Kyo shrugs his shoulders... his experience with coins being fairly limited. They never used them in his village. "If you say so.... This is a bad place with bad things hiding. We are all..." he glances at Rhune from the corner of his eye, "...most of us are going to die anyway."
"That's the spirit," Xania laughs. "Once you get used to that idea, Kyo, your life will be much easier."
Kyo shook his head, making the ponytail on the side of his otherwise bald head dance merrily and mumbled to himself. "Maybe what priest on wagon train wanted was not so bad...."
Xania wrinkles her nose in disgust. "I guess it's all a matter of perspective."
Kyo looked up startled to have been over heard. He held his palms up in the universal symbol of resignation. "Makes no difference if Kyo am lamb for slaughter, or Shepard's prettiest sheep. Either way Kyo is screwed."
Ullar can't do anything else but laugh at Kyo's reasoning. "He got you there, Xania!"
A huge smile is on the ex-gladiator's face.
Xania laughs. "At least here it's only figurative."
Kyo did not look so sure of that. "Well not Kyo, he did not swim in demon water." A wicked smile cut across his face.
"You should try it; it was ... stimulating," Xania grins wickedly.
The savage struck his chest hard. "Kyo tell Kyo what to do, not nasty dirty demon magic."
"Nasty clean demon magic," Xania corrects. "I'm amazed you're still alive."
"Won't last long here," Kyo said matter a flatly, remembering how this conversation began.
She turns and winks at Dakath. "So, are you scouting or are we wandering or what?"
As the warrior begins to wear his platemail and the others are occupied with the Sprites Dakath tries to sneak off, scouting the island.
He begins by wandering round the island, keeping out of sight as much as possible. He then picks the safest route, in his judgment, and sneaks up to the tree line.
Most of the others note Dakath "sneaking," off around the island, but shrug their shoulders and watch him go.
As is his wont, Dakath sneaks quietly around the woods, leaving his armor on the raft. Ullar and some others begin to walk around the other way, not desiring to confront whatever lies in the interior right away.
Unencumbered by his stiff leathers, Dakath proves rather quiet and sneaky, for once. He vanishes around the other side of the clump of trees as the rest of the group looks on.
Ullar's group walks about the other side, the soft earth leaving fairly clear footprints in the sweet-smelling grass, which seems peculiarly close to the shore. All in all, the island seems very pleasant. Crossing along the edge of the island, Ullar sees that the trees break for a moment. Clearly inside the trees, there is something large and white. Unable to resist, Ullar looks closer as the others come in behind him.
The closely ranked trees give way to an grassy clearing. In the center stands a small, colonnaded building, its white marble stonework stained with age. Once there was a large stone statue standing at each corner, but one of these has toppled and smashed. In it's place stands a beautiful silvery statue of a naked woman, which looks quite familiar. There is a large marble archway leading into the building.
A sad feeling falls over Ullar when he sees the naked body of the woman, now turned into a statue. He can't exactly judge if his guess his right, but Ullar assumes it is, or was, Marika.
Rhune looks at the building and the statue, then gasps as she thinks she recognizes who the one looks like. "Could that be Marika?" she whispers to the party. She then looks around at the trees, wondering where Dakath is and if he has found anything.... She takes a firmer hold of her longsword and steps just a little closer to Asif. She is still a little uneasy and is not sure why.
"This place looks like a temple. Could be an old shrine to the Roman god Venus Si? The statues meant to be vestal virgins? Still that uneasy feeling is still there," Tag racks his brain for any familiar history which might help. "I suppose this could be to some elven deity and the faeries its guardians. Rhune are you familiar with any of this?"
Rhune does not recognize the temple as anything elven. The statue outside and the hard marble do not remind her of anything she has seen before. The statue is faceless stone, a large man-figure, quite primitive. It is impossible to tell what the other statue once was.
Unused to such depiction of the human form, Asif casts his eyes down slightly embarrassed. To Rhune he whispers, "By Aten, that statue does look familiar. What say you Rhune? It reminds me of someone, but I cannot put my finger on it...mmmmm.... It could be Markia now that you mention it."
Seeing Asif embarrassed, "It is alright, Love. It is just a statue. And yes it does look like Marika," she murmurs to him in a soft voice.
Dakath hears Ullar before he sees him, poking his head through the trees, which makes him rather an attractive target, but Dakath doesn't see anything which might take advantage of the opportunity. Continuing his scouting trek, he sees a disturbance in the air from the right rear of the building, but is unable to make out what it is. His sharp eyes make out, however, a strange happening in one of the trees not far from the disturbance. A piece of bark dislodges itself from the tree and sits unnaturally perched in the air, just for a moment, leaving a hole about ten inches in diameter in the tree. Then just second later, the bark replaces itself, looking as if it had never been moved at all.
Dakath waits a few moments before silently moving over to the location of the hole. As he gets there unmolested he tries to take a peek inside, wanting to find a way to keep the hole shut.
Dakath examines the area that the disturbance took place on at the rear of the building. He cannot immediately see the opening, so he grabs hold of the rough marble and slowly pulls himself upward toward it. Feeling a ledge of some sort, he uses it to drag his body up. Lodging his elbows against the slight ledge, he sees that there is a bird-sized opening between the ledge and the roof of the building. Barely even large enough to put his hand into, he looks inside to see if he can determine what is within.
Though the angle of vision is limited, he can see a sparse chamber inside. It is impossible to tell if there are any furnishings or inhabitants, but it does not look like it, nor does it look like anyone has been there recently, but that is just supposition. The only feature of note is a ladder in the center of the floor heading downward into the darkness. Peering at the hole, Dakath almost thinks he hears the sound of a female voice, but it is only a trace, and is gone so fast he cannot be sure he ever heard it at all.
Once done he sneaks back to the raft to retrieve his armor, before catching up with the rest of the group.
As soon as Dakath returns the group, Ullar asks him if he saw anything.
"Hmm...ten inches you say? It seems to me that we might need more information from those Faeries. They possess the ability to become invisible, as we all could see on the raft, and I think you saw one enter his or her 'hideout'."
"Anyone with an idea how to handle this? Perhaps we can exchange some of them for Marika?"
"By the way, does anyone have a mirror?"
Taglio joking replies, "No signore Ullar, I do not have a mirror, No lipstick either, but someone may have a hair brush and I think Rhune had some soap, Si. This friend Marika, she was your amico di ragazza?" (Trans: Girl Friend)
Ullar blushes a little, feeling his words really misunderstood. "Eh...no...ehm...that's not the reason I asked for a mirror...ehm..."
"No Taglio, Marika was not my amico di ragazza," says Ullar, trying to end this conversation quickly.
Rhune listens to Dakath. Looking toward the area.... "Hmmmmm...I wonder," she murmurs, "...maybe, Ullar, not sure. As for handling this I have no clue except making our way toward the building. As for a mirror I think I left mine at home. Sorry. But maybe the shields will work just as well. Why do you need a mirror?" she whispers to him.
"To be honest..." says Ullar, while clearing his throat "...it's based on superstition. As a guard at the temple of Mercury, I had to listen to a lot of stories, since one of the classrooms for apprentices was near the entrance of the temple. One story reminded me of this situation. It was about some ancient witch, called Medusa or something and her gaze could petrify you; just as the touch of a cockatrice, although I'm not sure those foul creatures exist for real. However, when someone, forget his or her name, reflected the witches gaze, she was petrified herself and all the statues, her victims, came back to life."
After pausing for a few seconds he adds: "I know...it's a long shot, but the story made quite some impression on me, and it never hurts to check whether someone indeed _has_ a mirror," emphasizing the has.
"Ah so that is what you meant, I thought.... Oh never mind! It was Perseus who killed Medusa, queens of the Gorgons. Err...I studied the classics at Padua University, it was required reading", Tag adds.
Ullar continues, "But how are we going to handle this? I suggest we approach the building in two teams. With all of the weird experiences we had the last couple of days, I don't trust anything which is unknown to me any more. If things get out of hand, at least we won't be captured as a whole group and the other group can rescue the first...or the second," Ullar says, still feeling uncomfortable on this isle.
"I suggest we split the Forte and me up, where Kyo can join Forte, and Asif can join me. I guess Rhune would like to join with Asif, so if she comes in that group, Dakath and Xania go in Forte his group and Amibar joins me. Last I suggest Taglio joins me, Asif, Rhune and Amibar, since my physical condition is not really optimized. We are evenly split and 'well' balanced then, I guess."
"Well balanced?" asks Forte, a quizzical look in his face. "Well, none of us warriors have any decent armor, so I guess it's as well balanced as we're gonna get today!" he adds with a grin, trying to mask his nervousness at possibly fighting armorless.
Kyo looks a bit hurt at that remark. "Kyo has good armor. Kyo make it!"
"Sorry, Kyo," says Forte, wondering what his next social blunder will be.
Kyo nods his head sharply accepting the apology. "All right then."
"Perhaps you could make some for Forte," Xania comments. "Of course, it would be a full time job."
Forte looks at Xania, pleading with his eyes for no more helpful suggestions about Kyo making him some armor.
The savage nods, "Kyo make armor...if Kyo still alive later."
"That's all right, Kyo," says Forte. "I can make my own armor...with the rights tools, that is. But maybe we could teach each other some new armor-making skills."
Kyo shrugged in his usually fatalistic way. "Kyo not need many tools, just small cook pot and good knife. Not need knife if Kyo find good..." he thinks for a moment looking for the right word, "how you say...fire rock."
Xania blows Forte a kiss.
Barely managing to keep a straight face, Forte says simply, "Does Dakath know about your feelings for me?"
Xania arches one eyebrow. "Why?"
"What if the Forte-group approaches the building from the opposite side from where we are now, and we approach it from here? I don't see any entrance from this position, but perhaps there is," Ullar finishes.
"Anyone objections or other suggestions?"
"Such a plan has merits efendi. If heka is indeed at work here, much harder will we be as targets if we approach from two directions. The most gifted magician cannot divide his attention between us so easily. So I for one support this simple plan."
"I would like to hear that story sometimes, Ullar, when we have a moment to rest. As for your plan that sounds like a good one to me. I can switch to my bow for now and then if necessary provide some melee relief," Rhune replies as she sheathes her sword and draws her bow, knocking an arrow in it. Once done she holds the bow and arrow point down. "I would be very careful here. We aren't sure about those sprites at all," she whispers.
"Lead on Ullar, I am curious about this building. But you are right there may be trouble." Tag checks his weapons and decides on the crossbow, loading it ready, following Rhune's example.
Xania approaches the statue and looks at it more closely, "Amazing," she says. "I have heard of creatures that turn one to stone, but never to silver. I wonder how this was done. I suspect we'll find the answers in this building, don't you?" she turns and smiles at Dakath.
"Shall we?"
Having finished putting his armor back on, Dakath grins at her "Absolutely."
Xania waits for Dakath if he hasn't caught up, then strolls at his side, like it's a day in the park.
Forte briefly looks at her as if she is crazy, but says nothing. Then he quickly turns his head back to watch where he's going.
Xania grins at Forte in return.
"You're still not talking to me?" inquires Ullar with the magess.
Taglio approaches the silver statue cautiously with the others, admiring the female form. "Your friend was a beautiful woman, si?"
The comment jogs some memory, as Marika was not particularly beautiful, that most of you remember. She was rather plain-looking, though charming.
As the group looks at the statue, thinking it looks like Marika, those who look closely see that the figure is much fuller than Marika's, and the face is not definite, but lacks the slight point of ear that Marika possessed. And the fact that the statue is only two feet in height eliminates it actually being Marika petrified. The resemblance you all recognized was toward another such object, not Marika.
Forte also looks at the statue closely, trying to decide if it looks like Fyodorll. He nervously hopes she hasn't returned from the dead to seek revenge.
It is most certainly not Fyodorll, as it is full-figured, almost certainly human, more so than Marika, not less. It reminds all of you of the amulet that Asif carries more than any actual person you have seen before.
"Dakath," says Forte, "can you lead our group? I'll be right behind you. And, Kyo, take rear guard. OK?" Forte draws his sword and prepares to follow Dakath around the isle to the other side of the building.
Dakath looks at Forte somewhat confused, "I'm not leading an assault against an unknown building, I'll go scout around it, but to do that I have to be on my own, no offense but you're not exactly quiet."
"Uh, sorry, I guess that's what I meant," Forte mumbles in apology. "If you've already checked it out, let's go."
He grins "You lead the way and I'll be right behind you," Dakath moves behind Forte, as he does so he pats the warrior on the shoulder.
Kyo nods agreeing to the placement.
Forte begins leading the group around the isle to the other side of the building.
Dakath keeps close to Forte, slightly to his left, looking for signs of danger. "Correct me if I'm wrong but we're trying to sneak up on creatures that can go invisible at will?" He chuckles to himself not waiting for an answer.
Ullar, overhearing this last comment before the group is too far away for him to hear their voices, replies to Dakath's comment: "Well.. if we're 'only' dealing with Faeries I'll be relieved. And I don't think we're sneaking up on anything, for we are clearly visible here. Let's just approach the building from two sides, so that we're not all hit by that fireball," says Ullar, a smile on his face.
"If it's just the sprites, no problem," Xania replies. "But I don't think that's what we'll be up against."
"What is a Sprite?" Kyo asks.
"Small winged demon," Xania defines with a smile.
"Small flying demon what put Kyo to sleep?" the warrior asks.
"Those would be the ones," Xania agrees.
Kyo grimaces. "Not like nasty little "sprites."