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The Heartwood
Bordertown
Almost Noon
Rameday, The Twenty-First Day of the Month of Crown of Ice, 2623

In the Temple Ruins

Romana shook her head back and forth.

"Are blooded with magics, yes. Magics cast beasts? Maybe yes, maybe no, never can tells unless Beastmaster when Beastmaster magics beast."

As for the locks, there is nothing to pick. The bands are smooth and seamless, and the spikes driven into the wall perfectly fitting and the stone around them, harder than hard.

But that is to be expected.

This place is cursed.

Darian

She filed away this information, then looked to find another of their group. "Celi, Darian hear you say know beasts, aye?"

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

From her spot near the entryway, Daxia looked expressionlessly between Darian and Celi. She altered her stance slightly, unconsciously mimicking the Captain of the Allaine House Guard's pose... a stance she had studied for eight years as Verchovai Reena stood by their Khorall each day Court was in session.

CELI

"My art allows me to speak to them, aye," Celi said. She found herself automatically adding interjections and clipping her phraseology to match Darian's. "I have never seen a lizard bigger than ..." she held her hands a couple of feet apart, "... but it works on them.

"You will tell me the things you want me to ask or say, yes? As we go along, I will translate what they say and -- where I can deduce it -- what they are thinking."

Darian

"Need see beast do this?"

CELI

"The art is speech, not thought, so I must hear them, but body language is part of it, so seeing helps. But they don't have to see *us*.". Celi snugged her gloves a little tighter, checked her gear to be sure it would be soundless on the stalk.

Darian

She considered for a moment, amber eyes thoughtful. Then there was a nod. The Hunter removed her cloak and travel pack, setting all beside Daxia's armor and cloak. She checked the stringing of her bow and the placement of it and her knives then pulled the hood over her head.

Darian turned then and met Cesare's eyes for a long moment.

"Come, Celi. Scout."

She turned towards the corridor she and Daxia had gone down.

Mikal

He is visibly struggling with an internal dialogue, but as Darian and Celi seem to be getting ready to go he finally says to Darian, "Based on what I see here, it would seem a very dangerous thing to get that close to these lizards. Especially just the two of you. If, however, you do, it would be good to know not only where they are so we can predict their route here but also what they are capable of. Can they move across the walls or ceiling as I have seen smaller lizards do? Can they jump? How many are they? And anything about this 'Beastmaster' person."

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

As Mikal spoke, Daxia studied the reactions of Linette, of Tashka, of Romana.

"If Celi talk to lizard," she said quietly, mildly, turning to Darian, "good to know these things, yes? Also, maybe lizard know way out of building big, biggest lizard go out, ok? Many questions," she acknowledged with a slight nod. "Where, what they do, how many... these most important. Beastmaster, exit good to know if time, if able."

Mikal

"But be careful", he adds to Darian. "Only three here and it took Daxia, Romana, and Kadri to kill them. We don't know how many more there are, and there are only two of you. Don't get eaten. At least not before telling us what you learned."

CELI

"I will do my best," Celi said, and joined the two, intending to take silent point unless they had a different positioning preference in mind. " Numbers, abilities, tactics, location and position first. Exit and Beastmaster second, if time allows. This is what we hope to learn?"
'

Cesare

"I can't do anything with these shackles."

He looks to Mikal, before glancing back at Darian and Celi.

"I'll follow Darian and Celi at a little distance as back up."

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

"There were... ah... actually four," she said quietly, evenly to Mikal. "And they move faster than anything I've even seen. I barely got the fourth one."

She looked hard at Darian. "No matter how fast Hunter move, Beasts move faster. Much faster."

Kadri

"You know I am fast, yes? They are faster. And stronger than I would like."

Celi

"Mikal ... are there pikes anywhere, like an armory? Or can we make pikes?" Celi asked. "see, big and fast animals rush you. The bigger they are, the less cautious. A grounded pike with a cross piece a couple of feet back will hold them off you while they impale themselves. They can't run up the shaft to get you. And if you can find ones with a barbed head, that makes it very hard for the lizard to remove it, after you drop it to run back. Then they can't run fast after you, even if they don't die right away, and the sword fighter and archers can take their time killing it. I'm no expert, but I know how farmers fight armored knights. Get them off the horses, and then kill them. Slow them down, and then kill them."

Daxia
with the Gang, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

Daxia held Darian's eyes a heartbeat longer, then closed her eyes. She simply breathed... a slow inhale, hold for a tiny space of time, a slow exhale, hold again... two, three, a handful of times before speaking.

"Why do you think Mikal would know the secrets of a Dayalan Temple, Celi?" she asked softly. "Jvrillians are usually not welcome guests here."

She opened her eyes slowly, face so impassive it could have been sculpted from wax, eyes betraying no emotion as she turned her head to look at Celi.

"The Warriors of Dayala do not use pikes. We are expert horsewomen; we are swordswomen, archers and lancers.

"Look at the floor, Celi. Look beyond the flesh and blood and bones and viscera, and you will see the fine honey marble for which Dayalan architecture is famous. There is no place to ground a pike, even if one could be fashioned. It was sheer luck that my sword found the small fissure when I impaled the Hunting Beast's tail.

"Verchovai Tashka holds little hope that the armories will hold anything of value; however, it might be worth an investigation if the risks are not too great.

"You cannot fight like a farmer indoors, in a building full of corridors and rooms and nooks such as this."

CELI

"I can only offer what I know, Daxia," Celi said patiently. "If I do not offer, and it turns out it would have been helpful, then we are the worse for having allowed the chance to go by. If I offer it but it cannot work, then you will quickly and colorfully explain to me why it cannot work, and we have lost nothing but the moment's consideration. I had mentioned Mikal, not out of any insult to you, but because he was elsewhere, and what he might have seen -- elsewhere -- was unknown to me. I assumed that since you were already *here*, if any such equipment was also here you would already know of it.

"I am *not* trying to waste your time or insult your martial prowess, Daxia. You know the art of war and the ground over which we must fight, so you would know what can and cannot become an effective weapon. None of us are pike fighters, but when Nature calls you do what you must. I was assuming the pikeman would be me, plus any of the others who are not well-versed in other more suitable weaponry.

"Please consider anything I say as nothing more than an effort to help wherever I may. I have a different background than you, and I do not have your considerable martial expertise. So unlike you, I cannot always tell when something that sounded brilliant when first conceived is, upon careful study, actually foolish. But do not worry; you cannot insult me by explaining why that is so -- why one thing is useful and another is not. How else would I hope to learn?"

The idea of assembling a ballista and baiting a lizard trap swirled around in her head, but then evaporated unspoken. Celi'd had enough ridicule for one day to start touting a giant crossbow.

Darian

At Mikal's quiet words of concern she turns her amber eyes to him and gives a alight nod. Then with Daxia she shares a look and there is the briefest hint of a smirk. Cesare's volunteering causes her to turn once again, this time to her bedmate. Her expression is serious and brooking no argument. "Cesare must listen Darian's words."

She takes up the still burning torch and hands it to Celi. "Take."

She walks to the bisecting corridor and points to the south. "Go till turns. Darian follow, ten paces."

The Hunter looked back to the Rhoni. "Cesare follow two ten paces."

Once the Covener moved out, Darian stepped out into the hallway and set arrow to bow.

Daxia
with the Bekkah, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

She watched and waited.

She waited and listened.

Finally, Daxia turned to look at Mikal... and then Dean...

There was nothing she could say; a small shake of her head, a slight shrug of her shoulders was all she could manage.

She picked her way carefully across the room to stand before Linette, head bowed. "I am so sorry, Lady Linette." The Dayalan stood before the Covener for a handful of heartbeats before looking up.

"I... she..." Daxia gripped her lower lip between her teeth for a heartbeat, then two, before taking a deep breath.

"Although she is her own person, I am ultimately responsible for those in my... band of misfits," she said with a hint of a smile, fleeting and gone in only a heartbeat. "I apologize for her behavior, and the distress it caused you."

Celi

Celi nodded once, accepted he torch, checked her gear for travel silence once again, then set out south down the corridor at a quiet glide, hooding the torch with her scarf draped over her arm like a bullfighter's cape; the light now only spread out in a little circle on the ground beneath the scarf-cape, and partly around her feet.

Without Dazia's bullets to dodge, Celi focused on her job, and the prospect of giant lizards coming their way. At the turning point, she stopped as Darian had instructed and -- keeping the torch hooded so its light wouldn't shine past the corner -- eased out just enough that her ear could pick up any indication of movement in the next section of corridor, or any voices.

If she heard and smelled nothing, then she would try for a peek, and signal back what was revealed to her, waiting for the go signal from Darian to move along through he *next* section of corridor.

If there *were* lizards, of course, she would activate her spell with an eloistic gesture; from that moment she would be able to comprehend and speak the lizard's tongue.

Then it would be a matter of passing along what she heard and understood, and ask the lizards whatever she could get away with before they attacked.

Cesare

"And don't I always?"

There is a brief grin to Darian but despite his teasing, he is all business when there is potential danger about. As he waits to fall in to his allotted place, he turns briefly to Daxia.

"Encouragement rather than chatisement always works best with me. Might want to try that with Celi occasionally.."

With a single raise of the eyebrow, he steps into the corridor, watching the ground and ahead, stepping carefully to stay quiet, dagger in each hand.

Daxia
with the Bekkah, Cesare, Dean, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the Temple On The Border West Chapel

"I have tried that with Celi, Cesare," she said softly before he left. "There is nothing anyone has said to her in the past fullhand that has gotten through to her. Speaking to her is less effective than whispering to the wind."

Her eyes hardened for the briefest moment, a mere heartbeat. "Since my words fall on deaf ears, I may as well vent my spleen, nyeh?"

And then she watched... and waited... and listened.

Darian

Once the girl is ten paces down she begins to follow. The torch light gives off just barely enough illumination. She studies the corridor, floor, walls and ceiling, as she moves down it. The craftsmanship here is like that of the well, impeccable.

When the light stops moving, the Hunter halts her pace to glance back to see the opening leading to the chamber they were in. She nods to herself then starts to move forward once more, now also searching out doors, figuring there must be some here...

The Heartwood
Bordertown
Almost Noon
Rameday, The Twenty-First Day of the Month of Crown of Ice, 2623

Darian, Cesare and Celi descending deeper into the Temple Ruins

The corridors were wide, they are tall, they were finely carven. The three made their painstaking way towards the Temple's lower levels, following the perimeter halls. The way was slow; shielding the torch not only threatened to char the scarf and soak it with smoke but limited the lighting to only a small spot on the floor; if a wall was kept close so as not to lose one's way the light barely reached the center of the passage. With the cool air, the harsh stone, and the three could not only hear the bits and pieces of conversation they had left behind, but even the quietest of footsteps echo in a dull rhthym. Their pace was a slow backbeat to the jangling melody of chains, manacles and hooks.

Just as Daxia described, the stairs were eventually found.

Even in the dim flickering light Darian could tell the signs; while splintered and chipped ages ago, perhaps all the way back at the fall of Bordertown, the stairs have served as a favorite route of taloned claws - the markings of huge lizards; up the stairs and down the stairs. Up the stairs, most probably, every dusk and down the stairs, every dawn, sated and fat.

And yet with all the signs of traffic, the stairs could not help but feel empty.

Completely empty.

For the first time in generations feet other than eastern beasts put weight upon the marble treads.

The next level down, if anything, the halls were wider, taller, as if designed for traffic of both two and four legged creatures. As the bottom landing was reached the three were met by a stiff breeze. The wall opposite, it had collapsed long ago and it was obvious that it did not do so solidly. Like a crazy sieve it let the wind into the temple. The cracks in the downfall were definitely large enough to let a big lizard in; however this route must be equally twisted since only the movement of air is felt and no light glimmers within the fallen stones. Passing further through these halls the rooms were as described; or at least they could fit the descriptions given. What was found were but empty rooms, ranked along the perimeter way. A few worn wooden racks, perhaps a broken bench or two, some scraps of cloth, bits of debris, that was all that was left. No weapons, no armor, no tools, as if the place had been stripped clean once the dark work was done. To the victors went the spoils, to be used upon those retreating towards the west.

However, at least three other possible faults were found. Narrow cracks in the walls, barely wide enough for a small person or large lizard to squeeze through, were found in the area where a smithy was supposed to be, in the large barracks room, and two where there might have been stables an age ago.

Near all the fractures signs of taloned claws were found.

However, no lizards.

They did not appear to keep their home in this place.

After a thorough searching, the three could make their way back to the west temple.

The Heartwood
Bordertown
Almost Noon
Rameday, The Twenty-First Day of the Month of Crown of Ice, 2623

Daxia, Kadri, Mikal, Romana, Tashka and Linette in the West Chapel

As the others left for their reconoiter, the chained woman looked up and swallowed, resting back against the cold, damp stone wall. She then queried Daxia.

"She?

"I c-c-c-couldn't t-t-t-tell."

Linette's head ducked as she swallowed a bit.

"B-b-b-oy or g-g-g-irl? C-c-c-came in all flashy and-d-d proud-d-d-d, with all kn-kn-knives and everything. Like m-m-m-merebeast boy c-c-court-t-ting m-m--erebeast g-g-g-irl.

"Is she l-l-l-ook-k-k-ing for m-m-m-ate?

"Mark-k-k-ing t-t-t-terit-it-it-it-tory?

"If she w-w-w-w-wants here ...

"I d-d-d-don't-t-t min-dd.

"She c-c-c-can have here."

Tashka barked out a single short laugh at the gallows humor.

Romana, however, was the one who tried to answer Mikal's questions.

"Beasts are not sticky, not like skinkies or blech-spiders-blech ... walk on walls, on ceilings, fall. Quite silly to see, yes? But if run fast, beasts run fast fast, beasts caroom off floor wall and roof, like flat stone skipping here and there."

The slender woman wrinked her nose.

"Jump? Even shaggies can jump. Most critters jump, small horse, big dog."

She then wrinkled her nose again.

"How many? Always big arguemnts. Some say many, some say one. Romanas not know ... Beastmaster only knows, and Beastmasters are Beastmasters are Beastmasters."

She then leveled a look back at the Jvrillian.

"Work with horses, horsemaster, yes? Work swords and pointy things, pointy-thing-master, yes? Work metal metalmaster, stone master, master this master that. Work with beast, beastmaster. Not everyone beastmaster, no. Must be good with beasts. Like sing, like dance, like draw pretty pictures, not everyone does good, must have presents for it. Beastmasters strange, beastmasters scary ... beastmasters always get stranger, sometimes put down, so strange. Not scary as in boo or like big gearla with sharp teeth who doesn't know dead yet, but scary like make hair at back of neck all itchy, like looking at you like you were dinner, like you or they no longer folks."