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Post by Elvira, Wandering Cleric on Dec 27, 2023 21:18:12 GMT -5
Though most of the priestess's expression was hidden behind the hood and her silky hair, her lips displayed understanding, perhaps even a touch of concern. She listened intently, nodding at every sentence. She understood the pain of loss, she had seen families lose everything in her line of work. She had even seen nobles "adopting" children and promptly putting them to work in the same way they had done to the goblin. It had always sickened her. As Tatalia took a sip of the phial, Elvira grimaced slightly. She worried for her newfound friend as she had seen many families fall to this sort of thing, but she stuffed the worry down. She knew there were times that it could help, and this was likely to be one of them. "There's work yet to be done, and if you're not actually sick, then you're well enough to work! Chop chop! We're almost at the bottom, I can feel it!" The goblin's words made her smile. As she stood up, she felt relaxed, maybe even comfortable. Perhaps, she was too comfortable. With a smile, she began to unbutton her robes. Surely a priestess wouldn't expose herself?!? Of course not, what were you thinking? Elvira quickly pulled her robes off, revealing form-fitting black clothes underneath. As she folded the robes, she brushed her hair back. Her cheeks were soft, a slight blush reddening her paled skin. The gold that Tatalia had seen before was a headpiece, likely of a religious importance. As she laid the robes down gently and moved next to the goblin, her thin pear-shaped figure seemed to glide across the ground with grace. She gave a very warm smile to Tatalia. "It feels... strange. I hadn't taken those off in another's presence for months. Perhaps over a year, even. I feel rather naked, actually."
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Post by Tatalia on Dec 27, 2023 22:49:28 GMT -5
Tatalia felt a little bad about concealing why she really needed the alchemical concoction from Elvira, but she felt considerably less bad after the elf let her robes fall away, because nobody was allowed to be that pretty.
No, Tatalia wasn't jealous. She definitely wasn't jealous about how nice her hair was in comparison to Tatalia's nor about how she clearly had very nice eyes. And she wasn't jealous about how impeccably dressed the elf was! Tatalia was so definitely not jealous that she immediately turned away from the elf and hopped down the pit, the better to have some good, grounding dirt to focus on. Ah, yes! Dirt. Safe, normal, unpretty dirt!
"W-well! Since you are not, in fact, experiencing nakedness," the goblin called from down below, "we should finish up our work! Though I can't imagine wearing those robes all the time," she added in an entirely off-the-cuff manner, crouching down with her magic gloves to move more loose stone out of the way. "I think I'd feel trapped in such garments if I had to wear them so often! But then, I suppose I can't really argue. I end up dressing myself in bundles upon bundles of clothes when I have to enter a town for obvious reasons."
Was it obvious? Tatalia didn't bother to explain what she meant exactly.
"Come, come; bring the shovel, please! If you can help me clear the dirt here, we should hit the bottom and then I just have to clean this mess up a bit!"
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Post by Elvira, Wandering Cleric on Dec 28, 2023 0:28:14 GMT -5
"Strange, you almost seem happier to have seen the person behind the veil." Elvira smirked with a touch of mischief as she slid down into the hole they had dug together. "Perhaps after this, we may get to know each other well? The possibilities are, admittedly, exciting!" Now, she had actually made herself blush. She hoped it wasn't much more than she had when the robes came off, but it was.
She quickly tied her hair into a high ponytail and stabbed the blade of the shovel into the earth. With each scoop, she wondered away about what mystical artefacts might lie in the soil below. In a strange way, she began to get excited. Not just for the artefacts below, but for the future. She now had a friend, one she was decently comfortable with, one she could relate to. She was, in fact, excited to be around someone for once. It actually scared her, to a point.
This line of thinking was interrupted by a loud "CLANG!!!" Her shovel had hit something, and it felt rather strange. She begins to scrape the soil away from the object to find something... rather strange.
"It's... metallic? Some stone has built up around it, but I clearly see metals. Come look at this, love." She leans down to look before letting out a giggle as she noticed that, even crouched, she was taller than the goblin next to her.
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Post by Tatalia on Dec 28, 2023 2:18:43 GMT -5
"Strange, you almost seem happier to have seen the person behind the veil. Perhaps after this, we may get to know each other well? The possibilities are, admittedly, exciting!"
Tatalia didn't process the words right away, but the moment she did, she stopped working long enough to really think about what they meant.
"The possibilities are exciting?" she repeated quietly to herself, brow furrowed. What does she mean by that? she asked herself. It sounded almost like she was... enticing her to do something? But what would-
Oh. Oh NO! Tatalia's eyes went wide with realization. She thinks I sell drugs!
Regret for her deception was beginning to churn in the goblin's stomach and make her sick. What, did she the elf think there was some sort of secret goblin cartel dedicated to the smuggle and sale of drugs? Was that why she was dropping those weird hints? It was not at all what the goblin expected of such a clearly blessed woman, but what else would make sense? She was, well, she was a priestess, and probably both rich and pretty at that! Well, confirmed pretty; the die for looks is never cast equally, the goblin thought to herself with a grumble. But the point was nothing else really made sense!
Or maybe she's just lonely and wants a friend? offered the sane, rational part of her mind. That falls in line with exactly what she said.
That's a fair cop, admitted the rest of her mind. That was probably more reasonable, all things considered. But... still, what a strange way to express loneliness! It was almost as if she was hit-
A sharp CLANG! drew Tatalia's attention. She practically leapt out of her skin, turning to face the elf (who apparently was working more diligently than she was, Tatalia thought with a flush of embarrassment). Elvira shifted the dirt about, and she offered an explanation as Tatalia approached.
"It's... metallic? Some stone has built up around it, but I clearly see metals. Come look at this, love."
"I'm coming! I- wait, what?" Tatalia paused for a moment at the peculiar word choice, then quickly shook her head, focusing on at the task at hand. And the moment she saw what the cause of all the fuss was, she let out a gasp.
"I know what this is!" the goblin squeaked out, hopping with excitement as she did. She scampered forward upon landing, quickly brushing away the dirt with energetic hands, yellow eyes wide open. Her gaze flitted up and down and up and down as she slowly revealed... a tile made of brass, one that upon inspection was clearly some sort of heavy trap door.
"A secret room!" Tatalia whispered excitedly. She leaned in close toward Elvira, grinning toothily. "I mean, it wasn't SUPPOSED to be secret; it never was! It's probably a cellar, but it could be an altar room or anything like that! But most importantly, it's probably intact!"
The goblin suddenly pulled herself away, stepped backwards, and leapt up toward the exit from the broken tower. Somehow, she managed to jump... easily four times her own height.1 What, was she part frog?
There was noise outside, the sound of bits of metal, glass, and wood being shuffled about. A hissing noise rose into the air along with some hissing. Then, suddenly, Tatalia was back, sliding down to the bottom of the tower on a rope. With a lockpick in hand, she knelt on down and in five seconds flat... Click!2 The trapdoor was ready to be opened.
"So! Shall we enter together?" the goblin offered, smiling at the elf. She threw the trapdoor open (albeit with some effort), then held her hand out to the elf. "Here! I'll help you down, then you just catch me when I jump!"
1. Hoppers; 2. Lock Picking
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Post by Elvira, Wandering Cleric on Dec 28, 2023 15:14:51 GMT -5
Elvira stared, fascinated by the discovery. As the door opened, she kneeled and peered inside. The opening lead to a massive drop that seemed to be caused by a collapsed staircase. Inside was a room filled with pillars inscribed with runes that, upon further inspection, she couldn't decipher. She was enthralled. The discovery was filling her with overwhelming emotions. After taking a step back, she shook her head. "I can't believe it, you were right! How? How did you come to the conclusion this would be at the tower?" Her eyes glowed and sparkled with a newfound light.
The room appeared to be an altar, but around the sides of the room was stone boxes about 3 feet in height. Elvira immediately recognized them as stone caskets. The dust and sand that had built up from nearly fifteen thousand years of dormancy was immense. Elvira took a piece of cloth and wrapped it around her nose and mouth so she wouldn't inhale the particles in the air.
"Here! I'll help you down, then you just catch me when I jump!" The priestess wasn't so sure about this idea, but she decided to humor it.
As she began to scale down the wall, hanging on to Tatalia, a piece gave way. She tried catching herself, but wound up pulling the goblin down with her. They fell a few feet before hitting a slope and tumbling down, kicking up mounds of dust into the air. As they settled, Elvira coughed a bit before realizing Tatalia had landed on top of her. She awkwardly laughed and decided to make light of it.
"So it seems we've fallen for each other, perhaps at a most inconvenient time. Are you alright?" She lifts her head to see the goblin before brushing a a stray hair from Tatalia's face. "This... crypt of sorts seems to be both for rituals and burials. We probably will be able to get quite a bit of information."
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Post by Tatalia on Dec 28, 2023 16:09:37 GMT -5
"I can't believe it, you were right! How? How did you come to the conclusion this would be at the tower?"
Tatalia grinned the world's biggest grin in answer to that. The answer was simple.
"I didn't!"
She really didn't. No, she literally came to the tower to do exactly what she'd said: use erosion to measure the passage of time. The goblin had absolutely no idea what to expect of a hidden chamber beneath the tower. Somehow, she had lucked into a big breakthrough. Somehow.
Honestly, it's not the first time, Tatalia thought to herself, quietly wondering if she was more lucky than good. She decided to shake that thought away and focus on letting Elvira lower her down gently onto the floor. Of course, that'd be easy. Elves were graceful!
Five seconds later, Tatalia realized that not all elves were graceful as she went tumbling face skull forehead first down the pit and onto Elvira's stomach. The little goblin teetered in place for a moment like a spinning coin desperately trying to stay upright, then flopped backwards onto the floor on her rump. She blinked several times.
"So it seems we've fallen for each other, perhaps at a most inconvenient time," the elf quipped.
Tatalia couldn't help but crack up in a snort of laughter, and she sat upright and dusted herself off. "To be entirely technical, we fell onto each other, not for each other!"
The goblin's laughter was cut short as she was reminded by a sharp pain in her back that she had just fallen onto a hard stone floor. Tatalia winced in pain. She was so preoccupied with that sensation that she scarcely noticed the elf reaching out to pull a stray strand of hair away from her face and looked at her with those dark, intense blue eyes.
"Are you alright?" the elf asked.
Finally, realization - actual realization, the correct realization - struck Tatalia like a thunderbolt, and her cheeks turned a tinge darker green in shade. She let out a more nervous laugh, then stood up and looked away from the elf, taking a deep breath and nodding quickly to disguise her panic.
"Oh, yes! Absolutely fine! Just part of the, um, the hazards of adventuring!" the goblin insisted. She started peering about the room intently, focusing on her work, the thing she was good at. She was much better at maneuvering old, ancient tombs than she was at maneuvering more... personal matters. She shook her head again and really forced herself to focus, just focus on what was around her. And... it actually worked.
"Glyphs," Tatalia mused, reaching up to touch one of the walls. She was able to see clearly despite the darkness,1 a talent many goblins happened to share. She explained to the elf what she saw as she traced her fingers along the wall.
"There's symbols depicting people... of some kind, it's hard to tell, and they're standing before an altar with knives upraised. Not exactly an encouraging sign," the goblin added off-handedly, "but I don't believe there's any danger. This is a story being retold, not a warning. Of that I'm certain.
"Let's see... The sun and moon - representative of Solaria and Lunala respectively, perhaps? - are shown in great prominence. It appears there is worship, and... violence." Tatalia furrowed her brow, eyeing what she saw carefully. But then the images...
"It breaks off," Tatalia noted, heaving out a sigh. Then she perked up. "Still! This makes for an incredible find! I can't decipher exactly what it all means without more study, and I still have those erosion-based tests to conduct, but the stonework here is of a different style, material, and origin than that of the stonework above. That means that whoever built this place was of a different culture than the elves who came later!
"I would check the inside of the tombs for bodies, but from what I can tell, this tomb was never finished. The symbols are broken off because they're incomplete. In other words, whoever was meant to be buried here, well... never was! And I won't be able to say for certain what sort of people built this tower originally, nor exactly what its original purpose was!"
Perhaps those words should have been accompanied by a disappointed voice, but Tatalia was enthusiastic. She was happy with the discovery! And she had forgotten all about her embarrassment and funny feelings entirely, too. She cast a grin back at the elf with eyes that glowed in the darkness and teeth that shined in the singular stray beam of sunlight that reached the bottom.
"This will take days to finish a report on at the least!" the goblin announced with a happy sigh.
1. Dark Vision
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Post by Elvira, Wandering Cleric on Dec 29, 2023 0:46:07 GMT -5
"Oh, yes! Absolutely fine! Just part of the, um, the hazards of adventuring!"
Elvira felt that there was a copious amount of panic behind this statement. She worried herself, but the goblin had essentially ran off to explore so she decided to push the thought to later.
As Tatalia ran about the crypt, Elvira couldn't help but crack a smile. She had felt that there was too little happiness in the world around her, and this scene was giving her a touch of hope. There were other feelings, strange feelings. The kind of feelings she had no clue how to decipher. Those bugged her, but she refused to let it steal the joy of the moment.
"There's symbols depicting people... of some kind, it's hard to tell, and they're standing before an altar with knives upraised." The elf gave a wider smile. She felt a strong sense of pride having found the door. She felt like she was finally a part of something that wasn't the church.
Upon mentions of there being no dead bodies, however, Elvira felt... strange. She stood up and walked over to one. "Then... what would the stone caskets be for?" As she looked at it, she felt compelled to place a hand on one. She looked the casket over before sliding the top back slightly. What was inside made her jump back slightly. "Sacrifices... lots of them, too. It's almost as if they had built the altar first and sacrificed to allow for smooth construction? I could easily be wrong, but it wouldn't be unheard of." She backed up and, with a smirk, she kneeled down so Tatalia could hop up and see into the casket. "I'll prove to be your best assistant yet."
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Post by Tatalia on Dec 29, 2023 2:25:12 GMT -5
"Oh, sacrifices? Fascinating!" the goblin replied, stepping over to see what the fuss was about. The particularly tomb that Elvira was looking into was a bit too tall, and the elf happened to be conveniently stooped over, so the goblin climbed up onto her shoulders without thinking and peered down to get a better look.
"Ah! These bones appear to belong to animals," Tatalia mused as she looked the bones over, eyebrows raised. "And I would wager either that you are right or that whoever was to be buried here wished to bring their companions with them into the afterlife. I can't say for certain which is the case, but it's not unheard of for someone to try to take that which is corporeal into the world beyond when they pass away. We are all so very clingy when it comes to that which we care about!"
Tatalia paused mid speech, realizing she was, in fact, clinging onto the elf's shoulders as she said that. She immediately hopped back down and cleared her throat.
"I still need to conduct that erosion survey, as I discussed before," the goblin noted, smiling back at Elvira. "The sun is going to be setting soon, so you should probably get somewhere safe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense that someone of your well-to-do upbringing might not be well suited to woodland camping!
"We can meet here again tomorrow, and I can share what I've learned. I may even be done with my survey then if I really crack at it!" Tatalia added, grinning in the darkness. "And maybe you can accompany me on my way to the next site I have in mind! I would be glad for your companionship!"
Wait, what? Tatalia was surprised at herself. No, don't ask her to come with you! This is a bad idea! Stop!
But the offer had already been extended. There would be no take backsies.
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Post by Elvira, Wandering Cleric on Dec 30, 2023 2:15:37 GMT -5
As the goblin climbed on the cleric's shoulder, she let out a gasp and turned her head to see. Their faces were practically touching, merely centimeters separating the two. Elvira stared, frozen in a slight panic and face darkened with a deep blush. She barely even heard the adventurer speak as she was too caught up in the moment. Inside, something felt... weird. Like a... burning feeling? Tingling, perhaps? In fact, it was a feeling nearly impossible to put in to words, but she certainly felt it. And it. Freaked. Her. Out. As Tatalia hopped down, Elvira tried her best to hide the bewilderment. She failed, of course, as the feeling was too large for her to handle. The next words from her friend had snapped her back into the moment, however.
"The sun is going to be setting soon, so you should probably get somewhere safe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense that someone of your well-to-do upbringing might not be well suited to woodland camping!"
The "well-to-do" elf gave the goblin a funny look. "I have been camping for years, botuu1! But, I suppose you are correct. I have been meaning to resupply in Eclipse City for some time now.
"And maybe you can accompany me on my way to the next site I have in mind! I would be glad for your companionship!"
This one had caught her off guard. She froze and gave a look to the goblin before smiling. "I... I think I'd like that. Thank you. I'll meet you at the Eclipse City inn tomorrow." As she leaves, she practically skips with joy towards the exit, but she pauses before leaving. Considering something, she looks to Tatalia. After a sigh, she kneels down and gives her a warm, gentle hug. Standing up, she brushes a hair out of her own face. "I had... welll... I had fun, Tatalia. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow." She smiles and shifts awkwardly before moving to the exit. "Be safe, please. Bye now."
1: "Moron" - Said playfully... this time...
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Post by Tatalia on Dec 30, 2023 7:18:06 GMT -5
Tatalia couldn't help but grin a little at the elf's response to her accusation that she was unsuited for camping. True, she hadn't meant it as an insult, but she realized she had a way to tease the elf later! She slotted that knowledge away into her repertoire of very important information.
"Very well, very well! I suppose you probably know a few things about trees," Tatalia mused, waving her hand about in a lazy circle. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the elf, puffing her chest out and firing off a cocky grin. "But I suppose we've made our plans! Tomorrow in Eclipse City! I'll see you there, Elvira!"
Tatalia winked and waved goodbye to the elf, then started working happily on the erosion survey, taking careful notes as she worked. A sort of buzzy feeling was inside her stomach; a bit of an odd feeling, but nevertheless not a bad one. And as she labored into dusk and then into the night, Tatalia kept feeling a general contentment for how the day had developed. Really, it couldn't have gone much better, could it? It was a day full of discovery and wonder.
But as Tatalia was preparing for bed in her tent, glad to be done with a hard day's work, a sudden unnerving question popped into her mind:
Why on Charon did I wink at her?!
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