * Daphne walks in, cautiously. * The room itself is perhaps fifteen feet across, with the beds extending from the east wall. * Shiho follows, keeping her eyes open for anything moving. Open the chests! There could be shinies inside. * Daphne eyes the chests. "Oh. More chests. Who wants these?" * As you move in a short distance, you can see that there is one more bunk with another chest, and the south wall is about thirty feet from the entrance. That's a lot of chests... Yup. Move in a bit, Daphne. Let's make sure the rooms clear before we open them. It could be lots of fun if they're all like the last one. Yesiree. * Daphne moves in a bit, looking around. * Cara stays behind, adding the details to her map. I wouldn't be surprised. There's traps all over the place in here. Who ever built this dungeon must have been paranoid. Well, these could just be chests for storing clothes and stuff... That's one possibility, yes. Could be. And I suppose you could be right, Cara. Although I wouldn't be surprised if the people living here trapped them anyhow. But how can we open them without triggering traps? I can cast a spell to do it... * Shiho moves towards a chest once she sees the room is clear. "Hopefully, from behind." Careful. * Cara nods nervously. * Shiho checks the bunks first, just to make sure there's nothing sleeping (or not sleeping) in them. * The bunks have mostly fallen apart, only the headboards are still standing, and even those are leaning inward, ready to fall. If there's anything in the beds, it's small. * Shiho opens the first chest, then. From behind. * Cara holds her breath. * The chest has no lock, and as it opens, a puff of stale, nasty air comes out. * Daphne stands well away from the air. c.c * Shiho fails to drop dead. * The stale, nasty air quickly disperses, leaving behind just a sort of rotted odor. * Shiho looks inside the chest, since she's not dead. * The chest is full of some... rotted... stuff. Yeah, it's pretty easily definable as stuff. * Cara exhales, relieved. * Daphne lets out her breath, not realising that she'd been holding it. * Rocky pouts. "No shinies." So. What's in there? ... Stuff * Whatever the stuff was, it's not anymore. * Shiho makes a face. "Unless you want to dig around in there. I'm going to dump it on the floor." Uh. Go ahead. * Shiho does just that. * The chest tips over with a *thud* and the... stuff spills out. There doesn't appear to be anything of value in there. It's just... stuff. * Shiho goes to the next one. "So much for that." * The next chest does not attack Shiho as she approaches. Yeuch. Eww... * Shiho opens that one from behind, too. But it's better than a killer trap. ^^; * Shiho pops open the chest and manages not to get a lungful of nasty smelling air. It smells like somebody's been aging used socks in there. * And that's _after_ the smell has dilluted. * Cara waves a hand in front of her face. "Yuck." Ugh. * Shiho looks in this one. * This one is also full of stuff. This stuff is less well composed than the other stuff, though, and there are shards of broken glass in there, as well as a cork. Maybe something broke that made that smell. * Shiho dumps it out. * The shards of glass tinkle on the stone floor, but they're quickly muffled by the rest of the stuff that pours out. Once again, if there was anything of value here, it's probably not anymore. * Shiho moves on to the next one. "One left to go." * Daphne nods. Good luck. ^_^ Heh. * Shiho opens it from behind. * Another puff of stale, pungent air comes from this chest, but thankfully, nobody drops dead. * Shiho peeks inside. And what's behind lid number three? * Inside the chest is more stuff, very similar to the stuff in the first chest. There's actually color to this stuff, though, a dull, greenish color. You might call it olive drab, the official color of the US Army. * Shiho dumps it out. * The chest tips over with a dull *thud* and the contents spill out. There doesn't appear to be anything that's _not_ olive drab in there. I heard something. Something tinkled when you dumped it out. I heard shinies! * Shiho gets down and reluctantly roots through the stuff. * There are no shinies in the stuff. * Shiho's hands get kinda dirty, though. * Shiho shrugs. "Nothing here." That's strange... I'm sure I heard something. * Rocky nods. "Uh-huh! Shinies!" Well, I didn't find any. * Cara goes and looks in the actual chest. * The chest is stained dark on the inside, probably from the stuff. There doesn't appear to be anything in there, though. * Cara frowns. * Rocky does too. "There is a distinct lack of shinies where shinies ought to be!" * Daphne shrugs. "I didn't hear anything." * Cara goes and spreads out the contents of the chest all over the floor. * Cara does not find shinies. See? Nothing. Aw... Look for pockets! * Cara pouts. "You look for them, if you want it." * Shiho picks up each object individually, holds them up, then drops them. * The pieces don't have any pockets, nor are any of them heavy enough to be shinies in disguise. * Rocky pouts. "No shinies." * Rocky mumbles. Oh well. We may as well go. There's nothing else here. * Cara nods. * Daphne nods and heads back to the hallway. "Wanna continue on down thisaway?" Yeah. It's as good of a direction as any. * Cara goes out to the hallway. * Shiho follows, of course. * Daphne nods and heads down the hallway. * Daphne carefully checks the corner for anything that looks like it wants to shoot an arrow at her. * As Daphne rounds the corner, she sees only more hallway, stretching off into the darkness to the south. * Nothing shoots at Daphne, either. ^_^; * Daphne nods and keeps heading down the hallway. * As Daphne proceeds south, however, a doorway quickly comes into view as the hallway ends abruptly. * Cara peeks around the corner. * She didn't go far, another five or so feet, making the total corridor twenty five feet long, counting the corridor, with a door to the south. * Shiho inspects the door. * Daphne observes the door. * Cara busies herself with her map. * The door opens away from you again. There is no lock, nor even a handle. Hm. Push it, I guess. * Cara looks up. "Huh? What's wrong?" * Daphne shrugs and tries pushing the door open. * The door pushes stiffly open on its hidden hinges, revealing a large room with several table-like structures in it, though it's hard to tell exactly what they are in the gloom from this distance. * Daphne carefully steps in and glances around. Oh, that's nice. Didn't have to force the door for once. ^_^ * As Daphne steps inside, she can see two other doors immediately visible. Now that they're better illuminated, the table-like structures appear to be immense blocks of well-worn stone, put there for some unknown purpose. * Daphne walks over to look at one of the probably-not-a-tables. * Shiho does likewise in both respects. Huh. * Daphne glances towards the cieling. * Cara enters the room and looks around. * You can barely see the west wall, the room appearing to be about twenty five feet across, and you are still unable to see the south wall, though you can see a single large stone block just beyond the first door on the east wall extending toward the west wall for a good twenty feet. * Shiho inspects the block. * Cara works on her map, then looks at the big stone block as well. * Daphne sticks with the others to make sure they have light. She takes out a wineskin and has some of whatever's in there. * The big block extends almost all the way from the east wall to the west, with just a five foot gap at the west end. In that gap hangs a short wooden gate. The block itself appears to come directly up from the floor with no seam. Beyond it are features that make the purpose of this area clear, as cut into the stone wall is a large stone oven and what was probably a large stove near that. * In the southwest corner, a small opening with a sliding door is placed about four feet off the ground. The opening itself is perhaps three feet square. Hm. * The space behind the block is about ten feet deep, running the width of the room. There's a door in the wall to the east, mirroring the one in front of the large block. Uhm. So.... * Cara puts one hand behind her head. "So, uh, where do we go first?" ^^; * Shiho picks the north door. "Let's check here; we'll go counter-clockwise on this side of the block, then check the one on the other side of the block when we finish. * Daphne shrugs. "Works for me." Okay. ^_^ You should open it, Daphne. If I do it, I won't be able to draw my bow if there's something behind. Sure. * Daphne walks up to the door and looks it over. * The door looks back at Daphne. Well, inasmuch as a door can look at anything, anyway. * This door appears to be of the same variety as the door you came in. * Daphne shrugs, and pushes it open. * The door sticks a little, but only a little, and Daphne sees hallway beyond, going north. * Shiho nods. "This way. I suspect it'll lead to that other hallway near the entrence. Only one way to find out. * Daphne proceeds down the hallway. * Cara waits for Shiho to go after Daphne, then follows in the rear. * Shiho does, in fact, follow Daphne. * This hallway is LONG, but finally, after forty feet of hall, there is a door to the east, and a corner going west. * Daphne looks at the door, then past the corner. * The door has a knob and a lock, and is of the standard bound wood variety. * The hallway to the west vanishes into the darkness beyond the range of your torch. See if the door's unlocked. * Cara marks the hallway down. * Daphne shrugs and tries to turn the handle. * The doorknob does not turn. Locked? Sure enough. We'll have to come back to it, then. Want me to spell it open? Not yet. Okay. Got somethin' in mind, Shiho? Not in particular. I'm hoping we find a key, but if not, I don't want Cara to waste her energies; we might need her help later. We can come back once we're through with the rest of the place. * Daphne nods. Alright. Alright. Down thisway, then? * Shiho nods. * Daphne goes down thatway. * Shiho follows. * Cara follows in the back again. * This hallway splits off to the north after about twenty five feet, with one branch continuing west and one going north. Let's go north. * Shiho ... follows Daphne north? * As you approach the fork, you can see that another ten feet on, the hall splits again, with one branch going south this time,a nd one continuing west. North? Alright, sure. * Cara makes a little sound of annoyance and takes out another sheet, continuing her map there. * Daphne goes north. * Shiho follows. * Cara follows after them. * As you come to the fork, you can see that to the north, the passage is only five feet long, and then it turn west again. * As you turn _that_ corner, there is another short five foot corridor and it turns _again_, this time to the north. Are you getting dizzy yet? * As if that wasn't enough, there's _another_ short five foot corridor, and then the damn thing turns _east_, giving you a nice little S shape. Oookay. Architect was a crackhead. Don't worry, I'm getting it all. ^_^ * Shiho nods. * Daphne runs into the wall, which emits the dull sound of wood cracking. This is unusual for a stone wall. An instant later, there's the dull sound of stone scraping on stone. Run! * Shiho does so. * Cara runs as well. * Daphne runs as well. c_C * A large chunk of the ceiling in the hallway pulls free and falls straight down. Shiho dives back past Cara and out of the area of the trap, and Daphne dives down the west hallway easily, but Cara doesn't react so swiftly, and just behind Shiho, she is caught by the edge of the stone and knocked loopy. Luckily, the stone block is not of the Ten Ton variety, and she is not badly injured, just knocked loopy and given a hell of a bump on the head. Wah! Owwieeeee... Cara? Cara? You okay? * Shiho moves back. "Cara, are you alright?" * The stone plate, when it hit the ground, shattered into rubble. * Cara falls down to a sitting position, holding her head. I...I think so. Well, that's good at least. * Shiho hisses. "Damn it, I'm sick of these traps." Ditto here. * Cara gets to her feet. "Owowowowow." Whoever designed this place must've had a lot of time on his hands. Can you continue, Cara, or do you want to rest? I can keep going. Alright. * Daphne shakes her head and mutters at herself. Okay. So. * Shiho nods. "Okay then. Stay behind me in case there's any other traps ahead." O...okay. Anyone see what it was I ran into that made that thing go off? Nope. There was something wrong with the wall you ran into. Alright. I assume you mean something other than some connection to loose chunks of cieling? * Shiho nods. * Daphne takes a look at the wall she ran into. * Cara stays well in the back. It was wood made to look like stone. A hidden passage, I guess. * As a matter of fact, the stone wall is slightly splintered where Daphne ran into it. * This in spite of the fact that stone isn't supposed to splinter. * Daphne rubs her forehead. "Huh. So... I'm going to assume that a trap like that only works once." Probably. They'd have to get another ceiling to fall on you for it to work again. * The ceiling in the area where it fell is a good five inches taller now. It's probably not going to work again. * Daphne looks for a way to open the wall. Hm. Stand back, I think. * Shiho does that. * Daphne backs away, pops her knuckles, rolls her neck, and runs right into the wall, shoulder first. * Cara is already standing back. * The wall finishes splintering and Daphne bursts through into a dark room. * Daphne blinks at the darkness. * The darkness dissipates as the torchlight filters in from outside the shattered doorway. * Cara cranes her neck to see beyond Shiho and Daphne. * Shiho blinks. "That was pretty impressive, Daphne. The room itself is maybe fifteen feet by twenty, and Daphne entered just south of the northeast corner. * Daphne gives a thumbs up in response to Shiho's comment. * Spaced around the edge of the room are a series of short stone pedestals, six in number, with objects sitting on them. * Daphne glances at the objects. Two pedestals have small, round cases on them made of some bleached white material, possibly bone. * Cara peeks her head into the room. * On another pedestal is a small pearl on a golden chain, on another, a wide belt, on yet another, a pair of bracers, and on the last, a small untarnished silver statuette of some type of bird. This stuff is probably magical. Or at least worth a lot. Given all the effort that was put into protecting it, at least. * Cara nods. Yes. Should we take it, then? Sure. But carefully. * Shiho peers at the objects, but doesn't touch them. "I could find out for certain, but..." She frowns. "No. No, I can't." She nods. "Yeah, let's do that." Hm. I don't suppose we have a sack of sand? * Daphne carefully observes the pedestal with the bracers. * The pedestal does not respond. * Rocky observes greedily. "Shiny! *_*" * Cara scratches her head nervously. So... What say we all sit around a bit and discuss how one might go about trapping a pedestal? I'll try to pick something up. You two, stand back. Never know if the psycho who built this place trapped these, as well. You sure, Shiho? But... ...say. How durable are your arrows? Hm? Fairly, I guess. Think you could knock those off the pedestal with one? I mean, just holding the arrow and pushing with it? Possibly, but that might damage them. The fall might... Hm... MAybe we can cushion the ground. What about...the bracers there? They look sturdy... Sure. That's true. I'll try those first, then. * Daphne unties her flannel jacket. "This'll cushion it some." * The bracers are leather. * Shiho considers. "Actually, I could just lift them off with an arrow." That's even better. ^_^ But...then you're still in the room. What if the ceiling drops or something? * Shiho draws an arrow and lifts the bracers off the pedistal. "That's doubtful." * Cara backs out of the room. * The bracers are lifted. Nothing happens. I don't think they'd do that, since it'd destroy all these pretty little trinkets when it hurt us. Right. * Cara pokes her head back into the room. "Whew." You want these, Daphne? Sure. * Shiho plucks them off the arrow and hands them to Daphne. Um...we shouldn't try to use them yet, should we? Don't suppose you can tell if they're magic or not? After what happened last time... Not without doing something I want to avoid at all costs. That being? Huh? What's that? I have a spell that'd do it. But...you'd have to defile to do it, right? Oh. ...why do you want to avoid... oh. * Shiho goes to the belt and lifts it off with the arrow. "Exactly." * The belt is lifted. NOthing happens. I don't suppose you could just walk Cara through it, since she knows how to not defile? Too bad you didn't have time to get lessons from Tithia, as well. ^^; It wouldn't work. Her magic is... Well, it's different. * Daphne nods. "Alright." Yeah. I could try teaching you how not to defile...but that'd be hard, without the Garden of Life. Then you'd better not. And Cara, you don't think you could use your own magic to identify them? Maybe draw one of us getting an idea bubble or something? I could try that... * Shiho plucks the belt off the arrow. "I guess I'll hang onto this. Unless either of you want it." But if I do, we should wait until we're outside of the ruins Go ahead. I already have a good belt. * Shiho nods. "Wouldn't be a bad idea. * Shiho stuffs the belt in her pack, then goes to the chain and repeats the process. * Daphne shrugs. "Works for me. * The pearl on a necklace is lifted. Nothing happens. * Shiho takes it off the arrow and puts it in her pack. * Shiho goes to the statue and lifts it in the same manner, putting the arrow between the legs and base. * The bird statue is lifted. Nothing happens. * Shiho puts it in her pack. "There. Can't do this with the tubes, though." Well... hm. * Shiho considers. She draws another arrow, and uses the two like chopsticks to lift one of the tubes. * Shiho fumbles the case and it rolls off the pedestal and lands on the stone floor with a loud *SNAP*, breaking open. The broken end reveals a piece of something resembling paper rolled up inside. * Shiho winces. * Shiho picks up the case. Gah. Hopefully the box wasn't important. Eep. I don't think so... Maybe. It looked like it was just bone. Maybe we should just pick the next one up, since their don't seem to be traps. ^^; Yeah, but stay back anyhow, just in case. What does the paper say? * Shiho pulls the paper out and looks at it. * Shiho blinks a bit, then grins. "Well, this ought to help a bit." She looks up at the others. "It's a scroll of Identify." Neat! Heh. How's that for convenience? ^_^ * Shiho moves to the last one. "Ok, stand back." * Daphne stands back. * Cara steps back out of the room. * Rocky hops off of Shiho's shoulder and moves outside. * Shiho stands as far away as possible... and snatchs the case from the pedestal in one swift mostion. * Shiho snatches the case from the pillar. There is the sound of stone grinding on stone as all the pedestals sink into the floor. Shiho! Oh, bloody hell. * Shiho gets the heck out of there. O.o * Daphne runs out the door. * Shiho escapes the room, as does Daphne. * Cara runs back. * ...nothing has happened, as far as you can tell, except for the pillars sliding into the floor. * Shiho peeks back into the room. What...what was that? * The pedestals are gone. I... don't know. Uhm... ... Wait, there's words on the wall back there. Eh? I'll check it out. Give me the torch, Daphne? * Daphne hands the torch to Shiho. Words? * Shiho nods. "Yeah. Stay here." She goes back in to inspect. * Shiho halts. "Actually, I can read them from here." Y'know, I gotta wonder if... hm. * Daphne looks. * Cara looks over Shiho's shoulder. * After a moment, the words fade. * Shiho scowls. "Whoever designed this place has a sick sense of humor. Well, yeah. Did you read what it said? ...how nasty. Oh... heh. * Shiho recites: "If these were Explosive Runes, you would be dead now. It's always the time you don't check for traps that there [is] a trap." * Daphne shakes her head. Yeah, saw it. Hm. * Daphne chuckles to herself. * Daphne has some more liquor, and then resumes chuckling for a bit. So. What's in the box that would've killed us? * Shiho opens the other tube. * There are two pieces of paper inside this tube. You know, after that last message... I think I'll wait until we're outside to look at these. Might be a good idea. ^^; * AS soon as Shiho voices that, one of the pieces of paper shimmers and disappears. Eh? * Shiho blinks in surprise and nearly drops the thing. "What in the..?!" Huh? * Shiho scratches her head, then shrugs. "Hmm... Don't know of any spell that could do that." * Shiho shrugs and puts the case in her backpack. Er... what happened? There were two scrolls. One vanished. Hunh. Alright. Shall we go outside and open our presents, then? * Shiho nods. "Sounds like a plan." Sure. ^_^ Woo. ^_^ After Cara detects the magic, remember that we can identify any one item. Well, before we use the scroll, I wanna try to see if I can identify them myself. * Shiho nods. * Daphne nods. Well, alright. Wanna lead, Shiho? * Shiho shrugs. "I suppose, since we're only going back." * Shiho leads the way outside! * Rocky rides on Shiho's shoulder. * You go aaaaaaaaal the way back outside. * The erdlu and your pack-kank are still in the general area. * It's dark out now. Alright, Cara, go ahead. * Daphne looks up at the sky as she steps out. Okay. Give me one of the items. * Shiho pulls out the unbroken case. "If you want to take a shot at seeing if this is written in explosive runes or not, go ahead." * Cara takes the case and opens it. * There is only one scroll inside the case. * Cara unrolls the scroll and looks at it. Don't read it. * Cara stops. * The scroll is definitely written in Arcane. Too late. And I can't read it. ^^; Oh? Hmmmm... Then it's not explosive. Let me see it; maybe I can read it. 'Kay. * Cara hands the scroll to Shiho. * Shiho looks at it. * Daphne rolls her shoulders. * Shiho blinks. Then starts to laugh. Huh? Find Traps. I's a scroll of Find Traps. * Cara giggles. * Daphne laughs. "Oh, that's rich." * Shiho shakes her head. "Unbelievable." She takes the gold-chain thingamajig and hands it to Cara. "Here, Cara. Try this next." Hmmm. Don't suppose we can make copies or something? Okay. * Cara puts the thing down in front of herself. * Cara pulls out her sketchpad, then stops to think. "Hmm...how to do this..." I don't know how to. That was in one of the more advanced classes, so I didn't have a chance to learn it. Why not try Daphne's idea? Or... hm. Could you learn the spell from looking at how it's put on the scroll? Oh. Alright. The thought bubble? Yeah, I'm gonna do something like that, but if I put something in the bubble, it'd probably work better... * Shiho nods. "Actually, that I can do. You can? Hm. Yeah, but... Yeah. But. * Shiho frowns. "If we do that, I'll have to cast it directly whenever we want to use it. And I don't want to do that." * Daphne nods. Think Cara could learn it? Or are you the only one who can do that? I don't know how to do that kind of magic. Right, right. Hm. * Shiho nods. Daphne, can you give me some light? Sure. * Daphne holds the torch above Cara so she can see. * This particular torch is almost out, but it should do for the duration of the Identification. Shiho? Might wanna get another torch ready. * Cara starts on her drawing. She draws first an extremely detailed image of the necklace, then draws herself looking at it, with a thought bubble above her head containing the necklace followed by the word "is...". She then slowly begins drawing power from around her, being careful not to defile. * Shiho nods. She takes one from her pack, but doesn't light it yet. * The magic builds slowly, and some ten minutes later, when it finally releases, Cara's hair turns blonde, and her face perks up in amazement as knowledge floods into her head. * Shiho raises an eyebrow. "Uh..." I got it! * Daphne blinks. Uhm. Yes, you certainly did. The pearl stores magical energy for you. Ah. Nice. * Shiho nods. ...and why are you looking at me like that? So... it powers your spells, basically. You should keep it, then. Oh, no reason. ...oh dear. I changed myself again, didn't I? Hey, you look good as a blond! ...awwww... * Daphne snickers at Rocky's comment. * Cara feels her hair. "I liked my hair before." :( It's fine, Cara. ^_^ * Shiho nods. "It doesn't look bad." And one thing I was gonna ask... Shiho, do you think you could use this to cast that identification spell without defiling? The pearl? Yeah. Or does it not work that way? I doubt it. If it only stores magical energy, it won't be any good. The energy still has to come from somewhere. You got it right, Shiho. * Daphne nods. "Alright." Are you up to doing it again, Cara? And I don't want to identify anymore. I can't think of any way to do it without putting myself in the picture...I don't want to change my appearance until I don't recognize myself anymore. All right. * Cara frowns sadly. "Sorry." It's okay. I wouldn't want to suddenly change, either So...who uses this necklace, then? It'd be useful for me or Shiho or Amy, too. 'Salright. You keep it. You go ahead for now. Really? Thanks! ^_^ I can't use magic, and Amy isn't here anyhow. *** Charles sets mode: -o Charles * Cara smiles and picks up the necklace. * Rocky crawls into Shiho's pack to take a nap. Hm. So we just have the one scroll now. * Shiho nods. "And if we use it, I can't copy it." If we had Ichi here, he might be able to learn the spell... * Daphne nods. Hmm... Well, I don't know about that... But he's not here anyhow. Hm. So, any other ways to figure out what our newly aquired doodads do, other than trying 'em on? doesn't look like it. * Cara pouts a little at that. * Daphne frowns. They could be pretty cool... Yes. Or they could be cursed. Yeah. So we shouldn't try them on, I don't think. * Daphne nods. No. We'll just have to wait. Maybe Tithian cna do something with them. * Daphne nods. Or he can just teach you to not defile. We may as well go back in. Perhaps. Only perhaps? Why not? * Shiho hands the torch to Daphne. "My magic isn't that important to me. If I can use the time I'd spend learning how to preserve more productively, I'd rather do that." Oh. Okay. * Cara gets up and stretches a little. Well, if you want to go back in, I'm ready. ^_^ * Daphne shrugs and accepts the torch. * Cara puts the necklace on. I am too, I guess. * Daphne lights the new torch with the old torch. Is the old torch out? Not yet. But it looked like it was on it's last legs. * Shiho nods. Okay. How many did we take, again? It's no good to be stuck in the dark looking for flint. Two each, except Ichi. And Amy had a few more. That's all we have, total? There's a few left on the kank. * Cara nods. "I hope we don't run out before we're done exploring." So do I. We shouldn't. Alright. You two ready? * Shiho nods. Yeah! Alright then. ^_^ * Daphne heads back in. * Shiho follows. * Cara follows at the back. [End Session]