Rhune just shakes her head at Dakath's joke on Forte. At least some of the party get along well with others. She looks over at Asif and smiles at him. Now what to do about him?
Xania shakes her head, still smiling. Touching Forte's arm, she says:
"Now, now, what's wrong? We all know you love a good joke."
"Well, yeah, but not when the joke's on me!" Forte responds, trying to hand her the mace.
Xania laughs, pushing the mace away. "I know nothing of weaponry, Forte. I can use a dagger but that's about it."
Dakath shrugs "If you don't want to take it I will," he holds his hand out again to Forte.
"Sure, take it," he says, handing the mace to Dakath. "If it talks, I'd just as soon sell it as quickly as possible......Hmmm, I wonder if there are other talking weapons in the other tombs?" Forte looks at Dakath and Xania with raised eyebrows.
"It talks?" Xania says, sounding somewhat excited by the idea. "What does it say? Out loud, or did it talk to you mentally?"
"Well, something talked," answers Forte. "Most of us heard it. Last night, right after the song. Ullar even told you to stop it 'cause he thought you were playing a prank on Tag. Anyway, something, told Taglio that he wasn't evil enough to use it. Or he hadn't killed enough people yet. I thought the voice was coming from the tomb, but someone else thought it was the weapon itself." He pauses a few seconds before adding, a bit sheepishly, "I guess we don't really know that the mace talked. But something did. Right before he," here Forte gestures to Ami, "showed up."
"Ah," Xania replies, "I believe I was quite busy with Dakath at that time."
Dakath shrugs "I can vouch for Xania's whereabouts, I for one never heard any voice."
"Could the little one have done it?," Xania asks.
Amibar nearly drops the pot with surprise. " Who, ME?! But I...he...I..." He looks down, his face in the shadows of his hood. "It wasn't me," he says quietly.
Xania grins, "Just asking."
"Hmmm! I wondered so too signore, though I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Your arrival right after that chilling voice was rather suspicious timing," says Tag clearly expecting the gnome to defend his actions.
Looking up at Taglio, Ami starts to speak, then changes his mind. He looks back down at breakfast, and stubbornly repeats, "It wasn't me."
Dakath turned to the Gnome, "You'll have to forgive our unusual suspicions, yesterday we witnessed the dead leap from their graves, it's enough to test anyone's nerves."
"Really? The dead?" Amibar seems both intrigued and frightened by the thought. "Did you fight them?"
Dakath chuckled, "We destroyed one of them, hiding behind one of the walls. The other one we grabbed it's stuff and ran before it could get us. This is what we found," he produces the mace from his pack to show Amibar before placing it back in for safe keeping.
"And maybe those shadow creatures were some sort of unliving spirits as well?" Xania queries. "But Augustus seemed to handle them well."
Dakath takes the mace and places it in his pack. He smiles wickedly at Forte, "Well Forte my friend, that is what we will find out today, we have two tombs left to explore. Perhaps we'll find something even better."
"I'd like to find a talking dagger, myself," grins Xania.
Looking rather sheepish about it, "I would just like to find a nice magical sword that is really magical in nature and not just a hoax," Rhune murmurs.
Dakath returns Xania's smile with equal warmth as he moves over to stand dangerously close to her. "Did you sleep well?" he asks her as he gazes into her eyes.
"Who needs sleep?" Xania purrs, reaching out to gently touch his face for a few seconds.
Dakath grins at her and places his hands on her hips drawing her close to him, "I've always been a night person too."
Xania wraps her arms loosely about Dakath's neck and kisses him, leaning into him with obvious pleasure.
Murmuring into his ear, "Now this is a much better way to wake up, much better than singing," she adds softly.
Dakath turns his head to talk into her ear, "You are so very right," he says smiling.
Tag does not miss the cutting remark, though he notes it was not delivered with Xania's usual venom. "You simply glow princess with the music of love! So it is sweet melody which has woken you after all. If you wish I am sure I could coax Rhune into voice with Asif and I playing together and then you could have harmony with your harmony!" He gives a rich and gleeful laugh.
Xania, draws back from the kiss reluctantly. "Ah, Tag, such a wonderful morning. Why ruin it?"
Tag simply smiles.
As the group appears to still be interested in the tombs, not having been scared off by the previous night's happenings, they move on to the middle area, the one that Dakath appeared interested in last night. Having finished the tasty breakfast prepared by the diminutive newcomer, they appear to have regained some color from last night's harrowing experiences.
Having no set destination in mind, and heartened by the group's warmth towards him, Amibar inquires if he may tag along. He is a little intimidated by the tombs, but accompanies them silently.
Not wanting a repeat of the equine incident at the prior tomb, Xania proposes leaving your horses outside the circle, which the group readily accepts.
Dakath smiles at her as he ties Stenu next to Xania's mount Noir and shoulders his backpack. "Well Xania, I guess I'm point again," he says indicating the next tomb. He moves close to her and kisses her lips. "Who knows what were going to find in this one."
"Indeed," she murmurs, "Have that dagger ready though, will you?" She grins and falls back a bit, near Forte.
"I'll join you at the front," says Ullar, always butting in at the right time before people can get romantic.
Dakath grins, "I'd welcome the company of a warrior as we move through this carnage."
"Off we go!" says Ullar, marching sturdily forward.
"Let's see if we can find ourselves some more evil maces," adds Ullar, a grin appearing on his face when he thinks of the practical joke Dakath played on Forte.
"Evil maces? Nope I'm hoping for bigger and better things this time Ullar my friend."
"Like what - a neutral halberd?" asks Forte, thankful that something has changed the topic and his face is returning to its normal color.
"A holy sword?" Xania adds, grinning.
"Just peek in my pants my friend," says Ullar, with a sarcastic smile to Dakath, but a cautious glance towards Xania.
Xania moves up near the two. "Well, whip it out," she says, winking at Ullar.
Dakath grins "That's right, I'm sure Xania could provide a more accurate diagnosis than I."
Xania just laughs softly.
"Yeah...right...with you biting it off or something," Ullar replies.
Xania starts laughing again.
"No thanks Xania, you can have Dakath's for lunch if you please, but mine stays were it belongs!"
"More like a midnight snack really," Xania comments.
Ullar pretends not to have seen her winking, but when he combines the comment about a 'midnight snack' and the wink, his imitation of a tomato is rather good, again.
He sighs, and looks at his horse Zephyr. "Can you blush?" he asks his horse, not counting on any response at all.
"Now...onwards to the tombs! I'm curious what awaits us there!"
Ullar is eyeing both Dakath and Xania with cause, while gesturing to the rest of the group to move out.
Xania winks again at Ullar, just because she likes to see him blush.
Rhune can't help but over hear this part as the group is fairly close together, blushes profusely at Xania's comment. She tries to cover her discomfort by looking down at the ground and attempting a smile but doesn't quite make it.
Dakath grins and shakes his head, "Why do we have conversations like this when we're about to face imminent danger or impending death?"
Xania smiles at Dakath and widens her eyes innocently, "I have no idea."
Very cautiously, the group approaches the barren circle surrounding the barrow. Dakath, ever bold, is the first to step foot cautiously inside. As he steps into the burned out area, the air suddenly fills with the stench of death, and you see that the area is littered with the mangled corpses of orcs, goblins, and men, as if some terrible battle had taken place here. It is interesting to note that before stepping within the circle, there was no such stench or any evidence of the carnage.
Dakath continues to look into Xania's face, smiling. "Tag, my friend, your music would be wasted on us at the moment, but I do believe there is a large audience right here, eager to here you strum....unfortunately most are dead but I bet given your skill you could wake some of them up."
"I assure you mio amico, my audiences are always very much alive but grazie for the compliment," Tag gives a grim chuckle.
Xania bites back a retort though her dark eyes gleam wickedly for an instant.
Covering his nose and mouth with his hands, Ami gags and nearly heaves his breakfast. He stares in horror at the corpses, and is greatly tempted to turn and flee.
Rhune's eyes go wide as she sees the carnage before. She looks over her shoulder at the third circle and wonders what they will see or encounter in that one. "I wonder if we what we see has any relation with what we will find inside the tomb?" she asks as she nudges her horse closer to Asif.
"The larger humanoids and humans here are not part of the tribes we have been following, Si." Tag having donned his armor, lights his lantern in his left hand and has his rapier in his right. He has tied Beatrice next to Xania's horse, outside the circle. "It almost feels as if we have crossed into the netherworld itself when we enter the circle, Si. But, why the battle? Perhaps this is Valhalla where the fighting is eternal."
OOC: Tag is quite right in his assessment. Indeed, judging by the equipment and identifying marks, the bodies do not appear to be native to this area of the world, or perhaps just this time period. They are quite disturbing.
Dakath merely spare Tag a glance, a frown and a slight bemused smile on his face, "You certainly have a flair for the dramatic my friend."
Dakath stops a moment. "Hmmm," he turns to check who is immediately behind him, hoping for a big warrior, any will do. He places his hand to his face to stifle the stench and he draws his longsword with the other hand. He takes his sword and prods the bodies, "I don't understand how we didn't see these before, are they real?"
The bodies do feel real to the contact of the sword. They appear to have died in battle some weeks ago.
"On the whole," Xania comments, clutching her dagger, "the stench is better than the shadows that suck your strength."
"Shadows that suck.... Oh dear!" Amibar is quite startled from the discrepancy between Xania's frightening words, and her flippant attitude.
Xania looks down at Amibar. "The strength came back."
"Well, urp, you wanna search, urp, the bodies?" Forte asks Xania, covering his mouth with his free hand and trying desperately not to vomit. "Maybe, urp, one of them has a magic dagger for you?" Forte says hopefully, through periodic gags.
The only sign that Tag is affected by the smell is the tight expression on his face and some tension in his voice. "Signore Fortissimo, perhaps we should. We may learn something else about this place. Who seems to have won the battle can you tell?"
When the group looks about, it is impossible to tell who might have won. There are more goblin bodies, but each group has been felled respectively by the weapons of the other two. It appeared to be some sort of three-way conflict. Having no knowledge of how many survived, it is unclear who won. It is only quite clear that these here lost!
"Are they even real? Let's look in the tomb first, shall we?" Xania says.
"Good idea. They smell real enough. If there's any frescoes inside, we should check them first," suggests Forte.
Xania nods. "Dakath's specialty."
Dakath turns and grins "Apparently so."
Rhune smiles despite the shivers going up her spin and the turmoil that her stomach is undergoing at this moment. If anyone were to notice they would see that she definitely doesn't look well as she eyes the scene before them.
Gingerly stepping about the bodies, the group makes some progress up to the tomb. The pillared opening is similar to the one they entered before, and everyone is cautiously looking for shadows or frescoes, though once they enter they see that this one is designed differently. While all the candles have burned out, there are still a few torches distributed about the party so that they can see well enough once they enter, and Tag's lantern is still functioning, though he knows that he must not have much left in the way of oil for it.
Walking down a pathway of similar width to the earlier tomb, the group sees that at the end there is some sort of chamber door, hanging loosely on the bottom hinge. It appears to have been broken loose of it's upper hinge. However, the most noticeable thing is the smell, even worse than that outside, that greets all of you from within. Dakath peeks inside, followed closely by the warriors and Xania. Scattered around the stone-flagged floor are broken bones, rusted weapons, and fragments of twisted armor. In the far wall, a heavy stone doorway, once sealed with plaster, has been smashed open.
Rhune, having slipped in behind Asif as they make their way around the bodies and to the tomb, looks about her. Shuddering at the thought of the great battle fought here she continues on her way, mentally saying prayers to Erevan.
As they enter the corridor and the smell becomes worse, Rhune's eyes tear. She takes a bit of her cloak and holds it over her nose though that doesn't really help at all. She quickly brushes the tears from her eyes so she can see where she is going. It is then that she sees the busted door. "Hmmmmm," she murmurs trying to figure out if whatever busted it was trying to get in or get out as she looks at the rubble around it.
Dakath gingerly and quietly enters the room scanning the debris for anything that captures his eye he moves along the walls of the room, trying to position himself so he can look through the heavy stone doorway.
As Dakath approaches the door, Rhune quietly draws her sword and steps off to the side away from Asif so that he can use his double swords without fear of hitting her if need be.