"What is done with the contents of the chest depends on the contents of the chest does it not?"
"Exactly. Open it up!"
Tevyn says nothing, simply moving out of the water and leaning against a spar of cave wall where he crosses his arms and contents himself with watching. He was curious to see if they would even be able to open the chest.
Tevyn says nothing, simply moving out of the water and leaning against a spar of cave wall where he crosses his arms and contents himself with watching. He was curious to see if they would even be able to open the chest.
"I agree for the most part," Melon nods, glad that the fight is over. "But technically Sandpoint's jurisdiction does not extend to the swamps - the Sheriff wouldn't have legitimate authority here."
"Oh!" Corinna says faux-brightly. "So if someone were to be robbed on the road to Sandpoint, they shouldn't bother going to the Sheriff? The bandits could just stand the other side of the Welcome to Sandpoint sign and make faces at us and have complete impunity, would they, because this is no one's 'jurisdiction?' But you have no problem lecturing us about how dishonorable we are for wanting to smash skeletons before being hit first?" She huffs. "Someone should be watching the main cavern before we're all discovered in here looking like grave robbers. When you're done 'satisfying your curiosity,' I'll be out there."
"Why is everybody assuming that to open the chest means to rob it? I'm starting to get quite annoyed at everybody making assumptions about other people's motives. There are all sorts of reasons to open the chest, including finding clues to the identity of these skeletons, possibly to give their families closure, if they are local."
A slight smile of approval touches Tevyn's lips at Corinna's comments. It vanishes at Gilfroy's words, however.
"I only questioned the issue when the skeleton declared Malan a thief. It's unusual enough for the undead to speak; for one to speak of thieves and honor changes the situation considerably. But if you're going to open the chest, then do so. I will not stop you."
"Of course they could make faces at us with impunity, there's no law against that - other than the amount of personal affront you are willing to take." Melon states matter of fact. "Likewise there is nothing illegal about the Sheriff putting up a wanted poster for said bandits, and for us to then hunt that bounty. Also perfectly legal. It's only a problem if we were to summarily execute the bandits when we find them - but if we take them to Sandpoint to be tried as appropriate, then that is fine too. How many run-ins with the law did you have at The Academy?" The last bit she tries hard to get the enunciation right. She's pretty sure she got it.
Melon follows up her opinion by trying to open the chest.
The chest is locked.
Corinna's affronted voice echoes back up the corridor from the main chamber. "I have never, in my life, had a 'run-in,' as you put it, with the law. The very idea!"
Seeing how the chest is locked, Rajah looks to the others, smiling. "Well, I guess that settles that. The chest is locked, therefore, I guess we can move along with Corinna's idea."
"Sure. Give me a little time." Melon carefully collects the new collection of bones and prepares them for burial like she did the others. It takes just shy of half an hour, the last few minutes of which she spends in silent prayer. Bidding Irori - her favorite deity - and Pharasma - the one she feels is most appropriate to the situation - to find a ways to settle the previously restless spirits in the afterlife.
While the other skeletons have absolutely nothing on them, the (formerly) talking skeleton does have a few things that Melon notices as she prepares the bones for burial. Most obvious is the armour. It's basically chain mail, but with a number of tattered cloth adornments. The armour is not in particularly good condition, but it was clearly once of high quality . There is also the skeleton's unusual short sword with the thin, curved blade. Finally, there is a bronze key on a necklace around the skeleton's neck.
Melon is fine with burying the skeleton with his armor and weapon, though she does tell the group about the key and hands it to Gilfroy while she's busy ferrying the bones to their (hopefully final) resting place.
A quick look at the sword reveals that the hilt is a little loose, but the sword is otherwise in fine condition. There is no writing on it, and it only speaks to her in hushed memories through her own dementia. :)
"Of course it called Malan a thief. Some goblins came in and stole from the skeletons, they get it back, then we show up. Naturally, they're going to assume we're thieves, too. Hells, you're here with us and assume we're thieves! If we can tell who it belongs to, then we return it. If it looks like it belonged to this skeleton, we take it and try to find its family. If it looks like it's going to sit here for a thousand years unclaimed, where is your problem? There are questions here that need answers, and they're probably in there."
Gilfroy takes the key and fits it into the lock, turning it.
Melon's first instinct is to try to repair the hilt. Maybe screw it tighter or see if there's some obvious way to mend it. Failing that she'll ask around the group: "The ...short sword... it is a little bit wiggly, over here. See? Does somebody here have a little fixing spell or something? It would be a shame to bury him with a slightly broken sword."
After the chest is revealed to be locked Tevyn shrugs and heads back down the passageway to where Corinna is keeping watch.
"The chest is locked and Melon is gathering together the bones to perform some sort of burial ritual," he says by way of greeting. He finds a smooth part of the wall and leans back against it, eyes half closed as he waits.
As Gilfroy explains himself, Rajah nods in agreement. "I'm afraid I cannot disagree with your logic, Gilfroy. What better way to find out who this belongs to, than to examine the contents of the chest."
In response to Melon, "I fear I do not, Melon. Sorry. I could learn such a spell, but it will be in the morning before I am able to."
After the chest is revealed to be locked Tevyn shrugs and heads back down the passageway to where Corinna is keeping watch.
"The chest is locked and Melon is gathering together the bones to perform some sort of burial ritual," he says by way of greeting. He finds a smooth part of the wall and leans back against it, eyes half closed as he waits.
"She's a priest now, is she?" Corinna scoffs half-heartedly, but the mere presence of someone competent in the mostly-dark cavern with her makes her less anxious and irritable. "Do you suppose we've really accomplished anything out here?" she asks him after a few moments. "These skeletons don't seem like they were a threat to anyone not out looking for trouble in the first place. For Nethys' sake, they did most of the work of destroying the goblin village before we even got there; they've probably done more good for Sandpoint than we have."
The key fits nicely into the lock and turns without difficulty. Gilfroy lifts the heavy lid and peers inside to see a velvet-lined interior with numerous slots for individual items. A large number of the slots are empty, and given that there are quite a few fireworks in the other slots, Gilfroy gets the impression the empty slots probably also held fireworks that got used by the goblins. Of the items remaining, there are 11 Desnan candles and 4 skyrockets. There are also 10 vials of liquid, a slim wand-like object, a chain shirt of very fine quality, and another sword of the same style as the armoured skeleton, except that this one is constructed of cold iron. In addition, there are two small velvet sacks, one containing a mixture of gold and silver coins (3820 sp and 421 gp total once you take the time to count them) and the other containing assorted pieces of fine jewellery.
Tevyn shakes his head, uncertain. "Have we protected Sandpoint by destroying the skeletons? No. If there had been a necromancer here...but I think those skeletons have been protecting the chest for some time. Now I only hope that whatever is in it won't bring trouble down on us or the town."
Corinna sighs. "This is why I like academia. The answers are all right there in the key, and the stakes are never so high." She hesitates. "If there is trouble... I'm not likely to be here to deal with it. I'm only here for a fortnight. If Shalelu's not back and something happens... would you do me the favor of checking in on my family? We're on the front lines between the town and the swamp, you see; it's how I got involved in this whole mess in the first place, when they took my dog.... I'll leave you a way to contact me. I don't know yet if I'll be in Magnimar or Korvosa, but I'll come right away if my mother needs me."
Hopeful, Melon seeks out Tevyn and Corinna. Finding them in conversation she opens with, "I'm not interrupting, am I?" She shows the unusual short sword, "This hilt is a bit loose, can either of you fix it? Maybe your protection spell can also reinforce it? It's such a minor niggle, I'd rather have it proper before burying it with its master." Almost forgetting she suddenly adds: "Oh! And I found the key on the guy that talked. Gilfroy managed to open the chest with it. Nothing really exciting. Many fireworks. Quite a lot of gold. But otherwise just some potions or something, and what looks a bit like a wand some of the magicky people in Magnimar use. Uhm... also another sword like this one, but from cold iron. And a chain shirt."
"Very nice, Melon," Corinna sighs at the interruption. "I'm afraid I don't know a thing about fixing weapons. Whatever's wrong with it, it didn't stop the skeleton from practically killing Malan, from what you told me; I doubt very much it would mind being buried with it as is." She pays little attention to Melon's description of the contents of the chest.
Tevyn, just about to speak when Melon comes in, closes his mouth and doesn't say anything, contenting himself with keeping watch until Melon gets back to her burials.
A bit dejected at failing to find a fix for the weapon she decides that it will simply have to do. She inters it, along with the armor and bones of the leader skeleton. I hope you can find solace in the true afterlife, warrior. Perhaps you will be able to protect in spirit what you protected in life.
Once Melon leaves to resume her efforts in putting the shattered bones at rest, Tevyn turns back to Corinna. "I don't think I've ever met anyone so intrusive." He shakes his head with amazement.
"I will keep an eye out for your family while I can," he says as he returns to the earlier conversation. "I'm not sure how long I'll be here myself, though. If Sandru has a place for me in a caravan, I intend to leave Sandpoint as well."
"Oh." She blushes a little at the mention of the caravan and its leader. "Well, I'm hardly in a position to wonder why anyone would choose to leave Sandpoint, am I? So little seems to change here, around my household at any rate; I suppose I tend to think of Sandpoint as a fixed point. People must come and go all the time, though, you and ... Sandru. And other caravans," she adds hurriedly.
"Can either of you detect any magic amongst these items?" Rajah asks Gilfroy and Malan. "I fear I've not prepared such myself."
"Well," Tevyn begins with a slight smile, "not many do leave. I've been there near my whole life. I just tire of the surroundings. I've traveled into these swamps so many times that there's little to capture my interest anymore. I crave something new. People like Sandru and Ameiko get out and do things. I greatly admire her -- them both -- for that. You as well. It takes courage to leave your home."
"I can't claim too much credit," she demurs with a nervous laugh. "I didn't have a great deal of choice in the matter at the time. I'd always dreamed of going to the Academae, of course, but I don't know that I would have had the courage to go through with it if things hadn't...." She remembers that he knows Sandru and blushes again. "That is, it was my family's idea for me to go to Korvosa, and I cried myself to sleep every night for weeks being homesick. But I'm pleased now with the way things worked out. I've ... made more of myself than I could have managed in Sandpoint. I can support myself without the help of the shipyards, which is more than any other woman in my family can claim, and I hope to have enough to support my mother as well, if I can get the position in Magnimar I'm trying for."
Tevyn nods thoughtfully. "That's much of what I hope for when I leave; to make more of myself. There must be more to life, more that one can accomplish with it, than can be found here in Sandpoint." He studies the young woman more directly. "What position is it that you seek? What exactly does a...graduate...of the Acadame do with their learning?" He is careful to pronounce the word as Corinna does.
"Oh, all sorts of things. The politically-connected go to arcane positions in the court or become advisors to rulers and government officials; some of them, if they can arrange a grant or a patron of some kind, go to a mage tower in the countryside to do independent research; some of the students have traveled a long way for their education and already have jobs lined up back in their home countries if they can return with an Academae degree; some go into crafting and enhancements." She hesitates and then confides, "I'm afraid that lot is a bit looked down on by the purists as little better than cobblers and merchants, producing cut-rate goods for the masses, but they serve a purpose -- someone has to produce all those entry-level magical daggers and cloaks that professional adventurers use -- and I understand the money's quite good. Confidentially," she lowers her voice and leans toward him, "I hear rumors that many of the professors do crafting on the side to supplement their salaries, but they won't admit to it, of course."
"I stayed on after I graduated as a staff assistant," she goes on in a more conversational tone. "On paper, my job is to help the full professors with their research, but in reality, I do a bit of everything: tutoring, grading papers, substitute teaching. The money's not much, but room and board are included so I don't need much. But I... I'd love for Mother to get out of Sandpoint and come stay with me, and I can't ask her to live in a one-room flat and share a bath with a hall full of research assistants. She wouldn't care for Korvosa, anyway: too many imps about. That's why I've applied for the position in Magnimar."
"The Stone of the Seers isn't near as good as the Academae, not in the conjuration department anyway, although their divination school is quite well respected, but that means that they'd love to get their hands on any of the Korvosa staff. We had a visiting scholar from Magnimar last semester who made ... not too terribly subtle inquiries on behalf of the Stone. The prestige isn't there, of course, but I could most likely get a higher-level position at the Stone as they try to build up their conjuration school's reputation, maybe even an assistant-professorship on the fast track to tenure. I could afford a real apartment with a spare room for Mother and its own bath. I've heard that Magnimar is beautiful -- they call it the City of Monuments, you know -- and while there's a certain cachet to having "the Academae, Korvosa" on your letterhead, there's something to be said as well for getting in at the ground floor of a school's development and making one's own mark on its future development."
"I'm sorry; I've been rattling on again, haven't I?" she blushes. "I do that. I can be stopped, if you'll only get my attention."
Malan stays out of the discussion of whether what they are doing is stealing. He figures that 'good' people do not leave skeletons as guards and skeletons are not worthy of any possesions they may have.
Malan studies the items that come out of the chest for any markings. If none are obvious, he ascertains their value to him. The fireworks hold no interest for him. The other items do attract his attention, though. If Gilfroy does not have, or is not willing to identify the magic items, Malan bundles them together and prepares to transport them back with him.
"Melon, are you sure you want to bury that blade with him? I can attest that it is still very serviceable and it would be a shame to retire it while it had life in it still."
"Heh, yea, it pulled a nasty one on you," now that it's over, Melon grins about it. "But the man who wield it seemed to be very resolute, a man of so much duty and honor that he guarded his charge even in death. I respect that, such a warrior should be buried with his weapon, don't you think?"
"A weapons purpose does not end when its weilder dies."
"hmmm..." Melon contemplates this for a while, "I guess that is true. Would you wield it? It's different from almost all short swords I've seen up to now - the distribution is all different. I suspect it would take training to use this properly. And you'd have to pay a smith for repairs."
Malan considers for a moment. "No. I do not think I would. However, I have also not seen a blade of such manufacture. Its uniqeness could aid us in finding out who hid this here. You could show it to Ameiko. Maybe it comes from her ancestral land like the fan."
Melon nods, "Yes. Yes, that is good. We'll see if we can get to the bottom of it - if not, I can return it here afterward."
"I do not mind at all," Tevyn assures Corinna. "You speak of a life that is completely outside of my experience. Wherever I may go after I leave Sandpoint, it'll certainly not encompass all that you've seen and experienced. You and I live very different lives. For that reason alone, I am intrigued. Perhaps I will see Magnimar for myself some day. I would like that."
He pauses a moment, thinking not of the city and its grand monuments but of the world that he might see along the way to journeying there. Then he thinks of something else Corinna had said.
"Is your mother so very unhappy here in Sandpoint? Of course, I can understand the desire to see more of the world but I had always thought your family lived particularly well."
"I don't know how to detect magical auras. I've never really had any training, you understand. Corrina could do it, but good luck getting Miss High and Mighty Fancy Pants to help with a little 'grave-robbing'."
Melon laughs. "Don't worry about it Fezzy, I'm sure she's only like this a couple of days a month," she assures Gilfroy. "I'm sometimes awful to people when I have my time. I try to make up for it the rest of the time."
Gilfroy looks completely confused for several seconds, then when Melon's meaning dawns on him, the confusing is replaced with complete revulsion.
"See that you do," he says weakly, turning back to the chest.
"Is your mother so very unhappy here in Sandpoint? Of course, I can understand the desire to see more of the world but I had always thought your family lived particularly well."
Corinna looks momentarily stricken as she realizes that, so shortly after ginning up the courage to tell the story of her shameful origins for only the second time in her life, she is going to have to do so again, since Tevyn wasn't with the party then. "I ... we do. The house and the servants ... I couldn't provide anything like that in Magnimar, even if I were to achieve full professorship, but.... You've lived in Sandpoint most of your life; I don't know if you've ever heard...."
She takes a deep breath and stares at the rocky floor as she continues. "My mother ... never married. When it became clear that she was going to have a child regardless of the fact, it was a huge blow to the family. They've taken care of me, and of her; they've been more than kind. My education was not inexpensive. But she's been a virtual prisoner in that house ever since, after all of her sisters have married and moved out into households of their own, a prisoner of her own broken reputation." She looks up at Tevyn again with a shaky smile. "I don't imagine there are many people in Sandpoint who would even care anymore, but my family will never forget her ... indiscretion. She used at least to be the lady of the house to the servants, but now my uncle has married and brought in his own bride."
She shakes her head ruefully. "She's lived almost thirty years with my ... existence hanging around her neck like a millstone. I just thought that if she could get out of Sandpoint, where no one knows the Valdemar name or has heard a whisper of the scandal.... I can't tell you how different it is in the city. In Korvosa, even if people knew, no one would care. It's not like it is in a small town, where all people have to do to entertain themselves is to gossip about their neighbors' failings. In the city, a person can be accepted for herself, not for who her parents were or what they did decades ago."
She smiles again. "Perhaps that sounds awful to you. I know some people feel that shame is a good thing for society, that the fear of it keeps people from giving in to their baser instincts. I'm sure there were many girls twenty-seven years ago who were kept in line by their parents telling them not to end up like Elzeveta Valdemar, but.... Surely she's served her time as an example by now. She's already lost her youth, her chance at marriage and ... a real family of her own. I'd like to see her ... really happy for once. I don't think I've ever seen her smile without a bit of sadness in her eyes."
Thinking about his own upbringing and the things he'd dealt with, Tevyn's face turns to stone. "I understand better than you may believe.There's great appeal to being able to start over fresh. Or to lose oneself in a sea of strangers. Just as some others may wish to go where no one will find you."
He shifts his shoulders, as if unconsciously shrugging off a cloak of immeasurable weight. "I think what you seek to do for her is quite noble." He also understood why she looked forward to leaving Sandpoint again.
"Gilfroy, must you be so childish with such talk against Corinna? I commend her for her stance on this issue. She has a sense of honor, high morals, and remains steadfast to them, regardless of the brow beating she may receive from you all. We could all learn a lesson or two from her." He moves his eyes quickly in Melon's direction, then back to Gilfroy, "Some of us more than others, but, nevertheless."
"Now, I cannot stop you from taking these items, but know this... if your plan is to keep them without at least a noteworthy attempt to find out who these items belong to, that is more than likely going to cause strife amongst us all. I, for one, am with Corinna and Tevyn on this."
Gilfroy whirls on his friend, his face flushed with rage, and his arm flung out in the direction of the outer cavern.
"Then go out there and stand with them!!! If one more person starts accusing me of being some kind of thief today I'm going to seriously flip my wig no matter what colour it is!! I swear the three of you are more obsessed with the theft of this chest then the people you're accusing of wanting to steal it!"
Turning back to the chest, he growls, "Now, anybody else want to throw accusations around, or are we going to figure out how to get this chest back to Sandpoint where we can better examine it and find the answers we're seeking?"
Rajah ponders the explosive gnome's outburst. "Forgive me, my good gnome, I should've been more clearer. I was speaking of Malan." He smiles.