It's a bit of a climb up the narrow stairs, but before long Aviri, Lin, Trilup and Eve emerge from the fairy cavern into this more mundane looking hall. There are a few crates and chests scattered around, making a simple straight-through path to the far door anything but straightforward.
"Hey!" Lin chirps, scooting over and picking up the first sword she sees. "These look real!"
Aviri makes to grab her but stops himself when there doesn't appear to be any obvious threat in the room. He grabs a jar of moss and carries it high, looking around. "Duchess, you been here before?"
"No.. but.. uh," Eve starts to say, watching Lin pick up a sword. "You should know that Phelix collected.. kind of.. cursed.. weapons. From the Necromancers."
"Don't worry, I'm not cursed," the sword whispers to Lin. "Just Disenchanted."
Lin looks grimly at the sword then gently puts it back down. "My hat would have words with me if I had more'n one talkin' piece of gear."
Aviri looks at Lin with worried eyes. "The hat wouldn't be the only one...." he says with a chuckle. "Please don't pick up any more haunted things."
The Lapi walks over to a table and tilts his head at a wax-sealed jar, picking it up and giving it a gentle shake.
"Not haunted, disenchanted!" the sword claims from where it lies. "You would be too, if whenever you got to meet someone new and interesting, you were immediately jammed into their guts. All.. slimy and .. warm. And the blood.. so sweet.. mmmmm... Hey, anyone wanna stab someone?"
With the shaking.. the jar keeps on shaking. It's getting harder to keep hold of.
"I think you found an earthquake or something," Trilup offers to Aviri.
Aviri eeps and puts the jar back, trying to hold it still on the table.
It takes a minute or so before the jar calms back down.
"Thanks but no." Lin chirps, skirting some boxes and barrels, "But really, if'n yer gonna collect piles an piles of magic weapons, why not put 'em on proper racks an displays with labels so ya know what they are. Magic stuff ain't much good if ya throw the cool stuff in with the stuff that just wants to eat yer face off."
"Oh, he did that with the dangerous stuff, like the Sword of the Necromancer King," Eve says brightly. "That would just keep saying blood blood blood over and over.. it was annoying. This stuff is just.. junk."
"Maybe Phelix knew what everything was," Aviri posits, moving down the table and sniffing at a pot.
The pots and jars tend to smell like.. wax. They've been down here for a long time. It isn't likely that there will be preserves or honey. The jar does have clear glass through, and is filled with blue liquid.
Trilup is looking into chests. "No pirate booty!" she laments. "This one is full of stone balls."
Aviri tentatively picks up the glass jar and turns it, watching the liquid. He turns to Trilup, with a smirk. "Maybe they're for the statues...." he says.
Lin inspects some longer weapons, polearms and tridents. "So there's nothin' with real bad curses down here? Just things like that talkin' sword that's slightly evil, an' the wobble-jar?"
"He liked statues, but these are either broken or messed up," Eve notes. She lifts one of the sheets to peek underneath. "Hmmm.."
Aviri sets the blue-jar down and moves deeper into the room, peering at a broken statue a moment before opening a chest.
The chest holds.. a fancy tea service, all in porcelain. There's even a folded up rolling cart for it.
Trilup looks under the sheet with Eve. "Is that supposed to be one thing?" she asks the kitten, who shrugs.
"Oooo, fancy!" Aviri says brightly, lifting up a cup and examining it in the moss-light, his eyes almost glowing with delight.
Lin looks over her shoulder at Aviri and snickers. She tugs on the lid of a big iron strapped chest to see if it's locked.
It's even got little plants drawn on it. Likely ones that you get whatever tea was served from. Which could mean anything, including magic tea.
"Who's out there?" a voice demands from inside Lin's chest, which does appear to be locked. "Did you bring any jam?"
Aviri squints at the little plant drawings before putting the cup back and looking very hard at the whole tea-set, then toward the Duchess. "Is everything in here enchanted?"
Lin startles and jumps back from the chest. She grabs the nearest clear jar filled with something that looks congealed and chirps, "I think so!" She then snifs at the jar to determine its contents.
It smells like wax.
"Probably," Eve says, as she removes the sheet from.. a tiny suit of armor. Apparently made for some sort of miniature centauroid, since it has four legs (but ones that look like normal biped legs). Or, it might be two sets of armor, with one just bent over, cut in half, and stuck to the backside of the first one. It isn't metal of course, but it's still something shiny.
Lin cocks her head then raps a knuckle on the chest. "There're lots of jars of stuff out here. One of 'em must be jam. Could be this one. What's in there? Who'se in there?" She asks.
"Nobody is in here! Who is out there?" the voice in the chest replies. "Lord Phelix? Alysin? What's your name?"
Aviri bits his lip and sighs, closing the chest. "Probably not worth it," he decides, wandering toward a shield though casting looks back at the chest even as he does so.
"Mah name is Lin." The otter chirps. Though, considering they're communicating through the lid of a chest, it would be rather muffled and easy to mistake for Alysin. She tests the wax seal with one of her remaining wooden daggers.
The wax is old and hard, but can be chipped and gouged still.
Aviri picks up the shield, turning it around and examining the back, casting a glance to Lin to ensure she doesn't sell her soul or anything.
Lin starts working the wooden knife into the wax, scraping off a bit at a time to open up a small hole in the seal while she lets the chest ponder.
The shield has a demonic face carved on the front - which isn't unusual for shields during the necromancer wars, which had to try and scare off evil spirits as well - at least, according to superstition. The leather straps on the inside have rotted away though. There doesn't seem to be a maker's mark either.
Once the wax is breached.. the scent is recognizable. It's honey. Blue honey.. which means the bees must have found some weird sources for ingredients.
Aviri gently puts the shield down, face up, and frowns at it. He turns it around so the face is no longer visible, smiles, and goes to Lin and her honey. "Is it jam?"
"Hey!" Eve cries, and Trilup makes a squee sort of sound. The otter has gotten up onto the armor's back, figuring it must be a hobby-horse sort of thing. And now she's riding it around the hall with no idea how to steer it.
"Smells like honey." Lin chirps, "But it's blue." She sets it on a nearby crate and starts repeating the process on the next container that looks like it might have jam.
Aviri starts, wheeling around toward Trilup. "Tril...!" he says, moving after her.
The hobby-horse thing isn't as fast as a Lapi, nor can it corner as well, so Aviri is easily able to catch up to it.
The Lapi slows as he nears, keeping pace close to it. "Trilup, you alright up there?"
"I don't know how to to stop it," Trilup admits. "Should I jump off?"
Lin giggles at Trilup's antics and starts lining up likely looking jars on the crate and systematically knocking a little hole in the each seal until she finds one with jam.
"Just don't hurt yourself," Aviri says, coming up beside her and offering his arms to catch her if she wants to jump.
The next two jars are also honey, but the third jar.. gives off a rather fermented and fruity odor.
Trilup take the offer and jumps for Aviri's arms. Once she's off the thing's back, it stops.
Trilup lands in the Lapi's arms, and Aviri manages to come to a stop without falling over. At least she's mostly dry now.
Aviri offs slightly as he catches her, and gently puts her on her feet, brushing off his fur, sashes, and various other pirate paraphanalia he's wearing. "Have fun?" he asks with a chuckle.
"Try not to sit on anything with legs," Eve calls out in warning.
"I bet we could race them if we found more," Trilup tells Aviri. "Not as much fun as riding on a Kadie though."
Lin isn't really sure if what she found is jam or not so she pours out a small dollop on the lid of the chest. "There," She chirps, "It might be a little alcoholic though."
"I'd rather not race," Aviri says, picking up another jar and resuming his exploration, his eyes once again traveling to the tea-chest. He starts working his way back there, looking at Lin as he does, just in case the chest decided it really liked the jam.
"This is jam," the chest replies. "Stick your hand into it and feel around for a key."
Lin uses her wooden dagger to pry the wax seal off then dumps the contents out on an unoccupied crate.
Aviri reaches the tea-chest and opens it back up, extracting the table and beginning to carefully set it all up, even gathering a few more jars of moss to ensure it's got proper lighting.
There's an awful splooorp noise as the ancient jam shakes out of the jar. It wiggles a bit on the top of the crate, but there is something in the goop: a key made of amber.
The tea set does have a maker's mark on the tray! It's from Abu-Dhabi, from the look of the writing. "It looks fancy," Trilup notes to Aviri. "Do you drink lots of tea?"
"It does look fancy," Aviri agrees, scrutinizing the artwork on the porcelain. "I drink a bit, yeah. It's always fun to mix and match wild herbs into various blends of tea."
"You can invent tea?" Trilup asks, eyes wide. Eve comes over as well, looking at the set. "It looks like it's for tea parties. There's even a dish for biscuits!"
Lin uses her knife to cut a corner off of a nearby sheet, then uses the wooden dagger to seperate the key from the jam, then the scrap of cloth to clean off the key. Finally she takes the key and tries unlocking the chest.
Aviri chuckles at Trilup's amazement. "Sure! It's just mixing various plants together. A lot of fun, actually." He turns to Eve. "Do you think we could take this with us, back upstairs? It doesn't appear to be enchanted or cursed or anything. Just pretty."
When Lin turns the key in the lock, there's a little tingle that runs up her arm. And then the lid flips open by itself, revealing.. an empty wooden chest. It's a nice chest though.
"I suppose," Eve says, her eyes glinting. "Gnarr would like it. It's dainty."
Aviri beams at Eve's agreement. He starts carefully putting the tea-set back, smiling wide.
Lin yelps and all her fur stands on end. She pulls the key out of the lock. "What was that? Are you a ghost?"
The opened chest doesn't reply this time.. but the drop of jam that was on the edge of the lid is gone now, somehow.
Lin examines the key. "Hey, Silver?" She asks her hat, "Do you see anything ghostly or weird?"
Once the set has been properly stowed back into the chest, Aviri tries to lift it.
It takes a moment before the ghost answers, "Everything is weird in here. I'm the only ghost though."
The tea chest is.. heavy. Much heavier than just the tea service and a chest could be. It might be secured to the floor somehow.
Aviri oofs, aborting attempt one and starting to search around the sides, looking for fasteners of some sort.
There are two big bolts holding the tea chest to the floor via L-brackets in the back.
Lin sighs, "Well, that was dumb." She tosses the jam jar in the chest and closes the lid. The key goes in her vest pocket and off she goes to try prying off the lid of one of the crates.
Aviri looks at the bolts. "Lin!" he calls. "You're ... crafty and all. Got anything to undo some bolts?"
"Like, a wrench?" Lin calls back, straining at the lid of the crate. "Do I look like a Wingnut to you? Ask Eve, she's got all those cool machines an' stuff."
There's a thump from behind Lin as she works on the next crate, which is nailed closed.
"Right," Aviri says, turning to Eve. "Duchess, do you have anything to get these bolts out?"
Lin's shoulders slump and she turns around. "What now?" She asks, looking for the source of the noise and heavily suspecting the chest.
"I have.. Titanians?" Eve suggests.
The chest is indeed right behind Lin, some six feet from where she left it. It seems to give off an air of innocence.
"Hmmm, but not with us," Aviri says, standing up despondantly. "I guess we could ... transfer the set to another chest." He looks around for a good candidate, stopping when he notices Lin's chest has move. "Er ... Lin? What're you doing with that chest?"
The spy squints at the chest then hesitantly pats it on the lid. "So are ya just gonna follow me then?" She asks.
From over by Aviri and Eve, Trilup is staring at the chest.
The chest does look like a traveling chest. It's about the size of a steamer trunk, and flat-topped. It doesn't respond to the pat.. or anything else apparently.
Lin takes a step towards Aviri while keeping a close eye on the chest.
The chest rises up a few inches on dozens of wooden doll legs, trundles closer and then settles back onto the floor.
Aviri jumps, taking a few steps back. "Nonono," he says, entirely creeped out by the walking chest. "Lin ... stop that please!"
"Well.. uh.. it could carry the tea service.." Eve notes.
"Huh. Cool." Lin chirps, "But how did you talk? Oh, calm down 'Viri. It's just an awesome box. I wonder if it can handle stairs alright."
"We could find another chest to hold the tea-service," Aviri says, not taking his eyes off the doll-chest of doom. "Preferably one that's not creepy as all get-out!"
"It's not any creepier than the puzzle box," Trilup claims. Then she says, "Can we ride on it?"
"The puzzle-box only moved on its own once," Aviri says. "And that was with vines, not ... creepy doll-feet!" He shudders and takes a few steps away, grabbing at the demon-shield and holding it between himself and the chest.
"I don't know." Lin chirps. She walks up to the chest and sits on the edge. "Forward please?" She asks, "Towards the bunny."
The chest stands up and trundles sideways towards Aviri.
The Lapi flees, putting a table between himself and the chest, still holding the shield.
Trilup jumps onto the passing trunk. It does stop at the table though. And then starts to go around it.
Lin squees and stands up on the lid, draws her fake rapier, and strikes a dramatic pose. "Full speed ahead Chest!" She chirps, "After him!"
"Eeee, stop it!" Aviri squeaks, circling the table in the same direction as the chest, to keep the monstrosity on the other side.
Full speed is a trot, as the chest circles the table behind the Lapi. There isn't much chance of it catching him though.
"I don't think you should chase him like that," Eve says. "What if it catches his pants or something?"
"Stopitstopit!" Aviri cries, obviously a little more than distressed at the sight of a chest on wooden legs chasing him!
"This is my favourite thing now." Lin declares, "That's enough, good Chest." She climbs down and sheaths her sword. "So, 'Viri, want some help with that tea set?"
The chest settled back down with a thump. Who knows where the legs go when it's not walking.
Aviri continues retreating, until he backs into another table, still holding the shield with a death-grip.
Trilup climbs down as well. "It'd be a lot easier than trying to carry it around."
"Can I keep it, please?" Lin asks Eve, deploying her best adorable otter eyes at the Duchess.
"I don't really need it," Eve notes. "I have an autokinoten after all," she says proudly. "And a train. And the porters carry the luggage for that.."
The Lapi slowly begins to unfreeze, starting to shake, now, the shield rattling in his hand. He takes a few steps to a side, nudging chests with his feet and seeing if any move as he nears the tea-chest.
The others seem inert. But probably best to avoid spilling jam on things, all the same. The tea-chest is as he left it.. full of tea service.
Lin hugs Eve! "ThankyousomuchyourDuchessness!" She chirps then goes back to the chest. "Open up please. No sense in leaving that nasty jar in there if you're my new chest now."
The chest opens up, revealing the jam jar. It's sparkly clean now, with no signs of jam.
"Huh." Lin picks up the clean bottle. "It must be magic!" She says, holding the bottle out so Aviri can see it.
Aviri doesn't take his eyes off the demon-chest, but crouches down near other chests and starts feeling around their bases.
Quite a few of the chests are bolted down. The crates aren't.. but they're also really heavy.
"Oh, if you find any wands.. leave them be," Eve warns. "I just remembered that. A lot of the stuff Phelix had were artifacts.. maybe from other worlds!"
"I assume," Aviri says, his voice strained with tension, "you mean not the wands we brought with us." Taking a deep breath, he glances away from the demon-chest and back again, to ensure it didn't try sneaking up on him or anything, before starting to sporatically and carefully search for a crate large enough to hold the tea-service, but small enough to not be unweildy.
The tea-chest may have been the smallest chest in the hall.
"Oh no, you can tell a real magic wand because of the lights and sparks and floating letters and explosions," Eve says reasonably.
Lin wanders back over to where she left the disenchanted sword and takes a good look at it this time instead of just picking it up.
The blade is actual metal, but dull and tarnished. The crossguard has a carving of an eye in the center, and looks rather stained.
As the demon-chest appears to not be moving anymore, Aviri begins actually searching the chests and crates for something he could use to unbolt the tea-set.
Lin looks over her shoulder at the chest. "So, you clean things, right? Kin ya polish up this sword?" She asks.
There are spears and swords, but those aren't exactly wrenches. The crates are all either too big or too small as well. Some are opened, containing random junk. One is full of wooden thimbles.
Aviri starts sifting through the weapons, and armors, looking for anything that might fit against the bolts well enough to undo them.
There is an ironwood staff that could be used as a lever.. but it's being held by one of the statues, possibly of Phelix himself. It's hard to tell since the head is missing.
Lin picks up the talking sword and offers it to the chest. "Kin ya clean this thing up? It's kinda grungy. I've already got this talkin' hat but a talkin' sword could be perfect fer fluff butt over there." She confides.
Aviri ponders the staff. "Could work," he says, and tentatively touches it.
The chest opens up for Lin.
Lin deposits the sword and bounces on the balls of her feet, excited to see what it does.
The staff is a bit cold, but doesn't say anything at least. It might be a bit loose in the statue's grip, since that is made of stone and the staff had to have been inserted after carving.
Aviri begins carefully sliding the staff out of the statue's hand.
The shaft is worried free after a bit of sliding and tugging. It's pretty heavy, and nearly seven feet long and perfectly straight.
The lid closes on the chest and.. nothing seems to happen, at least on the outside.
Lin waits for the better part of a minute before gently lifting the lid to check on the sword.
Staff in-hand, the Lapi returns to the tea-chest and starts trying to pry the L-braces off the chest, trying not to actually damage the chest itself.
The sword is there, looking polished.
The bolts holding the tea-chest glow a bit, a pentagram appearing on the five-sided heads. They don't turn or otherwise seem to be loosening though. Then the staff turns into a snake (still made of ironwood) and starts to writhe about in Aviri's hands.
"Awesome." Lin coos and picks up the sword. "You still in there?" She asks the sword and gives the blade a flick.
"Don't ever put me in there again," the sword complains. "Please," it adds on with a bit of sarcasm.
"Augh!" Aviri says, quickly adjusting his grip on the staff-turned-serpent to hold it near its neck, so it can't bite him. "Hey, that's absolutely not fair!" he tells the bolts.
Lin bounces over to Aviri and stops when she sees him wrestling with the wooden snake. "So... Do you have a name?" She asks the sword while she waits for Aviri to stop playing with the staff.
Once the staff is away from the bolts.. it turns back into a staff again.
"Caudimordax!" the sword claims.
Aviri holds the staff carefully a moment longer, as it returns to being a staff. He looks to Lin and her sword. "Er ... hey Caudimordax. Mind acting like a wrench for a little bit?"
"A.. wrench.." the sword says, dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, sure. Fine. Need any pickle jars opened while you're at it? Trees chopped down? That's what swords are for after all.."
"Right," Lin chirps, "I'm callin' you Dax. This is Aviri. I got it cleaned up for you." She holds out the sword for Aviri to take. "It may or may not be evil but it's shiny now so here."
Aviri takes the sword in his non-staff-holding hand and experimentally touches the handle to the pentagonal bolts.
The bolts like up again, and blade of the sword momentarily turns into a ladle. "Great. Now I'm Soupbringer, Devourer of Broth," the sword complains.
"I can kinda see why the sword was left down here," Trilup asides to Eve, who nods sagely.
Lin giggles and heads off to investigate some spears leaning up against the wall. "Any of you talk?" She asks.
Aviri rolls his eyes and hands the sword back to Lin. "Here, you can have it back." He tries to use the staff again, though once more more experimentally than actually trying to free the bolts.
The bolts are actively trying to prevent the chest from being removed. The spears are just.. spears. Their heads are chipped or broken, so they were tossed down here.
The Lapi puts the sword on a nearby table instead, as Lin runs off.
'Dax' grumbles. "I am the mighty Tail Biter," he mutters. "Abandoned just because some jerk started calling me Butt Muncher. That sort of thing sticks.."
"Duchess," Aviri says, pondering the bolts. "Do you have any disenchanting equipment or anything?
"I don't know?" Eve says, and shrugs. "I don't know magic stuff. Why do you suppose the chest is bolted down anyway?"
"I'd say so it doesn't get up and walk away," Aviri says, "but the one chest capable of doing that is also the one that's not bolted down!" He glares at the demon-chest.
Lin wanders back over and prods the ironwood staff. "Kin I borrow this?" She asks Aviri. "An' ya could just load the tea stuff into my chest if you really want it that badly. Maybe it's just the box that needs to be bolted down?"
Lin's magic chest doesn't respond to Aviri's glare.
Aviri hands her the staff. "That thing terrifies me," he says, pointing to her chest. "Rather carry it some other way." He huffs and once again begins searching for an appropriately-sized crate.
The next crate Aviri checks is full of crystal skulls. They start to sing, but.. off key and out of turn. Defective.
Trilup pokes Lin, and asks, "We could just load in the tea service ourselves.."
"True," Lin admits, "But that's not nearly as much fun as watchin' him struggle." She points the staff at the crate that had been giving her trouble earlier and says, "Magic blast!"
Eve and Trilup duck down at the command.. but nothing happens. The staff remains a staff.
Aviri bites his lip in thought, and then moves onto the next crate, shutting the singing skulls as tightly as he can.
"Huh." Lin taps the staff against the ground a couple times, shakes it, then starts actually examining it. "It's gotta do something!"
"It could be used for an oar," Trilup offers.
The next crate of possibly useful size.. contains a stuffed, plush Fuff'nar toy.
Aviri picks up the create gleefully, almost trotting back to the tea-set. "Trilup, Duchess, look at this!" He pulls the toy from the crate.
The toy's head spins around to look at Aviri, and cutely asks, "Dead?"
"It's a Fuff'nar!" Eve squeaks, and hides under the table again.
The Lapi eeps and tosses the toy as far away as he can, breathing heavily and clutching the crate. "That .... creepier than the chest."
Lin resorts to using the staff as a lever to pry open the lid of the large chest. "Why'd anythin' be down here if it isn't special somehow." She grumbles as she works the lid.
The toy sails through the air, and Lin's chest leaps up and swallows it with a snap of its lid.
Aviri shudders at the chest's disposal of the creepy toy, but then gets to work transferring the tea-service from the chest into the crate.
Lin looks startled then very pleased at the chest's display of agility. "So it can do stairs!" She chirps.
Lin finally gets one edge of crate top opened about an inch.. and several tentacles squirm through the gab and grab at the staff.
Lin tries to beat back the tentacles with the staff. "Tril, please bring Dax over here?" She calls sweetly as she wrestles with whatever's in the box.
The smaller otter brings the whiny sword over, and pokes at the tentacles with it. "Git! Shoo!" She isn't very good with a sword.
"Try holdin' it up against the gap an' sweeping across. Like peeling a potato." Lin suggests.
"Oh yeah," Trilup realizes, and runs the blade along the edge, slicing through the wriggling limbs. "Should we.. close it?"
Lin nods and starts pulling down on the lid to get it shut again. "Good idea. Thought there'd be somethin' cool in there. Just monsters."
With a bit of pounding, the nails reset into their grooves and lid is firmly down again.
Aviri stands up, gathers the cloth that used to cover the 'taur-thing, and uses it to cushion and protect the porcelain in the crate. "Ha!" he says to the small chest, grinning triumphantly. On a hunch, he kneels back down and starts feeling the bottom and back of the empty chest, for either secret compartments or the bolts holding the chest to the floor.
Lin picks up one of the severed limbs by two fingers and gives it a wiggle. "Who even keeps somethin' like that in a crate of all places?"
"Maybe there weren't any jars big enough?" Trilup suggests.
"All the chests were full, I guess," Aviri says, still feeling for some indication as to why the chest itself was bolted down.
The bottom of the tea-chest does lift up.. and was hiding boxes of tea.
Aviri's eyes go wide. "Tea!" he cries, and starts picking them up and examining them.
Why'd they call you Tail Biter?" Lin asks the sword, now that they're no longer under attack. "I don't see any teeth."
Each has a different combination of plants drawn on them, and while Aviri recognizes things like cinnamon and mint and strawberry, many of the herbs are unknown to him.
Aviri starts placing the tea in the crate, atop the cloth, after he examines each one. "These are going to taste ~amazing~," he practically sings.
"Are you sure you can trust tea that's been locked up like that?" Eve asks Aviri.
Aviri shrugs, a bit giddily. "Probably not. But I'm sure I could cross-check these ingredients somewhere," he says. "Magical mystery tea!"
Eve nods and yawns. "We should probably try to find the way up to the castle," she notes.
Aviri shuts the crate and lifts it up, setting one of the jars of moss on top to act as a kind of lantern. "Alright, I'm ready." He peers at the box. "Is that ... thing ... going to come too?"
"Yep!" Lin chirps, abandoning her interogation of the sarcastic sword. She grabs one of the moss jars and sets it right in the middle of the chest's lid so it shouldn't fall off while it's trundling along behind her.
"Caudimordax means Tail Biter in Olympian," the sword notes to Lin, haughtily. "All mages and necromancers and nobility understand Olympian."
Aviri doubles back and grabs the ironwood staff. "Think we should take this, too?" he asks the room in general. "It doesn't feel cursed, either..."
"And it has less to do with teeth than.. the necromancer who created me liked to stab people in the.. tail.. end," the sword then admits.
"It's a big stick," Trilup notes. "But that's the strongest wood there is, so.. be careful with it. It's tall and could get struck by lightning!"
"Really glad I had you cleaned now. That sounds nasty." Lin says, "At least Dax sounds a whole lot nicer than Butt Muncher. Maybe introduce yourself as by that next time so you don't get called names?"
"Duchess?" Aviri asks, since the staff probably technically belonged to her. He casts the sword a sideways look.
"It's a stick," Eve notes. "I've got lots of sticks, and that one is too big and heavy for anything useful. Or.. you know.. anything I can think of. You aren't gonna gnaw on it, are you? Lapi like to gnaw on stuff.."
"No, not gonna gnaw," Aviri says. He shuffles carefully back to the statue, carrying both stick and crate, and puts the staff back into the statue's hand. Then, with a nod, he returns. "Everyone ready?"
Lin holds out the sword to Aviri. "Come on, it'll be lonely all on its own here."
"I'm not allowed to have long knives," Trilup says. "Not until Uncle Gimpy's leg fully heals."
Aviri shakes his head at the sword. "Nope, sorry. Not taking that. Creepy-as-all-get-out-box is at least not ... that."
"What, just because I couldn't undo your bolts?" Dax asks. "But who ever heard of a fluffy bunny with a sword! You'd only use me to dig up roots or make decorative flower arrangements or hedges or something!"
"Oooh, I'd never thought about making decorative flower arrangements," Aviri says. "Thanks Buttmunch!"
"Aww, too bad." Lin says, "I rather prefer knives and daggers. Well, maybe you'll find a nice wall to hang on someday." She puts the sword down on a waist-high crate so it's readily visible as a shiny weapon.
"I hope you all die of food poisoning," Dax declares as he's set aside.
"Or I could just keep it in the chest until we find a use for it?" Lin proposes, a devious smile pricking up the corners of her mouth.
"If you do, I'm outta here," Aviri says, making toward the back wall and doorway. "Oh, and take out that creepy fuff'nar while you're at it. That thing was down here for a reason!"
"Not the chest!" Daz pleads. "The only chests I want to be in contain hearts and lungs!"
"Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten about that." Lin goes over and lifts the lid of the chest, intending to remove the creepy toy.
The toy is still there, looking freshly washed.
Lin takes out the stuffy and gives it a little shake. "Still enchanted?" She asks.
"Dead?" the toy asks.
"Well, aren't you just creepy." Lin says in a cutesy voice then plunks the toy down next to Dax. "All set." She chirps.
As they move on, the conversation of 'Dead?' versus 'Shut up!' fades behind them. The far end of the hall holds a new doorway, with stairs going up once more.
Aviri takes the lead, mostly to get as far away from the chest as physically possible while not abandoning the others.