• Closed • Treasure Hunting We Shall Go [Qit'ria, Vega]

[Qit'ria]

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With Vega's help, and a healthy amount of grunting, the mechanism turned. A hole opened up, and Qit'ria jumped back, hissing at it, pulling her javelin free from the hole, flipping it around, ready to throw. Nothing came out. Qit'ria went prone next to the hole. She watched as Kura put some... thing on her face, and it apparently let her see into the dark. Qit'ria scooched forward, and bent at the waist, dangling her torso into the hole from above, her hair flopping down below her. She took a moment to let her eyes acclimate, while listening to Curry's words.

A trap. That immediately caught Qit'ria's attention. She loved traps. She used them from time to time, and wanted to use more. But Curry wanted rocks. Qit grabbed onto the sod at her side, and rolled forward, flipping over. She landed heavily on both feet behind Curry, and stumbled backwards in misstep a moment, bumping into the politician.

"No want rock Curry."

Qit'ria drew one of her throwing knives from her pocket. She moved past Curry and approached the pedestal. As she did, her leg broke through a strand she mistook for a spider's line, as thin and fragile as it was. When it broke, it triggered a series of silent mechanism within the walls that began their task as Qit began hers. Better adjusted to the darkness, she could see the... thing. The shaped thing, on the raised portion of the pedestal. Very gently, she blew on the pedestal. A light gust of dust swept off it and she scrutinized. There. Just where the raised bit met the surface, a seam.

She reached out with her knife, and pressed the tip against the raised bit, and held a firm grip. She prepped the grip, expecting it to push up against when she continued. With her other hand, she snatched the puzzle piece away from the raised bit, and she felt the raised bit try to push back. But she held it down. Tossing the puzzle piece at Curry, she moved the knife into place so that the center of it was over the raised bit, holding it with her palm. Gingerly she began to release her hold, to feel it push back. Shaking her head, she pulled out a second knife. She slipped that in under her fingers, atop the first. Slowly she released her hold once more, and the knives held.

She stepped back from the pedestal, as the statue above ground blasted three toots of some form of horn, triggered by the earlier breaking of the line and hidden mechanisms. And far off in the distance, it was not thwarthogs that heard the signal they'd been waiting for for generations. No. It was thwarthides. And they began to rally their greatest warriors, setting off a frenzy, as they began the quick journey to their prized monument.

[Vega]

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Vega would not say that she was bright - in fact if she was being honest, she'd say that she was roughly as thick as three short planks. Arlo would argue with her, but she had no false humility there. In terms of learning, and the traditional definition of clever, Vega was not it.

But when that there horn blared, she knew that it was a Very Bad Thing. "Well, Famula's bouncy knockers, that's loud," Vega said and she glanced at Kura, rather tensely. "You don't make soemthin' loud like that unless yer callin' somethin' to you, or warnin' someone that you jus' opened their big an' funny lookin' hole in the ground." Vega didn't like the statue, it unnerved her but, hey ho and nonny-nonny. "Righ' but there's no need fer it to be that loud, if it's somethin' down there. But down there, there's traps?"

Looking at Qit with a slightly apologetic shrug and said simply, "I think maybe the rocks might'a been a better plan, you know. I'll grab some." Which was what Vega did. Quickly. Looking at her two companions, Vega spoke what seemed to make sense to her. "So, I'll keep an eye on the out here, the periphery an' stuff. An' if you take care of the trap, Kura, an' Qit, you be watchin' both so that if either of us needs 'elp, you see it?"

That made sense to her. Fundamentally, they didn't know where the danger was coming from or what it was. Vega had no idea, fundamentally, and so she had to think about it the best way she could. So, figuring that they were about as noticeable as they could be, she decided to clamber up to the high point of the statue, getting her footing and making sure that the extra feet it gave her meant that she could see a little better. Then, she kept an eye all around while Kura, hopefully, sorted out the trap so that they could grab the treasure and get out of here.

Frankly, it was starting to get a little worrisome. This was a statue to a snake-Immortal, and Vega had already had some pretty bad experiences with giant snakes. Not anything she was really hankering to repeat, that was for certain. But, still, she perched, she kept watched and every now and then she called out, "How's it goin' down there?"

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

Kura looked over at Qit'ria as she said that a rock wasn't needed, then stepped aside and let her work, catching the puzzle piece she was tossed. Then she looked up towards the entrance when the horn blared out it's message. "Why would that be soundin' off?" she muttered, before her eyes widened and she suddenly went over to the pedestal and pulled out Qit'ria's daggers. Nothing happened and she handed Qit her daggers back. "A distraction! We need to get upstairs." she said, letting Qit'ria take the lead before she followed the wilder hunter out of room.

Just as she and Qit'ria reached the top, she heard noises from the forest. "Ooooh, that can't be good. Could be animals?" she said, pulling her bow out of her quiver and putting an arrow to the string. Then the first of the creatures emerged, an upright hog-like creature with a crude shield and a cruder club. "Oh...that's...huh." she said, in surprise, before she growled and pulled back on the string as the thing charged. "Not friendly, though. We might want to break for cover." she said, firing off an arrow. It thunked into the shield, though she had a second in the air before it landed, and the second took the hogman in the eye, bringing it down. Judging from the noise in the woods behind it though, there were going to be more of them.

"Break, or stand and fight?" she asked her companions. As she spoke, she called Phelan's spirit form to her. She hadn't planned on the wolf, but she might need him to deal with the local troublemakers. For now though, she just put another arrow to the string, so as not to put Phelan into play too early.

[Qit'ria]

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The moment the horn blew Qit'ria knew, or rather, suspected confidently, what had happened. It was just like her own trip wire alarms she kept around her camp. There had been something they had triggered, probably Kura, that set it off. Certainly not her, she'd been careful. So she turned and ran out of the little dungeon thing, javelin in hand, with Kura right on her heels. And there, in the distance, crashing through the forest were roughly a dozen Thwarthides, in their loincloths, wielding a variety of wooden weapons, mostly clubs, shields, or sticks carved into spears.

Qit'ria had never seen such a... thing before. Were they animals or people? They looked like those wild pigs that lived here, but standing on two legs. And clearly they were the cavalry to come and save this monument from the three women. Qit'ria watched Kura's arrow get stopped by a flimsy shield, and before she could hear the mortalborn's words, was already in a sprint forward. She drew a second javelin with her free hand as kicked up snow and leaves, snarling loudly at the incoming beasts. Her plan of attack was obvious, to her.

The beasts were coming in a spread out wave, two lines, a forward and a back, shields and clubs in front, with spear wielders in back. Qit steered her charge toward the center of the wave, hiking her first javelin back over her shoulder. Once she was in range, she changed into her sliding gallop and launched her first javelin, giving it higher arc. It soared over the front line, and sunk straight into the chest of one of the spear wielders in the back line. She tossed her other javelin to her good hand, and held the throw until she was much closer. This one she sent speeding forward, no arc at all, a bullet throw. The thwart hide raised his shield, but being made of thin wood, her javelin punched right through it, piercing his throat.

This created a gap in the ranks.

Qit continued sprinting forward, as she saw the first spear thrown her way. She hopped about it, for it was a slow throw, by an unweighted spear, and breached through the gap, leaping over the fallen shield wielder she'd struck down grabbing her spear as she went. She continued her run, finally reaching her other javelin, which she pulled from the corpse of the fallen thwarthide, using it to skid and turn to a stop. She snarled loudly once more at the remaining ten thwarthides, shaking her javelins over head in challenge at them. This caused a break in the ranks. One half, six thwart hides in total, continued onward toward Kura and Vega, while the remaining four came for Qit. And with a feral grin, she turned and ran, making sure to keep in view of them, so as to pull them away from her companions, knowing they were more than capable on their own.

[Vega]

Why was it, Vega wondered, that she couldn't even go for a wander in the surrounding area without it all turning upside down and inside out? It was like she was blessed - or curse, and in that moment she was moderately sure that this was all Arlo Creede's fault. Why or how she couldn't rightly say but that didn't change her sense of certainty. As those big and ugly looking things came charging towards them, Vega glanced at Kura as she asked whether to break or stand and fight. "So long as we're not datin' them, I don't mind. What in the name of Pier an' Pre's pink parts are you doin' you nutter!" The last bit, of course, was to Qit'ria as the lunatic with a death wish charged forward. Her on her short little legs charging into a doz pig-ugly-pig-things.

Vega wasn't bright, she understood that, but frankly as she shot an arrow into the eye of one of the Pig-Men and it fell with a screech, she had a very strong feeling of "They're gonna need to come up with a new word for the kind of stupid you are, you plonker!" Had the woman not learned? It was just ridiculous - last time Vega and Qit'ria had met, the crazy woman had near to gotten herself killed for charging off after folks and frankly, Vega was of the opinion that Qit either had a death wish or she was so stupid she deserved an award for it.

No time to worry about her, now, she was only going to get herself dead anyhow. Still, one down from Kura, one from Vega and Qit'ria took down two. Spiffy. That meant there were only ten left and then Vega could get on with kicking Qit'ria's ass from here to Rynmere for the trouble she'd caused. Six came for her and Kura and four for Qit'ria. Vega shot again, her arrow flying straight and true and another one died.

Still six for her and Kura. Three on Qit. Vega wasn't going to do more than that, but it gave the lunatic a hope, she thought and hey, they were all fighting three against one now. But the big ugly pig-faced pig-boys were too close now for effective ranged weapons and so Vega pulled her sword and yelled, "COME ON YOU UGLY PIG!"

The fight or flight response had kicked in and it seemed that fight was very much the order of the day.

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

Kura stared blankly for a minute as Qit'ria charged the line of pig creatures, then broke out swearing. "A 'cur dragh air Dia gòrach! Spìon do mhàthair gabhar gobhar airson do spìonadh, cha do rinn i !?" she snapped, her tone furious and indicating that unkind things were being said about Qit'ria's parentage. Kura didn't break down into Atvian very often, as even people in the Empire didn't speak it that much, but when she did it usually indicated that she was really starting to lose her patience with some damn fool or another.

Growling in fury, the Mortalborn drew her bow and took aim at the pig beasts bearing down on her and Vega. "Phelan!" she snapped into the ether as she loosed another arrow, downing another pig man. The large black wolf materialized in the middle of the swine, snapping and growling. The shock of the wolf appearing in their midst distracted the four remaining pig beasts. The wolf was fast and strong, but whether he could take on the beasts alone was a question Kura didn't want answered. Vega had drawn her sword, but Kura just had her bow, so she stepped back a bit, then drew and fired again, taking down a second pig beast, this time having the arrow smashing through the flimsier part of the shield.

As this happened, Phelan snapped through one of the beasts hamstrings with his teeth, bringing it down to where he could tear at it's throat. Now their group only had two left, so Phelan vanished again to go help Qit'ria, who both he and Kura felt needed it more than Kura and Vega did at this point. "Ugly scum. Should have sent twice as many if you wanted to have a chance at winning." she snarled, her voice starting to echo in weird ways, as if there were owls sounding off as she spoke.

Off Topic

"A 'cur dragh air Dia gòrach! Spìon do mhàthair gabhar gobhar airson do spìonadh, cha do rinn i !?" = "God's cursed foolish jackass! Your mother spooned a mad goat to spawn you, didn't she!?"

[Qit'ria]

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Qit'ria cast a look over her shoulder at the beasts that were following her, just in time to see one of Vega's arrows take another out. She smirked, of course. Vega stealing her kills. There had been twelve of the hog things, that meant four each. And Qit'ria was not about to be the woman who came up with less than her fair share of them. She was faster than the swines, but she didn't want to run too far from the group, it'd be a pain in the ass to hike all that way back, after all. Plus, Kura was a city woman, she'd probably take all the treasure before Qit returned. Bunch of dishonest thieves, cityfolk were. Vega could at least be trusted to be fair in that regard, she was a hunter after all.

Qit'ria glanced back once more, seeing she'd put more distance between the beasts, and decided it was time to make her stand. She ran at a tree, her feet flat against the trunk as though she were going to run up it. Which she did, for a couple of steps at least. She then gave one hard push off, and twisted around, her arms already up, as she moved to throw both of her javelins at once. The one from her left hand, her weaker hand, flew embarrassingly short, off center, and sunk into the ground. Her other flew true, but lacked the strength if she'd thrown just the one. It was caught on a shield, as the beasts continued forward.

Qit'ria landed in the mud in a crouch, yanking her shortsword from its straps, as she charged forward growling loudly. She sprinted at the beast whose shield carried her spear, as the first blows from her enemies came. One stabbed at her with his spear, and she caught it on the edge of her sword, swinging it down into the snow. She spun around another spear stab, grabbing a hold of her own javelin. It was sunk deep in the shield, and when she jerked it, the beast stumbled forward. Then the beast jerked back on its shield, making that grunting noise that only pigs know how to make.

Qit'ria smirked, fine, it wanted her spear, let it have it. As it pulled, she pushed, throwing the pig off balanced and onto its ass, her spear driving into its shoulder. A club struck her heavily in the hip, and Qit'ria dropped down, then rolled away from the next strike, meant to brain her. She rolled and rolled, then scrambled to get her feet beneath her, on all fours, her stance low, and her eyes dripping with vengeance for the audacity these beasts had to bring her harm. She drew a throwing knife with her freehand, gripping it loosely in her fingers.

She waited. The clubbing beast rushed forward, club raised high, while his companion worked to dislodge her spear from his injured mate. Qit'ria waited until the last possible moment to move as the club crashed down where she'd been, as she stabbed the beast high in its thigh. She skipped out of the arc of the retaliatory swing. It raised its club again, and Qit'ria brought her arm up and flicked the knife forward, aiming at its throat. She rolled her eyes at the result though, as it bounced off the creature's fat belly. It seemed the both of them were surprised how ineffective that was.

And the attack came forward. Qit'ria rushed the gap, dipping low was the club came down. Her arm raised upward defensively, slipped beneath the lowering elbow of the beast, effectively jamming the attack. Then she thrust her sword deep in the savory pork belly. She twisted the blade, then yanked it free, tossing the beast away from her. She turned toward the remaining two, a teasing smile on her face, as she drew yet another knife. One spear, and one club and shield, the latter being injured.

But the one holding the spear was holding her spear. Her eyes flared, and she let loose a loud scream at the beasts, sprinting toward them. Her javelin was being used as a melee spear, which was ridiculous. It wobbled about, unable to keep the straight form needed for such an attack. The spear was thrust toward her, and she skipped to the side, driven toward the club wielder. A shield was rammed into her torso, lifting her off the ground and tossing her back onto her ass. As the beast charged to follow, she threw the knife low. This time it managed to find purchase, right in the meat of the lower leg, causing the beast to trip.

She rolled away from her spot, getting her feet beneath her, and dashed a few spear lengths away, getting distance. The spear wielder followed, out ahead of the injured clubber. Qit'ria let him come, and she continued to move backwards diagonally, away from it, always forcing it to favor to its left. Kept it moving, kept it turning, until it stabbed in frustration. Her free hand came out, slapping the spear upwards away from her, as she moved in low under the creature's guard. She slashed low, opening up deep gashes across the beast's thighs. It fell forward, dropping her spear, and Qit'ria plunged her sword into its back.

A club struck her hard between the shoulder blades, throwing her to the ground, her sword flying free of her hand. That one hurt. She rolled over onto her back, to get eyes on her attacker, only to hear it screaming as a wolf tore it to shreds. It made quick work of the beast. Qit'ria looked the wolf in the eyes, knowing it to be Kura's friend. She gave it a respectful nod. She pulled herself up, and checked to make sure everything was dead. Satisfied, she gathered up her weapons, stashing them away, and grabbed the fattest pig by the ankle, and began dragging it back to Kura and Vega. Everyone liked bacon.

She'd gotten her four kills. But she would certainly dispute that Phelan's kill did not count for Kura. That was his own. She winced as she moved, her hip and back where she'd been struck both sore. And would be for several trials after this. But it happened. This is why she never walked around without her weapons. She chuckled to herself. Kura thinking their weapons were too much? Shaking her head, she continued onward. City folk. She looked ahead, curious to see how the other two were faring, they should be done by now.

[Vega]

Vega yelled her fury at Qit'ria's reckless behaviour and Kura did the same. Except she sounded more like she had a bad cough or was about to start picking fleas off Qit'ria as she grunted, snorted and made strange cccchhhhh noises. That was it, Vega decided, she was becoming a bloody hermit. But whilst she was busy making sounds like she was an Ithecal with a gag, Vega was pleased that she shot her arrows and that her bloody enormous wolf. If she'd had time - or inclination towards chipper - Vega would have pointed out that situations like this were exactly why she carried both a close quarters and ranged weapon, but she decided against it. Kura might speak Gravel-Mouth, but the general idea was clear and neither of them were happy. Kura shot another Pig-Bloke down and he wolf did a weird snarling, biting thing which meant that there were now only two between her and Kura.

Vega was a swordswoman by preference - she could use a bow and use one well but the sword was her real talent. The redhead woman was excellent with a blade and of the remaining two in front of her and Kura, she made quick work of killing them. As she fought, her sword flashed and she killed the first one with a swift and decisive stab through the throat which sent it staggering backwards before it fell and then, as the final one decided that it was going out fighting, Vega turned and faced it. She was off balance from her last attack, but she was more than able to deal with that and she leaned back on to the heel of her right foot and then as it charged she sidestapped and sliced it's arm clean off. It squealed and screamed and Vega finished it quickly.

No sooner had the squealing stopped than Vega was looking around and making sure that everyone was fine. Qit'ria was dragging one of the beasts back and Vega almost said something. But then, she decided against it because what the heck was the point? The woman was an idiot and she would learn or she would die. Simple as and, quite frankly, Vega knew that if she said anything - anything at all, she'd say too much. "Good work," she said to Kura, nodding as she cleaned her sword, carefully. But then, Vega realised who she was as she heard herself speaking to Qit'ria. "Your tactics are stupid," she said. "They're dangerous to your companions an' they're dangerous to you. If you wanna kill yerself, go jump off somewhere tall, but it's better if we work as a team in situations like that. It ain't about one person, it's about all of us." Shaking her head, Vega didn't expect the Sev'ryn to understand.

Glancing back to Kura and including both of them in what she said, Vega asked. "So, you wanna explore down there? What's the plan?" Frankly, at this point she was too wound up to care, but she knew herself and that, she was sure, would pass.

[Kura Wolfsdotter]

Kura couldn't help but be impressed with Vega's swordsmanship, as the redhead dealt with the last two opponents almost immediately, as Kura had fallen back to put a bit more distance between herself and the enemy, so as to make better use of her archery. Qit'ria was on her way back as well and Kura fixed the Sev'ryn with a look as Vega started in on her tactics. "She's right. If you had died, they would have had a chance to outflank us, and what's worse, your death would have been on us." she said, her tone showing both anger and concern.

When talk turned back to the hole, Kura shrugged slightly and nodded. "Might as well. I think we just killed whatever may have been guarding it." she said with a shrug. Putting her bow away, Kura started down the steps towards the chamber they had been in before. Once down there, she started to inspect the room and found that one of the walls was starting to give away. Kura pondered that for a moment, then nodded to herself. "Anyone got one of those clubs the pig folk were using?" she asked the others, her tone excited at the possibilities of the wall.

After a club, or three, had been procured, Kura started to bash away at the weakened wall. It gave way after a few bits of concentrated bashing, the wall collapsed, revealing that they had opened a shortcut into another room much like the one they had been in, except with an old, battered chest on the plinth in the middle. "Well, that should save some time." she said, laughing as she stepped forward. The chest didn't look to be obviously booby trapped, but she was still nervous. "Well, should we carry it out of here, then?" she asked the others after checking the plinth as best she could.

[Qit'ria]

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Qit'ria continued dragging the corpse of the Thwarthide along toward the shrine, letting it drop just outside of the entrance. She heard Vega's words, Kura's too, and couldn't help but smile a bit more. She was in a good mood after all. She turned to them both, "No die. Stupid work." She had nothing more to say on the subject. After all, the plan did work. She knew from past experiences that Vega and Kura both were just the types to be bossy. And talk a lot. Their opinions really didn't matter much to the huntress. Qit'ria knew that they would've been fine. She remembered how Vega had hunted, she remembered Kura from the time in the graveyard. What was the point in worrying about possible failures? Shut up and succeed.

Qit'ria followed Kura into the opening, hopping down behind her, landing in a light crouch. Kura asked for a club, and Qit'ria sighed, climbing back out of the hole. She found a couple on the ground and hurled them into the darkness of the room, under the assumption that Kura was smart enough to not get hit. Then Qit hopped back in, yet again. She was getting tired of this. How many more times would she have to climb in and out of the same hole?

She watched as Kura began attacking the wall. The stones tumbled down, and Qit'ria helped toss the fallen debris out of the way. She didn't complain on this, though it wouldn't surprise her if the other two did. 'You're not grabbing the stones the right way.' 'You might drop it on your foot and die, then we'll die because obviously we're completely useless.' They had a name for those people in Desnind. Whinerabbits. And both of them certainly were whinerabbits in Qit's mind.

Once Qit heard the word carry, she went over and grabbed one handle on one side of the chest. Why must they talk so much? Just lift the damn thing out of there. She waited on Kura or Vega to grab the other side, for the damnable thing was heavy, and then they'd carry it out.

Qit'ria wasn't one for shiny things in terms of treasure, preferring more practical objects. Once the loot was being divvied out, she claimed a nice bag made out of hide. It wasn't until much later that she realized that the bag was bottomless, and would hold anything she could fit in there. That made her most happy. Once the loot was sorted out, Qit'ria left them without another word, heading back to her camp.